Note Taking and Note Sharing While Browsing Campaign Information

Participants were observed while searching and browsing the internet for campaign information in a mock-voting situation in three online note-taking conditions: No Notes, Private Notes, and Shared Notes. Note taking significantly influenced the manner in which participants browsed for information about candidates. Note taking competed for time and cognitive resources and resulted in less thorough browsing. Effects were strongest when participants thought that their notes would be seen by others. Think-aloud comments indicated that participants were more evaluative when taking notes, especially shared notes. Our results suggest that there could be design trade-offs between e-Democracy and e-Participation technologies

Generating Predictive Models of Learner Community Dynamics

In this paper we present a framework for learner modelling that combines latent semantic analysis and social network analysis of online discourse. The framework is supported by newly developed software, known as the Knowledge, Interaction, and Social Student Modelling Explorer (KISSME), that employs highly interactive visualizations of content-aware interactions among learners. Our goal is to develop, use and refine KISSME to generate and test predictive models of learner interactions to optimise learning

Towards Visual Analytics for Teachers’ Dynamic Diagnostic Pedagogical Decision-Making

The focus of this paper is to delineate and discuss design considerations for supporting teachers\u27 dynamic diagnostic decision-making in classrooms of the 21st century. Based on the Next Generation Teaching Education and Learning for Life (NEXT-TELL) European Commission integrated project, we envision classrooms of the 21st century to (a) incorporate 1:1 computing, (b) provide computational as well as methodological support for teachers to design, deploy and assess learning activities and (c) immerse students in rich, personalized and varied learning activities in information ecologies resulting in high-performance, high-density, high-bandwidth, and data-rich classrooms. In contrast to existing research in educational data mining and learning analytics, our vision is to employ visual analytics techniques and tools to support teachers dynamic diagnostic pedagogical decision-making in real-time and in actual classrooms. The primary benefits of our vision is that learning analytics becomes an integral part of the teaching profession so that teachers can provide timely, meaningful, and actionable formative assessments to on-going learning activities in-situ. Integrating emerging developments in visual analytics and the established methodological approach of design-based research (DBR) in the learning sciences, we introduce a new method called Teaching Analytics and explore a triadic model of teaching analytics (TMTA). TMTA adapts and extends the Pair Analytics method in visual analytics which in turn was inspired by the pair programming model of the extreme programming paradigm. Our preliminary vision of TMTA consists of a collocated collaborative triad of a Teaching Expert (TE), a Visual Analytics Expert (VAE), and a Design-Based Research Expert (DBRE) analyzing, interpreting and acting upon real-time data being generated by students\u27 learning activities by using a range of visual analytics tools. We propose an implementation of TMTA using open learner models (OLM) and conclude with an outline of future work

A process model for developing learning design patterns with international scope

This paper investigates the process of identifying design patterns in international collaborative learning environments. In this context, design patterns are referred to as structured descriptions of best practice with pre-defined sections such as problem, solution and consequences. We pay special attention to how the scope of a design pattern is identified and articulated. Based on a review of the seminal design patterns literature and current practice in the area of learning design, the lack of a more specific process description for developing patterns with international scope is identified. The paper suggests a process model for developing patterns with international scope. This model is exemplified in a case study that links the analysis of observation in international learning environments to the articulation of design patterns by identifying culturally independent core values that constitute the foundations of a design pattern with international scope. These core values are linked to recurrent learning behaviors and specific artefacts that support learning in the articulation of a design pattern. The findings contribute to gaining a deeper understanding of the pattern scoping and abstraction process in international learning environments

Human-Centered Design Components in Spiral Model to Improve Mobility of Older Adults

As humans grow older, their cognitive needs change more frequently due to distal and proximal life events. Designers and developers need to come up with better designs that integrate older users’ needs in a short period of time with more interaction with the users. Therefore, the positioning of human end users in the center of the design itself is not the key to the success of design artifacts while designing applications for older adults to use a smartphone as a promising tool for journey planner while using public transportation. This study analyzed the use of human-centered design (HCD) components, the spiral model, and the design for failure (DfF) approach to improve the interactions between older users and designers/developers in gathering usability needs in the concept stage and during the development of the app with short iterative cycles. To illustrate the importance of the applied approach, a case study with particular focus on older adults is presented.The results presented in this study are based on “Assistant” project funded by AAL JP, co-funded by the European Union. The authors would like to thank Dr. Stefan Carmien, my colleague in Assistant, for mentoring and for reading and making comments in the earlier versions of this chapter; participating research institutes; funding agencies; and companies from Finland, Spain, Austria, France, and the United Kingdom for their active support throughout the project

Response to Mechanical Stress Is Mediated by the TRPA Channel Painless in the Drosophila Heart

