Using advanced technologies can help increase the availability of educational offerings; however, the steps taken in this direction must be appropriate for the target population and the specific content taught. As such, understanding factors that lead to health educators' intentions and behavior related to computer-mediated instruction for continuing education is an important step in developing and marketing appropriate computer-mediated instruction programs (Hoffman & Novak, 1994). Using the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1988) this study explored the relationships between health educators' perceived behavioral control, attitudes, and subjective norms related to computer-mediated continuing education programs and their intentions to use, and previous experience with, computer-mediated education. Employing a cross sectional survey design, data were collected from 504 members of the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) (40% response rate) using an online survey instrument. Logistic regression was used to investigate the associations between attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention related to using computer-mediated continuing education programs and a proxy measure representing their computer-mediated continuing education behavior. Perceived behavioral control and attitudes were found to have significant associations with computer-mediated continuing education behavior, with intention partially mediating the association with perceived behavioral control and fully mediating the association with attitudes. When studying a subset of the group composed of respondents with a positive intention toward computer-mediated continuing education programs, respondent characteristics and barriers identified as distinguishing between individuals with positive and negative behaviors included perceived behavioral control, presence of a license or certification, a lack of programs, a lack of relevant topics for programs, and a lack of technical support for programs. These results suggest that for health education and health promotion professionals to engage in computer-mediated continuing education programs, more programs, especially ones that address topics relevant to their current functioning, need to be created and made readily available. Also, ensuring that appropriate technical support is available to assist participants, and informing potential participants of the availability of this technical assistance, may encourage more health educators and health promotion professionals to follow through on their intentions to participate in computer-mediated programs.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar a eficácia dos componentes de um tutorial computadorizado sobre o desempenho dos participantes na realização de tentativas discretas. Foi realizada uma replicação do estudo de Faggiani (2014). A presente pesquisa foi conduzida com oito estudantes de graduação de Psicologia de uma faculdade pública (Experimento I) e outros dois estudantes de graduação (Experimento II). Os participantes foram submetidos a um tutorial computadorizado, contendo animações, vídeo-modelação e textos contendo conceitos, com o objetivo de ensinar tentativas discretas de emparelhamento de identidade. No Experimento I, os participantes foram divididos em quatro grupos e submetidos a quatro módulos (Ensino Teórico, Vídeo-Modelação, Observação de Correção e Identificação de Erros), em ordens diferentes. As ordens de apresentação dos módulos de ensino foram alteradas entre grupo de participantes, de forma a avaliar a efetividade de cada um dos módulos no ensino de procedimentos de tentativa discreta. Após cada um dos módulos, o desempenho dos participantes era avaliado em um pós-teste com o experimentador atuando como uma criança com autismo. Ao atingir critério de 100% de acertos, os participantes realizavam uma fase de follow up. Caso não fosse atingido critério após o tutorial, o participante realizava uma fase de ensino presencial. Foi realizado um delineamento de linha de base múltipla em cada Grupo. Durante o procedimento, os participantes não foram ensinados a realizar imitação motora, entretanto era permitido que lessem a folhas-resumo com os passos da tentativa-discreta de emparelhamento e imitação antes de cada teste. O Experimento II avaliou os efeitos das folhas-resumo com os passos das tentativas discretas sobre o desempenho de dois participantes. Os resultados demonstram que sete de oito participantes aprenderam a realizar tentativas discretas no Experimento I. Os grupos que realizaram inicialmente os módulos de Identificação de Erros e Observação da Correção apresentaram melhor desempenho inicial, entretanto foi necessário que a maioria dos participantes realizasse dois ou mais módulos para desempenhar com 100% de acerto. As folhas-resumo contribuiram para o desempenho dos participantes, entretanto demonstraram ser insuficientes para que a aprendizagem de tentativas discretas, quando apresentadas de forma isolada / The goal of the current study was to analyse the efficacy of different components on a computer-based-tutorial on the performance of the application of discrete trials. A replication of Faggianis study (2014) was performed. The present research was conducted with eight undergraduate psychology students from one public college (Experiment I) and two other undergraduate students (Experiment II). The participants were exposed to a computer-based-tutorial containing animations, video-modeling and teorical teaching, with the objective of teaching on how to implement discrete trials of matching to sample and motor imitation. On Experiment I, the participants were divided in four groups and exposed to four experimental conditions (teorical teaching, video modelling, observation of correction and error identification), in different orders. The order in which the experimental conditions were presented were randomized between groups of participants, so it was possible to evaluate the efficiency of each condition in teaching discrete trials. After each experimental condition, the performance of the participant was evaluated in a test with the experimenter acting as a child with autism. When the participant fulfilled the 100% correct response criterion, he was conducted to a follow-up phase. If the criteria was not met after the tutorial, the participant performed a presential teaching phase. A multiple baseline design was used in each group. During procedure, the participants were not taught on how to implement motor imitation trials, however they were allowed to read a summary sheet containing steps on how to perform matching to sample and motor imitation trials before each test. The Experiment II evaluated the effect of the summary sheet containing components of the discrete trial on the performance of two participants. The results showed that seven of eight participants learned how to perform discrete trials of matching in Experiment I. The groups that initially performed the Error Identification and Observation of Correction modules presented better initial performance, however, it was necessary for most participants to perform two or more modules to perform with 100% performance. The summary sheets contributed to the performance of the participants, however they proved to be insufficient for the learning of discrete trials, when presented without the modules

