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Cloud computing is gaining ground in the digital and business world. It delivers storage service for user access using Internet as a medium. Besides the numerous benefits of cloud services, migrating to public cloud storage leads to security and privacy concerns. Encryption method protects data privacy and confidentiality. However, encrypted data stored in cloud storage reduces the flexibility in processing data. Therefore, the development of new technologies to search top representatives from encrypted public storage is the current requirement. This paper presents a similarity-based keyword search for multi-author encrypted documents. The proposed Authorship Attribute-Based Ranked Keyword Search (AARKS) encrypts documents using user attributes, and returns ranked results to authorized users. The scheme assigns weight to index vectors by finding the dominant keywords of the specific authority document collection. Search using the proposed indexing prunes away branches and processes only fewer nodes. Re-weighting documents using the relevant feedback also improves user experience. The proposed scheme ensures the privacy and confidentiality of data supporting the cognitive search for encrypted cloud data. Experiments are performed using the Enron dataset and simulated using a set of queries. The precision obtained for the proposed ranked retrieval is 0.7262. Furthermore, information leakage to a cloud server is prevented, thereby proving its suitability for public storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive computing is the mirroring of human brain and this is made possible by using natural language processing, pattern recognition and data mining. By mirroring the human brain (Cognitive computing system), helps to solve some of the complicated problems without much of human supervision. In the fast-changing world, the major challenge every organization facing is difficulty in retaining its employees. Employees may leave an organization due to low salary, overwork, lack of opportunities and recognition, work culture, work-life imbalance etc. Better ways to retain employees is to understand their requirements and fulfill them. The proposed employee feedback sentiment analysis system collects the employee feedback reviews from open forums and perform sentiment analysis using Recurrent Neural Network – Long Short-term Memory (RNN-LSTM) algorithm. On performing Sentiment analysis, employee review comments are classified as Positive or Negative. A report is generated and sent to the HR of the organization as webapp or mobile app. The report has total number of positive and negative comments and positive and negative counts with respect to salary, work pressure etc. With the report, the organization can arrive at identifying social sentiments of their brand and may take corrective actions to retain employees which benefits both organization and employees. This paper also captures the performance of various models in training and predicting the employee feedback dataset and the models evaluated are Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest Classifier, AdaBoost Classifier, Gradient Boosting Classifier, Decision Tree Classifier and Gaussian Naïve Bayes. The classification report and accuracy of each model is captured. The dataset size was gradually increased from 200 to 1000 and accuracy was predicted for each model. It was identified that the accuracy of machine learning algorithms was ranging between 66% to 85%. On training RNN-LSTM algorithm with dataset of size 30 k, the accuracy was 88%. It was identified that Deep learning algorithm RNN-LSTM performs better with huge dataset. Increasing dataset size still increase the performance of RNN-LSTM algorithm in training and prediction. Thus, the objective function of the proposed model to perform sentiment analysis on employee feedback review comments is achieved successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manually verifying the authenticity of the physical documents (personal identity card, certificates, passports, legal documents) increases the administrative overhead and takes a lot of time. Later image processing techniques were used. But most of the image processing based forgery document detection methods are less accurate. To improve the accuracy, this paper proposes an automatic document verification model using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). Furthermore, we use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Linear Binary Pattern (LBP) to extract the textual information and regional edges from the documents. Later, Oriented fast and Rotated Brief (ORB) is used to extract the images from the scanned documents. To train the CNN, MIDV-500 dataset of 256 Azerbaijani passport images, each with the size of 1040*744 pixels is taken. The proposed CNN model uses sliding window operations layers to evaluate the authenticity. The proposed model analyzes both the textual authenticity and image (seal, stamp and hologram) authenticity of the scanned document. The experimental analysis is carried out on the TensorFlow using python programming language. The results derived from the proposed CNN based forgery detection model is compared with existing models and the results are promising to implement on the real time applications [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data cognition plays an important role in cognitive computing. Cognition of low-resolution (LR) image is a long-stand problem because LR images have insufficient information about objects. For better cognition of LR images, a multi-resolution residual network (MRRN) is proposed to improve image resolution in this paper for cognitive computing systems. In MRRN, a multi-resolution feature learning (MRFL) strategy is introduced to achieve satisfying performance with low computational costs. Inspired by image pyramids, a feature pyramid is designed to implement multi-resolution feature learning in the building unit of the proposed MRRN. Specifically, multi-resolution residual units (MRRUs) are introduced as the building units of the proposed network, which consist of a feature pyramid decomposition stage and a feature reconstruction stage. To obtain informative features, transferred skip links (TSLs) are utilized to transfer fine-grain residual features in the pyramid decomposition stage to the reconstruction stage. The effectiveness of MRFL and TSL is demonstrated by ablation experiments. Also, the tests on standard benchmarks indicate the superiority of the proposed MRRN over other state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Piet Kommers While the common sense interpretation of interpersonal meetings mentions cognitive synergy, it is also clear that there is a sepsis on the collective thinking like Salomon's notion (Salomon, 1997) on 'distributed cognition'. The first priority is to understand skepticism on the additive nature of human creativity. The second priority is to understand why vicarious and mediated communication can achieve even better than face-to-face cooperation.

