Education Commons^™

The International Trafficking In Arms Regulations: Precluding Innovation In Academic Spacecraft Engineering — Or Are They?, Jeremy Straub, Joe Vacek

Jeremy Straub

Government regulations and uncertainty about their enforcement can be a significant barrier to innovation. In business, it is undesirable to consume time and other resources developing a product that cannot be sold or which requires navigating significant bureaucracy for each sale. In academ-ia, where limited funding is available prior to the submission of a grant pro-posal and receipt of an award, proposal-stage compliance costs can derail a project long before it begins. This paper reviews the International Traffick-ing in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and their impact on spacecraft research in academia, private research labs and industry. It reviews the exemptions available, …

Risk Analysis & Management In Student-Centered Spacecraft Development Projects, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Fevig, James Casler, Om Yadav

Jeremy Straub

Student involvement in any engineering project introduces an element of risk. This risk is particularly pronounced with small spacecraft projects, as a failure of the spacecraft on-orbit can result in a complete failure of the mission. However, student involvement in these projects is critical to allow research aims to be accomplished, in a university setting, and to train the next generation of spacecraft engineering professionals. The nature of risks posed by student involvement is discussed and a framework for assessing and mitigating these risks presented.

The Technology Acceptance Model (Tam) As A Viable Model To Determine The Acceptance Of E-Learning Technologies In Higher Education Institutions (Hei’S), Luis F. Rodriguez

Luis F Rodriguez

This paper analyzes the applicability of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), introduced by Dr. Fred Davis, as a model to determine the acceptance of E-learning technologies in Higher Education institutions (HEI’s). There are many Colleges and Universities that are moving to the growing trend in the education industry considering e-Learning initiatives as a business opportunity. In order to implement e-Learning initiatives HEI’s are adopting new technologies that enable educators, administrators and students to concur in a virtual environment in which they can manage at convenience the institutional resources. By the analysis of previous researches that uses the Technology Acceptance Model …

A Critical Examination Of The Relationship Between The Use Of Gatekeepers, Trust, And Organisation Knowledge-Sharing, Deogratias Harorimana Dr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

This thesis critically examines the relationship between gatekeepers, trust, and an organisation’s knowledge sharing. The research applied mixed methods with the case study approach. In this research the concept ‘gatekeeper’ is widely used to represent a class of those who are part of a knowledge management strategy; they collect information and knowledge and contextualise this before they can share it with the rest of the members of the organisation’s knowledge networks - within the formal and informal organisation. In this study, it was found that there was a strong relationship between the openness of a given firm, as regards its …

Board Members' Education And Firm Performance: Evidence From A Developing Economy, Salim Darmadi

Salim Darmadi

Empirical studies focusing on the influence of the educational backgrounds of CEO and board members on firm performance are scarce in the literature. This study makes a contribution by addressing such an issue in the context of Indonesia, a developing country that adopts a two-tier board system. Using annual reports to collect information on the educational qualification of board members, I employ a sample consisting of 160 firms listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). I use four measures of educational qualification in this study, namely postgraduate degrees, degrees obtained from prestigious domestic universities, degrees obtained from developed countries, and …

Leaders Of Today Are Challenged By Generation X Workforce Retention, Joyce K. Kutin

Joyce K Kutin RN, MSN, MOL

Many organizations today are comprised of a culturally diverse workforce. In addition to organizational diversity related to gender, ethnicity, race, or religious beliefs, there are also four different generations working side by side. Today’s workforce includes the Silent Generation, the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. The Silent Generation is known for their lifestyle approach of consistency, uniformity, conformity, law and order, hard work and playing by the rules. Baby Boomers were the first generation to grow up with television; they were the first to have broad access to news, issues, advertising, and a variety of programming. Generation X …

The Synergizing Principles, Dave Robinson Dr.

Dave Robinson Dr.

No abstract provided.

Collective Choice, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

This short nontechnical article reviews the Arrow Impossibility Theorem and its implications for rational democratic decisionmaking. In the 1950s, economist Kenneth J. Arrow proved that no method for producing a unique social choice involving at least three choices and three actors could satisfy four seemingly obvious constraints that are practically constitutive of democratic decisionmaking. Any such method must violate such a constraint and risks leading to disturbingly irrational results such and Condorcet cycling. I explain the theorem in plain, nonmathematical language, and discuss the history, range, and prospects of avoiding what seems like a fundamental theoretical challenge to the possibility …

Responding To Stakeholders’ Critical Needs- The Integrative Model Of Stakeholders’ Management (Imsm), Grace S. Thomson

Dr. Grace S. Thomson

Organizations are increasingly required to enhance their accountability to diverse internal and external stakeholders (Burrows, 1999). Knowing and understanding stakeholders’ expectations increases the ability of an organization to effectively respond to those expectations. Stakeholder relationship management is critical for corporate sustainability (Perrini & Tencati, 2006) or “capacity of a firm to continue operating over a long period of time” (p. 296). Organizations may benefit from developing collaborative interactions with their stakeholders, integrating their values and views into the formulation and implementation of organizational goals and objectives (Merrick, Parnell, Barnett & Garcia, 2005; Susniene & Vanagas, 2006).

This document contains a …

Glimpses, Dave Robinson Dr.

Dave Robinson Dr.

No abstract provided.

Review Of Emergency Management: Concepts And Strategies For Effective Programs, Valerie Lucus Cem, Cbcp

Valerie Lucus-McEwen CEM CBCP

Review of Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs By Lucien G. Canton, CEM. By taking a different perspective on local government emergency management programs, this book presents the vision for a very different model—one that includes an independent emergency manager leading an enterprise-wide program focused on strategies that promote disaster resilient communities.

The Growth Of M-Learning And The Growth Of Mobile Computing: Parallel Developments, Jason Caudill

Jason Caudill

m-Learning is made possible by the existence and application of mobile hardware and networking technology. By exploring the capabilities of these technologies, it is possible to construct a picture of how different components of m-Learning can be implemented. This paper will explore the major technologies currently in use: portable digital assistants (PDAs), Short Message Service (SMS) messaging via mobile phone, and podcasts via MP3 players.

Destiny - The Reflections Of A Surfing Professor, Dave Robinson Dr.

Dave Robinson Dr.

No abstract provided.

In Defence Of Exploitation, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

The concept of exploitation is thought to be central to Marx's Critique of capitalism. John Roemer, an analytical (then-) Marxist economist now at Yale, attacked this idea in a series of papers and books in the 1970s-1990s, arguing that Marxists should be concerned with inequality rather than exploitation -- with distribution rather than production, precisely the opposite of what Marx urged in The Critique of the Gotha Progam.

This paper expounds and criticizes Roemer's objections and his alternative inequality based theory of exploitation, while accepting some of his criticisms. It may be viewed as a companion paper to my What's …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …