Using a learning management system in secondary education : design and implementation characteristics of learning paths

The general aim of this dissertation was to increase the knowledge on how Learning Management Systems (LMS) are used by secondary school teachers and to examine the design and implementation of learning paths

Authorization and authentication strategy for mobile highly constrained edge devices

The rising popularity of mobile devices has driven the need for faster connection speeds and more flexible authentication and authorization methods. This project aims to develop and implement an innovative system that provides authentication and authorization for both the device and the user. It also facilitates real-time user re-authentication within the application, ensuring transparency throughout the process. Additionally, the system aims to establish a secure architecture that minimizes the computational requirements on the client's device, thus optimizing the device's battery life. The achieved results have demonstrated satisfactory outcomes, validating the effectiveness of the proposed solution. However, there is still potential for further improvement to enhance its overall performance

Born Digital / Grown Digital: Assessing the Future Competitiveness of the EU Video Games Software Industry

This report reflects the findings of the JRC-IPTS study on the Video games Industry, with a focus on two specific activities: online and mobile video games. The report starts by introducing the technologies, their characteristics, market diffusion and barriers to take up, and their potential economic impact, before moving to an analysis of their contribution to the competitiveness of the European ICT industry. The research is based on internal and external expertise, literature reviews and desk research, several workshops and syntheses of the current state of the knowledge. The results were reviewed by experts and in dedicated workshops. The report concludes that the general expectations for the next years foresee a speeded up migration of contents and services to digital, in a scenario of rapidly increasing convergence of digital technologies and integration of media services taking advantage of improved and permanent network connections. The role of the so-called creative content industry is expected to increase accordingly. Communication services and media industry will co-evolve on the playground of the Internet of services, along with a product to service transformation of the software market in general. In this general context the Video games Software industry plays and is expected to play a major role. The games industry may become a major driver of the development of networks as it has been in the past for the development of computer hardware.JRC.DDG.J.4-Information Societ

Low-cost methodologies and devices applied to measure, model and self-regulate emotions for Human-Computer Interaction

En aquesta tesi s'exploren les diferents metodologies d'anàlisi de l'experiència UX des d'una visió centrada en usuari. Aquestes metodologies clàssiques i fonamentades només permeten extreure dades cognitives, és a dir les dades que l'usuari és capaç de comunicar de manera conscient. L'objectiu de la tesi és proposar un model basat en l'extracció de dades biomètriques per complementar amb dades emotives (i formals) la informació cognitiva abans esmentada. Aquesta tesi no és només teòrica, ja que juntament amb el model proposat (i la seva evolució) es mostren les diferents proves, validacions i investigacions en què s'han aplicat, sovint en conjunt amb grups de recerca d'altres àrees amb èxit.En esta tesis se exploran las diferentes metodologías de análisis de la experiencia UX desde una visión centrada en usuario. Estas metodologías clásicas y fundamentadas solamente permiten extraer datos cognitivos, es decir los datos que el usuario es capaz de comunicar de manera consciente. El objetivo de la tesis es proponer un modelo basado en la extracción de datos biométricos para complementar con datos emotivos (y formales) la información cognitiva antes mencionada. Esta tesis no es solamente teórica, ya que junto con el modelo propuesto (y su evolución) se muestran las diferentes pruebas, validaciones e investigaciones en la que se han aplicado, a menudo en conjunto con grupos de investigación de otras áreas con éxito.In this thesis, the different methodologies for analyzing the UX experience are explored from a user-centered perspective. These classical and well-founded methodologies only allow the extraction of cognitive data, that is, the data that the user is capable of consciously communicating. The objective of this thesis is to propose a methodology that uses the extraction of biometric data to complement the aforementioned cognitive information with emotional (and formal) data. This thesis is not only theoretical, since the proposed model (and its evolution) is complemented with the different tests, validations and investigations in which they have been applied, often in conjunction with research groups from other areas with success

