A qualititative approach to HCI research

Whilst science has a strong reliance on quantitative and experimental methods, there are many complex, socially based phenomena in HCI that cannot be easily quantified or experimentally manipulated or, for that matter, ethically researched with experiments. For example, the role of privacy in HCI is not obviously reduced to numbers and it would not be appropriate to limit a person's privacy in the name of research. In addition, technology is rapidly changing – just think of developments in mobile devices, tangible interfaces and so on – making it harder to abstract technology from the context of use if we are to study it effectively. Developments such as mediated social networking and the dispersal of technologies in ubiquitous computing also loosen the connection between technologies and work tasks that were the traditional cornerstone of HCI. Instead, complex interactions between technologies and ways of life are coming to the fore. Consequently, we frequently find that we do not know what the real HCI issues are before we start our research. This makes it hard, if not actually impossible, to define the variables necessary to do quantitative research, (see Chapter 2). Within HCI, there is also the recognition that the focus on tasks is not enough to design and implement an effective system. There is also a growing need to understand how usability issues are subjectively and collectively experienced and perceived by different user groups (Pace, 2004; Razavim and Iverson, 2006). This means identifying the users' emotional and social drives and perspectives; their motivations, expectations, trust, identity, social norms and so on. It also means relating these concepts to work practices, communities and organisational social structures as well as organisational, economic and political drivers. These issues are increasingly needed in the design, development and implementation of systems to be understood both in isolation and as a part of the whole. HCI researchers are therefore turning to more qualitative methods in order to deliver the research results that HCI needs.With qualitative research, the emphasis is not on measuring and producing numbers but instead on understanding the qualities of a particular technology and how people use it in their lives, how they think about it and how they feel about it. There are many varied approaches to qualitative research within the social sciences depending on what is being studied, how it can be studied and what the goals of the research are.Within HCI, though, grounded theory has been found to provide good insights that address well the issues raised above (Pace, 2004; Adams, Blandford and Lunt, 2005; Razavim and Iverson, 2006). The purpose of this chapter is to give an overview of how grounded theory works as a method. Quantitative research methods adopt measuring instruments and experimental manipulations that can be repeated by any researcher (at least in principle) and every effort is made to reduce the influence of the researcher on the researched, which is regarded as a source of bias or error. In contrast, in qualitative research, where the goal is understanding rather than measuring and manipulating, the subjectivity of the researcher is an essential part of the production of an interpretation. The chapter therefore discusses how the influence of the researcher can be ameliorated through the grounded theory methodology whilst also acknowledging the subjective input of the researcher through reflexivity. The chapter also presents a case study of how grounded theory was used in practice to study people's use and understanding of computer passwords and related security

THE STATUS OF CIRCULATION SECTION IN TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY CENTRAL LIBRARY

This study entitled ”The status of circulation section in Tribhuvan University Central Library” has been carried out basing upon the substantive issues raised by its users about the important aspect of circulation section, its opening time and duration. There is the problem of overdue books. And questions have been raised about the clearance certificate which is compulsory for the PG students, who, in fact are not the bonafied members of TUCL. The present study has been carried out with the objectives to find out the obvious reasons behind it revealing the present status of circulation services of TUCL. This study also discusses about the opening time of TUCL, book issued and returned per year, the users opinion about over dues and compulsory clearance system for the PG students. This study has not covered the over all aspects of TUCL, but only about its circulation section and faculty members and students of other department, are not included due to lack of time and resource. This study has great significance to know the present status of circulation system of TUCL and to find out the problem faced by PG students outside the University Campus, Kirtipur. Different literature, explaining circulation system of various academic and public libraries have been reviewed to get information related to our study. About eleven literature have been reviewed from books, Journals and web. The study has been focused on circulation system of TUCL. However, other activities like membership, overdue, and clearance certificate services have been implicitly carried out. Data have been collected using questionnaire method in this research. Collected data have been tabulated, analyzed and interpreted in a systematic way. Hundred questionnaires were distributed and they were duly filled and returned. 70 percentage of the respondents have said that they are satisfied with the present opening time and rest 30% showed their dissatisfaction. Majority of the respondents (76%) urged TUCL to provide more effective services. They ( 68%) suggested to improve the card filing strictly following alphabetical order. (68%) of the respondents expressed their concern about the proper shelving of books in the book shelves. Majority of the respondents(55%) also pointed the need of the library regular orientation program. A brief summary including all the facts and figures have been provided and a succinct conclusion has been drawn. Necessary recommendation has been made based upon the study. • Circulation service should be carried out till the library opens. • There must not be wide gap between library opening time and circulation service providing time. • Books are to be properly shelved. • Cards are to be filed strictly in alphabetical order. • Library orientation programs are to be conducted timely. • Advocacy of rules and regulation should be properly done. • Circulation section has to be well equipped technically. • Circulation staffs are to be made more cooperative and users friendly. • Some additional staffs are to be deputed in the circulation section. • New books are materials are to be supplied in the library. • The dissatisfied PG students of other campuses are to be reminded and explained about the reason and policy of TUCL

