U.S. patent application number 12/749948 was filed with the patent office on 2011-10-06 for participant response system for the team selection and method therefor.
This patent application is currently assigned to SMART Technologies ULC. Invention is credited to HOLLY PEKAU, Luqing Wang.
Application Number | 20110244953 12/749948 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44710263 |
Filed Date | 2011-10-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110244953 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
PEKAU; HOLLY ; et
al. |
October 6, 2011 |
PARTICIPANT RESPONSE SYSTEM FOR THE TEAM SELECTION AND METHOD
THEREFOR
Abstract
A method for selecting teams from a group of participants using
a participant response system comprises the steps of collecting
participant information and selecting teams of participants by
comparing the collected participant information with team
requirement information using a computer-implemented numerical
optimization technique.
Inventors: |
PEKAU; HOLLY; (Calgary,
CA) ; Wang; Luqing; (Calgary, CA) |
Assignee: |
SMART Technologies ULC
Calgary
CA
|
Family ID: |
44710263 |
Appl. No.: |
12/749948 |
Filed: |
March 30, 2010 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
463/29 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 10/101 20130101;
G06Q 30/02 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
463/29 |
International
Class: |
A63F 9/24 20060101
A63F009/24 |
Claims
1. A method for selecting teams from a group of participants using
a participant response system comprising the steps of: collecting
participant information; and selecting teams of participants by
comparing the collected participant information with team
requirement information using a computer-implemented numerical
optimization technique.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the collected participant
information and the team requirement information are numeric.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting comprises
calculating possible team combinations, each of the team
combinations having an associated discrepancy value, and selecting
one team combination thereby to select the teams of participants at
least based on the discrepancy values.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the team combination selecting
comprises selecting the team combination associated with the lowest
associated discrepancy value.
5. The method of claim 3 comprising: creating at least one profile
for each participant; comparing the profiles of the participants to
yield scores for the participants; and using the scores to
calculate the possible team combinations.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein said creating comprises creating a
plurality of profiles for each participant.
7. The method of claim 6 further comprising eliminating possible
team combinations that fail to satisfy the team requirement
information prior to selecting the teams of participants.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the team combination selecting
comprises selecting the team combination associated with the lowest
associated discrepancy value.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the participant information is
collected from one or more of: responses to at least one
participant questionnaire, a facilitator, and past participant
information.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the responses to the at least
one participant questionnaire are collected electronically from
remote units associated with participants.
11. The method of claim 10, further comprising prompting
participants to respond to said at least one participant
questionnaire.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the participant
questionnaire and the team requirement information are defined by
the facilitator.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein said selecting comprises
calculating possible team combinations, each of the team
combinations having an associated discrepancy value, and selecting
one team combination thereby to select the teams of participants at
least based on the discrepancy values.
14. The method of claim 13 comprising: creating at least one
profile for each participant; comparing the profiles of the
participants to yield scores for the participants; and using the
scores to calculate the possible team combinations.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein said creating comprises creating
a plurality of profiles for each participant.
16. The method of claim 15 further comprising eliminating possible
team combinations that fail to satisfy the team requirement
information prior to selecting the teams of participants.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein the team combination selecting
comprises selecting the team combination associated with the lowest
associated discrepancy value.
18. The method of claim 3, wherein the team requirement information
represents desired team characteristics.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein the team requirement
information comprises at least one weight associated with the
participant information, the at least one weight being defined in
accordance with the desired team characteristics.
20. The method of claim 18, wherein the team requirement
information comprises desired team size.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the desired team size is
determined by one of the numerical optimization technique and a
facilitator.
22. The method of claim 3, wherein each discrepancy value is
determined by calculating pair-wise scores for the teams of the
possible team combinations.
23. The method of claim 22, wherein said selecting comprises
calculating possible team combinations, each of the team
combinations having an associated discrepancy value, and selecting
one team combination thereby to select the teams of participants at
least based on the discrepancy values.
24. The method of claim 3, wherein said calculating comprises
enumerating a set of all possible team combinations.
25. The method of claim 24, wherein said selecting comprises
calculating possible team combinations, each of the team
combinations having an associated discrepancy value, and selecting
one team combination thereby to select the teams of participants at
least based on the discrepancy values.
26. The method of claim 25 comprising: creating at least one
profile for each participant; comparing the profiles of the
participants to yield scores for the participants; and using the
scores to calculate the possible team combinations.
27. The method of claim 26 wherein said creating comprises creating
a plurality of profiles for each participant.
28. The method of claim 27 further comprising eliminating possible
team combinations that fail to satisfy the team requirement
information prior to selecting the teams of participants.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein the team combination selecting
comprises selecting the team combination associated with the lowest
associated discrepancy value.
30. The method of claim 3, wherein said calculating comprises
randomly generating a subset of possible team combinations.
31. The method of claim 30, wherein said selecting comprises
calculating possible team combinations, each of the team
combinations having an associated discrepancy value, and selecting
one team combination thereby to select the teams of participants at
least based on the discrepancy values.
32. The method of claim 31 comprising: creating at least one
profile for each participant; comparing the profiles of the
participants to yield scores for the participants; and using the
scores to calculate the possible team combinations.
33. The method of claim 32 wherein said creating comprises creating
a plurality of profiles for each participant.
34. The method of claim 33 further comprising eliminating possible
team combinations that fail to satisfy the team requirement
information prior to selecting the teams of participants.
35. The method of claim 34, wherein the team combination selecting
comprises selecting the team combination associated with the lowest
associated discrepancy value.
36. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer
program code executable by a processing device for performing the
method of claim 1.
37. A participant response system comprising: a plurality of remote
units, each remote unit configured to generate data in response to
participant questionnaire input; and processing structure
communicating with the remote units, said processing structure
comparing said data collected from said remote units with team
requirement information using a numerical optimization technique
and selecting teams of participants based on the comparison.
38. The system of claim 37, wherein the collected data and the team
requirement information are numeric.
39. The system of claim 37, wherein the participant questionnaire
and the team requirement information are defined by a
facilitator.
40. The system of claim 39, wherein the team requirement
information is represents desired team characteristics.
41. The system of claim 40, wherein the team requirement
information comprises at least one weight associated with the
participant information, the at least one weight being defined in
accordance with the desired team characteristics.
42. The system of claim 37, wherein the processing structure
calculates possible team combinations, each of the team
combinations having an associated discrepancy value, and selects
one team combination thereby to select the teams of participants at
least based on the discrepancy values.
43. The system of claim 42, wherein the team combination selecting
comprises selecting the team combination associated with the lowest
associated discrepancy value.
44. The system of claim 42, wherein each discrepancy value is
determined by calculating pair-wise scores for the teams of the
possible team combinations.
45. The system of claim 42, wherein the processing structure
calculates all possible team combinations.
46. The system of claim 45, wherein the processing structure
selects the team combination associated with the lowest associated
discrepancy value.
47. The system of claim 45 wherein the processing structure creates
at least one profile for each participant, compares the profiles of
the participants to yield scores for the participants and uses the
scores to calculate the possible team combinations.
48. The system of claim 47 wherein the processing structure creates
a plurality of profiles for each participant.
49. The system of claim 48 wherein the processing structure
eliminates possible team combinations that fail to satisfy the team
requirement information prior to selecting the teams of
participants.
50. The system of claim 44, wherein the processing structure
calculates a subset of possible team combinations.
51. The system of claim 50 wherein the processing structure creates
at least one profile for each participant, compares the profiles of
the participants to yield scores for the participants and uses the
scores to calculate the possible team combinations.
52. The system of claim 51 wherein the processing structure creates
a plurality of profiles for each participant.
53. The system of claim 52 wherein the processing structure
eliminates possible team combinations that fail to satisfy the team
requirement information prior to selecting the teams of
participants.
54. The system of claim 53, wherein the processing structure
selects the team combination associated with the lowest associated
discrepancy value.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates generally to participant
response systems and in particular, to a team selection method and
participant response system employing the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Participant response systems for enabling participants of an
event to enter responses to posed questions, motions or the like
are well known in the art and have wide applicability. For example,
during a conference, seminar or the like, participants can be
provided with handsets that enable the participants to respond to
questions, or to vote on motions raised during the conference or
seminar. In the entertainment field, audience members can be
provided with handsets that enable the audience members to vote for
entertainment programmes or sports events. These participant
response systems are also applicable in the field of education.
