How do employees prioritise when they schedule their own shifts?

We investigated how employees prioritised when they scheduled their own shifts and whether priorities depended on age, gender, educational level, cohabitation and health status. We used cross-sectional questionnaire data from the follow-up survey of an intervention study investigating the effect of self-scheduling (n = 317). Intervention group participants were asked about their priorities when scheduling their own shifts succeeded by 17 items covering family/private life, economy, job content, health and sleep. At least half of the participants reported that they were giving high priority to their family life, having consecutive time off, leisure-time activities, rest between shifts, sleep, regularity of their everyday life, health and that the work schedule balanced. Thus, employees consider both their own and the workplace's needs when they have the opportunity to schedule their own shifts. Age, gender, cohabitation and health status were all significantly associated with at least one of these priorities.

Practitioner Summary: Intervention studies report limited health effects of self-scheduling. Therefore, we investigated to what extent employees prioritise their health and recuperation when scheduling their own shifts. We found that employees not only consider both their health and family but also the workplace's needs when they schedule their own shifts.     

How well do truck drivers sleep in cabin sleeper berths?

The aim of this study was to evaluate the sleep obtained by livestock transport truck drivers while resting in truck sleeper berths during long-haul commercial operations. Operations were carried out in the very remote regions of Australia. The sample comprised of 32 drivers who wore wrist activity monitors and reported bed-times for a two-week period. Drivers had a mean (±standard deviation) age of 35.41 (± 9.78) years and had worked as truck drivers for 13.83 (± 9.11) years. On average, they obtained 6.07 (± 1.18) hours of sleep/24-h period. The majority of sleep occurred at night, but drivers occasionally supplemented their main sleep with a daytime nap. Consistent with operational demands, drivers were most likely to sleep in cabin sleeper berths (n = 394, 77%). Only a small proportion of sleeps were sampled at home (n = 63, 12%) or at truck depots (n = 56, 11%). Mixed-model ANOVA revealed that while earlier bed-times at home yielded more sleep, there were only marginal differences in sleep quality across location. No intrinsic safety concerns associated with the use of sleeper berths were identified across consecutive days of long-haul transport operations.     

How do usability professionals construe usability?

Usability professionals have attained a specialist role in systems-development projects. This study analyses usability professionals’ operational understanding of usability by eliciting the constructs they employ in their thinking about system use. We approach usability broadly and without a priori distinguishing it from user experience. On the basis of repertory-grid interviews with 24 Chinese, Danish, and Indian usability professionals we find that they make use of more utilitarian than experiential, i.e. user-experience related, constructs. This indicates that goal-related performance is central to their thinking about usability, whereas they have less elaborate sets of experiential constructs. The usability professionals mostly construe usability at an individual level, rather than at organizational and environmental levels. The few exceptions include effectiveness constructs, which are evenly spread across all three levels, and relational constructs, which are phrased in terms of social context. Considerations about users’ cognitive activities appear more central to the usability professionals than conventional human-factors knowledge about users’ sensorial abilities. The usability professionals’ constructs, particularly their experiential constructs, go considerably beyond ISO 9241 usability, indicating a discrepancy between this definition of usability and the thinking of the professionals concerned with delivering usability. Finally, usability is construed rather similarly across the three nationalities of usability professionals.     

How do open source communities blog?

We report on an exploratory study, which aims at understanding how software communities use blogs compared to conventional development infrastructures. We analyzed the behavior of 1,100 bloggers in four large open source communities, distinguishing between committing bloggers and other community members. We observed that these communities intensively use blogs with one new entry every 8 h. A blog entry includes 14 times more words than a commit message. When analyzing the content of the blogs, we found that committers and others bloggers write about similar topics. Most popular topics in committers’ blogs represent high-level concepts such as features and domain concepts, while source code related topics are discussed in 15% of their posts. Other community members frequently write about community events and conferences as well as configuration and deployment topics. We found that the blogging peak period is usually after the software is released. Moreover, committers are more likely to blog after corrective engineering than after forward engineering and re-engineering activities. Our findings call for a hypothesis-driven research to (a) further understand the role of social media in dissolving the collaboration boundaries between developers and other stakeholders and (b) integrate social media into development processes and tools.     

Preparation versus practice: How do teacher education programs and practicing teachers align in their use of technology to support teaching and learning?

Researchers have called for renewed efforts in exploring both what knowledge should be taught in preservice teacher education programs with regard to technology, and how to best prepare teachers to effectively use that knowledge to support teaching and learning. This study compared the importance of technology topics from teacher educators and teachers’ perspectives. A two-phase mixed-methods research design utilized surveys and multiple case studies (interviews, documents) to collect data from both teacher educators and practicing teachers. Findings indicate that teachers and teacher educators demonstrated similarities in their views regarding the use of technology for personal productivity, information presentation, and the access and use of electronic resources to support teaching and learning. Teacher educators and teachers differed with regard to their use of technology for communication, analysis of student data, documenting professional growth, and facilitating higher-order thinking skills. Recommendations for how teacher education programs can incorporate and address technology topics in order to increase relevance for teachers are discussed.     

