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A UX evaluation model of hearing-impaired children’s mobile learning applications
Get PDFSeveral studies on User Experience (UX) evaluation of the mobile application for hearingimpaired had been conducted in the past, however, they do not concentrate on measurements related to hearing-impaired children (HIC), especially for mobile learning applications. This study aims to develop a UX evaluation model for HIC’s mobile learning applications. In developing the model, paper review and requirement gathering methods were used to generate a set of UX dimensions, criteria, and metrics. The model was constructed based on the structure of the Quality in Use Integrated Measurement model where the identified UX dimensions, criteria, and metrics have been arranged orderly according to their rankings. The model was verified by experts consisting of academicians, mobile application developers, and teachers of HIC. The obtained data were analysed using the Fuzzy Delphi Method. Moreover, UX practitioners have validated the model to measure model presentation, content arrangement, and task performance. In addition, 38 HIC from Sekolah Kebangsaan Pendidikan Khas (SKPK) Johor Bharu, SKPK Perlis, and Program Pendidikan Khas Integrasi Segamat participated in a series of UX evaluations to validate the model’s reliability. Descriptive analysis and correlation between overall UX and UX dimensions were performed through a statistical tool. This study has proposed five dimensions: satisfaction, hearing-impaired accessibility, efficiency, effectiveness, and emotion; with nine criteria, and 24 metrics. Criteria and metrics for the dimensions are needed to make the evaluation more specific and focused on mobile learning applications for HIC. Thus, a UX evaluation model of HIC’s mobile learning applications has been presented in this study. Mobile application developers or UX researchers can use this model as one of the references for developing positive experiences and suitable functionalities for HIC’s mobile learning applications. Their learning foundation could be strengthened by having usable and enjoyable mobile learning applications
Principal-agent power dynamics and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) stance on Zimbabwe, 2000-2013
No full textThe Southern African Development Community (SADC) adopted a non-confrontational stance when responding to Zimbabwe’s political, economic, and social challenges. SADC’s non-confrontational stance towards Zimbabwe ignored external pressure for the regional organisation (RO) to intervene in Zimbabwe and/or criticise Harare, a position that is inconsistent with SADC’s intermediate democratic identity, and reputation for intimate involvement in other member states. This thesis examines the poorly understood reasons behind SADC’s controversial and inconsistent non-confrontational stance towards Zimbabwe during the period 2000 - 2013. The purpose of the study is to proffer a more nuanced understanding of the regional governance dynamics behind SADC’s approach to Zimbabwe’s post-2000 challenges. Guided by the principal-agent theory, the thesis analyses whether SADC’s non-confrontational approach towards Zimbabwe can be explained by the principal-agent power dynamics in SADC. The thesis utilises the qualitative methodological approach for both data collection and analysis. Primary data is collected from key informants through semi-structured interviews and official documents such as SADC Summit communiqués. Secondary data is collected from journal articles, published books, newspapers, and magazines from both physical and online repositories. The collected data is analysed through thematic analysis. The findings of the study suggest that principal-agent power dynamics were indeed a key reason behind SADC’s non-confrontational approach towards Zimbabwe during the period under study. These principal-agent power dynamics included the limited delegation of power and strict control of SADC by member states. This limited delegation and strict control of power ensured that SADC decisions on the Zimbabwe issue always reflected the member states’ preferences and interests. The findings also reveal that member states at the apex of SADC’s hierarchy of powers – South Africa and Zimbabwe leveraged on their regional influence to ensure that SADC’s stance on Zimbabwe reflected their preferences and interests. These preferences and interests were a non-confrontational SADC stance on Zimbabwe. The thesis recommends future studies seeking to account for SADC’s behaviour and action to also focus on the principal-agent power dynamics in SADC rather than just norms as previous studies on the issue have done
The roles of teaching methods,teachers’ self-efficacy, ICT resources and intrinsic motivation in the teaching of english culture in EFL classrooms in Algeria
Get PDFForeign language teaching needs to be instructed on the cultural background of the target language. Despite this, it seems that the inclusion of culture is still overlooked in many language classrooms. Moreover, empirical research on the relationship between teaching
methods, teachers’ self-efficacy, ICT resources and the teaching of English culture is scarce in the EFL context. Furthermore, there is limited research on the relationship between teaching methods, teachers' self-efficacy, ICT resources and the teaching of culture using teacher intrinsic motivation as a moderator. This study sought to examine the situation of cultural teaching in the high schools of the eastern part of Algeria. More specifically, it attempted to find out whether culture is given much importance in language classrooms and whether Algerian EFL teachers are cognizant of the significance of culture in their teaching of English. Moreover, this study proposed that teachers’ intrinsic motivation might moderate the relationship between teaching methods, teachers’ self-efficacy,
ICT resources and the teaching of English culture. This study employed the mixed-method explanatory sequential research design in which quantitative data using questionnaires was collected by employing the simple random sampling of 379
Algerian EFL teachers. Besides, qualitative data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with ten Algerian EFL teachers using homogeneous purposeful sampling. The findings indicated that the effect of teaching methods, teachers’ self-efficacy and ICT resources on the teaching of culture was significant. Furthermore, teachers’ intrinsic motivation moderated the relationship between all the constructs and the teaching of culture. The qualitative findings revealed that several factors were responsible for the influence of
teaching methods, teachers’ self-efficacy and ICT resources in the teaching of English culture. The findings offer several implications for EFL teachers and policy-makers in terms of increasing their self-efficacy and improving their teaching approaches as well as
providing convenient resources for enhancing culture teaching
Constructing new control points for Bézier interpolating polynomials using new geometrical approach
Get PDFInterpolation is a mathematical technique employed for estimating the value of missing data between data points. This technique assures that the resulting polynomial passes through all data points. One of the most useful interpolating polynomials is the parametric interpolating polynomial. Bézier interpolating curves and surfaces are parametric interpolating polynomials for two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) datasets, respectively, that produce smooth, flexible, and accurate functions. According to the previous studies, the most crucial component in deriving Bézier interpolating polynomials is the construction of control points. However, most of the existing strategies constructed control points that produce partial smooth functions. As a result, the approximate values of the missing data are not accurate. In this study, nine new strategies of geometrical approach for constructing new 2D and 3D Bézier control points are proposed. The obtained control points from each new strategies are substituted in the relevant Bézier curve and surface equations to derive Bézier piecewise and non-piecewise interpolating polynomials which leads to the development of nine new methods. The proposed methods are proven to preserve the stability and smoothness of the generated Bézier interpolating curves and surfaces. In addition, the numerical results show that most of the resulting polynomials are able to approximate the missing values more accurately compared to those derived by the existing methods. The Bézier interpolating surfaces derived by the proposed method with highest accuracy for 3D datasets are then applied to upscale grey and colour images by the factors of two and three. Not only does the proposed method produces higher quality upscaled images, the numerical results also show that it outperforms the existing methods in terms of accuracy. Therefore, this study has successfully proposed new strategies for constructing new 2D and 3D control points for deriving Bézier interpolating polynomials that are capable of approximating the missing values accurately. In terms of application, the derived Bézier interpolating surfaces have a great potential to be employed in image upscaling
The integration of fuzzy delphi and fuzzy topsis for pharmaceutical waste treatment selection in the context of green practice
Get PDFPharmaceutical waste should be treated in the best possible manner to avoid harm toward public health and the environment. Thus, green practices can be adopted in treating the waste as effectively as possible. However, research about the best treatment with green features has only been conducted in other countries and cannot
be a primary reference for Malaysia due to geographical differences. Practically, an approach to model holistic decision-making for pharmaceutical waste in Malaysia context and evaluate the robustness of the model is essential. Hence, this research develops a decision-making model to select the best treatment for pharmaceutical
waste in the context of green practices in Malaysia. By using a systematic literature review and experts’ opinions, a comprehensive list of criteria, sub-criteria, and treatments were successfully collected. The computation of weights for criteria and sub-criteria as well as the ranking of treatments were analysed through Fuzzy Delphi TOPSIS. The results revealed that waste immobilisation (encapsulation) is selected as the best treatment and environmental is the most important criterion as evaluated by a panel of experts. The sensitivity analysis indicated that different combinations of criteria could influence the ranking of the treatments. The developed model contributes
