Teaching AJAX in Web-centric Courses

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) is a web development technique for building responsive web applications behaving in a similar fashion to traditional desktop applications. This poster illustrates ideas for teaching the AJAX technique in web-centric courses based on the experience of implementing these ideas at London Metropolitan University and provides links to resources appropriate for use in laboratorial work

Community Day

The subject of my thesis is a recent event in the community in which I live. Visual investigation consists of drawings, paintings and mixed-media prints and collages that serve as parodies of the event. An accompanying booklet includes the initial drawings of people who live and work in the neighborhood and a fictional account derived from my knowledge of the event which occurred as follows: A new tenant on the corner began using the rental house for prostitution and drug dealing in 2005. In August of 2006, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the house and almost burned it down. On the same day, a church down the street was celebrating "Community Day" and advertised the event with a hand-painted, wooden sign on the corner. The sign consisted of two sheets of plywood 30" x 48" hinged at the top, along with three small, floating balloons attached by strings

Delivering targeted library resources into a Blackboard framework

Book chapter describing how the UNCG University Libraries have adapted the Blackboard course management system to allow the delivery of course-targeted library resources directly from the Blackboard interface

Classifying Web 2.0 Supported Applications By Pattern Of Usage: Functional & Technical ISSUES

The rapid evolution of Internet technologies have witnessed new Web elements, such as blogs, wikis, social networking, social bookmarking, and other related applications referred to as Web 2.0. Web 1.0 paradigm was related with passive, just receptive users, whereas Web 2.0 paradigm relies mainly on user participation and user-generated content. In Web 2.0 applications users are invited to comment, share, edit, classify, as well as remix data from multiple sources. Although there are several Web 2.0 applications in the market there is still lack of a profound approach guiding the analysis, design and development of such applications. This paper suggests classifying Web 2.0 tools by “Pattern of Usage” or in other words the functionalities that characterize their specific features. By reviewing several literatures we extracted multiple attributes related to functionalities of Web 2.0 tools. These have been crystallised into 7 patterns of usage that include; Inter-connectivity, Content authoring, Content tagging & rating, Content aggregation & syndication, Content remixing, Content streaming and File sharing. By interlinking functionality/ usage with underlying technologies, techniques and architecture we provided insight into design and technical requirements for Web 2.0 supported applications. Furthermore we broke down the patterns into basic, elementary to include Inter-connectivity, File sharing and Content remixing, and secondary, supportive to include the other four patterns. This would provide the technical core for any development methodology targeted at Web 2.0 applications

New concepts integration on e-learning platforms

The learning experience has evolved into the virtual world of the Internet, where learners have the possibility to shift from face-to-face learning environments to virtual learning environments supported by technologies. This concept, called e-learning, emerged in the early 1960s where a group of researchers from the Stanford University, USA began experimenting different ways to publish and assign learning content using a computer. These experiments were the beginning that led to the creation of countless learning platforms, initially constructed in standalone environments and later ported to the Internet as Webbased learning platforms. As initial objectives, these learning platforms include a collection of features to support instructors and learners in the learning process. However, some of these platforms continued to be based on an old instructor-centered learning model and created a collection of outdated technologies that, given the current need to a learner-center learning model and the existence of Web 2.0 technologies, become inadequate. As a solution to address and overcome these challenges, a friendly user interface and a correct root incorporation of Web 2.0 services a platform designed to focus the learning experience and environment personalization into the learner is needed to propose. In an operating system (OS) context the graphic user interface (GUI) is guided by a collection of approaches that details how human beings should interact with computers. These are the key ideas to customize, install, and organize virtual desktops. The combination of desktop concepts into a learning platform can be an asset to reduce the learning curve necessary to know how to use the system and also to create a group of flexible learning services. However, due to limitations in hypertext transfer protocol-hypertext markup language (HTTP-HTML) traditional solutions, to shift traditional technologies to a collection of rich Internet application (RIA) technologies and personal learning environments (PLEs) concepts is needed, in order to construct a desktop-like learning platform. RIA technologies will allow the design of powerful Web solutions containing many of the characteristics of desktop-like applications. Additionally, personal learning environments (PLEs) will help learners to manage learning contents. In this dissertation the personal learning environment box (PLEBOX) is presented. The PLEBOX platform is a customizable, desktop-like platform similar to the available operating systems, based on personal learning environments concepts and rich Internet applications technologies that provide a better learning environment for users. PLEBOX developers have a set of tools that allow the creation of learning and management modules that can be installed on the platform. These tools are management learning components and interfaces built as APIs, services, and objects of the software development kit (SDK). A group of prototype modules were build for evaluation of learning and management services, APIs, and SDKs. Furthermore, three case studies were created in order to evaluate and demonstrate the learning service usage in external environments. The PLEBOX deployment and corresponding features confirms that this platform can be seen as a very promising e-learning platform. Exhaustive experiments were driven with success and it is ready for use.A experiência de aprendizagem baseada em tecnologias evoluiu para o mundo virtual da Internet, onde os alunos têm a possibilidade de mudar uma aprendizagem presencial em sala de aula para uma aprendizagem baseada em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem suportados por tecnologias. O conceito de e-learning surgiu nos anos sessenta (1960) quando um grupo de investigadores da Universidade de Standford, nos Estados Unidos, começaram a experimentar diferentes formas de publicar e atribuir conteúdos de aprendizagem através do computador. Estas experiências marcaram o começo que levou à criação de inúmeras plataformas de aprendizagem, inicialmente construídas em ambientes isolados e depois migradas para a Internet como plataformas de aprendizagem baseadas na Web. Como objectivos inicias, estas plataformas de aprendizagem incluem um conjunto de recursos para apoiar professores e alunos no processo de aprendizagem. No entanto, algumas destas plataformas continuam a ser baseadas em velhos modelos de aprendizagem centrados no professor, criadas com base em tecnologias ultrapassadas que, dadas as necessidades actuais de um modelo de aprendizagem centrado no aluno e da existência de tecnologias baseadas na Web 2.0, se tornaram inadequadas. Como abordagem para enfrentar e superar estes desafios propõem-se uma plataforma focada na personalização do ambiente de aprendizagem do aluno, composta por uma interface amigável e uma correcta incorporação de raiz de serviços da Web 2.0. No contexto dos sistemas operativos (SOs) o graphic user interface (GUI) é desenhado tendo em conta um conjunto de abordagens que detalha como as pessoas devem interagir com os computadores. Estas são as ideias chave para personalizar, instalar e organizar áreas de trabalho virtuais. A combinação do conceito desktop com uma plataforma de aprendizagem pode ser um trunfo para reduzir a curva de aprendizagem necessária para saber como utilizar o sistema e também para criar um grupo de serviços flexíveis de aprendizagem. No entanto, devido as limitações em soluções tradicionais hypertext transfer protocol - hypertext markup language (HTTP - HTML), é necessário migrar estas tecnologias para um grupo de tecnologias rich Internet application (RIA) e conceitos presentes em ambientes personalizados de aprendizagem (personal learning environment - PLE) para construir uma plataforma baseada em ambientes de trabalho virtuais de aprendizagem. As tecnologias RIA irão permitir a criação de soluções Web poderosas que contêm muitas das características disponíveis em aplicações desktop. Adicionalmente, o conceitos de PLE irá ajudar os alunos a gerir os seus próprios conteúdos de aprendizagem. Nesta dissertação, com base nas características apresentadas anteriormente, é apresentada a personal learning environment box (PLEBOX). A plataforma PLEBOX é uma solução de aprendizagem parametrizável com um ambiente de trabalho semelhante aos sistemas operativos actuais, baseando-se em personal learning environments e tecnologias RIA que fornecem um melhor ambiente de aprendizagem para os seus utilizadores. Os programadores da PLEBOX têm ao seu dispor um conjunto de ferramentas que permitem a criação de módulos de aprendizagem e administração que podem ser instalados na plataforma. Estas ferramentas são componentes de aprendizagem e interfaces construídos como APIs, serviços e objectos do software development kit (SDK). Foi construído um conjunto de módulos com o objectivo de avaliar e demonstrar os serviços de aprendizagem, os serviços de gestão, APIs e SDKs. Para além disso, foram criados três casos de estudo para avaliar e demonstrar a utilização dos serviços de aprendizagem em ambientes externos. O desenvolvimento efectuado até ao momento na PLEBOX e respectivos recursos confirma que esta plataforma pode ser vista com uma promissora plataforma de aprendizagem (e-learning), totalmente modular e adaptativa. Realizaram-se experiências exaustivas para testar a plataforma e estas foram realizadas com sucesso num ambiente real, estando assim a plataforma pronta para exploração real

