34 research outputs found
The Benefits of Extended Reality for Technical Communication : Utilizing XR for Maintenance Documentation Creation and Delivery
The main goal of this dissertation is to explore the benefits of extended reality for technical communication. Both of these fields offer opportunities and also pose challenges to each other, and this dissertation provides insight into this relationship. The research was initiated by the authorâs personal interest in both fields and also human-technology interaction and user needs in general. Even though this is an academic dissertation, it is first and foremost a practitionerâs view of these evolving technologies and their potential uses in industry and, specifically, in industrial maintenance and technical communication.
Under the umbrella of extended reality and technical communication, this dissertation focuses on two main themes. The first part studies virtual reality as a technology to facilitate collaboration and digital content creation for technical documentation in industrial companies, and the second part explores the possibilities of augmented reality and smart glasses as a delivery channel for maintenance instructions. The developed concepts were tested by domain experts in user tests. The overall results of testing were positive, and domain experts expressed enthusiasm toward the concepts and technologies in general.
The technical documentation process is an inherently collaborative process involving stakeholders from different teams and organizations, and virtual reality was evaluated to have a positive effect on that process, especially in the case of globally scattered teams. The developed tools were also rated positively for digital content creation. Therefore, virtual reality offers many benefits for technical documentation creation, an area where it has not been utilized until now. On the augmented reality side, domain experts were generally enthusiastic about the use of smart glasses even though the technologies are not yet mature enough for field use in industrial maintenance. Furthermore, the results show that content created in the technical communications industry standard, DITA XML, works well when delivered to smart glasses, and the same content can be single sourced to other delivery channels. The use of DITA XML, therefore, eliminates the need to tailor content for each delivery channel separately, and offers an effective way to create and update content for AR applications in industrial companies. This, in turn, can advance the use of AR technologies and related devices in field operations in industrial companies.
In conclusion, the findings of this dissertation show that the fields of technical communication and extended reality have a significant amount of synergy. In this dissertation I establish use cases and guidelines for these areas
Knowledge-based product support systems
This research helps bridge the gap between conventional product support, where the support system is considered as a stand-alone application, and the new paradigm of responsive one, where the support system frequently communicates with its environment and reacts to stimuli. This new paradigm would enable product support knowledge to be captured, stored, processed, and updated automatically, being delivered to the users when, where and in the form they need it. The research reported in this thesis first defines Product Support Systems (PRSSs) as electronic means that provide accurate and up-to-date information to the user in a coherent and personalised manner. Product support knowledge is then identified as the integration of product, task, user, and support documentation knowledge. Next, the thesis focuses on an ontology-based model of the structure, relations, and attributes of product support knowledge. In that model product support virtual documentation (PSVD) is presented as an aggregation of Information Objects (IOs) and Information Object Clusters (IOCs). The description of PSVD is followed by an analysis of the relation between IOs, IOCs, and domain knowledge. Then, the thesis builds on the ontology-based representation of product support knowledge and explores the synergy between product support, problem solving, and knowledge engineering. As a result, a structured problem solving approach is introduced that combines case-based adaptation and model-based generation techniques. Based on that approach a knowledge engineering framework for product support systems is developed. A conceptual model of context-aware product support systems that extends the framework is then introduced. The conceptual model includes an ontology-based representation of knowledge related to the users, their activities, the support environment, and the device being used. An approach to semi-automatically integrating design and documentation data is also proposed as part of context-aware product support systems development process.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Knowledge-based product support systems
