The need for licensed teachers and specialists in the area of moderate to severe disabilities has been a point of concern for the past two decades; however, technology is increasingly being used to deliver instruction and assist in providing supervision and consulting for students in need of certification in diverse fields through synchronous online learning environments (Luna & Medina, 2007; Spooner & Wood, 2006). The use of these technologies, such as video and web conferencing, are an increasingly popular and viable option for educators and teacher candidates living in rural locations or that have schedules that may not allow for travel to on-campus meetings. In response to this need, the University of Kentucky (UK) Department of Early Childhood, Special Education, & Rehabilitation Counseling, has been delivering instruction through satellite, interactive video, and web-based course management systems for 30 years. This chapter describes how UK has increased their capacity to serve students by using distance education technologies not only for course delivery, but practicum supervision as well (Collins & Baird, 2006).

The world we live in becomes more globalized as a result of new communication media. Communication occurs over greater distances which leads to increased travel. In the report AR5, by IPCC, it is showed that the human impact of climate change is clear and that something has to be done. Therefore its very important to change the human impact. A part of it is to change the way we travel within the service which leads to the purpose of the thesis. The purpose is to eximine how commune´s, in Gävleborgs län, choice of transport and with a change against virtual meetings affects greenhouse gas emissions and costs. An additional purpose is to gather information about currently known differences between natural and virtual meetings and explain these with a focus on interaction and communication. This is to give information about what it is that makes people feel that virtual meetings lack of communication . This has been done by studying the empirical results of the CERO-model and the NTM-database of greenhouse gas emissions and conduct a literature review relating to projects in the area of virtual meetings and then try to explain their results by learning and communication theories. The results clearly shows that train as vehicle is preferred both environmentally as financially and if the trip must be carried while driving or flying it is only justifiable when trains and public transport is disadvantaged. Virtual meetings are rather cheaper and more environmentally friendly than all vehicles but has some limitations. That is because the conversation becomes formal, and gesticulation and phonological patterns is missing. The restriction of virtual meetings can be explained with that contextual differences arise when individuals meet at great distances while communication requires a stricter meeting posture. / reser inom tjänsten vilket leder till syftet med examensarbetet som är att undersöka hur en kommuns val av färdmedel vid tjänsteresor samt vid ett skifte mot resfria möten påverkar samhället med avseende på växhusgasutsläpp och kostnad. Vidare är syftet att samla information om idag kända skillnader mellan fysiska och resfria möten och förklara dessa med fokus på interaktion och kommunikation. Detta för att ge information om vad det är som gör att en del känner att resfria möten brister i kommunikationen. Detta har gjorts genom att studera empiriska resultat av CERO-modellen och NTMs databas för växthusgasutsläpp samt genomföra en litteraturstudie av projekt inom området resfria möten, för att förklara deras resultat utifrån lärande- och kommunikationsteorier. Resultatet visar tydligt på att tåget som färdmedel både är att fördedra miljömässigt såsom ekonomiskt om resan måste genomföras medan bil och flyg endast är försvarbart då utbredningen av tåg och kollektivtrafik är missgynnad. Resfria möten är istället billigare och miljövänligare än alla färdmedel men har vissa begränsningar då samtalet blir formellt och saknar gestikulering samt fonologiska mönster. Att resfria möten har begränsningar kan förklaras i att kontextuella skillnader uppstår när individer möts på stora avstånd samtidigt som kommunikationen kräver en striktare möteshållning.

