Multi-Relationship Evaluation Design (MRED): An Interactive Test Plan Designer for Advanced and Emerging Technologies

Ground-breaking technologies are developed for use across a broad range of domains such as manufacturing, military, homeland security and automotive industries. These advanced technologies often include intelligent systems or robotic elements. Evaluations are a critical step in the development of these advanced systems. Evaluation events inform the technology developers of specific needs for enhancement, capture end-user feedback, and verify the extent of the technology's functions. Test exercises are an opportunity to showcase the technology's current abilities and limitations and provide data for future test efforts. The objective of this research is to develop the Multi-Relationship Evaluation Design (MRED) methodology, an interactive test plan blueprint generator. MRED collects multiple inputs, processes them interactively with a test designer and outputs evaluation blueprints, specifying key test-plan characteristics. Drawing from the Systems Engineering Paradigm, MRED models a process that had not been modeled before. The MRED model is consistent with the experience of evaluation designers. This method also captures and handles stakeholder preferences so that they can be accommodated in a meaningful way. The result is the MRED methodology that combines practical evaluation design experience with mathematical methods proven in the literature

The effect of task based language teaching on improving the writing and speaking skills of Pakistani ESL learners

Studies in Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT) to improve writing and speaking skills of university undergraduates are very limited, particularly in Pakistani English Language Teaching (ELT) scenario. Pakistani learners face problems to communicate in English outside classrooms. This study endeavors to determine the effect of TBLT in improving writing and speaking skills of Pakistani undergraduates. The prime objective of the study is to enable the learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) to communicate fluently in English during real life situations. The quasi-experimental study was designed using a mixed method research paradigm. Research participants comprised 50 university undergraduates divided into an experimental and a control group. The study consisted of 12 weeks of TBLT treatment to the experimental group and the control group was taught by the existing teaching methodology in Pakistan. The pretest and the posttest were conducted to determine any linguistic achievement in terms of Second Language (L2) performance triad i.e. Complexity (capacity to use advanced L2 language), Accuracy (ability to produce error free L2) and Fluency (ability to produce fluent L2). For qualitative data, students from the experimental group wrote their views about TBLT treatment on Weekly Reflective Journals. Fifty ELT practitioners teaching at primary, secondary and tertiary levels responded to the questionnaire to investigate their views about introducing TBLT and existing Pakistani ELT. A Paired Samples T-test was administered to determine significant differences among the quantitative data. For qualitative data, a thematic analysis was used to examine themes in the Reflective Journals and in the responses from the teachers. The findings revealed that the experimental group performed better than the control group in L2 writing and speaking. The teachers were not satisfied with the existing ELT system and majority of the teachers did not know about TBLT. The study concluded that TBLT improved L2 writing and speaking skills. It was recommended to implement TBLT for better ESL pedagogy in Pakistan

Predicting Dementia Screening and Staging Scores From Semantic Verbal Fluency Performance

International audienc

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING THROUGH ORAL NARRATIVE IN A PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION CONTEXT: AN INQUIRY INTO RADIO DRAMA-BASED TRAINING AMONG ZAMBIAN CAREGIVERS OF ABUSED AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN

This research investigates instructional narrative interventions for transformative learning among high orality reliant peoples. Two research questions asked: “Does an oral strategy of radio drama in a participatory environment lead to significant changes in knowledge and beliefs,” with a hypothesis stating there would be significant positive changes; and “When listeners experience narrative transport can it affect receptivity leading to knowledge and belief change,” and the hypothesis stated that narrative transport would correlate to higher positive responses. The mixed methods design analyzed personal experiences and survey responses of treatment group and control groups. Quantitatively I assessed a treatment group using a matched pre/posttest survey related to learning goals and the Transportation Imagery Survey. The qualitative data was gathered in focus groups and personal interviews. The findings showed a significant change in treatment group in knowledge and beliefs (40%). The treatment group also scored 74% correct answers in contrast to the posttest only survey control group of 56%. The additional modified Transportation Imagery Survey (TMS) assessed the treatment group’s level of transport into the narrative (6.1/7) and a positive correlation (.65) to the change in answers for the posttest. The study presents relevant considerations for instructional communication designers and professionals serving higher orality reliant audiences and the power of participatory narrative instruction constructing healthier knowledge and beliefs

Reassessing the proper place of man and machine in translation: a pre-translation scenario

Traditionally, human--machine interaction to reach an improved machine translation (MT) output takes place ex-post and consists of correcting this output. In this work, we investigate other modes of intervention in the MT process. We propose a Pre-Edition protocol that involves: (a) the detection of MT translation difficulties; (b) the resolution of those difficulties by a human translator, who provides their translations (pre-translation); and (c) the integration of the obtained information prior to the automatic translation. This approach can meet individual interaction preferences of certain translators and can be particularly useful for production environments, where more control over output quality is needed. Early resolution of translation difficulties can prevent downstream errors, thus improving the final translation quality ``for free''. We show that translation difficulty can be reliably predicted for English for various source units. We demonstrate that the pre-translation information can be successfully exploited by an MT system and that the indirect effects are genuine, accounting for around 16% of the total improvement. We also provide a study of the human effort involved in the resolution process