Participants can be provided with handsets that enable the
participants to respond to questions posed during lessons, tests or
quizzes. Of significant advantage, these participant response
systems provide immediate feedback to presenters, facilitators,
entertainment programme producers, or event organizers. With
respect to the field of education, research shows that facilitators
teach and participants learn more effectively when there is rapid
feedback concerning the state of participants' comprehension or
understanding. It is therefore not surprising that such participant
response systems are gaining wide acceptance in the field of
education.
[0003] Participant response systems fall generally into two
categories, namely wired and wireless participant response systems.
In wired participant response systems, participants respond to
posed questions or vote on motions using remote units that are
physically connected to a local area network by cables and
communicate with a base or host computer over wired links. In
wireless participant response systems, the remote units communicate
with the base or host computer over wireless links.
[0004] A number of different wired and wireless participant
response systems have been considered. For example, U.S. Pat. No.
4,247,908 to Lockhart, Jr. et al. discloses a two-way communication
system for use with a host computer that includes a control unit, a
base station and multiple, hand-held, portable radio/data terminal
units. The control unit interfaces directly with the host computer
but uses a radio link to interface with the portable radio/data
terminal units. Each portable radio/data terminal unit includes a
two-way radio and a data terminal. The data terminal includes a
keyboard for data entry and an LED display for readout of either
received data or locally generated data. The host computer
initiates communication through polling and/or selection of
portable radio/data terminal units via the control unit. The
control unit, in response to a "poll" from the host computer,
responds by sending either a previously received message from a
portable radio/data terminal unit, or if no message has been
received, a "no message" response. Polling by the control unit is
an invitation to the portable radio/data terminal units to send
data to the control unit to be stored, grouped if necessary and
sent on to the host computer. The control unit polls the portable
radio/data terminal units by address in a particular sequence. The
control unit transmits acknowledgements to the portable radio/data
terminal units for received data on the next polling cycle.
[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,491 to Abrahamson et al. discloses an
interactive electronic classroom system for enabling facilitators
to teach participants concepts and to receive immediate feedback
regarding how well the participants have learned the taught
concepts. Structure is provided for enabling participants to
proceed in lockstep or at their own pace through exercises and
quizzes, responding electronically to posed questions. The
facilitator is able to receive the responses, and to interpret a
readout, in histogram or other graphic display form, of the
responses. The electronic classroom comprises a central computer
and a plurality of participant computers, which range from simple
devices to full fledged personal computers, connected to the
central computer over a network. Optional peripheral hardware, such
as video cassette recorders (VCRs) or other recording/reproducing
devices, may be used to provide lessons to participants in
association with the computer network.
[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,045 to Drimmer discloses a method and
system for analyzing participant performance by classifying
participant performance into discrete performance classifications
associated with corresponding activities related to an electronic
course. An observed participant performance level for at least one
of the performance classifications is measured. A benchmark
performance level or range is established for one or more of the
performance classifications. It is then determined whether the
observed participant performance level is compliant with the
established benchmark performance level for the at least one
performance classification. Instructive feedback is determined for
the observed participant based upon any material deviation of the
observed participant performance from at least one benchmark.
[0007] U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0072136 to
Roschelle et al. discloses a method and system for assessing a
participant's understanding of a process that may unfold over time
and space. The system comprises thin client devices in the form of
wireless, hand-held, palm-sized computers that communicate with a
host workstation. The system provides a sophisticated approach of
directing participants to perform self-explanation, and enables
instructors to enhance the value of this pedagogical process by
providing meaningful and rapid feedback in a classroom setting.
[0008] U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0072497 to
Buehler et al. discloses a response system and method of retrieving
responses from a plurality of users. The response system comprises
a plurality of base units and a plurality of response units. Each
of the response units is adapted to receive a user input selection
and to communicate that user's input selection to at least one base
unit utilizing wireless communication. Personality data is provided
for the response units to facilitate communication with a
particular base unit. The personality data of a particular response
unit is changed when it is desired to change the base unit to which
that response unit communicates. This allows a response unit to
become grouped with a particular base unit at a particular time and
become grouped with another base unit at another particular
time.
[0009] Although prior art participant response systems allow
questionnaires to be administered to participants and the response
data gathered, these participant response systems typically have
limited functionality for organizing teams based on the gathered
data. In interactive and collaborative classroom activities, for
example, it is often desired or required to divide the class into
smaller groups or teams. However, as the grouping of participants
into teams can be done in a variety of ways, and as there are
typically a significant number of possible factors that impact the
division decisions, a full consideration of all of the factors
prior to dividing the class into groups or teams is often too
difficult and too time-consuming to perform. As a result, the
make-up of groups or teams is typically less than ideal.
[0010] It is therefore an object of the present invention to
provide a novel team selection method and a novel participant
response system employing the method.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] Accordingly, in one aspect there is provided a method for
selecting teams from a group of participants using a participant
response system comprising the steps of collecting participant
information; and selecting teams of participants by comparing the
collected participant information with team requirement information
using a computer-implemented numerical optimization technique.
[0012] In one embodiment, the selecting comprises calculating
possible team combinations, each of the team combinations having an
associated discrepancy value, and selecting one team combination
thereby to select the teams of participants at least based on the
discrepancy values. The method further comprises creating at least
one profile for each participant, comparing the profiles of the
participants to yield scores for the participants and using the
scores to calculate the possible team combinations. Possible team
combinations that fail to satisfy the team requirement information
are eliminated prior to selecting the teams of participants.
[0013] In one embodiment, the participant information is collected
from one or more of responses to at least one participant
questionnaire, a facilitator and past participant information. The
responses to the at least one participant questionnaire may be
collected electronically from remote units associated with the
participants. The at least one participant questionnaire and the
team requirement information may be defined by the facilitator.
[0014] According to another aspect, there is provided a participant
response system comprising a plurality of remote units, each remote
unit configured to generate data in response to participant
questionnaire input; and processing structure communicating with
the remote units, said processing structure comparing said data
collected from said remote units with team requirement information
using a numerical optimization technique and selecting teams of
participants based on the comparison.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] Embodiments will now be described more fully with reference
to the accompanying drawings in which:
[0016] FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a participant response
system;
[0017] FIG. 2 is another schematic view of the participant response
system of FIG. 1;
[0018] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an interactive whiteboard
forming part of the participant response system of FIG. 1;
[0019] FIGS. 4A and 4B are side elevational and top plan views of a
receiver forming part of the participant response system of FIG.
1;
[0020] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the receiver of FIGS. 4A and
4B;
[0021] FIG. 6 is a front elevational view of a remote unit forming
part of the participant response system of FIG. 1;
[0022] FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of a display of the
remote unit of FIG. 6;
[0023] FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the remote unit of FIG. 6;
[0024] FIG. 9 is a participant profile questionnaire administered
by the participant response system of FIG. 1;
[0025] FIG. 10A is a participant management window presented by the
participant response system of FIG. 1, showing a participant
roster;
[0026] FIG. 10B is the participant management window of FIG. 10A
showing the remote units associated with the students of the
participant roster;
[0027] FIG. 10C shows drop down menus of the participant management
window of FIG. 10A;
[0028] FIGS. 10D and 10E show a list of teams and a list of team
members, respectively;
[0029] FIG. 11 shows a view of a participant profile;
[0030] FIGS. 12A and 12B show a participant profile matrix and a
new matrix entry form, respectively;
[0031] FIG. 13 shows a team profile;
[0032] FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing steps of a team selection
routine executed by the participant response system of FIG. 1;
[0033] FIGS. 15A and 15A are exemplary average pair-wise difference
scores for interest profile, personality profile, grades, and time
worked together, respectively, calculated for a group of
participants;
[0034] FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing steps of a team enumerating
process employed by the team selection routine of FIG. 14;
[0035] FIG. 17 shows results of the team enumerating process of
FIG. 16; and
[0036] FIG. 18 is a target mix section of the team profile of FIG.
