scholarly journals Evaluating the Acceptability and Usability of EASEL: A Mobile Application that Supports Guided Reflection for Experiential Learning Activities

10.28945/3791 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 195-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry C Schnepp ◽  
Christian B Rogers

Aim/Purpose: To examine the early perceptions (acceptability) and usability of EASEL (Education through Application-Supported Experiential Learning), a mobile platform that delivers reflection prompts and content before, during, and after an experiential learning activity. Background: Experiential learning is an active learning approach in which students learn by doing and by reflecting on the experience. This approach to teaching is often used in disciplines such as humanities, business, and medicine. Reflection before, during, and after an experience allows the student to analyze what they learn and why it is important, which is vital in helping them to understand the relevance of the experience. A just-in-time tool (EASEL) was needed to facilitate this. Methodology: To inform the development of a mobile application that facilitates real-time guided reflection and to determine the relevant feature set, we conducted a needs analysis with both students and faculty members. Data collected during this stage of the evaluation helped guide the creation of a prototype. The user experience of the prototype and interface interactions were evaluated during the usability phase of the evaluation study. Contribution: Both the needs analysis and usability assessment provided justification for continued development of EASEL as well as insight that guides current development. Findings: The interaction design of EASEL is understandable and usable. Both students and teachers value an application that facilitates real-time guided reflection. Recommendations for Practitioners: The use of a system such as EASEL can leverage time and location-based services to support students in field experiences. This technology aligns with evidence that guided reflection provides opportunities for metacognition. Recommendation for Researchers: Iterative prototyping, testing, and refinement can lead to a deliberate and effective app development process. Impact on Society: The EASEL platform leverages inherent functionality of mobile devices, such as GPS and persistent network connectivity, to adapt reflection tasks based on lo-cation or time. Students using EASEL will engage in guided reflection, which leads to metacognition and can help instructors scaffold learning Future Research: We will continue to advance the application through iterative testing and development. When ready, the application will be vetted in larger studies across varied disciplines and contexts.

10.29007/h37n ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terri Heglar ◽  
Andrew Penrose ◽  
Austin Yount ◽  
Kristine Galek ◽  
Yantao Shen ◽  
...  

The CTAR All-Star is a system consisting of a rubber ball, a pressure sensor, and a bluetooth transmitter paired with a cross-platform mobile application. The device is used as a rehabilitation tool for people with dysphagia in a similar fashion to the traditional chin tuck against resistance (CTAR) exercise by squeezing a ball between the chin and upper chest. The mobile device monitors and displays the pressure inside the ball on a real-time graph allowing the patient to follow exercise routines set by Speech-Language Pathologists. Additionally, the application stores exercise data that can be used to both monitor the patient's progress over time and provide objective data for future research purposes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Rochat ◽  
Frédéric Ehrler ◽  
Arnaud Ricci ◽  
Victor Garretas Ruiz ◽  
Christian Lovis

BACKGROUND Patient experience at pediatric emergency department (PED) remain suboptimal. As an attempt to support the patients and their families before, during and after visit at PED, we have developed InfoKids, a mobile application guided by the patient centered care principle. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to assess the usability of the Infokids mobile application. METHODS The app was assessed through an in lab evaluation were participants had to execute 7 tasks of a scenario leading them from the installation of the app till the reception of a diagnostic sheet linked to the care episode. All interactions were recorded and usability flaws were analyzed in regards with usability criteria. A system usability scale questionnaire was also filled by the participant to compare our system with other. RESULTS A total of 17 parents, 15 women and 2 men (ages 26-53) participated in the study. Overall, they were mostly satisfied with the navigation, layout and interaction design of the app. Most of the problems encountered were related with navigation, especially difficulties for some participants to find the location of the action to perform. CONCLUSIONS empowering patient through mobile application supporting care processes has the potential to improve both care efficiency and to release pressure on healthcare system. The success of these applications is however linked to an optimal user experience that can be improved through usability testing.


J ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-153
Author(s):  
Paula Morella ◽  
María Pilar Lambán ◽  
Jesús Antonio Royo ◽  
Juan Carlos Sánchez

Among the new trends in technology that have emerged through the Industry 4.0, Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) are crucial for the real-time data acquisition. This data acquisition, together with its transformation in valuable information, are indispensable for the development of real-time indicators. Moreover, real-time indicators provide companies with a competitive advantage over the competition since they enhance the calculus and speed up the decision-making and failure detection. Our research highlights the advantages of real-time data acquisition for supply chains, developing indicators that would be impossible to achieve with traditional systems, improving the accuracy of the existing ones and enhancing the real-time decision-making. Moreover, it brings out the importance of integrating technologies 4.0 in industry, in this case, CPS and IoT, and establishes the main points for a future research agenda of this topic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily T. Wood ◽  
Kaitlin K. Cummings ◽  
Jiwon Jung ◽  
Genevieve Patterson ◽  
Nana Okada ◽  
...  