Byline: Piet Kommers The ubiquity of information and online human support trigger the question if the traditional epitome of 'life-long learning' can still be considered as 'learning' as meant in the traditional context of formal education. A complicating factor is that regular education needs to revise its main paradigm. It is hard to find solid reference beacons for deciding who is changing most: school-based education or life-long learning for adults. Regular education seems to evolve from a transfer into a developmental paradigm. Life-long learning tends to migrate from 'incidental-' and 'continuous learning' into 'course-based-', 'institutionalised-' and 'certificate-driven' learning. Its mutual comparison is like estimating the speed of two opposing trains without seeing the landscape.

Byline: Tatu Harviainen, Mikko Hassinen, Piet A.M. Kommers, Erkki Sutinen Stories as microworlds provide an attractive and open environment for learning. They are easy to combine with almost any subject matter, and students can create them by their own, also in groups. Woven stories are composed of units or text passages called nodes. Thus, they can be represented visually as graphs on a display. Several authors can work on their common woven story simultaneously, by linking different plots together by joining nodes. A preliminary prototype of woven stories was implemented as a web site. Although a simple framework, it reveals the strength of stories as an educational resource and the value of a computer as a technique to enhance the learning process. Moreover, the concept of the woven stories is versatile enough to be applied in various kinds of educational settings. The prototype is available at http://www.cs.Helsinki.fi/group/stories/.

Byline: Piet A.M. Kommers, Zhao Zhiming The fast growing attention for multi-modality, full three-dimensional virtual reality (VR) and the avoidance of anisotropy has partly supplanted the designer's attention for the students' conceptual states. This paper is intended to prepare and structure the VR course for educationalists on the Web, and provides an overview of ongoing research into the urgent question of how to orient students in conceptually complex domains using VR. The central theme is to give an overview of VR learning environments that enable learners to explore new physical spaces, but even more important is to let them experiment with new materials, complex processes like kinaesthetic, extruding, casting, etc. Virtual reality becomes a substantial and ubiquitous technology and subsequently penetrates applications for education, learning and training. In addition to multimedia, VR places the user in a three-dimensional environment. The user feels 'in the middle of another environment'. Most VR systems allow the user to travel and navigate. More promising for learning purposes is to let the user manipulate objects and experience the consequences. This paper introduces the potential impact of 'immersion' for learning environments, the current state of the art in VR, its drawbacks, the overall metaphor of virtuality and the most feasible application areas. The main section of the report is the research agenda for VR in the next few years. The recommendations involve VR and collaborative aspects (multi-user domain, object-oriented) its integration with video conferencing, drama and constructionism, temporal awareness, and finally the integration into special curricular topics. The goal of this paper is the gradual embedding of VR elements in current research and developmental practices. In particular, the fast propagation of WWW-based tele-learning can benefit from the VR prospects, as VR programs can now be accessed by the most common Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

Byline: Slavi Stoyanov, Piet Kommers, Theo Bastiaens, Catalina Martinez Mediano The paper defines and empirically validates the concept of performance support system in higher engineering education. The validation of the concept is based upon two studies: a pilot and an experiment, on the effect of performance support system on achievements and attitudes of students. The experimental study confirmed the expectation that the performance support system produced significantly better results than the traditional method of teaching when achievements of students were compared. The analysis of the students' attitudes towards the method revealed that the operationalisation of support was better implemented in the performance support software application than performance.

