<p>This research work investigates and reports on the contribution of usability and perceptual frameworks towards understanding and ultimately increasing usage of a sales website and a corporate marketing website for a major insurance company in South Africa. It investigates whether the application of usability principles to the sales web positively influences the usage of the sales web system as a tool by intermediaries, and in so doing help the organisation recoup their investment and lower operational costs. This financial services (traditionally insurance) company, like many organisations, is in the process of migrating key operational systems onto web platforms to take advantage of benefits such as the ubiquity of web access and services orientated architecture among others. The research reviewed key frameworks in the area of technology acceptance or usage namely  Nielsen‟s usability attributes (Nielsen, 2003)  The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), (Davis, 1989)&nbsp /  The Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein &amp / Ajzen, 1975)  The Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985) / and derived a theoretical summative model (the Conceptual Research Model) that combined both usability and perceptual dimensions. The applicability of this summative model was empirically tested using quantitative data relating to system&nbsp / usage and user perception. Empirical evidence was gathered to prove and refine the Conceptual Research Model (CRM), and the data substantiated the inclusion of the constructs in the CRM, as well as the efficacy of the model in a financial services organisation. Through testing of the CRM, this research has also confirmed which specific attributes of usability can be focussed on to bring about positive change in users‟ usage behaviour and adoption of a website or web application.</p>

Digitalization has spread into all parts of our lives including shopping, staying in touch with friends and watching cat videos from the cat island in Japan. Studies have shown that digitalization can also have a huge benefit for educational purposes via Learning Management Systems (LMS). The purpose of the study is to describe and create an understanding how learning institutions all across the globe can further improve the usability of their LMS, with a specific focus on the students perspective on the systems usability. Quantitative and qualitative material from a case study was analyzed and compared with previous related studies and to theories from the literature study. The results of the study showed that there is great potential for learning institutions to improve the usability of their LMS by relatively simple means, in many cases using their own students as a resource for improving their education. The study also showed there can be major differences in how students perceive the usability of an LMS, which can have disruptive effects if not addressed properly. / Digitaliseringen har spridit sig till alla delar i våra liv: Shopping, hålla kontakt med vänner och att titta på kattvideos från kattön i Japan. Studier har visat att digitaliseringen också kan ha stora fördelar i utbildningssyfte med hjälp av Learning Management Systems (LMS). Syftet med studien är att beskriva och skapa en förståelse för hur lärosäten över hela världen kan förbättra användbarheten i deras LMS, med specifikt fokus på studentperspektivet i användbarhet. Kvantitativt och kvalitativt material från fallstudien analyserades och jämfördes med tidigare relaterade studier och teorier från litteraturstudien. Resultatet av studien visade att det fanns en stor potential för lärosäten att förbättra användbarheten i deras LMS med relativt enkla medel, i många fall genom att använda sina egna studenter som en resurs för att förbättra deras utbildning. Studien visade också att det kan finnas stora skillnader i hur studenten uppfattar användbarheten i ett LMS, vilket kan ha negativa effekter om det inte adresseras på rätt sätt.

This thesis aims to address why the adoption of CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) within the language classroom is so varied, and its success so unclear, despite fifty years of investment and research. The huge promise of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) driven results has created an imbalance in language teaching, where initiatives are brought about from outside the classroom, with teachers held accountable for their adoption. My reading of the literature is that lack of consideration of the teacher’s role in implementation of classroom technology has led to mismatched expectations and performance. If the nature of the teacher’s contribution is recognized, I believe that this can lead to more effective use of ICT, which I have set out to show. My study, based on a survey of 319 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers across the international group of 31 schools in which I work, seeks to put the teacher back into the picture by examining where their enacted beliefs in social constructivist pedagogy best align with classroom use of digital technology. I coin this emerging praxis ‘microblending’, a pedagogy rooted in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory and contemporary methodology, and I seek to demonstrate its relevance in this study I test the viability of measuring teacher’s microblending readiness through application of Technology Acceptance Modelling (TAM) in an EFL setting to produce a model that explains the variation in classroom use of ICT. My model is based on a critical replication of the WST (‘Will, Skill, Tool’) model, a TAM model which has so far only been used in mainstream classroom teaching. I have updated, created and piloted new instruments within the scope of the study, which are now already in use within the institution where I carried out my investigations. Using both linear regression and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) techniques I explored how these measurements of the learning environment can explain a teacher’s application of technology. This first attempt appears to explain over 89% of the variation in classroom use of technology, which already exceeds the predictive power of several contemporary models in use in parallel fields of education. Given further work to refine and apply the model, a valuable improvement could be made in how teachers work with ICT in the language classroom for improved learning outcomes.

Submitted by Felipe Bogea (fbogea@gmail.com) on 2018-08-11T16:54:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_Felipe_Bogea_20180805.pdf: 1312790 bytes, checksum: f043260e3a0d0be59420a94f738b5833 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Debora Nunes Ferreira (debora.nunes@fgv.br) on 2018-08-13T14:42:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_Felipe_Bogea_20180805.pdf: 1312790 bytes, checksum: f043260e3a0d0be59420a94f738b5833 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Suzane Guimarães (suzane.guimaraes@fgv.br) on 2018-08-13T15:24:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_Felipe_Bogea_20180805.pdf: 1312790 bytes, checksum: f043260e3a0d0be59420a94f738b5833 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-13T15:24:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_Felipe_Bogea_20180805.pdf: 1312790 bytes, checksum: f043260e3a0d0be59420a94f738b5833 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-17 / Social media mass adoption by individuals has increased consumer power, which, in turn, has pressured companies to adopt and manage its social media communications. However, there is limited research specifically on social media marketing adoption by companies. Furthermore, there is little consensus about the adoption factors and a lack of standardization in the terminology used in the academic articles. This thesis further the knowledge in social media adoption at the company level, by (i) identifying variables that can influence social media adoption by companies and determining how these variables influence adoption; (ii) proposing and empirically testing a theoretical model of social media adoption, under the light of TAM, UTAUT, and Institutional Theory. This thesis was conducted in two phases, which derived two articles. The first phase was primarily composed by analysis of the semi-structured interviews with senior marketing executives of large companies of different economic sectors. The second phase further developed the theoretical model and quantitatively tested it, based on the results of surveys sent to marketing professionals. The results of the second phase show that Isomorphic pressures (eg: coercive and mimetic pressures), social influence and facilitating conditions were the key factors driving social media adoption. / A adoção em massa das mídias sociais pelos indivíduos aumentou o poder dos consumidores, o que pressionou as empresas a adotarem e gerenciarem sua comunicação nas mídias sociais. Todavia, há poucas pesquisas sobre a adoção do marketing nas mídias sociais por empresas. Além disso, existe pouco consenso sobre os fatores que levam a adoção e uma ausência da terminologia empregada nos artigos acadêmicos. Essa tese amplia o conhecimento da adoção de mídias sociais pelas empresas ao: (i) identificar as variáveis que podem influenciar na adoção das mídias sociais e determinar como essas variáveis influenciam a adoção; (ii) propor e testar um modelo teórico de adoção de mídias sociais sob o primsma de TAM, UTAUT, e Teoria Institucional. Essa tese foi desenvolvida em duas fases, gerando dois artigos. A primeira fase foi composta basicamente pela análise de entrevistas semiestruturadas com executivos sêniors de marketing de diferentes setores da economia. A segunda fase, continuou o desenvolvimento do modelo teórico e quantitativamente testou o mesmo, baseado nos resultados dos questionários enviados para profissionais de marketing. Os resultados da segunda fase indicam que as pressões isomórficas (mimetica e coercitiva), influência social e condições facilitadoras são os principais fatores na adoção do marketing nas mídias sociais.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The research focuses on the acceptance of new technologies within the telecommunications industry. The study examines three models namely Innovation theory, Theory of Reason Action (TRA), and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). This study explores the technology acceptance models in order to explain why certain monitoring officers at ICASA would prefer specific technologies over others. Models of interest could be the innovation theory, TRA and TAM. After reviewing both models, the author will examine the TAM in detail as a model of interest in this study. In turn, this model is expected to assist us to understand why monitoring officer's at ICASA would prefer a particular frequency monitoring technology over the other. / South Africa

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / This research work investigates and reports on the contribution of usability and perceptual frameworks towards understanding and ultimately increasing usage of a sales website and a corporate marketing website for a major insurance company in South Africa. It investigates whether the application of usability principles to the sales web positively influences the usage of the sales web system as a tool by intermediaries, and in so doing help the organisation recoup their investment and lower operational costs. This financial services (traditionally insurance) company, like many organisations, is in the process of migrating key operational systems onto web platforms to take advantage of benefits such as the ubiquity of web access and services orientated architecture among others. The research reviewed key frameworks in the area of technology acceptance or usage namely Nielsen‟s usability attributes (Nielsen, 2003). The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), (Davis, 1989). The Theory of Reasoned Action (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). The Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1985); and derived a theoretical summative model (the Conceptual Research Model) that combined both usability and perceptual dimensions. The applicability of this summative model was empirically tested using quantitative data relating to system usage and user perception. Empirical evidence was gathered to prove and refine the Conceptual Research Model (CRM), and the data substantiated the inclusion of the constructs in the CRM, as well as the efficacy of the model in a financial services organisation. Through testing of the CRM, this research has also confirmed which specific attributes of usability can be focussed on to bring about positive change in users' usage behaviour and adoption of a website or web application. / South Africa

Managing a software project is an increasingly complex task as it demands the quality of the final product to increase. Thus, e ective management is required from project design to software deployment and maintenance. According to the literature found, Requirements Engineering is the most important phase in terms of final impact on a software project. Changes in software requirements occur throughout the software process, from elicitation and requirements analysis to software operation. Requirements traceability enables one to identify the source and the dependency among software requirements. Studies show that current requirements traceability tools and methods are insu cient which makes it di cult to use traceability in practice. The goal of this work was the proposal of a requirements traceability technique combined with a modeling language and supported by a tool. To achieve this goal, bibliographic review, state-of-the-art research, comparative analysis, questionnaire and interviews were used as research instruments. Initially, an analysis of requirements traceability techniques and evaluation of requirements traceability tools were performed to evaluate if the techniques are used in practice and are being supported by software tools. After these analysis, an event-based traceability technique was proposed using concepts from the SysML modeling language. A software tool was developed to support this technique. Whenever a requirement is modified, the tool notifies stakeholders of such change made to the system requirements through e-mail. The technique and the tool were evaluated by twenty four information technology professionals using a questionnaire based on the TAM model that encompasses the concepts of perceived utility, perceived ease of use and perceived use, and interviews. As a result, the lack of relationship between the techniques and the tools surveyed was observed, and the criterion of automatic communication with stakeholders was not addressed in any evaluated tool. With regard to the proposed technique and tool, a wide acceptance of technique and tool was observed. The acceptance of the proposals was carried out by professionals with varied experiences in software development. / Gerenciar um projeto de software é uma tarefa cada vez mais complexa à medida que as exigências sobre a qualidade do produto final aumentam. Assim, é preciso um gerenciamento eficaz desde a concepção do projeto até a implantação e manutenção do software. Segundo a literatura encontrada, a Engenharia de Requisitos é a fase que possui maior impacto em um projeto de software. As mudanças nos requisitos de software ocorrem ao longo do processo de software, desde a elicitação e análise de requisitos até a operação do software. A rastreabilidade de requisitos possibilita identificar a origem e a dependência entre os requisitos de software. Estudos mostram que as ferramentas e métodos de rastreabilidade de requisitos atuais são insuficientes e dificultam o uso prático da rastreabilidade. O objetivo deste trabalho é a criação de uma técnica de rastreabilidade de requisitos combinada com uma linguagem de modelagem e que seja apoiada por uma ferramenta. Para atingir este objetivo, foram utilizados como instrumentos de pesquisa a revisão bibliográfica, uma pesquisa do tipo estado da arte, análise comparativa, questionário e entrevistas. Inicialmente, foram realizadas análise das técnicas de rastreabilidade de requisitos e avaliação de ferramentas de rastreabilidade de requisitos com intuito de avaliar se as técnicas são utilizadas na prática, e se estão sendo apoiadas por ferramentas de software. Após estas análises, foi proposta uma técnica de rastreabilidade entre requisitos baseada em eventos utilizando conceitos da linguagem de modelagem SysML. Uma ferramenta de software foi desenvolvida para apoiar essa técnica. Sempre que um requisito é modificado, a ferramenta notifica aos stakeholders a alteração realizada nos requisitos do sistema por meio de e-mails. A técnica e a ferramenta foram avaliadas por vinte e quatro profissionais de tecnologia da informação utilizando questionário, baseado no modelo TAM, que engloba os conceitos de utilidade percebida, facilidade de uso percebido e uso percebido, e entrevistas. Como resultado, foram observados a falta de relação entre as técnicas e as ferramentas pesquisadas e que o critério de comunicação automática com stakeholders não foi abordado em nenhuma ferramenta avaliada. Com relação à técnica e ferramenta propostas, observou-se uma ampla aceitação da técnica e da ferramenta. A aceitação das propostas foi realizada por profissionais com experiências variadas em desenvolvimento de software.

