A service driven method for evaluating business and IT alignment

The adoption of Information Technology (IT) in organisations has brought significant benefits to business operations. However, achieving business and IT alignment has been and continues to be a major challenge for researchers and practitioners. The rapid changes in business and IT environments and the influence of social aspects on the business value generated by IT have contributed to its increased complexity. In order to be aware of the state of this alignment, organisations are advised to conduct a business and IT alignment assessment. The outcomes of such assessments provide a platform to achieve a better state of business-aligned IT. However, existing methodological approaches to evaluate business and IT alignment at the operational level have lacked the involvement of social values, to be balanced with other tangible values, as factors in the alignment assessment. Addressing this issue is the motivation for this research. Guided by the Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm, the Business and IT Alignment Assessment Method (B-ITAAM) is developed as the main research contribution. B-ITAAM comprises, in a novel approach, a set of business analysis techniques that assist for a comprehensive business-aligned IT assessment. Principles and concepts from multiple theoretical and methodological perspectives have been adopted to form the theoretical foundations upon which the assessment method is based. As such, concepts from Strategic Management are adopted to establish a link between the strategic and operational levels of an organisation to guide the alignment assessment. Principles from Socio Technical Systems and Organisational Semiotics form the basis for eliciting social values from relevant stakeholders influencing the value of business and IT. Additionally, principles from Service-Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Architecture enable the evaluation method to be service driven. Finally, principles from Task Technology Fit and Social Exchange theories support, respectively, the establishment and assessment of the business and IT alignment. B-ITAAM was applied in a higher education institution to evaluate its viability as an effective business and IT alignment assessment method. The application resulted in a set of recommendations that aim to enhance the alignment of a set of business and IT services offered by the institution, which received appraisal from nine experts involved in the institution. The application also reveals the complexity of the business and IT alignment assessment in the higher education sector, which, until now, has received little attention in business and IT alignment research

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System Implementation Framework for Selected State Universities

Purpose: The highly competitive education environment poses a great challenge to State Universities in the Philippines. Consequently, the need to take on new information system solutions to properly address partial and unintegrated systems is a must. This research is focused on developing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation framework that would serve as a tool for improving the university's operational efficiency. Method: In this study, the ERP critical success factors were determined through the Delphi Method, and weights were assigned to indicate their importance based on experts' consensus using Principal Component Analysis. Data collated from the selected state universities were summarized and treated to determine their readiness for the ERP system. Results: It was observed that the university with high awareness and the finest ICT practices has a strong potential in adopting the system. The organizational and socio-economic factors identified remarkably have a greater impact on the successful implementation of the system, thus, achieving this requires improvement in organizational performance and effectiveness. Generally, most of the universities in the study are ERP-ready and find the proposed framework highly acceptable as a useful reference. Conclusions: Strong executive leadership and commitment are essential elements to ensure success. It was also established that the socio-economic factors are more perceptible, therefore, enhancing employee's knowledge of the benefits of the ERP system can increase their flexibility and involvement in ERP system projects. Recommendations: It is recommended that these universities consider using the Readiness Assessment provided in this study to assist in decision-making and the proposed framework as a guide in planning and strategizing for effective ERP implementation. Practical Implications -The framework developed may be used as a springboard for improving the university's IT infrastructure and for upgrading their technologies leading to enhanced user experience and increased operational efficiency. This can further serve as the basis for policy intercession in the future

An adaptive educational system that caters for combination of two models of learning styles

This thesis aimed to explore the affect of combining two models of learning styles (VARK, and Honey and Mumford) in terms of students‘ learning gains and satisfaction. VARK focuses on how the students perceive learning, while Honey and Mumford examines how an individual would like to learn. A web-based educational system was built to test the combination of the two models of learning styles. A study to examine the feasibility of the system was carried out on 129 participants to explore whether the system presented tutorials according to their individual learning styles. A second study to investigate learning gains and user satisfaction was carried out on 149 participants. Satisfaction was divided into three main concepts: usability, preference and perception of learning. Learning gains were tested by giving participants a pre-test, a post-test and a confirmatory test. Participants were divided into four groups and had the lesson presented according to one learning style of either the VARK or Honey & Mumford model, both of the participants‘ learning styles or with no personal customization. The results found that participants who used the two models of learning styles showed higher learning gains and had higher levels of satisfaction across all three factors; compared to those using only one or no learning style. Furthermore, those using only one learning style showed higher learning gains and had higher levels of satisfaction than those with no learning style. The application of these findings would be of benefit to educational institutions‘ decision makers, educators, students and e-learning designers. Adaptation is a key feature of the system of research. It is intended for future work; preliminary research has shown that the users profile and learning item will change over time. This important finding is worth exploring in future research

