THE ACTIVE PARTICIPATION OF SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS IN ECOURSE PRODUCTION: A CASE STUDY FROM ANADOLU UNIVERSİTY OPEN EDUCATION SYSTEM

Storyboard is used in the field of e-learning as a tool for the subject matter experts and instructional designers to speak the same language while producing e-course materials. In this study, the roles of the subject matter experts who are the keystones of the team that produce storyboards of e-learning materials within Anadolu University Open Education System and their experiences were examined, in an attempt to evaluate the e-course production system. For this reason, a qualitative case study design was used and interview data were collected from subject matter experts, technical production staff and decision-makers. Qualitative data analysis revealed that the roles and responsibilities of the subject matter experts should be well defined and more clearly structured, they should be trained on certain aspects of storyboard development; and their communication and collaboration with the production team needs to be more regularly planned and continuously kept alive.  Article visualizations

Computer-Based Instructional Systems Design Tools: Current State And Implications For The Future

This study examines the current state of computer-based instructional systems design (ISD) tools and outlines its implications for the future. The study utilizes the grounded theory methodology to capture and document modern instructional designers\u27 perspectives regarding the current state of ISD tools, the issues associated with them, and their interrelationships. The study also presents a framework for classifying modern ISD tools and a conceptual prototype of a designer-oriented system of computer-based ISD tools

'I liked it, but it made you think too much': A case study of computer game authoring in the Key Stage 3 ICT curriculum

The importance of giving pupils opportunities to become producers of digital media is well documented in the literature (see Harel, 1991; Papert, 1993; Kafai, 1995; Harel Caperton, 2010; Luckin et al., 2012; Nesta, 2012; Sefton-Green, 2013), however there has been little research in this area in the context of the UK Key Stage 3 ICT curriculum. The purpose of this study is to achieve an understanding of how authoring computer games in a mainstream secondary setting can support the learning of basic game design and programming concepts. The research explores pupils’ experiences of the process they followed and the areas of learning they encountered as they made their games, and considers what they valued and what they found difficult in the game authoring activity. The research draws on the learning theory of constructionism, which asserts the importance of pupils using computers as ‘building material’ to create digital artefacts. In the process of creating these artefacts, over time, computers become ‘objects to think with’, enabling pupils to learn how to learn (Papert, 1980b; Harel and Papert, 1991a). Data were collected in planning documents, journals and the games pupils made, in recordings of their working conversations, and in pair and group interviews. Findings indicate that as well as learning some basic programming concepts, pupils enjoyed the activity, demonstrated positive attitudes to learning and felt a sense of achievement in creating a complex artefact which had personal and cultural significance for them. This research acknowledges the need to develop accessible units of work to implement aspects of the new Computing curriculum (DfE, 2013c), especially for teachers and pupils who have little prior knowledge of the field. It suggests that computer game authoring may offer a viable entry and considers the extent to which constructionist approaches are suitable for this kind of work

Towards a crowdsourced solution for the authoring bottleneck in interactive narratives

Interactive Storytelling research has produced a wealth of technologies that can be employed to create personalised narrative experiences, in which the audience takes a participating rather than observing role. But so far this technology has not led to the production of large scale playable interactive story experiences that realise the ambitions of the field. One main reason for this state of affairs is the difficulty of authoring interactive stories, a task that requires describing a huge amount of story building blocks in a machine friendly fashion. This is not only technically and conceptually more challenging than traditional narrative authoring but also a scalability problem. This thesis examines the authoring bottleneck through a case study and a literature survey and advocates a solution based on crowdsourcing. Prior work has already shown that combining a large number of example stories collected from crowd workers with a system that merges these contributions into a single interactive story can be an effective way to reduce the authorial burden. As a refinement of such an approach, this thesis introduces the novel concept of Crowd Task Adaptation. It argues that in order to maximise the usefulness of the collected stories, a system should dynamically and intelligently analyse the corpus of collected stories and based on this analysis modify the tasks handed out to crowd workers. Two authoring systems, ENIGMA and CROSCAT, which show two radically different approaches of using the Crowd Task Adaptation paradigm have been implemented and are described in this thesis. While ENIGMA adapts tasks through a realtime dialog between crowd workers and the system that is based on what has been learned from previously collected stories, CROSCAT modifies the backstory given to crowd workers in order to optimise the distribution of branching points in the tree structure that combines all collected stories. Two experimental studies of crowdsourced authoring are also presented. They lead to guidelines on how to employ crowdsourced authoring effectively, but more importantly the results of one of the studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the Crowd Task Adaptation approach

