2019 IEEE Canadian Conference of Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE)
This paper presents a work-in-progress project for developing an open interactive algorithm visua... more This paper presents a work-in-progress project for developing an open interactive algorithm visualization (AV) website. This development of project is “open”, because we are developing this website as part of our University’s Open Education Resources (OER) initiative. This is “interactive”, because we aim to incorporate interactive functionalities to meet pedagogy, usability, and accessibility needs of the online leaners. In our previous research, we did a detailed survey on the teaching and learning methodologies of the algorithms and data structures and the existing AV websites. Although most AV websites are good at providing some fancy graphics and animations, they did not pay much attention on the learners’ needs in pedagogy, usability, and accessibility. We identified that the leaners pedagogy, usability, and accessibility needs are the three important areas that should be bringing into design considerations for an ideal AV website design. In this work-in-progress paper, we present the current state of our open interactive AV website development and the plan for the future to address learners’ load management through multimedia functionalities in the AV website. Such amendment in the AV website can fulfill the pedagogy, usability, and accessibility goals for the online learners.
... Some representative examples are the data flow-based approach [13], the workflow-based method... more ... Some representative examples are the data flow-based approach [13], the workflow-based methodology [14], the MetaMorph architecture [7], the CIMOSA architecture-based system [15], and the contract net-based approach [16]. Various agent-oriented approaches have been ...
Self-paced online learning provides great flexibility for learning, yet it brings some inherent l... more Self-paced online learning provides great flexibility for learning, yet it brings some inherent learning barriers because of the nature of this educational paradigm. This review paper suggests some corresponding strategies to address these barriers in order to create a more supportive self-paced online learning environment. These strategies include a) increasing students’ self-awareness of learning, b) identifying struggling students, and c) facilitating mastery learning.Focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines’ delivery of self-paced online learning, this paper reviewed the role of formative assessment for learning. It is proposed that systematically designing and embedding adaptive practicing in STEM courses would be an effective learning design solution to implement these strategies. By examining the goals and context of adaptive practicing requested in this study, the feature requirements are depicted for such an adaptive practicing model....
2019 IEEE Canadian Conference of Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE)
This paper presents a short review of existing visualization systems that focus on online course ... more This paper presents a short review of existing visualization systems that focus on online course discussion forums. Discussion forums in online courses are used as an important means for students-students and students-instructors communications. However, a large amount of asynchronous and heterogeneous posts in the discussion forums and their complex relationships make it difficult to track and extract meaningful information about the students’ activities and progress in the online courses. Information visualization has shown promise on this to facilitate online learning, especially for predicting students’ performance on tasks and assessments, understanding students’ affects and sentiments, and predicting students’ social behavior pattern and awareness. In this review, we detailed the applications of the existing visualization systems, their design considerations, and their strengths and weaknesses in the context of discussion forum analyses. This information will provide insight into how to build an effective visualization system for the online courses’ discussion forums.
2020 IEEE Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, Intl Conf on Cloud and Big Data Computing, Intl Conf on Cyber Science and Technology Congress (DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/CyberSciTech)
The current shift from traditional classrooms to online learning in higher education calls for mo... more The current shift from traditional classrooms to online learning in higher education calls for more attention to self-regulated learning. This research is motivated by the growing interest in potential of using learning analytics dashboard (LAD) to increase individuals’ self-regulation by creating visibility into their performance in various applications. This study explores how data visualization can be integrated with online learning to improve learners’ performance through enhancing their skills in planning and organization. We are working on the design of a comprehensive LAD, focusing on micro-level of learning analytics to support learning activities of students. The LAD includes the following two features to enhance students’ self-regulation in online learning: (1) a function to track students’ progress compared to other students’ over time; (2) reminders to help students with upcoming deadlines and auto–generating to do lists. The hypothesis is that the LAD will increase students’ engagement, motivation, and self-regulation in an online learning environment. This study is significant because it contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring how student-generated data can be used to improve self-regulated learning. The practical contribution of this study is to create a personalized LAD for students based on the learner-generated data to benefit students’ organization skill, planning skill, and motivation.
2020 IEEE Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, Intl Conf on Cloud and Big Data Computing, Intl Conf on Cyber Science and Technology Congress (DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/CyberSciTech), 2020
Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), a group of agents that work together to solve complex problems, always... more Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), a group of agents that work together to solve complex problems, always have concerns around trust management among the agents in a cyber physical system. With the technological advancements in decentralization, automation, and interactions between physical and software agents, the demand for using MAS is increasing though trust management between the agents remain challenging. To alleviate these challenges, the focus of this paper is to explore blockchain based smart contracts for trust management in MAS, especially in the following three aspects: analyzing the interaction mechanism of smart contracts within a MAS environment; providing a potential framework for smart contract based trust management for MAS; and finally, discussing the challenges of deploying and integrating smart contracts within a MAS framework. The outcome of this paper provides a novel approach to solidifying agent to agent trustworthy communication.
