International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science (IJMECS)

IJMECS Vol. 4, No. 9, Sep. 2012

Cover page and Table of Contents: PDF (size: 127KB)

Table Of Contents

REGULAR PAPERS

Implementing WAI Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines in Developing Adaptive Elearning

By Said Talhi Fairouz Khadraoui Mahieddine Djoudi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.01, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

Adaptive learning technology allows for the development of more personalized online learning experiences with materials that adapt to student performance and skill level. The term “adaptive” is also used to describe Assistive Technologies that allow the usability of online based courses for learners with disabilities and special needs. Authoring tools can enable, encourage, and assist authors in the creation of elearning content. Because most of the content of the Web based adaptive learning is created using authoring tools, they may be accessible to authors regardless of disability and they may support and encourage the authors in creating accessible elearning content. This paper presents an authoring tool designed for developing accessible adaptive elearning. The authoring tool, dedicated to Algerian universities, is designed to satisfy the W3C/WAI Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG), and to allow collaboration functionalities among teachers where building elearning courses. After presenting the W3C/WAI accessibility guidelines, the collaborative authoring tool is outlined.

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The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Students’ Attitude Towards Computers: A Study on Polytechnic Engineering Students

By Jeya Amantha Kumar Balakrishnan Muniandy Wan Ahmad Jaafar Wan Yahaya

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.02, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

Computers are perceived as an important tool in the world of education. Computer technology today when used in teaching and learning could open the world to students. However when learning is concern, emotions relevant to learning should not be forgotten. Thus emotional intelligence should be considered when computers and learning is concern. There is very little research on the effect of emotional intelligence on learning and on technology. As learning with technology relates to computers, thus this study focuses on the relationship between emotional intelligence and attitudes towards computer. Based on this study it was found that emotional intelligence of the polytechnic engineering students was average and their attitudes towards computers were positive. The relationship between emotional intelligence and attitude towards computer is positive but very weak. Significant difference were found when gender was compared however CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) and ownership of computers did not affect this relationship.

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Study of Blended Learning Process in Education Context

By Asif Irshad Khan Noor-ul-Qayyum Mahaboob Sharief Shaik Abdullah Maresh Ali Ch.Vijaya Bebi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.03, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

Education is one of the areas that are experiencing phenomenal changes as a result of the advancement and use of information technology. Mobile and e-learning are already facilitating the teaching and learning experience with the use of latest channels and technologies. Blended learning is a potential outcome of advanced technology based learning system. The charm of blended learning approach lies in the adaptation of technology aided learning methods in addition to the existing traditional based learning. With the introduction of technology, the overall learning as well as teaching experience is considerably enhanced by covering negative aspects of the traditional approach. In this paper a blended learning model for higher education where traditional classroom lectures are supported via e-learning.

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Classification of ECG Using Chaotic Models

By Khandakar Mohammad Ishtiak A. H. M. Zadidul Karim

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.04, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

Chaotic analysis has been shown to be useful in a variety of medical applications, particularly in cardiology. Chaotic parameters have shown potential in the identification of diseases, especially in the analysis of biomedical signals like electrocardiogram (ECG). In this work, underlying chaos in ECG signals has been analyzed using various non-linear techniques. First, the ECG signal is processed through a series of steps to extract the QRS complex. From this extracted feature, bit-to-bit interval (BBI) and instantaneous heart rate (IHR) have been calculated. Then some nonlinear parameters like standard deviation, and coefficient of variation and nonlinear techniques like central tendency measure (CTM), and phase space portrait have been determined from both the BBI and IHR. Standard database of MIT-BIH is used as the reference data where each ECG record contains 650000 samples. CTM is calculated for both BBI and IHR for each ECG record of the database. A much higher value of CTM for IHR is observed for eleven patients with normal beats with a mean of 0.7737 and SD of 0.0946. On the contrary, the CTM for IHR of eleven patients with abnormal rhythm shows low value with a mean of 0.0833 and SD 0.0748. CTM for BBI of the same eleven normal rhythm records also shows high values with a mean of 0.6172 and SD 0.1472. CTM for BBI of eleven abnormal rhythm records show low values with a mean of 0.0478 and SD 0.0308. Phase space portrait also demonstrates visible attractor with little dispersion for a healthy person’s ECG and a widely dispersed plot in 2-D plane for the ailing person’s ECG. These results indicate that ECG can be classified based on this chaotic modeling which works on the nonlinear dynamics of the system.

