Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Learning styles in design processes'

The main aim of this research is the exploration of relationships and correlations between thinking styles of student designers, their personal aptitudes, and design education. It involves discovering the role/s several groups of learning styles and cognitive abilities may play in problem solving during administered design tasks; and the influence they may have on academic performance and quality of produced design solutions. The main hypothesis is that differences in designers’ individual problem solving strategies and, ultimately, products of their expertise – designed artefacts – can be correlated with the differences in their learning styles and cognitive abilities. We suggest the following. (a) Designers with different styles adopt different approaches to design situations and use different strategies during problem solving. It is possible to find the supporting evidence by investigating their performance on design tasks. (b) Individual differences in design reasoning and problem solving could be correlated with the differences in individual cognitive abilities. (c) It may be possible to find correlations between cognitive styles and cognitive abilities. (d) It is likely that a number of visible or measurable qualities of students’ design drawings, would in some way reflect different characteristics of the above individual styles and abilities. The methodological approach draws on theoretical and empirical knowledge from several domains, including: design studies, psychology, cognitive science and study of creativity. This study is concerned with selecting and substantiating the input – a number of cognitive styles and abilities chosen for evaluation; and their subsequent assessment. It involves administering design sessions and exploring them as a process to see whether and how the above abilities and styles are reflected in problem solving. It also deals with the assessment of the product i.e. produced design solutions, and their relation to the academic performance reports. And, finally, it explores correlations between the input, the process and the product to help finding explanations for the students’ preferences in adopting particular problem solving strategies in designing. This study is based upon the analysis of six major datasets from (1) an electronic test assessing individual positions on four dimensions (two dichotomies) of learning styles; (2) tests of cognitive abilities chosen on the basis of their relevance to designing; (3) design sessions, administered individually under retrospective protocol guidelines; (4) questionnaires, containing summaries of design sessions, and introspective reports of imagery use and problem-solving styles and strategies; (5) judgements of academic performance from course supervisors based on marks and grades; and (6) assessments of design drawings by professional architects. The analysis revealed fundamentally different ways by which students approach design situations; they are positively correlated with their learning styles. Students’ approaches to problem situations change with the task and within the task. However, eighty percent of the first year and half of the final year subjects showed various degrees of inflexibility in dealing with design problems; this may have decreased the quality of performance. Learning styles proved important in predicting the process and the outcome of problem solving. They may account for moderate to low quality of design solutions in cases with either style (from both dichotomies explored) being of low development. Styles were also observed to may have a moderate to strong influence on the students’ academic performance. Correlations between the measured cognitive abilities and academic performance were moderate to significant for the first year and similar but marginally lower for the final year students. At the same time, final year students scored higher on the ability tests and showed better results on the learning styles assessments. One of the likely reasons for this is the enhancement of abilities and styles during the course of study. No significant linear correlations between preferred learning styles and most of the measured cognitive abilities have been observed. The probable inference is that abilities are among many other factors affecting the development of learning styles. It has been, however, possible to establish a number of important correlations between the measurements of learning styles, cognitive abilities, observed problem solving behaviour, and students’ design solutions. Overall, it has been demonstrated that the applied methodology, although requiring further refinement, does enable examining and elucidating the influence of learning styles and cognitive abilities on design problem solving and academic performance.

This study examined traditional instruction and problem-based learning (PBL) approaches to teaching and the extent to which they foster the development of desirable cognitive processes, including metacognition, critical thinking, physical intuition, and problem solving among undergraduate physics students. The study also examined students' approaches to learning and their perceived role as physics students. The research took place in the context of advanced courses of electromagnetism at a Canadian research university. The cognitive science, expertise, physics and science education, instructional psychology, and discourse processes literature provided the framework and background to conceptualize and structure this study. A within-stage mixed-model design was used and a number of instruments, including a survey, observation grids, and problem sets were developed specifically for this study. A special one-week long problem-based learning (PBL) intervention was also designed. Interviews with the instructors participating in the study provided complementary data.
Findings include evidence that students in general engage in metacognitive processes in the organization of their personal study time. However, this potential, including the development of other cognitive processes, might not be stimulated as much as it could in the traditional lecture instructional context. The PBL approach was deemed as more empowering for the students. An unexpected finding came from the realisation that a simple exposure to a structured exercise of problem-solving (pre-test) was sufficient to produce superior planning and solving strategies on a second exposure (post-test) even for the students who had not been exposed to any special treatment. Maturation was ruled out as a potential threat to the validity of this finding. Another promising finding appears to be that the problem-based learning (PBL) intervention tends to foster the development of cognitive competencies, particularly physical intuition, even if it was only implemented for a short period of time. Other findings relate to the nature of the cognitive actions and activities that the students engage in when learning to solve electromagnetism problems in a PBL environment for the first time and the tutoring actions that guide students in this context.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida State University, 2009.
Advisor: Lisa Waxman, Florida State University, College of Visual Arts, Theatre and Dance, Dept. of Interior Design. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed on May 10, 2010). Document formatted into pages; contains xvii, 198 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Public education in the United States has experienced an increase in distance-learning (DL) opportunities. Because research has focused on student achievement in post-secondary DL programs, little is known about secondary students' experiences. The purpose of the current study was to explore DL applicability within secondary education. Specific research questions addressed by the concurrent mixed methods nested study included examining students' opinions and experiences in a secondary DL course and determining whether individual learning styles were addressed. Structured interviews, group discussions, and a survey were used to gather data over 2 months from 14 students in grades 9 through 12 participating in a state wide Alabama DL program. Surveys were used to assess and match DL activities to Gardner's 8 learning styles. Interviews and discussions explored students' opinions about activities and components and perceptions of their academic achievement. Quantitative data indicated that students reported some activities related to all learning styles with the greatest coverage observed for linguistic methods. Qualitative data were open and axial coded within each research question and the coded data was analyzed to define common DL practices used to meet specific styles and emergent themes related to student perceptions. Triangulation of results showed DL students felt successful based on their participation in a spectrum of activities including interactive video, e-mail, online discussion boards and tutoring sessions, and self-directed learning. The study contributes to positive social change by documenting a variety of strategies employed to successfully engage secondary DL students who present a variety learning styles and challenges related to DL curricular content and modes of delivery.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the learning styles of supplemental instruction leaders at a large, public university during the fall 2010 semester and determine whether or not their personal learning styles influenced the way they designed and developed out-of-class study sessions. The total population of supplemental instruction leaders was 37, of which 24 were eligible to participate in the study. Of the 24 eligible supplemental instruction leaders, 20 completed the entire study. Participants in the study included nine male and 11 female supplemental instruction leaders with a median age of 22.25 years-old. Seventeen participants indicated their classification as senior, two as junior, and one as sophomore. Of the participants, 16 indicated white as a race or ethnicity, one indicated Asian, two indicated African American, and one indicated both American Indian/Alaska Native and white. Supplemental instruction leader learning style was assessed using the Kolb Learning Style Inventory. Leaders were then interviewed, and their study sessions were analyzed. Through triangulation of data from learning style, interviews and actual study session documents, four major themes emerged. The four themes were: 1) incorporation of personal experience into study session design, 2) the sense of impact on student learning, 3) a feeling of the need to incorporate varied activities into study session design, and 4) the concept that students must take ownership over their own learning. No consistent pattern emerged among the themes; however, the results attributed out-of-class study session design to both the incorporation of personal learning style preferences as identified through the Kolb Learning Style Inventory and training conducted by the institution. Implications for future research include the need for continued research addressing how and if supplemental instruction leader learning style influences out-of-class study session design. Also, as institutions of higher education seek to expand academic support services to all students, future research should explore supplemental instruction leader training and the impact such training has on students seeking support from the supplemental instruction program.

Context: With the advent of Machine Learning (ML) and especially Deep Learning (DL) technology, companies are increasingly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in systems, along with electronics and software. Nevertheless, the end-to-end process of developing, deploying and evolving ML and DL models in companies brings some challenges related to the design and scaling of these models. For example, access to and availability of data is often challenging, and activities such as collecting, cleaning, preprocessing, and storing data, as well as training, deploying and monitoring the model(s) are complex. Regardless of the level of expertise and/or access to data scientists, companies in all embedded systems domain struggle to build high-performing models due to a lack of established and systematic design methods and processes. Objective: The overall objective is to establish systematic and structured design methods and processes for the end-to-end process of developing, deploying and successfully evolving ML/DL models. Method: To achieve the objective, we conducted our research in close collaboration with companies in the embedded systems domain using different empirical research methods such as case study, action research and literature review. Results and Conclusions: This research provides six main results: First, it identifies the activities that companies undertake in parallel to develop, deploy and evolve ML/DL models, and the challenges associated with them. Second, it presents a conceptual framework for the continuous delivery of ML/DL models to accelerate AI-driven business in companies. Third, it presents a framework based on current literature to accelerate the end-to-end deployment process and advance knowledge on how to integrate, deploy and operationalize ML/DL models. Fourth, it develops a generic framework with five architectural alternatives for deploying ML/DL models at the edge. These architectural alternatives range from a centralized architecture that prioritizes (re)training in the cloud to a decentralized architecture that prioritizes (re)training at the edge. Fifth, it identifies key factors to help companies decide which architecture to choose for deploying ML/DL models. Finally, it explores how MLOps, as a practice that brings together data scientist teams and operations, ensures the continuous delivery and evolution of models.

Organizations rely on their training departments to deliver adequate training for effective use of knowledge on the job to new and tenured employees. The transfer of learned knowledge and skills yields many positive outcomes for the employees, the trainers, and the organization as a whole. Such outcomes include improved productivity and efficiency, increased morale, work enjoyment, improved customer service, and improved shareholder satisfaction. In order to achieve these outcomes, training departments must employ skilled training personnel knowledgeable about curriculum design and creative with training delivery and learning environments. These requirements implementation will depends heavily on the experience level of training professionals. Training professionals need to understand their own learning styles and how to appropriately utilize strategies to target the various learning styles that exist in the classroom. Instructors must constantly monitor the learning environment and be able to make immediate changes to meet the needs of the participants when necessary. Participants themselves play an integral role in the effective transfer of learning from the classroom to the job. Learners’ backgrounds, life experiences, and motivation to learn are important considerations for designing a positive learning experience. When training programs cater to learners’ preferred learning styles with an appropriate learning environment in mind, the instructor, the learner, and the organization reap numerous benefits. More specifically, when learners’ learning styles are supported by their instructors’ teaching styles, the overall learning experience becomes optimized to the benefit of all stakeholders.

The significance of children's engagement and inclusion in decision-making has been widely acknowledged, since the enactment and ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989. There is evidence to suggest that despite various efforts to involve children as co-designers, engagement strategies employed in the design of school outdoor environments often marginalise groups of children. This study postulated that effective methods of engagement require identifying and accounting for children's specific learning styles. The research sought to determine whether the design and application of methods of engagement could be more effectively targeted by determining and integrating children's learning style preferences into the engagement methods. A customised Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic (V AK) learning style preferences questionnaire was used to classify children's learning preferences into 3 sensory modalities in a range of activities across the primary curriculum. Photo-Safari, Dialogue and Global Positioning System (GPS) devices as exemplar for Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic techniques respectively. Participants in this study consisted of pupils in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, aged between six and eleven years, from four primary schools in South Gloucestershire, UK. The sample included 151 pupils; eighty one boys and seventy girls. The analysis of the data revealed that preferences for engagement methods differ significantly between the learning style modalities. There was a statistically significant noticeable systemic increase in visual children's engagement with visual methods used (photo-Safari). Children in auditory learning style category had higher frequency and longer speech duration during the dialogue sessions. Mapping of children's spatial exploration in the outdoor playground revealed that kinaesthetic learners roamed significantly and moved towards adventure playgrounds more than those in the visual and auditory learning style groups. The findings confirmed that greater awareness and determination of individual learning style preferences can lead to better informed choice and application of methods of engagement, thereby enhancing inclusion in the engagement process involving children. Built environment practitioners, educationists, designers and policy makers need to be cognisant of children's learning style preferences in the design and application of methods of engagement; so as to give equal voices to all children in the design of schools outdoor environment.

