Future integrated learning environments with multimedia

Abstract  Recent progress in information technology hardware and the spread of the Internet have opened a variety of new ways for many fields. Although slower than the business field to catch up with these new developments, the educational field has gradually migrated towards the World-wide web, mostly under the slogan of free, accessible education, to and from anyplace, at anytime. This development triggered an important shift from the teaching paradigm to the learning paradigm. However, slow network speed hindered the first learning environments from being more than simple, electronic text-books. The latest trends making use of increased bandwidths and integrating various media to enhance learning. Moreover, for obtaining learner-oriented, customised learning environ-ments, intelligent tutoring techniques are being adapted and developed for the web. This paper presents these trends on one hand, but on the other hand, also addresses the dangers and pitfalls that such an avalanche of change can bring and stresses the task of ensuring that the real goal of enhancing and improving learning is not overlooked.     

Supporting software designers with integrated domain-orienteddesign environments

An approach that embeds human-computer cooperative problem-solving tools into knowledge-based design environments that work in conjunction with human software designers in specific application domains is described. This human-centered approach takes advantage of peoples' ability to understand and incrementally reformulate their problems, while allowing them to contribute to the gradual improvement of the underlying knowledge base. The notion of evolution circumvents the inability of the original builders of a design environment to anticipate all future needs and knowledge for complete coverage of a domain. The access and development of knowledge is supported in a cycle of location, comprehension, and modification. Modification includes the evolution of the knowledge base and tools. A framework for building such tools and mechanisms is described and illustrated in terms of three systems: CATALOGEXPLORER, EXPLAINER, and MODIFIER. User studies of these systems demonstrate the promise and the limitations of the design environment approach     

A blueprint for integrated eye-controlled environments

Eye-based environmental control requires innovative solutions for supporting effective user interaction, for allowing home automation and control, and for making homes more “attentive” to user needs. Several approaches have already been proposed, which can be seen as isolated attempts to address partial issues and specific sub-sets of the general problem. This paper aims at tackling gaze-based home automation as a whole, exploiting state-of-the-art technologies and trying to integrate interaction modalities that are currently supported and that may be supported in the near future. User–home interaction is sought through two, complementary, interaction patterns: direct interaction and mediated interaction. Integration between home appliances and devices and user interfaces is granted by a central point of abstraction and harmonization called House Manager. Innovative points can be identified in the wide flexibility of the approach which allows on one side to integrate virtually all home devices having a communication interface, and, on the other side, combines direct and mediated user interaction exploiting the advantages of both. A discussion of interaction and accessibility issues is also provided, justifying the presented approach from the point of view of human–environment interaction.     

Information management for integrated design environments

This paper identifies requirements for an engineering design information management system. Future CAD systems must support a wide range of activities — such as definition, manipulation and analyses of complex product information models. These models represent not only conventional data associated with current CAD applications, but also design information characterizing the correlations between the requirements, functions, behaviors and physical form of the product. Such functionality is important for both the individual designer and the design organization, as the need to manage information as a corporate asset is becoming a critical component of business strategy. This paper explores these needs using two design studies. The first study illustrates some major concepts relative to non-routine design activities, while the second study focuses on the routine design activities relative to organization interactions. These studies were used to elicit high level requirements which serve as the basis for the development of prototype software systems. These prototypes are briefly introduced here.     

Developing applications using model-driven design environments

Historically, software development methodologies have focused more on improving tools for system development than on developing tools that assist with system composition and integration. Component-based middleware like Enterprise Java-Beans (EJB), Microsoft .NET, and the CORBA Component Model (CCM) have helped improve software reusability through component abstraction. However, as developers have adopted these commercial off-the-shelf technologies, a wide gap has emerged between the availability and sophistication of standard software development tools like compilers and debuggers, and the tools that developers use to compose, analyze, and test a complete system or system of systems. As a result, developers continue to accomplish system integration using ad hoc methods without the support of automated tools. Model-driven development is an emerging paradigm that solves numerous problems associated with the composition and integration of large-scale systems while leveraging advances in software development technologies such as component-based middleware. MDD elevates software development to a higher level of abstraction than is possible with third-generation programming languages.     

Dependability enhancing mechanisms for integrated clinical environments

In this article, we present a set of lightweight mechanisms to enhance the dependability of a safety-critical real-time distributed system referred to as an integrated clinical environment (ICE). In an ICE, medical devices are interconnected and work together with the help of a supervisory computer system to enhance patient safety during clinical operations. Inevitably, there are strong dependability requirements on the ICE. We introduce a set of mechanisms that essentially make the supervisor component a trusted computing base, which can withstand common hardware failures and malicious attacks. The mechanisms rely on the replication of the supervisor component and employ only one input-exchange phase into the critical path of the operation of the ICE. Our analysis shows that the runtime latency overhead is much lower than that of traditional approaches.     

