In modern casinos, personnel exist to advise, or in some cases, order individuals to stop gambling if they are found to be gambling in a destructive way, but what about online gamblers? This thesis evaluated the possibility of using machine learning as a supplement for personnel in real casinos when gambling online. This was done through supervised learning or more specifically, a decision tree algorithm called CART. Studies showed that the majority of problem gamblers would find it helpful to have their behavioral patterns collected to be able to identify their risk of becoming a problem gambler before their problem started. The collected behavioral features were time spent gambling, the rate of won and lost money and the number of deposits made, all these during a specific period of time. An API was implemented for casino platforms to connect to and give collected data about their users, and to receive responses to notify users about their situation. Unfortunately, there were no platforms available to test this on players gambling live. Therefore a web based survey was implemented to test if the API would work as expected. More studies could be conducted in this area, finding more features to convert for computers to understand and implement into the learning algorithm.

Recent research on girls in science education in Australian primary schools indicates a participation rate lower than that of boys. This inequality could lead subsequently to reduced opportunities for girls entering the workforce in their adult years. Many studies have attempted to reveal why this situation has arisen and a variety of strategies for increasing girls' participation has been suggested. A relatively new strategy that does not appear frequently in the research literature is the use of educational computer game software. An important question arises: does the game software used in primary school science education reflect design attributes favoured by boys and, if so, do these attributes actively discourage girls' participation by making them feel uncomfortable or stressed? My case study was designed to identify design features of computer games that girls prefer so that these features can be included in educational computer game software designed for science education, as well as the other Key Learning Areas. Through interviews, surveys and observations my interpretive study obtained the opinions and views of over 200 children in two suburban Australian primary schools in which I work as a teacher-librarian. In this role I purchase educational computer games and organize special classes for students to play them. From my analysis of the data I make recommendations that reflect girls' preferred design attributes for educational computer games. I also generate a checklist of criteria from my interpretations that may result in the purchase of software that could not only enhance girls' participation and success in primary school science, the curriculum area of greatest personal interest to me, but also in other Key Learning Areas of primary education.\

Abstract not available

This is a study of the relationship between information technology (IT) dimensions and three organizational properties: leadership philosophies, organisational context and IT strategic choice. Six hypotheses were formulated and tested using data collected from a sample of 750 senior civil servants across the Australian Public Service (APS). Attempts are made to show that a direct relationship exists between respondents’ perception of leadership philosophies, organisational context, IT strategic choice and IT dimensions. Results suggest that organisational IT is defined by four dimensions: IT deployment, IT skills, IT training and IT impact on the organisation, and that all four dimensions are necessary for the effective adoption of IT. Leadership philosophy emerges as the most influential determinant for effective IT adoption, whilst only certain aspects of organisational context and strategic choice variables show a significant influence of effective IT adoption. It is concluded that the respondents’ precaution about the effective adoption of IT in the organisation is strongly influenced by the leadership philosophies held by senior APS managers and to some extent by organisational context and IT strategic choice / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The primary objective of this research is to use the benefits offered by computerized three dimensional graphics and apply those to the field of human computer interaction. Focussing primarily on the interactive content of the 3D world, this research describes a range of innovative new interface elements demonstrating specific new 3Dinterfaces/components designed to provide a new interactive 3D method for handling a range of particular common real-world tasks (ranging from simple value setting tasks up to larger scale systems for browsing structured sets of hierarchical data). These systems incorporate new design concepts such as active 3D interfaces that present their data to the user rather than statically waiting for the user to interact with them (these systems prove particularly useful in the presentation of large sets of data). Overall this set of components introduces a range of new interface styles that prove very effective in many mainstream real world tasks.In addition to the development of these systems, this project demonstrates a new high level 3D interface development tool designed to simplify the challenge of constructing interactive 3D user interfaces and in doing so make 3D interface development available to a wider developer base. By constructing the components mentioned above in a structured generic form, this combination of a new development tool and a range of re-usable components provide a strong development platform, from which more complex interactive 3D interfaces can be constructed.In essence the core idea that underlies this research is making the construction of interactive and functional 3D interfaces simpler to undertake (by developing effective re-usable components to handle mainstream tasks) while at the same time generating resulting 3D interfaces that are more effective and more capable of providing users with an enjoyable and functional 3D working environment.

This thesis explores the utility of interest management in peer-to-peer environments. Specifically, it proposes: a model for formulaic specification of interest criteria that is implementation neutral in terms of underlying interest operators (the functions that determine the satisfaction of interest); and, an interest management propagation model that ensures the specifications (termed formula interest expressions) are only sent to those DVE components that are likely to be able to satisfy the interest criteria. This selective propagation model uses a distributed index of supported interest operators to determine candidate remote filterers. Remote filtering ensures that a state change message is only sent if it meets the interest criteria previously expressed by the intended recipient. The selective remote filtering model requires no central infrastructure and is entirely supported by peer DVE components, which may join and leave the DVE dynamically. The performance of the proposed propagation model, in terms of the number of logical messages required, is compared to the only existing propagation model where interest expressions are simply sent to all participating DVE components. Analysis reveals that for stable long-lived DVEs the proposed model can significantly messaging overhead and thereby increase the potential scale-up of the DVE. The viability of the proposed model is examined by means of proof-of-concept system, which exercises the specification and propagation models over a range of values for key variables. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The aim of Human Computer Interaction or HCI is to both understand and improve the quality of the users' experience with the systems and technology they interact with. Recent HCI research requirements have stated a need for a unified predictive approach to system design that consolidates system engineering, cognitive modelling, and design principles into a single 'total system approach.' At present, few methods seek to integrate all three of these aspects into a single method and of those that do many are extensions to existing engineering techniques. This thesis, however proposes a new behaviour based approach designed to identify usability problems early in the design process before testing the system with actual users. In order to address the research requirements, this model uses a new design notation called Genetic Software Engineering (GSE) in conjunction with aspects of a cognitive modelling technique called NGOMSL (Natural GOMS Language) as the basis for this approach. GSE's behaviour tree notation, and NGOMSL's goal orientated format are integrated using a set of simple conversion rules defined in this study. Several well established design principles, believed to contribute to the eventual usability of a product, are then modelled in GSE. This thesis addresses the design of simple interfaces and the design of complex ubiquitous technology. The new GSE approach is used to model and predict usability problems in an extensive range of tasks from programming a VCR to making a video recording on a modern mobile phone. The validity of these findings is tested against actual user tests on the same tasks and devices to demonstrate the effectiveness of the GSE approach. Ultimately, the aim of the study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new cognitive and engineering based approach at predicting usability problems based on tangible representations of established design principles. This both fulfils the MCI research requirements for a 'total system approach' and establishes a new and novel approach to user interface and system design.

The overarching goal of this dissertation was to evaluate the contextual components of instructional strategies for the acquisition of complex programming concepts. A meta-knowledge processing model is proposed, on the basis of the research findings, thereby facilitating the selection of media treatment for electronic courseware. When implemented, this model extends the work of Smith (1998), as a front-end methodology, for his glass-box interpreter called Bradman, for teaching novice programmers. Technology now provides the means to produce individualized instructional packages with relative ease. Multimedia and Web courseware development accentuate a highly graphical (or visual) approach to instructional formats. Typically, little consideration is given to the effectiveness of screen-based visual stimuli, and curiously, students are expected to be visually literate, despite the complexity of human-computer interaction. Visual literacy is much harder for some people to acquire than for others! (see Chapter Four: Conditions-of-the-Learner) An innovative research programme was devised to investigate the interactive effect of instructional strategies, enhanced with text-plus-textual metaphors or text-plus-graphical metaphors, and cognitive style, on the acquisition of a special category of abstract (process) programming concept. This type of concept was chosen to focus on the role of analogic knowledge involved in computer programming. The results are discussed within the context of the internal/external exchange process, drawing on Ritchey's (1980) concepts of within-item and between-item encoding elaborations. The methodology developed for the doctoral project integrates earlier research knowledge in a novel, interdisciplinary, conceptual framework, including: from instructional science in the USA, for the concept learning models; British cognitive psychology and human memory research, for defining the cognitive style construct; and Australian educational research, to provide the measurement tools for instructional outcomes. The experimental design consisted of a screening test to determine cognitive style, a pretest to determine prior domain knowledge in abstract programming knowledge elements, the instruction period, and a post-test to measure improved performance. This research design provides a three-level discovery process to articulate: 1) the fusion of strategic knowledge required by the novice learner for dealing with contexts within instructional strategies 2) acquisition of knowledge using measurable instructional outcome and learner characteristics 3) knowledge of the innate environmental factors which influence the instructional outcomes This research has successfully identified the interactive effect of instructional strategy, within an individual's cognitive style construct, in their acquisition of complex programming concepts. However, the significance of the three-level discovery process lies in the scope of the methodology to inform the design of a meta-knowledge processing model for instructional science. Firstly, the British cognitive style testing procedure, is a low cost, user friendly, computer application that effectively measures an individual's position on the two cognitive style continua (Riding & Cheema,1991). Secondly, the QUEST Interactive Test Analysis System (Izard,1995), allows for a probabilistic determination of an individual's knowledge level, relative to other participants, and relative to test-item difficulties. Test-items can be related to skill levels, and consequently, can be used by instructional scientists to measure knowledge acquisition. Finally, an Effect Size Analysis (Cohen,1977) allows for a direct comparison between treatment groups, giving a statistical measurement of how large an effect the independent variables have on the dependent outcomes. Combined with QUEST's hierarchical positioning of participants, this tool can assist in identifying preferred learning conditions for the evaluation of treatment groups. By combining these three assessment analysis tools into instructional research, a computerized learning shell, customised for individuals' cognitive constructs can be created (McKay & Garner,1999). While this approach has widespread application, individual researchers/trainers would nonetheless, need to validate with an extensive pilot study programme (McKay,1999a; McKay,1999b), the interactive effects within their specific learning domain. Furthermore, the instructional material does not need to be limited to a textual/graphical comparison, but could be applied to any two or more instructional treatments of any kind. For instance: a structured versus exploratory strategy. The possibilities and combinations are believed to be endless, provided the focus is maintained on linking of the front-end identification of cognitive style with an improved performance outcome. My in-depth analysis provides a better understanding of the interactive effects of the cognitive style construct and instructional format on the acquisition of abstract concepts, involving spatial relations and logical reasoning. In providing the basis for a meta-knowledge processing model, this research is expected to be of interest to educators, cognitive psychologists, communications engineers and computer scientists specialising in computer-human interactions.

This exegesis investigates the use of interactive online media to support the development of communication and problem solving skills amongst learners in a Vocational Education and Training (VET) context. It describes the development of the Maelstrom website as a response to the identified need for a collaborative, interactive online space where learners can explore and experiment within the safe and anonymous environment provided. The user interaction within the Maelstrom and user responses to their experiences are discussed and analysed to not only inform the role of the Maelstrom within the broader context on interactive online communication and collaboration, but also to guide future research.

Personal assistants need to allow the user to interact with the system in a flexible and adaptive way such as through spoken language dialogue. This research is aimed at achieving robust and effective dialogue management in such applications. We focus on an application, the Smart Personal Assistant (SPA), in which the user can use a variety of devices to interact with a collection of personal assistants, each specializing in a task domain. The current implementation of the SPA contains an e-mail management agent and a calendar agent that the user can interact with through a spoken dialogue and a graphical interface on PDAs. The user-system interaction is handled by a Dialogue Manager agent. We propose an agent-based approach that makes use of a BDI agent architecture for dialogue modelling and control. The Dialogue Manager agent of the SPA acts as the central point for maintaining coherent user-system interaction and coordinating the activities of the assistants. The dialogue model consists of a set of complex but modular plans for handling communicative goals. The dialogue control flow emerges automatically as the result of the agent???s plan selection by the BDI interpreter. In addition the Dialogue Manager maintains the conversational context, the domainspecific knowledge and the user model in its internal beliefs. We also consider the problem of dialogue adaptation in such agent-based dialogue systems. We present a novel way of integrating learning into a BDI architecture so that the agent can learn to select the most suitable plan among those applicable in the current context. This enables the Dialogue Manager agent to tailor its responses according to the conversational context and the user???s physical context, devices and preferences. Finally, we report the evaluation results, which indicate the robustness and effectiveness of the dialogue model in handling a range of users.