Designing for knowledge maturing: from knowledge- driven software to supporting the facilitation of knowledge development

ABSTRACT Software engineering has been transformed in recent years by understanding the interaction with customers and the target context as an ongoing learning process. Responsiveness to change and user-centered design have been the consequences. In a similar way, knowledge and ontology engineering are undergoing fundamental changes to acknowledge the fact that they are part of a collective knowledge maturing process. We explore three examples: (i) social media based competence management in career guidance, (ii) ontology-centered reflection in multiprofessional environments in palliative care, and (iii) aligning individual mindlines in pratice networks of General Practitioners. Based on these, we extract four levels of designing for knowledge maturing and associated technical implementations. This shows that future technology support should especially target facilitation of self-organized, but tool-mediated knowledge development processes, where, e.g., workplace learning analytics can play a prominent role

A weighted combined effect measure for the analysis of a composite time-to-first-event endpoint with components of different clinical relevance

Composite endpoints combine several events within a single variable, which increases the number of expected events and is thereby meant to increase the power. However, the interpretation of results can be difficult as the observed effect for the composite does not necessarily reflect the effects for the components, which may be of different magnitude or even point in adverse directions. Moreover, in clinical applications, the event types are often of different clinical relevance, which also complicates the interpretation of the composite effect. The common effect measure for composite endpoints is the all-cause hazard ratio, which gives equal weight to all events irrespective of their type and clinical relevance. Thereby, the all-cause hazard within each group is given by the sum of the cause-specific hazards corresponding to the individual components. A natural extension of the standard all-cause hazard ratio can be defined by a weighted all-cause hazard ratio where the individual hazards for each component are multiplied with predefined relevance weighting factors. For the special case of equal weights across the components, the weighted all-cause hazard ratio then corresponds to the standard all-cause hazard ratio. To identify the cause-specific hazard of the individual components, any parametric survival model might be applied. The new weighted effect measure can be tested for deviations from the null hypothesis by means of a permutation test. In this work, we systematically compare the new weighted approach to the standard all-cause hazard ratio by theoretical considerations, Monte-Carlo simulations, and by means of a real clinical trial example

Motivational and Affective Aspects in Technology Enhanced Learning (MATEL) : Proceedings of the MATEL Workshop 2013-2014

The main purpose and focus of the MATEL workshop series on Motivational and Affective Aspects in Technology Enhanced Learning has been to stimulate interdisci-plinary exchange and joint research activities on understanding and addressing motiva-tional factors and emotions in learning solutions. There is hardly any opposition to the importance of these factors for the success of these solutions. However, there was al-ways a major lack in systematic support and scientific rigor in the interdisciplinary field so that it was characterized through anecdotal evidence and hard-to-generalize results. In 2013 and 2014, From Art to Engineering has become the major motto of the MATEL workshop series. In this report, we bundle the 2013 and 2014 contributions that show steps on this journey

What Makes Retirees Happier: A Gradual or 'Cold Turkey' Retirement?

This study explores the factors that affect an individual’s happiness while transitioning into retirement. Recent studies highlight gradual retirement as an attractive option to older workers as they approach full retirement. However, it is not clear whether phasing or cold turkey makes for a happier retirement. Using longitudinal data from the Health and Retirement Study, this study explores what shapes the change in happiness between the last wave of full employment and the first wave of full retirement. Results suggest that what really matters is not the type of transition (gradual retirement or cold turkey), but whether people perceive the transition as chosen or forced

Ontology-based Competence Management for Healthcare Training Planning: A Case Study

Abstract: With the increased pressure towards economic efficiency, hospitals and other healthcare institutions need to reengineer their internal organization and processes. This challenges human resources development with increased efficiency of training in general. We have developed a competence management concept for training planning at a big German hospital with a special focus on critically analyzing the suitability of state-of-the-art ontologybased approaches and their operationalization into management processes for the area of nursery. Experiences from the case study show the general feasibility, but also crucial issues summarized in this paper

Towards a Human Resource Development Ontology For Combining Competence . . .

Competencies as abstractions of work-relevant human behaviour have emerged as a promising concept for making human skills, knowledge and abilities manageable and addressable. On the organizational level, competence management uses competencies for integrating the goal-oriented shaping of human assets into management practice. On the operational and technical level, technologyenhanced workplace learning uses competencies for fostering learning activities of individual employees. It should be obvious that these two perspectives belong together, but in practice, a common conceptualization of the domain is needed. In this paper, we want to present such a reference ontology that builds on existing approaches and experiences from two case studies