bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
In Defense of the Primacy of the Virtues
Authors: Kawall Jason
Published: October 2017

In this paper I respond to a set of basic objections often raised against those virtue theories in ethics which maintain that moral properties such rightness and goodness (and their corresponding concepts) are to be explained and understood in terms of the virtues or the virtuous. The objections all rest on a strongly-held intuition that the virtues (and the virtuous) simply must be derivative in some way from either right actions or good states of affairs. My goal is to articulate several distinct, though related, objections grounded in this intuition, and to argue that virtue ethicists have ample resources to respond to these worries. The explanatory primacy of the virtuous over the right or the good emerges as a distinct and viable position.
Egalitarianism and the Value of Equality
Authors: Moss Jeremy
Published: October 2017

No abstract.
Preferentism and the Paradox of Desire
Authors: Skow Bradford
Published: October 2017

The basic idea behind actualist preferentism is that getting what one wants makes one's life go better. A recent objection to preferentism is the ``paradox of desire.'' In a nutshell, this objection goes like this. I can certainly desire to be badly off. But if a desire-satisfaction theory of welfare is true, then---under certain assumptions---the hypothesis that I desire to be badly off entails a contradiction. So much the worse for desire-satisfaction theories of welfare.

In this paper I show how to formulate preferentism so that the hypothesis that I desire to be badly off does not entail a contradiction. The key is to allow how close someone's desires are to being satisfied to play a role in determining their level of welfare. My version of preferentism implements this idea by allowing desire satisfaction to come in degrees.
Rossian Minimalism
Authors: Markosian Ned
Published: October 2017

The main question addressed in this paper is: What is the most promising ethical theory (specifying necessary and sufficient conditions for any action’s being morally right) that can be formulated in terms of the notion of a prima facie duty? I try to show that the answer to this question involves an ethical theory that, despite never having been discussed, is nevertheless worthy of serious consideration. The theory, Rossian Minimalism, says, roughly, that an act, A, is morally right iff no alternative to A would constitute less of a violation of prima facie duties than A.
Four Solutions to the Alleged Incompleteness of Virtue Ethics
Authors: McAleer Dean
Published: October 2017

In “Virtue and Right,” Robert Johnson argues that virtue ethics that accept standards such as Virtuous Agent (A’s x-ing is right in circumstances c iff a fully virtuous agent would x in c) are incomplete, since they cannot account for duties of moral self-improvement. In this paper I offer four solutions to the problem of incompleteness. The first discards Virtuous Agent and counts actions as wrong iff a vicious person would perform them. The second retains Virtuous Agent but counts self-improving actions as countererogatory: wrong but nonetheless good to do. The third replaces Virtuous Agent with a standard appealing to the Mengzian virtue of righteousness, understood as situational appropriateness. The fourth replaces Virtuous Agent with a standard that holds an action right if it promotes the agent’s virtue. Each solution accommodates duties of moral self-improvement, so a virtue ethics embracing any of them would not be incomplete.
Is a Feminist Political Liberalism Possible?
Authors: Hartley Christie , Watson Lori
Published: October 2017

Is a feminist political liberalism possible? Political liberalism’s regard for a wide range of comprehensive doctrines as reasonable makes some feminists skeptical of its ability to address sex inequality. Indeed, some feminists claim that political liberalism maintains its position as a political liberalism at the expense of securing substantive equality for women. We claim that political liberalism’s core commitments actually restrict all reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that secure genuine substantive equality for all, including women and other marginalized groups. In particular, we argue that political liberalism’s criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that eliminate social conditions of domination and subordination relevant to reasonable democratic deliberation among equal citizens and that the criterion of reciprocity requires the social conditions necessary for recognition respect among persons as equal citizens. As a result, we maintain that the criterion of reciprocity limits reasonable political conceptions of justice to those that provide genuine equality for women along various dimensions of social life central to equal citizenship.
Against the Being For Account of Normative Certitude
Authors: Bykvist Krister , Olson Jonas
Published: October 2017

Just as we can be more or less certain about empirical matters, we can be more or less certain about normative matters. Recently, it has been argued that this is a challenge for noncognitivism about normativity. Michael Smith presented the challenge in a 2002 paper and James Lenman (2003) and Michael Ridge (2003, 2007) responded independently. Andrew Sepielli (forthcoming) has now joined the rescue operation. His basic idea is that noncognitivists should employ the notion of being for (Schroeder 2008) to account for normative certitude. We shall argue that the being for account of normative certitude is vulnerable to many problems shared by other noncognitivist theories. Furthermore, we shall argue that Sepielli’s account has its own problems: His favored normalization procedure for degrees of being for has highly problematic implications.
The Normative Significance of Conscience
Authors: Swan Kyle , Vallier Kevin
Published: October 2017

