PEP4Django - A Policy Enforcement Point for Python Web Applications

Traditionally, access control mechanisms have been hard-coded into application components. Such approach is error-prone, mixing business logic with access control concerns, and affecting the flexibility of security policies, as is the case with IFRN SUAP Django-based system. The externalization of access control rules allows their decoupling from business logic, through the use of authorization servers where access control policies are stored and queried for computing access decisions. In this context, this paper presents an approach that allows a Django Web application to delegate access control decisions to an external authorization server. The approach has been integrated into an enterprise level system, which has been used for experimentation. The results obtained indicate a negligible overhead, while allowing the modification of access control policies without interrupting the system

Organizational Effectiveness Enhancememt Through the Lens of Lifelong Learning

Due to the 21st century's global economic competitiveness, organizations increasingly recognize the need for ongoing learning and development, particularly non-formal education, and informal learning in the workplace, to achieve business results. This study aims to examine the impact of lifelong learning on organizational effectiveness and its importance. In the methods and resources, a systematic literature review with inclusion and exclusion criteria and a documentation analysis technique were used. Additionally, the meta-analysis technique was used to identify, select, conceptualize, and analyze data. The findings affirm that non-formal education providers are necessary for ongoing training and development, while informal learning is a cost-effective approach to increase education. This paper presents the concepts of lifelong learning in the European and Thai contexts as a major organizational effectiveness element. The current situation of Covid-19 through the perspective of lifelong learning is also presented to support the transformative learning theory. The discussion and conclusions describe that lifelong learning is a critically important factor that has a major impact on organizational effectiveness; meanwhile, leaders and Human Resources Development play vital strategic roles as learning system providers to enhance organizational effectiveness.

Development of E-Readiness Scale in Blended Learning in Filmmaking Program for a Private University in Bangladesh – Initial Stage

Although the Government of Bangladesh is pressuring all educational institutions to go online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the higher educational institutes are finding it difficult to adjust to the new situation. While they have begun discussing the importance of online and blended learning, they are still waiting to return to face-to-face class once the pandemic is over. This is because they are still unprepared to embrace e-learning. This study aims to develop a unified scale to assess the higher education institute's e-readiness in Bangladesh to identify their strengths and weaknesses and formulate a plan for creating an e-learning environment. The findings of this study are based on a quantitative survey, and the study was completed using a sample size of 410 contributors 345 (84.1%) students, 34 (8.3%) teachers, and 31 (7.6%) administrators from the University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh, a private university in Dhaka. Three separate assessment instruments were developed for the key stakeholders: students, teachers, and administrators. A systematic approach was used to create the institutional e-readiness scale with acceptable validity and reliability. The Scale-level Content Validity Index of the Averaging calculation method (S-CVI/Ave) value was 0.996, and the instruments' reliability coefficient Cronbach's Alpha was 0.949 (students), 0.935 (teachers), and 0.837 (administrators). The alpha values suggest the compiled instruments are good to excellent. This study indicates that the institutional e-readiness scale could assess the e-readiness of other universities in Bangladesh

Improving EFL Students’ Critical Thinking Skills through Organization Development Intervention Strategies at Zhejiang Yuexiu University in China

Critical thinking (CT) has become a key teaching goal in higher education, many language instructors consider it very significant to integrate CT into instruction of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses. A quasi-experimental design was utilized in this study to determine the effectiveness of Organization Development Intervention(ODI) in developing second-year EFL students’ CT skills in a private university in China. 71 participants were divided into an experimental group and control group. The experimental group (n=36) received collaborative learning plus team-building interventions, while the control group (n=35) received regular English instruction with exercises that did not build CT. After the semester-long interventions, mixed results demonstrated that the experimental group got significantly higher CT performance and collaboration among team members than the control group. The findings indicate that collaborative learning is beneficial to developing students’ CT skills, but instructors should use some techniques to foster team members’ collaboration skills. This study recommends that instructors bring ODI strategies such as team building and conflict management to support collaborative learning in the education realm. Lastly, EFL instructors must add CT elements to teaching curriculum activities that encourage student teams to practice critical thinking

Development of the Competency Framework for Southeast Asian School Heads (2014 Edition): A Journey into Excellent School Leadership

Abstract The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH) developed a competency framework for school heads in Southeast Asia intended to serve as a basis for designing and implementing school head learning programs.  Although SEAMEO INNOTECH has developed one in 2003, a decade had passed and SEAMEO INNOTECH saw the need to update it or even develop a new one so that the framework would continue to be relevant in providing guidance to school heads and in complementing existing competency frameworks developed by the governments of the countries in SEA.   Towards this goal, SEAMEO INNOTECH conducted focus group discussions and consultative workshops using the Appreciative Inquiry approach in nine out of 11 SEAMEO member countries participated by a total of 225 school heads and stakeholders.  The goal was to capture school head competencies common among high-performing school leaders and managers in the region.  The use of AI as an approach brought the school heads and stakeholders back to a journey in time when they were at their best in leading the school towards high performance.  The same approach enabled them to determine what competencies they wish excellent school heads would continue to demonstrate to keep the schools moving forward successfully.  The output was a revised Competency Framework comprised of five competency domains, 16 general competencies, 42 enabling competencies, and 170 indicators.  The five general competencies were ranked by the participants in terms of their importance, frequency of performance, and amount of training school heads would need the most as follows: (1) Strategic Thinking and Innovation, (2) Managerial Leadership, (3) Instructional Leadership, (4) Personal Excellence, (5) Stakeholder Engagement. Keywords: competency framework, DACUM, appreciative inquiry, SEOMEO   INNOTEC

Implementing the Action-Plan Training Model to Enhance Employees’ Competencies: A Hotel Case Study

Hundreds of hours and millions of dollars are spent to train employees every year in the organization, however, little empirical evidence can be found to demonstrate the transfer of training in workplaces. This study represents a case study in the hotel industry in which a model for the transfer of training knowledge, Action-Plan Training Model, is examined and implemented. Theoretical analysis and multiple data collection methods were used to answer questions regarding the training processes and the utilization of Action-Plan Training Model for twelve months following the program. Five principal research methods, interview, focus groups, questionnaires, observations and documentary analyzes, were used to cast a wide net to ensure that the highest quality data are collected. The results showed that the Action-Plan Training Model is highly effective and contributes to employee performance

Data trust framework using blockchain and smart contracts

Lack of trust is the main barrier preventing more widespread data sharing. The lack of transparent and reliable infrastructure for data sharing prevents many data owners from sharing their data. Data trust is a paradigm that facilitates data sharing by forcing data controllers to be transparent about the process of sharing and reusing data. Blockchain technology has the potential to present the essential properties for creating a practical and secure data trust framework by transforming current auditing practices and automatic enforcement of smart contracts logic without relying on intermediaries to establish trust. Blockchain holds an enormous potential to remove the barriers of traditional centralized applications and propose a distributed and transparent administration by employing the involved parties to maintain consensus on the ledger. Furthermore, smart contracts are a programmable component that provides blockchain with more flexible and powerful capabilities. Recent advances in blockchain platforms toward smart contracts' development have revealed the possibility of implementing blockchain-based applications in various domains, such as health care, supply chain and digital identity. This dissertation investigates the blockchain's potential to present a framework for data trust. It starts with a comprehensive study of smart contracts as the main component of blockchain for developing decentralized data trust. Interrelated, three decentralized applications that address data sharing and access control problems in various fields, including healthcare data sharing, business process, and physical access control system, have been developed and examined. In addition, a general-purpose application based on an attribute-based access control model is proposed that can provide trusted auditability required for data sharing and access control systems and, ultimately, a data trust framework. Besides auditing, the system presents a transparency level that both access requesters (data users) and resource owners (data controllers) can benefit from. The proposed solutions have been validated through a use case of independent digital libraries. It also provides a detailed performance analysis of the system implementation. The performance results have been compared based on different consensus mechanisms and databases, indicating the system's high throughput and low latency. Finally, this dissertation presents an end-to-end data trust framework based on blockchain technology. The proposed framework promotes data trustworthiness by assessing input datasets, effectively managing access control, and presenting data provenance and activity monitoring. A trust assessment model that examines the trustworthiness of input data sets and calculates the trust value is presented. The number of transaction validators is defined adaptively with the trust value. This research provides solutions for both data owners and data users’ by ensuring the trustworthiness and quality of the data at origin and transparent and secure usage of the data at the end. A comprehensive experimental study indicates the presented system effectively handles a large number of transactions with low latency

Developing High Performance Teams (HPT) through Employee Motivation, Interpersonal Communication Skills, and Entrepreneurial Mindset Using Organization Development Interventions (ODI): A Study of Selected Engineering Service Companies in Thailand

Abstract Noteworthy transformation of organization design has been observed globally during the past few decades. Distinctive cultural context in each geographic region and industry require a different structure of the organization to function well. Moreover, increasing competition in the rapidly changing business landscape nowadays presents significant challenges for organization restructuring for improved outcomes and performance. Growing transformation around team structure has captured the focal attention of academics and professionals in various cultural contexts and industries. Leading global conglomerates utilize team structure as part of their structure beneficial to improve the company’s performance. This research intends to develop entrepreneurial mindset, employee motivation and interpersonal communication skills to achieve higher performance teams through the organizational development interventions (ODIs) for the selected engineering services company. The ODIs were implemented during January until May 2016 includes the four major interventions; business and communication knowledge training, motivation through job enrichment, team development activities with technical problem solving and entrepreneurial team project and dialoguing with teams and observation. Implementation of the ODIs has created the positive development on employee motivation, interpersonal communication skills, entrepreneurial mindset and team performance. After the quantitative analysis, employee motivation, interpersonal communication skills and entrepreneurial mindset statistically significantly predicted team performance. Furthermore, team performance found to be a positive relationship with the perceived performance by the customer. Keywords: high performance teams (HPTs), team performance, entrepreneurial mindset, employee motivation, interpersonal communication skills, team developmen

Educational Leadership for School Based Management

Educational Leadership is identified as an important factor for quality education and developing countries have focused on this important factor and implemented systematic training and development programs for their leaders. Moreover, the latest educational policies advocate decentralized educational management, which has brought both benefits and problems in a number of countries. However, these initiations are far away from the expectations. Any educational reform will not be successful without both an evolution of institutional structures and specialized training and development programs for education professionals. One strategy for achieving these goals is found in School Based Management (SBM), a model of decentralized school administration that provides clear guidelines and has been successfully introduced in a number of countries. This paper focuses on the principles and practices of School Based Management for school effectiveness