On the usability and likeability of virtual reality games for education: The case of VR-ENGAGE

Educational software games aim at increasing the students’ motivation and engagement while they learn. However, if software games are targeted to school classrooms they have to be usable and likeable by all students. Usability of virtual reality games may be a problem because these games tend to have complex user interfaces so that they are more attractive. Moreover, if the games acquire an educational content they may lose the attractiveness and appeal that they have on users who are familiar with commercial games. Consequently, likeability may also be questioned. In this paper, we address the issue of usability and likeability of a virtual reality game that is meant to teach students geography. We describe the evaluation experiments conducted, which involved three categories of students in terms of their level of game-playing expertise: novice, intermediate and expert game players. The evaluation results showed that the game was indeed usable and likeable but there was scope for usability and likeability improvement so that the educational benefits may be maximised for all categories of students. The evaluation studies reported in this paper, revealed important issues about further research on virtual reality educational games.     

Characterising effective eLearning resources

The widespread availability of digital learning resources in a variety of media formats offers the possibility to make a profound difference in education. This potential has not been fully realised for range of interrelated reasons. In this paper we study the key characteristics of learning resources that have proved effective in changing learning and teaching, and relate them to existing frameworks for understanding resources. We outline the relationships between resources, their users, and the way they are used, and explore issues that influence practitioners in choosing a particular resource. Our study is based on a review of resources for e-learning and chemistry in post-compulsory education, undertaken for the UK Joint Information Systems Committees (JISC), as part of a wider study examining ‘The Effectiveness of Resources, Tools and Support Services used by Tutors in Designing and Delivering E-Learning Activities’.     

运动控制技术及其相关技术发展研究

阐述了运动控制技术的涵义,并从电机技术、控制器、控制策略等几个方面综合介绍了运动控制技术及其相关技术的现状与发展趋势。     

Smooth Scheduling under Variable Rates or the Analog-Digital Confinement Game

This work considers non-terminating scheduling problems in which a system of multiple resources serves clients having variable needs. The system has m identical resources and n clients; in each time slot each resource may serve at most one client; in each such slot t each client γ has a rate, a real number ρ _γ (t), that specifies his needs in this slot. The rates satisfy the restriction ∑ _γ ρ _γ (t)≤m for any slot t. Except of this restriction, the rates can vary in arbitrary fashion. (This contrasts most prior works in this area in which the rates of the clients are constant.) The schedule is required to be smooth as follows: a schedule is Δ -smooth if for all time intervals I the absolute difference between the amount of service received by each client γ to his nominal needs of ∑ _t∈I ρ _γ (t) is less than Δ. Our objective are online schedulers that produce Δ-smooth schedules where Δ is a small constant which is independent of m and n. Our paper constructs such schedulers; these are the first online Δ-smooth schedulers, with a constant Δ, for clients with arbitrarily variable rates in a single or multiple resource system. Furthermore, the paper also considers a non-concurrent environment in which there is an additional restriction that each client is served at most once in each time slot; it presents the first online smooth schedulers for variable rates under this restriction. The above non-concurrent restriction is crucial in some applications (e.g., CPU scheduling). It has been pointed out that this restriction “adds a surprising amount of difficulty” to the scheduling problem. However, this observation was never formalized and, of course, was never proved. Our paper formalizes and proves some aspects of this observation. Another contribution of this paper is the introduction of a complete information, two player game called the analog-digital confinement game. In such a game pebbles are located on the real line; the two players, the analog player and the digital player, take alternating turns and each one, in his turn, moves some of the pebbles; the digital player moves the pebbles backwards by discrete distances while the analog player moves the pebbles forward by analog distances; the aim of the analog player is to cause one pebble (or more) to escape a pre-defined real interval while the aim of the digital player is to confine the pebbles into the interval. We demonstrate that this game is a convenient framework to study the general question of how to approximate an analog process by a digital one. All the above scheduling results are established via this game. In this derivation, the pebbles represent the clients, the analog player generates the needs of the clients and the digital player generates the schedule. Dedicated to the memory of Professor Shimon Even for his inspiration and encouragement     

设计管理在城市形象设计中的应用——以江西新余市孔目江两岸夜景照明设计为例

优美的滨水绿地夜景为市民提供一个舒适,宜人的夜环境,也为城市带来潜在的效益。它不仅仅属于技术的范畴,还涉及艺术、管理等多方面的内容。城市形象设计需要进行综合的考虑与研究。本文以江西新余市孔目江两岸夜景照明设计为例,从设计管理的角度探索城市视觉识别系统的设计原则,分析城市夜景照明应该注意的问题,对城市形象的设计具有重要的意义。     

浅析龙脉、龙穴在故宫风水中的运用

中国是一个有着悠久历史和灿烂文化的文明古国,北京城便是我们伟大祖国的首都,它有着三千多年的历史,优越的地理位置使它成为历代建都最佳的风水之城——天、地、人合一之城,它保留有我国最大、最完整的古建筑群——故宫。它建造时的严整规划和辉煌壮丽的宫殿,深受中国传统文化和风水术的影响,无处不深深地打上了风水操作的烙印。     

传统文化在城市印象招贴设计中的运用

研究传统文化在城市印象招贴设计当中的运用,目的旨在于发掘传统文化,将传统文化与招贴设计相结合,利用招贴是传达信息的载体这一功能来对城市文化进行宣传,塑造城市的文化品牌。论文通过对传统文化在城市印象主题招贴设计当中运用的调研和分析,发现传统图形、色彩和文字在城市印象招贴设计当中的重要意义。     

新型消费文化趋势下的网络广告策略

网络技术发展和应用的日益广泛,促进了传统消费文化的快速变革,形成一种网络时代的新型消费文化。在这种新型消费文化的影响下,网络广告作为现代企业展开网络营销活动最重要的手段由此应运而生。网络广告设计理念也将具有全新的内涵,广告策略也将一改传统模式而独具特色,趋向于凝结市场、消费场所、审美情趣及生活方式等众多因素的整合,使得网络设计的视觉传达、技术应用、表现形式、运作模式等呈现出全新的面貌。     

城市街区空间引导系统的设计思考

城市街区空间引导系统与人们的日常生活息息相关,为人们的出行提供了便捷的标识引导,同时它也是城市形象的重要组成部分之一。本文分析总结了该系统的设计原则,并从视觉传达学科入手分析其视觉元素的设计。为了设计无语言障碍和有个性、地域化的城市街区空间引导系统,从符号、文字、色彩三方面对其进行设计思考。     

模拟退火粒子群算法在新交通控制模型中的应用

城市交通系统是个随机性很强、复杂的巨型系统,为了获得良好的通行效率,提出了一种基于模拟退火温度的自适应粒子群优化算法,同时给出了一种城市区域交通协调控制信号配时模型,然后将提出的方法应用于此模型。仿真结果表明：这种算法不仅能够克服基本粒子群算法陷入局部寻优的缺点,而且算法的收敛性和稳定性都很好,同时也表明该模型是可行的、有效的。