This research investigated Computer Aided Design (CAD) education in the interior design. program focusing on educators' opinions about creativity aspects including computer application, teaching materials and teaching methods as well as other trends in CAD education. A questionnaire was sent to one hundred eighty-two members of the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC). A frequency distribution was used on 69 usable returned surveys to describe the sample characteristics and to determine the teaching materials and support. Means and T-tests were employed to examine if a significant difference of opinions toward CAD integration existed between designers based on creativity, teaching materials, and teaching approaches. Findings indicate that educators are thinking positively regarding the creativity aspects of teaching CAD. There was no significant difference between IBM educators and Apple Macintosh educators in terms of opinions concerning creativity and teaching approaches and also no significant difference in the educators who are using more flexible teaching approaches and the educators who are using more rigid teaching approaches in terms of creativity. Educators thought CAD courses are most helpful for students' future careers. Educators remarked that their college, department, and other faculties are generally very supportive. Overall the educators had fewer than 4 years of experience in teaching CAD. One or two CAD educators were teaching in each interior design program. IBM personal computer, AutoCAD software, instructor prepared tutorials were the most used teaching materials. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study develops and applies a conceptual framework that can be used to evaluate dynamic Web platforms in order to determine a platform for teaching Web application development in tertiary institutions. The framework is specific, yet comprehensive and supported with theory and empirical experimental programming results. We first identify the concepts of Web application development and the constraints to be satisfied by a platform for teaching identified concepts. Then we establish various criteria that will enhance the teaching of the concepts. We also establish qualities and experiment that will ensure that a selected platform is easy to use, fast, portable and affordable. A spreadsheet tool is developed to apply the framework and enable users to customize the framework by varying the criteria's weights. The developed framework is tested by the evaluation of the suitability of Java Servlets, JSP, ASP and PHP with PHP emerging as a suitable platform. / Computing / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

Integrated Circuits (ICs) have a broad range of applications in healthcare, military, consumer electronics etc. The acronym VLSI stands for Very Large Scale Integration and is a process of making ICs by placing millions of transistors on a single chip. Because of advancements in VLSI design technologies, ICs are getting smaller, faster in speed and more efficient, making personal devices handy, and with more features. In this thesis work an interactive framework is designed in which the fundamental concepts of digital logic design and VLSI design such as logic gates, MOS transistors, combinational and sequential logic circuits, and memory are presented in a simple, interactive and user friendly way to create interest in students towards engineering fields, especially Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering. Most of the concepts are explained in this framework by taking the examples which we see in our daily lives. Some of the critical design concerns such as power and performance are presented in an interactive way to make sure that students can understand these significant concepts in an easy and user friendly way.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

This study develops and applies a conceptual framework that can be used to evaluate dynamic Web platforms in order to determine a platform for teaching Web application development in tertiary institutions. The framework is specific, yet comprehensive and supported with theory and empirical experimental programming results. We first identify the concepts of Web application development and the constraints to be satisfied by a platform for teaching identified concepts. Then we establish various criteria that will enhance the teaching of the concepts. We also establish qualities and experiment that will ensure that a selected platform is easy to use, fast, portable and affordable. A spreadsheet tool is developed to apply the framework and enable users to customize the framework by varying the criteria's weights. The developed framework is tested by the evaluation of the suitability of Java Servlets, JSP, ASP and PHP with PHP emerging as a suitable platform. / Computing / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

Certain disjunctions exist between the structure, courses, and practices of current textile curricula on the one hand, and the demands of students for entry into diverse creative professions and the demands of the creative industry for qualified new talents on the other. Thus, this research will explore the history, current issues, and emerging trends of academia and the creative professions as these shape the qualifications, aspirations, and expectations of students, academia, and the textile-related fields. The ultimate goal of this study is to comprehend the contemporary issues—social, economic, and cultural shifts—that may impact textile education within art and design colleges, and propose an efficient and engaging BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) textile curriculum suitable for the era of interdisciplinary education and the fourth industrial revolution. Since scholarly study of the effectiveness of art school curriculum is limited and little research has examined the challenges of BFA education, and in particular BFA textile education in the context of 21st century college education, the researcher begins with a survey of existing literature from adjacent fields, including higher education, sociology, business, marketing, apparel, and art education, in particular, adolescent artistic development. The existing literature also includes statistics from government, consulting firms, colleges ranking sites, and annual reports published by each school. This qualitative case study examines how stakeholders in BFA textile education—students, faculty, and professionals—from five selected art colleges in the U.S. perceive their educational experiences and post-college careers. The data were collected through 1) a review of existing literature pertaining to perspectives of general college education, creative industry, and current student generation, and 2) qualitative data gathered through initial surveys and verbal interviews, including two pilot studies. Stakeholder perspectives obtained through interviews are interpreted through the following theoretical frameworks: 1) the business perspective aiming at the success of all stakeholders; 2) the marketing perspective aiming at improving stakeholder satisfaction as a means of enhancing the operational efficiency of organizations; and 3) the educational perspective aiming to create effective teaching and engaging learning environments for the success of today's young creative talents. The researcher contends that the findings strongly suggest curricular and pedagogy change in accordance with societal changes and demands of the stakeholders—current student generation, creative industry, and academia—while at the same time informing the significant value of college education, BFA education, and textile education in the 21st century.

Industrial design is recognised for the value-oriented benefits it offers to businesses. Industrial design ensures that new products are more efficient, usable, convenient and safe to use within the evolving business environment. One of the important factors for the continuous achievement of high product quality and general economic growth and stability in countries such as West Germany, Korea and Japan is their sound industrial design base. Industrial design programmes can be instrumental to ignite an entrepreneurial and innovation spirit to assist in curbing the high unemployment rate and very low levels of entrepreneurial intentions in South Africa. The core of tertiary industrial design students has unique capabilities that can assist the South African economy to stimulate manufacturing, job creation and economic growth. The purpose of this study was to investigate the entrepreneurial intentions among industrial design students enrolled for the programme in Three-Dimensional Design, at Universities of Technology in South Africa. In addition, this study investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and actual business formation by graduates of the programme. Studies have been carried out in South Africa on entrepreneurial intentions, but not on the formation, occurrence and implementation of entrepreneurial intentions amongst industrial design students, specifically. To test the links between business education and entrepreneurial intentions, a research model based on Ajzen’s (1985) Theory of Planned Behaviour was adopted and tested using quantitative empirical data collected from students in industrial design at two Universities of Technology. Quantitative data were collected from a sample of 161 participants using a validated self-administered questionnaire. IBM SPSS and STATA were used to conduct descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, factor analysis, reliability and structural equation modelling on the primary quantitative data. The empirical evidence partially supports the effectiveness of the Theory of Planned Behaviour in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Although perceived social norms and self-efficacy is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions, results failed to reach statistical significance. However, personal attitude was found to mediate the relationship between these variables and entrepreneurial intention. Whilst business education is positively related to self-efficacy, entrepreneurial knowledge is positively related to higher levels of personal attitude and self-efficacy. The transformation of entrepreneurial intentions into actual business start-ups were investigated using qualitative empirical data collected from past graduates of the Three-Dimensional Design programme. Qualitative data were collected from a sample of 22 graduates through structured interviews. ATLAS.ti version 7.5.9 was used to analyse the qualitative data. The researcher provided evidence that there is a relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and the actual start-up of a business, as 45.5 per cent of graduates started businesses. Furthermore, business education positively influenced the actual start-up of businesses. However, graduates experienced many challenges to business start-up, with implications for the teaching of business subjects and for policy makers. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)