A Multi-Agent Architecture for An Intelligent Web-Based Educational System

An intelligent educational system must constitute an adaptive system built on multi-agent system architecture. The multi-agent architecture component provides self-organization, self-direction, and other control functionalities that are crucially important for an educational system. On the other hand, the adaptiveness of the system is necessary to provide customization, diversification, and interactional functionalities. Therefore, an educational system architecture that integrates multi-agent functionality [50] with adaptiveness can offer the learner the required independent learning experience. An educational system architecture is a complex structure with an intricate hierarchal organization where the functional components of the system undergo sophisticated and unpredictable internal interactions to perform its function. Hence, the system architecture must constitute adaptive and autonomous agents differentiated according to their functions, called multi-agent systems (MASs). The research paper proposes an adaptive hierarchal multi-agent educational system (AHMAES) [51] as an alternative to the traditional education delivery method. The document explains the various architectural characteristics of an adaptive multi-agent educational system and critically analyzes the system’s factors for software quality attributes

Paradoxes of freedom. An archaeological analysis of educational online platform interfaces

Many schools and students across the globe are now engaging with educational digital platforms in their teaching and learning experience. Platforms are changing what education is and how it is experienced. In response, educational research has devoted increasing attention to the so-called platformisation of education. This article contributes to this focus of attention, proposing a conceptual framework for the analysis of the configuration of platforms and the kinds of learning experience and learners they create the conditions of possibility for. Using Foucauldian archaeological methods, we present an analytics that focuses on three interrelated axes, the spatial, temporal and ethical configurations of educational platforms. We identify some theoretical tools for the analysis of the educational experience that platforms make possible, thinkable and desirable. We show how digital platforms produce a paradoxical kind of digital learner, whose autonomy and freedom to choose, connect, produce, accumulate, perform and enact is configured within an epistemological space demarcated by the tensions between modularisation and hypertextuality, linearity and co-existence, performance and character/potential. Reflecting on this, we consider the working of a careful, unrelenting, and empirically vigilant digital gaze, which secures a very specific educational experience

Survey of Personalized Learning Software Systems: A Taxonomy of Environments, Learning Content, and User Models

This paper presents a comprehensive systematic review of personalized learning software systems. All the systems under review are designed to aid educational stakeholders by personalizing one or more facets of the learning process. This is achieved by exploring and analyzing the common architectural attributes among personalized learning software systems. A literature-driven taxonomy is recognized and built to categorize and analyze the reviewed literature. Relevant papers are filtered to produce a final set of full systems to be reviewed and analyzed. In this meta-review, a set of 72 selected personalized learning software systems have been reviewed and categorized based on the proposed personalized learning taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy outlines the three main architectural components of any personalized learning software system: learning environment, learner model, and content. It further defines the different realizations and attributions of each component. Surveyed systems have been analyzed under the proposed taxonomy according to their architectural components, usage, strengths, and weaknesses. Then, the role of these systems in the development of the field of personalized learning systems is discussed. This review sheds light on the field’s current challenges that need to be resolved in the upcoming years

The Immersive Education Laboratory: understanding affordances, structuring experiences, and creating constructivist, collaborative processes, in mixed-reality smart environments

In this paper we describe how the iClassroom and other technologies are providing the testbed through which we are able to design, develop, and research future intelligent environments. We describe the process of distinguishing between the technical and pedagogical aspects of immersive learning environments, while simultaneously considering both in the redefinition of effective intelligent learning spaces. This paper describes how our laboratory is working on specific projects that increase our understanding of the distinct advantages of technical design elements, like immersive visual displays, and pedagogical design elements that need to be in place as we go through the process of structuring learning situations that create constructivist, collaborative experiences. We describe specific technologies and their design across these multiple dimensions and the ways in which they are helping us better understand how to maximize technological affordances for increased positive learning outcomes. Finally, through this design research process, as we begin to better understand the affordances and iteratively create design guidelines, our hope is that eventually a prescriptive framework emerges that informs both the practice of embedded technology development and the deliberate incorporation of technical attributes into both the educational space and the pedagogy through which students learn

RIACS

The Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS) was established by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) on June 6, 1983. RIACS is privately operated by USRA, a consortium of universities that serves as a bridge between NASA and the academic community. Under a five-year co-operative agreement with NASA, research at RIACS is focused on areas that are strategically enabling to the Ames Research Center's role as NASA's Center of Excellence for Information Technology. The primary mission of RIACS is charted to carry out research and development in computer science. This work is devoted in the main to tasks that are strategically enabling with respect to NASA's bold mission in space exploration and aeronautics. There are three foci for this work: (1) Automated Reasoning. (2) Human-Centered Computing. and (3) High Performance Computing and Networking. RIACS has the additional goal of broadening the base of researcher in these areas of importance to the nation's space and aeronautics enterprises. Through its visiting scientist program, RIACS facilitates the participation of university-based researchers, including both faculty and students, in the research activities of NASA and RIACS. RIACS researchers work in close collaboration with NASA computer scientists on projects such as the Remote Agent Experiment on Deep Space One mission, and Super-Resolution Surface Modeling

Enabling Single-Pilot Operations technological and operative scenarios: a state-of-the-art review with possible cues