How do Simple Rules `Fit to Reality' in a Complex World?

The theory of fast and frugal heuristics, developed in a new book called Simple Heuristics that make Us Smart (Gigerenzer, Todd, and the ABC Research Group, in press), includes two requirements for rational decision making. One is that decision rules are bounded in their rationality –- that rules are frugal in what they take into account, and therefore fast in their operation. The second is that the rules are ecologically adapted to the environment, which means that they `fit to reality.' The main purpose of this article is to apply these ideas to learning rules–-methods for constructing, selecting, or evaluating competing hypotheses in science, and to the methodology of machine learning, of which connectionist learning is a special case. The bad news is that ecological validity is particularly difficult to implement and difficult to understand. The good news is that it builds an important bridge from normative psychology and machine learning to recent work in the philosophy of science, which considers predictive accuracy to be a primary goal of science.     

How do investors decide? An interdisciplinary review of decision-making in crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is on the rise: its volume grew 1000% in only three years and is about to outpace worldwide venture capital spending. A quickly growing body of research is exploring the emerging crowdfunding phenomenon. While the literature offers a detailed and comprehensive picture of decision-making for traditional startup financing or bank loans, it does not provide a holistic understanding of decisions to invest in crowdfunded ventures. Many individual studies investigate isolated factors that influence investor decision-making in crowdfunding campaigns without integrating the findings regarding those influences. A comprehensive view of the relevant decision-making factors is necessary to build future research on and for practitioners to gain a better understanding of how investors choose. We conduct an interdisciplinary literature review to examine which factors influence the investment decisions in crowdfunding. From an analysis of 68 articles, we construct a comprehensive framework of relevant influence factors. Even though prior research covers many factors, others have received scant attention. Especially investors’ cognitive features and the context in which the investment decision is made seem to strongly influence decisions but are scarcely researched. In addition, most reviewed studies focus more on individual factors and campaign success than underlying decision processes. To highlight novel factors of crowdfunding investment decisions, we compare decision-making in traditional investments, such as venture capital and bank loans, to crowdfunding. Our findings offer new avenues for research toward understanding how the shift induced by crowdfunding changes our choices and actions. The analysis should support the endeavor to build better theories and provide a basis for further social and technological development.     

How do we evaluate artificial immune systems?

The field of Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) concerns the study and development of computationally interesting abstractions of the immune system. This survey tracks the development of AIS since its inception, and then attempts to make an assessment of its usefulness, defined in terms of 'distinctiveness' and 'effectiveness.' In this paper, the standard types of AIS are examined--Negative Selection, Clonal Selection and Immune Networks--as well as a new breed of AIS, based on the immunological 'danger theory.' The paper concludes that all types of AIS largely satisfy the criteria outlined for being useful, but only two types of AIS satisfy both criteria with any certainty.     

Newton's method revisited: How accurate do we have to be?

We analyze the convergence of quasi-Newton methods in exact and finite precision arithmetic using three different techniques. We derive an upper bound for the stagnation level and we show that any sufficiently exact quasi-Newton method will converge quadratically until stagnation. In the absence of sufficient accuracy, we are likely to retain rapid linear convergence. We confirm our analysis by computing square roots and solving bond constraint equations in the context of molecular dynamics. In particular, we apply both a symmetric variant and Forsgren's variant of the simplified Newton method. This work has implications for the implementation of quasi-Newton methods regardless of the scale of the calculation or the machine.     

How do interactive tabletop systems influence collaboration?

This paper examines some aspects of the usefulness of interactive tabletop systems, if and how these impact collaboration. We chose creative problem solving such as brainstorming as an application framework to test several collaborative media: the use of pen-and-paper tools, the “around-the-table” form factor, the digital tabletop interface, the attractiveness of interaction styles. Eighty subjects in total (20 groups of four members) participated in the experiments. The evaluation criteria were task performance, collaboration patterns (especially equity of contributions), and users’ subjective experience. The “around-the-table” form factor, which is hypothesized to promote social comparison, increased performance and improved collaboration through an increase of equity. Moreover, the attractiveness of the tabletop device improved subjective experience and increased motivation to engage in the task. However, designing attractiveness seems a highly challenging issue, since overly attractive interfaces may distract users from the task.     

