Computer Information and Graphics Technology Works

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The demographics of student device ownership: An examination of the personal computing ecosystems of students in higher education
(2022-10-01) Elliott, Rob
Higher education has become dependent on the use of digital materials, which may include texts, audiovisual content, and software applications. Because students in higher education are largely responsible for providing the computing devices they are required to use to interact with their digital course materials, instructors and instructional designers are often unaware of the personal computing ecosystems in use by their students. This study describes a large-scale survey of student ownership and use of computing devices at a large public university in the midwestern United States. The results demonstrate that students generally have access to devices that allow them to engage with their digital course materials, but age and demographic factors correlated with socioeconomic status appear to impact the type and quality of devices owned. The study also shows that students have access to a variety of device types and that most students perform their computing tasks on a single screen. Understanding the personal computing ecosystems of students will allow instructors and instructional designers to develop course materials that are accessible to students on the devices in use and can inform the decision-making process when an institution considers adoption of new learning technologies. This data can also be used as a foundation for future studies that examine the influence of a student’s technology access and ownership on their academic outcomes.
Accelerating complex modeling workflows in CyberWater using on-demand HPC/Cloud resources
(IEEE, 2021-09) Li, Feng; Chen, Ranran; Fu, Yuankun; Song, Fengguang; Liang, Yao; Ranawaka, Isuru; Pamidighantam, Sudhakar; Luna, Daniel; Liang, Xu; Computer Information and Graphics Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
Workflow management systems (WMSs) are commonly used to organize/automate sequences of tasks as workflows to accelerate scientific discoveries. During complex workflow modeling, a local interactive workflow environment is desirable, as users usually rely on their rich, local environments for fast prototyping and refinements before they consider using more powerful computing resources. However, existing WMSs do not simultaneously support local interactive workflow environments and HPC resources. In this paper, we present an on-demand access mechanism to remote HPC resources from desktop/laptop-based workflow management software to compose, monitor and analyze scientific workflows in the CyberWater project. Cyber-Water is an open-data and open-modeling software framework for environmental and water communities. In this work, we extend the open-model, open-data design of CyberWater with on-demand HPC accessing capacity. In particular, we design and implement the LaunchAgent library, which can be integrated into the local desktop environment to allow on-demand usage of remote resources for hydrology-related workflows. LaunchAgent manages authentication to remote resources, prepares the computationally-intensive or data-intensive tasks as batch jobs, submits jobs to remote resources, and monitors the quality of services for the users. LaunchAgent interacts seamlessly with other existing components in CyberWater, which is now able to provide advantages of both feature-rich desktop software experience and increased computation power through on-demand HPC/Cloud usage. In our evaluations, we demonstrate how a hydrology workflow that consists of both local and remote tasks can be constructed and show that the added on-demand HPC/Cloud usage helps speeding up hydrology workflows while allowing intuitive workflow configurations and execution using a desktop graphical user interface.
THE USE OF MOBILE DEVICES FOR FORMAL LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: INVESTIGATING STUDENT BEHAVIORS AND EXPECTATIONS
(Indiana University, 2022-02) Elliott, Rob; Bonk, Curtis
The use of mobile devices has transformed the way we live, work, and study. Nearly every student in higher education owns a smart phone and the majority of those that do report that they use those devices, at least in part, to conduct academic work. Institutes of higher education (IHEs) have widely adopted technologies to connect instructors and students, and most instructors incorporate digital materials into their curriculum. However, the selection of these learning technologies is often the domain of the institution or the instructor. Students are expected to provide the personal technology required to utilize these systems, which may include their mobile device. The purpose of this study is to discover what types of academic work students would like to perform on their mobile devices, what barriers to doing so they have encountered, how their learning behavior differs based on the device in use, and students' preferred instructional design practices for designing learning activities on mobile devices. A mixed-methods approach was used to answer these questions. Surveys and focus groups asked students about the personal technology that they own, the learning activities they perform, and how different devices are used to complete those activities. The log data of the Canvas learning management system was also analyzed to detail student behavior in the context of the device being used to interact with the system. The results show that students do use their mobile devices for significant amounts of academic work and consider them to be an important educational tool, but they are generally selective about the types of activities in which they will engage on a mobile device. Students tend to use their mobile devices for activities that are most convenient to them but identified several factors that prevented them from using those devices to engage in more detailed work. This study will inform instructors and instructional designers who produce academic content for students and assist IHEs in their decision-making process when adopting course materials and technologies.
Cyber-Informed: Bridging Cybersecurity and Other Disciplines
(2020) Sample, Char; Loo, Sin Ming; Justice, Connie; Taylor, Eleanor; Hampton, Clay; Computer Information and Graphics Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
A recent study by Cybersecurity Ventures (Morgan 2018), predicts that 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs around the world will be unfilled by 2021. In the United States, the demand for professionals with cybersecurity expertise is outpacing all other occupations (NIST 2018). These reports, along with many others, underpin the need for increasing workforce development initiatives founded in cybersecurity principles. The workforce shortage is across all cybersecurity domains, yet problems continue to persist, as the lines between combatants and non-combatants are blurred. Combating this persistent threat, which is a 24/7 operation, requires a more aggressive and inclusive approach. Higher education institutions are positioned to fully support cybersecurity workforce development; cybersecurity needs people with different perspectives, approaches, ways of thinking, and methods to solve current and emerging cyber challenges. This need is especially pressing when assessing the digital landscape - a tireless and ever-expanding connectivity supported by societal needs, and economic development yet compromised by the common criminal to nation-state sponsored felonious activity. Educators need to consider augmenting their approaches to educating students to include cybersecurity content. In this technology forward world, one that is expanding more rapidly than society and policy can react, increases the imperative for fundamental cyber defence skills. Accordingly, all students, no matter the major, should, minimally, understand the implications of good versus bad cyber hygiene. STEM graduates will require awareness of cyber issues that impact the security of programs, systems, codes or algorithms that they design. Operationally focused cyber-security graduates require a curriculum for careers dedicated to protecting and defending cyber systems in domain specific environments. In a world of Internet of Things (IoT), the ability for individual disciplines to understand the impact of cyber events in environments outside of traditional cybersecurity networks is critically important. This will provide the next generation defenders with domain specific cybersecurity knowledge that is applicable to specific operating environments.
Clinical thinking via electronic note templates: Who benefits?
(Springer, 2021) Savoy, April; Frankel, Richard; Weiner, Michael
Dashboards for visual display of patient safety data: A systematic review
(BMJ, 2021) Murphy, Daniel R.; Savoy, April; Satterly, Tyler; Sittig, Dean F.; Singh, Hardeep
Background Methods to visualise patient safety data can support effective monitoring of safety events and discovery of trends. While quality dashboards are common, use and impact of dashboards to visualise patient safety event data remains poorly understood. Objectives To understand development, use and direct or indirect impacts of patient safety dashboards. Methods We conducted a systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We searched PubMed, EMBASE and CINAHL for publications between 1 January 1950 and 30 August 2018 involving use of dashboards to display data related to safety targets defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Patient Safety Net. Two reviewers independently reviewed search results for inclusion in analysis and resolved disagreements by consensus. We collected data on development, use and impact via standardised data collection forms and analysed data using descriptive statistics. Results Literature search identified 4624 results which were narrowed to 33 publications after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and consensus across reviewers. Publications included only time series and case study designs and were inpatient focused and emergency department focused. Information on direct impact of dashboards was limited, and only four studies included informatics or human factors principles in development or postimplementation evaluation. Discussion Use of patient-safety dashboards has grown over the past 15 years, but impact remains poorly understood. Dashboard design processes rarely use informatics or human factors principles to ensure that the available content and navigation assists task completion, communication or decision making. Conclusion Design and usability evaluation of patient safety dashboards should incorporate informatics and human factors principles. Future assessments should also rigorously explore their potential to support patient safety monitoring including direct or indirect impact on patient safety.
Clinician Perspectives on Unmet Needs for Mobile Technology Among Hospitalists:Workflow Analysis Based on Semistructured Interviews
(JMIR Publications, 2022) Savoy, April; Saleem, Jason J.; Barker, Barry C.; Patel, Himalaya; Kara, Areeba
Background: The hospitalist workday is cognitively demanding and dominated by activities away from patients’ bedsides. Although mobile technologies are offered as solutions, clinicians report lower expectations of mobile technology after actual use. Objective: The purpose of this study is to better understand opportunities for integrating mobile technology and apps into hospitalists’ workflows. We aim to identify difficult tasks and contextual factors that introduce inefficiencies and characterize hospitalists’ perspectives on mobile technology and apps. Methods: We conducted a workflow analysis based on semistructured interviews. At a Midwestern US medical center, we recruited physicians and nurse practitioners from hospitalist and inpatient teaching teams and internal medicine residents. Interviews focused on tasks perceived as frequent, redundant, and difficult. Additionally, participants were asked to describe opportunities for mobile technology interventions. We analyzed contributing factors, impacted workflows, and mobile app ideas. Results: Over 3 months, we interviewed 12 hospitalists. Participants collectively identified chart reviews, orders, and documentation as the most frequent, redundant, and difficult tasks. Based on those tasks, the intake, discharge, and rounding workflows were characterized as difficult and inefficient. The difficulty was associated with a lack of access to electronic health records at the bedside. Contributing factors for inefficiencies were poor usability and inconsistent availability of health information technology combined with organizational policies. Participants thought mobile apps designed to improve team communications would be most beneficial. Based on our analysis, mobile apps focused on data entry and presentation supporting specific tasks should also be prioritized. Conclusions: Based on our results, there are prioritized opportunities for mobile technology to decrease difficulty and increase the efficiency of hospitalists’workflows. Mobile technology and task-specific mobile apps with enhanced usability could decrease overreliance on hospitalists’ memory and fragmentation of clinical tasks across locations. This study informs the design and implementation processes of future health information technologies to improve continuity in hospital-based medicine.