Tools that bind: creating integrated environments

Software engineering tools are critical to the progress of software development, virtually defining the limits of what developers can accomplish. Each generation of tools is preceded by promises of shorter life cycles, greater productivity, greater portability and simplified maintenance. Unfortunately, these promises are often not realized, primarily because tool creators cannot overcome the difficulties associated with integrating tools into a cohesive environment one that is adaptable to both development and maintenance organizations. The paper discusses a list of considerations for managers when evaluating how well a tool fits the organisation's context. It considers integrated project support environments     

Diagnostic,predictive and compositional modeling with data mining in integrated learning environments

Models represent a set of generic patterns to test hypotheses. This paper presents the CogMoLab student model in the context of an integrated learning environment. Three aspects are discussed: diagnostic and predictive modeling with respect to the issues of credit assignment and scalability and compositional modeling of the student profile in the context of an intelligent tutoring system/adaptive hypermedia learning system architectural pattern. The SOM–PCA, a collaborative-based data mining approach, is shown to be reusable for all three purposes above, enabling fast, objective implementations without requiring much intensive data collection.     

Students' experience of component versus integrated virtual learning environments

Abstract The use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) has become increasingly common in most higher education (HE) institutions. Recent developments have proposed the interoperability of software systems and content, to create component VLEs in contrast with the integrated, monolithic ones that are currently prevalent. This paper examines the student experience of two VLEs, one integrated approach and the other component. In general, students preferred the component system, although this may have been influenced by other factors such as performance. Although the study is limited to one cohort of student it makes a number of suggestions relevant to anyone deploying a VLE. These are that the component approach is a viable one from a student perspective, the broader context in which the VLE operates is important in student perception and that poor system performance may have unpredictable consequences for the learning experience.     

Solutions to Industrial Engineering problems using integrated software environments

The development of word processing systems and the spreadsheet environment marked the beginning of the professional computing movement. For the first time, programs were available that were both highly functional and highly usable, even by non-computer people. The next group of “hot” programs in the business market were “integrated” packages providing a combination of word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphics, and telecommunications. Unfortunately, these integrated packages have not displaced such single purpose programs as Lotus 1-2-3, dBase and WordPerfect as the dominant forces in desktop computing. Integrated packages are generally perceived as complex, cumbersome, and difficult to master. An important point to note, however, is that high proficiency is not necessary; successful users of commercial software seldom know or use more that 40% of a programs functionality.

This paper addresses the use of integrated software packages to solve Industrial Engineering problems. More specifically, examples are presented demonstrating the use of Ashton Tate's Framework II to solve production and operations management problems. Sample applications include forecasting, after tax economic analysis, and data storage and retrieval, demonstrating the advantages of linking word processing, spreadsheets, and databases.     

Developing usability heuristics with PROMETHEUS: A case study in virtual learning environments

Heuristic evaluation is one of the most widely-used methods for evaluating the usability of a software product. Proposed in 1990 by Nielsen and Molich, it consists in having a small group of evaluators performing a systematic revision of a system under a set of guiding principles known as usability heuristics. Although Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics are used as the de facto standard in the process of heuristic evaluation, recent research has provided evidence not only for the need of custom domain specific heuristics, but also for the development of methodological processes to create such sets of heuristics. In this work we apply the PROMETHEUS methodology, recently proposed by the authors, to develop the VLEs heuristics: a novel set of usability heuristics for the domain of virtual learning environments. In addition to the development of these heuristics, our research serves as further empirical validation of PROMETHEUS. To validate our results we performed an heuristic evaluation using both VLEs and Nielsen’s heuristics. Our design explicitly controls the effect of evaluator variability by using a large number of evaluators. Indeed, for both sets of heuristics the evaluation was performed independently by 7 groups of 5 evaluators each. That is, there were 70 evaluators in total, 35 using VLEs and 35 using Nielsen’s heuristics. In addition, we perform rigorous statistical analyses to establish the validity of the novel VLEs heuristics. The results show that VLEs perform better than Nielsen’s heuristics, finding more problems, which are also more relevant to the domain, as well as satisfying other quantitative and qualitative criteria. Finally, in contrast to evaluators using Nielsen’s heuristics, evaluators using VLEs heuristics reported greater satisfaction regarding utility, clarity, ease of use, and need of additional elements.     

