Georgios A. Dafoulas

Investigating Cultural Differences in Virtual Software Teams

Software development projects increasingly extend over the boundaries set by a single company, or country. As the available communication media becomes more sophisticated, and more advanced technology costs less, the trends in software development move towards a more “virtual” nature. This evolutionary process allows individuals or even teams from different locations and cultures, with different expectations and goals, to blend in a virtual team of effectively collaborating and coordinating members.

E-learning in developing countries: suggesting a methodology for enabling computer-aided assessment

Traditional education has shifted towards new methods of teaching and learning through the proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICT). The continuous advances in technology enable the realisation of a more distributed structure of knowledge transfer. This becomes critically important for developing countries that lack the resources and infrastructure for implementing cutting-edge education practices. The two main themes of technology in education for developing countries focus either on aspects of technological support for traditional methods and localised processes, or on the investigation of how such technologies may assist distance learning. Commonly such efforts are threefold, relating to content delivery, assessment and provision of feedback. This paper focuses on issues regarding the implementation of e-learning in developing countries and particularly those aspects of computer-aided assessment (CAA) that could be tailored to satisfy the needs of a limited educational infrastructure. The primary contribution of this paper is a proposed methodology for supporting both formative and summative CAA.

Facilitating group formation and role allocation in software engineering groups

This paper aims to identify factors which affect both group formation and role allocation. Also to investigate evidence of cultural and personality differences and its effect on teamwork in software engineering groups. Introduce requirements for computer support for dynamic role allocation, and provide a core model for understanding the factors affecting role allocation over time. Finally to describe the development and evaluation of a prototype that demonstrates if it is feasible to consider and computationally model cultural differences between individuals while building software engineering groups and/or allocating roles between group members. The outcomes of this paper contribute within the context of computer-supported distributed team working. This paper explains dynamic role allocation and its importance in industry. It also lists the factors affecting dynamic role allocation, provides a requirement analysis for dynamic role allocation, suggests a design for support in dynamic role allocation using object-oriented methodology, and discusses the implemented and evaluated prototype.

Business-to-employee cooperation support through online job interviews

The Internet has emerged as a viable and reliable tool for recruiting. Using the Internet and E-business applications, companies and applicants can reach one another faster and easier. This convenience has resulted in significant challenges for human resource departments. First-generation automation tools made the initial step toward addressing these challenges. Early systems provided the ability to collect resumes online. However, they failed to solve hiring process problems and provide meaningful workflow. Within this scope, this paper proposes online interviews as a tool that allows recruiters to gather structured interview information and assess cultural fit, while at the same time streamlining the interview process and reducing interview biases. Online interviews cannot replace the traditional face-to-face interviews, but can definitely provide the means to help recruiters and hiring managers with interviewing challenges.

E-services in the Internet job market

In todays rapidly changing workplace, its becoming more and more difficult for recruiters to find employees that are right for their business. Consideration of cultural fit, experience, ability to adapt to the companys marketplace and ability to grow with the organisation all weigh heavily on the minds of most human resource professionals. This paper describes the development and progress of a solution with the ability to aid employers with these issues and at the same time to provide job seekers with an attractive and friendly environment for finding jobs. The Internet provides the medium for conducting the recruitment and selection process in an online environment. The proposed solution is to develop an integrated electronic job marketplace offering a new service in the Internet job market: online interviewing for screening candidate employees. More specifically, in order to meet hiring objectives and control the increasing cost of recruiting, the conclusions of this project suggest that organisations should implement an online recruiting and selection process. The critical requirements of the new model are: eliminating paperwork, improving time-to-hire, reducing turnover, creating a resume and position-centric environment as well as using the Internet as a recruitment and selection tool.

A model for selecting CSCW technologies for distributed software maintenance teams in virtual organisations

Software maintenance, just like any other software engineering activity, is being conducted in an increasingly distributed manner by teams which are often virtual. This paper critically reviews existing models for virtual organisations, investigates issues affecting distributed software maintenance teams (DSMT) and proposes a model for selecting the appropriate computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and groupware tools and technologies in order to facilitate communication and resource allocation for DSMT. This model builds on current theories, classifications and major concepts in the area of CSCW and advances the way DSMT are perceived. This theoretical model is yet to be empirically evaluated and enriched so that it includes workflow management systems.

The role of feedback in interactive learning systems: a comparative analysis of computer-aided assessment for theoretical and practical courses

For several years, research on learning technologies has focused on supporting the development of learning environments dealing with content delivery based on various learning paradigms. There seems to be a lack of enthusiasm when the problem of evaluating the effect of assisting technologies to assessment and provision of feedback. This is partly justified by the difficulty in enacting authentic experiences of assessment and feedback mechanisms online. This paper attempts to contribute in the relatively limited literature that deals with the evaluation of learning systems and more specifically computer-aided assessment (CAA). The work discussed in this paper follows on the successful findings of earlier experiments of online assessment concerned primarily with the provision of feedback to participating learners. The paper initially suggests a different perspective for the relationship of the constructivist learning approach to the development of learner-centered learning environments. More specifically the paper outlines the effects of individual and social constructivism to both assessment and communication through feedback. Next the process of establishing a pilot study of an online test for a practical course is described and the findings are reviewed with respect to the role of feedback in computer-aided assessment (CAA). Finally a comparative analysis is made based on the evaluation results of an earlier online assessment experiment for a theoretical course.

Investigating the educational value of social learning networks: a quantitative analysis

Purpose The emergence of Education 2.0 enabled technology-enhanced learning, necessitating new pedagogical approaches, while e-learning has evolved into an instrumental pedagogy of collaboration through affordances of social media. Social learning networks and ubiquitous learning enabled individual and group learning through social engagement and social distribution of knowledge. Nevertheless, these developments have not been supported with extensive studies focusing on quantifying the impact of technology-enhanced learning on students’ progress and achievement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how a quantitative overview of Facebook’s influence on students’ progress can be incorporated in a proposed e-moderation model of teaching and learning. Design/methodology/approach The approach is based on extending Salmon’s (2003) e-moderation model, which provides an emphasis on the theoretical perspectives that support socially situated learning environments of social networks such as Facebook. The findings revealed that students’ grades were positively influenced by the complementary use of Facebook on their courses of study. Findings The use of a social learning network also triggered a significant increase in student participation in learning activities delivered over Facebook. Research limitations/implications The main research limitations were due to the fact that a single social network was chosen for conducting the experiments. Furthermore, the investigation was narrowed down to a selected range of sessions offered to college and university students as part of their course. Originality/value The paper’s contribution is twofold, as it offers an original set of guidelines for conducting social learning network experiments and provides valuable quantifiable findings on the educational value of such networks.

Understanding Collaboration in Global Software Engineering (GSE) Teams with the Use of Sensors: Introducing a Multi-sensor Setting for Observing Social and Human Aspects in Project Management

This paper discusses on-going research in the ways Global Software Engineering (GSE) teams collaborate for a range of software development tasks. The paper focuses on providing the means for observing and understanding GSE team member collaboration including team coordination and member communication. Initially the paper provides the background on social and human issues relating to GSE collaboration. Next the paper describes a pilot study involving a simulation of virtual GSE teams working together with the use of asynchronous and synchronous communication over a virtual learning environment. The study considered the use of multiple data collection techniques recordings of SCRUM meetings, design and implementation tasks. Next, the paper discusses the use of a multi-sensor for observing human and social aspects of project management in GSE teams. The scope of the study is to provide the means for gathering data regarding GSE team coordination for project managers including member emotions, participation pattern in team discussions and potentially stress levels.