Conducting Performance Evaluation of an e-Health Platform

For increased awareness and adoption of e-Health implementations, results from evaluation must be catered towards three primary perspectives: organizational, end-user and technical perspective. This chapter addresses the issue of conducting performance evaluation of e-Health for the technical perspective. The authors present the design of metrics that enable them to evaluate the scalability, functionality and reliability of e-Health implementations. Using simulated patient data, experiments are conducted on an existing e-Health platform using their defined metrics. Results show that 100 simulated patient’s data may interact with the e-Health platform under evaluation with a maximum round-trip time latency value of 6.6 seconds. By building upon the techniques the authors have used to conduct performance evaluation of e-Health implementations, along with the design of methodologies to enable evaluation to take place for the two other perspectives, i.e. end-user and organizational perspectives, the authors hope to see greater support for this technology in the near future.

Continuous Improvement in e-Teams for Collaborative Marketing Planning

Academics are charged with continuous and evidence-based curriculum improvement in a move toward more learner-centred teaching and assessment, whereby information and communication technologies increasingly facilitate this call. This chapter looks at technology enhanced teaching and learning in a university curriculum innovation. A major collaborative marketing plan assessment was designed to be undertaken in virtual or eteams in a compulsory first-year Marketing unit within a Bachelor of Business course. Using the Plan-Do-Study-Act improvement cycle, the efficacy of teamwork is evaluated for two successive delivery periods in 2011. Improvements to the eteam design are identified and implemented. It is found that external students can successfully conceptualise new products and develop marketing plans in a fully online learning environment. Further, with the improved eteam design, initial results suggest that teamwork is shifting from simply cooperative to genuinely collaborative.

Old Age, the Internet, and Advancing Technology

The benefits to the old and very old of mental stimulation and close connections with family are well documented. Access to email and the Web can make very large contributions to both. This chapter describes a small research project to place Internet-linked computers in a retirement complex in Melbourne, Australia. The aim was to research the existing computer skills of the residents, provide lessons in the use of email, general computer and Internet use, investigate the most appropriate type of lessons, and document problems and residents areas of interest. This chapter describes ways to minimise problems with applications and hardware, and potential advantages of up-to-date technology such as Tablet computers and ‘Smart’ Television are discussed.

e-Society and Children’s Participation

Children constitute an important group within policy discussion on information society issues, particularly in the context of digital learning opportunities and e-inclusion. However, their participation in e-society is also a cause for some public and policy concern. With ever-earlier adoption of new internet technologies and services by children, questions arise as to how to best ensure their protection whilst seeking to encourage positive online opportunities. A delicate balancing act is required to manage risks they may encounter while promoting greater participation online. To better inform this policy field, EU Kids Online conducted a pan-European survey of children’s use of the internet, resulting in the first fully comparable evidence base of children’s use of the internet in 25 European countries. Drawing on its findings, this chapter examines children’s participation in e-society and addresses the nature of online opportunities, the kinds of digital skills required and evidence of the risks young people may face on the internet. The chapter argues that greater attention to children’s perspectives on e-society is needed to foster greater online trust and participation.

Creating Educational Resources for Medical Education in the Web2.0/Web3.0 Era

The accelerated development of the networked society throughout the last few years had a strong impact on the teaching and learning activities from the medical related domains. E-learning applications have become very popular and encouraged the shift from traditional training activities – having the teacher as a mediator, towards self-guided ones where the teacher is rather a supervisor. These changes imposed the creation of new, more complex and more interactive teaching resources, with high quality standards, that could fulfill the requirements of the new approach. At present, the lack of specialized development tools requires the involvement of both medical and IT specialists in the resources creation process, consequently, generating higher production costs. In this chapter, the authors present two specialized tools – MetaMorphosis+ and eGLE – together with a new resources development methodology based on the repurposing approach and the blend of social networks activities with semantic web functionalities. In addition, the authors describe the user evaluation activities performed over the MetaMorphosis+ application and the results obtained.

An Analysis of the Effect of e-Government Readiness on Business Climate, Corruption Perception, and the Rate of New Entrepreneurs

This research aims to understand the relationship between e-government, business climate, corruption perception and its impact in the entrepreneurial activity. Data was collected from various databases, for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012, using panel data. The reports used were The Doing Business Report from World Bank, E-Government Survey from the United Nations, Corruption Perception Index by Transparence International and entrepreneurship data from Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. After joining the databases, correlation analysis and panel least squares regressions were performed. The results indicate that when a country is more “e-gov” ready, it may have a more dynamic business sector and less perception of corruption. The probable causes of the relationships are discussed, including suggestions for an integrative approach to allow developing countries to diminish the gap of e-government readiness. Future research to understand the difference of impact of e-government in developed and developing countries are also suggested.

What are the Characteristics of the Firms that are Most Prone to Mobile Selling?

Vendors are actively considering the mobile phone as a means of marketing nowadays and should also analyze its potential as a means of selling. In this study, we present the survey results from a sample of 125 firms, in Spain. The author outlines two types of firms (sceptical and receptive) on the basis of factors that drive or inhibit this type of selling. The author then characterize those types of potential mobile firms regarding TOE (technological, organizational and environmental) variables and CRM (perceived customer relationship performance, perceived customer value, electronic database and benefits of mobile CRM) variables. To the best of the author’s knowledge, previous studies have neither analyzed mobile selling in Spain nor proposed an exhaustive characterization of mobile vendor firms and strategies.

Teaching Basic Software Engineering to Senior High School Students

Software Engineering (SE) is an increasingly important topic as software projects increase in size, budget, and duration. The authors suggest starting teaching SE already to high school students instead of waiting until their freshman year at university. This chapter shows the principles the authors used for creating such courses. First, the authors explain which software lifecycle model the authors use, why, and how it needs to be tailored for students with very little development experience. Second, the authors discuss the educational models the authors apply to increase motivation and counter the inert knowledge problem often observed in lectures. The authors mainly focus on goal-based scenarios and scaffolding, two constructivist design methods. Finally, the authors present a case study of one course they conducted in fall 2011 with eleven high school students between ages 16 and 18.

The Practice and Evaluation of Applying PBL to e-Learning via Screencasting

As the practice of e-learning continues to proliferate, online educators, especially in the computing disciplines, are facing special challenges. This chapter represents an effort in moving the existing problem-based learning (PBL) paradigm to e-learning through the use of screencasts. In the form of an empirical case study, the chapter provides empirical evidence and indicative support for the successful application and evaluation of PBL methods in a highly technical computing course that has traditionally been taught in a face-to-face setting. This chapter makes a unique contribution to the e-learning research with respect to the applicability of PBL methods in the online environment and the exciting possibilities for screencasting as an instructional technology. It also offers implications for creating e-learning courses that can prepare students to develop lifelong problem solving skills and become more motivated and responsible learners in today’s networked society.

A Guide to Online Applications for User Involvement in Living Lab Innovation

The use of Living Labs is gaining importance as an approach to involve users in innovation and development, serving to make users active participants in the development of the networked society. However, Living Labs are currently not taking full advantage of online applications to support user involvement, even though such applications are gaining impact in other fields of innovation. The purpose of this chapter is to: (i) present a framework to classify and relate online applications for user involvement to the Living Lab context and (ii) present a set of guidelines for the usage of such applications within Living Labs. The framework and the guidelines are the results of a collaborative process involving seven Living Lab researchers from four Nordic Living Labs and are meant to guide Living Lab administrators on whether or how to use online applications for user involvement. The framework and the guidelines might also be useful for the designers of online applications.