This paper attempts to isolate some implications for secondary and adult education emerging from an exploratory study of perceived effective interactional communication in a religious organisation. Leaders of the local parishes of the Catholic Church in Australia are in the process of moving from the traditional basic communication structure of an hierarchical model to the lateral and collaborative interaction of a more participative model of management. This descriptive study records the perceptions of a sample of parish workers in the Church throughout Australia as they describe some of the problems they experienced in communication processes and attempted to identify the reason why these problems emerged. In doing so, they also identified the more effective communication processes emerging in this new form of pastoral ministry. They listed a number of attitudes which they believed would lead to greater communication effectiveness and without which genuine constructive communication usually does not take place (Carl Rogers 1957 in Bolton, 1983 p. 259). The media and written communication are not explored, except in their relation to effective meeting procedures. Verbal and non-verbal communication amongst people interacting with one another in the interpersonal organisational setting is the focus of this work. The findings of this study point in the short term, to the need for empowering people engaged in pastoral work with the necessary skills of effective communication processes. In the long term, the paper proposes the need for continuing educational emphasis on communication skills especially in secondary schools when students move towards a more personalised form of self-assertion.

This thesis will introduce the concept of collaboratively using freehand gestures to interact with visualizations. It could be problematic to work with data and visualizations together with others in the traditional desktop setting because of the limited screen size and a single user input device. Therefore this thesis suggests a solution by integrating computer vision and gestures with interactive visualizations. This integration resulted in a prototype where multiple users can interact with the same visualizations simultaneously. The prototype was evaluated and tested on ten potential users. The results from the tests show that using gestures have potential to support collaboration while working with interactive visualizations. It also shows what components are needed in order to enable gestural interaction with visualizations.

Submitted by SÉRGIO CARRAZEDO DANTAS (sergio@maismatematica.com.br) on 2016-03-17T23:01:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_final.pdf: 15596830 bytes, checksum: 23fe8442e1bc4553a0ed9d26aeee9bbd (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-03-21T18:50:46Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dantas_sc_dr_rcla.pdf: 15596830 bytes, checksum: 23fe8442e1bc4553a0ed9d26aeee9bbd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-21T18:50:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dantas_sc_dr_rcla.pdf: 15596830 bytes, checksum: 23fe8442e1bc4553a0ed9d26aeee9bbd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-12 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / O interesse central deste estudo foi investigar processos de interação e de colaboração em uma comunidade online de professores de Matemática. Tomando como fundamentação teórica e metodológica o Modelo dos Campos Semânticos, procuramos dar visibilidade às características e à dinâmica das interações observadas. Para isso, desenvolvemos uma estrutura tecnológica que possibilitou que professores, envolvidos em um curso de extensão, pudessem dialogar com seus pares, e, por meio de suas tomadas de decisões, estabelecer redes colaborativas. Alcançamos uma clara relação entre a auto-gestão característica do modo de organização de uma comunidade online que criamos e aquilo a que viemos designar de interação colaborativa. / The central concern of this study was to investigate interaction and collaboration processes in an online community of mathematics teachers. Taking as theoretical and methodological foundation the Model of Semantic Fields, we try to give visibility to the characteristics and dynamics of interaction. For this, we have developed a technological structure that made it possible for teachers involved in an extension course, could talk to their peers, and through its decision-making, establishing their collaborative networks. We reached meet a clear relationship between self-management feature of the organizational processes of an online community that we create and what we have come to be called the collaborative interaction. / CNPq: 141416/2013-0

Virtual teams in industry are increasingly being used to develop software, create products, and accomplish tasks. However, analyzing those collaborations under same-time/different-place conditions is well-known to be difficult. In order to overcome some of these challenges, this research was concerned with the study of collaboration-based, content-based and temporal measures and their ability to predict cohesion within global software development projects. Messages were collected from three software development projects that involved students from two different countries. The similarities and quantities of these interactions were computed and analyzed at individual and group levels. Results of interaction-based metrics showed that the collaboration variables most related to Task Cohesion were Linguistic Style Matching and Information Exchange. The study also found that Information Exchange rate and Reply rate have a significant and positive correlation to Task Cohesion, a factor used to describe participants' engagement in the global software development process. This relation was also found at the Group level. All these results suggest that metrics based on rate can be very useful for predicting cohesion in virtual groups. Similarly, content features based on communication categories were used to improve the identification of Task Cohesion levels. This model showed mixed results, since only Work similarity and Social rate were found to be correlated with Task Cohesion. This result can be explained by how a group's cohesiveness is often associated with fairness and trust, and that these two factors are often achieved by increased social and work communications. Also, at a group-level, all models were found correlated to Task Cohesion, specifically, Similarity+Rate, which suggests that models that include social and work communication categories are also good predictors of team cohesiveness. Finally, temporal interaction similarity measures were calculated to assess their prediction capabilities in a global setting. Results showed a significant negative correlation between the Pacing Rate and Task Cohesion, which suggests that frequent communications increases the cohesion between team members. The study also found a positive correlation between Coherence Similarity and Task Cohesion, which indicates the importance of establishing a rhythm within a team. In addition, the temporal models at individual and group-levels were found to be good predictors of Task Cohesion, which indicates the existence of a strong effect of frequent and rhythmic communications on cohesion related to the task. The contributions in this dissertation are three fold. 1) Novel use of Temporal measures to describe a team's rhythmic interactions, 2) Development of new, quantifiable factors for analyzing different characteristics of a team's communications, 3) Identification of interesting factors for predicting Task Cohesion levels among global teams.

With the commercialization of virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) devices, there is an increasing interest in combining immersive and non-immersive devices (e.g., desktop computers, mobile devices) for asymmetric collaborations. While such asymmetric settings have been examined in social platforms, questions surrounding collaborative view dimensionalities in data-driven decision-making and interaction from non-immersive devices remain under-explored. A crucial inquiry arises: although presenting a consistent 3D virtual world on both immersive and non-immersive platforms has been a common practice in social applications, does the same guideline apply to lay out data? Or should data placement be optimized locally according to each device's display capacity? To this effect, a user study was conducted to provide empirical insights into the user experience of asymmetric collaboration in data-driven decision-making. The user study tested practical dimensionality combinations between PC and VR, resulting in three conditions: PC2D+VR2D, PC2D+VR3D, and PC3D+VR3D. The results revealed a preference for PC2D+VR3D, and PC2D+VR2D led to the quickest task completion. Similarly, mobile devices have become an inclusive alternative to head-worn displays in virtual reality (VR) environments, enhancing accessibility and allowing cross-device collaboration. Object manipulation techniques in mobile Augmented Reality (AR) have been typically evaluated in table-top scale and we lack an understanding of how these techniques perform in room-scale environments. Two studies were conducted to analyze object translation tasks, each with 30 participants, to investigate how different techniques impact usability and performance for room-scale mobile VR object translations. Results indicated that the Joystick technique, which allowed translation in relation to the user's perspective, was the fastest and most preferred, without difference in precision. These findings provide insight for designing collaborative, asymmetric VR environments. / Master of Science / With the commercialization of virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) devices, there is an increasing interest in combining immersive and non-immersive devices (e.g., desktop computers, mobile devices) for collaborations across different devices. While such asymmetric settings have been examined in social platforms, questions surrounding collaborative view differences in 2D views or 3D views affect data-driven decision-making and interaction remain under-explored. A crucial inquiry arises: although presenting a consistent 3D virtual world on both immersive and non-immersive platforms has been a common practice in social applications, does the same guideline apply to lay out data? Or should data placement be optimized on each device according to each device's display capacity? To this effect, a user study was conducted to provide insights into the user experience of collaboration across different devices in data-driven decision-making. The user study tested different combinations of 2D and 3D layouts between PC and VR, resulting in three conditions: PC2D+VR2D, PC2D+VR3D, and PC3D+VR3D. The results revealed a preference for PC2D+VR3D, and PC2D+VR2D led to the quickest task completion. Similarly, mobile devices have become an inclusive alternative to head-worn displays in virtual reality (VR) environments, enhancing accessibility and allowing cross-device collaboration. Object manipulation techniques in mobile Augmented Reality (AR) have been typically evaluated in table-top scale and we lack an understanding of how these techniques perform in room-scale environments. Two studies were conducted to analyze object translation tasks, each with 30 participants, to investigate how different techniques impact usability and performance for room-scale mobile VR object translations. Results indicated that the Joystick technique, which allowed translation in relation to the user's perspective, was the fastest and most preferred, without difference in precision. These findings provide insight for designing collaborative, asymmetric VR environments.

This thesis signals the importance of collaborative interaction in the school environment in times of teaching and learning of physics network, mediated by educational technology. Priority was collaborative interaction on the critical problem situations, technologically mediated by educational hypermedia. The activities were developed by physical educators for students to understand concepts, laws and physical phenomena in two distinct contexts: Physics course (full licensure UFSM) and high school (public schools). Through investigative work was encouraged collaborative interaction, problem-solving situations proposed in study activities, mediated by heuristics in educational hypermedia. From the interactive hypermedia, researched the influence of this educational technology computerized network as potentiator of collaborative interaction. These activities helped to study conducted that actually occurred, collaborative interaction between students, teaching and learning of physics in the network. The data were analyzed and listed in four pre-set categories: Interaction, Interaction and Collaborative Innovation and / or innovative practices in teaching and learning of physics. The results obtained in this research, from the perspective of the categories of analysis, it can be said that students felt "the will" to interact collaboratively with colleagues in study activities with mediation of educational hypermedia in teaching and learning Physics. Emphasis was placed on the idea that dialogue-problematical, as potentiator of collaborative interaction in the concepts, laws and physical phenomena, was constructed from problem situations, providing students knowingness in other contexts real and concrete. / Essa dissertação sinaliza a importância da interação colaborativa no ambiente escolar em tempos de ensino-aprendizagem de Física em rede, mediado por tecnologia educacional. A prioridade foi a interação colaborativa na problematização de situações-problema, mediadas tecnologicamente por hipermídias educacionais. As atividade foram elaboradas pelo físico-educador para que os estudantes compreendessem conceitos, leis e fenômenos físicos, em dois contextos distintos: curso de Física (licenciatura plena da UFSM) e Ensino Médio (escolas públicas). Por meio de um trabalho investigativo incentivou-se a interação colaborativa, resolvendo situações-problema propostas, em atividades de estudo, mediadas por heurística, em hipermídia educacional. A partir da interatividade hipermidiática, pesquisou-se a influência desta tecnologia educacional computadorizada em rede, como potencializadora da interação colaborativa. Estas atividades de estudo realizadas auxiliaram para que de fato ocorresse, a interação colaborativa, entre os estudantes, no ensino-aprendizagem da Física em rede. Os dados foram analisados e elencados em quatro categorias pré-estabelecidas: Interatividade, Interação Colaborativa e Inovação e/ou práticas inovadoras no Ensino-aprendizagem de Física. Conforme os resultados obtidos, nessa pesquisa, sob a ótica das categorias de análise, pode-se afirmar que os estudantes sentiram-se a vontade para interagir colaborativamente com seus colegas nas atividades de estudo com mediação das hipermídias educacionais, no ensino-aprendizagem de Física. Ressaltou-se a ideia de que o diálogo-problematizador, como potencializador da interação colaborativa, em torno dos conceitos, leis e fenômenos físicos, foi construído a partir de situações-problema, proporcionando aos estudantes cognoscência em outros contextos reais e concretos.

Le but de cette recherche est d’étudier l’impact de l’apprentissage assisté par le multimédia sur le développement du vocabulaire et sur la compréhension, chez les enfants du préscolaire, par rapport à l’apprentissage traditionnel. Elle vise également à étudier l’impact des différents modes d’interaction dans les environnements informatisés, sur le développement du langage et sur la compréhension de l’histoire chez l’enfant.L’apprentissage du langage est un enjeu fort de réussite scolaire ultérieure pour les élèves de l’école maternelle. Cette recherche doctorale vise à étudier l’impact, sur l’acquisition de certaines compétences concernant le langage, de l’introduction d’environnements informatisés en dernière année d’école maternelle (grande section, enfant de 5 à 6 ans). Nous nous attachons particulièrement à l’acquisition, par les enfants, des connaissances linguistiques et des compétences langagières, en matière de lexique et à travers la réception et la compréhension de récits. Cette étude s’attache d’abord à faire le bilan des recherches et l’analyse des logiciels existants (les histoires électroniques) en français. Elle utilise ensuite un logiciel spécifique (Un Prince à l’école) dans des classes maternelles de région parisienne, pour étudier l’effet de son emploi dans le développement du vocabulaire (un pré/post-test) et la compréhension du récit (un post-test) pour ces élèves. Nous étudions (i) l’impact de l’interaction avec l’histoire sur support électronique vs l’histoire sur support papier, (ii) l’impact de l’interaction (individuelle vs collaborative) avec l’histoire sur support électronique sur le développement du vocabulaire et la compréhension du récit. / The purpose of this research is to study the impact of multimedia assisted learning on vocabulary development and comprehension among children of preschool, compared to traditional learning. It also aims to study the impact of different modes of interaction in computerized environments on language development and comprehension of the story among children of preschool.Learning the language is a major challenge for future academic success of students in kindergarten. This doctoral research aims to study the impact on the acquisition of certain skills on the language, and introduction of computerized environments in the final year of kindergarten (KG2, 5 to 6 year-olds). The study focuses particularly on the children acquisition of language skills in vocabulary and through the reception and comprehension of narratives. This work aims to take stock of existing research and analyses software (electronic stories) in French. It then uses special software (Un Prince à l’école) in the Paris region, and study the effectiveness in vocabulary development (pre/post test) and comprehension of the story (post-test) for these children. We studied (i) the impact of the interaction with the e-story vs. the story on paper, (ii) the impact of the interaction (individual vs. collaborative) with e-story on vocabulary development and comprehension of the story.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:49:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao.pdf: 773197 bytes, checksum: 1fc2c88cb81d50aef2361544aa69b850 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-24 / This research intends to investigate how the computer technology, the Moodle platform, called Learning, has been used in an institution as a pedagogical tool, in order to assist students in interaction and collaborative learning. The theoretical foundation of this work consists, in particular, authors researching the possibilities that open up with the technologies of communication and information, among them José Manuel Moran. We opted for the quantitative and qualitative research, statistical data for which were the subject of interpretative care. This research presents an object of study a virtual platform known as Learn and their forms of use in the Faculty of Informatics of the State of Sao Paulo that includes three courses. Studies were conducted to quantify the accesses, which are realized by types of days and types of resources and thus it was possible to profile the use of Moodle for students and teachers in the key period indicated in the report. The research and analysis of data suggested that the use of virtual environment aid teaching was unsatisfactory, considering the various possibilities of resources it offers. All these features were classified into three major categories (management, interaction and collaboration), and only the first one meaningful participation. This proves that the computer and internet, at school, are still used only as an electronic substitute for the same tasks performed in the traditional model of education. Thus, teachers and students lose the chance to explore what computer, Internet and systems to better their teaching and pedagogical resources that lead to interaction and knowledge construction. / A presente pesquisa pretende investigar de que maneira a tecnologia computacional, da plataforma Moodle, denominada Aprender, tem sido utilizada, em uma instituição como ferramenta pedagógica, com o intuito de auxiliar os alunos na interação e em aprendizagens colaborativas. A