Computer Sciences Commons^™

Section 508 Adherence By Industry Professionals: Improving Universal Design Through Training, Antonio Rincon

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 took effect in 2001 and provides encouragement for universal design and compliance requirements to the federal sector for purchases that are accessible by people with disabilities. A division of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) is located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and provides electronic and information technology solutions to federal customers in the defense, intelligence, and homeland security communities.

The general lack of training is a major factor for low compliance to Section 508. Improving awareness is important at GDAIS in order to increase its federal sales market share, develop new products …

A Model For The Evaluation Of Is/It Investments, Paul M. Tuten

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Evaluation is a vital--yet challenging--part of IS/IT management and governance. The benefits (or lack therefore) associated with IS/IT investments have been widely debated within academic and industrial communities alike. Investments in information technology may or may not result in desirable outcomes. Yet, organizations must rely on information systems to remain competitive. Effective evaluation serves as one pathway to ensuring success. However, despite a growing multitude of measures and methods, practitioners continue to struggle with this intractable problem.

Responding to the limited success of existing methods, scholars have argued that academicians should first develop a better understanding of the process of …

An Investigation Of The Contributions Of Gender, Shopping Orientation, Online Experience, And Website's Interactive Features To Consumers' Intentions To Engage In Apparel E-Commerce Shopping, Amanda Wynn

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

E-commerce has experienced exponential growth within the last few years. The rapid growth of e-commerce has created a need to improve consumer acceptance and the consumer's intention to engage in e-commerce. Female consumers have yet to embrace e-commerce as readily as male consumers. Differences between male and female consumer shopping behavior were examined.

This study developed and empirically tested a model to predict the consumer's intention to engage in apparel e-commerce shopping based on the constructs of gender, shopping orientation, online experience, and Website's interactive features. Male and female U.S. consumers age 18 and older were surveyed to determine their …

Responsibility Factors Of Reducing Inefficiencies In Information System Processes And Their Role On Intention To Acquire Six Sigma Certification, Sara Hejazi

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Organizations worldwide have been turning to Six Sigma program (SSP) to eliminate the defects in their products or drive out the variability in their processes to attain a competitive advantage in their marketplace. An effective certification program has been touted as a major contributor to successful implementation of SSP. An effective certification program provides the professionals involved with SSP projects a clear understanding of what their responsibilities should be in reducing the variability in their processes. Despite the benefits, a significant number of professionals who attend certification training fail to become certified.

This study aimed to develop a predictive model …

Parallel Mining Of Association Rules Using A Lattice Based Approach, Wessel Morant Thomas

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The discovery of interesting patterns from database transactions is one of the major problems in knowledge discovery in database. One such interesting pattern is the association rules extracted from these transactions. Parallel algorithms are required for the mining of association rules due to the very large databases used to store the transactions. In this paper we present a parallel algorithm for the mining of association rules. We implemented a parallel algorithm that used a lattice approach for mining association rules. The Dynamic Distributed Rule Mining (DDRM) is a lattice-based algorithm that partitions the lattice into sublattices to be assigned to …

A Study Of First- And Continuing-Generation College Students' Use Of Internet Communication Technologies In Social Capital And Its Contribution To Their Persistence In College, Gail Dianne (Hodge) Hayes

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Prior studies have shown that students who are the first in their families to attend college fail to persist in college more so than their continuing-generation (CG) counterparts do. Prior research on this phenomenon has helped to identify various factors that contribute to the lower college persistence of first-generation (FG) students. For example, social capital has been identified as a factor that improves student persistence in college. Prior studies have shown that FG students tend to enter college with lower social capital than their CG student counterparts do. Additionally, while in school, FG students tend not to engage in behaviors …

An Analysis Of The Impact Of Information Security Policies On Computer Security Breach Incidents In Law Firms, Faith M. Heikkila

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Law firms maintain and store voluminous amounts of highly confidential and proprietary data, such as attorney-client privileged information, intellectual properties, financials, trade secrets, personal, and other sensitive information. There is an ethical obligation to protect law firm client data from unauthorized access. Security breaches jeopardize the reputation of the law firm and could have a substantial financial impact if these confidential data are compromised. Information security policies describe the security goals of a law firm and the acceptable actions and uses of law firm information resources.