Byline: Piet Kommers, Slavi Stoyanov, Nevena Mileva, Catalina Martinez Mediano The study compares the effectiveness of two performance support systems, adaptive and non-adaptive, on learning achievements of engineering students. In addition, the research design controls for a possible effect of learning style. The analysis reveals that students working with an adaptive performance support system score significantly higher than students using a non-adaptive performance system on a performance test across different learning styles. The only variation in the two experimental conditions, manipulated in the study, is embedded adaptive arrangement based on learning style. Embedded adaptation mode accommodates learning preferences of students through the structure of learning content as an association between types of learning content and different learning styles is assumed. Learning style does not produce a significant difference in the performance achievements of students and there is no indication for an interaction effect between performance support system as a method of instruction and learning style. These results are explained by two theoretical positions introduced in the background of the study, namely coping behaviour and the distinction between level and style type of cognitive constructs.

Byline: Lou A.M.P. Slangen, Nardie L.J.A. Fanchamps, Piet A.M. Kommers Improving learning and thinking in school has been an objective of the educational community for a long time. Computer applications and especially mind tools can be helpful in reaching this objective. Control software that operates a connected physical micro world and is used as a kind of mind tool, delivers possibilities to develop and support learning and thinking of pupils in school. We studied pupils' thinking behaviour (thinking skills and habits of mind) by analysing the progressive discourse of pupils who solved problems using Techno-Logica control software in a hybrid micro world. We developed a first version of an observation instrument and tested its usefulness in exploring thinking behaviour. In this paper, we present the first results and prospective.

Byline: Ralph W. Hooreman, Piet A.M. Kommers, Wim M.G. Jochems Historically, the nature of coaching the teachers is asynchronously: a reflective discussion with the supervisory coach is the follow-up after a lesson has been taught. We expect that synchronous (immediate) coaching may complement and to a certain extent supplant the asynchronous feedback. Nonetheless, in order to investigate the additional effects of combining synchronous and asynchronous coaching, it is essential to obtain an insight into the effects of synchronous interventions separately from the asynchronous condition. Test subjects were assigned random to two conditions: synchronous vs. asynchronous. The participants were required to show teacher's behaviour on the basis of video fragments. An observer scored the quality of this pedagogical action. It appeared from this study that synchronous coaching had significantly greater effects than the asynchronous condition on the quality of the pedagogical action of the trainee teacher.

Byline: Piet Kommers, Eugenia Kovatcheva The networked society has intensified the dynamics of interaction among professionals in the last decade, and the overall trends show that much more still has to come. The key question of this special issue is what qualitative changes we are facing in the coming years, when the learning between practitioners in education reaches a level of what we dreamt of in the 1970s when school-based curricula, team teaching and altruistic ideologies took off. As an extrapolation of the 'Communities of Practice', this introductory article will highlight intra- and interpersonal professional learning, and suggestions for its new orchestration by stakeholders rather than by institutional leaders. As the main theme, the WWW based community will recur throughout the various application fields. The final conclusion will focus on the networked society and its sociological threats and opportunities; teachers' continuous learning should be closely related to the lifestyle of the youth culture, and learning should be practised amongst peer teachers from time to time.

Byline: Slavi Stoyanov, Piet Kommers The main theoretical position of this paper is that it is the explicit problem-solving support in concept mapping software that produces a stronger effect in problem-solving performance than the implicit support afforded by the graphical functionality of concept mapping software. Explicit problem-solving support activates cognitive functions such as knowledge representation, knowledge elicitation, knowledge reflection and knowledge creation. Concept mapping graphical instruction supports knowledge representation only. This paper reports on an experimental study that tests this assumption as measuring the effect of two types of concept mapping software on problem-solving performance, mapping production and perceived problem-solving effectiveness of 47 students randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. The results validated empirically the theoretical position as the group that used concept mapping software with explicit problem-solving support scored significantly higher on problem-solving performance and on the most of the indicators of mapping production and perceived effectiveness of concept mapping software.

Byline: Slavi Stoyanov, Piet Kommers Concept mapping is one of the most intimate and most dynamic learning support activities that needs still a drastic further evolution of methods and tools. WWW-based concept mapping gains momentum quite fast now and needs a solid reviewing of the various approaches and the empirical effects. This article bridges the technological advance of WWW-based concept mapping tools and its more recent effects on learning by problem solving. The results show that it added value manifests in the phases of idea generation and selection. The mapping approach caused a broader perception and a greater diversity of ideas. The conclusion is that further investments are needed to make WWW-based mapping more accessible and integrated in WWW-based learning management systems.

