A model for the measurement and presentation of participation awareness in online groupware systems

The need to support effective group work in online environments has become a prominent issue in both education and enterprise. Universities continue to adopt constructivist-based learning strategies which see learners engage in group work to build knowledge, coupled with an increase in online and distance learners. In enterprise, where group or team based work is commonplace, the prevalence of the Internet has seen the emergence of teams that collaborate wholly or partially online. In response to this emergent need, groupware, software used to support online group work, has become widely used in both education and enterprise. Although based upon sound pedagogical principles, the use of groupware does not always meet expectations or compare favourably to face-to-face collaboration. The literature has identified the issue of awareness, defined by Dourish and Bellotti (1992, p. 107) as “an understanding of the activities of others, which provides a context for your own activity”, as a core factor in the effectiveness of groupware. Numerous awareness mechanisms have been developed and implemented into groupware applications, aiming to replace the information that is implicit in face-to-face collaboration, but largely absent in online environments. This study defined and modelled a new form of awareness named ‘participation awareness’, which aggregates and processes activity in a groupware environment in order to present a persistent display of group member participation. A field study was conducted, wherein university students utilised a groupware application named GroupShare to support group work required in their studies. GroupShare contained an implementation of a participation awareness mechanism, and participating students completed pre and post-usage questionnaires primarily concerning group work and the participation awareness mechanism. Further survey and observational techniques were also utilised to gather data. Two iterations of the field study were conducted, each running for one semester. Analysis of the data found that the participation awareness mechanism was well received, eliciting largely positive responses from a range of participant demographics, group dynamics and group work scenarios. Participant feedback was utilised to define and refine the constituents of participation awareness and create a generic model for its implementation as an awareness mechanism. The model outlines the steps and considerations required to capture and process activity within a groupware environment, and establishes three complimentary methods of presenting participation awareness. The author feels that the research was successful in creating and justifying a model of participation awareness which can be implemented in groupware environments and utilised in further research

Design of secure coding challenges for cybersecurity education in the industry

To minimize the possibility of introducing vulnerabilities in source code, software developers in the industry may attend security awareness and secure coding training. One promising novel approach to raise awareness is to use cybersecurity challenges in a capture-the-flag event. In order for this to be effective, the types of challenges must be adequately designed to address the target group. In this work we look at how to design challenges for software developers in an industrial context, based on survey given to security experts by gathering their experience on the field. While our results show that traditional methods seem to be adequate, they also reveal a new class of challenges based on code entry and interaction with an automated coach.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Group Awareness, Learning, and Participation in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

AbstractThe aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between student participation in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and the effects of this on learning outcomes. Within this context, we have taken into consideration the line of research called Group Awareness (GA) to facilitate the processes of interaction between teammates. Group Awareness Widgets (GAw) are tools based on the shared information displayed by the teammates throughout the course of collaboration. The theoretical results of this review demonstrate the need to determine how GA affects the facilitation of student interactions and the enhancement of the collaborative learning process. To this end, we have reviewed the current state of a line of research called GA, a research line that aims to facilitate the communication and coordination processes so as to help to increase the quality of work and the collaboration environments in CSCL. Next, we have briefly discussed the different conceptualizations of the GA focusing on the mechanisms used to support asynchronous GA in a CSCL Environment, and we haven then addressed some of the key dimensions considered, among which we can distinguish behavioral-awareness or participation, cognitive awareness, and social consciousness. The remainder of our work consists of analyzing the relationship between the GA, the students’ learning performance, and their participation

Digital storytelling as a reflective practice tool in a community of professionals

This exploratory study is based on an ethnographic research about a group of food safety professionals (physicians, veterinarians, biologists, chemists, nutritionists and prevention technicians) that try to exchange information and solve critical work issues communicating their experiences in the form of digital stories. In fact they convey more detailed context than textual and verbal stories, facilitating tacit knowledge elicitation and reflective practices. The digital storytelling process helped the community to reach a higher level of awareness about their specific professional competencies and critical work issues, fostering high levels of commitment and motivation, transforming the community in a true Community of Practice

Why don't I just throw it in the bin? - evaluation and self-esteem

Work in design and technology can provide a unique insight into quality through the process of evaluation. However, this is a two-edged sword in that evaluation can expose children's work to the perceived cold, hard light of public scrutiny. For many children at Key Stages 1 and 2, evaluation can be a daunting, high-risk enterprise due to a lack of self-esteem. Drawing upon case study evidence from work with children in schools, a number of strategies are proposed for children to develop a critical awareness of products and through this, a more confident approach to evaluating their designing and making. These include a graduation from evaluating familiar products made or produced by others, with a key emphasis on food, to evaluation of their own designing and making through the support of 'critical friends' within a group context. It is proposed that product evaluation should be a key feature of primary teaching, based upon regular, simple and brief whole class and group teaching sessions

