It has been evidenced by the increased amount of contacts being made in Counseling Services of Utah State University that students have been very much concerned about whether or not they should be in college. The discussion concerning which college to attend has been heard often among high school graduates, and for many, Utah State University has been a first choice. An increased drop-out rate among students has been found in the past few years. This study has been accomplished to determine which of the entering students at Utah State have been sufficiently prepared to enter into a course of study on a full time basis. The many drop-outs have been an indication that many have not been prepared for collegiate work at this institution. If this has been the case, it is properly in order that some studying and reviewing be done in connection with the entrance requirements of the University.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2017-01-13T14:30:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CharlesBamamMedeirosDeSouza_DISSERT.pdf: 10480441 bytes, checksum: a9fda3bb229bbebb9815ed05cc759991 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-01-26T14:07:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CharlesBamamMedeirosDeSouza_DISSERT.pdf: 10480441 bytes, checksum: a9fda3bb229bbebb9815ed05cc759991 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-26T14:07:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CharlesBamamMedeirosDeSouza_DISSERT.pdf: 10480441 bytes, checksum: a9fda3bb229bbebb9815ed05cc759991 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-12 / Com a inten??o de investigar o uso do livro did?tico em formato digital no aprendizado do aluno de Ensino M?dio, tendo como referencial a experi?ncia do usu?rio (UX), este trabalho buscou captar a experi?ncia que o aluno tem ao utilizar este tipo de material did?tico, atrav?s do tablet.De maneira a tra?ar um panorama dos pontos positivos e negativos percebidos por eles, trilhou-se um caminho baseado no Design Centrado no Usu?rio, para ent?o sugerir considera??es que permitam o aprimoramento desse tipo de produto auxiliar ? educa??o contempor?nea. Por meio de uma avalia??o cooperativa, na qual o aluno interfere no andamento do teste de usabilidade do produto, ? poss?vel perceber imediatamente o que causa repulsa ou o atrai, o que causa engajamento ou desmotiva??o quando manuseando o livro digital. O aluno foi ouvido a todo tempo, enquanto manuseava o tablet, externando suas opini?es. Ao final do teste, aplicamos um question?rio para medir a satisfa??o do aluno na intera??o com o livro, o Questionaire for User Interaction Satisfaction - QUIS (SHNEIDERMAN, 1986), que nos permitiu obter detalhes subjetivos desta intera??o. O livro did?tico digital de hist?ria do Ensino M?dio, Hist?ria, Sociedade & Cidadania - Volume 1, de Alfredo Boulos J?nior, editora FTD, foi escolhido para esta pesquisa por apresentar caracter?sticas adequadas ao p?blico-alvo, como uma boa apresenta??o visual, recursos multim?dia, elementos de intera??o e por atenderem aos requisitos de sele??o utilizados pelo Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educa??o - FNDE para o edital 01/20131 do Programa Nacional do Livro Did?tico no ano de 2015 e nas Pol?ticas para a aprendizagem m?vel da UNESCO. Este edital foi o primeiro do governo federal a incluir o livro did?tico em formato digital no seu programa educacional, que distribui os livros que as escolasp?blicas utilizar?o em todo o pa?s. Os apontamentos desta pesquisa permitiram sintetizar uma tabela de recomenda??es e revelam ?reas do design e da usabilidade do livro did?tico em vers?o digital, acessado em tablets, que podem ser considerados para uma melhoria no design deste tipo de ferramenta de apoio ao ensino e aprendizagem. / With the goal of investigating the use of digital textbooks on the learning process of high school students, having as reference the user experience (UX), this study aimed to capture the experience that the student has by using this type of learning material, through the tablet. In order to draw a picture of the positive and negative aspects perceived by them, a path was traced based on User Centered Design, so that suggestions can be made that allow the enhancement of this type of product aid to contemporary education. By means of a cooperative evaluation, in which the student interferes on the progress of the product?s usability test, it is possible to perceive immediately what repels or attracts him, what causes engagement or lack of motivation when maneuvering the digital textbook. The student was heard the entire time while handling the tablet, expressing his opinions. By the end of the test, a survey was applied to measure the level of satisfaction that the student felt through the interaction with the book, the Questionaire for User Interaction Satisfaction ? QUIS (SHNEIDERMAN, 1986), which allowed us to obtain subjective details of this interaction. The high school history digital textbook ? History, Society and Citizenship ? Volume 1-, by Alfredo Boulos Junior, FTD publishing, was chosen for this research for presenting characteristics that were adequate to the target audience, with great visual presentation, multimedia resources, elements of interaction and for meeting with the selection requirements used by the National Fund of Educational Development ? FNDE, for the public notice 01/2013 of the National Textbook Program of 2015 and for the policies for mobile learning from UNESCO. This notice was the first by the federal government to include textbooks in digital format in its educational program, which distributes the books that public schools will use around the country. The notes of this research allowed us to synthesise a table of recommendations and reveal areas of design and usability of the digital textbook, accessed through tablets, that may be considered for an improvement of this type of support tool for teaching and learning.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:49:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 407733.pdf: 1762979 bytes, checksum: 082b80c12d5a10cde6c523b16dd052c7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-01-16 / Tradicionalmente, a avalia??o de IHC ? aplicada nas fases finais do processo de desenvolvimento de um sistema interativo, quando existe, pelo menos, um prot?tipo do mesmo. Executar esta avalia??o antecipadamente ainda na etapa de projeto pode diminuir os custos com reparos de eventuais problemas. Normalmente, este tipo de avalia??o ? feito sobre modelos e cen?rios de uso e n?o sobre um prot?tipo, e geralmente baseado em m?todos formais e autom?ticos. A pesquisa aqui apresentada trata de avalia??o de IHC baseada em modelos propondo um m?todo informal e n?o autom?tico: Diretrizes para Avalia??o de IHC baseada em Modelos. A id?ia deste trabalho ? n?o s? antecipar a avalia??o para a etapa de projeto, mas tamb?m apresentar um m?todo de f?cil uso e baixo custo, que pode ser utilizado tanto por profissionais de IHC, quanto por desenvolvedores com pouca experi?ncia na ?rea.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:49:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 380877.pdf: 4831592 bytes, checksum: 239a83445a5adc21e7d056c2f7448599 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-01-09 / O projeto de ambientes virtuais para aplica??es que possuem diversos n?veis de escala ainda n?o foi profundamente abordado. Em particular, a navega??o em tais ambientes ? um problema significativo. Este trabalho descreve o projeto e a avalia??o de duas t?cnicas de navega??o para ambientes multiescalares. As t?cnicas de deslocamento baseada em alvo e baseada em pilotagem foram estendidas para dar suporte ? navega??o atrav?s de diversos n?veis de escala. Quest?es como orienta??o e entendimento espacial foram abordadas no processo de cria??o das t?cnicas de navega??o. A avalia??o das t?cnicas foi feita com dois grupos experimentais e dois grupos de controle. Os resultados mostram que as t?cnicas desenvolvidas foram significativamente melhores que as condi??es de controle em rela??o ? precis?o e ao tempo de realiza??o das tarefas.