The nature of the human brain has preoccupied philosophers and scientists for centuries. As early as the 4th Century BCE, Greek philosophers speculated that the anatomically distinct hemispheres of the brain implied specialisation of function. It was not until the "splitbrain" operations of the 1950s, however, that the precise specialisation of each hemisphere could be demonstrated. The right hemisphere apparently assumed responsibility for spacial, holistic processes, while the left hemisphere processed analytical, sequential tasks. During that same decade, educational psychologists observed two markedly different ways in which individuals perceive and relate to the world. It was later observed that these "cognitive styles" seemed directly related to the bi-polar functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This implied a genetic basis for cognitive style. Subsequent research suggested that cognitive style is to a considerable extent a result of the environment of socialisation, and therefore, different cultures would demonstrate different cognitive styles. Such cultural differences in learning expectations might have serious implications for both teachers and learners in the field of export education. The literature review in this study identified physical, environmental, and experiential factors which appear to influence cognitive style. This information formed the basis of the biographical section of a questionnaire which elicited the learning style preferences of pre-tertiary students from Australia (native speakers), Indonesia and Japan. The study posed the negative hypothesis: There are no significant differences in patterns of cognitive styles between cultures. The results of the field study contradicted the negative hypothesis, identifying significant differences in patterns of cognitive styles between the three cultural groups.

El presente estudio analiza de forma empírica si los estilos de aprendizaje se correlacionan significativamente con la calidad de traducción, cuando la tarea de traducción se desarrolla bajo restricciones de tiempo cada vez mayores. Además, el estudio vincula la práctica pedagógica con la realidad profesional, a la vez que potencia las sinergias entre dicha práctica pedagógica y la investigación empírica en el campo de la traducción. El estudio se construye gradualmente sobre el análisis de los patrones de rendimiento basado en el producto y los patrones de rendimiento basado en el proceso resultantes y luego destaca los vínculos pertinentes de la variable personal de estilos de aprendizaje. Todo ello sobre la base de los datos obtenidos sobre un total de 84 estudiantes universitarios de traducción de la Facultad de filología inglesa de la Universidad Aristóteles de Tesalónica en Grecia. Los resultados apuntan a un estilo de aprendizaje que se correlaciona significativamente con la calidad de la traducción cuando se trabaja con plazos de entrega relativamente más amplios y otro distinto cuando se aumentan las restricciones de tiempo. La evidencia empírica sugiere que los participantes experimentan un estado cognitivo de "shock" cuando sufren restricciones de tiempo cada vez mayores. Las conclusiones parecen indicar que es aconsejable favorecer un ambiente de aprendizaje que tenga en cuenta los diferentes estilos de aprendizaje de los estudiantes.
The present study examines empirically whether learning styles significantly correlate with translation quality when the translation task takes place under increasing time constraints. It strives to link pedagogical practice with professional reality, while promoting synergies between pedagogical practice and empirical translation research. The study gradually builds on the analysis of emerging product- and process-based performance patterns and then highlights pertinent links with the personal variable of learning styles, on the basis of data collected from a total of 84 undergraduates studying translation at the School of English, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Results point to a learning style that correlates significantly with translation quality when working under a relatively relaxed deadline, and to a different one when time constraints increase. Empirical evidence also suggests that participants undergo a state of cognitive “shock” when under increasing time constraints. The conclusions seem to indicate it is worthwhile favoring a learning environment which will take into account students’ different learning styles.

Recognising the powerful role that technology plays in the lives of people, researchers are increasingly focusing on the most effective uses of technology to support learning and teaching. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) has the potential to support and transform student learning and provides the flexibility of when, where and how to learn. At the same time, it promises to be an effective educational method (Wei and Yan 2009). One of the hottest topics in this field is adaptive learning (Mylonas, Tzouveli and Kollias 2004). Today, with the ability of advanced technologies to capture, store and use student data, it is possible to deliver adaptive learning based on student preferences. TEL can also put students at the centre of the learning process, which allows them to take more responsibility for their own learning. However, this requires students to be metacognitive so they can manage and monitor their learning progress. This thesis investigates the impact of student metacognitive skills on their learning outcomes in terms of recalling and retaining information within a formally designed and TEL environment. The learning outcomes of students who study a subject consistent with their learning styles and another group of students who study the same subject in contrast to their learning styles are then compared to determine which group performs better. Based on this approach, a TEL environment is designed for undergraduate students to use for the purpose of collecting the required experimental data. The results of this study suggest that effective use of metacognitive skills by students has a direct bearing on their learning performance and ability to recall information. The outcomes reveal that successful students use effective metacognitive skills to complete their studies and achieve their learning goals in a TEL environment. Therefore, it clear that metacognition can play a critical role in successful learning, and, furthermore, this approach can assist educationalists in understanding the importance of metacognition in learning and in considering how technology can be used to better to allow students to apply metacognitive skills. The designed TEL environment for this study can be utilised as a precursor to implement TEL environments that can be adapted to individual learning styles, and to support the development of metacognitive skills.

This research addresses the issues of adaptation and personalisation of the computer interface for Web-based learning materials taking into consideration key characteristics of learners and particularly their cognitive style. The thesis examines main concerns driving learning towards individualisation. Different approaches to adaptation and personalisation are analysed, as are a range of adaptive systems. The need for further research regarding individual differences is identified; it is argued that cognitive styles should be allowed for in designing adaptive learning materials. A comprehensive review of cognitive style classifications is presented, from which key defining attributes and advantageous instructional conditions are identified and a number of adaptive variables derived. LEARNINT, a prototype based on these variables was developed and used in two experimental studies. Results show a relationship between Interface Affect and learning outcomes and also between the variables underpinning the interface style used and variation in user reactions and performance; however, little interaction is observed between these variables and cognitive style. It is suggested that for most learners using Web-based learning materials performance may improve if they experience positive affect towards the interface; also, that the proposed variables stand as good candidates for providing adaptivity. A methodological approach is presented that extends the functionality of LEARNINT. The generic aspects of the research are further elaborated offering guidance on future directions for the design of adaptive Web-based learning materials.

The main purpose of the research this thesis is based upon was to study students’ attitudes towards learning chemistry at university level and their motivation from three perspectives. How can students’ attitudes towards learning chemistry be assessed? How can these attitudes be changed? How are learning situations experienced by students with different attitude positions?

An attitude questionnaire, assessing views of knowledge, learning assessments, laboratory activities, and perceived roles of instructors and student, was used to estimate students’ attitude positions. It was shown that a positive attitude was related to motivated student behaviour. Furthermore, it was shown that factors in the educational context, such as the teachers’ empathy for students learning chemistry, had affected the students. It was also found that students holding different attitude positions showed different learning outcomes and differed in their perceptions of the learning situation. Students’ holding a more relativistic attitude more readily accepted the challenges of open experiments and other more demanding tasks than those holding a dualistic attitude.

In addition, the teachers were found to play important roles in the way the tasks were perceived and the development of students’ ideas. In studied laboratory activities open tasks resulted in positive student engagement and learning outcomes. Preparative exercises, such as a computer simulation of the phenomena to be investigated, affected students’ focus during laboratory work, encouraging them to incorporate more theoretical considerations and increasing their ability to use chemical knowledge. Finally, it was shown that students’ focus during laboratory work is reflected in the questions they ask the teacher, implying that questions could be used as tools to evaluate laboratory teaching and learning processes.

The findings imply that students’ attitudes towards learning and motivation, and the design of learning situations, are key factors in the attainment of desirable higher educational goals such as the ability to judge, use, and develop knowledge. For universities encountering students with increasingly diverse attitudes, motivation and prior knowledge, these are important considerations if they are to fulfil their commissions to provide high quality learning environments and promote high quality learning.

Southern U.S. teachers at suburban high schools can use Edmodo; however, teachers prefer traditional teacher-centered teaching methods. This quantitative correlative study explored teachers' technology acceptance in relation to teaching styles and experiences. Framing acceptance by Davis's technology acceptance model (TAM), research questions addressed the direct and moderating relationships between teaching style and the TAM variables related to using Edmodo and the direct and moderating relationships between teaching experiences and TAM variables. From 240 teachers at the high school, 45 completed an online survey (response rate of 18.75%). Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and regression analyzed data. TAM could be verified for the entire sample; however, no significant direct relationship between teaching style and the TAM variables was found. Teaching style moderated the relationships within the TAM; these were stronger for teachers with a teacher-centered teaching style. No significant direct relationship existed between teaching experiences and TAM variables; a moderating effect on the relationships existed within the TAM. Among experienced teachers, ease of use was the strongest acceptance predictor, whereas perceived use was the strongest predictor among less experienced teachers. Results indicated teachers might develop a more student-centered teaching style, thus concentrating on technology's ease of use, rather than its potential utility. A policy recommendation could ensure teachers efficiently used technology to support student-centered learning. The application of the recommended policies might lead to teachers' more effective use of instructional technology, which might affect student learning and motivation.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
A pesquisa trata da interação mediada por ferramentas de comunicação e colaboração em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, dentro do contexto da educação a distância (EAD), dentro do olhar da usabilidade pedagógica e do design de interação. O estudo parte da premissa de que existem problemas ligados à interação mediada por ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem que dificultam a implementação de estratégias de ensino da EAD baseadas em colaboração e comunicação. Foi, portanto, definido como objetivo localizar necessidades e questões que podem influenciar o uso de ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem para o planejamento e a implementação de estratégias pedagógicas colaborativas, a partir de relatos de docentes. Além de trazer contribuições para o projeto de uma EAD baseada em colaboração e comunicação, a pesquisa contribui metodologicamente para a área do design de interação com a proposição da técnica da entrevista baseada em cenários. A partir de entrevistas não-diretivas com profissionais da EAD, foram desenvolvidos cenários que têm como tema interações entre pessoas em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem utilizados para EAD. Esses cenários serviram de base para entrevistas semiestruturadas, com docentes tutores. As entrevistas trazem descrições detalhadas sobre como esses profissionais colocam em práticas estratégias pedagógicas baseadas em comunicação e colaboração e mostram o crescimento do papel da tutoria em EAD nos modelos pedagógicos que utilizam essas estratégias, expondo situações que indicam a necessidade de sistemas que apoiem as tarefas do tutor dentro dos ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem.
This research deals with interaction mediated by communication and collaboration tools in virtual learning environments, within the context of distance education, and from the standpoint of pedagogical usability and interaction design. It is assumed that there are problems related to interaction mediated by virtual learning environments that hinder the implementation of teaching strategies of DE-based collaboration and communication. Thus, the study, based on teachers reports, aims to find requirements and issues that may influence the use of virtual learning environments for planning and implementation of collaborative teaching strategies. In addition to bringing contributions to the design of a distance education based on collaboration and communication, research contributes methodologically to the area of interaction design with the proposition of the use of scenario-based interview technique. Unstructured interviews were conducted with professionals of distance education, to support the development of scenarios that served as subjects for the interview technique based on scenarios with teachers directly involved in interactions with students during courses. The interviews include detailed descriptions of how these professionals put into practice pedagogical strategies based on communication and collaboration and expose the growing role of tutoring in distance education pedagogical models that propose collaborative teaching strategies, resulting in the need for systems that support tutor tasks within virtual learning environments.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-128).
Artificial intelligence is substituting human intelligence and robots are replacing human workers. Instead of settling for this competitive relationship between humans and machines, this thesis proposes a novel framework in which humans and machines work together to solve the complex problems of design-scripting education, problems which humans or machines alone cannot easily solve. In design education, there are few clear guides and pedagogies that can effectively teach students with diverse educational and professional backgrounds, some of who may need individualized tutoring. This thesis specifically explores applications of artificial intelligence (machine learning and computer vision algorithms) in which humans and machines mutually improve their learning performance. Humans can increase a machine's performance by providing training-data sets that can be a foundation for intelligent decision-making. Machines, on the other hand, can improve humans' learning performance by analyzing human study patterns and providing mass-customized instructions. This thesis illustrates that the developed Synthetic Tutor provides novice students with architectural precedents by analyzing their drawings and documents and effectively teaches these students introductory computer programming skills in the context of architectural design. Therefore, this human-machine collaboration has proven an effective framework to solve these ill-structured problems.
by Ju Hong Park.
Ph. D.

