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This paper documents issues in converting the Figure Classification Test to the computer. The purpose of the test, which is almost entirely visual, is to determine the subject's ability to discover rules via the visual/spatial environment. The methodology of the paper-and-pencil Figure Classification Test is as follows: the subject views a series of two or three groups of pictures composed of printed shapes and is asked to classify each of the figures as belonging to one of three groups. In converting the paper-and-pencil test to the computer, the immediate concern was scanning the original drawings and converting them to line output. The philosophy of design for the project screens was to keep close to the paper version, yet to help the user navigate the test. The authoring aid used allowed mouse and keyboard input to operate equivalently for the user. Only minor changes to the original instructions were made; instructions to make the user familiar with the interface were added. Preliminary evaluation consisted of direct observation; 15 subjects at different times ran the program with no verbal instructions or coaching. The user interface and screen design seemed to be acceptable. No subject, after moving the mouse, ever attempted to use the keyboard for input. Users did not all gain immediate proficiency at the task, possibly due to the instructions. Device dependence issues also detracted from the computer test's equivalence to the original test. Direct observation of the program users appears to be a good first step toward improving and validating this computer-based test. (Contains 13 references.) (AEF)

This paper synthesizes current thought about the role of networking technologies in instruction and addresses the need for higher education to create affordable and flexible student-centered "distributed learning environments" employing networking technologies. First, relevant trends are identified in the areas of information volume, technology competency of the workforce, telecommuting, collaboration, reskilling, demographics, selectivity, government influence, and increasing demand for higher education. The current status quo is college instruction is characterized by the dominance of the lecture, little interaction, inefficiency, and the factory model. The need for change and the role of the distributed learning environment in new instructional models are emphasized. Guidelines for planning for change focus on values implicit in technology, the role of shared values, curriculum design, and computer mediated communication. The importance of institutional support is stressed in discussion of technology adoption patterns, support structure, funding, and organizational structures and relationships. Aspects of technology architecture considered include network infrastructure, content file servers, groupware infrastructure and content creation and access. The Internet's role in a distributed learning environment is also discussed. Finally, future requirements for distributed learning are suggested. Throughout the paper, sidebars provide examples of implementation at various institutions. A company profile of IBM completes the monograph. (Contains approximately 70 references.) (DB)

The rapid adoption of information technology and ubiquitous networking has transformed the research and education landscape. Central to this transformation are scientific and engineering digital data collections. The life cycle management challenges associated with these intellectual assets are substantial. This is a report of a two-day workshop that examined the role of research and academic libraries with other partners in the stewardship of scientific and engineering digital data. Workshop participants explored issues concerning the need for new partnerships and collaborations among domain scientists, librarians, and data scientists to better manage digital data collections; necessary infrastructure development to support digital data; and the need for sustainable economic models to support long-term stewardship of scientific and engineering digital data for the nation's cyberinfrastructure. The workshop builds on prior studies supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), engaging numerous research communities. It reflects the recognition, voiced in many NSF workshop reports, that digital data stewardship is fundamental to the future of scientific and engineering research and the education enterprise, and hence to innovation and competitiveness. Overall, it is clear that an ecology of institutional arrangements among individuals and organizations, sharing an infrastructure, will be required to address the particularities of heterogeneous digital data and diverse scholarly and professional cultures. The background of the workshop is described in Chapter I. Descriptions of the discussions of the three major topics from the three breakout groups and in plenary sessions are provided in Chapters II, III, and IV, and Chapter V discusses additional topics raised in the plenary sessions and final recommendations. Appended are: (1) List of Participants; (2) Agenda; (3) Plenary Papers; (4) Breakout Session Reports; (5) Position Papers; and (6) Examples of Scientific Community Archives. (Contains 11 figures, 2 boxes, 20 footnotes and 5 endnotes.)

Open source online learning environments have emerged and developed over the past 10 years. In this paper we will analyze the underlying philosophy and features of MOODLE based on the theoretical framework developed by Hannafin and Land (2000). Psychological, pedagogical, technological, cultural, and pragmatic foundations comprise the framework and represent the major points of our analysis. This paper is intended for instructional designers, distance education specialists, K-12 and college instructors who may want to add an online component to their courses.

