User-centered development of a Virtual Research Environment to support collaborative research events

This paper discusses the user-centred development process within the Collaborative Research Events on the Web (CREW) project, funded under the JISC Virtual Research Environments (VRE) programme. After presenting the project, its aims and the functionality of the CREW VRE, we focus on the user engagement approach, grounded in the method of co-realisation. We describe the different research settings and requirements of our three embedded user groups and the respective activities conducted so far. Finally we elaborate on the main challenges of our user engagement approach and end with the project’s next steps

Repurposing learning objects: a sustainable alternative?

Recent experience shows that reusable learning objects, like the computer assisted learning programmes of the early 1990s, have so far failed to achieve expected levels of integration into educational practice. This is despite technical interoperability, cataloguing systems, high quality standards, targeted dissemination and professional development initiatives. Analysis of this problem suggests that conceptualization of the problem may be limiting the scope of solutions. This paper proposes a sustainable and participative approach to reuse that involves repurposing learning objects for different discipline areas. For some time now there has been a growing awareness that even the most accessible resources have failed to be widely adopted by the educational community and as a result have also failed to fulfil their considerable educational potential. (Campbell, 2003, p. 35

Report on the Third Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE3)

This report records and discusses the Third Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE3). The report includes a description of the keynote presentation of the workshop, which served as an overview of sustainable scientific software. It also summarizes a set of lightning talks in which speakers highlighted to-the-point lessons and challenges pertaining to sustaining scientific software. The final and main contribution of the report is a summary of the discussions, future steps, and future organization for a set of self-organized working groups on topics including developing pathways to funding scientific software; constructing useful common metrics for crediting software stakeholders; identifying principles for sustainable software engineering design; reaching out to research software organizations around the world; and building communities for software sustainability. For each group, we include a point of contact and a landing page that can be used by those who want to join that group's future activities. The main challenge left by the workshop is to see if the groups will execute these activities that they have scheduled, and how the WSSSPE community can encourage this to happen

Live Collaboration in App Development

Real-time collaborative editing systems are increasing in popularity, having moved from document editing software to the world of software development. Live collaboration (or real-time collaboration) refers to a synchronous cooperation mechanism, allowing for concurrent changes to be made to the same object by multiple individuals. In recent years, many traditional software development tools have started to incorporate live collaboration. The motivation behind this fast expansion comes from a series of specific use cases propelled even more by the current COVID-19 pandemic, which forces people to stay at home and work in a remote manner. This hinders the possibilities for cooperation between team members during the development of a software project. In this work, we address this problem in the context of the OutSystems low-code platform, and we aim to determine how collaborative features, including real-time collaboration, can be implemented in OutSystems tools to enhance its collaborative experience for users developing applications. In this context, collaboration is defined as the processes and actions that take place between people during software development projects with the OutSystems platform, when trying to execute their work tasks. To test the ideal experience for collaborative features, such as real-time collaboration, in the OutSystems ecosystem, we analyzed the current state of the art of the research done in the fields of CSCW (Computer-supported CooperativeWork) and UX (User Experience) and experimented with other industry standard software to analyze their collaborative features. Because features are made for people, we then moved to the end-users and interviewed several users of the OutSystems platform to understand their issues when cooperating with other people, and finally we generated a series of designs to try to address their issues. These designs were conceptualized and materialized into actual mockups that were part of several usability tests, done with OutSystems users, to realize their potential in enhancing the collaboration experience when using OutSystems.Os sistemas de edição colaborativa em tempo-real estão a ganhar popularidade, tendo transitado do mundo do software da edição de documentos para o mundo do desenvolvimento de software. O título do documento, "Live collaboration in app development", refere-se a mecanismos de colaboração síncrona, que permitem alterações concorrentes a um mesmo objecto por parte de vários intervenientes. Nos últimos anos, várias ferramentas tradicionais de desenvolvimento de software começaram a incorporar colaboração em tempo-real. Esta rápida expansão é motivada por vários casos de uso, que ganham uma maior relevância na atualidade devido à pandemia da COVID-19, em que muitas pessoas têm de trabalhar de forma remota a partir de casa. Esta situação dificulta as possibilidades de cooperação entre colegas de equipa num projeto de desenvolvimento de software. Este trabalho aborda estes problemas no contexto da plataforma de low-code da OutSystems e pretende-se determinar se e como certas funcionalidades colaborativas, como colaboração em tempo-real, podem ser implementadas na plataforma da OutSystems de forma a melhorar a experiência colaborativa para os seus utilizadores. Neste contexto, colaboração refere-se aos processos e ações que ocorrem entre as pessoas durante os projetos de desenvolvimento de software com a plataforma da OutSystems. Para definir e testar a experiência ideal destas funcionalidades colaborativas, como colaboração em tempo-real, no ecossistema OutSystems, analisámos o estado da arte atual da investigação feita nas áreas de CSCW (Computer-supported CooperativeWork) e UX (User Experience) e experimentámos outros programas disponíveis no mercado para analisar as suas funcionalidades colaborativas. Como o software é feito para pessoas, entrevistámos vários utilizadores da plataforma OutSystems para compreender os seus problemas ao cooperarem com outras pessoas no contexto OutSystems e conceptualizámos várias ideias para tentar resolver esses problemas. Essas ideias foram depois materializadas em protótipos reais que fizeram parte de vários testes de usabilidade para perceber o seu potencial em melhorar a experiência de colaboração em OutSystems

Building capacity in climate change policy analysis and negotiation: methods and technologies

Capacity building is often cited as the reason “we cannot just pour money into developing countries” and why so many development projects fail because their design does not address local conditions. It is therefore a key technical and political concept in international development. Some of the poorest countries in the world are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Their vulnerability is in part due to a lack of capacity to plan and anticipate the effects of climate change on crops, water resources, urban electricity demand etc. What capacities do these countries lack to deal with climate change? How will they cope? What steps can they take to reduce their vulnerability? This innovative and high-profile research project was part of a larger project (called C3D) and conducted with non-governmental organisations in Senegal, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The research involved several participatory workshops and a questionnaire to all three research centres