This study surveyed 435 commercial fishermen across eight coastal regions of the United States where commercial fishing takes place. The regions of the study included: Northeast Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Southern Pacific, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. Participants were asked to complete the Commercial Fishing Worker Survey (CFWS), which is a survey instrument consisting of an approved, adapted version of the Index of Learning Styles instrument (ILS) combined with a demographic section which included questions designed to obtain data regarding the four variables of the study: age, education level, captain's license status, and method of fishing. The instrument was designed to provide data sufficient to answer the three research questions of the study. 1. What are the learning preferences of commercial fishermen? 2. Are there differences in the learning preferences of commercial fishermen across the eight geographical regions of the study? 3. Are there differences in the learning preferences of commercial fishermen based on the demographical variables? The commercial fishermen showed obvious inclinations toward specific learning preference dimensions. The fishermen indicated that they preferred the active (rather than the reflective) dimension, the sensing (rather than the intuitive) dimension, the visual (rather than the verbal) dimension, and the sequential (rather than the global) dimension. The participant's responses were similar across the eight regions. Where differences existed, they were related to the sensing/intuitive and sequential/global learning preferences dimensions. Region 8 Alaska appeared to have stronger sensing and sequential learning preferences than the other regions. Age did not appear to influence the learning preferences of the fishermen. The majority of the respondents indicated they were high school graduates. However, education did not appear to affect the learning preferences of the fishermen. Captain's license status had no influence on the learning preferences of the commercial fishermen, since the majority of the respondents did not possess a captain's license. Respondents indicated that the largest percentage of commercial fishing used net fishing methods as their primary means of fishing. For the majority of the commercial fishermen, method of fishing did not appear to influence the learning preferences of commercial fishermen. However, net and trap fishermen exhibited significant differences related to the sensing/intuitive and sequential/global learning preference dimensions and reported more preference for the sequential/global learning preference dimensions then fishermen using other methods of fishing. Implications and recommendations for further study are enumerated in the last chapter.

Students possess various learning styles and do not respond equally to the same instructional methods. College students today are often uninterested in their current traditional course design. The purpose of this study was to determine if differences exist in learning styles between students who select a traditional course delivery method versus a technology-enhanced course delivery method. Participants included 113 males and 195 females who were enrolled in a College of Business Principles of Marketing course for non-business majors at a large university in the southeast. The students who were enrolled in the course completed an online questionnaire including the Grasha-Reichmann Student Learning Style Scale (GRSLSS) and demographic questions. The GRSLSS consists of six learning styles: competitive, collaborative, avoidant, participant, dependent, and independent. A causal-comparative research design was used to identify a cause-effect relationship between the two groups of students.

Data analyses included a factorial multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analyses of variances (ANOVAs). Results from this study indicated a significant difference in course delivery methods and gender across all learning styles and no interactions between course delivery methods and gender. ANOVAs revealed a significant difference between the independent, avoidant, dependent, and participant learning styles between students who enrolled in the traditional and technology-enhanced course delivery methods. Students who enrolled in the traditional course delivery method had more of a dependent and participant learning style and students who enrolled in the technology-enhanced course delivery method had more of an independent and avoidant learning style. Males who enrolled in the course had more of a competitive learning style than females - regardless of the course delivery method. These findings are relevant for a better understanding of why students select a particular course delivery method.

This dissertation describes the teaching and learning experiences of teachers and students in an interior design class. Student-teacher studio interactions were videotaped and documented during the 2000-2001 academic school year, in a three-year bachelor interior design university program. Phenomenological and interpretive methods were used for the gathering, analysis and interpretation of the data. The questions that guided the study include (1) What happens in the interior design class, (2) How do teachers respond to perceived problems of understanding, and how do I work with my colleagues to tailor the ways that we see students learning the design process, and (3) A study of the learning environment: what are the students doing and how do they respond to our ideas. The purpose was to understand meanings held in design processes as student-situated experiences in the design studio. The analysis was done as dialectic between narrative text and diagrammatic conceptual analysis. Individual conversations were interpreted and analysed through the use of reflective analytic memoing and visual diagrams conceptualising of the issues and emerging analysis. There were many underlying messages that became evident during the data analysis itself. The data revealed that students were frustrated by several underlying messages. Negotiations and dynamics operated in both the self-contained data group and within the larger social design studio milieu itself. The data captured many issues that remained unanswered until theoretical sampling was conducted later in the analysis phase. This theoretical sampling consisted of further conversations with the data group students, focus groups, individual conversations with colleagues and students, and a comparative teaching experience with a new group of students in the same studio class one year later. The culmination of the original data, the conversations, the comparative data analysis and subsequent reflective analysis revealed the difficulties in capturing the nature of the design process and in defining what is interior design. Clarification of meaning in interior design lays the foundation for the design process exploration. Emergent issues include the need for teacher and student reflexive thinking that reaches beyond the confines of the studio, and the importance of the interrelationship between the teacher and the student in creating the learning experience.

Design continuously re-defines its meaning. Over the last years, the way designers interpret information, solve problems as well as prototype and express ideas has received increased attention from domains outside of traditional design, especially from the business world. However, much of the design thinking discourse outside of traditional design centres around a few widely-read practitioner books and only builds on a rudimentary understanding of its principles. Likewise, the academic literature only offers a few rigorous investigations of the application of design thinking in the management and innovation domain, especially when it comes to thedevelopment of novice multidisciplinary teams. Therefore, this thesis provides an evaluation of the influence of the following five key themes discussed in the design thinking literature: Team diversity, iteration, learning styles, creative confidence, and team communication. These themes were explored during a quantitative quasi-experimental research study, which was built on a novel research framework. Data wascollected from 42 German research participants over a period of 10 month. The longitudinal perspective enabled the researcher to illustrate how novices develop design thinking competencies in projects over time. While investigating team diversity, multidisciplinary teams were found to produce significantly better project outcomes than single-discipline teams. On the other hand, diversity of personality traits was not found to have a significant effect on the final performance of teams. The exploration of iteration behaviour revealed that multidisciplinary teams did not iterate significantly more than single-discipline teams. In addition, more experienced participants approached design thinking projects slightly less iteratively thannovices. Overall, the degree of iteration was not found to have a significant effect on the final team performance. Regarding the use of different learning styles, it was discovered that, teams with a balance of learning styles achieved significantly better project outcomes than less-balanced teams. In terms of learning styles, participants approached design thinking tasks mainly through rational conceptualisation rather than concrete experience. Theanalysis of individual and team confidence showed that creative confidence developed slowly and linearly over the course of a project, but only partly carried over to new project and team settings. Furthermore, no evidence was found that higher levels of creative confidence directly influenced the quality of the project outcomes. The investigation of team communication revealed that the importance of individuals in design thinking teams significantlychanged over the course of a project. Contrary to previous assumptions, high degrees of internal team cohesion were found to have a significant negative effect on project outcomes. While several of these findings clarify and reiterate existing design thinking theory, others call for an adjustment of theory and highlight the need for more rigorous research. Several recommendations are offered for practitioners, educators, and researchers on how to incorporate the presented findings into practice and future research.

When studying the molecular aspect of the life sciences, learners must be introduced to somewhat inaccessible phenomena that occur at the sub-micro scale. Despite the difficulties, students need to be familiar with and understand the highly dynamic nature of molecular processes. Thus, external representations1 (ERs) can be considered unavoidable and essential tools for student learning. Besides meeting the challenge of interpreting external representations, learners also encounter a large array of abstract concepts2, which are challenging to understand (Orgill & Bodner, 2004). Both teachers and learners use metaphorical language as a way to relate these abstract phenomena to more familiar ones from everyday life. Scientific papers, as well as textbooks and popular science articles, are packed with metaphors, analogies and intentional expressions. Like ERs, the use of metaphors and analogies is inevitable and necessary when communicating knowledge concerning molecular phenomena. Therefore, a large body of published research related to metaphors concerns science teachers’ and textbook writers’ interpretation and use of metaphors (Harrison & Treagust, 2006). In this paper we present a theoretical framework for examining metaphorical language use in relation to abstract phenomena and external representations. The framework was verified by using it to analyse students’ meaning-making in relation to an animation representing the sub-microscopic and abstract process of ATP-synthesis in Oxidative Phosphorylation. We seek to discover the animator’s intentions while designing the animation and to identify the metaphors that students use while interacting with the animation. Two of these metaphors serve as examples of a metaphor analysis, in which the characteristics of metaphors are outlined. To our knowledge,  no strategies to identify and understand the characteristics, benefits, and potential pitfalls of particular metaphors have, to date, been presented in science education research. Our aspiration is to contribute valuable insights into metaphorical language use at the interface between external representations, molecular processes, and student learning.

This thesis aims to study how Artificial intelligence (AI) can help enhance leadership skills and managerial decision-making processes. The research will be done through a systematic literature review, reviewing articles that deem relevant and objective. The problem formulation could be described as ‘the adaptation of leadership skills and managerial decision-making processes due to the implementation of AI in the workplace’, as that has been found to be the research gap during the literature review. The research led to the conclusions that there will occur a shift regarding leadership styles. As the harder elements of leadership will be replaced by AI, managers need to lean toward more uniquely human skills to succeed in the future, for example motivating employees and enhance creativity in the workplace. As for how the process of decision-making will change due to the implementation of AI, the study concludes that it is not fully clear how the process will change. However, the implementation of AI will enhance the speed and the accuracy of decisions being made, if AI has quality assured training data.
Detta examensarbete syftar till att studera hur artificiell intelligens (AI) kommer att påverka våra ledarskapsstilar samt de beslutsprocesser som är kopplade till chefskap. Undersökningen har utförts genom en litteraturstudie, där artiklar som författarna funnit objektiva samt relevanta till frågeställningen har att granskats. Uppsatsen problemformulering kan förklaras som ‘anpassning av ledarskapsstilar och chefers beslutsprocesser på grund av implementering av AI på arbetsplatser’, eftersom detta har kartlagts som forskningsgapet under litteraturstudien. Studien har lett till slutsatsen att det kommer ske ett skifte avseende vilka ledarskapsstilar som kan föredras i framtida organisationer. När de hårda elementen av ledarskap ersätts av AI behöver chefer lägga större vikt vid för människor unika färdigheter, såsom att motivera medarbetare och främja kreativitet i organisationerna. Studien drar även slutsatsen att det inte är fullt kartlagt i litteraturen hur chefers beslutsprocesser påverkas av implementeringen av AI på arbetsplatser. Implementeringen av AI kommer dock öka både hastigheten och korrektheten i de beslut som fattas, förutsatt att AI har kvalitetssäkrad träningsdata.

