Mladjan Jovanovic

Motivation and Multimodal Interaction in Model-Driven Educational Game Design

In this correspondence, we present an approach to identifying and constructing profiles of user interfaces for educational games. Our approach is based on framing games as educational tools that incorporate fun and learning through motivation as the key ingredient in the learning process and multimodal interaction as the medium for conveying educational material. The proposed solution formalizes the design process, describing educational games in terms of estimated effects that they produce on players. Building upon research on learning and motivation theory, we are connecting these effects with player learning preferences and motivation states. The essence of our solution is the educational game metamodel (EGM), which defines platform-independent educational game concepts. Using the EGM, we have explored novel design approaches for educational games. The metamodel can be used as a conceptual basis for creation of platform-independent educational games, allowing authoring for device and network independence.

Educational Games Design Issues: Motivation and Multimodal Interaction

In this paper we present an approach to identifying and constructing profiles of user interfaces for educational games. Our approach is based on framing games as educational tools that incorporate fun and learning through motivation as the key ingredient in the learning process, and multimodal interaction as the medium for conveying educational material. To date, there is no common standard to design this kind of games and individual solutions are usually carried out by an ad hocprocess. Proposed solution formalizes design process describing educational games in terms of estimated effects they produce on players. Building upon research on learning and motivation theory, we are connecting these effects with player learning preferences and motivation states. Our main contribution is to suggest design issues that should be taken into account when designing educational games. We exemplify the approach through our ongoing VStrat project, framework for designing educational games.

Surviving the design of educational games: Borrowing from motivation and multimodal interaction

R&D challenges in design of games for learning focus on research and empirical studies to understand better what features of games can be used to improve learning outcomes, and guidelines based on that research to enable the community of developers to build effective educational games. To date, there is no common standard to design this kind of games and individual solutions are usually carried out by an ad hoc process. Our approach is based on framing games as educational tools that incorporate fun and learning through motivation as the key ingredient in the learning process, and multimodal interaction as the medium for conveying educational material. Proposed solution formalizes design process describing educational games in terms of estimated effects they produce on players. Building upon research on learning and motivation theory, we are connecting these effects with player learning preferences and motivation states. Our main contribution is to suggest design issues that should be taken into account when designing educational games. We exemplify the approach through our ongoing V-Strat project, framework for designing educational games.

Improving Design of Ground Control Station for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Borrowing from Design Patterns

Reusable software architectures and supporting components are the focus of an increasing number of software organizations attempting to reduce software costs. One essential attribute of reusable software architecture is that it effectively isolates the logical, or static, aspects of the application from any product specific variations in the physical architecture, or execution environment. A primary element of this isolation is hardware and low-level software (e.g. operating system) independence. A design pattern documents a reference design for the solution to a recurring problem encountered in object-oriented software development. The fundamental theme of design patterns is to encapsulate the concepts that vary. This paper describes our experiences on developing reusable object-oriented software architecture for GCS (Ground Control Station) for UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) using design patterns. In addition, various ways that software architecture attributes can be designed for flexibility without introducing volatility into the physical architecture are described.

Model driven development of user interfaces for educational games

The main topic of this paper is the problem of developing user interfaces for educational games. Focus of educational games is usually on the knowledge while it should be evenly distributed to the user interface as well. Our proposed solution is based on the model-driven approach, thus we created a framework that incorporates meta-models, models, transformations and software tools. We demonstrated practical application of the mentioned framework by developing user interface for educational adventure game.

UAV-based Simulation Environment: Experience Report

Simulation has long been applied to enhance training and preparation. Nowadays, however, simulation is being used as a technological enabler to support all phases of a project lifecycle, including research, analysis, and acquisition. With the ability to virtually simulate systems, processes, communications and the interoperability of each in a simulation environment, simulation helps reduce the cost and risk associated with all phases of a project. UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) performs various kinds of missions such as mobile tactical reconnaissance, surveillance, law enforcement, search and rescue, land management, environmental monitoring, disaster management. In order to realize all functionalities of the UAV, the software part becomes very complex real-time system expected to execute real-time tasks concurrently. This paper reports experiences of designing and developing simulator for lightweight UAV purpose-built for medium-scale reconnaissance and surveillance missions in civil area. The overall system architecture and implementation are described.

Designing Aircraft Cockpit Displays: Borrowing from Multimodal User Interfaces

In this paper, we present an approach to design of command tables in aircraft cockpits. To date, there is no common standard for designing this kind of command tables. Command tables impose high load on human visual senses for displaying flight information such as altitude, attitude, vertical speed, airspeed, heading and engine power. Heavy visual workload and physical conditions significantly influence cognitive processes of an operator in an aircraft cockpit. Proposed solution formalizes the design process describing instruments in terms of estimated effects they produce on flight operators. In this way, we can predict effects and constraints of particular type of flight instrument and avoid unexpected effects early in the design process.

Formal specification of usability measures in model-driven development of context-sensitive user interfaces

Developing usability studies to evaluate user interfaces (UIs) is a task requiring a wide variety of skills. In this paper we propose conceptual architecture for design and integration of usability tests in model-driven development of context-sensitive user interfaces. Upon the extended model for development of context-sensitive user interfaces, we introduce a generic framework that developers can use to design usability tests. This is enabled by using common vocabulary for description of usability test models and human models. Basic principles of the proposed approach are given in brief. As an example, we give formal model of human working memory that can be used in design of various cognitive load metrics.

Reusable Design of Data Visualization Software Architecture for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Reusable software architectures and supporting components are the focus of an increasing number of software organizations attempting to reduce software costs. A design pattern describes the solution to a recurring problem encountered in object-oriented software development. The fundamental issue of design patterns is to encapsulate the concepts that vary so as to improve reusability. In this paper, we propose a data visualization software architecture for unmanned aerial vehicles. The proposed solution aims to improve the reusability of these systems using design patterns as development artifacts. The architecture is part of a ground control station for unmanned aerial vehicles. Essential aspects of the architecture as well as the developed working prototype are described.