A gamified mobile application for engaging new students at university orientation

The term gamification describes the addition of game elements to non-game contexts as a means to motivate and engage users. This study investigates the design, delivery and pilot evaluation of a gamified, smartphone application built to introduce new students to the campus, services and people at university during their first few weeks. This paper describes changes to the application made after an initial field study was undertaken and provides an evaluation of the impact of the redesign. Survey responses were collected from thirteen students and usage data was captured from 105 students. Results indicate three levels of user engagement and suggest that there is value in adding game elements to the experience in this way. A number of issues are identified and discussed based on game challenges, input, and facilitating game elements in an event setting such as university orientation.

TiltZoom : tilt-based zooming control for easy one-handed mobile interactions

In this paper, we present TiltZoom, a collection of tilt-based interaction techniques designed for easy one-handed zooming on mobile devices. TiltZoom represents novel gestural interaction techniques, implemented using rate-of-rotation readings from a gyroscope, a sensor commonly embedded on current generation smart phones. We designed and experimented three variants of TiltZoom - Tilt Level, Tilt and Hold and Flip Gesture. The design decisions for all three variants are discussed in this paper and their performance, as well as subjective user experience are evaluated and compared against conventional touch-based zooming techniques. TiltZoom appears to be a worthy addition to current established collection of gesture-based mobile interaction techniques for zooming controls, especially when user has only one hand available when moving about.

Learning personalized tag ontology from user tagging information

The cross-sections of the Social Web and the Semantic Web has put folksonomy in the spot light for its potential in overcoming knowledge acquisition bottleneck and providing insight for "wisdom of the crowds". Folksonomy which comes as the results of collaborative tagging activities has provided insight into user's understanding about Web resources which might be useful for searching and organizing purposes. However, collaborative tagging vocabulary poses some challenges since tags are freely chosen by users and may exhibit synonymy and polysemy problem. In order to overcome these challenges and boost the potential of folksonomy as emergence semantics we propose to consolidate the diverse vocabulary into a consolidated entities and concepts. We propose to extract a tag ontology by ontology learning process to represent the semantics of a tagging community. This paper presents a novel approach to learn the ontology based on the widely used lexical database WordNet. We present personalization strategies to disambiguate the semantics of tags by combining the opinion of WordNet lexicographers and users’ tagging behavior together. We provide empirical evaluations by using the semantic information contained in the ontology in a tag recommendation experiment. The results show that by using the semantic relationships on the ontology the accuracy of the tag recommender has been improved.

Collaborative tagging in participatory webs : the death of information organisation?

Many organisations, companies and libraries started to use participatory webs to extend their services and engage more users. However, some librarians are still hesitated to implement participatory webs in their libraries, particularly in developing countries. This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of participatory webs focusing on collaborative tagging. This paper draws from the literature of published articles discussing topics but not limited to participatory webs, participatory libraries, collaborative tagging, folksonomy and taxonomy. The advantages of implementation of the participatory webs in the library outweigh the disadvantages of it. Participatory webs do not necessarily mean the death of information organisation but it can supplement and improves information organisation in the library. This paper may help to broaden knowledge of LIS professionals in the implementation of participatory webs in the library.

A survey of tagging techniques for music, speech and environmental sound

Sound tagging has been studied for years. Among all sound types, music, speech, and environmental sound are three hottest research areas. This survey aims to provide an overview about the state-of-the-art development in these areas.We discuss about the meaning of tagging in different sound areas at the beginning of the journey. Some examples of sound tagging applications are introduced in order to illustrate the significance of this research. Typical tagging techniques include manual, automatic, and semi-automatic approaches.After reviewing work in music, speech and environmental sound tagging, we compare them and state the research progress to date. Research gaps are identified for each research area and the common features and discriminations between three areas are discovered as well. Published datasets, tools used by researchers, and evaluation measures frequently applied in the analysis are listed. In the end, we summarise the worldwide distribution of countries dedicated to sound tagging research for years.

Mobile Q&A for enhancing online discussion

In this study, we explore the design and evaluation of a mobile online discussion system for motivating students to share their learning experiences. The system supports interaction with peers and academic staff anytime and anywhere using mobile devices. The application introduces a set of features that enables customisation for different purposes. This paper describes the application and explains the motivation for developing the application. We describe the methods and results of a case study that explores usage of the application among a small group of localised participants. Finally, we discuss the implications of this work and outline future areas of research and development.

Transforming mobile personal life log into autobiographical multimedia eChronicles

Mobile devices are becoming indispensable personal assistants in people's daily life as these devices support work, study, play and socializing activities. The multi-modal sensors and rich features of smartphones can capture abundant information about users' life experience, such as taking photos or videos on what they see and hear, and organizing their tasks and activities using calendar, to-do lists, and notes. Such vast information can become useful to help users recalling episodic memories and reminisce about meaningful experiences. In this paper, we propose to apply autobiographical memory framework to provide an effective mechanism to structure mobile life-log data. The proposed model is an attempt towards a more complete personal life-log indexing model, which will support long term capture, organization, and retrieval. To demonstrate the benefits of the proposed model, we propose some design solutions for enabling users-driven capture, annotation, and retrieval of autobiographical multimedia chronicles tools.

