Browsing by Author "Patrick FitzGerald, Committee Member"

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Affective Behavior Control for Lifelike Pedagogical Agents
(2002-08-21) Stelling, Gary Dean; James C. Lester, Committee Chair; Patrick FitzGerald, Committee Member; Michael Young, Committee Member
Lifelike pedagogical agents should be especially effective in constructivist learning environments in which students participate in active problem solving. We can simulate such a constructivist setting with personal computing using a well-designed, evocative graphical interface and the rich multimedia -- audio, video and animation -- currently available. Beyond such an authentic problem-solving context, constructivist learning employs a social aspect, centered on the interaction of learner and mentor. We submit that an animated pedagogical agent who delivers contextualized problem-solving advice can play the part of the expert. Further, we propose that an added measure of believability and motivation would result from giving these agents the ability to express situationally appropriate emotions. To test the promise of such an affective agent, we first identified the cognitive emotion types most useful in a problem-solving dialog. We then devised a structure to store the details of the learner's situation in order to determine the appropriate emotion from the pedagogical agent. These enhancements have been instantiated in a full-scale implementation of the lifelike pedagogical agent of DESIGN-A-PLANT, a learning environment developed in the domain of botanical anatomy and physiology for middle-school students. Evaluation by a focus group of students was encouraging. They preferred the emotional version of the agent and reported that his affective behavior was helpful in their problem solving.
Explorations in Three-Dimensional User Interfaces for Learning Environments
(2003-11-07) Casstevens, Randy Mark; Robert St. Amant, Committee Member; James Lester, Committee Chair; Patrick FitzGerald, Committee Member
Computerized learning environments have the potential to dramatically improve the pedagogical effectiveness of the educational process. The computer will not replace the teacher in the classroom, but it could play a significant role in the students' education. The computerized learning environment could provide each student an interactive, custom lesson. This thesis examines how to develop a three-dimensional user interface that would improve the learning environment. We draw examples from two three-dimensional learning environments; the Steve and PhysViz projects. This thesis discusses four stages of the software development cycle (analysis, design, prototyping, and evaluation) to consider when developing a three-dimensional user interface. We first describe the potential characteristics of a learning environment that benefit from a three-dimensional interface. Next we explore the use of interaction metaphors and affordances in a three-dimensional learning environment. We found that direct manipulation of the interface can be very useful for a learning environment and also saw how this can be facilitated by affordances. After the design considerations, we begin examining issues that arise when prototyping a three-dimensional learning environment. Our discussion focuses on issues we encountered with Java 3D when implementing our three-dimensional world for the PhysViz project. We also introduce some ideas about camera control, navigation of the student, and the display of text. Finally, we propose an evaluation plan for three-dimensional user interfaces for learning environments. This thesis provides software developers of learning environments with a guide to the advantages and disadvantages of using a three-dimensional interface. From developing PhysViz, a physics tutorial application, we found that a three-dimensional interface was beneficial. The additional dimension added to the richness of the interface and improved the pedagogical effectiveness of our learning environment.
A Framework for Real-time Synchronization in Intelligent Media Generators
(2004-04-02) Lee, Seung Yong; James Lester, Committee Chair; Michael Young, Committee Member; Patrick FitzGerald, Committee Member
Recent advances in computer graphics and multimedia technologies have contributed to the development of interactive media-rich systems that generate media elements dynamically in multiple modalities to present information in an effective and appealing manner to users. Utilizing media elements in an application that requires them to be temporally coordinated in real-time presents synchronization issues because the wrong timing or duration of media elements will be easily detected by the user. Most media-rich systems have solved various aspects of the media element synchronization problem. However, they have done so in an ad hoc manner without providing a generic reusable framework. This thesis proposes a framework for real-time synchronization in intelligent media generators. Our research addresses six primary issues that are essential to creating media-rich systems that do not utilize an ad hoc solution to their media element synchronization problems: synchronization of media elements, decoupling high-level and low-level processing, extensibility, media element sequencing, real-time performance, and domain-independence. The framework has been implemented in an agent-based multimedia generator for an intelligent tutoring system to demonstrate its feasibility.