Chapter 3. Computerized Interactive Multiple Assessment System
3.1 Computerized Interactive Multiple Assessment Model
In CIMAM, default knowledge represents default experimental environments and operations, and experiment-specific knowledge represents the specific objects and actions of an experiment.
Each component in default and experiment-specific knowledge of CIMAM are introduced in the following section.
3.1.1 Device
Device means frequently used devices in laboratories. Each device can use a Device Frame to depict. A Device Frame has attribute slots and action slots, where attribute slot represents some physical attributes of the device, like capacity, weight and so on, and action slot represents the action it can do by itself, like a “cut” action of a knife, a “heat” action of a beaker. There are two types of effect. One is to change attribute slot value of itself. For instance, the “heat” action of a beaker would change its temperature attribute. The other effect type is to change its appearance, as listed in
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Table 1. Each action would correlate to one or more effects. Device changes its appearance to reflect the result after an action for student to observe, as shown in Table 2, where each attribute slot has a slot type of Number, String, Boolean, Enumeration and Record, and each action slot has a slot type of Procedure.
There is inheritance relation between devices. The child device frame inherits attributes and actions from the parent device frame. The child device can add new slots for attributes or actions. For example, a “beaker” can be seen as a subclass of
“container.” The beaker inherits attributes and actions like capacity, pour, and add new attribute slot of “graduation” and new action slot of “heat.”
Table 1. Effect of Device Effect Name Description
Change Picture Each device has a slot called picture list. It contains a list of picture file name. The Change Picture effect could change the device’s displaying picture to others in the list.
Move Moving to new position of the stage.
Rotate Rotating device.
Scale Scaling the device. The effect has some scale types like magnify along X-axis, magnify along Y-axis, shrink along X-axis, shrink along Y-axis and so on.
Change color Changing the device color.
Change transparency Changing the transparency of device.
Change visible Changing the device into visible or not visible.
Table 2. Slot Type
Slot type name description Example
Number A number that could be decimal. 10.5
String Words. Long
Boolean Being one of two values: true or false True
Enumeration Enumerating the possible values. {big, middle, small}
Record A record is an n-tuple, with each element has a data type between Number, String, Boolean,
(water, 500, transparent)
Enumeration.
Rule Checking restrictions of attribute slots, trigger action if the checking passed
IF attrbutei=value1 THEN trigger actionj
Procedure Enable one or some effects. Effect has two type of changing attributes or changing appearance.
Change picture of devicei
Example 1: a device frame “graduated cylinder”
The graduated cylinder has attribute slots of Picture list, Capacity, Graduation and Liquid. The “Increasing liquid” and “Decreasing liquid” are the action slots of this device. The increasing liquid action has two effects, one is to change the liquid attribute and the other is to scale liquid like liquid increasing.
Table 3. a device frame “graduated cylinder”
Slot name Slot type Slot value
Name String graduated cylinder Picture list String cylinder.gif
Capacity Number 100
Graduation Number 1
Liquid Record (none, 0) Increasing
liquid
Procedure Changing attribute “liquid”
Showing effect “scale liquid”
Decreasing liquid
Procedure Changing attribute “liquid”
Showing effect “scale liquid”
3.1.2 Structure
Structure means the composition of devices for the purpose to observe the result.
Each Structure uses a Structure Frame to depict. A Structure Frame seems like a Device Frame, but has an additional slot called “components”, it records device frames’ name which compose the structure. The attribute slots and action slots in the Structure Frame have two types according to the slot value source. One is the same
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like Device Frame, that is, have initial value since the structure has been created. The other type, the slot value will come from the assembled devices. In this situation, an embedded rule IF-NEEDED attached in the slot of Structure Frame can provide value when the slot is referred.
Each device frame has a default slot called “composition”. This slot records the composition state with other devices currently. And this slot has an embedded rule IF-CHANGED, it will check Structure Frame if a structure has been set up since this operation. If current condition matches a structure frame then create a structure instance, or decompose a structure in the inverse condition.
Example 2: a structure frame “celery in the graduated cylinder”
The structure composed of celery and graduated cylinder in Components slot has two attribute slots of Leaves number and Capacity. The Inhale red ink is an action slot.
In this case, both the attribute slot value and action slot value are come from devices of Components.
Table 4. a structure frame “celery in the graduated cylinder”
Slot name Slot type Slot value
Name String celery in the graduated cylinder Components String celery, graduated cylinder Leaves
number
Enumeration IF-NEEDED: get value from child device “celery”
Liquid Number IF-NEEDED: get value from child device
“graduated cylinder”
Decreasing liquid
Procedure IF-NEEDED: get action from child device
“graduated cylinder”
Inhale red ink Procedure IF-NEEDED: get value from child device “celery”
3.1.3 Operation
There are two types of operation: two-device operation and one-device operation.
The former means user uses actor device to do the action onto target device as shown in Table 5. Once the operation is triggered, the system checks the conditions and trigger actions of actor device or target device if the conditions of actor device attributes, target device attributes and scene’s context attribute (introduced later in 3.1.4) are satisfied. The process of the latter is similar except having only target device. Besides trigger actions, an operation may change the “composition” slot in a device frame, which means changing composition state of a device.
Operation will be translated as a slot with slot type “rule” in the target device’s frame. The content of the rule is “IF condition THEN trigger reaction.”
