Many software development firms are now adopting the agile software development method. This method involves the customer at every level of software development, thus reducing the impact of change in the requirement at a later stage. In this article, the principles of the agile method for software development are explored and there is a focus on…

Using touch screens presents a number of usability and accessibility challenges for blind people. Most touch screen-based user interfaces are optimized for visual interaction, and are therefore difficult or impossible to use without vision. This dissertation presents an approach to redesigning gesture-based user interfaces to enable blind people…

Network externalities or alternatively termed network effects are pervasive in computer software markets. While software vendors consider pricing strategies, they must also take into account the impact of network externalities on their sales. My main interest in this research is to describe a firm's strategies and behaviors in the presence of…

Nursing homes are considered lagging behind in adopting health information technology (HIT). Many studies have highlighted the use of HIT as a means of improving health care quality. However, these studies overwhelmingly do not provide empirical information proving that HIT can actually achieve these improvements. The main research goal of this…

Large-scale projects such as the Internet Archive (www.archive.org) send out crawlers to gather snapshots of much of the web. This massive collection of archived websites may include content of interest to one's patrons. But if librarians want to control exactly when and what is archived, relying on someone else to do the archiving is not ideal.…

Prior empirical studies in the implementation of general information technologies (IT) have revealed that IT adoption and usage were determined by user beliefs and attitudes. However, little is known about how user beliefs and attitudes form and change over time. To address these issues, this paper reports a study of 481 inexperienced and 120…

Our differences in language, cultures, and history around the world play a vital role in the way we learn. As technology-based education continues to be used worldwide, there is an ever growing interest in how multiculturalism comes into effect. Multiculturalism in Technology-Based Education: Case Studies on ICT-Supported Approaches explores the…

Technology-informed approaches to L2 research and teaching have prompted great interest by both researchers and practitioners alike. This book highlights the relationship between digitally-mediated technologies and second language pragmatics by presenting exemplary applications of technology for both research and pedagogy. Part I presents…

"Efficiency in Higher Education" is a sub-system within the total education system in a country. Higher Education contributes a major role in the national development, enriching the human potential. At the same time, climbing on the pinnacles of higher education and enjoying its benefit is not an easy task to achieve for a large number…

This paper describes the results of a pedagogical experience carried out at the University of Comahue, Argentina, with an interactive text (IT) concerning Homogeneous Chemical Reactors Analysis. The IT was built on the frame of the "Mathematica" software with the aim of providing students with a robust computational tool. Students'…

In spite of the goodwill and best efforts of software engineers and usability professionals, systems continue to be built and released with glaring usability flaws that are costly and difficult to fix after the system has been built. Although user interface (UI) designers, be they usability or design experts, communicate usability requirements to…

The use of ICT to enhance teaching and learning depends on effective design, which operates at many levels of granularity from the small to the very large. This reflects the range of educational problems from course design down to the design of activities focused on specific learning objectives. For maximum impact these layers of design need to be…

Difficulties in teaching a multi-disciplinary subject such as the mechatronics system design module in Departments of Mechatronics Engineering at Temasek Polytechnic arise from the gap in experience and skill among staff and students who have different backgrounds in mechanical, computer and electrical engineering within the Mechatronics…

With the widespread digitization of art, photography, and music, plus the introduction of streaming video, many colleges and universities are realizing that they must develop or purchase systems to preserve their school's digitized objects; that they must create searchable databases so that researchers can find and share copies of digital files;…

Purpose: This study aims to explore students' perceptions of a virtual reality simulation that enable nursing students to learn how to use a medical emergency crash cart. Design/methodology/approach: The study was designed to explore how students' perceptions of ease of use and perceived usefulness from the technology acceptance model and the…