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Publications

Publications by Nuno Flores

2016

iLearnTest - framework for educational games

Authors
Paiva, ACR; Flores, NH; Barbosa, AG; Ribeiro, TPB;

Publication
2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIGHER EDUCATION ADVANCES,HEAD'16

Abstract
Games are a part of human life since ancient times, present not only at childhood but throughout most of our adult life. A growing area of research focuses on the development of games for teaching and learning in various areas of expertise. These are called serious games. They intend to capture the attention, to motivate and to encourage user engagement through the use of recreational and entertainment elements, thus facilitating the learning process. This article describes iLearnTest, a framework for developing serious online games which are capable of supporting education of several subjects, allowing for a suitable training of participants, thus preparing them to meet the job market needs. This paper describes the architecture of the framework, the structure of the game and presents some results from performed experiments as to validate the overall approach. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

2015

DRIVER - A platform for collaborative framework understanding

Authors
Flores, N; Aguiar, A;

Publication
2015 30TH IEEE/ACM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AUTOMATED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (ASE)

Abstract
Application frameworks are a powerful technique for large-scale reuse but often very hard to learn from scratch. Although good documentation helps on reducing the learning curve, it is often found lacking, and costly, as it needs to attend different audiences with disparate learning needs. When code and documentation prove insufficient, developers turn to their network of experts. The lack of awareness about the experts, interrupting the wrong people, and experts unavailability are well known hindrances to effective collaboration. This paper presents the DRIVER platform, a collaborative learning environment for framework users to share their knowledge. It provides the documentation on a wiki, where the learning paths of the community of learners can be captured, shared, rated, and recommended, thus tapping into the collective knowledge of the community of framework users. The tool can be obtained at http://bit.ly/driverTool.

2015

Game Design Techniques for Software Engineering Management Education

Authors
Letra, P; Paiva, ACR; Flores, N;

Publication
2015 IEEE 18TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING (CSE)

Abstract
Software engineering is an area with a wide range of concepts and knowledge. To this diversity of topics, you may need to apply different teaching and learning techniques to be effective. One such technique is the use of serious games, but the design of such games tends to be complex, currently lacking a map of game design standards that comply with the Software Engineering education requirements. This paper presents the process to identify the game design patterns that can be effective for teaching software engineering, specifically the software project management topic. The process begins by identifying the relationship between game design patterns and teaching and learning functions based on literature review. Then the work follows establishing a relationship between teaching and learning functions and software project management education through questionnaires made to software engineering teachers. Finally, it sets up the relationship between game design patterns and software project management education through an empirical study conducted with master students. These results can be used as a basis for designing and developing serious games for teaching software project management.

2016

Software Engineering Management Education through Game Design Patterns

Authors
Flores, NH; Paiva, ACR; Letra, P;

Publication
2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIGHER EDUCATION ADVANCES,HEAD'16

Abstract
Software engineering (SE) is an area with a wide range of concepts and knowledge. Such diversity of topics, requires the application of different teaching and learning techniques for an effective education. Serious Games is one of such techniques, yet its design tends to be complex, currently lacking a map of game design standards that comply with SE education requirements. This paper presents a process to identify the game design patterns that can be effective for teaching software engineering, specifically the software project management topic. Firstly, it begins by identifying the relationship between game design patterns and teaching and learning functions based on literature review. Secondly, it filters which of those teaching and learning functions is most relevant to software project management education, according to SE education specialists. Finally, it validates the relationship between game design patterns and software project management education through an empirical study conducted with master students. The results can be used as a basis for designing and developing serious games for teaching software project management. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

2014

The concept of "ba" applied to software knowledge

Authors
Flores, N; Aguiar, A; Ferreira, HS;

Publication
Proceedings of the 7th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering, CHASE 2014, Hyderabad, India, June 2-3, 2014

Abstract
Software development is a knowledge-intensive activity. Software products usually start as a simple idea, or a vision, and then progress towards a final deliverable product. Along this evolution, there is a lot of knowledge that is captured, organized, and shared, leading to new knowledge, both as a whole and within specific development activities. The concept of "Ba" provides a foundation to advance individual and collective knowledge, which describes knowledge creation as a spiral involving tacit and explicit knowledge: the Socialization, Externalization, Combination, Internalization model (a.k.a. SECI model). By applying this foundation to software development, we found issues that may hinder the effective knowledge management cycle. In this paper, we present a vision and a set of requirements for tools to overcome such issues and therefore better support the whole process of software knowledge evolution.

2013

STAlz: Remotely supporting the diagnosis, tracking and rehabilitation of patients with Alzheimer's

Authors
Moreira, H; Oliveira, R; Flores, N;

Publication
2013 IEEE 15th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services, Healthcom 2013

Abstract
As the World's population gets older, diseases directly related to aging are increasingly becoming the focus of technological effort and research. Dementia, in general, and Alzheimer's disease (AD), in particular, is one of the most common afflictions among elderly people, with studies predicting an even bigger incidence in the next decades. Due to mobility constraints, patients are being inadequately followed by their medical staff, hindering an effective delay of the disease's progression through preventive therapeutics. As such, new ways of diagnosing, tracking and rehabilitating AD patients are needed. This paper presents STAlz, a mobile device based system developed to provide caregivers and medical professionals a way to be in contact and share important information, and to provide patients with a tool that could potentiate the exercise of their cognitive functions. This system was tested with Alzheimer's disease caregivers and the initial results proved promising. © 2013 IEEE.

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