Analysis and solutions of power harmonics in medium voltage distribution networks

The transition toward more sustainable energy systems is driven mainly by greenhouse gas emissions reduction schemes and the growing demand for energy worldwide. Consequently, more Distributed Energy Resources (DER) based power sources and their enabling technologies such as Medium Voltage Direct Current (MVDC) systems are being integrated into the existing distribution networksto help meet such challenges. However, due to the presence of the Power Electronics (PE) based power converters interfacing these systems with the main power network, concerns related to power harmonics in today’s distribution networks must be addressed. To investigate the severity of power harmonics in the distribution networks with the presence of the MVDC converters, a detailed model of an MVDC converter including the switching behaviour of the semiconductor devices with a suitable control system and an interleaved Pulse-width Modulation (PWM) scheme was developed in this study. The key finding is that the proposed harmonic mitigation technique, the interleaved SPWM technique, has significantly reduced the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) to 2% at the rated system capacity with no significant even-order harmonic components. The real data obtained from the power network of Albaha was also modelled and simulated in the frequency domain using the established harmonic models of the power system components to conductthe harmonic propagations study of the MVDC converter into the AC network. The MVDC converter harmonic performance in the Albaha power system revealed that the THDs at different voltage levels comply with the standard limits. Moreover, applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially the optimization algorithms for power harmonic solutions have received considerable attention over recent years. Thus, in this research, the recently developed Manta Ray Foraging Optimization (MRFO) algorithm has been implemented for the optimal parameters design of a high-pass Passive Power Filter (PPF). An analytical harmonic analysis approach based on the Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) was also proposed for PPF harmonic performance evaluation including uncertainties at the power network level. For the superiority validation of the MRFO algorithm, different optimizersthat have quite similar hunting and modelling strategies have been adopted. The MRFO algorithm has shown better solution-finding capability but relatively higher computational effort. By including uncertainties at the power network level, the harmonic performance of the optimally designed PPF proposed by the MRFO algorithm was investigated using a proposed MCS-based method, which has shown the significance of the PPF in terms of voltage distortions, system performance parameters, and the network’s hosting capacity for more renewable systems. The results imply that the optimally designed PPF can effectively attenuate the high-order harmonics and improved the system performance parameters over different operating conditions to continually comply with the standard limits. The proposed MCS method showed that the optimally designed PPF reduced the voltage and current distortions by roughly 54% and 30%, respectively, and improved the network hosting capacity by 10% for the worst-case scenario.Furthermore, DER-based power sources are predicted to cause significant harmonic distortions in today’s power networks due to the utilisation of power conversion systems, which are widely recognized as harmonic sources. Identifying the actual contribution of an offending harmonic source can be a challenging task, especially with multiple harmonic sources connected, changes in the system’s characteristic impedance, and the intermittent nature of renewable resources. Hence, a method based on an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) system including the location-specific data was proposed in this thesis to estimate the actual harmonic distortions of a harmonic source. The proposed method would help model the admittance of the harmonic source under the estimation, capture its harmonic performance over different operating conditions, and provide accurate harmonic distortions estimations. For this purpose, a simple power system was modelled and simulated, and the harmonic performance of a solar Photovoltaics (PV) system was used to train the ANN system and improve its prediction performance. Additionally, the expert ANN-based harmonic distortion estimator was validated in the IEEE 34-bus test feeder with different established harmonic sources, and it has estimated the individual harmonic components with a maximum error of less than 10% and a maximum median of 5.4

The relationships among transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and academic service quality at Al-Baha University