Motivation and Gesture in Foreign and Second Language Development: A Sociocultural Study of Chinese Learners of English

This dissertation study investigated motivation as related to goal-directed activity and gesture awareness as well as their interplay in second and foreign language development in different English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) contexts. This study included four groups of Chinese learners of English. The first EFL group consisted of college students in China learning English without intention of studying abroad (G1) and the second EFL group in China included Chinese learners of English who were learning English to prepare to study abroad (G2). Participants in the first ESL group were living and studying abroad (G3) while the second group consisted of students who had returned to China after completing their study abroad experience but continued to use English for academic studies and work (G4). This explanatory sequential mixed methods research design involved quantitative data of motivation and gesture awareness surveys and then further explained the quantitative results with qualitative data of video recorded gesture tasks and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative analysis of motivation tested mean differences of motivation constructs (ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and attitudes toward learning English) based on the second language motivational self-system (L2MSS) (Dörnyei, 2005; 2009) as well as intended effort as a measurement criterion. In the results, participants in the EFL context intended to put in more effort and had lower ideal L2 self than participants in the ESL context. Results found no difference between the EFL and ESL contexts with regard to ought-to L2 self and attitudes toward learning English. In the EFL context, G2 were highly motivated than G1 in terms of ideal L2 self, attitudes toward learning English, and intended to put into more effort. Additionally, the expectation that G3 would have the highest level of motivation was not supported. In fact, attitudes toward learning English were lower for G3 than G4. No statistical differences were found on ought-to L2 self across groups. These quantitative results were supported and clarified by the qualitative findings in phase 2. Motivation as related to goal-directed activity was found to be affected by the orientation of participants in each group toward learning English in association with their particular contexts. Overall findings of motivation as related to goal-directed activity proved highly coherent with the qualitative dimension supporting the quantitative results and providing nuanced and in-depth information on what motivated participants and why, how motivation shaped experience and how experience shaped motivation in each context. This study also created and validated the first usable scale of gesture awareness, and measurement and structural invariance tests showed that G3 had the lowest scores in terms of comprehension and production across the four groups. Interestingly, no difference was found between G2 and G4. Later, qualitative findings showed that G3 were more aware of their gesture, and their gesture production was more pragmatic than other groups. G1, in particular, were less conscious of gestural differences between Chinese and English than other groups. Quantitative results of gesture awareness were incongruent with qualitative findings, and specific investigation among each individual revealed the importance of conscious awareness of gesture and gesturing for pragmatics. This study is the first effort to examine the relationship between motivation and gesture awareness and found that the relationship was individual specific in the situated context for communicative needs. The integration of individual and contextual factors constituted the plasticity of second and foreign language development and showed the diversity of individual motivation and gesture awareness in different contexts. This dissertation study brings attention to agency, goals, goal-directed activity, and conscious awareness in EFL and ESL contexts for second and foreign language development

Role-play and the discussion of the controversial issues during teacher training: teaching practices in favor of a Sustainable Development?

In a society that is constantly changing and deeply marked by advances in science and technology, it is essential to invest in a training that values personal and social development, as well as the understanding of the interaction Science-Technology-Society-Environment (CTSA). A science education focused on knowledge and understanding of science and technology and its role in our daily lives allows individuals to engage and understand these discussions on these issues, as well as their social implications. Therefore, it is crucial to provide students with teaching-learning situations that can enable them for a more reflected and critical participation in society, that are likely to trigger an increase in cognitive, communicative, social and democratic processes, paving the way for scientific literacy and a participatory and democratic citizenship. In this social context, the study of controversial issues of social-scientific and social-environmental nature, it is constituted as a rich learning context as they are associated with existing differences between the different actors involved in the discussion, regarding the assessment of the validity and credibility of the scientific issues that are involved. It is the case, for example, of differences related to some practices developed by man that can endanger our health or the environment. For Sadler, Barab and Scott (2007), a social-scientific reasoning should involve: the recognition of the complexity of the issues under study, the analysis of the issues in their multiple perspectives, bear in mind the notion that the issues are under investigation and doubt the potentially tendentious information. In this context, these issues cannot be simplified but seen in all their complexity (in all dimensions involved). Based on these assumptions, it was developed an investigation-action with future teachers and educators in order to access the potentialities and limitations of the discussion of socio-scientific and socio-environmental issues using the role-playing in environmental education classes. The activity was focused on a current environmental problem in our society – the construction of dams – raising the awareness of students about the risks and the interests that are involved and in which participate different groups of society, like scientists, environmentalists, politicians and economists. If the seriousness of the environmental problems and the fast rhythm that current societies live ask for an intervention and awareness in the environmental area, in a perspective of continuity of life and sustainable balance, it is essential to reach the population from which young people are part of and, consequently, it is the school’s responsibility to make a statement in this sense. The obtained data through the activity assessment questionnaire, the interview, field notes and the final reflection carried out by work groups helped confirm that this didactic experience enabled the development of many skills related to: a) the substantive knowledge; b) didactic knowledge; c) reasoning; d) communication; and d) attitudes. Some of the negative aspects of the performed dynamic were related to how the teacher managed the discussion but it was also pointed out the less positive aspects the communicative skills and the team work skills evidenced by students. However, as it was observed in other studies about the same issue, not all groups were able to take a decision regarding the feasibility and reasonableness of more investments for the construction of dams in our country, based on the example of the Alqueva dam. In this type of activity it is difficult to reach a consensus among all group members. There are many aspects to consider and the more awareness students take in relation to the factors involved in the problem and its implications, the more confused they become. The most important aspect is to inform the students of the various dimensions involved and enable them to access accurate and reliable information.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Context-Aware Software

With the advent of PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), smart phones, and other forms of mobile and ubiquitous computers, our computing resources are increasingly moving off of our desktops and into our everyday lives. However, the software and user interfaces for these devices are generally very similar to that of their desktop counterparts, despite the radically different and dynamic environments that they face. We propose that to better assist their users, such devices should be able to sense, react to, and utilise, the user's current environment or context. That is, they should become context-aware. In this thesis we investigate context-awareness at three levels: user interfaces, applications, and supporting architectures/frameworks. To promote the use of context-awareness, and to aid its deployment in software, we have developed two supporting frameworks. The first is an application-oriented framework called stick-e notes. Based on an electronic version of the common Post-It Note, stick-e notes enable the attachment of any electronic resource (e.g. a text file, movie, Java program, etc.) to any type of context (e.g. location, temperature, time, etc.). The second framework we devised seeks to provide a more universal support for the capture, manipulation, and representation of context information. We call it the Context Information Service (CIS). It fills a similar role in context-aware software development as GUI libraries do in user interface development. Our applications research explored how context-awareness can be exploited in real environments with real users. In particular, we developed a suite of PDA-based context-aware tools for fieldworkers. These were used extensively by a group of ecologists in Africa to record observations of giraffe and rhinos in a remote Kenyan game reserve. These tools also provided the foundations for our HCI work, in which we developed the concept of the Minimal Attention User Interface (MAUI). The aim of the MAUI is to reduce the attention required by the user in operating a device by carefully selecting input/output modes that are harmonious to their tasks and environment. To evaluate our ideas and applications a field study was conducted in which over forty volunteers used our system for data collection activities over the course of a summer season at the Kenyan game reserve. The PDA-based tools were unanimously preferred to the paper-based alternatives, and the context-aware features were cited as particular reasons for preferring them. In summary, this thesis presents two frameworks to support context-aware software, a set of applications demonstrating how context-awareness can be utilised in the ''real world'', and a set of HCI guidelines and principles that help in creating user interfaces that fit to their context of use

Actions to empower digital competences in healthcare workforce: a qualitative approach

While healthcare systems are taking advantage of the ICT to improve healthcare services, healthcare workforce needs additional competencies in order to continue the provision of the best achievable care. In this paper emphasis is given to an active research effort taken during the MEI2015 Conference. Based on hands-on group-work, participants identified the actions needed to boost the acquisition of IT competences by healthcare workforce and collaboratively indicated the most important actions. The leading priority actions were integration of IT into Curriculum, continuous IT/eHealth training at the work place, raising awareness of IT competences, participatory decisions for actions, match healthcare applications to users’ own context, inclusion of professionals in the development of eHealth projects. Interestingly, the proposed actions coupling the outcomes of another study following a different methodology, but also support the cooperation opportunities on IT skills for healthcare workforce. The latter formed a set of recommendations which were proposed within the CAMEI coordination and support action of EC-FP7

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COMPETENCIES FOR ACHIEVING THE SDGS: ENGINEERING STUDENTS AND INDUSTRY REQUIREMENTS

This paper will provide an insight into how French engineering students and employers perceive the competencies needed to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). It draws on the findings of two exploratory focus group studies carried out in the context of the A-STEP 2030 European Project. Our results indicate significant differences in the awareness of sustainability goals among respondents, but a relatively high level of convergence around the skills and competencies that appear most necessary for attaining sustainable development. The respondents considered that technical knowledge and skills were adequately included within French engineering school curricula, yet they felt that achieving the SDGs would demand that more emphasis be placed on the development of transversal skills. According to our results, engineering schools need to more comprehensively integrate transversal skills and competencies. Our findings also suggest that this may best be achieved via interdisciplinary teaching and an increased use of project-based education (PBE) and learning carried out in a real work context