Peter Charles Woods

Virtual laboratories in engineering education: The simulation lab and remote lab

Computing and communication technology has had a significant impact on the engineering education system. This technology has improved online and collaborative learning. Besides that, it improves the students learning experiences. One of the distinguishing elements of engineering education is the laboratory requirement. In this paper, we discuss the current trends and key issues in virtual laboratories‐simulation environment laboratories and remote laboratories via the Internet.

An Investigation of User Perceptions and Attitudes towards Learning Objects.

This study empirically evaluates the technology acceptance model drawn from Information Systems (IS) literature to investigate how user beliefs and attitudes influence learning-object use among higher education learners by evaluating the relationships between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude, behavioural intentions and actual use. In the study, 601 potential learning-object users were presented with an introductory demonstration of learning objects for a Digital Systems course. Following the demonstration and practice, data on user beliefs, attitudes and intention to use learning objects were gathered, while data on actual use of learning objects was collected at the end of the semester. Subjects with prior experience using the learning objects were eliminated from further analysis, resulting in a final sample of 481 users. structural equation modelling was employed to test the hypothesised study model. The analysis showed that both the user beliefs and attitudes have significant positive relationships with behavioural intention and that behavioural intention accurately predicted the actual use of learning objects. The results extend the validity of the TAM into a learning object context and clearly pointed out that it can be used to predict users’ future behaviour.

Relationship between corporate knowledge management and the firm's innovation capability

Corporate Knowledge Management (CKM) provides ground for a conceptual study on its impact on the firms innovation capability. Recent research literatures have pointed to CKM system as a leveraging tool for corporate operational excellence. CKM has also emerged as a new management discipline and is attracting interest among researchers, academicians and managers. Being a new discipline, there is still little guidance in the literature explaining the relationship of CKM with the firms innovation capability. This work proposes a conceptual model of relationship between CKM and innovation capability, with special focus on corporate firms. The major factors are presented and the directions for future empirical research are suggested based on the proposed model.

Designing and developing a location-based mobile tourism application by using cloud-based platform

This paper describes the design and development of a location-based mobile tourism application for cultural tourism in Malaysia by using a cloud-based platform. The architecture consists of three levels, front-end, middle-ware, and a back-end level that is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. The front-end level is a location-based mobile tourism application for Apple mobile devices, to explore nearby cultural tourism places. The middle-ware level provides a Web service to generate eXtensible Markup Language (XML) output from the relational database to exchange data between the mobile application and servers in the cloud. Finally, the back-end level that is built on AWS cloud platform provides services such as Apache Web server on Amazon Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2), MySQL database server on Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), and a cloud storage that uses Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), giving flexible, auto scalable, and secure servers to provide required services. The application is also caching images on the local storage and storing some data in SQLite database on the mobile device itself to provide some offline activities, and also decrease the number of sending requests to the servers, in order to save some data traffic.

Students' 'Uses and Gratification Expectancy' conceptual framework in relation to e-learning resources

This paper presents the systematic development of a ‘Uses and Gratification Expectancy’ (UGE) conceptual framework which is able to predict students’ ‘Perceived e-Learning Experience. ’ It is argued that students’ UGE as regards e-learning resources cannot be implicitly or explicitly explored without first examining underlying communication theories and learning perspectives. As such, the theoretical framework is grounded in the confluence of theories from communication theories and learning perspectives. The integration of Expectancy-value Theory, and the Uses and Gratification Theory serves to accommodate the suggestion that elearning resources offer gratifications that are expected and valued by students. The key theoretical and practical assumptions of the UGE approach are highlighted and consistently implemented in the conceptual edifice.

Success Factors for Implementation of Entrepreneurial Knowledge Management in Malaysian Banks

This research focuses on developing and testing the concept of entrepreneurial knowledge management (EKM) to view knowledge management (KM) activities in domestic banks. The ability of banks to learn from the explicit and implicit knowledge it possess and turn it into knowledge assets that can generate income stream is a major factor for sustainable competitive advantage. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse the data gathered, given that SEM has become one of the popular statistical tools to test the relationships proposed in a parsimonious model. The research has empirically determined that the majority of the respondents are aware that knowledge is important in the business of banking. However, it appears some have relegated KM to Management Information Technology (IT) and neglected to cast a wider net to appreciate the importance of EKM for the purpose of creating unique entrepreneurial knowledge asset to enable sustainable differentiation and competitive advantage for generating future income streams.

The Impact of KM on Small and Medium Sized Organisations in Sudan

This paper explains the impacts of knowledge management (KM) on organisational levels in Sudanese small and medium sized organisations. Based on the processes and methods of organisational learning, this paper presents the impact of KM on organisational levels, namely processes, product, workers, and general performance. The paper is based on a questionnaire and the data is collected from 255 people within a medium size company case study in Sudan. There are various kinds of impacts that KM have on organisations and organisational levels; these effects appear in different sectors, including processes, product, workers, and general performance. The paper finds that the interrelated impacts of KM on organisations are positive at several sectors. The impact on one element might lead to synergistic impacts on another element as well. These findings tend to corroborate, in line with the global KM goals.

Virtual Preservation of Contemporary Architectural Heritage in Developing Countries in Absence of Protection: Digital Reconstrction, Recording, and Archiving before Complete Disappearance

Virtual reconstruction of cultural heritage is limited to the availability of reference materials. This study looks at the state of preservation and archiving of cultural heritage in the Southeast Asia region through reviewing 2 cases in Malaysia. Many iconic heritage buildings were demolished in this country during the past decades without being properly achieved for the future generations. Despite living in the digital era, virtual conservation in this region still lags. This study tries to address some of those issues by looking at the available alternatives (the methodology), and also answering the question, what can be done in absence of archived reference materials while the building is still available? Different areas such as digital reconstruction and its importance, digital archiving, virtual reality, the future usage are covered by this study, including social impacts.

User Experience for Digitization and Preservation of Cultural Heritage

This paper addresses the importance to integrate user experience (UX) in cultural heritage digitisation and preservation initiatives. UX is an essential consideration that should be acknowledged and implemented when initiating digital culture heritage preservation. It is because UX is beyond the usability of a product or system. It includes both pragmatic (function and features) and hedonic (user expectation, motivation and feelings) factors. These attributes could influence users positive experience when interacting with the system or product and this will lead to effectiveness of digitisation and preservation activities. The output from this study will propose the approach towards integrating UX and gather insights for future initiatives in establishing cultural and heritage digital preservation that consider effective UX to encourage user satisfaction.

Experimental Color in Computer Icons

Color selection is important as color could adversely affect the entire design if not appropriately applied in icon design. Color is also visually important to make a design more attractive, legible and viewer-friendly. The function of icons in computer display is for direction and navigation. Color and icon are both of equal importance in Graphical User Interface environments. The combination of color and icon makes for a powerful tool that allows information to be pleasantly presented on screen in a manner that is both clear and easy to comprehend. This study divided into Part 1, 2 and 3 comprises three research questions.The objective of this study is to encourage the 73 participants to explore the RGB color model by applying the color for a pair of previous and next icons. The findings from this study show that students still need to be given a systematic list of color combinations for foreground and background color choices.