Prior research has highlighted the educational benefit of enabling students to participate in collaborative learning activities. Developing technology that extends the physical boundaries of the classroom and enables students to engage in meaningful collaborative learning activities outside class time can be of significant value. For any…

No school is an island; it is a part of a continuum or a pipeline of institutions which together form an educational pipeline through which groups of students pass. To turn a body of data into useful information for knowledge-based decision-making at any level, data must be collected, organised, analysed and reflected upon. The purpose of this…

Software is a critical component of systems ranging from simple consumer appliances to complex health, nuclear, and flight control systems. The development of quality, reliable, and effective software solutions requires the incorporation of effective software engineering processes and leadership. Processes, approaches, and methodologies for…

Security incidents resulting from human error or subversive actions have caused major financial losses, reduced business productivity or efficiency, and threatened national security. Some research suggests that information system security frameworks lack emphasis on human involvement as a significant cause for security problems in a rapidly…

Library Web sites must compete against easy-to-use sites, such as Google Scholar, Google Books, and Wikipedia, for students' time and attention. Library Web sites must therefore be designed with aesthetics and user perceptions at the forefront. The Music and Performing Arts Library at Urbana-Champaign's Web site was overcrowded and in much need of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of three different interface types on Web-based instruction: a text-based interface, a graphical interface and a metaphorical interface. In order to determine differences among three interface groups, we compared learning performance, cognitive load, usability, and appeal with various data…

Information systems educators must balance the need to protect the stability, availability, and security of computer laboratories with the learning objectives of various courses. In advanced courses where students need to install, configure, and otherwise manipulate application and operating system settings, this is especially problematic as these…

As more affordable synchronous communications are becoming available, the use of synchronous interactions has not been noted in course Web sites as often as asynchronous communications. Previous research indicated that the integration of synchronous tools into course Web sites has made a positive impact on students. While most of the previous…

This dissertation reports the results of an exploratory data analysis investigation of the relationship between the structures used for information organization and access and the associated storage structures within state government websites. Extending an earlier claim that hierarchical directory structures are both the preeminent information…

An important issue of the demographic change in the German population is the maintenance and promotion of the employability of aging workforces. However, there are hardly any suitable concepts or usable tools available to realize this goal. Possible approaches should push the individual strengths of the aging workers to the foreground and…

Describes a framework for designing an electronic performance support system (EPSS) that reduces the requirement for more traditional forms of training. An intervention summary table is provided that includes five types of interventions, user access, user type (expert and/or novice), purpose, and difficulty. (Author/LRW)

User participation and its relationship to system success have been discussed in the information systems (IS) literature from many theoretical and practical perspectives. In reality, most of this discussion is grounded in empirical research that has yielded mixed results on the importance of user participation and its relationship to system…

Reviews and summarizes "Things That Make Us Smart," a book by Donald Norman that defends human attributes in the age of electronic systems. Topics include human performance; kinds of cognition; kinds of learning; design principles for electronic performance support systems; and examples. (LRW)

Electronic performance support systems (EPSS) can accommodate disparate learner knowledge, experiences, and methods of comprehension. However, learners may have ineffective cognitive strategies for using an EPSS environment. The solution described in this article is applied to a Web-based EPSS that has a simulation core. As the learner works in…

Proposes that object-oriented (OO) analysis, design, and programming methods, currently having a major impact on computing, will play an increasing role in shaping the paradigms of performance technology--particularly in instructional design (ID). Ties this crossover of OO from computing to ID to design trends and ongoing research in ID. (AEF)