Human Computer Interaction(HCI)

This project is highly based on human computer interaction because the learning process entails that, the user has a reasonable knowledge of computer and its tools to aid learning. The user is meant request a specific action which the computer must respond to and at certain stages of the learning process, the computer will be coming up with some modal widows which the user is meant to respond to for the process to continue.
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in definitive terms could be said to be a process where a person interacts with a computer to perform certain function or execute a process.
“Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them.” (Hewett et al., 1996).

Interaction Devices and Tools
The proposed system is meant to interact with the users via some of the computer tools. They include:
Keyboard: this will be useful in typing commands and inputting text or data entry required by the system to perform various tasks
Mouse: this mouse will be quite useful in dragging items, cursor movement, clicking icons and buttons, making selections in combo boxes, radio boxes and check boxes.
Monitor: this is the device for displaying information required by the user and the output of the system

Moreso, Hewett et al., (1996) in their analysis on human computer interaction identified the following dialog techniques in HCI:

“Dialogue Inputs:
Types of input purposes (e.g., selection, discrete parameter specification, continuous control)
Input techniques: keyboard techniques (e.g, commands, menus), mouse-based techniques (e.g., picking, rubber-band lines), pen-based techniques (e.g., character recognition, gesture), voice-based techniques

Dialogue Outputs:
Types of output purposes (e.g., convey precise information, summary information, illustrate processes, create visualizations of information)
Output techniques (e.g., scrolling display, windows, animation, sprites, fish-eye displays)
Screen layout issues (e.g., focus, clutter, visual logic)

Dialogue Interaction Techniques:
Dialogue type and techniques (e.g., alphanumeric techniques, form filling, menu selection, icons and direct manipulation, generic functions, natural language) “ (Hewett et al., 1996).
The system I will be designing for this project will employ quite a number of the above techniques to aid friendliness of the system and to make the use quite easy and flexible.

Graphical User Interface (GUI) as a Tool for Effective and Efficient Human Computer Interaction
A well designed and structured GUI is a veritable tool at aiding proper HCI. It is a more friendly way of HCI compared to command line interaction.
For this project, a GUI will be designed to serve as an interface between the user and the computer.

Response Time in HCI
For effective interaction the response time of the system should be considerably low and this will be put into consideration in the design of the system.

Event Driven Programming

Event driven programming is a programming paradigm in which actions are performed based on event occurrences.
A system that uses Graphical User Interface (GUI) in interacting with users such as windows has some tools via which users trigger events to perform certain actions. Events could be triggered on mouse click, mouse over, keyboard pressed or it could be triggered by other programs.
Graphical User Interface has some built in components called Objects such as, buttons, radio buttons, combo boxes, text fields and areas, menus, list amongst others. These objects are interacted with by the user either through the mouse or the keyboard to signal an event. Each of the objects is registered with an event listener to be able to sense when an event has been performed on it.
Event driving programming makes computer aided learning very easy and flexible. It aids user friendliness in the use of computer as users can interact quite easily with the system without having too much expertise of the system unlike the command line programming structure which is quite procedural where the user will have to remember all the commands required to perform certain action. In event-driven system, visual aids on the GUI are used where the user can merely click on an icon to perform a number of operations.
Any programming Language that adopts the use of events in performing actions at any point or level of its operation is said to be an Event-driven Programming Language.
There are number of programming languages that adopt the use of event driven programming. All the Object Oriented programming languages such as Java and C++ are event driven programming languages. Other programming languages that use this mode are: Visual Basic, JavaScript, Python and FoxPro amongst others.

Tuesday 27th May '08 Project Meeting Resolutions and Supervisor's input

In the meeting, the following areas were identified as areas to work on this week which will be discussed in the next meeting:

1. Investigating the educational concept required for the project
2. How to create the lessons/tutorials which will form the basis for the learning process
3. Programming concept: since there are a number of event driven programming languages that could be employed for this kind of project, it is essential to research into them and decide which one I will be interesting in using
4. Technical aspect: This involve details of Boolean logic/algebra.

The above will form the underlining task for the week.

Computer Aided Learning (CAL)

Computer aided learning has become a veritable system adopted in acquiring knowledge or information. The computer has become an effective tool that could be used in implementing virtually all required human endeavour with the appropriate software to backup such.
Learning as a process entails the acquiring of knowledge through various means which could range from direct human interaction where knowledge is directly passed from one person to the other or it could be inform of learning via a pre-designed system where such knowledge could be acquired whenever it is required.
Computer aided learning can come in various forms. I simply categorized these into two which are conscious or direct learning and subconscious or relative learning. Sissel, G. S. et al., in their research identified two learning systems, implicit and explicit learning. (Sissel, G. S. et al., 2000.).
Conscious or Direct Learning
This type of learning is more cognitive as it is rightly designed and channeled to a particular base. It is systematically structured to aid progressive acquiring of knowledge. This learning process is formalized and structured to follow a particular pattern or flow. “It is 'educative learning' rather than the accumulation of experience. To this extent there is a consciousness of learning - people are aware that the task they are engaged in entails learning” (SMITH, M. K., 1999)
Subconscious or relative learning
This mode of learning is not planned or arranged. Knowledge is acquired through performing some activities which inherently places some knowledge in the mind by virtue of the process taken in the learning process. This gained knowledge is not directly sought for but comes as an unsolicited attachment relative to the process involved. The try and error method of solving a problem can also be said to fall into this category of learning system where a number of unstructured methods are adopted to arrive at a solution without initially conceptualizing the idea.

Computer Learning Methods
Various learning methods have been identified through the computer user interface. The user interface forms a very important aspect of the computer learning system. This interface is designed to aid the user interaction with the system for efficient and effective learning. The user interface is also said to be; "the parts of the system with which the user comes into contact physically, perceptually or cognitively." (Sissel, G. S. et al., 2000.).
Human computer interaction is seen as a method of relating with the computer in an interactive manner. It is analogous to a two way reaction where an action from a side triggers a reaction from the opposite site.
The computer user interface consists of the various parts of the computer system ranging from hardware to software. The monitor or screen, keyboard, mouse, light pen all form some of the hardware parts of the user interface.
User interaction with the computer could be graphical which is known as Graphical User Interface, (GUI) where the user interact with the system by using the mouse in triggering an event or it could be through the command line where the user types the required command needed to perform the action. Example of GUI is the Microsoft Windows (eg XP or Vista) while Microsoft DOS is an example of command line interaction.

Aims of the project

• Investigate the use of CAL in education and the use of an Event-driven Programming Language
• Develop a suitable set of tutorials
• Develop a suitable logic circuit simulation
• Develop an application using an Event-driven programming Language.

Project Introduction Continued

The key techniques for this project which will be discussed further in the project investigation are:

• Computer aided learning
• Event-driven programming Language
• Human computer interaction
• Software development
• Boolean Algebra and Logic Circuits

The package when completed will offer the user a comprehensive set of tutorial exercises and laboratory simulation including a selection of the following facilities:

• Truth table completion for boolean algerbraic expressions
• creation of logic circuits from boolean algebraic expressions
• derivation of Boolean algebraic expression from logic circuits
• workbench simulation allowing user to create own logic circuits and display each circuit in operation.

A Boolean Logic Computer Aided Learning System

There is currently a requirement for a good computer-aided learning package that would facilitate the teaching of Boolean logic and logic circuit to undergraduate students. The package would offer the user a comprehensive set of tutorial exercises and laboratory simulations. This project aims to address these issues.