The students' expectations must be met to ensure their overall satisfaction. Because of this student satisfaction has become a measurement tool with which the universities can compete against each other in order to attract potential students and also a higher level of internal and external funding. This thesis deals with students' overall satisfaction in tourism education at Dalarna University in Sweden. It is important to understand what it takes for the universities to be able to produce a motivated workforce for the communities and how satisfied students could help in achieving this goal. Sweden was selected because of the recent introduction of tuition fees, in 2010, which has made it even more crucial to understand the factors affecting students' satisfaction. The method chosen for conducting this study was a questionnaire where the students of Dalarna University were asked to rate different aspects of their overall experience on a Likert scale. The research was conducted via Facebook and email questionnaire. The results show different levels of satisfaction based on the tourism programmes and gender for example. The major finding from this research implicate that the social conditions and surrounding city categories are the most influential when it comes to the overall satisfaction of students at Dalarna University. The results give the university and the city of Borlänge an insight on issues that really matter to the students and how to improve them.

Researchers interested in measuring people's underlying attitudes towards an object (e.g., abortion) often collect Likert data by administering a survey. Likert data consist of surveyees' responses to statements about the object, where responses fall into ordered categories running from `Strongly agree' to `Strongly disagree' or into a `Don't Know / Can't Choose' category. Two examples of Likert data are used for illustrative purposes. The first dataset was collected by the author from American and British graduate students at Oxford University and contains items measuring underlying abortion attitudes. The second dataset was taken from British and American responses to the 1995 National Identity Survey (NIS) and contains items measuring underlying national pride and immigration attitudes. A model for Likert data and underlying attitudes is introduced. This model is more principled than existing models. It treats people's underlying attitudes as latent variables, and it specifies a relationship between underlying attitudes and responses that is consistent with attitudinal research. Further, the formal probability model for responses allows people's interpretation of the response categories to differ. The model is fitted by maximising an appropriate likelihood. Variants of the model are used to analyse Likert data in three contexts; in each, the method using our model compares favourably to existing methods. First, the model is used to visualise the structure underlying the abortion attitude data. This method of visualization produces more sensible plots than analogous multivariate data visualization methods. Second, the model is used to select the statements whose responses (in the abortion attitude data) best reflect underlying abortion attitudes. Our method of statement selection more closely adheres to attitude researchers' stated aims than popular methods based on sample correlations. Third, the model is used to investigate how underlying national pride varies with nationality in the NIS data and also how underlying abortion attitude varies with gender, religious status, and nationality in the abortion attitude data. Unlike methods currently used by social scientists to model the relationship between attitudes and covariates, our method controls for the effects of differing response category interpretation. As a result, inferences about group differences in underlying attitudes are more robust to group differences in response category interpretation.

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between knowledge transfer and innovation. The literature documents that increasing knowledge transfer can both increase and decrease an organisation's capability to innovate. This study proposes a model that integrates these two theoretical standpoints and in doing so hypothesizes a non-linear (parabolic) relationship between knowledge transfer and innovation. Empirical research to date, including the work of Storey and Kelly (2002), document a linear relationship between knowledge transfer and innovation. In order to investigate the possibility of a non-linear relationship this study proposes and tests refinements to Storey and Kelly's methodology. A refined survey questionnaire was sent to all the local government councils within two Australian states and both linear and quadratic statistical analyses were performed. The results of this pilot study revealed linear relationships between four of the six knowledge transfer questions and the innovation measurement question. A further refinement to the methodology is recommended before a non-linear relationship between knowledge transfer and innovation is rejected.

Με την παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία γίνεται μια προσπάθεια παρουσίασης και αξιολόγησης του εκπαιδευτικού τίτλου "Geometer's Sketchpad" και του "Geonext" δηλαδή δύο εκπαιδευτικών λογισμικών για τη Β/θμια εκπαίδευση με τη μέθοδο αξιολόγησης πρόβλεψης (Predictive evaluation) με χρήση της κλίμακας Likert. Στην αξιολόγηση αυτή οι βασικότεροι άξονες που ακολουθούμε είναι: Διδακτική σχεδίαση, Περιεχόμενο, Υποστήριξη Εκπαιδευτικού και Τεχνική Αρτιότητα. Τα κριτήρια στα οποία βασιστήκαμε τα αντλήσαμε από σχετικά ερωτηματολόγια που βρίσκονται στο βιβλίο "Το εκπαιδευτικό λογισμικό και η αξιολόγηση του" των Χ. Παναγιωτακόπουλος, Χ. Πιερρακέας, Π. Πιντέλας. / Description and evaluation of educational softwares Geometer Sketchpad and Geonext with the method evaluation of forecast (predictive evaluation) with the use of scale Likert.

Submitted by Maryse Santos (maryseeu4@gmail.com) on 2016-08-12T14:35:16Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação- Antônio da Conceição Montes.pdf: 1481934 bytes, checksum: 1381695c76839ac1746b0857c550dc3d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2016-08-26T12:17:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação- Antônio da Conceição Montes.pdf: 1481934 bytes, checksum: 1381695c76839ac1746b0857c550dc3d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2016-08-26T12:20:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação- Antônio da Conceição Montes.pdf: 1481934 bytes, checksum: 1381695c76839ac1746b0857c550dc3d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-26T12:20:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação- Antônio da Conceição Montes.pdf: 1481934 bytes, checksum: 1381695c76839ac1746b0857c550dc3d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-09-25 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Although belonging to the same social system, governmental and commercial organizations, among others, possess different internal environments and behaviors. Teaching institution, for example, It differs from other organizations, not only in architecture but also in the internal climate and culture. This study aims, verify and discuss an appropriate questionnaire model to evaluate the organizational climate in higher education institutions. The assessment of this instrument is focused on ease of understanding of the items by the respondents, proposed based on the synthesis of some of the instruments already used to evaluate the organizational climate to measure the organizational climate to effectively assess such a climate in secondary education institutions, allowing for swifter analysis, interpretations and diagnostics of data obtained through this method without compromising quality, effectiveness or relevance of results. Based on the literature review, different models measuring organizational climate were observed, each analyzing the dimensions associated with determined properties of the specific organization to be studied. The presented instrument is based on the characteristics of the work context for which it was created and responds to the lack of tools that allow for simple evaluation of the specific climate of teaching institutions. In conclusion, the climate was acknowledged as a construct of considerable interest within the research field of Organizational Behavior, predominantly as a result of its demonstrable influence over organizational effectiveness. Key / Embora pertençam a um mesmo sistema social, as organizações governamentais e comerciais, entre outras, possuem comportamentos e ambientes internos diferentes. As instituições de ensino, por exemplo, diferem das outras organizações, não só na arquitetura, mas também no clima interno e na cultura. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo, verificar e discutir um modelo de questionário adequado para avaliação do clima organizacional em instituições de Ensino Superior. A avaliação deste instrumento é focada na facilidade de compreensão dos itens por parte dos entrevistados, proposto com base na síntese de alguns dos instrumentos já utilizados para avaliação do clima organizacional para aferir o clima organizacional em uma instituição de ensino superior de maneira eficiente, proporcionando maior rapidez na interpretação, análise e diagnóstico dos dados obtidos por meio deste instrumento sem comprometer a qualidade, eficácia e relevância dos resultados. Com base na revisão da literatura, foram observados diferentes modelos para medir o clima organizacional e cada um analisa as dimensões associadas com determinadas propriedades da organização específica a ser estudada. O instrumento apresentado baseia-se nas características do contexto de trabalho para o qual foi criado e responde à falta de instrumentos que permitam avaliar de forma simples o clima especifico de instituições de ensino. Em resumo, o clima foi estabelecido como uma construção de considerável interesse dentro do campo da pesquisa de comportamento organizacional, predominantemente como resultado de sua influência demonstrável sobre a eficácia organizacional.

本論文では大規模カテゴリカルデータのデータ解釈の場面で生じる問題を考えた．データが大規模な場合，クラスター分析や視覚化などで，データの潜在的な構造を調べる方法が有用とされるが，対象ごとにカテゴリの解釈が異なったり，同じ属性でも回答傾向が異なったりすると解釈が複雑になる．本論文ではそのように既存手法をシンプルに適用するのでは解釈が難しいようなデータに対して，よりわかりやすい解釈をするための手法を開発した． / Large-scale categorical data are often obtained in various fields. As an interpretation of large-scale data tends to be complicated, methods to capture the latent structure in data, such as a cluster analysis and a visualization method are often used to make data more interpretable. However, there are some situations where these methods failed to capture the latent structure that is interpretable (e.g., interpretation of categories by each respondent is different). Therefore in this paper, two problems that often occur in large-scale categorical data analysis is considered, and new methods to address these issues are proposed. / 博士(文化情報学) / Doctor of Culture and Information Science / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

