We present IoTutor that is a cognitive computing solution for education of students in the IoT domain. We implement the IoTutor as a platform-independent web-based application that is able to interact with users via text or speech using natural language. We train the IoTutor with selected scientific publications relevant to the IoT education. To investigate users' experience with the IoTutor, we ask a group of students taking an IoT master level course at the Linnaeus University to use the IoTutor for a period of two weeks. We ask students to express their opinions with respect to the attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency, stimulation, and novelty of the IoTutor. The evaluation results show a trend that students express an overall positive attitude towards the IoTutor with majority of the aspects rated higher than the neutral value.

Nowadays, the growth of mobile apps is so fast and viral; they have the potential of transforming our everyday lives by creating huge opportunities to individuals and businesses. This translates into a growing demand for developing such apps, which need to be easy to learn and use. In this paper, we conduct an evaluation of an android mobile app, which we designed and developed to find and register power outlets in public spaces. Our evaluation of the prototype consisted of two stages. First, we provided the users with two tasks, with an additional option to indicate their perception of how easy it was to complete these tasks. Second, upon completing both tasks and offering their comments, participants were asked to take the SUS (System Usability Scores) questionnaire. The results of the evaluation indicate that the app usability and learnability is acceptable despite being a prototype. The findings and participants’ comments give us a direction on how this app can be improved in the future.

Accessibility of museums and other cultural institutions is not equal for all visitors. Since the perception of the human surroundings bases mainly on the visual experience, people with vision disabilities, either blind or visually impaired, are deprived of this kind of experience. Desiring to provide an equivalent user experience more and more institutions show the tendency of offering different variations of adjustments. Adjustments for blind and visually impaired are usually limited to the use of existing exhibition materials for all visitors either in the form of audio guides, guides or brochures in Braille, tags in Braille, less often tactile objects, tactile maps, floor markings, larger signs or indicators, magnifying glass, and sound elements. Though it seems that numerous adjustments are being used, the reality shows that they are still rare. Besides that, these materials and adaptations usually do not fulfil the requirements of adequate museum experience therefore, the need of improving the current state is necessary. In this paper an overview of needs and demands, which need to be fulfilled within the graphic arts and communication technologies possibilities, either for Braille, tactile or audio demands for presenting the lack of visual experience with blind and visually impaired, is presented.

MOOCs are increasingly being considered by universities as an integral part of their curriculum. Nevertheless, there are several challenges that to some extent slow this process, where the most important one is the accreditation challenges and financing. These challenges are particularly important in the context of universities in Scandinavian countries where education is mostly free. In order to gain more insights on the status of proliferation of MOOCs in Scandinavian universities and understand any specific challenges, we conducted a study by analyzing two sources of data: research publications and university websites. Further on, these data have been analyzed using a framework that differentiates and categorizes MOOCs in terms of accreditation and scalability. As a result of this analysis, we have identified the remaining challenges as well as a number of opportunities regarding the full integration of MOOCs in the educational system of the Scandinavian Higher Education Institutions.

Smart home products are becoming widespread aiming to increase people’s independence, especially for the elderly and people with disabilities. In order to design them suitably for this community, their involvement in the requirement gathering and design process is particularly important. In this paper, we report a study we conducted with six people having various disabilities. The aim was to identify the type of smart product that mostly increases their independence at home. We used three requirement gathering methods in a participatory fashion, namely, cartographic mapping, future workshop, and cultural probe. The outcome of the study revealed that participants mostly needed a product for a bathroom, specifically a smart shower. The initial prototype design of the product was developed together with participants. Researchers further investigated the prototype design using littleBits electronic modules. The smart shower is anticipated to have the most effect in increasing not only user independence, but also privacy.

The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) obligates States Parties to ensure personal mobility and independence for persons with disabilities by promoting access to and the development of assistive technology (AT)—i.e. products and services that enhance daily living and quality of life for persons with disabilities. Research has examined the experiences of persons with different disabilities using ICT and AT for indoor navigation and wayfinding. However, in the last year, ICT developers have made substantial strides in deploying Internet of Things (IoT) devices as part of indoor network navigation solutions (INNS) for persons with visual impairments. This article asks, ‘To what extent do persons with visual impairments perceive INNS as usable?’ Quantitative and qualitative data from an experimental trial conducted with 36 persons with visual impairments shows that persons with visual impairments largely consider INNS as usable for wayfinding in transportation stations. However, the results also suggest that persons with visual impairments experienced barriers using INNS due to the timing of the instructions. Future research should continue to investigate the usability of INNS for persons with visual impairments and focus specifically on reliability and responsivity of the instruction timing.

Library resource discovery tools (RDTs) are the latest generation of library catalogs that enable searching across disparate databases and repositories from a single search box. Although such “Google-like” experience has been applauded as a benefit for library users, there still exist usability and accessibility problems related to the diversity of user goals, needs, and preferences. To better understand these problems, we conducted an extensive literature review and in this process, we initially grouped issues into three categories: interface, resource description, and navigation. Based on these categories, we propose adaptation as an alternative approach to enhance the usability and accessibility of RDTs. The adaptations could be conducted on three levels pertaining to categories of issues found, namely: interface, information, and navigation level. The goal of this paper is to suggest how the process of adaptation could be considered in order to mitigate usability and accessibility issues of RDT interfaces.

Digital libraries are important resources for the education of all, including people with disabilities. Designing their interfaces to include broader range of users has been a challenge, partly because to evaluate their accessibility, access to participants is a difficult part. Hence, to overcome such limitation, researchers often use heuristics to evaluate library interfaces. Generic heuristics are typically lengthy or too general, hence not suitable to uncover accessibility issues with library interfaces. In this paper, we address this issue by proposing heuristics specifically designed for the evaluation of digital library interfaces. The initial set of heuristics was derived from four different sources independently rated by two domain experts. In addition, four new items were proposed based on observations we conducted in another study on the accessibility of digital libraries. The final set of heuristics proposed is consisted of sixteen items tailored specifically to evaluate the accessibility of digital library interfaces.

The presence of an expert instructor during simulator training is of great importance for the trainees, if not indispensable. The instructor’s role is to give feedback and guide the trainees to help them make the right decisions on time as effectively as possible. The instructor starts or pauses the training scenarios when needed and facilitates reflection during and after the scenarios. However, the fact that simulator-training sessions are very dependent on the participation of a guiding instructor can be a drawback, since there are not always sufficient expert instructors to fulfil the training demands. In this work, an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) is proposed as an automatic feedback solution for simulator training. It is based on effective assessment of the system conditions using a clustering based anomaly detection technique as a core component. Furthermore, we provide insights into the design of a proper interface for our ITS. The article presents the methodology for developing such a system which consists of three stages: data collection, data analysis and delivering feedback.

Self-driving cars are already being tested in our roads, and several benefits to society are expected with their mainstream use. They also present an opportunity to increase independent mobility for people with disabilities and the elderly. To achieve this, however, the in-car interaction should be redesigned to be suitable for these groups of previously excluded car users. An investigation of existing literature helped us identify two main challenges that could impact the adoption of self-driving cars by such users, namely, their acceptance and multimodal in-car interaction. To mitigate such challenges, we propose in this paper a model that frames the process of universally designing the in-car interactions to increase usability for everyone, while maintaining safety. We argue that integrating universal design early in the development of in-car interaction will ensure their accessibility and usability by all people.