Students, especially international ones have a hard time seeking accommodation in big cities like Stockholm in Sweden at an adequate pricing. To facilitate such a search process and to create a sense of trust, tenants and landlords use video and/or voice calls for early communication with one another. However, the establishment of trust among tenants and landlords in this context is a challenging task. This study thus aims to investigate if innovative virtual reality (VR) approaches like 360° videos can be used to develop trust among tenants and landlords. This study undertakes an investigation from student perspective due to the limited timeframe. This study was carried out in collaboration with Ett tak (English: One roof) which is a startup working in the rental market in Stockholm. The tenants are the students and the landlords are senior people having spare space in their homes. A pre-study was conducted to identify the expectations of the students. A landlord was filmed for the 360° video which was developed into a Unity VR app. The results from the usability study indicate that most students felt a high degree of trust towards the landlord by using an immersive 360° VR tour. Conversely, the students showed hesitation to use the 360° VR by buying their own VR headsets unless VR becomes mainstream in the different areas of life. This study builds upon existing literature that validate the positive impact of attributes like profile photos, ratings and reviews on the trust level between the providers and the consumers in a sharing economy. / Studenter, särskilt internationella, har svårt att hitta boende i storstäder som Stockholm i Sverige till lämplig prissättning. För att underlätta en sådan sökprocess och skapa en känsla av förtroende använder hyresgäster och hyresvärdar video och / eller röstsamtal för tidig kommunikation med varandra. Upprättande av förtroende bland hyresgäster och hyresvärdar är dock en utmanande uppgift i detta sammanhang. Denna studie syftar således till att undersöka om virtuell verklighet (VR) som 360° video kan användas för att utveckla förtroende bland hyresgäster och hyresvärdar. Denna studie genomför en undersökning från ett studentperspektiv på grund av den begränsade tidsramen. Denna studie genomfördes i samverkan med Ett tak, som arbetar på hyresmarknaden i Stockholm. Hyresgästerna är studenterna och hyresvärdarna är äldre människor som har ledigt utrymme i sina hem. En förstudie genomfördes för att identifiera studenternas förväntningar. En hyresvärd filmades för en 360° video som utvecklades till en Unity VR app. Resultaten från användbarhetsstudien indikerar att de flesta studenter kände en hög grad av förtroende gentemot hyresvärden genom att använda en fördjupande 360 ° VR rundtur. Däremot visade eleverna att de inte skulle köpa egna VR-headset om VR inte blir vanligt i de olika områdena i livet. Denna studie bygger på befintlig litteratur och bekräftar den positiva effekten av attribut som profilbilder, betyg och recensioner på förtroendenivå mellan leverantörer och konsumenter i en delningsekonomi.

Activities like one-on-one video chatting and video conferencing with multiple participants are more prevalent than ever today as we continue to tackle the pandemic. Bringing a 3D feel to video chat has always been a hot topic in Vision and Graphics communities. In this thesis, we have employed novel view synthesis in attempting to turn one-on-one video chatting into 3D. We have tuned the learning pipeline of Tucker and Snavely's single-view view synthesis paper — by retraining it on MannequinChallenge dataset — to better predict a layered representation of the scene viewed by either video chat participant at any given time. This intermediate representation of the local light field — called a Multiplane Image (MPI) — may then be used to rerender the scene at an arbitrary viewpoint which, in our case, would match with the head pose of the watcher in the opposite, concurrent video frame. We discuss that our pipeline, when implemented in real-time, would allow both video chat participants to unravel occluded scene content and "peer into" each other's dynamic video scenes to a certain extent. It would enable full parallax up to the baselines of small head rotations and/or translations. It would be similar to a VR headset's ability to determine the position and orientation of the wearer's head in 3D space and render any scene in alignment with this estimated head pose. We have attempted to improve the performance of the retrained model by extending MannequinChallenge with the much larger RealEstate10K dataset. We present a quantitative and qualitative comparison of the model variants and describe our impactful dataset curation process, among other aspects.

The worldwide crisis, Covid-19 had a tremendous influence on education system. Many higher education systems forced to change into emergency online education while challenges and problems facing in online learning process affected not only students’ population but also lots of teachers. Video conferencing tools as a technology which help users to have virtual meetings need to be effective and user friendly to provide the learning process with the same quality as face-to-face education. The goal of this study is researching about one of the important problems in online learning process which is teachers-students interaction. The primary goal of this research is to find the pain points in students-teachers interaction and students’ motivation and our secondary goal is investigating the effects of this interaction on students’ motivation and providing a solution in video conferencing tools to solve this issue using a prototype. We are using mixed methodology which is including both quantitative and qualitative methodology. Collected data from existing studies and literature review, surveys, and interview are methods which are used. Based on our research questions and the methodology for collecting data the following are studied: 1. The pain points and challenges regarding teachers’ interaction and students’ motivation in online learning 2. The effects of students-teachers interaction in students’ motivation 3. The features in video conferencing tools which can improve this interaction. All the findings present in a prototype using Figma with the goal of improving user experience of video conferencing tools for online learning purpose and solve existing problems. This prototype presented to students and teachers to get their feedbacks through an interview. With the importance of online learning in the future education, more research is needed to explore other aspects which has effect on students’ motivation and presenting other solution or features or using another research methods will bring more value to this subject.

