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Electronics
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Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects
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Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer Science & Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2021) | Viewed by 19980

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Manuel Ortega

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Information Technologies and Systems, University of Castilla – La Mancha. Paseo Universidad, 4, 13071 Ciudad Real, Spain
Interests: human-computer interaction; e-learning; computer supported collaborative learning; computer supported cooperative work; ubiquitous computing; usability and user experience

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a multidisciplinary field that focuses on the development of systems in which the effective design of the interaction between users and computers is crucial. HCI covers all forms of design in Information and Communication Technologies and all types of interactions between users and computers, from graphical or voice user interfaces to pen-based interactions, ubiquitous computing or augmented and virtual reality. For these reasons, HCI is a growing field of study involving researchers from different disciplines.

Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is a research field which studies the cooperation which takes place when users interact with computers. Groupware is the name used for the systems created to develop cooperation among the participants. A special case in CSCW is the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), a CSCW system developed for collaboration between teachers and students or among students. This year, COVID-19 has increased the use of different collaborative platforms to enhance collaboration among users and this Special Issue aims, in particular, to present high-quality papers on this topic.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • CSCW
  • CSCL
  • E-learning platforms for collaboration
  • Groupware
  • Augmented and virtual reality
  • Usability and user experience (UX) studies

Prof. Dr. Manuel Ortega
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

17 pages, 22814 KiB  
Article
Multi-User Virtual Reality for Remote Collaboration in Construction Projects: A Case Study with High-Rise Elevator Machine Room Planning
by Phong Truong, Katja Hölttä-Otto, Paulina Becerril, Reetta Turtiainen and Sanni Siltanen
Electronics 2021, 10(22), 2806; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10222806 - 16 Nov 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4045
Abstract
Virtual Reality (VR) is considered among the major technologies to address the inefficient collaboration issue caused by the predominant use of 2D drawings in the construction industry. However, there is still a knowledge gap between researchers and practitioners about the actual benefits of [...] Read more.
Virtual Reality (VR) is considered among the major technologies to address the inefficient collaboration issue caused by the predominant use of 2D drawings in the construction industry. However, there is still a knowledge gap between researchers and practitioners about the actual benefits of VR in the business context. This paper presents the benefits of VR usage in four real-life high-rise elevator projects from the user and business perspectives. Four VR environments of actual machine rooms for planning were created and tested in a multi-user setting. Overall, users find VR more intuitive than conventional tools to enhance planning accuracy and collaboration. The results also show that VR brings significant economic savings and gains for business in the industry. Future study should investigate the real cost-benefit ratio of VR and streamline its technical implementation within construction projects. The research contributes to the current body of knowledge by providing real-life economic benefits and directions to address the research gap in both academia and industry to promote the wide adoption of VR. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects)
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17 pages, 1029 KiB  
Article
The Impact of COVID-19 in Collaborative Programming. Understanding the Needs of Undergraduate Computer Science Students
by Carmen Lacave and Ana Isabel Molina
Electronics 2021, 10(14), 1728; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10141728 - 19 Jul 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3119
Abstract
Collaborative learning activities have become a common practice in current university studies due to the implantation of the EHEA. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a radical and abrupt change in the teaching–learning model used in most universities, and in the way [...] Read more.
Collaborative learning activities have become a common practice in current university studies due to the implantation of the EHEA. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a radical and abrupt change in the teaching–learning model used in most universities, and in the way students’ group work is carried out. Given this new situation, our interest is focused on discovering how computer science students have approached group programming tasks. For this purpose, we have designed a cross-sectional pilot study to explore, from both social and technological points of view, how students carried out their group programming activities during the shutdown of universities, how they are doing them now, when social distance must be maintained, and what they have missed in both situations. The results of the study indicate that during the imposed confinement, the students adopted a programming model based on work division or distributed peer programming, and very few made use of synchronous distributed collaboration tools. After the lockdown, the students mostly opted for a model based on collaborative programming and there was an increased use of synchronous distributed collaboration tools. The specific communication, synchronization, and coordination functionalities they considered most useful or necessary were also analyzed. Among the desirable features included in a software for synchronous distributed programming, the students considered that having an audio-channel can be very useful and, possibly, the most agile method to communicate. The video signal is not considered as very necessary, being in many cases rather a source of distraction, while textual communication through a chat, to which they are very accustomed, is also well valued. In addition, version control and the possibility of recovering previous states of the practical projects were highly appreciated by the students, and they considered it necessary to record the individual contributions of each member of the team to the result. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects)
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28 pages, 4440 KiB  
Article
A Strategy Based on Genetic Algorithms for Forming Optimal Collaborative Learning Groups: An Empirical Study
by Oscar Revelo Sánchez, César A. Collazos and Miguel A. Redondo
Electronics 2021, 10(4), 463; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10040463 - 14 Feb 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2366
Abstract
Considering that group formation is key when developing activities in collaborative learning scenarios, this paper aims to propose a strategy based on a genetic algorithm approach for achieving optimal collaborative learning groups, considering the students’ personality traits as grouping criteria. A controlled experiment [...] Read more.
Considering that group formation is key when developing activities in collaborative learning scenarios, this paper aims to propose a strategy based on a genetic algorithm approach for achieving optimal collaborative learning groups, considering the students’ personality traits as grouping criteria. A controlled experiment was designed with 238 students, quantifying their personality traits through the “big five inventory” (BFI), forming working groups and developing a collaborative activity in programming and related courses. The experiment results allowed validation, not only from a computational point of view evaluating the algorithm performance but also from a pedagogical point of view, confronting the results obtained by students applying the proposed approach with those obtained through other group formation strategies. The highlight of the study is that those groups whose formation was pre-established by the teachers through the proposed strategy have generally had a better collaborative performance than the groups with traditional formation, except in the case of heterogeneous formation, at the time of developing a collaborative activity. In addition, through the experiment, it was found that not considering criteria related to personality traits before the group formation generally led to lower results. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects)
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16 pages, 525 KiB  
Article
A Framework for Identifying Sequences of Interactions That Cause Usability Problems in Collaborative Systems
by Santos Bringas, Rafael Duque, Alicia Nieto-Reyes, Cristina Tîrnăucă and José Luis Montaña
Electronics 2021, 10(4), 388; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10040388 - 05 Feb 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1816
Abstract
Collaborative systems support shared spaces, where groups of users exchange interactions. In order to ensure the usability of these systems, an intuitive interactions’ organization and that each user has awareness information to know the activity of others are necessary. Usability laboratories allow evaluators [...] Read more.
Collaborative systems support shared spaces, where groups of users exchange interactions. In order to ensure the usability of these systems, an intuitive interactions’ organization and that each user has awareness information to know the activity of others are necessary. Usability laboratories allow evaluators to verify these requirements. However, laboratory usability evaluations can be problematic for reproducing mobile and ubiquitous contexts, as they restrict the place and time in which the user interacts with the system. This paper presents a framework for building software support that it collects human–machine interactions in mobile and ubiquitous contexts and outputs an assessment of the system’s usability. This framework is constructed through learning that is based on neural networks, identifying sequences of interactions related to usability problems when users carry out collaborative activities. The paper includes a case study that puts the framework into action during the development process of a smartphone application that supports collaborative sport betting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects)
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19 pages, 3038 KiB  
Article
Designing Online Platforms Supporting Emotions and Awareness
by César A. Collazos, Habib Fardoun, Deema AlSekait, Carla Santos Pereira and Fernando Moreira
Electronics 2021, 10(3), 251; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10030251 - 22 Jan 2021
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 3907
Abstract
Due to the global pandemic (COVID-19) currently facing humanity, a new environment that promotes teaching–learning is now emerging. This environment that challenges traditional teaching practices created an opportunity for the technology industry to capitalize on by developing creative e-learning platforms that empowers the [...] Read more.
Due to the global pandemic (COVID-19) currently facing humanity, a new environment that promotes teaching–learning is now emerging. This environment that challenges traditional teaching practices created an opportunity for the technology industry to capitalize on by developing creative e-learning platforms that empowers the teaching–learning process, during this ‘emergency’ situation. E-learning scenario is an important element to be considered, as it offers a host of benefits, such as reducing costs, allowing for education on-demand, etc., to its adopters. However, the application of this could bring some challenges, as some of the existing online platforms are not conducive to support clear communication among academic staff. This paper describes a report identifying the main problems faced by teachers and students from different countries in Latin America, when using e-learning platforms in a lockdown scenario, reporting the importance to include aspects related with emotions and awareness. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects)
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Review

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13 pages, 7631 KiB  
Review
Computer-Human Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects
by Manuel Ortega
Electronics 2021, 10(5), 616; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electronics10050616 - 06 Mar 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2753
Abstract
Through a series of projects carried out by the Computer–Human Interaction and COllaboration (CHICO) group of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, some proposals are presented to improve the current e-Learning systems by making use of different paradigms of human-computer interaction. Synchronous and asynchronous [...] Read more.
Through a series of projects carried out by the Computer–Human Interaction and COllaboration (CHICO) group of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, some proposals are presented to improve the current e-Learning systems by making use of different paradigms of human-computer interaction. Synchronous and asynchronous collaborative systems, ubiquitous computing, and augmented reality can improve the current learning environments. The use of artificial intelligence mechanisms for both learner support and assessment complements these techniques. Emphasis is also placed on the use of automatic application generation techniques using models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Human-Computer Interaction and Collaboration: Challenges and Prospects)
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