The design and construction of interactive systems with high usability requires a user-centered approach to system development. In order to support such an approach, it is necessary to provide tools and representations reflecting a behavioral view of the interface—a view centered on user activities and the system activities and states perceived by the user. While behavioral representations exist, there is no behavioral model of interaction between a user and a system. Such a model is necessary for formalization and extension of existing behavioral representations. This dissertation presents a model of interactive behavior based on the timetree, a novel tree-based structure representing tasks, user actions, system activity, and system and interface state, all within a framework of branching sequential timelines. The model supports formal definitions, operations and abstraction techniques. Three application areas—a formal definition of an existing behavioral notation, connection between a behavioral representation and a formal model of input devices, and techniques for analysis of behavioral specifications—provide examples of the model's utility. / Ph. D.

The aim of the thesis is based on the existing approaches to the assessment of the difficulty of the task of teaching with a focus on ICT and computer science to design a methodology for determining the difficulty of the task and verify it on the model examples for elementary schools. The methodology will be to respond to the theoretical background, which are based, in particular, of the parameters, forms, functions, and the specifics of teaching jobs. Other theoretical basis for the analysis of the teaching jobs are from the known taxonomies, Focus group research method and statistical data processing. The empirical part qualitative research including the multi-round testing pupils Elementary school and the analysis of the data obtained.

En svensk skolkommuns ambitioner har varit att klättra på skolrankingen. Ett sätt att göra detta är att utforma ett kommunalt matematikprov för årskurs 5 i syfte att upptäcka kunskapsluckor i god tid innan det nationella provet i årskurs 6. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur detta prov påverkar matematiklärarnas arbete. Detta har undersökts genom kvalitativa intervjuer av de berörda matematiklärarna. Svaren har analyserats utifrån den teoretiska utgångspunkten sociomatematiska normer. Vi har också analyserat det matematiska innehållet i ett arbetsmaterial som kommunen har uppmanat lärarna till att använda som förberedande material. Resultatet pekar på att matematiklärares arbete påverkas i hög grad av att huvudmannen anordnar ett centralstyrt matematikprov. Detta gäller det matematiska innehållet i deras undervisning och därmed de sociomatematiska normer som råder i klassrummen. Vår slutsats är att kommunens intention att påverka lärarnas arbete infrias, men hur det på längre sikt påverkar elevers kunskapsutveckling återstår att undersöka. / A Swedish school municipality's ambitions has been to climb the school rankings. One way of doing this is to design a test for fifth grade pupils in order to discover gaps in students mathematical understandning well ahead of the national tests in the sixth grade. The purpose of this study is to investigate how this test affects the work of mathematics teachers. This has been investigated through qualitative interviews of the involved mathematics teachers. The data have been analyzed based on the theoretical starting point of socio-mathematical norms. We have also analyzed the mathematical content that the municipality has recommended the teachers to use as preparatory material. The result indicates that the work of mathematics teachers is very much influenced by the fact that the municipality organizes a central-controlled mathematics test. This applies to the mathematical content of their teaching and the socio-mathematical norms prevailing in the classrooms. Our conclusion is that the municipality can influence and alter the teachers' work both inside and outside the math class.

<div>In 2019, cyber security is considered one of the most significant threats to the global economy and national security. Top U.S. agencies have acknowledged this fact, and provided direction regarding strategic priorities and future initiatives within the domain. However, there is still a lack of basic understanding of factors that impact complexity, scope, and effectiveness of cyber defense efforts. Computer security incident response is the short-term process of detecting, identifying, mitigating, and resolving a potential security threat to a network. These activities are typically conducted in computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) comprised of human analysts that are organized into hierarchical tiers and work closely with many different computational tools and programs. Despite the fact that CSIRTs often provide the first line of defense to a network, there is currently a substantial global skills shortage of analysts to fill open positions. Research and development efforts from educational and technological perspectives have been independently ineffective at addressing this shortage due to time lags in meeting demand and associated costs. This dissertation explored how to combine the two approaches by considering how human-centered research can inform development of computational solutions toward augmenting human analyst capabilities. The larger goal of combining these approaches is to effectively complement human expertise with technological capability to alleviate pressures from the skills shortage.</div><div><br></div><div>Insights and design recommendations for hybrid systems to advance the current state of security automation were developed through three studies. The first study was an ethnographic field study which focused on collecting and analyzing contextual data from three diverse CSIRTs from different sectors; the scope extended beyond individual incident response tasks to include aspects of organization and information sharing within teams. Analysis revealed larger design implications regarding collaboration and coordination in different team environments, as well as considerations about usefulness and adoption of automation. The second study was a cognitive task analysis with CSIR experts with diverse backgrounds; the interviews focused on expertise requirements for information sharing tasks in CSIRTs. Outputs utilized a dimensional expertise construct to identify and prioritize potential expertise areas for augmentation with automated tools and features. Study 3 included a market analysis of current automation platforms based on the expertise areas identified in Study 2, and used Systems Engineering methodologies to develop concepts and functional architectures for future system (and feature) development.</div><div><br></div><div>Findings of all three studies support future directions for hybrid automation development in CSIR by identifying social and organizational factors beyond traditional tool design in security that supports human-systems integration. Additionally, this dissertation delivered functional considerations for automated technology that can augment human capabilities in incident response; these functions support better information sharing between humans and between humans and technological systems. By pursuing human-systems integration in CSIR, research can help alleviate the skills shortage by identifying where automation can dynamically assist with information sharing and expertise development. Future research can expand upon the expertise framework developed for CSIR and extend the application of proposed augmenting functions in other domains.</div>

The prospect of computer applications making "noises" is disconcerting to some. Yet the soundscape of the real world does not usually bother us. Perhaps we only notice a nuisance? This thesis is an approach for designing sounds that are useful information rather than distracting "noise". The approach is called TaDa because the sounds are designed to be useful in a Task and true to the Data. ¶ Previous researchers in auditory display have identified issues that need to be addressed for the field to progress. The TaDa approach is an integrated approach that addresses an array of these issues through a multifaceted system of methods drawn from HCI, visualisation, graphic design and sound design. A task-analysis addresses the issue of usefulness. A data characterisation addresses perceptual faithfulness. A case-based method provides semantic linkage to the application domain. A rule-based method addresses psychoacoustic control. A perceptually linearised sound space allows transportable auditory specifications. Most of these methods have not been used to design auditory displays before, and each has been specially adapted for this design domain. ¶ The TaDa methods have been built into computer-aided design tools that can assist the design of a more effective display, and may allow less than experienced designers to make effective use of sounds. The case-based method is supported by a database of examples that can be searched by an information analysis of the design scenario. The rule-based method is supported by a direct manipulation interface which shows the available sound gamut of an audio device as a 3D coloured object that can be sliced and picked with the mouse. These computer-aided tools are the first of their kind to be developed in auditory display. ¶ The approach, methods and tools are demonstrated in scenarios from the domains of mining exploration, resource monitoring and climatology. These practical applications show that sounds can be useful in a wide variety of information processing activities which have not been explored before. The sounds provide information that is difficult to obtain visually, and improve the directness of interactions by providing additional affordances.

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

Function allocation is the design decision which assigns work functions to all agents in a team, both human and automated. Efforts to guide function allocation systematically has been studied in many fields such as engineering, human factors, team and organization design, management science, and cognitive systems engineering. Each field focuses on certain aspects of function allocation, but not all; thus, an independent discussion of each does not address all necessary issues with function allocation. Four distinctive perspectives emerged from a review of these fields: technology-centered, human-centered, team-oriented, and work-oriented. Each perspective focuses on different aspects of function allocation: capabilities and characteristics of agents (automation or human), team structure and processes, and work structure and the work environment. Together, these perspectives identify the following eight issues with function allocation: 1)Workload, 2)Incoherency in function allocations, 3)Mismatches between responsibility and authority, 4)Interruptive automation, 5)Automation boundary conditions, 6)Function allocation preventing human adaptation to context, 7)Function allocation destabilizing the humans' work environment, and 8)Mission Performance. Addressing these issues systematically requires formal models and simulations that include all necessary aspects of human-automation function allocation: the work environment, the dynamics inherent to the work, agents, and relationships among them. Also, addressing these issues requires not only a (static) model, but also a (dynamic) simulation that captures temporal aspects of work such as the timing of actions and their impact on the agent's work. Therefore, with properly modeled work as described by the work environment, the dynamics inherent to the work, agents, and relationships among them, a modeling framework developed by this thesis, which includes static work models and dynamic simulation, can capture the issues with function allocation. Then, based on the eight issues, eight types of metrics are established. The purpose of these metrics is to assess the extent to which each issue exists with a given function allocation. Specifically, the eight types of metrics assess workload, coherency of a function allocation, mismatches between responsibility and authority, interruptive automation, automation boundary conditions, human adaptation to context, stability of the human's work environment, and mission performance. Finally, to validate the modeling framework and the metrics, a case study was conducted modeling four different function allocations between a pilot and flight deck automation during the arrival and approach phases of flight. A range of pilot cognitive control modes and maximum human taskload limits were also included in the model. The metrics were assessed for these four function allocations and analyzed to validate capability of the metrics to identify important issues in given function allocations. In addition, the design insights provided by the metrics are highlighted This thesis concludes with a discussion of mechanisms for further validating the modeling framework and function allocation metrics developed here, and highlights where these developments can be applied in research and in the design of function allocations in complex work environments such as aviation operations.

