abstract: This thesis is an initial test of the hypothesis that superficial measures suffice for measuring collaboration among pairs of students solving complex math problems, where the degree of collaboration is categorized at a high level. Data were collected in the form of logs from students' tablets and the vocal interaction between pairs of students. Thousands of different features were defined, and then extracted computationally from the audio and log data. Human coders used richer data (several video streams) and a thorough understand of the tasks to code episodes as collaborative, cooperative or asymmetric contribution. Machine learning was used to induce a detector, based on random forests, that outputs one of these three codes for an episode given only a characterization of the episode in terms of superficial features. An overall accuracy of 92.00% (kappa = 0.82) was obtained when comparing the detector's codes to the humans' codes. However, due irregularities in running the study (e.g., the tablet software kept crashing), these results should be viewed as preliminary. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2014

As organizações buscam ter um posicionamento e ser atuantes em relação ao tema Sustentabilidade, devido à urgência dos desafios que ainda devem ser enfrentados em relação ao aumento da demanda da sociedade e da degradação do meio ambiente. Este tema é atual e um assunto sistêmico que deve ser considerado por todos os setores de uma organização. Em paralelo, percebe-se uma mudança na maneira como as empresas estão se configurando, na forma de redes, como alternativa às transformações econômicas. Deste modo, observa-se que os projetos que tem por objetivo promover a Sustentabilidade podem ser realizados pela formação de redes entre as organizações. Os fatores motivadores deste trabalho se devem às observações de iniciativas existentes para a promoção da sustentabilidade com o envolvimento de instituições distintas e a carência de pesquisas considerando estes assuntos. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é avaliar o grau de maturidade das organizações que desejam trabalhar em forma de redes de empresas nos projetos de implantação da sustentabilidade. Para alcançar tal meta, foi realizado um estudo de caso em dois projetos que promoveram a sustentabilidade e foram concretizados com o envolvimento de organizações distintas. Os resultados obtidos permitem confirmar as proposições teóricas construídas pela pesquisadora, apontando a importância de se avaliar a maturidade das organizações que desejam trabalhar em forma de redes de empresas em projetos de aplicação da sustentabilidade. / Organizations are looking at having a position and be active in relation to sustainability, because of the urgency of the challenges that must be addressed in relation to the increased demand of society and environmental degradation. This theme is present, and a systemic issue that should be considered by all sectors of an organization. In parallel, there is a perceived change in how companies are shaping up in the form of networks as an alternative to the economic. Thus, it is observed that the projects that aim to promote sustainability can be achieved through business networks between organizations. The motivating factors of this work are due to observations of existing initiatives to promote sustainability with the involvement of different institutions and the lack of research considering these issues. The main objective of this work is to evaluate the maturity level of organizations who wish to work in the form of business networks in deployment projects sustainability. To achieve this goal, a case study was conducted in two projects that promoted sustainability and were implemented with the involvement of different organizations. The results obtained confirm the theoretical propositions constructed by the researcher, pointing out the importance of evaluating the maturity of organizations wishing to work in the form of networks of firms in projects applying sustainability.

This research is concerned with improving the planning process in large construction projects where the management and planning of the preconstruction planning process itself is a significant and complex task. Preconstruction planning in the construction sector has become a complex task requiring substantial collaboration, with ad-hoc teams (especially from design and construction) created to bring all the project resources involved together in a timely manner, to ensure a construction project is completed effectively and efficiently. This, combined with the iterative nature of the planning process, has challenged even the best companies in the industry. Three major weaknesses in current practice were identified in the research: first, the planning preconstruction planning process is heavily reliant on a planner's experience (i.e. a planner develops a new programme of a preconstruction planning through personal determination of the planning tasks and their precedence, starting afresh at the beginning of each project). For large projects this is not only time consuming but subject to the limitations ohhe planner's knowledge and experience, often resulting in simplistic programmes in which many of the dependencies are ignored. Secondly, guesses (i.e. estimates) are frequently made in the planning process, which neither the initial planner nor the downstream planner will later check. They are usually ignored and left until the execution of the plan, when the problems reveal themselves. Finally, the current techniques for the management of preconstruction planning, such as the critical path method and bar charts, cannot account for the iterative nature of the planning process that requires estimations to be made and work to be redone until a satisfactory so lution is developed. As a result, it may be said that preconstruction planning is currently managed poorly. It can be. argued that if preconstruction planning is to be undertaken effectively, it must be better managed and planned.

Collaboration is an important yet difficult skill for learners in the 21st century. Recent research has examined how supports, such as group scripts and roles, can help learners collaborate effectively. However, little is known about the perceptions learners have of these supports when provided to them. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) learner’s choices and reasonings for role choices and (b) the impact of group roles. Participants included 111 undergraduate students in a learning strategies for university success course. During the course, students completed two required collaborative tasks, including pre-task planning and a post-task reflection. Students made choices regarding roles in individual and group planning sessions and explained their reasoning for making those choices. Students frequently chose roles relating to strategic task enactment, motivation, and concept/domain knowledge in their individual and group planning sessions with their primary reasons being focused on “self” knowledge, or information about themselves, such as strengths or weaknesses. These findings suggest learners may believe these are important roles for collaboration. The reliance on “self” knowledge for making decisions may be attributed to the fact these groups were collaborating for the first and second times and may not have a plethora of group information to utilize. Contributions of this study to theory, research, and practice will be discussed. / Graduate

This research provides a Thai case-study of social insurance benefit delivery (SIBD) and of the tension between the international norm of a standardized and centralised system and recent trends to diversified and locally responsive public service delivery. Thailand has been chosen as an example of decentralised and diversified SIBD since regional variation of its SIBD seemingly occurred after a more general decentralisation policy had been introduced in the country. Thus, this research examines the extent to which SIBD diversity exists in the way that decentralisation has been implemented in Thailand since the late 1990s. Built upon four theoretical perspectives (social insurance, collaborative public management, decentralisation, and inter-organisational relations) the conceptual framework uses three models of SIBD diversification (Weberian, customer-oriented, and strategic) to explain diversified patterns of SIBD in Thailand. The thesis is a multi-site case study research. Out of 76 Thai provinces, four provinces in the North were purposively selected to typify three socio-economic areas: commercial (Chiang Mai), industrial (Lamphun), and agricultural (Phrae, Nan). Employing qualitative methodology, a mixed method of data collection was undertaken with two major methods: interview with key actors (e.g. government officials, employers, employees) and documentary research (e.g. official reports, minutes of meetings, government plans and strategies). Further, in addition to analyzing content in texts (transcripts, documents), positional mappings and coding were carried out to illustrate the broad patterns of the phenomena studied. This research found that not only decentralisation but also inter-organisational collaboration has impacts on SIBD diversification. Political variables such as national and provincial elites were also investigated but they are evidently not predictors of the diversity. Indeed, decentralisation is a key factor of SIBD diversity which is evident in two of the provinces studied (Chiang Mai, Phrae). In Chiang Mai, being only slightly decentralised, SIBD rigidly follows national norms and routine patterns. In contrast, in Phrae, being highly decentralised, SIBD is highly diversified, especially because of an innovative SIBD project operating in the province. However, this research also finds that collaboration is a key factor of SIBD diversity in the other two provinces (Lamphun, Nan). In Nan, although similar to Chiang Mai with regard to low decentralisation, SIBD has become highly diversified as original and innovative SIBD projects in the province evidently involve several collaborative activities. In Lamphun, while being moderately decentralised, SIBD is just slightly diversified, in congruence with the low level of collaboration in the province. This research concludes that even in uniform systems SIBD can be very different reflecting the variable impact of local initiatives which are evidently results of decentralisation and/or collaboration.