Despite the increasing amount of literature on the legal and political questions triggered by a commitment to liberty of conscience, an explanation of the normative significance of conscience remains elusive. We argue that the few attempts to address this fail to capture the reasons people have to respect the consciences of others. We offer an alternative account that utilizes the resources of the contractualist tradition in moral philosophy to explain why conscience matters.
The Human Right to Political Participation
Authors: Peter Fabienne
Published: October 2017

In recent developments in political and legal philosophy, there is a tendency to endorse minimalist lists of human rights that do not include a right to political participation. Against such tendencies, I shall argue that the right to political participation, understood as distinct from a right to democracy, should have a place even on minimalist lists. In addition, I shall defend the need to extend the right to political participation to include participation not just in national, but also in international and global governance processes. The argument will be based on a cosmopolitan conception of political legitimacy and on a political conception of human rights that is normatively anchored in legitimacy. The central claim of my paper is that a right to political participation is necessary – but not sufficient – for political legitimacy in the global realm.
Aggregation, Beneficence, and Chance
Authors: Dougherty Tom
Published: October 2017

It is plausible to think that it is wrong to cure many people’s headaches rather than save someone else’s life. On the other hand, it is plausible to think that it is not wrong to expose someone to a tiny risk of death when curing this person’s headache. I will argue that these claims are inconsistent. For if we keep taking this tiny risk then it is likely that one person dies, while many others’ headaches are cured. In light of this inconsistency, there is a conflict in our intuitions about beneficence and chance. This conflict is perplexing. And I have not been able to find a satisfactory way of resolving it. Perhaps you can do better?
An Actual-Sequence Theory of Promotion
Authors: Coates D. Justin
Published: October 2017

No abstract.
Answerability Without Answers
Authors: Hubbs Graham
Published: October 2017

The classical ethical questions of whether and to what extent moral criticism is a sort of rational criticism have received renewed interest in recent years. According to the approach that I refer to as rationalist, accounts of moral responsibility are grounded by explanations of the conditions under which an agent is rationally answerable for her actions and attitudes. In the sense that is relevant here, to answer for an attitude or action is to give reasons that at least purport to justify it. To hold someone answerable for an attitude or action is thus to hold her rationally liable for it. T. M. Scanlon’s view is perhaps the most well-known example of this approach. The rationalist approach has recently been attacked by David Shoemaker for being too narrow: the charge is that attitudes exist for which an agent is responsible even though she cannot, in the relevant sense, answer for them. If there are morally significant attitudes that are attributable to an agent even though she cannot answer for them, then it would seem incomplete, misguided, or worse to treat morality as fundamentally a matter of demanding and giving reasons. By developing some remarks based on G. E. M. Anscombe’s Intention, I defend the rationalist approach against this critique. I show how an agent may be answerable for an attitude even though she cannot answer for it. The objective of this paper is thus twofold: to contribute to the discussion of the connection between rational liability and ethical responsibility, and to provide an example of the broad relevance of Anscombe’s thought to contemporary practical philosophy.
Anchoring a Revisionist Account of Moral Responsibility
Authors: McCormick Kelly Anne
Published: October 2017

Revisionism about moral responsibility is the view that we would do well to distinguish between what we think about moral responsibility and what we ought to think about it, that the former is in some important sense implausible and conflicts with the latter, and so we should revise our concept accordingly. In this paper, I assess two related problems for revisionism and claim that focus on the first of these problems (the reference-anchoring problem) has thus far allowed the second (the normativity-anchoring problem) to go largely unnoticed. Here I develop this new objection to revisionism and argue that, while revisionists can successfully respond to the reference-anchoring problem, the normativity-anchoring problem poses a serious objection to the view. In particular, the methodological commitments used to motivate revisionism make it uniquely difficult for revisionists to justify our continued participation in the practice of moral praising and blaming. I conclude by briefly addressing a potential objection based on a common charge against revisionism: that there is no real difference between the view and its conventional competitors and thus the normativity-anchoring problem is of little interest in the broader dialectic. I argue that both of these claims are false.
Defending the Suberogatory
Authors: Atkins Philip , Nance Ian
Published: October 2017

No abstract.
How to Solve Prichard's Dilemma
Authors: Rieder Travis
Published: October 2017