Effective Identity Management on Mobile Devices Using Multi-Sensor Measurements

Due to the dramatic increase in popularity of mobile devices in the past decade, sensitive user information is stored and accessed on these devices every day. Securing sensitive data stored and accessed from mobile devices, makes user-identity management a problem of paramount importance. The tension between security and usability renders the task of user-identity verification on mobile devices challenging. Meanwhile, an appropriate identity management approach is missing since most existing technologies for user-identity verification are either one-shot user verification or only work in restricted controlled environments. To solve the aforementioned problems, we investigated and sought approaches from the sensor data generated by human-mobile interactions. The data are collected from the on-board sensors, including voice data from microphone, acceleration data from accelerometer, angular acceleration data from gyroscope, magnetic force data from magnetometer, and multi-touch gesture input data from touchscreen. We studied the feasibility of extracting biometric and behaviour features from the on-board sensor data and how to efficiently employ the features extracted to perform user-identity verification on the smartphone device. Based on the experimental results of the single-sensor modalities, we further investigated how to integrate them with hardware such as fingerprint and Trust Zone to practically fulfill a usable identity management system for both local application and remote services control. User studies and on-device testing sessions were held for privacy and usability evaluation.Computer Science, Department o

Human-Computer Interaction

In this book the reader will find a collection of 31 papers presenting different facets of Human Computer Interaction, the result of research projects and experiments as well as new approaches to design user interfaces. The book is organized according to the following main topics in a sequential order: new interaction paradigms, multimodality, usability studies on several interaction mechanisms, human factors, universal design and development methodologies and tools

Internet shopping - A taxonomy of consumer online actions.

This thesis applied the theory of activity and goal-directed action to the study of online shopping actions. It first studied qualitatively the structures of online shopping actions using the self-confrontation interview method. The qualitative findings established the structural, cognitive and dispositional dimensions of online shopping actions including knowledge and value structures, attention processes and flow. The typical behavioural traits of online shoppers were also identified. Findings also emerged about the tensions between consumers' online and offline actions and the consequences of the technological mediation of shopping. From these qualitative findings, a survey instrument was developed to query online shoppers on various dimensions of their online shopping actions. Cluster analysis of the survey results produced a taxonomy of consumer online actions from which a typology of online shoppers was generated. The qualitative findings on the typical behavioural traits of online shoppers were then used as criteria for the qualitative usability analysis of retail websites. Retail websites of four product and service categories were analysed for their usability, i.e. ability to accommodate the typical behavioural traits of online shoppers such as propensity to experience information overload and to multi-task, potential for experiencing affect and flow etc. This thesis made several theoretical, methodological and practical contributions. It extended goal-directed action theory beyond its traditional scope of work actions and group activity to the realm of consumer behaviour. It also introduced a different theoretical framework to consumer psychology by applying the theory of activity and goal directed action to consumer behaviour. It made a methodological contribution by applying the self-confrontation interview method to the study of online behaviour. This thesis' findings also have practical implications for the understanding of online behaviour, the diffusion of e-commerce and the design of Internet interfaces

Chinese learners and computer assisted language learning: a study of learning styles, learner attitudes and the effectiveness of CALL in Chinese higher education

E-leaming has become a staple diet in many learners’ academic lives in higher education institutions all around the world. This study did not follow the techno- centric standpoint and the comparative research design tradition in this field; instead, it focused on how learners’ learning styles and attitudes interact with the effectiveness of E-leaming implementation in the field of foreign language learning. The research was set in the author’s home institution—a comprehensive university in mainland China, where the first- and second-year undergraduate students who were studying a compulsory English course were surveyed from 2003 to 2004. For this course, the College of Foreign Languages developed an online computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environment—NCE Online which was the basis of this investigation. The author’s former colleagues helped organise the distribution and collection of 4 questionnaires and 9 groups of student interviews over one academic year. A total of 5258 participants completed the first questionnaire in 2003 while the numbers of participants who completed the other questions varied from around 200 to 700. To understand data from the learners in more depth, the language teachers and NCE Online developers were also surveyed with a questionnaire and individual interviews. The results showed that the learners had very positive attitudes towards the use of computer technologies in their study, and that there was an evident tendency to expect an increasing proportion of CALL elements as the students progressed in their English study. Despite these positive attitudes, what was equally clear was that there were still more students who preferred to have traditional classroom learning as their main learning mode, and they did not think of the E- leaming materials available as more effective than the traditional ones. Meanwhile, their teachers’ attitudes and the University’s policies also played an important role in influencing learners’ attitudes and actual behaviour toward the CALL system. In addition, the research revealed that Chinese learners have learning styles distinct from their peers in the west, which suggests that a CALL environment for Chinese learners should not follow blindly the much-advocated constructivist design model in the west. Reconsideration of both the ideals of foreign language teaching methodologies and E-leaming pedagogies, which originated mainly in Europe and Northern America, needs to take place before the design of a CALL system for Chinese learners. The implications of this research were therefore discussed to begin just such a rethinking of CALL implementations in Chinese higher education