Search results for: Development in higher education

Authors: Chalise Kiran

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The prime idea of inclusive education is to mainstream every child in education. However, it will be challenging for implementation when there are policy and practice gaps. It will be even more challenging when children have disabilities. Generally, the focus will be on the policy gap, but the problem may not always be with policy. The proper practice could be a challenge in the countries like Nepal. In determining practice, the teachers’ perceptions toward inclusive will play a vital role. Nepal has categorized disability in 7 types (physical, visual, hearing, vision/hearing, speech, mental, and multiple). Out of these, hearing impairment is the study realm. In the context of a limited number of researches on children with disabilities and rare researches on CWHI and their education in Nepal, this study is a pioneering effort in knowing basically the problems and challenges of CWHI focused on inclusive education in the schools including gaps and barriers in its proper implementation. Philosophically, the paradigm of the study is post-positivism. In the post-positivist worldview, the quantitative approach with the description of the situation and inferential relationship are revealed out in the study. This is related to the natural model of objective reality. The data were collected from an individual survey with the teachers and head teachers of 35 schools in Nepal. The survey questionnaire was prepared and filled by the respondents from the schools where the CWHI study in 7 provincial 20 districts of Nepal. Through these considerations, the perceptions of CWHI focused inclusive education were explored in the study. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential tools on which the Likert scale-based analysis was done for descriptive analysis, and chi-square mathematical tool was used to know the significant relationship between dependent variables and independent variables. The descriptive analysis showed that the majority of teachers have positive perceptions toward implementing CWHI focused inclusive education, and the majority of them have positive perceptions toward CWHI focused inclusive education, though there are some problems and challenges. The study has found out the major challenges and problems categorically. Some of them are: a large number of students in a single class; availability of generic textbooks for CWHI and no availability of textbooks to all students; less opportunity for teachers to acquire knowledge on CWHI; not adequate teachers in the schools; no flexibility in the curriculum; less information system in schools; no availability of educational consular; disaster-prone students; no child abuse control strategy; no disabled-friendly schools; no free health check-up facility; no participation of the students in school activities and in child clubs and so on. By and large, it is found that teachers’ age, gender, years of experience, position, employment status, and disability with him or her show no statistically significant relation to successfully implement CWHI focused inclusive education and perceptions to CWHI focused inclusive education in schools. However, in some of the cases, the set null hypothesis was rejected, and some are completely retained. The study has suggested policy implications, implications for educational authority, and implications for teachers and parents categorically.

Keywords: Children with hearing impairment, disability, inclusive education, perception.

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Authors: Sokkhey Phauk, Takeo Okazaki

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The challenging task in educational institutions is to maximize the high performance of students and minimize the failure rate of poor-performing students. An effective method to leverage this task is to know student learning patterns with highly influencing factors and get an early prediction of student learning outcomes at the timely stage for setting up policies for improvement. Educational data mining (EDM) is an emerging disciplinary field of data mining, statistics, and machine learning concerned with extracting useful knowledge and information for the sake of improvement and development in the education environment. The study is of this work is to propose techniques in EDM and integrate it into a web-based system for predicting poor-performing students. A comparative study of prediction models is conducted. Subsequently, high performing models are developed to get higher performance. The hybrid random forest (Hybrid RF) produces the most successful classification. For the context of intervention and improving the learning outcomes, a feature selection method MICHI, which is the combination of mutual information (MI) and chi-square (CHI) algorithms based on the ranked feature scores, is introduced to select a dominant feature set that improves the performance of prediction and uses the obtained dominant set as information for intervention. By using the proposed techniques of EDM, an academic performance prediction system (APPS) is subsequently developed for educational stockholders to get an early prediction of student learning outcomes for timely intervention. Experimental outcomes and evaluation surveys report the effectiveness and usefulness of the developed system. The system is used to help educational stakeholders and related individuals for intervening and improving student performance.

Keywords: Academic performance prediction system, prediction model, educational data mining, dominant factors, feature selection methods, student performance.

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Authors: Christina Van Wingerden

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The aim of this paper is to propose pedagogical design for learning management systems (LMS) that offers greater inclusion for students based on a number of theoretical perspectives and delineated through an example. Considering the impact of COVID-19, including on student mental health, the research suggesting the importance of student sense of belonging on retention, success, and student well-being, the author describes intentional LMS design incorporating theoretically based practices informed by critical theory, feminist theory, indigenous theory and practices, and new materiality. This article considers important aspects of these theories and practices which attend to inclusion, identities, and socially just learning environments. Additionally, increasing student sense of belonging and mental health through LMS design influenced by adult learning theory and the community of inquiry model are described.  The process of thinking through LMS pedagogical design with inclusion intentionally in mind affords the opportunity to allow LMS to go beyond course use as a repository of documents, to an intentional community of practice that facilitates belonging and connection, something much needed in our times. In virtual learning environments it has been harder to discern how students are doing, especially in feeling connected to their courses, their faculty, and their student peers. Increasingly at the forefront of public universities is addressing the needs of students with multiple and intersecting identities and the multiplicity of needs and accommodations. Education in 2020, and moving forward, calls for embedding critical theories and inclusive ideals and pedagogies to the ways instructors design and teach in online platforms. Through utilization of critical theoretical frameworks and instructional practices, students may experience the LMS as a welcoming place with intentional plans for welcoming diversity in identities.

Keywords: Belonging, critical pedagogy, instructional design, Learning Management System, LMS.

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Authors: Cleto J. Sauer Jr

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Introduction: Brazil’s new national curriculum guidelines (NCG) for medical education were published in 2014, presenting active learning methodologies as a cornerstone. Simulation was initially applied for aviation pilots’ training and is currently applied in health sciences. The high-fidelity simulator replicates human body anatomy in detail, also reproducing physiological functions and its use is increasing in medical schools. Realistic Simulation (RS) has pedagogical aspects that are aligned with Brazil’s NCG teaching concepts. The main objective of this study is to carry on a narrative review on RS’s aspects that are aligned with Brazil’s new NCG teaching concepts. Methodology: A narrative review was conducted, with search in three databases (PubMed, Embase and BVS) of studies published between 2010 and 2020. Results: After systematized search, 49 studies were selected and divided into four thematic groups. RS is aligned with new Brazilian medical curriculum as it is an active learning methodology, providing greater patient safety, uniform teaching, and student's emotional skills enhancement. RS is based on reflective learning, a teaching concept developed for adult’s education. Conclusion: RS is a methodology aligned with NCG teaching concepts and has potential to assist in the implementation of new Brazilian medical school’s curriculum. It is an immersive and interactive methodology, which provides reflective learning in a safe environment for students and patients.

Keywords: Curriculum, high-fidelity simulator, medical education, realistic simulation.

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Authors: Zohreh Bang Tavakoli, Shuktika Chatterjee

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This study is investigating the impact of ideological structures in terms of conservative and liberal on shaping immigration acceptance attitudes under the contribution of socio-economic status. According to motivated reasoning theory, political ideology is identified as a recurrent impact on the formation of attitude, while conservatives tend to express more hostility toward immigrants in comparison to liberals which are proposed to be more tolerant towards immigrants. Our finding suggests that political ideology will structure individual attitudes when citizens socio-economic vulnerability and level of education are low enough to consider immigrants as a threat. Therefore, economic vulnerability is proposed to weaken the ideological predispositions’ resistance. There has been some threats and factors such as level of education and economic condition proposed by group competition theory and labor market competition theory as fundamental factors which can strengthen or weaken the effects of political ideology on individuals’ attitudes towards immigration; those mechanisms for liberals and conservatives will be operated differently.

Keywords: Conservative, immigration, liberal, political ideology.

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Authors: V. Tawiwat, T. Amornthep, P. Pnop

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Both the minimum energy consumption and smoothness, which is quantified as a function of jerk, are generally needed in many dynamic systems such as the automobile and the pick-and-place robot manipulator that handles fragile equipments. Nevertheless, many researchers come up with either solely concerning on the minimum energy consumption or minimum jerk trajectory. This research paper considers the indirect minimum Jerk method for higher order differential equation in dynamics optimization proposes a simple yet very interesting indirect jerks approaches in designing the time-dependent system yielding an alternative optimal solution. Extremal solutions for the cost functions of indirect jerks are found using the dynamic optimization methods together with the numerical approximation. This case considers the linear equation of a simple system, for instance, mass, spring and damping. The simple system uses two mass connected together by springs. The boundary initial is defined the fix end time and end point. The higher differential order is solved by Galerkin-s methods weight residual. As the result, the 6th higher differential order shows the faster solving time.

Keywords: Optimization, Dynamic, Linear Systems, Jerks.

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Authors: Peter Burggräf, Moritz Krunke, Hanno Voet

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Due to shortening product and technology lifecycles, many companies use standardization approaches in product development and factory planning to reduce costs and time to market. Unlike large companies, where modular systems are already widely used, small and medium-sized companies often show a much lower degree of standardization due to lower scale effects and missing capacities for the development of these standards. To overcome these challenges, the development of industry sector specific standards in cooperations or by third parties is an interesting approach. This paper analyzes which branches that are mainly dominated by small or medium-sized companies might be especially interesting for the development of factory standards using the example of the German industry. For this, a key performance indicator based approach was developed that will be presented in detail with its specific results for the German industry structure.

Keywords: Factory planning, factory standards, industry sector specific standardization, production planning.

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Authors: Omid Noroozi

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Digital dialogue games have opened up opportunities for learning skills by engaging students in complex problem solving that mimic real world situations, without importing unwanted constraints and risks of the real world. Digital dialogue games can be motivating and engaging to students for fun, creative thinking, and learning. This study explored how undergraduate students engage with argumentative discourse activities which have been designed to intensify debate. A pre-test, post-test design was used with students who were assigned to groups of four and asked to debate a controversial topic with the aim of exploring various 'pros and cons' on the 'Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)'. Findings reveal that the Digital dialogue game can facilitate argumentation-based learning. The digital Dialogue game was also evaluated positively in terms of students’ satisfaction and learning experiences.

Keywords: Argumentation, dialogue, digital game, learning, motivation.

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Authors: Jiri Barta

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This paper deals with a simulation programs and technologies using in the educational process for members of the crisis management. Risk analysis, simulation, preparation and planning are among the main activities of workers of crisis management. Made correctly simulation of emergency defines the extent of the danger. On this basis, it is possible to effectively prepare and plan measures to minimize damage. The paper is focused on simulation programs that are trained at the University of Defence. Implementation of the outputs from simulation programs in decision-making processes of crisis staffs is one of the main tasks of the research project.

Keywords: Crisis Management, Continuity, Critical Infrastructure, Dangerous substance, Education, Flood, Simulation Programs.

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Authors: Kari Björn, Mikael Soini

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Higher Education system reforms, especially Finnish system of Universities of Applied Sciences in 2014 are discussed. The new steering model is based on major legislative changes, output-oriented funding and open information. The governmental steering reform, especially the financial model and the resulting institutional level responses, such as a curriculum reforms are discussed, focusing especially in engineering programs. The paper is motivated by management need to establish objective steering-related performance indicators and to apply them consistently across all educational programs. The close relationship to governmental steering and funding model imply that internally derived indicators can be directly applied. Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (MUAS) as a case institution is briefly introduced, focusing on engineering education in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and its related programs. The reform forced consolidation of previously separate smaller programs into fewer units of student application. New curriculum ICT students have a common first year before they apply for a Major. A framework of parallel and longitudinal comparisons is introduced and used across Majors in two campuses. The new externally introduced performance criteria are applied internally on ICT Majors using data ex-ante and ex-post of program merger.  A comparative performance of the Majors after completion of joint first year is established, focusing on previously omitted Majors for completeness of analysis. Some new research questions resulting from transfer of Majors between campuses and quota setting are discussed. Practical orientation identifies best practices to share or targets needing most attention for improvement. This level of analysis is directly applicable at student group and teaching team level, where corrective actions are possible, when identified. The analysis is quantitative and the nature of the corrective actions are not discussed. Causal relationships and factor analysis are omitted, because campuses, their staff and various pedagogical implementation details contain still too many undetermined factors for our limited data. Such qualitative analysis is left for further research. Further study must, however, be guided by the relevance of the observations.

Keywords: Engineering education, integrated curriculum, learning outcomes, performance measurement.

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Authors: Hasan.O. Farahneh, Ayman A. Issa

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Software development is moving towards agility with use cases and scenarios being used for requirements stories. Estimates of software costs are becoming even more important than before as effects of delays is much larger in successive short releases context of agile development. Thus, this paper reports on the development of new linear use case based software cost estimation model applicable in the very early stages of software development being based on simple metric. Evaluation showed that accuracy of estimates varies between 43% and 55% of actual effort of historical test projects. These results outperformed those of wellknown models when applied in the same context. Further work is being carried out to improve the performance of the proposed model when considering the effect of non-functional requirements.

Keywords: Metrics, Software Cost Estimation, Use Cases

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Authors: Kati Skarp, Keijo Varis, Juha Kettunen

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The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the top-down and bottom-up leadership development programs focused on human capital that improve the performance of a company. This study reports on the external top-down leadership development program supported by a consulting company and the internal participatory action research of the bottom-up program. The sickness rate and the lost time incident failure rate decreased and the ideas produced for cost savings improved, leading to increased earnings during the top-down program. The estimated cost savings potential of the bottom-up program was 3.8 million euro based on the cost savings of meeting habits, maintenance practices and the way of working in production. The results of this study are useful for those who plan and evaluate leadership development and human capital productivity consultation programs to improve the performance of a company.

Keywords: Leadership, development, human resources, company, indicators, evaluation.

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Authors: Abdenour Bourabaa, Mohamed Saighi, Said El Metenani

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In the present work an investigation of the effects of the air frontal velocity, relative humidity and dry air temperature on the heat transfer characteristics of plain finned tube evaporator has been conducted. Using an appropriate correlation for the air side heat transfer coefficient the temperature distribution along the fin surface was calculated using a dimensionless temperature distribution. For a constant relative humidity and bulb temperature, it is found that the temperature distribution decreases with increasing air frontal velocity. Apparently, it is attributed to the condensate water film flowing over the fin surface. When dry air temperature and face velocity are being kept constant, the temperature distribution decreases with the increase of inlet relative humidity. An increase in the inlet relative humidity is accompanied by a higher amount of moisture on the fin surface. This results in a higher amount of latent heat transfer which involves higher fin surface temperature. For the influence of dry air temperature, the results here show an increase in the dimensionless temperature parameter with a decrease in bulb temperature. Increasing bulb temperature leads to higher amount of sensible and latent heat transfer when other conditions remain constant.

Keywords: Fin efficiency, heat and mass transfer, dehumidifying conditions, finned tube heat exchangers.

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Authors: Ria Millati, Fiametta A. Purwandari, Adhitya P. Sanjaya, Muhammad N. Cahyanto, I. Sarvari Horvath, Claes Niklasson, Mohammad J. Taherzadeh

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Pretreatment of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) with N-Methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) to enhance biogas production was investigated. The pretreatments were performed at 90 and 120ºC for 1, 3, and 5 h using three different concentrations of NMMO of 73%, 79%, and 85%. The pretreated OPEFB was subsequently anaerobically digested to produce biogas. After pretreatment, there were no significant changes of the main composition of OPEFB and the maximum total solid recovery was 92%. The amorphous phase was increased up to 78% at pretreatment condition using 85% NMMO solution for 3 h at 120oC. In general, higher concentration of NMMO and higher temperature resulted in increased amorphous form and higher biogas production. The best results of biogas production reached enhancement of methane yield of 148% compared to the untreated OPEFB and increased in digestion of 94% compared to starch as reference.

Keywords: Oil palm empty fruit bunch, pretreatment, NMMO, biogas.

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Authors: K. Lee

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Many teachers are experienced; however, experience does not necessarily equate to excellence. Excellence in teaching is the single most powerful influence on student achievement. This qualitative, interpretivist case study investigates the practices of one of the nation’s most acknowledged teachers in enterprise education. In a number of semi-structured interviews, and observational visits, this remote regional teacher talked freely about what skills and strategies she used to achieve this success. Findings from this study were compared to key ideas developed by Professor John Hattie with regards to differences between expert, excellent and experienced teachers. Key findings showed the ‘expert teacher’ central to this study; ensured learning was engaging, challenging yet achievable for all (for both teacher and student of all abilities), authentic and driven by local needs, involved community supports; and ensured the process and learning was constantly monitored and teaching adjusted accordingly. It is anticipated that the data collected via observations, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis will help others to support students to gain greater success (in whatever form that may take).

Keywords: Expert teacher, enterprise education, excellence, skills and strategies.

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Authors: Burja C., Burja V.

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For Romania, the fulfilment of the obligations undertaken as a member state of the European Union in accordance with the Treaty of Accession requires the effective implementation of sustainable development principles and practices, this being the only reasonable development option, which adequately draws in on the economic, social and environment resources. Achieving this objective is based on a profound analysis of the realities in the Romanian economy, which will reflect the existent situation and the action directions for the future. The paper presents an analysis of the Romanian economic performances compared to the EU economy, based on the sustainable value (SV) model. The analysis highlighted the considerable gap between Romania and the EU regarding the sustainable capitalization of resources, the provided information being useful to justify strategic development decisions at a micro and macro levels.

Keywords: Sustainable value, sustainable development, opportunity cost, economic performance.

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Authors: Ilze Stokmane

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Economic processes underway in the country directly and indirectly affect the welfare of the people and the social environment, starting with job security and having a direct impact on the qualitative and safe living environment.

The paper describes existing situation and gives analysis of the regional development policy determination and implementation in the all three Baltic countries. According statistical indicators there are differences between implementation of the regional development activities between all Baltic countries and in regions of inside each country.

It is analyzed more detail differences between regions in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia according possibility to evaluate success of development processes in regions of the Baltic countries. The descriptive analyze of documents, statistical indicators at national level and regional level were used in the research.

Keywords: Baltic countries, city environment, regional development, urban areas.

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Authors: Zanariah Abdul Majid, Mohamed Suleiman

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The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance of the developed two point block method designed for two processors for solving directly non stiff large systems of higher order ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The method calculates the numerical solution at two points simultaneously and produces two new equally spaced solution values within a block and it is possible to assign the computational tasks at each time step to a single processor. The algorithm of the method was developed in C language and the parallel computation was done on a parallel shared memory environment. Numerical results are given to compare the efficiency of the developed method to the sequential timing. For large problems, the parallel implementation produced 1.95 speed-up and 98% efficiency for the two processors.

Keywords: Numerical methods, parallel method, block method, higher order ODEs.

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Authors: Wilfred Fritz

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The accreditation process of engineering degree programmes is based on various reports evaluated by the relevant governing bodies of the institution of higher education. One of the aforementioned reports for the accreditation process is a self-assessment report which is to be completed by the applying institution. This paper seeks to emphasise the importance of analysis of internal quality management systems and self-examination processes in the engineering accreditation processes. A description of how the programme fulfils the criteria should be given. Relevant stakeholders all need to contribute in the writing and structuring of the self-assessment report. The last step is to gather evidence in the form of supporting documentation. In conclusion, the paper also identifies learning outcomes in a case study in seeking accreditation from an international relevant professional body.

Keywords: Accreditation, governing bodies, self-assessment report, quality management.

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Authors: Denise Levy, Anna Lucia C. H. Villavicencio

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Food irradiation is a processing and preservation technique to eliminate insects and parasites and reduce disease-causing microorganisms. Moreover, the process helps to inhibit sprouting and delay ripening, extending fresh fruits and vegetables shelf-life. Nevertheless, most Brazilian consumers seem to misunderstand the difference between irradiated food and radioactive food and the general public has major concerns about the negative health effects and environmental contamination. Society´s judgment and decision making are directly linked to perceived benefits and risks. The web-based project entitled ‘Scientific information about food irradiation: Internet as a tool to approach science and society’ was created by the Nuclear and Energetic Research Institute (IPEN), in order to offer an interdisciplinary approach to science education, integrating economic, ethical, social and political aspects of food irradiation. This project takes into account that, misinformation and unfounded preconceived ideas impact heavily on the acceptance of irradiated food and purchase intention by the Brazilian consumer. Taking advantage of the potential value of the Internet to enhance communication and education among general public, a research study was carried out regarding the possibilities and trends of Information and Communication Technologies among the Brazilian population. The content includes concepts, definitions and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about processes, safety, advantages, limitations and the possibilities of food irradiation, including health issues, as well as its impacts on the environment. The project counts on eight self-instructional interactive web courses, situating scientific content in relevant social contexts in order to encourage self-learning and further reflections. Communication is a must to improve public understanding of science. The use of information technology for quality scientific divulgation shall contribute greatly to provide information throughout the country, spreading information to as many people as possible, minimizing geographic distances and stimulating communication and development.

