Abstract Information technologies have opened new opportunities to develop persuasive systems that support people to adopt and sustain healthy behaviors. Both web-based and ubiquitous information systems have shown promising results in supporting people to adopt healthy routines. Persuasive systems have therefore received increasing attention from researchers over the past decade. Behavior Change Support Systems are an object of persuasive technology. These systems are designed to facilitate behavior change process over an extended period of time. This dissertation comprises of six studies, including two investigative, two experimental, and two field studies. An effort has been made to consecutively build these studies to formulate a central research question: To what extent virtual rehearsal augmented with reminders influence overall efficacy of health Behavior Change Support Systems? The primary theoretical underpinning is the Persuasive Systems Design model, which highlights seven postulates and twenty-eight software features for developing Behavior Change Support Systems. However, in the presented work, reminders and virtual rehearsal are explicitly studied. The interplay between these software features is examined through using a mixed-method research approach, using qualitative methodology as a core research approach. The results indicate that carefully selected and integrated persuasive software features have significant impact on the overall efficacy of Behavior Change Support Systems. Presented work addresses health behavioral change as a critical aspect of healthcare, and also extends contemporary research on critical issues in healthcare including task adherence, attrition and compliance. / Tiivistelmä Uudet informaatioteknologiat ovat mahdollistaneet sellaisten vakuuttavien järjestelmien kehittämisen, jotka voivat tukea terveellisten käyttäytymismallien omaksumisessa ja niiden ylläpitämisessä. Sekä web-pohjaisilla että jokapaikan tietojärjestelmillä on saatu lupaavia tuloksia terveellisten rutiinien omaksumisessa. Vakuuttavat järjestelmät ovat näin viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana saaneet kasvavaa huomiota tutkijoilta. Yksi vakuuttavan teknologian tutkimuskohteista on käyttäytymisen muutoksen tukijärjestelmät. Nämä järjestelmät on suunniteltu helpottamaan käyttäytymisen muutoksessa pitkähkön aikajakson kuluessa. Tämä väitöskirja koostuu kuudesta tutkimuksesta, sisältäen kaksi eksploratiivista, kaksi kokeellista ja kaksi kenttätutkimusta. Kyseiset tutkimukset on suunnitelut siten, että on voitu muodostaa yksi keskeinen tutkimuskysymys: Missä määrin virtuaalinen harjoittelu yhdessä muistutusten kanssa voi vaikuttaa käyttäytymisen muutoksen tukijärjestelmien tehokkuuteen? Pääasiallisena teoreettisena pohjana toimii vakuuttavien järjestelmien PSD-suunnittelumenetelmä (Persuasive Systems Design Model), joka korostaa seitsemää perusoletusta ja 28 ohjelmisto-ominaisuutta tällaisten käyttäytymisen muutoksen tukijärjestelmien kehittämisessä. Tässä väitöskirjassa on keskitytty tutkimaan erityisesti virtuaalisia muistutuksia ja virtuaalista harjoittelua. Kyseisiä ohjelmisto-ominaisuuksia on tarkasteltu käyttämällä mixed-method -tutkimustapaa erityisesti laadullisella tutkimusotteella. Tässä tutkimuksessa saadut tulokset osoittavat, että järjestelmien huolella valituilla ja toteutetuilla vakuuttavilla ominaisuuksilla on merkittävä vaikutus käyttäytymisen muutoksen tukijärjestelmien tehokkuuteen. Väitös osoittaa terveyskäyttäytymisen muutoksen olevan kriittinen osa terveydenhoitoa. Väitöstyö myös lisää terveydenhoidon tietämystä sen kriittisissä ongelmissa, erityisesti harjoituksiin sitoutumisessa tai vastaavasti harjoitusten tekemättä jättämisessä ylipäätään ja ohjeiden noudattamisessa.

Cette thèse porte sur la compréhension de processus de conception de systèmes de travail d’agriculteurs engagés dans une transition agroécologique. Elle s’appuie sur la mise en œuvre d’une méthode : la Chronique du Changement. En proposant aux agriculteurs de construire des récits de conception, elle révèle le processus de conception global dans lequel ils sont engagés. Ce processus est analysé à partir d’un modèle dialogique de la conception (e.g. Béguin, 2010) qui met en tension les pôles du virtuel et du réel, auxquels nous ajoutons un pôle du concevable pour donner à voir les mouvements entre passé – présent – futur en jeu dans le processus. Ces récits rendent visible l’objet en cours de conception : le système de travail composé de sous-systèmes.L’expérience que fait l’agriculteur de ces sous-systèmes participe à la progression du processus de conception et à la construction par l’agriculteur d’une approche systémique de son objet.En perspective, cette thèse ouvre sur le rôle de la narration pour l’élaboration de l’expérience d’un processus de conception et sur la notion de conception de systèmes de travail durables. / This thesis focuses on understanding the processes of designing work systems of farmers engaged in an agroecologicaltransition. It is based on the implementation of a method: the Chronicle of Change. By offering farmers to build design narratives, it reveals the overall design process in which they are involved. This process is analyzed on the basis of a dialogical model of design (e.g. Béguin, 2010) that puts the poles of virtual and real into tension, to which we add a pole of designable to show the movements between past – present – future, which are at work in the process.These narratives make visible the object being designed: the working system composed of subsystems. The farmer's experience with these subsystems contributes to the progress of the design process and the farmer's construction of a systemic approach to his purpose.In perspective, this thesis opens on the role of narrative in the development of the experience of a design process and on the notion of designing sustainable work systems.

Enrollment in online courses is increasing at a much higher rate than enrollment in on campus courses. Initially, online systems were developed by moving course content from in-class courses as is to an online platform. Later, Web 2.0 technology was implemented in order to improve students’ online engagement. These systems considered all students as one homogeneous group and ignored the fact that different students learn in different ways and at different speeds. Later, adaptive online learning systems were developed based on the assumption that if the instructional approach matches the student learning style, student performance and experience will improve. The use of these systems yielded mixed results because there is no agreement on what, how, and when to adapt instructions. The problem is that there is still a lack of empirical evidence about which online learning system’ design is the most effective, efficient, and engaging. There were two goals for this study. The first was to develop a new instructional theory and design model suitable for personalizing and adapting online learning. The first goal was achieved by developing student personalized, adaptive, and comprehensive e-learning spaces instructional theory and design model. This theory is based on finding the best fit among student characteristics, knowledge domain objectives, and technology used in delivering the online course. The second goal was to implement the newly developed theory and design model in an e-learning system prototype. This goal was achieved by developing and internally validating the e-learning system prototype by utilizing a panel of five instructional design experts. The Delphi method was used to solicit input from the expert panel in three rounds of validation. The validation process resulted in the experts’ consensus that the prototype incorporated the instructional theory and design model well and that this instructional theory holds the promise of increasing online learning courses’ effectiveness, efficiency, and student engagement.

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The purpose of this qualitative case study was to define and describe the work of external instructional design consultants. Study participants included seven instructional designers with varied educational backgrounds and work experience who work in a variety of contexts supporting clients in the design and delivery of learning experiences. All seven participants completed an initial survey with demographic and background questions. Five participants then took part in semi-structured interviews. Collected data was coded using both deductive and inductive methods with each case considered individually before combining the data for analysis across cases. Study findings support previous research suggesting that the work of instructional designers is dependent on context. Results further indicated that external instructional design consultants regularly engage in project management, communication and collaboration, and the analysis and evaluation components of the instructional design process, all in keeping with existing literature. External instructional designers differed in that they do more sales-related work, and, in the analysis process, focus more on client needs than learner characteristics. Study participants were invested in creating high quality, engaging learning experiences, while also willing to accommodate the unique challenges facing any given client. The study findings suggested that prospective employees' instructional design knowledge is of limited value during hiring interviews; instead, participants reported being more likely to hire former educators and subject-matter experts who can be trained to do instructional design work. Two broad themes emerged from the study's findings: 1) instructional designers can be organized into instructional designer and manager roles with corresponding responsibilities; and 2) the question of how best to prepare instructional designers is a question of what knowledge and skills are needed and where those skills should be developed. These themes formed the basis of five instructional design personas that resulted from this study, as well as a proposed program for preparing instructional design professionals.

<p dir="ltr">In our daily lives, we rely on a multitude of discrete products to meet our needs. Traditional product design approaches have primarily focused on economic and technical aspects, often overlooking the pressing environmental and social challenges facing society. Recognizing the limitations of our ecological systems to cope with the waste generated by our current industrial processes, there is a growing need to anticipate the potential consequences of product design across technical, economic, environmental, and social dimensions to pave the way for a sustainable future. One promising strategy within this context is the integration of sustainability principles into optimization-based design models that consider a product's entire life cycle. While there have been previous efforts to optimize product life cycles, a comprehensive exploration of optimization-based design methods with a focus on multiple objectives for discrete products is essential. This dissertation explores the integration of sustainability principles with optimization-based design by taking the electric traction motor used in electric vehicles as a case study. This complex and environmentally significant technology is ideal for investigating the tradeoffs and benefits of incorporating sustainability objectives into the design process.</p><p dir="ltr">The key tasks undertaken in this study are as follows:</p><ul><li>Development of a parametric design and optimization framework for a surface-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor. In this task, a special emphasis is placed on reducing reliance on materials with a high supply risk, such as rare earth elements.</li><li>Creation of a parametric life cycle assessment model that combines life cycle assessment and optimization-based design to minimize a single-score environmental impact. This model offers insights into the environmental performance of product design and underscores the importance of minimizing environmental impact throughout a product's life cycle.</li><li>Integration of a life cycle costing model, incorporating techno-economic assessment and total cost of ownership perspectives, into the parametric life cycle assessment and optimization-based design models. This model is used to minimize levelized production and driving costs, shedding light on the trade-offs within this family of cost metrics and the optimization of manufacturing systems for motor production.</li><li>Proposal of a circular economy model/algorithm to assess the advantages of integrating the circular economy paradigm during the early design phase. All the mentioned objective functions are considered to study the impacts of applying the circular economy paradigm.</li></ul><p dir="ltr">The contributions of this research can be summarized as follows:</p><ul><li>Utilized a diverse array of analytical methodologies to parameterize the design process of a motor, incorporating the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) models, as well as the incorporation of disassembly planning for informed decision-making in the early stages of design.</li><li>Proposed a generalized objective function denoted as the Supply Risk-equivalent (SR-eq.), aimed at mitigating the risks associated with the dependency on critical materials in product manufacturing.</li><li>Introduced a novel approach for visualizing non-dominated solutions within a multi-objective framework, with experimentation conducted on up to six distinct objectives.</li><li>Substantiated the significance of decarbonizing the electric grid while maintaining competitive cost structures, the importance of advancing non-destructive evaluation (NDE) procedures for assessing the condition of end-of-life (EoL) subassemblies, and optimizing the collection rate of EoL motors.</li></ul><p dir="ltr">Demonstrated that the optimization of technical metrics as surrogate indicators for economic and environmental performance does not necessarily yield designs that are concurrently optimal in economic and environmental terms.</p>