Small group learning is widely advocated in educational institutions around the world and has drawn constant attention in research. Group interaction is a key component of group-based learning. However, its implementation in existing learning practices is inefficient. Previous studies discussed the use of concept mapping in group learning. Concept mapping as an external representation affords a communicative function that triggers shared cognition in collaborative learning. Empirical work reported the pedagogical usefulness of collaborative concept mapping in supporting group learning processes. However, there lacks an effort in systematically examining the effects of collaborative concept mapping in influencing students’ interactional processes according to frame works of group learning activities. This study in the first part examines the effects of collaborative concept mapping on interactional processes at the cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions in group learning guided by frameworks of group learning activities. An experimental design method (i.e., concept mapping vs. no concept mapping) is used to examine the effects. Beyond, since task condition is a key issue in determining the effectiveness of intervention elements for shaping interaction, and concept mapping is used for pursuing different types of tasks in educational applications, this study takes task condition into account in the experimental design. A salient problem in collaborative use of concept mapping in distance groups is that participants need to put special efforts into coordination of group activities. Prior studies proposed designing roles functioning at different aspects to structure group activities in collaborative concept mapping. Using roles was found to facilitate task-focused and reflective interaction. However, there is a lack of a systematic view in the design of roles to assist interaction considering the multidimensionality of group interaction. There also lacks empirical investigations into the effectiveness of assigning roles in concept mapping mediated group learning. To address these issues, this study in the second part proposes a role-based approach, i.e., assigning the roles including cognitive leader, metacognitive leader, and socio-emotional leader to participants, in collaborative concept mapping to facilitate group learning processes. An experimental study is implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The study finds that concept mapping has different effects on group learning in different task conditions. Concept mapping effectively mediates learning processes and leads to superior task performances for conceptual tasks, while functions deficiently neither in mediating group learning processes nor in producing superior task performances for design tasks. Assigning roles in collaborative concept mapping is evidenced to be feasible and useful in improving socio-emotional experiences in group learning.
published_or_final_version
Education
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis focuses on the problem of scalable optimization of dialogue behaviour in speech-based conversational systems using reinforcement learning. Most previous investigations in dialogue strategy learning have proposed flat reinforcement learning methods, which are more suitable for small-scale spoken dialogue systems. This research formulates the problem in terms of Semi-Markov Decision Processes (SMDPs), and proposes two hierarchical reinforcement learning methods to optimize sub-dialogues rather than full dialogues. The first method uses a hierarchy of SMDPs, where every SMDP ignores irrelevant state variables and actions in order to optimize a sub-dialogue. The second method extends the first one by constraining every SMDP in the hierarchy with prior expert knowledge. The latter method proposes a learning algorithm called 'HAM+HSMQ-Learning', which combines two existing algorithms in the literature of hierarchical reinforcement learning. Whilst the first method generates fully-learnt behaviour, the second one generates semi-learnt behaviour. In addition, this research proposes a heuristic dialogue simulation environment for automatic dialogue strategy learning. Experiments were performed on simulated and real environments based on a travel planning spoken dialogue system. Experimental results provided evidence to support the following claims: First, both methods scale well at the cost of near-optimal solutions, resulting in slightly longer dialogues than the optimal solutions. Second, dialogue strategies learnt with coherent user behaviour and conservative recognition error rates can outperform a reasonable hand-coded strategy. Third, semi-learnt dialogue behaviours are a better alternative (because of their higher overall performance) than hand-coded or fully-learnt dialogue behaviours. Last, hierarchical reinforcement learning dialogue agents are feasible and promising for the (semi) automatic design of adaptive behaviours in larger-scale spoken dialogue systems. This research makes the following contributions to spoken dialogue systems which learn their dialogue behaviour. First, the Semi-Markov Decision Process (SMDP) model was proposed to learn spoken dialogue strategies in a scalable way. Second, the concept of 'partially specified dialogue strategies' was proposed for integrating simultaneously hand-coded and learnt spoken dialogue behaviours into a single learning framework. Third, an evaluation with real users of hierarchical reinforcement learning dialogue agents was essential to validate their effectiveness in a realistic environment.

The effective use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in devel-oping countries like Tanzania is crucial in order to overcome the challenges that are faced countrywide in many sectors, and to reduce the digital divide and improve the economy. ICT is becoming more and more integrated in societies worldwide, its effects are clearly seen in people’s lives as well as on countries’ economy as it opens doors for new opportunities and change the attitude of people towards learning. Secondary schools in Tanzania are facing many problems which hamper students’ learning. This in turn affects their performance in the National examinations hence reducing the growth of a learned society. This research specifically addresses the prob- lem of lack of learning and teaching materials by using ICT tools for the development and delivery of e-Learning content. The research focused on two secondary schools, namely, the Wali-Ul-Asr Seminary and Kibaha Secondary School as pilot schools in Kibaha district Pwani region. The research used courseware engineering methodology which integrated instructional design and software engineering. The research was also inspired by the concepts of participatory action research, Mode 2 knowledge production and triple helix, which incorporated stakeholders’ participation throughout the research. The main stakeholders are researchers, students, teachers, head teachers, and Ministry of Education and Vocational Training officials. This is an applied type of research addressing a practical problem in society. The out- come is a pilot package of e-Learning material comprised of sample chapters of Mathematics form III at the pilot site. Blended mode of delivery has been considered using Compact Disc/Digital Versatile Disc Read Only Memory, the Tanzania Secondary Schools e-Learning (TanSS-L) System, a customized Moodle platform and by using face to face learning.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013
Teacher education for multigrade education in South Africa is poor, since multigrade teachers and principals involved in multigrade education have not received formal training in this form of education, and therefore lack support. Owing to this lacuna in multigrade pedagogy, and teachers' limited knowledge of such pedagogy, multigrade teachers and principals struggle to interpret subject matter and settle for different ways to present and make it accessible to learners. This has a severe impact on the potential of multigrade schools to play an important role as educational units in underserved rural areas. Research shows that pre-service and in-service training does not enable multigrade teachers and principals to develop a knowledge base within the complexities of the actual classroom situation. Such a knowledge base would enable them to solve the endemic problems of multigrade education, thereby enhancing their task as multigrade teachers and principals. Training can have an impact on trainee teachers, but the successful transfer of this newly acquired knowledge to learners in the classroom is questionable. Owing to the extent of the problem experienced at each level of multigrade education in the educational system in South Africa, chances are slight that support to multigrade teachers and principals will emanate from officials and curriculum advisers. It is clear that the problem of supporting multigrade teachers and principals is substantial and daunting, and that a solution to the problem will lead to significant advances in learning, or at least a significant reduction in malfunction in the multigrade educational system. Therefore, bridging the gap between newly-acquired teacher competence and teachers' performance in the classroom is a major concern for the future. This research aims to understand the dilemmas and address the shortcomings as teachers implement new practices within classrooms. There needs to be a transitional process through which multigrade teachers and principals move as they gradually learn, come to understand, and become skilled and competent in novel ways of education. This research introduces a Professional Learning Community (PLC) as a model of support and guidance to multigrade teachers and principals, bridging the gap between knowledge acquired at a workshop, and concomitant support and guidance, in order to understand and address the dilemmas that emerge as they implement new practices within multigrade classrooms. This research employs a design research approach to determine design guidelines and principles to facilitate the process of supporting and guiding multigrade teachers and principals, working together as a network cluster for collective learning and its implementation. The research process in design research encompasses educational design processes and is therefore cyclical in character: analysis, design, evaluation and revision activities are iterated until a satisfying balance between ideals ('the intended') and realisation has been achieved. To develop solutions for this research, a prototyping approach was employed towards a final deliverable. The Prototyping Phase in this research comprised three cycles, and focused during the evolutionary prototyping process on elaborating on the components of the possible support system to multigrade teachers and principals. It was envisaged that this would concretise the situation, and obviate problems before implementation in the day-to-day user setting. Formative evaluation was applied in order to uncover shortcomings during the development process, in order to generate suggestions for improvement. The results of the evaluation of each preceding prototype were used in the development of the next prototype. Design research is an effective method of developing various prototypes in collaboration with multigrade teachers and principals to ensure contextual appropriateness of what works at a given time, as well as solutions to the specific problems of multigrade teachers and principals in South Africa. Keywords: Design research, Educational design processes, Educational design research, Multigrade, Multigrade pedagogy, Network cluster, Professional Learning Community, Support system.

The purpose of this project is to bring the subject of life sciences to second grade students through a diverse curriculum design. The theory of multiple intelligence and the principles of brain-based learning areused to incorporate elements that will reach each student on an individual basis.

The significant amount of data contained in digital images present barriers to methods of learning from the information they hold. Noise and the subjectivity of image evaluation further complicate such automated processes. In this thesis, we examine a particular area in which these difficulties are experienced. We attempt to control the parameters of a multi-step algorithm that processes visual information. A framework for approaching the parameter selection problem using reinforcement learning agents is presented as the main contribution of this research. We focus on the generation of state and action space, as well as task-dependent reward. We first discuss the automatic determination of fuzzy membership functions as a specific case of the above problem. Entropy of a fuzzy event is used as a reinforcement signal. Membership functions representing brightness have been automatically generated for several images. The results show that the reinforcement learning approach is superior to an existing simulated annealing-based approach. The framework has also been evaluated by optimizing ten parameters of the text detection for semantic indexing algorithm proposed by Wolf et al. Image features are defined and extracted to construct the state space. Generalization to reduce the state space is performed with the fuzzy ARTMAP neural network, offering much faster learning than in the previous tabular implementation, despite a much larger state and action space. Difficulties in using a continuous action space are overcome by employing the DIRECT method for global optimization without derivatives. The chosen parameters are evaluated using metrics of recall and precision, and are shown to be superior to the parameters previously recommended. We further discuss the interplay between intermediate and terminal reinforcement.

