VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Ogle, J. Todd"

Browsing by Author "Ogle, J. Todd"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 28

Alchemically, an Educational Role-Playing Game
Freeman, Lucas Jerome (Virginia Tech, 2019-04-29)
Alchemically is an educational role-playing game that functions as a classroom aid for boosting middle school and high school students' memorization of molecular formulas and molecule's attributes. The game implements several diverse teaching methodologies, including trial and error, practice and feedback, and the presentation of information from audio and visual cues. It also motivates students to continue learning through both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Student players craft molecules by choosing and placing atoms into a crafting table, then bonding them together. To help players build molecules, players can reference a journal that includes images, diagrams, and factual information on the molecules included in the game.
The Assessment Agent System: Assessing Comprehensive Understanding Based on Concept Maps
Liu, Jianhua (Virginia Tech, 2010-09-10)
This dissertation explores the feasibility of employing software agent technology to support large-scale assessment. The research included the design, development, and evaluation of the Assessment Agent System for assessing comprehensive understanding based on concept maps. The system was designed by following an agent-oriented software design method. The Assessment Agent System is composed of five types of software agents: instructor agent, student agent, management agent, assessment agent, and reporting agent. Each of these agents was designed to possess different capabilities. Software agents in the system, through communication and cooperation, collectively provide the functionalities of user-system interaction, user management, task authoring and management, assessment delivery, task presentation, response collection, automatic assessing with feedback, and reporting. Through the process of design, development, and evaluation of the Assessment Agent System, this study demonstrates an approach that employs an agent-oriented software design method to produce sophisticated educational software applications. Furthermore, this study explored the concept map assessing method for the Assessment Agent System. When node terms and linking phrases are provided, assessing student concept maps can be automated by comparing student concept maps with assessment criteria, proposition by proposition. However, the usefulness of the proposition-comparing method depends heavily on the accuracy and thoroughness of the criterion propositions. Therefore, assessment criteria need to be continually refined and improved through examining student-created propositions.
Christiansburg Institute
Fralin, Scott; Finney, Trevor; Cline, David P.; Ogle, J. Todd; Tucker, Thomas J. (Virginia Tech, 2016-08-22)
This exhibit features work from Virginia Tech's Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies and computer science, education, and public history programs and an app developed around the history of the CI called CI-Spy. Founded in 1866 with 200 students, the Christiansburg Institute (CI) was a school that educated newly emancipated African Americans. As schools desegregated, fewer students attended the CI, and in the spring of 1966, its final senior class of 22 students graduated. 2016/08/22 - 2016/09/30
Comparative Study of Body Doubling in Extended Reality
Annavarapu, Swetha (Virginia Tech, 2024-02-29)
Body doubling is a mechanism that lets individuals work alongside someone on a monotonous task that they might not be able to focus on when they work alone. The person they work alongside is called a body double. It could be considered similar to co-working, but it gives individuals the freedom to work on anything that they want without feeling obligated to interact with the other person. This research aims to understand if body doubling is helpful to the users and how mixed reality body doubling can be a better addition to the existing mode of in-person and video-call based body doubling. In this work, we have recruited 40 participants to perform a user study where we have done a between-groups comparative study between a no body-double, in-person body double, a video-call based body double, and a mixed reality body double modes. Through these studies, we try to analyze if body doubling is helpful, and if so, which mode the participants are more inclined towards. The work also presents a few suggestions for future improvements.
A Description of the Employment Patterns of Persons Released From Virginia's Correctional Institutions Between July 1, 1998, and June 30, 2002
Morrissey, Michael Edward (Virginia Tech, 2004-08-10)
The 35,882 former offenders released by Virginia's Department of Corrections during the period of July 1, 1998, through June 30, 2002, are profiled using data provided by Virginia's Department of Corrections and Department of Correctional Education as well as the Virginia Employment Commission. Demographic characteristics of recidivating and non-recidivating former offenders released during this period, with sub-groupings to include gender, race, age, employment status, earnings, employment stability, and educational completion, as defined in the operational definitions of the study, are detailed, and the researcher's observations are noted.