Inter-organizational collaboration based on the use of IT systems is now essential for organizations working as Collaborative Networked Organizations (CNOs). However, little research has been done to examine the critical success factors involved in shared IT governance among members of a CNO. Accordingly, this research develops a model of inter-organizational IT-governance composed of critical success factors (CSFs) and key performance indicators. The study defines fourteen CSFs that are classified under the main four categories of IT governance, which include strategic alignment, resource management, value delivery and risk management, and performance measurement. In addition, the study identifies key performance indicators that measure the CSFs and evaluate the effectiveness of how partners work together in joint processes for a common goal. The main dimensions of the KPIs include consensus, alignment, accountability, trust, involvement and transparency. The model was validated by gathering feedback from participants in a healthcare on the importance of the CSFs and performance indicators. The findings confirm the importance of the CSFs but suggest that they could be ranked in order of criticality. In addition, certain CSFs were re-defined based on the experience of CNO participants and questions were raised related to the context of the CNO, which influences participant perceptions, as well as the degree of formalization noted in the CNO.

Purpose: To explore how non-physician team members of a health care team perceive their contributions to educating residents about interprofessional collaboration in an intensive care rotation and to compare this to residents’ perceptions. Method: Participants in this exploratory case study were selected using maximal variation, purposive and convenience sampling strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings: Contributions occurred implicitly and explicitly during patient care activities and focused on role clarification, sharing of expertise, and help navigating the workflow. Contributions were influenced by a) Intensive Care Unit context, b) tension between working and teaching, c) expectations, d) resident engagement, e) power/hierarchy. Conclusion: Team members contribute to residents’ education about collaboration through participation in the everyday business of caring for critically ill patients. Recognition of this contribution may improve resident training. However, some residents may not be learning basic skills, what they learn about interprofessional collaboration may have limited transferability, and team interactions may influence the validity of judgements made about entrustability and performance.

This research adopts a sociocultural framework (Vygotsky, 1978) to investigate how multilingual children express their mathematical reasoning during collaborative problem solving. The topic is important because North America is becoming increasingly multicultural, and according to mathematics teachers this has complicated the challenges of teaching and learning mathematics. Many educators assume that children should be competent in the language of instruction before they engage with mathematical content (Civil, 2008; Gorgorió & Planas, 2001). A review of recent research in this area challenges the idea that multilingual students need to have mastered the official language of instruction prior to learning mathematics (Barwell, 2005; Civil, 2008; Moschkovich, 2007). These researchers demonstrate that the knowledge of the language of instruction is only one aspect of becoming competent in mathematics. My research was designed to build on the findings of the current research on multilingual children’s reasoning in order to more fully understand how multilingual children express their mathematical understanding and reasoning. For this study, two multilingual families, each with 3 children between the ages of 8 and 12, participated in a mathematical problem-solving activity. Findings show the children’s mathematical reasoning was evidence-based drawing on mathematical knowledge and world knowledge.

This dissertation explores the collaborative process and use of language that went into the creating the United States Constitution in 1787. From a technical communication perspective, the collaborative process explored did not develop any new theories on collaboration, but instead, allows scholars to track the emergence of a well-documented America collaborative process from the early period of the developing American nation on a document that has remained in use for over 235 years. in addition to examining this collaborative process, the author also discusses the use of passive voice and negative language in the first article of the Constitution.

This study describes how firms in the agro processing industry within South Africa vary in terms of their types of innovation based on whether or not the firm exports into a developed context or supplies only into the local South African market. In conjunction with this the research attempts to describe who these firms engage with in order to develop their most significant innovations. Empirically this research set out to establish whether or not exporting firms differed considerably with regards to how they innovate relative to firms which only supply into the regional domestic market. This could provide insights as to whether either group could learn from one another and develop a collaborative relationship whereby a mutually reinforcing innovative model could be developed to support overall industry growth. The central argument here is, given that the agro processing industry employs a large portion of the South African work force, any innovations which can create long term sustainable volume growth for the industry need to be taken advantage of. Thus not only does the South African agro processing industry need to develop innovative networks domestically but also internationally.Chi squared and t-test were run on the responses of the firms belonging to the export or domestic categories. The results overwhelmingly suggest that in respect of innovativeness, the domestic suppliers do not differ from those that opt to export into the developed world. However the firms belonging to the domestic group differ considerably with regards to who they collaborate with for their innovations when compared to the export group. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted