Feedback 2.0: An Investigation into Using Sharable Feedback Tags as Programming Feedback

Objectives: Learning and teaching computer programming is a recognised challenge in Higher Education. Since feedback is regarded as being the most important part of the learning process, it is expected that improving it could support students' learning. This thesis aims to investigate how new forms of feedback can improve student learning of programming and how feedback sharing can further enhance the students' learning experience. Methods: This thesis investigates the use of new forms of feedback for programming courses. The work explores the use of collaborative tagging often found in Web 2.0 software systems and a feedback approach that requires examiners to annotate students source code with short, potentially reusable feedback. The thesis utilises a variety of research methods including questionnaires, focus groups and collection of system usage data recorded from student interactions with their feedback. Sentiment and thematic analysis are used to investigate how well feedback tags communicate the intended message from examiners to students. The approaches used are tested and refined over two preliminary investigations before use in the final investigation. Results: The work identified that a majority of students responded positively to the new feedback approach described. Student engagement was high with up to 100% viewing their feedback and at least 42% of students opting to share their feedback. Students in the cohort who achieved either the lower or higher marks for the assignment appeared more likely to share their feedback. Conclusions: This thesis has demonstrated that sharing of feedback can be useful for disseminating good practice and common pitfalls. Provision of feedback which is contextually rich and textually concise has resulted in higher engagement from students. However, the outcomes of this research have been shown to be influenced by the assessment process adopted by the University. For example, students were more likely to engage with their feedback if marks are unavailable at the time of feedback release. This issue and many others are proposed as further work

Epistemic objects in collective decision-making: a practice perspective on the use of causal maps as situated material artifacts

Recent practice-based approaches to strategic decision-making research have emphasized the importance of gaining a deeper understanding how managers think, act, and interpret strategic decisions in practice. This focus on the micro aspects of strategic decision-making has emerged from the critique that much of the ‘traditional’ decision- making theory may not be actionable in practice. Research should therefore concentrate on what managers do when they engage in strategic activities. This practice-based perspective considers decision-making as a situated, context specific activity, and research into the enactment of decisions constitutes an important part of understanding decision-making. Such micro focus may reveal insights to the similarities and differences between organizations and teams in the ways in which their members approach decision-making tasks. Studies on decision-making as a situated activity provide valuable insight into managerial practice. However, few studies focus on the role of epistemic objects in decision-making. This thesis makes a contribution by investigating the role of epistemic objects as situated material artifacts in the collective decision-making context. Drawing on extensive review of the literature on epistemic objects, sociomateriality, causal maps, group decision-making, and managerial attribution biases, the thesis identifies an under-researched area in our understanding how epistemic objects interact with human activity in strategy making. As an inductive research undertaking, the thesis makes a theoretical contribution to knowledge by developing a conceptual framework how causal maps as epistemic objects are enacted, interpreted, and used as a sociomaterial decision-making ‘tool-in-use’ by actors. The research reveals how the enactment of causal maps as a ‘safety net’ in collective decision-making increases cognitive conflict in decision-making groups that results in the consideration of multiple decision outcomes and the development of innovative solutions to decision problems. The research also shows how the enactment of causal maps increases decision acceptance among the decision- makers by making their individual knowledge claims visible to other group members, and by motivating them to work collectively towards a shared goal. Furthermore, the research reveals how causal maps act as a ‘shock absorber’ by deflecting the decision- makers’ frustration and anger away from personal confrontation among group members thereby preventing the emergence of affective conflict. Finally, the research results indicate that the enactment of causal maps mitigates managerial biases such as groupthink and the escalation of commitment bias. In terms of managerial contribution the thesis offers a deeper insight to the affordances of causal maps, and how managers can use causal mapping as a practical decision-making ‘tool-in-use’ to improve the quality of decision-making processes by structuring conversations and debate, developing a shared understanding of decision problems, and achieving closure and decision acceptance of the decision outcomes. The thesis concludes by making recommendations for future research and the testing of the conceptual framework that may provide useful guidance for the future development of strategy practice and managerial ‘tools-in-use’ for effective strategy work

Dagstuhl News January - December 2005

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

Identification and classification of shareable tacit knowledge associated with experience in the Chinese software industry sector

