bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Application of a GIS-Based Statistical Method to Access Spatio-Temporal Changes in Breast Cancer Clustering in the Northeastern United States
Authors: Han Daikwon , Rogerson Peter A.
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines spatio-temporal changes in breast cancer clustering in the Northeastern United States to assess the statistical significance of clusters using GIS-based kernel methods. It first describes higher-than-average breast cancer mortality rates in the Northeast and introduces statistical methods for detecting geographic clusters of disease. A GIS-based kernel method based upon the theory of Gaussian random fields is applied to the breast cancer mortality data taken from the National Center for Health Statistics’ Compressed Mortality File. The method makes use of a map of rates, smoothed using a Gaussian kernel. The maximum smoothed value is compared with the statistic’s critical value to identify significant clusters. Results from the analyses show changes in spatio-temporal clustering patterns in the Northeast during the period 1968-1998. The results reveal not only the existence of statistically significant breast cancer clusters, but also the changing patterns of those clusters over time. Since environmental risk factors may play an important role in explaining the unknown etiology of breast cancer, analyses of spatio-temporal changes of breast cancer clustering may provide important clues to the study of breast cancer and environment relationships.
Geographical Analysis of Disease in Small Areas Using Hierarchical Bayesian Models
Authors: Vidal-Rodeiro C. L. , Santiago-Perez M. I. , Vazquez-Fernandez E. , Lopez-Vizcaino M. E. , Hervada-Vidal X.
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this chapter is to review and compare two techniques to map the mortality risk of a disease in small geographical areas. The first one is a classical approach consisting of mapping standardized mortality ratios, which are maximum likelihood estimates of the relative risk under a Poisson model of death counts. In a second step, the authors consider a Bayesian approach that assumes a hierarchical model where the death counts follow a Poisson distribution conditioned by the prior information. These methods have been applied to the study of geographical variation in men’s lung cancer mortality from 1978 to 1998 in Galicia, Spain. Mapping mortality using the first method has important drawbacks, and there are difficulties to distinguish the mortality pattern. The Bayesian methodology produces smoother maps with a clear mortality pattern and has many advantages over the classical approach.
Spatial Accessibility to Primary Care and Physician Shortage Area Designation
Authors: Luo Wei , Wang Fahui
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces two new GIS-supported methods of measuring accessibility to primary healthcare. The improved floating catchment method defines the service area of physicians by a threshold travel time while accounting for the availability of physicians. The gravity-based accessibility method considers two factors: travel times from service providers (a nearby supply is more accessible than a remote one) and competition intensity by residents for such a service (measured by gravity-based potential). The methods are applied to examining accessibility to primary care in the northern Illinois region in 1990 and 2000. The GIS-based methods may be used to help the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state health departments define health professional shortage areas.
Adverse Effects of E-Commerce
Authors: Sharma Sushil K. , Gupta Jatinder N.D.
Published: May 2011

E-commerce is the fastest growing industry worldwide and is one of the most rapidly evolving areas of national and international trade. The Internet has become an incredibly powerful tool for conducting business electronically. Companies have taken the proactive approach and are jumping on the new way to conduct business. E-commerce enables organizational change and helps organizations to conduct business with improved efficiencies and productivity. E-commerce is credited with empowering employees and knowledge workers, by giving them easy access to virtually unlimited information. E-commerce technologies have helped nations to accelerate their economic growth and to provide more opportunities for the businesses to grow. Meanwhile, it has also created many challenges and adverse effects, such as concerns over privacy, consumer protection, and security of credit card purchases, displacement of workers (especially low-status ones), and is charged with having a negative impact on quality of work life. This chapter describes the various adverse effects that have accompanied the advent of the Internet and e-commerce revolution.
Mobile Business Services
Authors: Alanen Jukka , Autio Erkko
Published: May 2011

Mobile business services are attracting increasing attention and they promise a multibillion dollar market whose characteristics are quite distinct compared to mobile consumer services. Competitive activity among players keen on tapping into this opportunity is increasing rapidly. In this article, we look at mobile business services from a strategic business perspective. We chart the mobile business services landscape and discuss the underlying market drivers and potential end-user benefits. Additionally, we describe the competitive landscape and discuss the relative positions of the primary player groups.
An Architecture for the Integration of Decision Making Support Functionalities
Authors: Forgionne Guisseppi A.
Published: May 2011

