A Model for Business-IT Alignment in Malaysian Public Universities

AbstractBusiness-IT alignment is defined as a stage where the mission, objective, and planning within business strategy is shared and supported by IT strategy. This definition is extended to cover the situation where business executive and IT executive comprehended and committed towards achieving the mission, objective, and plan for both business and IT. One important issue in business–IT alignment study is the absence of alignment. By identifying factors to achieve business-IT alignment, the problem on the absence of alignment could be addressed. Due to the complexity of business-IT alignment, there is possibility that successful alignment focuses on managing specific alignment dimension by investigating factors that encourage particular dimension. Past studies have shown the relationship between business-IT alignment and organisation performance. However, only few researchers tried to relate between the factors with organisational performance. Therefore, the aim of this research is to contribute to the formation of a theoretical model influencing alignment dimension that has impact on organisational performance. The model is important to provide empirical evidence that confirms the importance of categorizing factors into dimensions in achieving business-IT alignment and their influence on universities’ performance

Predictors of Millenials’ E-wallet Payment Behaviour in Post-Covid-19 in Malaysia

This study uncovered contributing factors that could determine millennials’ e-wallet payment behaviour in post-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Malaysia. In this study, 256 millennial respondents from Labuan and Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia were approached using an online questionnaire via Google Forms for effective data collection. This study used the ‘attitude, social influence and self-efficacy’ (ASE) model as a baseline theory to explain millennials’ e-wallet payment behaviour in post-Covid-19. The results revealed that attitude, social influence and self-efficacy were significant predictors of e-wallet behaviour. Besides, attitude also served as a significant mediating variable. The results obtained should be considered with caution. At least two limiting factors are acknowledged in terms of the limited geographical locations as well as confined variables used to explain the behaviour. Besides these constraints, future research might examine other theories to contrast the findings for improved contributions in e-wallet payment in Malaysia. The results obtained would be very pertinent for the development of an e-wallet policy in post-Covid-19 and new guidelines to boost adoption for payment purposes in Malaysia. This study presents a new perspective on the potential impacts of millennials' e-wallet behaviour in post-COVID-19 in Malaysia using the ASE model

Ontology-based recommender system for a learning sequence in programming languages

The same learning process in educational systems could be boring and time consuming for some learners. This problem arises from the lack of personalized learning sequence for learners with different knowledge level. Recommender systems play an important role in assisting the learners to find suitable learning materials and personalized learning sequence. Use of ontology for knowledge representation in knowledge-based recommender systems would facilitate sharing, reuse and common terminology. Since programming concepts have logical relationships among together so, traditional education systems are more stressful and very time-consuming. This paper aims to propose an ontology-based recommender system to present a Personalized Learning Sequence in Programming (PLSP) domain which is depended to learner's knowledge level. A recommender module and, the knowledge base module are integrated together in the proposed framework. The recommender module as the main module in the framework, has three stages which is working based on semantic rules and ontology representation. Evaluation of the system was carried out by comparing the non-recommender system (web-based search) using 32 ICT respondents. Results demonstrate that the participants who used the proposed system spent 1119 seconds to find the suitable learning path in comparison to those who used a non-recommender system (3480 seconds) in the same learning material. It means that learners who follow learning path with PLSP, are more suitable for them. Furthermore, the average mean value of usability test is 4.47, (5 maximum scale) which indicates that the system proved to be useful, was easy to use, and satisfied the users

Predicting aesthetic preferences: does the Big-Five matters?

User experience is imperative for the success of interactive products. User experience is notably affected by user preferences; the higher the preference, the better the user experience. The way users develop their preferences are closely related to personality traits. However, there is a void in understanding the association between personality traits and aesthetic dimensions that may potentially explain how users develop their preferences. This paper examines the relationship between the Big-Five personality traits (Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) and the two dimensions of aesthetics (classical aesthetics, expressive aesthetics). Two hundred twenty participants completed the Big-Five questionnaire and rated their preference for each of the ten images of web pages on a 7- point Likert scale. Results show Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism were not significantly correlated with aesthetic dimensions. Only Agreeableness showed a significant correlation (although weakly) with both classical and expressive aesthetics. The finding conforms to literature that personality traits have influence on the preference of individual design features in lieu of aesthetic dimensions. In other words, personality traits are inapt predictor of aesthetic dimension. Therefore, more studies are needed to explore other factors that potentially help to predict aesthetic dimensions

