Do Online Courses Provide an Equal Educational Value Compared to In-Person Classroom Teaching? Evidence from US Survey Data using Quantile Regression

Education has traditionally been classroom-oriented with a gradual growth of online courses in recent times. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically accelerated the shift to online classes. Associated with this learning format is the question: what do people think about the educational value of an online course compared to a course taken in-person in a classroom? This paper addresses the question and presents a Bayesian quantile analysis of public opinion using a nationally representative survey data from the United States. Our findings show that previous participation in online courses and full-time employment status favor the educational value of online courses. We also find that the older demographic and females have a greater propensity for online education. In contrast, highly educated individuals have a lower willingness towards online education vis-\`a-vis traditional classes. Besides, covariate effects show heterogeneity across quantiles which cannot be captured using probit or logit models.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Understanding ITO decisions and implementations in Malaysia public healthcare sector: the evidence from a pilot case study

As IT Outsourcing (ITO) grows in complexity, there is a call for effective management of ITO relationship to reduce risks. ITO relationship receives a lot of attention from researchers recently. Many studies, however, are conceptual or hypothesis-testing in nature. In addition, no one study focuses on full and comprehensive ITO decisions and implementations using Simon’s stage model as a framework of inquiry. Thus, this study adopts case study research and grounded theory to investigate in detailed the ITO decisions and implementations of a pilot case in Malaysia public sector. In addition, we perform literature review, websites, documents, news as well as interviews. Our findings indicate that Malaysia practice is not much difference from developed countries except for the Asian cultural values still a dominant factor in local service providers. The research finds that public sector lacks IT resources competences and capabilities while relationship exchange varies from one case to another. Many working relationship factors are generated from iterative data reduction processes. Hence, this study contributes to literature as well as Malaysian ITO practical reference for business managers

The ICT social inclusion among Orang Asli community in Gombak area

As Malaysia is moving towards k-economy and developed nation by 2020, there is a need for all its citizens to participate in this socio-economic development. Orang Asli often have been cited as introverts and lag behind compared to other races in Malaysia. Literatures indicate a few researches have been studied involving the Orang Asli but a dearth is found focusing on ICT education and Internet usage among the Orang Asli schoolchildren. This study aims to fill in this gap by investigating the computer and Internet usage among the Orang Asli schoolchildren in three schools in Gombak area which is close to International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) main campus. The survey findings indicate most of the respondents are familiar with computer and Internet but the level of usage varies. Most parents are lower-income earners and affordability to own personal computers become a main issue. Even though schools provide limited time allocations for the students to use computer laboratories, the students also visit cybercafés, friends and relatives’ houses to use computers and Internet

Understanding Components of IT Risks and Enterprise Risk Management

This study aims to synthesise the risk factors associated with IT/IS and categorise or classify them into a few main major themes to guide the IT management in their risk management exercises. This chapter is organised into five main sections. First, the chapter begins with introduction to IT and risk in general. Second is the description of methodological approach, review of literature on and description of IT risk, factors and enterprise risk management. Third is the result and discussion of IT risk classification identified from the reviewed articles. Finally, the chapter ends with a brief description of future work

Estimation and Applications of Quantile Regression for Binary Longitudinal Data

This paper develops a framework for quantile regression in binary longitudinal data settings. A novel Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method is designed to fit the model and its computational efficiency is demonstrated in a simulation study. The proposed approach is flexible in that it can account for common and individual-specific parameters, as well as multivariate heterogeneity associated with several covariates. The methodology is applied to study female labor force participation and home ownership in the United States. The results offer new insights at the various quantiles, which are of interest to policymakers and researchers alike

IT outsourcing as an innovative strategy for economic advancement: lessons from Malaysia

IT outsourcing is seen as an innovative strategy for organizations to leverage on its several major benefits. The motivations for ITO can be in forms of technological, economic and business benefits. Moreover, ITO generates income for the nation economy. This is possible in onshore and offshore outsourcing activities. This study explores the literature and our previous studies on ITO in banking and public healthcare sector in Malaysia. We aim to answer the motivations for, risks and challenges in and how ITO contributes towards nations’ economies. The study finds that ITO benefits can be mainly categorized into strategic, economic or business and technological benefits. Risks and challenges faced by the organizations under studies are many which can be grouped into financial, information, technical, human resource, project management, risk management and relationship management. Developing countries can tap on her cost effective and innovative proposals to attract potential clients to outsource their IT services and functions to them

bqror: An R package for Bayesian Quantile Regression in Ordinal Models

This article describes an R package bqror that estimates Bayesian quantile regression for ordinal models introduced in Rahman (2016). The paper classifies ordinal models into two types and offers computationally efficient, yet simple, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms for estimating ordinal quantile regression. The generic ordinal model with 3 or more outcomes (labeled ORI model) is estimated by a combination of Gibbs sampling and Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. Whereas an ordinal model with exactly 3 outcomes (labeled ORII model) is estimated using Gibbs sampling only. In line with the Bayesian literature, we suggest using marginal likelihood for comparing alternative quantile regression models and explain how to compute the same. The models and their estimation procedures are illustrated via multiple simulation studies and implemented in two applications. The article also describes several other functions contained within the bqror package, which are necessary for estimation, inference, and assessing model fit.Comment: 21 Pages, 4 figures, 2 Algorithm

Hybrid Plasmonic Waveguide Fed Broadband Nano-antenna for Nanophotonic Applications

In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid plasmonic waveguide fed broadband optical patch nano-antenna for nanophotonic applications. Through full wave electromagnetic simulation, we demonstrated our proposed antenna to radiate and receive signal at all optical communication windows (e.g. $\lambda$ = 850nm, 1310nm & 1550nm) with around 86% bandwidth within the operational domain. Moreover numerical results demonstrate that the proposed nano-antenna has directional radiation pattern with satisfactory gain over all three communication bands. Additionally, we evaluated the antenna performances with two different array arrangements (e.g. one dimensional and square array). The proposed broadband antenna can be used for prominent nanophotonic applications such as optical wireless communication in inter and intra-chip devices, optical sensing and optical energy harvesting etc.Comment: 4 Page, 7 figure