In this study, a Surface Computer Supported Cooperative Work paradigm is proposed. Recently, multitouch technology has become widely available for human-computer interaction. We found it has great potential to facilitate more awareness of human-to-human interaction than personal computers (PCs) in colocated collaborative work. However, other…

The pmg add-on package for the open source statistics software R is described. This package provides a simple to use graphical user interface (GUI) that allows introductory statistics students, without advanced computing skills, to quickly create the graphical and numeric summaries expected of them. (Contains 9 figures.)

Due to advances in computer and network technology, virtual reality (VR) is no longer just an area of scientific research. It has also become a popular consumer product, as demonstrated by the proliferation of massive multiplayer online role-playing games. Second Life (SL), in particular, has gained popularity among casual users since it became…

In today's teaching and learning approaches for first-semester students, practical courses more and more often complement traditional theoretical lectures. This practical element allows an early insight into the real world of engineering, augments student motivation, and enables students to acquire soft skills early. This paper describes a new…

Library/information science professionals need a clearly articulated definition of usability/Web usability to implement intuitive websites. In this study, the authors analyzed usability definitions provided by the ARL library professionals and those found in the library/information science and computer science-information systems literature.…

This dissertation makes the claim that electronic scholarly editions have the potential to produce more reliable scholarly texts than their print-based antecedents. It consists of an introduction, four chapters, and a brief conclusion. It originated in my work creating the Elwood Viewer, a sophisticated software browser written to display TEI…

India is home to a large number of individuals with significant speech and motion impairments. Many of these individuals are children and neo-literates who have little proficiency in their language of communication. In order to cater to such individuals in India, we have developed Sanyog, an icon-based communication aid. Sanyog accepts a sequence…

Video-heavy distance learning programs can put a strain on the campus network. This article describes how three institutions are managing bandwidth to ensure high-quality service for eLearning students.

Purpose: Playing back recorded lectures on handheld devices offers interesting perspectives for learning, but suffers from small screen sizes. The purpose of this paper is to propose several semi-automatic post-processing steps in order to improve usability by providing a better readability and additional navigation functionality.…

Young people are often referred to as digital natives, who are familiar with digital technologies such as computers, the Internet and mobile phones for communication, entertainment and accessing information. As a result scholars have called for an educational approach that bypasses the traditional unidirectional lecture teaching style, and applies…

This article describes how the author applied principles of universal design to hybrid course materials to increase student understanding and, ultimately, success. Pulling the three principles of universal design--consistency, color, and icon representation--into the author's Blackboard course allowed her to change the types of reading skills…

This document provides recommendations for request for proposal (RFP) and contract language that state education agencies can use to specify their requirements for access to test item banks. An item bank is a repository for test items and data about those items. Item banks are used by state agency staff to view items and associated data; to…

This paper details the development of a multidialectical text-to-speech (TTS) application, "Sinteiseoir," for the Irish language. This work is being carried out in the context of Irish as a lesser-used language, where learners and other L2 speakers have limited direct exposure to L1 speakers and speech communities, and where native sound…

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…

The aim of this paper is to examine the learning processes that subjects undertake when they start using gaze as computer input. A 7-day experiment with eight Japanese students was carried out to record novice users' eye movement data during typing of 110 sentences. The experiment revealed that inefficient eye movements was dramatically reduced…