Assessment, an integral part of teaching and learning, is a planned process of identifying, gathering and interpreting information about the performance of students. However, concerns have been raised about how assessment is being conducted in schools and so the aim of this study is to investigate and improve assessment practices used by Grade 12 secondary school Physics teachers in Mozambique, Africa. The study addresses the question of what assessment practices do Grade 12 teachers in Physics in Mozambique apply and how can they be improved? and it adopted a twofold research approach. A Baseline Survey aimed at gaining an overall impression of the assessment practices used by secondary school Physics teachers and an Intervention Study aimed at producing improvements on teacher assessment practices. The preliminary research followed a survey research method, while the intervention applied an educational design research approach. In the survey three questions were investigated: (i) What assessments practices do Grade 12 Physics teachers apply? (ii) What is the quality of the assessment practices? and (iii) How relevant can the assessment practices be for student learning?To address these questions a purposive sample of 12 Physics teachers, four school directors and five educational officers was selected. The survey was conducted in six secondary schools purposefully selected throughout the country and data were collected via interviews, questionnaires, classroom observations and written notes. The Intervention Study was designed to answer the question of how teacher assessment practices can be improved.This phase of the study involved a design, a classroom tryout, and a systematic evaluation of a series of exemplary Physics assessment materials (prototypes) in a context of demonstration experiments. The prototypes were developed for the concepts of force and inertia and their validity and practicality were verified using appraisal by experts, university students, teachers, and students. Classroom tryout was conducted with two teachers and their 62 students in two secondary schools. Baseline Survey findings indicate that the most used assessment practices in schools are paper-and-pencil tests, verbal tests, and homework, while projects, portfolios, and peer assessments are the less frequently used ones. Oral communication during lessons, written work, presentations, notebooks, laboratory work, and ability to solve problems were used as quality criteria for the teachers’ assessment. It was shown that the most frequently assessed student activity was written work, followed by the ability of students to solve problems, while laboratory work was the activity that was never assessed by many of the researched teachers. Another quality criterion used was the type of feedback given by teachers to students, which indicated that teachers were giving expressed (both congratulatory and critical), personal and timely feedback. It emerged that teachers often involve the students in the evaluation of their performance through reflection of assessment results and in addition, encourage students to engage in active learning. Findings from the Intervention Study indicate that (i) teachers liked the presentation and structure of the materials following the Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) strategy and regarded their personal commitment as crucial for achieving the desired experimental results; (ii) students also liked most the POE strategy because it allowed them to develop their own explanations of the observed events and highlighted the role of teachers during the tryout as crucial for the success of the experiments. The main conclusion of this study is that assessment practices undertaken by Physics teachers in Mozambican secondary schools are of poor quality and there is a need for improvement. This must be done by developing and applying exemplary assessment materials with the potential to improve performance assessment practices associated with demonstration experiments in Physics. The study recommends that the Ministry of Education and Culture and teacher training institutions should promote the training of teachers in developing exemplary assessment materials for their own use in schools. These materials should contain specific guidelines on how to conduct effective assessment practices. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Beim Einsatz mobiler Arbeitsmaschinen bestimmt der Maschinenführer die Arbeitsleistung und -sicherheit wesentlich mit. Er muss in die Lage versetzt werden, die Maschine ohne Gefahr für sich und andere zu steuern und ihr Leistungspotential voll zu nutzen. Deshalb sind Maschinenführer als reale oder virtuelle Bediener frühzeitig in die Maschinenentwicklung mit einzubeziehen. In einem global härter werdenden Markt reichen den Herstellern empirische Untersuchungen allein nicht mehr aus. Die Zusammenhänge im System Bediener-Maschine-Prozess sollen möglichst objektiv und reproduzierbar erfasst werden. Das kann aufwändige experimentelle Untersuchungen erfordern. Der Bau realer Testmaschinen und ihre Ausstattung mit Messtechnik kosten viel Zeit und Geld. Reale Einsatzversuche sind oft nicht unter gleich bleibenden Bedingungen durchführbar, was die Auswertung erschwert. Hingegen bieten Werkzeuge der Simulation und Virtuellen Realität eine effiziente Möglichkeit, Maschinenführer in frühen Phasen der Produktentwicklung mit einzubeziehen.

Anhand einer Befragung zu virtuellen und hybriden Prototypen, einem multimodalen Lösungsansatz zur Beurteilung von virtuellen Prototypen (Buchholz 2017), werden Erwartungshaltungen, Erfahrungswerte und Prioritäten von Experten in der Produktentwicklung dargestellt und analysiert. Die qualitative Expertenbefragung spiegelt ein aktuelles Meinungsbild der deutschen Industrie zur Verwendung solcher Prototypen wieder und eröffnet eine detaillierte Sicht auf Hürden, die es bei der Entwicklung und Planung zu bewältigen gilt, um die Hemmschwellen für den Einsatz mindern zu können. Im Zuge des Verbundprojekts „RobVRAR - Funktionale virtuelle Prüfsysteme für die roboterbasierte Qualitätsprüfung“ ist in Zusammenarbeit mit der Firma Battenberg ROBOTIC GmbH & Co. KG ein Heckklappen-Demonstrator gebaut worden, der sich als repräsentatives Beispiel eignet. Die Expertenbefragung enthält allgemeine Fragen zu hybriden Prototypen und Fragen, die sich konkret mit dem Heckklappen-Demonstrator befassen.

Detta kandidatarbete syftar till att påpeka några av de möjligheter som digitaliseringen bidrar till, genom att bland annat lyfta smartphones och sociala medier som en potentiell kanal för utökad kriskommunikation. I en krissituation är kommunikation av yttersta vikt. I Sverige har den traditionella kriskommunikationen länge kretsat kring ljudsignalen Hesa Fredrik och VMA (viktigt meddelande till allmänheten) i statligt ägda tv- och radiokanaler. På senare tid har stora delar av samhället kommit att digitaliseras, vilket även medför att förutsättningarna och möjligheterna för kriskommunikation utvecklas och förändras. Detta har visualiserats i en film med hjälp av designfiktion och diegetiska prototyper för att spekulera och testa vilka digitala lösningar som hade kunnat vara möjliga i en nära framtid. Vi har utgått från Bleeckers (2009) definition och beskrivning av designfiktion och som ett stöd i skapandet av detta användes metoder såsom Three Layered Model of design fiction av Lindley & Coulton (2014), scenarier som beskrivs av Nardi (1992) och framtida personas enligt Fergnani (2019). För filmens slutgiltiga resultat spelade framför allt de diegetiska prototyperna en betydande roll, men också den verklighetsbaserade grunden samt narrativet för att kunna sammanföra verkligheten med den spekulativa framtiden. I filmen visas dock endast ett fåtal av de oändliga möjligheter som digitaliseringen medför, men kan förhoppningsvis ses som inspiration till vidare utforskning av nya digitala lösningar för kriskommunikation. / This Bachelor Thesis aims to highlight some of the opportunities that the digitisation contributes to, by among other things, lifting smartphones and social media as a potential channel for increased crisis communication. In a crisis situation, communication is of utmost importance. In Sweden, the traditional crisis communication system has long revolved around the audio signal “Hesa Fredrik” and “VMA” (important announcement to the public) in state-owned television and radio stations. Recently, big parts of the society have been digitised which means that the conditions and opportunities for crisis communication both develop and change. This has been visualised in a film by using design fiction and diegetic prototypes as a way to help speculate and test which digital solutions may be possible in a near future. We have used the definition and explanation of design fiction as mentioned by Bleecker (2009), and methods such as the Three Layered Model of design fiction by Lindley & Coulton (2014), scenarios as described by Nardi (1992) and future personas according to Fergnani (2019) were supportive in the making of the film. For the final result of the film, the diegetic prototypes played a significant role, as well as the foundation based on reality and the narrative in order to connect the reality with the speculative future. Only a few of the endless opportunities that the digitisation brings is shown in the film, but may hopefully inspire further exploration of new, digital solutions for crisis communication.

The purpose of this examination is to study how to create a user-friendly interface to a new non-released website. The research has been done in collaboration with the research institute Acreo and a project named Streamingkollen; a consumer tool that aims to improve the customer’s quality of experience (QoE) of streamed videos by measuring the video streaming quality.     In this study the focus has consequently been placed on the users of the service, in order to optimize their experience of the website and the interface.    In order to achieve a high level of usability, a user centered design process has been used. A user analysis, a heuristic evaluation and user tests on prototypes have been used as methods in the design process and the development of the interface.    The result from the user tests shows that the major reason why the user disliked, felt frustrated or couldn’t manage the service was when the design of the site was not consistent and minimal, when words, phrases and concepts on the site were not familiar and communicated in the same language as the users and when they lacked informative feedback of the operations made on the site.    The user-centered development in the study gave good results; many of the potential usability problems were identified and avoided.

Content Management Systems (CMS) can support the creation and maintenance of an e-commerce website and its content. Together with the advance of mobile technology and Internet, it is now possible for business owners to manage their online store using their mobile touchscreen devices. This thesis aims to define the usability problems of the existing CMSs when they are used on mobile touchscreen devices. Heuristic evaluation was performed in three CMSs in order to gain a better understanding of how CMS on touchscreen works and what are the major issues that could downgrade usability. Based on the results of the evaluation, a prototype was implemented and evaluated in order to find out if the design characteristics of the prototype can enhance usability. The impact of the prototype is discussed in terms of efficiency and heuristics violations. Moreover, design guidelines are suggested and uncovered usability problems for further research are provided. / Innehållshanteringssystem (från engelskans Content Management System, CMS) kan stödja skapandet ochunderhållet av en e-handelswebbplats och dess innehåll. Utvecklingen av mobilteknik och internet har gjort detmöjligt för företagare att hantera sin webbutik med hjälp av sina mobila enheter. Denna studie syftar till attdefiniera användbarhetsproblemen hos befintliga CMS när de används på mobila enheter. En heuristiskutvärdering av tre CMS utfördes för att få en bättre förståelse av hur CMS fungerar på en pekskärm, samt för attidentifiera de största problem som kan minska användbarheten. Baserat på resultaten av utvärderingenutvecklades och utvärderades en prototyp för att ta reda på om prototypens designegenskaper kunde förbättraanvändbarheten. Prototypens inverkan diskuteras med avseende på effektivitet och heuristiska oegentligheter. Designriktlinjer föreslås och funna användbarhetsproblem presenteras för vidare forskning.

We are currently in a learning process to understand new social structure of the contemporary society.  We have to see ourselves as a social collective, as we together learn about the new medium and its consequences. The new possibilities have provided us with a freedom and at the same time restraints. Freedom of the free word and that we can connect globally, restraints from  the urge of always being connected and get acknowledgement to feed our own identity and self. As the need of being acknowledged has increased, our own integrity and holding on to our own  set of principles have decreased.     The aim of this thesis is to investigate to what extent social media has come to affect the sense of identity and integrity, and finding out where the limit between what is considered to beand to be public is, as the virtual world has been integrated with the traditional society.

Le processus de conception des systèmes d'information (SI) est un processus long et complexe qui résulte en de nombreux échecs. Le prototypage informatique et la conception guidée par modèles ont été proposés comme une solution en améliorant la qualité des spécifications au début du cycle de vie d'un SI. L'objectif de notre recherche est de mieux orienter l'action de spécification des exigences dans la phase initiale de conception "Communication Client - Concepteur" et dans le début de la phase de développement "Communication Concepteur - Développeur" en utilisant des artefacts de prototypage. Notre travail ouvre concrètement une voie dans laquelle il devient possible d'envisager que toute modification au cours de la vie d'un SI puisse être effectuée à partir du modèle du domaine qui est l'intrant du "prototypeur", qui devient alors le SI lui-même. Mots clés: système d'information; méthodologie de conception; modèle conceptuel de données; spécification déclarative; spécification exécutable; prototype; méta-donnée; architecture applicative / Designing information systems is a lengthy and complex process that leads to numerous failures. Prototyping has been proposed as a solution to improve the specifications' quality in the beginning of an information system's life cycle. Every information system (IS) is based upon the information architecture ; it is, before all, a content about the perceived reality. A "domain" is a formalization of the perceived reality in which the IS users identify the representations of facts (the data) by means of semantic keys. IS designers have to transform this model using their knowledge about the abstract functioning of computers. The objective of our research is to guide the action of requirements specification in the initial design phase of "Communication Customer - Designer" and in the beginning of the development phase "Communication Designer - Developer" using prototyping artifacts. Our work actually opens the way where it becomes possible to envisage that every modification during the information system's life cycle could be done from within the domain model, which is an input for the "prototyper" and becomes then itself an information system. Keywords : information system ; design method ; conceptual data model ; déclarative specification; executables pecification; prototype ; méta-data ; application architecture

D. Tech. (Department of Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology) --Vaal University of Technology / Opening up local markets for worldwide competition has led to the fundamental change in the development of new products. In order for the manufacturers to stay globally competitive, they should be able to attain and sustain themselves as ‘World Class Manufacturers’. These ‘World Class Manufacturers’ should be able to:  Deliver products in fulfilling the total satisfaction of customers.  Provide high quality products.  Offer short delivery time.  Charge reasonable cost.  Comply with all environmental concern and safety requirements. When a design is created for a new product there is great uncertainty as to whether the new design will actually do what it is desired for. New designs often have unexpected problems, hence prototypes are part of the designing process. The prototype enables the engineers and designers to explore design alternatives, test theories and confirm performance prior to standing production of new products. Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies enable the manufacturers to produce prototypes and products which meet the requirements mentioned above. However the disadvantage of AM technologies, is that the printing material which is required is limited to that of the supplier. When uncommon printing materials must be used to manufacture a prototype or product, the 3D printing process stood out above the rest owing to its printing method. However the printing heads used in current commercially available 3D printers are limited to specific fluid properties, which limits new and unique powder binder combinations. Owing to the problem mentioned, the need arose to develop a more ‘rugged’ printing head (RPH) which will be able to print with different fluid properties. The RPH could then be used to print using unique and new powderbinder combinations. The RPH was designed and constructed using the solenoid inkjet technology as reference. In order to determine the effect which the fluid properties have on the droplet formation, fourteen different glycerol-water test solutions were prepared. The fluid properties were different for each of the glycerol-water solutions. The fluid properties included the viscosity, density and surface tension of the solution. The control parameters of the RPH were theoretically calculated for each of the glycerol-water solutions and nozzle orifice diameter sizes. The control parameters of the RPH included the critical pressure and time. Using an experimental setup, droplets ejected from the RPH could be photographed in order to be analysed. It was determined that the theoretically calculated critical times could not be used in the RPH, as the pulse widths were much lower than the recommended minimum valve pulse width of the solenoid valve used. The control parameters were then determined practically for each of the different glycerol-water solutions as well as for each nozzle orifice diameter size. The practically determined control parameters were also compared to that of the theoretically determined parameters. A mathematical model was formulated for each of the practically determined critical pressure and time parameters. Non-glycerol-water solutions were also prepared in order to determine whether the control parameters could be calculated using the practically determined mathematical models. It was found that the practically determined mathematical models, used to calculate the control parameters, could not be used with non-glycerol-water solutions. Using the practically determined mathematical models, the drop formation process of the non-glycerol-water solutions was not optimized and satellite droplets occurred. Although the practically determined models did not work for non-glycerol-water solutions, the methods used to determine the control parameters for the glycerol-water solutions could still be used to determine the practical critical pressure and time for Newtonian solutions.

Over the history of interaction design, concepts and methods of prototyping have been significantly developed to address new challenges faced by the field and the ever-going advancement of new technologies. Some of the important developments are related to the notions of mixed-fidelity prototyping, experience prototyping, and prototypes as filters. Building upon these developments, this study explores a multiple-fidelity prototyping approach, that is, using progressively higher fidelity prototypes in iteration. The study focused particularly on the design of user engagement. It documented, and contributed to, an actual design process of Xplore, an augmented reality game-based learning application. Three participatory design-style workshops employing low-, mixed-, and high-fidelity prototypes were conducted respectively. Thematic analyses of participants’ interactions revealed sets of themes in the workshops, which reflected the changing focus and scope of the design space. The implications of the results obtained in the study highlighted the role of prototypes of each fidelity level in engaging users in a design process, as well as the potential benefits of combining multiple fidelity prototypes when designing for user engagement.