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Não recebi financiamento
The use of technology to improve the process of teaching and learning is a well-known practice, young people have shown increasing interest in the use of computers and mobile devices as support classes. To encourage this practice, several pedagogical activities can be performed via Internet. However, to contribute to the teaching of History and spread of Culture and Art, museums have sought space in virtual environments. From this premise, it was observed that virtual museums can be seen as an important tool in the teaching and learning process. The aim of this work is to propose a cycle to help create learning scenarios from elements of a museum, based on personas technique to support the teaching of History or a related field. In the first part of the study, Action Research methodology was adopted to carry out the investigation process by the teachers, museums expert and students; to verify the viability of the use of learning scenarios. The AR1 was conducted with 14 teachers and 1 museum expert to verify the feasibility of creating a learning scenario from museum elements. Already AR2 was conducted with 174 elementary school students, to verify the acceptance of learning scenarios. One of the results identified by the AR1 were the artifacts required to compose learning scenarios. However, there was a need for a device to aid in building the persona. For this, there was an adjustment in the empathy map technique called MapLearn as teacher support during the persona construction process. It has also been identified the need to create a cycle to support teachers and museum experts for the creation of learning scenarios. The validation of the proposal included the evaluation of MapLearn; cycle e-MuLearn; and learning scenarios, through 2 case studies and a controlled experiment. The analyses showed that the cycle e-MuLearn and their artifacts can contribute to creation of learning scenarios to support teaching of History.
O uso de tecnologias para melhorar o processo de ensino-aprendizagem é uma prática bastante conhecida, os jovens têm apresentado cada vez mais interesses no uso do computador e dispositivos móveis como apoio `as aulas. Para incentivar esta prática, diversas atividades pedagógicas podem ser realizadas através da Internet. Para contribuir com o ensino de História e disseminação da Cultura e Arte, os museus têm buscado espaço nos meios virtuais. Partindo dessa premissa, observou-se que os museus virtuais podem ser vistos como uma importante ferramenta no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. O objetivo desta dissertação é propor um ciclo para auxiliar a criação de cenários de aprendizagem a partir de elementos de um museu, baseado na ttécnica de personas, como apoio ao ensino de História ou áreas correlatas. Na primeira parte do estudo, a metodologia de pesquisa-ação foi adotada para realizar o processo de investigação junto a professores, museólogos e alunos; para verificar a viabilidade da utilização dos cenários de aprendizagem, foram realizados dois ciclos de pesquisa-ação chamados de AR1 e AR2. O AR1 foi realizado com 14 professores e 1 museólogo, para verificar a viabilidade de criação do cenário de aprendizagem a partir de elementos de um museu. Já o AR2 foi realizado com 174 alunos do ensino fundamental, para verificar a aceitação dos cenários de aprendizagem. Um dos resultados identificado através do AR1, foram os artefatos necessários para compor os cenários de aprendizagem. No entanto, observou-se a necessidade de um artefato para auxiliar na construção da persona. Para isso, realizou-se uma adaptação na técnica de mapa de empatia, denominada MapLearn, como apoio ao professor durante o processo de construção da persona. Também se identificou a necessidade da criação de um ciclo para apoiar professores e museólogos durante a criação dos cenários de aprendizagem. A validação da proposta incluiu a avaliação do MapLearn; o ciclo e-MuLearn; e os cenários de aprendizagem, através de 2 estudos de caso e um experimento controlado. As análises apontaram que o ciclo e-MuLearn e seus artefatos podem contribuir com a criação de cenários de aprendizagem, como apoio ao ensino de História.

This licentiate thesis is based on visual art didactics and the school subject visual art, but focuses on the design process in a college design education. The aim is to explore and understand the innovative and exploratory learning processes and the importance of visual mediation in this context. With a phenomenological approach the study focuses on design students experiences in this context. These experiences are made subject on reflection and formulation, through phenomenology and visual semiotics. The empirical materal of the study consists of interviews and sketches and images collected from student workbooks. The results of the study show that the design process does not occur by itself among the students. It must be learned. The need for learning probably also applies to the processes of creative learning in other fields. Furthermore, the results indicate that the process is best understood and appropriated in pragmatic learning situations. Three kinds of visual representations of the basic aims of process work are identified in the analysis: images for communicative purposes, images for reference and discussion purposes and images as a support for one's own thinking. From the perspective of visual art dididactics the results of the study reveals four important dimensions, wich may be of relevance as a fundamental didactic structure in efforts to promote understanding of a practice-oriented learning in context of visual mediations. Together with a split vision guiding principles, existing premises and action-based learning processes may provide a supporting unit in this structure. Based on the results, it seems important that pupils and students have the opportunity to learn to master and appropriate the creative process in order to use it in an investigative purpose. Considering the structure of the process, a didactic model can facilitate learning and at the same time provide a valuable complement to the subjective approach of inspiration in the aestetic learning process. In summary, the results of the study indicate that the fields of design and didactics are related to each other and that the field of design training can bring knowledge and experience of exploration and creative learning processes to the school subject visual art.

Sverige står inför stora välfärdsutmaningar när allt fler arbetsföra personer går i pension. Till följd av ojämn befolkningsutveckling kommer det inom kort finnas färre arbetare som skall ta hand om fler pensionärer. Lösningen på välfärdsutmaningen finns i digitaliseringen, där digitala verktyg skall kompensera för förlorad arbetskraft. Omsorgen är det område där behovet av kompetensförsörjning kommer visa sig först. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur omsorgspersonal kan känna delaktighet i en lärandeprocess under en pågående organisationsförändring som fokuserar på ökad digitalisering i Hylte kommun. Metoden som tillämpades var en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod och studien antog en induktiv ansats. Det empiriska materialet inhämtades genom tre fokusgrupps-intervjuer där totalt 13 undersköterskor deltog. Materialet analyserades genom en konventionell innehållsanalys och resultatet utgjorde grunden för den teoretiska referensramen. Den hälsopedagogiska teoretiska referensramen utgjordes av förmedlingspedagogik, sociokulturellt lärande, lärande stilar, och kompetensutveckling samt dialog -och reflektions pedagogik, KASAM och delaktighet. Resultaten visar att omsorgspersonalen kan känna delaktighet genom att bli tillfrågade kring förändringar rörande deras arbete. Resultatet visade också att omsorgspersonalen själva vill välja sätt att genomgå utbildning. Rädslor att de mjuka värdena försvinner och ersättas av digitala verktyg är ytterligare ett väsentligt resultat som studien gett. Slutsatser som dragits av studien var att omsorgspersonalen vill vara delaktiga inför, under och efter verksamhetsförändringar, men de har svårt att se sin roll i dagsläget. Personalen lär på olika sätt och vill ha alternativa sätt till kompetensutveckling, än vad som erbjuds idag.
Sweden faces major welfare challenges as more and more workable people retire. As a result of uneven population development, there will soon be fewer workers to take care of more senior citizens. The solution to the welfare challenge is in digitization, where digital tools will compensate for lost labor. Heathcare is the area where the need for skills supply will appear first. The intent of this study was to investigate how caregivers can feel part of a learning process during an ongoing organizational change focusing on increased digitalization in Hylte county. The method applied a qualitative survey method and the study adopted an inductive approach. The empirical material was collected through three focus group interviews, where a total of 13 underscores participated. The material was analyzed by a conventional content analysis and the result was the basis for the theoretical reference framework. The theoretical references for health education consisted of mediation education, socio-cultural learning, learning styles, and competence development, as well as dialogue and reflection teaching, KASAM and participation. The results show that caregivers can feel involved by being asked about changes in their workplace. The result also showed that caregivers themselves want to choose ways to undergo education. Fears that the human contact disappears and will be replaced by digital tools are another important result that the study has given. Conclusions drawn from the study are that caregivers want to be involved in, during and after changes within the workplace, but they have difficulties to see their role for the time being. The staff learn in different ways and want alternative ways of developing skills than offered today.

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Banco Santander / Banespa
A intensificada concorrência desencadeada pela era da informação tem gerado novos desafios às empresas e profissionais. O design mostra-se como uma área que tem contribuído para entender e atuar sobre as demandas contemporâneas, destacando-se pela capacidade de criar valor para empresas e consumidores. Nessa perspectiva, esse trabalho apresenta a investigação realizada sobre uma ferramenta de design - workshop, tendo como objetivo compreender os processos que acontecem no Workshop em Design Estratégico, a partir do pressuposto que esse instrumento pode ser associado a processos de aprendizagem e geração de conhecimentos. O estudo consistiu na articulação entre referencial teórico e pesquisa empírica - composta pela observação de quatro workshops realizados na Escola de Design Unisinos, nos anos de 2009 e 2010, e pela realização de seis entrevistas com profissionais ligados ao ensino de design, na mesma instituição. Os resultados apontam que o workshop em design consiste em uma sessão de projeto concentrada, intensa e criativa, com uma estrutura intencionalmente projetada e um grupo específico de atores, entre os quais se destacam coordenadores, ministrantes e participantes. As etapas (problem setting, problem solvin, visualizing), que objetivam o entendimento do problema, a busca por soluções e a visualização dos concepts, promovem reflexão individual e coletiva, articulação entre teoria e prática, conflitos e resultados - que podem ser tangíveis (concepts apresentados) ou intangíveis (experiência que os participantes vivenciaram). Assim, o entrelaçamento dos saberes/conhecimentos prático-reflexivos (tácitos) com os saberes/conhecimentos científico-racionais (explícitos) dos participantes, torna o Workshop em Design Estratégico um espaço profícuo para aprendizagens e geração de conhecimentos.
The heightened competition unchained by the era of the information has been generating new challenges to the companies and professionals. The design is shown as a field that has been contributing to understand and act on the contemporary demands, standing out for the capacity to create value for companies and consumers. In that perspective, the study presents the investigation accomplished on a design tool - workshop, having as objective to understand the processes that happen in the Workshop in Strategic Design, implying that this instrument can be associated to learning processes and generation of knowledge. The study comprises the connection between theoretical reference and empirical research - composed by the observation of four workshops accomplished at Unisinos’ Design School, in 2009 and 2010, and six interviews made with professionals involved with Design teaching, in the same institution. The results show that the workshop in Design consists in a concentrated, intense and creative project session with a structure intentionally planned and a specific group of players, among which stand out coordinators, people that make speeches and participants. The stages (problem setting, problem solving, visualizing), that aim the problem understanding, the search for solutions and the concepts visualization, promote individual and collective reflection, connection between theory and practice, conflicts and results - that can be tangible (presented concepts) or intangible (participants experience). Therefore, the interweaving of the practical and reflexive knowledge (tacit) with the scientific and rational knowledge (explicit) of the participants turns the Workshop in Strategic Design an useful space for learning and generation of knowledge.

After a brief review of machine learning techniques and applications, this Ph.D. thesis examines several approaches for implementing machine learning architectures and algorithms into hardware within our laboratory. From this interdisciplinary background support, we have motivations for novel approaches that we intend to follow as an objective of innovative hardware implementations of dynamically self-reconfigurable logic for enhanced self-adaptive, self-(re)organizing and eventually self-assembling machine learning systems, while developing this new particular area of research. And after reviewing some relevant background of robotic control methods followed by most recent advanced cognitive controllers, this Ph.D. thesis suggests that amongst many well-known ways of designing operational technologies, the design methodologies of those leading-edge high-tech devices such as cognitive chips that may well lead to intelligent machines exhibiting conscious phenomena should crucially be restricted to extremely well defined constraints. Roboticists also need those as specifications to help decide upfront on otherwise infinitely free hardware/software design details. In addition and most importantly, we propose these specifications as methodological guidelines tightly related to ethics and the nowadays well-identified workings of the human body and of its psyche.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013
Parental involvement in rural multigrade schools in South Africa is poor. This is mainly due to a lack of support for and insufficient knowledge regarding the development of a programme that would increase parental involvement at rural multigrade schools in South Africa. The context of multigrade education in South Africa reflects the reality of a lack of parental involvement. South African rural multigrade education is beset by a variety of internal and external challenges which have a detrimental effect on effective parental involvement. However, in the rural multigrade school context, parents have untapped potential that needs to be identified and acted upon in order to empower parents; this could provide the rural marginalised children with meaningful access to quality education. Research has proved that parental involvement has a positive effect on the quality of education. According to research, the six types of parental involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making and collaborating with the community. In this study the focus was on involving parents in learning and allowing them to become active partners in education. To increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools in South Africa, an intervention was needed. This intervention came in the form of a school, community and family partnership programme. The core elements of a school, community and family partnership programme (SCAF partnership programme) were the creation of partnerships and communication channels between the school, community and family, as well as the utilisation of existing community resources. These core elements had a specific focus on learning. This study used Bourdieu's (1986) theory on capital and Epstein's (1995) theory of overlapping spheres of influence. The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of an effective school, community and family partnership programme that would increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools in South Africa. Design-based research was employed in order to design, develop and test the proposed programme. Research was conducted in two phases. During the preliminary phase, a needs and content analysis, review of literature, and the development of a conceptual or theoretical framework for the study were conducted. This was followed by a prototyping phase which is an iterative design phase consisting of iterations, each being a micro-cycle of research with formative evaluation as the most important research activity, and which is aimed at improving and refining the intervention. Summative evaluation was conducted during the prototype phase in order to determine whether the solution or intervention met the pre-determined specifications. Data gathered during this study indicated: 1. The SCAF partnership programme can increase parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools if certain product and process characteristics are active. 2. The SCAF partnership programme allows utilising school, home and community capital through interaction and collaboration to increase parental involvement in learning. 3. A SCAF partnership programme should focus on learning through creating partnerships and opportunities for communication, and utilising community resources. 4. A SCAF partnership programme should be employed through a specific process. 5. Design research offers an appropriate and powerful approach to design, develop and implement a SCAF partnership programme that increases parental involvement in learning at rural multigrade schools. Keywords: Parental involvement, Parents, Design Research, Rural multigrade schools, Rural multigrade education

Com o significativo crescimento da Educação a Distância (EaD), surge a preocupação e a necessidade de um olhar qualitativo diferenciado para todas as atividades que estão, direta ou indiretamente, relacionadas à área. Esse olhar qualitativo deve ser embasado em pressupostos científicos e não em empirismo, como se vê no encaminhamento dado por diversas instituições. Considerando que a qualidade do todo é conseguida pela qualidade das partes que o compõem, a da educação a distância é conseguida por meio da somatória da qualidade da execução de diversas atividades - como tutoria, gestão e coordenação de processo, dentre outras - e dos instrumentos utilizados - como material instrucional (MI) e sistemas gestores de aprendizagem -, que devem estar integrados não apenas ao contexto educacional ao qual pertencem, mas também a uma realidade flexível e dinâmica, imposta pela própria modalidade. O foco desse trabalho está na qualidade do processo de planejamento de um MI, considerado como o instrumento que integra agentes, atividades, tecnologias e estratégias de ensino e aprendizagem. A partir de uma profunda atividade de pesquisa bibliográfica relacionada à EaD, aos estilos de ensino e aprendizagem, à taxonomia de objetivos cognitivos e às mídias, de caráter exploratório e prático, propõe-se a utilização de uma diretriz para planejar materiais instrucionais, tendo como objetivo o efetivo desenvolvimento cognitivo, realizado por meio da estimulação e motivação para aquisição de novos conhecimentos, de competências, de habilidades, e direcionando para uma mudança de atitude em relação ao saber adquirido.
With the significant increase in Distance Education (DE) there is a significant and different concern about the quality related to all activities that are directly or indirectly related to it. Whereas the quality of the whole is achieved by the quality of its parts; at distance education this is achieved through the summation of the quality of different activities such as mentoring, tutoring, educational management, among others, as well as the instruments used as instructional subject matter (ISM), learning manager systems (LMS), which should be integrated not only to the educational context to which they belong, but also to a flexible and dynamic reality imposed by the modality. The focus of this work is at the quality of the process of planning ISM as it has been considered the instrument that integrates staffs, technology and learning/teaching strategies. Based on the bibliographical revision about distance education, learning and teaching styles, medias and taxonomy of educational objectives a framework for planning ISB was designed and it was submitted to specialists\' critiques, suggestions and considerations to verify its consistency and applicability toward the effectiveness cognitive development achieved by means of stimulation and motivation for new knowledge, skills, ability the acquisition and consequently to a change of attitude towards the of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned.

