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Publications

Publications by CSE

2019

PROud-A Gamification Framework Based on Programming Exercises Usage Data

Authors
Queiros, R;

Publication
INFORMATION

Abstract
Solving programming exercises is the best way to promote practice in computer programming courses and, hence, to learn a programming language. Meanwhile, programming courses continue to have an high rate of failures and dropouts. The main reasons are related with the inherent domain complexity, the teaching methodologies, and the absence of automatic systems with features such as intelligent authoring, profile-based exercise sequencing, content adaptation, and automatic evaluation on the student's resolution. At the same time, gamification is being used as an approach to engage learners' motivations. Despite its success, its implementation is still complex and based on ad-hoc and proprietary solutions. This paper presents PROud as a framework to inject gamification features in computer programming learning environments based on the usage data from programming exercises. This data can be divided into two categories: generic data produced by the learning environmentsuch as, the number of attempts and the duration that the students took to solve a specific exerciseor code-specific data produced by the assessment toolsuch as, code size, use memory, or keyword detection. The data is gathered in cloud storage and can be consumed by the learning environment through the use of a client library that communicates with the server through an established Application Programming Interface (API). With the fetched data, the learning environment can generate new gamification assets (e.g., leaderboards, quests, levels) or enrich content adaptations and recommendations in the inner components such as the sequencing tools. The framework is evaluated on its usefulness in the creation of a gamification asset to present dynamic statistics on specific exercises.

2019

Memoized zipper-based attribute grammars and their higher order extension

Authors
Fernandes, JP; Martins, P; Pardo, A; Saraiva, J; Viera, M;

Publication
SCIENCE OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING

Abstract
Attribute grammars are a powerfull, well-known formalism to implement and reason about programs which, by design, are conveniently modular. In this work we focus on a state of the art zipper-based embedding of classic attribute grammars and higher-order attribute grammars. We improve their execution performance through controlling attribute (re)evaluation by means of memoization techniques. We present the results of our optimizations by comparing their impact in various implementations of different, well-studied, attribute grammars and their Higher-Order extensions.

2019

Get Your Spreadsheets Under (Version) Control

Authors
Macedo, JN; Moreira, R; Cunha, J; Saraiva, J;

Publication
Proceedings of the XXII Iberoamerican Conference on Software Engineering, CIbSE 2019, La Habana, Cuba, April 22-26, 2019.

Abstract
Spreadsheets play a pivotal role in many organizations. They serve to store and manipulate data or forecasting, and they are often used to help in the decision process, thus directly impacting the success, or not, of organizations. As the research community already realized, spreadsheets tend to have the same problems “professional” software contain. Thus, in the past decade many software engineering techniques have been successfully proposed to aid spreadsheet developers and users. However, one of the most used mechanisms to manage software projects is still lacking in spreadsheets: a version control system. A version control system allows for collaborative development, while also allowing individual developers to explore different alternatives without compromising the main project. In this paper we present a version control system, named SheetGit, oriented for end-user programmers. It allows to graphically visualize the history of versions (including branches), to switch between different versions just by pointing and clicking, and to visualize the differences between any two versions in an animated way. To validate our approach/tool we performed an empirical evaluation which shows evidence that SheetGit can aid users when compared to other tools.

2019

Comparison of Radial and Panel Menus in Virtual Reality

Authors
Monteiro, P; Coelho, H; Goncalves, G; Melo, M; Bessa, M;

Publication
IEEE ACCESS

Abstract
Although selection menus are widely used for interaction, their use on 3D virtual reality applications needs to be objectively assessed. The focus of this study is to evaluate a traditional panel and a radial menu in two distinct virtual environment placements (i.e. fixed on the wall and following the users' hands). Fifty-one participants used two different menus of the four possible combinations. To evaluate the menus' effectiveness and efficiency, we measured usability (System Usability Scale Questionnaire), user satisfaction (After-Scenario Questionnaire), time to finish the tasks (in seconds) and the number of unnecessary steps (errors) performed by the users. Overall results showed a clear preference for the traditional panel menu type and the fixed wall placement of the menu. We conclude that all menu types perform well, despite different user preferences, and that fixing the menu to the wall gives users a better overview of both the menu and the virtual environment, improving their ability to perceive their actions on the menu.

2019

Preserving story choreographies across multiple platforms: An approach to platform-independent reuse of characters' behaviors for games, simulations, animations and interactive videos

Authors
Lacet, D; Penicheiro, F; Morgado, L; Coelho, A;

Publication
ARTECH 2019: 9th International Conference on Digital and Interactive Arts, Braga, Portugal, October 23-25, 2019

Abstract
The main goal of the conference is to promote the interest in the current digital culture and its intersection with art and technology as an important research field, and also to create a common space for discussion and exchange of new experiences. It seeks to foster greater understanding about digital arts and culture across a wide spectrum of cultural, disciplinary, and professional practices. To this end, many scholars, teachers, researchers, artists, comput-er professionals, and others who are working within the broadly defined areas of digital arts, culture and education across the world, submitted their innovative work to the conference. © 2019 ACM.

2019

Adaptation and Validation of the Temple Presence Inventory in a Portuguese Population

Authors
Vasconcelos Raposo, J; Bessa, M; Teixeira, CM; Cabral, L; Melo, M;

Publication
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION

Abstract
The present study aims to translate and validate the Temple Presence Inventory (TPI) for the Portuguese context, respecting the maintenance of an equivalent semantics as well as the validity of its contents and concepts. This study also aims to verify the psychometric properties of the instrument (factor validity and internal consistency). The sample consisted of 455 individuals (male = 271, female = 184). The fidelity of the factors varied between 0.5 and 0.84. The confirmatory factor analysis produced a theoretical model with 38 items distributed among eight factors. The covariance between some residual errors of instrument items was considered, and the following fit indices were observed: chi 2/df = 2.073; GFI = 0.858; CFI = 0.887; RSMEA = 0.049; AIC = 1527. The results confirm the appropriateness of the version adapted to the Portuguese language of the TPI and that it can be used in research projects aiming to evaluate Presence in the Portuguese-speaking population (Europe).

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