AbstractSensory over-responsivity (SOR), extreme sensitivity to or avoidance of sensory stimuli (e.g., scratchy fabrics, loud sounds), is a highly prevalent and impairing feature of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD), anxiety, and ADHD. Previous studies have found overactive brain responses and reduced modulation of thalamocortical connectivity in response to mildly aversive sensory stimulation in ASD. These findings suggest altered thalamic sensory gating which could be associated with an excitatory/inhibitory neurochemical imbalance, but such thalamic neurochemistry has never been examined in relation to SOR. Here we utilized magnetic resonance spectroscopy and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the relationship between thalamic and somatosensory cortex inhibitory (gamma-aminobutyric acid, GABA) and excitatory (glutamate) neurochemicals with the intrinsic functional connectivity of those regions in 35 ASD and 35 typically developing pediatric subjects. Although there were no diagnostic group differences in neurochemical concentrations in either region, within the ASD group, SOR severity correlated negatively with thalamic GABA (r = −0.48, p < 0.05) and positively with somatosensory glutamate (r = 0.68, p < 0.01). Further, in the ASD group, thalamic GABA concentration predicted altered connectivity with regions previously implicated in SOR. These variations in GABA and associated network connectivity in the ASD group highlight the potential role of GABA as a mechanism underlying individual differences in SOR, a major source of phenotypic heterogeneity in ASD. In ASD, abnormalities of the thalamic neurochemical balance could interfere with the thalamic role in integrating, relaying, and inhibiting attention to sensory information. These results have implications for future research and GABA-modulating pharmacologic interventions.


Symmetry ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaocheng Zhang ◽  
Wei Ren ◽  
Tianqing Zhu ◽  
Ehoche Faith

The development of mobile internet has led to a massive amount of data being generated from mobile devices daily, which has become a source for analyzing human behavior and trends in public sentiment. In this paper, we build a system called MoSa (Mobile Sentiment analysis) to analyze this data. In this system, sentiment analysis is used to analyze news comments on the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) event from Toutiao by employing algorithms to calculate the sentiment value of the comment. This paper is based on HowNet; after the comparison of different sentiment dictionaries, we discover that the method proposed in this paper, which use a mixed sentiment dictionary, has a higher accuracy rate in its analysis of comment sentiment tendency. We then statistically analyze the relevant attributes of the comments and their sentiment values and discover that the standard deviation of the comments’ sentiment value can quickly reflect sentiment changes among the public. Besides that, we also derive some special models from the data that can reflect some specific characteristics. We find that the intrinsic characteristics of situational awareness have implicit symmetry. By using our system, people can obtain some practical results to guide interaction design in applications including mobile Internet, social networks, and blockchain based crowdsourcing.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1043
Author(s):  
Abdallah A. Smadi ◽  
Babatunde Tobi Ajao ◽  
Brian K. Johnson ◽  
Hangtian Lei ◽  
Yacine Chakhchoukh ◽  
...  

The integration of improved control techniques with advanced information technologies enables the rapid development of smart grids. The necessity of having an efficient, reliable, and flexible communication infrastructure is achieved by enabling real-time data exchange between numerous intelligent and traditional electrical grid elements. The performance and efficiency of the power grid are enhanced with the incorporation of communication networks, intelligent automation, advanced sensors, and information technologies. Although smart grid technologies bring about valuable economic, social, and environmental benefits, testing the combination of heterogeneous and co-existing Cyber-Physical-Smart Grids (CP-SGs) with conventional technologies presents many challenges. The examination for both hardware and software components of the Smart Grid (SG) system is essential prior to the deployment in real-time systems. This can take place by developing a prototype to mimic the real operational circumstances with adequate configurations and precision. Therefore, it is essential to summarize state-of-the-art technologies of industrial control system testbeds and evaluate new technologies and vulnerabilities with the motivation of stimulating discoveries and designs. In this paper, a comprehensive review of the advancement of CP-SGs with their corresponding testbeds including diverse testing paradigms has been performed. In particular, we broadly discuss CP-SG testbed architectures along with the associated functions and main vulnerabilities. The testbed requirements, constraints, and applications are also discussed. Finally, the trends and future research directions are highlighted and specified.


The Canadian prescription process requires a person to go through several steps. Prescription medications have associated risks and benefits and it is important for people to be aware of these before and while they are taking medications. One of the approaches to informing people about new prescription medications is that they are provided Consumer Medication Information (CMI). CMI is given to Canadians at the pharmacy when they pick up prescriptions, they will be taking for the first time. This study used semi-structured interviews to examine the lived experiences of a sample of Canadians (N = 36) to identify opportunities for improvement in how and when they are informed about new prescription medications. The findings were synthesized into a journey map. Generally, participants wanted to receive CMI digitally and earlier in the prescription process. Adopting these changes could have several benefits which include loss prevention and increased accessibility to CMI as well as more participatory decision making and opportunities to ask questions. Future research is warranted to explore similar topics with a larger sample and determine what method (e.g., email, website, mobile application) would be most suitable.


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