13, showing weighting factors and signs for each option.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
[0037] Turning now to FIGS. 1 and 2, a participant response system
is shown and is generally identified by reference numeral 50. In
this embodiment, participant response system 50 is employed in a
classroom, lecture hall or theatre of an educational institution
such as for example a school, university, college or the like. As
can be seen, the participant response system 50 comprises a base or
host computer 52, an interactive whiteboard (IWB) 54 physically
connected to the host computer 52 via a cable 56, a radio frequency
(RF) receiver 58 physically connected to the host computer 52 via a
universal serial bus (USB) cable 60, and a plurality of wireless,
hand-held remote units 62 communicating with the host computer 52
via the receiver 58.
[0038] The participant response system firmware in this embodiment
is implemented on top of IEEE802.15.4 media access control (MAC)
protocol layer software provided by Texas Instruments Incorporated
(TI) of Texas, U.S.A. The TI MAC protocol layer software comprises
a small real-time kernel and so called Z-stack.TM. ZigBee compliant
protocol stack to provide simple real-time operating system (OS)
facilities such as for example, timer management, task management
and interrupt management. Abstraction layers are used to separate
the OS and the hardware drivers for ease of porting to a different
OS and hardware platform.
[0039] In this embodiment, the IWB 54 is a 600i series interactive
whiteboard manufactured by SMART Technologies ULC., of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada, assignee of the subject application. As is best
seen in FIG. 3, the IWB 54 comprises a large, analog resistive
touch screen 70 having a touch surface 72. The touch surface 72 is
surrounded by a bezel 74. A tool tray 76 is affixed to the bezel 74
adjacent the bottom edge of the touch surface 72 and accommodates
one or more tools that are used to interact with the touch surface
72. The touch screen 70 is mounted on a wall surface via a mounting
bracket 78. A boom assembly 80 is also mounted on the wall surface
above the touch screen 70 via the mounting bracket 78. The boom
assembly 80 comprises a speaker housing 82 accommodating a pair of
speakers (not shown), a generally horizontal boom 84 extending
outwardly from the speaker housing 82 and a projector 86 adjacent
the distal end of the boom 84. The projector 86 is aimed back
towards the touch screen 70 so that the image projected by the
projector 86 is presented on the touch surface 72.
[0040] Turning now to FIGS. 4A, 4B and 5, the receiver 58 is better
illustrated. Receiver 58 comprises a casing 100 adapted to be
desktop or wall mounted. An L-shaped omni-directional antenna 102
is mounted on the front end of the casing 100. The rear end of the
casing 100 receives the USB cable 60 via a connector 104. A
plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) 106 is provided on the
top surface of the casing 100 with the LEDs being illuminated to
provide visual feedback concerning the operational status of the
receiver 58. In this embodiment, the LEDs 106 comprise a power
status LED and communications status LEDs. Alternatively, the
receiver 58 may provide visual feedback via a display such as a
liquid crystal display (LCD) or via both LEDs and an LCD. The
receiver electronics are accommodated by the casing 100 and
comprise a microprocessor 110 that communicates with non-volatile,
random access memory (NVRAM) 112, an LED driver 114 and a USB-UART
bridge 116. Power is provided to the receiver 58 via the USB
connection.
[0041] One of the remote units 62 is shown in FIGS. 6 to 8. As can
be seen, the remote unit 62 comprises a casing 120 having a keypad
122, an LCD or other suitable display 124, a power button 126 and
an optional battery status LED (not shown) on its front surface. In
this embodiment, keypad 122 comprises ten dual character (A to J/0
to 9) buttons 130, a plus/minus (+/-) button 132, a
fraction/decimal (x/y) button 134, a true/yes (T/Y) button 136, a
false/no (F/N) button 138, a delete (del) button 140, up and down
scroll ( /v) buttons 142 and 144, a menu button 146, a
question/hands up (?) button 148 and an enter button 150. Those of
skill in the art will appreciate that the form of the keypad shown
in FIG. 6 is exemplary, and that the keypad 122 may alternatively
comprise a different set of keys, a full QWERTY or DVORAK key set
or a subset thereof. If desired, the entire physical keypad or a
portion thereof may be replaced with a touch screen to allow a user
to interact with virtual keys.
[0042] The display 124 comprises an upper row of LCD icons 160
disposed above a character display area 162. The LCD icons 160
comprise a question number icon 164, a user status icon 166, a
network status icon 168, a hands-up (?) icon 170, a battery status
icon 172 and a transmission status icon 174. The character display
area 162 comprises a 128.times.48 pixel array that is divided into
three lines. Each line is configured to display a total of sixteen
(16) characters. Remote unit electronics are accommodated by the
casing 120 and comprise an LCD module 200 that communicates with
the display 124, an LCD controller 202 that drives the LCD module
200, a microprocessor 204 that communicates with the LCD controller
202 and the keypad 122, as well as with NVRAM 206 and a printed
circuit board, omni-directional antenna 210. Power is provided to
the remote unit 62 by non-rechargeable or rechargeable batteries
(not shown) accommodated by the casing 120. Alternate power sources
such as solar sells or manually cranked generators can also be used
to power the remote unit 62. The remote unit 62 may also be powered
by a standard 110V/220V mains power source via a power cord or a
power adapter. When the remote unit 62 is equipped with
rechargeable batteries and is connected to the standard 110/220V
mains power source, it will respond to the host computer 52 and
charge the batteries at the same time. When battery charging has
been completed, an indicator provides this status to the user to
notify the user that the remote unit 62 can be used in a wireless
fashion.
[0043] The host computer 52 runs participant response application
software comprising a session manager that maintains the state of
the participant response system 50 and presents participant
response system information in one or more windows. The session
manager is responsible for downloading to the remote units 62 the
response formats (e.g. true/false, yes/no, multiple choice,
numerical, etc.), for the questions of the questionnaire being
administered, for receiving responses to questions input by
participants using the remote units 62 and for keeping track of the
question each participant is responding to. The session manager is
also responsible for aggregating responses to questions received
from participants into results, and grading the responses to the
questions.
[0044] The host computer 52 also runs SMART Notebook.TM.
whiteboarding software to facilitate interaction with the IWB 54.
As a result, the display output of the host computer 52 is conveyed
to the IWB 54 and is used by the projector 78 to present an image
on the touch surface 72. Pointer interactions with the touch
surface 72 are detected by the touch screen 70 and conveyed to the
host computer 52. The display output of the host computer 52 is in
turn adjusted by the host computer 52 to reflect the pointer
activity. Depending on the nature of the pointer activity, the host
computer 52 may treat the pointer contacts as writing or erasing or
may treat the pointer contacts as mouse events. The mouse events
may be used to control execution of application programs, such as
for example the whiteboarding software executed by the host
computer 52. In this manner, the IWB 54 can be used by the
instructor to create and administer questionnaires and to analyze
questionnaire results.
[0045] In addition, the participant response application software
comprises an administration application that provides a graphical
user interface for the session manager to allow the instructor to
carry out the various functions of a facilitator. These functions
include composing participant profile questionnaires, sending
profile questionnaires to participants, composing profile quizzes,
entering participant data into the profile quizzes, composing team
profiles, and entering data into or editing data within the team
profiles.
[0046] In this embodiment, and as shown in FIG. 2, the host
computer 52, IWB 54 and receiver 58 are physically connected by
cables 56 and 60. Messages exchanged between the host computer 52,
IWB 54 and receiver 58 are structured using extensible markup
language (XML) over HTTP. The receiver 58 and the remote units 62
communicate over a wireless radio frequency (RF) communications
network. The microprocessor 110 of the receiver 58 thus provides
both a USB interface and an RF interface and runs a service that
translates messages in USB protocol to messages in radio frequency
(RF) wireless protocol and vice versa as well as IEEE802.15.4 MAC
layer software to manage the IEEE802.15.4 network thereby to permit
the host computer 52 and remote units 62 to communicate. Messages
exchanged between the session manager and the receiver 58 comprise
a header, a command identification, message bytes and a checksum.
Consistent overhead byte stuffing is employed to provide frame
delimiting of packets thereby to facilitate the determination of
the start and end of command packets. Messages exchanged between
the receiver 58 and the remote units 62 do not include the header
and the checksum as the IEEE802.15.4 protocol is used to handle
packet addressing and ensure packet integrity.
[0047] The messages exchanged between the session manager, the
receiver 58 and the remote units 62 include diagnostic messages,
status messages and command messages. For example, in this
embodiment, the diagnostic messages comprise, but are not limited
to, firmware information query messages, remote unit transmit power
query messages and channel identification query messages. Status
messages comprise, but are not limited to, remote unit status
messages, network status messages and personal area network (PAN)
ID messages. Command messages comprise, but are not limited to,
log-in messages, log-out messages, log-in grant messages, question
download messages, optional response download messages, response
upload messages, hands-up messages, test start messages and test
end messages.
[0048] In this embodiment, wireless communications between the host
computer 52 and the remote units 62 are carried out according to
the IEEE802.15.4 specification, as described in PCT Application
Publication No. WO/2008/083481 to Lam entitled "Participant
Response System With Facilitated Communications Bandwidth" filed on
Jan. 10, 2008 and assigned to the assignee of the subject
application, the content of which is incorporated herein by
reference in its entirety.
[0049] When a questionnaire is being administered to participants,
the session manager generates one or more question download
messages that include the question response formats for the
questions of the questionnaire. The question download messages are
then sent to the receiver 58, which in turn embeds the question
download messages in the next beacon frame and broadcasts the
beacon frame embodying the question download messages to all of the
remote units 62 simultaneously. Upon receipt of the beacon frame,
each active remote unit 62 in turn loads the question download
messages into memory 206. The participant associated with each
remote unit 62 can then use the scroll buttons 142 and 144 to
select the question to which the participant wishes to respond so
that the response format for the selected question is displayed.
The host computer 52 also provides display data to the IWB 54
resulting in the projector 86 projecting the questions of the
questionnaire on the touch surface 72 of the touch screen 70. In
this embodiment, each question is displayed on the touch surface 72
independently.
[0050] When the question is a true/false type or a yes/no type
question, the remote unit 62 displays possible responses that may
be selected using either the true/yes button 136 or the false/no
button 138. When the question is a multiple choice or a numeric
question, the remote unit 62 displays either a range of possible
responses or an entry field, to which a response may be entered
using the dual character buttons 130, the +/- button 132, and/or
the fraction/decimal button 134.
[0051] Once a response has been input into a remote unit 62 via the
keypad 122 and the enter button 150 has been pressed, the remote
unit 62 generates a response upload message that includes the
question number and the participant's response, and sends the
response upload message to the receiver 58. The receiver 58 in turn
passes the response upload message to the host computer 52. The
session manager saves the response upload message and analyzes the
response to determine the result.
[0052] As mentioned previously, the participant response
application software comprises an administration application that
allows participant profile questionnaires to be created and
administered and the results of the participant profile
questionnaires together with other relevant information to be
analyzed to allow teams to be selected. FIG. 9 shows an exemplary
participant profile questionnaire 300 that is used to select teams
at least based on responses to the participant profile
questionnaire 300. In this example, the participant profile
questionnaire 300 has been created by a facilitator who is a school
class teacher, and is to be completed by participants who are
students in the class. The participant profile questionnaire 300
may be created, for example, using participant response system
question authoring software, as described in PCT Application
Publication No. WO/2008/083490 to van Ieperen entitled "Participant
Response System with Question Authoring/Editing Facility" filed on
Jan. 10, 2008 and assigned to the assignee of the subject
application, or using other suitable software. Alternatively, the
facilitator may use a questionnaire that has been prepared by
another party and saved on the host computer 52.
[0053] As can be seen, the participant profile questionnaire 300
comprises a set of questions 302 to 308 of the self-assessment type
and generally related to participants' work and teamwork
preferences (e.g. "Do you enjoy math?" or "Do you like being a
leader?"). Questions 302 have a set of available response choices
from which a participant may select. For example, each question 302
has five (5) response choices ranging from one (1) representing "do
not like", to five (5) representing "one of my favourites". In this
case, the numerical value of a response choice matches its index
displayed to participants. Questions 304 prompt a participant to
select from two available response choices, indexed as one (1) and
two (2). However, depending on the facilitator's design and the
nature of the question, the numerical value of the response choice
may not necessarily match its index. For example, questions 306 are
of "yes/no" type, and the numerical value of the available response
choices are one (1) for "yes" and zero (0) for "no", although the
indexes displayed to participants for "yes" and "no" responses are
one (1) and two (2), respectively. In the embodiment shown, the
available response choices are displayed as discrete values,
however the available response choices may alternatively be
displayed as a slider or pointer for allowing the participant to
select from a visually represented range of possible values. Still
other question types are possible. For example, questions 308
provide an entry field allowing a participant to enter a response
in the form of a string of numbers or text.
[0054] The questions of the participant profile questionnaire 300
are selected to enable participant teamwork characteristics,
participant interest characteristics and other participant
characteristics to be assessed. The responses to teamwork related
questions allow participant personality profiles 482 to be created.
The responses to interest related questions allow participant
interest profiles 484 to be created. The responses to other
questions allow other selection criteria 486 to be created.
Typically, the questions are classified by the facilitator during
set up of the participant profile questionnaire 300, by properly
tagging each question in the question authoring/editing module
(i.e. the SMART Notebook.TM. whiteboarding software in this
embodiment) of the participant response application software.
[0055] The session manager maintains questionnaire results files
for the participant profile questionnaire 300. A questionnaire
results file contains the questions of the participant profile
questionnaire 300 (including the identification associated with
each question (question ID) and the category associated with each
question), and records of the participants' responses to each
question. Each record has an associated question ID and an
identification associated with the participant who responded to the
question.
[0056] The administration application maintains a participant
roster 450 that is displayed in a participant management window as
shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B. A legend or status panel 466 is also
displayed to one side of the participant roster 450. Two tabs,
namely a "Students" tab 462 and a "Clickers" tab 464 are selectable
to change the information that is displayed in the participant
roster 450. When the Students tab 462 is selected, participant
roster 450 identifies the class name, the participants in the class
by first and last name, the log-in status of the participants and
whether any of the logged-in participants are using a remote device
62 having a low battery level. The manner by which remote unit
battery levels are determined is described in PCT Application
Publication No. WO/2008/083486 to Doerksen et al. entitled
"Participant Response System Employing Battery Powered, Wireless
Remote Units" filed on Jan. 10, 2008, and assigned to the assignee
of the subject application, the content of which is incorporated
herein by reference in its entirety.
[0057] When the Students tab 462 is selected, the legend panel 466
identifies the total number of participants in the class, the
number of online participants, the number of offline participants,
the number of anonymous participants, the number of participants in
power save, the number of remote units used by participants with a
low battery condition, the number of remote units with poor
communication channel signal strength and the number of
participants with questions.
[0058] When the Clickers tab 464 is selected, the participant
roster 450 identifies the states of the remote units 62 assigned to
the participants in the class, the serial numbers of the remote
units, the names of the participants assigned to the remote units
62 and the signal strengths of the communication channels between
the remote units and the host computer 52. With the Clickers tab
464 selected, the legend panel 466 presents some different
information and in particular identifies the number of remotes
units 62 issued to participants, the number of remote units 62
issued to online participants and the number of remote units issued
to offline participants.
[0059] A menu is displayed above the participant roster 450 and
comprises a "Manage" menu item 452 that allows teams that have been
created to be managed. When the Manage menu item 452 is selected, a
drop down menu comprising a "Participant Profiles" menu item 454
and a "Teams" menu item is displayed as 456, shown in FIG. 10C.
Selection of the "Teams" menu item 456 displays a submenu
comprising a "Create Teams . . . " submenu item 458 and a "View
Teams" submenu item 460. Of course, other methods of navigating
through the graphical user interface would be known to those of
skill in the art.
[0060] When the "View Teams" submenu item 460 is selected, a list
of all the team profile names and the dates on which they were
generated is displayed within the participant management window as
shown in FIG. 10D. A team profile name in the list may be selected
to view the teams associated with that team profile. For example,
FIG. 10E shows the teams associated with the "Class Projects Teams"
team profile 470 in FIG. 10D.
[0061] Information about each participant is stored in a respective
participant profile 480. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the information
stored in each participant profile 480 is classified into five (5)
categories, generally indicated using reference numerals 482 to
490. In particular, the categories comprise a personality profile
482, an interest profile 484, other selection criteria 486,
historical information about grades 488 and former teams and former
activities 490. The information in these categories is input in a
number of different ways depending on the category, such as by the
facilitator, by the participants, and by transfer from
previously-generated records and/or by transfer from other
participant response systems previously used by the
participant.
