INESC TEC- Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science

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Publications

Design and evaluation of a choreography-based virtual reality authoring tool for experiential learning in industrial training

Publication . Cassola, Fernando; Mendes, Daniel; Pinto, Manuel; Morgado, Leonel; Costa, Sara; Anjos, Luis; Marques, David; Rosa, Filipe; Maia, Ana Margarida; Tavares, Helga; Coelho, António; Paredes, Hugo

The use of virtual reality (VR) for industrial training helps minimize risks and costs by allowing more frequent and varied use of experiential learning activities, leading to active and improved learning. However, creating VR training experiences is costly and time-consuming, requiring software development experts. Additionally, current authoring tools lack integration with existing data and are desktop-oriented, which detach the pedagogic process of creating the immersive experience from experiencing it in a situated context. In this article, we present a novel interactive approach for immersive authoring of VR-based experiential training by the trainers themselves, from inside the virtual environment and without the support of development experts. The design includes identifying interactable elements, such as 3-D models, equipment, tools, settings, and environment. The trainer also specifies by demonstration the actions to be performed by trainees, as a virtual choreography. During course execution, trainees’ activities are also registered as virtual choreographies and matched to those specified by the trainer. Thus, trainer and trainee are culturally situated within their area semantics and social discourse, rather than adopting concepts of the VR system for the learning content. We conducted a usability case study with professionals from an international wind energy company, using detailed models of wind turbines and real-world procedures. Trainers set up a training course using the immersive authoring tool, and trainees executed the course. The learning experience and usability were analyzed, and the training was certified by comparing real-world task completion between a user who had undergone virtual training and a user who did not.

2022Journal article

Open access

Educational practices and strategies with immersive learning environments: mapping of reviews for using the metaverse

Publication . Beck, Dennis; Morgado, Leonel; O'shea, Patrick

The educational metaverse promises fulfilling ambitions of immersive learning, leveraging technology-based presence alongside narrative and/or challenge-based deep mental absorption. Most reviews of immersive learning research were outcomes-focused, few considered the educational practices and strategies. These are necessary to provide theoretical and pedagogical frameworks to situate outcomes within a context where technology is in concert with educational approaches. We sought a broader perspective of the practices and strategies used in immersive learning environments, and conducted a mapping survey of reviews, identifying 47 studies. Extracted accounts of educational practices and strategies under thematic analysis yielded 45 strategies and 21 practices, visualized as a network clustered by conceptual proximity. Resulting clusters “Active context”, “Collaboration”, “Engagement and Scaffolding”, “Presence”, and “Real and virtual multimedia learning” expose the richness of practices and strategies within the field. The visualization maps the field, supporting decision-making when combining practices and strategies for using the metaverse in education, highlights which practices and strategies are supported by the literature, and the presence and absence of diversity within clusters.

2024Journal article

Open access

Revisão de fraudes bancárias por SMS ou voz, a partir da análise de dados de telefones celulares: uma revisão sistemática de literatura

Publication . Cossa, Osvaldo Fernando; Sousa, Nuno; Gonçalves, Ramiro Manuel Ramos Moreira; Martins, José; Branco, Frederico; Martins, José

Nos últimos anos registou-se um crescimento acentuado de fraudes bancárias cometidas por SMS (Short Messaging System) e voz. Um dos fatores que contribui para o aumento de casos de fraudes por SMS é o baixo custo de aquisição de grandes volumes de mensagens, a confiabilidade (a mensagem chegará ao destinatário) e o fato de não precisar de Internet para chegar até a vítima. Em relação as fraudes financeiras por voz, estas podem ser usadas para persuadir as vítimas a efetuarem transferências bancárias para as contas dos fraudulentos, com a promessa de receber avultadas somas em prémios. A deteção destes tipos de fraudes não é uma tarefa trivial, pois exige a aplicação de técnicas e métodos apropriados dependendo da sua natureza. Assim, neste artigo é apresentada uma Revisão Sistemática de Literatura (RSL) de 2015 a 2020, com o intuito de analisar o estado da arte sobre fraudes bancárias cometidas por SMS ou voz. A RSL permitiu identificar os tipos mais comuns de fraudes bancárias por SMS ou voz, e as respetivas técnicas de deteção.

2021-06-23Conference object

Open access

Inven!RA Architecture for sustainable deployment of immersive learning environments

Publication . Morgado, Leonel; Coelho, António; Beck, Dennis; Gütl, Christian; Cassola, Fernando; Baptista, Ricardo; Van Zeller, Maria; Pedrosa, Daniela; Cruzeiro, Tiago; Cota, Duarte; Grilo, Ricardo; Schlemmer, Eliane

The objective of this work was to support the sustainable deployment of immersive learning environments, which face varied obstacles, including the lack of support infrastructures for active learning pedagogies. Sustainability from the perspective of the integration of these environments in educational practice entails situational awareness, workload, and the informed assessment ability of participants, which must be supported for such activities to be employed in a widespread manner. We have approached this wicked problem using the Design Science Research paradigm and produced the Inven!RA software architecture. This novel result constitutes a solution for developing software platforms to enable the sustainable deployment of immersive learning environments. The Inven!RA architecture is presented alongside four demonstration scenarios employed in its evaluation, providing a means for the situational awareness of immersive learning activities in support of pedagogic decision making.

2023-01-03Journal article

Open access

Describing and interpreting an immersive learning case with the immersion cube and the immersive learning brain

Publication . Beck, Dennis; Morgado, Leonel

Current descriptions of immersive learning cases are often difficult or impossible to compare. This is due to a myriad of different options on what details to include, which aspects are relevant, and on the descriptive approaches employed. Also, these aspects often combine very specific details with more general guidelines or indicate intents and rationales without clarifying their implementation. In this paper we provide a method to describe immersive learning cases that is structured to enable comparisons, yet flexible enough to allow researchers and practitioners to decide which aspects to include. This method leverages a taxonomy that classifies educational aspects at three levels (uses, practices, and strategies) and then utilizes two frameworks, the Immersive Learning Brain and the Immersion Cube, to enable a structured description and interpretation of immersive learning cases. The method is then demonstrated on a published immersive learning case on training for wind turbine maintenance using virtual reality. Applying the method results in a structured artifact, the Immersive Learning Case Sheet, that tags the case with its proximal uses, practices, and strategies, and refines the free text case description to ensure that matching details are included. This contribution is thus a case description method in support of future comparative research of immersive learning cases. We then discuss how the resulting description and interpretation can be leveraged to change immersion learning cases, by enriching them (considering low-effort changes or additions) or innovating (exploring more challenging avenues of transformation). The method holds significant promise to support better-grounded research in immersive learning.

2025Conference object

Open access