Security and Online learning: to protect or prohibit

The rapid development of online learning is opening up many new learning opportunities. Yet, with this increased potential come a myriad of risks. Usable security systems are essential as poor usability in security can result in excluding intended users while allowing sensitive data to be released to unacceptable recipients. This chapter presents findings concerned with usability for two security issues: authentication mechanisms and privacy. Usability issues such as memorability, feedback, guidance, context of use and concepts of information ownership are reviewed within various environments. This chapter also reviews the roots of these usability difficulties in the culture clash between the non-user-oriented perspective of security and the information exchange culture of the education domain. Finally an account is provided of how future systems can be developed which maintain security and yet are still usable

Correlating the effects of flow and telepresence in virtual worlds: Enhancing our understanding of user behavior in game-based learning

Recent research on online learning suggests that virtual worlds are becoming an important environment to observe the experience of flow. From these simulated spaces, researchers may gather a deeper understanding of cognition in the context of game-based learning. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) describes flow as a feeling of increased psychological immersion and energized focus, with outcomes that evoke disregard for external pressures and the loss of time consciousness, issuing in a sense of pleasure. Past studies suggest that flow is encountered in an array of activities and places, including those in virtual worlds. The authors’ posit that flow in virtual worlds, such as Second Life (SL), can be positively associated with degrees of the cognitive phenomenon of immersion and telepresence. Flow may also contribute to a better attitude and behavior during virtual game-based learning. This study tested three hypotheses related to flow and telepresence, using SL. Findings suggest that both flow and telepresence are experienced in SL and that there is a significant correlation between them. These findings shed light on the complex interrelationships and interactions that lead to flow experience in virtual gameplay and learning, while engendering hope that learners, who experience flow, may acquire an improved attitude of learning online

Design Ltd.: Renovated Myths for the Development of Socially Embedded Technologies

This paper argues that traditional and mainstream mythologies, which have been continually told within the Information Technology domain among designers and advocators of conceptual modelling since the 1960s in different fields of computing sciences, could now be renovated or substituted in the mould of more recent discourses about performativity, complexity and end-user creativity that have been constructed across different fields in the meanwhile. In the paper, it is submitted that these discourses could motivate IT professionals in undertaking alternative approaches toward the co-construction of socio-technical systems, i.e., social settings where humans cooperate to reach common goals by means of mediating computational tools. The authors advocate further discussion about and consolidation of some concepts in design research, design practice and more generally Information Technology (IT) development, like those of: task-artifact entanglement, universatility (sic) of End-User Development (EUD) environments, bricolant/bricoleur end-user, logic of bricolage, maieuta-designers (sic), and laissez-faire method to socio-technical construction. Points backing these and similar concepts are made to promote further discussion on the need to rethink the main assumptions underlying IT design and development some fifty years later the coming of age of software and modern IT in the organizational domain.Comment: This is the peer-unreviewed of a manuscript that is to appear in D. Randall, K. Schmidt, & V. Wulf (Eds.), Designing Socially Embedded Technologies: A European Challenge (2013, forthcoming) with the title "Building Socially Embedded Technologies: Implications on Design" within an EUSSET editorial initiative (www.eusset.eu/

Computer security impaired by legitimate users

Computer security has traditionally been assessed from a technical point of view. Another way to assess it is by investigating the role played by legitimate users of systems in impairing the level of protection. In order to address this issue, we wish to adopt a multidisciplinary standpoint and investigate some of the human aspects involved in computer security. From research in psychology, it is known that people make biased decisions. They sometimes overlook rules in order to gain maximum benefits for the cost of a given action. This situation leads to insidious security lapses whereby the level of protection is traded-off against usability. In this paper, we highlight the cognitive processes underlying such security impairments. At the end of the paper, we propose a short usability-centred set of recommendations

The influence of cognitive styles on the design of adaptive web-based learning materials

