1,721,063 research outputs found
Nave Italia: integrazione e sviluppo a bordo di un veliero
No full textQuesto articolo presenta gli elementi essenziali della metodologia di educa- zione attraverso la vita di mare (sail training) sviluppata nel nostro Paese dalla Fondazione «Tender To Nave Italia». Basata sull’educazione esperien- ziale, sulla outdoor education e sul modello bioecologico di sviluppo umano, questa metodologia consente a enti e associazioni del territorio nazionale di realizzare circa 30 progetti educativi ogni anno. Particolare attenzione viene riservata alla valutazione dei processi e dei risultati. A tale proposito, uno specifico strumento valutativo multicomponente, nominato BMRE (Batteria per la Misurazione dei Risultati Educativi) è stato tradotto dall’inglese e adottato per la prima volta in Italia. I dati di una validazione preliminare vengono riportati e discussi
Effects of a tall ship sail training experience on adolescents' self-concept
No full textThis study investigates the impact of a sail training education programme on the self-concept of a group of 147 adolescents. The Competence and Social domains of Bracken's self-concept scale were assessed by a quasi-experimental design in three phases: before commencement of the activities, on the last day of the voyage, and three months after completion of the programme. A significant difference (Competence: effect size 0.2, p< .001; Social: effect size 0.23, p< .05) was identified soon after the sail experience, but this effect was only temporary. Our analysis was confirmed by a bootstrapping technique. Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological theory was used as a general interpretative framework in order to identify personal and environmental factors that can sustain developmental changes over time
Providing assistive technology in Italy: The perceived delivery process quality as affecting abandonment
No full textPurpose: The study brings together three aspects rarely observed at once in assistive technology (AT) surveys: (i) the assessment of user interaction/satisfaction with AT and service delivery, (ii) the motivational analysis of AT abandonment, and (iii) the management/design evaluation of AT delivery services. Methods: 15 health professionals and 4 AT experts were involved in modelling and assessing four AT Local Health Delivery Service (Centres) in Italy through a SWOT analysis and a Cognitive Walkthrough. In addition 558 users of the same Centres were interviewed in a telephone survey to rate their satisfaction and AT use. Results: The overall AT abandonment was equal to 19.09%. Different Centres' management strategies resulted in different percentages of AT disuse, with a range from 12.61% to 24.26%. A significant difference between the declared abandonment and the Centres' management strategies (p = 0.012) was identified. A strong effect on abandonment was also found due to professionals' procedures (p = 0.005) and follow-up systems (p = 0.002). Conclusions: The user experience of an AT is affected not only by the quality of the interaction with the AT, but also by the perceived quality of the Centres in support and follow-up.Implications for RehabilitationAT abandonment surveys provide useful information for modelling AT assessment and delivery process.SWOT and Cognitive Walkthrough analyses have shown suitable methods for exploring limits and advantages in AT service delivery systems.The study confirms the relevance of person centredness for a successful AT assessment and delivery process
The Predisposition to the Use of Technology: When the Past Affects the Present in User Interaction
No full textPurpose. The user competence in interaction studies is often analyzed as a domain–specific knowledge that is dependent on the system in use: the user’s level of expertise in use. We propose a bidimensional construct of user interaction competence by providing experimental evidence that not only the expertise is able to affect the interaction, but also the predisposition to the use of the system. With the terms predisposition we are referring to those individual skills and attitudes (general knowledge) that are independent from the system under evaluation. It is a cognition grounded in multiple ways (simulations, situated action, and bodily states) which re-enact perceptual, motor, and introspective states acquired during experience with previous technologies stored in memory and characterized by differences in personality. We aimed to measure the effect of the predisposition to use as an independent variable affecting both experts’ and novices’ interaction, together with their level of expertise. Method. Two experiments are carried out with 180 students. In the first experiment, 50 novice users evaluated a website in free condition and 50 through the thinking aloud. In the second experiment, 40 trained and 40 non-trained users evaluate 8 websites with the same method of the experiment 1. Results. Our findings show that, independently from the level of expertise in use, the participants rely on their predisposition to use for interacting and evaluating the system. Conclusion. Those results, overcoming a unidimensional perspective only based on the expertise in use, demonstrate the validity of a bidimensional construct of user competence
The abandonment of assistive technology in Italy: a survey of National Health Service users
No full textBackground: this study was an extension of research which began in the Umbria region in 2009. Aim: to investigate the extent to which assistive technology (AT) has been abandoned by users of the Italian National Health Service (ULHS) and the reasons for this. Design: observational study. Setting: users who received a hearing device (HD) or mobility device (MD) by ULHS between 2010 and 2013. Population: 749 out of 3,791 ULHS users contacted via telephone completed the interview: 330 (44.06%) had a HD and 419 (55.94%) a MD. Methods: Data were collected using a specially developed telephone interview questionnaire including the Italian version of the Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with AT (QUEST 2.0) and Assistive Technology Use Follow-up Survey (ATUFS). Results: 134 users (17.9%) were no longer using their assigned AT device within seven months of issue and 40% of this group reported that they had never used the device. Duration of use (how long the AT device was used before abandonment) and satisfaction with service delivery did not predict AT abandonment. People who received a HD where more likely to abandon their device (22.4%) than those who received a MD (14.4%). Conclusion: abandonment may be due to assignment of inappropriate devices or failure to meet user needs and expectations. These findings are consistent with previous data collected by Federici and Borsci in 2009. Utility of AT in use, reasons of abandonment, and importance of device and service satisfaction for the use or non-use of an AT are presented and discussed. Clinical Rehabilitation Impact: AT abandonment surveys provide useful information for modelling AT assessment and delivery process. The study confirms the relevance of person centredness approach for a successful AT assessment and delivery process
The use and non-use of assistive technology in Italy: Preliminary Data
No full textPurpose: The present pilot study aims to analyse the relationship between the reasons of the use/non-use of assistive technology (AT) and levels of user satisfaction of Italian user/patient in order to identify which features of the Italian AT assessment process in the Italian Territorial Health Service Providers (THSPs) better predict AT non-use. Method: Between November 2010 and January 2011, a telephonic structured interview with open- and closed-ended questions was administrated to 104 THSP users who have received an AT at least one year before. Results: Findings show that there is a 25% of AT non-use that is strictly related to the user satisfaction of AT and to the lacks percept by the users in the assignation process. personal opinion considered in selection
The partial concurrent thinking aloud: A new usability evaluation technique for blind users
No full textThe aim of this study is to build up a verbal protocol technique for samples of visual impaired users in order to overcome the limits of concurrent and retrospective protocols. Indeed, when blind users surf using a screen reader and talk about the way they interact with the computer, the evaluation is influenced by a structural interference. Users are force to think aloud and listen to the screen reader at the same time. The technique we improved, called Partial Concurrent Thinking Aloud (PCTA), integrates a modified set of concurrent verbalization and retrospective analysis. One group of 6 blind user and another group of 6 sighted users evaluated the usability of a website by PCTA. Estimating the number of users needed with an asymptotic test, we found out that the two groups had an equivalent ability of identifying usability problems, both over 80%. The result suggest that PCTA, even respecting the properties of classic verbal protocols, also allows to overcome the structural interference and the limits of concurrent and retrospective protocols when used with screen-reader users
Cost of a Usability Evaluation: Bootstrap Discovery Behaviour Model
No full textThe international debate on the costs of usability evaluation is mainly focused on the return on investment (ROI) model of Nielsen and Landauer (1993). In this study, the ROI model properties and limits are discussed in order to identify the base of an alternative model that considers a large number of variables for the estimation of the number of participants needed for a usability evaluation. Using the bootstrapping statistical inference (Efron,1979), we propose a model, named Bootstrap Discovery Behaviour (BDB), suitable to take into account: a) the interface properties, as the properties at zero condition of evaluation; and b) the probability that the population discovery behaviour is represented by all the possible discovery behaviour of a sample. The data of two experimental groups, one of users and one of experts, are involved in the evaluation of a website. Applying the BDB model to the problems identified by the two groups we found that 13 experts and 20 users are needed to obtain the 80% of usability problems, instead of 6 experts and 7 users required according to the estimation of the discovery likelihood provided by the ROI model. The power of the BDB model rests on the most predictive validity for accurate predictions about a participants’ future discovery behaviour of usability problem, as regards the ROI model
Global Rank: tra popolarità e qualità dei siti Web
No full textThrough the Web communication development, new users’ needs are rising related to the amount of information and its findability, and also in relation to the increasing necessity to ensure quality for user-technology interaction. The current model of information ranking by search engines is based on quantitative Web Popularity (WP) and it binds the user to a cognitive adaptation based on an heterodirected rank-system restrictions which transposes the rich-get-richer effect from technologies to reality. Several works in literature show the need to implement the current Web-ranking models through the introduction of algorithms, which are able to evaluate the quality of pages and the information they contain on a qualitative level easing users’ cognitive adaptation to the technology
User experience evaluation of whatsonweb: a sonificated visual web search clustering engine
No full textThe aim of this study was to present a usability evaluation conducted under the User Experience (UX) perspective of a sonificated search engine called WhatsOnWeb, an accessible application based on sophisticated graph visualization algorithms which conveys datasets using graph-drawing methods based on semantically clustered data. Starting with evidence from an amodal system processing spatial representation, the differences between blind and sighted users’ interactions whilst surfing WoW was analysed by following the Partial Concurrent Thinking Aloud protocol. Our results demonstrate that the user’s ability to perform spatial exploration tasks guided by either visual or acoustic cues seems to be functionally equivalent
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