Text in English / The study investigated the usage of Open Access Institutional Repositories (OAIR) in university libraries in Ghana to develop a strategy on how the usage of OAIR in university libraries in Ghana may be enhanced. The study adopted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which was then modified to fit the study. Accessibility, availability and visibility were proposed in addition to the conventional variables of TAM to improve the fit between the data and the theoretical model. Pragmatism paradigm, mixed methods research approach and convergent parallel mixed method design (survey and case study designs) was used for the study. Simple random sampling, stratified random sampling, purposive sampling techniques and the sample size converter were the sampling procedures and methods employed. A total of nine hundred and ninety-eight (998) respondents completed the questionnaires distributed, but for the qualitative phase twelve (12) OAIR managers were purposively selected. The questionnaire and interview guide were used as research instruments to gather relevant data for the study. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multinomial logistic regression and CFA using SEM) were used as statistical tools to analyse quantitative data and thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The study revealed that there was a low level of OAIR usage in universities among academic staff, notwithstanding the high level of understanding of OAIR. This was evident in the number of research work uploaded onto the OAIR by the OAIR team. Inadequate advocacy, ICT connectivity, infrastructure, funding, power supply, insufficient technological skills, institutional repository policy, absence of incentives, institutional culture and politics and copyright issues were the challenges facing the usage of OAIR in university libraries in Ghana. The study concluded that advocacy, policies, software and staffing enshrined in an institutional guideline on OAIR would enhance OAIR usage. The study developed an OAIR Usage Model and OAIR User Manual, which would be very instrumental in the usage of OAIR in university libraries in Ghana. The model will enhance user satisfaction and intention to reuse the OAIR and making OAIR research outputs available, accessible and visible. The manual specifies the contents and documentsaccepted by the OAIR and ensuring the quality of documents archived. / Information Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)

Cette dissertation pour objectif de contribuer à la compréhension du phénomène d’adoption des technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) au travers de l’étude des déterminants de la facilité d’utilisation perçue du Modèle d’Acceptation des Technologies (TAM) de Davis (1989). La partie théorique présente tout d’abord le modèle TAM, ses origines, limites et évolutions, puis s’intéresse aux déterminants de la facilité d’utilisation perçue des technologies et enfin aborde les approches méthodologiques de l’étude des interactions homme-machine. Les études empiriques ont été menées dans le cadre de deux projets et contrats de recherche dans des contextes de demandes d’intervention (e-GRH) ou de projet de conception (Black-Skin), ce qui offre un excellent ancrage écologique. Pour chaque projet, un premier article présente l’évaluation de la technologie mettant en lumière des facteurs pouvant influencer la facilité d’utilisation perçue, ainsi que des apports méthodologiques, et un deuxième article étudie spécifiquement des facteurs d’influence de cette perception de cette facilité d’utilisation dans leurs contextes spécifiques d’usage. Cette thèse apporte un éclairage intéressant des facteurs impliqués dans la perception de la facilité d’utilisation perçue, mais aussi au niveau méthodologique dans l’étude de ces facteurs dans le cadre d’approches ergonomiques tenant compte de l’utilisateur, de la technologie et de son contexte d’usage. / Doctorat en Sciences psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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