A model for enhancing empowerment in farmers using mobile based information system

Farmers living in rural villages of Sri Lanka do not have proper access to information to make informed decisions about their livelihoods and as a result they face constant hardships in their lives. They use mobile phones to communicate but these are not currently connected to the Internet. We are investigating how to provide personalized information to farmers with the aim of empowering them to make informed decisions and take appropriate actions. In this paper we propose an empowerment model that has been designed to achieve their goals which have been identified using a scenario-based approach. The model examines several empowerment processes and supporting tools that would help them to achieve their goals with the hope that they would have an increased sense of control, self-efficacy, knowledge and competency. This empowerment model is applied to the development of a mobile based information system that is being developed by an international collaborative research group to address the issues of the farmers.<br /

A theory of change framework for developing cross-faculty programs : an information systems perspective

Information systems (IS) is a discipline that draws upon many other disciplines to bridge theory and practice and address the information and knowledge needs of individuals, organisations and society. We propose that an ideal education in IS would be delivered via cross-faculty programs of study that are not combinations of units from different faculties and disciplines, but programs which include a coherent and cohesive set of units co-designed and co-delivered by teaching staff from more than one faculty. This allows students, and teachers, to appreciate the different content and perspectives within the same context, as they will experience in the workplace, and allow them to develop deeper understandings of the complexity that can arise in their roles as mediators and communicators in finding appropriate IT solutions. Such a model poses a radical change, and thus the framework we offer uses a &lsquo;theory of change&rsquo; agenda.<br /

53rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Research into Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Published versio

Educational Scaffolding for Students Stuck in a Virtual World

Virtual worlds provide students with educational opportunities to explore and have experiences that are difficult to provide in reality. However, ensuring that students stay motivated and on task is important if the learning goals are to be achieved. Building on the findings of previous studies involving agent-based virtual worlds, adaptive collaborative learning and intelligent agents, we have designed an empathic intelligent virtual agent that provides educational scaffolding to encourage and support the students to understand what they are learning with less frustration. We have identified models of ‘stuck’ behaviour and corresponding empathic response patterns that we have incorporated into the behaviours of the intelligent virtual agents in the XXX Virtual World for science inquiry

Acceptability and proof of concept of internet-delivered treatment for depression, anxiety, and stress in university students: protocol for an open feasibility trial

BACKGROUND: In recent years, university counseling and mental health services have reported an increase in the number of clients seeking services and in yearly visits. This trend has been observed at many universities, indicating that behavioral and mental health issues pose significant problems for many college students. The aim of this study is to assess the acceptability and proof of concept of internet-delivered treatment for depression, anxiety, and stress for university students. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is an open feasibility trial of the SilverCloud programs for depression (Space from Depression), anxiety (Space from Anxiety), and stress (Space from Stress). All three are 8-module internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) intervention programs. Participants are assigned a supporter who provides weekly feedback on progress and exercises. Participants will complete the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and stress subscale of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) as the outcome measures for the depression, anxiety, and stress interventions, respectively. Other outcomes include measures of acceptability of, and satisfaction, with the intervention. Data will be collected at baseline, 8 weeks and 3-month follow-up. DISCUSSION: It is anticipated that the study will inform the researchers and service personnel of the programs' potential to reduce depression, anxiety, and stress in a student population as well as the protocols to be employed in a future trial. In addition, it will provide insight into students' engagement with the programs, their user experience, and their satisfaction with the online delivery format

Effectiveness of Persona with Personality Traits on Conceptual Design

Conceptual design is an important skill in Software Engineering. Teaching conceptual design that can deliver a useful product is challenging, particularly when access to real users is limited. This study explores the effects of the use of Holistic Personas (i.e. a persona enriched with personality traits) on students' performance in creating conceptual designs. Our results indicate that the students were able to identify the personality traits of personas and their ratings of the personalities match closely with the intended personalities. A majority of the participants stated that their designs were tailored to meet the needs of the given personas' personality traits. Results suggest that the Holistic Personas can help students to take into account personality traits in the conceptual design process. Further studies are warranted to assess the value of incorporating Holistic Personas in conceptual design training for imparting skills of producing in-depth design by taking personalities into account.10 page(s

Estimating non-response bias in a web-based survey of technology acceptance : a case study of unit guide information systems

Surveys are mostly challenged by response rates. Among the various types of survey research, web-based (internet-based/electronic/online) surveys are commonly used for data collection for a geographically diverse population. In surveys with high/low response rates, non-response bias can be a major concern. While it is not always possible to measure the actual bias due to non-response there are different approaches and techniques that help to identify reasons of non-response bias. The aims of this paper are twofold. (1) To provide an appropriate, interesting and important non-response bias case study for future web-based surveys that will provide guidance to other Information Systems researchers. The case-study concerns an online-survey to evaluate a technology acceptance model for Unit Guide Information systems (UGIS). (2) To discuss how nonresponse bias in a web-based technology acceptance study of an information system (UGIS in this case) can be contained and managed.<br /

Predicting the acceptance of unit guide information systems

Information Systems can play an important role in ensuring and improving the quality of education provided. However, lack of acceptance of these information systems and resistance of technology innovations by the end users limit the expected benefits of the system. This research attempts to identify the key determinants for the acceptance of the Unit Guide Information Systems (UGIS) in the Australian higher education sector. The technology acceptance model (TAM), social cognitive theory (SCT) and model of PC utilization (MPCU) are combined to provide a new framework for this analysis. Results of the study are consistent with the technology acceptance factors for explaining the behavioural intention of the academics. The study also shows the effects of application specific self-efficacy, application specific anxiety and social influence on the acceptance of UGIS. Implications of the results are discussed within the context of unit guides and curriculum mapping.<br /

A Technology Acceptance Model For Unit Guide Information Systems

Curriculum mapping is an important task in implementing, embedding and monitoring the knowledge, skills and attributes that graduates must acquire in their program of study. Curriculum mapping ensures correspondence between learning outcomes, learning activities and assessments. To aid in performing this complex task, many higher educationinstitutions are using unit/study guide tools or curriculum mapping tools. These tools may be known under different names in different institutions but we will refer to these tools as unit guide information systems. To evaluate the utilisation and acceptance of these tools, this research-in-progress paper draws on an extensive body of literature related to technology acceptance that includes social cognitive theory and model of PC utilization to explain the influence of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Our research extends the technology acceptance model by incorporating the external variables of self-efficacy, anxiety and social influence. The results are expected to indicate which of the external factors are most important in predicting and explaining attitude and intentionto use unit guide information systems