The present state of system analysis and design in East Malaysia

Many government agencies everywhere in the globe, including those in the developing regions, are intimately involved in developing their Information Systems (IS) projects. To favourably develop these IS projects, those agencies have spent lots of funding, forces and time to assure that they are amply equipped with the latest system design and analysis methods. However, the literature is scarce with the published evidence showing that these government agencies are claiming that they have successfully used these cultivated analysis and design techniques. The intricate system analysis and design techniques may only remain theoretical with limited use. Many of these system analysis and design techniques had never succeeded the claimed benefits made when they were acquired, which begs the principal research question of what is the present deployment state of system analysis and design in these government institutions, particularly in the developing regions? The article thus discusses the exploratory case studies on the present state of system analysis and design methods deployed by the public institutions in East Malaysia, a developing region within South-East Asia

Perceptions on interaction design in Malaysia

Even though researchers have introduced Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methodologies, since 1980's, Malaysia's user interface is still considered inadequate. Despite being aware of the importance of usable design, several non-technical issues have more significant influence towards poorly designed user interface in Malaysia. This paper reports the findings of a study of interaction design and/or any HCI methodologies in practice among Malaysian companies for software design and computer-related design development. The research involved senior Information Communication Technology (ICT) managers and focused on the application developers, whose job descriptions and responsibilities vary. The study used semi-structured interviews and a focus group study to uncover the current perceptions of people involved in ICT project development. The findings serve as a pointer to the Malaysian government and stakeholders towards the improvement of user interface design

Why Automation Needs Error Avoidance Guidelines and Evaluation?

Why do we need automation? Many technologies cite three major reasons: to eliminate the dull, the dangerous, and the dirty routines. It is difficult to argue with this answer, but many things are automated for other reasons - to simplify a complex task, to reduce the work force, to entertain - or simply because it can be done. However, none of the above matters relate to the findings of this paper, whereby automation leads to human making mistakes

Barriers and drivers of Human-Centered ICT design: the missing elements in Malaysia

Given the widely recognized importance of information and communication technology (ICT) for the successful government initiatives and business achievement; this study explored the perception of ICT-related officials and major stakeholder's group towards the barriers and drivers of human-centered technology development. The findings found that although Malaysia has successfully implemented ICT, issues of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) have not been distinct as they should be; there is a lack of study on the usability of ICT/ multimedia applications and less emphasis on adoption of designing interactive systems to support people and for the people to enjoy. Findings of this study indicate that human-centered barriers are clustered around the existing traditional bureaucratic system. In fact, different challenges related to the traditional model of bureaucracy such as mindset, institutional and managerial processes are considered as heart of all other barriers which have building block human-centered design. Interestingly, incentives for modernising and reinventing the government by using ICT with the intention of building citizen-centric, transparent and accountable and efficient government are placed at the core of driving forces for moving towards human-centered activities

Why thinking aloud matters for usability evaluation?

Computer application should be enjoyable to use, do useful things and enhance the lives of people who use them. In the days of the web, issues of usability are critical to computer application such as e-commerce. Usability is re-defined as trade-off between increasing the user's motivation to encourage exploration and purchasing in e-commerce, and the costs of usability errors. This study reports on methodology applying expert-based and think-aloud methods in the laboratory setting. Usability evaluation of two airlines websites was carried out to study user performance and to investigate the websites' conformance with ISO standards. Subjects comprised actual users who had experience using the online booking applications. Despite having results indicated that usability evaluation not only reliable in rating a computer application that is enjoyable and usable; it discovered design elements that manipulate users to make mistakes

Ontology-Based Recommender System for a Learning Sequence in Programming Languages

The same learning process in educational systems could be boring and time consuming for some learners. This problem arises from the lack of personalized learning sequence for learners with different knowledge level. Recommender systems play an important role in assisting the learners to find suitable learning materials and personalized learning sequence. Use of ontology for knowledge representation in knowledge-based recommender systems would facilitate sharing, reuse and common terminology. Since programming concepts have logical relationships among together so, traditional education systems are more stressful and very time-consuming. This paper aims to propose an ontology based recommender system to present a Personalized Learning Sequence in Programming (PLSP) domain which is depended to learner's knowledge level. A recommender module and, the knowledge base module are integrated together in the proposed framework. The recommender module as the main module in the framework, has three stages which is working based on semantic rules and ontology representation. Evaluation of the system was carried out by comparing the non-recommender system (web-based search) using 32 ICT respondents. Results demonstrate that the participants who used the proposed system spent 1119 seconds to find the suitable learning path in comparison to those who used a non-recommender system (3480 seconds) in the same learning material. It means that learners who follow learning path with PLSP, are more suitable for them. Furthermore, the average mean value of usability test is 4.47, (5 maximum scale) which indicates that the system proved to be useful, was easy to use, and satisfied the users