Staff competencies in the planning and establishing of an institutional repository at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources

The study sought to ascertain staff competencies in the planning and establishing of an institutional repository at the Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN). In addressing the above objective, the study used the innovation-decision making process of the Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) theory (Rogers 1983) to formulate the following critical questions to guide the study: What knowledge, skills and personal attributes are required in the planning and establishing of a successful institutional repository in an academic institution?; Do BUAN staff (academics and relevant support staff) have the knowledge, skills and personal attributes necessary for planning and establishing a successful repository?; How significant a role do personal attributes such as attitudes and perceptions play in the planning and establishing of an IR at BUAN?; and, What measures may be put in place to reinforce the planning and establishing of an institutional repository at the BUAN Library? The research paradigm suitable for this study was the pragmatic paradigm because of diverse types of data used in the study. The study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods design by using both quantitative and qualitative research methods to collect data concurrently. It adopted a case study approach as the researcher undertook an in-depth enquiry into staff competencies in the planning and establishing of an institutional repository at BUAN. The study population consisted of 201 BUAN academics, three Library repository staff, and two Information Technology (IT) staff. Semi-structured interviews were used to source data from purposively selected library repository staff and BUAN IT staff. A structured questionnaire was administered to the academics. Descriptive statistics was used in the analysis of the study’s quantitative data and thematic content analysis for its qualitative data. A number of knowledge sets, skills and personal attributes emerged from the study as being required in the planning and establishing of a successful repository at BUAN, critical amongst these being knowledge of metadata and metadata standards. An important recommendation emanating from the study related to repository advocacy and outreach among BUAN academics as well as on-going training of library repository staff to keep them abreast of latest repository developments

Natural Language Processing for Personal Values and Human Activities

Personal values are theorized to influence thought and decision making patterns, which often manifest themselves in the things that people say and do. We explore the degree to which we can employ computational models to infer people's values from the text that they write and the everyday activities that they perform. In addition to investigating how personal values are expressed in language, we use natural language processing methods to automatically discover relationships between a person's values, behaviors, and cultural background. To this end, we show that the automatic analysis of less constrained, open-ended essay questions leads to a model of personal values that is more strongly connected to behaviors than traditional forced-choice value surveys, and that cultural background has a significant influence these connections. To help measure personal values in textual data, we use a novel crowd-powered sorting algorithm to construct a hierarchical lexicon of words and phrases related to human values. Additionally, we develop semantic representations of human activities that capture a variety of useful dimensions such the motivation for which they are typically done. We leverage these representations to build deep neural models that are able to make predictions about a person's activities based on their observed linguistic patterns and inferred values.PHDComputer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/150025/1/steverw_1.pd

Digitization Guidelines for Static & Non-static (Audiovisual) Media: Compliance & Challenges in Academic Libraries

This doctoral dissertation aims to explore digitization practices at academic libraries in the United States. It examines adopted digitization guidelines, levels of compliance with these guidelines, challenges, and solutions. It seeks answers to five research questions in relation to academic libraries’ compliance with static and non-static (audiovisual) media digitization guidelines, encountered challenges, and applied solutions. A mixed methods explanatory research design was adopted for this comparative study. Purposive sampling was applied. The study sample consisted of 68 subjects from doctoral universities with highest and higher research activity based on the 2015 classification issued by The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through three collection methods: document analysis, electronic questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Document analysis was conducted for five sets of digitization guidelines (i.e., ALCTS, BCR’s CDP Digital Imaging Best Practices Working Group, CARLI, FADGI, and NARA), wherein one (i.e., CARLI) consisted of five documents. Open coding was applied to explore themes in qualitative data collected by the electronic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test was applied to examine differences between digitization of static and non-static (audiovisual) media regarding challenges, levels of compliance, availability, and usefulness. The Paired Samples Test was applied only for sets of quantitative data that have normal distribution. Findings revealed differences in the adoption of digitization guidelines for digitizing static and non-static (audiovisual) media. Consistency, Standardization, and Sustainability was the most frequent type of reason for compliance with digitization guidelines adopted for static and non-static (audiovisual) media. Planning and Workflow was the most frequent type of reason for not complying with digitization guidelines adopted for static media, whereas Hardware was the most frequent type of reason for not complying with digitization guidelines for non-static (audiovisual) media. Statistical analyses revealed no significant differences in levels of compliance, availability, and usefulness between static and non-static (audiovisual) media among ALCTS, consortium/consortia, and a university’s own customized digitization guidelines. Open coding indicated that Funding and Hardware challenges appeared among the three most frequent types of challenges for static and non-static (audiovisual) media. The Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Tests revealed significant differences (with the exception of external funding) between digitization of static and non-static (audiovisual) media in terms of budget, digitization equipment/hardware, digitization software, staff digitization skills, and the need for more professional training. Different types of applied and suggested solutions were explored, wherein Planning and Workflow and Funding solutions were most frequent among the applied and suggested solutions for static and non-static (audiovisual) media. The theoretical implications of this study focus on digitization guidelines and compliance levels with those guidelines, and digitization challenges. Practical implications aim to provide suggestions to enhance development of digitization guidelines, and to reduce the effect of challenges faced in digitizing static and non-static (audiovisual) media

Investigating the translation competence of graduates of Bachelor degree programmes in Jordan

This thesis investigates perceptions of competence held by graduates, translator trainers amd employers. Prevbious reserach in Jordan had revealed that graduates struggle to secure a job in translation because translator training programmes do not prepare them sufficiently enough to meet the market requirements (Shunnaq, 2009: Yousef, 2004: Al-Hamad, 2014). This research takes these initial studies further by using the PACTE multi-componential trans;ation competence model (2000, 2003, 2011). The study was conducted at two different phases in consequential procedures, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. It revealed that while the graduates mildly agree on the development of their translation competence, the teachers and the employers disagree on this development and perceive several "core competencies" as lacking in graduates. The study contributes to translator pedagogy in Jordan by providing detailed data on what needs to be stressed in the curriculum. Furthermore, it unveils the competences that are required the most by the employers versus those that are lacking in graduates. Based on the findings, the curriculum design can be amended to ensure more efficient programmes and thus a better development of translator competence. This study also contributes to research into translation competence development, by arguing that competence is not only a defined notion or a multi-componential model. Competence is a perception that is governed by a socio-cultural and academic context. In a context where the experts themselves are lagging behind in research and where the stakeholders are wotking out of sync, the concept of translation competence still seems to be basically determined by the bilingual competence. Furthermore, the study also contributes to tranlation pedagogy by revealing that when the students' role is suppressed, the students show poor ability to assess their development, thus over-estimate themselves

Evidence-based planning and costing palliative care services for children : novel multi-method epidemiological and economic exemplar

Background: Children’s palliative care is a relatively new clinical specialty. Its nature is multi-dimensional and its delivery necessarily multi-professional. Numerous diverse public and not-for-profit organisations typically provide services and support. Because services are not centrally coordinated, they are provided in a manner that is inconsistent and incoherent. Since the first children’s hospice opened in 1982, the epidemiology of life-limiting conditions has changed with more children living longer, and many requiring transfer to adult services. Very little is known about the number of children living within any given geographical locality, costs of care, or experiences of children with ongoing palliative care needs and their families. We integrated evidence, and undertook and used novel methodological epidemiological work to develop the first evidence-based and costed commissioning exemplar. Methods: Multi-method epidemiological and economic exemplar from a health and not-for-profit organisation perspective, to estimate numbers of children under 19 years with life-limiting conditions, cost current services, determine child/parent care preferences, and cost choice of end-of-life care at home. Results: The exemplar locality (North Wales) had important gaps in service provision and the clinical network. The estimated annual total cost of current children’s palliative care was about £5.5 million; average annual care cost per child was £22,771 using 2007 prevalence estimates and £2,437- £11,045 using new 2012/13 population-based prevalence estimates. Using population-based prevalence, we estimate 2271 children with a life-limiting condition in the general exemplar population and around 501 children per year with ongoing palliative care needs in contact with hospital services. Around 24 children with a wide range of life-limiting conditions require end-of-life care per year. Choice of end-of-life care at home was requested, which is not currently universally available. We estimated a minimum (based on 1 week of end-of-life care) additional cost of £336,000 per year to provide end-of-life support at home. Were end-of-life care to span 4 weeks, the total annual additional costs increases to £536,500 (2010/11 prices). Conclusions: Findings make a significant contribution to population-based needs assessment and commissioning methodology in children’s palliative care. Further work is needed to determine with greater precision which children in the total population require access to services and when. Half of children who died 2002-7 did not have conditions that met the globally used children's palliative care condition categories, which need revision in light of findings

The hotel guest questionnaire: an assessment of its role as a service encounter interface

This exploratory study on hotel stakeholder behaviour uses a \u27service innovation\u27 approach to investigate how the hotel guest questionnaire can function in a way not previously considered in the hospitality management literature. viz as a remote service encounter interface between the hotel management and guest. The paper-based guest questionnaire. also commonly known as comment card. is an old hotel tradition that is the most widely used method or guest feedback elicitation by hotels. Primarily a method of measuring guest satisfaction. studies show that its inherent limitations as a survey Instrument result in inaccurate and ungeneralisable data. The trend for e-based questionnaires as a complement to or even a replacement of. The paper questionnaire provides timely impetus for re-evaluation of its role in contemporary hotel management