1,720,972 research outputs found
Technology enhanced learning in manufacturing: Overview, effectiveness and directions for future research
No full textThe increasing skills gap in manufacturing is requiring firms to enhance training strategies in order to maintain their competitive advantage in the modern market. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) represents a valuable answer to the problem, giving a unique support both in terms of efficiency and efficacy. Nevertheless, a lot of studies have been focusing on the analysis of the effects of TEL solutions on the Perception and of the Learning of the users, but there are no significant contributions on the comprehension of their impact on the Employee Behavior and on the Organizational Results (according to Kirkpatrick's four-levels model for training evaluation). In particular, the investigation of the impact of TEL solutions on the performances of manufacturing firms is still completely unexplored. To this respect, in this paper the rationale behind the use of TEL solutions in organizations is explained in detail, as well as its crucial importance for manufacturing domain. Furthermore, the problem of their effectiveness in supporting business results is identified and the potential impact of its better comprehension for manufacturing firms is discussed. Finally, specific directions for future research on this topic are presented
Using Drawings as an Assessment Tool: The Impact of EcoFactory Serious Game in Primary Education
No full textEcoFactory is a serious game addressing late-primary and early secondary school students. Its purpose is to raise both awareness and interest of the young students regarding sustainable manufacturing. The serious game provides children with a didactical experience, which is fun, on how manufacturing and sustainability can live together, along three dimensions: society, environment and economic cost. In order to achieve this goal, EcoFactory consists of a virtual factory where young children are challenged with decisions on product design, shopfloor configuration and human resource management, with the aim of achieving sustainable production that is also profitable. This paper presents the impact assessment of EcoFactory on the level of awareness of late-primary students with regards to sustainable manufacturing. Two separate case studies were conducted in primary school settings totalling 43 Italian students. For the majority of the students, it was the first time that they encountered either the concept of manufacturing, or sustainability. The paper describes the methodology that was devised for an age appropriate assessment using drawings complemented by a small questionnaire derived from the "Draw-An-Engineer" questionnaire. These drawings were supplemented and triangulated with data from semi-structured interviews and observations made in situ by a researcher
Increasing middle school students' awareness and interest in manufacturing through digital game-based learning (DGBL)
No full textThe change of the societal appeal of manufacturing among younger generations is a key element in order to address the talent shortage that is currently affecting the sector. In order to pursue this objective, the use of interactive learning environments such as digital games (DGs) can play an important role. Therefore, this paper presents the results of an exploratory study aimed at understanding the impact of digital game-based learning (DGBL) on the awareness and interest of middle school students in manufacturing. In particular, the students had to deal with the management of EcoFactory, a simplified industrial plant where they had to take care of the main decisions that are typical in the modern manufacturing industry. The study was based on a pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design conducted in a public middle school in Northern Italy. The research triangulated the results of different methodologies, namely drawings analysis and questionnaires. The results showed a significant impact of the DG both on the awareness and interest of participants, especially in the environmental, social, and economic dimensions. Thus, the outcomes revealed the high potential that DGs have in explaining the complex concepts that are typical of manufacturing and in enhancing students' proactive motivation toward them. Finally, implications and suggestions for further research derived from these findings are discussed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Learning in the context of manuskills: Attracting youth to manufacturing through TEL
No full textThe manufacturing industry plays a pivotal role in the European economy and global competitiveness. Although production technologies and processes are continuously being improved towards the vision of factories of the future, there is a dire shortage of human capital due to skills shortage and mismatch. This paper presents the results of studies carried out in Europe on how to leverage ICT (virtual reality, serious games, teaching factory and simulations) to increase the awareness and interest of young talent in manufacturing education. A total of 24 field experiments was conducted across 5 European countries with a sample of 461 students of different age-groups, namely primary (children), secondary (teenagers) and tertiary education (young adults) with particular focus on secondary-school students. The analysis of the results are encouraging, demonstrating an impact achieved, in particular with regards to the youngsters with lowest levels of awareness and interest
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