bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Social ePortfolios as the new course management system
Authors: Garrett Nathan , Thoms Brian , Alrushiedat Nimer , Ryan Terry 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show the practicality of a new portfolio design that incorporates distributed content, emphasizes student ownership, encourages social learning, and acknowledges the central importance of ease of use.Design/methodology/approachThe approach's practicality is demonstrated through survey results and usage logs from two case studies.FindingsStudents enjoy using this system, and report that its social aspects improve their academic performance and motivation. They also report it as being more social than their past experiences with BlackBoard.Originality/valueThe paper provides support for a vision of distributed educational software centered on portfolios, anchored by course tools, connected to assessment outcomes, and opened for public learning.
You say tomato, I say tomato, let's not call the whole thing off: the challenge of user experience design in distributed learning environments
Authors: Treviranus Jutta 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to chronicle new user experience (UX) design approaches being pioneered in an international, multi‐institution, multi‐sector, cross‐project initiative called the Fluid Project, covering the strengths and shortcomings of these approaches and the lessons learned about design and development in distributed communities.Design/methodology/approachOpen source and community source software development projects have not fulfilled their promise of innovation and natively optimized tools and applications in large part due to a lack of integrated UX design and development processes. Fluid has developed a UX approach that aims to address the need to accommodate the huge diversity of users and contexts in academic communities as well as the critical need to improve the user experience.FindingsIt has been found that the Fluid approach challenges common or traditional notions integral to teaching in higher education, software design, user interaction design methods, usability research and accessibility strategies. It proposes greater individual control over the UX than most users may be ready to assume despite obvious benefits. An unexpected UX challenge is creating tools and applications that prompt and support users in configuring their systems to their personal needs and contexts.Originality/valueFluid has designed and prototyped new UX design methods, pedagogical practices, and usability and accessibility approaches to suit the context of distributed academic communities and open source development, while at the same time producing a UX system of benefit to the mashup or integration of any set of disparate tools.
Racing towards academic social networks
Authors: Boston Ian 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the driving forces moving Sakai to join the new era of social applications by adopting a content‐focused methodology.Design/methodology/approachThe exploration is performed by looking at the way in which the role of content has developed through various phases of the internet, and how educational computing has leveraged those developments. The paper then goes on to relate these developments to the way in which initiatives like OpenSocial are changing the nature of application development and hosting, discussing the impact of the new world of cloud‐aware and cloud‐based applications on the development of Sakai.FindingsShifting to a modern web development paradigm that includes heavy use of client‐side programming methodologies such as AJAX, a content‐centric architecture, and an implementation of social networking capabilities will increase student satisfaction, while reducing development time and cost for systems like Sakai.Originality/valueThe paper will be of particular interest to those readers considering the tensions between institutionally provisioned applications and global free‐to‐use web services.
Web 2.0 LMS opportunities and obstacles: exploring OpenSocial, OpenID, and OpenCourseWare in NIXTY
Authors: Moriarty Glendon L. 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the opportunities in moving to a Web 2.0 global learning environment. NIXTY, a Web 2.0 platform, is utilized to illustrate how OpenSocial, OpenID, and OpenCourseWare can be implemented to facilitate open education.Design/methodology/approachThis is a system that implements the OpenSocial and OpenID standards as well as OpenCourseware imports. First, OpenSocial is discussed as a common way that developers can build applications that promote relational and social learning. Next, the promise of OpenID is explored. People are now creating their identities independent of organizations and they want to be able to translate that identity across formal and informal educational environments. Third, OpenCourseWare is covered with an emphasis on finding ways to further unlock material so it can easily be used to facilitate self‐directed and communal learning. Finally, tensions between learning inside and learning outside the university are explored.FindingsResults of this preliminary review suggest that there are significant benefits for individuals and institutions.Originality/valueAccreditation issues are addressed in both a developed world and late‐developing world context.
A service‐oriented virtual learning environment
Authors: Booth Andrew G. , Clark Brian P. 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a prototype pluggable service‐oriented virtual learning environment, enabling teachers to create an integrated teaching environment using tools that have been chosen to best meet their academic requirements.Design/methodology/approachThis is an implementation of a WAFFLE Bus. A microkernel software design pattern is used to enable tools to be added and removed from the system. An enterprise service bus is used to provide workflow and message transformation functionality. Tools are managed through web service interfaces and Shibboleth is used to effect interoperability at the web application user interface. The initial services for the prototype were chosen to implement a simple web service teaching workflow.FindingsFirst, Shibboleth is shown to provide a solution to the virtual learning environment tools' interoperability problem. Second, the service‐oriented virtual learning environment naturally leads to the ability to operate with many different types of information channels in and out of the system. This leads to a multiplicity of possible types of context‐dependent user interface. Third, immersive 3D, possibly the most interesting interface, will provide a context amenable to even the smallest development teams for the introduction of artificial intelligence into teaching. Finally, web service workflow is shown to provide a viable option for the implementation of learning designs with advantages and disadvantages compared to existing approaches.Research limitations/implicationsDifferent types of information channels are associated with different security problems. It will be important to determine what the best ways are of establishing secure channels to student personal learning environments. The present web service workflow design tools are of the highest quality and usability, but the design process is still a job for a specialist. It might be possible, however, to modify these open source tools to bring the design process within the grasp of non‐specialists.Originality/valueThe software system presented herein represents one possible path leading away from VLE monolithy using a service‐oriented approach. A new solution to the tools' interoperability problem is presented along with a multi‐faceted approach to the user interface. The enterprise service bus creates a flexible platform for the delivery of web service teaching and learning workflows. It is posited that the use of an immersive 3D user interface will create a context that facilitates the introduction of an artificial intelligence layer into the virtual learning environment that can serve robot teaching avatars.
Exploring “analytics” to make better decisions – the questions executives need to ask
Authors: Fahey Liam 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe in detail how executives' careful questioning can contribute to the decision analytics process.Design/methodology/approachThe paper lays out the questions that a senior executive should ask to guide analytics professionals in the analysis work they do. It also explains the rationale behind the questions.FindingsThe paper finds that a set of well‐chosen questions can transform the quality and relevance of the outputs so that executive decision makers can be better informed and thus make better decisions.Practical implicationsThe questions senior executives should ask to guide analytics work are very similar to questions developed to guide competitive intelligence analysis. The process outlined here shows how executives and analytics professionals can work with each other to help ensure that decision relevant outputs are created.Originality/valueWith this set of questions executives can guide analytics work so that it is not driven solely by the technology or expertise of the analytics professionals.
A pharmaceutical company harnesses the power of analytics
Authors: Clifton T.E. 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThis paper aims to look at a major pharmaceutical company that was expanding its research and decided that it needed to identify and collect information on “key opinion leaders” in research communities central to its new drug development activities.Design/methodology/approachThe study shows that the company sought to harness the power of analytics technology to study peer relationships in research communities and keep this information continuously updated.FindingsThe study finds that executives identified several key opinion leader candidates, and also developed an appreciation for the pattern of competitor activity across the research community.Practical implicationsThe executives continually challenged the analysts, kept the overall process focused on the key business drivers, and successfully blended their understanding of the kinds of insights the company required with the analysts' ability to generate insights from large volumes of data.Originality/valueWhere traditional corporate approaches provided reliable intelligence on tens or possibly hundreds of key participants in fields the company was familiar with, the decision analytic solution allowed the company to explore and regularly update tens of thousands of relationships across previously unknown fields.
A comprehensive strategy for globally integrated operations
Authors: Lubowe Dave , Cipollari Judith , Antoine Patrick 
Published: October 2009

PurposeTo aid business leaders struggling to implement global integration, IBM Consulting developed an “R‐O‐I Framework” that emphasizes repeatable processes, optimized assets and integrated operations, all on a global basis. This paper aims to look at this framework.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers first examined data from and IBM 2008 CEO Study (more than a 1,000 respondents), and then selected 20 best practice cases to identify patterns among strategies that strong global integrators were using.FindingsThe IBM approach has identified three elements of the R‐O‐I framework that must be addressed concurrently: repeatable processes – eliminating inefficiency, optimizing effectiveness, and managing exceptions; optimized assets – managing core versus non‐core activities, optimizing locations and establishing virtual operations; and integrated operations – Optimizing global competencies via partnering and managing end‐to‐end processes on a global basis.Practical implicationsIn concert with the R‐O‐I elements, three additional elements underpin the global integration transformation process and serve as the foundation that enables globally integrated operations: leadership, organization and technology.Originality/valueThe final step to global integration is managing on a global basis for every process from end‐to‐end, within and beyond company walls. Key to this is a systems view of global operations, with tools and methodologies in place to continually monitor end‐to‐end processes while adjusting to changes wherever and whenever they arise, while maintaining a continual focus on global optimization.
Corporate environmental reporting through the lens of semiotics
Authors: Yusoff Haslinda , Lehman Glen 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the motives behind corporate environmental reporting in Malaysia and Australia from an alternative perspective, i.e. through semiotics.Design/methodology/approachReviews are made on the annual reports of the top 50 public companies in both countries, and the uses of business languages in those reports are investigated. The research concentrates on the significations of environmental messages made through paradigmatic and syntagmatic tests.FindingsCorporate environmental disclosures made by the public companies in Malaysia and Australia signify similar form of motives. The tones, orientations, and patterns of environmental disclosures indicate that environmental information is a strategic mechanism used towards enhancing good corporate reputation.Research limitations/implicationsEnvironmental reporting plays a significant role in promoting corporate “green” image in conjunction with the aims for better social integration.Practical implicationsSemiotics offers a useful basis that enables a greater understanding of why companies prepare and disclose environmental information. Such an understanding holds the potential to provide ideas and guide policy‐makers, and other stakeholders (and users) of corporate environmental information.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to comparatively investigate the corporate motives and intention of environmental reporting practices via the application of semiotics on a two‐country data, specifically Malaysia and Australia.
A media analysis approach to evaluating national health information infrastructure development
Authors: Cockcroft Sophie 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate electronic health record (EHR) initiatives at the national/external level. Governments are investing large amounts of money in national EHR systems. These systems are socially and politically complex and a variety of stakeholders (e.g. at the individual, organisational or national level) have an interest in evaluating such systems from technical, economic or patient outcome perspectives. In cognisance of academic research in the area, this paper presents an approach which uses the perspective of one particular type of professional critic, the media, to identify issues and evaluate their impact at a national level.Design/methodology/approachThe work is conducted using an established evaluation framework and formal content analysis of selected relevant articles from the quality press of three selected countries.FindingsDifferent issues take prominence in centralised vs decentralised EHR approaches. In countries with a decentralised approach issues of standards and interoperability take the fore. Where there is a more centralised approach the media focus is more on project management, budgetary and financial aspects. In all coverage political and economic aspects are emphasised over technical or patient outcome issues.Originality/valueThe paper represents the application of the content‐context‐process framework. It contributes to the information systems evaluation literature at the national/external level.
Managing the implementation of an innovative technology in a hospital: a case study
Authors: Bahri Shamshul 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a model of radio frequency identification (RFID) implementation process in a hospital. The model is developed to fill the lack of models on RFID implementation in a hospital setting.Design/methodology/approachThe case study research and grounded theory approaches are combined. The data are collected through repeat interviews with the hospital's RFID manager and the IT vendor. The data are analysed using the grounded theory approach.FindingsThe main finding of the paper is the RFID implementation process model in a hospital. The model consists of key activities that have occurred during the unfreezing, moving and refreezing stages of the implementation.Research limitations/implicationsThe generalisability of the model may be limited because it is based only on a single hospital's RFID implementation.Practical implicationsRFID managers in hospitals need to be aware that the technology's implementation is no different to other types of information systems implementation. However, they also need to be aware of the contextual differences in their hospitals before the model can be adapted.Originality/valueThe RFID implementation process model could guide existing and future RFID managers in hospitals. The three stages of the model will enable the managers in identifying the different emphasis needed in each stage.
Transformational team‐building across cultural boundaries
Authors: Gabrielsson Mika , Darling John , Seristö Hannu 
Published: October 2009

PurposeIn a world‐wide environment strongly influenced by the issues and perspectives of globalization, internationally‐based business firms must be focused on transformational leadership team‐building across the cultural boundaries with which they are involved. The purpose of this paper is to juxtapose the leadership dimensions and national culture dimensions, and particularly to explore one aspect of that transformational leadership team‐building process, the application of the key paradigm of leadership style balance and support within the parameters of an operational team.Design/methodology/approachBased on a literature review the paper identifies four basic leadership styles, the strengths and weaknesses of each of the styles are identified, communication preferences are discussed, primary back‐up styles that come into focus due to high levels of stress are analyzed, and the all‐important skill of style flex is described. These dimensions will be examined in association with the case of UnitedTel Ltd (a pseudonym), and also include observations relating to the authors' experiences in several other arenas that have been encountered in management and consulting activities.FindingsTwo interactive dimensions at the heart of a leader's behavior – assertiveness and responsiveness – are foundations of that person's leadership style. The basic interactive dimensions of assertiveness and responsiveness thereby form the two axes of the framework of the leadership styles paradigm and the four primary quadrants, which represent the four leadership styles – analyzer, director, creator, and connector.Research limitations/implicationsThe paradigm of leadership styles can be a valuable tool for the further research, and understanding of, the process of transformational teambuilding across cultural boundaries.Practical implicationsImportantly, it is not enough just to understand one's leadership style or the style of others in a leadership team; one must also exercise style flex that can enable the parties to function in a mutually‐beneficial situation congruent with the needs of the individuals and the organization.Originality/valueThe leadership styles paradigm can be a very important reference point in the process of transformational teambuilding across cultural boundaries. An interesting view and contribution of the paper are the way that the leadership styles and cultural dimensions can be linked.
Employee empowerment and team performance
Authors: Yang Seung‐Bum , Ok Choi Sang 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of employee empowerment on team performance in the context of municipal work teams. Four different dimensions of employee empowerment are identified: autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity.Design/methodology/approachUsing a survey of 176 US municipal government employees, this study conducted an OLS multiple regression analysis. The study regressed the dependent variable, team performance, on the four independent variables: autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity.FindingsThe regression analysis provided empirical evidence in support of the four hypotheses proposed in this study. The study reveals that autonomy, responsibility, information, and creativity each have positive and significant effects on team performance.Practical implicationsThe study suggests that employee empowerment programs should consider different dimensions of empowerment. At least, managers need to keep in mind the four dimensions of empowerment discussed in this research. Understanding different dimensions of empowerment will enable managers to design and implement a successful empowerment program.Originality/valuePrior research focused on developing conceptual models of the multiple dimensions of empowerment. This paper took one step further and provided empirical evidence.
Planning and competitiveness in maintenance management
Authors: Carla Bittencourt Reis Ana , Cabral Seixas Costa Ana Paula , Teixeira de Almeida Adiel 
Published: October 2009

PurposeThis paper aims to present the results of an analysis of two hypotheses on maintenance in manufacturing industries: the first hypothesis refers to managers' perception of planning maintenance when undertaking certain practices, and the second hypothesis to the behavior of manufacturing companies that consider their maintenance sector a source of competitive advantage for their organization.Design/methodology/approachThe research study is carried out in medium‐sized and large manufacturing companies in a large metropolitan area of Northeastern Brazil. An exploratory analysis is made of the variables considered representative for this study. Data are collected from a probability sampling of companies selected randomly and in which interviews are later held. Analyses are performed in order to identify associations that validate the hypotheses constructed. The hypotheses are tested and can be explained by variables presented in the paper.FindingsIt is observed that some maintenance practices are currently correlated to the manager's perception of planning for maintenance and the treatment given to the area of maintenance displays a positive relationship with the perception of management in relation to maintenance as a source of competitive advantage for the organization.Practical implicationsThe results obtained from this paper will assist maintenance engineers with understanding how the maintenance manager perceives planning and competitiveness and also what maintenance actions should in fact be implemented. The findings have yielded more knowledge of the maintenance environment and using this knowledge will be able to improve maintenance performance.Originality/valueThe results of this study are relevant for the maintenance area and will enable it to pay more attention to issues relating to planning and to the competitiveness of organizations. The advantages of probability sampling are also demonstrated, as is the fact that the findings from the statistical analysis can be generalized to the population investigated.