This dissertation focused on an application of augmented reality (AR) as a learning paradigm. Literature on the subject reveals a large body of knowledge on virtual reality and its effect on training and learning, but little research has been conducted to investigate the effects that AR-based training has on recall and retention. Evidence suggests that AR has a considerable effect on recall by establishing to-be-recalled items in a highly memorable framework. Using AR to develop augmented scenes in a highly memorable framework can complement human information processing, and such a complement can reveal itself in training efficiency applicable to a wide variety of aerospace maintenance-related tasks. The state of aerospace maintenance training can be advanced with AR because of the technology's unique characteristics of merging synthetic and real objects in unified, spatially integrated scenes. Continuing research in the field of AR applications for training is necessary because of the potential for increased learning performance and significant decreases in training time. This research determined that AR-based learning effects long-term memory by reducing the amount of information forgotten after a seven-day intervening time between an immediate-recall test and long-term-retention-recall test. Further research is necessary to isolate human variability associated with cognition, learning, and application of AR-based technologies as a training and learning paradigm for the aerospace industry.

Children must be introduced to information technology in the school environment to be competitive in this new information society; however, teachers are not adequately prepared to provide technology-supported instruction to children in a meaningful way. This descriptive study documented the process of adapting and implementing existing information technology standards developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to address the local needs of the Toronto District School Board. The Toronto District School Board is a K-12 educational institution located in Toronto, Canada, with approximately 30,000 staff and a student population of over 300,000. The study process occurred in four phases: the establishment of a set of criteria to adapt and implement ISTE standards, the validation of the established criteria, the adaptation and implementation of the ISTE standards, and an evaluation of the adapted and implemented I STE standards. A Criteria Committee comprised of secondary school teachers established the criteria to adapt and implement the existing I STE standards. A group of education experts validated the established criteria. A Standards Committee worked with a Formative Committee of secondary school teachers to adapt the ISTE standards to address the needs of the local school district. The Standards Committee consisted of competency experts and experts from the field of education. Adaptation procedures addressed the criteria identified and validated. The adapted ISTE standards were implemented as a pi lot study to identify potential problem areas that were corrected prior to involving the entire school district. An Evaluation Committee evaluated the efficacy of the adapted and implemented ISTE standards and practices. The outcome of this descriptive study was a documented process for a local school district to adapt and implement ISTE standards to integrate technology based learning into the classroom.

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship of air traffic controllers' cognitive styles, learning strategies, and performance within a multimedia learning environment. The treatment software employed a revised human computer interface (RCI) that had recently been introduced to Air Traffic Control management training. This HCI offered users expanded options for controlling course sequence and content. Subjects for this study included 30 Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS) supervisors stationed at Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Regional Air Route Control Centers in Jacksonville and Miami, Florida. Subjects completed a pre-test, a treatment module on labor relations, and tests for immediate recall and retention. Tracking code recorded subjects' navigation. Specifically, this research examined the relationship between subjects' cognitive styles (i.e. field dependence), levels of deviation from provided course sequence and content, and performance on immediate recall and retention measures. The ATCS cognitive screen protocol produces a homogeneous population of controllers exhibiting a unique suite of cognitive skills. These skills are deemed essential to the traffic control function. Subjects from the research sample fell within the field independent range of cognitive style (mean 13 .83, SD 3.65). Pearson Product-Moment correlation indicated a significant, moderately low relationship between cognitive style and immediate recall measure (r =. 37, CL =. 05) and a significant, moderately low correlation between cognitive style and retention (r =. 38, CL =. 05).