to the related stakeholders in waste management to assist the decision-making process. It also expands the knowledge of waste treatment in the perspective of green practices and it is argued to be a trustworthy mechanism to be implemented in Malaysia
Solving a multiperiod inv entory routing problem with stochastic unstationary demand rates
No full textThe inventory routing problem (IRP) is one of the most challenging problems in logistics and supply chain management (SCM). It aims to optimise the integration between inventory management and vehicle routing operations in a supply network. IRP arise invol ving the inventory and distribution process consisting of a set of vehicle routes, delivery quantities, and delivery times that minimise the total inventory and transportation costs with the implementation of vendormanaged inventory (VMI) policies. VMI is a policy in which a supplier assumes the responsibility of maintaining the inventory for the customer while ensuring that they will not run out of stock. Thus, this research aims to develop a mathematical model known as a mixedinteger programming model t problem (MPo solve a multiperiod stochastic unstationary inventory routing SUIRP) in which the demand is considered non problem focuses on the oneto-- consistent over time. The many network, where a single warehouse needs to serve several customers over t he planning horizon. The inventories are transported from a warehouse to a set of customers using a fleet of homogeneous vehicles to meet the customer's requirements. As a condition, a customer is allowed to be visited once over a given period. A customer’ s demand rates in each period are stochastic unstationary and the warehouse is implementing a VMI. This problem is solved using a simulation software called a mathematical programming language (AMPL) to achieve the optimization result. The mathematical mod el is modified by the addition of a forecasting technique to determine the customer demand rates to supply the inventories and develop the best vehicle routes for the delivery process. A sensitivity analysis is performed on the critical parameters that inf luence the optimization results. The computational results show that the algorithms that implement this modified formulation can achieve a better optimization result. Thus, this study helps the organisation optimise the total inventory and transportation c osts for the benefit of financial performance
Model tulisan tangan berbantukan teknologi untuk memudahcara penulisan murid Disgrafia
Get PDFDysgraphia is a student learning problem related to handwriting skills, which is not inline according to their age. To overcome the problem, various handwriting skills intervention methods to dysgrapbic students have been conducted. However, past research on the intervention methods have not covered all levels of handwriting skills from the basic levels to automaticity. This embodies a research gap especially the absence of a comprehensive technology-assisted support model. The function of the dysgraphic student writing support application will be more effective with the presence of interaction design guidelines (IxD). Thus, this study proposes a technology-assisted handwriting model of dysgraphic students (DCHM) to improve their writing proficiency at the level of visualization, imagination and automation. The model involves a combination of letter formation components (transcription, visualization, imagination, text generation and cognitive) and ICT support (letter formation animation, control, tracing, arrow animation, feedback and repetition). To achieve the objective, three phases of research methods are involved namely 1) categorising and analysing handwriting patterns, model design and verifying the model; 2) developing the prototype; and 3) evaluating the prototype. The reliability of the model was tested through user's evaluation using handwriting legibility scale (HLS). Comparisons were made based on handwriting samples before and after the intervention with the assistance of the prototype. The findings demonstrated that, HLS is able to identify the sensitivity of each parameter in DCHM. To be more specific, the score achieved for global legibility and effort to read the script is 92 percent, layout on the page and letter fonnation attained 96 percent; while alterations to writing scored 100 percent. The overall evaluation of the model showed positive scores from the aspects of legibility, memory, correct letter formation, and ultimately automaticity achievement in handwriting. In conclusion, these findings confirmed that the implementation of DCHM in the prototype can significantly enhance the mastery of handwriting among dysgraphic students. More importantly, this study has contributed substantially to the field of interaction design by providing a novel understanding of the design model
The impact of Islamic work ethic, job satisfaction, and welfare facilities on organizational commitment in University Utara Malaysia
No full textOrganizational commitment has an essential role in maintaining organizational stability. This phenomenon shows that this effect can impact organizational activities, thus it can be formulated in this study how the impact of Islamic work ethics, job satisfaction, and welfare facilities on organizational commitment among employees at Universiti Utara Malaysia. This research aims to analyze more precise picture of the impact, especially those related to organizational commitment among employees. Islamic work ethics, job satisfaction, and welfare facilities are the three elements investigated for their relationship and effectiveness to organizational commitment. Primary data and quantitative methods were used for this study. A total of 650 questionnaires were distributed through email, however only 338 questionnaires successfully collected from respondents. Data on research variables were tested using factor analysis and reliability tests, and the results showed that the items used were adequate and appropriate. Pearson correlation and multiple regression were tested for this study to identify the relationship and impact on the organization. The results showed that Islamic work ethic, job satisfaction, and welfare facilities had a significant relationship and impact on organizational commitment in UUM, which revealed that all factors showed a positive relationship. However, among the variables tested in this study, job satisfaction significantly impacts organizational commitment
The factors influencing work-life balance among gen Y during pandemic Covid-19 in Malaysia
Get PDFWork-life balance (WLB) has recently taken the attention of both scholars and organizational members and the widespread interest is due to the pandemic Covid-19 circumstances. The pandemic has caused many organizations to adopt work from home arrangement whereby if not properly managed can lead to work life imbalance. Understanding the factors that may influence WLB is important so that proper policy can be developed to ensure effective implementation of work from home arrangement. Therefore, this study aims to examine the factors influencing work-life balance among Gen Y during pandemic Covid-19 in Klang Valley. Employees in Gen Y group were chosen as they contribute to highest number in today’s workforce. The dependent variable is work-life balance, while the independent variables are perceived organizational support, perceived supervisory support, and self-efficacy. Data have been collected in various industry (i.e. banking, oil and gas, fashion retail, manufacturing, education, medical, food retail and etc.) located in Klang Valley area. The survey employed five points likert scales. Using SPSS version 26, Pearson correlation analysis was applied to test the relationship between perceived organizational support, perceived supervisory support, and self-efficacy and work-life balance. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the effect of perceived organizational support, perceived supervisory support and self-efficacy on work-life balance among Gen Y during pandemic
Covid-19. Based on the Pearson correlation results, all the
independent variables have a positive relationship with work-life balance. On the other hand, regression analysis found that only perceived organizational support and self-efficacy have significant effect on work-life balance among Gen Y during pandemic
Covid-19. Hence, based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that in order to enhance work life balance among Gen Y, organizations need to pay attention to providing appropriate organizational support and developing employee’s self-efficacy
Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi tekanan kerja dalam kalangan guru sekolah menengah di Daerah Kota Setar, Kedah
No full textWork stress is a serious mental health issue that must be addressed instantaneously by employers and employees. Work stress caused both physical and physiological health problems in an individual. Among teachers, this issue has become a "malignant." The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence work stress among Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) teachers in the District of Kota Setar, Kedah. This study focused on four major factors, i.e., student behaviour, workload, time constraint, and recognition. A total 219 teachers were chosen as respondents in this study. The collected data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Based on the research findings, the work stress level among respondents was
moderate. Hypothesis testing revealed that only three dependent variables, namely workload, time constraints, and recognition, had a significant relationship with the dependent variables. Meanwhile the student’s behaviour does not have any relationship with work stress. Some appropriate measures in reducing this problem
among teachers include stress management and time management training, more flexible work schedules, and school management support. The main limitations of this investigation are a low response rate from respondents, a short time of data collection
process, and the implementation of movement control due to COVID-19. The researcher also recommended actions for future research at the end of the study