fundamentação teórica deste trabalho constitui-se, especialmente, de autores que pesquisam sobre as possibilidades que se abrem com as tecnologias de comunicação e informação, entre eles José Manuel Moran. Optou-se pela pesquisa quanti-qualitativa, cujos dados estatísticos foram objeto de cuidados interpretativos. Esta pesquisa apresenta como objeto de estudo uma plataforma virtual conhecida como Aprender e suas formas de utilização em uma Faculdade de Informática do interior do Estado de São Paulo que contempla três cursos. Foram realizados estudos para quantificar os acessos, os quais são realizados por tipos de dias e por tipos de recursos e, dessa forma, foi possível traçar o perfil de utilização do Moodle por alunos e professores no período-chave indicado em relatório. A pesquisa e a análise dos dados permitiram concluir que a utilização desse ambiente virtual de auxílio pedagógico mostrou-se insatisfatória, considerando-se as diversas possibilidades de recursos por ele proporcionadas. Todos esses recursos foram classificados em três grandes categorias (gerenciamento, interação e colaboração), e apenas a primeira apresentou uma participação significativa. Isso comprova que o computador e a internet, na escola, ainda são utilizados apenas como um substituto eletrônico para as mesmas tarefas realizadas no tradicional modelo de ensino. Assim, professores e alunos perdem a chance de explorar o que computador, internet e sistemas têm de melhor, seus recursos didático-pedagógicos que levam a interação e construção do conhecimento.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao.pdf: 773197 bytes, checksum: 1fc2c88cb81d50aef2361544aa69b850 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-24 / This research intends to investigate how the computer technology, the Moodle platform, called Learning, has been used in an institution as a pedagogical tool, in order to assist students in interaction and collaborative learning. The theoretical foundation of this work consists, in particular, authors researching the possibilities that open up with the technologies of communication and information, among them José Manuel Moran. We opted for the quantitative and qualitative research, statistical data for which were the subject of interpretative care. This research presents an object of study a virtual platform known as Learn and their forms of use in the Faculty of Informatics of the State of Sao Paulo that includes three courses. Studies were conducted to quantify the accesses, which are realized by types of days and types of resources and thus it was possible to profile the use of Moodle for students and teachers in the key period indicated in the report. The research and analysis of data suggested that the use of virtual environment aid teaching was unsatisfactory, considering the various possibilities of resources it offers. All these features were classified into three major categories (management, interaction and collaboration), and only the first one meaningful participation. This proves that the computer and internet, at school, are still used only as an electronic substitute for the same tasks performed in the traditional model of education. Thus, teachers and students lose the chance to explore what computer, Internet and systems to better their teaching and pedagogical resources that lead to interaction and knowledge construction. / A presente pesquisa pretende investigar de que maneira a tecnologia computacional, da plataforma Moodle, denominada Aprender, tem sido utilizada, em uma instituição como ferramenta pedagógica, com o intuito de auxiliar os alunos na interação e em aprendizagens colaborativas. A fundamentação teórica deste trabalho constitui-se, especialmente, de autores que pesquisam sobre as possibilidades que se abrem com as tecnologias de comunicação e informação, entre eles José Manuel Moran. Optou-se pela pesquisa quanti-qualitativa, cujos dados estatísticos foram objeto de cuidados interpretativos. Esta pesquisa apresenta como objeto de estudo uma plataforma virtual conhecida como Aprender e suas formas de utilização em uma Faculdade de Informática do interior do Estado de São Paulo que contempla três cursos. Foram realizados estudos para quantificar os acessos, os quais são realizados por tipos de dias e por tipos de recursos e, dessa forma, foi possível traçar o perfil de utilização do Moodle por alunos e professores no período-chave indicado em relatório. A pesquisa e a análise dos dados permitiram concluir que a utilização desse ambiente virtual de auxílio pedagógico mostrou-se insatisfatória, considerando-se as diversas possibilidades de recursos por ele proporcionadas. Todos esses recursos foram classificados em três grandes categorias (gerenciamento, interação e colaboração), e apenas a primeira apresentou uma participação significativa. Isso comprova que o computador e a internet, na escola, ainda são utilizados apenas como um substituto eletrônico para as mesmas tarefas realizadas no tradicional modelo de ensino. Assim, professores e alunos perdem a chance de explorar o que computador, internet e sistemas têm de melhor, seus recursos didático-pedagógicos que levam a interação e construção do conhecimento.