[0062] The personality profile 482 includes qualitative information
about the participant. In this embodiment, this quantitative
information includes the work ethic, attitude, and the sociability
of the participant. The information of this category is input by
the participant in response to the participant profile
questionnaire 300 as self-evaluation. Optionally, the facilitator
may input or adjust the information of this category for the
participant.
[0063] The interest profile 484 includes information about the
participant's subject and activity preferences. In this embodiment,
this information includes whether the participant enjoys public
speaking, writing, mathematics, acting in the role of leader, and
so forth. The information of this category is input by the
participant in response to the participant profile questionnaire
300 as self-evaluation. Optionally, the facilitator may input or
adjust the information of this category for the participant by
using a general participant profile matrix.
[0064] The other selection criteria 486 includes the age and gender
of the participant, his or her seat or location in the classroom,
and a list of names of other participants that he or she prefers to
work with. The information of this category is input by the
participant in response to the participant profile questionnaire
300 as self-evaluation. Optionally, the facilitator may input or
adjust the information of this category for the participant by
using the general participant profile matrix.
[0065] The historical information about grades 488 includes the
grades of each participant. The information of this category is
collected and stored by the participant response application
software, and is entered automatically into the participant profile
by the session manager.
[0066] The historical information about former teams and former
activities 490 includes the previous teams and activities that the
participant was involved with and the respective successes or
failures. The information of this category is collected and stored
by the participant response system, and is automatically entered
into the participant profile by the session manager.
[0067] The facilitator may input or adjust the information of the
participant profile 280 for one or more participants using a
participant profile interface. FIG. 12A shows an exemplary
participant profile interface 540 displayed in the participant
management window that the facilitator uses to design and evaluate
participant profile matrices 542. The participant profile interface
540 allows the facilitator to input or adjust information into the
personality profile 482, the interest profile 484 and the other
selection criteria 486 of the participant profile 480, and to save
the information in a results data file. The participant profile
interface 540 is exposed by selecting the "Participants Profiles"
menu item 454. In the example shown, the participant profile
interface 540 displays information concerning the extent to which
participants are introverted or extroverted.
[0068] Each participant profile matrix 542 comprises a question
544, a minimum rank 546, a maximum rank 548, a list of participants
550 and buttons 552 to 560. The facilitator may input into the
"rank" column 562 a rank value for each participant, may use
buttons 552 and 554 to navigate to other matrices, and may use
button 558 to save the participant profile matrix 542 to a file.
The cancel button 560 may be used to discard changes and to exit
the participant profile interface 540.
[0069] Clicking the "add new matrix" button 556 opens a "new
matrix" interface 580, as illustrated in FIG. 12B. A question
description 582 and minimum and maximum rank values 584 and 586,
respectively, may then be added. If the "add to participant profile
questionnaire" 588 is checked, this question is added to the
participant profile questionnaire 300.
[0070] The desired characteristics of teams to be selected are set
up by the facilitator using a team profile interface 600, shown in
FIG. 13 that is displayed in the participant management window. The
team profile interface 600 is exposed by selecting the "Create
Teams . . . " submenu item 458 and allows team selection criteria
to be specified and teams to be generated according to the team
selection criteria and participant profiles. If teams are
out-of-date because, e.g., new participants joined the class after
the teams were generated, or some participants left the class after
the teams were generated, a warning message is displayed, and the
names/IDs of the participants who are not in any team or who have
left the class are highlighted in the team list. In this case
existing teams can be maintained (while grouping new participants
to a new team), or the teams can be regenerated.
[0071] The team profile interface 600 includes a text input box 602
for entering the name of the profile, and three sections 604, 610
and 618 corresponding to three information categories, namely team
size, target mix and file location, respectively. The team size
section 604 is used to define the desired team size. A desired team
size, that is, the desired number of participants per team, may
then be entered in input box 606. The target mix section 610 allows
certain criteria for the team selection routine to be defined. In
the embodiment shown, each criterion is provided with multiple
options that may be selected. These selections generally define how
the four (4) information categories generally indicated by
reference numerals 482, 484, 486 and 488 of the participant profile
480 are to be used for selecting teams. For each statement in the
target mix section 610, the extent to which the statement about the
information in the participant profile 480 is agreed upon may be
checked. For example, if grouping participants with similar
interests together on the same team is very important in view of
desired team characteristics, then the checkbox 616 under "strongly
agree" next to the statement 614 "similar interest profiles" may be
checked. The team profile interface 600 also contains a list (not
shown) of additional criteria that may be selected. Criteria
selected from this list of additional criteria may be added using
the "Add Criterion" button 612. For example, a criterion that each
team must contain only one gender of participants could be
added.
[0072] The selections made in the target mix section 610 are
converted into appropriate numerical weights of the information of
the participant profile 480, including the personality profile 482,
the interest profile 484, the other selection criteria 486 and the
historical information about grades 488. As will be described
below, a weight designates the importance of the corresponding
information category for the team selection routine, and therefore
defines the extent to which participants having similar
characteristics for that category should be grouped into the same
team.
[0073] The team profile interface 600 also comprises a file
location section 618, which displays and allows the location of
data files that are to be used by the team selection routine to be
defined. The data files may include participant profile
questionnaire results files 620 containing the responses made by
the participants, participant profile matrices results files 624
completed by the facilitator, participants' grade files 628 and
team history files 630. Optionally, the results of team feedback
questionnaires completed by participants in the past (not shown)
may also be included. In this embodiment, when a questionnaire
results file 620 is defined, the dates 622 it was generated and
last modified are displayed. Similarly, when a participant profile
matrices results file 624 is defined, the dates 626 it was
generated and last modified are displayed. The grade files 628
include grades for the participants for one or more graded items.
The grades may be the cumulative term grades, or the grades for one
or more projects or exams, depending on the facilitator's choice.
The team history files 630 include the number of times each
participant has worked with each other participant over a specific
period of time.
[0074] The team profile interface 600 also has a "save" button 634
and a "cancel" button 636, which allow changed settings to be saved
or discarded, respectively. A "generate teams" button 632 allows
the team selection routine be run so as to generate the teams, as
will now be described below.
[0075] The steps performed by the team selection routine are shown
in FIG. 14. The team selection routine uses the information of the
participant profile questionnaire 300, the participant profile
matrices 540, and the team profile 600 for the determination of
teams. The routine starts (step 702) after the data files are
specified in the file location section 618 of the team profile 600,
and the facilitator initiates the team selection routine. At step
704, the data in the specified data files is loaded. The loaded
data is then checked to determine if it is sufficient for
calculating characteristic scores (step 706). Specifically, at this
step, a check is made to determine whether each results file
specified in the file location section 618 exists, and whether it
contains data for all participants.
[0076] If enough data is provided in the specified data files, the
team selection routine proceeds to step 712. Otherwise, for example
if a grade file only comprises the grade information of six of
eight participants in the class, a warning message that further
information is required for best team selection is displayed (step
708), and a prompt as to whether or not the team selection routine
should continue is displayed (step 710). If "No" is chosen, the
team selection routine is terminated (step 724) such that more data
files may be added, and the team selection routine restarted later.
If "Yes" is chosen at step 710, the team selection routine proceeds
at step 712 using the available data and omitting any results files
that do not have enough data.
[0077] At step 712, the normalized pair-wise difference score of
each figure of measurement for each pair of participants in the
participant roster is calculated based on the data loaded from the
specified data files. Here, "figure of measurement" refers to a
measurement value for a participant, where the "measurement" may be
a response made by the participant, the grade of the participant in
an exam or test, the time in minutes or hours that the participant
was working with another participant, or any other measurement that
is relevant to a participant's characteristics and performance. The
normalized pair-wise difference score of a figure of measurement
for a pair of participants describes the difference between the two
participants.
[0078] The normalized pair-wise difference score of a measurement
Q.sub.m for a pair of participants H.sub.1 and H.sub.2 is the
absolute value of the difference between the figures of measurement
of two participants divided by the largest possible difference,
given by:
D(H.sub.i, H.sub.j, Q.sub.m)=|A.sub.i,m-A.sub.j,m|/M(Q.sub.m) (Eq.
