Ajax Based Exam Engine with Tagging System to Improve Learning

In this paper, we propose exam engine software with tagging system to help students’ study. With this tagging system, they can analyze their subject learning through exam they have done from time to time. When the students see their reports, the students will decide which subjects are low in grade and should be re-studied. We use AJAX technology to enrich the user experience of this exam engine. After we test all feature with unit testing, this exam engine is proven to runs well and do benefits for students

Development of User Interface for the Management Server of Html5 Based Mobile Agent Framework

The emergence of World Wide Web as a widely used content-sharing environment and a rich software platform has revolutionized the life style of people across the globe. The Web is an archetypal commodity used by millions of people on daily basis, for a variety of online services that range from photos, music, videos, and online games to online shopping, online banking, e-marketing, e-communication, online business, etc. A web browser is the most frequently used application to access the above-mentioned services. The appearance of HTML5 has enabled more and more applications to run in the web browsers. Latest research in the field of Web and computer networks has given a rapid upsurge in the usage of web-based services for data storage and information exchange. This has resulted in challenges to develop efficient web-based systems, which can handle huge amount of information flow. One of the solutions to these challenges is mobile agents. A mobile agent is a software program that is able to migrate from one host to another to continue its execution. This thesis presents the development of a User Interface for the management server of an HTML5-based mobile agent platform. This platform was developed in 2012 at Tampere University of Technology and its second iteration was completed in 2013 at the same campus. The management server of the framework was without a user interface and could to be managed only from the command line. In this thesis, a web-browser based User Interface for the management server of the framework is developed. The management server exposes a Web API to manage the mobile agents and the agent servers through an HTTP interface. So, the API is leveraged by using JavaScript to make Ajax calls

Web 2.0 User Experience: Social Media and Ajax Technology

Web 2.0 -termi on yhteinen nimitys Internetin uusille tekniikoille, liiketoimintamalleille sekä sosiaalisille trendeille. Tämä tutkimus keskittyy sosiaaliseen mediaan, jolle on tyypillistä käyttäjien osallistuminen palvelujen sisällöntuotantoon sekä sosiaalisen verkostoitumisen tukeminen esimerkiksi yhteisöpalvelu Facebookin välityksellä. Tutkimuksen toisena kohteena on Ajax-tekniikka, joka mahdollistaa rikkaan käyttökokemuksen esimerkiksi antamalla käyttäjän raahata käyttöliittymän elementtejä. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää miten käyttäjät kokevat Web 2.0 -ominaisuudet. Käyttökokemus koostuu paljon muustakin kuin käytettävyydestä, kuten käyttäjän tarpeista ja odotuksista sekä käytetyn palvelun käyttötarkoituksesta. Tutkimuksen kohteena ovat sekä sosiaalisen median että Ajaxin tarjoamat mahdollisuudet kuten myös niiden aiheuttamat käytettävyysongelmat. Lisäksi tarkoituksena on selvittää käyttäjien tyypillisiä käyttötapoja ja käyttäjäryhmien eroja. Johtopäätösten perusteella selvitään, mitä kaikkea pitäisi ottaa huomioon hyödynnettäessä Web 2.0 -ominaisuuksia verkkopalveluissa. Valitut tutkimusmenetelmät perustuvat Adage Usabilityn käytettävyyden tutkimusprosessiin, joka on yhdistelmä käytettävyyden asiantuntija-arvioinnista, käytettävyystestistä, haastattelusta ja kyselystä. Tutkimus toteutettiin todellisten verkonkäyttäjien kanssa, ja käyttäjät koostuivat nuorista, aktiivisista käyttäjistä sekä vanhemmista, passiivisista käyttäjistä. Testatut sovellukset koostuivat tyypillisistä Web 2.0 -sovelluksista: Google Maps, Wikipedia, Blogger, Google-syötteenlukija ja Facebook. Tutkimustulosten mukaan Web 2.0 -sovellukset ovat melko helppoja ja miellyttäviä käyttää, vaikka niiden käytön opettelu saattaakin olla aikaavievää. Käyttäjät hyödyntävät muiden tuottamaa sisältöä varsin aktiivisesti, mutta sisällön tuottamisen kynnys on suuri. Käyttäjiä on kannustettu liian vähän osallistumaan, mikä näkyy esimerkiksi vaikeakäyttöisissä käyttöliittymissä sekä annetun tunnustuksen puutteena. Yhteisöpalvelut tarjoavat monia hyödyllisiä ominaisuuksia, kuten uusia yhteydenpitovälineitä, mutta myös haittapuolia, kuten yksityisyyden puutteen. Nuorten ja vanhojen käyttäjien välinen ero on melko suuri. Vanhemmilta käyttäjiltä puuttuvat usein aiemmat tiedot sekä kokeilunhalu, minkä lisäksi heillä on erilaiset vaatimukset ja käyttötottumukset. Käyttäjiltä löytyy tarpeita ja mielenkiintoa palveluita kohtaan, mutta usein ongelmana ovat puutteelliset tiedot olemassa olevista palveluista. Ajax-ominaisuudet ovat varsin hyödyllisiä, mutta niiden huono löydettävyys asettaa oman haasteensa suunnittelulle. Ajaxin ja sosiaalisen median käytön suhteen tuleekin olla varovainen, koska ne eivät sovi kaikkiin ympäristöihin.The term Web 2.0 is a joint name for new technologies, business strategies, and social trends in the web. This study concentrates on social media such as user participation in the web content creation and social networking such as using Facebook. Another focus is on Ajax technology, which enables a rich user experience e.g. by letting the user drag user interface elements. The study aims at finding out how users experience the Web 2.0 characteristics. User experience consists of much more than just usability, such as user's needs, expectations, and objectives. The focus of the study is on both social media and Ajax possibilities as well as on their usability. In addition, users' typical usage patterns and the differences between user groups are being studied. We also discuss what should be taken into consideration when exploiting Web 2.0 characteristics on web services. The study methodology is based on Adage Usability's usability research process, which is a combination of usability's expert evaluation, usability testing, interview, and inquiry. The study was carried out with genuine web users who consisted of younger active users and older passive users. The applications under review were typical Web 2.0 applications: Google Maps, Wikipedia, Blogger, Google Reader and Facebook. The results suggest that Web 2.0 applications are quite easy and pleasant to use even though it may take some time to learn to use them. Users seemed to exploit the content created by others quite actively, but the threshold for producing content is high. Users are not encouraged to participate due to difficult-to-use user interfaces and lack of recognition given to the users. Social networking offers many useful features such as new communication tools, but also unpleasant drawbacks such as lack of privacy. The difference between older and younger users is quite large. Older users often lack earlier knowledge and the will to try out new service features. In addition, they have different needs and usage habits. Users have needs and interest, but they may not have sufficient knowledge of the available services. Ajax features are quite useful, but their poor findability sets a challenge of its own for design. Hence Ajax and social media should be exploited with caution, because they do not fit in every environment

Konzeption und Entwicklung einer auf Smartphones optimierten mobilen Anwendung für kollaboratives Checklisten-Management

Durch die zunehmende Globalisierung gewinnt die sogenannte kooperative Wissensarbeit in hochentwickelten Ländern immer mehr an Bedeutung. In diesen Ländern steht nicht mehr die Produktion materieller Güter im Vordergrund, sondern der Erwerb und die Schaffung neuen Wissens in Bereichen wie z.B. Forschung und Entwicklung. Offensichtlich ist es im Interesse der Wirtschaft wie auch der Forschung, kooperative Wissensarbeit systematisch besser unterstützen zu können. Jedoch entstehen durch kooperative Wissensarbeit einige Probleme, für die ein hoher Kommunikations- und Koordinationsaufwand für die beteiligten Wissensarbeiter ein stellvertretendes Beispiel darstellt. Mit dem Ansatz des Checklisten-Managements soll überprüft werden, ob die Zusammenarbeit der Wissensarbeiter verbessert werden kann und dabei die Durchführung von wissensintensiven Prozessen besser unterstützt werden. Da die Präsenz der mobilen Endgeräte, insbesondere Smartphones, immer mehr an Bedeutung gewinnt, ist es vorteilhaft das Szenario des Checklisten-Managements anhand einer mobilen Anwendung abzudecken. Aufgrund dessen wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit eine auf Smartphones optimierte mobile Anwendung konzipiert und entwickelt, die der Optimierung des kollaborativen Checklisten-Managements dient

Performance improvement of user-generated data retrieval from the Web, based on adaptive intelligent methods

Кориснички генерисан садржај на веб форуму се много чешће додаје него што се брише или мења па се самим тим, циљање истог, приликом инкременталног претраживања, разликује у односу на класично претраживање страна веб сајта. Додавање новог садржаја на форуму може резултовати померањем већ постојећег садржаја на нове или постојеће стране. Инкрементално претраживање форума није тривијалан задатак, јер игнорисање начина на које је садржај презентован, дистрибуиран и сортиран може довести до преноса постова који су већ били индексирани у претходним циклусима претраживања. С друге стране постоји широк спектар форумских технологија које омогућавају различите навигационе путање ка својим најновијим постовима као и различите начине презентовања и сортирања истих. Један од главних резултата тезе је структурно вођени инкрементални претраживач форума (SInFo) који је специјализован за циљање најновијег садржаја приликом инкременталног претраживања коришћењем напредних оптимизационих техника и машинског учења. Главни циљ представљеног претраживача јесте избегавање већ индексираног садржаја у новим циклусима претраживања форума без обзира на његову технологију. Да би овај циљ могао бити испуњен, следеће карактеристике веб форума су искоришћене: (1) начин сортирања на индексним и дискусионим странама и (2) доступне навигационе путање између страна које тренутна веб форумска технологија нуди. С обзиром на то да приликом утврђивања типа сортирања битну улогу има датум креирања садражаја, детекција и нормализација истих није једноставан задатак. За овај задатак су коришћени модели машинског учења, јер генерисани датуми могу бити у различитим форматима и на различтим језицима. С друге стране, детекција навигационих путања се постиже интерпретацијом формата URL линкова и скенирањем страна на које они указују. Показано је да се коришћењем предложених метода и техника, приликом циљања страна са најновијим садржајем, минимизује број преузимања дуплираног садржаја и максимизује искоришћеност навигационе структуре и путања тренутне форум технологије. Експерименти су изведени на широком спектру већ постојећих популарних форумских технологија као и на индивидуалним stand-alone форумским технологијама. SInFo је показао високу прецизност и минималан број преноса дуплог садражаја у сваком новом циклусу претраживања. Већина дупликата на које је предложени претраживач наилазио је са страна које су морале бити посећене како би се исправно утврдила навигациона путања или пронашао одговарајући URL. Додатно, модели машинског учења, иако су комплексни постижу добре перформансе приликом претраживања и имају високу прецизност у детекцији и нормализацији датума, достижући F1-меру од 99%.User-generated content on Web forums is added much more often than it is deleted or changed, so its targeting during incremental crawling differs from the Web site pages crawling. Adding new content to a forum can result in moving existing content to new or existing pages. Incremental forum crawling is not a trivial task, because ignoring in which way the content is presented, distributed and sorted can lead to the transfer of posts that have already been indexed in the previous crawl cycles. On the other hand, there is a wide spectrum of forum technologies that allow different navigational paths to its latest posts, as well as different ways of presenting and sorting user generated content. This thesis presents Structure-driven Incremental Forum crawler (SInFo) that specializes in targeting the latest content in incremental forum crawling using advanced optimization techniques and machine learning. The main goal of the presented system is to avoid already indexed content in new crawling cycles regardless of its technology. In order to achieve this, the following Web Forum features have been used: (1) the sort method on the index and thread pages and (2) the available navigation paths between the pages that the current Web Forum technology offers. Since the date of content creation plays an important role in determining the type of sort, their detection and normalization is not a trivial task. Machine learning models were used for this task, because the generated dates can be in different formats and in different languages. On the other hand, the detection of navigational paths is achieved by interpreting the URL format and scanning the pages they target. It has been shown that using the proposed methods and techniques while targeting pages with the latest content can achieve a minimum number of duplicate content downloads and maximize the utilization of the navigational structure and paths of the current forum technology. The experiments were performed on a wide range of already existing popular forum technologies as well as on individual stand-alone forum technologies. SInFo has demonstrated high precision and a minimum number of duplicate content transfers in each new crawl cycle. Most of the duplicates that the proposed system encountered are from pages that had to be visited in order to correctly determine the navigational path or to find the appropriate URL. Additionally, machine learning models, although complex, achieved good performance while crawling and have high accuracy in date detection and normalization, reaching an F1-measure of 99%

Flow and Frustration – an assessment of the impact of software design on the usability of applications within a working environment

Many people spend a lot of their time on computers in work environments, and their usage of these is different from their usage in leisure environments. This study addresses how to make the interactions in this type of task work for the user and thereby enable the user to be more efficient and productive at work. The literature survey considers the dichotomy of flow – as defined by Csikszentmihalyi – and frustration (defined here in Chapter 2). Through a series of surveys and experiments, this study examines how people think and process information during work-type activities. This is crucial to understanding how the “flow” state can be achieved because it is a central thesis that this is where these human processes are working at their best. The initial survey uses a questionnaire about the experience of work and leisure by the participants. The aim is to understand and define the difference between these experiences. Following this, interviews are used to draw out some significant aspects of positive and negative experience of computer usage. These features are then verified in a second empirical study using a different data source, which enables a more comprehensive questionnaire to be produced aimed at providing more detailed data for analysis to understand the types of users and the circumstances in they have used computer systems. This provides some insights into the experience that users have, against some demographics, demonstrating that, broadly, the categorisations are appropriate This study then explores the frustration aspect (and, by contrast, how to avoid frustration) using two experimental studies. The first looks specifically at the design of a user interface and the impact that this has on the usage. The second examines the processing and achievement of tasks with varying levels of “built in” frustration-inducing elements, including impossible tasks. This experiment shows that tasks that are simple to specify but difficult to achieve build up levels of frustration that are carried into further tasks and cause users to be less productive, even for simpler-seeming tasks. My thesis provides strong evidence for the validity of the flow concept as defined by Csikszentmihalyi and that this can be contrasted with frustration in a predictive dichotomy. It indicates that the concept works within the field of computer system usage, and there is some indication that providing an IT environment that encourages flow will provide a far more productive working environment than one which inhibits flow. The flow-frustration dichotomy is identified as a valid and productive one for computer interaction design. By understanding the flow-frustration dichotomy designers can aim to ensure interfaces enable user tasks that flow naturally enabling them to be free from frustration and therefore more efficient and productive