Avec les nouvelles réalités économiques et sociales du 21ème siècle dans le contexte de l'émergence de l'économie et de la société du savoir, l'employabilité est devenue un élément majeur de l'agenda politique national et supranational dans le monde entier. De plus, les orientations économiques et sociales de la mondialisation, la mobilité accrue des travailleurs et un accès facilité à l'éducation ont donné lieu à des perspectives de carrière modifiées de sorte que, en ce qui concerne la gestion de carrière, la tâche incombe plutôt à l'individu. L'émergence de l'économie du savoir, notamment, a relancé un débat qui a été latent depuis les années 60 autour de la façon dont les institutions de l'enseignement supérieur contribuent au développement du capital humain nécessaire au progrès social et économique. Même si ceci est reconnu comme un problème depuis des décennies, l'écart entre les besoins du marché du travail actuel et le profil des nouveaux diplômés qui entrent dans le monde du travail semble rester un sujet de discussion.La construction de l'employabilité (notamment la définition du concept d’employabilité) a évolué au cours des dernières décennies. De nombreuses études sur le sujet ont analysé sa nature très complexe et en constante évolution. A ce jour cependant, sa définition souffre encore d'ambiguïté; ce qui complique le développement d’outils efficaces dans le domaine de l'enseignement supérieur, nécessaires à la mise en œuvre et à l’évaluation de mécanismes relatifs à l’employabilité. Dans cette recherche, le concept de l'employabilité est holistique et prend en compte trois paramètres : les facteurs intrinsèques, les facteurs extrinsèques et sa nature actionnable. Cinq thèmes d'activités dans les établissements d'enseignement supérieur ont été identifiés pour traiter efficacement l'employabilité: le curriculum, les services de soutien, les relations avec l’industrie, la mesure de la qualité et le leadership. La conceptualisation holistique et les cinq thèmes formeront la base de la recherche de cette étude qui vise à fournir plus de clarté sur la façon dont l’employabilité peut effectivement être traitée dans le contexte de l'enseignement supérieur et de la façon dont elle peut être évaluée.Suivant une méthodologie de recherche appelée Design Science, à travers une analyse qualitative de trois études de cas soigneusement sélectionnées, un examen approfondi de la littérature et l’application d’une technique Delphi, cette étude aboutit à la proposition finale du développement d’un modèle de développement et de maturité pour l’employabilité « Employability Development and Assessment Maturity Model (EDAMM) » qui fournit un mécanisme de diagnostic validé pour évaluer une institution d’enseignement supérieur dans sa capacité d’offre en termes d’employabilité. / In light of the new economic and societal realities of the 21st Century against the backdrop of the emergence of the knowledge economy and the knowledge society, employability has become a major item on the national and supranational political agenda around the world. Additionally, economic and societal trends of globalization, increased mobility of labour and increased access to education have resulted in changed career perspectives whereby the onus has shifted to the individual in terms of career management. The emergence of the knowledge economy in particular has re-ignited a debate that has been latent since the 60’s around how well Higher Education Institutions deliver on their contribution to the development of the human capital required for societal and economic progress. Even though acknowledged as an issue for decades, the gap between the current labour market requirements and the profile of new graduates that enter the world of work seems to remain a topic of discussion.The construct of employability has evolved over the last few decades whereby extensive studies on the topic have illuminated its highly complex, relative and continuously evolving nature. Up to date however, the construct still suffers from ambiguity around what it is; hence complicating the development of effective Higher Education approaches to address it. For this study the construct of employability will be holistically approached by means of three influencing factors of intrinsic, extrinsic and actionable nature. Five themes of activities in Higher Education Institutions have been identified to hold strong potential to effectively address employability: curriculum, support services, employer engagement, quality measurement and leadership. The holistic conceptualization and the five themes will form the basis of this study’s search for clarity around how employability can effectively be addressed in a Higher Education context and how this can be evaluated.Following a Design Science Research methodology, through a qualitative study of three purposefully sampled case studies, extensive literature review and a Delphi Technique, this study outlines the development towards the final proposal of the Employability Development and Assessment Maturity Model (EDAMM) as a validated diagnostic mechanism to evaluate a Higher Education Institution in its fitness for purpose in terms of employability.

Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-06-29T19:45:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 51.pdf: 3383250 bytes, checksum: e454f028d4d3ae7e8c56d5b0ad1440fd (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-29T19:45:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 51.pdf: 3383250 bytes, checksum: e454f028d4d3ae7e8c56d5b0ad1440fd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Para garantir que uma pesquisa seja reconhecida como sólida e potencialmente relevante, tanto pelo campo acadêmico quanto pela sociedade em geral, ela deve demonstrar que foi desenvolvida com rigor e que é passível de debate e verificação. É neste âmbito que um método de pesquisa robusto se torna imprescindível para o sucesso na condução de um estudo. Este estudo busca contribuir para a comunidade de Engenharia de Produção argumentando pela necessidade de adotar-se um método de pesquisa centrado na evolução de uma “Ciência do Projeto” (Design Science), evidenciando seu sentido e suas formas de operacionalização. Para desenvolvimento deste estudo utilizou-se uma abordagem metodológica teórico-conceitual fundamentada em ampla revisão da literatura. A partir da revisão da literatura, foi possível verificar que os conceitos da proposta metodológica associada à pesquisa em Design Science, são pertinentes e aplicáveis à Engenharia de Produção. O trabalho apresenta um histórico conceitual a respeito da Design Science e da Design Science Research, a importância da definição das Classes de Problemas e dos Artefatos gerados no âmbito da pesquisa, e os principais passos para operacionalizar a Design Science Research. Para aprofundar o entendimento da pauta em questão, o trabalho também propõe comparações e análises sobre a Design Science e a sua relação com as ciências tradicionais. Ao final, o estudo busca apresentar alguns cuidados para a utilização e validação da Design Science Research. / To ensure that research is recognized as potentially relevant and solid, by both academic field and society in general, it must demonstrate that it was developed with rigor and is liable to debate and verification. It is in this context that a robust research method becomes essential to successfully conduct a study. This study seeks to contribute with the Production Engineering community debating the need to adopt a method of research focused on the evolution of Design Science, showing its meaning and its ways of operation. For this study was used an approach based on theoretical and conceptual extensive literature review. From the literature review, was possible to assert that the concepts associated with the proposed methodological research on Design Science are relevant and applicable to Production Engineering. This dissertation presents a conceptual history about the Design Science and Design Science Research, the importance of defining the Classes of Problems and Artifacts generated from a research, and key steps to operationalize the Design Science Research. To deepen the understanding of the staff concerned, this study also proposes comparisons and analyzes on the Design Science and its relationship with the traditional sciences. Finally, the study discusses some attenttion points for the use and validation of Design Science Research.

