Nazean Jomhari

Visual Hybrid Development Learning System (VHDLS) framework for children with autism.

The effect of education on children with autism serves as a relative cure for their deficits. As a result of this, they require special techniques to gain their attention and interest in learning as compared to typical children. Several studies have shown that these children are visual learners. In this study, we proposed a Visual Hybrid Development Learning System (VHDLS) framework that is based on an instructional design model, multimedia cognitive learning theory, and learning style in order to guide software developers in developing learning systems for children with autism. The results from this study showed that the attention of children with autism increased more with the proposed VHDLS framework.

Photo-based narratives as communication mediators between grandparents and their children and grandchildren living abroad

Media-sharing Web sites are facilitating modern versions of storytelling activities. This study investigates the use of photo-based narratives to support young parents who are geographically separated from their aging parents to share stories about their young children. The case analyses Malaysian young mothers living in the UK, communicating regularly with their families back home, sharing experiences living in another country, looking for parenting advice, and opening opportunities for sharing the life and development of their young children. Sixteen families participated in the study by providing access to their social networking and web spaces and participating in exercises for creating photo stories. We identified the characteristics of the mediating system serving to establish the contact between grandparents and grandchildren as well as the characteristics of the photo stories and the practices around sharing them.

Digital Game-Based Learning for Low Functioning Autism Children in Learning Al-Quran

The objective of the study is to propose several prototypes of digital game-based learning (DGBL) for the education of low functioning autism (LFA) children specifically in learning Al-Quran. Study on several models of the serious game has been conducted and the best model was selected to be applied in designing the prototypes. Experiment on fifteen LFA children, age within five to ten years old will be conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the game in helping the process of learning Al-Quran. The evaluation will emphasize on the usability element on its user. The expectation of this study is that the game could engage the LFA children during the learning process and make them active in learning Al-Quran. Therefore with the creation of the game, it is hoped that it will provide the LFA children with opportunities to study Al-Quran like other normal Muslim children.

Accessibility research in Malaysia

In recent days, there is a tendency in Malaysia that more and more people are interested the research regarding the use of computing and information technology by the ageing population and people with disabilities. Below are some examples of these projects.

A case study of Jawi Editor in the XO-laptop simulated environment

Jawi script is an important Malay heritage that has been in general, replaced by the Roman script. From a dominant writing in Malay world, the usage of Jawi is confined mostly in Islamic religious context nowadays. As an initiative to encourage the learning of Jawi, this research proposed a Jawi Editor running on the XO-laptop which considered as a new technology used in education, this technology introduced by One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization. OLPC concerned of giving a laptop for every child in the developing countries to encourage them in education. XO-laptop allows collaboration and cooperation between teacher and students and between students themselves by working in groups. In this new technology of education the XO-laptop plays a main role of transferring the teacher and students roles in the class from the traditional way to the computerize technology. The aim of this research is to develop and contribute a Jawi Editor in the XO-laptop simulated environment to help the Jawi teachers and students in classes, to compile several development guidelines of Jawi-like systems in the XO-laptop simulated environment and to conduct a case study of teacher-student interaction using the Jawi Editor in the XO-laptop simulated environment.

Telling my baby's stories: family communication and narrative practices of young mothers living abroad

This study investigates the motivations of using rich-media forms of computer-mediated-communication (CMC) tools among young mothers living abroad to maintain ties with their geographically-separated families and friends. Our research involves sixteen Malaysian young mothers living in the United Kingdom, most of them dealing with the challenges of juggling work or studies and taking care of their babies. We investigate the digital records and family communication practices as well as motivations that underlie the use of CMC to create baby stories and narratives. Our results highlight the value of technologies to share and have access to the quotidian experiences at each side of the globe and to the babys life. We discuss the implications of these results for the designing of future rich-media types of CMCs to capture narratives.