In this dissertation, the researcher investigated how to promote knowledge creation and sharing among software team members by automatically linking existing textual knowledge artifacts via a centralized framework based on information retrieval. Software maintenance and support are important day-to-day tasks in IT departments and they cannot be performed properly without complete understanding of the system layout. During the project life cycle, different professionals might require different types of project knowledge. For instance, system management might be interested in overall system knowledge, while component developers most likely would express interest in more detailed and low level system knowledge. In this case, information sharing without taking into consideration levels of abstraction could be overwhelming. Since overall knowledge about software projects is often distributed among different information sources such as source code, documentation and manuals, etc.; the researcher concluded that information is most often conveyed through the medium of text. Based on above conclusion, textual artifacts were the primary subjects of study during this research. The most important of them was the software source code because, due to programming language syntax, the application source code contains important structural and semantic information. In this dissertation, the researcher concentrated on a centralized knowledge creation and sharing framework based on specialized information filtering techniques and information retrieval strategies. It helped to link existing textual artifacts and to facilitate knowledge discovery and sharing among team members. In order to construct semantic similarity links between different textual artifacts, the researcher used the LSI algorithm - a specialized information retrieval technique based on the vector space model and linear algebra. It was capable of providing a much cheaper and more flexible way to automate and to identify semantic links between textual artifacts based on their linguistic similarities. The objectives of this research were met by developing a framework (and an experimental application based on it) that allowed one to link existing software artifacts and presented users with the concise list of the most relevant materials necessary to get answers about the desired topic. The framework employed different pre-processing techniques and visualized forms to discover and to present users with artifacts and their parts based on their semantic closeness and the desired sensitivity. The presented solution helped to recreate an indirect socialization stage and to promote explicit and tacit knowledge generation and transfer.

The primary purpose of this dissertation was to develop a conceptual model for information systems design based on a qualitative analysis of the fighter pilot's environment. The model was derived from the fighter pilot's conceptions and perceptions of his informational environment. The resultant model and the corresponding environmental specification can serve as the conceptual cornerstones for further development by providing the designers a common conceptual focal point for further information system design. The model used for overall information systems design was the Rolland & Cauvet development model. This model identifies two independent development domains: requirements engineering and design engineering. This dissertation represents the requirements engineering work. The approach selected in developing the requirements engineering aspect was Checkland's Soft Systems approach. Checkland's approach was suited to this project due to its model building orientation and its ability to handle the complexity and flexibility dictated by real-world human activity. The cognitive model, recommendations, hypotheses, and conclusions serve as an important step toward development of the fighter pilot's ground-based information system. There had been very little research, however, that addressed the cognitive structure and processes pilots use to develop memory frames necessary for airborne situational awareness. The goal of this project was to develop the first stage of a process leading to an inquiry system that will be used to augment the pilot's inquiry and conceptual structure building to capture the inherent complexity of this multidimensional environment, the researcher observed fighter pilots in their natural environment utilizing the multiple-site case study methodology supplemented by other qualitative data sources. The researcher utilized these data to develop the conceptual model. In addition, findings were derived, recommendations were generated and hypotheses were extracted using the Checkland model as a guide. The Glaser and Struass Constant Comparative Method was used for data analysis. The researcher identified the information environment as having two distinctly different components: structure and process. Seven versions of the model were presented in this iterative development effort. The dissertation is concluded with a series of recommendations, implications and conclusions that serve as the link between the conceptual model and the future work on the information system that will be completed by design engineers.

This dissertation examined the C++ features that contribute to software reuse. Objects, classes, polymorphism, dynamic binding and virtual functions, and templates were analyzed to determine their contributions to software reuse. This study identified various factors that encourage reuse and limitations of C++ in promoting software reuse. C++ was examined with respect to its ability to support the construction of software components and its ability to compose software from these components. It is expected that reuse will increase software productivity, shorten the development cycle time, increase software quality, reduce the development as well as maintenance cost, and make the complex demands on the software industry manageable. The object-oriented facilities in C++ enhance software reuse. While acknowledging the contributions of these features, this study focused on C++ as a programming language that is evolving. Language features that promote modularity, adaptability, ease of use, cost-effectiveness, availability, and evaluability further the cause of software reuse to a large extent. This study proposes various features that will strengthen the reuse capabilities of C++. They include (a) selective inheritance, (b) class reset, (c) class transformation, (d) user-defined system variables, and (e) flex messages. Selective inheritance allows a derived class to choose the attributes it needs to inherit from the base class. Class reset is proposed as a mechanism for class evolution. With class reset, the inherited properties become the owned properties of the newly created classes, and the new classes can be used without further dependency on the classes from which they have inherited these properties. Class transformation allows generic (unknown) types to be included in the class definition; each of these generic types will initially be set to a specific (known) default type; other classes, with different types, can be later generated from these classes. It merges the concept of a template into the basic definition of a class itself. Since every class can conceivably serve as a template, the proposal is to define both classes and templates by the same syntactic structure. User defined system variables eliminates the need for repeatedly defining variables that are often used in a system, by keeping these definitions in a common place, accessible to the various programs in the system. Flex messages makes it feasible for objects to communicate with each other in a manner similar to the message passing schemes used by the network elements in a communication network. Proposals on flex messages include (a) sending messages without reference to a method, (b) order-independent arguments, (c) response message with multiple arguments, and (d) sending response message to a different object. These and other related ideas were analyzed to determine their feasibility and relevance to software reuse.

Electronic mail is a new medium of communications. It changes the way things happen in communication. While man has 50,000 years of experience with spoken communications, 5,000 years with written communications, and 100 years with the telephone, electronic mail is relatively new. Research to date has focused on strategies for implementing, how it is used, patterns of use, resulting social changes, and effect on decision making. Other researchers conclude that electronic mail is a new and different way of communicating that often leads to results different from other mediums of communication. This study focused on the effects that electronic mail might have on organizational effectiveness. Since organizational effectiveness can represent a range of things, the study uses leadership as a surrogate for organizational effectiveness. The study attempted to determine if there is a relationship between electronic mail and other communication in leadership situations and if electronic mail contributes to the effectiveness of communication between leader and subordinate. A Delphi survey of 26 experienced electronic mail users in the Washington federal community was conducted. Respondents were selected by the information management staffs of the 21 largest federal agencies. The respondents were anonymous. They were contacted via a person in their organization. Questions concerned the relation between electronic mail and the process of communication, leadership behavior and communication performance. Other questions covered the possibility that a new type of leader, one more proficient in writing, might emerge. This research also considered the effects of electronic mail on the organization and power structure. The study concludes that the relationship between electronic mail and leadership is real and should be of concern to all managers. At least 75% of the respondents agreed with the following conclusions: electronic mail changes the process of communication between superior and subordinate the availability of electronic mail improves the leadership communication performance of my superiors other availability of electronic mail will enable the emergence of a ' more effective leader electronic mail is appropriate for informal leadership communication despite the record it creates The results are discussed to provide insight to the incorporation of electronic mail and other advanced communication technologies into present and future organizations. Directions for future research are discussed.

The Internet represents a preferred tool of college students in searching for information. Yet, many college students do not search the Internet effectively. The goal established for this study was to investigate the existing abilities of college students to search the Internet, and to explore the reasons behind the inability of those students who cannot search the Internet effectively. The problem investigated in this study was the lack of a valid and reliable way to determine the effectiveness of students in searching the Internet, generally, and the effectiveness of the Palm Beach Community College's West Campus (PBCCWC) students, specifically. This researcher hypothesized that (1) utilizing evaluative criteria to classify students as effective am! In effective Internet searchers, researchers cannot predict students' classifications based on their demographic characteristics, (2) the overall responses of effective students to a questionnaire related to searching the Internet will differ from those of ineffective students, and (3) the inability to search the Internet effectively is attributable to the student more than any other factor. This study can be characterized as quantitative-qualitative, and be categorized as a descriptive-phenomenological study. The methodology included creating an Internet Search Test (IST) as an evaluative instrument to differentiate between the PBCCWC students who can and cannot search the Internet effectively. It also included a self-administered questionnaire to explore the reasons behind the inability of students who cannot search the Internet effectively. Applying the purposive sampling method, this study represented 20% of PBCCWC's total population through the college's core requisite courses. The results of data analysis revealed that the variance in effectiveness of Internet search can be accounted for by knowing students' demographic characteristics. This study also found that the perspectives of effective students were not different, to a great extent, from those of ineffective students. The results revealed a high chance that the inability to search the Internet effectively was attributable to students themselves more than institutional factors or any other party or object. However, some additional factors may impact the abilities of students when searching the Internet such as: the design of the interface, or the use of search engines.

The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship of air traffic controllers' cognitive styles, learning strategies, and performance within a multimedia learning environment. The treatment software employed a revised human computer interface (RCI) that had recently been introduced to Air Traffic Control management training. This HCI offered users expanded options for controlling course sequence and content. Subjects for this study included 30 Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS) supervisors stationed at Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Regional Air Route Control Centers in Jacksonville and Miami, Florida. Subjects completed a pre-test, a treatment module on labor relations, and tests for immediate recall and retention. Tracking code recorded subjects' navigation. Specifically, this research examined the relationship between subjects' cognitive styles (i.e. field dependence), levels of deviation from provided course sequence and content, and performance on immediate recall and retention measures. The ATCS cognitive screen protocol produces a homogeneous population of controllers exhibiting a unique suite of cognitive skills. These skills are deemed essential to the traffic control function. Subjects from the research sample fell within the field independent range of cognitive style (mean 13 .83, SD 3.65). Pearson Product-Moment correlation indicated a significant, moderately low relationship between cognitive style and immediate recall measure (r =. 37, CL =. 05) and a significant, moderately low correlation between cognitive style and retention (r =. 38, CL =. 05). Multiple regression analysis indicated a significant correlation between cognitive style scores, deviation from provided course content, and retention outcomes (.59, a = .05). This study represents a preliminary, exploratory investigation into optimal HCI design of multimedia learning environments for the unique ATCS population. The identification of a predominantly analytic cognitive style and evidence of a significant inter-relationship between cognitive style, deviation from provided course content and retention validate a need for further research concerning the inclusion of navigational options and alternate learning resources within ATCS management training software. Likewise, these findings suggest the need to construct a more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between cognitive styles and the cognitive processes that controllers employ within interactive learning environments. The study contributes to a general literature on cognitive style, learning strategies, and performance.

Icon design and meaningful interpretation of icons continue to be a challenge in user interface design. Icons that distract, confuse or simply bewilder uninitiated users are common in the current generation of user interfaces. The meaning of icons should be obvious, evocative, and self-evident to users, but most icons fail to meet these criteria. Additionally, culture is a factor in determining the interpretation of icons in user interfaces. User interfaces are being developed in a limited number of languages and for a limited number of cultures and are therefore not developed for every known culture. The design and use of cross-cultural icons is an important area that needs more investigation and icon design methods should be examined with populations that vary in cultural background. Although models have been developed that would allow designers to test icons early in the design phase of development, these models were not designed for a global audience. No distinction was made in previous research between Westerners and non-Westerners. Additionally, no other research has been found that has focused on this distinction directly. The goal of this study was to develop four models for icon designers to test new icons for a global audience. There was one model for each of four categories of computer users: Westerner and novice computer user; non-Westerner and novice computer user; Westerner and proficient computer user; and non-Westerner and proficient computer user. In addition to providing guidance to improve the design, the models were able to predict the ability of an icon to communicate its meaning to a global audience. This study also found that when examining the cognitive data there was no significant interaction between the level of computer experience and cultural origin. This study significantly advanced knowledge and improved professional practice by developing new knowledge about icon understanding for global audiences. This study is relevant to the development and testing of prospective icons. The predictive models that were developed by Gutekunst in 1996, do not appear to be relevant for non-Western users for the sample population used in this study. Additionally, their fit for Westerners was only nominally better. The first survey, the Icon Meaning survey, captured the data that provided the significant portion of the explanation for the predictive models.