Organizations are experiencing problems with the control of information in computer-based information systems. Records management is a system that consists of a number of elements to control recorded information over its life cycle. Previous studies have ranked various records management activities. However, these studies were not conducted in Australia, were not specifically related to computerbased information systems, and were based on the frequency with which records management tasks, or duties and responsibilities were being performed by records management personnel rather than the perceived importance of records management elements for overcoming problems. This study is conducted in Australia on the role of records management within the context of computer-based information systems. It has two purposes: to determine whether there is an appreciable difference in the perceived importance of the various records management elements for overcoming excessive quantity, poor quality and storage media problems in computer-based information systems by RMAA individual members; and to determine whether regardless of professional involvement and level of education of RMAA individual members, there is no statistically significant difference in the perceived importance of the various records management elements in computer-based information systems for overcoming these three problems. To carry out the research a questionnaire was devised and distributed to individual members of the Records Management Association of Australia. The survey obtained a usable response rate of 53.1 percent from a population of 399 individual members of the Association. The study indicated that there is a difference in the perceived importance of the various records management elements for overcoming excessive quantity, poor quality and storage media problems in computer-based information systems. There was evidence to suggest that respondents frequently involved in professional activities are more likely to consider certain records management elements more important than respondents not frequently involved in these activities. The study also found that level of education is associated with the selection of certain records management elements. In particular, those respondents with no tertiary qualifications are more likely to consider the records management elements mail management and a records retention and disposition schedule important than respondents with tertiary qualifications.

Delay to antibiotic treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) greater than 4 hours following hospital admission is associated with a 15% increase in mortality. Paper-based guidelines have been widely introduced to improve CAP care, but these interventions have under-performed due to poor compliance in complex clinical workflows. Unlike passive paper-based guidelines, alerting systems based on computer-based decision support systems (CDSS) have the capacity to actively draw attention to delayed clinical processes. Formal consideration of local workflow is key to the design and successful implementation of CDSS. I used workflow analysis techniques to develop an evidence-based alerting system designed to reduce the delay to treatment of CAP in the emergency department (ED) of an Australian tertiary hospital. A sample of 6 CAP patients were observed during October 2001 to derive a structural process flow model, which was refined via stakeholder interview. A deterministic process flow model was then developed using an existing retrospectively compiled CAP database, consisting of 246 patients admitted June-December 1998 and 146 patients admitted May-December 2000. A stratified control sample presenting with respiratory symptoms (n=74, January-December 2003) was collected for the assessment of diagnosis and chest x-ray (CXR) accuracy. Treatment delay greater than 4 hours was associated with failure to diagnose CAP in the ED, the absence of CXR evidence, low triage score, delayed CXR, and failure to treat in the ED. ED physicians only identified 54-57% of those discharged with CAP. Radiologists only reported CAP features in 47% - 67% of initial CXRs for these patients. I hypothesised that a CDSS-based alerting system, composed of a CAP early diagnosis model (EDM) and a simple risk model (CRB-65), would identify enough CAP patients to reduce the percentage treated after 4 hours. I constructed an evidence-based naïve Bayesian EDM (sensitivity = 36%, specificity = 93%). It was able to identify 24% of CAP patients that died in hospital, 38% of those with antibiotics delayed greater than 4 hours, and 26% of those with CXR delayed greater than 4 hours. CAP-specific risk models were equivalent to the Australasian Triage Score (ATS) in predicting mortality. I simulated alerting policy by combining the CDSS with the deterministic process flow model. Alerting for treatment at triage or initial physician assessment, when the EDM was positive, approximately halved the median treatment time of 5.53 hours, and decreased the number treated after 4 hours (62%) by 1/3. Treating EDM-positive patients as ATS category 2 produced a similar effect. Current triage practices, embodied mainly by the disease-independent, sign and symptom based ATS are too coarse to deal with conditions such as CAP, where there is high diagnostic uncertainty and delays in diagnosis and treatment are critical determinants of outcomes. Better outcomes may be achieved with quicker diagnostic and treatment workflows via: analysis of current diagnosis and treatment workflows, analysis and correlation of a comprehensive set of patient symptoms, signs and risk factors for the specific disease, and improving triaging and subsequent workflow through a disease-specific CDSS based on early diagnostic models derived from the previous analyses. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1374804 / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Medicine, 2009

