Online software tutorials help a wide range of users acquire skills with complex software, but are not always easy to follow. For example, a tutorial might target users with a high skill level, or it might contain errors and omissions. Prior work has shown that user contributions, such as user comments, can add value to a tutorial. Building on this prior work, we investigate an approach to soliciting structured tutorial enhancements from tutorial readers. We illustrate this approach through a prototype called Antorial, and evaluate its impact on reader contributions through a multi-session evaluation with 13 participants. Our findings suggest that structuring tutorial contributions has positive impacts on both the number and type of reader contributions. Our findings also point to design considerations for systems that aim to support community-based tutorial refinement, and suggest promising directions for future research. / February 2017

New technologies have increased the possible ways in which humans interact and as a result require new as well as old ways to establish trust. The findings of this paper suggest that trust should be divided into three main categories of trust drivers, exchange factors, design factors and motivational factors. The results indicate that tutorials can, and should, include drivers that build these categories. While we found varying degrees on how well implemented these were, we found that design factors were generally more prominent and found opportunities for tutorials to improve on the exchange side.

Detta arbete tar sin grund i forskning om speldesign med avseende på hur en tutorial utformas och tar även hänsyn hur spel som utvecklas i lärande syfte används samt hur program utformas med hjälp av människo-data interaktion. Baserat på detta identifieras en problemformulering rörande hur element som tillhör respektive inte tillhör spelet kan användas för att förmedla information. Utifrån detta skapas två tutorialversioner, en explicit och en integrerad. Dessa utvärderas sedan i en studie och resultatet från studien antyder att element som är utanför spelet framgångsrikt kan användas för att öka underhållningsvärdet samt immersionsnivån hos en spelare, medan den integrerade versionen främjade inlärning mer. Fortsatt forskning skulle kunna inbegripa att reda ut huruvida det går att få en integrerad version med högre underhållningsvärde som främjar immersion, eller för att utvinna mer kunskap om hur inlärning sker via spel.

Video content is a massive source of entertainment, education, and income for a large population of online users. As more reliance upon this medium enters the field of education, formal and informal, people need tools to enhance their ability to tell stories and engage an audience. A tool that easily adjusts without compromising the interaction, the storytelling, or the visual moment, while also capturing as much information as possible, might be of great benefit to all creators of video content. Allowing tutorial creators the ability to efficiently record multiple views of their content may better aid in presenting concepts while retaining the attention of the viewership. The opportunity to present information effectively may have impacts on fields including education as well as entertainment. This thesis aims to explore possible reasons why content can be made to retain the audience's attention and to create a tool utilizing these facets for far reaching possibilities. / Master of Science / Video content is a massive source of entertainment, education, and income for a large population of online users. As more reliance upon this medium enters the field of education, formal and informal, people need tools to enhance their ability to tell stories and engage an audience. A tool that easily adjusts without compromising the interaction, the storytelling, or the visual moment, while also capturing as much information as possible, might be of great benefit to all creators of video content. Allowing tutorial creators the ability to efficiently record multiple views of their content may better aid in presenting concepts while retaining the attention of the viewership. The opportunity to present information effectively may have impacts on fields including education as well as entertainment. This thesis aims to explore possible reasons why content can be made to retain the audience's attention and to create a tool utilizing these facets for far reaching possibilities.

