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11 – 20 of 100Stephen B. Gilbert, Michael C. Dorneich, Jamiahus Walton and Eliot Winer
This chapter describes five disciplinary domains of research or lenses that contribute to the design of a team tutor. We focus on four significant challenges in developing…
Abstract
This chapter describes five disciplinary domains of research or lenses that contribute to the design of a team tutor. We focus on four significant challenges in developing Intelligent Team Tutoring Systems (ITTSs), and explore how the five lenses can offer guidance for these challenges. The four challenges arise in the design of team member interactions, performance metrics and skill development, feedback, and tutor authoring. The five lenses or research domains that we apply to these four challenges are Tutor Engineering, Learning Sciences, Science of Teams, Data Analyst, and Human–Computer Interaction. This matrix of applications from each perspective offers a framework to guide designers in creating ITTSs.
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María Sicilia, Mariola Palazón and Manuela López
Brand pages are a very popular tool for companies to communicate with consumers in SNSs. Although brand pages could be considered virtual brand communities, they differ in several…
Abstract
Purpose
Brand pages are a very popular tool for companies to communicate with consumers in SNSs. Although brand pages could be considered virtual brand communities, they differ in several aspects. Thus, this chapter reviews the literature on brand pages attending to the main differences with other virtual communities, the motivations to join brand pages and its consequences for consumers and brands.
Methodology/approach
The studies reviewed have allowed us to identify the main characteristics of brand pages as a communication tool, as well as the definition of an important research agenda for this topic.
Findings
We have identified the main unique aspects that characterize brand pages as a virtual brand community. The motivations to become members of brand pages are analyzed as well as the positive consequences of these pages on the marketing variables. We also identified the research needs on brand pages.
Social implications
This chapter can be useful to both, marketers, by showing them how brand pages work and what motivate consumers to join it; and researchers, by showing them the main gaps on brand pages that should be addressed in future studies.
Originality/value
This chapter highlights the role of brand pages as a communication tool. It constitutes an attempt to review the literature and organize knowledge on brand pages. The characteristics of brand pages and virtual brand communities, the motivations to participate, the consequences for the brand and an important research agenda are developed.
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This paper aims to describe the deployment of an e‐learning environment for construction courses based on enhancing virtual computing technologies using agent‐based techniques.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to describe the deployment of an e‐learning environment for construction courses based on enhancing virtual computing technologies using agent‐based techniques.
Design/methodology/approach
This research involves designing and deploying a complex application that combines advanced visualisation, interactive management through complex virtual devices, distributed multi‐user communication and intelligent components. The proposed agent‐oriented methodology and resulting application organises construction knowledge into a structure that enables the students to undertake more self‐directed, systematic and scientific exploration.
Findings
There is great potential for experimenting with a wider variety of educational technologies such as “intelligent” virtual environments. This is a concept that needs further experimentation within construction courses to enrich students' learning with practice‐based experiences. The use of ageny‐oriented objects within simulations and modeling make the virtual learning environment a highly interactive experience. Attempts to do this using traditional intelligent tutoring systems have been frustrated by integrations challenges. Agent‐based systems can handle such challenges. The agent approach is also more efficient in analysing the impact of different decisions in various scenarios by automating the execution of repetitive, time‐consuming actions.
Research limitations/implications
This research identifies specific gaps in the existing e‐learning infrastructure that can be addressed using the intelligent agent paradigm. In particular, the research demonstrates how the notion of learning by actively exploring and controlling environmental variables can be best utilised in the selected domain by giving the learners the means to rapidly visualize the effects of their decisions.
Originality/value
Construction disciplines have increasingly embraced the use of advanced visualisation applications and display systems that allow students to gain a better understanding of the construction process and the resulting facility's performance. Existing efforts are based on image visualisation or animation detailed using, for example, Virtual Reality Modeling Language and 3D Studio Max‐based design animations and walkthroughs. None of these efforts has explored the use of an agent oriented, virtual tutoring approach. A comprehensive literature review established that of no formalised methodologies exist for deploying agent‐based virtual learning environments.
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Ronald H. Stevens, Trysha L. Galloway and Ann Willemsen-Dunlap
In this chapter we highlight a neurodynamic approach that is showing promise as a quantitative measure of team performance.
Abstract
Purpose
In this chapter we highlight a neurodynamic approach that is showing promise as a quantitative measure of team performance.
