Accessibility evaluation of chats and forums in e-learning environments

Proceedings of: 2013 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science & Computer Engineering (FECS'13): WORLDCOMP'13, July 22-25, 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada (USA)Collaborative learning is useful for students in their learning process. Nowadays, most e-learning systems include Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) tools like chats and forums; however, are they accessible for everybody? This paper presents a heuristic evaluation of accessibility of two CSCL tools (chat and forum) in four web-based, open-source Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS): Moodle, ATutor, dotLRN and Claroline. The evaluation results show that the CSCL tools evaluated present accessibility barriers which are a handicap for many students who want to use the LCMSs Moreover, some recommendations are offered in order to improve the accessibility of the evaluated tools. Considering these recommendations in the development of the evaluated tools, all students could participate actively in the collaborative tasks proposed by teachersThis research work has been supported by the Regional Government of Madrid under the Research Network MA2VICMR (S2009/TIC-1542) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy under the project MULTIMEDICA (TIN2010-20644-C03-01)Publicad

Paris Attack in Wireless Ad Hoc Network

Mobile Ad hoc networks are often used in places with little or no infrastructure. However its very nature of being dynamic and infrastructure less makes it vulnerable to many of the security related issues. In this paper we make use of the vulnerability present in the AODV protocol to present a new kind of Man in the Middle attack for MANETs namely, “The Paris Attackâ€

G-Sense: a graphical interface for SENSE simulator

“Copyright © [2009] IEEE. Reprinted from First International Conference on Advances in System Simulation.ISBN:978-1-4244-4863-0. This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to [email protected]. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.”Wireless sensor networks greatly benefit from simulation before deployment, since some of these networks may contain thousands of nodes. The new challenges compared to traditional computer networks led to several approaches for network simulation, namely SENSE – Sensor Network Emulator and Simulator. However this approach presents a limited user interface, namely based on text, forcing users to have knowledge on C++ programming language. This paper presents a tool, called G-Sense, that greatly improves SENSE user friendliness, with graphical input of simulation parameters, save and load simulation features, and simulation results management with plot view. This new tool uses SENSE simulation engine in a transparent way, so the user may be focused on the simulation itself, not in the underlying simulation tool. We present G-Sense architecture, usability and extensive experiments for its validation. We believe that this tool will contribute for SENSE adoption for wireless sensor network simulation, clearly improving on its ease of use

Wireless Sensor Network for Landslide Monitoring in Nusa Tenggara Timur

Landslides in many regions constitute serious hazards that cause substantial life and financial losses. To overcome and reduce the damages, efforts to monitor landslides are developed. One such technology utilizes a wireless sensor network (WSN). Results obtained from studies conducted in the Ikanfoti village, Kupang District, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Province (S 10o16’ 21.9” and E 123o40’59.8”) as pilot project, give result that the application of WSN can be applied properly. We detect and measure vibrations caused by landslides by vibration sensor (accelerometer) on Micaz devices. The results of this study indicate that changes in accelerometer values ranging from 0.2 g (gravity) to 0.49 g of either the X or Y of accelerometer indicate that soil begins to move but not significantly. Value above 0.5 g is a value that indicating a significant change of ground motion. The value of 1 g and above of ground motion indicates a very strong activity and should be alarmed. It is expected that this research provides the foundation for the application of WSN in various areas in NTT Province and Indonesia in general, for establishing thorough and reliable early warning system (EWS)

An Adaptive Multimedia-Oriented Handoff Scheme for IEEE 802.11 WLANs

Previous studies have shown that the actual handoff schemes employed in the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LANs (WLANs) do not meet the strict delay constraints placed by many multimedia applications like Voice over IP. Both the active and the passive supported scan modes in the standard handoff procedure have important delay that affects the Quality of Service (QoS) required by the real-time communications over 802.11 networks. In addition, the problem is further compounded by the fact that limited coverage areas of Access Points (APs) occupied in 802.11 infrastructure WLANs create frequent handoffs. We propose a new optimized and fast handoff scheme that decrease both handoff latency and occurrence by performing a seamless prevent scan process and an effective next-AP selection. Through simulations and performance evaluation, we show the effectiveness of the new adaptive handoff that reduces the process latency and adds new context-based parameters. The Results illustrate a QoS delay-respect required by applications and an optimized AP-choice that eliminates handoff events that are not beneficial.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures, 4 table

Wireless sensor networks lifetime assessment model development

In the recent years low power computing systems have gained popularity.  Networks, which use low power computer systems and transmitted data by using wireless connection are called wireless sensor networks, which  main task is to get the information from sensors and transmission network. Nowadays, the most topical researches pertaining to wireless sensor networks are grounded on the  new optimization of structure of network transmission protocol, the routing optimization in transmission network, optimization of network structure, as a result of which the life circle of wireless network sensors is possible to increase. In the present article the methodology for determining the life circle of network is discussed. The approaches in detection of life circle pertaining to the important network nodes are described

Dinamička distribucija sigurnosnih ključeva i koalicijski protokol IP adresa za mobilne ad hoc mreže

In mobile adhoc networks (MANETs) a tree-based dynamic address auto-configuration protocol (T-DAAP) is one of the best protocols designed for address assignment as far as the network throughput and packet delays are concerned. Moreover, MANET security is an important factor for many applications given that any node can listen to the channel and overhear the packets being transmitted. In this paper, we merge the address assignment with the security key delivery into one protocol, such that a node in the MANET is configured with IP address and security key simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge, no single protocol provides concurrent assignment of IP addresses and security keys for MANET nodes. The proposed method, which is based on T-DAAP, shows significant enhancements in the required control packets needed for assigning network nodes IP addresses and security keys, MAC layer packets, total end-to-end delay, and channel throughput over those obtained when using separate protocols. Additionally, it provides not only efficient security keys to the nodes from the first moment they join the network, but also secure delivery of the address and security key to all participating nodes. It is noteworthy to mention that providing a complete security model for MANET to detect and countermeasure network security threats and attacks is beyond the scope of our proposed protocol.Kod mobilnih ad hoc mreža (MANET) dinamički protokol za autokonfiguraciju adresa baziran na stablu (T-DAAP) je jedan od najboljih protokola dizajniranih za dodjelu adresa iz perspektive propusnosti mreže i i kašnjenja paketa. štoviše, sigurnost MANET-a je važan faktor za mnoge aplikacije s obzirom da bilo koji čvor može osluškivati kanal i slučajno čuti pakete koji se šalju. U ovom radu, dodjela adresa i dostava sigurnosnih ključeva spojeni su u jedan protokol tako da je čvor u MANET-u konfiguriran simultano s IP adresom i sigurnosnim ključem. Prema saznanjima autora, niti jedan postojeći protokol ne pruža istovremeno dodjeljivanje IP adrese i sigurnosnog ključa za MANET čvorove. Predložena metoda, koja se bazira na T-DAAP-u, pokazuje značajna poboljšanja u odnosu na metode koje koriste odvojene porotokole, kod traženih kontrolnih paketa koji su potrebni za dodjeljivanje IP adresa i sigurnosnih ključeva čvorovima mreže, MAC paketa, ukupnog end-to-end kašnjenja i propusnosti kanala. Dodatno pruža ne samo efikasne sigurnosne ključeve čvorovima od trenutka kad se priključe mreži, nego i sigurno dostavljanje adrese i sigurnosnog ključa svim čvorovima koji sudjeluju u mreži. Važno je spomenuti da je pružanje cjelokupnog sigurnosnog modela za MANET koji detektira dodatno i protumjere prijetnjama i napadima na sigurnost mreže izvan dosega predloženog protokola