Search results

The purpose of this approach is to structure and facilitate the development of competency-oriented virtual training scenarios. This approach should help to develop reproducible results.

This publication presents a procedure for the structured, competency-oriented design of virtual teaching–learning environments. The procedure is based on the competency-oriented design of learning factories according to Tisch and consists of a total of three phases with various substeps. The different steps of the method are presented by means of an application example and the generated scenario is evaluated by means of a competency measurement according to Glass regarding its suitability for teaching competencies.

In addition to an application example that introduces the approach, this publication presents concrete results from the research project. In addition to a review of the opportunities and limitations of virtual reality (VR) in continuing education, these also refer to possible, realizable requirements for the use of VR. In addition, results on the suitability of VR learning environments for competency development in the context of value streaming mapping training are presented.

This approach represents a substantial extension of existing concepts for the design of physical learning factory training for lean topics. It can help learning factory operators and other training providers to design competency- and user-oriented virtual training. VR offers a multitude of potentials in this context, but these can only be exploited through conscientious use of the technology.

The purpose of this work is the development of a structured case study design process for developing case studies in humanitarian logistics, in particular for short-term predictable disaster situations like floods and hurricanes. Moreover, useful public sources are presented in order to enable researchers to find relevant data for their case studies more easily.

A structured framework for case study design is set up, splitting the process into different steps and phases.

The framework is applied to an illustrative example, where case studies with different numbers and levels of detail of scenarios are designed based on the three-day forecast for hurricane Harvey in 2017. The corresponding solutions demonstrate the relevance of using as much forecast information as possible in case study building, and in particular in scenario design, in order to get useful and appropriate results.

The case study design process is mostly suitable for short-term predictable disasters, but can also be adapted to other types of disasters. The process has been applied to one specific hurricane here which serves as an example.

Also for practitioners, the results of this work are highly relevant, as constructing realistic cases using real data will lead to more useful results. Moreover, it is taken into account in the case study design process that relief agencies are regularly confronted with disasters in certain areas and hence need to define the basic planning situation and parameters “once and for all” and on a long-term basis, whereas disaster specific data from forecasts are only available within a short time frame.

The new design process can be applied by researchers as well as practitioners, and the publicly available data sources will be useful to the community.

This paper aims to introduce movements in scenario methodology, to design a moving strategic foresight approach.

The authors firstly question the limits of plausibility from an ontological and epistemological perspective to expand scenarios beyond the boundaries of end-states. To incorporate ongoing changes in scenario methodology, the authors propose to explore scenario transformations within the conceptual framework of action-based scenarios.

The authors discuss consequences of playing strategies within ongoing scenarios, as well as the research directions about moving scales, stakeholders’ dominance and time issues.

The paper proposes a method to distort and transform scenarios. The authors suggest supplementing strategic foresight in iterative processes to challenge the boundaries of plausible futures, bridging the gap between theoretical ever-changing processes and the moving rhythms of actions.

A challenge in implementing Universal Design (UD) is the perceived additional cost, which acts as a barrier to its widespread adoption. The few studies that have examined the cost for UD apply a theoretical research approach, failing to account for the unique design context that influences construction costs. This article presents a research methodology to calculate the UD cost in a realistic, context-dependent manner.

To address this gap, “Research-by-Design” is applied in a case study approach involving twelve cases from three typologies: secondary schools, town halls and small retail shops. Two scenarios are compared to the existing situation: (1) “renovating into a 100% inclusive building” and (2) “building fully inclusive right away”.

Although the methodology is time-consuming, it allows for a fair, realistic and detailed comparison between costs in different scenarios and cases. Findings show how financial implications are strongly related to its scale. Both “renovation” and “new build” scenarios involve costs, but these are considerably lower for the latter. “Circulation” and “Exterior stairs and ramps” are among the most expensive to renovate, but have almost no additional cost in the examined cases for the “new build scenario”.

The research methodology presented in this study is time-consuming, which may limit its feasibility for large-scale cost assessments in diverse contexts.