T. M. Scanlon’s contractualist account of morality is articulated alongside and built upon groundbreaking work on moral motivation. According to Scanlon, the central challenge of providing an account of moral motivation is navigating “Prichard’s Dilemma,” which requires that an account be both (a) helpfully explanatory and (b) morally relevant. Scanlon’s own solution is that one has a reason to act rightly because doing so is an aspect of living with others on terms they could accept. There is much to like about this account, and so, in this paper, I begin with many of Scanlon’s assumptions. I then argue that Scanlon’s own account of moral motivation fails to navigate Prichard’s Dilemma, as does another solution that I derive from his broader view. I then close by suggesting that an account of moral motivation must be “complex,” involving different reasons to satisfy the competing desiderata of Prichard’s Dilemma.
Relational Expressivism and Moore's Paradox
Authors: Toppinen Teemu
Published: October 2017

No abstract.
Side Effects and the Structure of Deliberation
Authors: Rozeboom Grant
Published: October 2017

There is a puzzle about the very possibility of foreseen but unintended side effects, and solving this puzzle requires us to revise our basic picture of the structure of practical deliberation. The puzzle is that, while it seems that we can rationally foresee, but not intend, bringing about foreseen side effects, it also seems that we rationally must decide to bring about foreseen side effects and that we intend to do whatever we decide to do. I propose solving this puzzle by rejecting the idea that we intend to do whatever we decide to do. My solution involves taking account of the underappreciated role that qualified intentions play in deliberation. I also argue that this solution fares better than those that instead reject the idea that we rationally must decide to bring about foreseen side effects, for these solutions are committed to rejecting the even more compelling idea that decisions rationally serve as the conclusions of practical deliberation.
Distributing Collective Obligation
Authors: Aas Sean
Published: October 2017

In this paper I develop an account of member obligation: the obligations that fall on the members of an obligated collective in virtue of that collective obligation. I use this account to argue that unorganized collections of individuals can constitute obligated agents. I argue first that, to know when a collective obligation entails obligations on that collective’s members, we have to know not just what it would take for each member to do their part in satisfying the collective obligation, but also what they should do if they cannot do their part because others will not do theirs. I go on to argue (contra recent proposals) that it is not good enough for members in this situation to reasonably believe that others will not do their part. Rather, for a member of an obligated collective to permissibly escape doing her part in a collective obligation, she must both reasonably doubt that others will do their part and stand ready to act in case others do as well.

This necessary condition for collective obligation points the way to plausible sufficient conditions – conditions that, I argue, allow unstructured collectives to bear obligations. For (a) if a collective’s members are individually obligated to be ready to do their part, in a given collective action, and (b) if that individual readiness makes it sufficiently likely that the collective will in fact act, then it is hard to see what could block an attribution of collective obligation. In particular, in that case there ought to be no additional objection that there is no existing, organized “agent” on which the obligation might fall. For agents are, simply, things that can act. To be able to act is just to be able to succeed by trying. Unstructured collectives try to do something, I argue, when each member acts on their willingness to do their part in that thing if others do theirs; sometimes they succeed, producing a collective action. Some unstructured collectives, therefore, can succeed by trying; therefore, they can act; therefore they are agents.
Heart Rate Recovery in Decision Support for High Performance Athlete Training Schedules
Authors: J. Cornforth David , Robinson Dean , Spence Ian , Jelinek Herbert
Published: October 2017

This work investigated the suitability of a new tool for decision support in training programs of high performance athletes. The aim of this study was to find a reliable and robust measure of the fitness of an athlete for use as a tool for adjusting training schedules. We examined the use of heart rate recovery percentage (HRr%) for this purpose, using a two-phased approach. Phase 1 consisted of testing the suitability of HRr% as a measure of aerobic fitness, using a modified running test specifically designed for high-performance team running sports such as football. Phase 2 was conducted over a 12-week training program with two different training loads. HRr% measured aerobic fitness and a running time-trial measured performance. Consecutive measures of HRr% during phase 1 indicated a Pearson’s r of 0.92, suggesting a robust measure of aerobic fitness. During phase 2, HRr% reflected the training load and significantly increased when the training load was reduced between weeks 4 to 5. This work shows that HRr% is a robust indicator of aerobic fitness and provides an on-the-spot index that is useful for training load adjustment of elite-performance athletes.
IJDS 2015 Volume 10 Table of Contents
Authors: Jones Michael
Published: October 2017

Printable table of contents for the International Journal of Doctoral Studies, Volume 10, 2015
Engagement in Digital Lecture Halls: A Study of Student Course Engagement and Mobile Device use During Lecture
Authors: Witecki Gwendolyn , Nonnecke Blair
Published: October 2017