Many functions that at one time could only be performed by humans can nowadays be carried out by machines. Automation impacts many areas of life including work, home, communication and mobility. In the driving context, in-vehicle automation is considered to provide solutions for environmental, economic, safety and societal challenges. However, automation changes the driving task and the human-machine interaction. Thus, the expected benefit of in-vehicle automation can be undermined by changes in drivers’ behaviour, i.e. behavioural adaptation. This PhD project focuses on motivational as well as higher cognitive processes underlying behavioural adaptation when interacting with in-vehicle automation. Motivational processes include the development of trust and acceptance, whereas higher cognitive processes comprise the learning process as well as the development of mental models and Situation Awareness (SA). As an example for in-vehicle automation, the advanced driver assistance system Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) was investigated. ACC automates speed and distance control by maintaining a constant set cruising speed and automatically adjusting vehicle’s velocity in order to provide a specified distance to the preceding vehicle. However, due to sensor limitations, not every situation can be handled by the system and therefore driver intervention is required. Trust, acceptance and an appropriate mental model of the system functionality are considered key variables for adequate use and appropriate SA. To systematically investigate changes in motivational and higher cognitive processes, a driving simulator as well as an on-road study were carried out. Both of the studies were conducted using a repeated-measures design, taking into account the process character, i.e. changes over time. The main focus was on the development of trust, acceptance and the mental model of novice users when interacting with ACC. By now, only few studies have attempted to assess changes in higher level cognitive processes, due to methodological difficulties posed by the dynamic task of driving. Therefore, this PhD project aimed at the elaboration and validation of innovative methods for assessing higher cognitive processes, with an emphasis on SA and mental models. In addition, a new approach for analyzing big and heterogeneous data in social science was developed, based on the use of relational databases. The driving simulator study investigated the effect of divergent initial mental models of ACC (i.e., varying according to correctness) on trust, acceptance and mental model evolvement. A longitudinal study design was applied, using a two-way (3×3) repeated measures mixed design with a matched sample of 51 subjects. Three experimental groups received (1) a correct ACC description, (2) an incomplete and idealised account omitting potential problems, and (3) an incorrect description including non-occurring problems. All subjects drove a 56-km track of highway with an identical ACC system, three times, and within a period of 6 weeks. Results showed that after using the system, participants’ mental model of ACC converged towards the profile of the correct group. Non-experienced problems tended to disappear from the mental model network when they were not activated by experience. Trust and acceptance grew steadily for the correct condition. The same trend was observed for the group with non-occurring problems, starting from a lower initial level. Omitted problems in the incomplete group led to a constant decrease in trust and acceptance without recovery. This indicates that automation failures do not negatively affect trust and acceptance if they are known beforehand. During each drive, participants continuously completed a visual secondary task, the Surrogate Reference Task (SURT). The frequency of task completion was used as objective online-measure for SA, based on the principle that situationally aware driver would reduce the engagement in the secondary task if they expect potentially critical situations. Results showed that correctly informed drivers were aware of potential system limitations and reduced their engagement in the secondary task when such situations arose. Participants with no information about limitations became only aware after first encounter and reduced secondary task engagement in corresponding situations during subsequent trials. However, trust and acceptance in the system declined over time due to the unexpected failures. Non occurring limitations tended to drop from the mental model and resulted in reduced SA already in the second trial. The on-road study investigated the learning process, as well as the development of trust, acceptance and the mental model for interacting with ACC in real conditions. Research questions aimed to model the learning process in mathematical/statistical terms, examine moments and conditions when these processes stabilize, and assess how experience changes the mental model of the system. A sample of fifteen drivers without ACC experience drove a test vehicle with ACC ten consecutive times on the same route within a 2-month period. In contrast to the driving simulator study, all participants were fully trained in ACC functionality by reading the owner’s manual in the beginning. Results showed that learning, as well as the development of acceptance and trust in ACC follows the power law of learning, in case of comprehensive prior information on system limitations. Thus, the major part of the learning process occurred during the first interaction with the system and support in explaining the systems abilities (e.g. by tutoring systems) should therefore primarily be given during this first stage. All processes stabilized at a relatively high level after the fifth session, which corresponds to 185 km or 3.5 hours of driving. No decline was observable with ongoing system experience. However, in line with the findings from the simulator study, limitations that are not experienced tended to disappear from the mental model if they were not activated by experience. With regard to the validation of the developed methods for assessing mental models and SA, results are encouraging. The studies show that the mental model questionnaire is able to provide insights into the construction of mental models and the development over time. Likewise, the implicit measurement approach to assess SA online in the driving simulator is sensitive to user’s awareness of potentially critical situations. In terms of content, the results of the studies prove the enduring relevance of the initial mental model for the learning process, SA, as well as the development of trust, acceptance and a realistic mental model about automation capabilities and limitations. Given the importance of the initial mental model it is recommended that studies on system trust and acceptance should include, and attempt to control, users’ initial mental model of system functionality. Although the results showed that also incorrect and incomplete initial mental models converged by experience towards a realistic appreciation of system functionality, the more cognitive effort needed to update the mental model, the lower trust and acceptance. Providing an idealised description, which omits potential problems, only leads to temporarily higher trust and acceptance in the beginning. The experience of unexpected limitations results in a steady decrease in trust and acceptance over time. A trial-and-error strategy for in-vehicle automation use, without accompanying information, is therefore considered insufficient for developing stable trust and acceptance. If the mental model matches experience, trust and acceptance grow steadily following the power law of learning – regardless of the experience of system limitations. Provided that such events are known in advance, they will not cause a decrease in trust and acceptance over time. Even over-information about potential problems lowers trust and acceptance only in the beginning, and not in the long run. Potential problems should therefore not be concealed in over-idealised system descriptions; the more information given, the better, in the long run. However, limitations that are not experienced tend to disappear from the mental model. Therefore, it is recommended that users be periodically reminded of system limitations to make sure that corresponding knowledge becomes re-activated. Intelligent tutoring systems incorporated in automated systems could provide a solution. In the driving context, periodic reminders about system limitations could be shown via the multifunction displays integrated in most modern cars. Tutoring systems could also be used to remind the driver of the presence of specific in-vehicle automation systems and reveal their benefits
Viele Aufgaben, die ehemals von Menschen ausgeführt wurden, werden heute von Maschinen übernommen. Dieser Prozess der Automatisierung betrifft viele Lebensbereiche von Arbeit, Wohnen, Kommunikation bis hin zur Mobilität. Im Bereich des Individualverkehrs wird die Automatisierung von Fahrzeugen als Möglichkeit gesehen, zukünftigen Herausforderungen wirtschaftlicher, gesellschaftlicher und umweltpolitischer Art zu begegnen. Allerdings verändert Automatisierung die Fahraufgabe und die Mensch-Technik Interaktion im Fahrzeug. Daher können beispielsweise erwartete Sicherheitsgewinne automatisch agierender Assistenzsysteme durch Veränderungen im Verhalten des Fahrers geschmälert werden, was als Verhaltensanpassung (behavioural adaptation) bezeichnet wird. Dieses Dissertationsprojekt untersucht motivationale und höhere kognitive Prozesse, die Verhaltensanpassungen im Umgang mit automatisierten Fahrerassistenzsystemen zugrunde liegen. Motivationale Prozesse beinhalten die Entwicklung von Akzeptanz und Vertrauen in das System, unter höheren kognitiven Prozessen werden Lernprozesse sowie die Entwicklung von mentalen Modellen des Systems und Situationsbewusstsein (Situation Awareness) verstanden. Im Fokus der Untersuchungen steht das Fahrerassistenzsystem Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) als ein Beispiel für Automatisierung im Fahrzeug. ACC regelt automatisch die Geschwindigkeit des Fahrzeugs, indem bei freier Fahrbahn eine eingestellte Wunschgeschwindigkeit und bei einem Vorausfahrer automatisch ein eingestellter Abstand eingehalten wird. Allerdings kann ACC aufgrund von Einschränkungen der Sensorik nicht jede Situation bewältigen, weshalb der Fahrer übernehmen muss. Für diesen Interaktionsprozess spielen Vertrauen, Akzeptanz und das mentale Modell der Systemfunktionalität eine Schlüsselrolle, um einen sicheren Umgang mit dem System und ein adäquates Situationsbewusstsein zu entwickeln. Zur systematischen Erforschung dieser motivationalen und kognitiven Prozesse wurden eine Fahrsimulatorstudie und ein Versuch im Realverkehr durchgeführt. Beide Studien wurden im Messwiederholungsdesign angelegt, um dem Prozesscharakter gerecht werden und Veränderungen über die Zeit erfassen zu können. Die Entwicklung von Vertrauen, Akzeptanz und mentalem Modell in der Interaktion mit ACC war zentraler Forschungsgegenstand beider Studien. Bislang gibt es wenige Studien, die kognitive Prozesse im Kontext der Fahrzeugführung untersucht haben, unter anderem auch wegen methodischer Schwierigkeiten in diesem dynamischen Umfeld. Daher war es ebenfalls Teil dieses Dissertationsprojekts, neue Methoden zur Erfassung höherer kognitiver Prozesse in dieser Domäne zu entwickeln, mit Fokus auf mentalen Modellen und Situationsbewusstsein. Darüber hinaus wurde auch ein neuer Ansatz für die Analyse großer und heterogener Datenmengen im sozialwissenschaftlichen Bereich entwickelt, basierend auf dem Einsatz relationaler Datenbanken. Ziel der der Fahrsimulatorstudie war die systematische Erforschung des Effekts von unterschiedlich korrekten initialen mentalen Modellen von ACC auf die weitere Entwicklung des mentalen Modells, Vertrauen und Akzeptanz des Systems. Eine Stichprobe von insgesamt 51 Probanden nahm an der Studie teil; der Versuch wurde als zweifaktorielles (3x3) gemischtes Messwiederholungsdesign konzipiert. Die 3 parallelisierten Versuchsgruppen zu je 17 Personen erhielten (1) eine korrekte Beschreibung des ACC, (2) eine idealisierte Beschreibung unter Auslassung auftretender Systemprobleme und (3) eine überkritische Beschreibung mit zusätzlichen Hinweisen auf Systemprobleme, die nie auftraten. Alle Teilnehmer befuhren insgesamt dreimal im Zeitraum von sechs Wochen dieselbe 56 km lange Autobahnstrecke im Fahrsimulator mit identischem ACC-System. Mit zunehmendem Einsatz des ACC zeigte sich im anfänglich divergierenden mentalen Modell zwischen den Gruppen eine Entwicklung hin zum mentalen Modell der korrekt informierten Gruppe. Nicht erfahrene Systemprobleme tendierten dazu, im mentalen Modell zu verblassen, wenn sie nicht durch Erfahrung reaktiviert wurden. Vertrauen und Akzeptanz stiegen stetig in der korrekt informierten Gruppe. Dieselbe Entwicklung zeigte sich auch in der überkritisch informierten Gruppe, wobei Vertrauen und Akzeptanz anfänglich niedriger waren als in der Bedingung mit korrekter Information. Verschwiegene Systemprobleme führten zu einer konstanten Abnahme von Akzeptanz und Vertrauen ohne Erholung in der Gruppe mit idealisierter Beschreibung. Diese Resultate lassen darauf schließen, dass Probleme automatisierter Systeme sich nicht zwingend negativ auf Vertrauen und Akzeptanz auswirken, sofern sie vorab bekannt sind. Bei jeder Fahrt führten die Versuchsteilnehmer zudem kontinuierlich eine visuell beanspruchende Zweitaufgabe aus, die Surrogate Reference Task (SURT). Die Frequenz der Zweitaufgabenbearbeitung diente als objektives Echtzeitmaß für das Situationsbewusstsein, basierend auf dem Ansatz, dass situationsbewusste Fahrer die Zuwendung zur Zweitaufgabe reduzieren wenn sie potentiell kritische Situationen erwarten. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass die korrekt informierten Fahrer sich potentiell kritischer Situationen mit möglichen Systemproblemen bewusst waren und schon im Vorfeld der Entstehung die Zweitaufgabenbearbeitung reduzierten. Teilnehmer ohne Informationen zu auftretenden Systemproblemen wurden sich solcher Situationen erst nach dem ersten Auftreten bewusst und reduzierten in entsprechenden Szenarien der Folgefahrten die Zweitaufgabenbearbeitung. Allerdings sanken Vertrauen und Akzeptanz des Systems aufgrund der unerwarteten Probleme. Erwartete, aber nicht auftretende Systemprobleme tendierten dazu, im mentalen Modell des Systems zu verblassen und resultierten in vermindertem Situationsbewusstsein bereits in der zweiten Fahrt. Im Versuch unter Realbedingungen wurden der Lernprozesses sowie die Entwicklung des mentalen Modells, Vertrauen und Akzeptanz von ACC im Realverkehr erforscht. Ziele waren die statistisch/mathematische Modellierung des Lernprozesses, die Bestimmung von Zeitpunkten der Stabilisierung dieser Prozesse und wie sich reale Systemerfahrung auf das mentale Modell von ACC auswirkt. 15 Versuchsteilnehmer ohne ACC-Erfahrung fuhren ein Serienfahrzeug mit ACC insgesamt 10-mal auf der gleichen Strecke in einem Zeitraum von 2 Monaten. Im Unterschied zur Fahrsimulatorstudie waren alle Teilnehmer korrekt über die ACC-Funktionen und Funktionsgrenzen informiert durch Lesen der entsprechenden Abschnitte im Fahrzeughandbuch am Beginn der Studie. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass der Lernprozess sowie die Entwicklung von Akzeptanz und Vertrauen einer klassischen Lernkurve folgen – unter der Bedingung umfassender vorheriger Information zu Systemgrenzen. Der größte Lernfortschritt ist am Beginn der Interaktion mit dem System sichtbar und daher sollten Hilfen (z.B. durch intelligente Tutorsysteme) in erster Linie zu diesem Zeitpunkt gegeben werden. Eine Stabilisierung aller Prozesse zeigte sich nach der fünften Fahrt, was einer Fahrstrecke von rund 185 km oder 3,5 Stunden Fahrzeit entspricht. Es zeigten sich keine Einbrüche in Akzeptanz, Vertrauen bzw. dem Lernprozess durch die gemachten Erfahrungen im Straßenverkehr. Allerdings zeigte sich – analog zur Fahrsimulatorstudie – auch in der Realfahrstudie ein Verblassen von nicht erfahrenen Systemgrenzen im mentalen Modell, wenn diese nicht durch Erfahrungen aktiviert wurden. Im Hinblick auf die Validierung der neu entwickelten Methoden zur Erfassung von mentalen Modellen und Situationsbewusstsein sind die Resultate vielversprechend. Die Studien zeigen, dass mit dem entwickelten Fragebogenansatz zur Quantifizierung des mentalen Modells Einblicke in Aufbau und Entwicklung mentaler Modelle gegeben werden können. Der implizite Echtzeit-Messansatz für Situationsbewusstsein im Fahrsimulator zeigt sich ebenfalls sensitiv in der Erfassung des Bewusstseins von Fahrern für potentiell kritische Situationen. Inhaltlich zeigen die Studien die nachhaltige Relevanz des initialen mentalen Modells für den Lernprozess sowie die Entwicklung von Situationsbewusstsein, Akzeptanz, Vertrauen und die weitere Ausformung eines realistischen mentalen Modells der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen automatisierter Systeme. Aufgrund dieser Relevanz wird die Einbindung und Kontrolle des initialen mentalen Modells in Studien zu automatisierten Systemen unbedingt empfohlen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen zwar, dass sich auch unvollständige bzw. falsche mentale Modelle durch Erfahrungslernen hin zu einer realistischen Einschätzung der Systemmöglichkeiten und -grenzen verändern, allerdings um den Preis sinkenden Vertrauens und abnehmender Akzeptanz. Idealisierte Systembeschreibungen ohne Hinweise auf mögliche Systemprobleme bringen nur anfänglich etwas höheres Vertrauen und Akzeptanz. Das Erleben unerwarteter Probleme führt zu einem stetigen Abfall dieser motivationalen Faktoren über die Zeit. Ein alleiniges Versuchs-Irrtums-Lernen für den Umgang mit automatisierter Assistenz im Fahrzeug ohne zusätzliche Information wird daher als nicht ausreichend für die Entwicklung stabilen Vertrauens und stabiler Akzeptanz betrachtet. Wenn das initiale mentale Modell den Erfahrungen entspricht, entwickeln sich Akzeptanz und Vertrauen gemäß einer klassischen Lernkurve – trotz erlebter Systemgrenzen. Sind diese potentiellen Probleme vorher bekannt, führen sie nicht zwingend zu einer Reduktion von Vertrauen und Akzeptanz. Auch zusätzliche überkritische Information vermindert Vertrauen und Akzeptanz nur am Beginn, aber nicht langfristig. Daher sollen potentielle Probleme in automatisierten Systemen nicht in idealisierten Beschreibungen verschwiegen werden – je präzisere Information gegeben wird, desto besser im langfristigen Verlauf. Allerdings tendieren nicht erfahrene Systemgrenzen zum Verblassen im mentalen Modell. Daher wird empfohlen, Nutzer regelmäßig an diese Systemgrenzen zu erinnern um die entsprechenden Facetten des mentalen Modells zu reaktivieren. In automatisierten Systemen integrierte intelligente Tutorsysteme könnten dafür eine Lösung bieten. Im Fahrzeugbereich könnten solche periodischen Erinnerungen an Systemgrenzen in Multifunktionsdisplays angezeigt werden, die mittlerweile in vielen modernen Fahrzeugen integriert sind. Diese Tutorsysteme können darüber hinaus auch auf die Präsenz eingebauter automatisierter Systeme hinweisen und deren Vorteile aufzeigen

Algorithmically designed reward functions can influence groups of learning agents toward measurable desired sequential joint behaviours. Influencing learning agents toward desirable behaviours is non-trivial due to the difficulties of assigning credit for global success to the deserving agents and of inducing coordination. Quantifying joint behaviours lets us identify global success by ranking some behaviours as more desirable than others. We propose a real-valued metric for turn-taking, demonstrating how to measure one sequential joint behaviour. We describe how to identify the presence of turn-taking in simulation results and we calculate the quantity of turn-taking that could be observed between independent random agents. We demonstrate our turn-taking metric by reinterpreting previous work on turn-taking in emergent communication and by analysing a recorded human conversation. Given a metric, we can explore the space of reward functions and identify those reward functions that result in global success in groups of learning agents. We describe 'medium access games' as a model for human and machine communication and we present simulation results for an extensive range of reward functions for pairs of Q-learning agents. We use the Nash equilibria of medium access games to develop predictors for determining which reward functions result in turn-taking. Having demonstrated the predictive power of Nash equilibria for turn-taking in medium access games, we focus on synthesis of reward functions for stochastic games that result in arbitrary desirable Nash equilibria. Our method constructs a reward function such that a particular joint behaviour is the unique Nash equilibrium of a stochastic game, provided that such a reward function exists. This method builds on techniques for designing rewards for Markov decision processes and for normal form games. We explain our reward design methods in detail and formally prove that they are correct.

The core concern of my thesis is with shifting the focus from the description on how innovation is done (predominantly STS accounts of innovation in-the-making) to what designers do with conceptions of innovation. The thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork within a group of interaction designers of Milan. Despite the different conceptions and traditions of innovation that these designers bring in – the artistic and technological ones – I observed that a design-centered conception of innovation is reproduced, as well as the idea that plans and intentions precede things. However, another key idea of my fieldwork is the importance designers give to imagining things as they might be, rather than focusing on how things are. This is where different models of action, planned and open ones coexist in creative ways: it is these processes that the ethnography details.

