Dilek Karahoca

Information system design for a hospital emergency department: A usability analysis of software prototypes

STUDY OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usability of emergency department (ED) software prototypes developed for Tablet personal computers (Tablet PCs) in order to keep electronic health records (EHRs) of patients errorless and accessible through mobile technologies. In order to serve this purpose, two alternative prototypes were developed for Tablet PCs: Mobile Emergency Department Software (MEDS) and Mobile Emergency Department Software Iconic (MEDSI) among which the user might choose the more appropriate one for ED operations based on a usability analysis involving the target users. METHODS The study is based on a case study of 32 potential users of our prototypes at the ED of Kadikoy-AHG in Istanbul, Turkey. We examined usability of the prototypes for medical information systems by means of Nielsens heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough methods relying on 7-point scales, and scenario completion success rate and average scenario completion time, respectively. RESULTS The implementation of MEDSI in our case study confirmed the view that the usability evaluation results of iconic GUIs were better than those of non-iconic GUIs in terms of Nielsens heuristic evaluation, effectiveness and user satisfaction. For the whole sample, paired t-test scores indicated that there was a significant difference (p<0.01) between mean values of Nielsens usability scores toward MEDS and MEDSI indicating that MEDSI was evaluated more favorably than MEDS. As for effectiveness of the prototypes, significant differences (p<0.01) were noted between MEDS and MEDSI in terms of both overall scenario completion success rate and average scenario completion time. Similarly, for the full sample of users independent sample t-test scores indicated that MEDSI was perceived significantly more favorable (p<0.01) than MEDS in terms of overall user satisfaction. CONCLUSION The study provides two important contributions to the extant literature. First, it addresses a topic and methodology that serves potentially interesting to the biomedical informatics community. Drawing on good background information and appropriate context, it involves various aspects of usability testing. Another contribution of the study lies in its examination of two different prototypes during the design phase involving the target users.

E-learning success model for instructors’ satisfactions in perspective of interaction and usability outcomes

Abstract E-learning approaches could be handled in a system design view in which the system components and factors have critical roles in order to assure success of whole system. In such an e-learning design view, online instructors (or faculties) have the most critical role as the most important actor. Therefore there is an emerging need for investigating the factors affecting instructors’ performance in e-learning systems. Satisfaction is one of these factors that affect usability of the system which also directly affect instructors’ performance. In this study, factors related to instructors’ satisfaction in e-learning systems have been investigated in order to develop a basic model called “E-Learning Success Model for Instructors’ Satisfactions” which is related to social, intellectual and technical interactions of instructors in whole e-learning system. “E-Learning Success Model for Instructors’ Satisfactions” could be a basic guide for e-learning designers, online instructors and policy makers to understand interaction and usability outcomes related to satisfaction of instructors.

Is SMS still alive for education: Analysis of educational potentials of SMS technology?

Abstract Mobile phone, especially SMS concept is a fairly old technology. In spite of the fact that there are some applications of using SMS capabilities of mobile phones in education, the usage is not widely in all educational areas. Still, there is a need to understand how SMS technology could be applicable for education in different ways. Hence, in this study, authors’ investigate possible educational use of SMS by providing a detailed analysis of the technology and examples of different research studies of successful implementations in education. This study may be a guide for school administrators and policy makers to understand educational technology potential of SMS by providing benefits and drawbacks of the technology.

Robotics teaching in primary school education by project based learning for supporting science and technology courses

Abstract This study investigates robotics education to support science and technology courses for primary school education in Private Evrim College in Istanbul. This research is a kind of case study on a group of students who are having a robotics education. The robotics education is not only providing information to students about robot making also help them to improve their skills and abilities. First starting point is introducing equipments for designing electronic circuits and teaching fundamental principles for robot making. Robotics education performed with 16 students between 10 and 15 years old and they are distributed in 4 groups. In the research, it will be seen that students can learn and apply their skills on designing circuits while they are discussing with classmates by the means of collaborative learning and project based learning. Also, students have been attended to the race in their schools. Furthermore the winner group is competed in a robotics competition which is held every year in Istanbul Technical University. Consequently, the findings and evaluations help to understand that robotics education to support students’ life, moreover, affecting their science performance and relationships with friends in class positively.

