Records in contexts: the road of archives to semantic interoperability

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the Records in Contexts proposal of a conceptual model (RiC-CM) from the International Council on Archives’ (ICA) archival description and to propose an OWL ontology for its implementation in the semantic web. Design/methodology/approach The various elements of the model are studied and are related to earlier norms in order to understand their structure and the modeling of the ontology. Findings The analysis reveals the integrating nature of RiC-CM and the possibilities it offers for greater interoperability of data from archival descriptions. Two versions of an OWL ontology were developed to represent the conceptual model. The first makes a direct transposition of the conceptual model; the second optimizes the properties and relations in order to simplify the use and maintenance of the ontology. Research limitations/implications The proposed ontology will follow the considerations of the final version of the ICA’s RiC-CM. Practical implications The analysis affords an understanding of the role of RiC-CM in publishing online archival data sets, while the ontology is an initial approach to the semantic web technologies involved. Originality/value This paper offers an overview of Records in Contexts with respect to the advantages in the field of semantic interoperability, and supposes the first proposal of an ontology based on the conceptual model.

Serious games in K-12 education

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the integration of serious games (SGs) in the area of special educational needs in the last ten years (2007-2017). Design/methodology/approach SGs indicate positive effects on students with special educational needs and promote a multi-sensory style of learning. Findings Research showed that SGs are able to keep K-12 education students with attention, memory and developmental disabilities engaged in classroom facilities scaffolding their learning through increased motivation, independence, autonomy and resultant self-esteem. Research limitations/implications Time constraints, cost and availability of appropriate games as well as the small sample of the individuals being investigated are some of the research limitations the paper refers to. Practical implications Learning through SGs has educational values that are based on learning concepts intrinsically motivating. Social implications Students with attention, memory and developmental disabilities demonstrate characteristics of engagement, creativity, control and communication. Originality/value SGs-based learning has proven its value added to students with attention, memory and executive control difficulties as well as mental or developmental disabilities engaging students better than when using traditional methods.

The effect of algorithm teaching on the problem-solving skills of deaf-hard hearing students

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of algorithm teaching on the problem-solving skills of deaf-hard hearing students. Design/methodology/approach In this research, a pre-test and post-test problem-solving scale was applied to the single group (16 deaf-hard hearing students at a secondary school level) that had received algorithm education. Pre-test and post-test results were compared in order to see whether there was a significant difference among students in terms of their problem-solving attitudes. Students’ levels of performing the applications were examined through observation forms and their opinions about algorithm teaching were received. Findings As a result of the research, it was determined that implemented algorithm teaching had a significant effect on improving the problem-solving skills of the students. Originality/value Scratch training can be administered as either a compulsory or an optional course for hearing students as the Scratch programme offers the opportunity of teaching algorithmic reasoning with games, making the courses entertaining and giving students the chance to create their own designs which helps to improve their creative problem-solving skills and their motivation accordingly. Scratch teaching can be beneficial in developing students’ problem-solving behaviours and creativity.

A heuristic evaluation to support the instructional and enjoyment aspects of a math game

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the design principles of educational games in the context of an educational math game example to educational game developers and instructors. Especially, it tries to demonstrate the importance of the academic content-fantasy integration and entertainment factors of educational games from the viewpoint of the experts. For this purpose, as a sample, an educational math game was examined to see how successful is the academic aspect, fantasy aspect, academic-fantasy aspects integration and enjoyment aspect of the game. Good aspects of the game and aspects need improvement were summarized for guidance to game developers while producing educational games. Design/methodology/approach In this study, heuristic evaluation method was used for evaluating the educational math game. In the scope of this study, an example of modern educational computer game was examined by experts in this study. The integration of academic-fantasy context and enjoyment aspects of the game were analyzed deeply by using qualitative and quantitative data collection methods together. Findings According to Relevance Embedding Translation Adaptation Immersion and Naturalization rubric results, embedding element received the highest mean score. It showed that the academic content is well coupled with the fantasy/story content. According to GameFlow criteria, clear goals and feedback sections got the highest scores; on the contrary immersion section got the lowest score. Immersion element of the game should be improved. According to the interview findings, more than half of the participants stated that, in terms of academic content of game, players can actively be involved in learning process during the game. The story of the game and elements used in the game have counterpart in daily life. Didactic elements do not affect learners’ flow in the game. It is easy to learn and feedbacks are enough and useful. Originality/value This study offered suggestions to designers for developing good educational games which are well balanced with academic and fantasy context.

Influence of usage of e-books, online educational materials, and other programming books and students’ profiles on adoption of printed programming textbooks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of students’ profiles and the usage of e-books, online educational materials, and other programming books on the adoption of printed programming textbooks for computing students. It was hypothesized that the predictor variable set could not explain any of the variance of the dependent variables. Design/methodology/approach This descriptive study utilized a content-validated questionnaire. The study involved 190 student participants. Canonical correlation analysis was employed to determine whether students’ profiles and use, perceived usefulness, and preference of e-books, online educational materials, and other programming books explained any variance in printed programming textbook adoption. Findings Printed programming textbook adoption could be explained by two functions. The first function revealed that the use and the perceived usefulness of textbooks were positively influenced by the use of e-books and other programming books and by the perceived usefulness of e-books, fora/blogs, other programming books, and YouTube. The second function revealed that the use of printed programming textbooks alone was positively influenced by the use of e-books and other programming books but was negatively influenced by the perceived usefulness of programming websites and YouTube and by the preference of programming websites over textbooks. Originality/value The study provided empirical evidence that e-books, other programming books, and online educational materials provide additional resources to students. Thus, e-books, online educational materials, and other programming books complement, rather than threaten, the existence of printed programming textbooks.