Mobile social tool for supporting responsible drinking in yourng women

Binge drinking is an important issue in Australia and worldwide. Existing studies have shown that mobile tools provide an effective method to self-monitor drink sessions, whereas social tool such as Facebook, can be used to construct social drinker identity (thus normalizing binge drinking), but if used among a peer-support that promotes the importance of responsible drinking, it potentially can be effective in moderating alcohol consumption. To combine mobile and social tool approaches, the study involves two complementary and largely qualitative studies to inform a novel design of an engaging mobile social tool for supporting responsible drinking among young women: (1) a survey of literature and mobile tools on alcohol related studies and interventions; (2) an in-depth focus group interview among young women aged 18 to 24. The results and discussions provide some valuable insights for future research and development in the field.

Enhancing public transport passenger experience via mobile-mediated applications and services

Despite the rapidly urbanising population, public transport usage in metropolitan areas is not growing at a level that corresponds to the trend. Many people are reluctant to travel using public transport, as it is commonly associated with unpleasant experiences such as limited services, long wait time, and crowded spaces. This study aims to explore the use of mobile spatial interactions and services, and investigate their potential to increase the enjoyment of our everyday commuting experience. The main goal is to develop and evaluate mobile-mediated design interventions to foster interactions for and among passengers, as well as between passengers and public transport infrastructures, with the aim to positively influence the experience of commuting. Ultimately, this study hopes to generate findings and knowledge towards creating a more enjoyable public transport experience, as well as to explore innovative uses of mobile technologies and context-aware services for the urban lifestyle.

Uninav : a context-aware mobile application for university campus maps

The smart phones we carry with us are becoming ubiquitous with everyday life and the sensing capabilities of these devices allow us to provide context-aware services. In this paper, we discuss the development of UniNav, a context-aware mobile application that delivers personalised campus maps for universities. The application utilises university students’ details to provide information and services that are relevant and important to them. It helps students to navigate within the campus and become familiar with their university environment quickly. A study was undertaken to evaluate the acceptability and usefulness of the campus map, as well as the impact on a users’ navigation efficiency by utilising the personal and environmental contexts. The result indicates the integration of personal and environmental contexts on digital maps can improve its usefulness and navigation efficiency.

Mobile valuations : the Internet's impact on traditional valuation services

Preparing valuations is a time consuming process involving site inspections, research and report formulation. The ease of access to the internet has changed how and where valuations may be undertaken. No longer is it necessary to return to the office to finalise reports, or leave your desk in order to undertake research. This enables more streamlined service delivery and is viewed as a positive. However, it is not without negative impacts. This paper seeks to inform practitioners of the work environment changes flowing from increased access to the internet. It identifies how increased accessibility to, and use of, technology and the internet has, and will continue to, impact upon valuation service provision into the future.

Effect of mobile phone-based psychotherapy in suicide prevention : a randomized controlled trial in Sri Lanka

We conducted a randomized controlled trial to test whether a Brief Mobile Treatment (BMT) intervention could improve outcomes relative to usual care among suicide attempters. The intervention included training in problem solving therapy, meditation, a brief intervention to increase social support as well as advice on alcohol and other drugs, and mobile phone follow-up. The effect of the intervention was measured in terms of a reduction in suicidal ideation, depression and self-harm at Baseline, six and 12 months. A wait-list control group received usual care. A total of 68 participants was recruited from a Sri Lankan hospital following a suicide attempt. Participants who received the intervention were found to achieve significant improvements in reducing suicidal ideation and depression than those receiving usual care. The BMT group also experienced a significant improvement of social support when compared to the control group. However, the BMT group did not demonstrate a significant effect in reducing actual self-harm and most substance use, and differential effects on alcohol use were restricted to men. Although the present study was limited in revealing which component of the intervention was more effective in preventing suicide, it showed its efficacy in reducing suicide as a whole.

De-mystifying [a facet of] mobile learning : collaborative media in studio

“Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach” (Prensky, 2001, p. 1). The influx of available new technology has helped to democratise knowledge, transforming when, where and how learning takes place, and changing perceptions of traditional learning landscapes (JISC, 2006; Neary et al., 2010). Mobile computers combined with wireless technology, have completely transformed the educational world; students have turned nomad[ic], engaging in conversations and thinking across traditional campus spaces (Alexander, 2004; Fisher, 2005). In this workshop we will be attempting to de-mystify a facet of mobile learning, by working in small groups to set up and kick start a number of social media sites, which can be used for collaboration and information exchange, in the design studio.

Using mobile technology and augmented reality to increase data reliability for environmental assessment

Climate change and land use pressures are making environmental monitoring increasingly important. As environmental health is degrading at an alarming rate, ecologists have tried to tackle the problem by monitoring the composition and condition of environment. However, traditional monitoring methods using experts are manual and expensive; to address this issue government organisations designed a simpler and faster surrogate-based assessment technique for consultants, landholders and ordinary citizens. However, it remains complex, subjective and error prone. This makes collected data difficult to interpret and compare. In this paper we describe a work-in-progress mobile application designed to address these shortcomings through the use of augmented reality and multimedia smartphone technology.