Chang Liu

In software development, stakeholders of the same project often collaborate asynchronously through shared artifacts. A traceability system links a project's artifacts and therefore provides support for collaboration among stakeholders. Different stakeholders are interested in different types of traceability links. The literature often states that traceability is useful but expensive to build and maintain. However, there is no study showing reduction in effort when traceability links among… Show more

In software development, stakeholders of the same project often collaborate asynchronously through shared artifacts. A traceability system links a project's artifacts and therefore provides support for collaboration among stakeholders. Different stakeholders are interested in different types of traceability links. The literature often states that traceability is useful but expensive to build and maintain. However, there is no study showing reduction in effort when traceability links among various software artifacts are provided and used during the maintenance phase. This paper presents a study evaluating the benefits of using traceability among requirements, design, code, code inspections, builds, defects, and tests artifacts in the maintenance phase. Before the study, a survey was conducted at a large industrial firm to determine the type of links that different stakeholders are interested in. Twenty-five stakeholders from this firm participated in a survey to define the type of traceability links that were of interest to them. With this result, a traceability link model is proposed that categorizes different types of traceability links based on stakeholders' roles. This link model was used in the study. Twenty-eight subjects from industry and academia participated in the empirical study that was conducted after the survey. A prototype link-tracing tool, TraceLink, was developed and used in the study to present traceability links to the experimental group, whereas the control group was not given any links to solve the tasks. Five maintenance tasks were used in the study. The results show a significant improvement in task accuracy (86.06%) when traceability links were given to the subjects. In conclusion, a traceability model based on an industrial survey provided traceability views that are based on stakeholders' roles. This empirical study provides evidence that traceability links are effective in solving maintenance tasks with higher accuracy. Show less

This paper presents a template-based solution to overcome technical barriers non-technical computer end users face when developing functional learning environments in three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). iVirtualWorld, a prototype of a platform-independent 3DVW creation tool that implements the proposed solution, facilitates 3DVW learning environment creation through semantics-based abstract 3DVW representation and template-based 3DVW instantiation. iVirtualWorld provides a wizard to guide… Show more

This paper presents a template-based solution to overcome technical barriers non-technical computer end users face when developing functional learning environments in three-dimensional virtual worlds (3DVW). iVirtualWorld, a prototype of a platform-independent 3DVW creation tool that implements the proposed solution, facilitates 3DVW learning environment creation through semantics-based abstract 3DVW representation and template-based 3DVW instantiation. iVirtualWorld provides a wizard to guide the 3DVW creation process, and hide low-level programming and 3D design details through higher-level abstracts supported by pre-defined templates. Preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of iVirtualWorld showed positive results. The contribution of this study is threefold: 1) It provides a paradigm for investigating and developing 3DVW building tools from end users’ perspective; 2) It develops a prototype of a 3DVW building tool, which gives educators a framework to easily create educational virtual worlds using domain-specific concepts; 3) It conducts empirical research and collected preliminary experimental data for evaluation. Show less

This study is to design and develop a sustainable virtual boat integrated with lesson plans for water resource and environmental education. The virtual boat, designed based on the Unity 3D platform, is built to simulate a physical boat used for water sampling along the Ohio River from Marietta to Gallipolis, Ohio. Two lesson plans, water quality index and pollution locator GPS (Global Position System), are developed that students can navigate the virtual boat along the Ohio River conducting… Show more

This study is to design and develop a sustainable virtual boat integrated with lesson plans for water resource and environmental education. The virtual boat, designed based on the Unity 3D platform, is built to simulate a physical boat used for water sampling along the Ohio River from Marietta to Gallipolis, Ohio. Two lesson plans, water quality index and pollution locator GPS (Global Position System), are developed that students can navigate the virtual boat along the Ohio River conducting water sampling activities and exploring water pollution problems similar to those in a physical boat. The effectiveness and usability of the developed model were assessed in the two local high school science classrooms. The result shows that the developed model is a promising tool for water resources and environmental education. Show less