In this dissertation investigation, the author examined the problem of whether information security policies …

Administrative Support For Online Teaching Faculty, John David Meyer

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

When administrators make decisions about the infrastructure support needs of a current or planned online teaching program, these decisions are often based on external expert advice rather than on the advice of experienced ground level faculty who are living with the dynamic nature of the technology and support needed to develop and maintain an effective online teaching program. Online teaching faculty are the best source of advice and information on what works and what does not.

Faculty at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) were surveyed to find out what elements are important to the development of an effective online …

A Formal Concept Analysis Approach To Association Rule Mining: The Quicl Algorithms, David T. Smith

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Association rule mining (ARM) is the task of identifying meaningful implication rules exhibited in a data set. Most research has focused on extracting frequent item (FI) sets and thus fallen short of the overall ARM objective. The FI miners fail to identify the upper covers that are needed to generate a set of association rules whose size can be exploited by an end user. An alternative to FI mining can be found in formal concept analysis (FCA), a branch of applied mathematics. FCA derives a concept lattice whose concepts identify closed FI sets and connections identify the upper covers. However, …

Application Of Computer Simulation Modeling To Evaluate Business Continuity Plans, Jose Francisco Molina Garcia Plaza

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Business continuity plans (BCP) help organizations plan for and withstand the occurrence of unexpected events that interrupt the normal operation of business. Managers typically develop several alternate plans to minimize the business impact of unexpected events. The problem for decision makers is that comparative evaluation of BCP is typically done using subjective judgments.

This research uses a case study approach focusing on a single organization and a single business continuity application to propose the use of computer simulation as a tool for managers to identify and evaluate different BCP prior to committing resources. In the context of an insurance firm, …

Use And Analysis Of Expected Similarity Of Semantic Web Ontological Annotations, Joe Lynn Look

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studied various means of calculating similarity in the annotations of web pages compared to the similarity of the document text. A software tool, named Semantic Web Analysis of Similarity (SW AS), was developed and utilized to perform the analysis of similarity in annotated documents published from the first three years of the International Semantic Web Conference. Rules concerning the ontological concepts of the documents were specified and these rules as well as other parameters were varied to determine the effect on overall similarity measures. Traditional measures of similarity as well as enhanced measures of similarity proposed for this …

Reducing Cognitive Load Using Hypervariate Display, William Garrabrants

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

This research examined the application of hypervariate display principles to human-computer interfaces with the intent of reducing the cognitive load placed on the operator during high-intensity activity. This research extended the existing body of knowledge relevant to reducing the cognitive load using human-computer interfaces. Existing research has explored the application of techniques that, when used in isolation, contribute to a computer operator's understanding of the data or efficiency in execution of tasks. This research studied the collaborative use of proven display techniques to improve a computer operator's ability to understand large amounts of data more rapidly and react to that …

Assessing Quality Indicators In Asynchronous Undergraduate Distance Education Courses, Donna J. Myers

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine quality indicators within asynchronous distance education undergraduate courses at an accredited institution. The definition of quality is in and of itself obscure. Therefore, the identification of indicators or characteristics of quality in courses was a primary focus. The identification of such characteristics was based on input from the primary stakeholders in distance education, namely, the students, the administrators, and the instructors. Collecting data from each stakeholder group allowed for a comparison of those characteristics of quality deemed most important by each group. Initially an expert panel meeting was conducted to help categorize …

Smart Classroom Technology: Instructional Effectiveness And Faculty And Student Satisfaction, Jon Preston Mckamey

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Numerous designs, practices, stakeholders, and technology options make it difficult for higher education institutions to find direction and established standards for classroom construction and remodeling projects. Different models of technology-enhanced classrooms are being adopted as various managers, integrators, and architects develop new classroom spaces. A planning process, standardized classroom model, and effective support structure will be valuable elements in meeting the needs of faculty and students.

The goal was to establish a best practices classroom model to meet the needs of community college faculty, students, and technology support personnel. Information collected from community colleges was used to determine the state …

Web 2.0 Tools Improve Teaching And Collaboration In High School English Language Classes, Mahmud Shihab

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Web 2.0 tools, namely blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS were introduced to change teaching practices of in-service high school teachers to improve the collaboration of today's students in the English language classroom. Two high school teachers of English language and their classes participated. The teachers were interviewed about their current teaching practices and provided with training to develop teaching units that use Web 2.0 to engage students as active collaborators in their learning. They integrated blogs, podcasts, wikis, and RSS into their teaching. Additional interviews were conducted during and after the implementation stage. Implementation strategies, changes in teaching practices, challenges …

Improving Knowledge Management Programs Using Marginal Utility In A Metric Space Generated By Conceptual Graphs, Jeffrey A. Schiffel

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge management has emerged as a field of endeavor that blends a systems approach with methods drawn from organizational management and learning. In contrast, knowledge representation, a branch of artificial intelligence, is grounded in formal methods. Research in the separate behavioral and the structural disciplines – knowledge management and knowledge engineering - has not traditionally cross-pollinated. This has prevented the development of many practical practices useful in organizations. Organization managers - line and senior - lack guidance in where to direct improvement efforts targeted at specific groups of company knowledge workers. Demonstrated here is Knowledge Improvement Measurement Space (KIMS), a …

An Event Monitor And Response Framework Based On The Wsloga Architecture, Todd Christopher Brett

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Web services provide organizations with a powerful infrastructure by which information and products may be distributed, but the task of supporting Web service systems can be difficult due to the complex nature of environment configuration and operation. Tools are needed to monitor and analyze such Enterprise environments so that appropriate engineering, quality control, or business activities can be pursued.

This investigation resulted in the development of a software development kit, the WSLogA Framework, which is inspired by the vision of Cruz et al. (2003, 2004). The WSLogA Framework provides distributed Enterprise systems with a platform for comprehensive information capture and …

An Analysis Of It/Is Offshore Outsourcing: Educator Perspectives, Martin H. Bagaya

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

IT/IS Offshore outsourcing is defined as a commercial arrangement of transferring local ITIIS functions, assets, activities, products and services to a foreign contractor therefore removing new employment positions, replacing or displacing U.S. domestic IT/IS workers with those from other countries for financial or competitive advantage of the outsourcing client. This process of offshore outsourcing to overseas locations was perceived to have consequences on IT/IS student enrolment at U.S. universities.

The objective of this study was to identify administrators' responses to reduced IT/IS student enrolments. The majority of ITIIS college administrators have concerns about offshore outsourcing, and is perceived to reduce …

Electronic Performance Support For E-Learning Analysis And Design, Thomas W. Jury

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Corporate instructional designers often follow an instructional systems design (ISD) process to plan, create, and implement training programs. Increased demand for elearning as a replacement or addition to classroom training means that, in the current corporate environment, instructional designers are called upon to produce a wide variety of instructional formats and have to make more decisions during the ISD process.

E-learning is evolving into a total performance improvement solution rather than simply as a means to delivering distance training and consequently, in an effort to achieve business goals, many corporations are turning to it as a cost effective way to …

Measuring The Effect Of E-Learning On Job Performance, Heidi Kramer

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

E-learning is becoming a leading delivery method in workplace-learning settings across organizations of various sectors and of varying sizes. The ultimate goal is to drive business results. Managers need to provide evidence of a positive impact on corporate strategy and investment objectives. If the business goal cannot be identified, there should be a query on why it is there in the first place. Transfer of the knowledge learned in the training session to the work situation is not built into most skills training delivery, especially those provided through e-learning. The outcomes and the effects of training on job performance are …

Painting The Voice: Weblogs And Writing Instruction In The High School Classroom, Marilyn V. Olander

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Writing is a complex cognitive skill, a technology for capturing speech whose forms and conventions began in the dawn of civilization and were in place and stable by the Middle Ages. Writing and reading are the foundation of literacy, fundamental to success in school and in the adult world. No comprehensive theory of composition guides the teaching of writing, although historically two approaches have been favored: writing as a skill acquired through the memorization and recognition of principles of grammar and usage, and more recently, writing as a process of recursive strategies of pi arming, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. …

Measuring Factors That Influence The Success Of E-Government Initiatives, Ronnie Park

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The success of e-government initiatives is contingent upon its citizens ' willingness to use the services. Citizens are more likely to use e-government services if they believe that they get better value than from the conventional government services. Understanding how citizens value e-government services is critical to the success of these initiatives. This study utilizes two concepts from the field of decision analysis. These are mean-ends chains and value-focused thinking. The research that follows describes the development of a model to identify factors that influence value judgments of citizens.

Based on the data of 21 0 responses from e-government service …

Performance Measurement For The E-Government Initiatives: A Comparative Study, Willy C. Isaac

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of performance measurement in public organizations is to support better decision-making by management, leading to improved outcome for the community, and to meet external accountability requirements. There are different performance measurement models to measure the e-Government initiatives and different studies differ in identifying the key factors and measurement indicator. Many measurement instruments take a too simplistic view and focus on measuring what is easy to measure. Much challenge faced by the existing e-Government studies is understanding what citizens, businesses and government agencies wants and how to measure the return on government's Internet investment. Government administrations, international organizations …

Effectiveness Of Asynchronous Reference Services For Distance Learning Students Within Florida's Community College System, Patricia C. Profeta

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The impact of distance learning on higher education and the need to provide equitable library services to students in the digital environment emerged as critical areas during the 1990s. Library services available to distance learning students included digital reference and instructional services, remote access to online research tools, database and research tutorials, interlibrary loan, and document delivery. Digital reference services appeared to be one of the more significant services proffered by academic libraries although these services were developed often without forethought to goals and assessment. The purpose of this study was to examine the adequacy of asynchronous e-mail reference services …

Using Neural Networks To Develop A New Model To Screen Applicants For Apartment Rentals, Michael T. Furick

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Credit scoring is a mathematical means of summarizing a consumer's credit and financial history into a three-digit number. This number provides an easy means of identifying and sorting consumer behavior into categories based on their financial history. To select applicants for loans and to set interest rates on loans, banks and financial institutions routinely use credit scoring. Auto insurance companies also use scoring to decide which consumers will be offered auto insurance and to set the price for auto insurance. Despite success in these two industries, scoring does not appear to be effective in the apartment rental industry in picking …

Information Policies And Practices Of Knowledge Management(Km) As Related To The Development Of The Global Aviation Information Network(Gain)- An Applied Case Study And Taxonomy Development, Jeffrey S. Forrest

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The Global Aviation Information Network (GAIN) was initiated in response to U.S. Government policies seeking to reduce airline accidents. GAIN was to disseminate airline or aviation safety information in environments where public disclosure impedes the diffusion of information. Government legislation such as the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and other information policies create risks of public disclosure to those reporting information. Therefore, the problem investigated in this research was to identity and evaluate potential solutions to policy issues in public disclosure that prevent the collection and sharing of aviation safety information.

Interactions between GAIN, information policy, and knowledge management (KM) …

A Faculty Development Handbook For Quality Online Instruction, Joan Carol Frese

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The offering of online classes has been growing at an incredible rate. Many institutions coerce their instructors into teaching online classes even if they are not prepared. If teachers are unprepared when they teach, there is a negative effect on the students and can jeopardize the reputation of the institution. In order to teach over the Internet, instructors need to learn new competencies. Students in online classes are usually not traditional students. In addition, there can be miscommunication in online classes, because there are no visual cues. Instructors need to learn new communication strategies as well as teaching strategies for …

Developing A Nisga'a Learning Objects Repository For Use In The Schools, Kim A. Hansen

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

The use of information technologies to develop, manage, access, and to use learning resources and content from a variety of sources has changed the academic and learning environment. There was a need to focus on the identification of tools and the development of skills to manage these resources, particularly in the kindergarten to grade 12 classrooms. For the students and educators of School District 92 (Nisga' a), there was also a need to provide access to important Nisga'a cultural and heritage learning objects as many preserved videos, pictures, historic documents, cultural teaching materials, and various printed matter were not available …

Standards Directory: An Engineering And Technology Standards Digital Library And Information Retrieval System For The Walt Disney Company, Shawn Harrs

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Walt Disney Company (Company) engineers and architects utilize engineering and technology standards in the design, development, and maintenance of its physical infrastructure worldwide. There was a need to improve the methods by which Company standards are organized and retrieved. While the leading commercial information brokers for engineering and technology standards provide standards search engines and online standards catalogs, these search services are poor in supporting standards seekers who have only a general understanding of their information needs because their searches only utilize a standard's document number, title, and keywords as metadata for searching.

In order to provide a tool for …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of The Gerogis Framework For Integrating Technology(In Tech) Training Program On Teachers' Computer Self-Efficacy And Computer Utilization, Ian Johnson

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

National technology standards drafted by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) are incorporated into the technology standards required of American public schools. The state board of education in Georgia instituted the Georgia Framework for Integrating TECHnology (InTech), which is a 50-hour training program that prepares teachers to help their students accomplish technology standards and performance objectives.

The goal of this study was to investigate the effects on teachers' computer self-efficacy, technology integration, current instructional practices, personal computer use and factors relating to use or non-use of computers in the curriculum after completing the Georgia Framework for Integrating TECHnology …