Effects of augmented reality-based multidimensional concept maps on students’ learning achievement,motivation and acceptance

Universal Access in the Information Society - In this study, an augmented reality-based multidimensional concept map (ARMCM) learning system is proposed for conducting mobile learning activities....     

Three-dimensional beam propagation method based on the variable transformed Galerkin''''s method

A novel three-dimensional beam propagation method (BPM) based on the variable transformed Galerkin's method is introduced for simulating optical field propagation in three-dimensional dielectric structures. The infinite Cartesian x-y plane is mapped into a unit square by a tangent-type function transformation. Consequently, the infinite region problem is converted into the finite region problem. Thus, the boundary truncation is eliminated and the calculation accuracy is promoted. The three-dimensional BPM basic equation is reduced to a set of first-order ordinary differential equations through sinusoidal basis function, which fits arbitrary cladding optical waveguide, then direct solution of the resulting equations by means of the Runge-Kutta method. In addition, the calculation is efficient due to the small matrix derived from the present technique. Both z-invariant and z-variant examples are considered to test both the accuracy and utility of this approach.     

Hyperspectral anomaly detection based on constrained eigenvalue–eigenvector model

Anomaly detection in a large area using hyperspectral imaging is an important application in real-time remote sensing. Anomaly detectors based on subspace models are suitable for such an anomaly and usually assume the main background subspace and its dimensions are known. These detectors can detect the anomaly for a range of values of the dimension of the subspace. The objective of this paper is to develop an anomaly detector that extends this range of values by assuming main background subspace with an unknown user-specified dimension and by imposing covariance of error to be a diagonal matrix. A pixel from the image is modeled as the sum of a linear combination of the unknown main background subspace and an unknown error. By having more unknown quantities, there are more degrees of freedom to find a better way to fit data to the model. By having a diagonal matrix for the covariance of the error, the error components become uncorrelated. The coefficients of the linear combination are unknown, but are solved by using a maximum likelihood estimation. Experimental results using real hyperspectral images show that the anomaly detector can detect the anomaly for a significantly larger range of values for the dimension of the subspace than conventional anomaly detectors.     

Study on the influencing factors of the flight crew’s TSA based on DEMATEL–ISM method

Cognition, Technology & Work - It is increasingly being recognized that the flight crew’s team situation awareness (TSA) is essential for flight safety. To explore the inherent...     

Sensor‐independent analysis method for hyperspectral data based on the pattern decomposition method

This paper describes a modified pattern decomposition method with a supplementary pattern. The proposed approach can be regarded either as a type of spectral mixing analysis or as a kind of multivariate analysis; the later explanation is more suitable considering the presence of the additional supplementary patterns. The sensor‐independent method developed herein uses the same normalized spectral patterns for any sensor: fixed multi‐band (1260 bands) spectra serve as the universal standard spectral patterns. The resulting pattern decomposition coefficients showed sensor independence. That is, regardless of sensor, the three coefficients had nearly the same values for the same samples. The estimation errors for pattern decomposition coefficients depended on the sensor used. The estimation errors for Landsat/MSS and ALOS/AVNIR‐2 were larger than those of Landsat/TM (ETM+), Terra/MODIS and ADEOS‐II/GLI. The latter three sensors had negligibly small errors.     

Mining students’ behavior in web-based learning programs

There has been a proliferation of web-based learning programs (WBLPs). Unlike traditional computer-based learning programs, WBLPs are used by a population of learners who have diverse background. How different learners access the WBLPs has been investigated by several studies, which indicate that cognitive style is an important factor that influences learners’ preferences. However, these studies mainly use statistical methods to analyze learners’ preferences. In this paper, we propose to analyze learners’ preferences with a data mining technique. Findings in our study show that Field Independent learners frequently use backward/forward buttons and spent less time for navigation. On the other hand, Field Dependent learners often use main menu and have more repeated visiting. Implications for these findings are discussed.     

Book2U and students’ learning styles: the effect of learning styles on intention to use a social media-enabled tool

Universal Access in the Information Society - This study investigated the factors that affect the intention to use social media for learning among students from the higher learning institutions. A...     

A personalized recommendation method under the cloud platform based on users’ long-term preferences and instant interests

Rich consumer online text data are embedded in the cloud platform. Using new technologies has become a central issue for acquiring consumer preference, analyzing consumer demand, and performing personalized recommendation services. In order to recommend the cloud platform services efficiently and accurately, this paper proposes a personalized recommendation model referred to as Residual bi-directional Recurrent Neural Network with Dual Attentive mechanism (BiRDA) for the service recommend to cloud platforms, by combining users’ long-term preferences with instant interest. The proposed recommender prototype is summarized as follows. (1) Analyzing the relationship between long-term preferences and instant interests based on co-opetition theory. (2) Extracting users’ online text data from the cloud platform. (3) Deriving the product attribute words of user preference using an analysis of online text data. (4) Product attribute words are transformed into the form of word vectors. (5) The word vector is input into the Residual bi-directional Recurrent Neural Network (Res-BiRNN) to make the prediction. On the one hand, the long-term preference is expressed by the user's field of expertise (i.e., answer content). On the other hand, the even interest is expressed by the user's changing interest (i.e., question data). (6) Assigning different weights to long-term preferences and instant interest using the dual attention mechanism to output predictions. (7) Generating recommendation lists for users based on the predicted values. Accordingly, BiRDA is compared with five state-of-the-art recommendation methods (i.e., DREAM, BINN, SHAN, Caser, and DeepMove), as well as six variants of the BiRDA model, Using users’ Q&A datasets from NiorcngeCDS cloud platform, XMAKE cloud platform, and Asksubarme cloud platform as examples. The experiments show that the proposed method is more efficient and accurate than the other models. Therefore, the study offers some important insights into allowing a large number of resources under the cloud platform to be fully utilized and provides a novel idea for the construction of the cloud platform front-end.     

Plagiarism detection in students’ programming assignments based on semantics: multimedia e-learning based smart assessment methodology

Multimedia Tools and Applications - The multimedia-based e-Learning methodology provides virtual classrooms to students. The teacher uploads learning materials, programming assignments and quizzes...     

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease based on the state-of-the-art deep learning approach: a comprehensive survey

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a form of brain disorder that causes functions’ loss in a person’s daily activity. Due to the tremendous progress...     

Enhancing students’ botanical learning by using augmented reality

Universal Access in the Information Society - Scientific literacy is considered a crucial part of learners’ basic capacities. In primary schools, scientific literacy is generally cultivated...     

Applying online externally-facilitated regulated learning and computational thinking to improve students’ learning

This study aims to explore, via quasi-experiments, the effects of online externally-facilitated regulated learning (ERL) and computational thinking (CT) on improving students’ computing skills in a blended learning environment. Four classes in a one-semester course entitled ‘Applied Information Technology: Data Processing’ were the samples for this research. The first class (C1, ERL&CT group) simultaneously received the interventions regarding online ERL and CT, the second class (C2, CT group) received the intervention regarding online CT, and the third class (C3, ERL group) received the intervention regarding online CT, while the last group (C4, control group) received a traditional teaching method, although teaching was also conducted in a blended computing class. Students in ERL&CT group and CT group came from the Department of Finance, while the ERL group and control group came from the Department of Law at a comprehensive university. According to the posttest analysis, the results indicate that students who received the intervention of online ERL had statistically better development of computing skills for using Excel by semester-end than those without. In addition, this study also reveals that the application of online CT alone could be helpful in students’ development of computing skills. Furthermore, the results indicate that students’ computing skills could be improved under the condition of simultaneously applying ERL and CT. Based on the findings of this study, the authors present implications for online teachers and educators, particularly for those teaching computing courses.     

