445,739 research outputs found
A Framework for collaborative writing with recording and post-meeting retrieval capabilities
No full textFrom a HCI perspective, elucidating and supporting the context in which collaboration takes place is key to implementing successful collaborative systems. Synchronous collaborative writing usually takes place in contexts involving a “meeting” of some sort. Collaborative writing meetings can be face-to-face or, increasingly, remote Internet-based meetings. The latter presents software developers with the possibility of incorporating multimedia recording and information retrieval capabilities into the collaborative environment. The collaborative writing that ensues can be seen as an activity encompassing asynchronous as well as synchronous aspects. In order for revisions, information retrieval and other forms of post-meeting, asynchronous work to be effectively supported, the synchronous collaborative editor must be able to appropriately detect and record meeting metadata. This paper presents a collaborative editor that supports recording of user actions and explicit metadata production. Design and technical implications of introducing such capabilities are discussed with respect to document segmentation, consistency control, and awareness mechanisms
Exploratory talk within collaborative small groups in mathematics
No full textThis report describes one aspect of a wider research study on exploratory talk within collaborative small groups in secondary mathematics lessons. It outlines students’ views of using collaborative activity to learn mathematics. The fuller research study explores the extent to which exploratory talk occurs in collaborative peer groups in secondary mathematics classrooms
Intelligent support for group work in collaborative learning environments
No full textThe delivery of intelligent support for group work is a complex issue in
collaborative learning environments. This particularly pertains to the construction
of effective groups and assessment of collaboration problems. This is because the
composition of groups can be affected by several variables, and various methods
are desirable for ascertaining the existence of different collaboration problems.
Literature has shown that current collaborative learning environments provide
limited or no support for teachers to cope with these tasks. Considering this and the
increasing use of online collaboration, this research aims to explore solutions for
improving the delivery of support for group work in collaborative learning
environments, and thus to simplify how teachers manage collaborative group work.
In this thesis, three aspects were investigated to achieve this goal. The first
aspect emphasises on proposing a novel approach for group formation based on
students‘ learning styles. The novelty and importance of this approach is the
provision of an automatic grouping method that can tailor to individual students‘
characteristics and fit well into the existing collaborative learning environments.
The evaluation activities comprise the development of an add-on tool and an
undergraduate student experiment, which indicate the feasibility and strength of the
proposed approach — being capable of forming diverse groups that tend to perform
more effectively and efficiently than similar groups for conducting group
discussion tasks.
The second focus of this research relates to the identification of major
group collaboration problems and their causes. A nationwide survey was conducted
that reveals a student perspective on the issue, which current literature fails to
adequately address. Based on the findings from the survey, an XML-based
representation was created that provides a unique perspective on the linkages
between the problems and causes identified.
Finally, the focus was then shifted to the proposal of a novel approach for
diagnosing the major collaboration problems identified. The originality and
significance of this approach lies in the provision of various methods for ascertaining the existence of different collaboration problems identified, based on
student interaction data that result from the group work examined. The evaluation
procedure focused on the development of a supporting tool and several
experiments with a test dataset. The results of the evaluation show that the
feasibility and effectiveness are sustained, to a great extent, for the diagnostic
methods addressed.
Besides these main proposals, this research has explored a multi-agent
architecture to unify all the components derived for intelligently managing online
collaborative learning, which suggests an overarching framework providing
context for other parts of this thesis
SemCW: Semantic Collaborative Writing using RST
No full textDuring collaborative writing each author works on a copy of the shared document. These copies are then merged to produce the final document. This asynchronous work is supported by several collaborative writing tools. While these tools are excellent at merging and detecting syntactic conflicts, they are not able to easily recognise semantic inconsistencies. This hinders the coherence of the document because while each individual copy might be well constructed, they may not be after the merge. To address this, we investigate the combination of the Rhetorical Structure Theory with Operational Transformation approach. In this paper, we define a data model, a set of operations to manipulate the RST structures and a set of transformation functions. A validity checker alerts the authors to areas in the text with possible semantic lapses in the merged documents
Information visualization on interactive tabletops in work vs. public settings
No full textDigital tabletop displays and other large interactive displays have recently become more affordable and commonplace. Due to their benefits for supporting collaborative work—when compared to current desktop-based setups—they will likely be integrated in tomorrow’s work and learning environments. In these environments the exploration of information is a common task. We describe design considerations that focus on digital tabletop collaborative visualization environments. We focus on two types of interfaces: those for information exploration and data analysis in the context of workplaces, and those for more casual information exploration in public settings such as museums. We contrast design considerations for both environments and outline differences and commonalities between them
Ethnographic study of ICT-supported collaborative work routines in general practice
No full textAbstract Background Health informatics research has traditionally been dominated by experimental and quasi-experimental designs. An emerging area of study in organisational sociology is routinisation (how collaborative work practices become business-as-usual). There is growing interest in the use of ethnography and other in-depth qualitative approaches to explore how collaborative work routines are enacted and develop over time, and how electronic patient records (EPRs) are used to support collaborative work practices within organisations. Methods/design Following Feldman and Pentland, we will use 'the organisational routine' as our unit of analysis. In a sample of four UK general practices, we will collect narratives, ethnographic observations, multi-modal (video and screen capture) data, documents and other artefacts, and analyse these to map and compare the different understandings and enactments of three common routines (repeat prescribing, coding and summarising, and chronic disease surveillance) which span clinical and administrative spaces and which, though 'mundane', have an important bearing on quality and safety of care. In a detailed qualitative analysis informed by sociological theory, we aim to generate insights about how complex collaborative work is achieved through the process of routinisation in healthcare organisations. Discussion Our study offers the potential not only to identify potential quality failures (poor performance, errors, failures of coordination) in collaborative work routines but also to reveal the hidden work and workarounds by front-line staff which bridge the model-reality gap in EPR technologies and via which "automated" safety features have an impact in practice.</p
Developing Collaborative XML Editing Systems
No full textIn many areas the eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) is becoming the standard exchange and data format. More and more applications not only support XML as an exchange format but also use it as their data model or default file format for graphic, text and database (such as spreadsheet) applications. Computer Supported Cooperative Work is an interdisciplinary field of research dealing with group work, cooperation and their supporting information and communication technologies. One part of it is Real-Time Collaborative Editing, which investigates the design of systems which allow several persons to work simultaneously in real-time on the same document, without the risk of inconsistencies.
