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Discussion using e-mail is frequently conducted in intelligent works such as research activity. It is important but generally difficult to successfully grasp the processes of the discussions and their results. There exist descriptions of diverse particle sizes in actual discussion using e-mail. This feature brings about the difficulty in grasping the discussion processes in addition to basic features such as increase of number of e-mails. Although there have been some research projects which aim at extraction of discussion processes, these existing methods have not consider the diversity of description granularity. This research has aimed to develop a support system for extracting discussion processes and their visualization. This paper mainly describes methods for extracting the discussion processes considering the diversity of description granularity and complicated connections between them. This paper also describes the overview of target service and the outline of support system.

Skillful management of the various types of documents used in intelligent activities and their efficient utilization are important. However, most available systems target only a single type of document (e-mails, Web pages, etc.) or are not adaptive enough. A more promising approach is topic-centered document management. A topic-centered document management system is described that changes its own functions and interfaces adaptively.

In this paper, the design and implementation of a visualised sound simulation environment is presented as an initial step to further laboratory experimentation. Preliminary laboratory experiments showed a positive learning curve in human auditory perception. Learning occurred when new information was processed with relevant existing knowledge in this simulation environment. While the work towards the truth of the empirical hypothesis is still under discussion, this project has been expanded beyond the scope that was originally envisaged and the developed environment showed its potential to be adopted on mobile devices for many educational purposes. This initiative not only brings scientists and educators together, but it is also hoped that it represents a possible e-approach to a constructivist way of learning.

This paper describes a learning environment that provides program division patterns for programming education. Receiving source codes drawn by learners, this environment analyzes data flow and detects the information on active variables based on lexical, syntax, and semantic analyses. Then, this environment generates and evaluates module division patterns and finally shows visually to a learner module division patterns, active variables and their active scopes.

A SCORM-compliant learning management system (LMS) has been developed that enhances learning by effectively and efficiently managing the learning itself. First, a SCORM-LST was developed by adding to SCORM (sharable content object reference model) a framework that describes facilitation corresponding to the learner's state of learning and describes the learning state transitions. This makes it possible to describe collaborative learning, assessment, and facilitation for multiple users. Next, a SCORM-compliant LMS (SALMS: SCORM-compliant adaptive LMS) based on the SCORM-LST was developed. SALMS interprets SCORM-LST code and changes the user interface to match the learner's state of learning. It also manages the learning so that it matches the designer's intentions.

We have developed a meta-system that generates program animation systems. The generated animation systems visually display changes in program actions and help students (novice programmers) understand them. The animation systems also accumulate historical records of the students’ operations as they execute a program step by step while trying to understand it. By analyzing accumulated records, the meta-system pinpoints common areas of dif- ficulty and their causes for the lecturer. To develop this meta-system, we first analyzed the relation between difficult to understand parts and records of which control operations students applied when using the program animation system. For this analysis, we developed a function enabling the program animation system to record each student’s history of operations. Next, we devised a technique to predict which parts of a program would be difficult for students to understand. Finally, we developed a generator of program animation systems based on this technique. Consequently, this meta- system enables lecturers to monitor the classroom learning of students in real-time and provide support to groups of students experiencing common difficulties.

A system was developed to support teaching computer programming to a group of students who have common questions and make common mistakes on practice computer programs. The system extrapolates the causes and syntaxes of students’ compilation errors by analyzing the trends of past compilation errors and presents the extrapolated result to the teacher in real time. By using the system, a teacher can understand in real time students’ programming mistakes when they are writing computer programs, and can appropriately teach computer programming to a group of students who have common problems.

We have developed a system that informs lecturers regarding real-time learning situations in the classroom and helps them provide support for students (novice programmers) experiencing common problems. This system has two functions. The first is a program animation function which keeps a historical record of the students’ operations, and analyses this record to provide the information about difficulty of program actions to lecturers. The second is a compile-error support function which keeps a historical record of the students' errors, and then analyses this record and informs the lecturer about the correspondence between compile-error causes and particular lines of source code. This system should provide lecturers with full support and real-time solutions to common problems faced by students.

We have developed a system that allows teachers to monitor the classroom learning of students (novice programmers) in real time and provide support to groups of students experiencing common problems. This system has a program animation function which keeps a historical record of the students' operations as they go through a program while trying to understand it. By analyzing this record, the system pinpoints common problem areas, and the causes of difficulty, for the teacher

"Visual Field Record System" is aimed to support participant's behavior analysis in distance education using an interactive video teleconference system. An examination of the eye camera position is important to use the system effectively, because the camera's angle and zoom rate is considered participant's behavior in this system. Actually, there are some problems that it originates in the camera position of the system. We approached these problems by developing the eye camera install-simulator including arrangement of the classroom equipment. This simulator is called Classroom Design Simulator. This paper describes functions and operations of the simulator. After that, the system is evaluated by the application to a case. It was shown that this system was useful for a distance education planner as a result.

This study has developed a generator system that generates various type of lesson plan making support systems automatically. The framework and items that each teacher needs are defined, and the generator automatically generates a lesson plan making support system according to the definition. First, this led to development of the formal definition of description format for describing lesson plans using the extended BNF notation. It becomes possible for the users to input and edit whatever they need according to the description format. The user can write a grammatically correct lesson plan and edit it without grammatical errors (healthness). Second, this developed a generator that automatically generates the Java source code of a system corresponding to the description format. The generator can deal with the frameworks and input items that various teachers want to have in their lesson plans (completeness). It can also generate a system according to each user's purpose (generality).