Redesigning a SAD Course to Promote Problem-Based Learning

This chapter reports on the design, development, and implementation of a hybrid introductory systems analysis and design (SAD) semester long course taught at the junior/senior level. Five online instructional modules that focus on student-centered, problem-based learning (PBL) were developed. Each module parallels and reinforces the classroom session content. The classroom “seat-time” saved by having students study and complete online materials provides the instructor and students with additional time for face-to-face and electronic discussions. To further encourage PBL throughout the semester, students use an iterative approach to the SAD life cycle to analyze, design, and implement a prototypic solution to a real world problem presented by the authentic client. The use of a learning management system allows the client to participate in the course throughout the semester regardless of the physical distance between the students and the client. Instructor experiences, hybrid module development strategies, and a summary of student and client feedback are included.

Information Systems Curriculum Design Processes

The process of designing a university curriculum in the information systems discipline needs to follow many of the same processes that professional systems analysts use. Of concern are the product, the stakeholders, the drivers, and the methods; indeed, an information systems curriculum is an information system. This chapter presents a case study of one small regional university’s efforts to create an updated information systems curriculum addressing the challenges of curriculum development using the framework of the very systems analysis and design course content that the students are expected to learn. The chapter identifies each component of the information system curriculum and details the processes supporting each development step along the way, from problem identification to system operation and support. This case study presents a cohesive approach to dealing with the many pressures associated with information systems curriculum development and might be instructive for curriculum development in other disciplines as well.

Support Vector Machine

From the beginning, machine learning methodology, which is the origin of artificial intelligence, has been rapidly spreading in the different research communities with successful outcomes. This chapter aims to introduce for system analysers and designers a comparatively new statistical supervised machine learning algorithm called support vector machine (SVM). We explain two useful areas of SVM, that is, classification and regression, with basic mathematical formulation and simple demonstration to make easy the understanding of SVM. Prospects and challenges of future research in this emerging area are also described. Future research of SVM will provide improved and quality access to the users. Therefore, developing an automated SVM system with state-of-the-art technologies is of paramount importance, and hence, this chapter will link up an important step in the system analysis and design perspective to this evolving research arena.

Pattern Based Video Coding

People’s demands are escalating with technology advances. Now, people are not happy with only text or voice messages, they like to see video as well. Video transmission through limited bandwidth, for example, an existing telephone line, requires an efficient video coding technique. Unfortunately, existing video coding standards have some limitations due to this demand. Recently, a pattern-based video coding technique has established its potentiality to improve the coding compared to the recent standard H.264 in the range of low bit rates. This chapter describes this technique with its background, features, recent developments, and future trends.

Frameworks for Model-Based Design of Enterprise Information Systems

System design is an important phase of system engineering, determining system architecture to satisfy specific requirements. System design focuses on analyzing performance requirements, system modeling and prototyping, defining and optimizing system architecture, and studying system design tradeoffs and risks. Modern enterprise information systems (EIS) are distributed systems usually built on multitiered client server architectures, which can be modeled using well-known frameworks, such as Zachman enterprise architecture or open distributed processing reference model (RM-ODP). Both frameworks identify different system models, named views, corresponding to discrete stakeholder’s perspectives, specific viewpoints, and could serve as a basis for model-based system design. The main focus of this chapter is to explore the potential of model-based design for enterprise information systems (EIS). To this end, the basic requirements for model-based EIS design are identified, while three alternative approaches are discussed based on the above requirements, namely, rational unified process for systems engineering (RUP SE), UML4ODP and EIS design framework.

Software Modeling Processes

Applications require short development cycles and constant interaction with customers. Requirement gathering has become an ongoing process, reflecting continuous changes in technology and market demands. System analysis and modeling that are made at the initial project stages are quickly abandoned and become outmoded. Model driven architecture (MDA), rapid application development (RAD), adaptive development, extreme programming (XP), and others have resulted in a shift from the traditional waterfall model. These methodologies attempt to respond to the needs, but do they really fulfill their objectives, which are essential to the success of software development? Unified modeling language (UML) was created by the convergence of several well-known modeling methodologies. Despite its popularity and the investments that have been made in UML tools, UML is not yet translatable into running code. Some of the problems that have been discovered have to do with the absence of action semantics language and its size. This chapter reviews and evaluates the UML evolution (UML2, xUML), providing criteria and requirements to evaluate UML and the xUML potential to raise levels of abstraction, flexibility, and productivity enhancement. At the same time, it pinpoints its liabilities that keep it from completely fulfilling the vision of software development through a continuous exactable modeling process, considered to be the future direction for modeling and implementation.

A Methodology for Situated Analysis and Design

This chapter presents a new high level methodology for the analysis and design of information systems specifically to support routine action at the operational level of organizations. The authors argue that traditional methods fail to adequately address the unique requirements of support for routine operational action. The main innovation of the methodology is the use of an action-centred approach derived from recent work on the nature of purposeful human action, and as such, emphasises both the information requirements for action and the dependence of action upon appropriately structured environments. A brief case study illustrates how using the methodology can sensitize the analyst to opportunities to increase human efficiency and effectiveness through lighter weight information systems.

Knowledge-Based Characterization of Test Questions

The recent advances in knowledge engineering entail us to represent knowledge associated with a course in an expressive yet computable format as a hierarchical prerequisite relation-based weighted ontology. A schema called the course concept dependency schema written in Web ontology language (OWL) is designed to represent the prerequisite concept dependency. The knowledge associated with educational resources, like the knowledge required for answering a particular test question correctly, can be mapped to subgraphs in the course ontology. A novel approach for selectively extracting these subgraphs is given and some interesting inferences are made by observing the clustering of knowledge associated with test questions. We argue that the difficulty of a question is not only dependent on the knowledge it tests but also the structure of the knowledge it tests. Some assessment parameters are defined to quantify these properties of the knowledge associated with a test question. It is observed that the parameters are very good indicators of question difficulty.

Achieving Effective Health Information Systems

In this chapter we aim to promote an understanding of the complexity of healthcare as a setting for information systems and how this complexity influences the achievement of successful implementations. We define health informatics and examine its role as an enabler in the delivery of healthcare. Then we look at the knowledge commodity culture of healthcare, with the gold standard of systematic reviews and its hierarchy of evidence. We examine the different forms of quantitative and qualitative research that are most commonly found in healthcare and how they influence the requirements for health information systems. We also examine some domain-specific issues that must be considered by health information systems developers, including those around clinical decision support systems and clinical classification and coding systems. We conclude with a discussion of the challenges that must be balanced by the health systems implementer in delivering robust systems that support evidence-based healthcare processes.

Digital Watermarking for Digital Rights Management

With the remarkable growth of Internet and multimedia applications, production and distribution of digital media has become exceedingly easy and affordable. Applications such as distance education, e-commerce, telemedicine, digital library, and live audio/video broadcast activities require distribution and sharing of digital multimedia contents. Consequently, maintaining the quality of service of the applications and the rights of the content owner as well as enforcing a viable business model among the producer, consumer, and distributor of digital contents has become an increasingly challenging task, leading to a contentious area called digital rights management (DRM). This chapter presents how digital watermarking (DWM) technology can addresses part of this DRM problem of secure distribution of digital contents.