International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 2020
Online education is growing because of its benefits and advantages that students enjoy. Education... more Online education is growing because of its benefits and advantages that students enjoy. Educational technologies (e.g., learning analytics, student modelling, and intelligent tutoring systems) bring great potential to online education. Many online courses, particularly in self-paced online learning (SPOL), face some inherent barriers such as learning awareness and academic intervention. These barriers can affect the academic performance of online learners. Recently, learning analytics has been shown to have great potential in removing these barriers. However, it is challenging to achieve the full potential of learning analytics with the traditional online course learning design model. Thus, focusing on SPOL, this study proposes that learning analytics should be included in the course learning design loop to ensure data collection and pedagogical connection. We propose a novel learning design-analytics model in which course learning design and learning analytics can support each othe...
The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2001
This article discusses the topic of learning objects in three parts. First, it identifies a need ... more This article discusses the topic of learning objects in three parts. First, it identifies a need for learning objects and describes their essential components based on this need. Second, drawing on concepts from recent developments in computer science, it describes learning objects from a theoretical perspective. Finally, it describes learning objects in practice, first as they are created or generated by content authors, and second, as they are displayed or used by students and other client groups.
International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 2013
Building pedagogical applications in virtual worlds is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that involve... more Building pedagogical applications in virtual worlds is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that involves learning theories, application development framework, and mediated communication theories. This paper presents a project that integrates game-based learning, multi-agent system architecture (MAS), and the theory of Transformed Social Interaction (TSI), the project implements a group of engaging, affectionate and effective pedagogical agents equipped with abilities of self-repsentation, emotional states reasoning and situational awareness. A prototype of a virtual quiz show, QuizMASter, has been implemented to realize these abilities, and will be used to test for the effectiveness of the approach.
International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 2003
Distance education, e-learning, and virtual university are similar terms for a trend of modern ed... more Distance education, e-learning, and virtual university are similar terms for a trend of modern education. It is an integration of information technologies, computer hardware systems, and communication tools, to support educational professionals in remote teaching. This paper presents an overview of distance education from the perspective of policy, people, and technology. A number of questions frequently asked in distance learning panel discussions are presented, with the suggested answers from the authors. The survey presented in this paper includes communication, intelligent, and educational technologies of distance education. Readers of this paper are academic researchers and engineers who are interested in new research issues of distance education, as well as educators and general participants who are seeking new solutions.
2019 IEEE Canadian Conference of Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE)
This paper presents a work-in-progress project for developing an open interactive algorithm visua... more This paper presents a work-in-progress project for developing an open interactive algorithm visualization (AV) website. This development of project is “open”, because we are developing this website as part of our University’s Open Education Resources (OER) initiative. This is “interactive”, because we aim to incorporate interactive functionalities to meet pedagogy, usability, and accessibility needs of the online leaners. In our previous research, we did a detailed survey on the teaching and learning methodologies of the algorithms and data structures and the existing AV websites. Although most AV websites are good at providing some fancy graphics and animations, they did not pay much attention on the learners’ needs in pedagogy, usability, and accessibility. We identified that the leaners pedagogy, usability, and accessibility needs are the three important areas that should be bringing into design considerations for an ideal AV website design. In this work-in-progress paper, we present the current state of our open interactive AV website development and the plan for the future to address learners’ load management through multimedia functionalities in the AV website. Such amendment in the AV website can fulfill the pedagogy, usability, and accessibility goals for the online learners.
... Some representative examples are the data flow-based approach [13], the workflow-based method... more ... Some representative examples are the data flow-based approach [13], the workflow-based methodology [14], the MetaMorph architecture [7], the CIMOSA architecture-based system [15], and the contract net-based approach [16]. Various agent-oriented approaches have been ...
Self-paced online learning provides great flexibility for learning, yet it brings some inherent l... more Self-paced online learning provides great flexibility for learning, yet it brings some inherent learning barriers because of the nature of this educational paradigm. This review paper suggests some corresponding strategies to address these barriers in order to create a more supportive self-paced online learning environment. These strategies include a) increasing students’ self-awareness of learning, b) identifying struggling students, and c) facilitating mastery learning.Focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines’ delivery of self-paced online learning, this paper reviewed the role of formative assessment for learning. It is proposed that systematically designing and embedding adaptive practicing in STEM courses would be an effective learning design solution to implement these strategies. By examining the goals and context of adaptive practicing requested in this study, the feature requirements are depicted for such an adaptive practicing model....
2019 IEEE Canadian Conference of Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE)
This paper presents a short review of existing visualization systems that focus on online course ... more This paper presents a short review of existing visualization systems that focus on online course discussion forums. Discussion forums in online courses are used as an important means for students-students and students-instructors communications. However, a large amount of asynchronous and heterogeneous posts in the discussion forums and their complex relationships make it difficult to track and extract meaningful information about the students’ activities and progress in the online courses. Information visualization has shown promise on this to facilitate online learning, especially for predicting students’ performance on tasks and assessments, understanding students’ affects and sentiments, and predicting students’ social behavior pattern and awareness. In this review, we detailed the applications of the existing visualization systems, their design considerations, and their strengths and weaknesses in the context of discussion forum analyses. This information will provide insight into how to build an effective visualization system for the online courses’ discussion forums.
2020 IEEE Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, Intl Conf on Cloud and Big Data Computing, Intl Conf on Cyber Science and Technology Congress (DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/CyberSciTech)
The current shift from traditional classrooms to online learning in higher education calls for mo... more The current shift from traditional classrooms to online learning in higher education calls for more attention to self-regulated learning. This research is motivated by the growing interest in potential of using learning analytics dashboard (LAD) to increase individuals’ self-regulation by creating visibility into their performance in various applications. This study explores how data visualization can be integrated with online learning to improve learners’ performance through enhancing their skills in planning and organization. We are working on the design of a comprehensive LAD, focusing on micro-level of learning analytics to support learning activities of students. The LAD includes the following two features to enhance students’ self-regulation in online learning: (1) a function to track students’ progress compared to other students’ over time; (2) reminders to help students with upcoming deadlines and auto–generating to do lists. The hypothesis is that the LAD will increase students’ engagement, motivation, and self-regulation in an online learning environment. This study is significant because it contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring how student-generated data can be used to improve self-regulated learning. The practical contribution of this study is to create a personalized LAD for students based on the learner-generated data to benefit students’ organization skill, planning skill, and motivation.
2020 IEEE Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, Intl Conf on Cloud and Big Data Computing, Intl Conf on Cyber Science and Technology Congress (DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/CyberSciTech), 2020
Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), a group of agents that work together to solve complex problems, always... more Multi-Agent Systems (MAS), a group of agents that work together to solve complex problems, always have concerns around trust management among the agents in a cyber physical system. With the technological advancements in decentralization, automation, and interactions between physical and software agents, the demand for using MAS is increasing though trust management between the agents remain challenging. To alleviate these challenges, the focus of this paper is to explore blockchain based smart contracts for trust management in MAS, especially in the following three aspects: analyzing the interaction mechanism of smart contracts within a MAS environment; providing a potential framework for smart contract based trust management for MAS; and finally, discussing the challenges of deploying and integrating smart contracts within a MAS framework. The outcome of this paper provides a novel approach to solidifying agent to agent trustworthy communication.
International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 2020
Online education is growing because of its benefits and advantages that students enjoy. Education... more Online education is growing because of its benefits and advantages that students enjoy. Educational technologies (e.g., learning analytics, student modelling, and intelligent tutoring systems) bring great potential to online education. Many online courses, particularly in self-paced online learning (SPOL), face some inherent barriers such as learning awareness and academic intervention. These barriers can affect the academic performance of online learners. Recently, learning analytics has been shown to have great potential in removing these barriers. However, it is challenging to achieve the full potential of learning analytics with the traditional online course learning design model. Thus, focusing on SPOL, this study proposes that learning analytics should be included in the course learning design loop to ensure data collection and pedagogical connection. We propose a novel learning design-analytics model in which course learning design and learning analytics can support each othe...
The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 2001
This article discusses the topic of learning objects in three parts. First, it identifies a need ... more This article discusses the topic of learning objects in three parts. First, it identifies a need for learning objects and describes their essential components based on this need. Second, drawing on concepts from recent developments in computer science, it describes learning objects from a theoretical perspective. Finally, it describes learning objects in practice, first as they are created or generated by content authors, and second, as they are displayed or used by students and other client groups.
International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 2013
Building pedagogical applications in virtual worlds is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that involve... more Building pedagogical applications in virtual worlds is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that involves learning theories, application development framework, and mediated communication theories. This paper presents a project that integrates game-based learning, multi-agent system architecture (MAS), and the theory of Transformed Social Interaction (TSI), the project implements a group of engaging, affectionate and effective pedagogical agents equipped with abilities of self-repsentation, emotional states reasoning and situational awareness. A prototype of a virtual quiz show, QuizMASter, has been implemented to realize these abilities, and will be used to test for the effectiveness of the approach.
International Journal of Distance Education Technologies, 2003
Distance education, e-learning, and virtual university are similar terms for a trend of modern ed... more Distance education, e-learning, and virtual university are similar terms for a trend of modern education. It is an integration of information technologies, computer hardware systems, and communication tools, to support educational professionals in remote teaching. This paper presents an overview of distance education from the perspective of policy, people, and technology. A number of questions frequently asked in distance learning panel discussions are presented, with the suggested answers from the authors. The survey presented in this paper includes communication, intelligent, and educational technologies of distance education. Readers of this paper are academic researchers and engineers who are interested in new research issues of distance education, as well as educators and general participants who are seeking new solutions.
Athabasca University has made the commitment to put all of its courses online as part of its Stra... more Athabasca University has made the commitment to put all of its courses online as part of its Strategic University Plan. In pursuit of this goal, it has participated in the eduSource project, a pan-Canadian effort to build the infrastructure for an interoperable network of learning object repositories based on and incorporating international standards and specifications. At AU, this initiative has brought together professionals, academics, and other researchers into a team that has synchronized the efforts of different university centers in the creation of a ...
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Papers by Fuhua Lin