Search results for: online communication

Authors: M. Olmedilla, M. R. Martinez-Torres, S. L. Toral

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Electronic Word-Of-Mouth (eWOM) communities represent today an important source of information in which more and more customers base their purchasing decisions. They include thousands of reviews concerning very different products and services posted by many individuals geographically distributed all over the world. Due to their massive audience, eWOM communities can help users to find the product they are looking for even if they are less popular or rare. This is known as the long tail effect, which leads to a larger number of lower-selling niche products. This paper analyzes the long tail effect in a well-known eWOM community and defines a tool for finding niche products unavailable through conventional channels.

Keywords: eWOM, online user reviews, long tail theory, product categorization, social network analysis

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Authors: Peter I. I. Ikokwu

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Recent developments in the world, both in the health and education sectors, have further popularized the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). ICT is available for many purposes, including teaching and learning, and its use in education is believed to empower both teachers and students by making the educational process more effective and interactive. The study examined the perceptions of teachers on the factors affecting the use of ICT in the teaching and learning of chemistry and the mitigating factors. The study involved all the lecturers (herein referred to as teachers) in the Colleges of Education in South Eastern Nigeria. The survey design was employed. 35 teachers were selected by stratified random sampling from about 78 chemistry teachers in these Colleges. However, 34 questionnaires were recovered, comprising 13 males and 21 females. 3 research questions and 3 hypotheses guided the study. Results show that the teachers have a clear perception of the factors militating against the use of ICT in the teaching and learning of chemistry, with a pooled mean of 2.96. But there was no significant difference in the perceptions of male and female teachers. Also, they identified the mitigating factors highlighted with no significant difference between the perceptions of the males and females with pooled means of 3.23 and 3.11, respectively. In all, it is noteworthy that lack of funds, irregular and inadequate power supply, and inadequate time in the school timetable was among the militating factors. Recommendations were made for the consideration of the government, the teachers, and the Institutions.

Keywords: chemistry, teachers, perception, ICT, learning

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Authors: Lolwa Alansari, Abdelhamid Azhaghdani, Sufia Athar, Hanen Mrabet, Annaliza Cruz, Tamara Alshadafat, Almunzer Zakaria

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Introduction: Improving the patient experience is a fundamental pillar of healthcare's quadruple aims. Recognizing the importance of patient experiences and perceptions in healthcare interactions is pivotal for driving quality improvement. This abstract centers around the Patient Experience Program, an endeavor crafted with the purpose of comprehending and elevating the experiences of patients in the Obstetrics & Gynecology Emergency Department (OB/GYN ED). Methodology: This comprehensive endeavor unfolded through a structured sequence of phases following Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model, spanning over 12 months, focused on enhancing patient experiences in the Obstetrics & Gynecology Emergency Department (OB/GYN ED). The study meticulously examined the journeys of patients with acute obstetrics and gynecological conditions, collecting data from over 100 participants monthly. The inclusive approach covered patients of different priority levels (1-5) admitted for acute conditions, with no exclusions. Historical data from March and April 2022 serves as a benchmark for comparison, strengthening causality claims by providing a baseline understanding of OB/GYN ED performance before interventions. Additionally, the methodology includes the incorporation of staff engagement surveys to comprehensively understand the experiences of healthcare professionals with the implemented improvements. Data extraction involved administering open-ended questions and comment sections to gather rich qualitative insights. The survey covered various aspects of the patient journey, including communication, emotional support, timely access to care, care coordination, and patient-centered decision-making. The project's data analysis utilized a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative techniques to identify recurring themes and extract actionable insights and quantitative methods to assess patient satisfaction scores and relevant metrics over time, facilitating the measurement of intervention impact and longitudinal tracking of changes. From the themes we discovered in both the online and in-person patient experience surveys, several key findings emerged that guided us in initiating improvements, including effective communication and information sharing, providing emotional support and empathy, ensuring timely access to care, fostering care coordination and continuity, and promoting patient-centered decision-making. Results: The project yielded substantial positive outcomes, significantly improving patient experiences in the OB/GYN ED. Patient satisfaction levels rose from 62% to a consistent 98%, with notable improvements in satisfaction with care plan information and physician care. Waiting time satisfaction increased from 68% to a steady 97%. The project positively impacted nurses' and midwives' job satisfaction, increasing from 64% to an impressive 94%. Operational metrics displayed positive trends, including a decrease in the "left without being seen" rate from 3% to 1%, the discharge against medical advice rate dropping from 8% to 1%, and the absconded rate reducing from 3% to 0%. These outcomes underscore the project's effectiveness in enhancing both patient and staff experiences in the healthcare setting. Conclusion: The use of a patient experience questionnaire has been substantiated by evidence-based research as an effective tool for improving the patient experience, guiding interventions, and enhancing overall healthcare quality in the OB/GYN ED. The project's interventions have resulted in a more efficient allocation of resources, reduced hospital stays, and minimized unnecessary resource utilization. This, in turn, contributes to cost savings for the healthcare facility.

Keywords: patient experience, patient survey, person centered care, quality initiatives

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Authors: Wera Supa, Panita Wannapiroon

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This paper is a report on the designing of the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement to Promote the global merit principle in cultivating youths’ morality. The research procedures into two phases, the first phase is to design the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement to promote the global merit principle in cultivating youths’ morality, and the second is to evaluate the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement. The sample group in this study consists of 15 experts who are dominant in proactive participation, moral merit principle and youths’ morality cultivation from executive level, lecturers and the professionals in information and communication technology expertise selected using the purposive sampling method. Data analyzed by arithmetic mean and standard deviation. This study has explored that there are four significant factors in promoting the hands-on collaboration of global merit scheme in order to implant virtues to adolescences which are: 1) information and communication Technology Usage; 2) proactive involvement; 3) morality cultivation policy, and 4) global merit principle. The experts agree that the social collaborative learning model based on proactive involvement is highly appropriate.

Keywords: social collaborative learning, proactive involvement, global merit principle, morality

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Authors: Nami Matsumoto

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This study explores the experiences of cross-linguistic medical encounters by patients, and their views of receiving language support therein, with a particular focus on Japanese-English cases. The aim of this study is to investigate the reason for the frequent use of a spouse as a communication mediator from a Japanese perspective, through a comparison with that of English speakers. This study conducts an empirical qualitative analysis of the accounts of informants. A total of 31 informants who have experienced Japanese-English cross-linguistic medical encounters were recruited in Australia and Japan for semi-structured in-depth interviews. A breakdown of informants is 15 English speakers and 16 Japanese speakers. In order to obtain a further insight into collected data, additional interviews were held with 4 Australian doctors who are familiar with using interpreters. This study was approved by the Australian National University Human Research Ethics Committee, and written consent to participate in this study was obtained from all participants. The interviews lasted up to over one hour. They were audio-recorded and subsequently transcribed by the author. Japanese transcriptions were translated into English by the author. An analysis of interview data found that patients value relationship in communication. Particularly, Japanese informants, who have an English-speaking spouse, value trust-based communication interventions by their spouse, regardless of the language proficiency of the spouse. In Australia, health care interpreters are required to abide by the national code of ethics for interpreters. The Code defines the role of an interpreter exclusively to be language rendition and enshrines the tenets of accuracy, confidentiality and professional role boundaries. However, the analysis found that an interpreter who strictly complies with the Code sometimes fails to render the real intentions of the patient and their doctor. Findings from the study suggest that an interpreter should not be detached from the context and should be more engaged in the needs of patients. Their needs are not always communicated by an interpreter when they simply follow a professional code of ethics. The concept of relationship-centred care should be incorporated in the professional practice of health care interpreters.

Keywords: health care, Japanese-English medical encounters, language barriers, trust

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Authors: Brendan Mooney

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Context: Feelings and emotions are commonly misunderstood and the terms often used interchangeably, leading to potential negative impacts on individuals' mental well-being and relationships. The distinction between these two fundamentally different experiences of human life is crucial for effective psychological practice and communication. Research Aim: The aim of this study is to outline the disparities between feelings and emotions, emphasising the significance of this differentiation in psychological practice to enhance clients' observation, decision-making, problem-solving, and communication skills. Methodology: This research utilises a conceptual model developed by the author in 2017 based on clinical experience, client observations, and feedback. The model serves to guide effective clinical practice by providing clear definitions and understanding of feelings versus emotions. Case study examples were utilised to support the efficacy of the model. Findings: The study highlights that recognising and expressing feelings rather than emotions is more empowering and conducive to resolving unresolved issues, thereby fostering better psychological well-being and interpersonal relationships. Theoretical Importance: This research underscores the importance of clarifying fundamental definitions related to feelings and emotions in enhancing psychological interventions and preventing various relationship conflicts and individual issues. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: Data was collected through the author's clinical experience and interactions with clients, informing the development of the Feeling Emotions Mental (FEM) model. Analysis involved synthesising observations and feedback to elucidate the distinctions between feelings and emotions. Questions Addressed: What are the disparities between feelings and emotions? How does the confusion between these two fundamentally different experiences of human life impact individuals' mental well-being and relationships? Why is it essential to differentiate between feelings and emotions in psychological practice? Conclusion: The study advocates for a clear understanding of feelings versus emotions to support clients in addressing unresolved issues and improving their overall psychological functioning and communication skills, thereby preventing potential conflicts and relationship challenges.

Keywords: couples, mental, misinformation, misunderstanding, relationships

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Authors: Raja Asad Zaheer, Aisha Tanveer, Hafza Mehreen Fatima

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Global Software Development (GSD) is becoming a common norm in software industry, despite of the fact that global distribution of the teams presents special issues for effective communication and coordination of the teams. Now trends are changing and project management for distributed teams is no longer in a limbo. GSD can be effectively established using agile and project managers can use different agile techniques/tools for solving the problems associated with distributed teams. Agile methodologies like scrum and XP have been successfully used with distributed teams. We have employed exploratory research method to analyze different recent studies related to challenges of GSD and their proposed solutions. In our study, we had deep insight in six commonly faced challenges: communication and coordination, temporal differences, cultural differences, knowledge sharing/group awareness, speed and communication tools. We have established that each of these challenges cannot be neglected for distributed teams of any kind. They are interlinked and as an aggregated whole can cause the failure of projects. In this paper we have focused on creating a scalable framework for detecting and overcoming these commonly faced challenges. In the proposed solution, our objective is to suggest agile techniques/tools relevant to a particular problem faced by the organizations related to the management of distributed teams. We focused mainly on scrum and XP techniques/tools because they are widely accepted and used in the industry. Our solution identifies the problem and suggests an appropriate technique/tool to help solve the problem based on globally shared knowledgebase. We can establish a cause and effect relationship using a fishbone diagram based on the inputs provided for issues commonly faced by organizations. Based on the identified cause, suitable tool is suggested, our framework suggests a suitable tool. Hence, a scalable, extensible, self-learning, intelligent framework proposed will help implement and assess GSD to achieve maximum out of it. Globally shared knowledgebase will help new organizations to easily adapt best practices set forth by the practicing organizations.

