| 1. |
- Peiris, Colombage Ranil, 1973-
(författare)
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A Framework for Designing Learning Management Systems to Support Undergraduate Thesis Projects : With a Focus on Sri Lankan Universities
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In Sri Lankan public universities about 41000 undergraduate projects are conducted every year, and on average, the total man-hours spent on the thesis projects is about 1.2 million. Although the universities widely use information technology to support teaching and learning, a specific system supporting undergraduate thesis projects is lacking and literature documents many problems related to these projects. Hence, the present research endeavour was commenced in a Sri Lankan university to develop a framework to guide the design process of a Learning Management System (LMS) that can be used to address those problems and support Undergraduate Thesis Projects (UTP). The following three research questions guided the study: 1) What are the problems of UTP? 2) Which learning theories and pedagogical concepts should be considered when designing an LMS to support the UTP? 3) What are the requirements and components of an LMS which would support the UTP? The Soft Design Science Research Methodology was applied to answer three research questions, and the main findings are as follows: 1) Six main problems areas were identified based on a specific case, 2) These problems were related to unsatisfied requirements of student student-supervisor interaction, scaffolding, and self-regulation processes 3) These requirements further analysed using related learning theories and specific problems were condensed into a general problem. The general problem is the lack of a learning environment that supports the theoretical foundation (pedagogical implications) and practical facilitation (Information and Communication Technology tools), which could support the student-supervisor interaction, scaffolding, and self-regulation processes, 4) The general problem was analysed, comparing the theoretical foundations and pedagogical implications and a framework was suggested as a general solution for designing an LMS with four basic modules. These modules include software subcomponents that can be used to enhance student-supervisor interaction, peer collaboration, students’ self-regulation skills, and students’ motivation, 5) The general solution was evaluated, and it was shown that supervisors accepted the proposed components as parts of an LMS that supports UTP. The findings show that this framework offers features and components that enhance the quality and importance of thesis projects.
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| 2. |
- Huselius, Joel, 1975-
(författare)
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Reverse Engineering of Legacy Real-Time Systems : An Automated Approach Based on Execution-Time Recording
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Many real-time systems have significant value in terms of legacy, since large efforts have been spent over many years to ensure their proper functionality. Examples can be found in, e.g., telecom and automation-industries. Maintenance consumes the major part of the budget for these systems. As each system is part of a dynamically changing larger whole, maintenance is required to modify the system to adapt to these changes. However, due to system complexity, engineers cannot be assumed to understand the system in every aspect, making the full range of effects of modifications on the system difficult to predict. Effect prediction would be useful, for instance in early discovery of unsuitable modifications. Accurate models would be useful for such prediction, but are generally non-existent.With the introduction of a method for automated modeling, this thesis applies an industrial perspective to the problem of obtaining models of legacy real-time systems. The method generates a model of the system as it behaved during the executions. The recordings cover system level events such as context switches and communication, and may optionally cover data manipulations on task level, which allows modeling of causal relations. As means of abstraction, the models can contain probabilistic selections and execution time requirements. The method also includes automatic validation of the generated model, in which the model is compared to the system behavior. Our method has been implemented and has been evaluated in both an industrial case-study and in a controlled experiment. For the controlled experiment, we have developed a framework for automatic evaluation of (automated) modeling methods.Using the models generated with our method, engineers can prototype designs of modifications, which allows for early rejection of unfeasible designs. The earlier such rejection is performed, the more time and resources are freed for other activities.
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| 3. |
- Jobe, William, 1970-
(författare)
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Do-It-Yourself Learning in Kenya : Exploring mobile technologies for merging non-formal and informal learning
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The educational landscape is changing and a variety of technologies and techniques are blurring the lines between traditional and non-traditional learning. This change is substantial in low-income countries: individuals in developing countries have a great desire to educate themselves and improve their quality of life. Kenyans are adequately literate and accustomed to mobile technology despite being a largely impoverished, poorly educated populace. Kenya represents an optimal setting in which to research the use and feasibility of modern mobile and educational technologies. The broad aim of this dissertation is to explore how mobile devices can catalyze and enhance both informal and non-formal learning. In particular, this dissertation explores how technologies and concepts such as mobile web apps, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and learning incentives via a smartphone specifically affect informal and non-formal learning in Kenya. The primary research question is how can learning efforts that utilize mobile learning, MOOCs, and learning incentives combine non-formal and informal learning to develop and contribute to a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to learning in Kenya? The primary method is action research. The first contribution of this dissertation is the finding that mobile web apps are currently better suited for data exchange than producing new content. The second contribution is the finding that a smartphone can enhance informal learning in a developing country with little or no scaffolding. The third contribution is the finding that non-formal learning efforts as a MOOC are shown to be a viable means of delivering non-formal learning in a developing country via a smartphone. The fourth contribution is the finding that the use of incentives such as digital badges provide a means by which to validate non-formal learning and contribute to a DIY attitude towards learning creation, where individuals can freely complement or replace a traditional curriculum.
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| 4. |
- Lindholm, Henrik, 1974-
(författare)
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Trying to secure decent working conditions : Do corporate social responsibility audits improve risk management in global garment supply chains?
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The outsourcing of the manufacturing of garments to regions with lower production costs has raised concerns over labor rights violations. Retailers and brands have responded to this by introducing codes of conduct outlining minimum requirements for working conditions at their suppliers. Has companies’ work with codes of conduct within the voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework managed to secure good working conditions, and if not, to drive improvements at the factory level? This thesis examines the question empirically by analyzing code of conduct audits of garment factories conducted by Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), an independent non-profit multi-stakeholder organization. The data consist of audits of 229 sewing factories in Asia, Eastern Europe, and North Africa that supply European garment brands. Paper I analyses the non-compliances listed in the audit reports and whether factories audited several times by FWF improve over time. The results show that even rigorous multi-stakeholder factory audits have problems identifying violations of freedom of association and harassment of workers. Improvement over time could be seen between audits. However, these improvements were moderate, i.e. compliance increased by only 7–15% between audits. Paper II examines chemical safety in the garment factories, an area where violations should be easy to identify and improvements are likely to be seen. The results show that 43% of the suppliers received remarks on chemical safety at the first audit. A model containing factors thought to be associated with better compliance was constructed including the number of previous audits, characteristics of the suppliers, and characteristics of the relationship between the brands and suppliers. The only statistically significant finding from this was that among factories audited ten or more times was there a clear increase in the number of factories receiving no remarks on chemical safety.
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| 5. |
- Mozelius, Peter, 1959-
(författare)
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Education for All in Sri Lanka : ICT4D Hubs for Region-Wide Dissemination of Blended Learning
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- ICT4D, here defined as the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in developing regions, can be seen as one of the most powerful and cost efficient ways to improve the standard of living in the developing world. Many regions in Asia have shown a rapid but heterogeneous development where information technology had a drastic impact on development but often with the problems related to ICT4D 1.0: lack of sustainability and lack of scalability.This study analysed the Sri Lankan infrastructure for region-wide dissemination of blended learning in the 21st century based on the exploration of some selected ICT4D hubs and educational initiatives. The overall aim of the research was to observe, describe and analyse how the selected ICT4D initiatives and the creation of ICT4D hubs in Sri Lanka might support region-wide dissemination of blended learning and local development. A longitudinal case study has been the overall approach where a number of embedded thematic units were explored in long-term fieldwork conducted between 2006 and 2012. Data has been collected from a combination of observations, interviews, group discussions, surveys and document analysis.Findings showed that several of the studied ICT4D hubs have contributed to the general development but the country’s internal digital divide has in fact grown, as urban growth has been so much faster than the growth in rural areas, leaving the country with geographic as well as socio-economic gaps. Some of the former war zones have definitely been left behind and there is a need for further support of the Eastern and Northern regions of the island. Sri Lanka has had an outcome that must be classified as better than average compared to other developing regions with increased opportunities for education and with some ICT4D hubs as multipurpose meeting points. Contributing factors to the successful development are the high literacy rate, the chain of ICT4D projects rolled out in the right order and a committed implementation of educational eServices. On the other hand there were other, more negative findings indicating that sustainability, knowledge sharing and inter-project cooperation and coordination have often failed.The identified strength in the Sri Lankan model, which can be recommended for other parts of the world as well, is the way top-down management of infrastructure sometimes is combined with bottom-up grass-root activities. Other recommendations, that also are global, are to extend existing ICT4D hubs and upgrade them to more intelligent, autonomous and multi-service ICT4D routers that could also handle the future need for eServices in the fields of eHealth, eFarming and eGovernance.
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| 6. |
- Sundmark, Daniel, 1975-
(författare)
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Structural System-Level Testing of Embedded Real-Time Systems
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- People make mistakes. Software engineers are no exception to this fact. When software engineers make mistakes, these manifest in the form of buggy software - a major problem in today's industry. The existence of bugs is commonly detected using testing, the process of executing the software and checking if its behaviour complies with the specification. As limitations in time make testing of the entire software behaviour impracticable, testers need to make informed decisions on how to test the software to detect as many bugs as possible.In the realm of real-time systems (RTSs), software testing is made more difficult by non-deterministic factors such as interaction with the surrounding environment, (pseudo)parallelism, and timing requirements. Furthermore, RTS testing suffers from behaviour-altering perturbation from the instrumentation inserted in the system to keep track of test progress (i.e., probe effects).In our work, we analyse the main test criteria used for traditional software testing in order to see which of these scale to, and assist in, system-level testing of multi-tasking RTSs. We focus on one of these criteria, the all definition-use paths coverage criterion, as it highlights a central aspect of non-deterministic task interaction, and investigate what is specifically required for applying this criterion to testing of multi-tasking RTSs. Further, we examine the possibility of using execution replay for probe effect-free test monitoring. We evaluate this approach in real industrial settings by means of case studies.The contributions of this thesis are twofold: First, the use of structural test criteria in RTS system-level testing is facilitated by two different analysis methods. Second, the probe effect is handled by recording non-deterministic events during run-time, and by using this recording to create a monitorable deterministic replica of the first execution. By these contributions, this thesis shows how the non-determinism of multi-tasking RTSs can be handled during system-level testing.
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| 7. |
- Wallander, Henrik M, 1954-
(författare)
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Congenital clubfoot : Aspects on epidemiology, residual deformity and patient reported outcome
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis on congenital clubfoot was to estimate the incidence with a national perspective, analyse residual deformities and their management, and evaluate patient reported long-term quality of life and foot function. Paper I was a prospective, nationwide sampling of 280 children with congenital clubfoot during 1995-96. The average incidence was 1.4‰. There was regional heterogeneity but no seasonal variation. Paper II evaluated ultrasonography on 54 newborn, prospectively followed up to 12 months of age. Significant increase of medial malleolus to navicular distance (MM-N-distance) and of soft tissue thickness with increasing age was seen and with acceptable reliability. Paper III assessed 35 children (47 feet) after previous posterior release, mean age of 4.5 years, and the MM-N-distance was shorter in unilateral clubfeet (21 patients) than in contralateral normal feet. No association between navicular position and forefoot adduction (FFA) was determined. Smaller FFA yielded better subjective and functional outcome. Paper IV reviewed distraction treatment with Ilizarov External Fixator in seven patients (10 feet), 6-15 years of age, with relapsed deformities. All patients, except one, reported satisfaction with the overall result but less stiffness was experienced in only 4/10 feet. Paper V evaluated self-estimated outcome in 83 patients (63 males, 20 females), mean age of 64 years, through SF-36 and EQ-5D, and through AAOS foot and ankle score. Age and gender adjusted norm groups were used. Female patients scored worse than male patients did. Both males and females reported negative influence on foot and ankle function. Conclusion: The incidence of congenital clubfoot in Sweden is higher than in previous Scandinavian studies. Ultrasonography is reliable for describing pathoanatomy of the talo-navicular joint in clubfeet and can detect "spurious" (false) correction. Distraction treatment with the Ilizarov External Fixator yields subjective improvement but stiffness remains. Long-term influence on daily life activities is limited to foot and ankle function for both genders, but only female patients report negative influence on physical aspects of quality of life.
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