This research addresses the issues of adaptation and personalisation of the computer interface for Web-based learning materials taking into consideration key characteristics of learners and particularly their cognitive style. The thesis examines main concerns driving learning towards individualisation. Different approaches to adaptation and personalisation are analysed, as are a range of adaptive systems. The need for further research regarding individual differences is identified; it is argued that cognitive styles should be allowed for in designing adaptive learning materials. A comprehensive review of cognitive style classifications is presented, from which key defining attributes and advantageous instructional conditions are identified and a number of adaptive variables derived. LEARNINT, a prototype based on these variables was developed and used in two experimental studies. Results show a relationship between Interface Affect and learning outcomes and also between the variables underpinning the interface style used and variation in user reactions and performance; however, little interaction is observed between these variables and cognitive style. It is suggested that for most learners using Web-based learning materials performance may improve if they experience positive affect towards the interface; also, that the proposed variables stand as good candidates for providing adaptivity. A methodological approach is presented that extends the functionality of LEARNINT. The generic aspects of the research are further elaborated offering guidance on future directions for the design of adaptive Web-based learning materials

Transforming the 'weakest link' - a human/computer interaction approach to usable and effective security

The security research community has recently recognised that user behaviour plays a part in many security failures, and it has become common to refer to users as the 'weakest link in the security chain'. We argue that simply blaming users will not lead to more effective security systems. Security designers must identify the causes of undesirable user behaviour, and address these to design effective security systems. We present examples of how undesirable user behaviour with passwords can be caused by failure to recognise the characteristics of human memory, unattainable or conflicting task demands, and lack of support, training and motivation. We conclude that existing human/computer interaction knowledge and techniques can be used to prevent or address these problems, and outline a vision of a holistic design approach for usable and effective security

Expressing the effectiveness of planning horizons

L’évolution technologique est souvent motivée par des “ problèmes ”. Pourtant, l’expression de ces problèmes en termes de performance des systèmes de travail n’est souvent qu’anecdotique ou implicite. Cette recherche propose une méthode explicite pour exprimer l’efficacité d’un système de travail. La méthode est illustrée sur un système de travail de gestion du transport. L’intérêt particulier de ce domaine concerne la façon dont l’interaction opérateur-technologie soutient efficacement la planification à l’avance (sous la forme d’un horizon de planification). La méthode est composée de quatre étapes. Premièrement, le comportement de planification à l’avance est conceptualisé. Un aspect critique de la méthode est la “ Théorie des Horizons de Planification de l’Opérateur ” ainsi que l’ “ extension ” et “ l’opportunité ” d’horizons de planification particuliers. Deuxièmement, le domaine de travail est modélisé, afin d’établir la qualité du travail effectué par le système de travail. Troisièmement, les comportements qui soutiennent la planification efficace sont modélisés. Finalement, une comparaison est faite entre la qualité réelle du travail effectué et la qualité désirée. Si la performance tombe en dessous d’un niveau désiré, les comportements du système de travail contribuant à l’inefficacité sont analysés. Si une planification inefficace est identifiée (c’est-à-dire un problème), la méthode soutient la recherche des origines du problème ainsi que la construction d’une théorie causale. Bien que l’illustration ne porte que sur la planification d’un système de travail de gestion du transport, les étapes de la méthode sont proposées pour soutenir plus généralement l’expression de l’efficacité des systèmes ou autres

The feet in human--computer interaction: a survey of foot-based interaction

Foot-operated computer interfaces have been studied since the inception of human--computer interaction. Thanks to the miniaturisation and decreasing cost of sensing technology, there is an increasing interest exploring this alternative input modality, but no comprehensive overview of its research landscape. In this survey, we review the literature on interfaces operated by the lower limbs. We investigate the characteristics of users and how they affect the design of such interfaces. Next, we describe and analyse foot-based research prototypes and commercial systems in how they capture input and provide feedback. We then analyse the interactions between users and systems from the perspective of the actions performed in these interactions. Finally, we discuss our findings and use them to identify open questions and directions for future research