Fuzzy-based user modelling for motivation assessment in programming learning adaptive web-based education systems

Learning programming is not an easy task and students often find this subject difficult to understand and pass. One way to improve students’ knowledge in programming is by using Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) through Adaptive Web-Based Education Systems (AWBESs). The objective of ITS is to provide a personalized tutoring that is tailored to the student’s needs. User modelling is one of the key factors that can meet the ITS intended objectives. From the literature, it was discovered that motivation stands out as one of the critical students’ characteristics that need to be considered when designing a user model. However, from the previous studies, it was discovered that almost all the researchers and educators constructed the user model based on knowledge and skills as students’ characteristics. Thus, the aim of this study is to develop a user model based on students’ motivation known as the Motivation Assessment Model. This is a model that is able to assess students’ motivation level and deliver tutorial materials accordingly. The Motivation Assessment Model was developed based on Self-Efficacy theory that contributes to the fundamental motivation factor which influences students’ motivation during the learning process. Furthermore, to assess the motivation level, fuzzy logic technique was applied. A tutoring system was then developed based on the proposed model using ITS architecture and ADDIE instructional design model. In order to determine students’ knowledge level after using the tutoring system, pre- and post-tests were conducted on the controlled group and experimental group (30 and 31 students). The learning achievements between experimental group (mean = 3.00) and control group (mean = 2.00) indicated that the tutoring system is significantly more effective in improving students’ knowledge level compared to the traditional approach. A usability evaluation was also conducted whereby the effectiveness was evaluated at the number of errors (7.5%) and completion rate (86.5%); efficiency (mean = 4.85); satisfaction evaluated at task level (mean = 6.77) and test level (mean = 83.55). As a conclusion, the overall tutoring system usability results are accepted by students in the experimental group. The research contribution to knowledge is the development of the proposed Motivation Assessment Model for ITS

FORMULATION OF IN SITU GELLING SYSTEM FOR OPHTHALMIC DELIVERY OF ERYTHROMYCIN

Eye is a unique organ which exerts various limitations for the delivery of drug due to its physiology barriers. Therefore, the posterior part of the eyes remains a major concern for formulation scientists to develop ocular drug delivery system which can overcome the barriers of theeye and provide local or systemic effect with immediate or sustained release dosage forms. Conventional ophthalmic dosage forms such as eye drop, ointment and gel provide low bioavailability and less pre-corneal drug residence time due to nasolacrimal drainage of the eyes. The major challenge is to formulate a system to improve the contact time of the drug in eyes. This is achieved by in situ gel system where the drugs are incorporatedwith various types of polymers which exhibit solution to gel phase transition. An in situ gelling technique provides greater bioavailability by resisting ocular drainage leading to longer residence time. This paper proposes the formulation of in situ gels for effective delivery of Erythromycin used to treat conjunctivitis and to evaluate dosage form characteristic such as pH, gelling capacity, gel strength, sterility testing, drug content, in vitro diffusion study, antibacterial activity and accelerated stability studies to ensure the safety and stability of the dosage form. Hence an attempt will be made to develop novel in situ gelling systems using Erythromycin, antimicrobial agent as a promising alternative to the conventional dosage forms for the effective treatment of various eye infections

CLOUD COMPUTING IN HEALTHCARE

Information Technology (IT) has modernizedhealthcare sector via the newest development. Cloud computing in healthcare is budding and charming as crucial methodologies by most of the stakeholders.  It has the special ability to offer infinite capacity and power of process in the e-healthcare sector.This leads computer to be used efficiently and exclusively by the sharing of resources in healthcare. This paper provide a review of some proposed cloud based e-healthcare architectures edge along with issues inbothtechnologies and the crucial reasons of enhancingforward to a cloud based e-healthcare especially in Malaysia

Students’ characteristics of student model in intelligent programming tutor for learning programming: a systematic literature review