En la actualidad, la Internet de las Cosas (Internet of Things, IoT) es una tecnología esencial para la próxima generación de sistemas inalámbricos. La conectividad es la base de IoT, y el tipo de acceso requerido dependerá de la naturaleza de la aplicación. Uno de los principales facilitadores del entorno IoT es la comunicación machine-to-machine (M2M) y, en particular, su enorme potencial para ofrecer conectividad ubicua entre dispositivos inteligentes. Las redes celulares son la elección natural para las aplicaciones emergentes de IoT y M2M. Un desafío importante en las redes celulares es conseguir que la red sea capaz de manejar escenarios de acceso masivo en los que numerosos dispositivos utilizan comunicaciones M2M. Por otro lado, los sistemas celulares han experimentado un tremendo desarrollo en las últimas décadas: incorporan tecnología sofisticada y nuevos algoritmos para ofrecer una amplia gama de servicios. El modelado y análisis del rendimiento de estas redes multiservicio es también una tarea desafiante que podría requerir un gran esfuerzo computacional. Para abordar los desafíos anteriores, nos centramos en primer lugar en el diseño y la evaluación de las prestaciones de nuevos mecanismos de control de acceso para hacer frente a las comunicaciones masivas M2M en redes celulares. Posteriormente nos ocupamos de la evaluación de prestaciones de redes multiservicio y proponemos una nueva técnica analítica que ofrece precisión y eficiencia computacional. Nuestro principal objetivo es proporcionar soluciones para aliviar la congestión en la red de acceso radio cuando un gran número de dispositivos M2M intentan conectarse a la red. Consideramos los siguientes tipos de escenarios: (i) los dispositivos M2M se conectan directamente a las estaciones base celulares, y (ii) forman grupos y los datos se envían a concentradores de tráfico (gateways) que les proporcionan acceso a la infraestructura. En el primer escenario, dado que el número de dispositivos añadidos a la red aumenta continuamente, esta debería ser capaz de manejar el considerable incremento en las solicitudes de acceso. El 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) ha propuesto el access class barring (ACB) como una solución práctica para el control de congestión en la red de acceso radio y la red troncal. El ajuste correcto de los parámetros de ACB de acuerdo con la intensidad del tráfico es crítico, pero cómo hacerlo de forma dinámica y autónoma es un problema complejo cuya solución no está recogida en las especificaciones del 3GPP. Esta tesis doctoral contribuye al análisis del rendimiento y al diseño de nuevos algoritmos que implementen efectivamente este mecanismo, y así superar los desafíos introducidos por las comunicaciones masivas M2M. En el segundo escenario, dado que la heterogeneidad de los dispositivos IoT y las arquitecturas celulares basadas en hardware imponen desafíos aún mayores para permitir una comunicación flexible y eficiente en los sistemas inalámbricos 5G, esta tesis doctoral también contribuye al diseño de software-defined gateways (SD-GWs) en una nueva arquitectura propuesta para redes inalámbricas definidas por software que se denomina SoftAir. Esto permite manejar tanto un gran número de dispositivos como el volumen de datos que estarán vertiendo en la red. Otra contribución de esta tesis doctoral es la propuesta de una técnica novedosa para el análisis de prestaciones de redes multiservicio de alta capacidad que se basa en un nuevo enfoque del modelizado analítico de sistemas que operan a diferentes escalas temporales. Este enfoque utiliza el análisis del transitorio de una serie de subcadenas absorbentes y lo denominamos absorbing Markov chain approximation (AMCA). Nuestros resultados muestran que para un coste computacional dado, AMCA calcula los parámetros de prestaciones habituales de un sistema con mayor precisión, en comparación con los resultados obtenidos por otr
Nowadays, Internet of Things (IoT) is an essential technology for the upcoming generation of wireless systems. Connectivity is the foundation for IoT, and the type of access required will depend on the nature of the application. One of the leading facilitators of the IoT environment is machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and particularly, its tremendous potential to offer ubiquitous connectivity among intelligent devices. Cellular networks are the natural choice for emerging IoT and M2M applications. A major challenge in cellular networks is to make the network capable of handling massive access scenarios in which myriad devices deploy M2M communications. On the other hand, cellular systems have seen a tremendous development in recent decades; they incorporate sophisticated technology and algorithms to offer a broad range of services. The modeling and performance analysis of these large multi-service networks is also a challenging task that might require high computational effort. To address the above challenges, we first concentrate on the design and performance evaluation of novel access control schemes to deal with massive M2M communications. Then, we focus on the performance evaluation of large multi-service networks and propose a novel analytical technique that features accuracy and computational efficiency. Our main objective is to provide solutions to ease the congestion in the radio access or core network when massive M2M devices try to connect to the network. We consider the following two types of scenarios: (i) massive M2M devices connect directly to cellular base stations, and (ii) they form clusters and the data is forwarded to gateways that provide them with access to the infrastructure. In the first scenario, as the number of devices added to the network is constantly increasing, the network should handle the considerable increment in access requests. Access class barring (ACB) is proposed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a practical congestion control solution in the radio access and core network. The proper tuning of the ACB parameters according to the traffic intensity is critical, but how to do so dynamically and autonomously is a challenging task that has not been specified. Thus, this dissertation contributes to the performance analysis and optimal design of novel algorithms to implement effectively this barring scheme and overcome the challenges introduced by massive M2M communications. In the second scenario, since the heterogeneity of IoT devices and the hardware-based cellular architectures impose even greater challenges to enable flexible and efficient communication in 5G wireless systems, this dissertation also contributes to the design of software-defined gateways (SD-GWs) in a new architecture proposed for wireless software-defined networks called SoftAir. The deployment of these SD-GWs represents an alternative solution aiming at handling both a vast number of devices and the volume of data they will be pouring into the network. Another contribution of this dissertation is to propose a novel technique for the performance analysis of large multi-service networks. The underlying complexity of the network, particularly concerning its size and the ample range of configuration options, makes the solution of the analytical models computationally costly. However, a typical characteristic of these networks is that they support multiple types of traffic flows operating at different time-scales. This time-scale separation can be exploited to reduce considerably the computational cost associated to determine the key performance indicators. Thus, we propose a novel analytical modeling approach based on the transient regime analysis, that we name absorbing Markov chain approximation (AMCA). For a given computational cost, AMCA finds common performance indicators with greater accuracy, when compared to the results obtained by other approximate methods proposed in the literature.
En l'actualitat, la Internet de les Coses (Internet of Things, IoT) és una tecnologia essencial per a la propera generació de sistemes sense fil. La connectivitat és la base d'IoT, i el tipus d'accés requerit dependrà de la naturalesa de l'aplicació. Un dels principals facilitadors de l'entorn IoT és la comunicació machine-to-machine (M2M) i, en particular, el seu enorme potencial per oferir connectivitat ubiqua entre dispositius intel · ligents. Les xarxes mòbils són l'elecció natural per a les aplicacions emergents de IoT i M2M. Un desafiament important en les xarxes mòbils que actualment está rebent molta atenció és aconseguir que la xarxa siga capaç de gestionar escenaris d'accés massiu en què una gran quantitat de dispositius utilitzen comunicacions M2M. D'altra banda, els sistemes mòbils han experimentat un gran desenvolupament en les últimes dècades: incorporen tecnologia sofisticada i nous algoritmes per oferir una àmplia gamma de serveis. El modelatge i análisi del rendiment d'aquestes xarxes multiservei és també un desafiament important que podria requerir un gran esforç computacional. Per abordar els desafiaments anteriors, en aquesta tesi doctoral ens centrem en primer lloc en el disseny i l'avaluació de les prestacions de nous mecanismes de control d'accés per fer front a les comunicacions massives M2M en xarxes cel · lulars. Posteriorment ens ocupem de l'avaluació de prestacions de xarxes multiservei i proposem una nova tècnica analítica que ofereix precisió i eficiència computacional. El nostre principal objectiu és proporcionar solucions per a alleujar la congestió a la xarxa d'accés ràdio quan un gran nombre de dispositius M2M intenten connectar-se a la xarxa. Considerem els dos tipus d'escenaris següents: (i) els dispositius M2M es connecten directament a les estacions base cel · lulars, i (ii) formen grups i les dades s'envien a concentradors de trànsit (gateways) que els proporcionen accés a la infraestructura. En el primer escenari, atès que el nombre de dispositius afegits a la xarxa augmenta contínuament, aquesta hauria de ser capaç de gestionar el considerable increment en les sol · licituds d'accés. El 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) ha proposat l'access class barring (ACB) com una solució pràctica per al control de congestió a la xarxa d'accès ràdio i la xarxa troncal. L'ajust correcte dels paràmetres d'ACB d'acord amb la intensitat del trànsit és crític, però com fer-ho de forma dinàmica i autònoma és un problema complex, la solució del qual no està recollida en les especificacions del 3GPP. Aquesta tesi doctoral contribueix a l'anàlisi del rendiment i al disseny de nous algoritmes que implementen efectivament aquest mecanisme, i així superar els desafiaments introduïts per les comunicacions massives M2M en les xarxes mòbils actuals i futures. En el segon escenari, atès que l'heterogeneïtat dels dispositius IoT i les arquitectures cel · lulars basades en hardware imposen desafiaments encara més grans per permetre una comunicació flexible i eficient en els sistemes sense fil 5G, aquesta tesi doctoral també contribueix al disseny de software-defined gateways (SD-GWS) en una nova arquitectura proposada per a xarxes sense fils definides per programari que s'anomena SoftAir. Això permet gestionar tant un gran nombre de dispositius com el volum de dades que estaran abocant a la xarxa. Una altra contribució d'aquesta tesi doctoral és la proposta d'una tècnica innovadora per a l'anàlisi de prestacions de xarxes multiservei d'alta capacitat que es basa en un nou enfocament del modelitzat analític de sistemes que operen a diferents escales temporals. Aquest enfocament utilitza l'anàlisi del transitori d'una sèrie de subcadenes absorbents i l'anomenem absorbing Markov chain Approximation (AMCA). Els nostres resultats mostren que per a un cost computacional donat, AMCA calcula els paràmetres de prestacions habituals d
Tello Oquendo, LP. (2018). Design and Performance Analysis of Access Control Mechanisms for Massive Machine-to-Machine Communications in Wireless Cellular Networks [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/107946
TESIS

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This work aims to develop a novel method to design educational games, following Extreme Programming and Scrum Agile Methods and screenplays under the dilemmas and mechanical game re-guise concepts, which are already widely accepted in the literature. Workshops using the proposed method were conducted in order to identify the demands of educators and students from elementary and middle school and also the viability in the implementation of the method as a support tool to the teaching process. The validation results and the method acceptance were evaluated by statistical tests, which are also widely explored in the literature for similar samples. The final remarks show the successful methods evolution and their validation results under the considered classrooms context.
Este trabalho tem por objetivo desenvolver um novo método para a produção de jogos educativos, baseado nos métodos ágeis Scrum e Extreme Programming, além de utilizar conceitos de produção de roteiros baseados em dilemas e utilização de técnicas de rerroupagem de mecânicas de jogos já existentes e amplamente aceitas pela literatura. Foram realizadas oficinas, que utilizaram versões do método proposto, para identificar as demandas de professores e alunos do ensino médio e fundamental, e verificar qual delas apresentavam viabilidade de implantação como ferramenta de apoio ao processo de ensino-aprendizagem. Os resultados obtidos, tanto em relação à aceitação do método e como em relação à melhora dos indicadores de aprendizagem dos conceitos apresentados durante as oficinas, foram analisados utilizando testes estatísticos específicos, amplamente explorados na literatura. Os resultados dos testes permitiram o aprimoramento e a validação do método proposto dentro do contexto de sala de aula.