Design and Development of an Electronic Performance Enhancement Tool for Creating and Maintaining Information Management Web Sites
Bowden, Todd H. (Virginia Tech, 2011-03-02)
This study explored the design and development of an electronic performance enhancement tool that can assist a person with limited programming skills to create a variety of simple customized information management websites. In particular, this study was modeled after needs within an Instruction Technology department in which individuals were able to create pre-functional web pages with various elements such as textboxes and dropdown menus but lacked the programming skills necessary to add functionality to these web forms. Skilled programmers could add functionality to these pre-functioning web forms or create customized information management websites from scratch. However, programmers are not always available when needed. At the time of this study, there was no readily available way for persons to create customized information management websites without the services of a programmer or without needing to learn programming skills themselves. This study sought to determine what functionalities, characteristics and capabilities could be included in an electronic performance enhancement tool to assist non-programmers to create simple customized information management websites and how a tool with such functionalities, characteristics and capabilities could be designed and developed. A prototype version of such tool (named the Form And DataBase Interaction Tool or "FADBIT") was designed and developed in this study. This tool asks users who have created simple pre-functional web forms to answer a series of questions related to those webforms. Given the user's responses to these questions, this tool is able to form a metalanguage representation of the user's intentions for the web form and can translate this representation into useful programming code to add the desired functionality. The tool was successfully designed and developed using a generalized modular framework, and a Create-Adapt-Generalize model, with each module addressing one or more patterns common to web programming. The prototype tool successfully allowed non-programmers to create functional information websites for two structured evaluation projects, and achieved some level of success and encountered some difficulties with an unstructured project. Proposed modifications and extensions to the tool to address the difficulties encountered are presented.
Designing Cultural Heritage Experiences for Head-Worn Augmented Reality
Gutkowski, Nicolas Joshua (Virginia Tech, 2021-05-27)
History education is important, as it provides context for current events today. Cultural heritage sites, such as historic buildings, ruins, or archaeological digs can provide a glimpse into the past. The use of different technologies, including augmented and virtual reality, to teach history has expanded. Augmented reality (AR) in particular can be used to enhance real artifacts and places to allow for deeper understanding. However, the experiences born out of these efforts primarily aim to enhance museum visits and are presented as handheld experiences on smartphones or tablets. The use of head-worn augmented reality for on-site history education is a gap. There is a need to examine how on-site historical experiences should be designed for AR headsets. This work aims to explore best practices of creating such experiences through a case study on the Solitude AR Tour. Additionally comparisons between designing for head-worn AR and handheld AR are presented.
Development of a Knowledge Assessment System Based on Concept Maps and Differential Weighting Approaches
Tao, Congwu (Virginia Tech, 2015-10-27)
This study explored the feasibility and practicability of designing and developing a Knowledge Assessment System (KAS) for assessing different types of knowledge as defined in the revision of Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). The KAS created as a result of this study is based on concept maps and employs two differential weighting approaches. It is a developmental study, which includes the design phase, development phase and evaluation phase. The general software system design model (Sommerville, 2009) was adopted to guide the design of the Knowledge Assessment System based on its procedures, including system requirements analysis, architecture design, component design, interface design, and database design. The assessment criteria in this system are designed to be proposition-based and consist of either a non-weighting approach or a weighting approach, which can help provide instructors with flexible assessing methods as well as help them obtain a whole picture of what kinds of knowledge their students have grasped and to what extent the students have mastered that knowledge, based on the student-created concept maps. The two differential weighting approaches initially compare student-created concept maps with expert maps stored in the system. Because some correct propositions in student concept maps may be not included in the initial expert concept maps, the system is designed to continually refine the assessment criterion by inspecting and evaluating the correctness of the propositions in the student-created concept maps and adding the results to the system's database. The current system is able to assess three types of knowledge: factual, conceptual, and procedural, all of which are defined in the revision of Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). The assessment process begins with the assignment of different types of concept map tasks entered and stored in the Knowledge Assessment System. Following by student completion of the tasks and submission of a concept map, the submitted concept map is compared to the criteria stored in the system and a performance report is generated. The research results show that the Knowledge Assessment System based on concept maps and two differential weighting approaches can act as a useful tool for assessing students' factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge based on their concept maps.
Development of Shared Situation Awareness Guidelines and Metrics as Developmental and Analytical Tools for Augmented and Virtual Reality User Interface Design in Human-Machine Teams
Van Dam, Jared Martindale Mccolskey (Virginia Tech, 2023-08-21)
As the frontiers and futures of work evolve, humans and machines will begin to share a more cooperative working space where collaboration occurs freely amongst the constituent members. To this end, it is then necessary to determine how information should flow amongst team members to allow for the efficient sharing and accurate interpretation of information between humans and machines. Shared situation awareness (SSA), the degree to which individuals can access and interpret information from sources other than themselves, is a useful framework from which to build design guidelines for the aforementioned information exchange. In this work, we present initial Augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) design principles for shared situation awareness that can help designers both (1) design efficacious interfaces based on these fundamental principles, and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of candidate interface designs based on measurement tools we created via a scoping literature review. This work achieves these goals with focused studies that 1) show the importance of SSA in augmented reality-supported tasks, 2) describe design guidelines and measurement tools necessary to support SSA, and 3) validate the guidelines and measurement tools with a targeted user study that employs an SSA-derived AR interface to confirm the guidelines distilled from the literature review.
The Effects of Virtual Environments on Recall in Participants of Differing Levels of Field Dependence
Ogle, J. Todd (Virginia Tech, 2002-04-11)
Virtual environments are visually dominant systems. It seems that individuals" visual perception abilities would have an effect on their performance in a virtual environment. One such visual perception ability that seems a logical fit for study in virtual environments is that of disembedding ability. Disembedding ability is one part of a greater psychological construct known as field dependence. This research investigates how the learner characteristic of field dependence affects learning outcomes in virtual environments In order to examine the effect of virtual environments on recall among learners of differing levels of field dependence, the following specific questions and hypotheses were formed: 1) Does the use of virtual environments affect participants" performance in a task of recall? 2) Do participants of different levels of field dependence perform differently on a task of recall when presented with virtual environments versus static images? 3) Do field-dependent participants score higher on a test of recall when presented with a virtual environment? An experimental design using a sample of Virginia Tech students was employed in this study. The analysis consisted of a 2 X 2 factorial design with main effects for two levels of field dependence (field dependent and field independent), two levels of image representation (virtual environment versus static images), and interaction effects between the two factors. The factorial analysis showed no significant difference in recall test scores for the two treatments. Likewise, there was no significant difference in test scores for field dependent participants who received the virtual-environment treatment versus the static-image treatment. However, a significant interaction existed between field dependence and treatment type, favoring the field-independent participants who received the virtual-environment treatment. It can be concluded from this study that virtual environments have no effect on the recall ability of field-dependent learners. Further research might focus on other individual differences, such as spatial ability, that may have an effect on field-dependent learners" strategies for working in a virtual environment.
Enhancing Digital Twins with Human Movement Data: A Comparative Study of Lidar-Based Tracking Methods
Karki, Shashank; Pingel, Thomas J.; Baird, Timothy D.; Flack, Addison; Ogle, J. Todd (MDPI, 2024-09-18)
Digitals twins, used to represent dynamic environments, require accurate tracking of human movement to enhance their real-world application. This paper contributes to the field by systematically evaluating and comparing pre-existing tracking methods to identify strengths, weaknesses and practical applications within digital twin frameworks. The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of existing human movement tracking techniques for digital twins in real world environments, with the goal of improving spatial analysis and interaction within these virtual modes. We compare three approaches using indoor-mounted lidar sensors: (1) a frame-by-frame method deep learning model with convolutional neural networks (CNNs), (2) custom algorithms developed using OpenCV, and (3) the off-the-shelf lidar perception software package Percept version 1.6.3. Of these, the deep learning method performed best (F1 = 0.88), followed by Percept (F1 = 0.61), and finally the custom algorithms using OpenCV (F1 = 0.58). Each method had particular strengths and weaknesses, with OpenCV-based approaches that use frame comparison vulnerable to signal instability that is manifested as “flickering” in the dataset. Subsequent analysis of the spatial distribution of error revealed that both the custom algorithms and Percept took longer to acquire an identification, resulting in increased error near doorways. Percept software excelled in scenarios involving stationary individuals. These findings highlight the importance of selecting appropriate tracking methods for specific use. Future work will focus on model optimization, alternative data logging techniques, and innovative approaches to mitigate computational challenges, paving the way for more sophisticated and accessible spatial analysis tools. Integrating complementary sensor types and strategies, such as radar, audio levels, indoor positioning systems (IPSs), and wi-fi data, could further improve detection accuracy and validation while maintaining privacy.
Environment Mapping in Larger Spaces
Ciambrone, Andrew James (Virginia Tech, 2017-02-09)
Spatial mapping or environment mapping is the process of exploring a real world environment and creating its digital representation. To create convincing mixed reality programs, an environment mapping device must be able to detect a user's position and map the user's environment. Currently available commercial spatial mapping devices mostly use infrared camera to obtain a depth map which is effective only for short to medium distances (3-4 meters). This work describes an extension to the existing environment mapping devices and techniques to enable mapping of larger architectural environments using a combination of a camera, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) devices supported by sensor fusion and computer vision techniques. There are three main parts to the proposed system. The first part is data collection and data fusion using embedded hardware, the second part is data processing (segmentation) and the third part is creating a geometry mesh of the environment. The developed system was evaluated against its ability to determine the dimension of the room and of objects within the room. This low cost system can significantly expand the mapping range of the existing mixed reality devices such as Microsoft HoloLens device.
Evaluating Group Interaction and Engagement using Virtual Environments and Serious Games for Student Audiences in Informal Learning Settings
Apostolellis, Panagiotis (Virginia Tech, 2017-04-14)
Museums are rich and complex learning experiences, using a variety of interactive approaches to engage their audiences. However, the largely unstructured nature of free-choice learning calls for alternative approaches that can effectively engage groups of school age students with diverse cultural backgrounds. In these informal learning spaces employing digital content, classroom-size student groups do not get adequate exposure to content and if they do, it is either through individual interactions with digital exhibits or in a passive style instruction offered by a museum docent to the whole group. This research aims to identify which elements of collocated group collaboration, virtual environments, and serious games can be leveraged for an enhanced learning experience for small and large groups of middle school students. We created a conceptual framework based on the Contextual Model of Learning in museums (John H. Falk and Dierking, 2000) and the most effective educational elements of Virtual Environments (VEs) and Serious Games, in order to increase engagement and social presence and facilitate learning. We then developed C-OLiVE (Collaborative Orchestrated Learning in Virtual Environments), an interactive virtual learning environment supporting group collaboration, which we used as a testbed to respond to our research questions. Our overall hypothesis is that synchronous, collocated, group collaboration will afford greater learning and an improved game experience compared to the conventional approaches used in these spaces so far. We ran three experiments and a case study with 790 students in private and public middle schools, summer camps, and museums both in the US and in Greece. Findings partly supported our hypothesis, mainly during our small group interaction experiments, in which simultaneous interaction of students was found to be associated with increased learning. Guidance of a passive experience was effective in facilitating the more cognitively challenged group of students in a Greek museum. Our audience interaction studies revealed increased retention of information two days after the game. Agency was found to significantly predict learning in all our studies. Engagement and social presence were mostly correlated with higher levels of involvement and agency in the game.
