Jernej Vičič

Evaluating Comparisons and Evaluations of Learning Management Systems

In the last years, numerous papers were published comparing different learning management systems (LMS). Some of them dealt with only few comparison criteria, while others included almost every imaginable feature. When faced to do a comparison ourselves, we came across many of such papers and did a research of what authors considered relevant in an LMS. By comparing papers written in different years, we tried to find out if there is a pattern of features linked to a certain time period, how a demand for new features was evolving through time, and how did LMS developers respond to this demand. We also tried to figure out the present demands and which new features will be included in future versions of LMSs.

A Comparison of MT Methods for Closely Related Languages: a Case Study on Czech - Slovak Language Pair

This paper describes an experiment comparing results of machine translation between two closely related languages, Czech and Slovak. The comparison is performed by means of two MT systems, one representing rule-based approach, the other one representing statistical approach to the task. Both sets of results are manually evaluated by native speakers of the target language. The results are discussed both from the linguistic and quantitative points of view.

Extending Traditional Learning by Enforcing Collaboration and Self-Assessment

The paper presents a way to overcome the shortcomings of traditional learning by enforcing collaboration between students and introducing self-assessment as part of the process of final grade formation. Treating collaboration and self assessment as two elements of a modern learning process that are very closely bounded together, the authors argue that these elements should by no means replace the traditional (ex-cathedra) way of learning but rather extend it. A specifically designed computer science course is presented as an illustration of how the introduction of self-assessment combined with teacher evaluation can encourage collaboration between students. The benefits and drawbacks of this method are discussed.

Česílko Goes Open-source

Abstract The Machine Translation system Česílko has been developed as an answer to a growing need of translation and localization from one source language to many target languages. The system belongs to the shallow parse, shallow transfer RBMT paradigm and it is designed primarily for translation of related languages. The paper presents the architecture, the development design and the basic installation instructions of the translation system.

“I Agree”: The Effects of Embedding Terms of Service Key Points in Online User Registration Form

Terms of service (ToS) are becoming an ubiquitous part of online account creation. There is a general understanding that users rarely read them and do not particularly care about binding themselves into legally enforceable contracts with online service providers. Some services are trying to change this trend with presenting ToS section as key points on a ToS dedicated page. However, little is known how would such presentation of key points affect the continuation of user registration at the time of account creation. This paper provides an exploratory study in this area. We have offered users to participate in a draft for a prize in exchange for their names and email addresses. For this purpose we have created three registration forms: a standard form with ToS hiding behind a hyperlink and two with ToS key points presented at the time of account creation with different engagement requirements. Initial results suggest that ToS key points presented just as a list at the time of account creation is no more engaging than a form with ToS hidden behind a link. More text even made several users to complete the registration quicker than the users with the standard form. Moreover, different designs of the ToS key points list requiring different user engagement affect the interaction and reading of ToS key points, but the actual time spent on ToS is very low.