This paper describes a proposed automatized case-based cognitive skills assessment system. Unlike... more This paper describes a proposed automatized case-based cognitive skills assessment system. Unlike most currently available computer-based assessment systems that offer support only for simple assessment tasks, this system supports domain independent case-based assessment of cognitive skills or performance. Automatic feedback and performance evaluation functions of the system are based on extracting relationships and knowledge from a database of available cases and offer support for two types of assessment tasks: case solving, and case knowledge explicitation through construction of a decision tree classifier. The proposed system is described in terms of supported assessment tasks and underlying functions.
2020 43rd International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), 2020
For a martial artist wanting to have a good insight into their progress it is necessary to regula... more For a martial artist wanting to have a good insight into their progress it is necessary to regularly measure and evaluate their training performance. Unfortunately, most of today’s performance tracking devices applicable in martial arts training are expensive and thereby available only to professional sportsmen.This paper describes the model and prototype implementation of a device which facilitates information gathering and automated feedback provision during or after a heavy bag training session. Its main features are measuring relative punch strength, frequency, and spatial distribution with a minimalist setup and affordable hardware components. Device prototype implementation is evaluated in authentic settings and shows promising results.
2019 42nd International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO)
File fragment classification is an important step in file forensics in which filetypes are assume... more File fragment classification is an important step in file forensics in which filetypes are assumed based on their available content fragments. Methods typically used for this task utilize machine learning techniques on features like byte frequency distributions and fragment entropy measures. In this paper, a contribution to this field is made through exploration of novel approaches to the problem including feedforward artificial neural networks and convolution networks. Feedforward neural networks were trained with byte histograms and with byte-pair histograms, while convolution neural networks were trained with blocks consisting of 512 bytes of data obtained from the GovDocs1 dataset. The results suggest convolution neural networks are not as promising for this problem as feedforward artificial neural networks, and feedforward artificial neural networks showing great results.
The data collected in this dataset are narratives exploring public policies, attitudes, individua... more The data collected in this dataset are narratives exploring public policies, attitudes, individual behaviors, and the collective experiences of the affected communities regarding face mask wearing at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The narratives were written by the members of the interdisciplinary research network Navigating Knowledge Landscapes (NKL; http://knowledge-landscapes.hiim.hr/). The members of the network are scholars belonging to different research disciplines and the aim of the network is to explore and discuss the individual aspects of citizens' navigation of (new) knowledge in the digital society. An invitation to participate in this study was sent to 97 members of the network on May 11, 2020, the written responses in the form of narratives were collected until May 26, 2020. In total, 29 scholars from 22 countries responded by providing their narratives, all of them collected in this dataset. The authors belong to 9 different academic disciplines with majority of them having background in Life Sciences, Sociology, Philosophy and Medicine. The authors described in their narratives the use of face masks in their countries according to their subjective point of view, and/or how people from their social environment perceive it. The participants were asked to answer the following questions in their narratives: • Part 1: What are the rules adopted in your country about face mask wearing? What would be the overall approach for use of the face masks in your community (government instructions, availability, the citizen compliance)? • Part 2: What is your individual/personal attitude and practice in relation to face masks? If applicable, start with good practice and end with what you consider to be mistakes. • Part 3: How do you judge the behavior of people you encounter? Face masks (or no face masks) and interpersonal interactions. Again, start with positive and end with negative. • Part 4 (optional): free to say whatever you think is important to the practices of your community in relation to face mas [...]
Contribution: This article describes and evaluates a novel undergraduate communication skills cou... more Contribution: This article describes and evaluates a novel undergraduate communication skills course for engineering students. The course focuses on improving student communication skills by using interactive lectures and authentic assessment activities in a scalable manner. Background: Published studies and reports suggest communication skills are becoming increasingly important for young engineers. Accordingly, communication skills are often included in engineering curricula. Engineering graduates typically lack these skills because they underestimate the importance of communication skills, while methods in teaching and assessing these skills remain inadequate. Providing proper support to students in acquiring communication skills and subsequently assessing learning outcomes without significantly increasing teacher workload is a challenge. Intended Outcomes: The intended outcome described in this article involves a scalable approach to teaching communication skills to undergraduate engineering students. The approach focuses on interaction during live lectures, authentic activities, and technology to achieve efficiencies for a small number of teaching staff holding the course to a large student population. In line with the expectancy-value theory (EVT) framework, the expectation is that the approach will have a positive effect on student perceptions of the importance of communication skills, which predict positive learning outcomes. Application Design: The course includes live lectures, practical homework assignments, and other authentic activities like elevator pitching, participating in job interviews as well as workshops or presentations. The importance in live lectures is placed on achieving interactivity by using an audience response system (AuResS). A peer review approach is used to assess homework assignments. Data from a survey of students qualifying their perceptions of communication skills were collected four times during the semester and analyzed along with their final course percentage. Findings: The study findings suggest first-semester engineering students think communication skills are important for engineers, and particularly value the authentic activities implemented in the course, even though the activities required more work on their behalf. However, only a small, statistically significant correlation was found between student opinions on the importance of communication skills and their course achievements. The AuResS and peer review, essential from the teachers’ perspective, were successfully used to achieve scalability in learning and assessment under the conditions described in this article.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of using online formative assessments on students’ le... more This study aimed to investigate the effects of using online formative assessments on students’ learning achievements. Using a quasi-experimental study design with one control group (no formative assessments available), and two experimental groups receiving feedback in available online formative assessments (knowledge of the correct response – KCR, or elaborated feedback – EF), it was investigated how feedback type in combination with learning content complexity will affect students’ learning achievements when used in-vivo, in a digital signal processing university course. Data generated by the two experimental groups was additionally used to investigate differences in using online formative assessments based on the feedback type. Study findings suggest online formative assessments are a very efficient educational intervention for this domain. The acquired data suggests that students quickly recognized the value of the formative assessments and that more than 90% of students have used them extensively. Statistically significant improvements in learning achievements were observed in the KCR group compared to the control group (p < 0.01, Cohen’s d between 0.691 and 1.080, depending on the learning content complexity), and KCR group compared to the EF group (p < 0.01, Cohen’s d = 0.877, in the case of most complex of the three learning contents used). No statistically significant differences were found in formative assessment usage between the two experimental groups, aside from the difference in the time between consecutive formative assessment attempts, indicating students did make use of the available feedback. Reported results are significant for demonstrating the potential of online formative assessments in achieving the desired learning outcomes in higher education, as well as for gaining insights into students’ habits of using them.
Abstract: Network performance highly depends on efficiency of the firewall because for each netwo... more Abstract: Network performance highly depends on efficiency of the firewall because for each network packet which enters or leaves the network a decision has to be made whether to accept it or reject it. This paper presents one approach to rule optimization solutions for improving firewall performance. The new software solution has been developed based on relations between rules. Its main purpose is to remove anomalies in ordering of Linux firewall rules and to merge similar rules. Developed rule optimization software (FIRO) is intended to be used with IP Tables Linux firewall command tool, but it can be easily adapted for other tool, as well. FIRO works in several passes through revised rule lists. In each step of optimization process FIRO generates a different rule list. Unlike existing solutions, FIRO also analyzes log rules and takes into account other rule parameters besides IP addresses, ports, protocols and action.
2020 43rd International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), 2020
Classification of file fragments is a crucial step in digital forensics and determining file type... more Classification of file fragments is a crucial step in digital forensics and determining file types based on available data fragments. Currently explored file fragment classification methods other than forensic hand-examination rely on machine learning techniques. Those methods most commonly use features based on byte frequency distribution as inputs in artificial neural networks. In this paper, some new approaches to file fragment classification are explored. Older MS Office file format files (doc, ppt, and xls), and the new MS Office format (docx, pptx, and xlsx), which were previously shown to be difficult to differentiate between, were joined into two separate higher-level classes due to similarities in the included files’ structure. Different approaches to specifically differentiating between subtypes in each of those two higher-level classes are further explored in the paper. The results suggest small increases in classification accuracy can be achieved using the proposed appro...
Lectures still are and will remain the major teaching method in many formal and informal settings... more Lectures still are and will remain the major teaching method in many formal and informal settings. However, according to cognitive learning theories,
Lectures were, still are and seem to remain a dominant form of teaching, despite an increased res... more Lectures were, still are and seem to remain a dominant form of teaching, despite an increased research and use of other methods of teaching and leverage of technology aimed at improving teaching results and efficiency. Learning, as the result of a lecture, greatly depends on the subject, the competence and abilities of the lecturer as well as on other transient causes. However, lectures also have some intrinsic deficiencies as a teaching method pertinent to their very nature. In order to fully understand the teaching value of lectures and their role and proper use in educational systems, their deficiencies have been studied in a theoretical analysis from the perspective of cognitive learning theories. Fifteen deficiencies have been identified and clustered in three categories based on root causes of deficiencies: synchronicity problems, time constraint and individual student abilities, needs and knowledge. These findings can be used to adjust expected learning outcomes of lectures, ...
U studenom 2000. godine pokrenut je projekt primjene informacijske tehnologije Komparativna anali... more U studenom 2000. godine pokrenut je projekt primjene informacijske tehnologije Komparativna analiza programske potpore informacijskim sustavima u Hrvatskoj. Istraživanje je obavljeno uz potporu Ministarstva znanosti i tehnologije. Komparativnom analizom domace i strane Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programske podrske prisutne u Hrvatskoj željelo se utvrditi: stvarni sadržaj koji se nudi u pojedinim rjesenjima, potrebna i dovoljna ulaganja, teskoce i probleme povezane s ugradnjom ERP rjesenja, moguce ucinke primjene ugrađenih rjesenja, poziciju domacih u odnosu na inozemna rjesenja, mogucnosti Hrvatske u ovom podrucju. Rezultatima istraživanja nastoji se potencijalnim i postojecim korisnicima ERP sustava pružiti informaciju o stanju na tržistu i mogucim troskovima nabave i uvođenja, odnosno daljnjeg razvoja i održavanja ERP sustava. Dobavljacima sustava i organizacijama koje se bave izgradnjom ERP sustava nastoji se pružiti informaciju o poželjnim svojstvima ovih sus...
There is an increasing number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) interve... more There is an increasing number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) interventions within the education system, and the question of their effectiveness as well as the optimal ways to determine their effectiveness are a growing subject of interest. This study qualitatively evaluates a two-year STEM intervention programme to gain a deeper insight into the students’ perception and understanding of a STEM intervention. The second aim was to provide some recommendations for planning future interventions in STEM, understanding a provided reason behind students’ satisfaction. Napredak 1-2 BOOK.indb 125 11.6.2019. 18:43:04 M. Blažev et al.: Qualitative analysis of experience... napredak 160 (1-2) 125 -148 (2019) 126 Four focus group discussions were conducted with students in 4th through 6th grades (N = 24) in 2016 and four focus groups with students in the 5th through 7th grades (N = 34) in 2017. The use of a qualitative approach in the evaluation of the STEM intervent...
This paper describes a proposed automatized case-based cognitive skills assessment system. Unlike... more This paper describes a proposed automatized case-based cognitive skills assessment system. Unlike most currently available computer-based assessment systems that offer support only for simple assessment tasks, this system supports domain independent case-based assessment of cognitive skills or performance. Automatic feedback and performance evaluation functions of the system are based on extracting relationships and knowledge from a database of available cases and offer support for two types of assessment tasks: case solving, and case knowledge explicitation through construction of a decision tree classifier. The proposed system is described in terms of supported assessment tasks and underlying functions.
2020 43rd International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), 2020
For a martial artist wanting to have a good insight into their progress it is necessary to regula... more For a martial artist wanting to have a good insight into their progress it is necessary to regularly measure and evaluate their training performance. Unfortunately, most of today’s performance tracking devices applicable in martial arts training are expensive and thereby available only to professional sportsmen.This paper describes the model and prototype implementation of a device which facilitates information gathering and automated feedback provision during or after a heavy bag training session. Its main features are measuring relative punch strength, frequency, and spatial distribution with a minimalist setup and affordable hardware components. Device prototype implementation is evaluated in authentic settings and shows promising results.
2019 42nd International Convention on Information and Communication Technology, Electronics and Microelectronics (MIPRO)
File fragment classification is an important step in file forensics in which filetypes are assume... more File fragment classification is an important step in file forensics in which filetypes are assumed based on their available content fragments. Methods typically used for this task utilize machine learning techniques on features like byte frequency distributions and fragment entropy measures. In this paper, a contribution to this field is made through exploration of novel approaches to the problem including feedforward artificial neural networks and convolution networks. Feedforward neural networks were trained with byte histograms and with byte-pair histograms, while convolution neural networks were trained with blocks consisting of 512 bytes of data obtained from the GovDocs1 dataset. The results suggest convolution neural networks are not as promising for this problem as feedforward artificial neural networks, and feedforward artificial neural networks showing great results.
