Abstract

The laboratory is an indispensable component of learning in engineering education. In this paper, we examine the impact of Advanced VLSI Virtual Lab, which is a part of the Government of India's suite of Virtual Labs, in improving the understanding and learning of students at a small sized university in India. The Advanced VLSI Virtual Lab includes ten simulated interactive experiments in the area of design and application development. Over a hundred Virtual Labs have been proposed and built, but, so far, few have been subject to systematic investigation of their effectiveness in helping the student learn. Our work is one of the first efforts to statistically study the effectiveness of the Virtual Lab. To this end, we designed and conducted pre- and post-tests, and feedback surveys on the lab. The tests and the survey, on analysis, reveal that the lab is effective in enhancing student learning. Our results are encouraging to …

Abstract

e propose set of guidelines for virtual labs to improve end user experience based on analysis of experimental results. Virtual labs were designed and developed by people with different technical backgrounds based on their familiarity with the technologies and the complexity of virtual lab. As a result each lab developer decided to use his or her own set of tools and technologies leading to performance issues during execution of the virtual labs. Performance of a web application depends upon the content of the web page. Therefore, we did analysis on web pages of virtual lab and listed guidelines to enhance user experience.

Abstract

As education and technology merge, the diversity of teaching and learning methods expand even more. Virtual labs are a set of web applications containing learning materials that compliment the various courses in an Engineering curriculum. The primary intent of the virtual labs is to provide in-lab experience to their users even when the physical lab infrastructure is not available. In this paper, we propose a method for providing access to virtual labs for all those lack internet access. Our aim is to facilitate availability and usage of Virtual Labs without network connectivity. We preinstall the virtual labs with full environment on an Operating System and also use Debian packages for easy installation of the labs on existing Operating System.

Abstract

Cross origin interactions constitute the core of today’s collaborative Word Wide Web. They are, however, also the cause of malicious behaviour like Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), clickjacking, and cross-site timing attacks, which we collectively refer as Web Infiltration attacks. These attacks are a rampant source of information stealth and privacy intrusion on the web. Existing browser security policies like Same Origin Policy, either ignore this class of attacks or, like Content Security Policy, insufficiently deal with them. In this paper, we propose a new declarative browser security policy — “Cross Origin Request Policy” (CORP) — to mitigate such attacks. CORP enables a server to have fine-grained control on the way different sites can access resources on the server. The server declares the policy using HTTP response headers. The web browser monitors cross origin HTTP requests targeting the server and blocks those which do not comply with CORP. Based on lessons drawn from examining various types of cross origin attacks, we formulate CORP and demonstrate its effectiveness and ease of deployment. We formally verify the design of CORP by modelling it in the Alloy model checker. We also implement CORP as a browser extension for the Chrome web browser and evaluate it against real-world cross origin attacks on open source web applications. Our initial investigation reveals that most of the popular websites already segregate their resources in a way which makes deployment of CORP easier.

Abstract

For many, Accessibility is about disability and aiding the disabled user. We argue for a much broader definition: One that is inclusive of not only the disabled and the technologically deprived, but also the able-bodied, who may still be facing linguistic, socio-cultural, cognitive type barriers. Further, we discuss how to overcome this new broad set of barriers (which have elsewhere been called New Accessibility). Modification of original static content to new target content – a technique of Renarration – is modeled as a webpage transformation. This is operationally realized as "Sweets". Sweets are external meta data used for transformation of the web page. They are collaboratively and socially produced either by humans or human triggered Sweet based web applications. The entire web architecture featuring Sweets, their repositories and their web applications is explained and shared as a potential mechanism for overcoming New Accessibility barriers. Two web applications, Alipi and Mural Annotation for IDH, are finally showcased to highlight that Sweets based architecture does indeed help in facing the barriers of New Accessibility.

Abstract

We revive an old but little explored idea about how to think about algorithms and problem solving. Algorithms are discrete dynamical systems, also called iterative systems. Pursuing this point of view pays rich dividends. Important concepts like state space, next-state function, termination, fixed points, invariants, traces etc., can be mapped from dynamical systems to elements of algorithm design. Many of these concepts can be visualised through plots that trace the dynamic behaviour of the algorithm

Abstract

Pedagogical literature is generally rich with references to digitally savvy students, operating at twitch speed. This creates pressure on instructors, pedagogies, educational technologies to primarily cater to these digital natives. This paper conducts a descriptive study of students of rural AP to see if indeed Indian tier 2-3 students are of this caliber and description. Should the digital natives model be used for rural Indian student profile as well? Findings from our survey based study reveal that of the (N=372) tier 2, 3 students only 50% own a PC, only 41% surf the web, and of those who surf, it is mostly consumption behavior with social intent. And finally, while the confidence in learning and skills is high, English comprehension skills is poor. We feel that this profile of students is in contrast to the computer savvy image being projected, and should inform emerging educational technology projects aimed for rural India.

Abstract

The Millenium Development goals emphasize the need for building" open, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory" e-governance systems. However, building such open systems remains a challenge: on the one hand, the systems are required to be open, whereas, on the other, there is the need to preserve and protect private and confidential information of potentially millions of users. This requires that e-governance systems carry clear specifications of how access to users' documents is managed throughout an e-governance application's workflow.

Abstract

Friendsourcing games aim to collect useful information about individuals by targeting their socially connected groups or friends. The current method of eliciting information is to pose direct questions to friends and expect a truthful response in return. However, such an approach not only becomes monotonous after some time but also suffers from problems like social awkwardness and reticence and thus, affecting the accuracy of the generated responses. In this paper, we present Power of Friends, a novel approach to friendsourcing games, which involves identifying the unanimous opinion of all the friends about a question related to an individual. We tested our proposed approach with seven different groups and were able to generate 47 facts about members of the selected groups. Participants particularly enjoyed the guesswork and interactive elements of the game. Based on the feedback obtained from the study, we propose four strategies for designing similar friendsourcing games.

Abstract

The rapid release model of software introduces frequent updates to the existing software every twelve-eighteen weeks, forcing a user to get accustomed to its new features. We propose an experimental study to compare the learning gaps that are introduced when a user is exposed to a new version of a software, with which he is previously acquainted. In order to explore the problem, we propose four models of a machine, with each model involving an update either to the functionality, or to the user interface, or both. We conducted a between-subjects experimental study with thirty-two participants who performed two tasks successively on two models of a machine, the second one being a updated model of the first. The analysis of the data using ANOVA implies that a change in the user interface dominates a change in the functionality. Results indicate that 88% of the errors were caused due to a change in the user interface. 87.5% of the users who underwent a change in the user interface hold this change responsible for the learning gap, while only 56.25% users who underwent a change in the functionality consider it to be a potential reason for the learning gap.