WEB-SERVQUAL: a measure of information systems service quality for the web environment

The research investigated the suitability of the SERVQUAL instrument, extensively used in marketing and selectively used to measure service quality of traditional Information Systems (IS) function, to measure IS service quality in the web environment. The website of a university’s library provided the context in which SERVQUAL was applied. From a focus group meeting of study participants, conducted subsequent to the survey, emerged additions and changes required in designing a web-oriented SERVQUAL (WEB-SERVQUAL) questionnaire. These included the addition of two key dimensions in the form of web strategy and managing customer expectations. Other SERVQUAL dimensions, such as IS reliability and IS responsiveness, had to be modified since the Webmaster, and not just the IS function, plays a significant role in providing service to a website. The study produced a high level WEB-SERVQUAL questionnaire that provides the basis for empirical testing and refinement in subsequent research

Reengineering the Academic Unit\u27s Research Practice: A Stages Model

The paper presents a stages model that guided the efforts of an academic unit at an Australian university to improve its research performance. Aiming to grow the research culture it used the re-engineering approach to bring about a transformation. There are four stages in the model used: establishing the current research presence, facilitating research interaction, increasing research transactions and achieving research transformation. Part of stage 1 was a survey to establish significant gaps between staff research expectations and perceptions. Progress for stages 1 and 2 were able to be managed within the academic unit but stage 3 was largely influenced by university processes. The final stage (stage 4) will only be reached in a year or two when the research expectations-perceptions survey should be repeated to measure the degree of change that has been achieved. The approach outlined in the paper should be of value to other academic units seeking to re-engineer their research efforts

The Teacher – Technology Balance in Business Case Teaching: A Student Perspective

This research investigated students‘ preferences for completing business case studies online compared to face-to-face. The research model was based on the ‗cognitive‘ dimensions of Henri (1992) and the ‗reflective thinking‘ types of Mezirow (1991) against which the activities in case learning were charted. Data was collected through a questionnaire involving postgraduate business students. The findings indicated that, to gain understanding of the case, students prefer material in multimedia form but overall the physical approach was preferred, particular the use of class discussions. When analysing and solving the case problem, the physical and online approaches were more balanced. When developing recommendations, students valued the importance of face-to-face feedback as well as online comparison with the work of others. Responses indicated that students would be willing to provide elementary clarification of the case material to other students online but less willing to provide reasons for critiquing the work of others. The study provided an indication that the blended approach to case teaching in business studies may be the preferred option for students. This would enlarge their learning space as well as develop an e-learning community. As a result student learning is sustained

Road Safety 2.0: Insights and Implications for Government

This research provides insights to government into the potential of web 2.0 as a mechanism to engage with the public on issues concerning road safety. It uses the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) to bring about citizen engagement. An important first step in TTM was to establish young people’s ‘contemplation’ of engaging with government via web 2.0 by determining their abilities and expectations. Reasonably high levels of abilities with web 2.0 tools as well as expectations for Road Safety 2.0 applications were found, thus encouraging government to pursue the potential of web 2.0. Expectations were highest for information management followed by data management and citizen engagement. The next stage of TTM will see the public becoming ‘active’ in their engagement with government. This imposes significant challenges for Road Safety 2.0. Externally, government has to adapt to the attention economy by acquiring ‘eye-ball time’ for road safety and an increasingly reflexive society that reacts to events on the basis of their own choosing. Internally, government systems have to be transformed to reflect an organisational architecture of participation to enable open and transparent collaboration with citizens

Living Cases: Authentic Learning in Action

The paper outlines the merit of using case studies in teaching, such as providing real life examples to contextualise theoretical concepts and shifting the emphasis from teacher-centred to more studentcentred activities. While there are a variety of case types the material they provide is traditionally static. However, in real life, solutions are affected by changed circumstances reflecting a volatile environment. Hence, the paper reports on the approach of using a ‗living‘ case where students are confronted with teacher-initiated interventions while solving the case. The specific case was that of a university deciding to make, purchase or outsource an Information Technology (IT) project for which students applied techniques taught in the unit. Interventions occurred in three stages and reflected the authentic challenges confronted by an IT professional. The paper reports on students‘ reactions to the interventions they experienced at short notice, their performance in developing the project case and conclusions that can be drawn on the more sustained learning that resulted from the approach

Wisdom in student assignments: Its operationalisation and manifestation

The paper examines the presence of knowledge-related wisdom in student assignments by applying the constructs of wisdom developed by researchers at the Max Plank Institute for Human Development in Berlin. They are factual knowledge, procedural knowledge, contextualisation, relativism, and uncertainty. Reciprocal instructor wisdom was operationalised as intellectual excellence, inter-personal skills and experience. The manifestations of wisdom were observed in the completion of a case study requiring students to analyse IT benefit management practices. The findings of the study indicated satisfactory to good levels of factual and procedural knowledge, high levels of relativism but low levels of contextualisation and dealing with uncertainty. Even though previous research has shown the presence of wisdom at an early age, the findings of this student-oriented study should be pleasantly surprising to most academics

Bradykinin is a mediator of anaphylactoid reactions during hemodialysis with AN69 membranes

Bradykinin is a mediator of anaphylactoid reactions during hemodialysis with AN69 membranes. Anaphylactoid reactions (AR) are the most feared complications of hemodialysis. Recently, a high incidence of AR has been reported during dialysis with AN69 membranes in patients treated with ACE inhibitors. Plasma levels of C3a, histamine and bradykinin were measured in 12 patients at the onset of AR during dialysis with AN69. We also investigated bradykinin generation in 10 symptom-free patients dialyzed with four different membranes. None of the 12 patients studied during AR displayed excessive complement activation or histamine release. In contrast, high bradykinin plasma levels (2392 53 fmol/ml; mean sem) were observed in all nine patients of whom bradykinin was measured. One patient developed two consecutive episodes of hypersensitivity on AN69 membranes even without taking ACE inhibitors. Bradykinin levels were high in both episodes (5280 and 10467.7 fmol/ml). Furthermore, this patient showed no symptoms and normal bradykinin levels (123.4 fmol/ml) when dialyzed with other membranes. The role of the membrane type in the AR is further substantiated by the observation that AN69 also provoked a significantly higher bradykinin generation (327.6 18 fmol/ml; mean SEM) during symptom-free sessions compared to other membranes like CuprophanR (5.1 7.3), HemophanR (17.2 6.3) and PolysulfoneR (39.7 6.6). Our findings strongly suggest that bradykinin is the principal mediator of AR during hemodialysis with AN69 membranes. To our knowledge it is the first time that data support the hypothesis of a more general role of bradykinin in shock-like symptoms. Furthermore, bradykinin generation must be regarded as a new marker of biocompatibility of extracorporeal treatments