Person: Romero Hernández, Alejandro
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First Name
Alejandro
Last Name
Romero Hernández
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Informática
Department
Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial
Area
Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos
Identifiers
6 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
Item Tackling the design and evaluation of a theater-based intelligent system to monitor audience experience in virtual public speaking settings(2022) Villalobos, Pablo; Rivero, Eduardo; El-yamri, Meriem; Romero Hernández, Alejandro; Manero Iglesias, José BorjaCOVID-19 has brought about a sharp increase in the use of videoconferencing tools. In education, this complicates the monitoring of student experience, which is essential to perform adequate classroom management. Researchers have designed tools to aid teachers within on-site settings, but they focus only on student engagement and are not suitable for virtual environments. In this paper, we present our system's architecture and evaluation. First, we adapted a theater-based framework to measuring audience experience beyond engagement in online settings. Secondly, we designed a proof-of-concept computer vision system and a companion video conferencing tool to automatically measure audience experience in the classroom and present near real-time feedback. We also describe the experiment we conducted to obtain a dataset to test our system and present the results. Although the predictive accuracy of our proof-of-concept system is limited, it opens several directions for future research.Item Talk&Play a VR Application to Improve Volume and Silences Use in Verbal Communication(2022) Ruiz-Capillas, Esther; Manero Iglesias, José Borja; Romero Hernández, AlejandroPublic speaking is present everywhere in our lives; therefore, it is important to know how to do it correctly. Most people have difficulties speaking in public due to their glossophobia (fear of speaking in public). Practicing is one of the best ways for treating this fear and improving the oratory skills. There are three basic aspects in this discipline which are not always taken into consideration when trying to get better in public speaking: silences, speed and volume. This paper presents Talk&Play, an application for teaching how to use these aspects correctly in a speech and the importance of them. For validating this application, an experiment for evaluating it is presented as well. Three main conclusions were reached: 1) Talk&Play increases user’s self-security during public speaking, 2) it also raises awareness of the importance of a correct use of silences, volume and speed in the experiment participants, 3) User learns how to use volume and silences, but the application still needs to improve.Item El videojuego como herramienta de alfabetización informacional en estudiantes universitarios.(Profesional de la información, 2022) Martin, Oliver; Manero Iglesias, José Borja; Romero Hernández, AlejandroLos videojuegos han resultado útiles para el aprendizaje en diferentes campos. El presente trabajo trata de evaluar la utilidad del videojuego como herramienta de aprendizaje para la alfabetización informacional de estudiantes de grado universitario. El videojuego "El último examen" nace tras el análisis de 1.639 consultas registradas en un período de dos años en la Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense, y tiene como objetivo dar respuestas a demandas, que son extrapolables a otras bibliotecas universitarias. Para evaluar su utilidad se realiza un experimento piloto de grupo único con 14 estudiantes de grado. Los resultados muestran mejoras significativas en sus competencias informacionales y valoraciones positivas de la intervención. Se concluye que la incorporación de videojuegos como complemento a los contenidos de los programas formativos de las bibliotecas puede resultar provechoso, especialmente como introducción, refuerzo o evaluación de estos.Item Comparison of a Tablet Versus Computer-Based Classical Theatre Game Among 8–13 Year Children(IEEE Access, 2021) Gonzalez-Riojo, Manuel; Sagredo-Olivenza, Ismael; Romero Hernández, Alejandro; Manero Iglesias, José BorjaIn the last ten years, many studies have shown the advantages of videogames as tools for learning, engagement, raising awareness, or increasing interest in different fields. Schools are often the main focus of those studies. However, schools have either PCs or tablets in their classrooms, but rarely have both. That represents a severe limitation to videogame researchers since they can only deploy their video games in schools with the adequate platform for their video games. Researchers are therefore restricted in the number of schools in which they can conduct their experiments. In this paper, we study a videogame’s effectiveness in increasing interest towards classical theatre, depending on the platform deployed (computer or mobile device). To that aim, we used ‘‘The Courtesy of Spain,’’ a point-and-click videogame created explicitly for this study, based on the play of the same name by Golden Age playwright Lope de Vega. To measure the abovementioned effectiveness, we implemented a quasi-experimental design with a comparison and an experimental group. The experiment involved 542 students between 8 and 13 years old from several middle schools in Madrid’s Community (Spain). The study indicates that the videogame developed is equally effective on both devices (Sig <0.05). Our results will allow serious game developers to design one-fits-all games without jeopardizing their efficiency, which broadens the target schools where their games can be testedItem Virtual Reality for Teacher Training(Methodologies and Use Cases on Extended Reality for Training and Education, 2022) Miriela M. Cárdenas; Ibis M. Alvarez; Manero Iglesias, José Borja; Romero Hernández, AlejandroThis chapter discusses the use of virtual reality (VR) in the training of preservice secondary education teachers in Spain as an integral part of their learning process. The authors propose some premises from which to design a training program to improve preservice teachers' communicative competence and their ability to manage conflict impacting the classroom climate. First, it explains the experiential and experimental potential of a virtual learning environment (VLE), its ability to create personalized virtual worlds, as well as the possibility to generate insightful instant feedback and feedforward. Finally, an example of a prototype scenario designed on this conceptual basis is provided. Furthermore, the chapter presents an overview of an educational proposal to implement this experiential immersive opportunity for preservice teachers to interact and manage disruptive situations in a safe and reliable environment conducive to the development of key communicative competences and strategies to turn conflict into a learning opportunity.Item The Effectiveness of a Video Game as an Educational Tool in Incrementing Interest in Dance among Younger Generations(Educational technology & society, 2022) Gonzalez-Riojo, Manuel; El-Yamri, Meriem; Romero Hernández, Alejandro; Manero Iglesias, José BorjaThe performing arts are currently in a critical situation worldwide. Various reports warn that the lack of audience. If we focus on dance, and especially folk dances, the situation is worse. In various countries and continents, folk dances are slowly disappearing. In Spain, we find evidence of the downward trend in terms of the number of attendees to performances of Spanish dance -an art form that is highly valued throughout the world. In a generation marked by technological advancements, the only way for classic performing arts to reach young audiences - or digital natives – is to speak the same language they use with new technologies. This paper presents a study in collaboration with the Spanish National Dance Company, carried out with 877 students (aged from 9 to 12) from 12 different schools in the community of Madrid, Spain. We designed a two-phase experiment. In the first phase, we separated the students into 3 groups: students who played a videogame called “Dancing a Treasure,” those who received a workshop from professional dancers, and a control group. In the second phase that took place two weeks later, the participants attended to a real show of Spanish dance, and we studied how the previous educational approaches affected to the students increase of interest after the show. The experiment demonstrated that the videogame was, at least, as effective in increment interest about dance in younger generations as a workshop taught by expert dance professionals. Thus, in terms of scalability, the videogame is a better option because it can be applied with the same results to larger groups with no additional cost.