MITT writer and MITT writer advanced development: Developing authoring and training systems for complex technical domains

MITT Writer is a software system for developing computer based training for complex technical domains. A training system produced by MITT Writer allows a student to learn and practice troubleshooting and diagnostic skills. The MITT (Microcomputer Intelligence for Technical Training) architecture is a reasonable approach to simulation based diagnostic training. MITT delivers training on available computing equipment, delivers challenging training and simulation scenarios, and has economical development and maintenance costs. A 15 month effort was undertaken in which the MITT Writer system was developed. A workshop was also conducted to train instructors in how to use MITT Writer. Earlier versions were used to develop an Intelligent Tutoring System for troubleshooting the Minuteman Missile Message Processing System

ATP and Presentation Service for Mizar Formalizations

This paper describes the Automated Reasoning for Mizar (MizAR) service, which integrates several automated reasoning, artificial intelligence, and presentation tools with Mizar and its authoring environment. The service provides ATP assistance to Mizar authors in finding and explaining proofs, and offers generation of Mizar problems as challenges to ATP systems. The service is based on a sound translation from the Mizar language to that of first-order ATP systems, and relies on the recent progress in application of ATP systems in large theories containing tens of thousands of available facts. We present the main features of MizAR services, followed by an account of initial experiments in finding proofs with the ATP assistance. Our initial experience indicates that the tool offers substantial help in exploring the Mizar library and in preparing new Mizar articles

Goal Directed Conflict Resolution and Policy Refinement

Peer reviewedPostprin

Development of multiple media documents

Development of documents in multiple media involves activities in three different fields, the technical, the discoursive and the procedural. The major development problems of artifact complexity, cognitive processes, design basis and working context are located where these fields overlap. Pending the emergence of a unified approach to design, any method must allow for development at the three levels of discourse structure, media disposition and composition, and presentation. Related work concerned with generalised discourse structures, structured documents, production methods for existing multiple media artifacts, and hypertext design offer some partial forms of assistance at different levels. Desirable characteristics of a multimedia design method will include three phases of production, a variety of possible actions with media elements, an underlying discoursive structure, and explicit comparates for review

Improving productivity by the automation of checking of 3D parametric modelling

The development of object-based 3D modelling based on Industry Foundation Class (IFC) has given rise to the possibility of computer-based interpretable models and the automation of checking based on rules. Past studies suggest that professionals within the industry have low confidence in the quality of design data, and consequently, there is an over-reliance on manual checking. This study aims to examine the application of automatic checking in industry and opportunities to improve productivity by automation. It identifies a means to improve the quality of data and available checking software, albeit with poor interoperability. The study indicates a quality system that can be applied to the generation of checking rules and a method to improve productivity of automatic checking by using the principles of Dataflow

Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things enables experts of given domains to create smart user experiences for interacting with the environment. However, development of such experiences requires strong programming skills, which are challenging to develop for non-technical users. This paper presents several extensions to the block-based programming language used in App Inventor to make the creation of mobile apps for smart learning experiences less challenging. Such apps are used to process and graphically represent data streams from sensors by applying map-reduce operations. A workshop with students without previous experience with Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile app programming was conducted to evaluate the propositions. As a result, students were able to create small IoT apps that ingest, process and visually represent data in a simpler form as using App Inventor's standard features. Besides, an experimental study was carried out in a mobile app development course with academics of diverse disciplines. Results showed it was faster and easier for novice programmers to develop the proposed app using new stream processing blocks.Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) - ERDF fund

Evaluating the accessibility to disabled people of e-assessment tools

E-assessment tools offer enormous potential for educational organisations to support disabled students in a flexible, accessible way, while also helping to meet legal obligations to avoid undue discrimination. However, tools need to support authors in creating assessments without introducing accessibility barriers. Information on the extent to which e-assessment tools support accessible assessment authoring is scarce; and where information does exist, this tends to be focused on the accessibility of the output, rather than the quality of the authoring process. An accessibility evaluation methodology was developed and used by the authors to review a popular e-assessment tool. The review identified a number of accessibility issues with the software interface and output. It also found issues that might limit the ability of authors to create optimally accessible assessments, meaning a modified approach to training and support is required, as well as improvements to the assessment tool. Organisations evaluating e-assessment tools for accessibility therefore need to seriously consider how effective these tools are in supporting accessible authoring, rather than limiting attention to the accessibility of the output of the tool