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This paper presents two interactive visualization tools for learning management systems (LMS) in order to improve learning and teaching in online courses. The first tool was developed at the Intelligent Information Systems Laboratory (IISLab) at the Tampere University of Technology (TUT). The tool is used to analyse students' activity from automatically recorded user log data and to build interactive visualizations. They provide valuable insights into the learning process and participation of students in a course offered to teachers and students. The second tool was developed at the Unitelma Sapienza University. It extends navigation and search functionalities in the discussion forum of an LMS with a topic-driven paradigm. The tool analyses forum content and automatically identifies discussion topics. It then enhances the original forum with a topic-driven navigation structure and an interactive search graph. Both tools have been developed as plug-ins for the Moodle LMS, but their analysis processes and techniques can be adopted into any LMS.

Abstract. The diffusion of service-oriented computing is today heavily influencing many software development and research activities. Despite this, service-oriented computing is a relatively new field, where many aspects still suffer from a lack of standardization. Also, the service-oriented approach is bringing together researchers from different communities or from organizations having developed their own solutions. This introduces the need for letting all these people communicate with each other using a common language and a common understanding of the technologies they are using or building. This paper proposes a conceptual model that describes actors, activities and entities involved in a service-oriented scenario and the relationships between them. While being created for a European project, the model is easily adaptable to address the needs of any other service-oriented initiative.

This paper presents a model-driven approach to the development of web applications based on the Ubiquitous Web Application (UWA) design framework, the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and the JavaServer Faces technology. The approach combines a complete and robust methodology for the user-centered conceptual design of web applications with the MVC metaphor, which improves separation of business logic and data presentation. The proposed approach, by carrying the advantages of Model-Driven Development (MDD) and user-centered design, produces Web applications which are of high quality from the user's point of view and easier to maintain and evolve.

Refactoring is a technique that applies step-by-step transformations intended to improve the quality of software while preserving its behavior. It represents an essential activity in today's software lifecycle and a powerful tool against software decay. Software decay, however, is not only about code becoming legacy, but it is also about systems becoming less usable compared to competitor solutions adopting new designs and new technologies. If we narrow the focus on e-commerce systems, the role of usability becomes essential: higher usability is in fact a requirement to win the market competition and to retain customers from turning to other choices. One reason why an e-commerce application can start suffering from poor usability is because of its business processes (BPs) becoming difficult to access, complicated to execute, and, overall, offering a poor user experience. In this paper we argue that refactoring can be a key solution for this kind of usability issues. In particular, we propose a catalog of refactorings as a means to systematically identify and address lack of usability in the D. Distante (B)

Web applications have evolved from simple read-only websites to complex data-and operation-intensive systems. The main goal of this kind of application is to provide the users with services that assist them in carrying out activities according to a given set of business rules. The addition of transactions to modern web applications poses new challenges, such as managing the interplay between business process execution and navigation, and improving the user's experience in accessing the services that the web application offers. This paper presents a comprehensive design model for integrating business processes in web applications. The model is based on UWAT+, an extended and revised version of the Ubiquitous Web Applications (UWA) Transaction Design model for designing web transactions. UWAT+ makes it possible to

Refactoring has been reported as a helpful technique to systematically improve nonfunctional attributes of software. This paper evaluates the relevance of refactoring for improving usability on web applications. We conducted an experiment with two replications at different locations, with subjects of different profiles. Objects chosen for the experiment were two e-commerce applications that exhibit common business processes in today's web usage. Through the experiment we found that half of the studied refactorings cause a significant improvement in usability. The rest of the refactorings required a post-hoc analysis in which we Empir Software Eng considered aspects like user expertise in the interaction with web applications or type of application. We conclude that, when improving quality in use, the success of the refactoring process depends on several factors, including the type of software system, context and users. We have analyzed all these aspects, which developers must consider for a better decision support at the time of prioritizing improvements and outweighing effort.