The Magic Coat Hanger

The rapid proliferation of online harassment, particularly doxing and shaming, poses significant psychological and social risks for university students. Despite growing awareness campaigns, preventive interventions remain limited. This study aims to develop and evaluate a combined microlearning and chatbot counseling intervention to enhance students’ digital safety knowledge, preventive behavioral intentions, and engagement in higher education contexts. The key argument is that interactive, concise digital learning combined with AI-driven counseling can effectively reduce risks of online harassment. Design/methods/approach – A feasibility and usability study was conducted with 60 undergraduate students. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention assessments of knowledge and behavioral intentions, alongside a System Usability Scale (SUS) survey for chatbot evaluation. The intervention comprised bite-sized microlearning modules addressing online safety, reinforced with scenario-based interactions through a chatbot counseling system. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests, descriptive statistics, and correlation analyses to assess knowledge gains, behavioral intention changes, and engagement metrics. The intervention significantly improved participants’ knowledge scores (pretest mean = 54.2, posttest mean = 81.5, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 2.28) and preventive behavioral intentions (all dimensions p < 0.001). SUS scores averaged 82.3, indicating high usability, while engagement metrics revealed near-complete module completion (94%) and frequent chatbot interactions (mean 12.4 interactions per participant). Knowledge gains were positively correlated with module engagement (r = 0.61, p < 0.001). The study demonstrates the feasibility and efficacy of integrated microlearning-chatbot interventions, offering scalable preventive education strategies. Limitations include single-institution sampling, short intervention duration, and reliance on self-reported measures, which constrain generalizability. This study provides empirical evidence for combining microlearning and AI counseling in digital safety education, with potential for adaptation to other forms of online harassment or digital literacy initiatives. Future research should explore longitudinal impacts and multi-institution trials.

This issue of Libellarium includes papers from the invited speakers who gave lectures at the Summer School in User Studies (SSUS) organized by the Department of Information Sciences and held at the University of Zadar, 11. - 14. April, 2012. The SSUS is associated with the Knowledge Society and Information Transfer PhD programme at the Department of Information Sciences at the University of Zadar. This programme is designed for Croatian and international doctoral students in the field of theories and studies of information needs and use, as well as the field of reading and learning concepts and strategies in digital environment. The main goal of the Summer School 2012 was to introduce the participants to the most recent research, the latest developments and the newly emerged concepts in the fields of users’ information behaviour, learning and education in the digital age, information literacy theories and concepts, as well as the reading paradigms. In the recent times the information society changes rapidly which influences processing and the approaches to information while it changes the existing paradigms of learning and education. New literacies emerge and reading, as the key competency necessary to access the information, changes its forms and practices. The SUSS organized the above mentioned issues in three segments: Users’ information behaviour, Literacy and reading in the digital environment, and Learning and education in the digital age. In the Users’ information behaviour segment this issue of Libellarium contains articles from two invited speakers and two doctoral students who discuss the subject from different viewpoints. Paul Sturges starts with the assumption that people are much more dependent than they realise on information and ideas that are acquired and processed by areas of the brain, not always immediately accessible to the conscious mind. Polona Vilar discusses information behaviour of scholars and scholarly practice influenced by increased accessibility of digital resources and tools. Doctoral students Dora Rubinic and Darko Lacovic base their literature reviews on the specific context of university students’ information behaviour. The former review deals with information behavior of university students in general, while the latter one deals with university students’ information behaviour in relation to the role of academic libraries. Four invited speakers discuss literacy and reading in the digital environment. Livija Knaflic presents literacy as a complex phenomenon and focuses her work toward psychological aspects of literacy. Sonja Spiranec investigates information literacy in the context of Web 2.0 which transformed information environments into complex and unstructured places so the contexts of information literacy are being re-examined and reshaped respectively. Ivanka Kuic writes about the postmodern theoretical approaches to the reader and the validity of these approaches in the digital environment while emphasizing that existing concepts of the reader and reading adapt to electronic environment, because the electronic text deconstructs the printed one and it changes the way of reading. Vita Mozuraite discusses these rapid changes in the reading paradigm in the age of e-book to which the young readers are especially susceptible considering their frequent use of the internet. The changes in information environment influence learning. This fact demands careful consideration from education experts in order to achieve the maximal degree of the rich media environment contribution to the quality of education. Hence, Milan Matijevic writes about the influence the e-environment has on the new curriculum paradigms. These papers are the starting point for the new directions of thought about the changes in the digital environment that reflect on information behaviour, learning and the related practices. The papers were received in 2012/2013 and were peer reviewed in 2013/2014. * Department of Information Sciences, University of Zadar, Croatia e-mail: istricev@unizd.hr