一种基于静态和动态信任的普适环境信任模型

针对普适环境中现有信任模型对信任证据的考虑存在片面性的问题,在分析四种信任证据的基础上,将信任分为静态和动态两种类型,并提出了一种基于该分类方法的信任模型,描述了该模型的工作机制。该模型克服了对信任证据考虑不完整的缺陷,有利于在普适实体之间建立起可靠的信任关系,提高系统的安全性。     

An integrated solution for an autonomous drone racing in indoor environments

Intelligent Service Robotics - The use of drones is becoming more present in modern daily life. One of the most challenging tasks associated with these vehicles is the development of perception and...     

Developing distributed applications for integrated product and process design

A heterogeneous computing environment characterizes today's manufacturing situation. This is a stumbling block for the efficient implementation of manufacturing concepts such as integrated product and process design (IPPD). A computing environment for IPPD would require the seamless integration of the various product and process design software systems. The exchange of information between these systems should be efficient, compatible and synchronous. This article presents an approach for developing distributed manufacturing applications that are compatible and synchronized and thus, able to support IPPD. The approach involves the use of a common manufacturing application ‘middleware’, which is distributed between a central geometric modelling server and application clients. The portability of the middleware is ensured through the use of Java for code portability and XML for data portability. The compatible product model problem is solved through the use of common data structures developed using reusable application client classes. Efficient transfer of product data is proposed using compressed model information embedded in a product data XML schema. Synchronization of design changes among all applications is achieved through the creation of relationships on an Application Relationship Manager.     

Active participation of integrated development environments in the teaching of object-oriented programming

With the strong link between programming and the underlying technology, the incorporation of computer technology into the teaching of a programming language course should be a natural progression. However, the abstract nature of programming can make such integration a difficult prospect to achieve. As a result, the main development tool, the Integrated Development Environment, generally takes a passive role during the learning process. These software environments play a pivotal role in the development process and so should perform a more active role in the overall academic process. This paper describes the pronounced D-Chk system, which is an integrated development environment for the Java language. This system allows tighter integration between the theory and the practical aspects by incorporating several user interface and functionality enhancements.     

Developing a model to evaluate and improve user experience with hand motions in virtual reality environments

Universal Access in the Information Society - In video games, the evaluation of the user experience (UX) mainly refers to two main groups of aspects, those that refer to the player that is mainly...     

Simulation of electron spin resonance spectroscopy in diverse environments: An integrated approach

We discuss in this work a new software tool, named E-SpiReS (Electron Spin Resonance Simulations), aimed at the interpretation of dynamical properties of molecules in fluids from electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements. The code implements an integrated computational approach (ICA) for the calculation of relevant molecular properties that are needed in order to obtain spectral lines. The protocol encompasses information from atomistic level (quantum mechanical) to coarse grained level (hydrodynamical), and evaluates ESR spectra for rigid or flexible single or multi-labeled paramagnetic molecules in isotropic and ordered phases, based on a numerical solution of a stochastic Liouville equation.E-SpiReS automatically interfaces all the computational methodologies scheduled in the ICA in a way completely transparent for the user, who controls the whole calculation flow via a graphical interface.Parallelized algorithms are employed in order to allow running on calculation clusters, and a web applet Java has been developed with which it is possible to work from any operating system, avoiding the problems of recompilation.E-SpiReS has been used in the study of a number of different systems and two relevant cases are reported to underline the promising applicability of the ICA to complex systems and the importance of similar software tools in handling a laborious protocol.

Program summary

Program title: E-SpiReSCatalogue identifier: AEEM_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEEM_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: GPL v2.0No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 311 761No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 10 039 531Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: C (core programs) and Java (graphical interface)Computer: PC and MacintoshOperating system: Unix and WindowsHas the code been vectorized or parallelized?: YesRAM: 2 048 000 000Classification: 7.2External routines: Babel-1.1, CLAPACK, BLAS, CBLAS, SPARSEBLAS, CQUADPACK, LEVMARNature of problem:Ab initio simulation of cw-ESR spectra of radicals in solutionSolution method: E-SpiReS uses an hydrodynamic approach to calculate the diffusion tensor of the molecule, DFT methodologies to evaluate magnetic tensors and linear algebra techniques to solve numerically the stochastic Liouville equation to obtain an ESR spectrum.Running time: Variable depending on the task. It takes seconds for small molecules in the fast motional regime to hours for big molecules in viscous and/or ordered media.