This study investigated the relationship between transformational leadership components (idealized influence [attributes], idealized influence [behaviors], inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration), job satisfaction and academic service quality at Al-Baha University. The purposes of this study were to identify the extent to which, if at all, relationships exist between perceived levels of transformational leadership components, job satisfaction, and academic service quality among the faculty members, and to examine to what extent, if at all, are differences in demographic characteristics (gender, age, current position, and years spent at current position) of faculty members associated with the self-perceived levels of transformational leadership components, job satisfaction, and academic service quality. To explore these relationships among the variables of the study, three surveys were employed: The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the SERVPERF, in addition to a demographic questionnaire. A total of 336 responses were completed for the analysis to answering the two research questions and testing the 15 research hypotheses listed in chapter one. Correlational analyses were used to explore these relations. Pearson’s product–moment correlation coefficient at significance level of p \u3c .01. was employed to test the first research question hypotheses, and multivariate analysis of variance at significance level of p \u3c .05 was employed to test the second research question hypotheses. The findings of the study indicated that positive relationships are found among the characteristics of transformational leadership components, job satisfaction and academic service quality as well as between job satisfaction and academic service quality at Al-Baha University. As for the demographic information’s association to faculty members’ perceptions, gender, current positions, and years spent in current positions do not differentiate faculty members’ self-perceived levels of transformational leadership, and academic service quality at Al-Baha University. However, age was found to differentiate faculty members’ perceived levels of individual consideration and job satisfaction. The findings from this study contribute to the field of leadership studies by providing empirical research on this topic in higher education

Female Faculty Perspectives On Blended Learning At Universities In Saudi Arabia

Adopting technology is one of the priorities in the Saudi education system. The reform of Saudi education leads to the need to focus on BL as a tool for adopting technology into any college classroom. This study focuses specifically on technology usage for teaching among female faculty. In 2018, women’s education in Saudi Arabia has undergone an incredible social transition, and women’s education is different and more advanced than before. This study looks to learn about female faculty members’ views and experiences as they relate to the adoption of BL in their classrooms. It seeks to provide in-depth knowledge essential to adopt BL according to a Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) theoretical framework. DOI explains adoption in the social setting with all the possible social culture factors. The TAM explains faculty level acceptance, specifically explaining external factors’ effects on faculty members’ beliefs and influencing them toward the BL. Because this study gathers information on female faculty members’ experiences with BL, a qualitative theme analysis was the appropriate research design to use. In particular, I used a qualitative research method to study female faculty members’ perspectives, collecting data via individual interviews. It is included interviews with female faculty members from four public, 4-year institutions in Saudi Arabia. Faculty members’ flexibility and their relationship to the adoption of BL depended on their benefits and challenges. According to this study’s participants, the challenges of the BL approach in Saudi Arabia necessitate urgent strategic plans at all levels. Faculty members’ knowledge and understanding regarding the definitions of BL showed their acceptance. Faculty support should be a priority for these institutions, which should adopt policies to help achieve Vision 2030—a natural, well-organized way to reform higher education. The gender aspect of the teaching culture considerably impacts the female faculty’s use of BL in Saudi Arabia. This study’s results—that the women faculty believe there is a need for evaluation, and official leadership rules for the adoption of BL. To summarize, the results indicated that women adopted BL when circumstances permitted. The obstacles, in their eyes, were a lack of faculty support, poor strategic evaluation plans, and insufficient empowerment at the institutional level

Student Anxiety in the Foreign Language Classroom: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of foreign language anxiety or xenoglossophobia, for college students enrolled in foreign language courses at The Southern University. The topic was guided by Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition, as it relates to many aspects of the actual process of second language learning. The sample consisted of 10 college students enrolled in foreign language courses at the university level. Qualitative data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews, journaling, and document collection. Data analysis procedures were derived from methods set forth by Van Kaam, and modified by Moustakas, including horizonalization, delimiting horizons, organizing consistent qualities and themes, and constructing textural descriptions. Member checks, audits, and a codebook were used to ensure the trustworthiness and validity of the study. From the data, themes of outlook, goals, and structure emerged. The findings led to the conclusion that participants\u27 perceptions, goals, relationships, and structure impacted their perceptions of xenoglossophobia, whether positive or negative. Recommendations for future research were provided, as future studies would prove beneficial to shed more light on xenoglossophobia