A utilização de tecnologias da educação, não somente nos cursos à distância, mas também nos cursos presenciais, representa uma tentativa de contribuir para o processo de aprendizado, que tradicionalmente se desenvolve com as ações em sala de aula. O presente estudo teve como foco explorar o uso da tecnologia sob a perspectiva da Satisfação e Eficácia de Aprendizagem, da Percepção do estudante e do Desempenho. Foi realizado um experimento de campo em uma turma da disciplina Contabilidade Introdutória, do curso presencial de Ciências Contábeis de uma Universidade Pública Federal. A pesquisa foi conduzida a partir da divisão da turma em dois grupos (Tratamento e Controle), que foram invertidos de um bimestre para outro, com aproximadamente 30 estudantes em cada grupo. Esse número variou em função das desistências, e, de forma distinta do esperado, as notas dos dois grupos na avaliação inicial do experimento foram estatisticamente diferentes. As evidências apontam que isso, possivelmente, ocorreu devido a um efeito de composição: os grupos tinham características diferentes no que se refere à inserção no mercado de trabalho e ao fato de o estudante ter feito o curso técnico em Contabilidade. Para responder ao objetivo do estudo, que foi identificar o reflexo do uso de chat e fórum de discussão no processo de aprendizagem, partiu-se de um questionário inicial para identificar o perfil das turmas, e da aplicação de uma prova inicial em cada bimestre, para evidenciar o nível de conhecimento prévio que o grupo possuía sobre o tema de estudo daquele bimestre. Em cada bimestre foram realizados dois chats e um fórum de discussão no grupo de tratamento. Ao final de cada bimestre foi aplicado um questionário sobre Satisfação e Eficácia de Aprendizagem para os dois grupos, um questionário sobre Percepção dos estudantes sobre o uso da tecnologia, para os grupos de tratamento de cada bimestre, e, ao final, foi aplicada uma prova em cada bimestre para conhecer o desempenho dos estudantes na disciplina. Foram aplicados testes de médias para identificar se havia diferença entre o desempenho dos grupos, testes de correlação entre as intervenções nos chats e o desempenho dos estudantes, para verificar a interferência da participação no desempenho, e foi utilizada análise fatorial para explicar a interferência dos resultados obtidos nas questões relacionadas ao Technology Acceptance Model de Davis (1989) nos resultados do questionário de percepção sobre o uso da tecnologia. Concluiu-se que o reflexo do uso de chat e fórum de discussão é percebido no desempenho dos estudantes e na percepção da utilidade destas ferramentas no processo de aprendizagem. Além disso, notou-se que a idade é um fator que provoca reflexo nos resultados, visto que os mais jovens têm um desempenho melhor quando utilizam a tecnologia. Os resultados sugerem que a percepção dos estudantes sobre a utilidade da tecnologia no processo de aprendizagem é um fator que interfere nos efeitos de seu processo de aprendizagem, e que a satisfação em aprender não está totalmente relacionada à eficácia do processo de aprendizagem, principalmente quando este envolve o uso de tecnologias da educação. / The use of education technologies, not only in distance learning but also on-campus courses, is an attempt to contribute to the learning process traditionally developed through classroom actions. This study aimed to explore the use of technology from the perspective of Satisfaction and Learning Effectiveness, Student Perception, and Performance. A field experiment was conducted in an Introductory Accounting class of an undergraduate on-campus Accounting course at a Federal Public University. The research was conducted by dividing the class into two groups (treatment and control), each with approximately 30 students. The groups were reversed from one two-month period to another. The number of students varied depending on dropouts, and, different to what was expected, the grades of the two groups in the initial evaluation of the experiment were statistically different. Evidence suggests that this was probably due to a composition effect: the groups had different attributes with respect to inclusion in the labor market and/or the fact that the student had already completed a technical degree in Accounting. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, which was to identify the effects of the use of chat and a discussion forum in the learning process, an initial questionnaire was used to identify the groups\' profile. As well, an initial test was applied in each two-month period to reveal the groups\' previous level of knowledge on the topics of that period. In each two-month period, there were two chats and a discussion forum in the treatment group. At the end of each period a questionnaire on Satisfaction and Learning Effectiveness was applied to both groups, as well as a questionnaire on the students\' perception of the use of technology to the treatment group of each two-month period, and finally a test to measure the students\' achievement in the subject. Mean tests were applied to identify whether there were differences between the performance of groups, and correlation tests were applied between the students\' contributions in chat rooms and performance, to check the influence of participation in their performance. The factor analysis was also used in order to explain the interference of the results obtained in the questions related to the Technology Acceptance Model by Davis (1989) in the questionnaire results about perception of the use of technology. This study concluded that the effects of the use of chat and discussion forums are perceived in the students\' performance and in their perception of the usefulness of these tools in the learning process. Moreover, it was noted that age is a factor that causes an effect on the results, since younger students had better performance when using technology. The results suggest that the students\' perception of the usefulness of technology on the learning process is a factor that interferes with the effects of their learning process, and that satisfaction in learning is not totally related to the effectiveness of the learning process, especially when it involves the use of education technologies

nÃo hà / O presente estudo investigou a perspectiva de professores e alunos acerca das ferramentas de interaÃÃo em EducaÃÃo a DistÃncia. Optou-se por duas ferramentas que representam modos de comunicaÃÃo diferenciados: o Chat (sÃncrono) e o FÃrum (assÃncrono). Foi aplicado um questionÃrio num universo de 100 professores e alunos de cursos na modalidade a distÃncia, visando identificar a forma como essas ferramentas sÃo utilizadas, as potencialidades e limitaÃÃes que determinam a preferÃncia por esta ou aquela ferramenta. Os resultados apontaram maior preferÃncia dos participantes pelo FÃrum. O motivo principal foi a flexibilidade de tempo que o mesmo permite, pois nÃo depende que todos os usuÃrios estejam conectados ao mesmo tempo. / The current study investigated the point of view of teachers and students about interactive tools in distance education. Two different kinds of tools were chosen: a synchronous (chat) and a non- synchronous (discussion board). A questionnaire was filled by a universe of 100 teachers and students from distance education courses, aimed to identify how these tools were used, their potential and limitations which define the choice by this or that tool. Results show that the majority of the participants prefer the discussion board for the time flexibility because it does not require all users to be connected at the same time.

Las normas educativas de la enseñanza de las lenguas modernas en el instituto sueco están cada vez más enfocadas en la competencia comunicativa y en realizar una comunicación funcional y significativa para los discentes. Una revisión hecha por la Inspección de la Escuela Sueca muestra que existe una falta de práctica en la lengua meta en las aulas.  El objetivo de este estudio es investigar una herramienta digital llamado chatbot. El chatbot www.soydiego.com, es un programa diseñado para estudiantes de español en el cual se puede chatear con un robot en línea. Hemos investigado la actitud de los docentes hacia las metas comunicativas y la posible aportación de un chatbot como recurso didáctico. Mediante encuestas y entrevistas recibimos respuestas de parte de 25 docentes de español de nivel de instituto. Los resultados muestran que los profesores tienen una actitud muy positiva hacia el chatbot. Opinan que este puede ser una herramienta útil para desarrollar la competencia comunicativa de los discentes. De todos modos, hemos concluido que todavía hay una necesidad de un desarrollo adicional de la herramienta que sea adaptable a todos los niveles de español.

After providing an historical overview of the French spelling system and orthographic variation, this study analyzes selected internal (i.e., linguistic) factors and one external (i.e., social) factor that can influence the use of diacritics in online French-language chat sessions. From a corpus of synchronous computer-mediated communication, 3,855 tokens of graphemes capable of bearing diacritics were coded with the following scheme: Letter, Diacritic, Grapheme (i.e., Letter and Diacritic combined), Date of Participation, and Age Group of Participant. A multivariate (VARBRUL) analysis determined that Grapheme exerts the most influence on variation.

Större kommuner och industrier använder alltmer automatiserade processer för tjänster och rutinerså som kundcenter och felhantering. Flexeurope AB är ett företag med flera års erfarenhet av auto-matiserade processer och arbetar med att definiera, visualisera, konstruera och optimera processer.Företaget utvecklar även ett webbaserad IT-system för processhantering, kallat flexiteBPMS. Inom en kommun eller industri arbetar ofta flera handläggare, ibland uppemot hundratals, med atthantera ärenden i processer. Detta ställer krav på att handläggare kan kommunicera med varand-ra. Effektivare kommunikation där handläggare snabbare får svar innebär effektivare hantering avärenden. Marknaden har till följd av detta uttryck önskningar om att möjliggöra en form av realtids-kommunikation kring ärenden i flexiteBPMS. Med detta som bakgrund har det här arbetet undersökt, planerat och genomfört en integration av enXMPP-baserad chatt med flexiteBPMS. Det slutgiltiga integrerade systemet möjliggör för handläggareatt chatta med andra handläggare samt att spara delar av en chattkonversation som ett meddelandekopplat till ett ärende; alternativt att skapa ett nytt ärende i flexiteBPMS. Resultatet av arbetet inne-bär, vid eventuell framtida lansering, bättre förutsättningar för handläggare att effektivare utföra sittarbete, vilket medför att tiden för ärendehantering kan reduceras. / Municipality, large enterprises and companies are using more and more automated processes forprocedures such as service recovery and customer services. Flexeurope AB is a company speciali-zed in business process automation and it has several years of experience of defining, visualizing,constructing and optimizing processes. The company is also developing a commercial web basedapplication for managing processes called flexiteBPMS. Within a municipality or enterprise it is not unusual that a large amount of administrators and caseworkers are dealing with processes and errands. In large organizations, who may consisting of up toa hundred case workers, the communication possibilities are vital for the work effectiveness, whenadministrators needs information from each other. Due to this realization Flexeurope AB have recei-ved requests of enabling another type of communication in flexiteBPMS. As a result of the above described background, this work have studied, planned and carried outan integration of a XMPP based instant messaging system, called chat, with flexiteBPMS. The final,integrated system enables peer-to-peer conversation in real time between case workers and offers thepossibility to save a chat conversation in flexiteBPMS, either as a message linked to an errand or as anew errand connected to a process. The result of this work, in case of a possible future launch, wouldinduce for administrators to work more effective and in course of time this means a reduced time forhandling of a matter.

Shy children often have difficulty communicating; however, it is not clear whether these difficulties stem from a skills deficit or from an anxiety-driven performance deficit. Therefore, the present study examined how shy children’s communication skills differed from those of average, non-shy children, using the Internet as a medium for social communication. It was hypothesized that shy children may be more reticent than average children to initiate conversation in a novel situation. However, over time shy children were expected to become more comfortable in discussions with their on-line partner and to become less anxious as they acknowledge the anonymity of chat groups. This study also investigated potential changes in negative effects associated with shyness over time. Fifteen shy children (Mean shyness score=72.3; SD=6.43) and 15 average children (Mean shyness score=53.7; SD=5.6) participated in the 10 MSN conversation groups. Children were also given a series of questionnaires prior to and after the 10 sessions. Results from this study suggest that shy children communicate in a similar manner to their average partners when online. Results also suggest that shy children had higher levels of social anxiety than average children before beginning an online conversation with an unknown partner. However, by the end of the 10 sessions, their anxiety had been significantly reduced. No other changes or differences in psychological functioning were noted between shy and average children.

The study explores binary classification with Support Vector Machines as means to predict a satisfaction score based on customer surveys in the customer supportdomain. Standard feature selection methods and their impact on results are evaluated and a feature scoring metric Log Odds Ratio is implemented for addressingasymmetrical class distributions. Results show that the feature selection andscoring methods implemented improve performance significantly. Results alsoshow that it is possible to get decent predictive values on test data based onlimited amount of training observations. However mixed results are presentedin a real-world application example as a there is a significant error rate fordiscriminating the minority class. We also show the negative effects of usingcommon metrics such as accuracy and f-measure for optimizing models whendealing with high-skew data in a classification context.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.