Byline: Sjoerd de Vries, Piet Kommers Online Knowledge Communities (OKCs) are seen here as meeting places for continuing professional development, a social network of members, who are organised by making use of an online meeting place, having an adequate group culture and are involved in appropriate information processes to develop and exploit a certain knowledge domain. We expect the use of online knowledge communities for continuing professional development to have positive effects on the professionalism of the professionals and the development of knowledge assets in knowledge-intensive organisations. We discuss future trends in the development and application of OKCs and related research issues.

Byline: Eugenia Kovatcheva, Piet Kommers The internet new media creates new types of communities online or web-based communities in virtual reality. Everyone, to a certain degree, is involved in building and creating online communities. The main aim of this study is to make an overview of cyberspace technology and to extrapolate the influence of computers, technology and virtual environments on the psychology of Bulgarian students (individuals and groups). This study is focused on the chief features of web-based life in web-based communities. Web-based youth communities are capable of mirroring the behaviour of people in virtual reality.

Byline: Piet Kommers, Jan-Maarten Luursema, Steffan Rodel, Bob Geelkerken, Eelco Kunst Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a serious candidate for a learning environment for complex skills like vascular interventions. The diagnostics, dimensioning and insertion of the endograft stent has been modelled as a decision-making process and now faces its implementation in a VR learning space. Beyond the topological and morphological aspects it is the orientation and navigation in earlier-performed successful interventions that offer the opportunity for a competence-based learning process before the candidate surgeon enters the clinical stage.

Byline: Silvia Dewiyanti, Piet Kommers Starting from the need for visualising the live biological process, we conducted a pilot project to develop a virtual reality learning environment. As a new technology, virtual reality has a good prospect as an alternative medium for teaching and learning. A virtual reality environment has some advantages in increasing the learning process and learning outcomes. We developed three prototypes for mammal blood circulation. An evaluation for those prototypes were conducted in order to know the virtual reality position for learning biology and also to know the students' appreciation of the virtual reality environment. Interesting results from the evaluation gave indications that a virtual reality environment can help the learner to visualise an abstract concept and ideas.

Byline: Piet Kommers Beyond the process of acquiring knowledge and skills, learning gets more attention as a process of existential awareness; media for learning need to be designed in this respect. The social communication among students has been highlighted many years ago in the traditions of cooperative learning. Now when 'distance learning' tools become the default modality of learning, there is a new need to revise the identity support for learners. This article articulates 'conceptual awareness' and its tools and methods. It is the opportunity to let students visualise and externalise conceptual structures that underlies exploration of a new thematic area. Concept mapping is its more prominent member. As learning now becomes more in the nature of a design process, concept mapping is not likely to be the ultimate tool. The elicitation by narrative schemes and 'Woven Stories' is a key element in the generation of tools for conceptual awareness. Similar to the development of the London underground map as an anchored view of the city of London, now learners are invited to make their own ideational landscapes where the horizon is the 'unknown so far'. Sharing ideational landscapes between students also has a potential for multicultural communication among learners from different cultures. The ongoing research is developing a 'conceptual algebra' to facilitate the detection of conceptual clusters and interconnect networks by various learners.

Byline: Piet Kommers This paper looks in-depth at the new strategies and tactics at the didactic level, in order to achieve learning progress, in order to contribute to the new generation's participation in the 'knowledge society'. The more specific effect of new ICT facilities is the catalytic one, not only in the continuous evolution of innovative teaching but also in the learning processes in traditional secondary education. Even more important are the ICT effects on contextual factors, such as the restructuring of classroom-based learning and its complement in home-based learning, vocational learning and most importantly the newly developing web-based learning networks and the subsequent web-based learning communities. The introduction of web-based communities for teachers is most likely.

Byline: Piet Kommers The successor of ICALT 2001 was ICALT 2002. Due to progress in research and the fast assimilation of WWW-based learning in the world of education and training, we see a rather strong reorientation to the basic paradigms underlying learning practices and teaching practices. This paper offers a fresh view on the extrapolation of ICALT 2001. The setting of ICALT 2002 was Kazan, and hence a larger share of the contributions highlighted the design of learning systems based upon the theory of Lev Vygotsky whose influence in the field of learning technology goes far beyond his initial role in the domain of the Soviet Union. The overall perception of the ICALT 2002 conference was that delegates from the USA, Australia, Eastern Asia and Eastern and Western Europe had encouraging dialogue, not least because the integration of WWW-based learning has arrived at a most interesting stage. The notions of 'ubiquitous', 'just-in-time' and 'just-for-you' are important, but are most probably not the ultimate targets for new learning communities in the enlightened societies that we now see emerging.