Case-based analysis in user requirements modelling for knowledge construction

Context: Learning can be regarded as knowledge construction in which prior knowledge and experience serve as basis for the learners to expand their knowledge base. Such a process of knowledge construction has to take place continuously in order to enhance the learners’ competence in a competitive working environment. As the information consumers, the individual users demand personalised information provision which meets their own specific purposes, goals, and expectations. Objectives: The current methods in requirements engineering are capable of modelling the common user’s behaviour in the domain of knowledge construction. The users’ requirements can be represented as a case in the defined structure which can be reasoned to enable the requirements analysis. Such analysis needs to be enhanced so that personalised information provision can be tackled and modelled. However, there is a lack of suitable modelling methods to achieve this end. This paper presents a new ontological method for capturing individual user’s requirements and transforming the requirements onto personalised information provision specifications. Hence the right information can be provided to the right user for the right purpose. Method: An experiment was conducted based on the qualitative method. A medium size of group of users participated to validate the method and its techniques, i.e. articulates, maps, configures, and learning content. The results were used as the feedback for the improvement. Result: The research work has produced an ontology model with a set of techniques which support the functions for profiling user’s requirements, reasoning requirements patterns, generating workflow from norms, and formulating information provision specifications. Conclusion: The current requirements engineering approaches provide the methodical capability for developing solutions. Our research outcome, i.e. the ontology model with the techniques, can further enhance the RE approaches for modelling the individual user’s needs and discovering the user’s requirements

Progressor: Social navigation support through open social student modeling

The increased volumes of online learning content have produced two problems: how to help students to find the most appropriate resources and how to engage them in using these resources. Personalized and social learning have been suggested as potential ways to address these problems. Our work presented in this paper combines the ideas of personalized and social learning in the context of educational hypermedia. We introduce Progressor, an innovative Web-based tool based on the concepts of social navigation and open student modeling that helps students to find the most relevant resources in a large collection of parameterized self-assessment questions on Java programming. We have evaluated Progressor in a semester-long classroom study, the results of which are presented in this paper. The study confirmed the impact of personalized social navigation support provided by the system in the target context. The interface encouraged students to explore more topics attempting more questions and achieving higher success rates in answering them. A deeper analysis of the social navigation support mechanism revealed that the top students successfully led the way to discovering most relevant resources by creating clear pathways for weaker students. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Providing Intelligent and Adaptive Support in Concept Map-based Learning Environments

abstract: Concept maps are commonly used knowledge visualization tools and have been shown to have a positive impact on learning. The main drawbacks of concept mapping are the requirement of training, and lack of feedback support. Thus, prior research has attempted to provide support and feedback in concept mapping, such as by developing computer-based concept mapping tools, offering starting templates and navigational supports, as well as providing automated feedback. Although these approaches have achieved promising results, there are still challenges that remain to be solved. For example, there is a need to create a concept mapping system that reduces the extraneous effort of editing a concept map while encouraging more cognitively beneficial behaviors. Also, there is little understanding of the cognitive process during concept mapping. What’s more, current feedback mechanisms in concept mapping only focus on the outcome of the map, instead of the learning process. This thesis work strives to solve the fundamental research question: How to leverage computer technologies to intelligently support concept mapping to promote meaningful learning? To approach this research question, I first present an intelligent concept mapping system, MindDot, that supports concept mapping via innovative integration of two features, hyperlink navigation, and expert template. The system reduces the effort of creating and modifying concept maps while encouraging beneficial activities such as comparing related concepts and establishing relationships among them. I then present the comparative strategy metric that modes student learning by evaluating behavioral patterns and learning strategies. Lastly, I develop an adaptive feedback system that provides immediate diagnostic feedback in response to both the key learning behaviors during concept mapping and the correctness and completeness of the created maps. Empirical evaluations indicated that the integrated navigational and template support in MindDot fostered effective learning behaviors and facilitating learning achievements. The comparative strategy model was shown to be highly representative of learning characteristics such as motivation, engagement, misconceptions, and predicted learning results. The feedback tutor also demonstrated positive impacts on supporting learning and assisting the development of effective learning strategies that prepare learners for future learning. This dissertation contributes to the field of supporting concept mapping with designs of technological affordances, a process-based student model, an adaptive feedback tutor, empirical evaluations of these proposed innovations, and implications for future support in concept mapping.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

Automatic Web Navigation Problem Detection Based on Client-Side Interaction Data

The current importance of digital competence makes it essential to enable people with disabilities to use digital devices and applications and to automatically adapt site interactions to their needs. Although most of the current adaptable solutions make use of predefined user profiles, automatic detection of user abilities and disabilities is the foundation for building adaptive systems. This work contributes to diminishing the digital divide for people with disabilities by detecting the web navigation problems of users with physical disabilities based on a two-step strategy. The system is based on web user interaction data collected by the RemoTest platform and a complete data mining process applied to the data. First, the device used for interaction is recognized, and then, the problems the user may be having while interacting with the computer are detected. Identification of the device being used and the problems being encountered will allow the most adequate adaptation to be deployed and thus make the navigation more accessible

