ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted globally on many industries worldwide (e.g., business and tourism). It has also caused unprecedented disruption to Thailand’s educational system. For instance, regular face-to-face classrooms had been temporarily stopped and moved to full-time online learning in which educators and students have used commercially available e-learning platforms (e.g., Moodle) and conferencing tools (e.g., Zoom). Although e-learning platforms and conferencing tools have shown benefits for both educators and learners, social interaction is limited on such platforms. Alternative solutions such as Virtual Reality (VR) technologies have shown promise to solve these challenges;however, research is limited in using such VR technologies in higher education in Thailand. To fill these gaps, we conducted a comparative usability study of three different learning platforms (three-dimensional VR – Spatial.io, two-dimensional VR – Gather.town, and Zoom application) to understand differences in usability and user experiences in terms of students’ engagement, enjoyment, and their sociability in learning. Findings suggest that due to its game-like environment and user-friendly features and user interface, Gather.town is the most promising alternative for online learning in higher education in Thailand. This study suggests opportunities for using game-like virtual classrooms for students to improve their engagement in learning. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The self-contained mobile educational applications support the student in the learning process combining technology and pedagogy through the use of mobile devices. The adoption of these applications is closely related to their level of usability. Generally, the usability studies of these applications are carried out through usability metrics or heuristics oriented for generic systems. In this paper, we describe in detail a usability study of two independent commercial mobile educational applications that incorporate interactivity, socialization, and adaptability. The usability study is presented with the intention of evaluating the usability of the applications in terms of the application interface, the educational support functions, and the characteristics of M-Learning. The objective of the usability study allowed us to identify the usability problems present in these types of applications. The application of the usability tests was carried out remotely due to the COVID-19 health contingency period. This usability study can serve as a reference for evaluators to identify and carry out a remote evaluation of these types of applications;as well as the test results could serve as a reference to improve the usability of mobile educational applications. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Election infrastructure includes socio-technical systems that are designated as United States critical infrastructure within the Government Facilities sector. Following the 2016 United States' General Election and during the 2020 Presidential Election cycle, election security and the integrity of election processes became a prevalent, national conversation. From the 2019 U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report indicating that election systems in all 50 states had been targeted by foreign adversaries to the more recent broadened use of, and concern about, mail-based voting during the COVID-19 pandemic, election integrity is increasingly important. Furthermore, poll workers play a crucial role in elections and election equipment, as they are one of the first lines of defense in systems security. This paper contributes to improving the security of election infrastructure through intentional, targeted, cyber, physical, and insider threat training for poll workers. Specifically, this paper details the engineering design, including pedagogical approach, and deployment of online, election-specific, threat training modules. Results of a System Usability Scale assessment from 44 poll workers indicate the content and online platform are easy to interact with and use. Further, the developed modules were piloted and then deployed in a mid-Atlantic state;participating counties include over 1,900 poll workers who serve nearly 750,000 voters. © 2021 IISE Annual Conference and Expo 2021. All rights reserved.