The data collected in this dataset are narratives exploring public policies, attitudes, individua... more The data collected in this dataset are narratives exploring public policies, attitudes, individual behaviors, and the collective experiences of the affected communities regarding face mask wearing at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The narratives were written by the members of the interdisciplinary research network Navigating Knowledge Landscapes (NKL; http://knowledge-landscapes.hiim.hr/). The members of the network are scholars belonging to different research disciplines and the aim of the network is to explore and discuss the individual aspects of citizens' navigation of (new) knowledge in the digital society. An invitation to participate in this study was sent to 97 members of the network on May 11, 2020, the written responses in the form of narratives were collected until May 26, 2020. In total, 29 scholars from 22 countries responded by providing their narratives, all of them collected in this dataset. The authors belong to 9 different academic disciplines with majority of them having background in Life Sciences, Sociology, Philosophy and Medicine. The authors described in their narratives the use of face masks in their countries according to their subjective point of view, and/or how people from their social environment perceive it. The participants were asked to answer the following questions in their narratives: • Part 1: What are the rules adopted in your country about face mask wearing? What would be the overall approach for use of the face masks in your community (government instructions, availability, the citizen compliance)? • Part 2: What is your individual/personal attitude and practice in relation to face masks? If applicable, start with good practice and end with what you consider to be mistakes. • Part 3: How do you judge the behavior of people you encounter? Face masks (or no face masks) and interpersonal interactions. Again, start with positive and end with negative. • Part 4 (optional): free to say whatever you think is important to the practices of your community in relation to face mas [...]
Contribution: This article describes and evaluates a novel undergraduate communication skills cou... more Contribution: This article describes and evaluates a novel undergraduate communication skills course for engineering students. The course focuses on improving student communication skills by using interactive lectures and authentic assessment activities in a scalable manner. Background: Published studies and reports suggest communication skills are becoming increasingly important for young engineers. Accordingly, communication skills are often included in engineering curricula. Engineering graduates typically lack these skills because they underestimate the importance of communication skills, while methods in teaching and assessing these skills remain inadequate. Providing proper support to students in acquiring communication skills and subsequently assessing learning outcomes without significantly increasing teacher workload is a challenge. Intended Outcomes: The intended outcome described in this article involves a scalable approach to teaching communication skills to undergraduate engineering students. The approach focuses on interaction during live lectures, authentic activities, and technology to achieve efficiencies for a small number of teaching staff holding the course to a large student population. In line with the expectancy-value theory (EVT) framework, the expectation is that the approach will have a positive effect on student perceptions of the importance of communication skills, which predict positive learning outcomes. Application Design: The course includes live lectures, practical homework assignments, and other authentic activities like elevator pitching, participating in job interviews as well as workshops or presentations. The importance in live lectures is placed on achieving interactivity by using an audience response system (AuResS). A peer review approach is used to assess homework assignments. Data from a survey of students qualifying their perceptions of communication skills were collected four times during the semester and analyzed along with their final course percentage. Findings: The study findings suggest first-semester engineering students think communication skills are important for engineers, and particularly value the authentic activities implemented in the course, even though the activities required more work on their behalf. However, only a small, statistically significant correlation was found between student opinions on the importance of communication skills and their course achievements. The AuResS and peer review, essential from the teachers’ perspective, were successfully used to achieve scalability in learning and assessment under the conditions described in this article.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of using online formative assessments on students’ le... more This study aimed to investigate the effects of using online formative assessments on students’ learning achievements. Using a quasi-experimental study design with one control group (no formative assessments available), and two experimental groups receiving feedback in available online formative assessments (knowledge of the correct response – KCR, or elaborated feedback – EF), it was investigated how feedback type in combination with learning content complexity will affect students’ learning achievements when used in-vivo, in a digital signal processing university course. Data generated by the two experimental groups was additionally used to investigate differences in using online formative assessments based on the feedback type. Study findings suggest online formative assessments are a very efficient educational intervention for this domain. The acquired data suggests that students quickly recognized the value of the formative assessments and that more than 90% of students have used them extensively. Statistically significant improvements in learning achievements were observed in the KCR group compared to the control group (p < 0.01, Cohen’s d between 0.691 and 1.080, depending on the learning content complexity), and KCR group compared to the EF group (p < 0.01, Cohen’s d = 0.877, in the case of most complex of the three learning contents used). No statistically significant differences were found in formative assessment usage between the two experimental groups, aside from the difference in the time between consecutive formative assessment attempts, indicating students did make use of the available feedback. Reported results are significant for demonstrating the potential of online formative assessments in achieving the desired learning outcomes in higher education, as well as for gaining insights into students’ habits of using them.