<p>Increased stress is a continuing problem in our present world. Especiallynegative stress could cause serious health problems if it remainsundiagnosed/misdiagnosed and untreated. In the stress medicine, clinicians’measure blood pressure, ECG, finger temperature and breathing rate during anumber of exercises to diagnose stress-related disorders. One of the physiologicalparameters for quantifying stress levels is the finger temperature that helps theclinicians in diagnosis and treatment of stress. However, in practice, it is difficultand tedious for a clinician to understand, interpret and analyze complex, lengthysequential sensor signals. There are only few experts who are able to diagnose andpredict stress-related problems. A system that can help the clinician in diagnosingstress is important, but the large individual variations make it difficult to build sucha system.This research work has attempted to investigate several artificial Intelligencetechniques to develop an intelligent, integrated sensor system for diagnosis andtreatment plan in the Psychophysiological domain. To diagnose individualsensitivity to stress, case-based reasoning is applied as a core technique to facilitateexperience reuse by retrieving previous similar cases. Further, fuzzy techniques arealso employed and incorporated into the case-based reasoning system to handlevagueness, uncertainty inherently existing in clinicians reasoning process. Thevalidation of the approach is based on close collaboration with experts andmeasurements from twenty four persons used as reference.Thirty nine time series from these 24 persons have been used to evaluate theapproach (in terms of the matching algorithms) and an expert has ranked andestimated similarity which shows a level of performance close to an expert. Theproposed system could be used as an expert for a less experienced clinician or as asecond option for an experienced clinician to their decision making process.</p> / Integrated Personal Health Optimizing System (IPOS)

FSCN-rapport; R-02-33

<p>The aim of this thesis work was to develop a management information system model for process-oriented healthcare organisations. The study explores two questions: “What kinds of requirements do healthcare managers place on information systems?” and “How can the work and information systems of healthcare managers and care providers be incorporated into process-oriented healthcare organisations?”</p><p>The background to the study was the process orientation of Swedish healthcare organisations. The study was conducted at the paediatric clinic of a county hospital in southern Sweden. Organisational process was defined as “a sequence of work procedures that jointly constitute complete healthcare services”, while a functional unit was the organisational venue responsible for a certain set of work activities.</p><p>A qualitative research method, based on a developmental circle, was used. The data was collected from archives, interviews, observations, diaries and focus groups. The material was subsequently analysed in order to categorise, model and develop small-scale theories about information systems.</p><p>The study suggested that computer-based management information systems in processoriented healthcare organisations should: (1) support medical work; (2) integrate clinical and administrative tools; (3) facilitate the ability of the organisation to measure inputs and outcomes.</p><p>The research effort concluded that various healthcare managers need the same type of primary data, though presented in different ways. Professional developers and researchers have paid little attention to the manner in which integrated administrative, financial and clinical systems should be configured in order to ensure optimal support for process-oriented healthcare organisations. Thus, it is important to identify the multiple roles that information plays in such an organisation.</p> / Report code: LiU-TEK-LIC-2003:14. On the day of the public defence the status of the article I was: In press and the status of article II was: Submitted.

