A Detailed Description of Main Interfaces and Their Versions
Longitude Expert System: initial content and features
The basis for Longitude Expert System and the content of its basic version is formed by methods for studying psychomotor development of preschool children. These are primarily “Developmental scale” (No 011-012) and “Expert evaluation of development level” (No 010).
Early diagnostics of deviations in psychomotor development is very important for preventing developmental delays and early adaptation of children with developmental problems to everyday life. It is known that after the age of three it is not possible to solve developmental problems entirely, they can only be concealed. A slight delay at an early age can be successfully compensated with the help of special correcting activities. The earlier the problems are identified, the more chances the child has to grow healthy and live a productive life. For a number of reasons it is difficult to make an objective assessment of children development at infant period. To obtain objective data it is necessary that the child should feel comfortable and the adult, conducting the survey, should have sufficient experience, power of observation, skilful approach to the child. Initially Longitude Expert System was developed to help solving these problems and its basic version was devised for:
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defining children’s level of development from two months’ age (in current version – up to 7 years of age);
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detecting deviations in psychomotor development;
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control over development dynamics;
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preparing an individual activity program for surveyed children.
Several methods of the System suggest interaction of the specialist with the parents – that includes questions for parents and development of individual illustrated “Development program”, which is focused on the zone of proximal development and can be used for arranging activities and games at home. Initially the system was devised for working with children from the age of 2 months up to 3 years; standard range of “Development scale” in the current version is extended to the age of 7 years, and further extension of the range is currently being done.
EDS interface features
EDS is an experimental and diagnostic system of research and educational methods, primarily representing computer-based means of data collecting and processing implemented as one interface. EDS development was aimed at supporting education and research process at the Faculty of Psychology of St. Petersburg State University, and cooperation of experts from SPSU and other organizations in the development of new research and psycho-diagnostic means, in standardization and improvement of old-line psycho-diagnostic methods with outdated normative data. For this reason the program always contains methodology units, which can be at various stages of development – from a beta-version to a completed one. This should be considered in approbation and planning of the use of this software.
Main research and educational methods of EDS were developed in course of implementation of various research projects with the assistance of the following foundations - “Russian Universities”, “Integration”, Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation, The Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the program “Development of research capacity in higher education” of Federal Education Agency. This set of methods forms the basic version of EDS and is a freely distributed student version of the program – EDS B (on distribution of student freeware – see the website). An extended version EDS+ includes a number of additional methods and functional units, developed in cooperation with other organizations and authors and distributed on commercial basis through publishing houses specializing in the areas of research, methodology and software development.
Longitude - Expert system of individual follow-up of development
Quick Tour*
Here is a brief description of how the system operates, its main windows and control panels.
More detailed description of functions and options is given in “Guidance materials” (Education section).
* In the current program version there may be minor changes introduced due to continued development of new functions of the Expert system.
Main program window
Personal data window
History data entry preparation
History data entry
Developmental scale data entry preparation
Developmental scale data processing
Main program window – selection panel:
=> groups (click “Group” to call pop-up menu with commands to create and rename a group, data export and import); when choosing a specific group you get a list of respondents that belong to the chosen group (according to their personal data);
=> respondent (click “Respondent” to call pop-up menu with commands to add a new respondent, individual data export and import);
=> general survey – for a selected respondent (click “Survey+” to add a new survey – a “scan” of individual development)
=> specific method – as part of the selected survey (click “Method” to call pop-up menu to add a new method to the survey, to start a survey using a selected method, etc.).
Options given on the main panel
- Respondent list sorting by A/Z
- Stereotyping the surveys. If this option is on, adding methods to one respondent will automatically be repeated for every new respondent or survey added (in current working session).
A click on “Respondent” opens a pop-up menu where a new respondent can be added. For that purpose open “Personal data” window under “Method”.
In this window you can enter main data required for arranging a survey.
When a new respondent is added, the following data is added automatically:
In the list of surveys – “Primary survey”.
In the list of methods – “Personal data”.
In stereotype survey mode there is automatic addition of all methods previously added to other respondents.
"Current group inclusion" allows breaking the general list of respondents into smaller groups (e.g. by age, school class, etc.). To do that you need first to create groups (see above the description of the main panel). Then you can use the buttons in the corresponding part of personal data panel:
[+] (to select a group from the list and assign the respondent to this group) and
[-] (to remove reference to selected group).
Additional personal data can be added later by opening “Personal data” method, similar to other methods.
“History” method takes up two windows: preparation (reading the instruction, setting the survey date) and data collection.
To enter history data you are offered a choice of standard entries from a list. It is also possible to enter non-standard data, to do that choose entry “Additional information”.
Now when clicking on a “writing hand” instead of calling a pop-up menu you immediately open a list with all possible History items and can select / omit data by single click, and edit non-standard entries by double click.
Beginning of a new sub-section
“Developmental scale – data collecting” method also takes up two windows – preparation and data collection.
The text of instruction can be read only using a scroll bar; therefore it is given below in full format.
Define the scope (a set of parameters) and depth of the survey. In case you suspect significant development delays, give a corresponding extension to the range of questions and tasks, e.g. in window “Range (+/-N months)” figure “-12” if you suspect possible development delay of about one year.
When you enter answers from a standard form, in the window “From the form” specify the version, and after a hyphen - ? of the form, e.g. “Answer form 4-1”. If you do not specify that, the questions will be presented not according to standard form of general age range, but according to the age of a specific child.
If you choose to enter data from a form, then after you complete all the questions you will be asked if it is required to continue entering answers according to general scheme (with individual question selection). If you have a possibility to receive additional information, click “Yes” to see additional questions and enter corresponding data immediately or later on. If you only have data from a form, do not choose to proceed with data entry. Data entry will formally be marked as “not completed”, but all the information gathered will be processed and used by the Expert system for devising a Conclusion and individual Development program.
For data entry read carefully every given statement (question, task) and a comment.
In most questions you need to choose one variant of the answer:
(1) If the child has never done what was mentioned in the statement, left click box (1) “No”.
(2) If you are sure that the child is doing it (or used to do before), click box (2) “Yes”.
If the question or comment requires entering a figure (number of points, seconds, performed tasks, etc.), type in a required figure and press “Enter” key. To delete a wrong figure use “Backspace” key.
If checking the statement requires any additional actions, you need to provide the child with necessary pictures or toys. Put down the answer after observation. Behavior characteristics during testing procedure can be entered in a special box by typing them in. Try not to miss questions, as the lack of answers can lead to lower reliability or impossibility to obtain conclusions on one or several parameters.
After choosing the answer, click “Record selected answer”. If you do not know how to answer the question, click “Skip”. To correct the answer, click “Previous”.
To choose and type in the answer you can also use number keys and “Enter” key in the right hand side of the keyboard (in NumLock mode), to skip or return - "PageDown" and "PageUp".
“Asterisk” key in right hand side of the keyboard gives an option to scroll the questions, viewing entered answers. This can be useful when adding an answer in already conducted survey.
After entering all information required for a survey (data entry), click “Start survey”. You can stop entering data at any moment by clicking “Close”. Then all stored data can be processed or added when needed. The conclusions will be based on the data stored by the time of processing.
Below there is an example of data entry window with a regular question.
“Developmental scale – data processing” method is separated from data entry in order to avoid unnecessary data processing in case of entering a lot of data on children surveyed using forms, and also to prevent demonstrating data processing results to parents, who may be present at data collection.
Clicking on corresponding keys you can open a full text of “Conclusion”, build a visual “(Development dynamics) Chart” or create an individual “Development program” (all files are in HTML format). The specialist can correct the texts before printout according to the assessment of development and proposed activity plan for the child.
In the “Client” version these survey results are transferred to the user by e-mail as a zip-archive of corresponding files (some time after receiving data to be processed from the user).
In “Developmental scale – data processing” panel, next to “Development program” there are additional options boxes, which allow recording recommendations to be included into devised “Program”. This is done in order to automatically exclude from the Program earlier recommendations in case of repeating preparation and printout of the Program (e.g. after a few months). Therefore, when clicking the option
- “Record” – you record all recommendations included into “Development program”. Recommendations recorded when devising “Development program” after each subsequent survey are added to previously recorded ones.
- "New record" – data on previously recorded recommendations is deleted.
- "Exclude records" – previously recorded recommendations (included in previously devised “Development programs” with activated “Record” option) are excluded from Development program.
In questionnaire-type methods data entry window contains a question (task) and answer options.
Data processing methods are separated from data entry in order to avoid unnecessary data processing in case of entering a lot of data on groups surveyed using forms, and also to prevent demonstrating data processing results to parents or third persons, who may be present at data collection.
Clicking on corresponding keys you can open the text of Conclusion, which includes short profile (personal data) of the respondent, parameter values (in the Conclusion for experts) and textual interpretation (in minor part of methods, mainly in original author’s methods). All files are in text format. The specialist can correct their content before printout according to the assessment of survey results and proposed activity plan for the respondent.
Below are frequently asked questions from the new users of the expert system and answers to them.
- Is it possible to delete a respondent from the general list?
Yes, it is possible to delete a respondent with all relevant data stored. To do that, open a pop-up menu by clicking a screen key “Respondent”.
- How to create data backups and transfer the database to another computer?
For that purpose you can use data export and import functions (individual and group data or the whole database). Export a database or a group into an integrated data file. Further on you can use it as a database backup copy for recovery (by importing a reinstalled program over an empty database), or for transferring it to another computer.
- Why the font size is so large in the lists of respondents and methods?
Probably such screen font is set as basic in Windows parameters of your computer. To change font size open Display Properties (in Control Panel) and select the “Settings” tab, then in the dialog box click “Advanced”. Select the “General” tab and choose “Small” font size or a specific font size in “Other”. Reload the Windows.
- Why Program windows do not fit the display?
Your screen resolution is probably 640x480 pixels. You can enlarge it (at least up to 800х600) in display properties (for some display cards it is sufficient to reduce the number of colors). If you have a very old model of the monitor (produced in early 1990s) the resolution extension may not possible. In this case it is advisable to renew the monitor, besides, due to its characteristics it is quite harmful for eyes.
- How to change information on license owner?
During initial installation you are required to insert license number and user name. In future this data can be changed by pressing F6 key at splash screen.
- Two children with age difference of 1 month were surveyed according to Method 011 “Developmental scale”. One child is ahead of their age development standard, the other one showed insufficient understanding of cause and effect connection. Development program for both children is identical. Can this be true? If so, where is individual approach?
- If two children showed close results on all main parameters, then the difference in one parameter may not be reflected in “Development program”. Recommendations and games are selected on the basis of age range for which they are helpful. Many specific parameters have a narrow range of recommendations, which are time-expanded. Besides, many developmental games are recommended for age range of several months, the age difference being one month, these games can be recommended to both children. As the recommendations and games database gets expanded, the age range will grow narrower, yet it cannot be equal to one month or several days period.
- Actually, to avoid repetition of recommendations given to a wider age range in Development Program at secondary survey (held two or three months after), the current version of the Program has an option to record given recommendations and exclude them from subsequent Development Programs.
- How to create a form for the survey of a group of the same age range in method 011 “Developmental scale”?
- Open the panel for starting the survey for the youngest child in the group, and after choosing the scope and depth of survey, specify the extension of age range “+number of months” (from the age of this child to the age of the oldest child in the group). Then click “Form”. You will thus create a special form that includes all questions and tasks for the age group ranging from the youngest to the oldest child.
- In this way the list of questions and the answer form will include only the questions that meet given parameters and other survey characteristics selected before clicking on “Form” button.
- Note, that the choice of questions is affected by “Automatic input of ДА (данные анкеты? – questionnaire data) from previous survey” and “Output of answered questions”. To prepare a form for the group it is recommended to deactivate these options before clicking on “Form” button.
- When devising a form there appears a question whether created sequence of questions should be saved as a standard form. We recommend saving this sequence as a standard form (assigning to it a selected number). After collecting data you can specify this form number in survey preparation form. This will ensure easier entry of answers from the common form (otherwise for different children there will appear different individual sets of questions).
- Why is it so, that when entering answers from the standard form from method 011 “Developmental scale” the set of questions in the form does not fully match the questions presented by the Program?
Because the standard form contains questions for the whole age range (e.g. from 3 to 4 years of age), while the Program only presents questions for specific age of the child (e.g. for 3 years and 1 month). To facilitate data entry from a form, when working with data entry preparation window it is recommended to specify the following information: entry from form … (number of form version, and after a hyphen – age range figure, e.g. 3-1 for age range 1, form version 3; number of form version is given in the bottom of the page)