Information and performance optimization: a study of Indian IPOs during 2005-2012

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on examining the first day returns of initial public offerings (IPOs) and the role of information on their performance. The study tries to optimize the returns of the new issues during 2005-2012 with risk as a constraint. Design/methodology/approach The initial returns are measured through the market-adjusted excess return and the risk associated with the new issue is measured through underwriters’ reputation. The returns have been optimized through a mixed integer linear problem using the Maple software. Findings The previous studies show that various informational variables affect the listing day returns significantly. The results of the present study indicate that the mean of initial returns for IPOs during 2005-2012 is 18.03 and the mean risk for these issues is 0.46. The findings also suggest that the optimal returns are obtained in the pre-recession era (2005-2008) and the value for the same is 50.02 percent. Originality/value The current study contributes in the investment decisions for global investors as every investor wants to maximize his/her returns. The optimal returns with risk as a constraint will help the investors in improving their investment decision as a prudent investor does not aim solely at maximizing the expected return of an investment but is also interested in optimizing with the minimization of risk.

Using Twitter sentiment and emotions analysis of Google Trends for decisions making

Purpose An ever-growing body of knowledge demonstrates the correlation among real-world phenomena and search query data issued on Google, as showed in the literature survey introduced in the following. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a pipeline, implemented as a web service, which, starting with recent Google Trends, allows a decision maker to monitor Twitter’s sentiment regarding these trends, enabling users to choose geographic areas for their monitors. In addition to the positive/negative sentiments about Google Trends, the pipeline offers the ability to view, on the same dashboard, the emotions that Google Trends triggers in the Twitter population. Such a set of tools, allows, as a whole, monitoring real-time on Twitter the feelings about Google Trends that would otherwise only fall into search statistics, even if useful. As a whole, the pipeline has no claim of prediction over the trends it tracks. Instead, it aims to provide a user with guidance about Google Trends, which, as the scientific literature demonstrates, is related to many real-world phenomena (e.g. epidemiology, economy, political science). Design/methodology/approach The proposed experimental framework allows the integration of Google search query data and Twitter social data. As new trends emerge in Google searches, the pipeline interrogates Twitter to track, also geographically, the feelings and emotions of Twitter users about new trends. The core of the pipeline is represented by a sentiment analysis framework that make use of a Bayesian machine learning device exploiting deep natural language processing modules to assign emotions and sentiment orientations to a collection of tweets geolocalized on the microblogging platform. The pipeline is accessible as a web service for any user authorized with credentials. Findings The employment of the pipeline for three different monitoring task (i.e. consumer electronics, healthcare, and politics) shows the plausibility of the proposed approach in order to measure social media sentiments and emotions concerning the trends emerged on Google searches. Originality/value The proposed approach aims to bridge the gap among Google search query data and sentiments that emerge on Twitter about these trends.

Wearable expert system development: definitions, models and challenges for the future

Purpose A wearable expert system (WES) is an expert system designed and implemented to obtain input from and give outputs to wearable devices. Among its distinguishing features are the direct cooperation between domain experts and users, and the interaction with a knowledge maintenance system devoted to dynamically update the knowledge base taking care of the evolving scenario. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The WES development method is based on the Knowledge Acquisition Framework based on Knowledge Artifact (KAFKA) framework. KAFKA employs multiple knowledge artifacts, each devoted to the acquisition and management of a specific kind of knowledge. The KAFKA framework is introduced from both the conceptual and computational points of view. An example is given which demonstrates the interaction, within this framework, of taxonomies, Bayesian networks and rule-based systems. An experimental assessment of the framework usability is also given. Findings The most interesting characteristic of WESs is their capability to evolve over time, due both to the measurement of new values for input variables and to the detection of new input events, that can be used to modify, extend and maintain knowledge bases and to represent domains characterized by variability over time. Originality/value WES is a new and challenging concept, dealing with the possibility for a user to develop his/her own decision support systems and update them according to new events when they arise from the environment. The system fully supports domain experts and users with no particular skills in knowledge engineering methodologies, to create, maintain and exploit their expert systems, everywhere and when necessary.

Simultaneous instance and feature selection for improving prediction in special education data

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to improve the classification of families having children with affective-behavioral maladies, and thus giving the families a suitable orientation. Design/methodology/approach The proposed methodology includes three steps. Step 1 addresses initial data preprocessing, by noise filtering or data condensation. Step 2 performs a multiple feature sets selection, by using genetic algorithms and rough sets. Finally, Step 3 merges the candidate solutions and obtains the selected features and instances. Findings The new proposal show very good results on the family data (with 100 percent of correct classifications). It also obtained accurate results over a variety of repository data sets. The proposed approach is suitable for dealing with non-symmetric similarity functions, as well as with high-dimensionality mixed and incomplete data. Originality/value Previous work in the state of the art only considers instance selection to preprocess the schools for children with affective-behavioral maladies data. This paper explores using a new combined instance and feature selection technique to select relevant instances and features, leading to better classification, and to a simplification of the data.