This study describes preliminary results of a research related to Intelligent Programming Tutor (IPT) which is derived from Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). The system architecture consists of four models. However, in this study student model mainly student characteristic was focused. From literature, 44 research articles were identified from a number of digital databases published between 1997 to 2022 base on systematic literature review (SLR) method. The findings show that the majority 48% of IPT implementation focuses on knowledge and skills. While 52% articles focused on a combination of two to three student characteristics where one of the combinations is knowledge and skill. When narrow down, 25% focused on knowledge and skills with errors or misconceptions; 4% focused on knowledge and skill with cognitive features; 5% focused focus on knowledge and skill with affective features; 2% focused on knowledge and skill with motivation; and 9% based on knowledge and skill with learning style and learning preferences as students’ characteristics to build their student model. Whereas 5% focused on a combination of three student characters which are knowledge and skill with cognitive and affective features and 2% focused on knowledge and skill with learning styles and learning preferences and motivation as students’ characteristics to construct the tutoring system student model. To provide an appropriate tutoring system for the students, students’ characteristic needs to decide for the student model before developing the tutoring system. From the findings, it can say that knowledge and skills is an essential students’ characteristic used to construct the tutoring system student model. Unfortunately, other students’ characteristic is less considered especially students’ motivation

An empirical study: learning programming using e-learning

Learning programming is not an easy task and students often find this course difficult to understand and pass. A fundamental factor which affects students’ performance is their learning efficacy and motivation. In the classroom, educators know how to motivate their students and how to exploit this knowledge to optimize their teaching when a student shows demotivation signs. In eLearning environments it is much more difficult to evaluate student motivation level. The study identified 19 research papers in teaching and learning programming using eLearning. The papers are derived from a number of digital databases which were published in the last two decades. This study found that a majority of the research in eLearning focuses on student knowledge and skills in programming. To motivate the student, visualization, simulation, animation and game-based approaches have been used in the learning process. These approaches focus on making the interaction attractive rather than identifying and diagnosing student motivation state in the eLearning systems. To enhance the learning process in programming using eLearning, student motivation model needs to be considered

An Adaptive Snake Based Shadow Segmentation for Robust Driver Fatigue Detection: A 3D Facial Feature Based Photometric Stereo Perspective

Fatigue detection has many applications, one of them is intelligent transportation for accident prevention. It is challenging to detect driver fatigue adopting photometric stereo and 3D fatigue-related facial action unit identification. During 3D reconstruction shadows are encountered, causing reconstruction error, therefore, for accurate fatigue detection shadow removal is crucial. This study presents a novel snake based approach for shadow handling in photometric stereo. Seven light sources were employed and region visibility of the light source for each region of interest (ROI) was deduced. Surface normal estimation enhancement was achieved via snake model based shadow labeling. Discrepancies measured among shadowed regions and ROIs were recorded. Light sources having high intersection with the shadow map were excluded from the reconstruction process at pixel level. This results in an automatic driver fatigue related action unit detection employing uncalibrated Lambertian surface under shadow conditions. The developed method was tested and compared with other established driver fatigue detection methods and higher performance in terms of accuracy (i.e. 97.85%) was achieved. The developed method proves to be well suited for driver fatigue detection under uncalibrated conditions

Computer anxiety and skills: A survey amongst undergraduate student from rural areas in Malaysia

With the rapid growth of technology, nowadays people are using Information Communication Technology (ICT) as a tool in all aspects of life. Hence, competitiveness in ICT is increasing worldwide.Malaysia towards Vision 2020 has implemented many initiatives in ICT transformation for community including students from the rural areas.This research is conducted to investigate level of computer anxiety and skills amongst undergraduate students from rural areas in Malaysia.The study was done through distribution of 250 questionnaire samples to year one students from non-computing programs who are enrolled computer literacy subject at one of the private higher institutions in Negeri Sembilan and 128 responded.The results of the study show that the undergraduate students are not anxious using computer in their learning environment.The students also show good level of computer skills. These results are based on the student’s perception and the results also indicate that the students have built their computer skills since in lower level of education through the government initiatives