Existing collaborative editing research applications specialize in one or at best, only a small number of document types; for example graphic, text or spreadsheet documents. This research investigates the development of a software framework which allows collaborative editing of any XML document type in real-time. This presents a more versatile solution to the problems of real-time collaborative editing.
This research contributes a new software framework model which will assist software engineers in the development of new collaborative XML editing applications. The devised framework is flexible in the sense that it is easily adaptable to different workflow requirements covering concurrency control, awareness mechanisms and optional locking of document parts. Additionally this thesis contributes a new framework integration strategy that enables enhancements of existing single-user editing
applications with real-time collaborative editing features without changing their source code
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Framework for effective collaborative working in construction
No full textThe potential benefits of collaborative working in construction projects have yet to be fully realised in the sector. This is in part due to the misunderstanding of the use of the information and communication technologies (ICT) and tools associated with working collaboratively. There are, however, isolated pockets of experts that have realised that in order to fully embrace the potential of collaborative working in their businesses, the role of ICT has to be closely aligned with the people that use it, and should relate to the overall goals of the business. The aim of the Planning and Implementation of Effective Collaboration in Construction (PIECC) project is to develop a decision-making framework that enables organisations to fully integrate ICT and its associated people and business issues into their projects and individual businesses. This paper reports on the development processes used to develop the framework, and its evaluation and testing within the UK construction sector. The paper presents the different processes that should be followed to develop a joint collaboration strategy, and the results and implications of using the PIECC framework to manage collaborative working
Collaborative Educational Systems in the Virtual Environment
No full textThe work leads to an original approach to the construction of collaborative systems metrics. The approach is based both on research already conducted by the author, on the experimental results obtained, and the foundation taken from the specific literature. The collaborative systems in knowledgebased economy are formalized and their characteristics are identified. The virtual campus structure is described and a comparison with the classical university is achieved. The architecture of virtual is designed and the categories of agents in virtual campus are analyzed.
Investigations of collaborative design environments: A framework for real-time collaborative 3D CAD
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This research investigates computer-based collaborative design environments, in particular issues of real-time collaborative 3D CAD. The thesis first presents a broad perspective of collaborative design environments with a preliminary case study of team design activities in a conventional and a computer mediated setting. This study identifies the impact and the feasibility of computer support for collaborative design and suggests four kinds of essential technologies for a successful collaborative design environment: information-sharing systems, synchronous and asynchronous co- working tools, project management systems, and communication systems. A new conceptual framework for a real-time collaborative 3D design tool, Shared Stage, is proposed based upon the preliminary study. The Shared Stage is defined as a shared 3D design workspace aiming to smoothly incorporate shared 3D workspaces into existing individual 3D workspaces. The addition of a Shared Stage allows collaborating designers to interact in real-time and to have a dynamic and interactive exchange of intermediate 3D design data. The acceptability of collaborative features is maximised by maintaining consistency of the user interface between 3D CAD systems. The framework is subsequently implemented as a software prototype using a new software development environment, customised by integrating related real-time and 3D graphic software development tools. Two main components of the Shared Stage module in the prototype, the Synchronised Stage View (SSV) and the Data Structure Diagram (DSD), provide essential collaborative features for real-time collaborative 3D CAD. These features include synchronised shared 3D representation, dynamic data exchange and awareness support in 3D workspaces. The software prototype is subsequently evaluated to examine the usefulness and usability. A range of quantitative and qualitative methods is used to evaluate the impact of the Shared Stage. The results, including the analysis of collaborative interactions and user perception, illustrate that the Shared Stage is a feasible and valuable addition for real-time collaborative 3D CAD. This research identifies the issues to be addressed for collaborative design environments and also provides a new framework and development strategy of a novel real-time collaborative 3D CAD system. The framework is successfully demonstrated through prototype implementation and an analytical usability evaluation.Financial support from the Department and from the UK government through the Overseas Research Studentship Awards
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