Various information systems have evolved to support the decision making process. There are decision support systems (DSS), executive information systems (EIS), artificially intelligent systems (AIS), and integrated combinations of these systems. Each of the individual systems supports particular phases and steps of the decision making process, but none of the individual systems supports the entire process in an integrated and complete manner. The integrated systems alleviate the support deficiencies, and each of the integration approaches has specific advantages and disadvantages. By studying these advantages and disadvantages, researchers and practitioners can better design, develop, and implement robust decision making support systems. This chapter facilitates such study by presenting and illustrating the underlying information system architectures for robust decision making support.
Knowledge Warehouse
Authors: Nemati Hamid , Steiger Natalie , Steiger David , Herschel Richard T.
Published: May 2011

This paper proposes a knowledge warehouse architecture to enhance both DSS and knowledge management efforts. First, differences in data, information, and knowledge are discussed. Then, tacit and explicit knowledge, their relationship within the knowledge spiral, and their criticality to organizational knowledge creation and decision making are explored. Finally, a knowledge warehouse architecture is proposed which enhances all aspects of the knowledge spiral and the associated decision making processes.
How Synthetic Characters Can Help Decision-Making
Authors: Pistolesi Giuliano
Published: May 2011

Synthetic Characters are intelligent agents able to show typical human-like cognitive behavior and an artificially-made perceived personality by means of complex natural language interaction and artificial reasoning and emotional skills. They are mainly spreading on the web as highly interactive digital assistants and tutoring agents on online database systems, e-commerce sites, web-based communities, online psychotherapy, and in several consulting situations where humans need assistance from intelligent software. Until now, synthetic characters, equipped with data, models, and simulation skills, have never been thought as the building blocks for natural language interaction-based intelligent DMSS. This chapter illustrates the first research and development attempt in this sense by an Open Source project in progress centred on the design of a synthetic character-based DMSS.
DMSS Implementation Research
Authors: Mora Manuel , Cervantes-Perez Francisco , Gelman-Muravchik Ovsei , Forgionne Guisseppi A. , Mejia-Olvera Marcelo
Published: May 2011

The implementation process of Decision-Making Support Systems (DMSS) is a highly complex process. Frequent implementation failures have caused the number of DMSS installed and adequately used to be far less than expected. The Theory of Factors and the Theory of Stages have been used to study this problem. Both approaches have generated a rich picture about key DMSS implementation issues. However, this knowledge is fragemented and disperse, offering only partial and reduced views and finding about strategies, tactics and operational processes to avoid failures in DMSS implementations. In this chapter, we organize the previous work into a unified and complete picture of the phenomenon. First, we examine the nature of the implementation problem from these research perspectives. Secondly, we continue with a conceptual analysis of the theoretical foundations of the Factor-based and Stage-based approaches. In this analysis we discuss the main models posed in both approaches and synthesize their findings. Then, their contributions and limitations are discussed and the Systems Approach is suggested as a research methodology to alleviate the difficulties. Finally, conclusions and directions for further research are presented.
A Formal Method for the Development of Agent-Based Systems
Authors: Kefalas P. , Holcombe M. , Eleftherakis G. , Gheorghe M.
Published: May 2011

Recent advances in testing and verification of software based on formal specifications of the system to be built have reached a point where the ideas can be applied in a powerful way in the design of agent-based systems. The software engineering research has highlighted a number of important issues: the importance of the type of modeling technique used; the careful design of the model to enable powerful testing techniques to be used; the automated verification of the behavioral properties of the system; and the need to provide a mechanism for translating the formal models into executable software in a simple and transparent way. This chapter presents a detailed and comprehensive account of the ways in which some modern software engineering research can be applied to the construction of effective and reliable agent-based software systems. More specifically, we intend to show how simple agents motivated from biology can be modeled as X-machines. Such modeling will facilitate verification and testing of an agent model, because appropriate strategies for model checking and testing are already developed around the X-machine method. In addition, modular construction of agent models is feasible, because X-machines are provided with communicating features, which allow simple models to interact.
Engineering Emotionally Intelligent Agents
Authors: Baillie Penny , Toleman Mark , Lukose Dickson
Published: May 2011

Interacting with intelligence in an ever-changing environment calls for exceptional performances from artificial beings. One mechanism explored to produce intuitive-like behavior in artificial intelligence applications is emotion. This chapter examines the engineering of a mechanism that synthesizes and processes an artificial agent’s internal emotional states: the Affective Space. Through use of the affective space, an agent can predict the effect certain behaviors will have on its emotional state and, in turn, decide how to behave. Furthermore, an agent can use the emotions produced from its behavior to update its beliefs about particular entities and events. This chapter explores the psychological theory used to structure the affective space, the way in which the strength of emotional states can be diminished over time, how emotions influence an agent’s perception, and the way in which an agent can migrate from one emotional state to another.
Designing Agent-Based Process Systems-Extending the OPEN Process Framework
Authors: Debenham J. , Henderson-Sellers B.
Published: May 2011

Originally a development methodology targeted at object technology, the OPEN Process Framework (OPF) is found to be a successful basis for extensions that support agent-oriented software development. Here we describe the process components necessary to agent-oriented support and illustrate the extensions by means of two small case studies that illustrate the extensions by means of two small case studies that illustrate both task-driven processes and goal-driven processes. The additional process components for Tasks and Techniques are all generated from the OPF’s metamodel, which gives the OPF its flexibility and tailorability to a wide variety of situations—here agent-orientation.
Electronic Architectures for Bridging the Global Digital Divide
Authors: Dholakia Nikhilesh , Kshetri Nir K.
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a comparative view of e-business systems designed to extend the benefits of e-business to the poor demographic segments of the developing world and to reach populations that are on the “wrong side of the digital divide.” Four such systems are selected: the Global Trade Point Network (GTPN) of the United Nations, Alcatel Telemedicine Network, Little Intelligent Communities (LINCOS), and Johns Hopkins International’s (JHI) Telemedicine Network. The four networks are compared across various network architecture dimensions. Our analysis indicates that LINCOS offers reduced capital cost, flexible architectures, and at the same time access to worldwide information systems, and hence has the highest potential to reach effectively the most excluded population in developing countries. Collaborations among technology marketers, national governments and international agencies are needed to identify the needs of the digitally excluded population and select appropriate architectures to serve the needs.
World Wide Web Search Engines
Authors: Hu Wen-Chen , Yeh Jyh-Haw
Published: May 2011

The World Wide Web now holds more than 800 million pages covering almost all issues. The Web’s fast growing size and lack of structural style present a new challenge for information retrieval. Numerous search technologies have been applied to Web search engines; however, the dominant search method has yet to be identified. This chapter provides an overview of the existing technologies for Web search engines and classifies them into six categories: 1) hyperlink exploration, 2) information retrieval, 3) metasearches, 4) SQL approaches, 5) content-based multimedia searches, and 6) others. At the end of this chapter, a comparative study of major commercial and experimental search engines is presented, and some future research directions for Web search engines are suggested.
Ontology Extraction and Conceptual Modeling for Web Information
Authors: Han Hyoil , Elmasri Ramez
Published: May 2011

A lot of work has been done in the area of extracting data content from the Web, but less attention has been given to extracting the conceptual schemas or ontologies of underlying Web pages. The goal of the WebOntEx (Web ontology extraction) project is to make progress toward semiautomatically extracting Web ontologies by analyzing a set of Web pages that are in the same application domain. The ontology is considered a complete schema of the domain concepts. Our ontology metaconcepts are based on the extended entity-relationship (EER) model. The concepts are classified into entity types, relationships, attributes, and superclass/subclass hierarchies. WebOntEx attempts to extract ontology concepts by analyzing the use of HTML tags and by utilizing Part-of-Speech tagging. WebOntEx applies heuristic rules and machine learning techniques, in particular, inductive logic programming (ILP).
OODM
Authors: Shah Abad
Published: May 2011

Today, the Internet and the Web are the most amazingly and dynamically growing computer technologies. The number of users accessing the Web is growing exponentially all over the world. The Web has become a popular environment for new generation of interactive computer applications called Web (or hypermedia) application. The Web applications (WAs) have special characteristics that have made them different from other traditional applications. Hence, many design methodologies for the development of WAs have been proposed. However, most of these methodologies concentrate on the design aspects of applications, and they often do not strictly follow any software development life-cycle model such as the WaterFall software development life-cycle model. In this chapter, we propose an object-oriented design methodology for the development of WAs. The main features of this proposed methodology are that it follows WaterFall model and captures the operations in objects of the applications; thus making the methodology an object-oriented methodology.
Modeling Data-Intensive Web Sites for Personalization, Integrity and Performance
Authors: Bouras Christos , Konidaris Agisilaos
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a step-by-step approach to the design, implementation and management of a Data-Intensive Web Site (DIWS). The approach introduces five data formulation and manipulation graphs that are presented analytically. The core concept behind the modeling approach is that of “Web fragments,” that is an information decomposition technique that aids design, implementation and management of DIWS. We then present the steps that must be followed in order to “build” a DIWS based on Web fragments. Finally, we show how our approach can be used to ensure the basic DIWS user requirements of personalization, integrity and performance.
Control of Inductive Bias in Supervised Learning Using Evolutionary Computation
Authors: Hsu William H.
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, I discuss the problem of feature subset selection for supervised inductive learning approaches to knowledge discovery in databases (KDD), and examine this and related problems in the context of controlling inductive bias. I survey several combinatorial search and optimization approaches to this problem, focusing on data-driven, validation-based techniques. In particular, I present a wrapper approach that uses genetic algorithms for the search component, using a validation criterion based upon model accuracy and problem complexity, as the fitness measure. Next, I focus on design and configuration of high-level optimization systems (wrappers) for relevance determination and constructive induction, and on integrating these wrappers with elicited knowledge on attribute relevance and synthesis. I then discuss the relationship between this model selection criterion and those from the minimum description length (MDL) family of learning criteria. I then present results on several synthetic problems on task-decomposable machine learning and on two large-scale commercial data-mining and decision-support projects: crop condition monitoring, and loss prediction for insurance pricing. Finally, I report experiments using the Machine Learning in Java (MLJ) and Data to Knowledge (D2K) Java-based visual programming systems for data mining and information visualization, and several commercial and research tools. Test set accuracy using a genetic wrapper is significantly higher than that of decision tree inducers alone and is comparable to that of the best extant search-space based wrappers.
The Impact of Missing Data on Data Mining
Authors: Brown Marvin L. , Kros John F.
Published: May 2011

Data mining is based upon searching the concatenation of multiple databases that usually contain some amount of missing data along with a variable percentage of inaccurate data, pollution, outliers, and noise. The actual data-mining process deals significantly with prediction, estimation, classification, pattern recognition, and the development of association rules. Therefore, the significance of the analysis depends heavily on the accuracy of the database and on the chosen sample data to be used for model training and testing. The issue of missing data must be addressed since ignoring this problem can introduce bias into the models being evaluated and lead to inaccurate data mining conclusions.
Data Mining in Health Care Applications
Authors: Payton Fay Cobb
Published: May 2011

Recent attention has turned to the healthcare industry and its use of voluntary community health information network (CHIN) models for e-health and care delivery. This chapter suggests that competition, economic dimensions, political issues, and a group of enablers are the primary determinants of implementation success. Most critical to these implementations is the issue of data management and utilization. Thus, health care organizations are finding value as well as strategic applications to mining patient data, in general, and community data, in particular. While significant gains can be obtained and have been noted at the organizational level of analysis, much attention has been given to the individual, where the focal points have centered on privacy and security of patient data. While the privacy debate is a salient issue, data mining (DM) offers broader community-based gains that enable and improve healthcare forecasting, analyses, and visualization.
Data Mining for Human Resource Information Systems
Authors: Long Lori K. , Troutt Mavin D.
Published: May 2011

This chapter focuses on the potential contributions that Data Mining (DM) could make within the Human Resource (HR) function in organizations. We first provide a basic introduction to DM techniques and processes and a survey of the literature on the steps involved in successfully mining this information. We also discuss the importance of data warehousing and datamart considerations. An examination of the contrast between DM and more routine statistical studies is given, and the value of HR information to support a firm’s competitive position and organizational decision-making is considered. Examples of potential applications are outlined in terms of data that is ordinarily captured in HR information systems.
Conceptual Multidimensional Models
Authors: Torlone Riccardo
Published: May 2011

A variety of multidimensional data models have recently been proposed by both academic and industry communities. but consensus on formalism or even a common terminology has not yet emerged. In this chapter, we first discuss the requirements that an ideal conceptual multidimensional model should fulfill. These requirements are suggested by general information system modeling principles and the specific characteristics of OLAP applications. Building on these requirements, we then present a general conceptual multidimensional data model and show how it can be used to describe the basic aspects of a business application in a way that is easy to understand and independent of the criteria for actual data organization in the various systems. Starting from the characteristics of the model proposed, we summarize the general features that a multidimensional conceptual model should support. We then survey various multidimensional models proposed and relate their characteristics to these general features. Finally, we discuss the main points raised in the chapter and some problems that remain to be solved in this context.
Dynamic Multidimensional Data Cubes
Authors: Riedewald Mirek , Agrawal Divyakant , El Abbadi Amr
Published: May 2011