How do you frame ill-defined problems? A study on creative logics in action

Problem framing is pivotal to fostering knowledge and innovation, especially in the modern environment where problems are often ill defined. However, the managerial literature has thus far mainly addressed problem framing from an outcome perspective, overlooking the processes that lead to the outcomes. A common view is that the complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty of ill-defined problems call for a creative process. Therefore, through ethnographically observing six design thinking workshops, this study adopts a qualitative approach to explore the problem framing creative process. Specifically, we unpack three thinking modalities involved in the creative process (i.e. creative logics) of problem framing: analogical reasoning, associative thinking and abductive reasoning. We suggest that individuals enact these through seven creative operations. In addition, we link these creative operations to two types of problem framing outcomes: referenced frames and crafted frames. From a practitioner perspective, this study casts new light on the importance of problem framing for creativity and innovation, highlighting the ways in which individuals operationalize the creative logics to frame ill-defined problems as original problems worth solving.     

How do Attitudes Toward Globalization Influence Human Functioning?

ABSTRACT

This study shows the results of the research into the relationships between attitudes toward globalization (accepting, critical, fearful) and psychological factors: identity styles, attitudes toward the Internet, and the quality of friendship. The survey conducted among Polish adolescents and young adults revealed that attitudes toward globalization had a stronger influence on psychological functioning for young adults than for adolescents. The results may help to understand social acceptance factors or disapproval of technological and globalizational changes.     

How and why do student teachers use ICT?

This paper examines how and why student teachers made use of information and communication technology (ICT) during a 1‐year initial teacher education programme from 2008 to 2009. This is a mixed methods study involving a survey (N = 340) of the entire cohort and a series of semi‐structured interviews with a sample of student teachers within the cohort (N = 21). The study explored several themes, including the nature of student teachers' use of ICT; variation in the use of ICT; support for, and constraints on, using ICT; attitudes to ICT and to teaching and learning more generally. It was found that nearly all teachers were receptive to using ICT – more so than their in‐service counterparts – and made frequent use of it during their placement (internship) experience. The Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) was central to nearly all student teachers' use of ICT, in good part, because it was already used by their mentors and was widely accessible. Student teachers' use of ICT was categorized in three levels. Routine users focused mostly on the use of the IWB for whole class teaching; extended users gave greater opportunities for pupils to use ICT for themselves; innovative student teachers used ICT in a greater range of contexts and made more effort to overcome barriers such as access. ICT use was seen as emerging from a mix of factors: chiefly student teachers' access to ICT; their feeling of ‘self‐efficacy’ when using ICT; and their belief that ICT had a positive impact on learning – in particular, the impact on pupils' behavioural and affective engagement. Factors which influenced ICT use included mentoring, training and support. Limitations on student teachers' use of ICT are explored and it is suggested that new teachers need to be supported in developing a more discerning use as they begin their teaching careers.     

How well do pilots sleep during long-haul flights?

It is imperative that shiftworkers in safety-critical workplaces obtain sufficient sleep to operate effectively. This presents a challenge to long-haul airline pilots who are required to supplement normal bed sleep with sleep on-board an aircraft during flight. In the current study, the sleep/wake behaviour of 301 airline pilots operating long-haul flight patterns was monitored for at least 2 weeks using self-report sleep diaries and wrist activity monitors. The data indicate that sleep opportunities in on-board rest facilities during long-haul flights result in a similar amount of sleep, but only 70% as much recovery, as duration-matched bed sleeps.

Statement of Relevance: This study indicates that in-flight sleep provides airline pilots with 70% as much restoration as duration-matched bed sleep. To increase the restoration provided by in-flight sleep, airlines could take measures to improve the quality, or increase the amount, of sleep obtained by pilots during flights.     

Implementation issues in optimization algorithms: do they matter?

Two factors that have a major impact on the performance of an optimization method are (1) formal algorithm specifications and (2) practical implementations. The impact of the latter is typically ignored, although it defines the results measured in experiments. We present an in-depth study of algorithm implementation issues and ask questions such as Does optimizing the implementation of an optimization algorithm pay off? Do bugs matter? and Is using more complicated but also more efficient data structures worth the effort? The intuitive answer to all of these questions is yes, but there is little published evidence. To bridge this gap, we use one of the most studied combinatorial optimization problems – the Traveling Salesman Problem – as a test bed and implement two state-of-the-art approaches for solving it – the Lin-Kernighan Heuristic and an Ejection Chain Method. We investigate implementation effort and performance gain, in order to provide further insights to the above questions.     