Building cohesion in distributed telemedicine teams: findings from the Department of Veterans Affairs National Telestroke Program
(BMJ, 2021) Patel, Himalaya; Damush, Teresa M.; Miech, Edward J.; Rattray, Nicholas A.; Martin, Holly A.; Savoy, April; Plue, Laurie; Anderson, Jane; Martini, Sharyl; Graham, Glenn D.; Williams, Linda S.
Background As telemedicine adoption increases, so does the importance of building cohesion among physicians in telemedicine teams. For example, in acute telestroke services, stroke specialists provide rapid remote stroke assessment and treatment to patients at hospitals without stroke specialty care. In the National Telestroke Program (NTSP) of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a virtual (distributed) hub of stroke specialists throughout the country provides 24/7 consultations nationwide. We examined how these specialists adapted to distributed teamwork, and we identified cohesion-related factors in program development and support. Methods We studied the virtual hub of stroke specialists employed by the NTSP. Semi-structured, confidential interviews with stroke specialists in the virtual hub were recorded and transcribed. We explored the extent to which these specialists had developed a sense of shared identity and team cohesion, and we identified factors in this development. Using a qualitative approach with constant comparison methods, two researchers coded each interview transcript independently using a shared codebook. We used matrix displays to identify themes, with special attention to team cohesion, communication, trust, and satisfaction. Results Of 13 specialists with at least 8 months of NTSP practice, 12 completed interviews; 7 had previously practiced in telestroke programs in other healthcare systems. Interviewees reported high levels of trust and team cohesion, sometimes even more with their virtual colleagues than with co-located colleagues. Factors facilitating perceived team cohesion included a weekly case conference call, a sense of transparency in discussing challenges, engagement in NTSP development tasks, and support from the NTSP leadership. Although lack of in-person contact was associated with lower cohesion, annual in-person NTSP meetings helped mitigate this issue. Despite technical challenges in establishing a new telehealth system within existing national infrastructure, providers reported high levels of satisfaction with the NTSP. Conclusion A virtual telestroke hub can provide a sense of team cohesion among stroke specialists at a level comparable with a standard co-located practice. Engaging in transparent discussion of challenging cases, reviewing new clinical evidence, and contributing to program improvements may promote cohesion in distributed telemedicine teams.
The Building Blocks for Enhanced Technological Literacy
(Indiana Association for Career and Technical Education, 2015) McLeod, Alister; Savoy, April
Many students have experience with smart phones, internet browsing, and social networking. Although exposure to these types of technologies are pure indicators of society’s evolution towards a more integrated and pervasive computing environment, they do not serve as accurate indicators of technological literacy. With the advent and rapid expansion of knowledge and technology intensive industries, these skills do not provide a sufficient core/foundational literacy to the development of characteristics possessed by technologically literate students. Gonzales and Renshaw (2005) identified six computing competency skill areas for pre-engineering majors – 1) Computer use and file management, 2) Word processing, 3) Spreadsheets, 4)Databases, 5) Presentations, and 6) Information and Communications. These competencies, previously the focus of engineers, have now transferred to society at large with 38% of all the value created in the U.S. requiring the skills of a technologically literate workforce (National Science Board, 2010). The widespread use of technology in society and everyday life has forced the need of technological literacy amongst non-Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors, hence the need for a comprehensive course that provides the building blocks for technological literacy. However, there is still skepticism on the value of classes that focus on the introduction of computers. These classes lay the foundation that is crucial for non-STEM majors to become technologically literate. The goal of this paper is to show that there is still a need for these types of classes and also that they provide a gateway for these students to become technologically literate before their graduation. By reviewing the performance of 130 students in an introductory level computing course at Indiana State University the need for such a class will be evidenced.
IndoorWaze: A Crowdsourcing-Based Context-Aware Indoor Navigation System
(IEEE, 2020-05) Li, Tao; Han, Dianqi; Chen, Yimin; Zhang, Rui; Zhang, Yanchao; Hedgpeth, Terri; Computer Information and Graphics Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
Indoor navigation systems are very useful in large complex indoor environments such as shopping malls. Current systems focus on improving indoor localization accuracy and must be combined with an accurate labeled floor plan to provide usable indoor navigation services. Such labeled floor plans are often unavailable or involve a prohibitive cost to manually obtain. In this paper, we present IndoorWaze, a novel crowdsourcing-based context-aware indoor navigation system that can automatically generate an accurate context-aware floor plan with labeled indoor POIs for the first time in literature. IndoorWaze combines the Wi-Fi fingerprints of indoor walkers with the Wi-Fi fingerprints and POI labels provided by POI employees to produce a high-fidelity labeled floor plan. As a lightweight crowdsourcing-based system, IndoorWaze involves very little effort from indoor walkers and POI employees. We prototype IndoorWaze on Android smartphones and evaluate it in a large shopping mall. Our results show that IndoorWaze can generate a high-fidelity labeled floor plan, in which all the stores are correctly labeled and arranged, all the pathways and crossings are correctly shown, and the median estimation error for the store dimension is below 12%.

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