Search Results (7)

Images contain more visual semantic information. Consumers first view multimodal online reviews with images. Research on the helpfulness of reviews on e-commerce platforms mainly focuses on text, lacking insights into the product attributes reflected by review images and the relationship between images and text. Studying the relationship between images and text in online reviews can better explain consumer behavior and help consumers make purchasing decisions. Taking multimodal online review data from shopping platforms as the research object, this study proposes a research framework based on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML). It utilizes multiple pre-trained models, such as BLIP2 and machine learning methods, to construct metrics. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is conducted to explore the configurational effects of antecedent variables of multimodal online reviews on review helpfulness. The study identifies five configurational paths that lead to high review helpfulness. Specific review cases are used to examine the contribution paths of these configurations to perceived helpfulness, providing a new perspective for future research on multimodal online reviews. Targeted recommendations are made for operators and merchants based on the research findings, offering theoretical support for platforms to fully leverage the potential value of user-generated content. Full article

This study explored the integration of technology into teaching practices by examining how faculty members at a newly established university in Saudi Arabia utilized the Blackboard learning system. Specifically, it investigated the use of multimedia e-learning tools by male and female faculty members during regular teaching periods following the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey questionnaire was developed using a 5-point Likert scale. The instrument covered demographic information, content creation, assessment methods, utility tools, and factors influencing Blackboard usage. Upon receiving approval, the survey was distributed via email to all faculty members across nine colleges. A total of 198 responses were collected and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The findings indicated that gender had little to no statistically significant impact on the use of key Blackboard tools—such as content creation features (e.g., files, folders, items), assessment tools (e.g., tests, assignments), and utilities (e.g., virtual classes, email)—at the college level. However, when analyzed at the university level, some tools’ usage showed statistically significant gender differences at the α = 0.05 level. Furthermore, both male and female faculty members cited convenience, flexibility in uploading materials, access to virtual classes, and remote assessment of students as primary factors influencing their e-learning preferences. Full article

During the last few years, several technological advances have led to an increase in the creation and consumption of audiovisual multimedia content. Users are overexposed to videos via several social media or video sharing websites and mobile phone applications. For efficient browsing, searching, and navigation across several multimedia collections and repositories, e.g., for finding videos that are relevant to a particular topic or interest, this ever-increasing content should be efficiently described by informative yet concise content representations. A common solution to this problem is the construction of a brief summary of a video, which could be presented to the user, instead of the full video, so that she/he could then decide whether to watch or ignore the whole video. Such summaries are ideally more expressive than other alternatives, such as brief textual descriptions or keywords. In this work, the video summarization problem is approached as a supervised classification task, which relies on feature fusion of audio and visual data. Specifically, the goal of this work is to generate dynamic video summaries, i.e., compositions of parts of the original video, which include its most essential video segments, while preserving the original temporal sequence. This work relies on annotated datasets on a per-frame basis, wherein parts of videos are annotated as being “informative” or “noninformative”, with the latter being excluded from the produced summary. The novelties of the proposed approach are, (a) prior to classification, a transfer learning strategy to use deep features from pretrained models is employed. These models have been used as input to the classifiers, making them more intuitive and robust to objectiveness, and (b) the training dataset was augmented by using other publicly available datasets. The proposed approach is evaluated using three datasets of user-generated videos, and it is demonstrated that deep features and data augmentation are able to improve the accuracy of video summaries based on human annotations. Moreover, it is domain independent, could be used on any video, and could be extended to rely on richer feature representations or include other data modalities. Full article

Remote sensing is a long-distance measuring technology that obtains data about a phenomenon or an object. Remote sensing technology plays a crucial role in several domains, such as weather forecasts, resource surveys, disaster evaluation and environment protection. The application of remote-sensing images (RSIs) is extensive in some specific domains, such as national security and business secrets. Simple multimedia distribution techniques and the development of the Internet make the content security of RSIs a significant problem for both engineers and scientists. In this background, RSI classification using deep learning (DL) models becomes essential. Therefore, the current research article develops a block-scrambling-based encryption with privacy preserving optimal deep-learning-driven classification (BSBE-PPODLC) technique for the classification of RSIs. The presented BSBE-PPODLC technique follows a two-stage process, i.e., image encryption and classification. Initially, the RSI encryption process takes place based on a BSBE approach. In the second stage, the image classification process is performed, and it encompasses multiple phases, such as densely connected network (DenseNet) feature extraction, extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) classifier and artificial gorilla troops optimizer (AGTO)-based hyperparameter tuning. The proposed BSBE-PPODLC technique was simulated using the RSI dataset, and the outcomes were assessed under different aspects. The outcomes confirmed that the presented BSBE-PPODLC approach accomplished improved performance compared to the existing models. Full article

As intelligent systems demand for human–automation interaction increases, the need for learners’ cognitive traits adaptation in adaptive educational hypermedia systems (AEHS) has dramatically increased. AEHS utilize learners’ cognitive processes to attain fair human–automation interaction for their adaptive processes. However, obtaining accurate cognitive trait for the AEHS adaptation process has been a challenge due to the fact that it is difficult to determine what extent such traits can comprehend system functionalities. Hence, this study has explored correlation among learners’ pupil size dilation, learners’ reading time and endogenous blinking rate when using AEHS so as to enable cognitive load estimation in support of AEHS adaptive process. An eye-tracking sensor was used and the study found correlation among learners’ pupil size dilation, reading time and learners’ endogenous blinking rate. Thus, the results show that endogenous blinking rate, pupil size and reading time are not only AEHS reliable parameters for cognitive load measurement but can also support human–automation interaction at large. Full article

The increasing presence and relevance of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in learning scenarios has imposed new demands on teachers, who must be able to design new learning situations while relying on the growing supply of available digital resources. One of the fields that more urgently needs to utilize the potential benefits of ICT to transform learning is sustainability, and more precisely the development of sustainability competences (SCs). Indeed, wider societal changes are needed that ensure a balance between economic growth, respect for the environment, and social justice, and these changes must start with individual action, knowledge, and the capacity and willingness to act (i.e., the definition of “competence”). However, although there is a wide consensus on the fact that education should ensure the acquisition of competences for life, making this a reality may be more problematic. This difficulty stems, partly, from a lack of a definition of the intervening elements (knowledge, skills, values, attitudes) that enables the integration of competences into specific learning sequences and activities. Taking into account all the above and the difficulties that teachers face in choosing relevant resources and incorporating competences into their planning, we propose a series of indicators that serve to characterize the four dimensions of scientific competence: contents of science, contents about science, the value of science, and the utility of science in educational materials. Although primarily intended for filtering multimedia resources in an educational platform, this instrument (as well as the indicators therein) can be extrapolated to the selection and management of a variety of resources and activities, eventually selecting those that are more useful for the acquisition of the scientific competence. They can also provide learning-managers with a common ground to work on by sharing the objectives and indicators related to the acquisition of competences. Full article

My talk consists of three parts. First, I present the urges and antecedents that are present in the current development of the concept of visuality and can affect education as a considerable development potential. Almost half a century ago something started in education, creating a new learning environment inside and outside the walls of schools by turning static images into dynamic ones. Putting the phenomenon into a conceptional frame, Multimedia Content Development has set new questions and new responses. Owing to the mobile communication tools, Comenius’ Orbis Pictus has become really visible everywhere and at all times in a physical as well as a theoretical-methodological sense, changing by this our learning environment. Recognizing these tendencies, in the second part of my talk, I will deal with what I call the new education dilemmas. The core of these is that e-learning, which shapes everyday learning environments by “ubiquitous computing”, more and more turns away from the traditional or dominant verbal communication, and searches for alternatives by means of which it can be more interesting and more effective for the users. Owing to this situation, serious challenges can be identified with respect to pedagogy. The spontaneous effects of the original human natural characteristics of visual thinking in learning can be considered as an important altering factor in the learning paradigm. The relevant philosophical framework has been there for almost half a century; by now, however, as a result of technological development, it is already generating innovation steps at the practical level. The third part of my talk points to the current search for ways and possibilities, offering not so many solutions, but rather specific examples of investigations and experiments. Instead of suggesting a rigid change of the paradigm I point to the perspective of simply the modalities becoming more complex. In teaching and learning, multimodality—as an attitude which is able to make learning more effective than ever before by means of applying images and signs and rendering the methods of communication significantly more complex—can probably be an important step made forward, leaving behind mechanical, and so rigid, didactical systems. In a modern pedagogical sense, it is highly interesting to examine the notion of modality in terms of teaching and learning in the new technological environment. In its everyday connotation, modality means manner; the speaker’s relation to the coverage of the scope of reality. Considering the special information and knowledge transmitting moments of education, modality means the imparter’s and the recipient’s relation to the content or its coverage of reality. With its earlier centuries-long dominance, the traditional linguistic modality hid the visual modality. Interestingly, the notion of multimodality first appeared in transportation, and so in communication as well, like a “specific method of transportation”, meaning a combined solution including several manners. In linguistic communication, multilingualism, too, means multimodality, and when we are referring to one of the great experiences of our era, i.e., the modality of sign language rich in visual and gestural elements, we are coming closer and closer to the realization that in today’s learning it is precisely multimodal communication that makes us able to transmit knowledge effectively, especially in the cases of disadvantaged groups. In the wake of the 20th century, “modern” learning materials have remained unchanged in terms of verbal and image communication, linear structure, written text dominance, and static image conveyance. Although electronic learning resources and multi-media e-learning representations include more dynamic (flash, podcast, video) transfers of content, the “logic” of building up learning materials has changed little—in fact, visual content is only a complement to verbal communication. But when it comes to community-based learning resource development, teacher training may offer outstandingly good conditions for visual learning. Full article