Mechanotransduction modulates cellular functions as diverse as migration, proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. It is crucial for organ development and homeostasis and leads to pathologies when defective. However, despite considerable efforts made in the past, the molecular basis of mechanotransduction remains poorly understood. Here, we have investigated the genetic basis of mechanotransduction in Drosophila. We show that the fly heart senses and responds to mechanical forces by regulating cardiac activity. In particular, pauses in heart activity are observed under acute mechanical constraints in vivo. We further confirm by a variety of in situ tests that these cardiac arrests constitute the biological force-induced response. In order to identify molecular components of the mechanotransduction pathway, we carried out a genetic screen based on the dependence of cardiac activity upon mechanical constraints and identified Painless, a TRPA channel. We observe a clear absence of in vivo cardiac arrest following inactivation of painless and further demonstrate that painless is autonomously required in the heart to mediate the response to mechanical stress. Furthermore, direct activation of Painless is sufficient to produce pauses in heartbeat, mimicking the pressure-induced response. Painless thus constitutes part of a mechanosensitive pathway that adjusts cardiac muscle activity to mechanical constraints. This constitutes the first in vivo demonstration that a TRPA channel can mediate cardiac mechanotransduction. Furthermore, by establishing a high-throughput system to identify the molecular players involved in mechanotransduction in the cardiovascular system, our study paves the way for understanding the mechanisms underlying a mechanotransduction pathway

Social media and sensemaking patterns in new product development: demystifying the customer sentiment

Artificial intelligence by principle is developed to assist but also support decision making processes. In our study, we explore how information retrieved from social media can assist decision-making processes for new product development (NPD). We focus on consumers’ emotions that are expressed through social media and analyse the variations of their sentiments in all the stages of NPD. We collect data from Twitter that reveal consumers’ appreciation of aspects of the design of a newly launched model of an innovative automotive company. We adopt the sensemaking approach coupled with the use of fuzzy logic for text mining. This combinatory methodological approach enables us to retrieve consensus from the data and to explore the variations of sentiments of the customers about the product and define the polarity of these emotions for each of the NPD stages. The analysis identifies sensemaking patterns in Twitter data and explains the NPD process and the associated steps where the social interactions from customers can have an iterative role. We conclude the paper by outlining an agenda for future research in the NPD process and the role of the customer opinion through sensemaking mechanisms

The impact of social media activities on theater demand

A well-known factor in the consumption of cultural goods is that demand is subject to the ‘nobody knows’ principle and therefore difficult to predict. Other sectors have successfully analyzed social media data to predict real-world outcomes; the cultural field has applied this type of data analysis in the context of movies. This paper is the first study to consider the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) generated via social media in the context of performing arts. Compared to conventional word-of-mouth mechanisms, social media sites may further reduce the uncertainty caused by the ‘nobody knows’ principle by propagating an enormous amount of enduring and real-time information and opinions. This paper aims to test the potentiality of social media in understanding theater demand by combining booking data for the period 2010–2016 from the sales system of the Royal Danish Theater with volumetric data extracted from the theater’s official Facebook Page. In particular, we take into account the different possible relationships between the feedback provided by social media (in terms of ‘likes’ and comments) and the purchase of tickets by consumers: (1) eWOM influences tickets sale; (2) no causal relationship between eWOM and tickets sale as both reflect unobserved characteristics of the theater production; (3) tickets sale influences eWOM activities; (4) ticket sale influences eWOM which in turn influences ticket sale and so on. The results suggest that only the number of likes, rather than the Facebook comments, is related to the decision to purchase a ticket. In particular, there is a mutual interaction between the number of likes given to posts specifically dedicated to a given production and the number of tickets sold concerning that specific production: eWOM activity (in terms of “like”) influences the tickets sale, which in turn generates eWOM activity. With this study, we aim to show how social media data can constitute a new and effective tool for understanding theater demand

Domestic artefacts: sustainability in the context of indian middle class

Sustainability has become one of the important research topics in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI). However, the majority of work has focused on the Western culture. In this paper, we explore sustainable household practices in the developing world. Our research draws on the results from an ethnographic field study of household women belonging to the so-called middle class in India. We analyze our results in the context of Blevis' [4] principles of sustainable interaction design (established within the Western culture), to extract the intercultural aspects that need to be considered for designing technologies. We present examples from the field that we term "domestic artefacts". Domestic artefacts represent creative and sustainable ways household women appropriate and adapt used objects to create more useful and enriching objects that support household members' everyday activities. Our results show that the rationale behind creating domestic artefacts is not limited to the practicality and usefulness, but it shows how religious beliefs, traditions, family intimacy, personal interests and health issues are incorporated into them