Sohaib Ahmed

Supporting adaptive learning interactions with ontologies

The concept of adaptive technologies is increasingly prevalent in many areas, particularly in learning. In this context we require quick and robust approaches for developing adaptive learning environments. In order to construct such environments, we need to enable reusability of learning contents according to the needs of learners, which is one of the challenges for current learning technologies. In this paper we show how an ontology-based approach can help us to reuse the same learning contents for different purposes.

Speaker-dependent live quranic verses recitation recognition system using Sphinx-4 framework

This paper describes a speaker-dependent speech recognition system that recognizes and evaluates the accuracy of the recitation of the selected Quranic verses. It aims to first train the system according to the recitation of the qurra (qualified reciters) and the users themselves. The system uses an open source Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Sphinx-4 framework based on the Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), which is one of the well-known speech recognizers used in English language. For this purpose, we have used transliteration mechanism for the Arabic language in order to generate the acoustic model. This system was tested after being trained with four different ways; Arabic word with Arabic alphabets, transliteration word with syllable, transliteration compound word with syllable, transliteration syllable with syllable. The results were promising.

MAPILS: Mobile augmented reality plant inquiry learning system

With the advancement of mobile technologies, pedagogical innovations have been emerging since last two decades. The potential use of mobile devices has attracted many educators and researchers to conduct inquiry based learning (IBL) activities in a classroom or a fieldwork. In recent years, augmented reality (AR) technology has become widespread for conducting learning activities using mobile devices. In the literature related to science education, there are limited mobile systems found in which AR technology is used for IBL activities. We have therefore designed a mobile system MAPILS to conduct plant IBL activities using AR technology. Further, two application-related aspects of MSI (Mobile science inquiry) evaluation framework are used. For evaluation purposes, this system was tested with 42 local secondary high school students in order to identify the potential benefits of such technology in science education. The results showed that a designed mobile system possesses motivating and enjoyable learning experience for science students.

A Proposed Evaluation Framework from Mobile Inquiry-Based Learning Activities in Science Education

With the advancement in the use of mobile technology has attracted many educators and researchers to develop mobile science inquiry-based learning activities for educational purposes. In school science education literature, many applications are designed and evaluated using various evaluating frameworks. These evaluations are based on either one or more of the following attributes; technological usability, inquiry skills, learners’ performance, learners’ perceptions about the applications, learners’ cognitive load and the longer impact of an application. However, none of these frameworks cover all of these attributes in a single framework. Thus, this paper addresses this issue by conducting a comprehensive literature review about the current state of the use of mobile science inquiry evaluation frameworks. Consequently, a proposed framework, MSI (Mobile Science Inquiry) evaluating framework is presented in this paper.

An Ontology Supported Abductive Mobile Enquiry Based Learning Application

Ontologies have emerged as one of the most popular and widely accepted tools in technology enhanced learning supporting, among other things, knowledge representation and learning content creation. In this paper, we describe the development and evaluation of an ontology supported mobile learning application that supports abductive enquiry based learning. This application has been developed for a science content domain and tested with high school science students.

Scaffolding in Mobile Science Enquiry-based Learning Using Ontologies

The use of ontologies has become increasingly widespread in many areas, particularly in technology enhanced learning. They appear promising in supporting knowledge representation and learning content creation for domains of interest. In this paper, we show how ontology-based scaffolding has helped mobile learners to perform scientific enquiry investigations. Enquiry-based learning aims to provide educational activities and tools to assists students to learn science by doing science. In this study, a design science research approach was taken to creating an ontology-driven application for a science content domain, which has been evaluated with high school science students. The results showed the significant value of ontologies in scaffolding learning content in such enquiry-based learning environments. With this application, students were found to learn science in more meaningful and engaged ways as well as developing positive attitudes towards mobile learning.

COMET: context ontology for mobile education technology

The use of mobile devices is increasingly prevalent in education. These devices provide the convenience of supporting access to learning anytime, anywhere. Further, mobile learning provides opportunities to tailor the learning experience to dynamically changing contexts. Major challenges for constructing context-aware models to support this kind of learning include defining the contextual information and adapting to dynamic changes. Ontology-based context models exhibit features such as expressiveness, extensibility, ease of sharing, and logic reasoning support, thus show promise in this area. In this paper, we propose COMET (Context Ontology for Mobile Education Technology) in order to provide a semantically rich model for mobile learning. More specifically, we have demonstrated an example application to show how we can retrieve contextual data from different participating entities within the ontology by using their semantic understanding.

An Ontology based Approach for Messages Dissemination in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs) is a special form of Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs). The continuous developments in wireless networks have paved the way for the adoption of wireless data exchange for onroad vehicles. The application of VANETs is considered as a key component within the envisioned Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). One of the primary applications of VANETs is to enhance the safety measures for the vehicles on-road. Information about vehicles, such as vehicle speed and location coordinates are passed among vehicles to improve their awareness of each other. In VANETs, vehicles are referred to as nodes within a network where each node can act as both; end devise and router. The current design of VANETs has been identified with several drawbacks, while obtaining high performance in multi-hop message dissemination being as one of the most prominent issues. This problem need a solution to improve VANETs performance, especially over networks with high node densities. In this paper, we propose an ontologybased approach for multi-hop message dissemination over VANETs as a solution that would address the above highlighted issue.

HEPO: The hepatitis ontology for abductive medical diagnostic systems

The use of the ontologies has been prevalent in many domains especially in medical diagnostic systems. Ontologies exhibit features including knowledge representation, reusability, sharing, and logical reasoning support. Thus ontology-driven medical diagnostic systems can assist physicians in order to determine the most probable diagnosis of the patients. Traditionally, these systems have used deductive or inductive way of reasoning for assisting physicians. Nevertheless, the abductive reasoning has less explored in the literature. Further, numerous ontologies have been developed for diagnoses diseases such as diabetes, cancer, chronic and inflammatory. However, no such ontology was found in the literature that deals with a hepatitis disease. Hence, in this paper, the hepatitis ontology ‘HEPO’ has been developed and validated for designing abductive medical diagnostic systems.

A Comparative Analysis in Evaluating ‘ThinknLearn’ from Science Educators and High School Students Perspectives

The current use of mobile technology in the classroom has attracted many educators and researchers to develop mobile web based learning tools for educational purposes. In school science education, deductive or inductive forms of inquiry are used, while the use of abductive form of inquiry has been sparsely explored. ‘ThinknLearn’, an abductive enquiry tool, was developed and evaluated with students in earlier work. However, this paper addresses the use of such learning practice from the educators’ perspective and compares this with previous evaluations in which students were involved. This may help to investigate the longer term impact of this learning practice in classrooms as students and educators are the main stakeholders of this learning practice. Content analyses of data indicated that both educators and students support the use of abductive forms of inquiry-based learning activities with mobile devices in the classroom.