Thesis (MIT(Informatics))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.

Atualmente a tecnologia é fundamental para o processo de ensino e aprendizagem, sendo uma das abordagens de destaque o uso dos Objetos de Aprendizagem. A partir desta óptica, esta pesquisa desenvolveu uma ferramenta web de autoria para Objetos de Aprendizagem, que permite a manipulação dos registros de erros na prática docente por meio de um mecanismo que possibilita a retroação ao contexto de erros e acertos dos aprendizes. Dessa forma, argumenta-se que o armazenamento, a visualização, a manipulação e a recuperação de registros de erros e também de acertos dos aprendizes podem trazer benefícios para o ensino e aprendizagem. Neste trabalho, o problema de construção de Objetos de Aprendizagem com ferramentas de autoria é exposto de maneira crítica. As principais limitações das abordagens atuais do ensino de matemática com Objetos de Aprendizagem são apontadas na resenha literária. Uma ferramenta web de autoria, chamada FARMA, com enfoque no conceito de mobilidade tecnológico-educacional, é apresentada como alternativa às abordagens pedagógicas existentes que se apoiam em aparatos tecnológicos. A teoria ACT (Adaptive Control of Thought) embasou o modelo de criação e apresentação de exercícios do arcabouço proposto. O erro do aprendiz é destacado como abordagem cognitivista central da aprendizagem no contexto da atual versão da FARMA. A avaliação do processo de autoria foi realizada por meio de estudos empíricos focados na simplicidade de criar Objetos de Aprendizagem matemáticos. O experimento realizado para avaliação de uma nova abordagem de trabalhar com o erro dos aprendizes em Objetos de Aprendizagem se deteve na sua utilização por professores e aprendizes, assim como, nos potenciais ganhos para ensino e aprendizagem. Os resultados mostram que o arcabouço apresentado, com a proposta da utilização dos erros no processo de aquisição de conhecimento, fundamentalmente diferente das encontradas em ambientes educacionais, têm grandes potencialidades para o ensino e aprendizagem. / Nowadays the technology is essencial to the process of teaching and learning and one of the prominent approaches is the use of Learning Objects. Seeing that, the research developed a web authoring tool to Learning Objects, which allows the manipulation of the error records in the teaching practice through retroaction mechanism that allows going back to the context of correct and wrongs interactions of apprentices. Thus, it is argued that the storage, visualization, manipulation, and retrieval of errors records and also correct interaction of the learners can bring benefits for teaching and learning. In this thesis, the problem of building learning objects with authoring tools is exposed in a critical way. The main limitations of current approaches to mathematics teaching with learning objects are pointed out in the literature review. A web authoring tool, called FARMA, focusing on the concept of techno-educational mobility, is presented as an alternative to existing pedagogic approaches that rely on technological devices, the theory Adaptive Control of Thought guided the fellowship model creation and presentation of the proposed framework exercises. The mistakes of the learner are highlighted as a central cognitive approach of learning in the current version of FARMA. The evaluation of the authoring tool was done as an empirical study focused on simplicity to create mathematical Learning Objects. The experiment conducted to evaluate a new approach of working with errors in Learning Objects focused in the use by teachers and learners and their potential benefits for teaching and learning. The results show that the framework developed with the proposed use of errors in the acquisition of knowledge, fundamentally di!erent from those found in environments educacionas process, has great potential for teaching and learning.

Ce travail de thèse se propose d’étudier tout d’abord le rôle majeur de l’effet de conformité, qui consiste en la reprise de caractéristiques de l’existant dans l’activité de conception, pour ensuite étudier ses effets sur l’appréciation esthétique des pages web réalisées, par des utilisateurs. Nos hypothèses générales sont, d’une part, que l’effet de conformité, décrit par une grande partie de la littérature comme un effet négatif et difficilement répressible peut être optimisé par les conditions de consultation des sources d’inspiration et améliorer ainsi l’utilisabilité des pages web. D’autre part, nous faisons l’hypothèse que l’amélioration de l’utilisabilité des pages web peut avoir un impact significatif sur l’expérience utilisateur et influencer les différents facteurs qui la compose, comme l’esthétique et l’utilisabilité perçue. Les résultats des six expériences menées auprès de concepteurs professionnels de sites web et d’utilisateurs du web ont montré d’une part qu’il est possible de contraindre l’effet de conformité et comment, dans une perspective applicative, utiliser cette influence pour optimiser la prise en compte de l’utilisabilité. Et d’autre part que cette amélioration de l’utilisabilité influence, dans une certaine mesure, l’appréciation esthétique des pages web par les utilisateurs / This thesis work proposes to study first the role of the fixation effect, which involves reworking of the existing features in the design activity, and then study its effects on the assessment aesthetic web pages made by users. Our general hypotheses are, firstly, that the fixation effect, described by much of the literature as a negative and repressible can be optimized by the conditions of consultation of the inspiration sources and thus improve the usability of web pages. Furthermore, we hypothesize that improving the usability of web pages can have a significant impact on user experience and influence factors that compose it, such as aesthetics and perceived usability. The results of six experiments conducted with professional web designers and web users have shown firstly that it is possible to constrain the fixation effect and how, in an application perspective, use this influence to optimize the consideration of usability. And secondly that the improvement of usability influence, to a certain extent, the aesthetic appreciation of web pages by users.

Le présent travail questionne la place des acteurs diasporiques dans les processus de production et des usages de l’information sur Internet via les sites web d’informations générales. Des supports électroniques qui émergeraient dans un contexte au sein duquel l’espace médiatique serait « reconfiguré » par les TIC. À cet effet, les sites web camerounais d’information générales nous ont servi d’étude de cas. En effet, notre travail s’est axé autour d’une question centrale : qu’est-ce qui explique la multiplication des sites d’informations camerounais alors qu’existe déjà la presse en ligne ? Une presse en ligne qui peine déjà à s’affirmer et/ou, à développer des modèles économiques viables et indépendants. Comment et selon quelles logiques ces acteurs réagissent-ils ? Répondre à ces deux questionnements nous a conduit à montrer ou démontrer que des jeux et des stratégies d’acteurs se construisent sur et autour de ces sites web, afin de « légitimer » (Charaudeau, 2005, p. 123) leurs choix et orientations/opinions dans les contenus médiatiques.La grille théorique mobilisée pour rendre compte de cela a tourné autour des paradigmes d’agenda building et/ou construction de l’actualité (Esquenazi, (2002), Charaudeau (1997, 2011), de constructivisme social (Bernard Delforce, p. 208, Sismondo, Mucchieilli) et d’identité éditoriale avec Roselyne Ringoot (2014). Nous avons opté pour une étude quali-quantitative. Ainsi, nous nous sommes inscrit dans une logique de recherche empirico-inductive. Les outils méthodologiques usités sont l’observation indirecte, la recherche documentaire, l’entretien semi-dirigé adressé aux promoteurs des sites web camerounais d’informations générales, questionnaire adressé aux internautes et l’analyse de contenu des titrailles des dits sites, du 15 janvier 2014 au 15 janvier 2015.Les résultats de cette étude montrent aussi bien que les diasporas camerounaises ont pris conscience de l’inéluctabilité des medias électroniques et du « webjournalisme », en attestent leurs pratiques communicationnelles et interactions autour de ces sites web. Cependant les promoteurs des sites web camerounais d’informations générales rencontrent des difficultés de financement et font rarement appel à des professionnels de la communication. Cet engouement pour Internet et le développement des TIC augurerait donc la mise en place d’un espace sociétal en formation (si l’on prend acte de la fragmentation de l’espace public, traité par Miège) au sein duquel les citoyens seraient « libres » de s’exprimer sur des questions sociétales. / The present work questions the place of diasporic actors in the production process and uses of information on the Internet through general information websites. Electronic media that would emerge in a context in which the media space would be "reconfigured" by ICT. To this end, the Cameroonian websites general information we have served as a case study. Indeed, our work is focused around a central question: what explains the proliferation of Cameroonian news sites while already exists online news? An online press that is already struggling to assert themselves and / or to develop viable and independent business models. How and by what logic these actors react? Answering these two questions led us to show or demonstrate that games and player strategies are built on and around these sites in order to "legitimize" (Charaudeau, 2005, p. 123) their choices and orientations / opinions in media contents.The theoretical grid mobilized to realize this has turned around the building agenda paradigms and / or the news’ construction (Esquenazi, (2002), Charaudeau (1997, 2011), social constructivism (Bernard Delforce, p. 208 , Sismondo, Mucchieilli) and editorial identity Roselyne Ringoot (2014).We opted for a quali-quantitative study. Thus, we registered in empirical-inductive search logic. Our methodological tools are indirect observation, documentary research, semi-structured intervieuws assigned to promoters of general information Cameroonian websites , surveys to users and content analysis of such websites titrailles of 15 January 2014 to January 15, 2015The results of this study show that as well as the Cameroonian diaspora have realized the inevitability of electronic media and the "webjournalisme" as attest their communication practices and interactions around these websites. However promoters of Cameroonian general informations websites have difficulty financing and rarely make use of communication professionals. This craze for Internet and ICT development thus would cause the establishment of a societal space training (if one notes the fragmentation of the public space, treated by Miege) in which citizens would be "free "to speak on societal issues.

xiv, 203 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The purpose of this research is to advance understanding of mediated relationships in the form of parasocial interaction (PSI) in local television news branding efforts, particularly the influence of PSI on loyalty and commitment outcomes. This research is the first of its kind to attempt a test of both the TV PSI construct and Web PSI construct and their applicability to local news in the digital age. As part of this examination, the study introduces the concept of viral viewers. Motivated in part by affect, these viewers are willing to promote the station and its content across media platforms. Viewing and visiting characteristics leading to TV station and Web site loyalty and commitment are also identified. This study uses an online survey to explore three research questions and four hypotheses. The population of interest is visitors to local television news Web sites. Television stations in the Pacific Northwest were solicited to take part in the study. Six participating stations posted the survey on their Web sites. Data were collected from 277 respondents. Regression models showed Web PSI, station usefulness/quality, and TV PSI are all statistically significant predictors of loyalty and commitment. Web PSI has the largest beta coefficient when compared to the contribution of other variables. Hierarchical multiple regression also found that station usefulness/quality, site usefulness/quality, TV PSI, and Web PSI partially mediated the relationship between viewing and visiting characteristics and loyalty and commitment. The study concludes that local TV stations must be mindful of producing good content with viral potential in order to acquire help from viral viewers. Furthermore, news personalities remain important to overall brand strategy. This research fills three significant gaps in the literature surrounding local TV news research. First, it brings research on parasocial interaction into the digital age, advancing the application of the TV and Web parasocial constructs. Second, this study reconceptualizes notions of audience and promotion by introducing the concept of viral viewers. Third, it brings together scholarship regarding branding and local TV news, providing a systematic analysis of branding's role in local TV stations' multi-platform news strategy. Indexing (document details) / Committee in charge: Kim Sheehan, Chairperson, Journalism and Communication Scott Maier, Member, Journalism and Communication; Biswarup Sen, Member, Journalism and Communication; David Boush, Outside Member, Marketing

THESIS Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MAGISTER TECHNOLOGIAE in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY in the FACULTY OF BUSINESS INFORMATICS at the CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2005 / The Internet has become the fastest growing technology the world has ever seen. It also has the ability to permanently change the face of business, including e-business. The Internet has become an important tool required to gain potential competitiveness in the global information environment. Companies could improve their levels of functionality and customer satisfaction by adopting e-commerce, which ultimately could improve their long-term profitability. Those companies who do end up adopting the use of the Internet, often fail to gain the advantage of providing a visible website. Research has also shown that even though the web provides numerous opportunities, the majority of SMMEs (small, medium and micro enterprises) are often ill equipped to exploit the web’s commercial potential. It was determined in this research project through the analysis of 300 websites, that only 6.3% of SMMEs in the Western Cape Province of South Africa appears within the top 30 results of six search engines, when searching for services/products. This lack of ability to produce a visible website is believed to be due to the lack of education and training, financial support and availability of time prevalent in SMMEs. For this reason a model was developed to facilitate the improvement of SMME website visibility. To develop the visibility model, this research project was conducted to identify potential elements which could provide a possible increase in website visibility. A criteria list of these elements was used to evaluate a sample of websites, to determine to what extent they made use of these potential elements. An evaluation was then conducted with 144 different SMME websites by searching for nine individual keywords within four search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ananzi), and using the first four results of every keyword from every search engine for analysis. Elements gathered through academic literature were then listed according to the usage of these elements in the top-ranking websites when searching for predetermined keywords. Further qualitative research was conducted to triangulate the data gathered from the literature and the quantitative research. The evaluative results provided the researcher with possible elements / designing techniques to formulate a model to develop a visible website that is not only supported by arrant research, but also through real current applications. The research concluded that, as time progresses and technology improves, new ways to improve website visibility will evolve. Furthermore, that there is no quick method for businesses to produce a visible website as there are many aspects that should be considered when developing “visible” websites.

