Individuals are increasingly relying on Internet content to influence life-impacting decisions. This reliance generates the need for these individuals to evaluate the credibility of this content and demands that Web designers effectively communicate the credibility of Web content to the users. In order to understand credibility evaluation, the purpose of this study was to understand how user involvement affects perceived credibility. The study determined the relationship between two variables: enduring involvement and situational involvement and the study measured the effect of these two independent variables on the perceived credibility of Web sites. Two levels of enduring involvement, high and low, were examined. Two levels of situational involvement were also evaluated: decision-task and no decision-task. The two variables produced a 2 X 2 (Enduring Involvement X Situational Involvement) design. The main effects and interaction effects were analyzed, and the effects of enduring involvement and situational involvement on the perceived credibility of Web sites were measured. A supplemental analysis assessed whether the four groups produced by the factorial design (high enduring involvement - decision-task, high enduring involvement - no decision-task, low enduring involvement - decision-task, and low enduring involvement - no decision-task) varied with regard to the Web site element categories (source, message, receiver, context, and medium) noticed during credibility evaluation. The research found that the interaction effect between enduring involvement and situational involvement significantly influenced perceived credibility. Perceived credibility decreased as situational involvement was introduced to Web site users with low enduring involvement in the topic of the Web site. On the other hand, perceived credibility increased as situational involvement was introduced to Web site users with high enduring involvement in the topic of the Web site, Also, as situational involvement was introduced, the user's focus shifted to a more central focus (regardless of enduring involvement level) and different Web site elements were noticed. Based on the findings, credibility markers were defined for different involvement levels. These findings served as a foundation for the development of a Web Credibility Design model that can aid Web site designers in more effectively communicating credibility to users.

The developmental research project was undertaken to determine the best way to structure the future of journalism and mass communication education so that it remains a viable discipline within the academy. New media technology is an emerging discipline within the journalism field. While many new jobs exist for graduates who are skilled in the field, only a small number of colleges and universities are offering undergraduate programs to train students in new media technology. The goal of the dissertation was to propose a new undergraduate major in new media technology that schools may implement. The literature review traces the origins and development of journalism and mass communication education through the 19th and 20th centuries and focuses on the emerging field of new media technology and online journalism. To help answer the research questions, a survey questionnaire was distributed to journalism and mass communications educators at 108 programs in the United States and to more than 300 media professionals. All the programs are accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC), and the media professionals are all members of the Online News Association (ON A). The total number of participants was 102. In the surveys, participants shared their views on the current state of journalism and mass communication education as well as the new media industry through a combination of rank-order items, Likert-type scales, and open-ended questions. Results were used to correlate industry requirements with program offerings to prescribe the best possible undergraduate program in new media technology. The content, coverage and feasibility of the model program were validated by a panel of experts.

Corporate failure or bankruptcy is costly to investors as well as to society in general. Given the high costs of corporate failure, there is much interest in improved methods for bankruptcy prediction. A promising approach to solve this problem is to provide auditors with a tool that aids in estimating the likelihood of bankruptcy. Recent studies indicate that some success has been achieved in identifying a model and good predictive variables, but the research has been limited to narrow industry segments or small samples. This research evaluated and contrasted two approaches for predicting corporate bankruptcy that were relatively successful in prior studies with narrow or small samples of corporations. The first approach used a Bayesian belief network that incorporated a naive Bayesian classification mechanism. The second approach used an expert system that incorporated rough sets. The contribution of this study is two-fold. First, this comparative evaluation extends the research by providing insights into relative advantages of Bayesian classifiers and rough sets as tools for predicting corporate bankruptcy. One or more such tools could be useful to auditors and others concerned with forecasting the likely bankruptcy of corporations. Second, this research contributes to the literature by identifying a single set of predictor variables that have broad applicability to corporations and that can be used in both the rough sets and naive Bayesian models. Employing a single set of predictor variables in both models is essential for comparing the relative effectiveness of the models. The result of this study offer a set of predictor variables and a determination of which model has greater general applicability and effectiveness for forecasting corporate bankruptcies.

