Dynamic learning from multiple examples for semantic object segmentation and search

We present a novel “dynamic learning” approach for an intelligent image database system to automatically improve object segmentation and labeling without user intervention, as new examples become available, for object-based indexing. The proposed approach is an extension of our earlier work on “learning by example,” which addressed labeling of similar objects in a set of database images based on a single example. The proposed dynamic learning procedure utilizes multiple example object templates to improve the accuracy of existing object segmentations and labels. Multiple example templates may be images of the same object from different viewing angles, or images of related objects. This paper also introduces a new shape similarity metric called normalized area of symmetric differences (NASD), which has desired properties for use in the proposed “dynamic learning” scheme, and is more robust against boundary noise that results from automatic image segmentation. Performance of the dynamic learning procedures has been demonstrated by experimental results.     

Model-based detection,segmentation, and classification for image analysis using on-line shape learning

Detection, segmentation, and classification of specific objects are the key building blocks of a computer vision system for image analysis. This paper presents a unified model-based approach to these three tasks. It is based on using unsupervised learning to find a set of templates specific to the objects being outlined by the user. The templates are formed by averaging the shapes that belong to a particular cluster, and are used to guide a probabilistic search through the space of possible objects. The main difference from previously reported methods is the use of on-line learning, ideal for highly repetitive tasks. This results in faster and more accurate object detection, as system performance improves with continued use. Further, the information gained through clustering and user feedback is used to classify the objects for problems in which shape is relevant to the classification. The effectiveness of the resulting system is demonstrated in two applications: a medical diagnosis task using cytological images, and a vehicle recognition task. Received: 5 November 2000 / Accepted: 29 June 2001 Correspondence to: K.-M. Lee     

Isolated versus integrated case studies: A comparison in the context of teaching complex and domain-specific IT applications

Previous research on IT fluency in connection with non-IT majors points at the increasing need for more “realistic” courses teaching the use of complex and domain-specific IT applications. That research also suggests certain desirable course design characteristics, of which one of the most important is the close integration of realistic case study-based material into one single course (as opposed to the less costly alternative of inserting single case study-based material into other courses). This paper describes a study in which the use of case study-based learning modules in an integrated way (i.e., as part of one main course) is compared against the use of those modules in isolation (i.e., inserted into other courses). The modules have been designed to teach complex and domain-specific IT applications in three main domains – anthropology, sociology, and chemistry. The study, which involved 76 undergraduate students, suggests that the integration of modules into one single course, when compared with the option of using the modules in isolation, significantly increased the level of perceptions of IT’s potential for solving complex problems, perceived learning about specialized IT applications, and perceived learning about IT issues in general. The key conclusion of the study is that integration may be a desirable option regardless of the potential extra costs involved.     

An attribute-based ant colony system for adaptive learning object recommendation

Teachers usually have a personal understanding of what “good teaching” means, and as a result of their experience and educationally related domain knowledge, many of them create learning objects (LO) and put them on the web for study use. In fact, most students cannot find the most suitable LO (e.g. learning materials, learning assets, or learning packages) from webs. Consequently, many researchers have focused on developing e-learning systems with personalized learning mechanisms to assist on-line web-based learning and to adaptively provide learning paths. However, although most personalized learning mechanism systems neglect to consider the relationship between learner attributes (e.g. learning style, domain knowledge) and LO’s attributes. Thus, it is not easy for a learner to find an adaptive learning object that reflects his own attributes in relationship to learning object attributes. Therefore, in this paper, based on an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, we proposed an attributes-based ant colony system (AACS) to help learners find an adaptive learning object more effectively. Our paper makes three critical contributions: (1) It presents an attribute-based search mechanism to find adaptive learning objects effectively; (2) An attributes-ant algorithm was proposed; (3) An adaptive learning rule was developed to identify how learners with different attributes may locate learning objects which have a higher probability of being useful and suitable; (4) A web-based learning portal was created for learners to find the learning objects more effectively.     

个性化Web页教材动态构建的初步研究

本文针对静态设计的Web页教材无法满足学习者个性化学习需要的问题，研究应用“学习对象”的概念动态地构建个性化的Web页教材。这种技术将教学内容分解成若干独立、可重复使用的片段，即学习对象。在远程教学的实施过程中，根据学习者的学习特性动态地将它们组合起来，构建与学习者各自学习风格、学习需求相匹配的个性化的Web页教材。文章首先介绍学习对象的概念及其学习对象在网上的存储与管理，然后讨论学习对象的粒度问题和Web页内容关联的问题，最后报告我们的初步实验结果。     

A multi-layered learning model

The growth of technology is leading mankind to an increased awareness of the need for more intelligent systems. However, one of the bottlenecks in building intelligent systems is the difficulty of acquisition, testing and refinement of domain specialists' knowledge. Learning capability offers a way through this bottleneck.In this paper, we describe a general-purpose learning model for use in an unstructured environment. The proposed model exploits different learning techniques to improve the coordination, to increase task and resource allocation efficiency and to refine problem-solving skills of system elements. The utility of such system is most evident in complex domains such as grasping unknown objects by a dextrous hand. An example of the proposed model is illustrated by an intelligent dextrous hand which learns to grasp unknown objects. Moreover, an expert system for grasp mode selection was implemented in a software package and an example of grasp mode generation is demonstrated.     

Meta-Data and Media Management in a Multimedia Interactive Telelearning System

This paper describes the system design and the components of a web-based multimedia interactive Telelearning system (MITS) with emphasis on metadata and media content management mechanisms. Metadata model is defined and exploited in designing the overall architecture to support courseware creating, management, delivery, and learner performance evaluation. Multimedia document architecture is used to describe the media contents which represent the course material. Metadata and media contents are generated, stored, and utilized to facilitate the search and on-demand presentation of learning objects. Learner preference, performance and progress information is maintained by profile database to make courseware presentation adaptable and more interactive. The system provides a multimedia interactive learning environment with easy-to-search and highly reusable learning objects.     

Design and development of an innovative individualized adaptive and intelligent e-learning system for teaching–learning of probability unit: Details of UZWEBMAT

In this study, an innovative adaptive and intelligent web based e-learning system, UZWEBMAT (Turkish abbreviation of Adaptive and INtelligent WEB based MAThematics teaching–learning system) was designed, developed and implemented. This e-learning system was intended for learning and teaching secondary school level permutation-combination-binomial expansion and probability subjects. Content which was prepared according to Turkish curriculum for secondary school mathematics course was transformed into learning objects in three different ways in accordance with VAK (Visual–Auditory–Kinesthetic) learning styles. Primary/secondary/tertiary learning styles of learners registering the system are determined and each learner receives the content appropriate for his/her dominant learning style. Also, they can be directed to contents of other styles according to their performances thanks to an expert system. Learning objects constituting the content were prepared according to constructivist approach. An active role for the learner was the purpose. Tips and intelligent solution supports within the learning objects were presented with expert system support to the learners. With this structure, UZWEBMAT bears the characteristics of intelligent tutoring system as well as an adaptive e-learning environment. All the movements of learners studying with UZWEBMAT are recorded and the necessary information is reported to both learners and teachers in a visualized way.     

非计算机专业的计算机基础课程教学探讨

当前,非计算机专业的计算机基础教学中存在学生学习兴趣不高、教学效果不佳等问题。该文分析了计算机基础教学存在问题的原因,并针对存在的问题提出了相应的解决方案。将协作知识构建的思想运用到课程设计中,研究网络环境下基于协作知识构建的课程设计模式,搭建了Blackboard支持下的计算机基础课程网络教学框架。     

Adoption of Asynchronous Learning Tools by Traditional Full-Time Students: A Pilot Study

Comparing the performance of distance learning and on-campus students is a well-studied problem. Results have shown that distance learners can perform as well or better than on-campus students. Few studies, however, have explored how or why traditional on-campus students utilize the technology intended for distance learners. Many universities and corporations provide educational and training content simultaneously to both face-to-face and distance students. Thus, exploring how instructional technology typically designed for distance learning students could benefit traditional students is important to our understanding of present and future learning environments. To this end, a pilot study was undertaken that explored how graduate students – primarily business majors – adopted and used video-streaming technology for a one semester course on Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques. Results indicated that age, previous use of the technology, need for interaction and Internet connectivity all influenced the decisions of the subjects to adopt the technology. Two-thirds of the subjects used the technology, with a self-reported estimate of procuring 16% of the course content asynchronously. Most used video streaming for convenience reasons and to review class material.     

Construction safety training via e-Learning: Learning effectiveness and user satisfaction

In Taiwan, promoting knowledge of “Labor Safety” which relates to life and work right is very important. Safety training and learning effectiveness become essential issues of adult learning. To reduce the costs of educational training, enterprises have also started to aggressively introduce e-learning education training. Unlike the construction industry, few studies have investigated the effectiveness of e-learning and conventional learning. This study tested the effectiveness of the safety education to prevent falls by different learning modes used to assess safety behavior and learning effectiveness during the education training period. According to the average pass rate, satisfaction degree of course and total number of unsafe behavior, the e-learning mode improves learning effectiveness. Additionally, when the e-learning mode is introduced in the construction safety education training, the labor can use the teaching material more independently and multimedia system, such as animated teaching materials, case teaching, and repeated course learning, to reduce the error rate of operation, property loss rate, and light (heavy) injury. Under this condition, the e-learning mode is positively associated with the learning effectiveness of construction safety education training. High learning effectiveness promotes safe behavior during construction operations.     

Constructing SCORM compliant course based on High-Level Petri Nets

With rapid development of the Internet, e-learning system has become more and more popular. Currently, to solve the issue of sharing and reusing of teaching materials in different e-learning system, Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is the most popular standard among existing international standards. In SCORM standard, the Sequencing and Navigation (SN) defines the course sequencing behavior, which controls the sequencing, selecting and delivering of a course, and organizes the content into a hierarchical structure, namely Activity Tree (AT). However, the structures with complicated sequencing rules of Activity Tree (AT) in SCORM make the design and creation of course sequences hard. Therefore, how to provide a user-friendly authoring tool to efficiently construct SCORM compliant course becomes an important issue. However, before developing the authoring tool, how to provide a systematic approach to analyze the sequencing rules and to transform the created course into SCORM compliant are our concerns.Therefore, in this paper, based upon the concept of Object Oriented Methodology (OOM), we propose a systematic approach, called Object Oriented Course Modeling (OOCM), to construct the SCORM compliant course. High-Level Petri Nets (HLPN), which is a powerful language for system modeling and validation, are applied to model the basic sequencing components, called Object-Oriented Activity Tree (OOAT), for constructing the SCORM course with complex sequencing behaviors. Every OOAT as a middleware represents a specific sequencing behavior in learning activity and corresponding structure with associated sequencing rules of AT in SCORM. Thus, these OOATs can be efficiently used to model and construct the course with complex sequencing behaviors for different learning guidance. Moreover, two algorithms, called PN2AT and AT2CP, are also proposed to transform HLPN modeled by OOATs into a tree-like structure with related sequencing rules in Activity Tree (AT) and package the AT and related physical learning resources into a SCORM compliant course file described by XML language, respectively. Finally, based upon the OOCM scheme, a prototypical authoring tool with graphical user interface (GUI) is developed. For evaluating the efficiency of the OOCM approach compared with existing authoring tools, an experiment has been done. The experimental results show that the OOCM approach is workable and beneficial for teachers/instructional designers.     

学习分析技术在大数据环境中的应用

学习分析是大数据在教育应用中的焦点,本文对学习分析的核心环节进行技术剖析,梳理主要的学习分析工具,以实证研究的方式,从课程建设者、教学管理者和辅导教师这3种不同用户视角展示学习分析技术的应用过程。研究以某课程平台的学习行为数据作为研究样本,应用统计、可视化、聚类、关联规则等方法,采用Excel,SPSS,Weka等工具,分析课程模块访问频次,了解不同教学组对学生登录周数的影响,刻画学生的分类特征,发现隐含的内在规律。研究表明,学习分析技术充分发挥了教育大数据的价值,使数据成为教学干预、实施决策的重要依据。     

基于工作过程的Linux教学的思考与探讨

Linux操作系统凭借其稳定、安全、可靠的优势,已经成为公认的企业信息化的最佳操作系统平台,基于工作过程的Linux教学体系建设成为职业教育的需要文章介绍了以工作过程为导向的Linux课程教学的设计和探索过程.该课程充分利用虚拟机技术,仿真网络管理员的真实工作环境;利用企业真实项目仿真网络管理员的真实工作内容,有机地将...     

Performing a course material enhancement process with asynchronous interactive online system

Online systems have come to be heavily used in education, particularly for online learning and collecting information not otherwise readily available. Most e-learning systems, including interactive learning systems, have been designed to “push” course materials to students but rarely to “collect” or “pull” ideas from them. The interactive mechanisms in proposed instructional design models, however, prevent many potential designers from improving course quality, even though some believe that the learning experience and the comments of students are important for enhancing course materials. As well, students could actually contribute to instructional design.This paper presents a course material enhancement process that elicits ideas from students by encouraging students to modify course materials. This process had been tested on different higher education programs, both graduate and undergraduate. It aims to understand which programs’ students have a higher willingness to participate in this work and if they can benefit from this process. To facilitate this research, an asynchronous interaction system, teacher digital assistant (TDA), was designed for teachers to receive responses, recommendations, and modified materials from students at any time. The major advantage of this process is that it could embed students’ thoughts into the course material to improve the curriculum, which can benefit future students.     

疫情下，一种完全线上教学模式的实践

Currently, novel coronavirus is spreading all over the world, colleges and universities all use a variety of informatization methods actively responded to the call of the Ministry of Education. They all have launched online teaching practices to achieve "suspend classes without stopping teaching and learning”. This article takes the Fundamentals of Analog Circuits course as an exam- ple to introduce the process of a completely online teaching activity in detail under the novel coronavirus situation.     

Performance analysis of GAME: A generic automated marking environment

This paper describes the Generic Automated Marking Environment (GAME) and provides a detailed analysis of its performance in assessing student programming projects and exercises. GAME has been designed to automatically assess programming assignments written in a variety of languages based on the “structure” of the source code and the correctness of the program’s output. Currently, the system is able to mark programs written in Java, C++ and the C language. To use the system, instructors are required to provide a simple “marking schema” for each given assessment item, which includes pertinent information such as the location of files and the model solution. In this research, GAME has been tested on a number of student programming exercises and assignments and its performance has been compared against that of a human marker. An in-depth statistical analysis of the comparison is presented, providing encouraging results and directions for employing GAME as a tool for teaching and learning.     

基于工作过程的“机械图样识读与绘制”学习领域课程开发与设计

基于工作过程教学模式成为目前适应高职教育的有效模式。以机械设计 与制造专业基础课程“机械制图”与“计算机辅助设计与绘图”的整合为例,探讨对该课程学 科体系下的知识解构和基于工作过程导向重组,开发与设计、基于工作过程的“机械图样 识读与绘制”学习领域课程,使课程学习内容与工作内容良好对接,实现上岗工作“零适应 期”。