1,963 research outputs found
Using a Tablet-PC to Provide Peer-Review Comments
This reports describes our initial exploration in using a Tablet-PC to provide peer-review comments in the first year Computer Science course. Our exploration consisted of an informal evaluation of how students write comments on other students assignments using three different methods: pen and paper, a Tablet-PC, and a desktop computer. Our ultimate goal is to explore the effect that interface style has on the quality and quantity of the comments provided
How do particle physicists learn the programming concepts they need?
The ability to read, use and develop code efficiently and successfully is a
key ingredient in modern particle physics. We report the experience of a
training program, identified as "Advanced Programming Concepts", that
introduces software concepts, methods and techniques to work effectively on a
daily basis in a HEP experiment or other programming intensive fields. This
paper illustrates the principles, motivations and methods that shape the
"Advanced Computing Concepts" training program, the knowledge base that it
conveys, an analysis of the feedback received so far, and the integration of
these concepts in the software development process of the experiments as well
as its applicability to a wider audience.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, CHEP2015 proceeding
Component-based software engineering: a quantitative approach
Dissertação apresentada para a obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Informática pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaBackground: Often, claims in Component-Based Development (CBD) are only supported by qualitative expert opinion, rather than by quantitative data. This contrasts with the normal practice in other sciences, where a sound experimental validation of claims is standard practice. Experimental Software Engineering (ESE) aims to bridge this gap. Unfortunately, it is common to find experimental validation efforts that are
hard to replicate and compare, to build up the body of knowledge in CBD.
Objectives: In this dissertation our goals are (i) to contribute to evolution of ESE, in
what concerns the replicability and comparability of experimental work, and (ii) to apply our proposals to CBD, thus contributing to its deeper and sounder understanding.
Techniques: We propose a process model for ESE, aligned with current experimental
best practices, and combine this model with a measurement technique called
Ontology-Driven Measurement (ODM). ODM is aimed at improving the state of practice
in metrics definition and collection, by making metrics definitions formal and executable,without sacrificing their usability. ODM uses standard technologies that can be well adapted to current integrated development environments.
Results: Our contributions include the definition and preliminary validation of a process model for ESE and the proposal of ODM for supporting metrics definition and
collection in the context of CBD. We use both the process model and ODM to perform
a series experimental works in CBD, including the cross-validation of a component
metrics set for JavaBeans, a case study on the influence of practitioners expertise in
a sub-process of component development (component code inspections), and an observational study on reusability patterns of pluggable components (Eclipse plug-ins).
These experimental works implied proposing, adapting, or selecting adequate ontologies,
as well as the formal definition of metrics upon each of those ontologies.
Limitations: Although our experimental work covers a variety of component models and, orthogonally, both process and product, the plethora of opportunities for using our quantitative approach to CBD is far from exhausted.
Conclusions: The main contribution of this dissertation is the illustration, through
practical examples, of how we can combine our experimental process model with ODM to support the experimental validation of claims in the context of CBD, in a repeatable and comparable way. In addition, the techniques proposed in this dissertation
are generic and can be applied to other software development paradigms.Departamento de Informática of the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT/UNL); Centro de Informática e Tecnologias da Informação of the FCT/UNL; Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the STACOS project(POSI/CHS/48875/2002); The Experimental Software Engineering Network (ESERNET);Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets (AITO); Association forComputing Machinery (ACM
Integration of BPM systems
New technologies have emerged to support the global economy where for instance suppliers, manufactures and retailers are working together in order to minimise the cost and
maximise efficiency. One of the technologies that has become a buzz word for many businesses is business process management or BPM. A business process comprises activities
and tasks, the resources required to perform each task, and the business rules linking these activities and tasks. The tasks may be performed by human and/or machine actors.
Workflow provides a way of describing the order of execution and the dependent relationships between the constituting activities of short or long running processes.
Workflow allows businesses to capture not only the information but also the processes that transform the information - the process asset (Koulopoulos, T. M., 1995). Applications which involve automated, human-centric and collaborative processes across organisations are
inherently different from one organisation to another. Even within the same organisation but over time, applications are adapted as ongoing change to the business processes is seen as the norm in today’s dynamic business environment. The major difference lies in the specifics of business processes which are changing rapidly in order to match the way in which businesses operate. In this chapter we introduce and discuss Business Process Management (BPM) with a focus on the integration of heterogeneous BPM systems across multiple organisations. We identify the problems and the main challenges not only with regards to technologies but also in the social and cultural context. We also discuss the issues that have arisen in our bid to find the solutions
IMS Learning Design UML Models
In order to model the DTD binding in UML we have used a method suggested by Rational in one of their white papers on this issue [1]. This method maps the constructs typically found in a standard manner to UML classes. This way it is possible to automatically derive a DTD or schema from the UML that compliant with the original. For this purpose some stereotypes have been defined that should be applied to every class in the diagrams. The following table give an overview
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Models for Learning (Mod4L) Final Report: Representing Learning Designs
The Mod4L Models of Practice project is part of the JISC-funded Design for Learning Programme. It ran from 1 May – 31 December 2006. The philosophy underlying the project was that a general split is evident in the e-learning community between development of e-learning tools, services and standards, and research into how teachers can use these most effectively, and is impeding uptake of new tools and methods by teachers. To help overcome this barrier and bridge the gap, a need is felt for practitioner-focused resources which describe a range of learning designs and offer guidance on how these may be chosen and applied, how they can support effective practice in design for learning, and how they can support the development of effective tools, standards and systems with a learning design capability (see, for example, Griffiths and Blat 2005, JISC 2006). Practice models, it was suggested, were such a resource.
The aim of the project was to: develop a range of practice models that could be used by practitioners in real life contexts and have a high impact on improving teaching and learning practice.
We worked with two definitions of practice models. Practice models are:
1. generic approaches to the structuring and orchestration of learning activities. They express elements of pedagogic principle and allow practitioners to make informed choices (JISC 2006)
However, however effective a learning design may be, it can only be shared with others through a representation. The issue of representation of learning designs is, then, central to the concept of sharing and reuse at the heart of JISC’s Design for Learning programme. Thus practice models should be both representations of effective practice, and effective representations of practice. Hence we arrived at the project working definition of practice models as:
2. Common, but decontextualised, learning designs that are represented in a way that is usable by practitioners (teachers, managers, etc).(Mod4L working definition, Falconer & Littlejohn 2006).
A learning design is defined as the outcome of the process of designing, planning and orchestrating learning activities as part of a learning session or programme (JISC 2006).
Practice models have many potential uses: they describe a range of learning designs that are found to be effective, and offer guidance on their use; they support sharing, reuse and adaptation of learning designs by teachers, and also the development of tools, standards and systems for planning, editing and running the designs.
The project took a practitioner-centred approach, working in close collaboration with a focus group of 12 teachers recruited across a range of disciplines and from both FE and HE. Focus group members are listed in Appendix 1. Information was gathered from the focus group through two face to face workshops, and through their contributions to discussions on the project wiki. This was supplemented by an activity at a JISC pedagogy experts meeting in October 2006, and a part workshop at ALT-C in September 2006. The project interim report of August 2006 contained the outcomes of the first workshop (Falconer and Littlejohn, 2006).
The current report refines the discussion of issues of representing learning designs for sharing and reuse evidenced in the interim report and highlights problems with the concept of practice models (section 2), characterises the requirements teachers have of effective representations (section 3), evaluates a number of types of representation against these requirements (section 4), explores the more technically focused role of sequencing representations and controlled vocabularies (sections 5 & 6), documents some generic learning designs (section 8.2) and suggests ways forward for bridging the gap between teachers and developers (section 2.6).
All quotations are taken from the Mod4L wiki unless otherwise stated
Recognising object-oriented software design quality : a practitioner-based questionnaire survey
Design quality is vital if software is to be maintainable. What practices do developers actually use to achieve design quality in their day-to-day work and which of these do they find most useful? To discover the extent to which practitioners concern themselves with object-oriented design quality and the approaches used when determining quality in practice, a questionnaire survey of 102 software practitioners, approximately half from the UK and the remainder from elsewhere around the world was used. Individual and peer experience are major contributors to design quality. Classic design guidelines, well-known lower level practices, tools and metrics all can also contribute positively to design quality. There is a potential relationship between testing practices and design quality. Inexperience, time pressures, novel problems, novel technology, and imprecise or changing requirements may have a negative impact on quality. Respondents with most experience are more confident in their design decisions, place more value on reviews by team leads and are more likely to rate design quality as very important. For practitioners, these results identify the techniques and tools that other practitioners find effective. For researchers, the results highlight a need for more work investigating the role of experience in the design process and the contribution experience makes to quality. There is also the potential for more in-depth studies of how practitioners are actually using design guidance, including Clean Code. Lastly, the potential relationship between testing practices and design quality merits further investigation
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