<p>Studies have shown an association between argumentative discourse in science class, better understanding of science concepts, and improved academic performance. However, there is lack of research on how argumentation can increase student motivation. This mixed methods concurrent nested study uses Bandura&rsquo;s construct of motivation and concepts of argumentation and formative feedback to understand how teachers orchestrate argumentation in science class and how it affects motivation. Qualitative data was collected through interviews of 4 grade-9 science teachers and through observing teacher-directed classroom discourse. Classroom observations allowed the researcher to record the rhythm of discourse by characterizing teacher and student speech as teacher presentation (TP), teacher guided authoritative discussion (AD), teacher guided dialogic discussion (DD), and student initiation (SI). The Student Motivation Towards Science Learning survey was administered to 67 students before and after a class in which argumentation was used. Analysis of interviews showed teachers collaborated to plan argumentation. Analysis of discourse identified the characteristics of argumentation and provided evidence of students&rsquo; engagement in argumentation in a range of contexts. Student motivation scores were tested using Wilcoxon signed rank tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests, which showed no significant change. However, one construct of motivation&mdash;active learning strategy&mdash;significantly increased. Quantitative findings also indicate that teachers&rsquo; use of multiple methods in teaching science can affect various constructs of students&rsquo; motivation. This study promotes social change by providing teachers with insight about how to engage all students in argumentation. </p>

During software development various forms of software documentation can be produced to make the software easier to understand and maintain after the software have been developed. One of these forms of software documentation is code comments, which is a form of software documentation that is produced to make source code easier to read and maintain. Although code comments make the code easier to read and maintain, code comments can become outdated and inconsistent with their corresponding code. Outdated and inconsistent code comments increase the probability for future bugs and when these comments are encountered, developers could lose the confidence for all other comments. In order to reduce the amount of outdated and inconsistent code comments, a program named the comment validator is presented in this study. The comment validator provides developers with the opportunity to manually validate code comments by segmenting code into three segments of code that needs to be manually validated: classes, methods and properties. The comment validator identifies when code segments have been modified after validation, therefore indicating that the code segments corresponding code comments could be outdated and inconsistent. The comment validator were evaluated through functional testing and through a field study in order to test that the comment validator could reduce the amount of outdated and inconsistent code comments. The evaluation showed that the comment validator did remove outdated and inconsistent code comments when it were used according to the description presented in this study, therefore providing a new way to reduce the amount of outdated and inconsistent code comments in software development projects.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Artes, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Design, 2017. / Submitted by Raquel Viana (raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2018-06-25T18:22:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_MarcoAkiraMiura.pdf: 2349581 bytes, checksum: 30d3309b4c52e3716b6ea3b24d2b80c5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana (raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2018-06-29T16:36:20Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_MarcoAkiraMiura.pdf: 2349581 bytes, checksum: 30d3309b4c52e3716b6ea3b24d2b80c5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-29T16:36:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_MarcoAkiraMiura.pdf: 2349581 bytes, checksum: 30d3309b4c52e3716b6ea3b24d2b80c5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-06-25 / A indústria dos videogames cresceu gradativamente desde a década de 1970 para constituir hoje uma das principais mídias digitais voltadas para o entretenimento. Embora o design de jogos esteja relativamente consolidado como campo de atuação, o foco dos estudos em ludologia tem se concentrado no estudo crítico dos jogos (game studies), cujas premissas nem sempre convergem com as necessidades práticas dos desenvolvedores de jogos. Nesse sentido, este trabalho propõe uma discussão acerca da emergência de uma ciência do design de jogos, bem como um método de pesquisa coerente com o processo de design. O Design Science, proposto por Herbert Simon, se baseia no objetivo do design de criação de artefatos para solucionar problemas práticos. Essa abordagem visa relacionar o processo de produção de conhecimento com o de design, alimentando um conhecimento diretamente aplicável às soluções projetadas e generalizável à classe de problemas ao qual a solução se refere. Até o momento, a proposta de aplicar essa abordagem ao design de jogos não foi formalizada, embora vários pesquisadores adotem procedimentos similares ao do Design Science Research (DSR) em seus estudos. Neste trabalho, serão descritos os principais conceitos do método do DSR – classes de problemas, artefatos, heurísticas de construção e heurísticas contingenciais – aplicados ao campo do design de jogos. Um método de condução do DSR é, então, adaptado para o estudo de problemas em design de jogos. O modelo é evidenciado e discutido a partir de um estudo de caso, no qual são analisadas as heurísticas de construção e de avaliação do artefato. A análise do protótipo foi orientada pelos modelos heurísticos de jogabilidade encontradas na literatura. Quanto ao processo de desenvolvimento do jogo, a definição de um tema inicial guiou o projeto dos quatro elementos que compõem o jogo – estética, narrativa, mecânica e tecnologia –, enquanto o playtest e as heurísticas de jogabilidade permitiram avaliar a adequação da interação com a representação inicial do artefato. Por meio dessa pesquisa, foi possível explorar a possibilidade do estudo sistemático do design do jogo, todavia, o delineamento não permitiu avaliar a utilidade da informação para o redesign efetivo do jogo. Por isso, são necessários estudos complementares para integrar efetivamente o playtest no processo de desenvolvimento de jogos. / The video game industry has grown steadily since the 1970s to become one of today's top digital entertainment media. Although game design is now recognized as playing a relevant role in game development, the field of ludology has focused on the critical study of games (game studies), whose premises do not always converge with the practical needs of the game developers. In this sense, this thesis proposes a discussion about the emergence of a game design science, as well as a research method consistent with the game design process. Design Science, as proposed by Herbert Simon, aims to generate knowledge to help professionals to design better artifacts in order to solve problems in their respective fields. In this sense, this approach links the process of scientific research to that of design in order to feed designers back with information relevant to a class of problems. The Design Science Research (DSR) approach has not been formally proposed to the game design field, although several researchers adopt similar methods in their studies. In this work, the main concepts of the DSR method - classes of problems, artifacts, construction heuristics and contingency heuristics – are adapted to the field of game design. A DSR method is then adapted for the study of game design problems. The model is discussed in a case study, in which the heuristics involved in the synthesis and evaluation of the artifact are analyzed. The analysis of the prototype was based on the gameplay heuristic models found in the literature. The game development process was guided by an initial theme from which the four main game components (aesthetics, narrative, mechanics and technology) were designed. The suitability between the initial concept and the gameplay was assessed through playtest and intrinsic evaluation. This research succeeded to explore the possibility of systematic study on game design, however, the case study did not allow us to evaluate the usefulness of the information for the effective redesign of the game. Therefore, complementary studies are suggested in order to integrate the playtest into the game development process.

Neutron monitors detect secondary particles produced by the collision of cosmic rays and atmospheric nuclei. The need exists for a mini-neutron monitor data acquisition system (MNM-DAS) to replace the existing recording system of the calibration neutron monitor developed in 2003 at the North-West University Centre for Space Research. The MNM-DAS must also replace the recording system of a standard NM64 neutron monitor. This research thus includes the development of the MNM-DAS using Design Science Research (DSR) in conjunction with Systems Engineering (SE) to streamline the design phase and maximize research output. A literature study is conducted, where an overview of the calibration monitor system is provided, together with the objectives for the development of the MNM system. An abstract system architecture was drawn up in the conceptual design phase of the project to provide a coherent description of all system functions. The system architecture was derived for the existing system, including additional functions of the required system, by performing a functional analysis. The architecture describes the function and fit of each functional unit and all interfaces that form an integrated system. From the conceptual design and system architecture, a preliminary synthesis was done. Following the preliminary synthesis, electronic circuitry was developed to capture the arrival time of pulses from the proportional neutron monitor counter tubes along with environmental variables, such as temperature, pressure, and location, which all influence the count rate. The MNM-DAS was successfully designed and developed by following this Systems-Engineering approach embedded into a Design Science Research framework. The MNM-DAS was constructed and tested, and is currently being used to provide neutron count data in real-world applications internationally. / MIng (Computer and Electronic Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Neutron monitors detect secondary particles produced by the collision of cosmic rays and atmospheric nuclei. The need exists for a mini-neutron monitor data acquisition system (MNM-DAS) to replace the existing recording system of the calibration neutron monitor developed in 2003 at the North-West University Centre for Space Research. The MNM-DAS must also replace the recording system of a standard NM64 neutron monitor. This research thus includes the development of the MNM-DAS using Design Science Research (DSR) in conjunction with Systems Engineering (SE) to streamline the design phase and maximize research output. A literature study is conducted, where an overview of the calibration monitor system is provided, together with the objectives for the development of the MNM system. An abstract system architecture was drawn up in the conceptual design phase of the project to provide a coherent description of all system functions. The system architecture was derived for the existing system, including additional functions of the required system, by performing a functional analysis. The architecture describes the function and fit of each functional unit and all interfaces that form an integrated system. From the conceptual design and system architecture, a preliminary synthesis was done. Following the preliminary synthesis, electronic circuitry was developed to capture the arrival time of pulses from the proportional neutron monitor counter tubes along with environmental variables, such as temperature, pressure, and location, which all influence the count rate. The MNM-DAS was successfully designed and developed by following this Systems-Engineering approach embedded into a Design Science Research framework. The MNM-DAS was constructed and tested, and is currently being used to provide neutron count data in real-world applications internationally. / MIng (Computer and Electronic Engineering), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The always growing demands on the electronics design of modern electron microscopes cause increased requirements to the measurement tasks in the electronics development of these systems. In this thesis, we report the findings of designing noise measurements setup in Carl-Zeiss, Oberkochen. The aim of this thesis was to explore the design setup for noise measurement and to provide an interface which help us analyze these measurements using C# and agilent multimeter. This was achieved by the construction and evaluation of a prototype for a noise measurment application. For this purpose Design Science Research (DSR) was conducted, situated in the domain of noise measurement research. The results consist of a set of design principles expressing key aspects needed to address when designing noise measurement functionality. The artifacts derived from the development and evaluation process each one constitutes an example of how to design for noise measurement functionality of this kind.

