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The adoption of e-learning technologies in campus universities has not realised its potential for meeting the learning needs and expectations of 21st century students. By modelling university learning and teaching as a complex adaptive system, this thesis develops a new way of understanding and managing the adoption of new learning technologies in campus universities. The literature on learning and teaching in higher education indicates that lecturers??? ability to innovate in their teaching is constrained by tacit and discipline-specific educational knowledge. Introducing new methods and technologies into mainstream university teaching requires explicit review of educational knowledge, and requires support from departmental and institutional organizational systems. Research on organizational change in other contexts, such as manufacturing industry, has used complex adaptive systems modelling to understand the systemic interdependence of individual strategies, organizations and technologies. These models suggest that the integration of new e-learning technologies into mainstream campus university teaching will involve corresponding change processes. Part of this change requires the linking up of diverse disciplinary perspectives on learning and teaching. The thesis develops a conceptual framework for researching university learning and teaching as a complex adaptive system that includes learning technologies, people, and their organization within a university. Complex adaptive systems theory suggests that the capacity of a campus university to adapt to new e-learning technologies will be reflected in patterns in the strategies of those lecturers who are early adopters of those technologies. A context-specific study in the University of New South Wales used cognitive mapping to represent and analyse the strategies of a group of 19 early adopters of e-learning technology. These early adopters were participants in a cross-discipline Fellowship programme intended to develop their ability to act as change agents within the university. Analysis of the maps gathered before and after the Fellowship, triangulated with data on the Fellows??? participation in organizational change, leads to a new way of modelling how university learning and teaching systems, including their technologies, adapt within a complex and changing higher education context.

This thesis is primarily a theoretical examination of people environment relationships directed towards the performance requirements of buildings for human occupation. It commences with a review of extant behavioural models used in the fields of Life Fire Safety Engineering and Wayfinding. The review includes several other interconnected disciplines and areas of interest such as space syntax and cognitive science. Extant behavioural models are described as essentially mechanical however there is also another, less familiar and not yet fully understood, symbiotic model. The symbiotic model is expanded and a new form of spatial analysis, developmental syntax, presented. Symbiotic models seem capable of providing a theoretical base for both the mechanical and also more subtle and complex relationships between space, social interaction and personal knowledge. Case studies are included as tentative explorations of developmental syntax and the symbiotic model in use and recommendations are made for further research into both developmental syntax and the symbiotic model.

The adoption of e-learning technologies in campus universities has not realised its potential for meeting the learning needs and expectations of 21st century students. By modelling university learning and teaching as a complex adaptive system, this thesis develops a new way of understanding and managing the adoption of new learning technologies in campus universities. The literature on learning and teaching in higher education indicates that lecturers??? ability to innovate in their teaching is constrained by tacit and discipline-specific educational knowledge. Introducing new methods and technologies into mainstream university teaching requires explicit review of educational knowledge, and requires support from departmental and institutional organizational systems. Research on organizational change in other contexts, such as manufacturing industry, has used complex adaptive systems modelling to understand the systemic interdependence of individual strategies, organizations and technologies. These models suggest that the integration of new e-learning technologies into mainstream campus university teaching will involve corresponding change processes. Part of this change requires the linking up of diverse disciplinary perspectives on learning and teaching. The thesis develops a conceptual framework for researching university learning and teaching as a complex adaptive system that includes learning technologies, people, and their organization within a university. Complex adaptive systems theory suggests that the capacity of a campus university to adapt to new e-learning technologies will be reflected in patterns in the strategies of those lecturers who are early adopters of those technologies. A context-specific study in the University of New South Wales used cognitive mapping to represent and analyse the strategies of a group of 19 early adopters of e-learning technology. These early adopters were participants in a cross-discipline Fellowship programme intended to develop their ability to act as change agents within the university. Analysis of the maps gathered before and after the Fellowship, triangulated with data on the Fellows??? participation in organizational change, leads to a new way of modelling how university learning and teaching systems, including their technologies, adapt within a complex and changing higher education context.

