The purpose of this study was to examine students’ perceptions of quality of online courses as they relate to the IHEP Teaching/Learning Process Benchmarks, Course Structure Benchmarks, and Student Support Benchmarks. The research design for this study was correlational. Out of 3,310 students enrolled in online courses, 97 successfully participated in the study at an urban southeastern university. A survey instrument consisting of three parts was used in this study. Part I of the survey instrument contains 24 Likert Scale questions, examining students’ online learning experiences. Part II of the survey contained four Likert Scale questions, gathering students’ rating on the overall quality of the online course in which they were enrolled. Part III of the survey instrument sought to obtain demographic information from the participants. The research questions were designed to determine students’ perceptions of online course quality distance education and whether a relationship exists between online students’ perception of quality and the operational variables: peer interaction, instructor feedback, course structure, and student support services. Pearson’s r correlation was used to analyze the survey data. After the data were collected and analyzed, the researcher determined that peer interactions, feedback from the instructors, and course structure contribute to predicting students’ perceptions of online course quality in the online courses studied. Students rated the quality of online teaching, online learning and course structure above average to excellent. Students’ perceptions of the quality of student support services were rated the lowest. An examination of the relationship between student perception of course quality and, instructor feedback, peer interaction, course structure, and student support services was also conducted. The results of the examination indicated that moderately statistically significant relationships existed between student perceptions of course quality and each of the three variables. Conclusions and recommendations based on the findings in this study indicated peer interaction, instructor feedback course structures, and student support services contribute to students’ perceptions of online course quality.

No description available.

No description available.

Mobile devices are currently designed similar to embedded systems where performance is derived from a specification that allows the device to interact in a periodic manner with the environment. However, as mobile devices increasingly interact with the Internet they exhibit a different style of computing that does not fit the embedded system model. At the same time, a mobile device designer needs to consider many different issues such as the number and types of processors, scheduling strategies, applications, power consumption, and dimensions of the device, which increase the total number of design decisions at an alarming rate. This research shows that by using a more realistic model of mobile devices using webpage-based benchmarks, customization can allow specialized architectures to improve performance up to 70 percent over a homogeneous multiprocessor composed of general purpose processors and 25 percent additional improvement over the next best architecture when individual user preferences were also considered. Webpage access, to include user profiling for individual utilization, is clearly a significant factor in the design of mobile devices — and thus should be included in future benchmarks based upon webpage content and webpage access patterns. When new evaluation techniques are developed, new design strategies can be discovered and employed. / Master of Science

Germany’s national league, the Bundesliga (BL), has been a global forerunner almost since its establishment in 1963 (Grabowski, 2018). Yet, even with historical attendance rates and annual record-breaking revenues, football is currently at a tipping point. To make positive contributions to society, long-term mindsets, and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) (Hammerschmidt et al., 2020) are key, which pushes football clubs to transform into football companies (FCs) (Zülch, 2020) or sport business clubs (SBCs) (Jovanov, 2021). Accordingly, this Dissertation proposes theory, qualitative research, and quantitative analysis relating to four main themes: club success factors, management framework robustness, sustainability management, and professional football benchmarks. Combining theoretical underpinnings and practical understanding strengthened the relevance and reliability of the research, further giving the findings robust application to the current environment and outlook of professional football management in Germany, Europe, and beyond.

This paper looks at the intersections of nature and culture through a study of forest ecosystem restoration efforts in the Ouachita National Forest (Arkansas and Oklahoma). Ecosystem restoration goals are often informed by a pre-European settlement (PES) condition, with an implicit (and occasionally explicit) assertion that such conditions are both more natural than and preferable to the contemporary state. In many cases resuming pre-suppression fire regimes remains a key mechanism for achieving this restored condition. This study’s three main objectives include: (1) determining how PES benchmarks arose in restoration thought, (2) examining how the choice to use a PES benchmark is influenced by culture, and (3) evaluating the pragmatism of including a PES benchmark in restoration projects. The issues of the naturalness of PES conditions, along with the cultural implications of adopting a PES benchmark, are critically examined against the backdrop of historic legacies of fire suppression and paleoecological change. Normative balance-of-nature ideas are discussed in light of their influence on natural resource management paradigms. Linkages are drawn between PES conditions and forest health. Evidence supporting the ecological resilience associated with PES vegetation communities is considered alongside the anticipation of future forcing factors. The idea that restored forests represent an ecological archetype is addressed. Finally, an alternative explanation concerning the tendency of ecosystem restoration efforts to converge on a single historic reference condition – a point of equifinality – is weighed against notions of: (1) anthropic degradation, (2) a regional optimum, and (3) a socially-constructed yearning for a frontier ideal. Because of the unique convergence between historical human activities and natural processes, contemporary culture has conceived of the PES time period as a sort of frontier ideal. The creation of PES benchmarks appears to be an unintentional consequence of attempts to restore forest health rigorously defined by biometric standards. This study offers, to restoration thinking, a framework for critically evaluating the inclusion of historic reference conditions and a means of responding to criticism surrounding their use. This study's findings rest on evidence gathered from paleoecological and historical biogeography data, interviews, archival materials, cultural landscape interpretation, landscape and nature-based art, and complexity theory.

O desenvolvimento de aplicações móveis é guiado por uma especial atenção aos requisitos não funcionais (do inglês, NFR - Non Functional Requirements), sendo o principal objetivo proporcionar uma boa experiência ao usuário final. Entretanto, a avaliação de NFRs é ainda uma tarefa manual, não estruturada e que consome muito tempo. Esta dissertação apresenta um estudo de várias abordagens relacionadas à avaliação de desempenho (por exemplo, o uso de aplicações de benchmark) e de NFRs no âmbito de sistemas móveis. No entanto, os benchmarks atuais são genéricos, geralmente, voltados para a plataforma de execução e nem sempre instituem um consenso na classificação de dispositivos. Visando uma melhor avaliação de NFRs e uma classificação de dispositivos com base nas necessidades de aplicações reais, este trabalho propõe um framework para gerar benchmarks orientados às necessidades de cada aplicação e, assim, fornecer uma forma eficiente e eficaz para estimar requisitos não funcionais em sistemas móveis. Essa ferramenta é composta por uma biblioteca de testes parametrizáveis, métricas e uma estrutura para geração rápida de benchmarks orientados à aplicação. O framework foi construído utilizando o paradigma de programação orientada a aspectos para coleta das métricas por fornecer uma maior modularidade e separação de interesses, de modo que a sua evolução, através da adição de outras métricas ou testes, seja facilitada. Para validação da proposta, foram realizados experimentos com cinco aplicações Android reais disponíveis na Play Store, sendo que para cada aplicação foi gerado um benchmark específico cujos resultados foram comparados com os obtidos para as aplicações móveis reais. Os resultados são promissores, mostrando que é possível criar aplicações de teste com comportamento semelhante ao de aplicações reais e, assim, classificar dispositivos com base nas necessidades das aplicações, através da análise das métricas presentes no framework. Essas métricas podem, ainda, orientar o desenvolvedor na otimização de suas aplicações ou ainda na escolha de dispositivos com melhor custo benefício para executar seus aplicativos. / The mobile application development is guided by a special attention to non-functional requirements (NFRs), where a good experience for the end user is the primary goal. However, NFRs evaluation is still a manual, unstructured and time-consuming task. This thesis presents a study of several approaches related to performance and NFR evaluation within mobile systems. Among these approaches is the use of benchmark applications. Currently available benchmarks are generic, usually focused on the execution platform and do not always establish a consensus on the classification of devices. For a better NFRs assessment and classification of devices based on real application needs, this work proposes a framework for generating application-oriented benchmarks for the early estimation of non-functional requirements in mobile systems. This framework is composed of a configurable test library, a set of metrics and an engine the assembling of the test program. The framework uses aspect-oriented programming to collect the metrics of interest. This approach provides increased modularity and separation of concerns, thus facilitating the improvement of the framework itself, by adding other metrics or testing operations. In order to validate the proposed framework we used five application from the Android Play store. For each application, a specific benchmark is generated and executed in different devices. The results are compared to those of the execution of the actual applications in the same devices. Experimental results are promising, showing that it is possible to create test applications with similar behavior to that of real applications and thus classify devices based on the actual application needs, by analyzing the metrics present in the framework. These metrics can also guide the developer in optimizing her applications or in choosing devices with the best trade-off between cost and performance to run a given application.

