Elaine Oliveira

An Empirical Study to Evaluate the Feasibility of a UX and Usability Inspection Technique for Mobile Applications.

Usability and UX (User eXperience) are some of the most important factors for evaluating the quality of mobile applications. They focus on how easy to use an application is and the emotions that such use evokes. However, these aspects are often evaluated separately in industry through different evaluation techniques. Although it is possible to identify more usability and UX problems by employing different UX and usability evaluation methods, this distributed approach may not be cost effective and may not allow to thoroughly explore the identified issues. In order to support the identification of both UX and usability problems in a single evaluation, we have proposed Userbility, an UX and usability inspection technique that allows evaluating these aspects in mobile applications. This paper presents an empirical study over the second version of Userbility to verify its feasibility. In this study, we compared Userbility with the UX and Usability Guidelines Approach (UUGA) that helps the evaluation of usability and UX separately in mobile applications. According to the quantitative results, considering efficiency, UUGA was better than the Userbility technique. However, the qualitative results suggest that Userbility pointed more improvement suggestions, which could be useful for redesigning the evaluated application. the emotions, perceptions and judgements of an application. Therefore, software development teams willing to increase the quality in use of the developed mobile applications need to evaluate both of them. To evaluate usability and UX together, in our previous work (13), we developed Userbility in order to support inspectors in the evaluation of both UX and usability in mobile applications at the same time, to assess whether Userbility can support inspectors in detecting usability and UX problems. Nascimento et al. (13) conducted a study with five mobile applications. The results showed that it is possible to identify improvements in applications, and allowed us to identify problems during the use of the technique. Based on this, in this paper, we proposed a new version of the technique and an empirical study to evaluate the feasibility of Userbility. We have compared the Userbility to an approach proposed by De Paula et al. (5), which evaluates UX and usability separately. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section II presents a background on UX and usability evaluation techniques that can be applied to evaluate mobile applications. Then, Section III shows the Userbility technique in its second version. Section IV presents the empirical study where we compared Userbility with another evaluation approach. In Section V, we present the results of the empirical study. Finally, Section VI presents our conclusions and future work.

Usability and User Experience Evaluation of Learning Management Systems - A Systematic Mapping Study.

Background: Advances in technology made possible the development of powerful platforms called Learning Management Systems (LMSs), designed to help the teaching and learning process. Studies show that usability and User Experience (UX) of such platforms may influence in this process. Although several studies had been conducted in this area, most of them are at initial stages and need improvements or deeper empirical studies. Aim: This work aims to analyze scientific publications in order to characterize the usability and UX evaluation techniques in the context of LMSs. Method: We performed a systematic mapping study regarding the usability and UX evaluation techniques in the context of LMSs. Results: A total of 62 publications were accepted in this mapping, which helped identifying the techniques used to evaluate the usability and UX of LMSs and their characteristics such as its origin, type, performing method, learning factors, restriction and availability. Conclusion: Several studies were conducted regarding the evaluation of LMSs. However, there are still some gaps such as the lack of techniques with some features, e.g., feedback with suggestions to correct the identified problems. Besides, there is no sufficient evidence of which of them is best suited for this context.

Distance education with remote poles: An example from the Amazon region

The Amazon region is characterized by its low population density, with one large city, the capital Manaus, and the remainder of its population distributed in small and less economically developed towns. Most of these towns suffer from huge geographic isolation, as these are scattered in the forest and their access are only through rivers. With all these difficulties, taking education to this population consists of a real and daily challenge. To provide an opportunity for students of this region to enter into an upper-level course, one of the solutions devised by the Federal University of Amazonas, through its Center for Distance Education (CDE) was the creation of undergraduate courses in non-face mode. CDE project consisted of organizing headquarters, called poles, to receive courses in Administration, Public Administration, Fine Arts, Biology, Agricultural Sciences and Physical Education. This paper describes this educational experience and presents the structure of the pedagogical model supported by technology (PMT) which allows this scenario to become reality. The innovation of this model is to allow the 1,618 students, distributed in 17 different poles, assisted by CDE, to keep pace with their course through a structure of logistical and technological support adapted to their reality. Resources offered by a Course Management System (CMS), tutors and other specialized tools that support off-line activities make it possible for higher education to reach the most remote regions of Amazon.

Generation of critical mass in education: An initiative to engagement

The lack of professionals is considered a major risk to the Industrial Pole installed in Manaus, Brazil. Specially, STEM education is intricately difficult and if the student is not well involved, supported and motivated, the chances of success are very low, which can be verified by the 25% to 30% dropout rate per semester in our institution. Given this scenario, a qualification program denominated “multiple vortexes of know-how” was conceived to address three aspects: (i) reduce student dropout; (ii) enlarge the reachable community; (iii) offer different levels of knowledge. Vortex is in essence an action, working interconnected and coordinated to other vortexes. Four different actions were prepared: classroom disciplines; a talent development program; holding short-term events, and enrolling in intensive training. This present work describes the vortex that enrolled the major number of students: the classroom disciplines. A catalog of optional undergraduate and graduate disciplines was offered to the students. The best students received a prize based on their performance. In summary, we had around 650 students qualified with 84 scholarship prizes granted. The paper will present as a contribution to the program, the catalog of disciplines and recommendations on how to proceed with the activities.

Uma arquitetura de agente RBC baseada em ontologias para suporte a EaD

To manage courses offered at distance to places of difficult access requires knowledge of the region, adaptation to peculiar customs and a flexible pedagogical model that adapts to the characteristics of the classes. This knowledge is unique to local teachers and tutors, who use experience to solve academic and infrastructure problems. In order to reuse the solutions applied to the situations faced in the daily life of courses in similar scenarios, an intelligent agent based on Case Base Reasoning is proposed, in this paper, to recover and suggest strategies based on past cases. For the validation of this agent, a case study was proposed, whose knowledge was modeled from a domain ontology. Resumo. Gerenciar cursos ofertados à distância para localidades de difícil acesso requer conhecimento da região, adequação a costumes peculiares e um modelo pedagógico flexível que se adapte às características das turmas. Esse conhecimento é exclusivo de professores e tutores locais, que usam a experiência para resolver problemas acadêmicos e de infraestrutura. A fim de reaproveitar as soluções aplicadas a situações enfrentadas no cotidiano de cursos em cenários semelhantes, é proposto, neste artigo, um agente inteligente, baseado em Raciocínio Baseado em Casos, para recuperar e sugerir estratégias baseadas em casos passados. Para a validação inicial, foi proposto um estudo de caso, cujo conhecimento foi modelado a partir de uma ontologia de domínio.

Higher Education in the Amazon: Challenges and Initiatives

In this paper, we present an overview of the results achieved by a few applications of educational research towards overcoming the difficulties in the Amazon region’s educational scenarios for a better higher education. Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, demands an urgent increase in the number of qualified professionals, mostly for its Industrial Pole. However, Amazonas has a poor record of educational performance in all scholastic grades. The situation is especially critical in the rural areas, where the population, separated by miles of uncharted jungle, is usually only accessible through the rivers. This geographic isolation transforms the simplest educational activities into a daily challenge. A sustainable solution to the lack of professionals needs the ability to reach the students with learning activities wherever they are. In this work we share experiences in two different scenarios: the Capital and the rural areas. For the capital, the authors began a large-scale program to address three aspects: (i) reducing student dropouts; (ii) enlarging the reachable community; (iii) offering different levels of knowledge. Four different learning activities were prepared: undergraduate and graduate classes, a talent development program, short-term events and intensive training. For the rural towns, the authors describe the educational experience with undergraduate and graduate distance learning and the ongoing research using learning analytics and adaptive models based on the LMS Moodle. The results are encouraging, as the measurement of the positive impacts of the reported initiative clearly indicates that a structured program would bring solid and long lasting benefits. It is also worth noticing that the proposed solutions may also fit other learning scenarios.

An Ontology-Based Framework for Relevant Guidance

Nowadays there is a huge amount of information available in so many places. It is a hard task to decide where and what to look at, therefore a little guidance would be helpful. Towards this direction, this paper proposes a framework that uses ontologies to suggest relevant topics. This framework is based on a cognitive theory called Relevance Theory. In this particular case, we used a domain ontology to represent a proficiency test context and an application ontology to represent the relevance method. A proof of concept was conducted in order to demonstrate the validity of the framework. Some preliminary results point that the suggestion made from the system took to slightly more focused learning paths.

Towards a framework for relevant guidance

Relevance is a key concept nowadays. We need to search for relevant information but we do not want to spend much of our time doing it. Most times it is hard to choose what is worth looking at. To help it, this paper proposes a framework that uses ontologies to suggest relevant topics. This framework is based on a cognitive theory called Relevance Theory [4]. In this particular case, we used a domain ontology to represent a proficiency test context and an application ontology to represent the relevance method. A proof of concept was conducted in order to demonstrate the validity of the framework. Some preliminary results point that the suggestion made from the system took to slightly more focused learning paths.

Work in progress: Towards a framework for adaptive learning systems

The development of systems which adapt to the needs of student learning is a complex task. Learning involves several factors, including effective communication in a specific context. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework to allow the integration of adaptive hypermedia in learning management systems from a cognitive-semantic perspective.

Framework para sistemas adaptativos: um estudo de caso

The keynotes goal is to reflect on emergent opportunities for human Discovery (in science), Creativity (in art & industry), and Learning (in education) as processes often occurring serendipitously in individuals and in communities empowered by dynamic Web connections in the global village. These reflections seem to fit best with the mandate of the CBIE Conference: sustainable education.Este trabalho apresenta uma evolucao do assistente inteligente SAE para inferir e fornecer orientacao pedagogica coerente com varias metodologias educacionais, superando uma dificuldade tradicional para este tipo de software, alem de fornecer mais apoio ao ensino-aprendizagem personalizado.O artigo fundamenta-se nos resultados do processo de desenvolvimento de um ambiente web de aprendizagem, ja modelado em dissertacao de mestrado (CABRAL,2006). O sistema tem por objetivo facilitar o acompanhamento das atividades que envolvem a definicao e a elaboracao de pre-projetos de Trabalhos de Conclusao de Curso (TCC). Para atingir tal objetivo o sistema e baseado em uma camada de agentes inteligentes que atuam como colaboradores para execucao de todas as atividades necessarias ao desenvolvimento do TCC. Para que esses agentes atuem de forma satisfatoria no ambiente e necessario o estabelecimento de um processo de comunicacao que possibilite aos agentes agirem em um nivel conceitual mais proximo do ser humano. Dessa forma, este artigo expoe os resultados obtidos ao longo do desenvolvimento dos agentes computacioniais e seus mecanismos de comunicacao.Este artigo descreve o projeto de desenvolvimento de jogo educativo baseado em metodologias participativas, pelas quais estudantes da rede publica de ensino medio idealizam, projetam e desenvolvem prototipos de um jogo sobre Sistema Imunologico e virus da Dengue. O objetivo da pesquisa e verificar os impactos do processo sobre a aprendizagem dos estudantes.O objetivo deste artigo e apresentar resultados de estudo de um caso exploratorio, realizado junto aos alunos de uma Instituicao de Ensino Superior. Como resultados, foram levantados indicadores de avaliacao do Sistema de EaD e identificados problemas, segundo a percepcao dos alunos. A partir dos resultados destaca-se que a Universidade desconhece a metodologia ITIL® e que seria fundamental que fosse implantada uma estrategia do servico (fase inicial da ITIL®), conduzindo a melhoria continua do servico e da infra-estrutura da Universidade.O facil acesso as informacoes devido a difusao da internet possibilita o enriquecimento intelectual, mas por vezes acaba por ser um meio de usufruir do conhecimento de outrem sem mencionar seus creditos/direitos autorais, o que por fim acaba na configuracao do plagio. O plagio no meio academico e uma tarefa dificil de ser controlada, devido o grande numero de trabalhos que sao feitos por uma vasta quantidade de alunos e tambem pelo excesso de tarefas dos professores e pelo pouco tempo que conseguem dedicar para o controle da qualidade e autenticidade dos trabalhos. Com isso, e importante contar com softwares que auxiliem no processo de verificacao de indicios de plagio, desta maneira o presente trabalho vislumbra desenvolver uma nova ferramenta de analise de indicios de plagio bem como aprimorar o metodo DIP – Detector de Indicios de Plagio para auxiliar o docente na verificacao da autenticidade dos trabalhos.A Neuropedagogia promove o confronto sucessivo e simultâneo entre concepcoes tacitas, crencas e valores normativos com esquemas inovadores, criando um espaco entropico e poetico no âmbito da experiencia humana. A natureza da ciencia neuropedagogica exige um modelo fractal de construcao de mundo, sustentado pelo prazer da perplexidade. Busca-se a geratriz e as leis de formacao para atingir a unanimidade sobre o conceito de educacao de pessoas com alta dotacao humana, impossivel de se concretizar, sem o recurso das ideologias filosoficas, cientificas e tecnologias aliadas as eticas.In this talk I will elaborate on the development, implementation and evaluation of the use of online tools for learning, with special attention to games and gamification, sharing and collaboration.