Universities have experienced increases in technology ownership and usage amongst students entering undergraduate programs. Almost all students report owning a mobile phone and many students view laptops and tablets as educational tools, though they also report using them for non-academic activities during lectures. We explored the relationship between student course engagement and the use of smartphones, laptops, cell phones, and tablets during lecture. Undergraduate students responded to an online survey asking about both course engagement and mobile device habits. Results show that smartphone use was most strongly related to lowered course engagement and while laptop use was related to lowered engagement, it was to a lesser extent. In contrast, overall engagement of students using tablets or cell phones was not significantly different than those who did not.
Green IS: Enabling, Transforming, Both, or Neither?
Authors: Royd Howard Grant , Lubbe Sam , Klopper Rembrandt
Published: October 2017

The problem addressed in this paper is the ambiguity that exists in the usage of the terms “enable” and “transform” and their related forms in the Green IS literature. This ambiguity creates uncertainty, both conceptual and practical, about the precise role of Green IS in these research and use contexts. Consequently, the exact relationship between Green IS and environmental sustainability can be obscured. The objective then was to disambiguate these terms and their related forms by defining them independently from the Green IS literature, and subsequently using those independent meanings to content analyze their use in the top journals in the IS field. The results provided evidence that the enabling role was far more prominent than the transforming role. Nevertheless, while distinct, both roles are are equally significant and valuable for environmental sustainability. However, based on the relative frequencies, the enabling role of Green IS provides more frequent environmental sustainability returns. Thus, it may be preferable for Green IS research to focus on exposing the enabling capabilities of Green IS for optimal success in the multitudinous environmental sustainability scenarios.
Investigating Graduate Level Research and Statistics Courses in Schools of Education
Authors: Leech Nancy , A. Haug Carolyn
Published: October 2017

Instruction in research methods, particularly statistical training, is an essential requirement for most higher education advanced-degree students. However, results from the institutional survey reported here demonstrate that many faculty in schools of education still do not require or offer a variety of research and analysis courses to provide this training. This article will explore graduate-level requirements for research methods and data analysis courses in schools of education across the United States. Two surveys, one asking questions about research methods courses and one about statistics courses, were distributed through listservs to faculty at institutions of higher education. Twenty-eight responses, representing 28 institutions, were collected for the research course survey and 19 responses, representing 19 institutions, were collected for the statistics course survey. The number of courses offered and required and the number of credit hours for them are presented for Master’s, Ed.D., and Ph.D. students. From this study, it is evident that several universities do not offer or require many research methods or statistics courses for education graduate students. The authors intend that this information will assist faculty in rethinking what coursework is necessary to educate successful graduate students.
Organic Collaborative Teams: The Role of Collaboration and Peer to Peer Support for Part-Time Doctoral Completion
Authors: M. Littlefield Cathy , M. Taddei Laura , E. Radosh Meghan
Published: October 2017

With doctoral completion rates hovering around 50%, students, faculty and institutions are seeking methods for improvement. This narrative inquiry examined the impact of collaboration and peer to peer experiences on doctoral completion of three peers in a part-time doctoral program. Prior to this inquiry, minimal research existed on the impact of peer to peer support and collaboration on doctoral completion; therefore, the three peer authors defined, described, and recommended ways to encourage organic collaboration. The authors’ defined organic collaboration as a naturally-formed dynamic peer to peer support group, built on individual strengths and differences, while focused on a common goal. Themes found during the narrative inquiry included the identification of a common goal, amicable group dynamics, peer to peer support, and intentional relational learning. The peer authors provided practical knowledge on ways students, faculty and higher education institutions can benefit from encouraging and supporting organic collaboration. This narrative inquiry demonstrated the long-term benefits of peer to peer support and collaboration that led to scholarly, professional, and personal support.
Video Lectures in Online Graduate Education: Relationship between Use of Lectures and Outcome Measures
Authors: Reinecke Dana , Finn Lori
Published: October 2017

The present study is a post-hoc analysis of data automatically recorded by an online teaching platform in a graduate course in research methods. The course is part of a sequence that is delivered completely online in a program preparing students to become Board Certified Behavior Analysts. Data analyzed included frequency of access to video lectures and PowerPoint slides (PPTs) across each week of the course, and how access related to final grades in the course. The general conclusion was that higher grades were associated with greater frequency of access to video lectures and PPTs, although students who earned As and Bs tended to access these materials with gradually less frequency over time. Conversely, students who earned Cs or lower tended to access materials more frequently over time. Overall, students who earned As were more likely to employ a consistent pattern of access than students who earned lower grades. Limitations of the current project include a small sample size, skewed grade distribution, and a post hoc analysis of data instead of an experimental manipulation. Suggestions for future research are discussed.
Printable Table of Contents IJIKM Volume 10, 2015
Authors: A. Johnston Kevin , Scott Elsje , Hart Mike
Published: October 2017

This table of contents will be updated throughout the year as new papers are published.
Examining Factors Predicting Students’ Digital Competence
Authors: Edvard Hatlevik Ove , Björk Guðmundsdóttir Gréta , Loi Massimo
Published: October 2017

The purpose of this study was to examine factors predicting lower secondary school students’ digital competence and to explore differences between students when it comes to digital competence. Results from a digital competence test and survey in lower secondary school will be presented. It is important to learn more about and investigate what characterizes students’ digital competence. A sample of 852 ninth-grade Norwegian students from 38 schools participated in the study. The students answered a 26 item multiple-choice digital competence test and a self-report questionnaire about family background, motivation, and previous grades. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of the hypothesised relationship between family background, mastery orientation, previous achievements, and digital competence. The results indicate variation in digital competence among the ninth-graders. Further, analyses showed that students’ conditions at home, i.e., language integration and cultural capital, together with mastery orientation and academic achievements predict students digital competence. This study indicates that that there is evidence of digital diversity between lower secondary students. It does not seem like the development of digital competence among the students happens automatically. Students’ family background and school performance are the most important factors. Therefore, as this study shows, it is necessary to further investigate how schools can identify students’ level of competence and to develop plans and actions for how schools can help to try to equalize differences.
A Simple Measure of Diversity
Authors: Scime Anthony
Published: October 2017

Diversity is a relative concept, which has been applied to a number of domains, such as culture and biology. A simple measure of diversity is derived by drawing from the domains of biological and cultural diversity, as well as, information retrieval for its measurement capabilities. This domain independent diversity measure can be used to determine diversity between entities in any collection that can be expressed as features and their values. The measurement can be applied to a single feature or to any combination of features. The entities may be, among other things, words in a document, biological species in an environment, people in an organization, or records in a data set. This diversity measure provides a single value for entities in their collection; measuring the relative diversity of the entity with respect to the other entities in the collection. This tool can be used to compare and contrast diversity between collections of entities, or within the same collection over time.
Case Study of a Complex Informing System: Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX)
Authors: F Murphy William , Sanchez Murphy Sandra , R Buettner Raymond , Gill Grandon
Published: October 2017

The Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) event, organized by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), is conducted 3-4 times a year at various locations. The four day event can be characterized as an informing system specifically designed to facilitate structured and unstructured communications between a variety of parties—e.g., software developers, inventors, military and civilian users of various technologies, academics, and agencies responsible for identifying and procuring technology solutions—that frequently are constrained in their informing activities in more restrictive venues. Over the course of the event, participants may observe technology demonstrations, obtain feedback from potential users, acquire new ideas about their technologies might be employed and, perhaps most significantly, engage in ad hoc collaborations with other participants.

The present paper describes an exploratory case research study that was conducted over a one year period and involved both direct observation of the event and follow-up interviews with 49 past participants in the event. The goal of the research was to assess the nature of participant-impact resulting from attending JIFX, and considering the consistency of the findings with the predictions of various theoretical frameworks used in informing science. The results suggest that participants perceived that the event provided significant value from three principal sources: discovery, interaction with potential clients (users) of the technologies involved, and networking with other participants.

These findings were largely consistent with what could be expected from informing under conditions of high complexity: because value generally derives from combinations of attributes rather than from the sum of individual attributes, we would expect that overall value from informing activities will be perceived even though estimates of the incremental value of that informing cannot be made.