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:49:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 438706.pdf: 5157206 bytes, checksum: c5422795c48935a5ef9a79af5999aa0c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-22 / Desenvolvimento ?gil tem estado em evid?ncia no que diz respeito ? processos de desenvolvimento de software. Juntamente com o crescimento da conscientiza??o sobre a import?ncia de uma boa Experi?ncia de Usu?rio surgiu a necessidade de integrar estas duas ?reas. Entretanto, o desenvolvimento ?gil possui uma cultura distinta que, num primeiro momento, parece entrar em conflito com o Design Centrado no Usu?rio. Assim, a integra??o destas duas ?reas torna-se um desafio. Esta tese focaliza na integra??o destas duas ?reas, fornecendo um conjunto de pr?ticas e artefatos para apoiar equipes ?geis e Designers de Intera??o a superar tal desafio. Uma Revis?o Sistem?tica foi realizada a fim de identificar propostas de integra??o de m?todos ?geis e Design de Intera??o. Com base na reuni?o das pr?ticas e artefatos mais comuns identificados na revis?o, um framework foi proposto. A fim de verificar tal proposta, Pesquisas-A??o foram realizadas em duas organiza??es de dois diferentes pa?ses. Desta forma, o resultado desta pesquisa ? a proposta de um framework para integrar Design de Intera??o e desenvolvimento ?gil. / Agile development has become mainstream regarding software development processes. Along the increasing understanding of the importance of good User eXperience came the need to integrate these two areas. However, Agile development have a distinct culture that at first glance seems to conflict with User-Centered Design. Therefore, integrating these two areas becomes a challenging task. This thesis focuses on integrating these areas, providing a set of practices and artifacts to support Agile teams and Interaction Designers to overcome this challenge. A Systematic Literature Review was conducted in order to identify existing approaches regarding the integration of Agile and Interaction Design. A framework was proposed gathering the most common practices and artifacts identified in this review. Conducting Action Research in two companies from two different countries tried out this proposal. Thus, the result of this research is a framework proposal for integrating Interaction Design and Agile Development.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:49:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 441922.pdf: 2826793 bytes, checksum: 09ee76ea9c16cd15b09c462ecd55cee5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-27 / A dissemina??o da computa??o tem gerado uma demanda por sistemas que sejam facilmente utilizados por seus usu?rios. Os sistemas de ajuda apresentam-se como uma forma de prover aux?lio aos usu?rios em momentos de d?vidas. Entretanto, com o passar dos tempos e a evolu??o da computa??o, tem-se observado um desuso destes sistemas. Observou-se, ent?o, que ? importante oferecer formas que possibilitem aos usu?rios se apropriar dos sistemas computacionais, e que eles sintam-se motivados a utiliz?-las. Acredita-se que a colabora??o entre usu?rios pode auxiliar na motiva??o destes usu?rios, assim como pode proporcionar o compartilhamento de experi?ncias e informa??es entre os mesmos acerca dos sistemas computacionais que utilizam. Torna-se necess?rio, ent?o, proporcionar um ambiente que propicie um esclarecimento de d?vidas efetivo em que as mensagens sejam entendidas pelos envolvidos no processo de comunica??o. Neste sentido, a presente tese objetiva investigar formas de facilitar e motivar o esclarecimento de d?vidas em sistemas de ajuda em pares para sistemas colaborativos de ensino. Ela est? alicer?ada em tr?s pilares: Engenharia Semi?tica, pois se prop?e que o uso de express?es de comunicabilidade auxilie na identifica??o e, consequentemente, na solu??o das d?vidas dos usu?rios; sistemas de ajuda, pois se considera que estes recursos s?o a melhor forma de se explicar ao usu?rio um sistema computacional; e sistemas colaborativos de ensino, pois eles proporcionam um ambiente que ap?ia o processo de ensino e de aprendizagem, favorecendo e estimulando a colabora??o entre seus usu?rios. O resultado desta pesquisa ? a proposta de uma arquitetura de sistemas de ajuda em pares que baseia sua comunica??o no uso de express?es de comunicabilidade. A arquitetura foi implementada em um prot?tipo que possibilitou a realiza??o de testes, permitindo verificar e analisar o uso de express?es de comunicabilidade pelos usu?rios destes sistemas, assim como obter informa??es acerca da efetividade de seu uso.