Keywords: agile project management, agile tools/techniques, distributed teams, global software development

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Authors: Adebola Adedugbe

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Agriculture is the mainstay of most countries in Africa. It employs up to 90 percent of the rural workforce, who are mostly youth and women. Engaging youths in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in agriculture is critical to economic and agricultural development of the African continent. The objective of this paper is to identify and mobilize the potentials of young Africans in agriculture through ICT and recognize their role as the dominant driver for sustainable agricultural development in Africa. This paper identifies the role of ICT as a tool for attracting youths to agriculture. The development of ICT is important in stimulating youths in SME’s to compete favorably and effectively as a way to fight poverty through job and wealth creation. It is one of the strategies for promoting entrepreneurship by increasing the availability and diversity of online information.

Keywords: Africa, agriculture, ICT, tool, youth

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Authors: Sonika Raj, Amarjeet Singh, Vijay Lakshmi Sharma

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Introduction: In 21st century, due to revolution in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), there has been phenomenal development in quality and quantity of knowledge in the field of medical science. So, the access to relevant information to physicians is critical to the delivery of effective healthcare services to patients. The study was conducted to assess the information needs and attitudes of the medical professionals; to determine the sources and channels of information used by them; to ascertain the current usage of ICTs and the barriers faced by them in utilization of ICTs in health information access. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried in 2015 on hundred medical professionals working in public and private sectors of Chandigarh. The study used both quantitative and qualitative method for data collection. A semi structured questionnaire and interview schedule was used to collect data on information seeking needs, access to ICTs and barriers to healthcare information access. Five Data analysis was done using SPSS-16 and qualitative data was analyzed using thematic approach. Results: The most preferred sources to access healthcare information were internet (85%), trainings (61%) and communication with colleagues (57%). They wanted information on new drug therapy and latest developments in respective fields. All had access to computer with but almost half assessed their computer knowledge as average and only 3% had received training regarding usage. Educational status (p=0.004), place of work (p=0.004), number of years in job (p=0.004) and sector of job (p=0.04) of doctors were found to be significantly associated with their active search for information. The major themes that emerged from in-views were need; types and sources of healthcare information; exchange of information among different levels of healthcare providers; usage of ICTs to obtain and share information; barriers to access of healthcare information and quality of health information materials and involvement in their development process Conclusion and Recommendations: The medical professionals need information in their in their due course of work. However, information needs of medical professionals were not being adequately met. There should be training of professional regarding internet skills and the course on bioinformatics should be incorporated in the curricula of medical students. The policy framework must be formulated that will encourage and promote the use of ICTs as tools for health information access and dissemination.

Keywords: health information, ICTs, medical professionals, qualitative

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Authors: R. Hellmuth

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The orientation of flexibility and adaptability with regard to factory planning is at machine and process level. Factory buildings are not the focus of current research. Factory planning has the task of designing products, plants, processes, organization, areas and the construction of a factory. The adaptability of a factory can be divided into three types: spatial, organizational and technical adaptability. Spatial adaptability indicates the ability to expand and reduce the size of a factory. Here, the area-related breathing capacity plays the essential role. It mainly concerns the factory site, the plant layout and the production layout. The organizational ability to change enables the change and adaptation of organizational structures and processes. This includes structural and process organization as well as logistical processes and principles. New and reconfigurable operating resources, processes and factory buildings are referred to as technical adaptability. These three types of adaptability can be regarded independently of each other as undirected potentials of different characteristics. If there is a need for change, the types of changeability in the change process are combined to form a directed, complementary variable that makes change possible. When planning adaptability, importance must be attached to a balance between the types of adaptability. The vision of the intelligent factory building and the 'Internet of Things' presupposes the comprehensive digitalization of the spatial and technical environment. Through connectivity, the factory building must be empowered to support a company's value creation process by providing media such as light, electricity, heat, refrigeration, etc. In the future, communication with the surrounding factory building will take place on a digital or automated basis. In the area of industry 4.0, the function of the building envelope belongs to secondary or even tertiary processes, but these processes must also be included in the communication cycle. An integrative view of a continuous communication of primary, secondary and tertiary processes is currently not yet available and is being developed with the aid of methods in this research work. A comparison of the digital twin from the point of view of production and the factory building will be developed. Subsequently, a tool will be elaborated to classify digital twins from the perspective of data, degree of visualization, and the trades. Thus a contribution is made to better integrate the secondary and tertiary processes in a factory into the added value.

Keywords: adaptability, digital factory twin, factory planning, industry 4.0

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Authors: Bello Ali

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The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in tertiary institutions by lecturers and students has become a necessity for the enhancement of quality teaching and learning. This study examined availability, accessibility and utilization of ICT in Teaching-Learning Islamic Studies in Colleges of Education, North-East, Nigeria. The study adopted multi-stage sampling technique, in which, five out of the eleven Colleges of Education (both Federal and State owned) were purposively selected for the study. Primary data was drawn from the respondents by the use of questionnaire, interviews and observations. The results of the study, generally, indicate that the availability and accessibility to ICT facilities in Colleges of Education in North-East, Nigeria, especially in teaching/learning delivery of Islamic studies were relatively inadequate and rare to lecturers and students. The study further reveals that the respondents’ level of utilization of ICT is low and only few computer packages and internet services were involved in the ICT utilization, which is yet to reach the real expected situation of the globalization and advancement in the application of ICT if compared to other parts of the world, as far as the teaching and learning of Islamic studies is concerned. Observations and conclusion were drawn from the findings and finally, recommendations on how to improve on ICT availability, accessibility and utilization in teaching/ learning were suggested.

Keywords: accessibility, availability, college of education, ICT, Islamic studies, learning, North-East, teaching, utilization

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Authors: Jihee Jang, Seowon Yoon, Gaeun Son, Minjung Kang, Joon Yeon Choeh, Kee-Hong Choi

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Background: Self-report multiple choice questionnaires have been widely utilized to quantitatively measure one’s personality and psychological constructs. Despite several strengths (e.g., brevity and utility), self-report multiple-choice questionnaires have considerable limitations in nature. With the rise of machine learning (ML) and Natural language processing (NLP), researchers in the field of psychology are widely adopting NLP to assess psychological constructs to predict human behaviors. However, there is a lack of connections between the work being performed in computer science and that psychology due to small data sets and unvalidated modeling practices. Aims: The current article introduces the study method and procedure of phase II, which includes the interview questions for the five-factor model (FFM) of personality developed in phase I. This study aims to develop the interview (semi-structured) and open-ended questions for the FFM-based personality assessments, specifically designed with experts in the field of clinical and personality psychology (phase 1), and to collect the personality-related text data using the interview questions and self-report measures on personality and psychological distress (phase 2). The purpose of the study includes examining the relationship between natural language data obtained from the interview questions, measuring the FFM personality constructs, and psychological distress to demonstrate the validity of the natural language-based personality prediction. Methods: The phase I (pilot) study was conducted on fifty-nine native Korean adults to acquire the personality-related text data from the interview (semi-structured) and open-ended questions based on the FFM of personality. The interview questions were revised and finalized with the feedback from the external expert committee, consisting of personality and clinical psychologists. Based on the established interview questions, a total of 425 Korean adults were recruited using a convenience sampling method via an online survey. The text data collected from interviews were analyzed using natural language processing. The results of the online survey, including demographic data, depression, anxiety, and personality inventories, were analyzed together in the model to predict individuals’ FFM of personality and the level of psychological distress (phase 2).

Keywords: personality prediction, psychological distress prediction, natural language processing, machine learning, the five-factor model of personality

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Authors: Jie Liu, Xudong Luo, Pingping Lin, Yifan Fan

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Facebook, Twitter, Weibo, and other social media and significant e-commerce sites generate a massive amount of online texts, which can be used to analyse people’s opinions or sentiments for better decision-making. So, sentiment analysis, especially fine-grained sentiment analysis, is a very active research topic. In this paper, we survey various methods for fine-grained sentiment analysis, including traditional sentiment lexicon-based methods, machine learning-based methods, and deep learning-based methods in aspect/target/attribute-based sentiment analysis tasks. Besides, we discuss their advantages and problems worthy of careful studies in the future.

Keywords: sentiment analysis, fine-grained, machine learning, deep learning

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Authors: Samar Mousa, Ryan Kerstein, Mohanad Adam

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Regional anaesthesia has been associated with favourable outcomes in patients undergoing a wide range of surgeries. Beneficial effects have been demonstrated in terms of postoperative respiratory and cardiovascular endpoints, 7-day survival, time to ambulation and hospital discharge, and postoperative analgesia. Our project aimed at assessing the regional anaesthesia practice in the plastic surgery department of Buckinghamshire trust and finding out ways to improve the service in collaboration with the anaesthesia team. It is a retrospective study associated with a questionnaire filled out by plastic surgeons and anaesthetists to get the full picture behind the numbers. The study period was between 1/3/2022 and 23/5/2022 (12 weeks). The operative notes of all patients who had an operation under plastic surgery, whether emergency or elective, were reviewed. The criteria of suitable candidates for the regional block were put by the consultant anaesthetists as follows: age above 16, single surgical site (arm, forearm, leg, foot), no drug allergy, no pre-existing neuropathy, no bleeding disorders, not on ant-coagulation, no infection to the site of the block. For 12 weeks, 1061 operations were performed by plastic surgeons. Local cases were excluded leaving 319 cases. Of the 319, 102 patients were suitable candidates for regional block after applying the previously mentioned criteria. However, only seven patients had their operations under the regional block, and the rest had general anaesthesia that could have been easily avoided. An online questionnaire was filled out by both plastic surgeons and anaesthetists of different training levels to find out the reasons behind the obvious preference for general over regional anaesthesia, even if this was against the patients’ interest. The questionnaire included the following points: training level, time taken to give GA or RA, factors that influence the decision, percentage of RA candidates that had GA, reasons behind this percentage, recommendations. Forty-four clinicians filled out the questionnaire, among which were 23 plastic surgeons and 21 anaesthetists. As regards the training level, there were 21 consultants, 4 associate specialists, 9 registrars, and 10 senior house officers. The actual percentage of patients who were good candidates for RA but had GA instead is 93%. The replies estimated this percentage as between 10-30%. 29% of the respondents thought that this percentage is because of surgeons’ preference to have GA rather than RA for their operations without medical support for the decision. 37% of the replies thought that anaesthetists prefer giving GA even if the patient is a suitable candidate for RA. 22.6% of the replies thought that patients refused to have RA, and 11.3% had other causes. The recommendations were in 5 main accesses, which are protocols and pathways for regional blocks, more training opportunities for anaesthetists on regional blocks, providing a separate block room in the hospital, better communication between surgeons and anaesthetists, patient education about the benefits of regional blocks.