We studied a live video conferencing project based in Ghana, because we wanted to determine whether this is one area where Information Communication Technology (ICT) can have an impact on communication for development. We also wanted to better understand whether live video conferencing is a viable way to go forward with Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) and, if so, what benefits it has to offer. To complement the study, we also looked at two other NGOs which are also using similar technology and have a purpose similar to the WPD live video-conference program, which is to create a space for knowledge and cultural exchange with the help of ICT. The additional programs will add a complementary comparative dimension to the analysis of the case study of WPD. It is important to have these two projects in mind since they use two vastly different methods and can provide a reflective understanding on how WPD can move forward as they are in a transitional phase and are currently exploring different ways to develop the project, mainly involving changes in management structure and technology. We studied the WPD project with the complementary information from the other two projects from an academic perspective to document and analyze the outcomes in order to determine which good practices are available when undertaking similar initiatives. From a theoretical perspective, we analyze the projects using research related to participatory communication, the public sphere, and the digital divide. From a practical perspective, we again examine issues related to the digital divide and the growing influence of communications technologies companies due to public-private partnerships.

I avhandlingen beskrivs ett hypotetiskt system som kan användas av mobila användare, bland andra taxichaufförer, som exempelvis vill följa en viktig fotbollsmatch. Flera faktorer ställer till problem: Ibland står bilen still och föraren har inget annat att tänka på än matchen. Ibland kör denne runt med en kund som inte vill bli störd av matchen. Dessutom kan det vara svårt att titta på rörliga bilder och köra bil samtidigt. I och med att bilen körs runt har man också olika bra anslutning till Internet vid olika tillfällen – det kan variera mellan inget alls, en dålig GSM/GPRS förbindelse (8 kbps) och en snabb WLAN anslutning (100 Mbps). I avhandlingen presenteras en tre-lagers modell som kan användas för att beskriva den här typen av applikationers kvalitet. Modellen delas in i tre lager: nätverk, applikation och användare/använding. Det sistnämnda lagret ligger utanför det tekniska systemet och definieras av att det är där de verkliga informationsutbytet sker. På applikationsnivån samlas data in, packas och packas upp i samband med nätverkstransport och visas sedan för användaren. Det är också här som eventuell interaktion sker med användaren. Nätverkslagret är ansvarigt för ändamålsenlig transport av data. De tre lagren är ömsesidigt beroende av varandra. Dålig prestanda på ettlager påverkar de andra lagren och tvärtom. Tre studier har genomförts av hur problem på nätverkslagret i form av begränsad bandbredd och hög fördöjning påverkar användarna. Låg bandbredd ger låg videokvalitet vilket inte uppskattas av användarnamnen genom att skifta till animeringar som fungerar med lägre bandbredd kan man ändå få användarna nöjda. Om användarna måste välja mellandålig videokvalitet och animeringar väljer de som ser sig som fotbollskunniga det förstnämnda och de som ser sig som okunniga men dock fotbollsfans väljer det sistnämnda. Men i en annan studie där användarna spelade bluffstopp mot varandra över ett datanätverk fick vi ett annat resultat. Där var det negativt med högre videokvalitet (bilder per sekund). En förklaring kan vara att användarna distraherades mer av högre bildfrekvens. I den tredje studien studerades vad som händer i Pong om man läggerin fördröjningar i spelet. Sedan tidigare visste man att det blir svårare attspela med fördröjningar – särskilt om man inte märker dem. Vi ställde ossfrågan om man kan kompensera för dem genom att informera användarna om dem. Det visade sig att användare som får information med i vårtfall en prediktiv visning lättare anpassar sin mentala insats till uppgiftens svårighetsgrad. Det är alltså inte bara möjligt utan ibland också önskvärt att utnyttja en lägre bandbredd från användarens perspektiv. Med det sagt finns det ändå i långt fler situationer där det är bättre med bättre nätverksprestanda. Pongspelet var roligare med lägre delay. Videon uppfattades som bättre medhögre bandbredd i den förstnämnda studien. Multicast, där ett paket skickas till flera användare i stället för att de skafå varsin, identiska paket, är ett viktigt verktyg för att få bättre prestanda i videoapplikationer. Tyvärr är det inbyggda stödet för multicast i den viktiga IEEE 802.11 standardfamiljen för trådlösa nätverk mycket outvecklat. Ettstort problem är att det inte går att veta om ett paket har kommit fram eller om det har försvunnit i en, mycket trolig, krock. Vi har vidareutvecklat och anpassat en föga känd krockdetektionsmekanism från 80-talet för använding i IEEE 802.11 nätverk. Den anpassade algoritmen kallar vi EMCD vilket är en förkortning för ‘‘Early Multicast Collision Detection’’ eller tidig krockupptäckt för multicast. Vi har presenterat en nysannolikhetsbaserad modell för att beräkna algoritmens prestanda undermaximal belastning. Modellen som har verifierats genom simuleringar kanäven användas för att beräkna optimala parametrar för algoritmen. Algoritmen har visats kraftigt reducera risken för oupptäckta kollisioner och reducerar den tid som går åt för dem. EMCD-algoritmen inspirerade till att utveckla en ytterligare algoritm som inte bara kan upptäcka utan också undvika kollisioner: PREMA som står för ‘‘Prioritized Repeated Eliminations Multiple Access’’ eller prioriterad kanal-åtkomst med upprepade eliminationer. Det finns två viktiga skillnader mellanhur de fungerar. I EMCD bygger kollisionsdetektionen på rektangelfördelade slumptal och en enda upptäcktsomgång. I PREMA används i stället geometriskt fördelade slumptal och upprepade omgångar. Effekten blir att man med stor säkerhet får en enda vinnare. även för PREMA presenteras en sannolikhetskalkylsbaserad prestandaanalys för maxlastfallet vilken stöds av simuleringar. Samma formler kan användas för att approximativt skatta prestanda i EY-NPMA som är en närliggande algoritm. Den var tänkt att använda i Hiperlan/1; en standard som aldrig fick något kommersiellt genombrott. Använder man den modell som vi presenterar i avhandlingens sista studiekan man med ganska god noggrannhet beräkna optimala parametrar för EY-NPMA med en beräkningsinsats O(mY S) mot O(mES×mY S) för tidigare kända algoritmer. / Imagine a taxi driver wanting to watch a football game while working. Events in the game cannot be predetermined, the driver's available attentional resources vary and network connections change from non-existing to excellent, so it will be necessary to develop a viewing application that can adapt to circumstances. This thesis presents a system model and sketches a framework for design and run time adaptations. The model has three layers: user/usage, application and network. Quality of service metrics are proposed for each layer. A particular emphasis is placed on the difference between the user/usage layer and the application layer. Satisfaction at the former means a job well done, a match played to your liking etc. Satisfaction at the latter means good picture quality, nice colours etc. The thesis continues by identifying and describing elements required to build the system used by the taxi driver. Three studies are presented where either bandwidth or delay are varied at the network level. Video is better the higher the bandwidth; animations can be used as a complement. They are shown to be better than low quality video but worse than high quality video for watching a football game. Better video in the form of higher frame rates turned out to be worse for playing a card game over the Internet. A possible explanation is the distraction experienced when the image is updated constantly. Another result of our studies is that users can adapt their mental effort to the actual load when given feedback on the network delay affecting a computer game. The results mentioned above show that it is possible to compensate for poor network performance. For the user, improved network performance is generally more satisfactory. Early multicast collision detection is a method for improved multicast performance in high load IEEE 802.11 networks. Prioritised repeated eliminations multiple access is a method for multicast and other traffic which can be used alone or in an IEEE 802.11 network. Probabilistic performance analysis and simulations show that both protocols drastically reduce the time spent in collisions and improve throughput compared to IEEE 802.11. Some of the formulae are applied to EY-NPMA as well; they are used to estimate performance and to estimate optimal operating parameters more efficiently than with previously known methods.