First experiences with Personal Networks as an enabling platform for service providers

By developing demonstrators and performing small-scale user trials, we found various opportunities and pitfalls for deploying personal networks (PNs) on a commercial basis. The demonstrators were created using as many as possible legacy devices and proven technologies. They deal with applications in the health sector, home services, tourism, and the transportation sector. This paper describes the various architectures and our experiences with the end users and the technology. We conclude that context awareness, service discovery, and content management are very important in PNs and that a personal network provider role is necessary to realize these functions under the assumptions we made. The PNPay Travel demonstrator suggests that PN service platforms provide an opportunity to develop true trans-sector services

What Is the Web-Based Interactive Advertising (WIA) to Consumers?: Consumer’s Interpretation and Interaction with WIA

Although numerous research has examined Web-based interactive advertising (WIA) in recent years, few studies have approached this topic from the consumers’ own perspectives. Much of the literature employed managerial perspectives to examine the effectiveness of WIA with the aim of improving practitioners’ performance. Studies that did deal with consumers often merely measured their uses of WIA and motives for using it without viewing the phenomenon from the consumers’ point-of-view. Unfortunately, this one-sided research trend provides little insight into how consumers deal with interactive advertising in the World Wide Web environment and cannot answer a basic question - do consumers really care about WIA. This study aimed to examine consumers’ perspectives toward Web-based interactive advertising. Specifically, the study explored what WIA meant to consumers and how they interacted with it through the actual navigation process. One differentiating characteristic of WIA is that it enables consumers to have an active role in the communication process; therefore, it is necessary to investigate their thoughts and behaviors regarding WIA. To pursue the research purposes, the following research questions were posed. 1) What does Web-based interactive advertising (WIA) mean to consumers? 2) How do consumers navigate through and interact with WIA in Web-based environment? Qualitative research was employed to explore the research questions. Two specific methods were used for data collection: participant observation with an articulation procedure and depth interview. Throughout the participant’s navigation process, the researcher observed how participants interacted with Websites, heard how they articulated their specific navigation behaviors, and had sporadic short interviews regarding specific actions they made. Upon completing the navigation process, the participants were interviewed about their behavior and thoughts regarding how they dealt with WIA throughout the navigation process and what they thought about WIA. Analysis was performed as the data collection was processed. Changes in data collection tactics were made based on the findings from analysis. Using scripts of interviews, articulations, and memos from observations, the consumers’ perspectives were captured and analyzed. Thematic analysis was made with open, axial, and selective coding methods. Nine themes representing consumers’ interaction with and thoughts about WIA were found. They are ‘Intrusive,’ ‘Annoying,’ ‘Informative,’ ‘Easy,’ ‘Controllable,’ ‘Relevant,’ ‘Fun,’ ‘Real-Time Communication,’ and ‘Reliable & Honest.’ Each of these themes was interrelated with some of other themes, and most of them either positively or negatively related to consumers’ evaluation of WIA. Various WIA formats emerged in addition to traditionally recognized formats such as banners and pop-ups. Two formats, ‘Customer review’ and ‘News stories about products,’ appeared frequently. The relationship between themes and WIA formats was also examined; in fact, each theme emerged with certain WIA formats. For example, ‘Intrusive’ was mentioned with traditional WIA formats such as banners and pop-ups, while ‘Relevant’ frequently emerged with corporate Websites and customer reviews. This study found that consumers are very active when using the Web. Any forced-exposure or forced-viewing was actively avoided. With the benefit of taking consumers’ perspectives, some valuable insights were also captured. For example, highly informative and interactive Web content about products usually had a positive influence on preference for WIA (this also usually translated to positive attitude toward the site or banners); however, the preferable amount of information and preferable level of interactivity varied by consumers. The study produced some valuable implications for a variety of stakeholders. Researchers can take full advantage of the findings in helping their theory building, and marketing professionals can apply the consumers’ voices to their strategic planning for interactive marketing. College teachers can integrate the findings into their Internet advertising classes as they develop consumer-based modules in these newly popular classes

Linear and non-linear navigations of learning content

This paper reports a study concerning linear and non-linear navigations in WBI.The effects of the two navigations on students’ engagement aspects namely; control, focus, curiosity, and intrinsic interests were investigated. The study aimed to identify whether the linear and the non-linear navigations could be the factors that influence students’ engagement while learning in WBI environment.An exploratory experimental study was conducted on seventy-two students from a university in Malaysia using a web-based system for learning Basic Computer Networks.The study suggested that the types of navigations had affected the control aspect, but not the focus, curiosity, and intrinsic interests.Students’ engagement from the context of focus, intrinsic interests and curiosity was similar in both linear and non-linear.These findings are further discussed from cultural perspectives of Malaysian students