Keywords: regional anaesthesia, regional block, plastic surgery, general anaesthesia

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Authors: Salman Naseer, Usman Zafar, Iqra Zafar

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This study explores the implication of Vehicular Adhoc Network (VANET) - in the rural and urban scenarios that is one domain of Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET). VANET provides wireless communication between vehicle to vehicle and also roadside units. The Federal Commission Committee of United States of American has been allocated 75 MHz of the spectrum band in the 5.9 GHz frequency range for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) that are specifically designed to enhance any road safety applications and entertainment/information applications. There are several vehicular related projects viz; California path, car 2 car communication consortium, the ETSI, and IEEE 1609 working group that have already been conducted to improve the overall road safety or traffic management. After the critical literature review, the selection of routing protocols is determined, and its performance was well thought-out in the urban and rural scenarios. Numerous routing protocols for VANET are applied to carry out current research. Its evaluation was conceded with the help of selected protocols through simulation via performance metric i.e. throughput and packet drop. Excel and Google graph API tools are used for plotting the graphs after the simulation results in order to compare the selected routing protocols which result with each other. In addition, the sum of the output from each scenario was computed to undoubtedly present the divergence in results. The findings of the current study present that DSR gives enhanced performance for low packet drop and high throughput as compared to AODV and DSDV in an urban congested area and in rural environments. On the other hand, in low-density area, VANET AODV gives better results as compared to DSR. The worth of the current study may be judged as the information exchanged between vehicles is useful for comfort, safety, and entertainment. Furthermore, the communication system performance depends on the way routing is done in the network and moreover, the routing of the data based on protocols implement in the network. The above-presented results lead to policy implication and develop our understanding of the broader spectrum of VANET.

Keywords: AODV, DSDV, DSR, Adhoc network

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Authors: John Ibanga

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Since May 1999, when Nigeria returned to uninterrupted democratic rule, there have been various attempts by successive governments at committing themselves to democratic ideals. Such efforts include a revision of communication policies after repeated calls by civil society organisations, development partners, researchers, and academics to allow not only the commencement of campus radio broadcasting but also the takeoff of community radio broadcasting. Thus, in 2015, operating licenses were granted to several communities spread across the six geopolitical zones in the country for the establishment of community radio stations culminating in the establishment of the first community radio in Nigeria on July 17, 2015. And, since citizens’ involvement in policy matters and governance is one of the tenets of participatory democracy, it becomes imperative to investigate how the emerging community radio sector in Nigeria is facilitating participatory democracy among Nigerians, even in the face of attempts by the present government to silence all dissenting voices. This study, therefore, examines how residents in Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria, are utilising programmes on Ejule Nen and Kakaaki community radio stations in Ondo State, Nigeria, to deepen participatory democracy. Much of the existing studies on the role of community radio in participatory democracy and citizens' engagement efforts miss out on Nigeria because of the delayed implementation of community radio policy in Nigeria being Africa’s most populous nation as well as a major player in the affairs of the African continent. While the participatory communication and communication infrastructure theories were used as framework, data were collected from in-depth interviews with staff of the community radio station and community leaders, focus group discussions with the community residents, and qualitative content analysis of programmes on the station. The residents used the community radio stations as platforms for demanding accountability from government, mobilising resources for the execution of a number of community projects, promoting credible electoral practices, and influencing the implementation of free education policy in their communities. Hence the community radio stations became the reliable and authoritative voices of residents for participating in the public sphere and, generally, the democratic process.

Keywords: community, community radio, democracy, participatory democracy

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Authors: Jae Hyun Park, Sangmi Chai, Minkyun Kim

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As users spend more time on the Internet, the probability of their personal information being exposed has been growing. This research has a main purpose of investigating factors and examining relationships when Internet users recognize their value of private information with a perspective of an economic asset. The study is targeted on Internet users, and the value of their private information will be converted into economic figures. Moreover, how economic value changes in relation with individual attributes, dealer’s traits, circumstantial properties will be studied. In this research, the changes in factors on private information value responding to different situations will be analyzed in an economic perspective. Additionally, this study examines the associations between users’ perceived risk and value of their personal information. By using the cost-benefit analysis framework, the hypothesis that the user’s sense in private information value can be influenced by individual attributes and situational properties will be tested. Therefore, this research will attempt to provide answers for three research objectives. First, this research will identify factors that affect value recognition of users’ personal information. Second, it provides evidences that there are differences on information system users’ economic value of information responding to personal, trade opponent, and situational attributes. Third, it investigates the impact of those attributes on individuals’ perceived risk. Based on the assumption that personal, trade opponent and situation attributes make an impact on the users’ value recognition on private information, this research will present the understandings on the different impacts of those attributes in recognizing the value of information with the economic perspective and prove the associative relationships between perceived risk and decision on the value of users’ personal information. In order to validate our research model, this research used the regression methodology. Our research results support that information breach experience and information security systems is associated with users’ perceived risk. Information control and uncertainty are also related to users’ perceived risk. Therefore, users’ perceived risk is considered as a significant factor on evaluating the value of personal information. It can be differentiated by trade opponent and situational attributes. This research presents new perspective on evaluating the value of users’ personal information in the context of perceived risk, personal, trade opponent and situational attributes. It fills the gap in the literature by providing how users’ perceived risk are associated with personal, trade opponent and situation attitudes in conducting business transactions with providing personal information. It adds to previous literature that the relationship exists between perceived risk and the value of users’ private information in the economic perspective. It also provides meaningful insights to the managers that in order to minimize the cost of information breach, managers need to recognize the value of individuals’ personal information and decide the proper amount of investments on protecting users’ online information privacy.