Table 5. Manipulation Type Manipulation Type Description
Drag in An operation between two devices. Simply drag Devicei onto Devicej
Drag then Click An operation between two devices. Drag Devicei onto Devicej, then the mouse cursor would be replaced by Devicei, then using mouse to click would test if do any reaction
Drag with line An operation between two devices. Drag Devicei onto Devicej, then the mouse cursor would be replaced by Devicei, then using mouse to drag, the condition check would take track into
account
Click An operation toward one device. Simply using mouse cursor to click device
Drag An operation toward one device. Simply using mouse cursor to drag device
Rotate An operation toward one device. Using rotation mark cursor to click device.
Drag out An operation toward one device. Using hand mark cursor to drag device.
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Example 3: an Operation “pour” append to device frame “graduated cylinder”
as a slot
The slots with white background color belong to original device frame of graduated cylinder. Now we have an operation called “Pour” which means a beaker pours liquid into this graduated cylinder. The operation will be appended as a rule slot like the last slot with gray background color showing in this case.
Table 6. an operation “pour” appended to device frame “graduated cylinder” as a slot Slot name Slot type Slot value
Name String graduated cylinder Picture list String cylinder.gif
Capacity Number 100
Graduation Number 1
Liquid Record (none, 0) Increasing
liquid
Procedure Changing attribute “liquid”
Showing effect “scale liquid”
Decreasing liquid
Procedure Changing attribute “liquid”
Showing effect “scale liquid”
Pour Rule IF manipulate type=drag then click & beaker-liquid >
0 & graduated cylinder-liquid < capacity THEN trigger “Increasing liquid” of “graduated cylinder”
and “Decreasing liquid” of “beaker”
3.1.4 Scene
Scene is the place where the experiment conducts. Each scene uses a Scene Frame to depict. A scene frame contains context attribute slots like temperature, humidity and so on.
Example 4: a Scene frame “laboratory”
In this case, the scene frame using context attribute slots to record temperature, humidity, pressure and illumination of the laboratory.
Table 7. a scene frame “laboratory”
Slot name Slot type Slot value
Name String laboratory
Temperature Number 25
Humidity Number 70
Pressure Number 1
Illumination Number 300
3.1.5 Experimental Object
Experimental Object defines the target to manipulate, using Experimental Object Frame to represent. The Experimental Object Frame has same attributes like Device frame.
Example 5: an experimental object “celery”
The celery has attribute slot from “Number of leaves” to “Immerse in water”, and has action slot from “Pluck leaves” to “Cut stem”.
Table 8. an experimental object frame “celery”
Slot name Slot type Slot value
Name String celery
Picture list String celery1.gif,celery2.gif,celery3.gif,celery4.gif Number of
Leaves
Enumeration 10 of {10, 5, 0}
Stem length Number 20.5
Stem cut Enumeration not cut of {not cut, straight cut, oblique cut}
Immerse in water
Boolean false
Pluck leaves
Procedure Changing attribute “Leaves number”
Showing effect “change picture”
Inhale red ink
Procedure Showing effect “change picture”
Cut stem Procedure Changing attribute “Stem cut”
Showing effect “change picture”
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3.1.6 Experimental Action
Experimental action consists of the operation about experimental object or experimental setting. Since time factor can be consideration as an action in an experiment, experimental action also means the experimental object’s reaction in different situation after a period of time. An experimental action would be appended to an experimental object frame as a slot.
Example 6: an experimental action “cut celery” appended to experimental object frame “celery” as a slot
The slots with white background color belong to original experimental object frame of celery. Now we have an experimental action called “Cut celery” which represents using a knife cutting the celery stem to get rid of root. The experimental action will be appended as a rule slot like the last slot with gray background color showing in this case.
Table 9. an experimental action “cut celery” appended to experimental object frame
“celery” as a slot Slot name Slot type Slot value
Name String celery
Picture list String celery1.gif,celery2.gif,celery3.gif,celery4.gif Number of
Leaves
Enumeration 10 of {10, 5, 0}
Stem length Number 20.5
Stem cut Enumeration not cut of {not cut, straight cut, oblique cut}
Immerse in water
Boolean false
Pluck leaves
Procedure Changing attribute “Leaves number”
Showing effect “change picture”
Inhale red ink
Procedure Showing effect “change picture”
Cut stem Procedure Changing attribute “Stem cut”
Showing effect “change picture”
Cut celery Rule IF actor device = knife & target device = celery &
manipulate type=drag with line & celery-stem cut = not cut THEN trigger action “cut stem” of celery
Example 7: an experimental action “after 10 minutes” appended on “celery in the graduated cylinder” experimental setting frame
The experimental action shows the change of the celery in the graduated cylinder after 10 minutes of the action. The experimental action is appended as a rule slot to the experimental setting frame.
Table 10. an experimental action “after 10 minutes” appended on “celery in the graduated cylinder” experimental setting frame
Slot name Slot type Slot value
Name string celery in the graduated cylinder Components string celery, graduated cylinder Number of
Leaves
Enumeration IF-NEEDED: get value from child device “celery”
Liquid Number IF-NEEDED: get value from child device
“graduated cylinder”
Decreasing liquid
Procedure IF-NEEDED: get action from child device
“graduated cylinder”
Inhale red ink Procedure IF-NEEDED: get action from child device “celery”
Time effect Rule IF time passed 10 minutes & Liquid quantity > 0 THEN trigger Decreasing liquid & trigger Inhale red ink
3.1.7 Experimental Setting
Experimental Setting defines the composition of experimental objects and devices to form the structure for observing. The process is similar to that in 3.1.2. The difference between structure and experimental setting is that structure is the composition of devices in default knowledge, while experimental setting refers to the
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composition includes experimental object with other devices that is for specific experiment.