Three-dimensional virtual world technologies have the potential to be applied in the domain of education. However, end users such as teachers found it difficult to apply virtual world technologies because of technical issues. This paper discusses the technical difficulties end users face when developing 3D virtual worlds. We investigate the problem from the perspective of end-user programming and propose a methodology for solving this problem. In order to evaluate this methodology, a… Show more

Three-dimensional virtual world technologies have the potential to be applied in the domain of education. However, end users such as teachers found it difficult to apply virtual world technologies because of technical issues. This paper discusses the technical difficulties end users face when developing 3D virtual worlds. We investigate the problem from the perspective of end-user programming and propose a methodology for solving this problem. In order to evaluate this methodology, a domain-oriented end-user design environment implementing the methodology has been developed and applied in the domain of educational virtual chemistry laboratory. Two user studies are designed to assess the methodology from two different perspectives. The first user study evaluates the usability of the methodology. The second user study assesses the usability of virtual experiments generated using the methodology. Show less

M-health applications provide a unique new way to deliver healthcare. Developing m-health applications involves new challenges different from those encountered when developing traditional healthcare programs and e-health applications. This paper describes the development of an m-health application for behavioral migraine management, and presents lessons learned during the development process from software engineers' perspective.

Most downloaded paper in JSS in 2011.

Modern smart mobile devices offer media-rich and context-aware features that are highly useful for electronic-health (e-health) applications. It is therefore not surprising that these devices have gained acceptance as target devices for e-health applications, turning them into m-health (mobile-health) apps. In particular, many e-health application developers have chosen Apple's iOS mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch as the target… Show more

Most downloaded paper in JSS in 2011.

Modern smart mobile devices offer media-rich and context-aware features that are highly useful for electronic-health (e-health) applications. It is therefore not surprising that these devices have gained acceptance as target devices for e-health applications, turning them into m-health (mobile-health) apps. In particular, many e-health application developers have chosen Apple's iOS mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch as the target device to provide more convenient and richer user experience, as evidenced by the rapidly increasing number of m-health apps in Apple's App Store. In this paper, the top two hundred of such apps from the App Store were examined from a developer's perspective to provide a focused overview of the status and trends of iOS m-health apps and an analysis of related technology, architecture, and user interface design issues. The top 200 apps were classified into different groups according to their purposes, functions, and user satisfaction. It was shown that although the biggest group of apps was medical information reference apps that were delivered from or related to medical articles, websites, or journals, mobile users disproportionally favored tracking tools. It was clear that m-health apps still had plenty of room to grow to take full advantage of unique mobile platform features and truly fulfill their potential. In particular, introduction of two- or three-dimensional visualization and context-awareness could further enhance m-health app's usability and utility. This paper aims to serve as a reference point and guide for developers and practitioners interested in using iOS as a platform for m-health applications, particular from the technical point of view. Show less

Virtual worlds are gaining popularity as a tool for communication, teaching, and other social interactions. However, creating virtual worlds remains a challenge for ‘average users’ who
do not have a substantial amount of technical expertise in programming or 3D design. This is
because users often have to be able to write scripts or model 3D objects with computer
programming technologies that are often proprietary to the virtual world platform they want to use. Thus, the ‘average user’,… Show more

Virtual worlds are gaining popularity as a tool for communication, teaching, and other social interactions. However, creating virtual worlds remains a challenge for ‘average users’ who
do not have a substantial amount of technical expertise in programming or 3D design. This is
because users often have to be able to write scripts or model 3D objects with computer
programming technologies that are often proprietary to the virtual world platform they want to use. Thus, the ‘average user’, of a virtual world must have a variety of technical expertise in order to create a virtual presence. iVirtualWord is a project developed by the Ohio University’s VITAL Lab that aims to solve these problems by allowing ‘average users’ to create their own digital presence. The focus of this paper is to inform the masses about iVirtualWorld as well as introduce a brief case study of how the new tool was utilized by an Appalachian middle school in Ohio. Show less