Two Research Two Research Methods in Design Methods in Design

ComputingComputing

Mary Lou MaherMary Lou Maher

May 2003May 2003

Characteristics of Design Characteristics of Design Computing ResearchComputing Research

Develop an understanding of new design Develop an understanding of new design computing technologiescomputing technologies

Create new models for design computing Create new models for design computing environmentsenvironments

Critical aspect: Create new environments, Critical aspect: Create new environments, new models, new ways of designing using new models, new ways of designing using computerscomputers

Two Research ProjectsTwo Research Projects

The role of place in virtual learning environmentsThe role of place in virtual learning environments Objective: study the use of a new design computing Objective: study the use of a new design computing

environmentenvironment Method: empirical studyMethod: empirical study Plan: create environment, collect data, analysePlan: create environment, collect data, analyse

User-centred virtual architecture: develop a new User-centred virtual architecture: develop a new way of thinking about virtual worlds and their way of thinking about virtual worlds and their designdesign Objective: propose a new modelObjective: propose a new model Method: Generate and testMethod: Generate and test Plan: develop a new model, implement, demonstratePlan: develop a new model, implement, demonstrate

The Role of Place in a Virtual Learning Environment

Premises

1. Virtual worlds have been used as virtual learning environments in many universities

2. The design of virtual worlds assumes that place is an important concept in online activities

3. There is little empirical evidence of the role of place in a virtual learning environment

Places are spaces which have meaning (Harrison and Dourish, 1996)

• Evolve out of the activities of those that inhabit them and take on meaningful attachments to those who pass through them

• Physical learning occurs in different kinds of places – Classrooms, Lecture Theatres, Laboratories …..

• Virtual Communities are examples of the significance of a sense of place, contrary to Meyrowitz’s notion of placeless-ness.

Research Questions: Role of Place in VLEs

• Does the 3D Virtual Place and its sensory environment encourage the students to be more collaborative and engaged in their learning experience?

• Does having a sense of place help the students to take a constructivist approach to their learning?

• Does the 3D virtual place enable and encourage a more tactile and visual approach by the lecturer to

management of the learners?

Research Plan

• Develop a virtual learning environment in a 3D virtual world

• Collect data on students engaged in learning tasks in the 3D virtual world

• Analyse the data to find correlations between place and learning activities

Research Methodology

• An adaptation of design protocol studies, except we capture conversations rather than ask students to “think aloud”

• Process:• Data is gathered from the conversations of the

students/lecturers in the VLE classroom. • Data is cleaned and placed in a coding format. • The coding scheme is developed and tested on a sample

of the data. • The data is coded using the Delphi Method.• Coded data is analysed and results produced.

Virtual Learning Environment

• The studio has two distinct parts:– Classroom– Student Galleries

• Students navigate and communicate using an avatar.• Students construct and display their knowledge and

learning experience using contextual learning resources and tutorials.

• Student galleries provide a place for a visual representation of students' own design work submitted for peer review and collaborative feedback.

Virtual Learning Environment

1. Common Area: a public space for discussion and general meetings. 2. Entrance Area: entrance providing general information. 3. Level One: an open platform providing level one course materials. 4. Level Two: an open platform providing level two course materials. 5. Level Three: an open platform providing level three course materials. 6 – 17. Student Gallery Spaces: places for students to display their designs and customise their own place.

Classroom like place surrounded by Student Galleries.

Students communicate ‘Talking by Typing’ and are free to explore and gather information

Virtual Learning Environment

Coding Scheme

1. Communication Control

2. Communication Technology

3. Social Communication

4. Learning Communication

5. Place Communication

Method of Analysis

There are two key areas of focus

• Communication about learning– Concepts– Objectives– Cognition

• Communication that refers to place– Gestures, Citizenship, Identity, Ownership– Locations, Exploration, and Presence

Major Categories of Communication

Control 16% 45

Technology 2% 5

Social 1% 4

Learning 50% 139

Place 30% 84

TOTAL 277

Communication that refers to place

Gestures - GES 4% 3

Location - LOC 20% 17

Identity - IDT 31% 26

Exploration - EXP 6% 5

Presence - PRS 29% 24

Ownership - OWN 5% 4

Citizenship - CIT 6% 5

TOTAL 84

Place CommunicationPlace Communication in a Course Lecture

Gestures - GES4%

Location - LOC20%

Identity - IDT30%Exploration - EXP

6%

Presence - PRS29%

Ownership - OWN5%

Citizenship - CIT6%

Dynamics of Place Communication

• These graphs represent parallel timelines (each time point corresponds to an utterance) for each category of place communication.

• We can see the clustering and scattering of communication events as they occur at various moments during the session.

Dynamics of Place Communication

1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37 41 45 49 53 57 61 65 69 73 77 81 85 89 93 97 101

Utterances

Gestures

Location

Identity

Exploration

Presence

Ownership

Citizenship

Communication about location

• We looked more carefully at the first cluster of points related to location.

• By looking at the text extract of the conversation we find that students are being gathered to a specific location.

• Lecturer: Everyone come over to the main entrance area please

• Student 1: I am here• Student 2: I am here too

Communication about location

• The second major cluster involves students now moving from the starting point of the session to a new location in the virtual learning environment.

• This new location is identified as the student gallery.

• Lecturer: Ok lets go over to the gallery

• This notion of movement is identified in the chart by the exploration code, which is found to occur at a point close to the three major clusters for location.

Communication about location

• The combination of location and exploration identifies a relationship between the two codes

• Implies movement of students from one place to another.

• The implication of movement by the students, is instigated by the lecturer

• This can be interpreted to mean that some type of organisation or management of student movement is occurring in the environment.

Analysis of Place Communication

• We can infer a hypothesis from the combination of the two codes - Location and Exploration.

• This is illustrated by looking at a key point in the discussion where the two codes connect at key point 60.

• Lecturer: (to student 1) let us go to the level one area• Student 1: ok

• Our hypothesis is for the management of learning:

• “Places enable students to be gathered to a specific location and to visualise their presence at the location to enable focusing of attention”

Analysis of Learning Communication

1. “Learning Communication in a Course Lecture” using the coded transcripts we characterise the learning process by describing the statistical results of the three categories of learning communication - Concepts, Objectives, and Cognition.

2. “Dynamics of Learning Communication” we study the collaborative process that occurs by following the threads of conversation in the discussion sessions.

Learning Communication

CONCEPTS

Introduction - IOC 22% 12

Acceptance - AOC 0% 0

Rejection - ROC 0% 0

Clarification - CLC 36% 20

Confirmation - COC 13% 7

Development - DEC 16% 9

Repetition - RPC 0% 0

Referencing - RFC 2% 1

Revisiting - RVC 4% 2

Evaluation - EVC 7% 4

TOTAL 55

Learning Communication

Learning Communication in a Course Lecture

Introduction - IOC22%

Acceptance - AOC0%

Rejection - ROC0%

Clarification - CLC36%

Confirmation - COC13%

Development - DEC16%

Repetition - RPC0%

Referencing - RFC2%

Revisiting - RVC4%

Evaluation - EVC7%

Learning Communication

• The majority of the conceptual learning process revolves around clarification and development of understanding of the learning concept.

• 22% of the overall discussion involves introducing a new concept this is a ratio of 2.5:1 compared to the clarification/development

• Where evaluation of the learning concept is around 6:1 compared to the clarification/development and about 3:1 compared to the

introduction of a concept.

Dynamics of Learning Communication

• we study the collaborative process that occurs by extracting from the transcripts two threads of conversations

• Those initiated by the lecturer and those conversations initiated by the students.

• We look further at the types of collaboration that occur such as conversations that occur between:

• Student (question) to Student (answer/elaboration/development)

• Student (question) - Lecturer (answer) - Student (elaboration/development)

• Where the conversations go

• How long the conversations last

Analysis of CommunicationDynamics of Learning

1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 100

Introduction

Acceptance

Rejection

Clarification

Evaluation

Repetition

Referencing

Revisiting

Lecturer

Student 1

Student 2

Summary of “the role of place”

• Research methodology was adapted from a method used in cognitive science and then compared to methods used in studying new technologies in education and learning

• The analysis of the data is the starting point for finding patterns and therefore identifying principles and characteristics that can generalise beyond a single experience

User-centred Virtual Architecture

Premises

• Virtual Architecture is a kind of virtual place that uses the metaphor and components of physical architecture to create places for online human activity

• Current virtual architecture follows the same process of physical architecture: design and build persistent infrastructure

• There is potential for virtual architecture to be designed and used as needed, and then removed when not needed.

Research Plan

• Propose a model for user-centred Virtual Architecture

• Develop and implement the model• Demonstrate the use of the model• Identify the contribution of the model

Research Methodology

• Combines models from artificial intelligence and design research:– Agent models– Design grammars

• Adapt the models for the new context• Incrementally develop, implement, and test the

model• Build a demonstration system

Background: Agent Models

Reflex agent and utility agent (Russell and Norvig, 1995): An agent in general. The reasoning processes involved.

Agent models of 3D virtual worlds (Maher and Gero, 2002): A society of agents. Each agent is represented as a component of the world.

Rational agents (Wooldridge, 2000) An agent reasons about its environment An agent has beliefs desires and intentions

?environment

actions

sensors

effectors

agent

What the worldis like now

Condition-action rules What action Ishould do now

AgentSensors

Effectors

En

viron

men

t

Basic Agent Model

Interpretation

Hypothesizer

Action

Sensors

Effectors

The World

Virtual World Agent Model

Design Process in a UcVA Agent

4 computational processes:Interpretation: transform the raw inputs to data for

reasoning and learning.Hypothesising: identifies the design goals for the

agent.Design: reasons about how to achieve the design

goals.Action activation: identifies the actions needed to

realise the design solutions.

Shape Grammar Formalism

Shape grammar formalism (Stiny and Gips 1972, Knight 2000): Shape grammar: a set of shape rules. Shape rules: description of the spatial forms of the designs, or

relate to the goals of a project that describe from functions to meanings to aesthetics.

Shapes: basic components of the shape rules, could be points, lines, planes or spatial volumes.

Generate Shape Rules

Analysis of the CRC World design: CRC world: a virtual environment in AW supporting

collaborative research. Aim: generate shape rules that capture a specific style. Style: the common characteristics of using forms and

representing functions.

Analysis of the CRC World Plan

Shape Rules Evolved from the CRC World Plan

Rule 1 and rule 2:

Rule 3 and rule 4:

Shape Rules Evolved from the CRC World Plan

Rule 5 and rule 6:

Rule 7 and rule 8:

Shape Rules Evolved from the CRC World Plan

Rule 9 and rule 10:

The CRC World plan could be regenerated by applying the above rules in a certain order.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Initial Shape of the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Step 1 for generating the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Step 2 for generating the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Step 3 for generating the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Step 4 for generating the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Step 5 for generating the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Step 6 for generating the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

Step 7 for generating the CRC World plan.

Re-generating the CRC World Plan

From the initial shape to the CRC world plan.

Replacement Rules for Generating 3D Spatial Volumes

Replace 2D shapes with 3D units:

Replacement Rules for Generating 3D Spatial Volumes

Replace 2D shapes with 3D units:

Re-generated Form of the CRC World Design

Re-generated form of the CRC World design:

Design Rules for Representing Functions

Three rules for representing the functions of a meeting room in the CRC World:

Generating A Meeting Room Design Using the Design Rules

Generate a new meeting room plan: initial shape.

Generating A Meeting Room Design Using the Design Rules

Generate a new meeting room plan: step 1.

Generating A Meeting Room Design Using the Design Rules

Generate a new meeting room plan: step 2.

Generating A Meeting Room Design Using the Design Rules

Generate a new meeting room plan: step 3.

Generating A Meeting Room Design Using the Design Rules

Generated plan:

A Meeting Room Design Using the Shape Grammar Formalism

A view of the generated meeting room design.

Summary of Virtual Architecture Research

Research Methodology is similar to the methods used in computational models research

The “interesting idea” is to turn the process of designing virtual architecture inside out

The computational model combines models from AI and design computing research

The implementation and use of the model highlights the contributions

Comparison of Two Research Comparison of Two Research ProjectsProjects

““Role of”: identify new technology and Role of”: identify new technology and collect data on its use (empirical)collect data on its use (empirical)

““Virtual architecture”: develop a new Virtual architecture”: develop a new model, implement, and demonstrate model, implement, and demonstrate (conjectural)(conjectural)