This study investigated the implications that the scheduling of a block module for a computer competency course over two weeks, has had on the curriculum. The block module was presented at the start of the first semester, 2001 at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. The objectives were to: develop a flexible, outcomes-based curriculum in which the learners had to demonstrate capability and employability by integrating computer competencies in other modules; design and implement an effective learning and teaching strategy in order to ensure that learners will achieve the learning outcomes within two weeks; and to . implement continuous, integrative assessment methods in order to foster the learning of hands-on skills that can be integrated in the learners' academic programmes. The researcher followed an action research approach, in order to assess the improvement of current educational practices. A target group of first-year learners was divided into a block module-group and a semester-group. The researcher made use of data triangulation, by collecting qualitative and quantitative data comprising structured interviews and open-ended and structured questionnaires completed at different stages of the project. This research report comprises three articles. The first article reports on the high success rate of the block module-group and reveal that these learners could retain. and utilise the computer competencies that they had to utilise for completing assignments, to a larger degree than the semester-group. The second article reports that experiential learning, as an outcomes-based strategy, fosters learning in accelerated learning contexts. The third article concludes that the continuous integrative approach to assessment fosters w-operation, feedback through self-assessment and the ability of learners to apply computer competencies in new situations. It is recommended that lecturers in all the associated departments should collaboratively assign and assess tasks in progressive advanced modules. It concludes that, in order to utilise resources optimally when scheduling block modules, ail associated departments would have to be fully modularised. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

This study investigated the implications that the scheduling of a block module for a computer competency course over two weeks, has had on the curriculum. The block module was presented at the start of the first semester, 2001 at the Vaal Triangle Technikon. The objectives were to: develop a flexible, outcomes-based curriculum in which the learners had to demonstrate capability and employability by integrating computer competencies in other modules; design and implement an effective learning and teaching strategy in order to ensure that learners will achieve the learning outcomes within two weeks; and to . implement continuous, integrative assessment methods in order to foster the learning of hands-on skills that can be integrated in the learners' academic programmes. The researcher followed an action research approach, in order to assess the improvement of current educational practices. A target group of first-year learners was divided into a block module-group and a semester-group. The researcher made use of data triangulation, by collecting qualitative and quantitative data comprising structured interviews and open-ended and structured questionnaires completed at different stages of the project. This research report comprises three articles. The first article reports on the high success rate of the block module-group and reveal that these learners could retain. and utilise the computer competencies that they had to utilise for completing assignments, to a larger degree than the semester-group. The second article reports that experiential learning, as an outcomes-based strategy, fosters learning in accelerated learning contexts. The third article concludes that the continuous integrative approach to assessment fosters w-operation, feedback through self-assessment and the ability of learners to apply computer competencies in new situations. It is recommended that lecturers in all the associated departments should collaboratively assign and assess tasks in progressive advanced modules. It concludes that, in order to utilise resources optimally when scheduling block modules, ail associated departments would have to be fully modularised. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

In current times, to function successfully in the work environment, the ability to use a computer is essential. The introduction of computers into organisations has often met with resistance. The reason for this resistance must be identified and overcome if businesses are to realise the productivity gains of full computer usage. On the basis of the abovementioned problem the objective of this study is to test the relationship between age, sex, locus of control and personality type and attitudes toward computer use. A theoretical investigation was carried out to gather information on the variables under study which was used to compare with the results of the empirical study. From this study of 68 white collar respondents from a financial institution it can, in general, be concluded that peoples' attitude toward the personal use of computers is positive and not affected by the individual variables tested. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial Psychology)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The classification of consumable media by mining relevant text for their identifying features is a subjective process. Previous attempts to perform this type of feature mining have generally been limited in scope due having limited access to user data. Many of these studies used human domain knowledge to evaluate the accuracy of features extracted using these methods. In this thesis, we mine book review text to identify nontrivial features of a set of similar books. We make comparisons between books by looking for books that share characteristics, ultimately performing clustering on the books in our data set. We use the same mining process to identify a corresponding set of characteristics in users. Finally, we evaluate the quality of our methods by examining the correlation between our similarity metric, and user ratings.

As the Internet continues to evolve, without providing any performance guarantees or explicit feedback to applications, the only way to infer the state of the network and to dynamically react to congestion is through end-to-end measurements. The emph{available bandwidth} (avail-bw) is an important metric that characterizes the dynamic state of a network path. Its measurement has been the focus of significant research during the last 15 years. However, its estimation remained elusive for several reasons. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of the first estimation methodology for the avail-bw in a network path using end-to-end measurements. In more detail, our first contribution is an end-to-end methodology, called SLoPS, to determine whether the avail-bw is larger than a given rate based on the sequence of one-way delays experienced by a periodic packet stream. The second contribution is the design of two algorithms, based on SLoPS, to estimate the mean and the variation range, respectively, of the avail-bw process. These algorithms have been implemented in two measurement tools, referred to as PathLoad and PathVar. We have validated the accuracy of the tools using analysis, simulation, and extensive experimentation. Pathload has been downloaded by more than 6000 users since 2003. We have also used PathVar to study the variability of the avail-bw process as a function of various important factors, including traffic load and degree of multiplexing. Finally, we present an application of avail-bw estimation in video streaming. Specifically, we show that avail-bw measurements can be used in the dynamic selection of the best possible overlay path. The proposed scheme results in better perceived video quality than path selection algorithms that rely on jitter or loss-rate measurements.

資訊中心(information center)之建置緣起於管理終端使用者計算 (end user computing)，其基本功能在於支援使用者自行運用資訊系統來解決 工作上的問題或滿足其資訊需求。但隨著「策略性資訊系統」及 資訊資 源管理」等觀念的引發， 資訊中心的角色也漸漸地由被動轉為主動，使 資訊中心的策略規劃成為一項重要的課題。本研究從相關文獻的探討中歸 納出資訊中心進行其策略規劃時所考慮的四個構面：(1)資訊中心之主要 目標、(2)資訊中心之關鍵性成功因素、(3)資訊中心進行策略規劃之原則 、(4)資訊中心與企業策略規劃之協調方式。運用問卷調查的方式，對我 國股票上市公司的資訊中心主管及其它部門的高階主管進行上述意見之比 較，以多變量變異數分析來驗證資訊中心是否和其它部門進行協調。另一 方面，由於國內尚缺乏對資訊中心現況的分析資訊，本研究亦進行詳細的 樣本分析，以供後續研究及推論之參考。由於本研究建立的四個假說中有 「資訊中心之主要目標」及「資訊中心進行策略規劃之原則」產生顯著差 異，表示資訊中心主管和其它部門主管的意見在這兩個構面上無法達成共 識。這說明了我國資訊中心在進行其策略規劃時，需要加強和其它部門的 協調。而進一步的邊際檢定則顯示，需要溝通的項目包括：(1)注意軟體 和硬體的相容性、(2)管理資訊系統的成長及運作、(3)達成各部門和資訊 中心的協調、(4)幫助使用者解決問題、(5)滿足使用者的需求。

This dissertation introduces, implements, and evaluates the novel concept of "Service Paths", which are system-level abstractions that capture and describe the dynamic dependencies between the different components of a distributed enterprise application. Service paths are dynamic because they capture the natural interactions between application services dynamically composed to offer some desired end user functionality. Service paths are distributed because such sets of services run on networked machines in distributed enterprise data centers. Service paths cross multiple levels of abstraction because they link end user application components like web browsers with system services like http providing communications with embedded services like hardware-supported data encryption. Service paths are system-level abstractions that are created without end user, application, or middleware input, but despite these facts, they are able to capture application-relevant performance metrics, including end-to-end latencies for client requests and the contributions to these latencies from application-level processes and from software/hardware resources like protocol stacks or network devices. Beyond conceiving of service paths and demonstrating their utility, this thesis makes three concrete technical contributions. First, we propose a set of signal analysis techniques called ``E2Eprof' that identify the service paths taken by different request classes across a distributed IT infrastructure and the time spent in each such path. It uses a novel algorithm called ``pathmap' that computes the correlation between the message arrival and departure timestamps at each participating node and detect dependencies among them. A second contribution is a system-level monitoring toolkit called ``SysProf', which captures monitoring information at different levels of granularity, ranging from tracking the system-level activities triggered by a single system call, to capturing the client-server interactions associated with a service paths, to characterizing the server resources consumed by sets of clients or client behaviors. The third contribution of the thesis is a publish-subscribe based monitoring data delivery framework called ``QMON'. QMON offers high levels of predictability for service delivery and supports utility-aware monitoring while also able to differentiate between different levels of service for monitoring, corresponding to the different classes of SLAs maintained for applications.

Increasingly abundant access to data and cheaper display technology costs are creating an exciting opportunity to create new information awareness tools that can present information calmly through peripheral and ambient interfaces. These tools offer the potential to help people better manage their attention and to avoid information overload. Different people, however, have distinct information needs, and customizing these systems is often difficult. Existing interfaces typically provide too coarse or too fine a granularity of customization, resulting in tools that are too rigid or too difficult to configure. We present an extensively customizable information awareness system, The Buzz, that supports end users, tinkerers, and developers at using, modifying, creating, and sharing powerful and flexible customizations. These customizations are powerful in the sense that the user can control abstract behaviors of the system, and flexible in the sense that the complexity of the customization can vary with the power needed to express it. We further chart the broader information awareness customization space through the lens of existing customizable information tools. Through this analysis, we show that this system provides more extensive customization capabilities than other customizable awareness applications, without requiring significant programming.

Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

The aim of this study was to investigate the various reasons consumers continue to infringe on copyrighted content, specifically in the South African context, even if the law forbids it. This investigation is two-fold since it also recognises that there are many individuals who do not infringe on copyrighted content even though they have access to peer-to-peer file sharing technology. This information could prove valuable since it can then be used to find comprehensive market-led solutions to the problem that targets the end-user. This study adopted a mixed method approach in order to cross validate findings and to reveal aspects of empirical reality. The target population for this study consisted of 100 adult South Africans who have access to the internet. Data was collected through an online, self-administered questionnaire. Quantitative data was analysed through descriptive statistics, while qualitative data was analysed through thematic analysis. The results show that there are variety of factors that influence respondents’ attitudes towards copyright infringement of films and/or television series through peer-to-peer file sharing technology, each of which is discussed in detail. The study concluded by identifying 24 factors that favourably influence people’s attitudes towards copyright infringement, including high prices of legitimate goods, historical inequality in South Africa, and perceived low risk of being caught and punished. Based on the conclusion above, the study recommends that policy makers such as government officials, boards of directors, managers, committees, and executives use the results of the study when making decisions and determining policies, especially in the South African context. / Communication Science / M.A. (Communication Science)