隨著服務體驗經濟時代的來臨，服務提供商所面臨到的環境是愈來愈競爭及逐漸是轉由消費者所主導的型式，因此服務提供商如何去滿足顧客的需求並且達成更高的滿意度便是主要的目標之一。特別是在發展型服務提供者的環境下，他們需要去考量自已本身較不充足的服務能力及資源來設計及提供服務給顧客，而這樣的條件之下，他們也很難在短時間及時的去改善並且提供穩定的服務品質。因此，本研究提出一套是基於顧客期望理論及粒子群演算法的架構下所發展的協同式互動設計機制，希望協助發展型服務提供商解決他們所面臨的問題及創造出更大的服務價值。 本研究將協同式互動設計機制應用在會展產業的服務環境底下，並利用模擬實驗的方式去驗證此機制的有效性及鞏固性。協同式互動設計機制共有四大模組：(1)顧客偏好識別模組 (2) 粒子群期望因子選擇模組 (3) 情境式旅程抉擇模組 及(4) 服務執行模組。本研究設計此機制時考量了加入顧客間互動的能力來幫助發展型服務提供商進行更有效的服務互動並且執有效的顧客群體期望控制的目標，以便在減輕服務提供商所付出的成本之下，還能達成良好的顧客滿意度。而本研究的研究貢獻為幫助發展型服務提供商解決他們所面臨的挑戰，並且在有限的資源和能力底下，仍然可以使得他們保持與高能力服務廠商之間的競爭;而另一貢獻為在整體的服務環境底下，能讓所有的參與角色都能夠得到最大的價值，而形成一個高效能的服務生態系統。 / With the progressive advancement of the technology and fiercely-competitive environment in recent years, customers have paid more attention to the issue that how diversity and rich the service experience could satisfy their needs; in other words, the service providers must acquire the competitive advantage among other service competitors by pondering on that how to deliver the qualified service offerings in every service encounter to achieve the objective of customer satisfaction. On the other hand, many research findings noted that customers’ service quality evaluation in service encounter were influenced by the comparison between the customer expectation toward service and the service performance that they perceived; therefore, managing the customer expectation becomes the vital part concerning the customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the shortcomings of the low-moderate competence service providers is that they could not provide the constant qualified service offerings to customers in each service interaction in terms of the reason for lesser service capability and resource. Consequently, this study propose the collaborative interaction design approach which based on the Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO) algorithm to generate the dynamical service interaction among the service providers and customers for the low-moderate competence service providers and aids them to control their group customers’ expectation by collaborating with customers; in other words, the service effort of the service provider could be lightened by engaging the customer capability and the service offerings could be enhanced to provider for customers. Therefore, this study utilizes the four modules in the research framework to achieve the aforementioned objective. Ultimately, the expected contributions of this study are two-folds: (1) Aid the low-moderate competence service providers to improve the service experience for customers on the restriction of lesser service capability. (2) Utilize the PSO algorithm to decide the determinants that effectively influence on customers’ expectation considering the whole benefits among stakeholders. Hence, the collaborative interaction design proposed in this study has conspicuous benefits for the low-moderate competence service providers to preserve the competitive advantage by providing the well-design exemplar to let them follow.