Developing an ePortfolio as a Capstone Experience for Graduate Studies in Information Science: A Process-to-Product Model and its Implementation

As the world is rapidly changing into a knowledge and information society, it is important for higher education to prepare graduates for successful careers and life in facing the 21st century challenges. Lifelong learning is one of the much-needed skills. Since the turn of the century, pioneers have sought theories, pedagogies, and best practices to innovate education. ePortfolio has been proposed as a learner-centered approach to teaching, learning and assessment. Adopting ePortfolio is more than just an innovation in teaching, educators are transforming education from a positivistic paradigm built on behavior theory to a post-modern paradigm or multi-paradigmatic approach. What is ePortfolio? The notion is open for interpretation in various contexts from a collection of works to showcase a learner\u27s outcome according to standards to a capstone product that integrates learning outcomes across the curriculum and demonstrates professional promise. This paper presents a conceptual model and its implementations of a graduate-level capstone ePortfolio program as a degree requirement. The model conceptualizes ePortfolio as a process leading to product (eP-pro): 1. During the process, the learner: • works closely with an advisor to plan a personalized curriculum with the focus on learning outcomes to support the student’s career goal • self-assesses progress by accomplishing milestones • collects learning artifacts and reflects on them 2. As a final product, the learner • presents selected artifacts to showcase how the learner applied knowledge and what skills the learner mastered • reflects on learning experiences and achievement to project beyond graduation • delivers the ePortfolio on the Web To engage learners and foster self-regulated learning, the process is monitored by four milestones (A figure will be included in the paper): 1. learning goals and action plans 2. ePortfolio prototype (site architecture and navigation plus one artifact) 3. ePortfolio 4. ePortfolio defense To ensure high quality presentational ePortfolios across all learners, the presentational ePortfolio includes five sections: reflection, knowledge, artifacts, competences and projection. The sections are interrelated. For example, in reflection the learner highlights achievements in connection with learning goals and in projection the learner looks forward to the future in the chosen career path. The three sections knowledge, artifacts and competences are related in that the learner articulates selected concepts (or theories) and how they were applied to produce the artifacts, and how these artifacts demonstrate the skills (competences); further, learners make references (hyperlinks) between specific concepts and their artifacts, and between specific artifacts and their competences. Matrices are used to map learning goals with actions and to integrate and show the relationships among the knowledge, artifacts, and competences (K-A-C). The K-A-C matrix, which is displayed graphically as a table, visually demonstrates how artifacts are built upon specific knowledge concepts as well as the skills needed to produce artifacts. Ongoing action research is conducted every semester after all ePortfolios have been defended to understand the experiences of ePortfolio students and advisors and to solicit input and suggestions. The findings have been incorporated in order to improve the process and revise the guidelines

mHealth: opportunities and challenges for diabetes intervention research

Background: Traditionally, health intervention evaluations provide long-term evidence of efficacy and safety via validated protocols, following a positivist paradigm, or approach, to research. However, modern mobile health (mHealth) technologies develop too quickly and outside of medical regulation, making it challenging for health research to keep pace. Objective: This thesis explored and tested how research can incorporate mHealth approaches and resources to evaluate mHealth interventions comprehensively, which follows the pragmatism paradigm. The works described herein were part of a larger project that designed, developed, and tested a data-sharing system between patients and their healthcare providers (HCPs) during diabetes consultations. Methods: The pragmatism paradigm underpins the mixed-methods, multi-phase design approach to exploring this overall objective. The following methods were performed using a sequential exploratory strategy. First, co-design workshops invited individuals with diabetes and HCPs to design an mHealth data-sharing system. Next, a scoping literature review identified research practices for evaluating mHealth interventions to-date. Then, app usage-logs, collected from a previous longitudinal study, were analyzed to explore how much additional information they could provide about patients’ self-management. Finally, a mixed-method study was designed to test the feasibility of combining both traditional and mHealth approaches and resources to evaluate an intervention. Results: Using the pragmatist paradigm as a scaffolding, these works provide evidence of how research can provide more comprehensive knowledge about mHealth interventions for diabetes care and self-management. Nine individuals with diabetes and six HCPs participated in the co-design workshops. Feedback included how a data-sharing system should work between patients and providers. The literature review identified how both traditional and mHealth-based approaches (n=15 methods, n=21 measures) were used together to evaluate mHealth interventions. Usage-log analysis revealed that changes in Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) differed between groups organized by usage patterns and duration of use of mHealth. The mixed-method study demonstrated how to collect comprehensive and complementary information when combining traditional and mHealth-centered approaches and resources. Conclusion: Traditional positivist approaches and resources are not adequate, on their own, to comprehensively understand the impact of mHealth interventions. The presented studies demonstrate that it is both feasible and prudent to combine traditional research with mHealth approaches, such as analyzing usage-logs, arranging co-design workshops, and other patient-centered methods in a pragmatist approach to produce comprehensive evidence of mHealth’s impacts on both patients and HCPs