Cases and Interviews

2011 ◽  
pp. 222-276
Author(s):  
John DiMarco
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Electronic Portfolio ◽  
Skill Sets ◽  
Penn State ◽  
Effective Models ◽  
The Web

As I examined hundreds of Web sites promising electronic or Web portfolio data for this text, and performed observations and interviews with dozens of students and colleagues, I discovered some exemplary cases of Web portfolio usage. The Web portfolio phenomena and the rise in electronic portfolio development within all disciplines have prompted academic institutions to develop Web portfolio programs and to push these programs towards faculty and students. My general observations are that the institutions that make serious efforts to develop and manage a sound electronic portfolio program are getting good results. Right now, it is not conceivable for an institution to be able to have 100 percent of their student and faculty populations to have Web portfolios. At Penn State University, in the Dutton E-Education Institute, they are trying by providing 500 MB of Web portfolio space to all undergraduate students while enrolled. The institute recently reported in December 2004 that one in three undergraduate students activate their Web portfolio and use it for academic reflection and professional purposes. The Dutton Institute and Penn State’s e-portfolio initiative are highlighted further in this chapter. During interviews with students and faculty members who have created Web portfolios, I discovered some interesting themes that included fear of copyright infringement, technical worries, and lack of process knowledge. These themes encompass problems and positive events that shaped each Web portfolio authors experiences and these are also discussed later in the chapter. Also in this chapter, a Web-based e-portfolio program proposal sample is included to give you a head start on creating a proposal for your institution or program. The sample is based on criteria for new technology proposals distributed by an academic vice president at a four-year university. It is not meant to be a one-size-fits-all proposal. It is meant to give structure to developing an initial program concept. Proposal adaptation based on discipline, industry, and curriculum would certainly be needed. Finally, electronic portfolios are widely seen in the discipline of education. This chapter provides observations of teacher Web portfolios which include all levels of educators from elementary through higher education. These cases seem to have exemplary qualities that fit the teacher Web portfolio and can be transcended into the creation of Web portfolios in any discipline. The goal of examining these cases is to identify important components in the Web portfolios of teachers that represent evidence of professional development, project and skill sets, and persuasion. These teacher Web portfolio cases are effective models for use in any discipline.

Evolution Stages in Web Applications

2011 ◽  
pp. 502-507
Author(s):  
Alberto de Medeiros ◽  
Marcelo Schneck de Pessoa ◽  
Fernando José Barbin Laurindo
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Applications ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Management Policies ◽  
The Many ◽  
Web Research ◽  
The Web

Among the many important contributions that information technology (IT) applications provide to organizations, Internet based applications may be considered the most important for strategic purposes, according to different authors like Porter (2001). Initially, companies tried many different alternatives for using the great potential of the Web and a great number of completely new businesses that were enabled by the new technology. However, there were many failures (not only successes) and the situation has changed since the late 1990s. Thus, the time of experimentation is over and a business-oriented approach is required (Chen & Tan, 2004; Souitaris & Cohen, 2003). The Internet has indeed represented an opportunity, if properly used, for small and for big enterprises anywhere in the world (Drew, 2003; Kula & Tatoglu, 2003; Wresch, 2003). This article describes the initial steps of an ongoing research that intends to compare the phases of Web dissemination in organizations with the adoption stages of traditional computer systems, based on Nolan’s six stage model (Nolan, 1979). This approach could help describe and predict the integration of WWW into the work of organizations as well as provide a basis for improving management policies and decisions (Laurindo, Carvalho, & Shimizu, 2003). Nolan’s model (Nolan, 1979) is still an important and widespread known reference. In 1977, ARPANet (the network that gave origin to the Internet) had only 107 hosts (Ruthfield, 1995). This number increased to 317 million of hosts in January of 2005 (ISC, 2005). This article is based in secondary data collection, some interviews with professionals from companies present on the Web, research on Web sites, in addition to a bibliography about the issue.

Comprendere informazioni complesse con i multimedia. Quando l'immagine č a pop-up

IKON ◽  
2009 ◽  
pp. 151-175
Author(s):  
Sara Rigutti ◽  
Gisella Paoletti ◽  
Laura Blasutig
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Information Visualization ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Web Pages ◽  
Thinking Aloud ◽  
Textual Information ◽  
Embedded Graphs ◽  
Computer Screen ◽  
The Web

- We examined the consequences of a visualization pattern often chosen by web sites which show textual information within the web pages and the related iconic information within pop-up windows. The information visualization in pop-up windows aims to integrate text and pictures but makes difficult the analysis of both information resources. We conducted an experiment in which 80 participants read on a computer screen a text with embedded graphs either near (to the related textual information) or far (from it), plus graphs were integrated in the text or within pop-up windows. The reading behaviour of participants was observed to establish who, among them, examined the graphs and who did not. The recall for textual and iconic information was measured using a recall questionnaire. Our pattern of data shows a student's tendency to ignore graphs, in particular when they are visualized in pop-up windows. These results are confirmed by interviews to undergraduate students who analyzed the same materials using thinking aloud method.

Creation and Maintenance of a Horticultural Education Web Site by an Extension Specialist Without HTML Programming Skills

HortScience ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 507b-507
Author(s):  
L. Brandenberger ◽  
D. Lineberger
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Site ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Vegetable Production ◽  
Transfer Program ◽  
File Transfer ◽  
Research Personnel ◽  
Know How ◽  
Extension Educators ◽  
The Web

Informational web sites on the World Wide Web (WWW) are another means for extension educators to transfer information to a clientele and provide access to new audiences. One of the problems inherent in the utilization of this new technology is the amount of effort required by those involved in order to become proficient enough to accomplish their goal of sharing information through a web site. Through the use of a HTML editor and the assistance from staff knowledgeable about the WWW, a web site on a main campus server was created by untrained off-campus personnel at a remote site to provide information on commercial vegetable production. Planning of the web site included targeting potential audiences, determining what information would be shared from the site, and building a team of extension and research personnel that would provide information and act as reviewers for web publications. Assistance in the form of graphics and general know how were supplied by departmental specialists. After development, the web site was maintained and refined on a regular basis through the utilization of the HTML editor and a web file transfer program.

Web Portal Application Development Technologies

2011 ◽  
pp. 1131-1137
Author(s):  
Américo Sampaio
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
World Wide ◽  
New Technology ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Portal ◽  
Application Development ◽  
Doing Business ◽  
The World ◽  
The Web

The growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web has contributed to significant changes in many areas of our society. The Web has provided new ways of doing business, and many companies have been offering new services as well as migrating their systems to the Web. The main goal of the first Web sites was to facilitate the sharing of information between computers around the world. These Web sites were mainly composed of simple hypertext documents containing information in text format and links to other documents that could be spread all over the world. The first users of this new technology were university researchers interested in some easier form of publishing their work, and also searching for other interesting research sources from other universities.

scholarly journals Critical Appraisal of Information on the Web in Practice: Undergraduate Students’ Knowledge, Reported Use, and Behaviour / Évaluation critique de l’information sur la toile : une vision pratique : les connaissances des étudiants de premier cycle, leur uti

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil R. Hogan ◽  
Connie K. Varnhagen
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Multiple Choice Questions ◽  
Online Journal ◽  
Conflicting Information ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Premier Cycle ◽  
Critical Appraisal Skills ◽  
The Web

Undergraduates use a wide range of information resources for academic and nonacademic purposes, including web sites that range from credible, peer reviewed, online journal sites, to biased and inaccurate promotional web sites. Students are taught basic critical appraisal skills, but do they apply these skills to make decisions about information in different web sites? In an experimental setting, undergraduate students examined pairs of web sites containing conflicting information based on different aspects of critical appraisal, namely credibility of the author of the information, purpose of the web site, and last update of the site, and answered multiple choice questions about the conflicting information. Results indicated that students failed to use critical appraisal criteria, and that while knowledge of and self-reported use of these criteria were related to each other, they were not related to behaviour. This research demonstrates the need for alternative strategies for critical appraisal instruction and assessment. Les étudiants de premier cycle consultent une vaste gamme de sources d’information à des fins universitaires et non universitaires, y compris des sites Web allant de revues en ligne crédibles et évaluées par des pairs à des sites Web promotionnels partials et inexacts. On enseigne aux étudiants des méthodes de base d’évaluation critique, mais mettent-ils ces méthodes en pratique pour prendre des décisions relativement à l’information tirée de différents sites Web? Dans un cadre expérimental, les étudiants de premier cycle ont étudié des paires de sites Web contenant des informations contradictoires en se fondant sur différents aspects de l’évaluation critique, notamment la crédibilité de l’auteur de l’information, l’intention du site Web et la dernière mise à jour du site, et ont répondu à des questions à choix multiples concernant les informations contradictoires. Les résultats indiquent que les étudiants n’ont pas utilisé les critères d’évaluation critique et que si les connaissances et l’utilisation de ces connaissances déclarée par les étudiants étaient reliées, cette relation ne correspondait toutefois pas au comportement observé. Cette recherche démontre la nécessité de stratégies de rechange en matière d’enseignement de l’évaluation critique et son évaluation.

