Category Archives: Computers and IT

Case Studies on Computers and IT

by | May 18, 2013

A Case Study on the Effectiveness of Online Learning

A Study about the Effectiveness of Online Learning

Comparative research on learning outcomes in distance education versus face-to-face instructional settings has a long history, reaching back to the 1920s. The findings of hundreds, perhaps thousands of studies, over the decades and through the 1990s have been consistent -there are no significant differences in learning outcomes achieved by students engaged in faceto-face instruction compared to those participating in distance education. This holds true regardless of the technology medium used, the discipline, or the type of student. Beginning around 2000, several studies, including meta-studies.

Case Study on Effectiveness of Online Learning

A large k-125 of experimental and quasi-experimental studies met the established inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis (including data from over 20,000 participating students), and provided effect sizes, clearly demonstrating that in 70 percent of the cases, students taking courses by distance education outperformed their student counterparts in the traditionally instructed courses. By dividing the two-decade time span into four sub-studies, it was determined that the probability of DE [Distance Education] outperforming F2F [Face-to-Face] increased from 1991–2009 and authors predict that it will continue to increase in strength. Keep reading….

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by | May 18, 2013

Case Studies to do Program Evaluation

Studies about do Program Evaluation

The purpose of a case study is to study intensely one set (or unit) of something—programs, cities, counties, work sites—as a distinct whole. What does this mean? For a program designed to encourage bars to observe the smoke free bar law, an evaluation must document the program’s impact on the bars and on the behavior of people in the bars. In a non-case study design, one might decide to observe a series of randomly selected bars to see whether bartenders take some action to enforce the smoke free bar law when customers begin to smoke.

Case Study on Program Evaluation

This style of evaluation entails collecting data on bartender behavior from a random sample of bars large enough to be representative of the entire population of bars from which you sampled. In contrast, a case study design focuses on a hand-picked set of bars (sometimes even just one bar). Before the program begins, the evaluator spends time in the bar(s), observing behavior and talking with people. As the program progresses, the evaluator continues to make observations and to int erview the owners, managers, employees, and customers. She might observe the bars at various times of the day to monitor compliance with other smokefree rules, such as the absence of ashtrays. Keep reading…

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by | May 17, 2013

A Case Study on International Records Management Trust

A Study about International Records Management Trust

Background:~ A key component of the country’s Public Service Reform Programme, Phase II, was to promote e-government and knowledge management as a means of improving governance and service delivery. Tanzania was moving forward to enhance its ICT infrastructure and to develop its capability to deliver services using new technologies. The Government recognised the need to incorporate records management in the design of ICT systems so that they were capable of managing, protecting and providing reliable information over time. This objective had yet to be achieved, but computers were commonplace in most ministries, and increasingly government business and communications were conducted electronically through email, the web, desk top computers and networked information systems.

Case Study on International Records Management Trust

Executive Summary:~ A key component of the country’s Public Service Reform Programme, Phase II, was to promote e-government and knowledge management as a means of improving governance and service delivery. Tanzania was moving forward to enhance its ICT infrastructure and to develop its capability to deliver services using new technologies. The Government recognised the need to incorporate records management in the design of ICT systems so that they were capable of managing, protecting and providing reliable information over time. This objective had yet to be achieved, but computers were commonplace in most ministries, and increasingly government business and communications were conducted electronically through email, the web, desk top computers and networked information systems. Keep reading…

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by | May 16, 2013

Case Study on Rate Monotonic Analysis: Technology Transition Pull

A Study about Rate Monotonic Analysis: Technology Transition Pull

Abstract: This case study reports on efforts to introduce a software technology, rate monotonic analysis, into several software-intensive programs at one site within a multinational firm. We describe lessons learned and success factors in the early use of rate monotonic analysis (RMA). We also present evidence that supports the requirement for an internal capability in the form of technical expertise and infrastructure to adopt and assimilate this new technology. Finally, the study applies the “whole product” concept for understanding technology adoption and use, showing how one firm compensated for lack of a whole product in its adoption of RMA.

Case Study on Rate Monotonic Analysis

Introduction: The acquisition and introduction of new software technologies (including tools, methods, and management approaches) is so much a part of most software development and maintenance efforts that we do not even call it out as a separate activity. However, one reasonable explanation for why cost and schedule overruns are so common in software projects is the continual learning required on the part of software engineers and managers. One solution to the software “crisis” [Gibbs, 1994] is to better understand and anticipate problems and barriers in the introduction of new software technologies, such as rate monotonic analysis (RMA), which is the subject of this report. Keep reading…

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by | May 16, 2013

A Case Study on School Mapping in Education Micro-Planning: Union Council

A Study about School Mapping in Education Micro-Planning: Union Council

Abstract:~ This research took place in the Union Council Chak 84/15L, Khanewal District, Pakistan. Pakistan is a developing country with a large and rapidly growing population; it faces many challenges and as a result socio-economic indicators tend not to show positive trends. In developing countries school mapping (SM), a normative approach to the micro-planning of school locations, is often used to create the necessary conditions for achieving universal primary and secondary education (UPE and USE). With the introduction of a new local government system, development planning is carried out by the district governments with a focus on local priorities and needs. The objective of this research was to identify the potential school sites at the local level by mapping and analyzing the existing inequalities in access and distribution of schools based on reliable spatial and aspatial baseline data.

Case Study on School Mapping

Introduction:~ Pakistan is a developing country with a large and rapidly growing population; it faces many challenges but as a result of its slow progress in development, socio-economic indicators tend not to show positive trends (Government of Pakistan 2010). Education opportunities and their expansion provides the base for national economic development, individual economic welfare, and also narrows social inequalities by promoting a meritocratic basis for status attainment in which the talented can rise to appropriate positions in the economy, regardless of social background (Hannum and Buchmann 2005, 333-354). Hannum and Buchmann also found that countries with better-educated citizens have healthier and slower-growing populations, as educated individuals make more informed health choices, live longer, and have fewer and healthier children. In Pakistan, in spite of all the efforts and measures taken by federal and provincial governments, educational data and reports shows poor growth in net and gross enrolment ratios. Keep reading..