Partial semi-coarsening multigrid method based on the HOC scheme on nonuniform grids for the convection–diffusion problems

A partial semi-coarsening multigrid method based on the high-order compact (HOC) difference scheme on nonuniform grids is developed to solve the 2D convection–diffusion problems with boundary or internal layers. The significance of this study is that the multigrid method allows different number of grid points along different coordinate directions on nonuniform grids. Numerical experiments on some convection–diffusion problems with boundary or internal layers are conducted. They demonstrate that the partial semi-coarsening multigrid method combined with the HOC scheme on nonuniform grids, without losing the high-order accuracy, is very efficient and effective to decrease the computational cost by reducing the number of grid points along the direction which does not contain boundary or internal layers.     

Effect of AR-based online wearable guides on university students’ situational interest and learning performance

Universal Access in the Information Society - This study addresses whether augmented reality (AR)-based online wearable guides are better at improving learners’ situational interest (with...     

Predicting students’ learning style using learning analytics: a case study of business management students from India

ABSTRACT

Business Management Education in India has shown an upward growth trend in the last couple of decades. Due to the diverse nature of the course, students from diverse academic backgrounds are being admitted to the course. Therefore, differences in students’ abilities and their learning styles have a significant effect on their learning outcomes. Meanwhile, with the development of learning technologies, learners can be provided a more effective learning environment to optimise their learning. The purpose of this study was to develop a model to automatically detect the students’ learning styles from their personal, academic and social media data and make recommendations for students, teachers, educators and administrators for overall improvement of learning outcomes. Data analysis in this research was represented using data collected from post-graduate business management students in India. A 10-fold cross-validation was used to create and test the models. The data were analysed by R and R-Studio. Classification accuracy, Precision, Recall, Kappa, ROC curve and F measure were observed. The results showed that the accuracy of classification by the C4.5 technique had the highest value at 95.7%, and it could be applied to develop Felder–Silverman’s learning style while taking into consideration students’ academic, personal information and social media preferences.     

Intelligent control using multiple models based on on-line learning

In this paper we deal with the problem of plants with large parameter variations under different operating modes. A novel intelligent control algorithm based on multiple models is proposed to improve the dynamical response performance. At the same time adaptive model bank is applied to establish models without prior system information. Multiple models and corresponding controllers are automatically established on-line by a conventionally adaptive model and a re-initialized one. A best controller is chosen by the performance function at every instant. The closed-loop system’s stability and asymptotical convergence of tracking error can be guaranteed. Simulation results have confirmed the validity of the proposed method.     

Development of dense models of the Earth’s surface based on the semiglobal matching method for the case of multiple overlapping images

A method is developed for constructing a three-dimensional digital surface model based on the use of aerial images with multiple overlapping. The specific feature of this study is the use of the multiview matching method instead of stereo matching. The method is based on adapting the energy aggregation algorithm, which was proposed in the semiglobal matching (SGM) method, to the object space, as well as using the one-to-many scheme of cost calculation. The reconstructed scene is represented as a voxel grid. A high-performance implementation of the digital surface model construction at all stages is proposed based on the massive parallelization of computations on a graphics processing unit.     

Gesture image segmentation with Otsu’s method based on noise adaptive angle threshold

By analyzing the essence and deficiency of the improved Otsu’s method, this paper proposes a noise adaptive angle threshold based Otsu’s method for gesture image segmentation. It first designs a two-dimensional histogram of gray value-neighborhood truncated gray mean to avoid the interference of extreme noise by discarding the extremes of the neighborhood. Then, the probability that the pixel is noise is calculated according to the actual situation, adaptive filtering is implemented to enhance the algorithm’s universal applicability. It finally converts the threshold space to an angle space from 0° to 90°, and the threshold search range is compressed to improve its efficiency. As the gesture is close to the background and the boundary is blurred, this paper combines the global and local Otsu’s method to segment the gesture images based on the angle space. On the one hand, it uses the global Otsu’s method to obtain the global threshold t₁. On the other hand, it uses the local Otsu’s method to obtain the local threshold t₂, and segments gesture images based on t₂. Experimental results show that the proposed method is effective and can accurately segment gesture images with different noises.