Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Appreciative Inquiry (AI): A comparative study of their effectiveness in improving Master's thesis students' performance

10.26686/wgtn.17012612.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Garoon Pongsart

Keyword(s):

Education Reform ◽

Hybrid Model ◽

Appreciative Inquiry ◽

Theory Of Constraints ◽

Problematic Situation ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

Model Combining ◽

Master's Thesis ◽

Research Students ◽

School Committees

<p>The foundations of this research derived from two separate directions: firstly methodological, and secondly, a problematic situation. Both were strongly driven by the “highs” and “lows” of the researcher’s experiences over several years working in the business sector in Thailand and overseas, combined with his passion for being part of education reform in Thailand. Many students fail to complete their studies. Of domestic students starting an Honours/Master’s qualification at public providers in 1998, by the end of 2002 (5 years later), only 59% had completed their degrees successfully, 2% were still studying towards completion, while 39% had left without completing (Scott, 2004). Why was the completion rate so low? What were the problems that postgraduate students encountered while doing their theses? And how could we help improve the students’ performance? This research compared and contrasted the two approaches, Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Appreciative Inquiry (AI), by applying them to improve this problematic situation area: Master’s thesis students’ issues. A Hybrid model, combining aspects of the two methods, was also developed and tested. A web-based survey was used to recruit 12 Victoria University of Wellington Master’s thesis students for individual interviews, allocating them into three similar groups of four: TOC, AI, and Hybrid. One interviewee from each group also took part in two coaching sessions (action research). The outcomes yielded from the three methods revealed both the root causes of the students’ problems (TOC) and the root causes of their success (AI). Based on the two opposite approaches, and the hybrid model, the researcher developed and proposed guidelines for future postgraduate research students, their supervisors, and graduate school committees. However, some limitations for TOC and AI were revealed: the time-consuming processes for full TOC analysis, and the fact that some tools were not user-friendly. To enhance AI’s performance, stress-free environments may be required. More research on applying TOC, AI, and the Hybrid model to individuals is therefore required in the future.</p>

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A new hybrid model combining EMD and neural network for multi-step ahead load forecasting

Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems ◽

10.3233/jifs-189775 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Hasmat Malik ◽

Majed A. Alotaibi ◽

Abdulaziz Almutairi

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Real Time ◽

Hybrid Model ◽

Storage System ◽

Load Forecasting ◽

Model Performance ◽

Energy Storage System ◽

Electric Load ◽

Real Time Analysis ◽

Model Combining

The electric load forecasting (ELF) is a key area of the modern power system (MPS) applications and also for the virtual power plant (VPP) analysis. The ELF is most prominent for the distinct applications of MPS and VPP such as real-time analysis of energy storage system, distributed energy resources, demand side management and electric vehicles etc. To manage the real-time challenges and map the stable power demand, in different time steps, the ELF is evaluated in yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly, etc. basis. In this study, an intelligent load predictor which is able to forecast the electric load for next month or day or hour is proposed. The proposed approach is a hybrid model combining empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and neural network (NN) for multi-step ahead load forecasting. The model performance is demonstrated by suing historical dataset collected form GEFCom2012 and GEFCom2014. For the demonstration of the performance, three case studies are analyzed into two categories. The demonstrated results represents the higher acceptability of the proposed approach with respect to the standard value of MAPE (mean absolute percent error).

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Investigation of International Students’ Perception of ‘Community’ in a British Higher Education Institute

Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice ◽

10.14297/jpaap.v3i3.175 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Kathrine Angela Jackson ◽

Fay Harris ◽

Russell Crawford

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

International Students ◽

International Student ◽

Global Community ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

Student Community ◽

Research Students ◽

The Uk ◽

Future Work

This paper investigates the perceptions of members of our international student community by giving them a voice and a platform to explore their feelings as part of a Higher Education institute in the UK and whether they consider that the university is a global environment. Our data is based on a series of structured interviews with twelve students from twelve different countries, inclusive of four postgraduate research students. Our findings reveal that our international students commonly feel part of multiple smaller communities but interestingly, they were less sure of their part within an institute-wide community. The postgraduate students’ perceptions of community were quite divergent when compared to the undergraduate perceptions, which we will continue to explore in our future work. Our data supports the perception from international students that their university is a global community, but there were distinct differences in how individuals defined it and some limitations to consider. Some defined it as students and staff of different nationalities being present at a university whilst other definitions relied on cultural characteristics within the institution as a whole. We reflect upon the implications of our research as these perceptions shape international student opinion of Higher Education institutes and what is understood by the term ‘global community’.

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Simulation of Tissue-Engineering Cell Cultures Using a Hybrid Model Combining a Differential Nutrient Equation and Cellular Automata

IFMBE Proceedings - 13th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-92841-6_431 ◽

2009 ◽

pp. 1737-1740

Author(s):

Tze-Hung Lin ◽

C. A. Chung

Keyword(s):

Tissue Engineering ◽

Cellular Automata ◽

Hybrid Model ◽

Cell Cultures ◽

Model Combining

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A Hybrid Model Combining Learning Distance Metric and DAG Support Vector Machine for Multimodal Biometric Recognition

IEEE Access ◽

10.1109/access.2020.3035110 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. 4784-4796

Author(s):

Ibrahim Omara ◽

Ahmed Hagag ◽

Souleyman Chaib ◽

Guangzhi Ma ◽

Fathi E. Abd El-Samie ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Support Vector Machine ◽

Hybrid Model ◽

Support Vector ◽

Distance Metric ◽

Biometric Recognition ◽

Model Combining ◽

Multimodal Biometric Recognition

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Supply Chain Coordination under Trade Credit and Quantity Discount with Sales Effort Effects

Mathematical Problems in Engineering ◽

10.1155/2018/2190236 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 ◽

pp. 1-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zhihong Wang ◽

Shaofeng Liu

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Analytical Model ◽

Hybrid Model ◽

Trade Credit ◽

Supply Chain Coordination ◽

Market Demand ◽

Quantity Discount ◽

Model Combining ◽

Effort Effect

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of trade credit and quantity discount in supply chain coordination when the sales effort effect on market demand is considered. In this paper, we consider a two-echelon supply chain consisting of a single retailer ordering a single product from a single manufacturer. Market demand is stochastic and is influenced by retailer sales effort. We formulate an analytical model based on a single trade credit and find that the single trade credit cannot achieve the perfect coordination of the supply chain. Then, we develop a hybrid quantitative analytical model for supply chain coordination by coherently integrating incentives of trade credit and quantity discount with sales effort effects. The results demonstrate that, providing that the discount rate satisfies certain conditions, the proposed hybrid model combining trade credit and quantity discount will be able to effectively coordinate the supply chain by motivating retailers to exert their sales effort and increase product order quantity. Furthermore, the hybrid quantitative analytical model can provide great flexibility in coordinating the supply chain to achieve an optimal situation through the adjustment of relevant parameters to resolve conflict of interests from different supply chain members. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the hybrid model.

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