A presente dissertação investiga o quanto influencias situacionais, presentes nos sites de empresas do comércio eletrônico, impactam na intenção de recompra do consumidor online. Para tanto, um modelo teórico integrativo foi desenvolvido e investigado, baseado em uma revisão teórica dos principais estudos que pesquisam intenção de compra no e-commerce. Buscou-se o desenvolvimento de um modelo que proporcionasse uma explicação abrangente dos principais fatores advindos do contexto de compra nos sites que tivessem uma relação positiva com a satisfação e intenção de recompra do consumidor. Uma das grandes contribuições dessa dissertação é a identificação dos fatores presentes nos sites de empresas do e-commerce mais importantes no processo de decisão de compra do consumidor. Como contribuição teórica, esse modelo desenvolvido abrange além dos principais construtos que já estão sendo investigados nesta área de estudos (conteúdo, layout, risco percebido e diversão) construtos ainda não investigados em um mesmo modelo: Tipo de apelo utilizado na comunicação, Comunicação do preço, Tipo de manchete e Facilidade percebida na realização da transação. Além disso, investigou-se se a variável gerações de consumidores seria moderadora destas relações. Os dados desse estudo foram coletados a partir de uma amostra de 228 questionários válidos aplicados em consumidores que utilizam a Internet para realizar compras. O método de coleta de dados aplicado nesta pesquisa foi a pesquisa do tipo survey com questionários auto-administrados pela Internet. Para a análise de dados primários coletados, optou-se pelo uso do mínimo quadrado parcial (Partial Least Squares ou PLS) para a obtenção tanto das relações dos construtos independentes e dependentes, como também das relações existentes entre todos os construtos do modelo proposto. Resultados obtidos demonstram que a satisfação afeta diretamente a intenção de recompra do consumidor. Além disso, todos os construtos do modelo tiveram a hipótese sustentada, indicando influencias com magnitudes distintas, mas todas positivas. A variável gerações demonstrou moderar a relação de 4 dos 8 construtos da pesquisa. Destaca-se por fim que o modelo proposto permite a explicação de elevada proporção da variância total da intenção de recompra. / This project presents a study that investigates how recurrent online consumers are influenced by different aspects while shopping through websites (e-commerce). The author reviewed main international academic studies about buying intents through the internet, and then investigated and modeled an integrative survey, which could correlate both consumer satisfaction and rebuying intent with a series of factors related to the shopping experience. The main contribution of this paper is the identification of the most important factors on the online stores (e-retail) which positively impact the online shoppers, both, those already analyzed in many studies as content, layout, enjoyment and perceived risks, and some new constructs that have not been analyzed together as headlines, price/discount offers, advertisement appealing and easiness of browsing. Moreover, this paper also offered a perspective about whether and how these factors vary according do consumers\' generation. All data was extracted from an online self-administered survey with 330 consumers in São Paulo who declared being used to shopping goods through Internet. It came to a 228 valid respondents, whose responses were analyzed through the method of Partial Least Squares (PLS), in order to obtain both, the correlation of dependent and independent constructs, as well as the correlation among all factors analyzed within this study. The main outcome of this study is that online shoppers\' satisfaction strongly impacts their rebuying intention. Moreover, all the constructs present in this study have proved their positive impact on consumers rebuying intention, each factor varying in correlation strength, but all positive and statically proven. Besides that, the variable \'generation\' moderated 4 out of all 8 constructs presented in this study. Lastly, the proposed model statically explains higher proportion of total rebuying intention variance.

Orientador: Inês Signorini / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T02:46:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gali_Paula_M.pdf: 4554107 bytes, checksum: 01cd238cb7f620e74661342ac4d2ab99 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Esta dissertação de Mestrado apresenta a análise de três sítios institucionais produzidos por alunos de curso técnico em Web Design, retratando de cada sítio o aspecto da produção de significado hipermodal que se destaca. Interessa-nos apresentar, conforme a intenção de divulgar as empresas e aproximar empresa e usuário-cliente, como os alunos selecionaram e combinaram os elementos semióticos, quais os locais escolhidos para o posicionamento dos elementos nas páginas dos sítios, quais os recursos propostos de interação com o usuário, como os participantes (empresa/usuário) foram representados nos sítios, a fim de comporem os significados, e como a articulação de todos esses elementos foi compreendida por usuários comuns de internet. Esse trabalho é uma pesquisa qualitativa e está centrada nos estudos aplicados de linguagem. Os pressupostos teóricos são da Teoria Semiótica da Hipermodalidade, de estudos sobre hipertexto, Letramento, Gênero e de multimodalidade (fundamentado na Gramática do Design Visual) e tem como recursos metodológicos gravação em áudio e vídeo, anotações de observações de aulas do curso (diário de anotações), documentos escritos do curso / Abstract: This Master's thesis presents an analysis of three institutional websites made by students of a Web Design course, indicating the features of hypermodal meaning production which is emphasized on the website. It is our interest to show how the students selected and combined the semiotic elements, the places at the websites chosen to position the elements on their pages in order to keep the visual or verbal information. Furthermore we want to demonstrate the interactive resource, how the participants were represented on the websites in order to produce the meanings, and how the inter-relation of all the information components were understood by the internet users. This dissertation is a qualitative research which is centered on the applied studies os language and has the focus on the semiotic elements obtained by means of language in specific social context. The fundamental theory is about the Hypermodality Semiotic, and the complementary studies are on Hypertext, Literacies, Genre and in Multimodality (Grammar of Visual Design). Finally, the methodological resources are audio and video recording, noted reflections on class diary, written documents about the course program and the students final text of the course / Mestrado / Lingua Materna / Mestre em Linguística Aplicada