Evaluating the quality of ground surfaces generated from Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) data
Sun, Yanshen (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-24)
Researchers and GIS analysts have used Aerial Laser Scanning (ALS) data to generate Digital Terrain Models (DTM) since the 1990s, and various algorithms developed for ground point extraction have been proposed based on the characteristics of ALS data. However, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) data, which might be a better indicator of ground morphological features under dense tree canopies and more accessible for small areas, have been long ignored. In this research, the aim was to evaluate if TLS data were as qualified as ALS to serve as a source of a DTM. To achieve this goal, there were three steps: acquiring and aligning ALS and TLS of the same region, applying ground filters on both of the data sets, and comparing the results. Our research area was a 100m by 140m region of grass, weeds and small trees along Strouble's Creek on the Virginia Tech campus. Four popular ground filter tools (ArcGIS, LASTools, PDAL, MCC) were applied to both ALS and TLS data. The output ground point clouds were then compared with a DTM generated from ALS data of the same region. Among the four ground filter tools employed in this research, the distances from TLS ground points to the ALS ground surface were no more than 0.06m with standard deviations less than 0.3m. The results indicated that the differences between the ground extracted from TLS and that extracted from ALS were subtle. The conclusion is that Digital Terrain Models (DTM) generated from TLS data are valid.
Exploring the Usability of Non-verbal Vocal Interaction (NVVI) and a Pitch Based Implementation
Williams, Samuel (Virginia Tech, 2023-12-15)
Natural user interfaces, including verbal vocal interactions like speech processing, are ubiquitous and commonly used in both industry and academic settings. However, this field is limited by the speech and language components. Non-verbal vocal interaction (NVVI) provides further opportunities for people to use their vocals as an input modality. Despite the many possibilities of NVVI input modalities, such as whistling, humming, and tongue clicking, the field is niche and literature is few and far between. This work attempts to address these gaps, as well as the small sample sizes of performed studies of prior work. The problem definition is defined as to perform a large-scale study exploring a pitch-based NVVI modality that uses a relative pitch interaction technique to offer a continuous mode of one-dimensional interaction. A user study is outlined and performed via an ecosystem comprising of Amazon Mechanical Turk for recruitment and study access, a modularized study website, and a secure server that stores the study results, tasks users with controlling a slider with the NVVI technique by humming and whistling, in addition to using the computer mouse to perform these tasks as a baseline. In total, 72 participants' results are considered for analysis. Results show that the pitch based NVVI technique used in this study does not follow Fitts' Law, is not as performant as the computer mouse, humming is a more performant modality with the NVVI technique than whistling, and that participants experienced a significantly higher task workload using the NVVI technique than the computer mouse. Using the results of this study and from reviewed literature, an NVVI framework is developed and implemented as a contribution of this work.
Fabricated Preservation
Monzel, Daniel Robert (Virginia Tech, 2020-05-19)
"Fabricated Preservation" aims to push the boundaries with traditional theses, creating a multi-layered experience that blends fact and fiction through a performance that centers around environmental storytelling in virtual reality. The experience questions the balance of theatrical elements in traditional storytelling which forefront text and human characters over architecture, props, and environment, and critically examines how an environment can play a crucial role in a narrative. The narrative itself focuses on one question: if a genealogy company had access to past environments via time travel, what new information could we learn about our ancestors? The normal perceptions of a "game" are challenged, introducing real world elements to trick the audience and subtly influence how they navigate a virtual space. A complex fictional character is introduced through the performance and developed through the environment, with the hopes that the audience will gain some emotion toward them: either connecting with the character as if they were a close friend, or feeling unsettled that they observed the character's realistic personal space. This voyeuristic theme weaves its way through each layer of the storytelling, poking at the audience's morals with the hopes that they will question the experience around them. Above all, the main goal of Fabricated Preservation is to challenge the audience to mentally engage with the virtual experience, by paying attention to the details of their environment and constructing their own version of a narrative from those details.