Abstract: Network performance highly depends on efficiency of the firewall because for each netwo... more Abstract: Network performance highly depends on efficiency of the firewall because for each network packet which enters or leaves the network a decision has to be made whether to accept it or reject it. This paper presents one approach to rule optimization solutions for improving firewall performance. The new software solution has been developed based on relations between rules. Its main purpose is to remove anomalies in ordering of Linux firewall rules and to merge similar rules. Developed rule optimization software (FIRO) is intended to be used with IP Tables Linux firewall command tool, but it can be easily adapted for other tool, as well. FIRO works in several passes through revised rule lists. In each step of optimization process FIRO generates a different rule list. Unlike existing solutions, FIRO also analyzes log rules and takes into account other rule parameters besides IP addresses, ports, protocols and action.
2020 43rd International Convention on Information, Communication and Electronic Technology (MIPRO), 2020
Classification of file fragments is a crucial step in digital forensics and determining file type... more Classification of file fragments is a crucial step in digital forensics and determining file types based on available data fragments. Currently explored file fragment classification methods other than forensic hand-examination rely on machine learning techniques. Those methods most commonly use features based on byte frequency distribution as inputs in artificial neural networks. In this paper, some new approaches to file fragment classification are explored. Older MS Office file format files (doc, ppt, and xls), and the new MS Office format (docx, pptx, and xlsx), which were previously shown to be difficult to differentiate between, were joined into two separate higher-level classes due to similarities in the included files’ structure. Different approaches to specifically differentiating between subtypes in each of those two higher-level classes are further explored in the paper. The results suggest small increases in classification accuracy can be achieved using the proposed appro...
Lectures still are and will remain the major teaching method in many formal and informal settings... more Lectures still are and will remain the major teaching method in many formal and informal settings. However, according to cognitive learning theories,
Lectures were, still are and seem to remain a dominant form of teaching, despite an increased res... more Lectures were, still are and seem to remain a dominant form of teaching, despite an increased research and use of other methods of teaching and leverage of technology aimed at improving teaching results and efficiency. Learning, as the result of a lecture, greatly depends on the subject, the competence and abilities of the lecturer as well as on other transient causes. However, lectures also have some intrinsic deficiencies as a teaching method pertinent to their very nature. In order to fully understand the teaching value of lectures and their role and proper use in educational systems, their deficiencies have been studied in a theoretical analysis from the perspective of cognitive learning theories. Fifteen deficiencies have been identified and clustered in three categories based on root causes of deficiencies: synchronicity problems, time constraint and individual student abilities, needs and knowledge. These findings can be used to adjust expected learning outcomes of lectures, ...
U studenom 2000. godine pokrenut je projekt primjene informacijske tehnologije Komparativna anali... more U studenom 2000. godine pokrenut je projekt primjene informacijske tehnologije Komparativna analiza programske potpore informacijskim sustavima u Hrvatskoj. Istraživanje je obavljeno uz potporu Ministarstva znanosti i tehnologije. Komparativnom analizom domace i strane Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programske podrske prisutne u Hrvatskoj željelo se utvrditi: stvarni sadržaj koji se nudi u pojedinim rjesenjima, potrebna i dovoljna ulaganja, teskoce i probleme povezane s ugradnjom ERP rjesenja, moguce ucinke primjene ugrađenih rjesenja, poziciju domacih u odnosu na inozemna rjesenja, mogucnosti Hrvatske u ovom podrucju. Rezultatima istraživanja nastoji se potencijalnim i postojecim korisnicima ERP sustava pružiti informaciju o stanju na tržistu i mogucim troskovima nabave i uvođenja, odnosno daljnjeg razvoja i održavanja ERP sustava. Dobavljacima sustava i organizacijama koje se bave izgradnjom ERP sustava nastoji se pružiti informaciju o poželjnim svojstvima ovih sus...
There is an increasing number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) interve... more There is an increasing number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) interventions within the education system, and the question of their effectiveness as well as the optimal ways to determine their effectiveness are a growing subject of interest. This study qualitatively evaluates a two-year STEM intervention programme to gain a deeper insight into the students’ perception and understanding of a STEM intervention. The second aim was to provide some recommendations for planning future interventions in STEM, understanding a provided reason behind students’ satisfaction. Napredak 1-2 BOOK.indb 125 11.6.2019. 18:43:04 M. Blažev et al.: Qualitative analysis of experience... napredak 160 (1-2) 125 -148 (2019) 126 Four focus group discussions were conducted with students in 4th through 6th grades (N = 24) in 2016 and four focus groups with students in the 5th through 7th grades (N = 34) in 2017. The use of a qualitative approach in the evaluation of the STEM intervent...
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