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Do high energy-efficient buildings increase overheating risk in cold climates? Causes and mitigation measures required under recent and future climates
No full textContradictory findings are reported in the literature showing that high energy-efficient buildings have either
higher or lower overheating risks compared to old buildings. A methodology is developed using the Global and
Local Sensitivity Analysis to quantify the contribution and correlation of individual building envelope parameter
to the change in indoor operative temperature. This methodology is applied to an archetype Canadian detached
house as a case study to evaluate its overheating risk. The building envelope thermal characteristics studied
represent houses built in different periods from 1950 to high energy-efficient buildings in Montreal under
different weather generations: typical historical (1961–1990), recent observational (2016), and typical future
years 2030 (2026–2045) and 2090 (2080–2099) generated based on RCP-4.5 and 8.5 scenarios.
The results showed that the high energy-efficient buildings can be more resilient to climate change than old
buildings if adequate ventilation is provided, where the decrease of window and wall U-value, and SHGC all
contribute to the decrease in indoor temperature. While without adequate ventilation, the overheating risk in
high-energy-efficient buildings can be higher than old buildings, where decreasing wall and window U-values
and infiltration rate has a greater contribution to the increase of indoor temperature, while decreasing window
SHGC has a lower contribution to the decrease in indoor temperature compared to the case with adequate
ventilation. The results also showed that natural ventilation in the high energy-efficient buildings is sufficient to
reduce the overheating risk under the current climate but will require additional interior and exterior shading
under future climates
HOW CAN BLOCKCHAIN REVOLUTIONIZE THE JORDANIAN BANKING SECTOR?
No full textThis article aims to explore blockchain, its applications, and its impact on banks in Jordan. The
potential applications and improvements that blockchain might bring to the financial industry are
astounding. Specifically, this study discussed the importance and possible areas of deploying blockchain
technology in the banking sector of an emerging country with a fast-growing economy, namely Jordan,
for different reasons. First, due to the shrinking interest-rate spread, Jordan's financial sector lacks long
term lending and unsecured loans. Second, many economic revolutions, such as the internet and banking
innovations, have impacted the Jordanian banking sector. As a result, the banking sector must undergo
significant transformation to increase performance and attain new levels of growth. Third, the underlying
technology in clearing payment and credit bank information systems could be revolutionized by
blockchains. Fourth, blockchain applications facilitate "obtain credit, unsecured loans" scenarios,
improving banking efficiency. Finally, while blockchain has much appeal because it allows free and self
governing transfers, overall regulation and security for this decentralized system are still being created
and agreed upon. We argue that for blockchain to change Jordan's financial system, legal frameworks
must be in place to control banking transactions. This study explores the technology of blockchain, the
emerging technology that powers Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It highlights the features of the
blockchain and shows why it could profoundly influence the entire banking sector in areas ranging from
payments to settlements and identity services
Editorial: Future of educational management and leadership: leading the way
No full textThe world is currently going through an unprecedented moment in history with the pandemic,
war, recession and many similar other explicit and tacit realities. While at the same time, we
also witness some of the positive developments such as the introduction of the international
financial facility for education and others. All sectors including education are impacted by such
emergencies; and managing education under such circumstances is obviously a challenging
task.
It is therefore crucial for educators, policy makers, researchers and all relevant
stakeholders to reflect on the future of educational management and leadership
HEI-BCT: A Framework to Implement Blockchain-Based Self-Sovereign Identity Solution in Higher Education Institutions
No full text— Blockchain Technology, a decentralized and distributed ledger, has received extensive attention of industries to revamp operations and functionality of organizations. Implementing smart technologies such as Blockchain is an attractive solution for organizations, including the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Self-Sovereign Identity is one of Blockchain applications that promises to provide a more efficient management systems for organizations. This paper explained how a Self-Sovereign Identity using Blockchain technology can be used to manage students’ credentials in HEIs. It also proposes a framework to successfully implement the solution. This paper answers two questions: “How to use Self-Sovereign Identity as credentials management system” and “What are the major steps to be followed when implementing a BCT-based solution?
Bilingual AI-Driven Chatbot for Academic Advising
No full textConversational technologies are revolutionizing
how organizations communicate with people, thereby raising
quick responses and constant availability expectations. Students
often have queries about the institutional and academic policies
and procedures, academic progression, activities, and more in an
academic environment. In reality, the student services team and
the academic advisors are overwhelmed with several queries that
they cannot provide instant responses to, resulting in
dissatisfaction with services. Our study leverages Artificial
Intelligence and Natural Language processing technologies to
build a bilingual chatbot that interacts with students in the
English and Arabic languages. The conversational agent is built
in Python and designed for students to support advising-related
queries. We use a purpose-built domain-specific corpus
consisting of the common questions advisors receive from
students and their responses as the chatbots knowledge base. The
chatbot engine determines the user intent by processing the input
and retrieves the most appropriate response that matches the
intent with an accuracy of 80% in English and 75% in Arabic.
We also evaluated the chatbot interface by conducting field
experiments with students to test the accuracy of the chatbot with
real-time input and test the application interface
The Mediating Role of Benefit Management for Sustaining the Performance of Infrastructure Projects
No full textBenefit management is a valuable approach, promoted and supported by strategic
management for maximizing organizational benefits. It has also been recognized as a
means of improving project performance, though more research is needed to understand
how it works. This research adds to the contemporary literature on public sector project
management by studying the links between project governance, benefit management, and
project performance from a developing country perspective. This study provides insights
for project professionals who are working in government organizations for optimizing
the benefits of investment. The study provides a reference to formulate strategies for
managing and governing the performance of government-funded projects in developing
countries like Pakistan. The research uses a positivist approach and quantitative design
ASystematic Review on Blockchain Adoption
No full text: Blockchain technologies have received considerable attention from academia and industry
due to their distinctive characteristics, such as data integrity, security, decentralization, and reli
ability. However, their adoption rate is still scarce, which is one of the primary reasons behind
conducting studies related to users’ satisfaction and adoption. Determining what impacts the use and
adoption of Blockchain technologies can efficiently address their adoption challenges. Hence, this
systematic review aimed to review studies published on Blockchain technologies to offer a thorough
understanding of what impacts their adoption and discuss the main challenges and opportunities
across various sectors. From 902 studies collected, 30 empirical studies met the eligibility criteria and
were thoroughly analyzed. The results confirmed that the technology acceptance model (TAM) and
technology–organization–environment (TOE) were the most common modelsforstudying Blockchain
adoption. Apart from the core variables of these two models, the results indicated that trust, perceived
cost, social influence, and facilitating conditions were the significant determinants influencing several
Blockchain applications. The results also revealed that supply chain management is the main domain
in which Blockchain applications were adopted. Further, the results indicated inadequate exposure to studying the actual use of Blockchain technologies and their continued use. It is also essential to
report that existing studies have examined the adoption of Blockchain technologies from the lens of
the organizational level, with little attention paid to the individual level. This review is believed to
improve our understanding by revealing the full potential of Blockchain adoption and opening the
door for further research opportunities
Understanding key drivers affecting students’ use of artificial intelligence-based voice assistants
No full textArtificial intelligence (AI)-based voice assistants have become an essential part of
our daily lives. Yet, little is known concerning what motivates students to use them
in educational activities. Therefore, this research develops a theoretical model by
extending the technology acceptance model (TAM) with subjective norm, enjoy ment, facilitating conditions, trust, and security to examine students’ use of AI based voice assistants for instructional purposes. The developed model was then
validated based on data collected from 300 university students using the PLS-SEM
technique. The results supported the role of enjoyment, trust, and perceived ease
of use (PEOU) in affecting the perceived usefulness (PU) of voice assistants. The
empirical results also showed that facilitating conditions and trust in technology
strongly influence the PEOU. Contrary to the extant literature, the results indicated
that subjective norm, facilitating conditions, and security did not impact PU. Simi larly, subjective norm and enjoyment did not affect PEOU. This research is believed
to add a holistic understanding of the key drivers affecting students’ use of voice
assistants for educational purposes. It offers several theoretical contributions and
practical implications on how to successfully employ these assistants
An Investigation Into the Appropriateness of a Procedural Negotiated Syllabus for Adult Vocational Learners
No full text—The present mixed-methods study investigated the readiness of teachers and adult learners at a
vocational centre in the United Arab Emirates to implement a negotiated English syllabus. The study
addressed two main questions: 1) are teachers and learners at the Vocational Training Centre ready to
implement a negotiated syllabus? And 2) does the negotiated syllabus implementation lead to improvement in
learners’ motivation? Results showed the significant potential of a negotiated syllabus in enhancing learners’
motivation by making them part of the decision-makers’ circle regarding the components of an intended
English syllabus. On the other hand, learners, teachers and management systems face challenges that must
first be overcome to succeed in implementing negotiated syllabi. The findings of this study support the value of
involving learners in classroom decisions, which is expected to make them feel responsible for their learning
Factors Influencing Students’ Achievements in the Content and Cognitive Domains in TIMSS 4th Grade Science and Mathematics in the United Arab Emirates
No full textTrends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a comparative interna
tional assessment study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA). TIMSS aims to study how educational opportunities are provided for students
and what factors are associated with these opportunities. The purpose of this study was to examine
the student factors in the United Arab Emirates that have an association with grade 4 students’
TIMSS 2015 results in the content and cognitive domains in the subjects of mathematics and science.
The study adopted the quantitative research approach through the data analysis of TIMSS 2015
for grade 4 students in these subjects. The study sample consisted of 21,177 students enrolled in
372 UAEprivate schools and 186 public schools. The percentage of grade 4 girls who participated
in the study was 48%, while the percentage of boys was 52%. A multiple linear regression analysis
Citation: Balfaqeeh, A.; Mansour, N.;
Forawi, S. Factors Influencing
Students’ Achievements in the
Content and Cognitive Domains in
TIMSS 4th Grade Science and
Mathematics in the United Arab
Emirates. Educ. Sci. 2022, 12, 618.
https://doi.org/10.3390/
educsci12090618
Academic Editor: James Albright
Received: 23 June 2022
Accepted: 8 September 2022
Published: 13 September 2022
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4.0/).
was conducted to examine the most influential student factors that impact on science and maths
achievement. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was implemented to examine the relationships
between student factors and the content and cognitive domains of mathematics and science in the
TIMSS 2015 results. The findings showed that the student factors with a positive association with stu
dent achievement were having breakfast on school days, engaging teaching in mathematics lessons,
liking learning science, and confidence in mathematics and science. There was a non-significant
correlation between gender and mathematics and science achievement. A surprising finding was that
“liking learning mathematics” had a negative association with student performance in that subject.
There was a positive association between student engagement and mathematics achievement, while
the association between the engagement in science lessons and student performance was found to
be insignificant