<p>One of the most important aspects of music performance is the expression of emotions, yet research has suggested that this skill is neglected in music education. The aim of this thesis was thus to develop and test a novel and empirically-based approach to teaching emotional expression in music performance.</p><p>Study I explored the nature of instrumental teaching in its natural context, with a focus on emotional expression. Although there were individual differences among teachers, a common feature was a lack of clear goals, specific tasks, systematic teaching patterns, and informative feedback.</p><p>Study II presented and tested a computer program that analyzes music performances and offers informative feedback, including specific suggestions on how to enhance the emotional expression. Performers were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) feedback from the computer program, (2) feedback from music teachers, and (3) repetition without feedback. The results indicated the greatest improvements in communication accuracy for the computer feedback group, but although the computer program was rated as easy to understand and use, performers did not want to use it in the future.</p><p>Study III explored whether the negative views towards the computer program were due to negative attitudes towards computers or a dislike of the characteristics of the actual feedback contents. Results from a deception experiment revealed that the mere belief that the feedback derived from a teacher yielded higher quality ratings, but so did also feedback that did indeed derive from a teacher. The latter feedback was perceived as more detailed.</p><p>The thesis shows that it is possible for performers to improve their abilities to express emotions through computer-assisted teaching, but suggests that the feedback may benefit from including human-like aspects such as encouragement, examples, and explanations in order to make it more attractive in the eyes of its potential users.</p>

One of the most important aspects of music performance is the expression of emotions, yet research has suggested that this skill is neglected in music education. The aim of this thesis was thus to develop and test a novel and empirically-based approach to teaching emotional expression in music performance. Study I explored the nature of instrumental teaching in its natural context, with a focus on emotional expression. Although there were individual differences among teachers, a common feature was a lack of clear goals, specific tasks, systematic teaching patterns, and informative feedback. Study II presented and tested a computer program that analyzes music performances and offers informative feedback, including specific suggestions on how to enhance the emotional expression. Performers were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) feedback from the computer program, (2) feedback from music teachers, and (3) repetition without feedback. The results indicated the greatest improvements in communication accuracy for the computer feedback group, but although the computer program was rated as easy to understand and use, performers did not want to use it in the future. Study III explored whether the negative views towards the computer program were due to negative attitudes towards computers or a dislike of the characteristics of the actual feedback contents. Results from a deception experiment revealed that the mere belief that the feedback derived from a teacher yielded higher quality ratings, but so did also feedback that did indeed derive from a teacher. The latter feedback was perceived as more detailed. The thesis shows that it is possible for performers to improve their abilities to express emotions through computer-assisted teaching, but suggests that the feedback may benefit from including human-like aspects such as encouragement, examples, and explanations in order to make it more attractive in the eyes of its potential users.

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of a dynamic instructional environment (based on use of Geometer&rsquo / s Sketchpad) on 7th grade students&rsquo / understandings of lines, angles, and polygons and their retention. Besides that, the students&rsquo / attitudes towards computer instruction and its relation with students&rsquo / performance on geometry and retention were investigated. The study was carried out with 63 7th grade students from two classes taught by the same teacher in a state elementary school. One class was assigned as the experimental group (EG), the other as the control group (CG). Students in CG received the instruction on lines, angles, and polygons by the regular traditional method used at the school. In the EG, students worked on the computer activities named as &ldquo / Sketchsheets&rdquo / , prepared by the researcher, with computers provided at the computer-lab. The usage of GSP with Sketchsheets enabled students to create the shapes first and after they explored and discovered the properties of shapes and make generalisations for the development of conjectures. Geometry Performance Test (GPT) and Computer Attitude Scale (CAS) were used in this study. The GPT was administered to both groups of students as a pre-test, post-test, and a delayed post-test. CAS was administered only to the EG students as a post-test. Furthermore, interviews were carried out with three students from EG in order to get their feelings about the dynamic instructional environment. Besides that, both of these classroom and computer sessions were observed and recorded with camera. The results of t-test suggest that GPT mean scores in EG and CG did not significantly differ in pre-test, but EG achieved significantly better than the CG in post and delay-post tests. CAS mean scores and interviews showed that students had positive feelings and decisions towards computer instruction and they preferred computer instruction to traditional instruction. Furthermore, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was performed in order to investigate the relationship between GPT scores and CAS scores. From this analysis, a significant correlation was observed between the GPT scores and CAS scores. This means that the students who had positive attitudes towards computer instruction, achieved significantly better at GPT. The results of this study revealed that Geometer&rsquo / s Sketchpad for learning and teaching geometry in elementary school level is an effective tool.