On Temporal Aspects in Cross-Cultural e-Collaboration Between Finland and Japan Research Teams

Time is an essential dimension in cross-cultural e-collaboration among research project teams. Understanding temporal aspects and project dynamics in cross-cultural research e-collaboration and related processes can improve team members' skills in cross-cultural communication and increase their cultural competence. The present case cultures are Finnish and Japanese, and the case universities are the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and Keio University (Japan). Three issues are addressed in this article. First, cultural dimensions and time models in the cross-cultural e-collaboration context are discussed. Second, temporal aspects related to e-collaboration activities are introduced. Third,…

Learning via Summarizing Infographics Assignment in Software Engineering Management e-Course?

This Research-to-Practice, Work in Progress Paper focuses on how learners experience creation of infographics as a summarizing assignment in an advanced level e-course on software engineering management (SEM). We have previously investigated how learners perceive infographics as a repeated reflection assignment during a requirements engineering e-course. To complement this research project, we studied how learners experience the use of infographics as a method for summarizing a whole software engineering management course in e-education setting. The SEM course participants (N=36) found that infographics as a summarizing assignment required complex learning that was altogether deemed highly …

Global Communication with Icons : Hotel Safety as an Environmental Context

Icons are small signs with fixed meanings. Icons are usually context specific. For example in the context of a hotel, the client can often find icons in hotel room books and safety guides. Scandic Hotel chain, for example, currently provides the manual for its safety system in 14 languages. There are at least two major shortcomings of this system: (1) in emergency or panic situations, it is very difficult to find your own language from the leaflet, and (2) there are no Asian languages. There is an obvious need for a global icon-based hotel safety language. In our paper, we introduce an icon-based model, language and mobile application for hotel safety. peerReviewed

Infographics as a Reflective Assignment Method in Requirements Engineering e-Course?

Our Work in Progress Paper in Innovative Practice Category focuses on how learners’ experience use of infographics in advanced level e-course on requirements engineering (RE). Infographics are visual representations of information in such a way that information can be easily understood at a glance. Most of the previous infographics studies have been conducted in the context of inquiry learning. To complement this research, we studied how learners experience use of infographics as a method for reflective assignment and hence if the usage of infographics supported conceptualization about RE. We adopted a qualitative content analysis approach, applying thematic network analysis to the data rec…

Global Communication with Icons in Environmental Contexts

Icons are small signs with fixed meanings. Icons are usually context specific. For example in the context of a hotel, the client can often find icons in hotel room books and safety guides. Scandic Hotel chain, for example, currently provides the manual for its safety system in 14 languages. There are at least two major shortcomings of this system: (1) in emergency or panic situations, it is very difficult to find your own language from the leaflet, and (2) there are no Asian languages. There is an obvious need for a global icon-based hotel safety language. In our paper, we introduce an icon-based model, language and mobile application for hotel safety. peerReviewed

Time : A Multidimensional Concept

Icon Recognition and Usability for Requirements Engineering

When we introduce icon-based language into the context of requirements engineering, we must take into account that what users perceive as recognizable and usable depends on their background. In this paper, we argue that it is not possible to provide a single set of visual notations that appeal to all of stakeholders. Instead, we suggest an adaptable preference framework, which generates personalized notations that correspond to personal background. We present and evaluate icon-based language: a new kind of approach to requirements engineering work to explore its possibility and usability. In an initial evaluation of students residing in Finland, results reveal that users are able to recogni…

Towards a Great Design of Conceptual Modelling

Humankind faces a most crucial mission; we must endeavour, on a global scale, to restore and improve our natural and social environments. This is a big challenge for global information systems development and for their modelling. In this paper, we discuss on different aspects of conceptual modelling in global environmental context. The paper is the summary of the panel session “The Future of Conceptual Modelling” in the 29th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases. peerReviewed

Icons: Visual representation to enrich requirements engineering work

Adapting icons in requirements engineering can support the multifaceted needs of stakeholders. Conventional ap- proaches to RE are mainly highlighted in diagrams. This paper introduces icon-based information as a way to represent ideas and concepts in the requirements engineering domain. We report on icon artifacts that support requirements engi- neering work such as priority types, status states and stakeholder kinds. We evaluate how users interpret meanings of icons and the efficacy of icon prototypes shaped to represent those requirements attributes. Our hypothesis is whether practitioners can recognize the icons’ meaning in terms of their functional representation. According to the empi…

Using Recorded Audio Feedback in Cross-Cultural e-Education Environments to Enhance Assessment Practices in a Higher Education

Providing feedback to learners on their writing assignments is perhaps one of the most important and time-consuming tasks that a supervisor performs. In e-Education environments, giving feedback becomes more challenging because there are often no possibilities for face-to-face discussions with learners. Typically, a supervisor provides comments to learners in written form via email; however, the use of recorded audio feedback (RAF) in e-Education environments has become a viable alternative. The purpose of this case study was to examine learners’ perceptions of RAF and written feedback for their assignments at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and at Keio University SFC (Japan). Formati…

Meta-Level Modelling of e-Education Ecosystem in Multicultural Context

A sociotechnical system is a complex inter-relationship of people and technology, including hardware, software, data, physical and virtual surroundings, people, procedures, laws and regulations. An e-Education environment is a particularly complex example of a sociotechnical system that requires equal support for user needs and technological innovations. The challenge for eEducation environment development is that in addition to the producers, users, domain experts and software developers, pedagogical experts are also key stakeholders. In our paper, we discuss different meta-aspects and components of modelling e-Education ecosystems in multicultural contexts. peerReviewed

