3 REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
Requirements specification and analysis resulted
from two different empirical studies. The first
empirical study participated 50 potential users of the
educational system and it revealed the basic
requirements for affective bi-modal interaction. The
second empirical study, on the other hand,
participated 16 expert users and the information
collected were used for defining the criteria for
determining the emotional states of users. These
criteria would be used in the next phases of the
software life-cycle for applying the multi-criteria
decision making model.
3.1 Determining Requirements for
Affective Bi-modal Interaction
In order to find out how users express their emotions
through a bi-modal interface that combines voice
recognition and input from keyboard we have
conducted an empirical study. This empirical study
involved 50 users (male and female), of the age
range 17-19 and at the novice level of computer
experience. The particular users were selected
because such a profile describes the majority of first
year medical students in a Greek university which
the educational application is targeted to. They are
usually between the age of 17 and 19 and usually
have only limited computing experience, since the
background knowledge required for medical studies
does not include advanced computer skills.
In the first phase of the empirical study these
users were given questionnaires concerning their
emotional reactions to several situations of computer
use in terms of their actions using the keyboard and
what they say. Participants were asked to determine
what their possible reactions would be when they are
at certain emotional states during their interaction.
Our aim was to recognise the possible changes in the
users’ behaviour and then to associate these changes
with emotional states like anger, happiness,
boredom, etc.
After collecting and processing the information
of the empirical study we came up with results that
led to the design of the affective module of the
educational application. For this purpose, some
common positive and negative feelings were
identified.
The results of the empirical study were also used
for designing the user stereotypes. In our study user
stereotypes where built first by categorizing users by
their age, their educational level and by their
computer knowledge level. The reason why this was
done was that people’s behaviour while doing
something may be affected by several factors
concerning their personality, age, experience, etc.
Indeed, the empirical study revealed many cases of
differences among users. For example, experienced
computer users may be less frustrated than novice
users. Younger computer users are usually more
expressive than older users while interacting with an
animated agent and we may expect to have more
data from audio mode than by the use of a keyboard.
The same case is when a user is less experienced in
using a computer than a user with a high computer
knowledge level. In all these cases stereotypes were
constructed to indicate which specific characteristics
in a user’s behaviour should be taken more to
account in order make more accurate assumptions
about the users’ emotional state.
The empirical study also revealed that the users
would also appreciate if the system adapted its
interaction to the users’ e-motional state. Therefore,
the system could use the evidence of the emotional
state of a user collected by a bi-modal interface in
order to re-feed the system, adapt the agent’s
behaviour to the particular user interacting with the
system and as a result make the system more
accurate and friendly.
3.2 Determining Multiple Criteria
Decision making theories provide precise
mathematical methods for combining criteria in
order to make decisions but do not define the
criteria. Therefore, in order to locate the criteria that
human experts take into account while providing
individualised advice, we conducted a second
empirical study.
The empirical study should involve a satisfactory
number of human experts, who will act as the human
decision makers and are reviewed about the criteria
that they take into account when providing
individualised advice. Therefore, in the experiment
conducted for the application of the multi-criteria
theory in the e-learning system, 16 human experts
were selected in order to participate in the empirical
study. All the human experts possessed a first and/or
higher degree in Computer Science.
The participants of the empirical study were
asked which input action from the keyboard and the
microphone would help them find out what the
emotions of the users were. From the input actions
that appeared in the experiment, only those proposed
by the majority of the human experts were selected.
In particular considering the keyboard we have: a)
user types normally b) user types quickly (speed
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