The Effectiveness of Course Web Sites in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

2001 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie L. Comunale ◽  
Thomas R. Sexton ◽  
Diana J. Pedagano Voss
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Web Site ◽  
Discussion Board ◽  
Educational Effectiveness ◽  
Course Performance ◽  
Business Statistics ◽  
The Web

This article describes an exploratory study of the educational effectiveness of course Web sites among undergraduate students in accounting and graduate students in business statistics. We measured Web site visit frequency, the usefulness of each Web site feature, and the impacts of the Web sites on perceived learning and course performance. Graduate students visited the Web site significantly more often than did undergraduate students. In both groups, students rated course note availability and access to grades most useful and, relative to men, women felt that the Web site added more to their learning. Undergraduate students who visited the Web site more often and graduate students who found the discussion board more useful also perceived that the Web site contributed more to their learning. Finally, the graduate (but not the undergraduate) students who visited the Web site more often also performed better in the course.

Eliminating Invisible Barriers: Health Web Site Accessibility

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-86
Author(s):  
Christine Rzepka
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Web Site ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Accessibility Issues ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Simple Evaluation ◽  
The Web

One of the top reasons given for use of the internet is the ability to search for health information. However, much of the planning for web-based health information often fails to consider accessibility issues. If health care organizations and community agencies’ web sites have the latest, most wellresearched information on the health topics of the day, it is useless to those who cannot access it because of invisible technological barriers. Many flashy, high-tech sites were designed only to appeal to the needs of the mainstream population, with no consideration given to how people with disabilities must adapt their use of the web in order to access information. This article addresses issues of access specific to web site development, and will explore barriers to accessibility frequently experienced by web users with disabilities, requirements for ADA compliance, and how people with disabilities use the web. Web site accessibility guidelines, as well as simple evaluation tools, will be discussed. A thorough review of the article will enable even the least tech-savvy of health educators to enhance their skills in planning and evaluating web sites to promote access for people with disabilities.

Mapping global water projects: improving access to donor investment information on the web

Water Policy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-212
Author(s):  
J. Lisa Jorgensona
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Water Withdrawal ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Water Projects ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Water Project ◽  
The Web

This paper discusses a series of discusses how web sites now report international water project information, and maps the combined donor investment in more than 6000 water projects, active since 1995. The maps show donor investment:  • has addressed water scarcity,  • has improved access to improvised water resources,  • correlates with growth in GDP,  • appears to show a correlation with growth in net private capital flow,  • does NOT appear to correlate with growth in GNI. Evaluation indicates problems in the combined water project portfolios for major donor organizations: •difficulties in grouping projects over differing Sector classifications, food security, or agriculture/irrigation is the most difficult.  • inability to map donor projects at the country or river basin level because 60% of the donor projects include no location data (town, province, watershed) in the title or abstracts available on the web sites.  • no means to identify donor projects with utilization of water resources from training or technical assistance.  • no information of the source of water (river, aquifer, rainwater catchment).  • an identifiable quantity of water (withdrawal amounts, or increased water efficiency) is not provided.  • differentiation between large scale verses small scale projects. Recommendation: Major donors need to look at how the web harvests and combines their information, and look at ways to agree on a standard template for project titles to include more essential information. The Japanese (JICA) and the Asian Development Bank provide good models.

The Economics of the Soy Kit as an Appropriate Household Technology for Food Entrepreneurs

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-115
Author(s):  
Chungmann Kim ◽  
Peter Goldsmith
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Credit Access ◽  
Feed The Future ◽  
High Level

Background: The ability for women to operate as food entrepreneurs presents opportunities to leverage at-home production technologies that not only support family nutrition but also generate income. To these ends, the Feed the Future Malawi Agriculture Diversification Activity recently launched a development project involving a new technology, the Soy Kit. The Activity, a USAID (United States Agency for International Development) funded effort, sought to improve nutrition utilizing an underutilized local and highly nutritious feedstuff, soybean, through a woman’s entrepreneurship scheme. Objective: The USAID funded effort provides the overarching research question, whether the Soy Kit is a sustainable technology for delivering nutrition and income through a women’s entrepreneurship scheme. If true, then development practitioners will have a valuable tool, and the associated evidence, to address the important crosscutting themes, of nutrition, poverty, entrepreneurship, and women’s empowerment. To answer this research question, the research team first evaluates the underlying production economics of the kit to measure profitability, return on investment, and operational performance. Second, the team qualitatively and quantitatively assesses the kit’s overall appropriateness as a technology for the developing world. Methods: The team follows the schema of Bower and Brown and utilizes descriptive statistics, and financial techniques to conduct an assessment of the economics and technical appropriateness of the Soy Kit technology. Results: The results show a high level of appropriateness across a number of metrics. For example, the payback period from cash flow is under 6 months and the annual return on capital is 163% when entrepreneurs utilize a domestically sourced kit valued at US$80. Conclusion: The technology matches well with the rhythm of household economy, in particular women’s labor availability and resource base. Businesses earn significant returns on capital thus appear to be sustainable without donor subsidy. At the same time, available capital to finance kit entrepreneurs appears to be scarce. More research needs to take place to address the credit access question, in order to make small-scale kit entrepreneur truly self-reliant; the effects on poverty reduction at the household and village level; and nutrition improvement among the consumers.

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