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An Approach Towards Customized MultiTenancy

By Muhammad Fahad Khan Mirza Ahsan Ullah Aziz-ur-Rehman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.05, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

Multi-tenant applications are usually cloud based software services which can serve different users at the same time. This is done using single instance of applications by sharing hardware, infrastructure, data storage and virtualization. To achieve multi tenancy different approaches are there at every layer (Application, Data, hardware).Multi tenancy helps to minimize the effort needed for deployment and maintenance with an adequate level of security and privacy. Now a day the work is going on custom multi tenancy by sharing everything at each layer. This paper will describe the techniques of multi tenancy and how security, flexibility and scalability relate to each other when it comes to multi tenancy for customization.

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The Effect of Using Instructional Conversation Method on Reading Comprehension of Iranian EFL Learners

By Nader Assadi Aidinlou Shafagh Tabeei

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.06, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

The present study mainly focused on the impact of Instructional Conversation (IC) method on reading comprehension of Iranian intermediate high school learners. To accomplish the study,71 high school learners studying English. In order to determine their homogeneities in reading comprehension, a reading comprehension test was given to them. Then they based on their own scores, 45 students assigned two experimental groups and one control group, each include 15 students. Control group are taught through the traditional method, first experimental group are taught through Instructional Conversation method and second experimental group received Instructional Conversation with traditional method. After instruction, a post-test was given to them. The findings reveled differences in the performance of the three groups of the study. Based on the result of these study, adopting integrated approach (instructional conversation method plus traditional method) is more useful for increasing reading comprehension of the students.

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A Naïve Based approach of Model Pruned trees on Learner’s Response

By S Anupama Kumar Vijayalakshmi M.N.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.07, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

Appraisal and feedback have a strong positive influence on teachers and their work. Teachers report that it increases their job satisfaction and, to some degree, their job security, and it significantly increases their development as teachers. Student’s appraisal towards a teacher plays a vital role in building a very good teaching-learning environment in an educational institution. The evaluation report of the student helps the stakeholders to retain qualified teachers for the course. It will also help the teacher to understand the need of the student and the course. Therefore it becomes necessary to evaluate the teacher using appropriate tool to improve the quality of the education. Teacher evaluation can be measured based on the technical knowledge, communication skills, clarity, attitude towards the student etc. Regression trees can be considered as a tool to analyze the teacher appraisal scores. Two regression trees namely the REP tree and M5P algorithms are applied on the data set to bring out new knowledge from it. The algorithms have identified Parameter A as an important factor in teacher’s appraisal. Pruning has been taken as parameter to find the accuracy of the algorithm. The performance of the algorithm is measured using the mean absolute error and the time taken by the algorithms to derive the regression tree. The REP tree algorithm performs better than the M5P algorithm in terms of accuracy as well as the performance.

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Spatial Temporal Dynamics and Risk Zonation of Dengue Fever, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, and Dengue Shock Syndrome in Thailand

By Phaisarn Jeefoo

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2012.09.08, Pub. Date: 8 Sep. 2012

This study employed geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze the spatial factors related to dengue fever (DF), dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), and dengue shock syndrome (DSS) epidemics. Chachoengsao province, Thailand, was chosen as the study area. This study examines the diffusion pattern of disease. Clinical data including gender and age of patients with disease were analyzed. The hotspot zonation of disease was carried out during the outbreaks for years 2001 and 2007 by using local spatial autocorrelation statistics (LSAS) and kernel-density estimation (KDE) methods. The mean center locations and movement patterns of the disease were found. A risk zone map was generated for the incidence. Data for spatio-temporal analysis and risk zonation of DF/DHF/DSS were employed for years 2000 to 2007. Results found that the age distribution of the cases was different from the general population’s age distribution. Taking into account that the quite high incidence of DF/DHF/DSS cases was in the age group of 13-24 years old and the percentage rate of incidence was 42.9%, a DF/DHF/DSS virus transmission out of village is suspected. An epidemic period of 20 weeks, starting on 1st May and ending on 31st September, was analyzed. Approximately 25% of the cases occurred between Weeks 6-8. A pattern was found using mean centers of the data in critical months, especially during rainy season. Finally, it can be identified that from the total number of villages affected (821), the highest risk zone covered 7 villages (0.85%); the moderate risk zone comprised 39 villages (4.75%); for the low risk zone 22 villages (2.68%) were found; the very low risk zone consisted of 120 villages (14.62%); and no case occurred in 633 villages (77.10%). The zones most at risk were shown in districts Mueang Chachoengsao, Bang Pakong, and Phanom Sarakham. This research presents useful information relating to the DF/DHF/DSS. To analyze the dynamic pattern of DF/DHF/DSS outbreaks, all cases were positioned in space and time by addressing the respective villages. Not only is it applicable in an epidemic, but this methodology is general and can be applied in other application fields such as dengue outbreak or other diseases during natural disasters.

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