Mark Pendergast

Gesturing through cursors: implementing multiple pointers in group support systems

The authors discuss the issues underlying the concept of gesturing. Specifically, they explore gesturing as applied to users of group support systems. The definition of gesturing is extended beyond simple telepointers to include: the use of motion as a means of expression; and movement that expresses or emphasizes an idea, a sentiment or attitude. The authors address such issues as at what level of interactions should gesturing be supported, how large and what shape should gesture pointers be, how should they move, what are network and processor throughput requirements, and what effect group size may have. The authors results show that full motion computer gesturing can be supported on PC-LAN (local area network) systems for small groups. Gesturing for medium and large groups requires the use of special techniques such as regulating transmission rates, motion smoothing, and point and quiver cursors.<<ETX>>

An analysis tool for the assessment of student participation and implementation dynamics in online discussion forums

In order to conduct a successful online forum it is necessary to have a collection of proven provocative discussion topics, a sound technique to implement them, and a consistent way to assess student participation. In this paper I present an analysis tool that helps me evaluate individual student participation, the viability of the forum cases, and their success/failure of their execution. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the ANGEL learning system in use by my university, a review of techniques to promote, facilitate, and assess participation. This is followed by a description of the analysis tool, its operation, and factors that it measures. The paper concludes with lessons learned and opportunities for future work.

Three short cases for use in online introduction to computer information systems courses

Online courses are now commonplace at many universities, replacing correspondence (postal) based distance education methods. An important and widely used component of online courses are online forums. Forums encourage interaction between students (who may never meet face-to-face) and are a vital part of the virtual classroom experience. Literature suggests that distance learners require a great deal of interaction to overcome the feeling of isolation; the development of a virtual world (classroom) encourages students to participate in the learning process by exploring and playing with course materials; and promotes interactions between students and teachers that may not occur in a traditional classroom. In order to conduct a successful online forum it is necessary to have a collection of provocative discussion topics and a sound technique to implement them. This paper presents three short cases; Electronic Voting, the Digital Divide, and Internet Ethics, that have successfully been used in online courses along with pedagogy and implementation notes.

Bridging the gap between structured requirements and object-oriented analysis and design

A very large part of the business world today still uses a traditional structured approach to requirements gathering. On the technology side, extensive development has been done in the area of object-oriented technologies that provides for productivity and quality through reusability, encourages team work and adopts a modular approach. Since the quality of the object-oriented applications has proven to be superior to the structured applications, especially in the area of maintenance, there has been a large demand for object-oriented applications. This leads to the situation where the requirements are structured, and the application needs to be object-oriented subject matter experts (SMEs), with their knowledge of the system modeled and analysts, with their knowledge of the object-oriented paradigm, need to work together and reorganize the information from the requirements analysis. This paper proposes and develops a methodology for the transition. Emphasis is placed on presenting the knowledge captured in the requirements specification. The proposed methodology extends the existing Classes-Responsibilities-Collaborators (CRC) method and is tailored to be simple and understandable to SMEs, requiring minimal amount of training, yet powerful enough to enable the participants to think through the model in an object-oriented fashion.

Evaluating the Accessibility of Online University Education

The rights of disabled students are protected law in nearly every country. However, the lack of awareness of the laws and the need to make web pages accessible has created barriers to fully implementing the intent of these laws. These laws typically go beyond web pages to include all instructional devices including e-readers, social networking sites, and smart phone apps. This paper takes a look at the requirements of accessibility laws, the formation of the accessibility initiative, and the resulting WCAG 2.0 standard. Accessibility testing tools for websites and web content are discussed and then used to measure the level of compliance for a number of universities. It was found that almost all university sites checked had multiple accessibility errors. Finally, a number of recommendations are made based on the compliance issues found and on the terms of several U.S. Department of Justice consent decrees.