Keywords: Food irradiation, multimedia learning tools, nuclear science, society and education.

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Authors: Daniel Puciato, Piotr Oleśniewicz, Julita Markiewicz-Patkowska, Krzysztof Widawski, Michał Rozpara, Władysław Mynarski, Agnieszka Gawlik, Małgorzata Dębska, Soňa Jandová

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Physical activity as a part of people’s everyday life reduces the risk of many diseases, including those induced by lifestyle, e.g. obesity, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, degenerative arthritis, and certain types of cancer. That refers particularly to professionally active people, including the early senior group working on non-manual positions. The aim of the study is to evaluate the relationship between physical activity and the socio-economic status of non-manual workers from Wroclaw—one of the biggest cities in Poland, a model setting for such investigations in this part of Europe. The crucial problem in the research is to find out the percentage of respondents who meet the health-related recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning the volume, frequency, and intensity of physical activity, as well as to establish if the most important socio-economic factors, such as gender, age, education, marital status, per capita income, savings and debt, determine the compliance with the WHO physical activity recommendations. During the research, conducted in 2013, 1,170 people (611 women and 559 men) aged 21–60 years were examined. A diagnostic poll method was applied to collect the data. Physical activity was measured with the use of the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire with extended socio-demographic questions, i.e. concerning gender, age, education, marital status, income, savings or debts. To evaluate the relationship between physical activity and selected socio-economic factors, logistic regression was used (odds ratio statistics). Statistical inference was conducted on the adopted ex ante probability level of p<0.05. The majority of respondents met the volume of physical effort recommended for health benefits. It was particularly noticeable in the case of the examined men. The probability of compliance with the WHO physical activity recommendations was highest for workers aged 21–30 years with secondary or higher education who were single, received highest incomes and had savings. The results indicate the relations between physical activity and socio-economic status in the examined women and men. People with lower socio-economic status (e.g. manual workers) are physically active primarily at work, whereas those better educated and wealthier implement physical effort primarily in their leisure time. Among the investigated subjects, the youngest group of non-manual workers have the best chances to meet the WHO standards of physical activity. The study also confirms that secondary education has a positive effect on the public awareness on the role of physical activity in human life. In general, the analysis of the research indicates that there is a relationship between physical activity and some socio-economic factors of the respondents, such as gender, age, education, marital status, income per capita, and the possession of savings. Although the obtained results cannot be applied for the general population, they show some important trends that will be verified in subsequent studies conducted by the authors of the paper.

Keywords: International physical activity questionnaire, non-manual workers, physical activity, socio-economic factors, WHO.

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Authors: I. M. Mungadi, M. S. Argungu

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This study delves into the transformative impact of telecommunication in Africa, illuminating its role in connecting nations and empowering lives across the continent. Over recent decades, the rapid expansion of telecommunication infrastructure has become a powerful force, fostering socio-economic growth and development. Beyond the exchange of information, this digital revolution has influenced education, healthcare, commerce, governance, and social interaction. The abstract explores the multifaceted dimensions of telecommunication's influence on Africa, addressing both its positive transformations and the challenges it presents. By examining the dynamic interplay between technological advancements and societal changes, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of how telecommunication is shaping a more interconnected, informed, and empowered Africa.

Keywords: Transformative, telecommunication, nations, empowering, connecting.

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Authors: Alemu Moges Belay

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In the 1980s, companies began to feel the effect of three major influences on their product development: newer and innovative technologies, increasing product complexity and larger organizations. And therefore companies were forced to look for new product development methods. This paper tries to focus on the two of new product development methods (DFM and CE). The aim of this paper is to see and analyze different product development methods specifically on Design for Manufacturability and Concurrent Engineering. Companies can achieve and be benefited by minimizing product life cycle, cost and meeting delivery schedule. This paper also presents simplified models that can be modified and used by different companies based on the companies- objective and requirements. Methodologies that are followed to do this research are case studies. Two companies were taken and analysed on the product development process. Historical data, interview were conducted on these companies in addition to that, Survey of literatures and previous research works on similar topics has been done during this research. This paper also tries to show the implementation cost benefit analysis and tries to calculate the implementation time. From this research, it has been found that the two companies did not achieve the delivery time to the customer. Some of most frequently coming products are analyzed and 50% to 80 % of their products are not delivered on time to the customers. The companies are following the traditional way of product development that is sequentially design and production method, which highly affect time to market. In the case study it is found that by implementing these new methods and by forming multi disciplinary team in designing and quality inspection; the company can reduce the workflow steps from 40 to 30.

Keywords: Design for manufacturability, Concurrent Engineering, Time-to-Market, Product development

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Authors: Liping Li, Wenan Tan, Na Wang

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With the rapid development of information technology, project management has gained more and more attention recently. Based on CDIO, this paper proposes some teaching reform ideas for software project management curriculum. We first change from Teacher-centered classroom to Student-centered and adopt project-driven, scenario animation show, teaching rhythms, case study and team work practice to improve students' learning enthusiasm. Results showed these attempts have been well received and very effective; as well, students prefer to learn with this curriculum more than before the reform.

Keywords: CDIO, teaching reform, engineering education, project-driven, scenario animation simulation.

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Authors: M. Kaggwa

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Technology or lack of it will play an important role in Africa-s effort to achieve inclusive development. Although a key determinant of competitiveness, new technology can exacerbate exclusion of the majority from the mainstream economic activities. To minimise potential technology exclusion while leveraging its critical role in African-s development, requires insight into technology diffusion process. Using system dynamics approach, a technology diffusion model is presented. The frequency of interaction of people exposed to and those not exposed to technology, and the technology adoption rate - the fraction of people who embrace new technologies once they are exposed, are identified as the broad factors critical to technology diffusion to wider society enabling more people to be part of the economic growth process. Based on simulation results, it is recommends that these two broad factors should form part of national policy aimed at achieving inclusive and sustainable development in Africa.

Keywords: Inclusive Development, System Dynamics, Technology, Technology diffusion.

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Authors: Nikolay P. Brayanov, Anna V. Stoynova

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Model-based development approach is gaining more support and acceptance. Its higher abstraction level brings simplification of systems’ description that allows domain experts to do their best without particular knowledge in programming. The different levels of simulation support the rapid prototyping, verifying and validating the product even before it exists physically. Nowadays model-based approach is beneficial for modelling of complex embedded systems as well as a generation of code for many different hardware platforms. Moreover, it is possible to be applied in safety-relevant industries like automotive, which brings extra automation of the expensive device certification process and especially in the software qualification. Using it, some companies report about cost savings and quality improvements, but there are others claiming no major changes or even about cost increases. This publication demonstrates the level of maturity and autonomy of model-based approach for code generation. It is based on a real live automotive seat heater (ASH) module, developed using The Mathworks, Inc. tools. The model, created with Simulink, Stateflow and Matlab is used for automatic generation of C code with Embedded Coder. To prove the maturity of the process, Code generation advisor is used for automatic configuration. All additional configuration parameters are set to auto, when applicable, leaving the generation process to function autonomously. As a result of the investigation, the publication compares the quality of generated embedded code and a manually developed one. The measurements show that generally, the code generated by automatic approach is not worse than the manual one. A deeper analysis of the technical parameters enumerates the disadvantages, part of them identified as topics for our future work.

Keywords: Embedded code generation, embedded C code quality, embedded systems, model-based development.

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Authors: E. A. Tkachenko, E. M. Rogova, V. V. Klimov

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One of the basic issues of development management is connected with performance measurement as a prerequisite for identifying the achievement of development objectives. The aim of our research is to develop an improved model of assessing a company’s development results. The model should take into account the cyclical nature of development and the high degree of uncertainty in dealing with numerous management tasks. Our hypotheses may be formulated as follows: Hypothesis 1. The cycle of a company’s development may be studied from the standpoint of a project cycle. To do that, methods and tools of project analysis are to be used. Hypothesis 2. The problem of the uncertainty when justifying managerial decisions within the framework of a company’s development cycle can be solved through the use of the mathematical apparatus of fuzzy logic. The reasoned justification of the validity of the hypotheses made is given in the suggested article. The fuzzy logic toolkit applies to the case of technology shift within an enterprise. It is proven that some restrictions in performance measurement that are incurred to conventional methods could be eliminated by implementation of the fuzzy logic apparatus in performance measurement models.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic, fuzzy sets, performance measurement, project analysis.

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Authors: Tomas Mitkus, Vaida Nedzinskaitė-Mitkė

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to identify and explore how adequate is modern innovation support mechanism to developed creative industries. We argue that current development and support strategy for creative industries, although acknowledge high correlation between innovation and creativity, do not seek to improve conditions to promote systematic innovation development in the creative sector. Using the Lithuanian animation industry as a case study, this paper will examine innovation contribution to creativity and, for that matter, the competitiveness of animation enterprises. This paper proposes insights that contribute to theoretical and practical discussions on how creative profile companies build national and international competitiveness through innovations. The conclusions suggest that development of creative industries could greatly benefit if policymakers would implement tools that would encourage creative profile enterprises to invest in to development of innovation at a constant rate.

Keywords: Creative industries, animation, innovation, innovation policy, management.

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Authors: Sheila R. Bonito

Abstract:

This study describes the relationship between motivation factors and academic performance among distance education students enrolled in a postgraduate nursing course. Students (n=96) participated in a survey that assesses student's motivational orientations from a cognitive perspective using a selfadministered questionnaire based on Pintrich-s Motivation Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MLSQ). Results showed students- motivational factors are highest on task value (6.44, 0.71); followed by intrinsic goal orientation (6.20, 0.76), control beliefs (6.02, 0.89); extrinsic goal orientation (5.85, 1.13); self-efficacy for learning and performance (5.62, 0.84), and finally, test anxiety (4.21, 1.37). Weak positive correlations were found between academic performance and intrinsic goal orientation (r=0.13), extrinsic goal orientation (r=0.04), task value (r=0.09), control beliefs (r=0.02), and self-efficacy (r=0.05), while there was weak negative correlation with test anxiety (r=-0.04). Conclusions from the study indicate the need to focus on improving tasks and targeting intrinsic goal orientations of students to courses since these were positively correlated with academic performance and downplay the use of tests since these were negatively correlated with academic performance.

Keywords: Motivation factors, academic performance, distance education

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Authors: Mark Kaahwa, Chang Zhu, Moses Muhumuza

Abstract:

This study investigates the satisfaction of distance education university students (DEUS) with the use of audio media as a medium of instruction. Studying students’ satisfaction is vital because it shows whether learners are comfortable with a certain instructional strategy or not. Although previous studies have investigated the use of audio media, the satisfaction of students with an instructional strategy that combines radio teaching and podcasts as an independent teaching strategy has not been fully investigated. In this study, all lectures were delivered through the radio and students had no direct contact with their instructors. No modules or any other material in form of text were given to the students. They instead, revised the taught content by listening to podcasts saved on their mobile electronic gadgets. Prior to data collection, DEUS received orientation through workshops on how to use audio media in distance education. To achieve objectives of the study, a survey, naturalistic observations and face-to-face interviews were used to collect data from a sample of 211 undergraduate and graduate students. Findings indicate that there was no statistically significant difference in the levels of satisfaction between male and female students. The results from post hoc analysis show that there is a statistically significant difference in the levels of satisfaction regarding the use of audio media between diploma and graduate students. Diploma students are more satisfied compared to their graduate counterparts. T-test results reveal that there was no statistically significant difference in the general satisfaction with audio media between rural and urban-based students. And ANOVA results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the levels of satisfaction with the use of audio media across age groups. Furthermore, results from observations and interviews reveal that DEUS found learning using audio media a pleasurable medium of instruction. This is an indication that audio media can be considered as an instructional strategy on its own merit.

Keywords: Audio media, distance education, distance education university students, medium of instruction, satisfaction.

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