Let's Set Up Some Subgoals: Understanding Human-Pedagogical Agent Collaborations and Their Implications for Learning and Prompt and Feedback Compliance

International audienceResearch on collaborative learning between humans and virtual pedagogical agents represents a necessary extension to recent research on the conceptual, theoretical, methodological, analytical, and educational issues behind co-and socially-shared regulated learning between humans. This study presents a novel coding framework that was developed and used to describe collaborations between learners and a pedagogical agent (PA) during a subgoal setting activity with MetaTutor, an intelligent tutoring system. Learner-PA interactions were examined across two scaffolding conditions: prompt and feedback (PF), and control. Learners' compliance to follow the PA's prompts and feedback in the PF condition were also examined. Results demonstrated that learners followed the PA's prompts and feedback to help them set more appropriate subgoals for their learning session the majority of the time. Descriptive statistics revealed that when subgoals were set collaboratively between learners and the PA, they generally lead to higher proportional learning gains when compared to less collaboratively set goals. Taken together, the results provide preliminary evidence that learners are both willing to engage in and benefit from collaborative interactions with PAs when immediate, directional feedback and the opportunity to try again are provided. Implications and future directions for extending co-and socially-shared regulated learning theories to include learner-PA interactions are proposed

Implementation and validation of a stride length estimation algorithm, using a single basic inertial sensor on healthy subjects and patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease

As low cost and highly portable sensors, inertial measurements units (IMU) have become increasingly used in gait analysis, embodying an efficient alternative to motion capture systems. Meanwhile, being able to compute reliably accurate spatial gait parameters using few sensors remains a relatively complex problematic. Providing a clinical oriented solution, our study presents a gyrometer and accelerometer based algorithm for stride length estimation. Compared to most of the numerous existing works where only an averaged stride length is computed from several IMU, or where the use of the magnetometer is incompatible with everyday use, our challenge here has been to extract each individual stride length in an easy-to-use algorithm requiring only one inertial sensor attached to the subject shank. Our results were validated on healthy subjects and patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease (PD). Estimated stride lengths were compared to GAITRite© walkway system data: the mean error over all the strides was less than 6% for healthy group and 10.3% for PD group. This method provides a reliable portable solution for monitoring the instantaneous stride length and opens the way to promising applications

Le contrôleur du robot BIP2000

L'INRIA Rhône-Alpes et le Laboratoire de Mécanique des Solides de l'Université de Poitiers ont développé dans le cadre d'un projet commun, un robot anthropom- orphe à quinze degrés de liberté capable de marcher dynamiquement ainsi que de gravir des escaliers. Deux prototypes ont été conçus et réalisés par le LMS. L'INRIA avait la responsabilité de la réalisation de l'armoire de commande et des câblages, ainsi que du développement d'un contrôleur pour le robot. Ce rapport présente la partie logicielle du contrôleur qui a été programmé et mis en oeuvre sur la base de l'environnement temps-réel Orccad. Ce contrôleur a été utilisé dans le cadre d'expérimentations de marche statiquement stable dans le plan et de mouvements posturaux 3D statiquement stables. Ces résultats ont été présentés lors de l'Exposition Universelle de Hanovre 2000 et ont fait l'objet de plusieurs publications. Ce document fait suite au Rapport Technique 0243 qui présente les détails liés à l'armoire de commande et au câblage du robot

A Wearable Sensor Network for Gait Analysis: A 6-Day Experiment of Running Through the Desert

International audienceThis paper presents a new system for analysis of walking and running gaits. The system is based on a network of wireless nodes with various types of embedded sensors. It has been designed to allow long-term recording in outdoor environments and was tested during the 2010 "Sultan Marathon des Sables" desert race. A runner was fitted with the sensory network for six days of the competition. Although technical problems have limited the amount of data recorded, the experiment was nevertheless suc- cessful: the system did not interfere with the runner, who finished with a high ranking, the concept was validated and high quality data were ac- quired. It should be noted that the loss of some of the measurements was mainly due to problems with the cable connectors between the nodes and batteries. In this paper, we describe the technical aspects of the system developed, the experimental conditions under which it was validated, and give examples of the data obtained with some preliminary processing

Apresentação do Dossiê “Ciências Sociais e Educação"

