Combining end-user recruitment methods for usability testing of eTriage Service

Peer reviewe

KP-LAB Knowledge Practices Laboratory -- Specification of end-user applications

deliverablesThe present deliverable provides a high-level view on the new specifications of end user applications defined in the WPII during the M37-M46 period of the KP-Lab project. This is the last in the series of four deliverables that cover all the tools developed in the project, the previous ones being D6.1, D6.4 and D6.6. This deliverable presents specifications for the new functionalities for supporting the dedicated research studies defined in the latest revision of the KP-Lab research strategy. The tools addressed are: the analytic tools (Data export, Time-line-based analyser, Visual analyser), Clipboard, Search, Versioning of uploadable content items, Visual Model Editor (VME) and Visual Modeling Language Editor (VMLE). The main part of the deliverable provides the summary of tool specifications and the description of the Knowledge Practices Environment architecture, as well as an overview of the revised technical design process, of the tools’ relationship with the research studies, and of the driving objectives and the high-level requirements relevant for the present specifications. The full specifications of tools are provided in the annexes 1-9

Liitännäisarkkitehtuuri Knowledge Practices Environment -järjestelmään

Insinöörityössä oli tavoitteena selvittää liitännäisten (plug-in) olemus ja liitännäisarkki¬tehtuurin (plug-in architecture) määritelmä sekä toteuttaa määritelmän mukainen lii¬tännäisarkkitehtuuri Knowledge Practices Environment (KPE) järjestelmään. KPE-jär¬jestelmä on Knowledge Practices Laboratory (KP Lab) projektissa kehitetty oppimis ja työskentely ympäristö. KP-Lab-projekti oli vuonna 2006 aloitettu viisivuotinen EU-ra¬hoitteinen projekti, joka keskittyi luomaan modulaarista, joustavaa ja laajennettavaa tietojärjestelmää. KPE järjestelmään oli aikaisemmin toteutettu liitännäisarkkitehtuuri, mutta suurelta osin se ei vastannut liitännäisarkkitehtuurin vaatimuksia. Insinöörityössä uudistettiin aikaisempi liitännäisarkkitehtuuri vastaamaan liitännäisark-kitehtuurin asettamia vaatimuksia. Arkkitehtuurin vaatimuksena oli mahdollistaa kol-mansien osapuolien kehitystyö ja helpottaa uusien työkalujen ja tietosolmutyyppien kehitystä. Arkkitehtuuri toteutettiin tukemaan KPE järjestelmän perustoiminnallisuuksia. Siksi olikin tärkeää kehittää se niin, että kehitystä voidaan helposti jatkaa ja tuki rajauksen ulkopuolelle jääneille toiminnallisuuksille voidaan toteuttaa helposti myöhemmin. Työssä uudistettiin aikaisemmat liitännäisarkkitehtuurin rajapinnat ja määriteltiin konfiguraatio liitännäisille ja KPE järjestelmän tietosolmuille. Konfiguraation avulla liitännäiset pystytään lisäämään järjestelmään ajon aikana, ja ne voidaan käsitellä dynaamisesti. Lisäksi liitännäisten tietoa varten toteutettiin tietokanta ja web service rajapinta. Insinöörityön lopputuloksena syntyi liitännäisarkkitehtuuri, joka vastaa arkkitehtuurin ja projektin asettamia vaatimuksia. Arkkitehtuuri osoittautui järjestelmälle hyödylliseksi, ja se liitetään osaksi KPE järjestelmää. Liitännäisten kehitystä varten kirjoitettiin englanninkielinen kehittäjänopas, jonka avulla järjestelmään on jo alettu kehittää uusia liitännäisiä. Arkkitehtuurin jatkokehitystä varten insinöörityössä selvitettiin myös muutamia seuraavia vaiheita arkkitehtuurin optimoimiseksi ja laajentamiseksi, kuten esimerkiksi rajapintojen versiointi ja liitännäisten jakelu.The aim of this thesis was to clarify the essence of plug-in and the definition of the plug-in architecture, and implement plug-in architecture into Knowledge Practices Environment (KPE) system based on definition. KPE system is a learning and working environment and it was developed in Knowledge Practices Laboratory (KP-Lab) project. KP-Lab project was launched in 2006 and it was a five-year-long EU-funded project that focused on creating a modular, flexible and scalable information system. Plug-in architecture had already been developed into KPE system, but it did not meet the requirements of the plug-in architecture. In this thesis the former architecture was revised to meet the requirements of the plug-in architecture. The requirements were to allow third-party development, and facilitate the development of new tools and data node types. The architecture was implemented to support the basic functionalities of KPE. It was, therefore, important to develop it in such a manner that further development can continue without difficulties. Also, it should be easy to implement later such architecture that was excluded during this project. In this work the earlier plug-in architecture interfaces were revised and the configuration for the plug-ins and KPE system data nodes was defined. Configuration allows adding plug-ins during the run-time and they can be processed dynamically. In addition, database and web service interface were implemented for the data of the plug-ins. The result of this thesis is a plug-in architecture, which matches the requirements set for the architecture and the project. The architecture turned out to be useful, and it will be integrated into the KPE system. An English developer guide was written for plug-in development. With the help of the guide, the development of the plug-ins has already started. This thesis also presents ideas for further development of the architecture, such as the versioning of the plug-in interfaces, and plug-in distribution