The goal of the dissertation was to investigate the usage-effect for the computer-based reading program, Breakthrough to Literacy (BTL), in literacy achievement with at-risk Pre-K students, and summer learning loss. Designed to supplement classroom literacy activities through daily time using the computerized program, BTL emphasized four reading instruction components: alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, and word recognition. Using a prospective causal-comparative research design, the year and half long study included a large, 1,288 student sample population of experimental and control groups identified from intact, at-risk Pre-K classes in an urban school district in eastern Virginia. Classroom visitations and BTL student usage data validated fidelity of implementation in experimental classes. Pretest and posttest literacy achievement data were collected through school year 2004-05 using the Internet-based PALS-Pre K test system. Experimental group mean score was slightly higher than the control group, although not significant. ANCOV A, with pretests as covariate, showed higher control group gain score, with significance, but small effect size (partially=.006). Notably, experimental teachers rated the BTL program as excellent in developmental, presentation, social, and instructional components. Teachers judged it as an appropriate instructional application for literacy development with at-risk Pre-K students. The control teacher advocated expansion of the Pre-K BTL program to increase kindergarten readiness. Prior research found summer learning loss in literacy achievement for disadvantaged students. Kindergarten literacy achievement data were obtained in 2005-06 from the PALS-K test system. Based on prior Pre-K and kindergarten scores, 43.1 % of the at-risk experimental and control Pre-K students had experienced summer learning loss. Both groups showed positive mean kindergarten gain scores with the experimental (M=5.16) two times higher than the control group (M=2.48), although not significant. Results suggested BTL usage influenced retaining Pre-K literacy achievement beyond summer.

In response to the technology explosion and to poor student performance on standardized exams nationwide, new education standards are being created at the federal, state and local levels. Yet, with all these innovations and a renewed focus on high schools, students graduate under-prepared for the job market or for higher education. Moreover, they lack the motivation to make the most of their final year of high school. This dissatisfaction promotes a systemic disengagement that is exacerbated in the exit year, known as senioritis. Fifty New York City high school seniors participated in a study to determine whether participation in a technology-infused, interdisciplinary program would encourage them to maintain their grades and attendance. The Experimental Group was comprised of 25 seniors involved in Art, Theater, Music, and Business classes. The Control Group was created from the remaining senior student body. A pool of Control Group students matching each Experimental Group participant in gender, academic average, and number of days absent was created. From each pool of matches, a Control Group participant was randomly selected. The common goal of the Experimental Group was the successful production of a play. This team effort brought together students and teachers in all involved disciplines. Students in this skills driven, results-oriented environment developed the 21th Century workplace skills of collaboration, creativity and cross-disciplinary thinking. Further, they applied their existing software skills, learned new ones as the need presented itself, and employed the appropriate technology tool for the task at hand. At term's end, academic averages and attendance records of both groups were compared using the data from the last term of the junior year as a baseline. While both groups maintained their academic averages, the Experimental Group also maintained its attendance. There was no significant difference between the two terms in the number of days absent of the Experimental Group. However, the Control Group significantly increased the number of days absent as compared with the previous term. The data suggests that one remedy for senioritis is engaging seniors in a technology rich, authentic workplace environment that cultivates 21 $I Century workplace skills.

This research studied faculty use of course management software in post-secondary institutions by applying a modified Technology Acceptance Model. Course management software allows faculty to demonstrate skills, share knowledge, and communicate with students at various times and through various means. There are a variety of methods for making course management software available for the students; however, at some point, involvement by the faculty is required. This research focused specifically on the faculty since they control the use or non-use of the software. The study centered on constructs such as perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, concern for privacy and security, implementation time, faculty computer anxiety, social influence, and facilitating conditions. Faculty from universities that have course management software available but do not mandate its use were asked to complete a survey provided to them by a link in an e-mail. The results of this study did not support the Technology Acceptance Model. Two factors, however, do significantly impact use of course management software: experience with the CMS and anxiety regarding the use of the CMS. Many instructors are using some of the CMS features, primarily e-mail, to complement their traditional teaching methods or for online classes. Now that computers have become everyday tools, there are fewer concerns regarding privacy and security of information and less concern about the time need to implement the CMS. Also, instructors at post-secondary institutions where academic freedom has been the standard do not perceive pressure from those in the organization with social influence to use the CMS. To obtain support from instructors, administrators at post-secondary institutions will want to study the facilitators that impact usage. By understanding the environment and perceptions of instructors, the CMS can be improved, facilitating conditions can be provided, and instructors can see the usability of the software.