Quantitative Measures for Evaluating Knowledge Network Node Clusters: Preliminary Results

One viewpoint of a knowledge network is a knowledge map that clusters similar knowledge sources into knowledge domains. What is needed is an automatic mapping tool that 1) takes the knowledge sources, 2) creates a conceptual map of the domain space, 3) clusters like sources, and 4) places them together on the map. This research (in progress) is an attempt to determine the value of the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map for use as an interactive textual knowledge mapping tool for categorization of large sets of textual knowledge sources. Initial results have shown the algorithm to be promising in the area of creating a conceptual map of the document space, but it has been less successful at the task of clustering and assigning documents within categories. The purpose of this paper is to quantify the Kohonen algorithms ability to cluster similar documents and to explore possible improvements to it.

Interlanguage binary data streams: A C#.NET to Java prototype

This paper presents a prototype application programming interface for transmitting binary data between two different languages, Java and C#, along with a standard for encoding the data types. The standard calls for big-endian data transmission with either UTF8 or UTF16 character encoding and LEB128 string length encoding. The prototype API was found to be as efficient as Javas binary data streams and far more efficient than text based data exchange (XML, TSV, and CSV). This standard is flexible enough to support other languages such as C, C++.

Performance, overhead, and packetization characteristics of Java application level protocols

This paper presents the results of a set of performance tests designed to determine the relative efficiencies of five different Java application level protocols used for peer-to-peer communications. Efficiency was determined by measuring transmission latency, number of packets sent, packetization of data, and bytes transmitted. The protocols tested include: datagram (UDP), DataStreams, ObjectStreams, Remote Method invocation, and Piped Streams. The tests revealed a great variation in packetization efficiency and latency between the protocols. A new record oriented data stream is proposed and prototyped and testing. Preliminary performance tests showed this new record oriented data stream to be several times more efficient than ObjectStreams.

Development of a virtual level of detail scene graph for terrain modeling in Java3D (non-reviewed)

Summary form only given. Three-dimensional modeling of geographic information systems has become a reality due to the low cost of relatively powerful workstations, improved performance and memory capabilities of graphics hardware, and the introduction of cross-platform standards such as OpenGL and Java3d. The work presented in this paper is part of an ongoing project whose goal is to create efficient algorithms that support real-time display and fly through capabilities of large virtual world based on NASA and USGS mapping data. The size and resolution of the virtual world should not be limited to the size of RAM or even virtual memory; rather the segments should be loaded, as they are required. This requires the creation of a virtual level of detail segments (LOD) (based on Java3D geometry objects) that are dynamically retrieved as the user moves through the virtual world. To accomplish this it is necessary to have both an efficient storage and retrieval mechanisms and employ efficient rendering techniques. The algorithms employed should use a reasonable amount of disk space and does not unduly burden the network or processor. In addition to having efficient use of resources, the algorithm should minimize visual artefacts associated with LOD processing, namely gaps and checker boarding.

Evaluation of Java 1.5 network API for use in peer-to-peer and client-server applications

Summary form only given. Since its inception in the mid 1990s Java has steadily gained acceptance by programmers, supplanting both C and C++ as the language of choice. NASA chose to use Java for processing Mars mission data because of increased productivity by their programmers. Other companies cite Javas portability, robustness, and well defined APIs as reasons for change. The December 2006 TIOBE Survey of software developers shows Java to be the top language in use by 20% of programmers, followed by C with 17%, and C++ with 10%). The performance gap between virtual-machine run byte code and native executables has narrowed to the point where it is only an issue for very strict real-time applications. This move to virtual machine architectures was affirmed by Microsofts release of the .NET systems employing the Windows Virtual Machine. C and C++ are still valuable languages in wide use by programmers. There is a growing body of work examining Javas capabilities to support functions traditionally thought to be the exclusive domain of C and C++. This paper will attempt to add to that body of work by examining the Java 1.5 Network APIs performance capabilities with regard to supporting both peer-to-Peer (P2P) and Client/Server applications.