Podcasting in Higher Education: Students’ Usage Behaviour

At German universities, podcasting is still a relatively new method of teaching and learning, on which only few studies are available so far. The present report aims to describe students’ usage behaviour and their assess- ment of podcasting. The findings are based on a survey of students at the University of Flensburg, who took part in lectures recorded and made avail- able as podcasts during the 2007 summer term and 2007/08 winter term. A total of 148 students took part at the two survey sessions. The majority of the surveyed students are inexperienced in the use of podcasts, as the descriptive results show. For most of the respondents, lecture podcasts were their first contact with this medium. Mainly a notebook is used to listen – at home – to the podcast of the recorded lecture. The focus in this regard is on playing back or catching up on the lecture at a later point in time. The main purpose for the students is to systematically prepare ahead of written tests and examinations. Slightly more than half of the respondents consider the opportunity to use podcasts to be no substitute for attending lectures. A clear factor in the success of lecture podcasts is that they are available with no cost involved. Another important factor is that the students can reuse and replay the recorded lecture. Podcasts are considered a possibility to assimilate the contents of lectures better and more efficiently. Students who do not use lecture podcasts justify this by stating that they have difficulties in learning with a computer.podcasting, podcast, higher education, usage behavior

The Rise and Fall of The Thin Concrete Shell

Concrete was a popular material choice that stretched the imagination of building designers over past decades. This material that imbued notions of plasticity and flow, sets innovative ideals soaring with hope in the postwar landscape, seen as the material of the future. This paper seeks to perspectivise the phenomenonal rise of the material in the application of shell construction using key case studies of built examples from Nervi, Candela and Isler. It also aims to chart the subsequent demise of its application in thin shell design. By understanding the reasons to what led to its demise, designers will be able to erect concrete shells more sustainably, by modifications to the design process, construction stages and thoughtful consideration to formwork implementation to meet the demands of the 21st century and beyond. This paper discusses the possibilities of concrete as a material of choice and by asking the question to what constituted its popularity and what led to its demise in this age of new technological advances, construction processes and environmental concerns. This paper will present a cultural perspective of the material and the important relationship between concrete with its formwork to bring about a new renaissance to the reappearance of such structures in our built environment once again

Specification and use of component failure patterns

Safety-critical systems are typically assessed for their adherence to specified safety properties. They are studied down to the component-level to identify root causes of any hazardous failures. Most recent work with model-based safety analysis has focused on improving system modelling techniques and the algorithms used for automatic analyses of failure models. However, few developments have been made to improve the scope of reusable analysis elements within these techniques. The failure behaviour of components in these techniques is typically specified in such a way that limits the applicability of such specifications across applications. The thesis argues that allowing more general expressions of failure behaviour, identifiable patterns of failure behaviour for use within safety analyses could be specified and reused across systems and applications where the conditions that allow such reuse are present.This thesis presents a novel Generalised Failure Language (GFL) for the specification and use of component failure patterns. Current model-based safety analysis methods are investigated to examine the scope and the limits of achievable reuse within their analyses. One method, HiP-HOPS, is extended to demonstrate the application of GFL and the use of component failure patterns in the context of automated safety analysis. A managed approach to performing reuse is developed alongside the GFL to create a method for more concise and efficient safety analysis. The method is then applied to a simplified fuel supply and a vehicle braking system, as well as on a set of legacy models that have previously been analysed using classical HiP-HOPS. The proposed GFL method is finally compared against the classical HiP-HOPS, and in the light of this study the benefits and limitations of this approach are discussed in the conclusions

Beyond “Data Thrifting”: An Investigation of Factors Influencing Research Data Reuse In the Social Sciences