When Cultures Meet : Modelling Cross-Cultural Knowledge Spaces

Cross-cultural research projects are becoming a norm in our global world. More and more projects are being executed using teams from eastern and western cultures. Cultural competence might help project managers to achieve project goals and avoid potential risks in cross-cultural project environments and would also support them to promote creativity and motivation through flexible leadership. In our paper we introduce an idea for constructing an information system, a cross-cultural knowledge space, which could support cross-cultural communication, collaborative learning experiences and time-based project management functions. The case cultures in our project are Finnish and Japanese. The sys…

Representation and retrieval of uncertain temporal information in museum databases

Modelling contexts in cross-cultural communication environments

In our research, context is defined as a situation a user has at hand. The focus in our study is on modelling contexts in cross-cultural communication environments. These environments can be physical, virtual or hybrid. Crosscultural communication environment – user – situation is the key triplet in our context research. In our paper we discuss context as a key to situation-specific computing. We introduce our cross-cultural communication context tree and context flow architecture and an example of implementation i.e. Context-Based eAssistant for Cross-Cultural Communication (CeACCC). peerReviewed

Icon-based language in requirements development

Icon Representations in Supporting Requirements Elicitation Process

Abstract. T his paper considers the diff iculties faced by the stakeholders in general requirements engineering (R E ) . These difficulties range from the complexity of requirements gathering to requirements presentation . Affordable visualization techniques have been wide ly implemented to support th e re quirements engineering community . However, no universal characteristic s that could be associated with requirements completion have been identified so far . T he research focus of this paper is driven by the above considerations to introduce the icon - base d language comprising a set of icon notations, syntactic and semantics . Icon - based language would support the requirements engine…

Content Aware Playlist Generation with Multi-Dimensional Similarity Measure

Context-sensitive framework for visual analytics in energy production from biomass

Data masses require a lot of data processing. Data mining is the traditional way to convert data into knowledge. In visual analytics, humans are integrated into the process as there is continuous interaction between the analyst and the analysis software. Data mining methods can be utilized also in visual analytics where the priority is given to the visualization of the information and to dimension reduction. However, the provided data is not always enough. There is a large amount of background contextual information, which should be included into the automated process. This paper describes a context-sensitive approach, in which we utilize visual analytics by studying all phases in the proce…

Representation and retrieval of uncertain temporal information in museum databases

An implementation-oriented model to represent uncertain temporal information in databases is proposed. Temporal information is presented to the user as anchored time intervals with optional beginning and end dates. The model accounts for both instants and intervals, and can be applied to uncertain dates by leaving days and months optional, or by using symbolic constraints that present additional time granularities. The model is defined using conventional relational database structures to support ease of deployment and integration to legacy systems with efficient query capabilities. The model is based on experiences with an existing museum database and highlights challenges related to tempor…

On Modelling e-Education Ecosystems in Multicultural Contexts

A sociotechnical system is a complex inter-relationship of people and technology, including hardware, software, data, physical and virtual surroundings, people, procedures, laws and regulations. An e-Education environment is a particularly complex example of a sociotechnical system that requires equal support for user needs and technological innovations. The challenge for eEducation environment development is that in addition to the producers, users, domain experts and software developers, pedagogical experts are also key stakeholders. In our paper, we discuss different meta-aspects and components of modelling e-Education ecosystems in multicultural contexts. peerReviewed

Context and User-Centered Approaches: Icons in Cross-Cultural Context

Culture is embodied in how people interact with other individuals and with their environment. It is a way of life formed under specific historical, natural and social conditions. Cross-cultural communication environment, user/actor and task/situation is the key triplet in our context research. In this chapter, context is discussed as a multidimensional concept and icons in cross-cultural environments are introduced. The authors present Kiyoki's semantic associative search method, and introduce an example of applying an icon-based platform for cross-cultural communication with Kiyoki’s method for searching and creating context-dependent cross-cultural information. This cross-cultural communi…

Moderating cultural effects in a higher e-education context? Supervisor's tone of voice in recorded audio feedback

Providing feedback to learners on their writing assignments is one of the most important and time-consuming tasks that a supervisor performs. In e-Education environments, especially in the case of distance learning, giving feedback becomes more challenging because there are often no opportunities for face-to-face interaction. Typically, a supervisor provides comments to learners in written form via email; however, the use of recorded audio feedback (RAF) in e-Education environments has become a viable alternative. This work in progress reports on learners’ perceptions of RAF in a multi-cultural higher eEducation context. Our observations indicate that learners tend to have positive feelings…

Using recorded audio feedback in multi-cultural higher e-education : How do academics experience? A thematic network analysis

The aim of our study is to shed light on how academics experience using recorded audio feedback (RAF) as a feedback method in multi-cultural higher e-Education context. We adopted a qualitative content analysis approach, applying thematic network analysis to the data received from three academics (a case study). This approach proposes graphical networks as an aid for analyzing and synthesizing qualitative data into basic, organizing and global themes. The thematic network analysis produced two global, six organizing and 48 basic themes. The two global themes were named “Speaking style” and “Culture neutrality/sensitivity”. Based on our analysis, academics can, by using RAF in multi-cultural…

Content Aware Music Analysis with Multi-Dimensional Similarity Measure

Music players and cloud solution for music recommendation and automatic playlist creation are becoming increasingly more popular, as they intent to overcome the issue of the difficulty for users to find fitting music, based on context, mood and impression. Much research on the topic has been conducted, which has recommended different approaches to overcome this problem. This paper suggests a system which uses a multi-dimensional vector space, based on the music’s key elements, as well as the mood expressed through them and the song lyrics, which allows for difference and similarity finding to automatically generate a contextually meaningful playlist. peerReviewed