With regard to the acceptance of human-computer interfaces, immersion represents one of the most important methods for attracting young visitors into museum exhibitions. Exciting and diversely presented content as well as intuitive, natural and human-like interfaces are indispensable to bind users to an interactive system with real and digital parts. In order to overcome the obstacles to attracting the young, the authors have taken an interdisciplinary approach to the fields of multimedia, media design,TV/movie or literature, and especially myths, to develop narrative "edutainment" applications for children. Similar to Hollywood, production content and dramaturgic scripts are generated by authoring tools and transmitted by multimodal interfaces enhanced by natural conversation forms. These concepts are enhanced by interaction design principles, methods and appliances; such as Kids Innovation or Momuna.This paper describes both existing technologies and new innovative methods and concepts of interactive digital storytelling and user interaction design to establish immersive edutainment applications and appliances using multimodal user interfaces. These approaches merging into Dino-Hunter as innovative game-oriented mobile edutainment appliances are discussed within the environment of mobile application scenarios for museums and their young visitors. Includes 13 figures. (Contains 18 references.) (Author)

In the last 5 years, there has been at times heated debate not only about how best to present digital and specifically networked art in an institutional context but also whether to do so at all. Not all of the discussion revolves around issues of physical interfaces to such works, but their onsite presentation is a critical concern for both museums and artists--and their audiences. This paper is informed by these discussions, mostly online in the archives of nettime, rhizome, thingist, and CRUMB, but focuses on the author's personal experiences in curating 10 exhibitions over the past five years that have included network-based art. The paper presents work at the Walker Art Center (Minnesota) focusing on new physical interfaces, particularly for the presentation of digital art. Some examples include a freestanding revolving door portal for the exhibition Art Entertainment Network; a telematic table resulting from an international design competition; and a "temporary autonomous sarai" developed collaboratively by the new media artists Raqs Media Collective (New Delhi) and the architectural practice Atelier Bow-Wow (Tokyo). These and other projects are prototypes for new, interactive social spaces and functions being developed for the Walker's new building expansion, designed by the architects Herzog & de Meuron. (Includes 10 figures.) (Author)

This paper began as an attempt to clarify and classify the development of Web3D environments from 1995 to the present. In that process, important facts came to light. A large proportion of these sites were virtual galleries and museums. Second, these same environments covered a wide array of architectural interpretations and represented some of the most cutting-edge work in the medium. It became clear that there is a relationship between galleries and virtual environments. At a fundamental level, both are information spaces. A primary difference is that the Web3D environments are bound to the computer and currently limited by mouse and screen. Factoring this in, the graphical user interface (GUI) and the Gallery were merged to create a native foundation for the development of virtual space. This paper discusses the relationship of GUI and gallery, and the impact of mouse and screen, and then showcases the exploration of several on-line virtual museums and galleries. Includes 15 figures. (Contains 17 references.) (Author)

An application specific style guide was produced for a large web-based multimedia and hyper-media learning project. It was introduced to 15 different sets of developers at Universities in disparate locations to promote consistency and good HCI practice for the whole project. This paper discusses the reactions to the use and practicality of the style guide through the findings of a survey undertaken one year later. In general, many negative and neutral attitudes towards the style guide were recorded. However, specific trends were observed due to exposure and use of the style guide, the background and experience of the developers and task involvement of developers. The paper discusses the understanding of HCI in the project and the need to encourage developers to use a style guide in multi-media and hypermedia learning projects. (Author)

The design of systems, including digital libraries, is often inspired by what technology makes possible. In user-centered design, design emphasizes users, their tasks and needs. The majority of current digital libraries are not designed for children. For digital libraries to be popular with children, they need to be fun and easy-to-use. This paper shows how observational and participatory work with children (11 to 14 year olds) as users resulted in the design of a digital library with novel-and useful-features. Beyond summarizing the design itself, a main contribution of the paper is making explicit the relationship between design and observational study, in particular, video analysis, that inspired the refinement of the initial design of the dynamic component of a children's digital library. The paper also addresses implementation and security, and discusses directions for future work. (Contains 26 references.) (AEF)

The Informedia Project at Carnegie Mellon University has created a multi-terabyte digital video library consisting of thousands of hours of video, segmented into over 50,000 stories, or documents. Since Informedia's inception in 1994, numerous interfaces have been developed and tested for accessing this library, including work on multimedia abstractions, or surrogates, which represent a video document in an abbreviated manner. The utility and efficiency of these surrogates have been reported in detail elsewhere, validated through a number of usability methods, including transaction log analysis, formal empirical studies, contextual inquiry, heuristic evaluation, and cognitive walkthroughs. This paper begins with an introduction to a few of these interfaces and their implementation history. The promise of Web technologies is then discussed, particularly the recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), leading to a presentation of the Informedia digital video library delivered through a Web browser via XML and XSLT. Emphasis is placed on the tailored accessibility offered by this information architecture, with specific examples given as evidence. The paper concludes with a discussion of next steps planned for the Informedia library work. (Contains 19 references.) (AEF)

