A proposal for the evaluation of adaptive information retrieval systems using simulated interaction

The Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) is involved in building interactive adaptive systems which combine Information Retrieval (IR), Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) and adaptive web techniques and technologies. The complex functionality of these systems coupled with the variety of potential users means that the experiments necessary to evaluate such systems are difficult to plan, implement and execute. This evaluation requires both component-level scientific evaluation and user-based evaluation. Automated replication of experiments and simulation of user interaction would be hugely beneficial in the evaluation of adaptive information retrieval systems (AIRS). This paper proposes a methodology for the evaluation of AIRS which leverages simulated interaction. The hybrid approach detailed combines: (i) user-centred methods for simulating interaction and personalisation; (ii) evaluation metrics that combine Human Computer Interaction (HCI), AH and IR techniques; and (iii) the use of qualitative and quantitative evaluations. The benefits and limitations of evaluations based on user simulations are also discussed

Web-Mediated Education and Training Environments: A Review of Personalised Interactive Learning.

This chapter reviews the concept of personalised eLearning resources in relation to integrating interactivity into asynchronous learning. Personalised eLearning resources are learning resources which are selected to suit a specific student or trainee’s individual learning requirements. The affordance of personalised eLearning would provide educators with the opportunity to shift away from eLearning content that is retrieved and move towards the provision of personalised interactive content to provide a form of asynchronous learning to suit students at different degree levels. A basic introduction to the concept of ePedagogy in online learning environments is explored and the impacts these systems have on students learning experiences are considered. Issues, controversies, and problems associated with the creation of personalised interactive eLearning resources are examined, and suggested solutions and recommendations to the identified issues, controversies, and problems are reviewed. Personalised interactive asynchronous learning resources could potentially improve students’ learning experiences but more research on the human computer interface of these authoring tools is required before personalised eLearning resources are available for use by non-technical authors

An Online Framework for Supporting the Evaluation of Personalised Information Retrieval Systems

Scope - Personalised Information Retrieval (PIR) has been gaining attention because it investigates intelligent ways for enhancing content delivery. Web users can have personalised services and more accurate information. Problem - Several PIR systems have been proposed in the literature; however, they have not been properly tested or evaluated. Proposal – The authors propose a generally applicable web-based interface, which provides PIR developers and evaluators with: i) implicit recommendations on how to evaluate a specific PIR system; ii) a repository containing studies on user-centred and layered evaluation studies; iii) recommendations on how to best combine different evaluation methods, metrics and measurement criteria in order to most effectively evaluate their system; iv) a UCE methodology which details how to apply existing UCE techniques; v) a taxonomy of evaluations of adaptive systems; and vi) interface translation support (49 languages supported)

Pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacteria in colonisation and disease in The Gambia

The clinical relevance of pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacteria (PNTM) in The Gambia is unknown. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in colonisation, and the burden of clinically relevant pulmonary NTM (PNTM) disease in The Gambia. This was a cross-sectional study of the prevalence of NTM in participants aged ≥ 15 years, in a nationwide tuberculosis (TB) prevalence survey between December 2011 and January 2013. We enrolled 903 participants with suspected NTM and NTM cultures were confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing analyses. We applied the American Thoracic Society/Infectious Disease Society of America (ATS/IDSA) diagnostic criteria to determine clinical relevance of NTM. A total of 575 participants had acid-fast bacilli (AFB) positive Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) cultures and 229 (39.8%) were NTM. M. avium complex was by far the most isolated NTM (71.0%), followed by M. fortuitum (9.5%) and M. nonchromogenicum (2.9%). Older participants (> 24 years old) were four times more likely to have NTM in their sputa. Only 20.5% (9/44) NTM cases met the ATS/IDSA criteria for NTM disease. This study provides important data on the prevalence of NTM in pulmonary samples of suspected TB cases with AFB positive cultures from a nationally representative population in The Gambia. Enhanced PNTM surveillance is recommended to better understand the contribution of NTM to pulmonary disease

Pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacteria in colonisation and disease in The Gambia