Constructivism, virtual reality and tools to support design

This paper describes a process for creating a design tool, which is based in constructivism. The process is described for the creation of a tool to help novices in designing virtual environment interactions, however it can be generalized to other design domains. The process consists of four steps: first constructivist values of atomic simplicity, multiplicity, exploration, control and reflection are distilled. Next, expert practices are researched and reframed in terms of the constructivist values. Thirdly, novice processes are examined and understood in constructivist terms. Lastly, prototypes are created and shown to target users. These steps are iterated until the designed tool is satisfactory

Sketch-based digital storyboards and floor plans for authoring computer-generated film pre-visuals

Pre-visualisation is an important tool for planning films during the pre-production phase of filmmaking. Existing pre-visualisation authoring tools do not effectively support the user in authoring pre-visualisations without impairing software usability. These tools require the user to either have programming skills, be experienced in modelling and animation, or use drag-and-drop style interfaces. These interaction methods do not intuitively fit with pre-production activities such as floor planning and storyboarding, and existing tools that apply a storyboarding metaphor do not automatically interpret user sketches. The goal of this research was to investigate how sketch-based user interfaces and methods from computer vision could be used for supporting pre-visualisation authoring using a storyboarding approach. The requirements for such a sketch-based storyboarding tool were determined from literature and an interview with Triggerfish Animation Studios. A framework was developed to support sketch-based pre-visualisation authoring using a storyboarding approach. Algorithms for describing user sketches, recognising objects and performing pose estimation were designed to automatically interpret user sketches. A proof of concept prototype implementation of this framework was evaluated in order to assess its usability benefit. It was found that the participants could author pre-visualisations effectively, efficiently and easily. The results of the usability evaluation also showed that the participants were satisfied with the overall design and usability of the prototype tool. The positive and negative findings of the evaluation were interpreted and combined with existing heuristics in order to create a set of guidelines for designing similar sketch-based pre-visualisation authoring tools that apply the storyboarding approach. The successful implementation of the proof of concept prototype tool provides practical evidence of the feasibility of sketch-based pre-visualisation authoring. The positive results from the usability evaluation established that sketch-based interfacing techniques can be used effectively with a storyboarding approach for authoring pre-visualisations without impairing software usability

Sketch-based digital storyboards and floor plans for authoring computer-generated film pre-visuals

Pre-visualisation is an important tool for planning films during the pre-production phase of filmmaking. Existing pre-visualisation authoring tools do not effectively support the user in authoring pre-visualisations without impairing software usability. These tools require the user to either have programming skills, be experienced in modelling and animation, or use drag-and-drop style interfaces. These interaction methods do not intuitively fit with pre-production activities such as floor planning and storyboarding, and existing tools that apply a storyboarding metaphor do not automatically interpret user sketches. The goal of this research was to investigate how sketch-based user interfaces and methods from computer vision could be used for supporting pre-visualisation authoring using a storyboarding approach. The requirements for such a sketch-based storyboarding tool were determined from literature and an interview with Triggerfish Animation Studios. A framework was developed to support sketch-based pre-visualisation authoring using a storyboarding approach. Algorithms for describing user sketches, recognising objects and performing pose estimation were designed to automatically interpret user sketches. A proof of concept prototype implementation of this framework was evaluated in order to assess its usability benefit. It was found that the participants could author pre-visualisations effectively, efficiently and easily. The results of the usability evaluation also showed that the participants were satisfied with the overall design and usability of the prototype tool. The positive and negative findings of the evaluation were interpreted and combined with existing heuristics in order to create a set of guidelines for designing similar sketch-based pre-visualisation authoring tools that apply the storyboarding approach. The successful implementation of the proof of concept prototype tool provides practical evidence of the feasibility of sketch-based pre-visualisation authoring. The positive results from the usability evaluation established that sketch-based interfacing techniques can be used effectively with a storyboarding approach for authoring pre-visualisations without impairing software usability

