Doctoral Degrees (Computer Science and Informatics)
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Item Open Access Using eye-tracking to assess the application of divisibility rules when dividing a multi-digit divident by a single digit divisor(University of the Free State, 2017-09) Potgieter, Pieter Henri; Blignaut, P. J.English: The Department of Basic Education in South Africa has identified factorisation as a problem area in Mathematics for Grade 9 learners. Establishing the foundation for factorisation begins at earlier grades. If learners know the divisibility rules, they can help them to determine the factors of numbers. The divisibility rules are presented to learners in Grade 5 for the first time. When a true/false question is used to assess learners' ability to determine whether a dividend is divisible by a certain divisor, the teacher has no insight in the learners’ reasoning because he or she is only in possession of the final answer, which could be correct or incorrect. If the answer is correct, the teacher does not know if the learner (i) guessed the answer, (ii) correctly applied the divisibility rule, or (iii) incorrectly applied the divisibility rule. To improve the credibility of the assessment, learners can be requested to provide a reason for their answer. However, if the reason is correct, the teacher still does not know whether the learners correctly applied the divisibility rule – regardless of whether the answer is correct or not. A pre-post experiment design was used to investigate the effect of revision on the performance of learners and also the difference in gaze behaviour of learners before and after revision of divisibility rules. About 1000 learners from Grade 4 to Grade 7 of two schools were assessed by means of a paper-based assessment on their knowledge of the divisibility rules before and after revision. The gaze behaviour of 155 learners was also recorded before and after revision. It was found that revision had an impact on learner performance per divisor for nearly all grades that participated in the test for both schools. The gaze behaviour was measured as the percentage of fixation time on the digits of the dividend. It was found that revision had an effect on the gaze behaviour for learners who indicated the reason incorrectly before revision and the answer and reason correctly after revision. However, revision did not have an impact on the gaze behaviour of learners who indicated the answer and reason correctly before and after revision. It was found that the correctness of the answer did not have an impact on the gaze behaviour (except for divisor 6) for learners who indicated the reason correctly. However, revision had an impact on the gaze behaviour for learners who indicated the answer incorrectly and reason correctly before revision, as well as for learners who had both the answer and reason correctly after revision for divisor 6. This infers that eye-tracking can be used to determine whether the divisibility rule was applied correctly or incorrectly. Eye-tracking also revealed that learners who did not know the divisibility rules, only inspected the last two digits of the dividend before indicating their answer. The study suggests that when a teacher has access to the learner’s answer, reason and gaze behaviour, he or she will be in a position to identify if the learner (i) guessed the answer, (ii) applied the divisibility rule correctly, (iii) applied the divisibility rule correctly but made mental calculation errors, or (iv) applied the divisibility rule incorrectly. An instrument is proposed that can be used by teachers to assess learners on divisibility rules where learners only have to indicate whether a dividend is divisible by a divisor. Eye-tracking will predict whether the learner knows the divisibility rule. For 85% of learners who provided the correct answer, their gaze behaviour corresponded with the reason provided. The study concluded, therefore, that eye-tracking can, to a large extent, correctly identify whether learners, who indicated correctly if a dividend is divisible by a certain single digit divisor, applied the divisibility rules correctly.Item Open Access Evaluating and improving the usability of e-government websites in Sub-Saharan Africa for enhancing citizen adoption and usage(University of the Free State, 2017) Verkijika, Silas Formunyuy; De Wet, Lizette𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 E-government has been widely known to be an important factor for fostering a nation’s economic and social development. It holds enormous potential for improving the administrative efficiency of public institutions, encouraging democratic governance, deracinating public sector corruption, and building trust between citizens/private sector and governments. However, most e-government initiatives to date have failed to attain their full potential, because they are increasingly plagued by usability issues. The case is worse for e-government initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as many researchers have posited that this region is the least developed with regards to e-government diffusion. Moreover, its e-government systems are mostly characterised by poor usability. Consequently, advancing e-government in SSA necessitates advancing the usability of current e-government systems in the region, as usability has been shown to be a vital precondition for e-government progress. As such, this study had as primary objective to develop a model for improving the usability of e-government websites in SSA. The study focused on e-government websites as these sites are generally acknowledged to be the primary platform for government interaction with citizens and other stakeholders. In order to achieve this goal, the design science research (DSR) approach was used as the overall research method for this thesis. The DSR was selected due to its core focus on developing useful artefacts that can effectively address DSR problems. This research approach was further supported by mixed methods encompassing usability evaluation (heuristic evaluation and automated testing) and cross-sectional analysis of national indicators. Using a six-dimensional framework as the core theoretical framework for assessing the usability of e-government websites in SSA, the study concluded that SSA e-government websites were currently characterised by poor usability. After evaluating 279 e-government websites from 31 SSA countries, it was observed that the average usability score for the websites was 36.2%, with the most usable website having a score of 64.8%, while the least usable website scored 10.8%. The poor level of usability was consistent for all the six dimensions. Out of a weighted score of 16.7 for each dimension, the following mean scores were obtained: 7.6 for online services, 6.3 for user-help and feedback, 6.2 for navigation, 5.7 for legitimacy, 5.4 for information architecture, and 3.3 for accessibility accommodation. The study further identified 8 national indicators (corruption, cybersecurity, gender inequality, global competitiveness, human development, innovation, national income, and population age distribution) with significant associations to both e-government development and the usability of e-government websites in SSA. Based on these findings, a policy-ingrained model was proposed for advancing the usability of e-government websites in SSA. The model comprised of four mental models (government, designer, evaluator, and user), with each having both general and specific strategies for improving e-government website usability in SSA. Additionally, the model presented the practical and policy implications regarding the role that the identified national indicators could play in advancing e-government website usability in the region. Moreover, the model was accompanied by a quick assessment checklist that could be used by IT staff of government agencies to evaluate their websites in order to determine which strategies from the model could be applied. The outcomes of this study could contribute to the development of practical and policy-based solutions for improving the usability of e-government websites in SSA, as well as advance the theoretical knowledge base on the use of information systems in government. ___________________________________________________________________Item Open Access Measuring the alignment of information technology strategy in small-to-medium sized organisations that use accounting packages(University of the Free State, 2000-02) Kyobe, Michael Edmund Wokubira; Messerschmidt, H.; Van Zyl, MartinThe alignment of information technology (IT) strategies with organisational factors has been a critical management issue since 1980s. Studies conducted to date have however focused on alignment in large sized organisations, and little has been done to assist the small-to-medium sized organisations to successfully align their software package implementations. There is also lack of comprehensive frameworks that these organisations could rely on to predict, or audit, the outcome of their effort to implement these packages. In this research, a framework was developed to guide the measurement of the extent to which small-to-medium sized organisations aligned their IT strategies with selected organisational factors during the implementation of accounting packages. These factors are: the business objectives; structural factors; social factors; cultural factors; and information system factors. These were selected because they influence the success of IT implementation in small-to-medium sized organisations. There were 155 participants in the study from 75 different organisations. These were surveyed using a questionnaire and telephone interviews. The results were first analysed to determine the consistency between the IT strategy and each of the above selected organisational factors (the dimensions of alignment). Further analysis was then conducted to test a structural model that examined the relationships between the dimensions of alignment, IT strategy alignment and the success of the accounting package implementation. (The construct IT strategy alignment refers to the overall consistency of the choices or decisions adopted in the implementation of the accounting package with the above selected organisational factors). The findings indicate that small-to-medium sized organisations do not align their information technology strategies with the selected organisational factors, except for the cultural factors. It was also revealed that each dimension of alignment has a positive and significant influence on the IT strategy alignment, and the IT strategy alignment also has a positive and significant influence on the success of the accounting package implementation. The findings emphasise the need for small-to-medium sized organisations to ensure that IT strategies are consistent with at least all the above organisational factors if successful accounting package implementations are to be achieved. Recommendations for researchers and practitioners are provided in the last chapter of this thesis.Item Open Access Determining the usability of pedagogical interface agents in the context of adult computer literacy training: a South African perspective(University of the Free State, 2016) Mabanza, Ntima; De Wet, Lizette; Schall, Robert𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 The problem of high computer illiteracy amongst adults in 3rd world countries, such as South Africa (SA), is preventing these individuals from becoming part of workforce as computer skills have become one of the major requirements to enter the job market. The other challenge for this group is that most of the current adult computer literacy training is conducted using approaches such as conventional training and e-learning. Often these approaches pose intellectual challenges to people who have never been exposed to a computer. In line with this, this research study was conducted in an effort to find new approaches to assist adult computer illiterate people, specifically in SA, to acquire the skills necessary (i.e. basic computer literacy) to promote employability and the improvement of their lives. The use of Pedagogical Interface Agents (PIAs) is one example of such a new approach. Over the years, many research studies on the potential of PIAs in promoting learning have been carried out. The results obtained from these studies showed that PIAs can improve student learning, engagement and motivation. However, most of these studies have focused on age groups ranging from childhood to undergraduate college students. Little attention has been paid to the use of PIAs in adult learning, and in computer literacy training, specifically in the word processing environment. The aim of this research study was to establish, through user testing, whether the incorporation of a variety of PIAs could improve and facilitate the computer literacy training (specifically in a word processing environment) for adult computer illiterates in SA. To achieve this aim, Simulated Microsoft Office Word System (SMOS), a simulated word processor system incorporating 10 PIAs (varying in terms of appearance, gender, voice and reality) was used in conjunction with MS Word to collect data needed for this research. A summative usability evaluation was performed in this study. The pragmatist paradigm was selected as a suitable paradigm for the current study. This research study employed the convergent parallel mixed-methods design. Study participants consisted of a group of adults from Mangaung-University of the Free State Community Partnership Programme (MUCPP) who could understand and speak English, had little or no formal education and had never been exposed to a computer before. In order to better assess the usability of the 10 PIAs incorporated in SMOS, participants were divided into two groups, namely the test group (trained with SMOS, which incorporated PIAs) and the control group (trained with MS Word, without PIAs). Afterwards, participants from both groups were given 11 basic word processing tasks to complete using their respective systems (i.e. SMOS or MS Word) as part of the user assessment. In this study, reliability and validity were established through the use of multiple sources of data, which were directly linked to the study aims and objectives. A pilot study was conducted to check the appropriateness of data collection techniques used in this study. The user test performed in this study sought to measure three usability attributes, namely efficiency (measured by means of task efforts), effectiveness (measured by means of both individual and total number of errors) and satisfaction (measured by means of the user experience questionnaire related to the amount learnt from the study overall, enjoyment in being part of the study, and willingness to participate in a similar study in future). Observations and interviews were used to complement and better understand the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction data. All collected user test data were analysed using comparative statistical test techniques. The comparative analyses‟ results showed that test group participants (trained with SMOS, which incorporated PIAs) outperformed the control group participants (trained with MS Word, without PIAs) in both efficiency and effectiveness. With regard to the satisfaction, no difference was noted between participants from the two groups. Based on the findings of this study, it can be inferred that the use of PIAs could assist in overcoming many problems faced by adult computer illiterate users during computer literacy training in a 3rd world environment like in SA. However, it is suggested that key aspects, such as characteristics of adult learners, PIAs‟ external observable characteristics, and adult learners‟ satisfaction/ability to use the system, need to be systematically explored. ___________________________________________________________________Item Open Access A framework for providing integrated strategic information for the management of the antiretroviral treatment program in the Free State, South Africa(University of the Free State, 2008) Kotzé, Jacobus Eduan; McDonald, T.The AIDS epidemic, caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), is a global crisis which threatens development gains, economies, and societies. The eradication of HIV/AIDS represents one of humanity’s greatest challenges, which requires co-operation, and comprehensive collaboration between science, governments, social institutions, the media, the professions, and the general public. In this endeavour strategic information plays a major role. The Free State Department of Health introduced Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) to meet the needs of the rising number of people living with HIV and also dying due to AIDS related diseases. A patient information system was deployed by the Province to supplement the ART programme rollout process by gathering data and providing all the basic patient antiretroviral information. The patient information system was a traditional online clinical system and concentrated on the bread-and-butter issues of accumulating data on a patient. Very little functionality was provided to deal with the complexities of managing the clinical outcomes of the ART programme. To add to the problem, other online operational systems had to be interrogated to gain an understanding of the impact the rollout of ARV had. These operational systems ranged from standalone Human Resource systems to information systems accumulating data on tuberculosis which is closely related to HIV/AIDS. No mechanism or platform existed to provide management with integrated strategic information to manage the business process intelligently. This study focussed on the challenges and solutions to overcome this shortfall. The main objective of this study was to construct a framework for providing strategic information for the management of the ART programme in the Free State Department of Health. This objective was reached with a two phase action research methodology. The author of this study fulfilled simultaneously the roles of the researcher and the practitioner. During phase one a central data warehouse was designed and developed that incorporated an existing standalone ARV data warehouse and several other independent operational sources, all related to ART. This warehouse was evaluated by the users who overwhelmingly rated the warehouse as successful. From one system it was possible for managers to obtain strategic information on ARV encounters, ARV human resources, revenue collection, in-patient hospitalization, notifiable diseases and tuberculosis. This was achieved with a very limited budget and using internal resource. Although the data warehouse was a valuable asset by itself, several improvements were identified during the evaluation of the warehouse. The most important of these were to add additional data marts, to conform all the dimensions in order to obtain strategic information across the data marts and lastly to be able to track an ARV patient over time over all facilities of care. This led to the second phase of the research. In this phase several data marts (National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS), Meditech hospitalization and linkage to Home Affairs) were firstly added. Secondly the patient dimensions of all the data marts were conformed through the process of probabilistic record linkage. Lastly a longitudinal patient record was developed that displayed all the encounters of an ARV patient over time. Even though the LPR could not be scientifically evaluated, the institutions that did test it rated it very highly and reckoned it was a first for South Africa. This study, therefore, concluded with the fact that it was possible to construct and implement a successful framework for providing comprehensive strategic information for the management of the ART programme in the Free State Department of Health.Item Open Access Enhancing the user experience for a word processor application through vision and voice(University of the Free State, 2011) Beelders, Tanya René; Blignaut, P. J.English: Multimodal interfaces may herald a significant improvement on current GUIs which have been commonplace until now. It is also possible that a multimodal interface could provide a more intuitive and natural means of interaction which, simultaneously, negates the reliance on traditional, manual means of interaction. Eye gaze and speech are common components of natural human-human communication and were proposed for use in a multimodal interface for a popular word processor for the purposes of this study. In order for a combination of eye gaze and speech to be a viable interface for a word processor, it must provide a means of text entry and facilitate editing and formatting of the document contents. For the purposes of this study a simple speech grammar was used to activate common word processing tasks, as well as for selection of text and navigation through a document. For text entry, an onscreen keyboard was provided, the keys of which could be pressed by looking at the desired key and then uttering an acceptable verbal command. These functionalities were provided in an adapted Microsoft Word 2007® to increase the customisability and possibly the usability of the word processor interface and to provide alternative means of interaction. The proposed interaction techniques also had to be able to execute typical mouse actions, such as point-and-click. The usability of eye gaze and speech was determined using longitudinal user testing and a set of tasks specific to the functionality. Results indicated that the use of a gravitational well increased the usability of the speech and eye gaze combination when used for pointing-and-clicking. The use of a magnification tool did not increase the usability of the interaction technique. The gravitational well did, however, result in more incorrect clicks due to natural human behaviour and the ease of target acquisition afforded by the gravitational well. However, participants learnt how to use the interaction technique over the course of time, although the mouse remained the superior pointing device. Speech commands were found to be as usable, or even more usable, than the keyboard and mouse for editing and selection purposes, although navigation was hindered to some extent. For text entry purposes, the keyboard far surpasses eye gaze and speech in terms of performance as an input method as it is both faster and results in fewer errors than eye gaze and speech. However, even though the participants were required to complete a number of sessions and a number of text entry tasks per session, more practice may be required for using eye gaze and speech for text entry. Subjectively, participants felt comfortable with the multimodal interface and also indicated that they felt improvement as they progressed through their sessions. Observations of the participants also indicated that as time passed, the participants became more adept at using the multimodal interface for all necessary interactions. In conclusion, eye gaze and speech can be used instead of a pointing device and speech commands are recommended for use within a word processor in order to accomplish common tasks. For the purposes of text entry, more practice is advocated before a recommendation can be made. Together with progress in hardware development and availability, this multimodal interface may allow the word processor to further exploit emerging technologies and be a forerunner in the use of multimodal interfaces in other applications.