Obwohl das Angebot von Feedback in Lehr-Lernsituationen eine wichtige instruktionale Maßnahme darstellt,um Lernende in ihrem Lernprozess zu unterstützen, wird dessen Potenzial in multimedialen Lernumgebungen nur selten optimal genutzt. Feedback, welches in aller Regel im Anschluss an die Bearbeitung von Lernaufgaben bereitgestellt wird und den Lerner über die Qualität seiner Aufgabenbearbeitung informiert, beschränkt sich häufig auf die Bereitstellung einer richtig/falsch Rückmeldung mit einem sich anschließenden, zusätzlichen Lösungsversuch bzw. der Präsentation der richtigen Lösung. Als prototypisch für diese Art der Feedbackgestaltung erweist sich das in mathematischer Grundschulsoftware implementierte Feedback. Der Lerner erhält weder Informationen zu dem Ort und der Art des Fehlers noch einen Hinweis auf die korrekte Lösungsstrategie. Vor diesem Hintergrund bestand ein zentrales Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit in der Entwicklung von fehlerspezifischem informativem tutoriellem Feedback (ITF) für die schriftliche Subtraktion auf der Grundlage des heuristischen Feedbackmodells von Narciss (2004) und der aus diesem Modell abgeleiteten Gestaltungsprinzipien für ITF. Obwohl allgemein erwartet wird, dass informatives Feedback lernwirksamer ist als Feedback, welches nur die richtige Lösung präsentiert, konnte diese Annahme durch die Ergebnisse der empirischen Feedbackforschung bisher nicht bestätigt werden. So ist die Feedbackforschung durch eine inkonsistente Befundlage gekennzeichnet. Vor diesem empirischen Hintergrund bestand ein weiteres zentrales Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit in der Überprüfung der Effektivität des entwickelten fehlerspezifischen ITFs hinsichtlich verschiedener Lern- und motivationaler Parameter. Fehlerspezifisches ITF zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass bei fehlerhaften Aufgabenlösungen Informationen angeboten werden, die auf der Grundlage einer kognitiven Anforderungs- und Fehleranalyse als korrekturrelevant identifiziert worden waren. Diese korrekturrelevanten Informationen werden dem Lernenden ohne Bekanntgabe der korrekten Lösung präsentiert, so dass sich dieser dazu aufgefordert sieht, die bereitgestellten strategischen Informationen in einem erneuten Lösungsversuch unmittelbar anzuwenden. In zwei Studien mit Viertklässlern wurde dieses computergestützte ITF im Hinblick auf seine Lern- und motivationale Wirksamkeit evaluiert. In der ersten Studie (N = 30) erfolgte diese Evaluation gegen eine Feedbackbedingung, welche das üblicherweise in mathematischer Lernsoftware realisierte Knowledge of Response und Knowledge of Correct Response (KR-KCR) Feedback präsentierte. In der zweiten Studie (N = 105) wurden zwei zusätzliche Feedbackbedingungen &amp;quot;Knowledge about Mistake (KR-KM) und Knowledge on How to proceed (KR-KH)&amp;quot; aufgenommen. Diese sind in ihrem Informationsgehalt zwischen dem ITF und dem KR-KCR Feedbackalgorithmus anzusiedeln. Die Ergebnisse beider Studien bestätigen die postulierte Lern- und motivationale Wirksamkeit des fehlerspezifischen ITFs für die schriftliche Subtraktion. Besonders im Vergleich zu der wenig informativen KR-KCR Feedbackbedingung konnten in beiden Studien signifikante Wirksamkeitsunterschiede nachgewiesen werden. Auch im Vergleich zu den komplexeren Feedbackformen Knowledge about mistake (KR-KM) und Knowledge on how to proceed (KR-KH) konnten für die Schüler der ITF Bedingung bessere Leistungen beobachtet werden, auch wenn diese Unterschiede nur partiell signifikant wurden. Die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Untersuchungen zeigen, dass es möglich ist, auf der Grundlage des von Narciss (2004) vorgestellten Feedbackmodells und der aus diesem Feedbackmodell abgeleiteten Gestaltungsprinzipien lern- und motivationsförderliches ITF zu entwickeln. So liefern die Ergebnisse beider Studien erste empirische Belege für die Annahme, dass informatives Feedback nicht nur den Lernprozess unterstützt, sondern auch motivationsförderlich wirkt. / Feedback is considered to be an important factor to promote learning and motivation with computer-based training tools. However the findings of studies on the effectiveness of feedback are rather inconsistent. One reason for these inconsistent findings might be that the implementation of feedback is more based on intuition than on well-founded design principles. Therefore the aims of the present work was (1) to develop theoretical well-founded elaborated feedback forms for a procedural skill like the written subtraction, (2) to implement them in an adaptive feedback algorithm that induces the mindful processing of feedback, and (3) to evaluate this elaborated feedback regarding his impact on learning and motivation. Using results from prior feedback research and from cognitive task and error analysis of written subtraction tasks, information relevant to the correction of typical systematic errors (e.g. location of error, source of error, type of error and hints to the correct solution strategy) were selected. This information was used to design different types of bug-related feedback messages. These different feedback messages were arranged in an adaptive bug-related algorithm presenting three levels of feedback with increasing informational value to support the learner in finding the correct solution on his own. Because the developed feedback allows assisted multiple response attempts for an item by providing relevant information for error correction, but no immediate Knowledge of Correct Response (KCR) feedback, and by encouraging the learner to apply the corrective information to a further attempt, this kind of feedback was called bug-related &amp;quot;informative tutoring feedback (ITF)&amp;quot;. In two computer-based learning experiments cognitive and motivational effects of this bug-related ITF were evaluated with forth-grade students with difficulties in written subtraction. In the first study (N=30) the bug-related ITF was compared to the effects of a standard Knowledge of Result-Knowledge of Correct Response feedback (KR-KCR) algorithm. In the second study (N=105) two additional feedback algorithms - Knowledge about Mistake (KR-KM) und Knowledge on How to proceed (KR-KH) - were implemented. These both feedback algorithms range between the bug-related ITF and the simple KR-KCR feedback regarding to their amount of information. In both studies significant positive effects of the bug-related ITF compared to the KR-KCR feedback could be found. Regarding to the more informative KR-KM and KR-KH feedback a positive effect of the bug-related ITF could be showed sporadic. These results are discussed in detail.

The success of applied behavior analysis (ABA) interventions relies heavily on adherence to measures of social importance. One area identified by caregivers, educators, and researchers as having social importance is the area of daily living skills; particularly in populations of children with special needs. A number of studies employed the use of a task analysis to objectively measure toothbrushing, with various training procedures utilized. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is an effective procedure used to train a variety of skills. Further, research indicates the addition of an in situ assessment promotes generalization of trained skills. The current study examined the use of a task analysis and BST with in situ assessment to systematically measure and train toothbrushing skills in children with special needs. Training procedures were adapted from a similar study by Poche, McCubbrey, & Munn (1982). Five children participated in this study; four male and one female; each having a medical diagnosis indicating special needs. Objective and subjective measures were obtained with a task analysis data sheet and a pre/post intervention parent surveys. Results indicate the intervention successfully increased correct toothbrushing responses in four of the five participants. For the other participant, the intervention had no effect. Fading assessments were conducted 1-5 weeks following intervention, and maintenance effects were variable. The efficacy of BST to train skills and a task analysis to measure responses has been extended to different populations based on the findings in this study.

Task-based language teaching has a high profile within contemporary ELT. There are, however, few empirical studies of how teachers actually implement tasks in Chinese primary school contexts. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring how four teachers in two primary schools in Nanhai, Guangdong implement communicative activities in a top-down national innovation. This study involves three areas of investigation. The first area describes classroom practice. A particular focus is on activity types and the degree of communicativeness of activities. The second area analyzes how the practice reflects the general understanding of task-based pedagogy: the extent to which classroom activities are congruent with features of task? The third area concerns factors influencing communicativeness of lessons. Extensive data are drawn over a period of an academic year with four selected teachers (Betty, Rose, Paul and Jane). A total of 55 observations were conducted. Methods of documenting classroom data include a quantitative instrument based on COLT observation scheme (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) and qualitative field notes. The tool used to analyze the degree of communicativeness is derived from a well-recognized framework proposed by Littlewood. 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted to gauge participants’ perception of task-based teaching. Teachers, school principals and focused-group students were interviewed. The main findings are as follows. It is found that Betty and Rose use mainly focus-on-forms activities, Paul uses meaning-form-focused and Jane meaning-focused activities, suggesting, respectively, a low, medium and medium-high degree of communicativeness. Further analysis of activity features indicates that Betty and Rose’s teaching are teacher-centered, decontextualized and without a clear communicative goal and outcome, and thus not congruent with task features. Paul’s activities share features of non-communicative teaching and TBLT. Paul tried to integrate some communicative elements in his approach, although the majority of Paul’s activities still focus on the practice of language form. Jane’s activities, message-focused, student-centered and contextualized, reflect general features of tasks. Three sets of contextual and participant factors are found to influence TBLT implementation in the two case schools: 1) contextual, 2) teacher factors and 3) those related to pedagogical practice, including planning and instructional factors. The significance of this study is threefold. Firstly, I propose an adapted version of Littlewood’s communicative framework. This version contributes to the existing literature as it is a useful tool to analyze communicativeness of classroom activities in school context. Secondly, this study extends our knowledge of the kind of factors that influence TBLT implementation. Lastly, this study adds insights into character teachers cope with changes in the new English curriculum and the kind of classroom activities in Nanhai primary schools. It is hoped that these findings carry some resonances in other EFL contexts in East Asian Region. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy