Designing an information infrastructure to support research degree programmes : identifying information and technology needs

PhD ThesisExtensive previous research has shown that web-based technologies have the potential to improve and enhance the quality of learning both on campus and at a distance. However, most of these studies have focused on the application of web-based technologies to support either undergraduates or taught postgraduate programmes, particularly, the use of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) system to complement module-based courses. Evidence from previous research on the use of VLE to support research students in the context of specific modules showed mixed results. Analysis of the VLE literature suggests that the system arranges courses based on academic calendar. Thus, students will not be able to access the system after the semester end. With postgraduate research, the processes of research are often incomplete even when students have graduated and they often seek to further the work through publication in journals. Therefore, using VLE alone would not possibly support the need of research student, particularly the support that they need throughout the stages of the research life cycle. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to investigate how a web portal could be designed to support the research students throughout the research life cycle. A conceptualised web portal design has been constructed through an extensive review of the web-based technologies, learning theories and research degrees literature. The conceptualised web portal design illustrates that the design is underpinned by adult learning theories and the theory of stages in socialisation development, which in turn inform the framework of this research study. This model was then validated and updated through four action research cycles. A web portal system was developed, using the prototyping method to demonstrate the application of the web portal design informed by the adult learning theories and theory of stages in socialisation development. The research findings suggest that action research and prototyping methodology is capable of designing a web portal that is able to support the needs of research students in the context of a life cycle approach. Furthermore, the study reveals that personalisation and customisation features have proved to be useful in providing relevant information to research students at each stage of the research students’ study. It was found that research students value dynamic content such as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) features for providing condensed, updated content relevant to their interests.Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysi

Risk factors in outsourced software development: A systematic literature review

Software development outsourcing has recently become part of organizations’ overall business strategy to gain global competitiveness. However, it is widely recognized that outsourcing project involves risks and sometimes leads to undesirable consequences.Previous researchers have identified several risks in the software development outsourcing that could cause the project abandonment such as lack of communication and technical skills.The aim of this paper is to examine the literature on outsourced software development in order to identify some risks that could occur during the pre-contract, contract and post-contract phase of the outsourcing life cycle. It is anticipated that by understanding these risks, project managers could better manage them and subsequently increase the possibility of the success of outsourcing project.The findings show that 18 out of 41 studies were concerned with outsourcing software development risk factors.The 15 risk factors found were mapped onto the three phases of the outsourcing life cycle.The most identified risk factors (61%) was lack of required technical skills and competencies

The impact of electronic information resources on academic research: A case study of Kaduna Polytechnic

Purpose - With advancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Internet, e-resources have become influential tools to educational information by spreading high-tech knowledge and giving individuals everywhere fast access to enormous resources.With the proliferation of e-resources around the globe, there is an increase in usage of the resources for research and other educational purposes. A study to assess the effect of e-resources on the academicians is vital so as to ascertain the extent of usage and the impact e-resources has on their scholarly work. Although there have been a number of studies that discussed the impact of e-resources use in the universities worldwide, the research on the impact of e-resources usage on productivity of academician is quite low. This study sought to address these issues by exploring the perceived effect of electronic resources usage on the lecturers in their literature search for professional growth by and large and the institution’s academic excellence for the teaching, learning and research.Specifically the objectives of this study are (1) to determine the pattern of e-resources usage by academicians, (2) to examine the perceived impact of e-resources usage on the academicians’ research

The development of health care management system prototype for companies

The health problem among workers has become a critical social problem, which is very complicated and difficult to overcome.This problem is not only faced by developing countries but also by developed countries such as the United States of America.Various modern medical solutions have been introduced through new medical technologies and medicine to reduce the problem.However the solutions found are not really enough. Every year, individual as well as nation medical expenses increase at a very high rate.Thus, in this paper we present an alternative approach known as Health Care Management System that is hope to reduce health problems among employees