School librarians have consistently been faced with the challenge of meeting the diverse needs of their users with limited or inadequate resources. multi-type library networking was found to be one way for school librarians to be able to provide the necessary materials for their patrons, but school librarians do not participate as actively in multi-type library cooperative organizations as do other types of librarians. This was also true in Kentucky where only 12% of the public high school librarians had joined the Kentucky Library Network (KLN). The five basic factors found to have contributed to the exclusion of school libraries from multi-type library networks were psychological (including attitudes), political and legal, funding, communication, and planning factors. These five factors were identified in the 1978 landmark study, The Role of the School Media Program in Networking. The purpose of this study was to determine if these factors were preventing public high school librarians in Kentucky from joining the state library network and if so, to devise a plan to break down the specific barriers caused by these five factors. This study was based on a random sample of 85 public high school librarians in Kentucky from a population of 284. Each librarian from this group was mailed a one page questionnaire to help identify the specific barriers that prevented these school librarians from joining the KLN. There were 56 usable surveys returned with a response rate of 67%. All 34 high school librarians, excluding the author, who were KLN members were also surveyed to determine how they had overcome barriers to participating in the state's multi type library network. There were 29 surveys returned with a response rate of 85%. Next, the author compiled figures to show a breakdown of KLN membership by type of library and then compared network membership by type of library in six other states. In Kentucky, school libraries make up 17% of the KLN membership; this compares to a low of 3% in Georgia's network and a high of 68% in the New Jersey Library Network. All five factors that act as barriers to networking were found to be present in Kentucky. Specific barriers caused by these factors which prevent Kentucky high school librarians from participating in the state library network were identified, and recommendations were offered to overcome them. Recommendations to overcome these barriers included the following: a publicity campaign composed of posters and brochures; more newsletter and journal articles aimed at the high school librarian; telephones for all school libraries; and using the technology money that is part of the Kentucky Education Reform Act to pay the first year dues for all high school libraries not currently KLN members. Also, it was further recommended that part of this technology money be used to purchase the necessary computer hardware for high school libraries to access OCLC. It was also recommended that school administrators be informed about the benefits of KLN through workshop sessions at their annual summer conference and through informational brochures. Other recommendations were the purchasing of fax machines for all high school libraries and mandating membership in KLN as a requirement for the Department of Educations’ Merit Rating. Within 5 years the researcher envisioned a minimum of 50% of Kentucky's high school libraries becoming KLN members and having the necessary equipment to access OCLC. If more school librarians join the KLN and put their holdings in the KLN database, then all school libraries in the state will benefit from having much greater access to materials needed by their patrons.

The objective of this study was to provide a software tool capable of monitoring and optimizing a UNIX massively parallel computer by effectively removing the human operator as much as possible. Due to the complexity of the latest Unix System V release and the number of parameters that can affect system performance, it was highly desirable to provide a software tool capable of monitoring and tuning large parallel systems at frequencies within one second. The target system was the Infinity series manufactured by Encore Computer. Some models can have up to 64 nodes or subsystems, each having at least four Motorola 88100 or 88110 processors. Users of large UNIX massively parallel computer systems lack the ability to monitor their system's health and performance accurately and efficiently. The consequences are most notably seen when optimizing their systems. The inability to determine which kernel parameters to tune and identify the correct troubled node or subsystem can lead to wasted efforts, time, money, and in some instances, lost contracts for the computer integrator. The goal was accomplished with the creation of software agents that interact amongst themselves and the local kernels, collecting, normalizing, enforcing formal and heuristic rules, and presenting normalized data graphically within a second. The software agents were designed for efficiency and minimization of their signature loads on the system. Additional functionality included trend and predictive analysis modules. The capability to display global views on the system console was also provided via RPC data agents.

The problem addressed by this investigation was the level of awareness for a group of southern New Jersey secondary school teachers on the availability of five computer resources for southern New Jersey educators. The ETTC-south, the NJAET, the McSiip organization, the ETN, and Glassboro State College's 18 semester-hour program in computer education, are five means that southern New Jersey educators have to explore computer related technology. The population for this study consisted of 180 English, mathematics, social studies, and science teachers in four public high schools in southern New Jersey. A survey instrument that was designed by the writer provided the means for collecting data from the sample population about teacher awareness of the five computer resources. In addition, other data gathered through the survey included such topics as teacher interest in using computers, teacher training, current teacher classroom computer use, and teacher future interest in the five computer resources. Appropriate data from the returned surveys were categorized and tabulated in terms of both frequency counts and percentages. In addition, specific data were reorganized and analyzed by the chi- square analysis statistical technique to determine if there were any differences between users and nonusers of computers in the classroom at the .05 level of significance. The survey findings from the collected data include: Over 50% of all respondents were completely unaware of the five computer resources available to southern New Jersey educators. Less than 50% of all respondents expressed either "considerable" or "great" interest in further knowledge/involvement about the five resources. Less than 50% of all respondents expressed "great" interest in each of ten selected computer applications. About one-third of all respondents reported that they are currently using computers in their classrooms. Most of the 43 computer users reported that they most frequently use computers in their classrooms for "teacher utilities" such as wordprocessing and record keeping. the most frequently reported computer training source for all respondents was "self- taught." There are no reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the two groups of classroom computer users and nonusers for any of the following selected characteristics: (a) school/ community type, (b) sex, (c) age, (d) educational degree, and (e) years of experience. There are reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the classroom computer users and nonusers for interest in the following selected computer instructional applications: (a) visual technical aid, (b) Simulations, (c) testing, and (d) word-processing for lesson design. There are reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the classroom computer users and nonusers for awareness of four out of the five selected southern New Jersey computer resources: (a) ETTC-South, (b) Mcsiip, (c) NJAET, and (d) the Glassboro program in computer education. There are reported differences at the .05 level of significance between the classroom computer users and nonusers for awareness of four out of the five selected southern New Jersey computer resources: (a) McSiip, (b) NJAET, and (c) ETN. The following major recommendations, based on the discussion and implications of the findings from this investigation, include: The leadership of the five computer resources should advertise their services directly to southern New Jersey public schools at the building level. The two resources, ETTC-South and McSiip, should develop and distribute "self-teach" aids for computer applications. The four school districts that were involved in this investigation need to develop comprehensive plans for using computer technology throughout the K-12 curriculum. This investigation that was limited to teachers in four high schools in the coastal southern New Jersey area should be repeated and expanded to include secondary teachers from all seven counties in southern New Jersey. Before the investigation is repeated, certain modifications need to be made to the survey instrument for purposes of clarity as well as for collecting other important information.

This Major Field Project Report describes the design and development of a computer-based tutorial program coded in Prolog. The purpose of this application was to solve a problem related to unanticipated blocks to effective learning experienced by students in the Doctor of Arts in Learning and Technology at Nova University. These blocks were associated with assignments involving the Prolog computer language. Students encountered tasks that required knowledge of the Prolog language to complete assignments but they had no previous experience with programming in logic. A tutorial program was conceived as an instructional intervention to remediate this deficiency. Design criteria and performance criteria were developed. Use of off-the-shelf programs as prototypes reduced the coding task after the internal logic had been ver1fied by testing a model of the software coded in Prolog. The software was written in Prolog and was accessible online for students to use and examine. This software uses the Prolog language to teach itself. The final tutorial application design parameters reflect both the intended operational environment, the Nova University Unix (tm) system and resident C-Prolog Interpreter. This tutorial program model serves as an example of an operational deli very system for a tutorial instructional system. Specific problems are addressed in the code for the program, screen clearing, interactive components of the language and design of expert systems. Because the Prolog language does not provide system dependent capability such as clearing the screen the UNIX system was accessed to provide this function. Prolog is a database language that describes the problem being addressed and is a member of the family of declarative computer languages. The Prolog database contains facts and rules that evaluate the information in the database. A Prolog database is both information and source code containing instructions to be executed at run-time. Fortunately, Prolog contains a built-in predicate that reads the Keyboard and makes possible real-time interaction with students. Although Prolog is a declarative language, it is also procedural and this capability provided for development of expert systems that controlled and evaluated the input of students. The tutorial content and conceptual design represent a functional prototype and is not intended to stand as a paradigm of Prolog coding or program design. Source code for this software was divided into frames. Each frame was supported by an expert system that processed student input or used a set of rules to direct branching decisions. Documentation for the program, both internal (source code) and external (on-line), should enable student comprehension of the driving source code. Students were able to access the source code by selecting menu options that printed the rules and database facts to the screen for each tutorial frame and also the entire program. Remark statements embedded in the source code. These were statements explained what each expert system controlled and identified branching destinations. Source code for this software served two purposes. F1rst it operated as the database of facts and rule and provided input facilities for the program at run-time. Second the code presented on request a functional example of Prolog code. The program menu provided options for downloading of the source code or portions of it. Design criteria for the program was stated in terms of performance expectations. These statements were used to evaluate the attainment of performance goals. The performance of the tutorial program was evaluated and the results are presented. This report also contains a UNIX "man" system entry file prepared for the program and also a user’s manual. A structured walk through explains the purpose and function of each Prolog coded frame. Syntax and branching is described where appropriate in the walk through.