Mummy, why do I have diabetes? A tangible interface for educating children with type-1 diabetes

This paper presents the stakeholder centred design of an educational game for children, aged 3 to 8 years old, with type-1 diabetes. The novelty of the approach is the multi-stakeholder approach to design and evaluation (diabetes consultants, nurses, parents and children) and the creation of a tangible interface game for interactive learning of diabetes concepts for children aged 3-8

Tangible educational toys for children with type-1 diabetes

This paper presents the stakeholder centred design of an educational game for children, aged 3 to 8 years old, with type-1 diabetes. The novelty of the approach is the multi-stakeholder approach to design and evaluation (diabetes consultants, nurses, parents and children) and the creation of a tangible interface game for interactive learning of diabetes concepts for children aged 3-8

The future of digitally enabled health coaching : a proposed model

The epidemic of chronic diseases has started worrying health bodies. The costs of dealing with such a problem (time, money and personnel) are continuously increasing especially with an ageing population. This paper proposes a conceptual large scale digital health coaching intervention model that could be applied by any public health body to design, implement or rationalise digital health coaching solutions. The model aims to support the increase of patient empowerment and the decrease of costs by redistributing the available resources more efficiently across the whole eco-system with the use of Artificial Intelligence coaches. The model is not targeting the replacement of human presence by computers, but a coaching strategy that will enable, assist, promote interaction and help automate (where needed and possible) resource consuming processes

Evaluation of an innovative colon capsule endoscopy service in Scotland from the perspective of patients : mixed methods study

Background: Colonoscopy is the gold standard for lower gastrointestinal diagnostics. The procedure is invasive, and its demand is high, resulting in long waiting times. Colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) is a procedure that uses a video capsule to investigate the colon, meaning that it can be carried out in a person’s own home. This type of “hospital-at-home” service could potentially reduce costs and waiting times, and increase patient satisfaction. Little is currently understood, however, about how CCE is actually experienced and accepted by patients. Objective: The aim of this study was to capture and report patient experiences of the CCE technology (the capsule and associated belt and recorder) and of the new clinical pathway for the CCE service being rolled out as part of routine service in Scotland. Methods: This was a mixed methods service evaluation of patient experiences of a real-world, deployed, managed service for CCE in Scotland. Two hundred and nine patients provided feedback via a survey about their experiences of the CCE service. Eighteen of these patients took part in a further telephone interview to capture more in-depth lived experiences to understand the barriers and opportunities for the further adoption and scaling up of the CCE service in a way that supports the patient experience and journey. Results: Patients overall perceived the CCE service to be of significant value (eg, mentioning reduced travel times, reduced waiting times, and freedom to complete the procedure at home as perceived benefits). Our findings also highlighted the importance of clear and accessible information (eg, what to expect and how to undertake the bowel preparation) and the need for managing expectations of patients (eg, being clear about when results will be received and what happens if a further colonoscopy is required). Conclusions: The findings led to recommendations for future implementations of managed CCE services in National Health Service (NHS) Scotland that could also apply more widely (United Kingdom and beyond) and at a greater scale (with more patients in more contexts). These include promoting CCE with, for, and among clinical teams to ensure adoption and success; capturing and understanding reasons why patients do and do not opt for CCE; providing clear information in a variety of appropriate ways to patients (eg, around the importance of bowel preparation instructions); improving the bowel preparation (this is not specific to CCE alone); providing flexible options for issuing and returning the kit (eg, dropping off at a pharmacy); and embedding formative evaluation within the service itself (eg, capturing patient-reported experiences via surveys in the information pack when the equipment is returned)