A systematic literature review on vision based gesture recognition techniques

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) technologies are rapidly evolving the way we interact with computing devices and adapting to the constantly increasing demands of modern paradigms. One of the most useful tools in this regard is the integration of Human-to-Human Interaction gestures to facilitate communication and expressing ideas. Gesture recognition requires the integration of postures, gestures, face expressions and movements for communicating or conveying certain messages. The aim of this study is to aggregate and synthesize experiences and accumulated knowledge about Vision-Based Recognition (VBR) techniques. The major objective of conducting this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is to highlight the state-of-the-art in the context of vision-based gesture recognition with specific focus on hand gesture recognition (HGR) techniques and enabling technologies. After a careful systematic selection process, 100 studies relevant to the four research questions were selected. This process was followed by data collection, a detailed analysis, and a synthesis of the selected studies. The results reveal that among the VBR techniques, HGR is a predominant and highly focused area of research. Research focus is also found to be converging towards sign language recognition. Potential applications of HGR techniques include desktop applications, smart environments, entertainment, sign language interpretation, virtual reality and gamification. Although various experimental research efforts have been devoted to gestures recognition, there are still numerous open issues and research challenges in this field. Lastly, considering the results from this SLR, potential future research directions are suggested, including a much needed focus on grammatical interpretation, hybrid approaches, smartphone devices, normalization, and real-life systems.

Virtual Agent Design Factors for the 21 st Century Learners: A Kansei Approach

In recent years, Virtual Learning has gained wide popularity among the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to promote holistic education. Reviews have proven that Virtual Learning has proliferated over the years and it has created a dynamic learning culture among the 21st Century learners. These young learners from the digital age have different learning styles and vernaculars as they are much more diverse. It is also noted that it is challenging to keep these learners engaged in learning due to those differences. Therefore, it is vital to identify a learning tool that caters to these young learners from a diverse background and simultaneously optimize their learning satisfaction. To address these momentous issues, this research study aims to identify the design factors or specifications of a Virtual Agent (VA) deployed in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to maximize learner’s satisfaction. In this exploratory study, the researchers have adapted Kansei Engineering (KE) approach that uses the quantitative analysis to identify the design factors of Virtual Agent. The respondents are undergraduate students from a HEI in Malaysia (N=107). The findings suggest that KE modus operandi had successfully paved the way for an effective design of VA that has high aesthetic value and identified attractiveness and expertness as key factors in VA design.

E-learners Kansei experience towards expert-like virtual agent: A case study

The rapid growth of Internet users and diverse Web 5.0 technologies has made the research scholars and educators to think of intelligent tools such as; expert-like virtual agents as an effective e-learning tool. The success of an e-learning tool relies primarily on the level of acceptance of the tool by the e-learners and their state of emotion while using the tool. Therefore, addressing e-learners emotional competences is important to understand the implicit emotion of the young minds. In this context, virtual agents are expected to play the role of instructors in a virtual learning environment. This paper aims to study the affective design of the Virtual Agent in terms of attractiveness and realism that adopts Kansei Engineering, an emerging technology used to explore and validate the emotion structure defined as a complex state of feelings that can result in the changes of human behaviour and thoughts of e-learners. Adding on, the paper also highlights and validates the six universal emotions such as anger, happiness, surprise, disgust, sadness and fear. The findings suggest that the most attractive and realistic virtual agents have higher Kansei value. Some implications of the findings in relation to expert-like virtual agent design and Kansei are discussed in this paper.

Kansei Engineering: Emotion Exploration in Blogs

The Kansei design method is gaining wide acceptance all around the world. Researchers have begun to address emotional elements in various domain of research to ensure product acceptability and feasibility. Kansei is known for its uniqueness as it varies from one domain to another. This paper explores the emotional responses relative to students blogs using the Kansei Engineering methodology. An evaluation of visitors kansei towards a collection of blogs was conducted using a pre-selected 13 students blogs and 12 human emotions derived from PrEmo, a kansei measurement tool. The research highlights the emotion structure in the blogs. Results of the research demonstrated that there are more positive emotion traits in the students blogs. However, it is noticed that emotions such as pride and joy are not explicitly reflected in the students blogs. Furthermore, boredom which is classified as a negative emotion topped the list for the mentioned category. Nevertheless, the findings also suggest that the top three positive emotions such as fascination, satisfaction and desire are highly rated for blogs categorized as Special Interest Blog Visual Information. Adding on, some blogs are not popular amongst the respondents from private higher education institution due to the Blog Visual Information (BVI) representation and other implicit factors related to the blogger as reflected in the Personalized BVI representation. Some implications of the findings are discussed in this paper.