The clinical relevance of pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacteria (PNTM) in The Gambia is unknown. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in colonisation, and the burden of clinically relevant pulmonary NTM (PNTM) disease in The Gambia. This was a cross-sectional study of the prevalence of NTM in participants aged ≥ 15 years, in a nationwide tuberculosis (TB) prevalence survey between December 2011 and January 2013. We enrolled 903 participants with suspected NTM and NTM cultures were confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing analyses. We applied the American Thoracic Society/Infectious Disease Society of America (ATS/IDSA) diagnostic criteria to determine clinical relevance of NTM. A total of 575 participants had acid-fast bacilli (AFB) positive Mycobacterial Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) cultures and 229 (39.8%) were NTM. M. avium complex was by far the most isolated NTM (71.0%), followed by M. fortuitum (9.5%) and M. nonchromogenicum (2.9%). Older participants (> 24 years old) were four times more likely to have NTM in their sputa. Only 20.5% (9/44) NTM cases met the ATS/IDSA criteria for NTM disease. This study provides important data on the prevalence of NTM in pulmonary samples of suspected TB cases with AFB positive cultures from a nationally representative population in The Gambia. Enhanced PNTM surveillance is recommended to better understand the contribution of NTM to pulmonary disease

Using XML topic maps to create a knowledge model of postgraduate computer science degrees in Ireland for the purpose of marketing analysis

Marketing intelligence is a future-oriented activity that helps an organization cope in its market. It includes all ways an organization acquires and uses information. It is comprised of all kinds of information on the market and marketing research; the collection and analysis of internal data, competitive analysis; analysis and reverse engineering of competitor’s products; understanding how and where to add value for customers; and the process of synthesizing large amounts of informally gathered information about the industry and business environment. While marketing and marketing intelligence are widely used in business, they are less used in non-business organisations such as academic institutes. Yet academic institutes now find themselves in a very competitive market place, competing for students from their traditional audiences and forced to seek out new audiences for their programmes. Marketing intelligence is therefore very relevant to academic institutes. Knowledge management has been burgeoning in importance during the last one and half decades. Both profit making and non-profit making organizations have had to and continue to embrace and practice knowledge management. Knowledge capture, knowledge integration and knowledge delivery are the essential parts of dynamic knowledge management. As such, marketing intelligence can be seen as a knowledge management activity. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the usefulness of a knowledge model of postgraduate computer science education in Ireland to support marketing intelligence in a single institute, the Dublin Institute of Technology. Knowledge models are structured representations of knowledge using symbols to represent components of knowledge and relationships between them. This knowledge model will capture the type of knowledge used in marketing postgraduate computer science programmes and expose it in the form of an XML Topic Map which can then be used to support query and analysis by all those involved in marketing of postgraduate education: producer, consumer and competitor

CIRSE 2010 - Workshop on Contextual Information Access, Seeking and Retrieval Evaluation held in conjunction with ECIR-2010 - European Conference on Information Retrieval

Personalisation in Information Retrieval is achieved using a range of contextual information such as information about the user, the task being conducted and the device being used. This information is used to devise the most suitable response for the individual?s need. As such personalised Information Retrieval and response composition approaches become more widely used, traditional evaluation measures become less effective and applicable. This paper proposes that contextual, and specifically personalised, approaches to Information Retrieval could benefit from the experience of the Adaptive Hypermedia community. The paper details the approaches to evaluation commonly used by the IR and AH communities and proposes a means of combining and enhancing these disparate approaches in a unified framework for the evaluation of personalised IR systems

The World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare and Higher Education, E-LEARN 2012

Adaptive technology enhanced learning has attracted significant interest with the promise of supporting individual learning tailored to the unique circumstances, preferences, and prior knowledge of a learner. Evaluation of the overall performance of such adaptive TEL systems is a major challenge; as such systems react differently for each individual user and context of use. Evaluation of such systems has become a significant but very complex area of research in itself since depending on the aspect of adaptivity and personalisation that needs to be evaluated (quality of the user modelling, performance of different adaptation approaches, knowledge gain from using the personalised system or overall end user experience), several evaluation techniques need to be combined and executed differently. This paper proposes a hybrid recommendation service for recommending appropriate evaluation techniques (approach, methods, metrics and criteria). It also discusses evaluation challenges and presents analysed results of a survey on evaluations of adaptive systems