How do entrepreneurs learn and engage in an online community-of-practice? A case study approach

This paper investigates the ways in which entrepreneurs use communities of practice (CoPs) to express themselves, using narrative theory and rhetorical analysis, to gain insight into an electronic social network medium, namely, YoungEntrepreneur.com. In particular, the study focuses on CoPs themes, including why entrepreneurs engage in CoPs, what role the moderators and resident entrepreneurs can play in managing online CoPs, on communication rituals of the knowledge sharing through interactivity, and on ‘how to develop an intervention’ to maintain and stimulate entrepreneurs for engaging in an online community. Findings reveal that the topic title plays a major role in attracting people. Successful topics with successful conclusions (in terms of the original query that was answered) will not necessarily get high responses and vice versa. It is observed that the domain expert does not play a big role in keeping the discussion going. Finally, the study also discovered that entrepreneurs like to communicate in a story telling genre. A comprehensive set of engagement measurement tools are introduced to effectively measure the engagement in a virtual CoP, along with a classification to define and categorise discourse of messages in terms of content and context, which allow practitioners to understand the effectiveness of a social networking site.     

Characterizing users’ check-in activities using their scores in a location-based social network

Analysis of users’ check-ins in location-based social networks (LBSNs, also called GeoSocial Networks), such as Foursquare and Yelp, is essential to understand users’ mobility patterns and behaviors. However, most empirical results of users’ mobility patterns reported in the current literature are based on users’ sampled and nonconsecutive public check-ins. Additionally, such analyses take no account of the noise or false information in the dataset, such as dishonest check-ins created by users. These empirical results may be biased and hence may bring side effects to LBSN services, such as friend and venue recommendations. Foursquare, one of the most popular LBSNs, provides a feature called a user’s score. A user’s score is an aggregate measure computed by the system based on more accurate and complete check-ins of the user. It reflects a snapshot of the user’s temporal and spatial patterns from his/her check-ins. For example, a high user score indicates that the user checked in at many venues regularly or s/he visited a number of new venues. In this paper, we show how a user’s score can be used as an alternative way to investigate the user’s mobility patterns. We first characterize a set of properties from the time series of a user’s consecutive weekly scores. Based on these properties, we identify different types of users by clustering users’ common check-in patterns using non-negative matrix factorization (NMF). We then analyze the correlations between the social features of user clusters and users’ check-in patterns. We present several interesting findings. For example, users with high scores (more mobile) tend to have more friends (more social). Our empirical results demonstrate how to uncover interesting spatio-temporal patterns by utilizing the aggregate measures released by a LBSN service.     

Patterns of students' collaborations by variations in their learning orientations in blended course designs: How is it associated with academic achievement?

Background

While a number of learner factors have been identified to impact students' collaborative learning, there has been little systematic research into how patterns of students' collaborative learning may differ by their learning orientations.

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate: (1) variations in students' learning orientations by their conceptions, approaches, and perceptions; (2) the patterns of students' collaborations by variations in their learning orientations and (3) the contribution of patterns of collaborations to academic achievement.

Methods

A cohort of 174 Chinese undergraduates in a blended engineering course were surveyed for their conceptions of learning, approaches to learning and to using online learning technologies, and perceptions of e-learning, to identify variations in their learning orientations. Students' collaborations and mode of collaborations were collected through an open-ended social network analysis (SNA) questionnaire.

Results and Conclusions

A hierarchical cluster analysis identified an ‘understanding’ and ‘reproducing’ learning orientations. Based on students' learning orientations and their choices to collaborate, students were categorized into three mutually exclusive collaborative group, namely Understanding Collaborative group, Reproducing Collaborative group and Mixed Collaborative group. SNA centrality measures demonstrated that students in the Understanding Collaborative group had more collaborations and stayed in a better position in terms of capacity to gather information. Both students' approaches to learning and students' average collaborations significantly contributed to their academic achievement, explaining 3% and 4% of variance in their academic achievement respectively. The results suggest that fostering a desirable learning orientation may help improve students' collaborative learning.     

The role of social motivations in e-learning: How do they affect usage and success of ICT interactive tools?

There is an increasing interest among educational institutions and private organizations to understand the role of ICT interactive tools (e.g. forums, blogs, chats, blackboards, newsgroups) in the successful implementation of an e-learning system. In this study, we offer a social perspective in the study of e-learning, and posit that individuals’ actions are socially embedded. Therefore, we attempt to identify social motivations that underlie learners’ attitudes and usage behavior of ICT interactive tools. We propose a comprehensive conceptual framework that identifies two groups of social motivations: (1) anticipated reciprocal relationships and (2) anticipated extrinsic rewards. The empirical test of the framework in a university setting reveals that both types of social motivations significantly influence learners’ attitudes. Specifically, social influence and altruism, both of which relate to reciprocal relationships, and recognition by the instructor, which refers to extrinsic rewards and personal benefits, exert a strong positive effect on attitudes toward and usage of ICT interactive tools. The usage leads to improved intentions to continue using these technologies in the future.