When studying the use of assistive robots in home environments, and especially how such robots can be personalised to meet the needs of the resident, key concerns are issues related to behaviour verification, behaviour interference and safety. Here, personalisation refers to the teaching of new robot behaviours by both technical and non-technical end users. In this article, we consider the issue of behaviour interference caused by situations where newly taught robot behaviours may affect or be affected by existing behaviours and thus, those behaviours will not or might not ever be executed. We focus in particular on how such situations can be detected and presented to the user. We describe the human–robot behaviour teaching system that we developed as well as the formal behaviour checking methods used. The online use of behaviour checking is demonstrated, based on static analysis of behaviours during the operation of the robot, and evaluated in a user study. We conducted a proof-of-concept human–robot interaction study with an autonomous, multi-purpose robot operating within a smart home environment. Twenty participants individually taught the robot behaviours according to instructions they were given, some of which caused interference with other behaviours. A mechanism for detecting behaviour interference provided feedback to participants and suggestions on how to resolve those conflicts. We assessed the participants’ views on detected interference as reported by the behaviour teaching system. Results indicate that interference warnings given to participants during teaching provoked an understanding of the issue. We did not find a significant influence of participants’ technical background. These results highlight a promising path towards verification and validation of assistive home companion robots that allow end-user personalisation.

Peer group deviance (PGD) is strongly associated with current and future externalizing behaviors. Debate remains about the degree to which this association arises from social selection. The first year of university constitutes a social experiment in which most individuals leave their home environment and recreate for themselves a new peer group. PGD was measured in newly arrived university students and then 6 and 18months later. Other personality and family traits were also assessed. PGD reported for high school friends at the start of university and university friends 6months later were substantially correlated (+0.60). This correlation was only slightly diminished if restricted to students whose home was greater than 50 miles from the university. PGD was strongly predicted across three cohorts by male sex (+), extraversion (+), conscientiousness (-), a family history of alcohol use disorders (+) and depression (+), and religiosity (-).These predictors of PGD had a relatively stable impact over 18months and, aside from sex, differed only modestly in males and females. As individuals change social groups from high school to university, the level of PGD remains relatively stable, suggesting that individuals play a strong role in selecting peer groups with consistent characteristics. PGD is also predicted cross-sectionally and longitudinally by personality, family background and religiosity. Our results suggest that the association between personal and peer deviance is due at least in part to the effects of social selection.

This thesis covers the development of a network supported multi user augmented reality application for mobile devices. A presenter can load 3D models dynamically, display them on an augmented reality 2D tracker and is capable of manipulating certain single objects. These manipulations are already well-defined in advance through the hierarchy of the 3D object. Executable manipulations are translation, rotation, scaling and the change of materials. Any number of spectators can follow the presentation with their own device from a point of view of individual choice. If the data of the model is not present on their own device it will automatically be transferred from the presenter via network. Thoughts that were made in advance are described, followed by the details of implementation and the occured problems as well as chosen solutions. With the prototype a user study was conducted to define guidelines for the choice of different kinds of lighting for certain applications. The choice is between static, dynamic and combined lighting. Additionally the general usability of the app is evaluated in the study.

User studies informing E-table interfaces

BackgroundThe need to attend a medically supervised hospital- or clinic-based appointment is a well-recognized barrier to exercise participation. The development of reliable and accurate home-based functional tests has the potential to decrease the burden on the health care system while enabling support, information, and assessment.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the usability (ie, acceptability, satisfaction, accuracy, and practicality) of the EasyMeasure app to self-administer the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) in young, healthy adults and determine parallel form reliability and construct validity of conducting a self-administered 6MWT using technology.MethodsWe used a usability study design. English-speaking, undergraduate university students who had access to an iPhone or iPad device running iOS 10 or later and self-reported ability to walk for 6 minutes were recruited for this study. Consenting participants were randomized to either a standard 6MWT group (ie, supervised without the use of the app) or a technology 6MWT group (ie, unsupervised with the app to mimic independent implementation of the test). All participants performed a maximal treadmill test. Participants in the 6MWT group completed the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) questionnaire and a satisfaction questionnaire after completing the assessment. Parallel form reliability of the 6MWT using technology was analyzed by comparing participant self-administered scores and assessor scores using Pearson correlation coefficients across and between trials. Construct validity was assessed by comparing participant 6MWT scores (both standard and using technology) with maximum treadmill test variables (peak oxygen uptake and ventilatory threshold [VT]).ResultsIn total, 20 university students consented to participate in the study. All but 2 participants (8/10, 80%) in the technology 6MWT group had deviations that prevented them from accurately conducting the 6MWT using the app, and none of the participants were able to successfully score the 6MWT. However, a significantly strong correlation was found (r=.834; P=.003) when comparing participants’ scores for the 6MWT using technology with the assessors’ scores. No significant correlations were found between maximal treadmill test peak oxygen uptake scores and 6MWT prediction equations using standard 6MWT scores (equation 1: r=0.119; P=.78; equation 2: r=0.095; P=.82; equation 3: r=0.119; P=.78); however, standard 6MWT scores were significantly correlated with VT values (r=0.810; P=.02). The calculated submaximal treadmill scores and assessor 6MWT scores using technology also demonstrated a significant correlation (r=0.661; P=.04).ConclusionsThis study demonstrated significant usability concerns regarding the accuracy of a self-administered 6MWT using the EasyMeasure app. However, the strong and significant correlation between the 6MWT and VT values demonstrates the potential of the 6MWT to measure functional capacity for community-based exercise screening and patient monitoring.

As recent advancements in large language models enhance reasoning across various domains, educators are increasingly exploring their use in conversation-based tutoring systems. However, since LLMs are black-box models to users and lack human-like problem-solving strategies, users are hardly convinced by the answers provided by LLMs. This lack of trust can potentially undermine the effectiveness of learning in educational scenarios. To address these issues, we introduce a novel approach that integrates multi-agent debates into a lecture video Q&A system, aiming to assist computer science (CS) university students in self-learning by using LLMs to simulate debates between affirmative and negative debaters and a judge to reach a final answer and presenting the entire process to users for review. This approach is expected to lead to better learning outcomes and the improvement of students’ critical thinking. To validate the effectiveness of this approach, we carried out a user study through a prototype system and conducted preliminary experiments based on video lecture learning involving 90 CS students from three universities. The study compared different conditions and demonstrated that students who had access to a combination of video-based Q&A and multi-agent debates performed significantly better on quizzes compared to those who only had access to the video or video-based Q&A. These findings indicate that integrating multi-agent debates with lecture videos can substantially enhance the learning experience, which is also beneficial for the development of students’ high-order thinking abilities in the future.

Drones are increasingly used in situations where they can assist a person. However, people are not familiar with drones approaching them. We propose an expressive light system embedded on a drone to convey its intention to initiate communication, which we present as a four-stage process: Drone-Initiated Engagement Model (DIEM). We then describe the design and development of an LED-based prototype divided in two configurations with a total of 26 light animations, and report their evaluation in an online survey (N = 156). We describe the suitability of different configurations, animations, and colors to convey each stage of DIEM. We finally validate our system in a user study (N = 45) that showed that participants can perceive all four stages of approach via the drone movement and that expressive lights provide a more nuanced user experience. We contribute insights into the design of expressive light systems, as a stepping stone towards machine-initiated communication.