Block-based syntax from context-free grammars

Block-based programming systems employ a jigsaw metaphor to write programs. They are popular in the domain of programming education (e.g., Scratch), but also used as a programming interface for end-users in other disciplines, such as arts, robotics, and configuration management. In particular, block-based environments promise a convenient interface for Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) for domain experts who might lack a traditional programming education. However, building a block-based environment for a DSL from scratch requires significant effort. This paper presents an approach to engineer block-based language interfaces by reusing existing language artifacts. We present Kogi, a tool for deriving block-based environments from context-free grammars. We identify and define the abstract structure for describing block-based environments. Kogi transforms a context-free grammar into this structure, which then generates a block-based environment based on Google Blockly. The approach is illustrated with four case studies, a DSL for state machines, Sonification Blocks (a DSL for sound synthesis), Pico (a simple programming language), and QL (a DSL for questionnaires). The results show that usable block-based environments can be derived from context-free grammars, and with an order of magnitude reduction in effort

Designing, developing and evaluating an age-appropriate digital educational tool for younger children with Type-1 Diabetes

Younger children (under 9 years old) with type-1 diabetes are often very passive in the management of their condition and can face difficulties in accessing basic information about their condition. This can make transitioning to self-management in later years very challenging. Previous research has mostly focused on educational interventions for older children who have literacy skills. In order to create an educational tool that can effectively support the education of younger children with diabetes and be feasible for adoption in the local context, we conducted a multiphase and multi-stakeholder human-centred design process.;The process entailed a review of the relevant literature, in-context qualitative enquiries for requirements gathering, an iterative design process with stakeholder participation, multiple prototyping and evaluation stages, development and a final large-scale evaluation. The result of this process is an interactive digital tool that illustrates diabetes concepts in an age-appropriate way with the use of tangible toys as input devices. The tool was evaluated in-context with children, parents and clinicians against the stakeholders' requirements.;The results showed the effectiveness of the tool in enabling clinicians to convey the educational message in a fun, age-appropriate and memorable way.The results also informed about the feasibility of the tool to be adopted in standard practice. This thesis illustrates in detail the aforementioned process and its results and also syntheses the findings in order to inform more generally the design and development of other educational tools for younger children with complex educational needs.Younger children (under 9 years old) with type-1 diabetes are often very passive in the management of their condition and can face difficulties in accessing basic information about their condition. This can make transitioning to self-management in later years very challenging. Previous research has mostly focused on educational interventions for older children who have literacy skills. In order to create an educational tool that can effectively support the education of younger children with diabetes and be feasible for adoption in the local context, we conducted a multiphase and multi-stakeholder human-centred design process.;The process entailed a review of the relevant literature, in-context qualitative enquiries for requirements gathering, an iterative design process with stakeholder participation, multiple prototyping and evaluation stages, development and a final large-scale evaluation. The result of this process is an interactive digital tool that illustrates diabetes concepts in an age-appropriate way with the use of tangible toys as input devices. The tool was evaluated in-context with children, parents and clinicians against the stakeholders' requirements.;The results showed the effectiveness of the tool in enabling clinicians to convey the educational message in a fun, age-appropriate and memorable way.The results also informed about the feasibility of the tool to be adopted in standard practice. This thesis illustrates in detail the aforementioned process and its results and also syntheses the findings in order to inform more generally the design and development of other educational tools for younger children with complex educational needs

Block-C: A block-based visual environment for supporting the teaching of C programming language to novices

Many barriers exist for novice programmers when confronted with the C programming language, such as its low level orientation, cryptic syntax and ambiguous compiler error messages. This paper presents the design and development of a block-based visual shell for the C programming language following the recognition over recall design pattern to eliminate syntax errors and enable the effective internalization of C programming language constructs. The evaluation studies provide evidence of the effectiveness of this shell, in tutorial/lab settings without the presence of human tutors

Block-C: A block-based visual environment for supporting the teaching of C programming language to novices

Summarization: Many barriers exist for novice programmers when confronted with the C programming language, such as its low level orientation, cryptic syntax and ambiguous compiler error messages. This paper presents the design and development of a block-based visual shell for the C programming language following the recognition over recall design pattern to eliminate syntax errors and enable the effective internalization of C programming language constructs. The evaluation studies provide evidence of the effectiveness of this shell, in tutorial/lab settings without the presence of human tutorsΠαρουσιάστηκε στο: 9th International Conference “New Horizons in Industry, Business and Education” (NHIBE 2015) 27-29 August 2015 Skiathos Island,Greece 201