SCU Evals

Evaluating professors and classes is a common task at universities across the United States. It helps professors improve courses, and guides students when choosing classes tailored to their learning style. The current available evaluation platforms do not offer intuitive, up-to-date, and encouraging solutions to this problem; thus, SCU Evals was launched. Our platform has a production-ready foundation with a significant amount of optimized features to maximize the user experience. Furthermore, it utilizes the latest technologies, and the project is fully open source to increase its overall lifetime. The end goal is to provide a platform that would improve the academic environment at Santa Clara University, satisfying the needs of students and professors alike. After launching the platform, feedback was collected to iterate on the design and functionality to better suit the needs of our users. Once the changes were implemented, the platform was successfully relaunched with strong positive feedback. The volume of evaluations is still relatively small, but the platform is actively growing and continuously becoming more useful as data is collected. We believe further improvements to the platform are not necessary to achieve success, but it could help our users in various ways. Some of the suggested features include the ability for faculty to interact with students and an integration with the SCU registrar, if possible

Implementing a Decision-Aware System for Loan Contracting Decision Process

The paper introduces our work related to the design and implementation of a decision-aware system focused on the loan contracting decision process. A decision-aware system is a software that enables the user to make a decision in a simulated environment and logs all the actions of the decision maker while interacting with the software. By using a mining algorithm on the logs, it creates a model of the decision process and presents it to the user. The main design issue introduced in the paper is the possibility to log the mental actions of the user. The main implementation issues are: user activity logging programming and technologies used. The first section of the paper introduces the state-of-the-art research in process mining and the framework of our research; the second section argues the design of the system; the third section introduces the actual implementation and the fourth section shows a running example.Decision-Aware Systems, Decision Activity Logs, Decision Mining, Codeigniter, JSON

Language-Critical Enterprise and Software Engineering

With service-oriented architectures and the process-centric development of application systems, we are experiencing the beginning of a reorientation in how information technology is used in the global economy as well as in our private lives. Language-critical Organization Theory has thus become a discipline in research and teaching. Because of the global nature of these endeavors, it is important to look for a common basis for possible cooperation partners in this field. The necessary efforts are enormous and can only be managed successfully by working together. Looking at how the philosophy of science has developed throughout the twentieth century seems to imply that a) the primarily American analytic philosophy of science paired with b) the methodical constructivism of predominantly German origin (Erlangen and Constance) could form this common basis. In this paper, both philosophies, well-grounded in the works of Wittgenstein (1889-1951) and Frege (1848-1925), will form the foundation (Lorenzen, 1994) substantiating practical development in the field of e.g. service-oriented architecture. The common foundation will also disclose what people must be able to do or, respectively, what they must know (understand) if they want to work successfully in the IT-industry in the future

Controlling Curriculum Redesign with a Process Improvement Model

A portion of the curriculum for a Management Information Systems degree was redesigned to enhance the experiential learning of students by focusing it on a three-semester community-based system development project. The entire curriculum was then redesigned to have a project-centric focus with each course in the curriculum contributing to the success of students’ learning experiences. Implementation of this new design involved an evolutional enhancement from an existing traditional curriculum with modifications proceeding in stages over a four-year period. Early on, it was recognized that the curriculum redesign was progressing through a series of stages similar to that encountered in software engineering processes. As a result, the general guidelines and framework developed for continuous improvement in software engineering: the Capability Maturity Model were adopted and modified for guiding the curriculum redesign. This paper presents a description of the authors’ experiences in implementing a curriculum redesign from one based on a traditional course-based design to a project-centric design using the Capability Maturity Model as a process improvement tool. Our successful experience with using this tool suggests a need for the development of a specialized process improvement tool for future use on similar curriculum redesign