Data cubes are ubiquitous tools in data warehousing, online analytical processing, and decision support applications. Based on a selection of pre-computed and materialized aggregate values, they can dramatically speed up aggregation and summarization over large data collections. Traditionally, the emphasis has been on lowering query costs with little regard to maintenance, i.e., update cost issues. We argue that current trends require data cubes to be not only query-efficient, but also dynamic at the same time, and we also show how this can be achieved. Several array-based techniques with different tradeoffs between query and update cost are discussed in detail. We also survey selected approaches for sparse data and the popular data cube operator, CUBE. Moreover, this work includes an overview of future trends and their impact on data cubes.
Incomplete Information in Multidimensional Databases
Authors: Dyreson Cirtis E. , Pedersen Torben Bach , Jensen Christian S.
Published: May 2011

While incomplete information is endemic to real-world data, current multidimensional data models are not engineered to manage incomplete information in base data, derived data, and dimensions. This chapter presents several strategies for managing incomplete information in multidimensional databases. Which strategy to use is dependent on the kind of incomplete information present, and also on where it occurs in the multidimensional database. A relatively simple strategy is to replace incomplete information with appropriate, complete information. The advantage of this strategy is that all multidimensional databases can manage complete information. Other strategies require more substantial changes to the multidimensional database. One strategy is to reflect the incompleteness in computed aggregates, which is possible only if the multidimensional database allows incomplete values in its hierarchies. Another strategy is to measure the amount of incompleteness in aggregated values by tallying how much uncertain information went into their production.
Source Integration for Data Warehousing
Authors: Cali Andrea , Lembo Domenico , Lenzerini Maurizio , Rosati Riccardo
Published: May 2011

While the main goal of a data warehouse is to provide support for data analysis and management’s decisions, a fundamental aspect in design of a data warehouse system is the process of acquiring the raw data from a set of relevant information sources. We will call source integration system the component of a data warehouse system dealing with this process. The main goal of a source integration system is to deal with the transfer of data from the set of sources constituting the application-oriented operational environment, to the data warehouse. Since sources are typically autonomous, distributed, and heterogeneous, this task has to deal with the problem of cleaning, reconciling, and integrating data coming from the sources. The design of a source integration system is a very complex task, which comprises several different issues. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the most important problems arising in the design of a source integration system, with special emphasis on schema integration, processing queries for data integration, and data cleaning and reconciliation.
Stakeholder Relationships and Electronic Commerce
Authors: Lee Chia Yao , Kong Wei-Chang
Published: May 2011

E-commerce is often associated with the buying and selling of consumer products over the Internet. While this narrow definition of e-commerce is correct, many other commerce and business activities also fall under the term “e-commerce”. The stakeholders who create commerce, either actively or passively construct and determine the nature of the commercial relationship. The aim of this chapter is to suggest the e-commerce Differentiation Framework, which uses the nature and activities of stakeholders to distinguish between the two major types of e-commerce, namely Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce. This framework will use examples of e-commerce in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore and Australia. The study was carried out in these two countries over a period of four months in 1999.
Politics, Accountability, and Governmental Information Systems
Authors: Rocheleau Bruce
Published: May 2011

Information systems are becoming more involved in politics due to the growth of the World Wide Web, electronic government, and the increasing digitization of information of all kinds. Many information management specialists lack knowledge and experience about how to deal with political aspects of information management, and consequently they are ineffective. This chapter shows how important political issues are to information managers and illustrates strategies that can be useful in dealing with political issues. I provide several examples of how inattention to the political aspects of managing information systems can result in problems and disasters. The chapter covers both internal and external politics. Information managers have to deal with many internal politically-charged tasks such as the structuring of information management, purchasing information systems, managing personnel in this era of digital communication, and struggles over the sharing of information within organizations. External information management issues are also becoming important such as demands for online accountability information, the development of websites, issues over access to information, and interorganizational issues including disputes over turf.
The Evolution of Information Technology Management at the Federal Level
Authors: Holden Stephen H.
Published: May 2011

Federal agencies rely extensively on information technology (IT) to perform basic missions. Arguably, public administration should be driving the theory, policy, and practice for managing these increasingly important resources. This is especially true as public organizations move to electronic government. Despite some maturation in the literature for managing IT in federal agencies in the last several years, public administration has contributed little to this effort. Other academic fields, such as information science, business administration, and practitioners from the federal government and related contractors have contributed more recently to the theory and practice of IT management at the federal level than public administration. This chapter analyzes federal IT management literature from several academic disciplines and government documents. The analysis compares federal IT management with a normative model of management maturity focusing on the strategic objectives for IT and related management approaches. Public administration’s minimal contribution to federal IT management raises profound questions whether federal agencies are performing commensurate with public expectations in an information age.
Information Technology as a Facilitator of Results-Based Management in Government
Authors: Swiss James E.
Published: May 2011

The most widely accepted normative model of “good” public management is often called results-based management. It encourages planning and target setting to make the organization more proactive; an emphasis on outcomes to make the organization better focused on its mission; quick performance feedback to make the organization more responsive; and continuous process improvements to make the organization better able to serve its clients. These changes are possible only with supporting information technology. This chapter discusses ways that IT, including GIS, EIS, and intranets, can support the new management model. However, IT can increase management effectiveness only if its role has been carefully designed. Before implementing major IT changes, top public managers must begin by determining such policy issues as what information would best guide upcoming major decisions; what balance the agency wishes between internal information accessibility versus security; and how best to balance frontline worker empowerment versus the need for organizational uniformity.
Computer Tools for Better Public Sector Management
Authors: Grafton Carl , Permaloff Anne
Published: May 2011

Almost any public sector task employing a computer can be accomplished more efficiently with a variety of tools rather than any single one. Basic tools are word processing, spreadsheet, statistics, and database management programs. Beyond these, Web authoring software, presentation graphics, optical character recognition (OCR), and project planning and management software can be helpful depending upon the job at hand.
Web-Based Education in the 21st Century
Authors: Raisinghani Mahesh S.
Published: May 2011

As with any emerging educational endeavor, the quality of instruction and content varies widely, as do the goals and motivations of the students. In this chapter, we look at the Web-based distance education strategy for academia from a transnational perspective. The key philosophies and principal characteristics of a transnational organization are discussed, and their lessons for Web-based education are extracted for a transnational model for Web-based education. The parallels between industry and academia are drawn with respect to virtual organizations. The implementation strategies of transnational firms provide some valuable lessons for academia involved with Web-based education, as they strive to achieve higher degrees of coordination with low control dispersed throughout the organization. The five dimensions of a transnational strategy taxonomy are applied to transnational Web-based distance education initiatives. Finally, we take a closer look at some predictions for teaching and learning using Web-based education in higher education as extrapolations of current trends. However, we know that we will also be surprised by new developments, just as the growth of the Internet surprised us all. Commencement ceremonies are the starting point to lifetime learning in the digital/knowledge economy.
A Web-Based Platform to Mentor Distance Learners
Authors: Neville Karen , Adam Frederic , McCormack Colin
Published: May 2011

Highlighted in this chapter is the fact that the majority of organizations face the enormous challenge of supporting their employees’ thirst for expanding their skill base. Provided is an example of a university and an organization collaborating to implement successful training and learning programs in order to develop employee skills and knowledge in IT and managerial issues such as knowledge management. The authors hope that the case discussed will inform researchers of an appropriate model in designing an interactive learning environment to mentor distance learners and, additionally, of the potential to eliminate the barriers imposed by the traditional classroom.
eLearning Support Systems
Authors: Baker Jason D. , Schihl Robert J. , Aggarwal Anil K.
Published: May 2011

Students who choose Web-based education (WBE) declare their preference for time- and place-independent learning. They reject relocating or commuting to university campuses and instead seek courses that they can take from the comfort of their homes or offices. Such students are seeking education that is accessible, practical, and convenient, while still providing a quality learning experience. In the WBE market, students view themselves as customers, and universities and other educational providers must consider how they plan to attract, serve, and retain students throughout the educational experience. The authors propose the development of an integrated educational support system infrastructure to help shepherd WBE students from application to graduation. Such support systems should address many aspects of the teaching and learning process, including administrative support, faculty and instructional design support, technical support, library and reference services, and student and program support services.
WeBCEIS - A Scenario for Integrating Web-Based Education into Classical Education
Authors: Klein Muge , Sommer Daniel , Stucky Wolffried
Published: May 2011

Web-based education implies many advantages for teachers and learners, such as independence of time and place, personalization, and interactivity, but an important factor in learning, namely, face-to-face communication in traditional classrooms, cannot be adequately emulated. Students in a classical university education would lose many important social interactions in a purely Web-based education scenario, which would have important repercussions on their university education. The trade-off is a “blended learning” scenario, which is the integration of assorted learning delivery methods to benefit from both education scenarios. We are, therefore, arguing for an integration of Web-based and classical education, and present WebCEIS— our blended learning scenario for integrating Web-based education into classical education—looking at the organizational and the technological aspects of teaching and learning, and present our strategy for the implementation of WebCEIS.
Tutorial Method
Authors: Berg Gary A.
Published: May 2011

I come to the subject of this book from a very different path than most of those thinking about the use of computers in educational environments. My formal education focused originally on literature and film studies, and film production at the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and the University of California at Los Angeles. I became professionally involved in educational administration through the backdoor of continuing education focused first on the entertainment industry, and then more broadly. It was after this combined experience of studying film and television and working in adult education that I began research in education and earned a doctorate in the field of higher education from Claremont Graduate University, with a special emphasis on distance learning. I hope that the different point of view I have developed from my eclectic background gives me the ability to make something of a unique contribution to this evolving new field. What follows is an attempt to spark a discussion that will lead to answers to the question of what are the most effective techniques for the design of computer learning environments. This is not a how-to book—we are too early in the evolutionary process of the medium to give such specific guidance. Rather, my intention is to offer some theories to elevate the thinking bout computers in education. Because the subject is interdisciplinary, combining science with the humanities, the theoretical discussion draws from abroad range of disciplines: psychology, educational theory, film criticism, and computer science. The book looks at the notion of computer as medium and what such an idea might mean for education. I suggest that the understanding of computers as a medium may be a key to re-envisioning educational technology. Oren (1995) argues that understanding computers as a medium means enlarging human-computer interaction (HCI) research to include issues such as the psychology of media, evolution of genre and form, and the societal implications of media, all of which are discussed here. Computers began to be used in educational environments much later than film, and I would have to agree with others who claim that the use of computers instructionally is still quite unsophisticated.
Bringing the Social and Organisational Issues into Information Systems Development
Authors: Avison David , Wood-Harper Trevor
Published: May 2011

Multiview is a framework to support the information systems development process. It was formulated originally in 1985, but has been developed and changed since that time. It was originally defined to take into account the human and organisational aspects of information systems development, as the alternative methodologies of the time–and most since that time–took a very technology-oriented approach. Furthermore, it is a contingency approach, and again this compares with the alternative bureaucratic and prescriptive methodologies. In this chapter, we describe the history of Multiview, and we reflect on the experiences of using it in action in many organisations.
The Social Responsibility of Information Systems Developers
Authors: du Plooy N. F.
Published: May 2011

Information systems professionals have often been accused of ignoring issues such as ethics, human factors, social consequences, etc., during the development of an information system. This chapter aims to put into perspective that this attitude or ‘fact’ could be a result of a somewhat outdated mechanistic view of information systems and their role in organizations. Organizations adopt and use information systems for a variety of reasons, of which some of the most influential on the outcome or success of the systems often are neither planned nor anticipated. It is these reasons and their consequences that are the main point of discussion in this chapter. The importance of viewing information systems as social systems is stressed and it is pointed out that the ‘social side’ of information systems is the ‘other side of the coin’ of technical development methodologies. In the modern organization all work is so intertwined with the use of information technology that the one side cannot be considered, planned or developed, without considering the other. It is furthermore argued that it is the social responsibility of information systems professional to ensure that the human environment within which systems are being developed is cultivated and nurtured.
Actor-Network Theory as a Socio-Technical Approach to Information Systems Research
Authors: Tatnall Arthur
Published: May 2011

An information system is a socio-technical discipline involving both human and non-human entities. Much of the research done in an information system context investigates changes caused by the introduction of new business or organisational system, or changes made to an existing system, and so can be regarded as research into aspects of technological innovation. Information systems are complex entities and their development is a complex undertaking. Research in information systems needs to take account of the complexity of information systems development rather than take steps to hide this. An approach to information systems research, based on actor-network theory, offers a good means of allowing impartial treatment of the contributions of both human and non-human actors, and of handling the complexities involved. This chapter outlines such an approach.
Coming Off the Rails
Authors: Marr Liz , Randall Dave , Mitchell William L.
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses methodological issues concerned with the design and creation of computer-supported collaborative learning environments. It draws on the work of a group of sociologists and computing scientists who together, and independently, have been researching the use of museum environments and artefacts as educational resources for primary-school-age children (six to 11 years old). This work has in part focussed on requirements elicitation for interactive, computer-based collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) and has included a range of techniques including interaction analysis, ethnography, conversation analysis and participative design strategies. Evaluation work carried out with children using and developing Web-based CVEs suggests that no single requirements elicitation technique is adequate in this context and participative design techniques might benefit from insights afforded by a grounded ethnographic approach. We argue that knowledge of context, awareness of educational goals and practice, and an understanding of the nuances of interactive activity are vital for the design and development of useful and useable online educational resources and that evaluation should be integrated with the design and development strategies.
Usability Inspection of the ECONOF System's User Interface Visualisation Component
Authors: Belkhiter Nadir , Boulet Marie-Michele , Baffoun Sami , Dupuis Clermont
Published: May 2011

This chapter is a report on the findings of a user interface evaluation process performed on a decision support system named ECONOF. The issue of properly evaluating the visualization component of a system’s user interface is first addressed. Then, the usefulness of the results obtained is shown through the illustration of the improvements made to the ECONOF visualization component. As the user interface evaluation step in most software design and development projects is more often than not neglected, when not totally bypassed, computer professionals need to be more aware of the importance of the user interface design step within any kind of development life cycle.
Professional to Manufacturing Mode due to Online University Education
Authors: Rada Roy
Published: May 2011

The usability of online education relates to the culture of the profession that is expected to create and deliver online education. This profession is threatened by the manufacturing mode that certain online education entails. Case studies at Washington State University, Pace University, and University of Maryland, Baltimore County, support the hypothesis that successful online degree programs introduce manufacturing characteristics into the academy. Furthermore, the case studies support the claim that university administrations rely on boundary manipulation to move the faculty into positions that the faculty would otherwise refuse to accept. An analogy to health care reinforces the conclusions about the impact of mechanization on the professions.
Changing Roles and Processes in Online Tuition for Higher Education
Authors: Dyer Gordon
Published: May 2011

The case study examines a Level 1 undergraduate course delivered totally online to 8,500 students of the UK Open University (OU). Context, philosophy, design and learning outcomes are described. The author compares personal experience of tutoring the course to normal OU distance teaching methods and argues that computer-mediated conferencing (CMC) has a major impact on student learning styles and in changing roles within the teaching team; a learning community develops, triggering co-learning, co-tuition and co-counseling. The CMC also enables efficient academic and administrative information flow, and fast feedback for informal evaluation. The evaluation cycle is completed by reference to student feedback via a Web-site questionnaire and institutional change action. The study shows that technology to support global delivery is adequately robust, and success rates on the programme are similar to other OU courses. Pre-entry and online educational guidance is identified as an area needing further consideration.
Strategies to Increase Web Accessibility and Usability in Higher Education
Authors: Frey Barbara A. , Molinero Ashli , Cohn Ellen R.
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses the current status of Web accessibility and usability in higher education. As post secondary institutions strive to expand their online services and still maintain inclusive classrooms, attention must be given to the design of Web resources. Over 20 percent of Internet users have disabilities including vision, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments that affect their use of the Internet. In addition, many users have inefficient operating systems and/or slow connections. The World Wide Web Consortium’s Accessibility Initiative guidelines for accessibility are reviewed for the following areas: (1) page organization, (2) images, (3) image maps, (4) graphs and charts, (5) tables, (6) multi-media components, (7) scripts, applets, and plug-ins, (8) frames, (9) use of color, and (10) default font settings. Examples and strategies are presented for creating dynamic Web pages that are accessible and usable without jeopardizing the goals and creativity of the designer. Developing accessible Web resources will benefit all users, as well as comply with federal accessibility regulations for electronic and information technology.
Developing a Portal Channel Strategy
Authors: Watkins Jameson
Published: May 2011

This chapter provides a method for organizing a portal channel development strategy by identifying potential content, classifying it and then prioritizing it into distinct categories. Several effective ways of identifying content are discussed that include committees, focus groups and pilot projects. Representatives of the campus communities that will be using the portal are important to poll, ensuring they describe their actual needs versus what they think they need. External resources aggregated into the portal must be appropriate to the institution and reliable. Channels that streamline your institution’s business processes will be the most valuable parts of your portal; the bulk of your portal development work should be spent in creating them. Understanding your portal vendor’s programming interfaces to create custom, integrated applications is vital, as well as their philosophy in distributing new portal channels.