Diagnosis of diabetes by using adaptive neuro fuzzy inference systems

Most of discoveries indicate that the best way to overcome diabetes is to prevent the risks of diabetes before becoming a diabetic. With this opinion, we would like to find a way to estimate diabetes risk, according to some variables such as age, total cholesterol, gender or shape of the body. Due to having fuzzy input and output (glucose rate) values and because of that dependent variable have more than 2 values (unlike binary logic), ANFIS and Multinomial Logistic Regression should be executed for comparison. Then the results were benchmarked. As a result, in case of that there is a system which contains fuzzy inputs and output, ANFIS gives better results than Multinomial Logistic Regression for diabetes diagnosis.

“Hello world”, web mining for e-learning

Abstract As the internet and mobile applications are getting an important role in our lives, usage of mobile services also took place in educational field since the internet is widespread, which is usually called by the terms “e-learning” or “distance learning”. A known issue on e-learning is all the content’s being online and less face-to-face communication than traditional learning; this brings the problem of chasing student’s success, and advising and managing student’s way of studying. Hence, a recent hot topic, data mining, can be applied on student’s data left on e-learning portals to guide the instructor and advisors to help students’ being more successful. Recent researches done on this topic showed that e-learning combined with data mining can decrease the gap between itself and traditional learning — referred as semantic web mining in general.

An early warning system approach for the identification of currency crises with data mining techniques

It is a well-known fact that currency crises can be extremely costly to the countries, institutions and businesses with its damaging long-term effects. If the history of currency crises is investigated, it would be seen that crises cause many hazarding effects on economies, business policies and assets. It would generally have short-term and long-term effects and often spill over, via a variety of channels to other countries and companies. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the dominant factors that lead to currency crises. Discovering the nature and characteristics of currency crises and predicting possible currency crises in an early phase would save managers some time in better crisis management policies and corrective actions. We employed data mining techniques to construct an early warning system for the knowledge discovery and early prediction purposes of currency crises with the aim of providing an in-depth understanding of the topic for the researchers and managers.

ANFIS supported question classification in computer adaptive testing (CAT)

E-learning has become a major trend in the computer assisted teaching with the rapid development of Internet technologies. Web-based education is a very important component of education technology. One of the main advantage is the classroom and platform independence. Implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to support efforts to improve the Webs intelligence and provide better services to the end users. In this study, three popular AI methods: Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), and Adaptive Network Based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) were benchmarked in terms of effectiveness and performance within a Web-based environment. As the pilot test, ¿History of Civilization¿ class was selected. The question classification abilities depending on the item responses of students, item difficulties of questions, and question levels were determined by using Gaussian Normal Curve. Comparison study was conducted by considering the performance and class correctness of the sample questions (n=13) by using the given three inputs. The results showed that ANFIS has better performance than ANN and AVM in web-based education.

Survey of Data Mining and Applications (Review from 1996 to Now)

The science of extracting useful information from large data sets or databases is named as data mining. Though data mining concepts have an extensive history, the term “Data Mining“, is introduced relatively new, in mid 90’s. Data mining covers areas of statistics, machine learning, data management and databases, pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and other areas. All of these are concerned with certain aspects of data analysis, so they have much in common but each also has its own distinct problems and types of solution. The fundamental motivation behind data mining is autonomously extracting useful information or knowledge from large data stores or sets. The goal of building computer systems that can adapt to special situations and learn from their experience has attracted researchers from many fields, including computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, neuroscience and cognitive science.

Deciding which technology is the best for distance education: Issues in media/technology comparisons studies

Abstract Distance education decision makers; who will be shaping the future of distance education; should understand the role of different technologies and their unique attributes closely. In order to achieve this task accurately, they also need to know the superiorities of different technologies to each other. Media comparison studies have been conducted to see these superiorities and to help deciding “which technology is better?” In some studies researchers make some fundamental errors and flaws in media comparison studies for distance learning. Hence, there is a need to determine these issues in order to make decision process work better. In this review study, issues on media comparison studies in distance education discussed with theoretical backgrounds. Also in this study, reader could find what kind of flaws can occur in media comparisons studies and what cause to these flaws as well as some suggestions to avoid these flaws. In this study, five of the most significant errors scholars have made in writing and discussing distance education research in technology/media comparisons studies are determined. This study aims to help distance education policy makers, distance education researchers and instructors by making them aware of these issues in comparison studies. Hence, they could make a more accurate decision when implementing distance learning solutions in their institutions.