Digital library systems focus principally on the reader: the consumer of the material that constitutes the library. In contrast, this paper describes an interface that makes it easy for people to build their own library collections. Collections may be built and served locally from the user's own Web server, or (given appropriate permissions) remotely on a shared digital library host. End users can easily build new collections styled after existing ones from material on the Web or from their local files-or both, can collections can be updated and new ones brought online at any time. The interface, which is intended for non-professional end users, is modeled after widely used commercial software installation packages. The paper also describes an interface for the administrative user who is responsible for maintaining a digital library installation. (Author/AEF)

This paper describes an evaluation of the Kea automatic keyphrase extraction algorithm. Tools that automatically identify keyphrases are desirable because document keyphrases have numerous applications in digital library systems, but are costly and time consuming to manually assign. Keyphrase extraction algorithms are usually evaluated by comparison to author-specified keywords, but this methodology has several well-known shortcomings. The results presented in this paper are based on subjective evaluations of the quality and appropriateness of keyphrases by human assessors, and make a number of contributions. First, they validate previous evaluations of Kea that rely on author keywords. Second, they show Kea's performance is comparable to that of similar systems that have been evaluated by human assessors. Finally, they justify the use of author keyphrases as a performance metric by showing that authors generally choose good keywords. (Contains 28 references.) (Author)

This paper reports the findings from a field study of legal research in a first-tier law school and on the resulting redesign of XLibris, a next-generation e-book. The report first characterizes a work setting in which an e-book was expected to be a useful interface for reading and otherwise using a mix of physical and digital library materials, and it explores what kinds of reading-related functionality would bring value to this setting. It describes important aspects of legal research in a heterogeneous information environment, including mobility, reading, annotation, link following and writing practices, and the general implications for design. The paper then discusses how their work with a user community and an evolving e-book prototype allowed them to examine tandem issues of usability and utility, and to redesign an existing e-book user interface to suit the needs of law students. The study moves away from the notion of a stand-alone reading device and toward the concept of a document laptop, a platform that would provide wireless access to information resources, as well as support a fuller spectrum of reading-related activities. (Contains 18 references.) (Author/AEF)

Recent studies have emphasized the significant implications of multimedia for the learning process. Even those researchers who take a less enthusiastic stand do not hesitate to assent that when blended with suitable pedagogical techniques and a proper design, the combined use of multiple media for the viewing and study of educational material can enhance the quality of the learning environment. This paper presents research and development efforts to design a pedagogically sound multimedia Web-based learning interface. Taken into consideration are recent findings from the area of cognitive psychology regarding the use of text, animation, and voice. The logic is based mainly on the presentation modality effect and the principles of spatial and temporal contiguity. The state of the learner's prior knowledge is considered to be of critical importance. The paper presents a flexible user interface supporting the use of animation and voice as default modalities and the existence of text in the same interface as an essential part of the learning process. The SMIL language is used for the implementation of the Web-based interface. (Contains 21 references.) (Author/AEF)

This paper discusses a generic query tool that enables an end user to query a metadata store through filters that impose search criteria on attributes. The Metadata Query Tool (MQT) is generic in the sense that it dynamically creates its user interface, based on configuration files that define the metadata scheme and the query functionalities. Although, in principle, the tool can be used to query any relational database, it has been specifically developed to query educational metadata stored in the ARIADNE Knowledge Pool System. The first section of the paper is an introduction, followed by a section that describes the approach to filter-based queries. The third section explains the configurable aspect of MQT, both with respect to the metadata scheme, as well as with respect to the graphical user interface. Some details on the queries generated by MQT are presented in the fourth section. The fifth section covers some user interface aspects. The sixth section gives an overview of related research and tools. The current status is presented in the seventh section. (Contains 11 references.) (MES)

This paper summarizes a subset of the findings of a study of digital image distribution that focused on the Museum Educational Site Licensing (MESL) project--the first large-scale multi-institutional project to explore digital delivery of art images and accompanying text/metadata from disparate sources. This Mellon Foundation-sponsored study evaluated the costs, infrastructure, and efforts involved in implementing the MESL project, as well as user reaction to functionality. The study also examined costs of running analog slide libraries and compared these to costs and functionality associated with digital image distribution. The paper briefly discusses the cost-center models used to examine the distribution of digital and analog images, including: creating digital images and metadata, mounting and distributing digital images, maintaining a distribution house, running a slide library, and an analysis of hybrid image libraries. It presents a comparison of user interfaces and search engines from the MESL universities and reports on the results of focus groups discussing faculty adoption of digital images for classroom use. (Author/MES)

This paper describes the development of a prototypic, Web-accessible GIS solution for K-12 science education and citizen-based watershed monitoring. The server side consists of ArcView IMS running on an NT workstation. The client is built around MapCafe. The client interface, which runs through a standard Web browser, supports standard MapCafe calls to the server and also the uploading and viewing of "shape" or georeferenced spreadsheet data. Preliminary supporting tutorials and classroom materials are in development. The key features of the tool, the approach to design and prototyping, plans for further development of MAP-IT! and its integration into the middle and high school science curriculum are discussed. (Author/DDR)

Simulation offers unique affordances over traditional training (e.g., remote access, mastery learning experiences, immediate feedback) relevant to teacher training in behavior management. This study describes a user-based evaluation of Interactive Virtual Training for Teachers (IVT-T). The study involved observing representative users (seven advanced education majors) perform benchmark tasks with the system, complete rating scales, and participate in interviews to evaluate the usability and instructional design quality of IVT-T. Global usability ratings based on established usability rating scales suggested IVT-T was adequately usable while observations of user performance and semi-structured interviews revealed design shortcomings that impeded effective user performance and informed ways to improve the interface. Observations of user performance, for example, identified 36% of usability problems related to Learning, 19% = Screen Design, 17% = Terminology; 3% = System Capabilities and 25% = Other Problems. Cross analysis of user semi-structured interviews pointed to the system's ability to convey believable, visually appealing, realistic characters and classrooms. More contextual cues, multiple challenging behaviors featured at the same time, and changes to the visual appearance of the classroom would enhance realism. Revisions made to enhance the usability and instructional design elements of IVT-T are discussed. In addition, implications for teacher educators and researchers involved in the development of instructional technologies are summarized along with the potential value of including simulation in teacher training for behavior management. [This paper will be published in "Educational Technology Research and Development."]

This paper describes an authoring tool, Visual Constructor, that is being developed to help users without technical knowledge to create and organize World Wide Web-based course contents. The following goals of Visual Constructor are highlighted: (1) it does not require any knowledge of evolving Web technology; (2) the user interface is easy to understand and operate; (3) it is a Web-based remote authoring environment, so that authors can use a Web browser to accomplish all the tasks at any location; (4) course authors do not need to worry about the physical files; and (5) information can be updated or modified as course content evolves. The underlying methodologies that form the basis of the Visual Constructor authoring environment are summarized, including course layout templates, document templates, logical view, and physical file management. The hierarchical software modules are explained, and the authoring process is illustrated with an example. The three major features supporting presentation and navigation of a Web-based learning environment created by Visual Constructor (i.e., structural layout, service modules, and presentation flow) are described. The paper concludes with a discussion of future work. Three figures present the hierarchy of software modules, and screens for configuring the course layout and authoring the course content. Contains 14 references. (AEF)

This paper outlines work on a class of systems called Personal Information Management Assistants (PIMAs). PIMAs observe user interaction with everyday applications and use these observations to anticipate a user's information needs. They then automatically fulfill these needs by accessing Internet information sources, filtering the results, and presenting them to the user. They allow everyday applications to serve as interfaces for traditional information retrieval systems (e.g., Internet search engines). The paper presents preliminary work on an architecture for this class of systems and progress in implementing such a system, including finding relevant pages (i.e., query construction and information filtering) and exploiting structural clues. Preliminary results and directions for future work are also discussed. Two tables present output of a query generated from a page on Java standardization and results of clustering responses; three figures show the PIMA architecture and examples of displays suggesting relevant World Wide Web pages and images. (Author/AEF)

This paper describes a solution to the user identification and tracking problem within an educational World Wide Web environment. The paper begins with an overview of the Teaching Support System project at the University of Girona (Spain); the main objective of the project is to create an integrated set of tools for teachers to use to create and publish dynamic and interactive teaching materials that make use of the new possibilities offered by information technologies and the Internet. Functionalities of the Unit Navigation Module (UNM) of this platform that require user tracking and identification are summarized, and previous possible solutions are described. The adopted solution is then presented; the solution uses a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) compliant program running on the Custom Server (CS) machine that processes HTML pages before they are sent to the local (client) machine and inserts user identification within hypertext links. The CS also provides user identification and validation, HTML document customization, database maintenance, translation of database information into reports, control of private working documents, asynchronous and synchronous communications, and other similar capabilities. Three tables present standard log file contents, custom log file contents, and session tracking information. Two figures illustrate standard HTTP architecture and the proposed architecture. Contains 17 references. (DLS)

Modeling the functions of a teacher in a computer interface is not a new practice; most computer applications employ electronic performance support systems (EPSS) such as online help, wizards, coaches, and even some forms of artificial intelligence. This paper presents easy-to-implement strategies for increasing learner autonomy by embedding teacher functions within the World Wide Web-based graphical user interface (GUI). The embedded teacher (ET) model proposed in this paper is similar to the butler model, which describes a good interface as performing many of the roles of a good butler (e.g., helping a person enter, exit, and move from room to room). The ET model combines the butler model with core and complementary information zones by recommending that four overall teacher functions be embedded into a GUI: (1) orienting the learner; (2) providing navigational assistance; (3) providing instructional strategies; and (4) providing interactive feedback. Altogether these four elements work to perform the essential tasks of a live teacher. Anticipated questions for each of the four teacher functions are listed. A description is then provided of how each stage of the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) was used to address the ET when creating a GUI for a university computer course. (AEF)

This paper discusses the indexing, collection, and maintenance processes, as well as the retrieval interface, to public digital libraries. The paper begins by briefly surveying both Internet technical report collections and World Wide Web search engines. It goes on to describe a prototype digital library, the New Zealand Digital Library for Computer Science Research. The indexing and retrieval mechanism is described, including the full-text index. The types of search provided, the indexes that are needed to support them, and the query interface through which they are made accessible are summarized. The process of building the collection, and the crucial issue of what information is stored centrally and what can remain distributed, are then discussed. The final section summarizes how the information is gathered, considers the factors that limit the size of the library, and reviews future directions for networked digital libraries. Two tables contain information on technical report indexes on the Internet and the current size of the New Zealand Digital Library for Computer Science Research. Four figures illustrate the interface and query page to the digital library, conversion from PostScript (most text missing), the prologue used to extract text from PostScript documents, and the architecture of the digital library. Contains 12 references. (DLS)

This paper describes the features of the 1996 version of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) called CALAT. The architecture of CALAT is an extension of conventional World Wide Web systems, consisting of an ITS kernel on the server side and a multimedia viewer on the client side. The viewer control system is designed to achieve both educationally effective multimedia presentation and quick system response time even over a low speed network. As an application of the viewer control mechanism, an interactive simulation environment is implemented. This environment lets the student interact with a simulated target system presented by the multimedia viewer under the control of a state transition machine (STM) running on the CALAT server. These new features make it possible to build an interactive ITS environment available over the network with powerful and effective data presentation capability. The paper highlights design and implementation of the viewer control mechanism and interactive simulation. Three figures present the viewer control mechanism, the pipeline data transfer, and an example of the interactive simulation. (Author/DLS)

Virtual Reality (VR) is a new medium which allows total stimulation of one's senses through human/computer interfaces. VR has applications in training simulators, nano-science, medicine, entertainment, electronic technology, and manufacturing. This paper focuses on some current and potential problems of virtual reality and virtual environments that should be studied and resolved before widespread adoption and implementation of this new technology. Issues considered in this paper include: (1) physio-psychological aspects: virtual reality is a spatial and temporal medium in which users can accomplish normally unrealistic or supernatural tasks along with normal tasks, so creators must consider how these events or tasks will be processed mentally and how they will affect the users' emotions; (2) technology transfer: visual perception and information processing in the brain have yet to be fully understood, and virtual reality adds another dimension that must be investigated; (3) technology versus performance: the virtual environment has to be set precisely for each user so it does not cause adverse physical and psychological effects; and (4) entertainment users will make up the largest share of the VR market by the year 2000, so designers should keep in mind that the heavy VR users are likely to have less skill and knowledge in making sophisticated reality judgments, and may "get lost" in the VR environment. (Contains 14 references.) (SWC)

Modern computing systems exploit graphical user interfaces for interaction with users; as a result, introductory computer science courses must begin to teach the principles underlying such interfaces. This paper presents an approach to graphical user interface (GUI) implementation that is simple enough for beginning students to understand, yet rich enough to demonstrate many important aspects of computer science. The GUI interface described is implemented using a library of C macros and provides a display window that outputs bit-mapped graphics and inputs mouse actions. The macro calls and conventions are described in the context of an implementation of Conway's Game of Life, a programming exercise found in many introductory texts. The GUI interface for the Game of Life program is detailed in the first section, in order to provide a concrete example of the capabilities of the simplified GUI library. The next section describes the life main function that sets up the buttons and associated callback functions; these callback functions are then presented. The last section gives an example of a simple paint program that can also be created using the GUI macro library. In addition, this paper considers how the material could be introduced in an Introduction to Computer Science course at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York). (AEF)