This study tested two Web personal spiders (i.e., agents that take users' requests and perform real-time customized searches) based on best first-search and genetic-algorithm techniques. Both results were comparable and complementary, although the genetic algorithm obtained higher recall value. The Java-based interface was found to be necessary…

Presents the development and piloting of a coding system for evaluation of asynchronous Web-based instruction/learning. Processes were guided by four prominent education perspectives and the extended examination of, and survey data from, 17 archived Web-based courses. These served as the bases for the development and application of the coding…

Provides a descriptive an interpretive account of how an integrated online delivery and management system, Blackboard[TM], was used in a pre-service teacher training module. Traces the development of the module over a five year period, from a conventional mass lecture and tutorial approach to its current hybrid of online and onsite learning…

The paper commences by briefly introducing the systems engineering programme, then focuses on the "systems" module, which requires the first-year students to undertake a number of "open-ended" projects. During the problem-based learning (PBL) based projects the students are expected to combine creativity and the knowledge they acquire during the…

Academic institutions worldwide are constantly trying to refine or even reinvent their Information Systems (IS) curricula to address the needs of industry and government. As many IS curricula emerge, a number of them do not satisfy well recognized standards and even lack critical components. Furthermore, a highly competitive Information Technology…

This paper examines a non-equivalent quasi-experimental research effort, wherein two versions of a two week Project Based Learning unit were developed, implemented, and assessed. Students used a collaborative GIS or paper maps to support data analysis activities in this eighth grade Earth science unit. Attitude and self-efficacy in science as…

A series of national meetings with a professional working group were held to discuss data issues, needs, and priorities in order to determine national data needs for vocational education. The study team gathered detailed information on current federal-level data collection efforts relevant to vocational education. Local and state data collection…

In order to identify the information systems (IS) backgrounds and skills most in demand among employers in the Southeastern United States, the classified ads appearing in the region's major cities during the summer of 1997 were content analyzed. This paper reports the major findings of this investigation and their curriculum implications. It also…

The information-based technologies and the accompanying managerial sciences have come to symbolize the ideology of progress and operate as a material instrumentality in social governance systems. Developing countries have incorporated the technologies, but have lacked a developed knowledge or service sector; the linkage of…

This paper explores the role that language can play in the development of technologies or other processes within an organisation. Examples and lessons from the literature of the learning organisation are looked as a key in the development of language. The paper uses a practical example of a customer complaints management system to demonstrate how…

Established by Executive Order 12369 on June 30, 1982, the President's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control (PPSSCC) carried out its mandate through an executive committee of 161 high-level private sector executives. The committee set up a management office and 36 task forces with 1,300 members. The task forces were co-chaired by members of the…

This inventory provides profiles, tables, and listings describing automated library activities at 117 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) institutions. For the first time, the inventory includes analyses of aggregate information from individual library profiles. The analyses are divided into four categories that reflect primarily bibliographic…

In an effort to shed light on the advent of the computer and its applications at small, two-year colleges, this report describes a national survey and case studies of five small colleges to determine their current use of computer services, the role and method of governance of computer-based information systems, and the policies affecting them. The…

Factors related to the contextual aspects of educational administrators' information needs were studied in a statewide survey of 199 administrators of adult and community education programs. Attention was directed to: varying preferences for different information sources, the effects of different decision or program development tasks on…

The purpose of this study is to explore how well a curriculum that combines operations management and information systems uniquely prepares students for the workforce. To address our research questions, a Web-based survey was developed. We sent our survey to 203 alumni that graduated from the Department of Operations Management and Information…