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by | May 16, 2013

Study of the Relationship between Student Social Networks and Sense of Community

Study about the Relationship between Student Social Networks and Sense of Community

Abstract: As the integration of community-centred teaching practices intensifies, an understanding of the types of relationships that manifest in this network and the associated impact on student learning is required. This paper explores the relationship between a student’s position in a classroom social network and their reported level of sense of community. Quantitative methods, such as Rovai’s (2002b) Classroom Community Scale and social network centrality measures, were incorporated to evaluate an individual’s level of sense of community and their position within the classroom social network. Qualitative methods such as discussion forum content analysis and student interviews were adopted to clarify and further inform this relationship.

Case Study on Student Social Networks

Introduction: Recent education literature has highlighted the importance for practitioners to adopt a community-centred pedagogy as a strategy for facilitating student learning (e.g. Brook & Oliver, 2003; Fink, 2003; Johnson, 2001). The dominant tenet of this pedagogical approach can be traced back to the works of Dewey (1938/1963) and Vygotsky (1978) who maintained that the process of learning is facilitated through individual participation in social interactions. This pedagogical model is framed within social-constructivist principles with a focus on developing activities that promote learner-to-learner interactions to support the co-construction of knowledge and the sharing of information and resources. In this context, learning activities involving group work and collaboration are commonly implemented practices. Keep reading….

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by | May 16, 2013

How Networks Confer Influence?

Study about Networks Confer Influence

Abstract:~ Access, brokerage, and efficiency are all acknowledged as important sources of political influence, but are seen as conceptually distinct. Yet all of them result from the distribution of ties (patterns of association) that link together actors in networks. These ties, whether material (like financial transactions) or social (like friendship), determine an actor’s ability to directly influence, make connections between, or quickly spread resources to, other actors. An actor’s relative position in a network formed by these ties thus provides an important source of influence over others.

Case Study on Networks Confer Influence

Introduction:~ Access, brokerage, and efficiency are all acknowledged as important sources of political influence – they generate the capacity to be a compelling force on or have effect on the behavior or beliefs of others. These sources are generally seen to be conceptually very different from each other, and measuring these crucial, but elusive, concepts has proven to be difficult. Yet all of them result from the distribution of ties (patterns of association) that link together actors in networks. These ties, whether material (like financial transactions) or immaterial (like friendship), determine an actor’sability to directly influence, make connections between, or quickly spread resources to, other actors. Keep reading…

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by | May 16, 2013

A Case Study on Information Politics and Information Culture

A Study about Information Politics and Information Culture

Abstract: This article introduces the concepts of information politics and information culture and presents a case study that explores these concepts. The literature from the areas of IS theory and organization theory that provides a backdrop to these concepts is discussed. A case of an organization that has characteristics of both small business and voluntary organization is presented as initial validation of the concepts of information politics and information culture. The case draws on a longitudinal interpretivist study and tracks a trajectory of organizational design, information politics, information culture, management and organizational performance over 25 months. The primary finding is that the organization studied exhibited two distinct information politics and information cultures, each related to different development phases—the era of clan and the era of teams.

Case Study on Information Politics

Introduction: The purpose of this article is to explore issues of information politics (infopolitics, for short) and information culture (infoculture). The concepts of infoculture and infopolitics were introduced by Travica (2003) as part of an information view of organization (IVO). A fundamental assumption behind IVO is that classical views of organizations, such as cultural, political, and structural one, need to be applied directly to information (broadly conceptulized) and information technology (IT). (Note that the term information is used here in a broad sense to mean knowledge, organized/meaningful data or meaning, and data; when the phrase “information and knowledge” is used, “information” means “organized/meaningful data/meaning”). The corollary is that information and IT have a prominent cultural, political, and structural existence, which complements, influences, and is influenced by organizational culture, politics, structure, and other aspects. keep reading…

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by | May 16, 2013

A Case Study on Influence and Passivity in Social Media

A Case Study about Influence and Passivity in Social Media

Abstract:- The ever-increasing amount of information owing through Social Media forces the members of these networks to compete for attention and in uence by relying on other people to spread their message. A large study of information propagation within Twitter reveals that the majority of users act as passive information consumers and do not forward the content to the network. Therefore, in order for individuals to become in uential they must not only obtain attention and thus be popular, but also overcome user passivity. We propose an algorithm that determines the in uence and passivity of users based on their information forwarding activity. An evaluation performed with a 2.5 million user dataset shows that our in uence measure is a good predictor of URL clicks, outperforming several other measures that do not explicitly take user passivity into account. We demonstrate that high popularity does not necessarily imply high in uence and vice-versa.

Case Study on Influence and Passivity in Social Media

Introduction:- The explosive growth of Social Media has provided millions of people the opportunity to create and share content on a scale barely imaginable a few years ago. Massive participation in these social networks is re ected in the countless number of opinions, news and product reviews that are constantly posted and discussed in social sites such as Facebook, Digg and Twitter, to name a few. Given this widespread generation and consumption of content, it is natural to target one’s messages to highly connected people who will propagate them further in the social network. This is particularly the case in Twitter, which is one of the fastest growing social networks on the Internet, and thus the focus of advertising companies and celebrities eager to exploit this vast new medium. As a result, ideas, opinions, and products compete with all other content for the scarce attention of the user community. keep reading on Influence and Passivity in Social Media

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