A revised version of this paper was published in the journal Informing Science: the International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, Volume 18, 2015
The Use of ICT in a Local Government Unit
Authors: Ewa Nycz Malgorzata , Pólkowski Zdzisław
Published: October 2017

The focus of the paper is information and communications technology (ICT) solutions in hybrid information systems in a local government unit. As the exemplary local government unit, the social welfare center (Ośrodek Pomocy Społecznej, or “OPS”) in Polkowice, Poland, was chosen. After a brief introduction, problem statement, goal of study, research questions and methodology, the issue of how ICT supports managers in the decision-making process is presented. The policy regarding ICT plays a crucial role in developing new tools; therefore, the section titled “ICT policy regarding to local government units” is devoted to this. Reasons why ICT solutions in local government units are not fully integrated are discussed. The model of a fully integrated system for local government units is next discussed, followed by a short conclusion.
Bridging the Gap between Town and Gown: Role of Librarians in Community Service Initiatives
Authors: Emasealu Helen , Nnadozie Umeozor Susan
Published: October 2017

Purpose- The purpose of this paper was to review related literature on community service initiatives, benefits and the involvement of librarians in Community service programme with a focus on the University of Port Harcourt Community Service programme. This review was also undertaken to establish a link between the Community Service programme and purposeful librarianship.
Methodology- Related literature was reviewed on involvement of academic librarians in community service programmes/initiatives in Universities with a focus on University of Port Harcourt community service programme.
Findings- Community service programmes and initiatives play an essential role in linking students with host communities and provide the opportunities and prospects for the development of entrepreneurial skills. This paper highlighted the benefits of community service activities to all the stakeholders. It also exposed the problem of little or non-involvement of librarians in community service initiatives. This problem is more pronounced in Nigeria where librarians of all categories are not involved.
Originality-This is a baseline review as no such paper has been written on this topic. Thus, it provides the basic information needed for further studies in this area.
Towards the Realization of the ICT Education Living Lab – The TechTeachers.co.za Success Story
Authors: A. K. Buitendag Albertus , Gerhardus Hattingh Frederik , Hains Matt
Published: October 2017

[The final form of this paper was published in the journal Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology.] This paper presents the success story of the intuitive vision of an ICT high school educator in South Africa. The growth and evolution of a Community of Practice, towards a full-fledged living lab is investigated. A grounded theory study analyses the living lab concept and highlights some of the current challenges secondary high school ICT education face within the South African educational landscape. Some of the concepts, ideas, best practices and lessons learned in the establishment and running of two web based technologies to support secondary school ICT subjects is discussed.  The researchers present a motivation for the use of living labs to address some of the issues identified and highlights how the existing  platforms fits into bigger design.
The Impact Facebook and Twitter has on the Cognitive Social Capital of University Students
Authors: Petersen Chad , A. Johnston Kevin
Published: October 2017

The impact that Facebook and Twitter usage has on the creation and maintenance of university student’s cognitive social capital was investigated on students in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Facebook and Twitter were selected as part of the research context because both are popular online social network systems (SNSs), and few studies were found that investigated the impact that both Facebook and Twitter have on the cognitive social capital of South African university students. Data was collected from a survey questionnaire, which was successfully completed by over 100 students from all 5 universities within the Western Cape. The questionnaire was obtained from a previous study, allowing comparisons to be made. Analysis of the results however, did not show a strong relationship between the intensity of Facebook and Twitter usage, and the various forms of social capital. Facebook usage was found to correlate with student’s satisfaction with university life; which suggests that increasing the intensity of Facebook usage for students experiencing low satisfaction with university life might be beneficial.
Bridging the Digital Divide: Case Study of the Distribution of Tablets to First Years at the University of Johannesburg
Authors: Barnard Zenia , Van der Merwe Derek
Published: October 2017

The digital divide between those more and those less technologically skilled is a reality and has been for many years. This divide is especially prominent in developing countries such as South Africa and in societies that suffer from socio-economic disadvantage. There are many reasons for the continued presence of this divide and these are briefly described in this paper. The negative consequences that flow from this divide, is also briefly discussed. It is not only social and economic deprivation, though, that contribute to the divide. A project at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) to provide tablets to first year students is discussed in some detail. The challenges that arose from the implementation of this initiative make it apparent that factors such as psychology and managerial efficiencies also contribute in no small measure to a perpetuation of the divide. A multi-disciplinary approach to the eventual bridging of the divide is proposed. Such an approach takes account of the need to recognize and develop a host of solutions as necessary preconditions for sustainable technological advancement in developing countries.
Impact of a cross-institutional assessment designed to shape future IT professionals
Authors: Tan Grace , Therese Venables Anne
Published: October 2017

[The final form of this paper was published in the journal Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology.]
IT graduates need a suite of technical competencies and soft skills married with an understanding of the social and business contexts of the systems that they build. To instill in students an awareness of current IT industry practice coupled with the broader impact of their discipline in society, academics from Xxxx University and Yyyy University initiated an across-institutional collaboration. The initiative resulted in a common formative assessment task undertaken by teams of students enrolled in each institution’s professional development units.
An initial survey of students was undertaken prior to the assessment task.  The survey queried students’ perceptions of a broad range of professional attitudes and skill sets needed by IT professionals when compared to non-skilled workers. Upon the completion of the assessment task, students were surveyed again.  This paper reports on the surveys’ results noting changes in student perceptions of the importance of personal skills, technical competencies, professional and team working skills, workplace knowledge, and cultural awareness for their future professional lives.
The Relations of Maturity and Dimensions of Business Intelligence
Authors: Skyrius Rimvydas
Published: October 2017

Among developments in the field of business intelligence (BI), the notion of maturity has gained considerable interest for defining the directions to expected value, for summarizing the experience available, and for defining the possible avenues of BI development. There is considerable experience in creating and implementing BI systems, and many gaps separating the declared goals from the achieved results have been discovered. The time distance from the early stages of BI development allows more or less objective evaluation of these stages, while the current state of BI field is often controversial and ill-defined. A set of concepts called BI maturity models have been presented in the academic and professional sources, carrying basically the same mission – to evaluate the experience and extrapolate the future developments. The models, being more or less uniform in assessing the experience, are mostly different in their attitudes towards current state and especially the future (mature) developments of BI, creating controversy in the expectations regarding the future value of BI. The goal of this paper is to define the controversial elements in the existing maturity models, and to suggest a different position on the concept of business intelligence maturity, using most common dimensions of BI features to evaluate maturity expectations.
Taking a Case Method Capstone Course Online: A Comparative Case Study
Authors: Gill Grandon , Mullarkey Matthew
Published: October 2017

A capstone course is normally offered at the end of a program of study with the goal of helping students synthesize what they have learned in the courses preceding it. The paper describes such a course—an undergraduate capstone course for MIS majors—that was built around case discussions and projects and originally offered in a face-to-face format. Over the course of the study, an asynchronous online version of the course was developed that was intended to be as faithful as possible to the classroom version. The paper examines the design, delivery, and learning outcomes of the online offering, contrasting it with the classroom version.
The transition to an online course required many adaptations. Among the issues that we needed address are the following: 1) moving the highly synchronous face-to-face discussions of each case study to an asynchronous format without losing fidelity and energy, 2) changing how “student participation” was defined and evaluated, 3) adapting the project component of the course—which ended with a very popular “science fair” activity at the end of the semester in the classroom version—to a delivery mechanism where students never interacted with each other face-to-face, and 4) evaluating the relative learning outcomes of the two approaches.
The results of the conversion proved to be consistent with some of our expectations and surprising in other ways. Consistent with expectations, the online tools that we employed allowed us to create an online design that was relatively faithful to the original version in terms of meeting learning objectives. Also consistent with our expectations, student perceptions of the course—while quite positive overall—were more mixed for the online course than for its face-to-face predecessor. The course offering produced two surprises, however. First, the online approach to the project component of the course actually seemed to result in higher quality project presentations than the face-to-face version. Second, when results were compared from the instrument we used to evaluate student learning gains, the classroom and online versions of the class proved to be nearly indistinguishable. Given the very different delivery mechanisms employed, we had anticipated far more differences in student perceptions of what they had learned over the course of the semester. Given the challenges of taking a highly interactive class online, we viewed this surprise to be a very pleasant one.
Private Online Workspaces for Doctoral Learners - Enhanced Communication and Reduced Isolation
Authors: Berman Ronald , Ames Cathy
Published: October 2017

This quantitative exploratory study, a continuation of the university’s four year research initiative that addresses the high national rate of doctoral student attrition, investigates whether a private online workspace for doctoral students and their dissertation committee will enhance communication and reduce learner’s feelings of isolation during the dissertation phase. Private doctoral workspaces provide a virtual platform for learner and committee collaboration, manuscript review, and milestone planning. The purpose of this study is to offer preliminary feedback to guide in the further development of the virtual workspace. To assess effectiveness of the private doctoral workspace, a seven question online survey was created to address usage, communication, and isolation. Two surveys were distributed to 803 doctoral candidates at a private southwestern university in the United States, resulting in 328 respondents for the first survey, and 190 respondents for the second survey. Doctoral learners completed the survey at the onset of the private doctoral workspace implementation, and again four months later. The results indicate that doctoral learners regularly access their private dissertation workspace, communicate more frequently with their dissertation committee, and have reduced feelings of isolation. These results may provide similar benefits to other academic groups working together on long-term projects in other disciplines.
An Examination of Tor Technology Based Anonymous Internet
Authors: Chrane Colton , Kumar Sathish
Published: October 2017

The concept of Anonymous Internet is getting traction in the wake of recent privacy related NSA (National Security Agency) privacy allegations. Based on our initial findings, Tor appears to be a solution for this and taking control of the Internet and the User’s privacy. Our study reveals that Tor’s power and future ability to thrive revolves around its expansion. Tor needs to grow in size specifically in nodes as well as in software (Torrenting). With the increase in servers and relays in the system as well as few tweaks including a constant shuffling of servers, the more protected a user would be. We plan to put further research and development efforts in Tor to ensure that Tor becomes a viable source for anonymous Internet as well as popular mainstream browser.
Using Technology in Gifted and Talented Education Classrooms: The Teachers’ Perspective
Authors: Zimlich Susan
Published: October 2017

Technology skills are assumed to be a necessity for college and career success, but technology is constantly evolving. Thus, development of students’ technology skills is an on-going and persistent issue. Standards from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the International Society for Technology in Education encourage educators to teach skills that help students adapt to changing working environments. These skills resemble the National Association for Gifted Children’s program and teacher preparation standards. Descriptive research about what is already occurring in classrooms has been done, but the information is frequently limited to a list of activities. A qualitative multi-case phenomenological study of six Alabama teachers of the gifted examined how they use and shape technology experiences with students, and promote student learning of 21st century skills. The teachers were chosen for the case study due to their reputation as teachers skilled in using technology with students. Lesson plans, interviews, and observations were used to discover themes between the teachers. Findings from the research indicate that educational technology use with students is shaped by factors such as teacher attitudes and expertise, available equipment and support, pedagogical decisions related to working with technology, and the particular student group participating in the technology use.
Requirements Elicitation Problems: A Literature Analysis
Authors: Davey Bill , R. Parker Kevin
Published: October 2017

Requirements elicitation is the process through which analysts determine the software requirements of stakeholders. Requirements elicitation is seldom well done, and an inaccurate or incomplete understanding of user requirements has led to the downfall of many software projects. This paper proposes a classification of problem types that occur in requirements elicitation. The classification has been derived from a literature analysis. Papers reporting on techniques for improving requirements elicitation practice were examined for the problem the technique was designed to address. In each classification the most recent or prominent techniques for ameliorating the problems are presented. The classification allows the requirements engineer to be sensitive to problems as they arise and the educator to structure delivery of requirements elicitation training.
Curriculum Development of an ICT4D Module in the South African Context
Authors: Khene Caroline
Published: October 2017

[The final form of this paper was published in the journal Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology.] The significance of ICTs in supporting socio-economic development in developing countries is inevitable. As academics of information systems in developing countries, we cannot ignore the need for teaching and building the capacity of our students to become knowledgeable and skilled in Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) practice and discourse. Furthermore, it is vital to equip our students with the ability to apply their discipline knowledge in addressing some of the ICT discrepancies in current ICT4D practice in their own context. I introduced and teach the ICT4D module to the Honours level course at my university in South Africa. This paper explores the influencing aspects that shaped the development of the ICT4D module curriculum in the South African context I teach in. This provides a practice lens to motivate for and support the introduction of an ICT4D module in tertiary curricula in developing countries.
Cloud Computing: The Digital Forensics Challenge
Authors: Meyer Gertruida , Stander Adrie
Published: October 2017

Cloud computing has brought many to the world of computers. Unfortunately it also created new opportunities for criminal activities. This paper used a descriptive literature review to determine the issues that are currently influencing digital investigations. The results show that there are many unaddressed issues affecting the identification, preservation and acquisition of evidence in the cloud. Very little research has been done to solve these problems and where research exists, it is still far from being implemented in practice.
Innovation Education and Diffusion in the United States: Using Literature Derived Knowledge Maps to Develop Research Methodology Strategy
Authors: D Fruehauf Justin , Gregg Kohun Frederick
Published: October 2017

The idea of innovation, while not new, has taken on a whole new meaning in the 21st century. With his introduction of the ideas of disruptive innovations in the 1990s, Clayton Christensen has quickly become a leader in the field of innovation education. Christensen expanded his theory to encompass not only industry, but also healthcare and education. It is in this field of education that much work remains. Christensen proposes that innovative thinking can be learned. Indeed and entire field of innovation education and innovation curriculum now exist in a few US universities. It is the intent of this study to examine to use of knowledge maps of the literature of innovation education, as defined by Christensen, to establish a research methodology of how innovation is taught in US education systems, specifically comparing vocational programs (machining), and graduate programs in business and engineering.
 Clayton Christensen, innovation education, vocational, curriculum