Various built-in sensors enable interacting with mobile devices beyond the screen. So-called mobile device-based interaction techniques are characterized by movements and positions in real space, e.g. twisting the device to switch between front and rear camera or pouring photos from one device into another for sharing. Although interactions should be as intuitive as possible, it is often necessary to introduce them, especially if they are complex or new to the user. Applications have to present interactions appropriately so that users can understand and use them easily. We conducted a user study to investigate the suitability of onboarding tutorials for mobile device-based interaction techniques. Results show that these types of tutorials are insu_cient for communicating mobile device-based interactions, mainly because of their spatial and tangible characteristics but also their collaborative and representative interdependencies. Based on this, we propose suggestions for improving the design of tutorials for device-based interactions with mobile phones.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Andrew G. Bennett / Online assessments afford many advantages for teachers and students. Okolo (2006) stated, “As the power, sophistication, and availability of technology have increased in the classroom, online assessments have become a viable tool for providing the type of frequent and dynamic assessment information that educators need to guide instructional decisions,” (pp 67-68). As post secondary institutes use online learning environments, education has molded into hybrid experiences. Traditional courses now regularly infuse components of online learning and assessments by required student participation both in person and online. Research is needed to analyze online components of assessment and student achievement. Data was gathered from an undergraduate mathematics course designed for students seeking a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. The course was entitled MATH 320: Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers. Synergies of quantitative and qualitative data were evaluated to assess the impact of written and video help tutorials in online quizzes on student achievement. Three forms of data were collected: student interviews, surveys about students’ online quiz experiences and learning style preferences, and student performance and tutorial usage statistics from seven online quizzes. Student interviews were conducted mid-semester by the researcher who also transcribed and analyzed data. Graphical schemes were used to identify and categorize responses to interview questions. Students’ responses were summarized and quantified in frequency tables. Surveys about students’ online quiz experiences and learning style preferences were analyzed through descriptive statistical methods to describe the data with numerical indices and in graphical form. Correlation matrices and linear regression models were used to identify relationships among survey items. Additionally, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) techniques were used to explore the data for statistical significance. Students were assigned seven online quizzes throughout the semester. Descriptive statistics were calculated to describe the online quiz data. Regression models were used to determine correlations between use of help tutorials and performance on online quizzes. Data analysis revealed students were persistent and motivated to retake similar quizzes multiple times until a high or perfect score was obtained. After missing a problem, students selected written help tutorials more often than video help tutorials to identify mistakes and understand how to solve the particular problem. The proportion of students whose scores improved after using both written and video help tutorials was greater than those who used the written help tutorials alone. Although the number of students who benefited from the video help tutorials was smaller than expected, the increased performance could be appreciated by students and educators alike. The research presented herein should serve as a base for curriculum development in university mathematics programs utilizing or considering implementation of online tutorials coupled with student evaluation.

In order to enhance teaching it is important to understand how students learn. The aim of this study was to discover the interventions needed to enhance the support offered by teachers and tutors in a Business Accounting programme to develop in students an intrinsic motivation and deep learning strategy which could be used later in life in other areas of study. The data came from a number of sources, including the Biggs’ revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire: R-SPQ-2F, administered to students. The second source was tutors’ responses to a set of questions, and the third source was an interview held with an experienced tutor. In the main, the data was analysed using phenomenographic methodology. The study yielded valuable insights into the tutorial context and tutors’ perceptions of the factors that hinder or enhance student learning.

Much research has been done in the area of code-switching; that is, changing from one language to another in the middle of the same utterance, especially in bilingual communities. Yet, there seems to be little research done on code-switching between English and Swedish among Swedish young adults. In this study, the speech of four different young beauty vloggers will be investigated with regard to their use of code-switching between English and Swedish. All four have Swedish as their first language. The results show that the amount and the types of code-switching differ between the four vloggers in the study.  The results also show that code-switching occurs relatively frequently, and that it is especially common to use English words and expressions with Swedish morphology. This is also supported by previous studies. Furthermore, two areas were found to be especially prone to code-switching: commerce (i.e. the make-up industry with imported brands and names), and youth culture; i.e. the vloggers seem to want to code-switch to be trendy and to communicate something about their identity.

Due to a shortage of librarians to teach classes coupled with a growing student body, librarians at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) decided to explore alternative means to deliver instruction. Their charge was to supplement traditional classroom instruction by utilizing ETSU's course management system (Desire2Learn, D2L) to inform students about resources and search techniques. They created a D2L module consisting of short films and documents about the library that faculty could add to their course sites. This paper outlines the process of selecting topics, creating materials for the module, and promoting the module to faculty.

Although there are numerous instruments available for assessing classroom learning environments at the tertiary level, no instrument has been specifically designed and validated for measuring the business management education learning environment (Brennan & Ahmad, 2005). My aims were (1) to design, develop and validate an instrument, the Business Management Education Learning Environment Inventory (BMELEI), for assessing business management students’ perceptions of the psychosocial learning environments of university seminars and tutorials and (2) to relate learning environment to attitudes towards the subject and attitudes towards the case study teaching strategy. This study is distinctive in that it involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. The BMELEI and two attitude scales were administered to 480 final-year undergraduate and postgraduate business studies students in 30 classes at both Curtin University of Technology and Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia. The qualitative component of the study involved semi-structured interviews with 42 randomly-selected participants from the above universities. Factor analysis supported a six-factor structure (Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity) with scale alpha reliabilities ranging from 0.78 to 0.90 for the actual form and from 0.80 to 0.92 for the preferred form using the individual as unit of analysis. Students’ attitudes were found to be positively associated with classroom learning environment. / Also differences were found between students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment, and between male and female students’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment. Findings suggested that students preferred a more positive and favourable classroom learning environment than they perceived as being actually present.