Evaluation of a hypermedia document as a learning tool

This paper describes a classroom‐based experimental evaluation of an electronic history 'book' presented in a hypermedia environment. It was compared with a paper‐based version of the same material. Observations of children's activities and interactions revealed that they had few problems using the hypermedia document as an information source and also rated it more positively, in terms of ease of use, than those children using the paper‐based version. However, no significant differences were found between the two groups in the number of questions children completed and answered correctly, their interest in the material, and task difficulty. The implications of these findings and the role of evaluation in determining the educational value of computer‐based activities are discussed.     

Storing user experiences in mixed reality using hypermedia

This paper describes HyperMem, a system to store and replay user experiences in mixed environments. The experience is stored as a set of hypermedia nodes and links, with the information that was displayed along with the video of the real world that was navigated. It uses a generic hypermedia model, implemented as software components, to handle mixed reality environments. This model includes components for storing and replaying experiences and integrating them in the overall set of hypermedia graphs that can be accessed by a given user. The paper presents the goals of the system, the underlying hypermedia model, the application scenarios, and the architecture and tools for replaying and repurposing stored information.     

The effect of previous experience with information and communication technologies on performance in a Web-based learning program

The purpose of the present study was to analyze the influence of previous experience with information and communication technology (ICT) tools on performance in a Web-based course. Online activity was logged. Specifically, total activities carried out and five online activity measures were computed. One hundred and twenty university undergraduates participated in a Web-based course designed to train personnel trainers to apply ICT in training processes. Before starting the study, participants filled out a questionnaire designed to assess their frequency using ICT tools. At the end of the study, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire in order to collect information about their learning experience and their assessment of the virtual environment. Results suggest that previous experience significantly influences how people organize their online activities, but not the quantity of work carried out. Participants with more experience in the use of Internet tools, organize their work in the virtual classroom using less time and visiting fewer pages in each session. Previous experience did not influence the assessment of the virtual classroom as a training tool, since participants with both high and low previous experience gave extremely positive feedback on their Web-based learning experience.     

Designing a semantic bliki system to support different types of knowledge and adaptive learning

Though blogs and wikis have been used to support knowledge management and e-learning, existing blogs and wikis cannot support different types of knowledge and adaptive learning. A case in point, types of knowledge vary greatly in category and viewpoints. Additionally, adaptive learning is crucial to improving one’s learning performance. This study aims to design a semantic bliki system to tackle such issues. To support various types of knowledge, this study has developed a new social software called “bliki” that combines the advantages of blogs and wikis. This bliki system also applies Semantic Web technology to organize an ontology and a variety of knowledge types. To aid adaptive learning, a function called “Book” is provided to enable learners to arrange personalized learning goals and paths. The learning contents and their sequences and difficulty levels can be specified according to learners’ metacognitive knowledge and collaborative activities. An experiment is conducted to evaluate this system and the experimental results show that this system is able to comprehend various types of knowledge and to improve learners’ learning performance.     

Supporting reflection and dialogue in a community of machine setters: Lessons learned from design and use of a hypermedia type training material

The debate about experience-based or tacit knowledge has focused much attention on the limits to formalisation of work process knowledge. A main line of argument has been that, for example, industrial work even with highly advanced technical equipment can only be performed adequately when the worker through experience on the job has gained a feel for the functioning of the machinery and the properties and behaviour of the materials. In this debate links tend to be created between on the one hand formalised-abstracted-verbal knowledge as opposed to on the other hand informalised-concrete-tacit knowledge. We have worked for some years with the design of training materials which at its core have video documentation of best practice as we have found it at work. In this paper we will present and discuss experience with design and use of a hypermedia type training material, SPRING to be used by new machine setters in the spring industry. Based on our own experience we will argue for the relevance of this type of training materials as a means of supporting reflection and dialogue in the community of practitioners.     

Evolutionary authoring tool for adaptive hypermedia with multimodal navigation

This paper discusses the importance of user adaptation and software evolution in hypermedia applications, and reviews some of the most relevant approaches to both fields. The paper describes a model that has been conceived for the development, maintenance and navigation of adaptive hypermedia systems. This model, called SEMantic, systemic and evolutionary model to develop HyPermedia systems (SEM-HP), includes an incremental design process, a layered architecture and an authoring tool integrated with a navigation tool. SEM-HP architecture is composed of four subsystems, which allow the separation of aspects related to knowledge representation, presentation, navigation and user adaptation. In addition, SEM-HP has a higher layer, which acts as a meta-system and allows a consistent evolution of the elements defined in each of the four subsystems, as well as their automatic co-evolution. Regarding user interaction, four alternative ways of navigating hypermedia information are supported. Finally, the paper shows the main results of two case studies carried out with the authoring and navigation tool, JSEM-HP, at the University of Granada, Spain.     

增强超媒体系统的导游功能

对现有超媒体系统中常用的几种导游机制进行了介绍和分析.借鉴PFNET(pathfinder网)这种网状模型,根据超媒体系统中的节点、链和用户使用习惯,提出了两类导游图,以期对用户浏览信息起到真正的导游作用,解决超媒体系统中的迷路问题.     

Hypermedia and learning: Contrasting interfaces to hypermedia systems

This study explores selected theoretical and design issues associated with the use of hypermedia learning environments to promote the recall, synthesis, integration and retention of information. The study contrasts two different hypermedia systems that contain resources on a complex historical domain. The experimental condition incorporates design features related to complexity, context-dependency and interconnectedness in order to highlight different aspects of its instructional content. The experimental condition was hypothesized to foster greater achievement on tests for synthesis, integration and retention of knowledge and to be more favorably rated by users. The control condition incorporates simple linear design features including several features that are antithetical to those of the experimental condition. The control condition presents the same instructional content in a more rigid and decontextualized manner and was hypothesized to foster greater mastery of factual recall but less synthesis, integration and retention of knowledge. Results however demonstrated that participants in the control condition were able to recall more facts, make more connections between themes in the test for synthesis and retain more facts than participants in the experimental condition. However, differences in overall performance for both hypermedia systems were not statistically significant: neither system had a different effect on learning.     

Applying Learning Style Theory to Web Page Design

ABSTRACT

Library Web sites can be instructional tools, especially for those patrons who utilize library resources from their homes. Many libraries are developing online tutorials, but there is an opportunity for Web instruction on another level. The organization and design of a Web site can act as an instructional tool in itself. This paper is a call to library Web designers to assess their work in terms of learning style preferences. Learning style theory is based on how people process information and learn new material. Applying these ideas to Web page design can make library resources more accessible and improve the patron's comprehension of how the library works.     

AH-questionnaire: An adaptive hierarchical questionnaire for learning styles

One of the main concerns when providing learning style adaptation in Adaptive Educational Hypermedia Systems is the number of questions the students have to answer. Most of the times, adaptive material available will discriminate among a few categories for each learning style dimension. Consequently, it is only needed to take into account the general tendency of the student and not the specific score obtained in each dimension. In this context, we present AH-questionnaire, a new approach to minimize the number of questions needed to classify student Learning Styles. Based on the Felder-Silverman’s Learning Style Model, it aims at classifying students into categories in spite of providing precise scores. The results obtained in a case study with 330 students are very promising. It was possible to predict students’ learning style preference with high accuracy and only a few questions.     

Investigating the relationships among instructional strategies and learning styles in online environments

This exploratory study tests the assertion that instructional strategies that match field-dependence status of students are most effective. The study conducted with 12 graduate students registered in a graduate level online course. An online version of the Psychological Differentiation Inventory was used to measure the field-dependence status of students. Students’ perceived learning outcomes, their effort and involvement, and level of interaction that they perceived in online course module were measured through an online questionnaire. Results suggested that matches between students’ learning styles and instructional strategies did not affect learner perception of their own learning outcomes, level of effort and involvement, and level of interactions in the course. Data also indicated that no single instructional strategy, among three instructional strategies tested, emerged as superior for high and low field-dependent online students.     

Input design for structured nonlinear system identification

This paper is concerned with the input design problem for a class of structured nonlinear models. This class contains models described by an interconnection of known linear dynamic systems and unknown static nonlinearities. Many widely used model structures are included in this class. The model class considered naturally accommodates a priori knowledge in terms of signal interconnections. Under certain structural conditions, the identification problem for this model class reduces to standard least squares. We treat the input design problem in this situation.An expression for the expected estimate variance is derived. A method for synthesizing an informative input sequence that minimizes an upper bound on this variance is developed. This reduces to a convex optimization problem. Features of the solution include parameterization of the expected estimate variance by the input distribution, and a graph-based method for input generation.     

Hypermedia in the ambient wood

The Ambient Wood project, carried out as part of the Equator project, set out to provide an augmented learning experience for children in an outdoor environment. Using a variety of devices, the children gathered information about the woodland habitats performing basic scientific enquiry and hypothesis testing. In this paper, we describe the supporting information infrastructure used in the project, focusing on how hypermedia tools and techniques were used to structure and deliver the information to the children, helping to orchestrate the learning activities.     

Modeling users on the World Wide Web based on cognitive factors,navigation behavior and clustering techniques

This paper focuses on modeling users’ cognitive styles based on a set of Web usage mining techniques on user navigation patterns and clickstream data. Main aim is to investigate whether specific clustering techniques can group users of particular cognitive style using measures obtained from psychometric tests and content navigation behavior. Three navigation metrics are proposed and utilized to find identifiable groups of users that have similar navigation patterns in relation to their cognitive style. The proposed work has been evaluated with two user studies which entail a psychometric-based survey for extracting the users’ cognitive styles, combined with a real usage scenario of users navigating in a controlled Web 2.0 environment. A total of 106 participants of age between 17 and 25 participated in the study providing interesting insights with respect to cognitive styles and navigation behavior of users. Studies like the reported one can be useful for modeling users and assist adaptive Web 2.0 environments to organize and present information and functionalities in an adaptive format to diverse user groups.     

Numerical solution of some initial optimal control problems using the reproducing kernel Hilbert space technique

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present a general technique for solving a class of linear/nonlinear optimal control problems. In fact, an analytical solution of the state variable is represented in the form of a series in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space. Sometimes with the aid of this series form, we can also present the optimal control variable in a series form. An iterative method is given to obtain the approximate optimal control and state variables and the cost functional is numerically obtained. Convergence analysis of the method is also provided. Several numerical examples are tested to demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of the method.     

The role of student learning styles, gender, attitudes and perceptions on information and communication technology assisted learning

The present study adopts an illuminative approach to evaluate students’ initial attitudes towards the use of information and communication technology (ICT). Ninety-nine undergraduate science students participated in this study and their learning styles were classified according to Honey and Mumford (1986) (Honey, P., Mumford, A., 1986. The Manual of Learning styles. Peter Honey, 10 Linden Avenue, Maidenhead) learning style questionnaire. Student learning styles were classified as activist, reflector, theorist, or pragmatist. No significant difference in learning styles was observed between genders and between student cohorts. Six dimensions to student attitudes toward ICT were identified as follows; ‘comfort’, ‘interactivity’, ‘self-satisfaction’, ‘value new technology’, ‘experience’ and ‘context’. Students exhibited low scores in the attitude dimensions of ‘value new technology’, ‘interactivity’ and ‘context’ indicating that they were uncomfortable with computers, were unhappy about the lack of personal contact and would prefer to learn in a more traditional mode. A significant, though weak, negative correlation between the ‘theorist’ and the ‘interactivity’ and ‘context’ attitude dimensions was also observed. In addition, based on the results of this study it appears that first year students exhibit a more positive perception of ICT supported learning than second and third year students. Though the use of ICT in higher education is becoming more widespread based on the results of this study student use of the technology may be limited by a negative attitude toward a style of teaching which is not consistent with their past learning experiences.     

超媒体档案管理系统HyperArchives的分析与设计

分析了档案信息的特点。并在此基础上重点描述了超媒体档案管理系统HyperArchives的设计模型，还简要介绍了系统的总体结构及功能构成。