Submitted by Setor de Tratamento da Informa??o - BC/PUCRS (tede2@pucrs.br) on 2015-05-07T12:15:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 468136 - Texto Completo.pdf: 3122759 bytes, checksum: b73cf4dbb16d786863c0cef34d947897 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-07T12:15:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 468136 - Texto Completo.pdf: 3122759 bytes, checksum: b73cf4dbb16d786863c0cef34d947897 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-17 / The presence of computing devices grows day by day, making them available at the most different scenarios of use. The system? interaction needs to evolve together with the technology to provide a better user experience in these distinct environments. Several studies in the multimodal interfaces area advocate the benefits of these interfaces, because of the availability of more natural ways of interaction, allowing the users more efficiency and satisfaction for the execution of system tasks. In the last years, devices that allow more natural interactions, started to become widely available to the public and to be used more often, showing great potential of use. This work presents a research with the goal of understand and compare the preference and use acceptance of these technologies, through the implementation and analysis of a presentation system, using a Kinect device and an Android smartphone. The system allows users to execute slide and image presentations to an audience, using speech, body gestures or the smartphone (touch gestures) for interaction. The first work phase focused in the interaction definition through individual interviews and focus groups execution. After that, the system was implemented following the results of the previous phase. At the end, the evaluation of the system was done through the use and execution of tasks in a class environment (without audience). The obtained results show the diverse users? perspective of use of the different systems interaction modes. The smartphone was the most precise and preferred technology by most of the users because is easy to use, although, some participants showed great interest in the use of the other modalities, showing a potential for acceptance of them. The intended system context of use have some challenges, since body gestures and speech are also used by system users to communicate with other people at the same time, considered by some of the participants as unsuitable for the situation. The system tests were executed in an isolated environment, and future tests should be applied in a real use context for more precise evaluation. / A presen?a de dispositivos computacionais cresce a cada dia, tornando-os dispon?veis nos mais diferentes cen?rios de uso. A intera??o com o sistema deve evoluir em conjunto com a tecnologia para prover aos usu?rios uma melhor experi?ncia de uso nestes diferentes ambientes. Diversos estudos na ?rea de interfaces multimodais defendem os benef?cios das mesmas, pela disponibilidade de formas de intera??o mais naturais, permitindo aos usu?rios maior efici?ncia e satisfa??o na execu??o da tarefa do sistema. Nos ?ltimos anos, dispositivos que possibilitam formas de intera??o consideradas mais naturais, come?aram a estar amplamente dispon?veis ao p?blico e ser utilizados com mais frequ?ncia, demonstrando grande potencial para uso. Este trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa com objetivo de compreender e comparara prefer?ncia e aceita??o de uso dessas tecnologias,a partir de sua implementa??o e an?lise em um sistema de apresenta??o, utilizando o dispositivo Kinect e um smartphone Android.O sistema permite aos usu?rios a execu??o de apresenta??es de slides e imagem para uma plateia, utilizando modos de fala, gestos de corpo e smartphone (gestos de toque) para intera??o. A primeira fase do trabalho se deteve na defini??o da intera??o atrav?s de entrevistas individuais e execu??o de grupos focais. Posteriormente a implementa??o do sistema foi feita com base nos resultados obtidos da fase anterior.Por fim a avalia??o do sistema foi feita pelo uso e execu??o de tarefas com o sistema em um ambiente de sala de aula (mas sem plateia). Os resultados aqui presentes demonstram a opini?o diversificada de usu?rios quanto a perspectiva de uso dos diferentes modos do sistema. O uso do smartphone foi a tecnologia mais precisa e preferida pela maioria dos usu?rios pelo f?cil uso, no entanto, alguns participantes apresentaram grande interesse no uso das outras duas modalidades, demonstrando potencial de aceita??o para as mesmas. O contexto de uso pretendido do sistema demonstra desafios, uma vez que as modalidades de gestos de corpo e fala s?o tamb?m utilizadas para os usu?rios do sistema se comunicarem com outras pessoas ao mesmo tempo, sendo consideradas por alguns dos participantes como pouco apropriadas para a situa??o. Os testes do sistema foram realizados em um ambiente isolado, e futuramente devem ser aplicados para um contexto real para uma valida??o mais precisa.

Women are now making use of weight training for improving strength, flexibility and body contours. Most studies on weight training have used male subjects. This study compared the results of a conventional exercising program and a weight training program for reducing inches in the circumferences of the right upper arm, pectorals, waist, hips, and right thigh. The subjects were twenty-nine female students in figure control classes at Utah State University. The control group of sixteen subjects exercised in the conventional manner, and the experimental group of thirteen subjects exercised on the weight training machine. Subjects were asked not to change dietary habits nor engage in physical activity outside the exercise period. The subjects participated in six weeks of exercise meeting two days per week. The control group showed a decrease in the circumference of the right upper arm, the pectorals, the waist, and the right thigh, whereas the experimental group showed a decrease in the circumference of the right upper arm, the pectorals, the waist, and the hips. The largest circumference lost for the experimental group was the right upper arm. A gain was shown by the experimental group in the right thigh. Within the limits of this investigation it can be concluded that (a) circumference losses were attained by both the conventional and weight training methods; However, such losses were not sufficient to support one method over the other; (b) during regular exercising, a slight weight increase does not necessarily prevent a decrease in anthropometric measurements.

This thesis presents an evaluation of instructional television as used in four courses at Utah State University. The study is divided into four parts: first, student attitudes and reactions; second, faculty attitudes and reactions; third, the costs involved for the individual faculty members concerned, the academic department, the Radio-Television department, and the University as a whole; and fourth, recommendations concerning the future use of instructional television at Utah State University. The four courses involved in this study were basic introductory courses in Political Science, English, Sociology, and Music. The investigator found that student attitudes and reactions varied with each course. The students in Political Science and English were generally uncertain in their attitude toward the use of television, with approximately equal numbers for and against. The students in Sociology and Music were very much in favor of the use of television. The attitudes of the faculty members associated with this project ranged from very negative to very positive. The study indicated that those instructors who were highly motivated and enthusiastic before actually becoming involved with instructional television tended to remain so throughout. Those instructors who were skeptical and hesitant beforehand also retained their attitudes. The third part of this study dealing with costs was divided into six areas for the Political Science and English courses: production costs, recording costs, instructional costs, utilization costs, cost for additional use, and cost per student credit unit for one academic year. In the cases of Sociology and Music only the production, recording and instructional costs were computed. As a result of this study, this researcher recommends the delegation of more authority to the television personnel in order that they may have a voice in the utilization process of the television courses produced. A second recommendation is that of initiating a two-phase in-service training program to assist the classroom teacher in adjusting to his new role, and to train the television teacher in methods of using instructional television. Finally, the need to have available adequate facilities for the utilization processes has become apparent during the course of this study. Television cannot prove to be a satisfactory medium of instruction if it must be satisfied with poor lighting conditions, excessive noise levels, and an undesirable choice of hours during which to offer classes.

The 1969 through 1976 graduating classes of the business education program at Utah State University were surveyed in this study. The questionnaire was designed to ascertain the work experience of the graduates, the educational status of the graduates, and the value the graduates place on the courses contained in the business education program according to the occupations of the graduates. Graduates are employed in a large variety of occupations, and the majority of the graduates hold teaching certificates. The majority of the graduates have not completed advanced degrees, and are undecided as to whether or not they will continue their education. In all but five courses, the graduates; occupations were found to be unrelated to their response concerning the value of a course when the chi square test was applied. The courses in which a significant difference at the .05 level of significance was found were: (1) methods of teaching typewriting, (2) methods of teaching shorthand, (3) economics I, (4) office practice, and (5) office management. The majority of the graduates indicated their preparation was "excellent" or "good". The members of the department of Business Education were listed as the greatest strength of the program by the graduates.