The study reported in this thesis aimed to provide an ontology of professional activities in the software industry that require and enable the acquisition of experience and that, in turn, is the basis for tacit knowledge creation. The rationale behind the creation of such an ontology was based on the need to externalise this tacit knowledge and then record such externalisations so that these can be shared and disseminated across organisations through electronic records management. The research problem here is to conciliate highly theoretical principles associated with tacit knowledge and the ill-defined and quasi-colloquial concept of experience into a tool that can be used by more technical and explicit knowledge minded practitioners of electronic records management. The ontology produced and proposed here provides exactly such a bridge, by identifying what aspects of professional and personal experience should be captured and organising these aspects into an explicit classification that can be used to capture the tacit knowledge and codify it into explicit knowledge. Since such ontologies are always closely related to actual contexts of practice, the researcher decided to choose her own national context of China, where she had worked before and had good guarantees of industrial access. This study used a multiple case-study Straussian Grounded Theory inductive approach. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews in order to get direct interaction with practitioners in the field and capture individuals opinions and perceptions, as well as interpret individuals understandings associated with these processes. The interviews were conducted in three different and representative types of company (SMEs, State Owned and Large Private) in an attempt to capture a rich variety of possible contexts in the SW sector in a Chinese context. Data analysis was conducted according to coding the procedures advocated by Grounded Theory, namely: open, axial and selective coding. Data collection and analysis was conducted until the emergent theory reached theoretical saturation. The theory generated identified 218 different codes out of 797 representative quotations. These codes were grouped and organised into a category hierarchy that includes 6 main categories and 31 sub-categories, which are, in turn, represented in the ontology proposed. This emergent theory indicates in a very concise manner that experienced SW development practitioners in China should be able to understand the nature and value of experience in the SW industry, effectively communicate with other stake holders in the SW development process, be able and motivated to actively engage with continuous professional development, be able to share knowledge with peers and the profession at large, effectively work on projects and exhibit a sound professional attitude both internally to their own company and externally to customers, partners and even competitors. This basic theory was then further analysed by applying selective coding. This resulted in a main theory centred on Working in Projects, which was clearly identified as the core activity in the SW Industry reflecting its design and development nature. Directly related with the core category, three other significant categories were identified as enablers: Communication, Knowledge Sharing and Individual Development. Additionally, Understanding the Nature of Experience in the SW Industry and Professional Attitude were identified as drivers for the entire process of reflection, experience acquisition and tacit knowledge construction by the individual practitioners. Finally, as an integral part of any inductive process of research, the final stage in this study was to position the emerged theory in the body of knowledge. This resulted in the understanding that the theory presented in this study bridges two extremely large bodies of literature: employability skills and competencies. Both of these bodies of literature put their emphasis in explicit knowledge concerning skills and competencies that are defined so that they can be measured and assessed. The focus of the theory proposed in this thesis on experience and resulting acquisition of tacit knowledge allows a natural link between the employability skills and competencies in the SW industry that was hitherto lacking in the body of knowledge. The ontology proposed is of interest to academics in the areas of knowledge management, electronic records management and information systems. The same ontology may be of interest to human resources practitioners to select and develop experienced personnel as well as knowledge and information professionals in organisations

Taxonomy of Human Actions for Action-based Learning Assessment in Virtual Training Environments

This design research project developed and validated a taxonomy of human actions to be used in action-based learning assessment. The taxonomy, titled ‘BEHAVE,’ was shown to have both internal and external validity and allows actions performed by learners, for example in digital performance spaces, to be formally represented with consistency and to be compared with expert reference actions, to generate automated post-performance formative feedback

Sensitising gender to local cosmology: A participatory ethnographic gender and development approach from a Muslim community in Senegal

This article is concerned with the effectiveness of gender and development practice in diverse knowledge systems. Conventional theoretical and analytical frameworks and methodologies of gender and development reflect primarily secular epistemologies and it has yet to be addressed systematically how non-secular knowledge systems may be incorporated effectively in the design and implementation of gender programmes. This article presents a project from a Muslim rural community of Senegal that analysed gender realities through the prism of the local religio-cultural cosmology and explored community members‟ responses to increasingly internationalised western ideals of gender equality. As an innovative methodology, participatory research techniques were integrated into short-term ethnographic investigations in an attempt to explore gender realities through the conceptual repertoire of the research participants. The study showed that understandings of subjectivity and gender norms were intertwined intricately with religio-cultural beliefs which influenced how participants conceived themselves and local gender relations and how they responded to western ideals of gender equality. Gender itself seemed to be conceptualised at a more profound ontological level emanating from religio-cultural beliefs. The implication is that gendersensitive development in this community will need to account for this epistemological framework and to attune to religio-cultura sensibilities. The study also suggests that the participatory ethnographic methodology that was employed can facilitate a transition to an epistemology-sensitive gender and development practice; however it must be combined with reflexivity and be followed by more rigorous research

Evidence and Formal Models in the Linguistic Sciences

This dissertation contains a collection of essays centered on the relationship between theoretical model-building and empirical evidence-gathering in linguistics and related language sciences. The first chapter sets the stage by demonstrating that the subject matter of linguistics is manifold, and contending that discussion of relationships between linguistic models, evidence, and language itself depends on the subject matter at hand. The second chapter defends a restrictive account of scientific evidence. I make use of this account in the third chapter, in which I argue that if my account of scientific evidence is correct, then linguistic intuitions do not generally qualify as scientific evidence. Drawing on both extant and original empirical work on linguistic intuitions, I explore the consequences of this conclusion for scientific practice. In the fourth and fifth chapters I examine two distinct ways in which theoretical models relate to the evidence. Chapter four looks at the way in which empirical evidence can support computer simulations in evolutionary linguistics by informing and constraining them. Chapter five, on the other hand, probes the limits of how models are constrained by the data, taking as a case study empirically-suspect but theoretically-useful intentionalist models of meaning

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse