Does collaborative hypertext support better engagement in learning of the basics in informatics?

Hypertext is a powerful cognitive tool supporting knowledge construction. We organized two courses about the basics in informatics using collaborative hypertext (experimental groups) based on the hyperbooks built by the students participating in the courses. Simultaneously, we ran two courses without collaborative hypertext (control groups). The study found that collaborative hypertext affects motivation equally regarding most themes of the basics in informatics.The result reflects the need for traditional uncomputerized learning methods in the basics of informatics or the need to concentrate on improving the truthfulness of hypertext-based learning. However, some students may benefit from …

Critical success factors for successful globalised e-learning

As we move from an information-based to a knowledge-based society, the need for reengineering, retraining and restructuring is emerging. Online programme development/enhancement requires experience and planning. Since e-learning entry requires little investments, it can be tempting to start programmes without appropriate infrastructure or planning, resulting in huge losses and in many cases closure. The new entrants can learn from the early adopters of online learning and from their experiences, both good and bad without reinventing the wheel. This paper discusses factors that must be considered and planned before venturing into e-learning. These factors are derived from discussions with fa…

Adoption of Social Media in Education : A Cross-cultural Study

Social media in education has the potential to enable new pedagogic student-centered ways by their bottom-up approach for supporting knowledge activities that harness collective intelligence unlike the hierarchical teacher-centered approaches. This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges posed by the fast growth of social media and the readiness for their adoption in education. It identifies the challenges which are included in educational use of social media. The paper presents the rationale of the SIMS (Social Media Networker) EU project. Primary data collected from both staff and students, across two countries (Greece and the UK), as well as secondary data from Finland are repor…

Drivers and Restraints in Adopting Information Technology in Firms in E-Business: A Chinese Perspective

This paper studies factors in information technology adoption, on both firm level and individual level, to help further understand organizational innovativeness. Especially, business-strategic and tactical factors affecting the adoption, and particular assimilation-related factors, are studied among interactive firms, also the ways the factors are related. This paper adds to the earlier literature in recognizing and combining factors behind reasoning for and against adopting new technology innovations, on various reasoning-levels. Literature, so far, has been scattered among those, while adoption and assimilation in general have been well modelled. We need to better understand what is signi…

Who Benefits from WWW Presentation in the Basics of Informatics?

This paper describes the use of WWW-based guided tours as a complementary addition to conventional lectures in the basics of informatics. Learning can be promoted in the spirit of constructivism, situated action, and cognitive flexibility when organizing a WWW coursework. We analyze the benefit of an optional coursework, including the use of guided tours and the use of search engines and directories on the WWW. This paper presents who benefits and who does not benefit from our optional coursework. The analysis is based on the background information and prior computer experience of the students, as well as pre and post tests. The study found that our WWW-based coursework suits best for femal…

Surrogate-assisted evolutionary multiobjective shape optimization of an air intake ventilation system

We tackle three different challenges in solving a real-world industrial problem: formulating the optimization problem, connecting different simulation tools and dealing with computationally expensive objective functions. The problem to be optimized is an air intake ventilation system of a tractor and consists of three computationally expensive objective functions. We describe the modeling of the system and its numerical evaluation with a commercial software. To obtain solutions in few function evaluations, a recently proposed surrogate-assisted evolutionary algorithm K-RVEA is applied. The diameters of four different outlets of the ventilation system are considered as decision variables. Fr…

Virtauslaskenta traktorien tuotekehityksessä

This work describes the deployment of the current fluid flow simulation software, Star-CCM+, at Valtra Inc. The text also gives a brief introduction to computational fluid dynamics and its role in the product development process for an engineer at the company. Two computational test cases are also described. A simpler case of the simulation of an engine air intake channel flow is shown first. The results show better agreement with the measured values than the outsourced simulation that was used as a reference. The second case is the so called underhood analysis which is a flow simulation of the whole Valtra N-series front end, including fan and heat exchangers. It is a steady state simulati…

Teaching ICT infrastructure supported by cloud service Azure

Is a seminar based on student-created screen capture videos a meaningful way of learning?

We ran a problem-based seminar with screen capture videos. The students worked in small groups of two or three students or they completed the coursework individually. In this seminar the students had a workspace in the Optima environment for publishing their coursework videos. At the final phase of the course the students were expected to familiarize themselves with the presentations of other groups. In this paper we analyze the benefit of our problem-based coursework on the web by comparing the different phases of it. After each phase the students were expected to analyze the benefit of it for their learning. peerReviewed

Do videowikis on the web support better (constructivist) learning in the basics of information systems science?

This paper describes the combination of a wiki and screen capture videos as a complementary addition to conventional lectures in an information management and information systems development course. Our basis was collaborative problem-based learning with the problems defined by students. The idea was that students were expected to find concepts or issues from four lecture themes which are not well-defined or clarified for them. The students worked in small groups of two or three students or they completed the coursework individually. First, the students selected the theme which was most unclear for them. Second, the students selected the problematic things from this area and created the pre…

Personal branding or employee advocacy : expert's use of social networking site

This paper deals with social media in building experts’ professional images. In the theoretical part, online communities are discussed in the light of the paper’s topic. The study relies on technological adoption models, and in particular, the UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology) 2 model. In the empirical part, the use of LinkedIn was analyzed as the major tool for professional networking. Our research results suggest that the use of LinkedIn has been initiated mostly by invitation or encouragement of another user. Only in rare occasions, self-branding was reported as the primary motivation to register into LinkedIn. Self-presentation was improved in the process of usi…

Collaborative screen capture video based learning in information systems science

Teaching Knowledge Management by Combining Wikis and Screen Capture Videos

PurposeThis paper aims to report on the design and creation of a knowledge management course aimed at facilitating student creation and use of social interactive learning tools for enhanced learning.Design/methodology/approachThe era of social media and web 2.0 has enabled a bottom‐up collaborative approach and new ways to publish work on the web, promoted by tools such as YouTube video service. In this spirit a knowledge management course was designed aiming to facilitate university students to compose videos on different difficult concepts in the theory part of the course by searching for explanations on the web and by creating a Windows Media Player video focusing on the self‐defined pro…

Prospectives to tractor cabin design with computational acoustics tools

Computational acoustical models allow automated optimization of tractor design with respect to acoustic properties, which could speed up significantly the design process of tractor cabin prototypes. This article gives insightful prospectives to the tractor design process by considering modern computational acoustics technology. Mathematical formulation for a system consisting of vibrating elastic tractor structure and airfilled acoustic enclosure are given and a related numerical solution technique with finite element method (FEM) is presented. Simulation results produced with commercially available software are reviewed. nonPeerReviewed

Applying constructivist approach to educational business games: Case REALGAME

Business organizations and their employees face ever-increasing complexity and accelerating changes. This brings along the need for training models that can transmit knowledge and skills needed in this kind of environment. Business process understanding is especially required. This article evaluates business games in the light of constructivism, a view of learning emphasizing the need to anchor training to everyday activities and concrete contexts, and introduces a new computer-based business game. The purpose of this construction is to give the business game participants a realistic view of business processes and thus enhance participant business process perception. The primary aim of the…