A Framework for Incorporating Virtual Reality into the Early Stages of the Design Process and Massing Studies
Saghafi Moghaddam, Sara (Virginia Tech, 2024-09-10)
This dissertation studies the integration of Virtual Reality (VR) into the early stages of the architectural design process, particularly during massing studies. The research proposes a framework identifying the necessary knowledge domains and technologies to facilitate this integration. Traditional design tools often restrict architects' ability to fully explore spatial qualities and contextualize their ideas within the project site, limiting their understanding of spatial relationships, scale, and proportions. By merging VR technologies into the early design stages, architects can better visualize their proposals within the site context, iterate more rapidly among massing design alternatives, and enhance decision-making. The research, based on a literature review, class observations, user studies, immersive case studies, and the Delphi method, examines how VR can support the exploration of design alternatives at a 1:1 scale, enabling real-time feedback and iterative processes. The findings highlight the opportunities and challenges within the design workflow, demonstrating that VR can significantly improve design feedback, expand the thinking space and user engagement, and enrich spatial understanding. The proposed framework identifies key decision nodes and knowledge domains essential for effective VR integration in architectural practice. Additionally, the study suggests a suitable interface for VR-integrated tools and proposes a communication model between architects and VR developers.
Framework to Facilitate Metacognitive Strategy Development in Computer-mediated Instruction: A Design and Development Study
Zhang, Qing (Virginia Tech, 2019-12-06)
This study develops a computer-based interactive content design framework to guide the design of metacognitive scaffolds in ill-structured problem-solving instruction. It adopts Type II design and development research approach to create a comprehensive and generalizable instructional design framework. The framework was composed by synthesizing research and practical literature, and then evaluated by experts in related fields. The completed framework includes metacognitive strategies, instructional design strategies, interactive media types, question prompts, and feedback. Instructional designers, instructors, and other key stakeholders could follow the guidelines proposed in this framework to create metacognitive-based ill-structured problem-solving instruction using e-Learning authoring tools. On one hand, this study bridges the gap between theory and practice; on the other hand, it adds to literature in media research with focusing on utilizing various media types to create effective learning materials.
Immersive Analytics: Theory and Research Agenda
Skarbez, Richard; Polys, Nicholas F.; Ogle, J. Todd; North, Christopher L.; Bowman, Douglas A. (Frontiers, 2019-09-10)
Advances in a variety of computing fields, including "big data," machine learning, visualization, and augmented/mixed/virtual reality, have combined to give rise to the emerging field of immersive analytics, which investigates how these new technologies support analysis and decision making. Thus far, we feel that immersive analytics research has been somewhat ad hoc, possibly owing to the fact that there is not yet an organizing framework for immersive analytics research. In this paper, we address this lack by proposing a definition for immersive analytics and identifying some general research areas and specific research questions that will be important for the development of this field. We also present three case studies that, while all being examples of what we would consider immersive analytics, present different challenges, and opportunities. These serve to demonstrate the breadth of immersive analytics and illustrate how the framework proposed in this paper applies to practical research.
Immersive Archaeology
Ogle, J. Todd; Skarbez, Richard (2018-05-01)
We propose a system which integrates a high-fidelity immersive virtual environment based on ground-truth 3D scanning data from archaeological sites augmented with ethnohistoric data in the form of archival records, photos, models of artifacts, prior publications and reports, etc. for in virtuo analysis of corroborating evidence and the results of fieldwork. The post-excavation analysis phase is typically the most time-consuming aspect of the archaeology process. The proposed Immersive Archaeology System would primarily contribute to this post-excavation phase, connecting to and drawing together potentially relevant ethnohistoric data from archival stores that can be rapidly identified and presented to the archaeologist for analysis and interpretation of a site and its artifacts. This in turn could enable more reflexive archaeological practices wherein both field- and lab-based scientists are in close and regular collaboration via the immersive environment. Additional benefits of the adoption a system could include the development of curated virtual environments that could be employed in K-20 learning environments to engage learners in the analytical component of archaeology.

Browsing by Author "Ogle, J. Todd"

Results Per Page

Sort Options