To achieve agreed targets for reducing global carbon emissions, industry must become more resource-efficient. To this end, two viable strategies exist: energy efficiency and material efficiency. Despite their inherent interdependence, industry continues to treat these two strategies as isolated pursuits, providing in the process only a partial insight into the potential of resource efficiency. To resolve this disconnect, this thesis attempts to develop and apply tools that help integrate industrial energy and material efficiency analyses. Three areas of research are explored. The first is concerned with a fundamental component of industrial performance: efficiency benchmarks. No agreed-upon metric exists to measure the efficiency with which the sector trans- forms both energy and materials - that is, how resource-efficient they are. This thesis applies exergy - a well-established method to consolidate energy and materials into a single metric - to a case study of the global steel industry in 2010. Results show that this exergy-based metric provides a suitable proxy to capture the interactions between energy and materials. By comparing energy and material efficiency options on an equal footing, this metric encourages the recovery of material by-products - an intervention excluded from traditional energy efficiency metrics. To realise resource efficiency opportunities, individual industry firms must be able to identify them at actionable time-frames and scopes. Doing this hinges on understanding resources flows through entire systems, the most detailed knowledge of which resides in control data. No academic study was found to exploit control data to construct an integrated picture of resources that is representative of real operations. In the second research area, control data is extracted to track the resource flows and efficiency of a basic oxygen steel-making plant from TataSteel. This second case study highlights the plant's material efficiency options during operations. It does so by building close-to-real-time Sankey diagrams of resource flows (measured in units of exergy) for the entire plant and its constituent processes. Without the support of effective policies the new exergy approach is unlikely to be widely adopted in industry. By collating evidence from interviews and policy documents, the third area explores why the European Union's industrial energy and emissions policies do not incentivise material efficiency. Results suggest several contributing factors, including: the inadequacy of monitored indicators; an imposed policy lock-in; and the lack of a designated industry lobby and high-level political buy-in. Policy interventions are then proposed to help integrate material efficiency into energy and climate agendas. The European Union's limited agency stresses the need for Member States and industry to drive the move to a low-carbon industry in the short-term.

At Hillcrest Community College (HCC; pseudonym) most developmental education (DE) students do not progress in their studies from DE to college-credit-bearing courses required to matriculate toward earning a credential. Student engagement is important for student success, but HCC had never completed a study of student engagement among its DE students. The purpose of this quantitative goal-based evaluation was to compare HCC DE student engagement with the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) national norms to determine if engagement contributed to the problem. Kuh's theory of student engagement was the theoretical basis of the study, and the overarching research question sought to clarify the extent to which HCC students were engaged. Institutional data archived from the 2016 CCSSE administered to HCC students (N = 169) and national data calculated by CCSSE (N = 211,168) were used for analysis using a one-sample t test. The primary research question was evaluated via 5 secondary questions associated with 5 CCSSE benchmarks. Secondary research questions were evaluated by testing 38 hypotheses for indicators associated with benchmarks. Null hypotheses were retained for 33 of 38 indicators using Cohen's d + .50 a priori criterion established for magnitude of effect size. Study results indicated that HCC DE students are mostly similar to DE students nationally in terms of engagement except for their use of computer labs. Evaluation report recommendations included maintaining existing engagement programs for DE students at HCC with attention to increasing DE student use of computer labs, and continuing to monitor engagement as future CCSSE data becomes available. HCC can benefit from an awareness that its DE students are engaged and can seek other ways to improve DE student outcomes and related benefits for positive social change at HCC.

<p>Sammanfattning</p><p>Hemsedal är en turistdestination mellan Bergen och Oslo, Norge. Deras vision är att vara Skandinaviens mest attraktiva resmål för fjällsport och unika kulturupplevelser. Att söka skapa en hållbar turismutveckling, genom en enhetlig definition av begreppet samt genom lämpliga verktyg, anser författarna är av betydelse för Hemsedal. Detta för att vara konkurrenskraftiga nog till att göra anspråk på titeln Skandinaviens mest attraktiva resmål, samt för en fortlevnad av destinationen. Hemsedal bör vara ekonomisk, ekologisk samt sociokulturellt långsiktigt hållbar. Det är viktigt med en gemensam definition av begreppet hållbar turismutveckling för att bidra till gemensamma mål och ett gemensamt arbete för att skapa en hållbar turismutveckling på destinationen. Syftet med studien är att analysera om det i Hemsedal finns en definition för hållbar turismutveckling. Författarna ämnar undersöka om, och i så fall hur, utvalda aktörer på destinationen arbetar för en sådan utveckling ur ett lokalt perspektiv. Det för att skapa förståelse för destinationsutvecklingen i Hemsedal med fokus på hållbar turismutveckling. Studien är en fallstudie av kvalitativ karaktär och innefattar semistrukturerade intervjuer vilka utfördes på plats i Hemsedal. Även litteratur, rapporter och artiklar studerades. Teorin behandlar hållbar turismutveckling och tar sin utgångspunkt i ekonomisk, ekologisk och sociokulturell hållbarhet. Vidare behandlas strategier för hur aktörer kan arbeta för att skapa en hållbar turismutveckling. Resultatet av studien visar att en medvetenhet om turismutvecklingen och dess effekter på destinationen finns bland de intervjuade aktörerna i Hemsedal. De arbetar för att skapa en hållbar turismutveckling men arbetssätten skiljer sig åt mellan aktörerna och en gemensam definition av begreppet hållbar turismutveckling finns inte.</p><p>Författarna hoppas att med studien väcka intresse samt skänka inspiration till destinationer i allmänhet, men Hemsedal i synnerhet, i deras arbete att skapa en hållbar turismutveckling.</p>