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Already home to an established Afghan American community, the Washington D.C. metropolitan region has seen a further increase in the number of Afghan refugees since the Fall of Kabul in 2021. This study explores the perceptions of mobility among Afghan refugee women as they resettle in their new communities. Through semi-structured interviews and a cognitive mapping exercise with nine women, this study reveals that barriers to daily mobility stem from lacking literacy and English language proficiency and from not possessing a driver's license—leading to restrictions in their desired mobility. The following themes surfaced through thematic analysis: reliance on social networks, a desire for third places and sense of independence and freedom. This study hopes to shed light on the lived experiences of Afghan women, an underrepresented population in mobility studies. The findings from this preliminary study also seek to inform cities with larger refugee populations to consider refugees in planning and design decisions. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning / Already home to an established Afghan American community, the Washington D.C. metropolitan region has seen a further increase in the number of Afghan refugees since the Fall of Kabul in 2021. Because refugees don't have a car upon arrival, daily travel is a challenge. This study explores the perceptions of transportation mobility among nine recently resettled Afghan women in their new community of Northern Virginia through maps and interviews. Mobility is movement between an origin and destination and also the meaning behind the movement. This study reveals that barriers to mobility stem from lacking literacy and English language proficiency and from not possessing a driver's license. The following themes surface through analyzing and identifying patterns from the maps and interviews: reliance on social networks, a desire for communal places (referred to as third places) and sense of independence and freedom. This study hopes to shed light on the lived experiences of Afghan women, an underrepresented population in mobility research studies. The findings from this preliminary study also seek to inform cities with larger refugee populations to consider refugees in planning and design decisions.

The map is vitally important for space design. Maps allow designers to record and filter impossibly complex information about an environment. Designers try to capture a variety of aspects of a site through the use of graphic tools like maps and drawings. While there is a long-established conventional graphic language for recording characteristics of a site, this language is often inadequate when one attempts to explore and capture subtler perceptual qualities of urban environments. Many of these perceptual qualities can greatly inform a design and some designers have invented creative mapping strategies to record and analyze difficult aspects of a site. This position paper follows the work of innovative designers who creatively map perceptual qualities of urban landscapes. The theories and practices of these designers have informed my development of new creative tools for mapping my perception of space. The design portion of this thesis takes place in the Mexican War Streets Neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and results in a plaza for the local Mattress Factory Art Museum. The design phase uses and evaluates traditional perception and representational tools of urban design. New creative maps are used to express what the traditional tools cannot. These creative maps are used to derive the concept for the site design as well as the design of the major site elements and materials. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In a global era of growing consumer economies, retailers rely extensively on the exploitation of consumers’ personal and behavioural information, in order to successfully execute and sustain their business models and strategic objectives. The gathering and mining of consumers’ personal and behavioural information represent tremendous potential in the application of relationship marketing tactics, towards consumer intimacy, and ultimately towards competitive advantage. However, in their quest to understand consumers better, retailers need to be acutely aware of consumers’ views regarding the gathering and use of their personal and behavioural information, in order to derive the associated benefits whilst mitigating the risk of alienating consumers. To this end, the main objective of this research assignment was to understand the thoughts and feelings of a selected sample of retail consumers, regarding the use of their personal and behavioural information in relationship marketing tactics. The research aim was achieved through a qualitative exploration of the thoughts and feelings of thirty millennial retail consumers who shared their individual views in written format and small group interviews. Cognitive mapping was used as the central technique for the coding and interpretation of written and interview data, depicting the central themes of consumer rationale, as well as the causal relationships of the concepts, which influenced their sentiment and decisions. The insights produced by the cognitive mappings were triangulated using additional techniques of sentiment analysis and word frequency analysis. The combination of research techniques produced robust overarching insights of universal value, coupled with insights of specific subtleties alluding to consumer groups with differentiated engagement needs. Universal insights included strong negative sentiment whenever consumer participants considered the possibility that retailers with whom they engage on the basis of their personal information could potentially share such personal information with third-party entities outside of their explicit or implicit relationship with a particular trusted retailer. Similarly, the personally intrusive nature of telemarketing as an engagement and communication channel was met with universal disdain at every mention thereof, clearly eliminating it as a viable channel for any retailer who would seek to build and sustain trusted consumer relationships. The sample of participants revealed four broad groups of millennial consumers, each with different preferences of engagement with retailers. The majority of the participants across two groups recognised a conditional and transactional basis for exchanging varying degrees of personal information for a variety of derived benefits. A small group of participants indicated a clear preference towards avoiding engagement on a personal basis and sharing of personal information with retailers. A similarly small group of participants exhibited general openness and willingness to engage retailers and share personal and behavioural information with little restraint or concern. The insights derived from this research assignment provide a solid foundational exploration for future research on the specific and related topics, whilst the application of the cognitive mapping technique provided profound multi-dimensional insights. Businesses stand to gain potential material benefit through the careful consideration of the terms of engagement with their consumers, as provided through the universal and specific insights of this research assignment.

Ce travail de recherche vise à montrer l’intérêt de l’essaimage comme outil autour duquel peut s’articuler une panoplie de stratégies organisationnelles. Des coalitions stratégiques s’établissent et des liens de proximité se construisent entre les différentes entités constituant l’essaimage. La nature et l’intensité de ces liens dépendent de la nature de la stratégie d’essaimage adoptée ainsi que des logiques endogènes qui lui sont associées. Ainsi, en vue de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de cette pratique, le présent travail de recherche propose, en s’appuyant sur un cadre théorique et typologique, une grille de lecture opérationnelle mettant en évidence les multiples dimensions de l’essaimage. Pour ce faire, une démarche abductive fondée sur l’étude de cas multiples a été mobilisée. La stratégie de recensement et d’analyse des cas a été effectuée en trois étapes. D’abord, il s’agit d’une exploration préliminaire qui a pour intérêt, de faire ressortir les cas d’analyse à partir d’entretiens réalisés avec 22 responsables, a priori concernés par la pratique d’essaimage en Tunisie. Pour approfondir notre compréhension de la pratique, des analyses thématiques des entrevues ont été menées en profondeur auprès des responsables de cellules d’essaimage. Enfin, en vu de repérer les articulations logiques entre ces dimensions de l’essaimage qui viennent d’être cernées, l’exploration qualitative s’est aussi consolidée par l’étude de 7 cartes cognitives de responsables ayant vécu des expériences variées d’essaimage. Les résultats empiriques obtenus ont permis de relever l’existence de diverses trajectoires de mise en œuvre de l’essaimage, dont le sens, la direction et la logique diffèrent d’une entreprise à une autre. En outre, la lecture des représentations mentales des dirigeants des cellules d’essaimage nous ont permis de confirmer l’importance des facteurs externes reliés à l’environnement et des facteurs internes reliés à l’optimisation des ressources dans la modélisation du processus. Cette analyse cognitive a laissé aussi apparaitre quelques pistes de réflexion relative à la prédominance des objectifs stratégiques de gestion de l’innovation et de valorisation des résultats de la recherche scientifique dans certaines entreprises essaimantes. / This research aims to show the importance of spin-off as a tool around which various organizational strategies can be articuled. In this respect, a number of strategic coalitions and close links are etablished among the different entities constituting spin-off. So, the nature and intensity of these relationships depend on the nature of the adopted spin-off strategy as well as the endogenous rationale associated with it. Thus, in order to shape a better understanding of the procedure, this research suggests, based on a theorical and typological framework, a practical outline which highlights the multiple dimensions of spin-off. Consequently, an abductive research strategy based on multiple case studies has been implemented.