Keywords: private information, value, users, perceived risk, online information privacy, attributes

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Authors: Julie Devine

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This presentation will look at the approaches to teaching grammar taken over two years with students studying Japanese in the last two years of high school. The main focus is an enquiry based approach to grammar introduction and a three tier system using videos and online support material to allow for differentiation and personalised learning in the classroom. The aim is to create space for motivated students to do some higher order activities using the target pattern to solve problems and create scenarios. Less motivated students have time to complete basic exercises and struggling students have some time with the teacher in smaller groups.

Keywords: differentiation, digital technologies, personalised learning plans, student engagement

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Authors: Yolanda Ramírez, Ángel Tejada, Agustín Baidez

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the quality of voluntary intellectual capital disclosure by public Spanish universities on their websites. To this end, a content analysis was used to analyze the websites of 50 public Spanish universities i 2016. The results of this study show that human capital was the most disclosed category with relational capital being the least frequently disclosed in Spain. However, the quality of structural capital disclosures was higher than relational and human capital. Finally, most IC disclosures were narrative in nature.

Keywords: intellectual capital, quality disclosure, websites, universities, Spain

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Authors: Qianjia Cheng, Hongquan Jiang

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Crowdsourcing solves the problems that computers can't handle by integrating computers and the Internet. Its extensive knowledge sources, high efficiency and high quality, make crowdsourcing attract wide attention in industry and academia in recent years. The development of online crowdsourcing platforms such as Clickworker and Amazon Mechanical Turk(Mturk) tend to mature gradually. This paper sorts out the concept of crowdsourcing, sorts out the workflow of competitive crowdsourcing, summarizes the related technologies of crowdsourcing based on the workflow, quality control, cost control and delay control, introduces the typical crowdsourcing platform. Finally, we highlight some open problems of the current crowdsourcing and present some future research direction in this area.

Keywords: application, crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing platform, system architecture

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Authors: Kavita Goel, Donald Winchester

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In a world of information overload and work complexities, academics often struggle to create an online instructional environment enabling efficient and effective student learning. Research has established that students’ learning styles are different, some learn faster when taught using audio and visual methods. Attributes like prior knowledge and mental effort affect their learning. ‘Cognitive load theory’, opines learners have limited processing capacity. Cognitive load depends on the learner’s prior knowledge, the complexity of content and tasks, and instructional environment. Hence, the proper allocation of cognitive resources is critical for students’ learning. Consequently, a lecturer needs to understand the limits and strengths of the human learning processes, various learning styles of students, and accommodate these requirements while designing online assessments. As acknowledged in the cognitive load theory literature, visual and auditory explanations of worked examples potentially lead to a reduction of cognitive load (effort) and increased facilitation of learning when compared to conventional sequential text problem solving. This will help learner to utilize both subcomponents of their working memory. Instructional design changes were introduced at the case site for the delivery of the postgraduate business subjects. To make effective use of auditory and visual modalities, video recorded lectures, and key concept webinars were delivered to students. Videos were prepared to free up student limited working memory from irrelevant mental effort as all elements in a visual screening can be viewed simultaneously, processed quickly, and facilitates greater psychological processing efficiency. Most case study students in the postgraduate programs are adults, working full-time at higher management levels, and studying part-time. Their learning style and needs are different from other tertiary students. The purpose of the audio and visual interventions was to lower the students cognitive load and provide an online environment supportive to their efficient learning. These changes were expected to impact the student’s learning experience, their academic performance and retention favourably. This paper posits that these changes to instruction design facilitates students to integrate new knowledge into their long-term memory. A mixed methods case study methodology was used in this investigation. Primary data were collected from interviews and survey(s) of students and academics. Secondary data were collected from the organisation’s databases and reports. Some evidence was found that the academic performance of students does improve when new instructional design changes are introduced although not statistically significant. However, the overall grade distribution of student’s academic performance has changed and skewed higher which shows deeper understanding of the content. It was identified from feedback received from students that recorded webinars served as better learning aids than material with text alone, especially with more complex content. The recorded webinars on the subject content and assessments provides flexibility to students to access this material any time from repositories, many times, and this enhances students learning style. Visual and audio information enters student’s working memory more effectively. Also as each assessment included the application of the concepts, conceptual knowledge interacted with the pre-existing schema in the long-term memory and lowered student’s cognitive load.

Keywords: cognitive load theory, learning style, instructional environment, working memory

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Authors: Suby Khanam, Faisal Talib, Jamshed Siddiqui

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Total Quality Management (TQM) is a managerial approach that improves the competitiveness of the industry, meanwhile Information technology (IT) was introduced with TQM for handling the technical issues which is supported by quality experts for fulfilling the customers’ requirement. Present paper aims to utilise AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) methodology to priorities and rank the hierarchy levels of TQM enablers and IT resource together for its successful implementation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. A total of 17 TQM enablers (nine) and IT resources (eight) were identified and partitioned into 3 categories and were prioritised by AHP approach. The finding indicates that the 17 sub-criteria can be grouped into three main categories namely organizing, tools and techniques, and culture and people. Further, out of 17 sub-criteria, three sub-criteria: Top management commitment and support, total employee involvement, and continuous improvement got highest priority whereas three sub-criteria such as structural equation modelling, culture change, and customer satisfaction got lowest priority. The result suggests a hierarchy model for ICT industry to prioritise the enablers and resources as well as to improve the TQM and IT performance in the ICT industry. This paper has some managerial implication which suggests the managers of ICT industry to implement TQM and IT together in their organizations to get maximum benefits and how to utilize available resources. At the end, conclusions, limitation, future scope of the study are presented.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, information technology, information and communication technology, prioritization, total quality management

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Authors: Arshia Ayoub, Zahid Ashraf Wani

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With the introduction of online social Q&A sites, people are able to reach each other efficiently for information seeking and simultaneously creating social bonds. There prevails an issue of low or no response for some questions posed by an information seeker on these sites. So this study tries to understand the effect of question type on responses in Social Q & A sites. The study found that among the answered queries, majority of them were answered within 24 hours of posting the questions and surprisingly most replies were received within one hour of posting. It was observed that questions of general information type were most likely to be answered followed by verification type.

Keywords: community‐based services, information seeking, social search, social Q&A site

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Authors: Ibrahim Alkandi

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This study aims at understanding how banks can utilize their resources and capabilities to achieve a competitive advantage. The resource-based approach has been applied to assess the resources and capabilities as well as how the management perceives them as sources of competitive advantages. A quantitative approach was implemented using cross-sectional data. The research population consisted of Top managers in financial companies in Saudi Arabia, and the sample comprised 79 managers. The resources were sub divided into tangible and intangible. Among the variables that will be assessed in the research include propriety rights, trademark which is the brand, communication as well as organizational culture. To achieve the objective of the research, Multivariate analysis through multiple regression was used. The research tool used is a questionnaire whose validity is also assessed. According to the results of the study, there is a significant relationship between bank’s performance and the strategic management of propriety rights, trademark, administrative and financial skills as well as bank culture. Therefore, the research assessed four aspects, among the variables in the model, in relation to the strategic performance of these banks. The aspects considered were trademark, communication, administrative and leadership style as well as the company’s culture. Hence, this paper contributes to the body of literature by providing empirical evidence of the resources influencing both banks’ market and economic performance.

Keywords: competitive advantage, Saudi banks, strategic management, RBV

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Authors: Medhin Haftom Hailu

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The advancement of information technology has significantly impacted Ethiopia's economy, driving innovation, productivity, job creation, and global connectivity. This research examined the impact of contemporary information and communication technologies on Ethiopian economic progress. The study examined eight variables, including mobile, internet, and fixed-line penetration rates, and five macroeconomic control variables. The results showed a positive and strong effect of ICT on economic growth in Ethiopia, with 1% increase in mobile, internet, and fixed line services penetration indexes resulting in an 8.03, 10.05, and 30.06% increase in real GDP. The Granger causality test showed that all ICT variables Granger caused economic growth, but economic growth Granger caused mobile penetration rate only. The study suggests that coordinated ICT infrastructure development, increased telecom service accessibility, and increased competition in the telecom market are crucial for Ethiopia's economic growth. Ethiopia is attempting to establish a digital economy through massive investment in ensuring ICT quality and accessibility. Thus, the research could enhance in understanding of the economic impact of ICT expansion for successful ICT policy interventions for future research.

Keywords: economic growth, cointegration and error correction, ICT expansion, granger causality, penetration

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Authors: Nathaniel Oladimeji Dixon, Adekemi Dorcas Fadun

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Educational managers have observed a downward trend in the administrative effectiveness of non-teaching staff in federal universities in South-west Nigeria. This is evident in the low-quality service delivery of administrators and unaccomplished institutional goals and missions of higher education. Scholars have thus indicated the need for the deployment and adoption of a practice that encourages information collection and sharing among stakeholders with a view to improving service delivery and outcomes. This study examined the extent to which knowledge management correlated with the administrative effectiveness of non-teaching staff in federal universities in South-west Nigeria. The study adopted the survey design. Three federal universities (the University of Ibadan, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and Obafemi Awolowo University) were purposively selected because administrative ineffectiveness was more pronounced among non-teaching staff in government-owned universities, and these federal universities were long established. The proportional and stratified random sampling was adopted to select 1156 non-teaching staff across the three universities along the three existing layers of the non-teaching staff: secretarial (senior=311; junior=224), non-secretarial (senior=147; junior=241) and technicians (senior=130; junior=103). Knowledge Management Practices Questionnaire with four sub-scales: knowledge creation (α=0.72), knowledge utilization (α=0.76), knowledge sharing (α=0.79) and knowledge transfer (α=0.83); and Administrative Effectiveness Questionnaire with four sub-scales: communication (α=0.84), decision implementation (α=0.75), service delivery (α=0.81) and interpersonal relationship (α=0.78) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance, while qualitative data were content analyzed. About 59.8% of the non-teaching staff exhibited a low level of knowledge management. The indices of administrative effectiveness of non-teaching staff were rated as follows: service delivery (82.0%), communication (78.0%), decision implementation (71.0%) and interpersonal relationship (68.0%). Knowledge management had significant relationships with the indices of administrative effectiveness: service delivery (r=0.82), communication (r=0.81), decision implementation (r=0.80) and interpersonal relationship (r=0.47). Knowledge management had a significant joint prediction on administrative effectiveness (F (4;1151)= 0.79, R=0.86), accounting for 73.0% of its variance. Knowledge sharing (β=0.38), knowledge transfer (β=0.26), knowledge utilization (β=0.22), and knowledge creation (β=0.06) had relatively significant contributions to administrative effectiveness. Lack of team spirit and withdrawal syndrome is the major perceived constraints to knowledge management practices among the non-teaching staff. Knowledge management positively influenced the administrative effectiveness of the non-teaching staff in federal universities in South-west Nigeria. There is a need to ensure that the non-teaching staff imbibe team spirit and embrace teamwork with a view to eliminating their withdrawal syndromes. Besides, knowledge management practices should be deployed into the administrative procedures of the university system.

Keywords: knowledge management, administrative effectiveness of non-teaching staff, federal universities in the south-west of nigeria., knowledge creation, knowledge utilization, effective communication, decision implementation

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Authors: Tayyaba Hussain, Sobia Jangsher, Saqib Ali, Saqib Ejaz

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Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAV’s) have gained great popularity due to their remoteness, ease of deployment and high maneuverability in different applications like real-time surveillance, image capturing, weather atmospheric studies, disaster site monitoring and mapping. These applications can involve a real-time communication with the ground station. However, altitude and mobility possess a few challenges for the communication. UAV’s at high altitude usually require more transmit power. One possible solution can be with the use of multi hops (UAV’s acting as relays) and exploiting the mobility pattern of the UAV’s. In this paper, we studied a relay (UAV’s acting as relays) selection for a reliable transmission to a destination UAV. We exploit the mobility information of the UAV’s to propose a Mobility-Aware Relay Selection (MARS) algorithm with the objective of giving improved data rates. The results are compared with Non Mobility-Aware relay selection scheme and optimal values. Numerical results show that our proposed MARS algorithm gives 6% better achievable data rates for the mobile UAV’s as compared with Non MobilityAware relay selection scheme. On average a decrease of 20.2% in data rate is achieved with MARS as compared with SDP solver in Yalmip.

Keywords: mobility aware, relay selection, time division multiple acess, unmanned aerial vehicle

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Authors: Ram A. Giri, Amna Bedri, Abdou Niane

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Exclusion in education on the basis of language in multilingual contexts operates at multiple levels. Learners of diverse ethnolinguistic backgrounds are often expected to learn through English and are pushed further down the learning ladder if they also have to access education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The paper explores marginalized children’s lived experiences in accessing technology and English in four low-income countries in Africa and Asia. Based on the findings of the first phase of a multinational qualitative research study, we report on the factors or barriers that affect children’s access, opportunities and motivation for learning through technology and English. ICT and English - the language of ICT and education - can enhance learning and can even be essential. However, these two important keys to education can also function as barriers to accessing quality education, and therefore as zones of exclusion. This paper looks into how marginalized children (aged 13-15) engage in learning through ICT and English and to what extent the restrictive access and opportunities contribute to the widening of the already existing gap in education. By applying the conceptual frameworks of “access and accessibility of learning” and “zones of exclusion,” the paper elucidates how the barriers prevent children’s effective engagement with learning and addresses such questions as to how marginalized children access technology and English for learning; whether the children value English, and what their motivation and opportunity to learn it are. In addition, the paper will point out policy and pedagogic implications.

Keywords: exclusion, inclusion, inclusive education, marginalization

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Authors: Ming Gao, Matthew Tingchi Liu, Hoi Ngan Loi

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Live streaming refers to the video contents generated by broadcasters and shared with viewers in real-time by uploading them to short-video platforms. In recent years, individual KOL broadcasters have successfully made use of live streams to sell a large amount of goods to the consumers. For example, Wei Ya, the Number 1 broadcaster in Taobao Live, sold products worth RMB 2.7 billion (USD 0.38 billion) in 2018. Regarding the success of live streaming commerce (LSC) in China, this study explores the elements of the booming LSC industry and attempts to explain the reasons behind its prosperity. A systematic review of industry reports and academic papers was conducted to summarize the latest findings in this field. And the results of this investigation showed that a live streaming eco-system has been established by the LSC players, namely, the platform, the broadcaster, the product supplier, and the viewer. In this eco-system, all players have complementary advantages and needs, and their close cooperation leads to a win-win situation. For instance, platforms and broadcasters have abundant internet traffic, which needs to be monetized, while product suppliers have mature supply chains and the need of promoting the products. In addition, viewers are attached to the LSC platforms to get product information, bargains, and entertainment. This study highlights the importance of the mass-personal hybrid communication nature of live streaming because its interpersonal communication feature increases consumers’ positive experiences, while its mass media broadcasting feature facilitates product promotion. Another innovative point of this study lies in its inclusion of the special characteristic of Chinese Internet culture - entertainment. The entertaining genres of the live streams created by broadcasters serve as down-to-earth approaches to reach their audiences easily. Further, the nature of video, i.e., the dynamic and salient stimulus, is emphasized in this study. Since video is more engaging, it can attract viewers in a quick and easy way. Meanwhile, the abundant, interesting, high-quality, and free short videos have added “stickiness” to platforms by retaining users and prolonging their staying time on the platforms. In addition, broadcasters’ important characters, such as physical attractiveness, humor, sex appeal, kindness, communication skills, and interactivity, are also identified as important factors that influence consumers’ engagement and purchase intention. In conclusion, all players have their own proper places in this live streaming eco-system, in which they work seamlessly to give full play to their respective advantages, with each player taking what it needs and offering what it has. This has contributed to the success of live streaming commerce in China.

Keywords: broadcasters, communication, entertainment, live streaming commerce, viewers

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Authors: Qianjia Cheng, Hongquan Jiang

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Crowdsourcing solves the problems that computers can't handle by integrating computers and the Internet. Its extensive knowledge sources, high efficiency, and high quality have made crowdsourcing attract wide attention in industry and academia in recent years. The development of online crowdsourcing platforms such as Clickworker, Amazon Mechanical Turk(Mturk) tends to mature gradually. This paper sorts out the concept of crowdsourcing, sorts out the workflow of competitive crowdsourcing, summarizes the related technologies of crowdsourcing based on workflow, quality control, cost control, and delay control, and introduces the typical crowdsourcing platform. Finally, we highlight some open problems of the current crowdsourcing and present some future research directions in this area.

Keywords: application, crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing platform, system architecture

Procedia PDF Downloads 71