This research investigates scalable video communications and its applications to video streaming, conferencing and 3DTV. Scalable video coding (SVC) is a layer-based encoding scheme that provides spatial, temporal and quality scalability. Heterogeneity of the Internet and clients' operating environment necessitate the adaptation of media content to ensure a satisfactory multimedia experience. SVC's layer structure allows the extraction of partial bitstreams at reduced spatial, quality and temporal resolutions that adjust the media bitrate at a fine granularity to changes in network state. The main focus of this research work is in developing such extraction algorithms in the context of SVC. Based on a combination of metadata computations and prediction mechanisms, these algorithms evaluate the quality contribution of each layer in the SVC bitstream and make extraction decisions that are aimed at maximizing video quality while operating within the available bandwidth resources. These techniques are applied in two-way interaction and one-way streaming of 2D and 3D content. Depending on the delay tolerance of these applications, rate-distortion optimized extraction algorithms are proposed. For conferencing applications, the extraction decisions are made over single frames and frame pairs due to tight end-to-end delay constraints. The proposed extraction algorithms for 3D content streaming maximize the overall perceived 3D quality based on human stereoscopic perception. When compared to current extraction methods, the new algorithms offer better video quality at a given bitrate while performing lesser number of metadata computations in the post-encoding phase. The solutions proposed for each application achieve the recurring goal of maintaining the best possible level of end-user quality of multimedia experience in spite of network impairments.