Effective software cost estimation is one of the most challenging and important activities in software development. The software industry does not estimate projects well. Poor estimation leads to poor project planning with resulting schedule overruns, inadequate staffing, low system quality, and many aborted projects. Research on software estimation is needed to build more accurate models of the key aspects of software development. The goals of research in this dissertation are to investigate and improve the modeling of team size and project structures in current software estimation methods.Mathematical models for estimating the impacts of project team size and three variations of project structure are developed. These models accept the outputs of the COCOMO II software estimation tool, allow variation in both team size and project structure, and produce more detailed project estimates. This new extended model of COCOMO II is implemented in a decision support tool f or software estimators called PSEstimate.Following the design science research paradigm, the artifact is evaluated with an experiment with experienced software project managers. Three treatment groups: a manual (no tool) group, a COCOMO II group, and a PSEstimate group, completed two multipart software cost estimation tasks. The accuracy and consistency of the cost and schedule estimates, the participants' confidence in their estimates, and their satisfaction with and perceived usefulness of the cost estimation tool are measured.The experimental results support most of the hypotheses of the dissertation. For most tasks, individuals aided by computer-based decision support tools produce more accurate project effort estimates and are more confident in their estimates than manual estimators. There are no significant differences between the three groups on schedule estimation. A possible explanation is that experienced estimators in the manual group compensate for the inaccuracy of th eir effort estimates by adding time to their schedule estimates.The research contributions are new mathematical models for software estimation based on project team size and structure; a decision support tool (PSEstimate) that incorporates these models; and the experimental results that demonstrate improvements in software estimation by experienced project managers when the new models and tool are applied in practice.

Globaliseringen innebär ökad konkurrens för företag vilket gör det viktigare för företag att snabbt kunna utföra sina kostnadsuppskattningar. I detta arbete undersöks förutsättningarna för att använda moderna teorier inom cost engineering för att kunna förkorta ledtiderna vid förkalkylsarbetet för företag inom custom made-tillverkning. Inom cost engineering har teorier för kostnadsuppskattning används för att beräkna tillverkningstider för tre olika produkter hos ett fallföretag. För att få en bra beskrivning av problematiken med kostnadsuppskattning inom custom made-tillverkning har design science-metodologi använts under arbetets gång.  Resultatet av arbetet visar att förutsättningarna för att använda moderna teorier inom cost engineering för kostnadsuppskattning hos custom made-tillverkande företag är att historisk data avseende för- och efterkalkylsarbete finns tillgänglig. Genom att använda moderna teorier inom cost engineering kan custom made-tillverkande företag förkorta sina ledtider vid kostnadsuppskattning och således kan företaget räkna på fler kundförfrågningar. Företaget kan dessutom återkoppla till sina kunder snabbare vilket leder till bättre kundrelationer.