Avi Parush

Learning Histories in Simulation-Based Teaching: The Effects on Self-Learning and Transfer

Abstract Simulations are recognized as an efficient and effective way of teaching and learning complex, dynamic systems. A new concept of simulation-based teaching with a built-in learning history is introduced in several simulation-based teaching tools. The user of these systems obtains access to past states and decisions and to the consequences of these decisions. To date, there has been very little research on the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning history in simulation-based teaching. In this paper we report the results of a controlled experiment to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of a learning process that takes place in a dynamic simulation. This was done with and without recording and accessing the history of the learning process, along with the ability to restart the simulation from any point. The experiment was based on the simulation teaching tool called the Operations Trainer (OT) that simulates the order fulfillment process in a manufacturing organization, implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The findings show that with the learning history recording and inquiry available to the users of the OT simulator, a better performance was obtained during the learning process itself. Moreover, when the use of the history mechanism was removed after 2 weeks, the better performance still remained. In addition, performance was similarly better in a different context, than the one used in the original learning with access to the learning history. The findings are discussed with respect to the self-learning process in simulation-based teaching environments and the practical implications of using simulators in the growing field of Electronic Learning (E-Learning).

Communication and team situation awareness in the OR: Implications for augmentative information display

Team Situation Awareness (TSA) is one of the critical factors in effective Operating Room (OR) teamwork and can impact patient safety and quality of care. While previous research showed a relationship between situation awareness, as measured by communication events, and team performance, the implications for developing technology to augment and facilitate TSA were not examined. This research aims to further study situation-related communications in the cardiac OR in order to uncover potential degradation in TSA which may lead to adverse events. The communication loop construct-the full cycle of information flow between the participants in the sequence-was used to assess susceptibility to breakdown. Previous research and the findings here suggest that communication loops that are open, non-directed, or with delayed closure, can be susceptible to information loss. These were quantitatively related to communication indicators of TSA such as questions, replies, and announcements. Taken together, both qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that a high proportion of TSA-related communication (63%) can be characterized as susceptible to information loss. The findings were then used to derive requirements and design a TSA augmentative display. The design principles and potential benefits of such a display are outlined and discussed.

Navigation and orientation in 3D user interfaces: the impact of navigation aids and landmarks

This study examined how users acquire spatial cognition in 3D user interfaces depicting an on-screen virtual environment. The study was divided into two main phases: learning and a test of learning transfer. The learning phase consisted of participants directly navigating (search for objects) in the on-screen virtual environment using one of two navigation aids: a visual map or a route list. In addition, there were two virtual environments, one with landmarks and the other without landmarks. Learning transfer was examined by testing both navigation and orientation tasks (relative-direction pointing) in the environment without the use of the navigation aids. Findings show that while the initial navigation with a map appeared to be harder, with longer navigation times and more navigation steps than with a route list, this difference became insignificant at the end of the learning phase. Moreover, performance degradation upon removal of the navigation aids was less for those that navigated with a map as compared to route list. A similar pattern was found for the impact of landmarks, Initial navigation with landmarks appeared to be harder than without landmarks, but this difference became insignificant at the end of the learning phase. Moreover, performance degradation upon removal of the navigation aid was less for those that navigated with landmarks as compared to no landmarks. Finally, the combined impact of both the navigation aid used in the learning and the presence of landmarks was primarily evident in the orientation task. Relative direction pointing was better for those who learnt with a map without landmarks, or with route list with landmarks. The findings are discussed in terms of the impact of navigations aids and landmarks on the acquisition of route and survey knowledge in spatial cognition. In addition, some gender differences are discussed in terms of different strategies in spatial cognition acquisition.

Web navigation structures in cellular phones: the depth/breadth trade-off issue

Abstract One can browse the web with a variety of devices, including hand-held devices such as the cellular phone. The small screen of those devices poses some serious usability issues, one of which is the appropriate hierarchy depth of the web site. In this study, we empirically examined whether a broad navigation structure, which was found to be superior in regular screen-size platforms, also has an advantage for a small-screen device such as the cellular phone where it may require more movements and scrolling between screens of the same hierarchical level. Navigation times and success rates were measured for two search tasks in a mock web site that was built in two versions: one with a broad navigation structure and the other with a deep structure. Both structures were tested with cellular phone emulation and a standard desktop personal computer (PC). Results indicate that performance was better with the broad navigation structure for both the cellular phone and the PC. In addition, performance was better with the PC as compared to the cellular phone, and this difference was pronounced in the broad structure. The results are discussed in terms of the impact of device-independent characteristics of the hierarchy depth along with the theoretical account of increased working memory load, confusion and disorientation associated more with deep structures.

Helping people with visual impairments gain access to graphical information through natural language: the iGraph system

Much numerical information is visualized in graphs. However, this is a medium that is problematic for people with visual impairments. We have developed a system called iGraph which provides short verbal descriptions of the information usually depicted in graphs. This system was used as a preliminary solution that was validated through a process of User Needs Analysis (UNA). This process provided some basic data on the needs of people with visual impairments in terms of the components and the language to be used for graph comprehension and also validated our initial approach. The UNA provided important directions for the further development of iGraph particularly in terms of interactive querying of graphs

Simulation-based learning: The learning-forgetting-relearning process and impact of learning history

The results of empirical experiments evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the learning-forgetting-relearning process in a dynamic project management simulation environment are reported. Sixty-six graduate engineering students performed repetitive simulation-runs with a break period of several weeks between the runs. The students used a teaching tool called the project management trainer (PMT) that simulates a generic dynamic, stochastic project management environment. In this research, we focused on the effect of history recording mechanism on the learning forgetting process. Manual or automatic history recording mechanisms were used by the experimental group, while the control group did not use any history recording mechanism. The findings indicate that for the initial learning phase, the manual mechanism is better than the automatic mechanism. However, for the relearning phase, the break period length influenced the performance after the break. When the break period is short, the manual history keeping mechanism is better, but for a long period break, there is no significant difference. A comparison between the experimental group and the control group revealed that using any history recording mechanism reduced forgetting. Based on the findings, some practical implications of using simulators to improve the learning-forgetting process are discussed.

Impact of visualization type and contextual factors on performance with enterprise resource planning systems

We studied the use of two types of graphic information visualization to support human operators performing tasks using enterprise resource planning systems (ERP). We compared the original display design of a commercial ERP system with a prototype information visualization design. A simulated supply chain was used to test the hypothesis that graphical visualization can improve the performance of the human operator using ERP systems for supply chain management. Tasks from the production and purchasing domains were tested in the experiment in which experienced and inexperienced human operators had to perform tasks of an easy, moderate, and difficult nature. Analysis of the results revealed that the two types of graphical visualization significantly reduced response time, particularly with inexperienced users performing difficult tasks. Our results imply that some graphic information visualization displays for ERP systems can increase the probability of a successful implementation and enhance the capabilities of the human operators.

The Impact of Visual Layout Factors on Performance in Web Pages: A Cross-Language Study:

Visual layout has a strong impact on performance and is a critical factor in the design of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and Web pages. Many design guidelines employed in Web page design were inherited from human performance literature and GUI design studies and practices. However, few studies have investigated the more specific patterns of performance with Web pages that may reflect some differences between Web page and GUI design. We investigated interactions among four visual layout factors in Web page design (quantity of links, alignment, grouping indications, and density) in two experiments: one with pages in Hebrew, entailing right-to-left reading, and the other with English pages, entailing left-to-right reading. Some performance patterns (measured by search times and eye movements) were similar between languages. Performance was particularly poor in pages with many links and variable densities, but it improved with the presence of uniform density. Alignment was not shown to be a performance-enhancing factor. The findings are discussed in terms of the similarities and differences in the impact of layout factors between GUIs and Web pages. Actual or potential applications of this research include specific guidelines for Web page design.

Perceptually Valid Facial Expressions for Character-Based Applications

This paper addresses the problem of creating facial expression of mixed emotions in a perceptually valid way. The research has been done in the context of a “game-like” health and education applications aimed at studying social competency and facial expression awareness in autistic children as well as native language learning, but the results can be applied to many other applications such as games with need for dynamic facial expressions or tools for automating the creation of facial animations. Most existing methods for creating facial expressions of mixed emotions use operations like averaging to create the combined effect of two universal emotions. Such methods may be mathematically justifiable but are not necessarily valid from a perceptual point of view. The research reported here starts by user experiments aiming at understanding how people combine facial actions to express mixed emotions, and how the viewers perceive a set of facial actions in terms of underlying emotions. Using the results of these experiments and a three-dimensional emotion model, we associate facial actions to dimensions and regions in the emotion space, and create a facial expression based on the location of the mixed emotion in the three-dimensional space. We call these regionalized facial actions “facial expression units.”

Speech-Based Interaction in Multitask Conditions: Impact of Prompt Modality

Speech-based interaction is often recognized as appropriate for hands-busy, eyes-busy multitask situations. The objective of this study was to explore prompt-guided speech-based interaction and the impact of prompt modality on overall performance in such situations. A dual-task paradigm was employed, with tracking as a primary task and speech-based data input as a secondary task. There were three tracking conditions: no tracking, basic, and difficult tracking. Two prompt modalities were used for the speech interaction: a dialogue with spoken prompts and a dialogue with visual prompts. Data entry duration was longer with the speech prompts than with the visual prompts, regardless of whether or not there was tracking or its level of difficulty. However, when tracking was difficult, data entry duration was similar for both spoken and visual prompts. Tracking performance was also affected by the prompt modality, with poorer performance obtained when the prompts were visual. The findings are discussed in terms of multiple resource theory and the possible implications for speech-based interactions in multitask situations. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of speech-based dialogues for multitask situations such as driving and other hands-busy, eyes-busy situations.