1)
where A.sub.i,m represents the quantized value of the figure of
measurement Q.sub.m for participant H.sub.i, A.sub.j,m represents
the quantized value of the figure of measurement Q.sub.m selected
by the participant H.sub.j, and M(Q.sub.m) represents the largest
possible difference of the figure of measurement Q.sub.m.
[0079] For example, the available choices for question Q1 in FIG. 9
are indexed as values 1, 2, . . . , 5. Here, M(Q.sub.1)=5-1=4. If
participant H.sub.1 selected the response "1.--No, not at all",
corresponding to the value 1, and another participant H.sub.2
selected the response "3.--Not sure", corresponding to the
quantized value 3, then the normalized pair-wise difference score
for question Q1 in the participant profile questionnaire 300 for
participants H.sub.1 and H.sub.2 would be |1-3|/4=0.5.
[0080] As another example, if the available choices of question Q7
shown in FIG. 9 are indexed as value 1 for "Yes" and value 0 for
"No", and if participant H.sub.1 selected the response "No" and
participant H.sub.2 selected the response "Yes", then the
normalized pair-wise difference score for question Q7 for
participants H.sub.1 and H.sub.2 would be |0-1|/1=1.
[0081] At step 714, the average pair-wise difference score of each
figure of measurement for each pair of participants H.sub.i and
H.sub.j is calculated by averaging the normalized pair-wise
difference scores in the same category for each pair of
participants H.sub.i and H.sub.j.
[0082] For example, the average pair-wise difference score of the
interest profile for a pair of participants H.sub.i and H.sub.j is
calculated as:
I.sub.i,j=MEAN(D(H.sub.i, H.sub.j, Q.sub.m)) (Eq. 2)
for all Q.sub.m in the interest profile, where the function MEAN( )
calculates the average.
[0083] The average pair-wise difference score of the personality
profile for a pair of participants H.sub.i and H.sub.j is
calculated as:
P.sub.i,j=MEAN(D(H.sub.i, H.sub.j, Q.sub.m)) (Eq. 3)
for all Q.sub.m in the personality profile.
[0084] The average pair-wise difference score of the grade for each
pair of participants H.sub.i and H.sub.j in the class is calculated
as:
G.sub.i,j=MEAN(D(H.sub.i, H.sub.j, Q.sub.m)), for all Q.sub.m in
the Grade files, (Eq. 4)
where Q.sub.m now represents the k-th exam, and
D(H.sub.i, H.sub.j, Q.sub.m)=|A.sub.i,m-A.sub.j,m|/M(Q.sub.m)
represents the normalized difference of grades A.sub.i,m and
A.sub.j,m of the participants H.sub.i and H.sub.j, respectively,
for the exam Q.sub.m, divided by the largest possible grade
difference M(Q.sub.m) for the exam Q.sub.m. For example, if an exam
was scored using a 4-point system, and the lowest possible grade is
1, then M(Q.sub.m)=3.
[0085] The average pair-wise difference score of the times worked
together for each pair of participants H.sub.i and H.sub.j in the
class is also calculated as:
T.sub.i,j=1-N.sub.i,j/N.sub.T (Eq. 5)
where N.sub.i,j is the number of times that participants H.sub.i
and H.sub.j were working together in the specified period, and
N.sub.T is the total number of times of the team worked together in
the specified period.
[0086] FIGS. 15A and 15B illustrate a set of exemplary results
calculated in step 714 for a class of ten (10) students.
[0087] Referring again to FIG. 14, at step 716, the number of teams
is determined using the desired team size 606 designated in the
team profile interface 600. Let S.sub.d denote the desired team
size, the number L of teams is determined by:
L=ROUND(n/S.sub.d) (Eq. 6)
where the function ROUND(x) returns the nearest integer to the
non-negative number x. For example, ROUND(4.5)=5 and
ROUND(4.4)=4.
[0088] At this step, the remainder R=REM(n, S.sub.d)=n-S.sub.dL is
also calculated. If R=0, the participants are equally dividable
into L teams, and every team has the desired number (S.sub.d) of
participants. Otherwise, let S.sub.min=INT(n/L), where the function
INT(x) returns the integer part of x, and let R.sub.1 be the
remainder of n/L (i.e., R.sub.1=n-S.sub.min L<L). Also let
S.sub.max=S.sub.min+1. Then, R teams will have S.sub.max
participants and (L-R) teams will have S.sub.min participants.
[0089] At step 718, the possible team combinations are generated. A
team combination is a possible partition of all participants in the
participant roster into a set of teams that satisfy the team size
requirement. During this step, the order of participants in a team,
or the order of teams in a team combination, is irrelevant. For
example, when dividing four participants H.sub.1, H.sub.2, H.sub.3
and H.sub.4 into teams each having two participants, the team
combination {(H.sub.1, H.sub.2), (H.sub.3, H.sub.4)}, where a pair
of round brackets ( ) represents a team, is equivalent to the team
combination {(H.sub.3, H.sub.4), {(H.sub.1, H.sub.2)}. Also, a team
(H.sub.1, H.sub.2) is in fact the same team of (H.sub.2, H.sub.1).
As will be understood, there are only three team combinations in
this case: {(H.sub.1, H.sub.2), (H.sub.3, H.sub.4)}, {(H.sub.1,
H.sub.3), (H.sub.2, H.sub.4)}, and {(H.sub.1, H.sub.4), (H.sub.2,
H.sub.3)}.
[0090] If there are L teams, where the size of the l-th team is
k.sub.l (l=1, 2, . . . L), and the number of permutations of n
participants is n! (note: a permutation of the same group of
participants in a team does not change the team; similarly, the
permutation of teams does not change the team combination), then
the total number of possible team combinations is calculated
as:
C = n ! k 1 ! k 2 ! k L ! L ! ( Eq . 7 ) ##EQU00001##
When all teams are of the same size k, the total number of possible
team combinations is:
C = n ! ( k ! ) n / k ( n / k ) ! ( Eq . 8 ) ##EQU00002##
[0091] A general procedure of enumerating all possible team
combinations is as follows:
[0092] a) allocate a participant to the first team, and then find
all possibilities of the other (k.sub.1-1) participants from (n-1)
unallocated participants. Thus, all possibilities for the first
team have the same participant. The number of possibilities is
expressed as:
( n - 1 k 1 - 1 ) = ( n - 1 ) ! ( k 1 - 1 ) ! ( n - k 1 ) ! . ( Eq
. 9 ) ##EQU00003##
[0093] b) for each possibility of the first team, allocate a
participant from the (n-k.sub.1) participants to the second team,
and then find all possibilities of the other (k.sub.2-1)
participants from (n-k.sub.1-1) unallocated participants. Thus, all
possibilities for the second team have the same participant. The
number of possibilities of the second team for each possibility of
the first team is expressed as:
( n - k 1 - 1 k 2 - 1 ) = ( n - k 1 - 1 ) ! ( k 2 - 1 ) ! ( n - k 1
- k 2 ) ! . ( Eq . 10 ) ##EQU00004##
[0094] c) continue to enumerate other teams in a similar manner
(e.g., allocate a participant and then find all possibilities for
others) until there are only k.sub.L participants left, who will
form the L-th team.
[0095] Many methods may be used to implement this general
procedure. FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating the steps performed
during one such method. For ease of description, the n participants
in the participant roster are indexed as 1, 2, . . . , n. A team
combination is then a permutation of these index numbers 1, 2, . .
. , n. A team sequence C of length n is maintained to represent a
team combination where the first k.sub.1 numbers represent the
indices of the participants in the first team; the next k.sub.2
numbers represent the indices of the participants in the second
team, and so on. The order of numbers in sequence C is important
only in this process. It is irrelevant when outputting the sequence
C as a team combination. In fact, the order of teams in the
sequence C and the order of numbers in each team may optionally be
randomized before outputting the sequence C as a team combination.
In the process, one position in each team (e.g., the first position
of each team) is fixed unless otherwise explicitly described.
[0096] When the process starts (step 802), an empty buffer B is
created, the buffer is filled with the sequence C in ascending
order with numbers 1, 2, . . . , n, and the sequence C is outputted
as a team combination (step 804). The order of teams in the
sequence C and the order of numbers in each team may optionally be
randomized before outputting the sequence C as a team
combination.
[0097] At step 806, the last team, C(n-k.sub.L+1), C(n-k.sub.L+2),
. . . , C(n), is moved into the buffer B. The sequence C is then
searched backward from position n-k.sub.L (i.e., the last number of
the (k.sub.L-1)-th team) to find a number C(i) that is not at a
fixed position and is smaller than the largest number in the buffer
B (step 808). If such a number C(i) is found after searching the
entire sequence C (step 810), it means that all possible team
combinations have been output, and the process terminates (step
812). Otherwise, C(i) and the smallest number in the buffer B that
is larger than C(i) are swapped, and C(i+1), C(i+2), . . . ,
C(n-k.sub.L) are moved into the buffer B (step 810). Then, a check
is made as to whether C(i) is the last member of a team by checking
whether i equals k.sub.1, k.sub.1+k.sub.2, . . . , or
k.sub.1+k.sub.2+ . . . +k.sub.L-1 (step 612). If no, a B(j) that is
greater than C(i) is found, i is increased by 1, and B(j) is moved
to C(i) (step 814). Then, the process loops back to step 812. If at
step 812 it is determined that C(i) is the last member of a team, a
further check is made to determine whether the buffer B is empty
(step 816). If buffer B is not empty, all numbers in the buffer B
are moved into sequence C in ascending order to fill in positions
i+1, i+2, . . . , n of sequence C (step 818), and the process loops
back to step 806. Otherwise, the process loops directly back to
step 806. FIG. 17 lists the first twelve (12) team partition
sequences output from the above process during the dividing of nine
(9) participants into three teams each having three members.
[0098] Returning to FIG. 14, the manner by which a discrepancy
value is calculated at step 720 is now described. A discrepancy
value is calculated for a team combination by using the pair-wise
average difference scores of each category for the teams in the
team combination (calculated at step 714) to evaluate how well the
team combination meets the team selection requirement. A team
combination with a lower discrepancy value more closely meets the
team selection requirement. To calculate the discrepancy value for
a team combination, the pair-wise average difference scores of each
category for the teams in the team combination are weighted and
summed together.
[0099] The weighting factor for the average pair-wise difference
scores in each category is determined by the choices to the
statements in the target mix section 610 shown in FIG. 13. As
described above, the options of each statement in section 610 are
quantized such that a larger weighting factor is associated with an
option indicating (positively or negatively) higher importance of
the corresponding category in the team selection routine, and a
smaller weighting factor is associated with an option indicating
(positively or negatively) less importance of the corresponding
category in the team selection routine.
[0100] The options of each statement in target mix section 610 are
also assigned "signs" according to whether they positively or
negatively indicate the importance. Specifically, positive options
(options of "agree" and "neutral") are assigned a value of 0, and
negative options (options of "disagree") are assigned a value of 1.
FIG. 18 shows the target mix section 610 in FIG. 13 together with
the weighting factors and signs for each option in accordance with
an exemplary scheme. With this scheme, the weighting factors and
signs for the selected options are: W.sub.I=0, S.sub.I=0,
W.sub.P=4, S.sub.P=1, W.sub.G=4, S.sub.G=0, W.sub.T=4, S.sub.T=0,
where W.sub.I, S.sub.I, W.sub.P, S.sub.P, W.sub.G, S.sub.G, W.sub.T
and S.sub.T, respectively, are the weighting factors and signs for
the interest profile, personality profile, grades and time work
together.
[0101] The average pair-wise difference score for the l-th team
(denoted as F.sub.l), where l=1, 2, . . . , L, is then calculated
as the average of the normalized pair-wise difference scores for
each pair of participants in the team that are weighted by the
corresponding weighting factors, according to:
F.sub.l=MEAN(W.sub.I(I.sub.i,j(1-S.sub.I)+(1-I.sub.i,j)S.sub.I)+W.sub.P(-
P.sub.i,j(1-S.sub.P)+(1-P.sub.i,j)S.sub.P)+W.sub.G(G.sub.i,j(1-S.sub.G)+(1-
-G.sub.i,j)S.sub.G)+W.sub.T(T.sub.i,j(1-S.sub.T)+(1-T.sub.i,j)S.sub.T))
(Eq. 11)
where the function MEAN( ) is taken for all (i, j) pairs that the
participants H.sub.i and H.sub.j are in the l-th team. Here, the
(i, j) pair is unordered, i.e., (i, j) is the same as (j, i).
[0102] If there exist other categories, their normalized pair-wise
difference scores should also be properly weighted in accordance
with the facilitator's settings, and incorporated into the
summations inside the MEAN( ) function in Eq. 11.
[0103] The number of summations in the MEAN( ) function in Eq. 11
depends on the number of members in the team. For the l-th team
having k.sub.l participants, there are k.sub.l!/(2!(k.sub.l-2)!))
summations in the MEAN( ) function.
[0104] The team discrepancy value (denoted as V) of a team
combination is the mean of the average pair-wise difference score
F.sub.l for all teams in the team combination, plus the weighted
standard deviation (STD) of the average pair-wise difference score
F.sub.l for all teams in the team combination, and is expressed
as:
V=(1-.alpha.)MEAN(F.sub.l)+.alpha.STD(F.sub.l) (Eq. 12)
where STD( ) is the standard deviation function, MEAN( ) and STD(
), respectively, are taken for all l=1, 2, . . . , n, and .alpha.
is the weighting factor (1.gtoreq..alpha..gtoreq.0).
[0105] The weighting factor may be predefined, or may be designated
by the facilitator, for example. It indicates how important the
mean and the STD of F.sub.l, respectively, are in the team
selection routine. For example, .alpha.=0 implies that the STD of
F.sub.l is not considered in the routine. A larger weighting factor
.alpha. implies more importance of the STD of F.sub.l in the
routine. In this embodiment, the weighting factor .alpha. is
defined as {square root over (L)}/(1+ {square root over (L)}).
[0106] As described above, a smaller team discrepancy value V
indicates a more desirable team combination. A search of all the
possible team combinations is therefore done to identify the team
combination giving rise to the lowest team discrepancy value V.
Accordingly, the team selection routine thereby employs a numerical
optimization technique, as will be understood by those of skill in
the art. In case there are multiple team combinations giving rise
to the same smallest team discrepancy value V, a team combination
is randomly selected therefrom.
[0107] In this embodiment, the team selection routine is carried
out in what may be said to be generally "one step", whereby a
candidate of the desired team combination is temporarily stored in
memory, and is compared with each possible team combination upon
enumeration. The candidate stored in memory is replaced by the
enumerated team combination if the team discrepancy value V of the
latter is lower than that of the former. The team combination
giving rise to the smallest team discrepancy value V is obtained
after all possible team combinations have been enumerated.
Alternatively, the team selection routine may be carried out in
generally "two steps", whereby all possible team combinations are
first enumerated, and a search of all of the enumerated teams for
the team combination having the lowest team discrepancy value V is
then conducted.
[0108] Having calculated the team combination giving rise to the
lowest discrepancy value V, the set of teams making up that team
combination is then stored and, optionally, also displayed. The
team selection routine then terminates (step 724).
[0109] In an alternative embodiment, certain mandatory criteria for
team selection may be specified. Such mandatory criteria may be,
for example, no average pair-wise difference score F.sub.l of any
team may be larger than a certain threshold, or that all teams must
consist of both genders. In this alternative embodiment, the
process illustrated in FIG. 14 is slightly modified (at step 718).
Thus, when such criteria are set, at step 718, after enumerating
each possible team combination, a check is made to determine
whether all teams in the generated team combination satisfy the
mandatory criteria. If not, the generated team combination is
dropped so as not to be considered by the team selection routine.
If no team combination meets the mandatory criteria, a warning that
no team combination is found, is provided and optionally, the team
combination having the lowest discrepancy value V that does not
satisfy the mandatory criteria is also presented.
[0110] In the above embodiments, the team selection routine
determines the team combination giving rise to the lowest team
discrepancy value V from a list of all possible team combinations.
