The future of technology enhanced active learning – a roadmap

The notion of active learning refers to the active involvement of learner in the learning process, capturing ideas of learning-by-doing and the fact that active participation and knowledge construction leads to deeper and more sustained learning. Interactivity, in particular learnercontent interaction, is a central aspect of technology-enhanced active learning. In this roadmap, the pedagogical background is discussed, the essential dimensions of technology-enhanced active learning systems are outlined and the factors that are expected to influence these systems currently and in the future are identified. A central aim is to address this promising field from a best practices perspective, clarifying central issues and formulating an agenda for future developments in the form of a roadmap

Achieving a designed customer experience across multiple delivery platforms: A telco perspective

'Customer experience' is a term that covers a wide range of activities that take place between suppliers and users of products and services. LaSalle and Britton define it as 'a holistic experience which involves a person - as opposed to a customer - as a whole at different levels and in every interaction between such person and a company' (2003). This research considers a key aspect of such an holistic experience: that which is embodied in the product or service under consideration. In the context of increasing mobile technology convergence, the paper considers new approaches that focus on developing the necessary underlying enablers and common interaction flows that are required to deliver a designed experience, taking into account the increasing number of mobile operating systems and service delivery platforms. Ultimately these models move towards allowing users to 'co-create their own unique experiences' (Pralahad and Ramswamy, 2004). The convergence between IT and telecommunications domains presents a unique challenge to product and service designers. Services are increasingly accessible via multiple delivery devices and delivery networks. This trend has been seen most recently in the advent of Internet based services being delivered via mobile phones where 'mobile service delivery and technologies have become the glue between previously secluded 'telecom' and "IT' domains' (Karrberg and Liebenau, 2006). At the same time network operators are trying to tighten their relationship with their customers by offering 'sticky' services aimed at raising the barriers to customer mobility. These two trends lead to a new design challenge: how to design a recognisably consistent and compelling product customer experience that applies over all delivery services, operating systems and networks. Solutions to this problem have to date been either technology led, focussing on integrated delivery platforms, or reliant on rule-based design. Crucial to this analysis is the 'role Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item

An innovative mobile application for construction programme managers

Construction programme management is a complex and information-intensive environment. The construction programme management team requires access to construction information in real-time and when needed. The current increasing use of mobile devices offers an opportunity to meet this need. The efficient management of construction programmes is one of the major factors for improving stakeholders’ satisfaction. An innovative tool is needed in accessing the right information at the right time, especially when spontaneous and urgent decision-making is needed. To this end, the innovative use of a mobile device in delivering information and services to the management team in real-time and based on their current context offers significant benefits. This paper discusses context-aware computing, the enabling technologies for geolocation and the development of a prototype, mobile, context-aware application for construction programme management. The prototype system developed is based on the findings from an earlier study of user requirements which showed that the ability to provide relevant information and services at an appropriate time and at the most appropriate location has the potential to improve the monitoring and control of construction programmes. The prototype system demonstrates the provision of context-specific information and services to construction programme managers using a mobile device. The benefits and limitations of the proposed approach are discussed and conclusions drawn about the potential impact of enhanced information delivery for the efficiency of the construction programme managers

Technology Integration around the Geographic Information: A State of the Art

One of the elements that have popularized and facilitated the use of geographical information on a variety of computational applications has been the use of Web maps; this has opened new research challenges on different subjects, from locating places and people, the study of social behavior or the analyzing of the hidden structures of the terms used in a natural language query used for locating a place. However, the use of geographic information under technological features is not new, instead it has been part of a development and technological integration process. This paper presents a state of the art review about the application of geographic information under different approaches: its use on location based services, the collaborative user participation on it, its contextual-awareness, its use in the Semantic Web and the challenges of its use in natural languge queries. Finally, a prototype that integrates most of these areas is presented

E-Business in Ukraine: Peculiarities, Tendencies, Prospects

Introduction. It is evident that the electronic business plays a central role in the economy development, facilitating the exchange of information, goods, services, and payments. We feel very strongly that entrepreneurs who understand the role and significance of e-business and are ready to meet the sharply expanding scale of cross-border e-commerce will be the winners of tomorrow in the world market. An initial point to underline in connection with these tendencies is that business which does not give some attention to e-business and e-marketing promotion could very easily loose its place on the market. This explains the hyper attention to the e-business nowadays and as a result the necessity of studying this question. The purpose of the article is to study the characteristic features of e-business in Ukraine, to determine the latest tendencies of its development and to propose the certain steps to increase its growth. Results. Recent researches support the view that organizations can have a significant benefit of using e-business tools in their everyday operations. The article examines the benefits, problems and limitations of e-business in Ukraine. It has been distinguished that Ukraine is an attractive market for the development of e-commerce. It has a large potential for e-business and its related activities. In 2018 Ukraine ranked the 2nd place in the turnover growth of online usage among European countries. A major factor stimulating Internet growth is the drastic improvement of the telecommunications infrastructure in the country. Advantages and risks of new electronic marketing techniques were considered in the article. The main strengths of online marketing system are high quality customer service, greater reach, time saving customer loyalty, easy access to information, 24 hours access and personal contact with the customer. Considering the risks, it was admitted that e-marketing requires considerable time investment to get the results and it takes a long time to generate meaningful interactions. Conditions that should be arranged for successful e-business model implementation were determined. It was pointed out that in order to increase the development of e-business in Ukraine that certain steps such as harmonizing of essential laws and standards to the European ones, enhancing the use of web analytics tools, providing an appropriate choice of communication channels and improving administrative regulations regarding e-business procedures should be taken. In this regard, Ukrainian businesses need all the support they can get from policymakers and regulators in order to be able to grow in an increasingly competitive global market. In conclusion, in order to stay effective, to improve operational efficiency, profitability, and to strengthen their competitive position business organizations should definitely adopt e-business model. It is not enough to have high quality products or services to operate successfully in the market; productive introduction of new e-business models is vital in a computerised electronic environment. In this regard, if Ukrainian government wants its companies to fully play their role in a globalized world, it needs to create a harmonized market and a favourable environment where domestic e-business companies can flourish. Prospects for further research can be seen in the analysis of the methods of measuring the effectiveness of different e-business models

Digital entrepreneurship in a resource-scarce context: A focus on entrepreneurial digital competencies

Purpose – Thepurpose of this paper is to criticallyexplorehow context asan antecedent to entrepreneurial digital competencies (EDCs) influences digital entrepreneurship in a resource-scarce environment. Design/methodology/approach – The data comprises semi-structured interviews with 16 digital entrepreneurs, as owner-managers of small digital businesses in Cameroon. Findings – The results reveal the ways in which EDCs shape the entry (or start-up) choices and post-entry strategic decisions of digital entrepreneurs in response to context-specific opportunities and challenges associated with digital entrepreneurship. Research limitations/implications – The data comes from one African country and 16 digital businesses thus the research setting limits the generalisability of the results. Practical implications – This paper highlights important implications for encouraging digital entrepreneurship by focussing on institutional, technology and local dimensions of context and measures to develop the entrepreneurial and digital competencies. This includes policy interventions to develop the information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, transport and local distribution infrastructure, and training opportunities to develop the EDCs of digital entrepreneurs. Originality/value – Whereas the capabilities to adopt and use ICTs and the internet by small businesses have been examined, this is among the first theoretically sensitised study linking context, EDCs and digital entrepreneurship

A framework for requirements engineering for context-aware services

Context-aware services, especially when made available to mobile devices, constitute an interesting but very challenging domain. It poses fundamental problems for both requirements engineering, software architecture, and their relationship. We propose a novel, reflection-based framework for requirements engineering for this class of applications. The framework addresses the key difficulties in this field, such as changing context and changing requirements. We report preliminary work on this framework and suggest future directions