The research methodology proposed in this study provides valuable insights for architects, designers and stakeholders involved in the implementation of UD. It offers a realistic and context-dependent approach to assess the cost implications of UD, enabling informed decision-making during the design and construction phases.

By revealing the specific cost implications of UD in different building contexts, this study contributes to promoting greater accessibility and inclusion in the built environment.

The applied approach distinguishes this study for its ability to provide rich contextual information on actual cost implications for UD. By considering real cases and their unique design contexts, valuable insights are offered into the true costs of implementing UD in the built environment.

Existing guidelines are typically extracted from a few empirical evaluations of pervasive game prototypes featuring incompatible scenarios, game play design and technical characteristics. Hence, the applicability of those design guidelines across the increasingly diverse landscape of pervasive games is questionable and should be investigated.

This paper presents Barbarossa, a scenario-driven pervasive game that encompasses different game modes, purposely adopting opposing principles in addressing the core elements of challenge and control. Using Barbarossa as a testbed, this study aims at validating the applicability of existing design guidelines across diverse game design approaches.

The compilation of Barbarossa user evaluation results confirmed the limited applicability of existing guidelines and provided evidence that developers should handle core game elements, taking into account the game play characteristics derived from their scenario.

Stepping upon those findings, the authors propose a revision of design guidelines relevant to control and challenge based on elaborate classification criteria for pervasive game prototypes.

This paper aims to present an overview of the various ethical, societal and critical issues that micro- and nanotechnology-based small, energy self-sufficient sensor systems raise in different selected application fields. An ethical approach on the development of these technologies was taken in a very large international, multitechnological European project. The authors approach and methodology are presented in the paper and, based on this review, the authors propose general principles for this kind of work.

The authors’ approach is based on a great amount of experience working together in multi-disciplinary teams. Ethical issues have usually been handled in the authors’ work to some degree. In this project, the authors had the opportunity to emphasise the human view in technological development, utilise the authors’ experience from previous work and customise the authors’ approach to this particular case. In short, the authors created a wide set of application scenarios with technical and application field experts in the authors’ research project. The scenarios were evaluated with external application field experts, potential consumer users and ethics experts.

Based on the authors’ experiences in this project and in previous work, the authors suggest a preliminary model for construction activity within technology development projects. The authors call this model the Human-Driven Design approach, and Ethics by Design as a more focussed sub-set of this approach. As all enabling technologies have both positive and negative usage possibilities, and so-called ethical assessment tends to focus on negative consequences, there are doubts from some stakeholders about including ethical perspectives in a technology development project.

The authors argue that the ethical perspective would be more influential if it were to provide a more positive and constructive contribution to the development of technology. The main findings related to the ethical challenges based on the actual work done in this project were the following: the main user concerns were in relation to access to information, digital division and the necessity of all the proposed measurements; the ethics experts highlighted the main ethical issues as privacy, autonomy, user control, freedom, medicalisation and human existence.

Various technology assessment models and ethical approaches for technological development have been developed and performed for a long time, and recently, a new approach called Responsible Research and Innovation has been introduced. The authors’ intention is to give a concrete example for further development as a part of the development of this approach.

The authors’ study in this particular case covers various consumer application possibilities for small sensor systems. The application fields studied include health, well-being, safety, sustainability and empathic user interfaces. The authors believe that the ethical challenges identified are valuable to other researchers and practitioners who are studying and developing sensor-based solutions in similar fields.

The authors’ study covers various consumer application possibilities of small sensor systems. The studied application fields include health, well-being, safety, sustainability and empathic user interfaces. The findings are valuable to other researchers and practitioners who are studying and developing sensor-based solutions to similar fields.

