Evangelia Krassadaki

A multicriteria accreditation system for information technology skills and qualifications

Abstract Employees must acquire new competences and qualifications throughout their lives, in order to be able to deal with the multiple changes in the labour market. The specific knowledge and competences, acquired either formally or non-formally, must be recognized so that they can be transferred and utilized. The existing titles of studies and accreditation mechanisms do not generally cover this need. This paper aims to propose an integrated approach for the evaluation of information technology knowledge and skills, regardless of where and how they have been acquired, so as to apply a continuous education and training policy. The proposed multicriteria methodology for the evaluation of qualifications and skills concerns candidates wishing to be accredited in an information technology specialization or profession. The methodology refers to the evaluation of the professional experience, studies and vocational training of the candidates for accreditation. It contains the analysis and modelling of the qualitative criteria as well as the implementation of multicriteria aggregation–disaggregation techniques attributing value to each criterion. Then, the candidates are classified in categories of professionals using the Electre Tri method, accepting as input data the multicriteria assessments on each criterion. The proposed evaluation approach has been adapted to the Greek educational system and is applied to a specific example of candidate.

Redesigning university courses based on generic skills via multicriteria analysis methods

The academic community, quality assurance organisations and researchers seek to find procedures to support the curricula in order to promote the personal development of students and enhance their employability. In this context, emphasis is placed on the generic skills of students. This paper suggests a process that supports generic skills improvement through an academic course at a traditional university environment, at the initiative of the instructor. This process requires the course redesign and is divided into various aspects, such as: skills’ selection, learning outcomes’ reformation, assessment procedures and, finally, feedback to the instructor; the most critical of them addressed as multicriteria problems. All the individual aspects to be handled by the instructor, as the decision-maker, are presented in detail, as well as the pilot implementation within a course of a Greek engineering department. The implementation for two consecutive years, although isolated, delivered satisfactory results but also highlighted the students’ shortcomings.

The evaluation of studies and training in information technology: A multicriteria approach

The accreditation of information technology executive officers is being approached in this article as a problem of multicriteria decision analysis of professional skills, studies and vocational training. The proposed approach includes the analysis and modelling of the qualitative criteria that fall into the problem as well as the implementation of a set of multicriteria aggregation-disaggregation methods. In particular, it includes the presentation of the evaluation system for Basic, Postgraduate and Doctoral studies and Non-formal Vocational Training “with recognized” and “without recognized” title. For the evaluation of the Basic Studies a table has been drawn up with all the possible combinations based on the Greek model, and then the evaluation takes place through a multiplicative value function that has been assessed by a disaggregation method. The proposed evaluation approach is being applied to a particular example of candidate for accreditation.

Students’ behaviour in peer assessment: a multi-criteria clustering approach

Peer assessment (PA), as formative procedure, enhances learning by providing students with the opportunity to peer assess each others work. However, since students exhibit different value systems (abilities, experiences, attitudes, cognitive styles, etc.) we propose a diagnostic procedure, which can be applied at the beginning of a course, in order to infer the most prevailing attitude among students. For this purpose, the proposed methodological framework, based on a multi-criteria clustering approach, identifies different assessment behaviours, in order to adopt the most common student assessment policy. To demonstrate the proposed method, an example is presented where two different PA data-sets are examined. The results clearly indicate that students exhibit different PA policies, nevertheless, a densely populated group is formed, the value system of which can be adopted thereafter.

A multi-criteria and statistical framework for measuring and analysing customers' experience

A multi-criteria and statistical framework for measuring and analysing experience of customers is presented in this paper. It is based on a pre- and post-experience measurement, which is expressed by the same group of customers. The four-step methodological framework utilises the multi-criteria method MUSA in conjunction with the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test and proposes a set of indices and further results. The basic advantages of the proposed methodological framework are: It examines the pre- and post-experience, it considers the qualitative form of customers’ preference, assessment, etc., it analyses experience as multi-criteria aspect, it utilises multi-criteria analysis methods, and it combines the results of two different approaches (optimisation and inference statistics). Furthermore, the development of a set of quantitative indices and a perceptual map confirm the effective support of the experience evaluation problem. The paper presents an example that demonstrates the implementation ...

Teaching OR Courses to Satisfy Educational and Professional Needs in an Engineering School

Operations research (OR) analysts are highly skilled professionals responsible for one or more aspects of problem-solving. According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a significant increase is expected regarding the job opportunities for OR professionals over the next few years. The necessary key skills for such professionals include: analytical skills, verbal communication, mathematical, problem-solving, interpersonal, critical thinking and written communication skills, and knowledge of modeling software. In this chapter, we first discuss our experience in a Greek engineering school for more than 20 years as tutors of OR courses such as, linear programming, decision support systems, and decision science, in comparison to international practice. Subsequently, we present the results during a three-year (2009–2011) pilot effort to enhance the students’ level of scientific knowledge along with their communication (writing and speaking) and team-working skills. The results of the pilot effort have been very encouraging.

Analyzing Perceived Quality of Health Care Services: A Multicriteria Decision Analysis Approach Based on the Theory of Attractive Quality

Health services play an extremely important role in the quality of citizens’ life. People demand increasingly good health care services as a result of their inherent need for high quality health services, the prevailing high living and cultural standards of modern life and the technological and medical advancements. This paper examines the satisfaction of citizens from a public hospital in terms of the perceived quality of its characteristics. In effect, an effort is made to answer the question ‘what is it that citizens expect from the hospital in their town.’ In order to analyze satisfaction the multicriteria MUSA method has been used, while the classification of the examined characteristics has been based on the Kano’s theory of attractive quality. Analysis highlighted certain characteristics of the hospital as of expected, desired or attractive quality. With respect to the criteria studied, personnel and services were highlighted as of expected quality or must-be characteristics. Hygiene, hospital’s location and additional services were specified as of desired quality (one-dimensional characteristics), while facilities-infrastructure was described as of attractive quality.

Decision Aiding Process in the Frame of the Strategic Farm Management

This chapter is focused on strategy tools adapted for the needs of the agricultural sector. The increasing complexity and high level of changes in the agricultural context and economic sector lead to the development of new tools and a new specialty, the strategic adviser. An adviser based on specific knowledge, skills and tools offers services at small or very small farm exploitations on strategy issues.

Towards analysing training needs: a case study in a Greek bank

This paper is part of a broader research project, which aims to upgrade the existing human resource procedure of a bank to a strategic human resource management approach. In this aspect, five dimensions were considered: selection, career, performance, reward and training. As part of the project, an integrated information system for skills and training management was developed. Therefore, the fundamental step was the enrichment of the existing job descriptions. This paper presents a seven-step methodology, which decomposes job positions to roles and tasks, and tasks to the required knowledge, skills and competences, in order for an employee to accomplish a job. The results can be used as a tool towards analysing training needs. The basic assumption of this methodology is the fact that employees usually undertake more than one role during their working time, which is the case for most bank branches in Greece.