Agricultural production is the major source of household food security and income for smallholder maize farmers in the rural households in the Kingdom of eSwatini. The sector also contributes approximately 6.5% to the national gross domestic product and 50% of raw material for industries and other sectors. However, the sector is faced with several challenges which hinder its development. The challenges are brought about by climate change. Farmers implement various strategies to adapt to the negative effects of climate change. Farmers awareness and perceptions of impacts of climate change influence the strategies and hence, farmers’ level of adaptation. This study was undertaken to assess smallholder maize farmers’ awareness and perceptions of the impacts of climate change in three maize producing regions of eSwatini. Descriptive statistics and a regression model were used for data analysis. The results from a descriptive analysis indicated that 71.3% of farmers were aware of climate change, while 28.7% were not aware. A regression test revealed that climate-related information was highly significant in determining farmers’ awareness of the impacts of climate change. A Likert scale analysis showed that rural-urban migration, floods incidents and soil erosion were the most important variables that influenced small-scale maize farmers’ perceptions of climate change. The study revealed that there should be more focus on improving extension services to promote access to financial services. / Agriculture and  Animal Health / M.Sc. (Agriculture)

<div>In the modern era where technology is constantly evolving, it is important to evaluate new technological tools and approaches in order to gauge their potential for adoption. Rapid Application Development (RAD) has highly evolved over the years, but it has not seen much response at the university level. Several studies show that perceptions of usability form the basis of acceptance or rejection of new tools and applications. Thus, running a usability study on a specific RAD tool coupled with autoethnographic documentation of specific development experience with that tool has the potential to encourage university faculty/staff to consider teaching/using it.</div><div><br></div><div>This research study seeks to understand developers' perceptions regarding the usability aspect of Mendix, a Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed to discover and understand the extent of perceived usefulness, ease of use and satisfaction with the tool. The results of the study presented a case for academicians on the viability of teaching RAD or using Mendix for their web application development needs. The study ultimately sought to help university faculty understand what to expect while teaching RAD to students from computing background and also help them decide if they would like to use tools like Mendix for their software development projects or continue to use specific coding languages (traditional software development) for software development projects. </div><div><br></div>

This paper provides an alternative methodology for the analysis of a set of Likert responses measured on a common attitudinal scale when the primary focus of interest is on the relative importance of items in the set. The method makes fewer assumptions about the distribution of the responses than the more usual approaches such as comparisons of means, MANOVA or ordinal data methods. The approach transforms the Likert responses into paired comparison responses between the items. The complete multivariate pattern of responses thus produced can be analysed by an appropriately reformulated paired comparison model. The dependency structure between item responses can also be modelled flexibly. The advantage of this approach is that sets of Likert responses can be analysed simultaneously within the Generalized Linear Model framework, providing standard likelihood based inference for model selection. This method is applied to a recent international survey on the importance of environmental problems. (author's abstract) / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

A pesquisa de opinião tem um papel importante dentro da Engenharia de Produção, para o auxilio da confiabilidade da pesquisa é necessário ferramentas que sejam capazes de medir e trazer resultados de confiança. No presente estudo buscou-se apresentar a melhor forma da criação de um questionário com a utilização de uma escala confiável e conseqüentemente usar o pacote estatístico computacional SPSS para avaliar o caso. A Escala de Likert, utilizada para o questionário, é uma abordagem de resposta que mede a extensão de satisfação com um conjunto de instruções e perguntas realizadas através do questionário, este tipo de categoria de resposta faz com que seja fácil de quantificar, simplificando a análise de dados. Com a utilização do softwares o SPSS pode demonstrar que mesmo as pessoas pouco familiarizadas com softwares o SPSS pode auxiliar para tabulação e análise dos dados, pois sua plataforma é auto interativa e com resultados confiáveis. / The opinion survey has an important role within Production Engineeringor the help of the search reliability is necessary tools to be able to measure and bring reliable results. In the present study we sought to present the best way of creating a questionnaire using a reliable scale and therefore use the computer SPSS to evaluate the case. The Likert scale used for the questionnaire is a response approach to measuring the extent of satisfaction with a set of instructions and questions asked in the questionnaire, this type of response category makes it easy to quantify, simplifying the analysis data. Using the software SPSS can demonstrate that even people unfamiliar with SPSS software can help for tabulation and analysis of data because its platform is self interactive and reliable results.