Accepted teaching and learning practices have undergone major changes during the past two decades. They have been underpinned by shifts in psychological and pedagogical theory, the most recent of which fit broadly under the heading of constructivism. During this time, there have also been significant changes in the development of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) resources. These changes have tended to be driven by technological developments, such as the availability of desktop computers with multimedia capabilities, and more recently the increasing prominence of the Internet, rather than developments in teaching and learning theory. The aim of this research is to analyse the implications of a constructivist view of teaching and learning for the development of CAL resources. Specifically, the research attempts to describe the nature of constructivist CAL resources, before proposing a model for the development of such resources. The capabilities of existing tools for the development of constructivist CAL resources are also analysed. In looking at the nature of constructivist CAL resources, developments in pedagogical theory that have lead to the constructivist position are reviewed, along with constructivist theories of teaching practice. This body of theory is then synthesised into ten principles of constructivist teaching and learning. The implications of a constructivist view of teaching and learning for CAL resources are then examined. A range of constructivist CAL approaches are identified, and a classification scheme for constructivist CAL is proposed. This scheme involves the classification of a CAL approach according to the learner activities it facilitates, the input techniques used and the processing and output techniques used. The process of developing CAL resources is then addressed. The selection of CAL approaches that are likely to assist with the achievement of specific categories of learning outcome is recognised as being central to this process. Matrices relating categories of learning outcome to categories of learner activity and categories of learner activity to categories of input, processing and output technique are proposed. A model for developing CAL resources, that makes use of these matrices is proposed. In developing this model, instructional design models and software development models are reviewed. Finally, support provided by existing authoring tools, for the development of constructivist CAL resources using the proposed model is examined. Six of the most popular authoring tools, including tools designed primarily for CD-ROM based resource development and tools designed primarily for Web-based development are reviewed.

Training emergency response decision makers using live, virtual and/or constructive simulations can be highly complex since certain situations can generate stimulusresponse cycles that depend significantly on unpredictable human judgments. In particular, effective training scenarios require a combination of content contributed via pre-authored scripts and content generated dynamically during the training exercise. Large-scale exercises require multiple domain experts contributing oversight and content to the scenario as it proceeds. Such real-time adaptation requires situational and group awareness based on an understanding of pre-scripted materials and the adaptations of others. This thesis describes the evolution and evaluation of a collaborative graphical timeline system, called the Scenario Timeline System (STS), which facilitates asynchronous and synchronous collaborative timeline management, and its application in large-scale, computer-supported emergency response training exercises.

"Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) are computer based tutoring systems that provide individualized tutoring to the students. Building an ITS is recognized to be expensive task in terms of cost and resources. Authoring tools provide a framework and an environment for building the ITSs that help to reduce the resources like skills, time and cost required to build an intelligent tutoring system. In this thesis we have implemented the Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools (CTAT) and performed experiments to empirically determine the common programming errors that authors tend to make while building an ITS and study what is hard in authoring an ITS. The CTAT were used in a graduate class at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and also at the 4th Summer school organized at the Carnegie Mellon University. Based on the analysis of the experiments we suggest future work to reduce the debugging time and thereby reduce the time required to author an ITS. We also implemented the model tracing algorithm in JESS, evaluated its performance and compared to that of the model tracing algorithm in TDK. This research is funded by the Office of Naval Research (Grant # N00014-0301-0221)."

