Mohammad Dastbaz

Adaptable, personalised e‐learning incorporating learning styles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how learning styles and theories are currently used within personalised adaptable e‐learning adaptive systems. This paper then aims to describe the e‐learning platform iLearn and how this platform is designed to incorporate learning styles as part of the personalisation offered by the system.Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses how learning styles and theories are currently being used within the area of adaptive e‐learning and describes current research within this area. This paper then gives an overview of the iLearn project and describes how iLearn is using the VARK learning style to enhance the platforms personalisation and adaptability for the learner. This research also describes the systems design and how the learning style is incorporated into the system design and semantic framework within the learners profile.Findings – The findings describe how the final implemented iLearn platform intends to address the issues found with the limi...

Cost-effective virtual world development for serious games

Developing a virtual world environment from scratch normally involves a large number of model creations, animations and event simulations. Such undertakings generally require a large amount of man-hours and expensive software. This paper introduces an open-source approach that will enable developers to easily and quickly create scenario-driven collaborative environments for serious games. A case study based on the development of a virtual crisis room in the Pandora project1 is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.

Hypermedia aided learning (HAL): a viewpoint on delivering education in the new millennium

The paper discusses the emergence of multimedia systems and with it the emergence of hypermedia as a new and powerful learning medium. The effects of this new technology on computer aided learning (CAL) as well as problems associated with CAL are discussed. The paper argues that hypermedia aided learning (HAL) could remedy some of the problems associated with CAL and pave the way for a new generation of powerful learning tools to emerge. Evaluation of HAL as a learning resource is also presented. The problems associated with HAL and the prospect ahead are also discussed.

Polytree Numbering for Citation Networks Visualisation

Citation networks form directed acyclic graphs. Visualisation of the reference relationships within the network requires fast determination of ancestor-descendant relationships among the nodes within the digraph. Polytrees (singly connected digraphs) constitute an important class of acyclic digraphs and can be viewed as generalised directed trees where multiple parent nodes are permitted. In this paper, we propose a new ancestral numbering scheme for polytrees that allows fast determination of ancestor-descendant relationships among the nodes without traversal. The scheme is used to index and visualise reference relationships within citation networks.

A Secure Hybrid Network Solution to Enhance the Resilience of the UK Government National Critical Infrastructure TETRA Deployment

In developed economies, electronic communication infrastructures are crucial for daily public, private, and business interactions. Cellular systems are extensively used for business communications, private interaction, and in some cases, public information services, via such uses as mass SMS messaging. The Public Switched Telephone Network PSTN is at the core of all communications platforms. It was used primarily for voice communication purposes, but with current technological advances, this platform has been transformed from a voice to voice interface to a web enabled multimedia platform that provides commercial, business, and e-commerce services to the public. In response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist acts in New York City, the UK government introduced a policy of separating and transferring all emergency communication traffic from the PSTN to a digital public safety network based on the TETRA architecture. This paper extends the utilisation of the TETRA deployment by discussing a secure MANET hybrid solution for use in extreme situations as a short/mid-term EMS organisational communication platform for emergency and rescue operations.

The society and electronic government usage

The electronic information despite its odds due to security implications and privacy issue cannot be ignored. The entire world has come to embrace the medium as a tool to run its daily activities both in business and information communications. Boundaries in different geographical locations and between sectors of businesses, such as products, services, channels and companies are increasingly wearing off due to emergence of Information Technology (IT). Governments are not left out in this wide spread. Threfore, in this paper we are proposing a model that will ensure maximum security awareness to check the inflow of people into the country.