KP-LAB Knowledge Practices Laboratory -- Release of end-user tools

deliverablesThis deliverable describes the releases of KP-Lab end user applications and tools made during the DoW4 period of the project (M37-M48). These are as follows: KPE: Shared Space Views and Common, Support and Optional Tools provide the major functionality for the Knowledge Practices Environment. The Shared Space Views visualize the knowledge artefacts and their relations from different perspective, allowing users to view and access the information contained in a shared space in flexible manners. Common tools refer to the tightly integrated tools of KPE, which are available inside a shared space for working with knowledge artefacts. The support tools provide generic supplementary functionality to Shared Space Views and other KP-Lab tools, such as awareness, search, help as well as preference and settings. The optional tools provide functionality to support some specific aspects of or types of knowledge creation processes, such as real-time collaborative writing, activity system design, multimedia annotation and visual modelling. KPE Analytic tools provide means for two main categories of analytic facilities: 1) Data export tool (DE) for automatic data collection for its analysis in any third party tools and 2) Timeline-based analyzer (TLBA) and Visual analyzer (VA) for integrated reflection on knowledge creation processes and their analysis. * Data Export tool allows researchers and teachers to extract summary tables of user activities from the KPE for on-line investigation, and to export them for elaborations with any third party tool for analysis. In order to bring this tool closer to casual users (students, teachers or workers), the visual presentation of relations between KPE users has been added in the last period. * Visual analyzer allows users to analyze participation and activities within past or ongoing knowledge creation processes, by visually representing them based on information stored in the produced logs. More precisely, it visualizes frequencies of object-related activities in KPE and provides detailed information on the nature and type of the activities performed on particular (types of) knowledge objects. These visualizations stimulate teachers and students to reflect on the distribution and types of their activities with respect to time, type of object or subject etc. * Timeline-based analyzer allows users to display chronologically events that were recorded by the KPE tools, to define and store possible external events which could not have been recorded by the KPE tools and to define patterns of actions that can be identified in the historical data. In contrast to Visual Analyzer and Data Export tools, TLBA brings chronological overview of user actions into the user interface, which enables users to see and explore what kind of activities were performed on certain object in the shared space of interest. Activity System Design Tools (ASDT) enable users to look to the history, present and future of their work activity in a way that helps address issues critical for deliberate transformation of prevailing practices (according to the Change Laboratory intervention method). ASDT is a plug-in to Knowledge Practices Environment, utilizing its views and functionalities. In addition, ASDT has a specific view, Virtual whiteboard, which is designed based on the key elements of a developmental work research process and its conceptual tools. Semantic Multimedia Annotation Tool (SMAT) is a rich internet application that facilitates an individuals or a groups activity of assigning annotations to the document fragments. The tools allow users to plan and organise their annotation activity, structure any multimedia document by dividing it into fragments, annotate the document formally, informally or by linking external documents to specific anchors, as well as to analyse structurally and statistically annotations and visualize analysis results. SMAT is adaptable to the users domain. Meeting Support Tools propose new approaches to meeting practices. They support the preparation, execution and analysis of meetings (face-to-face and remote) by capturing synchronous and asynchronous interactions through the collaborative elaboration of "discussion maps". Map-It allows the use of meeting templates, advance individual preparations, share of artifacts, planning and follow-up of actions, automatic generation of meeting minutes in various formats. M2T, a rich internet application, provides analytical facilities for exploring meeting practices instrumented using Map-It and their integration in larger-scope activities, by connecting them to other KP-Lab concepts, visualisations (KPEs Content Views) and tools (ToDo). This deliverable provides the general description of tools in terms of targeted users, requirements for the use, new features, known issues, as well as deviations from the DII.8 specifications. More details can be found through the material available in the project intranet at: http://www.kp-lab.org/intranet/testable-tools/kp-lab-tools