Methodology/approach
During teamwork the rapid electroencephalographic (EEG) oscillations that emerge on the scalp were transformed into symbolic data streams which provided historical details at a second-by-second resolution of how the team perceived the evolving task and how they adjusted their dynamics to compensate for, and anticipate new task challenges. Key to this approach are the different strategies that can be used to reduce the data dimensionality, including compression, abstraction and taking advantage of the natural redundancy in biologic signals.
Findings
The framework emerging is that teams continually enter and leave organizational neurodynamic partnerships with each other, so-called metastable states, depending on the evolving task, with higher level dynamics arising from mechanisms that naturally integrate over faster microscopic dynamics.
Practical implications
The development of quantitative measures of the momentary dynamics of teams is anticipated to significantly influence how teams are assembled, trained, and supported. The availability of such measures will enable objective comparisons to be made across teams, training protocols, and training sites. They will lead to better understandings of how expertise is developed and how training can be modified to accelerate the path toward expertise.
Originality/value
The innovation of this study is the potential it raises for developing globally applicable quantitative models of team dynamics that will allow comparisons to be made across teams, tasks, and training protocols.
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Brittany L Adams, Holly Reed Cain, Vivana Giraud and Nicole L P Stedman
Increased demand, limited resources, knowledge gaps, and seemingly less time to produce results are the challenges facing researchers and others in higher education today. Working…
Abstract
Increased demand, limited resources, knowledge gaps, and seemingly less time to produce results are the challenges facing researchers and others in higher education today. Working together across disciplines is almost a requirement to stay afloat in the competitive arena most principal investigators are finding themselves in. This study sought to synthesize existing research on leadership behaviors of these investigators in the agricultural discipline. The sections specifically addressed include team science, discipline structure, boundary work, challenges of interdisciplinary research, the direction of research, and leadership in interdisciplinary teams. After analyzing 32 articles, researchers determined that research should continue to investigate the role of leadership behaviors in primary investigators to continue to improve effectiveness.
Helena M. de Klerk and Thea Tselepis
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the early‐adolescent female consumer's expectations and evaluation, as well as satisfaction relating to the fit, as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the early‐adolescent female consumer's expectations and evaluation, as well as satisfaction relating to the fit, as a dimension of the quality of her clothes.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative research style was followed and a structured questionnaire was used as data‐collecting method. A total of 120 13‐year‐old young female consumers, also known as the early‐adolescent female, participated in the study.
Findings
The results suggest that the early‐adolescent female consumer is not only concerned about the functional aspects of the fit of her clothes, but also about the emotional effect. Results further suggest that this consumer group probably does not have the expertise, knowledge and cognitive skills that can enable them, during the evaluation phase of the decision‐making process, to realistically evaluate this very important dimension of the quality of clothes, with the main purpose of giving functional comfort and emotional pleasure during the post‐purchase experience. This then contributes to the fact that, when wearing the clothes, they are, especially as regards the emotional and cognitive dimensions, mostly dissatisfied with the fit of their clothes.
Originality/value
With the buying power of this young market in mind, the main implication of the above is that brands that are specifically aimed at these young consumers should specifically be sized according to the measurements and figure proportions of the young consumer.
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Chiara Colombi, Pielah Kim and Nioka Wyatt
The state of interactive digital technology is evolving rapidly and has shifted the ways in which customers shop dramatically. This trend heightens the need for research that…
Abstract
Purpose
The state of interactive digital technology is evolving rapidly and has shifted the ways in which customers shop dramatically. This trend heightens the need for research that examines the latest interactive digital technology tools adopted in fashion retailing. In response, the purpose of this paper was to examine fashion retailers’ incorporation of new interactive digital technology – in both online and offline retailing formats, and including new hybrid contexts – and its results in providing new experiential quality that contributes strongly to engage with customers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper first reviews the literature and then proposes the research questions. This is followed by exploratory substantiation of those propositions with the findings from case studies that examined the new interactive digital technology implemented by six leading fashion retailers.
Findings
Various digital technology tools implemented in brick-to-click, click-to-brick and brick-and-mortar retailing offer customers a variety of experiential qualities that allow them to co-create products, engage in emotion-driven sensational and personalized shopping experiences and seamless shopping virtually, all of which derive from interactive digital technology implemented to enhance customer engagement.
Originality/value
This research examined the implementation of interactive digital technologies across the full spectrum of the fashion retail settings above. This paper makes an original contribution by adopting a customer-centric perspective and assessing the advantages technology provides to customer’s engagement quality in shopping, which differs from the traditional firm-centric perspective that views technology as a way to innovate retailers’ operations.
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