4,340 research outputs found

    Mobile heritage practices. Implications for scholarly research, user experience design, and evaluation methods using mobile apps.

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    Mobile heritage apps have become one of the most popular means for audience engagement and curation of museum collections and heritage contexts. This raises practical and ethical questions for both researchers and practitioners, such as: what kind of audience engagement can be built using mobile apps? what are the current approaches? how can audience engagement with these experience be evaluated? how can those experiences be made more resilient, and in turn sustainable? In this thesis I explore experience design scholarships together with personal professional insights to analyse digital heritage practices with a view to accelerating thinking about and critique of mobile apps in particular. As a result, the chapters that follow here look at the evolution of digital heritage practices, examining the cultural, societal, and technological contexts in which mobile heritage apps are developed by the creative media industry, the academic institutions, and how these forces are shaping the user experience design methods. Drawing from studies in digital (critical) heritage, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and design thinking, this thesis provides a critical analysis of the development and use of mobile practices for the heritage. Furthermore, through an empirical and embedded approach to research, the thesis also presents auto-ethnographic case studies in order to show evidence that mobile experiences conceptualised by more organic design approaches, can result in more resilient and sustainable heritage practices. By doing so, this thesis encourages a renewed understanding of the pivotal role of these practices in the broader sociocultural, political and environmental changes.AHRC REAC

    An examination of the professional judgement and decision-making of strength and conditioning coaches

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    Athletic coaching is a complex profession, and coaches must perform a wide range of tasks in a variety of environments. In high-performance sporting environments, strength and conditioning coaches (SCCs) must fulfil a variety of roles that are growing in importance. Despite a recent broadening of the scope of SCC research beyond their knowledge, practical skills, experiences, and training preferences, a lack of attention continues to be paid to the professional judgement and decision-making (PJDM) of SCCs. First, in recognition of this lacuna in research, this thesis examined the thought processes of SCCs who possessed varying levels of experience and analysed the rationales that informed their approaches. Second, this thesis constructed and tested an intervention using the empirical findings of earlier investigations to enhance the PJDM of SCCs. This qualitative study employed a constructivist paradigm and was based on relativist ontology and interpretivist epistemology. The initial research used applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA) to examine the respective decision-making processes of participants who were engaged in training programme design and difficult common tasks. These studies, together with a focus group approach, used reflective thematic analysis (RTA) to engage with data sets and identify new patterns of meaning. The results indicated that the roles of SCCs require them to apply their theoretical knowledge and practical experiences to a wide range of tasks. An indication of the cognitive demands associated with these tasks were also generated as a consequence of the ACTA. Furthermore, clear contrasts in the PJDM of high-level and early-career SCCs were discussed. The analysis of the focus group results was used to construct a revised model of thinking processes regarding training programme design. Crucially, this stage of the analysis identified the variables of context, collaboration, and communication as providing depth and breadth to the perceived impact of each proposed stage of the training programme design process. Considering the difficult situations that must be managed within strength and conditioning (S&C) environments, the following three themes were identified as having the strongest impact on SCCs’ decision-making processes: situational awareness, improvisation, and metacognition. Both the ACTA and cognitive apprenticeship (CA) research enabled this study to make a unique contribution to the literature, as it provided empirical findings on the PJDM of SCCs with both high and low levels of experience. The application of a constructivist philosophy to the design and implementation of online S&C learning materials constitutes a novel contribution to existing traditional strategies for SCC preparation in the workplace. This CA study provides valuable preliminary findings that can be used by educators in the field to produce authentic, relevant materials for those aspiring to work in the S&C sector. Throughout this thesis, a case was developed that demonstrates the importance of experience for SCCs of all levels to be able to evaluate their thought processes and overall S&C coaching performance. Lastly, a platform for future research to build on was constructed

    How social media brand community development impacts consumer engagement and value formation; perspectives from the cosmetics industry

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    Social media and social media brand communities (SMBCs) are powerful tools for long-term consumer-brand relationship building. As a result, SMBCs are becoming significant marketing channels. Despite the wide use and adoption of SMBCs, further research is called for, as both practitioners and academics lack an understanding of the processes taking place within SMBCs. This study aims to contribute to knowledge of: (1) consumer engagement, (2) value formation in SMBCs, and (3) establishing the relationship between consumer engagement and value formation within the SMBC environment. This thesis adopts netnography, a method commonly employed to explore online communities in the social media environment. Three cosmetics brands were selected for this study. The selection was driven by geographical location, posting frequency and user activity. Data were retrospectively collected from Facebook SMBCs between 1st December 2019 and 31st January 2020. The data analysis employed thematic analysis techniques and was further guided by netnographic procedural steps, encompassing 25 distinct data operations. In total, 87 conversation threads were examined, which included 6,401 consumer comments. The findings present a typology of brand posts consisting of five overarching themes: presentation of offerings, belongingness building, engagement building, value-led, and educational. The research also identified a consumer comment typology consisting of four overarching themes brand-centred communication, cognitive-centred communication, conversation-centred communication, and personal experience-centred communication. Additionally, the thesis explores value formation processes within SMBCs, and the value types formed through consumer-to-consumer value formation interaction, brand-to-consumer value formation interaction, consumer-to-brand value formation interaction, as well as individual value formation processes, i.e., customer independent value formation and brand independent value facilitation. Through the findings, thesis broadens knowledge of the implication of SMBC development on consumer engagement. Additionally, this study extends the scope of value formation beyond service marketing, providing valuable insights into how value is created and perceived in the context of SMBCs. This research is also of significance for practice as it offers guidance and insight into how different brand posts can facilitate SMBC development, and, in turn, consumer engagement and value formation. The research provides a link between SMBC development and consumer engagement, highlighting the importance of SMBCs in the successful facilitation of consumer engagement. In particular, it provides evidence that the development of an SMBC has a significant impact on consumer engagement. The typology of brand posts that this study generates highlights the link between the types of posts published by the brand and SMBC development. In addition, the typology of consumer posts also suggests that there is a link between the types of comments published by consumers and the degree of SMBC development. As a result, the findings indicate significant growth in the variety of topics discussed within more developed SMBCs alongside a shift within the topics discussed. The study also investigates value formation within SMBCs, thereby enhancing the understanding of how SMBCs can facilitate value formation. By doing so, this research successfully extends the value formation lens predominantly applied in service marketing. In particular, the findings highlight the role of different actors in enabling the formation of different value types. Furthermore, the research emphasises the value of SMBCs as knowledge repositories as important virtual spaces for both brands and consumers. The findings facilitate understanding of the importance of SMBCs in value formation processes, contributing to advancing knowledge of the role of SMBCs in the development of consumer engagement and value formation. The thesis presents a contextualised conceptual framework of value formation within SMBCs, that captures different interactions taking place in the SMBC environment but also draws attention to the different value types generated through interaction between different actors. Finally, the thesis offers a conceptual framework of SMBCs, consumer engagement and value formation, which captures the correlation between the three researched concepts

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    Multidisciplinary perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and the law

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    This open access book presents an interdisciplinary, multi-authored, edited collection of chapters on Artificial Intelligence (‘AI’) and the Law. AI technology has come to play a central role in the modern data economy. Through a combination of increased computing power, the growing availability of data and the advancement of algorithms, AI has now become an umbrella term for some of the most transformational technological breakthroughs of this age. The importance of AI stems from both the opportunities that it offers and the challenges that it entails. While AI applications hold the promise of economic growth and efficiency gains, they also create significant risks and uncertainty. The potential and perils of AI have thus come to dominate modern discussions of technology and ethics – and although AI was initially allowed to largely develop without guidelines or rules, few would deny that the law is set to play a fundamental role in shaping the future of AI. As the debate over AI is far from over, the need for rigorous analysis has never been greater. This book thus brings together contributors from different fields and backgrounds to explore how the law might provide answers to some of the most pressing questions raised by AI. An outcome of the Católica Research Centre for the Future of Law and its interdisciplinary working group on Law and Artificial Intelligence, it includes contributions by leading scholars in the fields of technology, ethics and the law.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Cycling Through the Pandemic : Tactical Urbanism and the Implementation of Pop-Up Bike Lanes in the Time of COVID-19

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    Provides an international overview on how tactical urbanism was implemented to give more space to cycling Demonstrates the conceptual framework surrounding tactical urbanism and how it plays out theoretically Proposes new methodological insights to understand the effects of tactical urbanism intervention

    Adopting an Agile Approach for Reflective Learning and Teaching

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    Software engineering is concerned with how best to create software in ways that promote sustainable development and maximise quality. We have been largely successful at transferring software engineering knowledge into the industry, however, many challenges in software engineering training remain. A key amongst these is how best to teach practical engineering approaches along with the theoretical concepts behind them. This paper describes our experience of adopting an agile approach for reflective learning and teaching within the context of our Software Systems Engineering module, aimed at addressing challenges identified with previous efforts to promote reflective practice. Our study attempts to strengthen the use of reflective learning approaches for our current cohort, as well as introducing reflective teaching practices, whereby we examine our teaching approach in order to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. Our analysis of student response to the module shows that it was very well-received by the students, and we were able to collect ample evidence from feedback to support this. Most of our approaches resulted in positive feedback and contributed to improvements in teaching quality, however, we also identified some key aspects in our method that could still benefit from refinement, such as the need for explicit links between learning outcomes and workshop activities, and intuitive design of feedback questions, along with feedback collection frequency. We plan to incorporate these additional updates into the revision of the module for the next academic year, and to continue collecting and analysing feedback data for further enhancement

    CODED SOCIAL CONTROL: CHINA’S NORMALIZATION OF BIOMETRIC SURVEILLANCE IN THE POST COVID-19 ERA

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    This article investigates the longevity of health QR codes, a digital instrument of pandemic surveillance, in post-COVID China. From 2020 to 2022, China widely used this tri-color tool to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. A commonly held assumption is that health QR codes have become obsolete in post-pandemic China. This study challenges such an assumption. It reveals their persistence and integration - through mobile apps and online platforms - beyond the COVID-19 public health emergency. A prolonged, expanded and normalized use of tools which were originally intended for contact tracing and pandemic surveillance raises critical legal and ethical concerns. Moreover, their functional transformation from epidemiological risk assessment tools to instruments of behavior modification and social governance heralds the emergence of a Data Leviathan. This transformation is underpinned by a duality of underlying political and commercial forces. These include 1) a structural enabler: a powerful alliance between political authorities and tech giants and 2) an ideological legitimizer: a commitment to collective security over individual autonomy. In contrast to the rights-centric approach embraced by Western democracies to regulate AI-driven biometric surveillance, China adopts a state-industry dominance model of governance
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