Real-Time Storytelling with Events in Virtual Worlds

We present an accessible interactive narrative tool for creating stories among a virtual populace inhabiting a fully-realized 3D virtual world. Our system supports two modalities: assisted authoring where a human storyteller designs stories using a storyboard-like interface called CANVAS, and exploratory authoring where a human author experiences a story as it happens in real-time and makes on-the-fly narrative trajectory changes using a tool called Storycraft. In both cases, our system analyzes the semantic content of the world and the narrative being composed, and provides automated assistance such as completing partially-specified stories with causally complete sequences of intermediate actions. At its core, our system revolves around events -â?? pre-authored multi-actor task sequences describing interactions between groups of actors and props. These events integrate complex animation and interaction tasks with precision control and expose them as atoms of narrative significance to the story direction systems. Events are an accessible tool and conceptual metaphor for assembling narrative arcs, providing a tightly-coupled solution to the problem of converting author intent to real-time animation synthesis. Our system allows simple and straightforward macro- and microscopic control over large numbers of virtual characters with diverse and sophisticated behavior capabilities, and reduces the complicated action space of an interactive narrative by providing analysis and user assistance in the form of semi-automation and recommendation services

An investigation as to how a computerised multimedia intervention could be of use for practitioners supporting learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

This practice-based action research investigation seeks to make a valuable, original and academic contribution to knowledge in the computing, language, communication and educational fields. The aim was to establish the therapeutic (language and communication skills) and educational (literacy and numeracy skills) use of individual tailored computer games for practitioners supporting learners (end-users) with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This was achieved through a continuous collaboration of cohorts of computing undergraduate students and academics (the development team) carrying out an assignment for a module designed and successfully led by this PhD student (the researcher). The researcher continually collaborated with practitioners (users – teaching staff and speech and language therapists in schools) of learners with ASD over many years. The researcher developed a Computerised Multimedia Therapeutic/Educational Intervention (CMT/EI) process, which used an iterative holistic Design-For-One approach for developing individual computer games. An action research methodology was adopted using methodological triangulation ‘quantitative’ and ‘qualitative’ data collection methods. This was to ascertain as to how tailor-made computerised multimedia games developed, could be evaluated by the users as being of therapeutic/educational use for their learners (end-users) with ASD. The researcher originated profiles to establish the diversity of each learner’s spectrum of therapeutic/educational autistic needs, preferences, capabilities, likes, dislikes and interests. The researcher orchestrated, collaborated and supervised the whole process from individual profiles completed by the practitioners, through to the profiles used as a baseline, by the development team, and to the designing, developing and evaluating iterative customised personalised computer games. Four hundred and sixty-four learners with ASD (end-users) and forty-nine practitioners (users) from nine educational establishments across the UK participated in this investigation. Two stages were carried out in an initial application procedure (with one school) and prototype procedure (with a further six schools and 2 educational establishments). Stage I - Planning, collection, organisation, Design-For-One approach and development. Stage II - Testing, Evaluation, Monitoring, Reflection and Maintenance. Optimistic ‘quantitative’ and ‘qualitative’ evidence emerged (using content analysis) from the implementation of games in the classroom and the practitioner’s therapeutic and educational evaluation of storyboards and games. The documented positive findings led to a conclusion that personalised games which had been developed over a ten-year period, showed to be of therapeutic/educational use to practitioners and their learners with ASD