Azizah Abdul Rahman

Students' Interactions in Online Asynchronous Discussion Forum: A Social Network Analysis

Existing learning management systems (LMS) provide limited information regarding the communication structure of group, level of participation, identifying who is central actors and other structural characteristics of the discussion forum. The instructors of an online class are not provided with those structural indicators that would allow them to evaluate the participation and interaction among students in their classes. In many instances, only statistical information, such as frequency of postings is encompassed, but this is not a very useful measurement for the interaction activity. This paper discusses the analysis of students’ interactions in an online asynchronous discussion forum (OADF) using social network analysis (SNA) method. The visual objects that represent these online interactions are demonstrated and explained. The findings showed that social network analysis provide more meaningful students’ interactions analysis in term of information of communication structures. This approach can be used by instructors to assess social interactions in terms of network structure parameters.

Predicting different conceptualizations of system use: Acceptance in hedonic volitional context (Facebook)

This research examines the relationship between the predictors of use and the different conceptualizations of system use in a hedonic volitional setting (Facebook). Using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model, an investigation into the three aspects of system use: the user, system and task were carried out. Results from a cross-sectional survey of 449 students show that behavioral intention has a significant influence on all aspects and dimensions of system use including cognitive absorption and deep structure use. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence are significantly related to system use. From the component model, performance expectancy is only significant with deep structure use. Hedonic performance expectancy is found to be significantly related to cognitive absorption. Results also demonstrate that predictors of usage have a significant relationship with the user aspect of system use. The variance explained in usage conceptualized as the user/task aspects is much higher than that of the system/task aspects or one-dimensional measures. Overall, conceptualizing system use using the user/task aspects offers greater explanatory power in Facebook use.

Integrating Content Analysis and Social Network Analysis for analyzing Asynchronous Discussion Forum

Asynchronous Discussion Forum (ADF) is now regularly as a component of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and take a central place in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). However, it is apparent that the field of CMC or CSCL lacks established methodologies to analyze it. This paper discusses the problem overview and offers a solution concept to integrate between Content Analysis (CA) and Social Network Analysis (SNA). This approach is proposed as a potential method to analyze not only the communication transcripts but also the communication structures of interaction during discussion. It filters unrelated messages from the discussion content, before being analyzed by SNA. A more reliable and meaningful result is expected from this approach.

Government's ICT project failure factors: A revisit

Successful implementations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) projects act as strong foundations supporting government transformation programmes. The aim of this research is to revisit the failure factors linked to certain governments ICT projects. The study analyzes the current gap between failure factors in Malaysian government agencies (practice) as compared to the literature consulted (theory). Project management factors and process factors are the two major factors that contributed to ICT project failures in the Malaysian government. We believe that this finding should be studied further.

Techniques to implement in green data centres to achieve energy efficiency and reduce global warming effects

Energy demand in data centre industry is growing rapidly as computing technology changes and Information Technology (IT) professionals seek to maximise performance of data centres. A multitude of methods have been used to estimate and quantify energy intensity. Rising energy costs, continuing concerns about global economic downturn and global warming effects has leaded ways for energy efficient data centres. The goal of computer system design has been shifted to power and energy efficiency. This paper highlights strategies and techniques that provide energy savings in data centre like reducing frequent hardware purchases, power/cooling cost reductions, green metrics, shrinking data storage, workload consolidation and reducing physical servers.

Carbon sustainability framework to reduce CO 2 emissions in data centres

Reducing the impact of greenhouse gases (CO2) on climate change in an attempt to tackle global warming issues is a challenge many companies and businesses are trying to undertake. Businesses across the globe need to take a leadership role in reducing their carbon footprint. This paper proposes a new IT-based carbon sustainability framework that provides a comprehensive strategy to reduce the emission of green house gases (CO2) from data centres in order to reduce the effects of global warming. The proposed IT sustainability framework reduces the overall cost of ownership in data centres by employing new technologies to increase the use of already installed servers and proposes metrics to measure the efficiency of data centres from time to time in terms of energy consumptions and CO2 emissions. The proposed framework also increases the awareness of implementing metrics and highlights the development of a sustainability strategy for data centre managers to implement energy saving and CO2 emission techniques to enable them to increase productivity and help businesses gain a competitive edge.

Analyzing Online Asynchronous Discussion Using Content and Social Network Analysis

Asynchronous discussion forum can provide a platform for online learners to communicate with one another easily, without the constraint of place and time. This study explores the analysis process of online asynchronous discussion. We focus upon content analysis and social network analysis, which is the technique often used to measure online discussion in formal educational settings. In addition, Soller’s model for content analysis was developed and employed to qualitatively analyze the online discussion. We also discuss the use of network indicators of social network analysis to assess level participation and communication structure throughout online discussion. Adjacency matrix, graph theory and network analysis techniques were applied to quantitatively define the networks interaction among students. The findings showed that these methods provide more meaningful students’ interaction analysis in term of information of communication transcripts and communication structures in online asynchronous discussion.

Outsourcing management framework based on ITIL v3 framework

Due to rapidly advances in technology, increasingly demands for IT applications and the inadequate supply of internal IT personnel, many organizations have looked for outside providers to effective product delivery and also to remain competitive. Therefore the need for governance in outsourcing relationships is undisputed. On the other hand service recipients and service providers have some difficulties to manage their outsourcing relationships. So in this paper, we would identify the main problems and challenges related to IT outsourcing. In addition, we will determine the ITIL V3 processes which are suitable and adaptable for outsourcing management. Then at the final stage a framework will be suggested which is arisen from the ITIL V3 framework. This framework would illustrate the practical processes and stages which are helpful in managing outsourcing resources.

Knowledge audit process - tales of two organizations

Knowledge audit is a process to check on an organizations knowledge ‘health’, before the organization starts with their knowledge management initiative. This paper reports on how, in reality, two organizations in Malaysia practiced the knowledge audit activity. The case study of these two organizations explores the knowledge audit contributions of the respective organizations, and discusses on the similarities, differences and limitations that were identified from data collected during interviews. The study then suggested the application of automated knowledge audit tool in knowledge audit activity that promotes mass participation from the crowd

Interaction Design Issues: A literature review

This paper presents an analysis on a literature review findings in Interaction Design Issues Journals from the year 2006 to 2010. Due to the limited literature review reported on Interaction Design Issues, this study is aiming to provide some input on the current topics, methods and theories, interaction design elements and future trends of research in the field of Interaction Design. We employ content analysis technique as to select words, phrases or common sentences in the articles based on Topic Classification Scheme adapted from Zhang and Li (2005). Findings from this study are fully addressed to further explore Interaction Design criteria as to improve Man Machine Interaction in the future.