Both financial and operational reasons have been given emphasis to the implementation of Single-Pilot Operations in commercial aviation. SPO will involve replacing the first officer with integrated cockpit assistants and support ground stations. This review aims to provide an overview of SPO through a classification of the specific areas of interest. Enabling SPO will require designers to re-modulate the human-automation interface according to the new allocation of functions in the flight deck. However, while technological issues are expected to be overcome in the next future, major attention should be paid on the human factor side

Metareasoning for Planning and Execution in Autonomous Systems

Metareasoning is the process by which an autonomous system optimizes, specifically monitors and controls, its own planning and execution processes in order to operate more effectively in its environment. As autonomous systems rapidly grow in sophistication and autonomy, the need for metareasoning has become critical for efficient and reliable operation in noisy, stochastic, unstructured domains for long periods of time. This is due to the uncertainty over the limitations of their reasoning capabilities and the range of their potential circumstances. However, despite considerable progress in metareasoning as a whole over the last thirty years, work on metareasoning for planning relies on several assumptions that diminish its accuracy and practical utility in autonomous systems that operate in the real world while work on metareasoning for execution has not seen much attention yet. This dissertation therefore proposes more effective metareasoning for planning while expanding the scope of metareasoning to execution to improve the efficiency of planning and the reliability of execution in autonomous systems. In particular, we offer a two-pronged framework that introduces metareasoning for efficient planning and reliable execution in autonomous systems. We begin by proposing two forms of metareasoning for efficient planning: (1) a method that determines when to interrupt an anytime algorithm and act on the current solution by using online performance prediction and (2) a method that tunes the hyperparameters of the anytime algorithm at runtime by using deep reinforcement learning. We then propose two forms of metareasoning for reliable execution: (3) a method that recovers from exceptions that can be encountered during operation by using belief space planning and (4) a method that maintains and restores safety during operation by using probabilistic planning

East is Red - semi-generative audiovisual composition, composed instrument, part of the Audio Visual Live Composition System

East is Red is a non-linear, semi-generative audiovisual composition. A composition which aims to be fluid, organic and chaotic, yet existing within a predefined universe of audiovisual media elements, and where the fundamental essence of the composition lies in a dynamic relationship between chaos and order. East is Red is in addition a composed instrument; a “playable” composition to be used for real-time audiovisual performance, characterized by the relationship between a semi-autonomous compositional system and an external human influence. This work, both as an exploration of generative and algorithmic audiovisual composition and as a composed instrument for performance, is part of a larger project infrastructure called Audio Visual Live Composition System. Individual works, such as East is Red, are manifested through the use of this customizable infrastructure. Audio Visual Live Composition System reflects areas of personal artistic interest and represents a structure to be used for future projects and research into non- linear audiovisual expressions. The underlying compositional principles of non-linearity, fluidity and responsiveness are present in any project manifested through the use of Audio Visual Live Composition System; ranging from individual compositions and performances to installations

Broadening the Role of Occupational Therapists within the ICU Setting: An Occupation-Based Toolkit

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to create a quick intervention toolkit for occupational therapists treating clients in the intensive care unit (ICU) in order to increase occupation-based services, quality of care, and improve client outcomes. Additionally, this project hopes to enlighten occupational therapists who may experience burnout while providing services within such an intensive setting

‘IMPLICIT CREATION’ – NON-PROGRAMMER CONCEPTUAL MODELS FOR AUTHORING IN INTERACTIVE DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS) constitutes a research field that emerged from several areas of art, creation and computer science. It inquires technologies and possible artefacts that allow ‘highly-interactive’ experiences of digital worlds with compelling stories. However, the situation for story creators approaching ‘highly-interactive’ storytelling is complex. There is a gap between the available technology, which requires programming and prior knowledge in Artificial Intelligence, and established models of storytelling, which are too linear to have the potential to be highly interactive. This thesis reports on research that lays the ground for bridging this gap, leading to novel creation philosophies in future work. A design research process has been pursued, which centred on the suggestion of conceptual models, explaining a) process structures of interdisciplinary development, b) interactive story structures including the user of the interactive story system, and c) the positioning of human authors within semi-automated creative processes. By means of ‘implicit creation’, storytelling and modelling of simulated worlds are reconciled. The conceptual models are informed by exhaustive literature review in established neighbouring disciplines. These are a) creative principles in different storytelling domains, such as screenwriting, video game writing, role playing and improvisational theatre, b) narratological studies of story grammars and structures, and c) principles of designing interactive systems, in the areas of basic HCI design and models, discourse analysis in conversational systems, as well as game- and simulation design. In a case study of artefact building, the initial models have been put into practice, evaluated and extended. These artefacts are a) a conceived authoring tool (‘Scenejo’) for the creation of digital conversational stories, and b) the development of a serious game (‘The Killer Phrase Game’) as an application development. The study demonstrates how starting out from linear storytelling, iterative steps of ‘implicit creation’ can lead to more variability and interactivity in the designed interactive story. In the concrete case, the steps included abstraction of dialogues into conditional actions, and creating a dynamic world model of the conversation. This process and artefact can be used as a model illustrating non-programmer approaches to ‘implicit creation’ in a learning process. Research demonstrates that the field of Interactive Digital Storytelling still has to be further advanced until general creative principles can be fully established, which is a long-term endeavour, dependent upon environmental factors. It also requires further technological developments. The gap is not yet closed, but it can be better explained. The research results build groundwork for education of prospective authors. Concluding the thesis, IDS-specific creative principles have been proposed for evaluation in future work