Nossa intenção, ao projetarmos o dossiê "Ciências sociais e educação", foi dupla: a)estimular a reflexão teórica sobre a contribuição das Ciências Sociais para a análise do processo educacional; b) abrir espaço para textos que tornem plenamente visível a dimensão social do processo educacional

Comparison of Survival Patterns of Northern and Southern Genotypes of the North American Tick \u3cem\u3eIxodes scapularis\u3c/em\u3e (Acari: Ixodidae) under Northern and Southern Conditions

Background: Several investigators have reported genetic differences between northern and southern populations of Ixodes scapularis in North America, as well as differences in patterns of disease transmission. Ecological and behavioral correlates of these genetic differences, which might have implications for disease transmission, have not been reported. We compared survival of northern with that of southern genotypes under both northern and southern environmental conditions in laboratory trials. Methods: Subadult I. scapularis from laboratory colonies that originated from adults collected from deer from several sites in the northeastern, north central, and southern U.S. were exposed to controlled conditions in environmental chambers. Northern and southern genotypes were exposed to light:dark and temperature conditions of northern and southern sites with controlled relative humidities, and mortality through time was recorded. Results: Ticks from different geographical locations differed in survival patterns, with larvae from Wisconsin surviving longer than larvae from Massachusetts, South Carolina or Georgia, when held under the same conditions. In another experiment, larvae from Florida survived longer than larvae from Michigan. Therefore, survival patterns of regional genotypes did not follow a simple north–south gradient. The most consistent result was that larvae from all locations generally survived longer under northern conditions than under southern conditions. Conclusions: Our results suggest that conditions in southern North America are less hospitable than in the north to populations of I. scapularis. Southern conditions might have resulted in ecological or behavioral adaptations that contribute to the relative rarity of I. scapularis borne diseases, such as Lyme borreliosis, in the southern compared to the northern United States

Uso de planilhas eletrônicas para a aprendizagem de estatística

Resumo: Neste texto pretende-se relatar a experiência de um minicurso em que conteúdos de Estatística são tratados com auxílio de planilhas eletrônicas, com foco na desmistificação da estatística básica e adaptação desse conteúdo para tomada de decisões. Buscou-se usar as planilhas eletrônicas como ferramenta para trabalhar conceitos estatísticos e ao mesmo tempo desenvolver o pensamento estatístico. O uso das planilhas para o cálculo das estimativas possibilitou ofertar a alunos de nível médio tópicos de estatística com uma profundidade que só é abordada em nível de graduação. A participação no minicurso foi considerada satisfatória pelos envolvidos, que julgaram ter aprendido os conteúdos e serem capaz de aplicá-los no dia-a-dia e estarem aptos para desenvolver projetos de iniciação científica. Devido aos resultados, pode-se propor um projeto de extensão não só para testar a metodologia a alunos das séries finais do Ensino Fundamental e Ensino Médio como também para a capacitação de professores de Educação Básica. Palavras-chave: Integração; Formulação de hipóteses; Educação Estatística. Use of electronic schedules for statistical learning Abstract: This paper intends to report the experience of a mini-course in which Statistics contents are treated with the help of electronic spreadsheets, focusing on the demystification of basic statistics and adapting this content for decision making. The use of the spreadsheets for the calculation of the estimates made it possible to offer to students of intermediate level topics of statistics with a depth that is only approached at graduation level. Participation in the mini-course was considered satisfactory by those involved, who thought they had learned the contents and were able to apply them on a daily basis and to be able to develop scientific initiation projects. Due to the results, it is possible to propose an extension project not oinly to test the methodology for School and High School as well as for the qualification of teachers of Basic Education. Keywords: Integration; Hypothesis formulation; Statistical Education

Estudo de caso no contexto da Engenharia de Software: SGCOPEX / Case study in the context of Software Engineering: SGCOPEX

No contexto deste artigo, os métodos da engenharia de software foram o framework para o desenvolvimento de um protótipo de sistema web responsável pelo gerenciamento das atividades de Pesquisa e Extensão em um Instituto Federal. Para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa foi usado o modelo de processo incremental. O produto foi colocado on-line em em versão Alfa e validado pelo especialista do domínio quanto aos requisitos e pelo usuário gestor quanto a usabilidade e eficácia, sua adoção em nível institucional poderá ampliar a capacidade gerencial da atividade de pesquisa e extensão da instituição alvo