The construction of learning scenarios is a way to plan for teaching activities, promoting the development of skills related to problem solving, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Using learning scenarios as a lesson planning strategy becomes a powerful tool in initial teacher education. On the one hand, it mobilizes teaching-related scientific concepts, and on the other hand, it offers opportunities to think on innovative pedagogic approaches involving strategies and capacities essential for the future teacher. Research shows that teacher education programs within real school contexts enriched with digital technologies represent an important factor in increasing the quality of teachers’ preparation and their future professional practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The authors present the analysis of practice of design and implementation of learning scenarios in teachers’ initial education courses developed with students of teaching master degrees. Activity theory is used in the analysis of a case study of a student-teacher in Computer Science.

The results have been analyzed, contributing to the specification of the principles underlying the learning scenarios in initial teacher education.

Results show the affordances and possibilities of using learning scenarios as structuring resources for the initial teacher education practice.

Therefore, the use of learning scenarios brings a set of potentialities to teacher training given its prospective nature.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current status of experimental research within hospitality and tourism. This paper further aims to develop practical ideas for enhancing the adoption of a cause and effect mindset in researchers.

A mini-review of the level of experimental designs and best-practice ideas published by the top 12 journals in hospitality and tourism over a five-year period was conducted.

Although the absolute number of experimental studies is growing, the ratio of experimental studies to overall publications remains low at 6.4%. To increase the take-up of experimental design, a broader typology of field experiments is presented. Practical steps to increase causal reality are provided under the categories of purpose; scenario development; scenario testing; and sample characteristics.

The methodological advances suggested in this paper can contribute to more robust theory development and testing. The recommendations offer guidance to a new generation of researchers seeking to add causal value to their studies, researchers collaborating with scholars from other discipline areas and hospitality managers seeking stronger evidence of cause and effect.

This paper identifies key obstacles to the take-up of experimental design and the contemporary status of experimental design. A novel typology of five experimental designs that distinguish the difference between experimental and correlational designs in terms of explanatory power is presented, together with a comprehensive list of best practice suggestions to increase causal reality in scenario design.

This article aims to show the opportunity and benefits of linking territorial foresight tools to urban planning procedures. Additionally, it suggests ways to reinforce the scenario design method with more in‐depth analysis, without losing its qualitative nature and communication advantages.

These assumptions are tested in a scenario design exercise that explores the future evolution of the sustainable development paradigm and its implications in the Spanish urban development model.

Major findings are obtained on the feasibility of a systematic approach that provides anticipatory intelligence about future disruptive events that may affect the natural environment and the socioeconomic fabric of a given territory. In addition, the study confirms that foresight offers interesting opportunities for urban planners, such as anticipating changes, fostering participation and building networks, in contrast to its perception as a mere story‐telling technique that generates oversimplified visions without the backing of rigorous analysis.

In order to boost the perception of scenario design as an added value instrument for urban planners, three sets of implications – functional, parametric and spatial – are displayed to provide substantial information for policy makers.

The value of the present work lies in the synergy that can be generated between territorial foresight and urban planning, offering a great opportunity for policy makers to use futurists' output as input for urban planners' work.

This research studies a plastic recycling system from a reverse logistics angle and investigates the potential benefits of a multimodality strategy to the network design of plastic recycling. This research aims to quantify the impact of multimodality on the network, to provide decision support for the design of more sustainable plastic recycling networks in the future.

A MILP model is developed to assess different plastic waste collection, treatment and transportation scenarios. Comprehensive costs of the network are considered, including emission costs. A baseline scenario represents the optimized current situation while other scenarios allow multimodality options (barge and train) to be applied.

Results show that transportation cost contributes to about 7 percent of the total cost and multimodality can bring a reduction of almost 20 percent in transportation costs (CO₂‐eq emissions included). In our illustrative case with two plastic separation methods, the post‐separation channel benefits more from a multimodality strategy than the source‐separation channel. This relates to the locations and availability of intermediate facilities and the quantity of waste transported on each route.

This study applies a reverse logistics network model to design a plastic recycling network with special structures and incorporates a multimodality strategy to improve sustainability. Emission costs (carbon emission equivalents times carbon tax) are added to the total cost of the network to be optimized.