However, in some situations, enumerating all possible team
combinations may require a large computational cost. In an
alternative embodiment, the team selection routine selects a team
combination giving rise to the lowest team discrepancy value V from
a subset of all possible team combinations, whereby the subset is
determined using a lower computational cost. This embodiment is
particularly suitable for cases where the class comprises a large
number of participants where the processing would be prohibitive to
fast selection of teams. This embodiment modifies step 718 of the
process shown in FIG. 14 such that, instead of enumerating all
possible team combinations, only a predefined number of team
combinations (e.g., 100 combinations) are randomly generated. In
this case, the selected teams are those that make up the team
combination having the lowest discrepancy value V among the
randomly generated team combinations.
[0111] In yet another embodiment, after the team combination from
the predefined number of randomly generated team combinations has
been selected, the facilitator's activity is monitored, and if it
is determined that the facilitator did not interact with the
participant management window (i.e., the host computer is "idle"),
more random team combinations are generated and the team
discrepancy values associated with the newly generated team
combinations are compared with the previously selected team
combination. The previously selected team combination is
substituted with a newly generated random team combination if the
latter gives rise to lower discrepancy value V. This process is
continued until the facilitator performs an action (e.g., moves the
mouse, clicks a button, or types a key, etc.).
[0112] In yet another embodiment, both the number of teams and the
team size can be entered manually. In this case, a verification is
made that the sum of the manually entered team sizes is equal to
the total number of participants in the class, and a prompt for a
modification of team sizes is displayed if their sum is not equal
to the total number of participants. If the sum of the team sizes
is equal to the total number of participants, the team selection
routine as described above, is started with the exception that the
step of determining the team size (step 716 in FIG. 14) is
omitted.
[0113] In still yet another embodiment, instead of selecting a
desired team size, an upper team size limit S.sub.max and a lower
team size limit S.sub.min may be selected. In this case, a team may
have any number of participants that is not more than the upper
team size limit and not less than the lower team size limit. The
team selection routine may give rise to the team combination having
the lowest team discrepancy value or an alternative team
combination as described above with a modification in the step of
determining team size (step 716 in FIG. 14) and the step of
enumerating possible team combinations (step 718 in FIG. 14).
[0114] The step of determining team size (step 716) is modified to
determine the largest possible number of teams as follows:
L.sub.max=n/S.sub.min. (Eq. 13)
[0115] Then, in the modified step of enumerating possible team
combinations (step 718), fictitious participants are added to the
participant roster so that the participant roster may be divided
into L.sub.max equal teams. The number of fictitious participants
is expressed as:
n.sub.f=L.sub.maxS.sub.max-n. (Eq. 14)
[0116] After adding n.sub.f fictitious participants, the possible
team combinations are enumerated similar to the description above
without distinguishing the fictitious participants from the real
participants. All possible team combinations may be enumerated, if
the team combination having the lowest team discrepancy value V is
needed. After generating a team combination, the fictitious
participants are removed, and then the size of each team is
checked. Empty teams (teams having no real participants) are
dropped. If any of the remaining teams has a size smaller than the
lower team size limit requirement, the team combination is dropped
and is not used by the team selection routine.
[0117] If an alternative team combination is needed, a number of
team combinations is randomly generated. After generating a team
combination, the fictitious participants are removed, and then the
size of each team is checked. Empty teams (teams having no real
participants) are dropped. If any of the remaining teams has a size
smaller than the lower team size limit, the team combination is
dropped. This process is repeated until the number of team
combinations that satisfy the lower and upper team size limits
reaches the predefined number.
[0118] In either of the above two cases, it is possible that no
team combination would satisfy the lower and upper team size limits
requirement. For example, if a class has eleven (11) participants,
and it is required that all teams must have no less than four (4)
participants and no more than five (5) participants, there is no
team combination would meet the requirement. If no team combination
satisfying the lower and upper team size limits requirement can be
generated, the team selection routine terminates and a warning is
displayed to indicate that no team combination could be found. In
this case, the facilitator may modify the requirements and run the
team selection routine again. Alternatively, impossible
combinations could be determined and the user interface adjusted to
prohibit these impossible cases.
[0119] After selecting the team combination using a given team
profile, the teams making up the selected team combination may be
used when administering assessments using the administration
application. In this case, the responses from the remote units 62
assigned to participants on a given team are used to represent the
responses of all the participants on the team.
[0120] Three collaboration models may be selected using the
administration application, namely a first response model, a most
common response model and a rotating response model. In the first
response model, the response from the first participant in a team
to enter a response using their remote unit 62 is used as the team
response, and the subsequent responses of participants on the same
team are ignored by the participant response application
software.
[0121] In the most common response model, all the participants on a
given team enter their responses, and the most common response,
e.g. the same response that most participants made, is used as the
team response. If more than one most common response is identified,
a most common response is chosen as follows: [0122] (i) If, among
the choices provided with the question, only one choice is correct,
the most common incorrect response that is first received is
selected as the team response; [0123] (ii) If two or more choices
of the question are correct, and all most common responses are
correct (e.g., match any one or ones of the correct choices), the
most common response that is first received is selected as the team
response; and [0124] (iii) If two or more choices of the question
are correct, and some most common responses are incorrect, the most
common incorrect response that is first received is selected as the
team response.
[0125] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other
scenarios are also available for selecting a team response from a
plurality of most common responses.
[0126] In the rotating response model, the team response is
alternatively selected from participants' responses, so that each
team participant in turn has the chance to response for the team.
In this case, teams are not notified as to whose turn it is to
respond to the question. Thus, all participants in the team still
have to enter their responses for each question although only one
participant's response will be selected as the team response. The
team participant whose response is used to represent the team
response for a given question may be assigned according to a
repeating cycle or pattern, it may be randomly assigned, or it may
be assigned based on which team participant entered the last
incorrect response for the team. In the latter case, team
participants are cyclically or randomly assigned to enter the team
response until an incorrect team response is entered. When an
incorrect response is entered, the same participant that entered
the incorrect team response is assigned to enter the next team
response, until a correct team response is entered, after which the
cyclical/random assignment resumes.
[0127] In any of the previously described collaboration models, the
team participants may or may not be allowed to collaborate and
discuss responses outside the framework of the participant response
application software before, during, or after the assessment is
administered using the participant response application
software.
[0128] The teams generated using a given team profile may also be
used for projects or assessments not related to the participant
response application software. For example, a team profile could be
used to generate reading or study groups for a language class, or
laboratory partners for a science class.
[0129] During a team activity or after the team activity is
complete, a team feedback questionnaire may be sent to the
participants via the participant response application software. A
pre-defined feedback questionnaire may be selected from a library
of feedback questionnaires, or a feedback questionnaire may be
manually created. The results of the feedback questionnaire may be
used to determine future team profiles.
[0130] In an alternate embodiment, the questionnaires may be
e-mailed to the participants, accessed by the participants via the
internet, or via a networked drive, or by various other means.
[0131] In the above exemplary embodiments, questions of a
questionnaire are displayed on the IWB 54. However, those skilled
in the art will appreciate that, in some alternative embodiments,
questions of a questionnaire may be transmitted to each hand-held
remote unit 62, and displayed on its display 124.
[0132] In the above exemplary embodiments, the selected teams are
those that make up a team combination having the smallest value of
discrepancy V. However, in other embodiments, a team combination
may be selected by finding the largest value of a function of
discrepancy V. For example, a search may be performed to find a
team combination having the largest value of "team consistency" W,
where W may be represented by W=-V, or by W=1/V. Still other
functions of V would also be possible.
[0133] The administration application may be embodied as computer
executable instructions or program code stored on a computer
readable medium. The computer readable medium is any data storage
device that can store data, which can thereafter be read by a
computer system. Examples of computer readable medium include for
example read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, magnetic
tape and optical data storage devices. The computer readable
program code can also be distributed over a network including
coupled computer systems so that the computer readable program code
is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.
[0134] In the embodiments described above, the participant response
system is described as employing an IWB comprising an analog
resistive touch screen. Those of skill in the art will appreciate
that other interactive input systems such as machine-vision touch
systems (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,141,000; 6,337,681 etc.),
electromagnetic touch system, capacitive touch systems, acoustic
touch system etc. may be employed. Also, the interactive input
system and the receiver need not be connected to the host computer
52 by physical cables. Rather, the interactive input system and/or
receiver may communicate with the host computer via wireless
links.
[0135] Although embodiments have been described above with
reference to the accompanying drawings, those of skill in the art
will appreciate that variations and modifications may be made
without departing from the spirit and scope thereof as defined by
the appended claims.
* * * * *