The development of e-Research infrastructure has enabled data to be shared and accessed more openly. Policy mandates for data sharing have contributed to the increasing availability of research data through data repositories, which create favorable conditions for the reuse of data for purposes not always anticipated by original collectors. Despite the current efforts to promote transparency and reproducibility in science, data reuse cannot be assumed, nor merely considered a “thrifting” activity where scientists shop around in data repositories considering only the ease of access to data. This research was driven by three main questions: 1) What are the factors that influence scientists’ research data reuse? 2) To what degree do these factors influence scientists’ research data reuse? and 3) To what extent do scientists reuse research data? Following a sequential mixed-method approach, this study sought to provide a more nuanced view of the underlying factors that affect social scientists’ intentions to reuse data, as well as the impact of these factors on the actual reuse of data. Findings from a preliminary small-scale exploratory study with 13 social scientists produced 25 factors that were found to influence their perceptions and experiences, including both their unsuccessful and successful attempts to reuse data. These factors were grouped into six theoretical variables: perceived benefits, perceived risks, perceived effort, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived reusability. The variables were articulated in a conceptual model drawing upon the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) in order to examining social scientists’ intentions and behaviors towards the reuse of research data. The proposed hierarchical component model and the research hypotheses were validated through a survey, which was distributed to 4,500 social scientists randomly selected from the Pivot/Community of Science (CoS) database. A total of 743 social scientists participated in the survey, of which 564 cases were included in the analysis. The survey data were analyzed using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique, and supplemented by ad-hoc group comparison analyses. Survey results demonstrated that social scientists’ data reuse intention and reuse behavior were indeed influenced by different factors beyond frugality. More specifically, the more practical and social benefits social scientists perceive from reusing research data, the more likely they intended to reuse data. Similarly, peer and disciplinary influence had a positive effect on social scientists’ intention to reuse data collected/produced by others. On the contrary, the construct perceived risks was found to negatively influence social scientists’ intention to reuse existing research data collected by others. Facilitating conditions and intention to reuse were found to positively correlate to actual data reuse behavior. Perceived effort was found not statistically significant, indicating that reusing data from others did not involve as much effort as collecting/producing primary data. Perceived reusability failed to be measured, due to the lack of convergent validity. Ad-hoc group comparison tests found that intention and data reuse behavior depended on sub-disciplines’ traditions and the methodological approach social scientists followed. The findings of this research provide an in-depth understanding about the reuse of research data in the context of open science, and provide a collection of factors that influence social scientists’ decisions to reuse research data collected by others. Additionally, they update our knowledge of data reuse behavior and contribute to the body of data reuse literature by establishing a conceptual model that can be validated by future research. In terms of practice, it offers recommendations for policy makers, data scientists, and stakeholders from data repositories on defining strategies and initiatives to leverage data reuse and make publicly available data more actionable

A MODEL FOR ESTIMATING THE COST TRADEOFFS ASSOCIATED WITH OPEN ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

An open systems approach (OSA), especially when used in conjunction with modular architecture, reuse, and harnessing of existing (COTS or proprietary) technologies, is commonly associated with cost avoidances resulting from: more efficient design; increased competition among suppliers; more efficient innovation and technology insertion; and modularization of qualification. However, OSA strategies require investment and may increase risk exposure. To determine if openness should be pursued, and to what degree, a quantitative model assessing the costs associated with openness is required. Previous attempts to measure openness rely on qualitative measures, and cannot be used to estimate the life cycle cost impacts of openness. The model developed in this thesis quantitatively determines the effects of openness on life cycle cost. The life cycle cost difference between two implementations with differing levels of openness was calculated for a case study of an ARCI sonar system, providing insight into the value of openness. The case study performed in this thesis provides the first known quantitative support for Abts' COTS-LIMO hypothesis that increasing CFD increases cost avoidance. However, these results challenge Henderson's implicit assumption that marginal openness is always positive (increasing openness is always beneficial)

A Comprehensive Analysis of Literature Reported Software Engineering Advancements Using AHP

The paper provides a various potential improvements in software engineering using analytic hierarchical processing (AHP). The presented work could support in assessing the selection of process, project, methods and tools depending on various situations encounter during software engineering. AHP belongs to Multi Criteria Decision making methods which seems to be a continuous research to solve critical and complex scientific and software engineering applications. This paper discusses existing key research contributions and their advancements in the areas of both software engineering and in combination of AHP with software engineering

A service-oriented approach to embedded component-based manufacturing automation

This thesis is focused on the application of Component-Based (CB) technology to shop oor devices using a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services (WS) for the purpose of realising future generation agile manufacturing systems. The environment of manufacturing enterprises is now characterised by frequently changing market demands, time-to-market pressure, continuously emerging new technologies and global competition. Under these circumstances, manufacturing systems need to be agile and automation systems need to support this agility. More speci cally, an open, exible automation environment with plug and play connectivity is needed. Technically, this requires the easy connectivity of hardware devices and software components from di erent vendors. Functionally, there is a need of interoperability and integration of control functions on di erent hierarchical levels ranging from eld level to various higher level applications such as process control and operations management services. [Continues.