Browsing by Author "Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil"

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Construct and face validity of the educational computer-based environment (ECE) assessment scenarios for basic endoneurosurgery skills
(Springer, 2017) Özçelik, Erol; Özçelik, Erol; Şengül, Gökhan; Berker, Mustafa; 115500
Background In neurosurgery education, there is a paradigm shift from time-based training to criterion-based model for which competency and assessment becomes very critical. Even virtual reality simulators provide alternatives to improve education and assessment in neurosurgery programs and allow for several objective assessment measures, there are not many tools for assessing the overall performance of trainees. This study aims to develop and validate a tool for assessing the overall performance of participants in a simulation-based endoneurosurgery training environment. Methods A training program was developed in two levels: endoscopy practice and beginning surgical practice based on four scenarios. Then, three experiments were conducted with three corresponding groups of participants (Experiment 1, 45 (32 beginners, 13 experienced), Experiment 2, 53 (40 beginners, 13 experienced), and Experiment 3, 26 (14 novices, 12 intermediate) participants). The results analyzed to understand the common factors among the performance measurements of these experiments. Then, a factor capable of assessing the overall skill levels of surgical residents was extracted. Afterwards, the proposed measure was tested to estimate the experience levels of the participants. Finally, the level of realism of these educational scenarios was assessed. Results The factor formed by time, distance, and accuracy on simulated tasks provided an overall performance indicator. The prediction correctness was very high for the beginners than the one for experienced surgeons in Experiments 1 and 2. When non-dominant hand is used in a surgical procedure-based scenario, skill levels of surgeons can be better predicted. The results indicate that the scenarios in Experiments 1 and 2 can be used as an assessment tool for the beginners, and scenario-2 in Experiment 3 can be used as an assessment tool for intermediate and novice levels. It can be concluded that forming the balance between perceived action capacities and skills is critical for better designing and developing skill assessment surgical simulation tools.
Investigating the Relationship Between SLOC and Logical Database Measures to Improve the Early Estimation of Software Cost
(World Scientific Publ Co Pte Ltd, 2019) Tokdemir, Gul; Tokdemir, Gül; Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; 17411
Project planning is a critical activity in the software development life cycle. At the early stages of a project, the managers need to estimate required time, effort and cost to plan, track and then to deliver the project successfully. Many studies have attempted to provide methods for precise software cost estimation. The current software cost estimation methods are mainly based on software size estimation and functional system requirements. The main assumption of this study is that, as the primary source of complexity in today's software is the interaction between the database and the user, database measures may provide inputs allowing current software estimation methods to achieve more accurate results. Accordingly, this study attempts to gain insights from objective measures, collected through the logical database model of software systems, for better prediction of the software's effort and hence cost through software lines of code (SLOC) measure. For this purpose, more than 2.5 million lines of code developed by four different companies, for 79 different software packages with their related database design measures, are analyzed. The results of this study show that there is a close correlation between the software size and database design measure, namely, the number of tables which can be collected at the logical database design stage. By adapting this result, the current estimation models could be improved significantly.
Performing and analyzing non-formal inspections of entity relationship diagram (ERD)
(Elsevier Science inc, 2013) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Tokdemir, Gül; Tokdemir, Gul; Kilic, Ozkan; Topalli, Damla; 17411
Designing and understanding of diagrammatic representations is a critical issue for the success of software projects because diagrams in this field provide a collection of related information with various perceptual signs and they help software engineers to understand operational systems at different levels of information system development process. Entity relationship diagram (ERD) is one of the main diagrammatic representations of a conceptual data model that reflects users' data requirements in a database system. In today's business environment, the business model is in a constant change which creates highly dynamic data requirements which also requires additional processes like modifications of ERD. However, in the literature there are not many measures to better understand the behaviors of software engineers during designing and understanding these representations. Hence, the main motivation of this study is to develop measures to better understand performance of software engineers during their understanding process of ERD. Accordingly, this study proposes two measures for ERD defect detection process. The defect detection difficulty level (DF) measures how difficult a defect to be detected according to the other defects for a group of software engineers. Defect detection performance (PP) measure is also proposed to understand the performance of a software engineer during the defect detection process. The results of this study are validated through the eye tracker data collected during the defect detection process of participants. Additionally, a relationship between the defect detection performance (PP) of a software engineer and his/her search patterns within an ERD is analyzed. Second experiment with five participants is also conducted to show the correlation between the proposed metric results and eye tracker data. The results of experiment-2 also found to be similar for DF and PP values. The results of this study are expected to provide insights to the researchers, software companies, and to the educators to improve ERD reasoning process. Through these measures several design guidelines can be developed for better graphical representations and modeling of the information which would improve quality of these diagrams. Moreover, some reviewing instructions can be developed for the software engineers to improve their reviewing process in ERD. These guidelines in turn will provide some tools for the educators to improve design and review skills of future software engineers. (c) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Effect of Training, Used-Hand, and Experience on Endoscopic Surgery Skills in an Educational Computer-Based Simulation Environment (ECE) for Endoneurosurgery Training
(Sage Publications inc, 2019) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Özçelik, Erol; Ozcelik, Erol; Isikay, Ilkay; Hanalioglu, Sahin; Suslu, Ahmet E.; Yucel, Taskin; Berker, Mustafa; 115500
Today, virtual simulation environments create alternative hands-on practice opportunities for surgical training. In order to increase the potential benefits of such environments, it is critical to understand the factors that influence them. This study was conducted to determine the effects of training, used-hand, and experience, as well as the interactions between these variables, on endoscopic surgery skills in an educational computer-based surgical simulation environment. A 2-hour computer-based endoneurosurgery simulation training module was developed for this study. Thirty-one novice- and intermediate-level resident surgeons from the departments of neurosurgery and ear, nose, and throat participated in this experimental study. The results suggest that a 2-hour training during a 2-month period through computer-based simulation environment improves the surgical skills of the residents in both-hand tasks, which is necessary for endoscopic surgical procedures but not in dominant hand tasks. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that computer-based simulation environments potentially improve surgical skills; however, the scenarios for such training modules need to consider especially the bimanual coordination of hands and should be regularly adapted to the individual skill levels and progresses.
The Underlying Reasons of the Navigation Control Effect on Performance in a Virtual Reality Endoscopic Surgery Training Simulator
(Taylor & Francis inc, 2019) Cagiltay, Nergiz Ercil; Özçelik, Erol; Ozcelik, Erol; Berker, Mustafa; Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; 115500
Navigation control skills of surgeons become very critical for surgical procedures. Strategies improving these skills are important for developing higher-quality surgical training programs. In this study, the underlying reasons of the navigation control effect on performance in a virtual reality-based navigation environment are evaluated. The participants' performance is measured in conditions: navigation control display and paper-map display. Performance measures were collected from 45 beginners and experienced residents. The results suggest that navigation display significantly improved performance of the participants. Also, navigation was more beneficial for beginners than experienced participants. The underlying reason of the better performance in the navigation condition was due to lower number of looks to the map, which causes attention shifts between information sources. Accordingly, specific training scenarios and user interfaces can be developed to improve the navigation skills of the beginners considering some strategies to lower their number of references to the information sources.