This study addresses the question of what factors determine acceptance and adoption of processes in the context of Information Technology (IT) software development projects. This specific context was selected because processes required for managing software development projects are less prescriptive than in other, more straightforward, IT…

Trust plays an important role in collaborations because it creates an environment in which people can openly exchange ideas and information with one another and engineer innovative solutions together with less perceived risk. The rise in globally distributed software development has created an environment in which workers are likely to have less…

Low reading levels and lack of comprehension are current problems in high school classrooms confirmed by low standardized test scores and employer feedback as comprehension problems move into the workplace with students who do not have the necessary reading skills on the job. Midwestern high school science club students served as participants in…

Recruiting young people to serve as future leaders is a major concern for many organizations involved in natural resource conservation. One of the primary reasons for this concern is that youth are becoming less connected to the natural world because of the synergistic effects of urbanization, electronic media, and reduced opportunities to explore…

With the adoption of web services in daily life, people have access to tremendous amounts of information, beyond any human's reading and comprehension capabilities. As a result, search technologies have become a fundamental tool for accessing information. Furthermore, the web contains information in multiple languages, introducing another barrier…

In this dissertation, I explore the idea of designing "flexible game systems". A flexible game system allows players (not software designers) to decide on what rules to enforce, who enforces them, and when. I explore this in the context of digital card games and introduce two design strategies for promoting flexibility. The first…

Knowledge management has proven to be a sustainable competitive advantage for many organizations. Knowledge management systems are abundant, with multiple functionalities. The literature reinforces the use of workflow automation with knowledge management systems to benefit organizations; however, it was not known if process automation yielded…

This concurrent embedded mixed methods study investigates the influence of the computer program Tinkerplots™ on 34 preservice elementary teachers' understanding of measures of center and graphical representations of data. Participants' opinions and beliefs about the effectiveness of the program were also explored. At the beginning of the…

People are self-learning on the Internet and the various eLearning freeware tools of the 21st century diffuses a whole new pedagogy; yet, generational trends from organizations, corporations, and academic institutions minimally show implementation of various blended learning approaches online into their organizational culture and climate. The…

Agile Information Systems Development Methods have emerged in the past decade as an alternative manner of managing the work and delivery of information systems development teams, with a large number of organizations reporting the adoption & use of agile methods. The practitioners of these methods make broad claims as to the benefits of their…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of leadership and its influence on innovation at a two-year college, paying particular attention to the network structure, the influence of leadership (formal and informal), and environmental influence. The goal was to learn about the nature of innovation at two-year colleges by studying the…

Institutions of higher education are facing increasing pressure to improve the effectiveness and quality of academic programs (Association of Governing Boards, Top public policy issues 2011-2012, 2011). These institutions apply curricular assessment processes as a means to evaluate and improve academic effectiveness and quality. Knowledge…

Emergency response agencies, which operate as command-and-control organizations, push information to members of the public with too few mechanisms to support communication flowing back. Recently, information communication technologies (ICTs) such as social media have challenged this one-way model by allowing the public to participate in emergency…

The problem: The increasingly competitive global economy demands literate, educated workers. Both men and women experience the effects of education on employment rates and income. Racial and ethnic minorities, English language learners, and especially those with prison records are most deeply affected by the economic consequences of dropping out…

The University of Florida (UF) used an open-source course management system (CMS) called Sakai. Sakai was the fourth CMS the university has used to help teach live, blended (or hybrid), and online courses over the past ten years. The objective of this dissertation was to identify what barriers may be preventing university personnel from using…