In this paper, we present the design case for Gate Reminder, a family shared home appliance located at the front door area that represents informative messages, reminding users of things they need to take and know before leaving home. For this project, we built a working prototype and conducted a number of usability and user experience evaluations. In the paper we describe (1) why we chose reminder as our research topic (2) what we found from the early phases of user research for the Gate Reminder (3) what design requirements and decisions we have established from our user study (4) how we designed the working prototype based on our design decisions and (5) what we have learned from our user experience evaluation. The requirements for effective reminding, the usability challenges in ubicomp application, issues in the current prototype and future developments will be presented throughout the paper as well.

Every field of life has been revolutionized due to the Internet, and the world has transformed into a global village. Now, any kind of knowledge and information spreads worldwide in a few seconds through the Internet. The Internet has also brought revolution in the education sector and changed the ways of teaching and learning. On the other hand, excessive internet usage has badly affected university students' physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and academic performance. This study aimed to explore the relationship between internet addiction and potential factors and to examine the relationship between internet addiction and the effects of internet addiction on university students. The research methodology used in this study was quantitative survey research design. The tool used in this research study for data collection was a personal questionnaire developed by the researcher. However, the study population consisted of all the BS students from the Faculty of Social Sciences of public sector universities in Punjab. The sample was selected through a random sampling technique, consisting of 250 students of the University of Sargodha. The study's results revealed that the factors that triggered university students to overuse the Internet included peer influence, institutional environment, anonymity feature of the Internet, escape from problems, and the flexible home environment. It was also concluded that a positive relationship existed between internet addiction and all other study variables. It was recommended that excessive Internet usage be controlled by engaging the students in alternative activities such as organizing certain exhibitions, competitions, and sports activities and encouraging regular library visits.

Mental disorders are a significant contributor to the disease burden worldwide, and in Malaysia, it is the second-highest form of health problem. In response to COVID-19, the teaching delivery method has shifted from conventional to online learning (OL), resulting in a few challenges, especially among university students. This transition led to a problem associated with mental health conditions. Thus, this study aimed to identify the prevalence of mental health status between gender and faculty during online learning among the students of UiTM Perlis. A total of 362 male and female university students completed the electronic questionnaires, which include demographics and a 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), to assess students' general mental health status. The results showed that 71.3% of the students scored below four, which showed good mental health. However, 28.7% of students were categorized as having poor mental health. The findings have shown no significant difference (p<0.05) between university students' GHQ scores and gender. Other results revealed that the overall mean score of GHQ for all students was (2.40 ± 2.419), though there was no significant difference in the GHQ score among the six faculties of UiTM Perlis students. The findings have important implications.

The role of explicit informational feedback about semantic and syntactic errors was investigated in an experiment where university students were required to learn a miniature artificial language. A computer presented a series of simple geometric objects on a visual display screen, and alternately provided the proper description of the configuration (a model) or accepted and corrected the descriptions of the subject. The four experimental conditions were that (a) both semantic and syntactic errors were corrected; (b) only semantic; (c) only syntactic; (d) no errors were corrected. The results indicated that the subjects did not effectively utilize the feedback they received, and under all conditions learned the language from the model sentences which were presented.

Most of today's smartphones and tablet computers feature touchscreens as the main way of interaction. By using these touchscreens, oily residues of the users' fingers, smudge, remain on the device's display. As this smudge can be used to deduce formerly entered data, authentication tokens are jeopardized. Most notably, grid-based authentication methods, like the Android pattern scheme are prone to such attacks.Based on a thorough development process using low fidelity and high fidelity prototyping, we designed three graphic-based authentication methods in a way to leave smudge traces, which are not easy to interpret. We present one grid-based and two randomized graphical approaches and report on two user studies that we performed to prove the feasibility of these concepts. The authentication schemes were compared to the widely used Android pattern authentication and analyzed in terms of performance, usability and security. The results indicate that our concepts are significantly more secure against smudge attacks while keeping high input speed.

This paper describes an educational game that aims to familiarize cognitive impaired children with household objects, the overall home environment and the daily activities that take place in it. In addition to touch-based interaction, the game supports physical manipulation through printed cards on a tabletop setup, using a webcam to detect and track the cards placed on the game board.