Web portals are considered “gateways” to the World Wide Web. These portals are becoming very popular entry points to the Web by offering important services such as email, news, weather reports, course notes and general information. In addition, some portal sites allow users the option of customising the site according to their personal interests. However, disabled and elderly people encounter many accessibility and usability barriers while accessing web portals. A preliminary review of a university portal was conducted to identify some of these accessibility problems. This treatise presents an overview of the processes to be followed when conducting an accessibility and usability evaluation. In addition, it mentions some guidelines to be considered when specifically designing portals for use by many different users from varying backgrounds.

The number of citizens, who access e-Government websites, is growing significantly and their expectations for additional services are increasing. The Internet has become an essential instrument to distribute information to citizens. Poorly designed websites, however, can divide governments and its citizens. Consensus amongst researchers is that user experience (UX) is an important factor in designing websites specifically e-Government websites. Problems, experienced with website usability, prevent people from accessing and eventually adopting technology, such as e-Government. Countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, have shown increased support for UX in e-Government websites. At present, a number of guidelines and design principles exists for e-Government website UX design; however, the effectiveness of the implementation of these guidelines and principles depends on the profiles of the individuals on a website development team and on an organisation’s understanding of UX. Despite the highlighted importance of UX, guidelines and principles are rarely adopted in South African e-Government websites. Usability and UX guidelines cannot be implemented; if there is no executive support; an inadequately trained staff; no routine UX practice; insufficient budget; inefficient use of usability methodologies and user-centred design (UCD) processes. The challenge at present in the UX design field is the institutionalisation of UX, specifically at government level. The goal of this research was to propose and evaluate a methodology to institutionalise UX in South African Provincial Governments (PGs), named the “Institutionalise UX in Government (IUXG) methodology”. The research used the Western Cape Government (WCG) in South Africa as a case study to evaluate the proposed methodology to institutionalise UX in a South African PG. The IUXG methodology (1.0) was proposed from five UX methodologies, as well as from best practices found in literature. The IUXG methodology (1.1) was updated, based on results of a survey to South African PGs, a survey to WCG employees, as well as literature from the WCG. The IUXG methodology (2.0) was updated a final time, based on the case study results and on a confirmation survey with WCG employees after the implementation of the case study. The research study made use of three surveys during this research. The first survey, incorporating UX maturity models, confirmed that understanding and buy-in of UX are limited and that UX maturity levels are low at South African PG level. The second and third surveys were administered to WCG e-Government website officials before and after the implementation of the IUXG methodology. The surveys measured the UX maturity level of the WCG in the component, e-Government for Citizens (e-G4C), responsible for the WCG e-Government website. The final survey results demonstrated that, after the implementation of the IUXG methodology, the WCG improved its level of UX maturity on the identified UX maturity models. Implementation of the IUXG methodology institutionalised UX in the WCG. UX activities became standard practice in the e-Government website environment after the systems development lifecycle (SDLC) incorporated UCD. UX policy, strategy and guidelines were documented for the WCG e-Government website. The WCG constructed the first usability testing facility for a South African PG and improvements to the WCG e-Government website were implemented. The proposed IUXG methodology institutionalised UX in the WCG e-Government website environment. This research is a major contribution, to addressing the current lack of UX practices in South African PGs. South African PGs can use the proposed IUXG methodology to institutionalise UX and it will assist PG officials to develop increased UX maturity levels. The advantage of the IUXG methodology is that it provides PG officials with a step-by-step method how to institutionalise UX in a PG by following the six phases of the IUXG methodology: startup, setup, organisation, method, standards and long-term. The IUXG methodology will assist South African PGs to establish UX practice as a norm. The IUXG methodology will assist PGs with the resources, methods and tools to enable them to implement UX guidelines, which will result in an improved, more usable and more user-centric PG e-Government website.