Automatic assessment of sequence diagrams

In previous work we showed how student-produced entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs) could be automatically marked with good accuracy when compared with human markers. In this paper we report how effective the same techniques are when applied to syntactically similar UML sequence diagrams and discuss some issues that arise which did not occur with ERDs. We have found that, on a corpus of 100 student-drawn sequence diagrams, the automatic marking technique is more reliable that human markers. In addition, an analysis of this corpus revealed significant syntax errors in student-drawn sequence diagrams. We used the information obtained from the analysis to build a tool that not only detects syntax errors but also provides feedback in diagrammatic form. The tool has been extended to incorporate the automatic marker to provide a revision tool for learning how to model with sequence diagrams

Toward the automated assessment of entity-relationship diagrams

The need to interpret imprecise diagrams (those with malformed, missing or extraneous features) occurs in the automated assessment of diagrams. We outline our proposal for an architecture to enable the interpretation of imprecise diagrams. We discuss our preliminary work on an assessment tool, developed within this architecture, for automatically grading answers to a computer architecture examination question. Early indications are that performance is similar to that of human markers. We will be using Entity-Relationship Diagrams (ERDs) as the primary application area for our investigation of automated assessment. This paper will detail our reasons for choosing this area and outline the work ahead

Experiments in the automatic marking of ER-Diagrams

In this paper we present an approach to the computer understanding of diagrams and show how it can be successfully applied to the automatic marking (grading) of student attempts at drawing entity-relationship (ER) diagrams. The automatic marker has been incorporated into a revision tool to enable students to practice diagramming and obtain feedback on their attempts

Using patterns in the automatic marking of ER-Diagrams

This paper illustrates how the notion of pattern can be used in the automatic analysis and synthesis of diagrams, applied particularly to the automatic marking of ER-diagrams. The paper describes how diagram patterns fit into a general framework for diagram interpretation and provides examples of how patterns can be exploited in other fields. Diagram patterns are defined and specified within the area of ER-diagrams. The paper also shows how patterns are being exploited in a revision tool for understanding ER-diagrams

The Conscience of Cinema

The Conscience of Cinema is not only a history of a rich and varied personal oeuvre by a prolific documentary maker who worked on every continent and through seven decades, from the 1920s to the 1980s. It is also the history of the aspiration to use documentary film to change the world by a committed leftist, as well as a microcosmic history of documentary form, technology and culture, and its place within world cinema as a whole throughout the twentieth century. Ivens worked in almost every genre of documentary, including the essay, compilation, hybrid dramatization, direct cinema, social observation, the solidarity film, socialist realism, agitprop activism. In this book, detailed filmic analysis is enriched by a profound historical understanding of the contexts in which Ivens carried out his vision, from his native Netherlands to the Soviet bloc, USA, France, Latin America, Vietnam and finally China. Everywhere, Joris Ivens left an indelible artistic and political mark, critically relevant to a twenty-first century where documentary has reclaimed its cultural and political centrality. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched

Automatically assessing free-form diagrams in e-assessment systems

In this paper, we describe the advances we have made in extending the quiz component of our VLE (Moodle) to support the drawing and automatic assessment of free-form diagrams. The paper illustrates how diagram-based questions are incorporated into normal Moodle quizzes and the nature of the feedback provided. It describes the types of diagrams that can be supported by the system (graph-based) and outlines how the automatic marking is performed. We briefly summarise the results of our tests of the marking algorithm which show that it performs well. Finally, the paper outlines two important support applications: one for specifying the type of a diagram to be used in a quiz and one for creating questions, model solutions and marking schemes for diagram questions

The role of labels in the automatic assessment of graph-based diagrams

The ability to draw diagrams in free-form is rarely found in e-assessment systems. This paper examines one crucial area which needs to be well understood if automatic marking of diagrams is to be feasible: the analysis of labels. Graph-based diagrams include geometrical elements of differing shapes connected by lines to carry the semantics of the domain being modelled. Some diagrams also use the relative location of elements to express information. Labels play a central role in providing meaning both as identifiers, distinguishing between geometric elements, and the values of attributes of elements. Such information is central to the process of comparing two diagrams when marking student-drawn diagrams. Student-drawn diagrams likely to contain errors – they are imprecise. The aim, therefore, is, in the presence of imprecision, to match a student diagram with a model solution and award a mark which is close to that which an expert human would give. This paper explores the specific problem of determining the similarity of labels in diagrams which has been successfully employed in marking student diagrams in a formative environment

Cultivated Colonies: Notes on Queer Nationhood and the Erotic Image

Le concept de nationalité a repait surface dans le discours politique gai, et plus récemment à travers l’appropriation de l’épithète “queer”. Se basant en particulier sur les traditions historiques transnationales des images érotiques en photographie et en cinématographie, qui ont souvent évolué en contra- bande à l’intérieur de l’état nation moderne, ce texte examine la pertinence du concept de nationalité dans l’imaginaire subculturel des collectivités gaies. üeux traditions dans la représentation de ces collectivités sont distinguées, et disséquées: celle de “l’ailleurs”, une sensibilité cosmopolite minori- sante construite sur des dynamiques utopiques de différence, et celle du “partout”, un ordre du jour idéologique de ressemblance universalisante. Quelques réflexions sur le rôle moderne des images érotiques en tant que monnaie nationale de l’économie masculine gaie sont suivies d’analogies par rapport à la problématique de l’expression culturelle canadienne. Si le concept de nation s’avère utile pour comprendre certaines dynamiques collectives de l’imaginaire du désir gai, ce concept demeure plus pertinent dans une acception métaphorique et idéologique que scientifique. </jats:p

Fairy Tales of Two Cities, or Queer Nation(s)/Urban Cinema(s)

Cet article examine quatre films d’auteurs gais qui se situent en marge des canons du cinéma au Canada et au Québec : À tout prendre, Winter Kept Us Warm, Il était une fois dans l’Est et Outrageous!. Deux de ces films sont de Toronto, deux de Montréal; deux furent produits avant la date charnière 1968/1969, deux après. L’auteur analyse ces oeuvres pionnières du cinéma gai et leurs réceptions par l’intermédiaire des grilles cinéma/culture, sexualité/genre, habitat/nation. Ce sont moins des textes nationaux que des textes urbains qui émergent des configurations cinématographiques, sexuelles et spatiales des deux métropoles qui ont présidé à l’émergence de la modernité canadienne et qui furent les creusets de ces quatre films. </jats:p