The quality of interface design for educational courseware development in Malaysian educational context

Interactive educational courseware has been adopted in diverse education sectors such as primary, secondary, tertiary education, vocational and professional training. In Malaysian educational context, the ministry of education has implemented Smart School Project that aims to increase high level of academic achievement in primary and secondary schools by using interactive educational courseware. However, many researchers have reported that many coursewares fail to accommodate the learner and teacher needs. In particular, the interface design is not appropriately designed in terms of quality of learning. This paper reviews educational courseware development process in terms of defining quality of interface design and suggests a conceptual model of interface design through the integration of design components and interactive learning experience into the development process. As a result, it defines the concept of interactive learning experience in a more practical approach in order to implement each stage of the development process in a seamless and integrated way.

Interpersonal coordination tendencies, decision-making and information governing dynamics in rugby union

In this chapter, ideas from ecological psychology and nonlinear dynamics are integrated to characterise decision-making as an emergent property of self-organisation processes in the interpersonal interactions that occur in sports teams. A conceptual model is proposed to capture constraints on dynamics of decisions and actions in dyadic systems, which has been empirically evaluated in simulations of interpersonal interactions in team sports. For this purpose, co-adaptive interpersonal dynamics in team sports such as rubgy union have been studied to reveal control parameter and collective variable relations in attacker-defender dyads. Although interpersonal dynamics of attackers and defenders in 1 vs 1 situations showed characteristics of chaotic attractors, the informational constraints of rugby union typically bounded dyadic systems into low dimensional attractors. Our work suggests that the dynamics of attacker-defender dyads can be characterised as an evolving sequence since players' positioning and movements are connected in diverse ways over time.

Remediating vernacular creativity : photography and cultural citizenship in the Flickr photosharing network

Read through a focus on the remediation of personal photography in the Flickr photosharing website, in this essay I treat vernacular creativity as a field of cultural practice; one that that does not operate inside the institutions or cultural value systems of high culture or the commercial popular media, and yet draws on and is periodically appropriated by these other systems in dynamic and productive ways. Because of its porosity to commercial culture and art practice, this conceptual model of ‘vernacular creativity’ implies a historicised account of ‘ordinary’ or everyday creative practice that accounts for both continuity and change and avoids creating a nostalgic desire for the recuperation of an authentic folk culture. Moving beyond individual creative practice, the essay concludes by considering the unintended consequences of vernacular creativity practiced in online social networks: in particular, the idea of cultural citizenship.

The Quality of Interface Design for Educational Courseware Development in Malaysian Educational Context

Interactive educational courseware has been adopted in diverse education sectors such as primary, secondary, tertiary education, vocational and professional training. In Malaysian educational context, the ministry of education has implemented Smart School Project that aims to increase high level of academic achievement in primary and secondary schools by using interactive educational courseware. However, many researchers have reported that many coursewares fail to accommodate the learner and teacher needs. In particular, the interface design is not appropriately designed in terms of quality of learning. This paper reviews educational courseware development process in terms of defining quality of interface design and suggests a conceptual model of interface design through the integration of design components and interactive learning experience into the development process. As a result, it defines the concept of interactive learning experience in a more practical approach in order to implement each stage of the development process in a seamless and integrated way.

Conceptualisation and facilitation of SOA governance

As organisations strive to improve their capabilities in the areas of Service Management and Service-oriented Architectures (SOA), SOA Governance is becoming an increasingly important success factor. However, the concept of SOA Governance is complex and not well-understood, and the adoption of an adequate SOA Governance approach in an organisation can be difficult. Tools that support SOA Governance mostly have a technical bias and rarely address organisational aspects. In this paper, we contribute to the field by specifying a conceptual meta model for SOA Governance that integrates the structure of major IT and SOA Governance frameworks into one consolidated view. By presenting this conceptualisation and a corresponding prototypical implementation of a tool that supports SOA Governance maturity assessment, reference framework exploration and company-specific tailoring of SOA Governance, we provide insights into the first step of a Design Science research project, i.e. the development of an important IT artefact.

Primary students' group metacognitive processes in a computer supported collaborative learning environment

The current understanding of students’ group metacognition is limited. The research on metacognition has focused mainly on the individual student. The aim of this study was to address the void by developing a conceptual model to inform the use of scaffolds to facilitate group metacognition during mathematical problem solving in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. An initial conceptual framework based on the literature from metacognition, cooperative learning, cooperative group metacognition, and computer supported collaborative learning was used to inform the study. In order to achieve the study aim, a design research methodology incorporating two cycles was used. The first cycle focused on the within-group metacognition for sixteen groups of primary school students working together around the computer; the second cycle included between-group metacognition for six groups of primary school students working together on the Knowledge Forum® CSCL environment. The study found that providing groups with group metacognitive scaffolds resulted in groups planning, monitoring, and evaluating the task and team aspects of their group work. The metacognitive scaffolds allowed students to focus on how their group was completing the problem-solving task and working together as a team. From these findings, a revised conceptual model to inform the use of scaffolds to facilitate group metacognition during mathematical problem solving in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments was generated.

Enabling authentic collaborative education in an online environment : the QUT Virtual Law Placement

This paper explores an innovative model for work-integrated learning using a virtual paradigm – The Virtual Law Placement Unit at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Australia. It builds upon the conceptual model previously explored at WACE 2007 and provides an account of the lessons learned from the pilot offering of the unit which was conducted and evaluated in 2008. ----- The Virtual Placement Unit offers students the opportunity to complete an authentic workplace task under the guidance of a real-life workplace supervisor, where student-student communication and student-supervisor communication is all conducted virtually (and potentially asynchronously) to create an engaging but flexible learning environment using a combination of Blackboard and SharePoint technologies. This virtual experience is pioneering in the sense that it enables law students to access an unprecedented range of law graduate destination workplaces and projects, including international and social justice placements, absent the constraints traditionally associated with arranging physical placements. ----- All aspects of this unit have been designed in conjunction with community partners with a view to balancing student learning objectives with community needs through co-operative education. This paper will also explore how the implementation of the project is serving to strengthen those partnerships with the wider community, simultaneously addressing the community engagement agenda of the University and enabling students to engage meaningfully with local, national and international community partners in the real world of work.

Executive and organisational leadership development in universities : exploring key elements and perceptions

Organisational and leadership development is said to be one of the most challenging and important activities facing universities, particularly in the current environment of fast-paced change and accelerated age-related attrition. Succession leadership development being timely, the purpose of this study was to explore the nature of leadership development most suited to meeting the leadership and organisational development challenges for contemporary universities. A blend of literature-based and empirical research was undertaken. This resulted in seven papers submitted to internationally refereed journals; five papers published, one in press, and one under review. Six of these are sole authored papers and one is a co-authored paper. The papers identify some of the issues and challenges facing the tertiary sector. They shed light on factors influencing executive and organisational leadership development deriving from the literature review and from empirical research reporting the views of current university leaders. The papers and submission document herein include recommendations and suggested models informing executive and organisational leadership development in universities. The "Lantern" model - an Illuminated Model for Organisational Leadership Development - is a key original conceptual model framing the study.

A proposed qualitative framework for heterogeneous burning of metallic materials : the 'melting rate triangle'

This paper presents a proposed qualitative framework to discuss the heterogeneous burning of metallic materials, through parameters and factors that influence the melting rate of the solid metallic fuel (either in a standard test or in service). During burning, the melting rate is related to the burning rate and is therefore an important parameter for describing and understanding the burning process, especially since the melting rate is commonly recorded during standard flammability testing for metallic materials and is incorporated into many relative flammability ranking schemes. However, whilst the factors that influence melting rate (such as oxygen pressure or specimen diameter) have been well characterized, there is a need for an improved understanding of how these parameters interact as part of the overall melting and burning of the system. Proposed here is the ‘Melting Rate Triangle’, which aims to provide this focus through a conceptual framework for understanding how the melting rate (of solid fuel) is determined and regulated during heterogeneous burning. In the paper, the proposed conceptual model is shown to be both (a) consistent with known trends and previously observed results, and (b)capable of being expanded to incorporate new data. Also shown are examples of how the Melting Rate Triangle can improve the interpretation of flammability test results. Slusser and Miller previously published an ‘Extended Fire Triangle’ as a useful conceptual model of ignition and the factors affecting ignition, providing industry with a framework for discussion. In this paper it is shown that a ‘Melting Rate Triangle’ provides a similar qualitative framework for burning, leading to an improved understanding of the factors affecting fire propagation and extinguishment.

Antecedents of importer relationship performance in Latin America

Emerging market importers are increasingly engaging in relationships with foreign suppliers. Nevertheless, characteristics of the institutional and cultural environments of countries may affect relationship behaviour. Furthermore research on relationship marketing primarily focuses on the marketing activities of exporters from developed countries and much less attention is paid to the import side of the exchange process. Thus, the objective of this study is to empirically examine importer relationship performance in a Latin America context. This article proposes and tests a conceptual model that includes the antecedents and outcomes of trust and commitment with a survey of Chilean importers. The model uses confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to develop the construct measures and structural equation modelling (SEMS) to test the model. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the driving forces of trust and commitments and their influence on importing firms' performance in an emerging market context.

Ties that blind? How strong ties affect small business owner-managers’ perceived trustworthiness of their advisors

This research investigates how a strong personal relationship (strong tie) between a small business owner-manager and his professional or informal advisor affects the relationship between the advisor's recent performance and the owner-manager's perceptions of the advisor's trustworthiness in terms of ability, benevolence and integrity. A negative moderating effect could point to a 'tie that blinds': the owner-manager may be less critical in evaluating the advisor's perceived trustworthiness in light of their recent performance, because of the existing personal relationship. A conceptual model is constructed and examined with survey data comprising 153 young Finnish businesses. The results show that strong ties increase the owner-manager's perception of the advisor's integrity, disregarding their recent performance. For professional advisors, strong ties reduce the impact of recent performance in the owner-manager's evaluation of their ability. For informal advisors, a strong tie makes it more likely that their benevolence will be evaluated highly in light of their recent performance. While the results show that 'ties can blind' under certain circumstances, the limitations of the study raise the need for further research to specify these contextual factors and examine the causal link between the choice of advisor and business performance.

Building a successful partnership to increase affordable rental housing supply in Queensland

Accessibility to housing for low to moderate income groups in Australia has been experiencing a severe decline since 2001. On the supply side, the public sector has been reducing its commitment to the direct provision of public housing. Despite high demand for affordable housing, there has been limited supply generated by non-government housing providers. One possible solution to promote an increase in affordable housing supply, like other infrastructure, is through the development of multi-stakeholder partnerships and private financing. This research aims to identify current issues underlying decision-making criteria for building multi-stakeholder partnerships to deliver affordable housing projects. It also investigates strategies for minimising risk and ensuring the financial outcomes of these partnership arrangements. A mix of qualitative in-depth interviews and quantitative surveys has been used as the main method to explore stakeholder experiences regarding their involvement in partnership arrangements in the affordable housing sector in Queensland. Two sets of interviews were conducted following an exploratory pilot study: one set in 2003-2004 and the other in 2007-2008. There were nineteen respondents representing government, private and not-for-profit organisations in the first stage interviews and surveys. The second stage interviews were focussed on twenty-two housing providers in South East Queensland. Initial analyses have been conducted using thematic and statistical analyses. This study extends the use of existing decision making tools and combines the use of a Soft System Framework to analyse the ideal state questionnaires using qualitative thematic analysis. Soft System Methodology (SSM) has been used to analyse this unstructured complex problem by using systematic thinking to develop a conceptual model and carrying it to the real world situations to solve the problem. This research found that the diversity of stakeholder capability and their level of risk acceptance will allow partnerships to develop the best synergies and a degree of collaboration which achieves the required financial return within acceptable risk parameters. However, some of the negativity attached to future commitment to such partnerships has been found to be the anticipation of a worse outcome than that expected from independent action. Many interviewees agree that housing providers' fear of financial risk and community rejection has been central to dampening their enthusiasm for entering such investment projects. The creation of a mixed-use development structure will mitigate both risk and return as the commercial income will subsidise the affordable housing development and will normalise concentration of marginalised low-income people who live in a prime location with an award winning design. In addition, tenant support schemes and rent-to-buy incentive programs will encourage them to secure their tenancies and significantly reduce the risk of rent arrears and property damage. There is also a breakthrough investment vehicle offered by the social developer which sells the non-physical but financial product to individual and institutional investors to mitigate further financial risk. Finally, this study recommends modification of the current value-for-money framework in favour of broader partnership arrangements which are more closely aligned with risk minimisation strategies.

Crossing the cultural divide : a contemporary holistic framework for conceptualising design studio education

While the studio is widely accepted as the learning environment where architecture students most effectively learn how to design (Mahgoub, 2007:195), there are surprisingly few studies that attempt to identify in a qualitative way the interrelated factors that contribute to and support design studio learning (Bose, 2007:131). Such a situation seems problematic given the changes and challenges facing education including design education. Overall, there is growing support for re-examining (perhaps redefining) the design studio particularly in response to the impact of new technologies but as this paper argues this should not occur independently of the other elements and qualities comprising the design studio. In this respect, this paper describes a framework developed for a doctoral project concerned with capturing and more holistically understanding the complexity and potential of the design studio to operate within an increasingly and largely unpredictable global context. Integral to this is a comparative analysis of selected cases underpinned by grounded theory methodology of the traditional design studio and the virtual design studio informed by emerging pedagogical theory and the experiences of those most intimately involved – students and lecturers. In addition to providing a conceptual model for future research, the framework is of value to educators currently interested in developing as well as evaluating learning environments for design.

Making a match: Combining theory and evidence in policy-oriented macroeconomic modeling

A persistent question in the development of models for macroeconomic policy analysis has been the relative role of economic theory and evidence in their construction. This paper looks at some popular strategies that involve setting up a theoretical or conceptual model (CM) which is transformed to match the data and then made operational for policy analysis. A dynamic general equilibrium model is constructed that is similar to standard CMs. After calibration to UK data it is used to examine the utility of formal econometric methods in assessing the match of the CM to the data and also to evaluate some standard model-building strategies. Keywords: Policy oriented economic modeling; Model evaluation; VAR models

Privacy and trust management for electronic health records

Establishing a nationwide Electronic Health Record system has become a primary objective for many countries around the world, including Australia, in order to improve the quality of healthcare while at the same time decreasing its cost. Doing so will require federating the large number of patient data repositories currently in use throughout the country. However, implementation of EHR systems is being hindered by several obstacles, among them concerns about data privacy and trustworthiness. Current IT solutions fail to satisfy patients’ privacy desires and do not provide a trustworthiness measure for medical data. This thesis starts with the observation that existing EHR system proposals suer from six serious shortcomings that aect patients’ privacy and safety, and medical practitioners’ trust in EHR data: accuracy and privacy concerns over linking patients’ existing medical records; the inability of patients to have control over who accesses their private data; the inability to protect against inferences about patients’ sensitive data; the lack of a mechanism for evaluating the trustworthiness of medical data; and the failure of current healthcare workflow processes to capture and enforce patient’s privacy desires. Following an action research method, this thesis addresses the above shortcomings by firstly proposing an architecture for linking electronic medical records in an accurate and private way where patients are given control over what information can be revealed about them. This is accomplished by extending the structure and protocols introduced in federated identity management to link a patient’s EHR to his existing medical records by using pseudonym identifiers. Secondly, a privacy-aware access control model is developed to satisfy patients’ privacy requirements. The model is developed by integrating three standard access control models in a way that gives patients access control over their private data and ensures that legitimate uses of EHRs are not hindered. Thirdly, a probabilistic approach for detecting and restricting inference channels resulting from publicly-available medical data is developed to guard against indirect accesses to a patient’s private data. This approach is based upon a Bayesian network and the causal probabilistic relations that exist between medical data fields. The resulting definitions and algorithms show how an inference channel can be detected and restricted to satisfy patients’ expressed privacy goals. Fourthly, a medical data trustworthiness assessment model is developed to evaluate the quality of medical data by assessing the trustworthiness of its sources (e.g. a healthcare provider or medical practitioner). In this model, Beta and Dirichlet reputation systems are used to collect reputation scores about medical data sources and these are used to compute the trustworthiness of medical data via subjective logic. Finally, an extension is made to healthcare workflow management processes to capture and enforce patients’ privacy policies. This is accomplished by developing a conceptual model that introduces new workflow notions to make the workflow management system aware of a patient’s privacy requirements. These extensions are then implemented in the YAWL workflow management system.