Across the period in which this research was conducted, there has been an increasing emphasis in government and university policies on the promotion of technology integration in higher education. This emphasis has also become evident in Commonwealth and State government policies relating to preservice teacher education because of the need to ensure that teachers enter the profession with the types of technological skills and competencies that can enhance teaching and learning. The research reported in this thesis describes the experiences and perceptions of computer-based technologies from the perspective of academic staff and graduates from two preservice teacher education courses in a Queensland university. The research was conducted in two phases using a repeated cross-sectional longitudinal design. In Phase 1 of the research conducted in 1997, and in Phase 2 in 2002, questionnaires were used to gather data. In Phase 1 of the research, participants comprised 43 academic staff members involved in two preservice teacher education courses and 72 first or second year graduate teachers from these courses. Items in the academic staff and graduate teacher questionnaires elicited information on a range of issues related to the technologies including knowledge and confidence levels, acquisition of knowledge, current and future usage in teaching, advantages and disadvantages of teaching with the technologies, the importance of the technologies to higher and preservice education and the adequacy of preservice teacher education to prepare new teachers to use technologies. Graduate teachers were also questioned about barriers to their classroom use of technologies. Further questions for academic staff investigated the existence of factors that facilitate usage of technologies and the degree to which the presence or absence of these factors constituted barriers or incentives to technology use. A number of questions also explored attitudes surrounding the valuing of teaching, research and publishing. Results from the first phase of research revealed that both academic staff and new teachers made little use of technologies in their teaching. The most salient barriers to academic staff technology use included lack of technical advice and support, time, and lack of evidence of improved student learning and interest. There was also a widely held perception among academic staff that teaching was not valued by their university and that, in particular, innovation in teaching deserved greater recognition. For graduate teachers, barriers to technology use included lack of computers and resources, lack of school funding, and lack of knowledge and training. In Phase 2 of the research, participants comprised 40 academic staff members and 123 graduate teachers from the same two preservice teacher education courses. Participants were again questioned about knowledge and confidence levels, acquisition of knowledge, current and future usage in teaching, and the adequacy of preservice teacher education to prepare new teachers to use technologies. In light of new research and building on findings from the first phase of data collection, several new questions were added. These questions related primarily to the nature and availability of training and how preservice teacher preparation in technology use could be improved. Results from the second phase of research indicated that, among academic staff and graduate teachers, there had been considerable increases in knowledge and confidence levels in relation to the technologies, along with increased levels of usage. Both groups were also significantly more likely than their earlier counterparts to report that preservice teachers were adequately or well prepared in the use of technologies. For graduate teachers, lack of equipment and resources were ongoing barriers to technology use. Training in technology use appeared to be less of an issue for graduate teachers than academic staff with most reporting access to, and satisfaction with, inservice training opportunities. Encouraging too, was the finding that these graduate teachers were significantly more likely than their 1997 counterparts to attribute their knowledge of the technologies to preservice teacher education. While positive change in technology use was evident across this period, continued efforts to support and integrate technology in preservice teacher education remains important, as does support for the innovative use of technology to promote learning in schools.

Magister Public Health - MPH / An urgent need to rapidly increase the size and capacity of the health workforce to manage the health system in Namibia motivated the development of a Bachelor of Nursing Science degree which has been offered at a distance since 1997 at the University of Namibia. The programme is delivered from the University’s Central and Northern Campuses, enabling qualified nurses to develop management and educator capacity while continuing to work;throughput has however been low and slow. Since student support is posited as a vital ingredient of distance education success, this study sought to understand how students experienced the support services offered by the University of Namibia’s distance education unit – the Centre for External Studies. The study explored students’ experiences and perceptions of administrative, social and academic support services provided by the University. The research design was qualitative, and exploratory, using focus groups and interviews for data collection. The sample comprised of forty Bachelor of Nursing Science students enrolled on both campuses between 2005 –2011 as well as seven staff involved in student support services. Documents and interviews of envisioned support services from the Centre for External Studies served as the basis for the evaluation of services. Data was analysed using thematic content analysis. A comparison was made of the findings from the two campuses.The findings reflected positive experiences of support from family and lecturers as well as institutional offerings such as video conferences. There were, however, some institutional weaknesses in the programme delivery such as the late delivery of study materials which impacted on students’ submission of assignments, and weak communication systems which affected delivery of support workshops. The libraries on both campuses were not adequately resourced and prescribed books were not always available at the local bookshops. Lecturer presence was missed by many students who were not used to distance learning, although the intensity of this experience differed between the students on the different Campuses.Personal challenges were sometimes responsible for student discontinuation of the programme, and work-related challenges affected attendance of vacation schools. These problems were experienced more by the students on the Northern Campus.Out of this study, recommendations were made on how to improve support services for advanced nursing students studying at a distance at the University of Namibia. Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from both the University of Namibia and the University of the Western Cape.