Search results for "LAB"

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

2012

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…

Flexible entity search on surfaces

2016

Surface computing allows flexible search interaction where users can manipulate the representation of entities recommended for them to create new queries or augment existing queries by taking advantage of increased screen estate and almost physical tactile interaction. We demonstrate a search system based on 1) Direct Manipulation of Entity Representation on Surfaces and 2) Entity Recommendation and Document Retrieval. Entities are modeled as a knowledge-graph and the relevances of entities are computed using the graph structure. Users can manipulate the representation of entities via spatial grouping and assigning preferences on entities. Our contribution can help to design effective infor…

A two-step, user-centered approach to personalized tourist recommendations

2017

Geo-localized, mobile applications can simplify a tourist visit, making the relevant Point of Interests more easily and promptly discernible to users. At the same time, such solutions must avoid creating unfitting or rigid user profiles that impoverish the users' options instead of refining them. Currently, user profiles in recommender systems rely on dimensions whose relevance to the user is more often presumed than empirically defined. To avoid this drawback, we build our recommendation system in a two-step process, where profile parameters are evaluated preliminarily and separately from the recommendations themselves. We describe this two-step evaluation process including an initial surv…

Listwise Collaborative Filtering

2015

Recently, ranking-oriented collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms have achieved great success in recommender systems. They obtained state-of-the-art performances by estimating a preference ranking of items for each user rather than estimating the absolute ratings on unrated items (as conventional rating-oriented CF algorithms do). In this paper, we propose a new ranking-oriented CF algorithm, called ListCF. Following the memory-based CF framework, ListCF directly predicts a total order of items for each user based on similar users' probability distributions over permutations of the items, and thus differs from previous ranking-oriented memory-based CF algorithms that focus on predicting th…

SaaS architecture and pricing models

2014

In the new era of computing, SaaS software with different architectural characteristics might be priced in different ways. Even though both pricing and architectural characteristics are responsible for the success of the offering; the relationship between architectural and pricing characteristics has not been studied before. The present study fills this gap by employing a multi-case research. The findings accentuate that flexible and well-designed architecture enables different pricing models; however, poorly designed architecture limits also the pricing. Scalability and high level of modularity are the major enablers of a great variety of pricing models. Using public cloud services may lea…

Elementary Math to Close the Digital Skills Gap

2018

All-encompassing digitalization and the digital skills gap pressure the current school system to change. Accordingly, to ’digi-jump’, the Finnish National Curriculum 2014 (FNC-2014) adds programming to K-12 math. However, we claim that the anticipated addition remains too vague and subtle. Instead, we should take into account education recommendations set by computer science organizations, such as ACM, and define clear learning targets for programming. Correspondingly, the whole math syllabus should be critically viewed in the light of these changes and the feedback collected from SW professionals and educators. These findings reveal an imbalance between supply and demand, i.e., what is ove…

Scalable implementation of dependence clustering in Apache Spark

2017

This article proposes a scalable version of the Dependence Clustering algorithm which belongs to the class of spectral clustering methods. The method is implemented in Apache Spark using GraphX API primitives. Moreover, a fast approximate diffusion procedure that enables algorithms of spectral clustering type in Spark environment is introduced. In addition, the proposed algorithm is benchmarked against Spectral clustering. Results of applying the method to real-life data allow concluding that the implementation scales well, yet demonstrating good performance for densely connected graphs. peerReviewed

Diversity begets diversity: A global perspective on gender equality in scientific society leadership.

2018

Research shows that gender inequality is still a major issue in academic science, yet academic societies may serve as underappreciated and effective avenues for promoting female leadership. That is, society membership is often self-selective, and board positions are elected (with a high turnover compared to institutions)—these characteristics, among others, may thus create an environment conducive to gender equality. We therefore investigate this potential using an information-theoretic approach to quantify gender equality (male:female ratios) in zoology society boards around the world. We compare alternative models to analyze how society characteristics might predict or correlate with the …

Examining Bridge Employment From a Self-employment Perspective : Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study

2017

Gender segregation in the employment of higher education graduates

2014

This article examines the employment and placement in the working life of Finnish higher education graduates (i.e. graduates from universities and polytechnics), focusing on gender equality. It reports a study on gender segregation in higher education and working life, considered in relation to Nordic gender equality policies. The data were gathered via a questionnaire administered to graduates in business and administration (n = 1067) and in technology (n = 1087), three years after their graduation. The results showed that men were able to secure permanent and full-time employment more often than women, and men achieved better correspondence between their degree and their employment. Howev…