B2C quality evaluation factors from Jordanian consumer perspective

The consumer of B2C business plays a significant role in sustaining B2C business companies. However, many companies neglect to incorporate consumers need in their websites developments, resulting unachieved business objectives.Companies must identify consumers’ factors in their websites developments so that the B2C websites receive higher hits. This study aims to investigate and identify the B2C quality factors from the consumers’ perspective, to rank these factors according to their importance, and to categorize these factors into meaningful groups.Methodology from three phases has been conducted to achieve the objectives.These phases include identification, ranking, and categorization of factors. Data was gathered from the literature and analyzed using SPSS. Simple descriptive statistics such as mean and frequency were used to rank the quality factors. In addition, factor analysis was used to categorize the quality factors. Seventeen quality factors were found to be important from the consumers’ perspective. The seventeen quality factors were further categorized into three groups: E-usage, E-information, and E- services. These categories will be used to construct quality evaluation framework in the next stage of the study

Taxonomy development of blockchain platforms: Information systems perspectives

Blockchain platform has given information system scholars research opportunities in understanding dynamics of convergence of technology and social context. The information system research issues are complex and require taxonomies to understand the similarities and uniqueness among objects. Developing taxonomies is a complex process that needs systematic approach. This paper is a research-in-progress. We proposed taxonomy for Blockchain platform using existing method of developing taxonomies in information systems. With the unprecedented growth led to several companies to develop the varieties of Blockchain platforms. The complexity in the implementation and understanding the technical protocols leading to difficulty face by researchers and practitioners to access their full potentials. To bridge the gap, we proposed a taxonomy of Blockchains distributed ledger platforms in order to provide a mechanism for researchers and practitioners to understand the phenomenon. Final of taxonomy contains five (5) dimensions with fifteen (15) characteristics. Our analysis discovered Blockchain platforms are designed with specific goals, which prescribe its features, i.e FinTech Blockchain platforms for financial domain

Undergraduates’ needs and seeking behaviour: A preliminary study

Information seeking behaviour refers to the process of how individual identify their information needs, search and use the information identified to support their work. Understanding the needs and seeking for information from different types of information sources is very important to student in completing their research activities. This paper presents findings from a preliminary study of undergraduate students’ information seeking behaviour and their need of information for their research project. The aim of this study is to identify their information seeking behaviour in finding the required information that meet their information needs. A survey was carried out and thirty nine final year students from two related Information Technology (IT) programs in a Higher Learning Institution in Malaysia returns the questionnaires. Findings indicate that information about development tools was the most important information needed by the students for finishing research project. In searching for required information, Google search engine was found to be the most widely used by the students. Furthermore, most students preferred to use the electronic information sources to search information due to the variety of information available on the Web

Committer Assessment Practice in Blockchain Project: A Systematic Literature Review

As Blockchain projects gain popularity among developers, the number of patched codes rapidly increases. With such growth, it is difficult for the few committers to maintain it in a timely manner. Subsequently, the community is always in search of new committers. This highlights the imperative importance of committer assessment decisions towards the success of Blockchain. However, the practices come with risks whereby new committers may harm the project. For example, a new committer may initiate a hard fork that splits a project. Numerous systematic literature reviews have investigated developer turnover’s impact on open-source software (OSS) projects. These studies mainly focused on aspects such as community participation, engagement, and motivation. However, previous reviews often overlooked committer assessment practices, particularly in the context of Blockchain projects. Although Blockchain operates as OSS, its distinct attributes, such as decentralisation and cryptography, justify the need for a dedicated review. Therefore, the objectives of this review are to 1) identify committer assessment practices, 2) identify problems in committer assessment, 3) identify existing factors in committer assessment, and 4) suggest some possible research topics. These goals were achieved through a systematic review of literature published between 2010 and 2022. The findings suggest that previous assessment models are useful but mainly focus on technical factors. The results also indicate that studies focusing on behavioural tendencies, which influence human activities, have so far been neglected. Finally, the paper concludes by charting potential open research opportunities