[pt] A cadeia de trabalho presente na criação, desenvolvimento e transmissão de conteúdo hipermídia compreende vários atores, ambientes e equipamentos, desde o criador do conteúdo, passando pelo programador da aplicação até o operador do serviço de transmissão. Estando cada um desses atores imersos em diferentes ambientes de trabalho, e com papéis específicos na criação e edição do conteúdo a ser entregue ao usuário final. Nos dias de hoje, até mesmo os usuários finais, no caso da TV os telespectadores, estão exigindo ferramentas que possam enriquecer o seu conteúdo local. Uma única ferramenta de autoria não é capaz de atender esses diferentes atores e requisitos. Atualmente, existem ferramentas de autoria focadas em satisfazer uma pequena parte desses atores. Mas, essa pequena parte não é satisfeita em sua plenitude, visto que tais ferramentas foram construídas, muita das vezes, com base apenas em requisitos funcionais. Este trabalho discorre sobre a importância de aspectos não-funcionais no desenvolvimento de novas ferramentas de autoria hipermídia. É proposta uma arquitetura que habilita ferramentas a atingir os requisitos específicos de cada ator no processo de criação de conteúdo hipermídia. Essa arquitetura é sustentada sobre extensibilidade, adaptabilidade, performance e escalabilidade. Visando testar a proposta deste trabalho foi desenvolvida uma ferramenta de autoria para aplicações NCL (Nested Context Language) que tem como base a arquitetura proposta. NCL foi escolhida por ser a linguagem padrão para o sistema declarativo (Ginga-NCL) de TV Digital Terrestre ISDB-TB e recomendação ITU-T para serviços IPTV. NCL permite a autoria de documentos hipermídia por meio de uma abordagem simples e expressiva. / [en] The chain of work present in the creation, development and transmission of hypermedia content includes several actors, environments and equipment, from the content creator, passing by the application developer all the way to the operator of the transmission service. Each of these actors is immersed in different work environments and has specific roles in the creation and editing of content being delivered to the final user. Nowadays, even final users are demanding tools that can enrich their content. A single authoring tool cannot meet these requirements and different actors. Currently, there are authoring tools focused on satisfying a small subset of these actors. But even this small part is not fully satisfied, since these tools were built, most of the times, based only on functional requirements. This work discusses the importance of non-functional aspects in the development of new hypermedia authoring tools. This dissertation proposes an architecture that enables tools to meet the specific requirements of each actor in the process of creating hypermedia content. This architecture relies on extensibility, adaptability, performance and scalability. In order to test the proposal of this work we have developed an authoring tool for applications NCL (Nested Context Language) that is based on the proposed architecture. NCL was chosen because it is the standard language for the declarative system (Ginga-NCL) part of the Terrestrial Digital TV of Brazil ISDB-TB and ITU-T IPTV services. NCL allows the authoring of hypermedia documents in a simple and expressive form.

[pt] Com o advento da adoção de um padrão de TV digital interativa pelo Brasil, tem crescido o interesse pela análise das possíveis alternativas nas mais diversas áreas que compõem um sistema de TV digital. No caso do Brasil, NCL é a linguagem declarativa adotada para modelagem de aplicações interativas no Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital Terrestre (ISDTV-T - International System for Digital TV). Nesse contexto, este trabalho apresenta a ferramenta Composer, um ambiente de autoria voltado para a criação de programas NCL para TV digital interativa. Da mesma forma como no editor HyperProp, no qual é baseado, no Composer as abstrações são definidas nos diversos tipos de visões que permitem simular um tipo específico de edição (estrutural, temporal, leiaute e textual). Essas visões funcionam de maneira sincronizada, a fim de oferecer um ambiente integrado de autoria. Além de ter sua interface gráfica e funcional remodelada, principalmente a visão temporal, problemas de representação e edição de objetos de mídia, relacionamentos de sincronismo entre objetos, dentre eles os relacionamentos interativos, e edição ao vivo são tratados. Em resumo, o sistema proposto visa facilitar e agilizar a criação de aplicações voltadas para TV digital abstraindo do autor toda, ou pelo menos parte da complexidade de se programar em NCL através desse ambiente de autoria. / [en] With the advent of adoption of an interactive digital TV standard by the Brazilian government, the interest for the analysis of possible alternatives in several areas that compose a digital TV system has increased. In the case of Brazil, NCL is the declarative language adopted for modeling interactive applications in the Brazilian Terrestrial Digital TV System (ISDTV-T - International System for Digital TV). In that context, this work presents Composer, an authoring tool to create NCL documents for interactive digital TV. In the same way that in the HyperProp editor, in which it is based, in Composer the abstractions are defined using views that allow to simulate a specific type of edition (structural, temporal, layout and textual). Those visions work in a synchronized way, in order to offer an integrated authoring tool. Besides having the user and the functional interface remodeled, mainly its temporal view, problems of representation and edition of media objects, relationship problems, amongst then the interactive relationships, and live edition are treated. In summary, the proposed system tries to make easier the creation of documents for digital TV abstracting from the author all, or at least some complexity of programming in NCL using this authoring tool.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems are notoriously costly to construct, and require PhD level experience in cognitive science and rule based programming. The purpose of this research was to ease the development process for building pseudo-tutors. Pseudo-tutors are ITS constructs that mimic cognitive tutors but are limited in that they only apply to a single problem. The Assistment Builder is a tool designed to rapidly create, test, and deploy simple pseudo-tutors. These tutors provide a simplified cognitive model based upon a state graph designed for a specific problem. These tutors offer many of the features of rule-based tutors, but with shorter creation time. The system simplifies the process of tutor creation to allow users with little or no ITS experience to develop content. The system provides a web-based interface as a means to build and store these simple tutors we have called Assistments. This paper describes our attempt to make the process of developing, testing, and deploying content easy for teachers. We present data to suggest that users can develop a tutor that can be released to students in approximately an hour.

[pt] A principal vantagem da TV Digital é a disponibilização da interatividade nos programas televisivos. Entretanto, autores que desejam produzir programas interativos precisam aprender alguma linguagem de programaação, como a NCL, que é a linguagem declarativa do Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital. Ferramentas de autoria nos fornecem um nível de abstração adequado sobre a linguagem de programação para facilitar esse processo de autoria. Entretanto, atualmente não encontramos ferramentas de autoria que abstraiam completamente a NCL. Este trabalho apresenta uma ferramenta de autoria que permite aos autores visualizar e editar aplicações interativas para a TV Digital sem precisar saber NCL. Além disso, essa ferramenta acelera e facilita a autoria dessas aplicações através de componentes gráficos. / [en] Digital TV enables interaction in television programs. However, authors who want to produce this kind of application have to learn programming languages, such as NCL, the declarative language of the Brazilian standard for digital TV. Authoring tools can provide us with adequate abstractions that facilitates the authoring process. However, nowadays we don’t have authoring tools that do so for the NCL language. In this dissertation, we present a tool that allows authors to visualize and edit content without knowing NCL. This tool accelerates and makes easier the authoring process of Digital TV applications.

<p><a>In animated film production, a great bulk of work goes into animating and scene layout. Currently, the industry is centered around flat screens and keyboard and mouse interfaces, which require a substantial amount of time to lay out scene sets and animate shots, resulting in high production costs and lengthy production schedules. This study was designed to determine whether immersive VR interfaces could reduce the time taken to lay out 3D scene sets and animate those scenes compared to traditional interfaces. More specifically, this study compared the time 38 participants took to set up and animate a 3D scene by using two different interfaces, e.g. a VR immersive interface and a traditional mouse and keyboard interface. Further, the study investigated subjects’ interface preference. Findings show that the virtual reality interface was about twice as fast for laying out the scene as the traditional interface. When surveyed, participants preferred the virtual reality interface by a large margin over the provided traditional interface.</a></p>

<p>Immersive reality technology, such as augmented and virtual reality, has recently become quite prevalent due to innovation in hardware and software, leading to cheaper devices such as Head-mounted displays. There is significant evidence of an improved rate of skill acquisition with immersive reality training. However, the knowledge required to develop content for such immersive media is still relatively high. Subject experts often work together with programmers to create such content. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Our research goal in this thesis can be broadly classified into four distinct but mutually dependent categories. First, we explored the problem of immersive content creation with ProcessAR, an AR-based system to develop 2D/3D content that captures subject matter experts (SMEs) environment-object interactions in situ. The design space for ProcessAR was identified from formative interviews with AR programming experts and SMEs, alongside a comparative design study with SMEs and novice users. To enable smooth workflows, ProcessAR locates and identifies different tools/objects through computer vision within the workspace when the author looks at them. We explored additional features, such as embedding 2D videos with detected objects and user-adaptive triggers. A final user evaluation comparing ProcessAR and a baseline AR authoring environment showed that, according to our qualitative questionnaire, users preferred ProcessAR.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Second, we explored a unified authoring and editing environment, EditAR, that can create content for multiple media, such as AR, VR, and video instructions, based on a single demonstration. EditAR captures the user's interaction within an environment and creates a digital twin, enabling users without programming backgrounds to develop content. We conducted formative interviews with the subject and media experts to design the system. The prototype was developed and reviewed by experts. We also performed a user study comparing traditional video creation with 2D video creation from 3D recordings via a 3D editor, which uses freehand interaction for in-headset editing. Users took five times less time to record instructions and preferred EditAR, giving significantly higher usability scores.</p> <p><br></p> <p>We then explore AnnotateXR, an extended reality (XR) workflow to collect various high fidelity data and auto-annotate it in a single demonstration. AnnotateXR allows users to align virtual models over physical objects, tracked with 6DoF sensors. AnnotateXR utilizes a hand tracking capable XR HMD coupled with 6DoF information and collision detection to enable algorithmic segmentation of different actions in videos through its digital twin. The virtual-physical mapping provides a tight bounding volume to generate semantic segmentation masks for the captured image data. Alongside supporting object and action segmentation, we also support other dimensions of annotation required by modern CV, such as Human-Object, Object-Object, and rich 3D recordings, all with a single demonstration. Our user study shows AnnotateXR produced over 112,000 annotated data points in 67 minutes while maintaining the same performance quality as manual annotations.</p> <p><br></p> <p>Lastly, We conducted two elicitation studies empirically evaluated to determine design guidance for cross-modal devices capable of supporting an immersive interface in VR, allowing for simultaneous interaction with direct hand interaction while allowing for keyboard and mouse input. Recent advances in hand tracking have allowed users to interact with and experience interactions closer and similar to interactions in the physical world. However, these added benefits of natural interaction come at the cost of precision and accuracy offered by legacy input media such as a keyboard/mouse. The results and the guidelines from the two studies were used to develop a prototype called the Immersive Keyboard, which was evaluated against only traditional interface of only the keyboard and mouse. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In this thesis, we have explored a novel extended reality authoring environment that enables users without programming to author asynchronous immersive content in-situ, especially for spatial instructions.</p>

"Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs), while effective in enhancing students’ problem solving skills, are difficult and time-consuming to build. In order to reduce the length and the complexity of ITS construction, authoring tools are used. These tools provide a solid foundation for creating pedagogical exercises for students, and offer graphical user interfaces that eliminate the need for programming expertise. One of the major problems with today’s authoring tools is that they are still quite intricate and time-consuming to utilize, even for users who are familiar with them. Their steep learning curves often intimidate users who are only interested in creating simple tutoring systems. I have designed and implemented an authoring tool, called Mason, which strips away the visual interface design features of today’s top ITSs, and focuses on the creation of sophisticated pedagogical exercises using a hierarchical domain model. The exercise creation process includes the definition of numerous components, such as: a problem statement, the desired answer to the exercise, the strategies for tutoring students on the mistakes they make while trying to formulate the correct answer, and diagnostic rules for launching the appropriate strategies for specific student errors. The ultimate goal of Mason is to be able to significantly reduce the time needed to author text-based ITSs that are able to diagnose student answers and generate pedagogical dialogue accordingly. This goal was verified by using Mason to replicate the architecture of Ms. Lindquist, a sophisticated ITS for algebra that originally took over a year a construct. The replica was finished in less than a week, and was able to emulate Ms. Lindquist’s dialogue generation accurately with minor limitations."