Designing for Complexity in Mother Tongue or First Language (L1)-Based Multilingual Education Programs

Mother-tongue or first language (L1)-based multilingual education programs are necessarily complex and may require a more nonlinear approach to program design. These programs operate within and act upon a range of psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, and sociopolitical issues that include language structure and literacy assessment, language policy and politics, and cultural and social behavior change linked to literacy expansion. The broad use of one-size-fits-all outcomes-based design approaches for L1-based multilingual education programs often result in designs that are retrofitted to new country settings and ill-suited to the context in which they are implemented. This paper looks at some of the many features that can be used to inform the development of L1-based multilingual education in the context of early literacy programming. Specifically, it examines the use of alternative approaches in the development of flexible theory of change design that integrate early literacy and L1-based multilingual education program design frameworks to more suitably address the sociolinguistic, sociopolitical, and psycholinguistic assumptions underpinning multilingual education approaches

Designing for complexity: data visualizations in megaproject management

Focusing on the format of dashboards and the visualisations of performance indicators, this thesis explores the design features that make accounting visualisations influential in shaping the management of highly complex and dynamic organisational settings. Informed by empirical research on the reporting design practices in Crossrail, Europe's largest infrastructure megaproject, this thesis theorises how the design of data visualisations is consequential in supporting engagement with the challenges of project delivery and how they enable and constrain interaction. To address these concerns, this thesis develops a comprehensive design framework for the study of the visual in accounting. It does so by drawing from the design theory concepts of affordances, visual and aesthetics literacy, and visual conventions to investigate how designers deploy specific forms and features to pre-form practices of future interaction with visual artefacts. Theorising five interrelated design principles – multimodal balance, visual relationality, optical consistency, functional beauty, and the emphasis on incompleteness and the visualisation of consequences – this study makes three contributions to the study of the visual in interdisciplinary accounting. The first contribution informs the accounting literature on the design of accounting visualisations unpacking how designers visualise the multiplicity and interconnectedness of complex organisational phenomena and theorises how such artefacts can support the creation associations to tackle complexity and emergence. The second contribution is to the literature on numerical pictures in accounting and relates to how aesthetic attributes can augment the power and interactional possibilities of visualisations. The third contribution of this study consists in the fact that it offers a design perspective to the study of the visual in accounting. In fact, this thesis investigates how reporting designers construct visualisations and does so relying on a theoretical framework developed based on notions borrowed from design theory

Context-Based Approaches to Developing Theories of Change in Basic Education

Introduction to Special Themed Issue: Context-Based Approaches to Developing Theories of Change in Basic Education&nbsp

Data-driven engineering design research: Opportunities using open data

Engineering Design research relies on quantitative and qualitative data to describe design-related phenomena and prescribe improvements for design practice. Given data availability, privacy requirements and other constraints, most empirical data used in Engineering Design research can bedescribed as “closed”. Keeping such data closed is in many cases necessary and justifiable. However, this closedness also hinders replicability, and thus, may limit our possibilities to test the validity and reliability of research results in the field. This paper discusses implications and applications of using the already available and continuously growing body of open data sources to create opportunities for research in Engineering Design. Insights are illustrated by an examination of two examples: a study of open source software repositories and an analysis of open business registries in the cleantech industry. We conclude with a discussion about the limitations, challenges and risks of using open data in Engineering Design research and practice

Building data analytics capability to increase information processing capacity: The case of a professional service firm

Supply chain literature has emphasised the importance of data analytics capability in driving supply chain outcomes. Additionally, along with knowledge and professional judgement, providing data-driven analyses has become a critical component of professional service operations. However, there remains little understanding of how organisations build data analytics capability to reduce supply network uncertainty. A single case study of a professional service firm revealed analytics capability to be a combination of three capabilities, each with its distinct micro-foundations. We argue that the development of analytics capability requires the interaction of individual abilities and knowledge-bases with social and technical interorganisational processes and structures

The Roots of System-Oriented Design

Systems Oriented Design (SOD) draws on different sources. It is based on an experimental designerly practice for complexity that did not originally have strong ties to systems theories. The main component of this practice was the innovative use of visualization for dealing with complexity. Visualization is found in different variations in all design fields. To limit the discussion, however, we need to exclude many aspects of design visualization to get to the core of the issue: designing for complexity. The many different strategies for visualization in design are found in two groups that are less central to the discussion in this book: 1) visualisations of design visions and 2) solutions and information visualisation. Though both are important for communicating the results of a SOD process, we are more interested in looking at visualisations that are closely related to the generative learning and design process. This means visualisation as high-level processual tools, methods, and conceptual frameworks. Another framing of the subject is made by mainly excluding the figurative design sketches commonly found in any generative design process. This mode of generative sketching will only be discussed as secondary issues

Learning curves: analysing pace and challenge in four successful puzzle games

The pace at which challenges are introduced in a game has long been identified as a key determinant of both the enjoyment and difficulty experienced by game players, and their ability to learn from game play. In order to understand how to best pace challenges in games, there is great value in analysing games already demonstrated as highly engaging. Play-through videos of four puzzle games (Portal, Portal 2 Co-operative mode, Braid and Lemmings), were observed and analysed using metrics derived from a behavioural psychology understanding of how people solve problems. Findings suggest that; 1) the main skills learned in each game are introduced separately, 2) through simple puzzles that require only basic performance of that skill, 3) the player has the opportunity to practice and integrate that skill with previously learned skills, and 4) puzzles increase in complexity until the next new skill is introduced. These data provide practical guidance for designers, support contemporary thinking on the design of learning structures in games, and suggest future directions for empirical research

A case study of work-based learning through the design of edX MOOCs for Latin America and the Caribbean

This exploratory case study analyzed the reported learning experiences among the multidisciplinary practitioners employed in the development of edX courses for a pioneering MOOC program targeted at Latin America and Caribbean. It applied work-based learning theory and activity theory to answer the question of whether and how a group of 20 participants—including subject matter experts, instructional designers, administrative assistants, platform technicians, and media producers—experienced work-based learning through their collaboration during the MOOC program’s initial professionalization period. Using qualitative research methods via interviews, observation, and document analysis, it illuminated the practical, pedagogical, and organizational factors that participants identified as critical for succeeding in their jobs. The principal study finding indicated that the entirety of participants experienced work-based learning in response to systemic tensions related to one or more of the five phases of the MOOC design cycle. The secondary findings concluded that participants encountered significant pressures and opportunities for learning as a result of: developing educational resources or learning activities (80%), the need for improving organizational processes (85%), and facing constant technological upgrades (75%). Finally, the study recommends that MOOC design teams (a) rethink the role of the instructor vis-à-vis the techno-pedagogical affordances of the MOOC platform, and (b) design adaptive organizational structures that support a plurality of sociomaterial workflows

Meta-Organizational Design: Rethinking Design in Inter-Organizational and Community Contexts

This paper provides conceptual foundations for analyzing organizations comprising multiple legally autonomous entities, which we call meta-organizations. We assess the antecedents of the emergence of such collectives and the design choices they entail. The paper identifies key parameters on which such meta-organizations' designs differ from each other. It also presents a taxonomy that elucidates how such forms of collective action vary and the constraints they must address to be successful. We conclude with implications for research on meta-organizational design