This research helps bridge the gap between conventional product support, where the support system is considered as a stand-alone application, and the new paradigm of responsive one, where the support system frequently communicates with its environment and reacts to stimuli. This new paradigm would enable product support knowledge to be captured, stored, processed, and updated automatically, being delivered to the users when, where and in the form they need it. The research reported in this thesis first defines Product Support Systems (PRSSs) as electronic means that provide accurate and up-to-date information to the user in a coherent and personalised manner. Product support knowledge is then identified as the integration of product, task, user, and support documentation knowledge. Next, the thesis focuses on an ontology-based model of the structure, relations, and attributes of product support knowledge. In that model product support virtual documentation (PSVD) is presented as an aggregation of Information Objects (IOs) and Information Object Clusters (IOCs). The description of PSVD is followed by an analysis of the relation between IOs, IOCs, and domain knowledge. Then, the thesis builds on the ontology-based representation of product support knowledge and explores the synergy between product support, problem solving, and knowledge engineering. As a result, a structured problem solving approach is introduced that combines case-based adaptation and model-based generation techniques. Based on that approach a knowledge engineering framework for product support systems is developed. A conceptual model of context-aware product support systems that extends the framework is then introduced. The conceptual model includes an ontology-based representation of knowledge related to the users, their activities, the support environment, and the device being used. An approach to semi-automatically integrating design and documentation data is also proposed as part of context-aware product support systems development process
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Mobile Learning: location, collaboration and scaffolding inquiry
Critiques of mobile learning pedagogy are concerned with whether such approaches are technology led. This chapter discusses how the particular features of mobile learning can be harnessed to provide new learning opportunities in relation to collaboration, inquiry and location-based learning. Technology supported inquiry learning is a situation rich with possibilities for collaboration. In particular, mobile learning offers new possibilities for scaffolding collaboration together with its other better-known features such as scaffolding the transfer between settings and making learning relevant by making use of the possibilities of location-based learning. These features are considered as part of mobile learning models, in particular mobile collaborative learning models
Evaluation methodology for visual analytics software
O desafio do Visual Analytics (VA) é produzir visualizaçÔes que ajudem os utilizadores a
concentrarem-se no aspecto mais relevante ou mais interessante dos dados apresentados. A
sociedade actual enfrenta uma quantidade de dados que aumenta rapidamente. Assim, os
utilizadores de informação em todos os domĂnios acabam por ter mais informação do que aquela
com que podem lidar. O software VA deve suportar interacçÔes intuitivas para que os analistas
possam concentrar-se na informação que estão a manipular, e não na técnica de manipulação
em si. Os ambientes de VA devem procurar minimizar a carga de trabalho cognitivo global dos
seus utilizadores, porque se tivermos de pensar menos nas interacçÔes em si, teremos mais
tempo para pensar na anĂĄlise propriamente dita. Tendo em conta os benefĂcios que as aplicaçÔes
VA podem trazer e a confusão que ainda existe ao identificar tais aplicaçÔes no mercado,
propomos neste trabalho uma nova metodologia de avaliação baseada em heurĂsticas. A nossa
metodologia destina-se a avaliar aplicaçÔes através de testes de usabilidade considerando as
funcionalidades e caracterĂsticas desejĂĄveis em sistemas de VA. No entanto, devido Ă sua
natureza quatitativa, pode ser naturalmente utilizada para outros fins, tais como comparação
para decisão entre aplicaçÔes de VA do mesmo contexto. Além disso, seus critérios poderão
servir como fonte de informação para designers e programadores fazerem escolhas apropriadas
durante a concepção e desenvolvimento de sistemas de VA
SOA use in television systems
Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informåtica e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201
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"Colearning" - Collaborative Open Learning through OER and Social Media
This chapter introduces the concept of coLearning as well as discussing how open learning networks can produce, share and reuse OER collaboratively through social media.
COLEARNING OBJECTIVES
The aim of this investigation is to identify new forms of collaboration, as well as strategies that can be used to make the production and adaptation processes of OER more explicit for anyone in a social network to contribute.
REUSABILITY
This open content is an adapted version of a conference paper for OCW conference 2012, which was created by the same authors. This chapter can be reused by:
Educators who would like to create reusable OER (images, videos, maps, units)
Learners who are interested in tools for reusing and adapting OER
Content developers who are looking for different media to enrich OER
Social network users who would like to produce and share open media conten