It is easy to lament the shortcomings of traditional online public access catalogs (OPACs) in the Google Age. Users cannot, for example, usually input a snippet of a long-forgotten pop song's chorus into an online library catalog and almost instantly retrieve a relevant result along with hundreds of other options. On the other hand, should OPACs…

This study contributes to research investigating the effects of individual differences and online instructional design on learning. Learning performance was compared across three hypertext formats incorporating different navigational aids. The hierarchical map represented the physical structure of the hypertext in one condition, while the network…

Purpose: The automated teller machine (ATM) has become an integral part of our society. However, using the ATM can often be a frustrating experience as people frequently reinsert cards to conduct multiple transactions. This has led to the research question of whether ATM menus are designed in an optimal manner. This paper aims to address the…

Due to the popularity of 3D graphics in animation and games, usage of 3D geometry deformable models increases dramatically. Despite their growing importance, these models are difficult and time consuming to build. A distance learning system for the construction of these models could greatly facilitate students to learn and practice at different…

Deaf users might find it difficult to navigate through websites with textual content which, for many of them, constitutes the written representation of a non-native oral language. With the aim of testing how the information structure could compensate for this difficulty, 27 prelingual deaf users of sign language were asked to search a set of…

This paper looks at criteria on how education service providers' websites could benefit their potential students from overseas. Effective design of education website is important as web users are typically fastidious and want information fast--this serves as the background of this study. The study focuses on three selected education institutions'…

The internet has given undergraduate students ever-increasing access to academic journals via search engines and online databases. However, students typically do not have the ability to use these journals effectively. This often poses a dilemma for instructors. The accelerated peer-review journal usage (APJU) technique provides a way for…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose an indexing and teaching focus mining system for lecture videos recorded in an unconstrained environment. Design/methodology/approach: By applying the proposed algorithms in this paper, the slide structure can be reconstructed by extracting slide images from the video. Instead of applying…

"Social Navigation" for the Web has been created as a response to the problem of disorientation in information space. It helps by visualizing traces of behavior of other users and adding social affordance to the information space. Despite the popularity of social navigation ideas, very few studies of social navigation systems can be found in the…

This article reports on the e-Framework Reference Model for Assessment (FREMA) project that aimed at creating a reference model for the assessment domain: a guide to what resources (standards, projects, people, organisations, software, services and use cases) exist for the domain, aimed at helping strategists understand the state of e-learning…

Prior research has highlighted the educational benefit of enabling students to participate in collaborative learning activities. Developing technology that extends the physical boundaries of the classroom and enables students to engage in meaningful collaborative learning activities outside class time can be of significant value. For any…

This study explores the web-navigation practices of adult learners in higher education and re-conceptualizes the concept of the organizing circumstance of self-managed learning, originated by Spear and Mocker (1984). The theoretical framework draws on funds of knowledge theory from a cultural historical perspective and elaborates a Vygotskian…

A social navigation system collects data from its users--its community--about what they are doing, their opinions, and their decisions, aggregates this data, and provides the aggregated data--community data--back to individuals so that they can use it to guide behavior and decisions. Social navigation systems empower users with the ability to…

This paper presents a review of literature that introduces major concepts and issues in using avatars and pedagogical agents in first- and second-person virtual environments (VEs) for learning online. In these VEs, avatars and pedagogical agents represent self and other learners/participants or serve as personal learning "guides". The…

The Education Planner website provides a searchable database of approximately 1,700 undergraduate post-secondary programs in British Columbia (BC). It is intended as a "one-start entry point" for students looking for post-secondary options. This independent review of Education Planner was undertaken to determine its overall…