This book presents different perspectives of online business education - how it is designed, delivered and how it supports advances in management disciplines. The authors describe online platforms in their provision of timely, excellent and relevant business education. The book starts by examining the emergence of online business education. It offers insights for use to business educators in design and implementation of online learning. It presents and discusses technologies for class facilitation and collaboration including tools used to bring content and issues to life. Disruptive approaches and new directions in online business education are examined. The book is ideal for business educators, administrators, as well as business practitioners that have an interest in delivering high quality business education using online platforms and tools. On the Line: Business Education in the Digital Age is divided into three sections. Section 1 presents papers on "why" business education is viable and sustainable in today's context. Treating education as a service, this section describes new techniques for creating a better online business education experience. It also looks at the role advanced data analytics can play in enhancing the quality of online business education. Section 2 delves into "how" online business education works. It presents conceptual models for teaching in specific disciplines, learning design that describes what business educators do and how programs work. This section also addresses performance assessments and quality assurance measures that help to demonstrate the efficacy of online pedagogy. Practical applied papers are used in this section to highlight the use of learning platforms, tools and their application specific to businesses that build knowledge and skills and make students 'work ready'. Finally Section 3 of the book addresses the "so what?" or the outcomes and impacts of online business education. This section targets where business education needs to take learning next, for example to support sustainable business, ethical decision making and inclusive and collaborative leadership. Chapters deal with topics such as how distributed online environments may work better to support knowledge and soft skill building directly relevant for organizations today. Other learning outcomes showing the value of online business education are discussed. Academics, alumni and consultants from over fifteen institutions and organizations around the world contributed to this book.

This handbook provides a unique and in-depth survey of the current state-of-the-art in software engineering, covering its major topics, the conceptual genealogy of each subfield, and discussing future research directions. Subjects include foundational areas of software engineering (e.g. software processes, requirements engineering, software architecture, software testing, formal methods, software maintenance) as well as emerging areas (e.g., self-adaptive systems, software engineering in the cloud, coordination technology). Each chapter includes an introduction to central concepts and principles, a guided tour of seminal papers and key contributions, and promising future research directions. The authors of the individual chapters are all acknowledged experts in their field and include many who have pioneered the techniques and technologies discussed. Readers will find an authoritative and concise review of each subject, and will also learn how software engineering technologies have evolved and are likely to develop in the years to come. This book will be especially useful for researchers who are new to software engineering, and for practitioners seeking to enhance their skills and knowledge.

This book introduces a Digital Social System Praxis Framework (DSSPF) integrating Computational Media, Evolutionary Systems Thinking and Design Thinking approaches to E-transformation practice, also called Community Informatics Design (CID). The DSSPF framework is intended to create communication spaces dedicated to knowledge production and sharing for social and organizational change. It allows social systems researchers and practitioners to recognize their synergistic roles in the praxis process to shape their future through social innovation projects. This transdisciplinary text provides potential students and practitioners fundamental concepts and tools for such design. It offers resources from the Pragmatic and Systemic philosophy of science for the co-construction of social architectures and infrastructures, and multi-aspectual design methodologies by which government, organizations and civil society can learn to ethically co-design common ground. This approach provides complementary and common patterns from known methods, models, and theories of social systems interventions that could support a generic framing of large scale sociotechnical systems: digital social innovation ecosystem, living Labs, Fab Labs, enterprise collaborative networks. There will be a particular focus on understanding and addressing the dimensions that make people from different communities of practice able to communicate and collaborate through multiple digital media, design platforms, worldviews and modeling approaches.

This book introduces the concept of the wise home. Whilst smart homes focus on automation technologies, forcing users to deal with complex and incomprehensible control and programming procedures, the wise home is different. By going beyond intelligence (or smartness) the wise home puts technology in the background and supports explicit (enhanced user-experience) as well as implicit (artificial intelligence) interaction adequate to the end-user's needs. The theoretical basis of the wise home is explored and examples for its application for future living are presented based on empirical studies and field work carried out by the author. Principles of HCI and the meaning of the home from differing scientific perspective are discussed and a research model (based on the concept of user experience (UX)) and iterations is introduced. This has resulted in field deployment guides being produced through a systematic development process. The Future Home is Wise, not Smart will be essential reading to home system developers, designers and researchers, responsible for smart home deployment or Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) who will get insights on how to follow a novel approach in developing and adapting smart home systems to their users' needs. Students with an interest in software design for pervasive systems will benefit by receiving information on how to develop and customise systems for the specific needs of living environments.

This invaluable text/reference investigates the state of the art in approaches to building, monitoring, managing, and governing smart cities. A particular focus is placed on the distributed computing environments within the infrastructure of such cities, including issues of device connectivity, communication, security, and interoperability. A selection of experts of international repute offer their perspectives on current trends and best practices, and their suggestions for future developments, together with case studies supporting the vision of smart cities based on the Internet of Things (IoT). Topics and features: examines the various methodologies relating to next-level urbanization, including approaches to security and privacy relating to social and legal aspects; describes a recursive and layered approach to modeling large-scale resource management systems for self-sustainable cities; proposes a novel architecture for hybrid vehicular wireless sensor networks, and a pricing mechanism for the management of natural resources; discusses the challenges and potential solutions to building smart city surveillance systems, applying knowledge-based governance, and adopting electric vehicles; covers topics on intelligent distributed systems, IoT, fog computing paradigms, big data management and analytics, and smart grids; reviews issues of sustainability in the design of smart cities and healthcare services, illustrated by case studies taken from cities in Japan, India, and Brazil. This illuminating volume offers a comprehensive reference for researchers investigating smart cities and the IoT, students interested in the distributed computing technologies used by smart living systems, and practitioners wishing to adopt the latest security and connectivity techniques in smart city environments.

This book presents perspectives for and by teachers, school and university administrators and educational researchers regarding the great impact pen and tablet technology can have on classrooms and education. presents three distinctly valuable threads of research: Emerging technologies and cutting-edge software invented by researchers and evaluated through real classroom deployments. First-hand perspectives of instructors and administrators who actively implement pen or tablet technologies in their classrooms. Up-and-coming systems that provide insight into the future of pen, touch, and sketch recognition technologies in the classrooms and the curriculums of tomorrow. The Impact of Pen and Touch Technology on Education is an essential read for educators who wish get to grips with ink-based computing and bring their teaching methods into the twenty-first century, as well as for researchers in the areas of education, human-computer interaction and intelligent systems for pedagogical advancement.

The rapid evolution of technology continuously changes the way people interact, work, and learn. By examining these advances, researchers can further optimize the various opportunities that technology provides. The Handbook of Research on Human Development in the Digital Age is a pivotal reference source presenting the latest scholarly research on the impact of technology on the population through different theories and perspectives. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics such as cyberbullying, mobile technology, and social skills development, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and practitioners seeking current research on new trends in technology that impact society.

This book introduces readers to the current trends in using deep learners and deep learner descriptors for medical applications. It reviews the recent literature and presents a variety of medical image and sound applications to illustrate the five major ways deep learners can be utilized: 1) by training a deep learner from scratch (chapters provide tips for handling imbalances and other problems with the medical data); 2) by implementing transfer learning from a pre-trained deep learner and extracting deep features for different CNN layers that can be fed into simpler classifiers, such as the support vector machine; 3) by fine-tuning one or more pre-trained deep learners on an unrelated dataset so that they are able to identify novel medical datasets; 4) by fusing different deep learner architectures; and 5) by combining the above methods to generate a variety of more elaborate ensembles. This book is a value resource for anyone involved in engineering deep learners for medical applications as well as to those interested in learning more about the current techniques in this exciting field. A number of chapters provide source code that can be used to investigate topics further or to kick-start new projects.

This book provides a multidisciplinary view into how individuals and groups interact with the information environments that surround them. The book discusses how informational environments shape our daily lives, and how digital technologies can improve the ways in which people make use of informational environments. It presents the research and outcomes of a seven-year multidisciplinary research initiative, the Leibniz-WissenschaftsCampus Tubingen Informational Environments, jointly conducted by the Leibniz-Institut fur Wissensmedien (IWM) and the Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen. Book chapters from leading international experts in psychology, education, computer science, sociology, and medicine provide a multi-layered and multidisciplinary view on how the interplay between individuals and their informational environments unfolds. Featured topics include: Managing obesity prevention using digital media. Using digital media to assess and promote school teacher competence. Informational environments and their effect on college student dropout. Web-Platforms for game-based learning of orthography and numeracy. How to design adaptive information environments to support self-regulated learning with multimedia. Informational Environments will be of interest to advanced undergraduate students, postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners in various fields of educational psychology, social psychology, education, computer science, communication science, sociology, and medicine.

Technology has changed the way people carry out their daily lives and communicate with one another. Society has become dependent on technology and with that comes the need to understand the advantages and disadvantages that come along with it. Technology-Enhanced Human Interaction in Modern Society is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on the technological advances of applied aspects of life such as training, health, information gathering, and social communication. Featuring coverage on subjects including biomedical test instruments, computer animation, and mobile phones, this publication is ideally designed for researchers and academicians seeking current material on technology-based communication.

Websites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ have enabled users to create virtual communities for social networking and communities of practice. Because of the ever-evolving environment in social networking, there has been much opportunity for new areas of research. Research in virtual communities and social networking has taken different forms with much focus on the software and hardware of the program and the design of the site and its interface and usability. There is also great emphasis on the research behind discovering new opportunities in virtual worlds, as well as the social and behavioral issues related to trust and online culture. Technical, Social and Legal Issues in Virtual Communities: Emerging Environments examines a variety of issues related to virtual communities and social networking, addressing issues related to team identification, leader-member issues, social networking for education, participation in social networks, and other issues directly related to this eclectic field of study. This publication provides comprehensive coverage and understanding of the social, cultural, organizational, human, and cognitive issues related to the virtual communities and social networking. Readers will find that this book encompasses an overall body of knowledge regarding participation of individuals, groups and organizations in virtual communities and networks, by providing an outlet for scholarly research in the area.

The purpose of this book is to review the recent advances in E-health technologies and applications. In particular, the book investigates the recent advancements in physical design of medical devices, signal processing and emergent wireless technologies for E-health. In a second part, novel security and privacy solutions for IoT-based E-health applications are presented. The last part of the book is focused on applications, data mining and data analytics for E-health using artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure. E-health has been an evolving concept since its inception, due to the numerous technologies that can be adapted to offer new innovative and efficient E-health applications. Recently, with the tremendous advancement of wireless technologies, sensors and wearable devices and software technologies, new opportunities have arisen and transformed the E-health field. Moreover, with the expansion of the Internet of Things, and the huge amount of data that connected E-health devices and applications are generating, it is also mandatory to address new challenges related to the data management, applications management and their security. Through this book, readers will be introduced to all these concepts. This book is intended for all practitioners (industrial and academic) interested in widening their knowledge in wireless communications and embedded technologies applied to E-health, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and big data for E-health applications and security issues in E-health.

Information and Communication Technologies, Society and Human Beings: Theory and Framework addresses the extensive area of effects of ICT on human beings and the interaction between ICT, individuals, organizations, and society. This premier reference source features contributions from over 45 distinguished researchers from around the world, each presenting high quality research on Social Informatics, Human Computer Interaction, Organizational Behavior, and Macro-ergonomics. This unique publication is perfect for students, teachers, researchers, engineers, practitioners, managers, policy-makers, and media alike.

Games-based learning focuses on the exploration of high-quality computer games and associated software tools for education and training. Games-Based Learning Advancements for Multi-Sensory Human Computer Interfaces: Techniques and Effective Practices disseminates knowledge on the theory and practice of games-based learning, promoting the development and adoption of best practices. Through a combination of theoretical chapters as well as practical case studies, readers will benefit from expert knowledge and learn from the experiences of both researchers and practitioners from across the globe.

This thesis focuses on the problem of optimizing the quality of network multimedia services. This problem spans multiple domains, from subjective perception of multimedia quality to computer networks management. The work done in this thesis approaches the problem at different levels, developing methods for modeling the subjective perception of quality based on objectively measurable parameters of the multimedia coding process as well as the transport over computer networks. The modeling of subjective perception is motivated by work done in psychophysics, while using Machine Learning techniques to map network conditions to the human perception of video services. Furthermore, the work develops models for efficient control of multimedia systems operating in dynamic networked environments with the goal of delivering optimized Quality of Experience. Overall this thesis delivers a set of methods for monitoring and optimizing the quality of multimedia services that adapt to the dynamic environment of computer networks in which they operate.

This book discusses major technical advancements and research findings in the field of prognostic modelling in healthcare image and data analysis. The use of prognostic modelling as predictive models to solve complex problems of data mining and analysis in health care is the feature of this book. The book examines the recent technologies and studies that reached the practical level and becoming available in preclinical and clinical practices in computational intelligence. The main areas of interest covered in this book are highest quality, original work that contributes to the basic science of processing, analysing and utilizing all aspects of advanced computational prognostic modelling in healthcare image and data analysis.

Knowledge and Technology Management in Virtual Organizations: Issues, Trends, Opportunities and Solutions presents a collection of the most recent contributions in the areas of organization, knowledge, and technology management in the context of virtual enterprises. This book contains important and in-depth information on four dimensions: semantic, managerial, technological, and social. The semantic dimensions covered in this book are ontological and organizational approaches, concepts, organizational models, and knowledge management models. In respect to managerial dimensions, this book covers process management, integration management, relationship management, process integration, knowledge management, technology integration management, and information integration. ""Knowledge and Technology Management in Virtual Organizations: Issues, Trends, Opportunities and Solutions"" presents the technological dimension by explaining the infrastructures and technologies to support technology and information integration standards and protocols. Lastly, this title highlights the social dimension, including human resources management, human resources integration, social issues, social impact, social requirements, and communities of knowledge.

The lockdowns and shutdowns due to COVID-19 encouraged accelerated experimental with new organization practices. The impacts of the pandemic were very strong, both in times of containment, the loosening of restrictions, and recovery periods. Whether in collective and individual commitment, health, and the rapid adoption of new working methods, companies were challenged to adjust very quickly to cope with the emergency. With the interconnection of health, economic, social, and environmental crises, the situation changed the market and economy, and the lasting impacts of this unprecedented and intense experience must be examined. This book explores the digital ecosystem through a historical, sociological, political, and economic approach. It discusses new organizational practices such as remote work, digital culture, and the implementation of transformation strategy using appropriate technological tools. This book deciphers the new paradigm proposed by the digital era and provides theoretical and empirical frameworks in the field of economics and technology.

As the growing relationship between individuals and technology continue to play a vital role in our society and work place, the progress and execution of information technology communication systems is important in maintaining our current way of life. Knowledge and Technological Development Effects on Organizational and Social Structures provides a wide ranging discussion on the exchanging of research ideas and practices in an effort to bring together the social and technical aspects within organizations and society. This collection focuses on new ideas and studies for research, students, and practitioners.

This book examines the principles of and advances in personalized task recommendation in crowdsourcing systems, with the aim of improving their overall efficiency. It discusses the challenges faced by personalized task recommendation when crowdsourcing systems channel human workforces, knowledge, skills and perspectives beyond traditional organizational boundaries. The solutions presented help interested individuals find tasks that closely match their personal interests and capabilities in a context of ever-increasing opportunities of participating in crowdsourcing activities. In order to explore the design of mechanisms that generate task recommendations based on individual preferences, the book first lays out a conceptual framework that guides the analysis and design of crowdsourcing systems. Based on a comprehensive review of existing research, it then develops and evaluates a new kind of task recommendation service that integrates with existing systems. The resulting prototype provides a platform for both the field study and the practical implementation of task recommendation in productive environments.

This book summarizes the results of Design Thinking Research carried out at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA and at the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany. Offering readers a closer look at Design Thinking, its innovation processes and methods, the book covers topics ranging from how to design ideas, methods and technologies, to creativity experiments and wicked problem solutions, to creative collaboration in the real world, and the interplay of designers and engineers. But the topics go beyond this in their detailed exploration of Design Thinking and its use in IT systems engineering fields, or even from a management perspective. The authors show how these methods and strategies actually work in companies, introduce new technologies and their functions, and demonstrate how Design Thinking can influence such unexpected topics as marriage. Furthermore, readers will learn how special-purpose Design Thinking can be used to solve wicked problems in complex fields. Thinking and devising innovations are fundamentally and inherently human activities - so is Design Thinking. Accordingly, Design Thinking is not merely the result of special courses nor of being gifted or trained: it's a way of dealing with our environment and improving techniques, technologies and life.

This book develops a common understanding between the client and the provider in each of the four stages of strategic outsourcing. These stages range from discovery, where the parties envision their future collaboration; planning, where they lay the ground work for the contract and the project; building, where they effectively carry out the work; and lastly to running, where they orchestrate the relationship on a daily basis to ensure that the new, enlarged company achieves the results sought. In a simple yet direct style, it highlights the dos and don'ts the parties should bear in mind at each stage of the process and combines both the client's and the provider's perspectives by comparing their respective involvement at each stage of the process and considering, equally, their obligations in establishing a balanced relationship. The book is primarily intended for those in the private sector with experience of dealing with complex outsourcing situations and who are looking for the small or bigger differentiators that will support their decisions and actions. The target audiences include, on the client side: CCOs, CIOs, lawyers, procurement managers, outsourcing consultants and IT Service managers and, on the provider side: account managers, bid managers, outsourcing project managers, operation managers and service managers. However, it is also useful for anybody involved in outsourcing who is seeking to develop a global understanding of the main processes and roles upstream and downstream in the chain.

This book presents current innovative, alternative and creative approaches that challenge traditional mechanisms in and across disciplines and industries targeting societal impact. A common thread throughout the book is human-centered, uni and multi-modal strategies across the range of human technologies, including sensing and stimuli; virtual and augmented worlds; games for serious applications; accessibility; digital-ethics and more. Focusing on engaging, meaningful, and motivating activities that at the same time offer systemic information on human condition, performance and progress, the book is of interest to anyone seeking to gain insights into the field, be they students, teachers, practicing professionals, consultants, or family representatives. By offering a wider perspective, it addresses the need for a core text that evokes and provokes, engages and demands and stimulates and satisfies.

With the alarming rate of information technology changes over the past two decades, it is not unexpected that there is an evolution of the human side of IT that has forced many organizations to rethink their strategies in dealing with the human side of IT. People, just like computers, are main components of any information systems. And just as successful organizations must be willing to upgrade their equipment and facilities, they must also be alert to changing their viewpoints on various aspects of human behavior. New and emerging technologies result in human behavior responses which must be addressed with a view toward developing better theories about people and IT. IT Solutions Series: Humanizing Information Technology: Advice from Experts brings out a variety of views expressed by practitioners from corporate and public settings offer their experiences in dealing with the human byproduct of IT.

The book presents recent trends and solutions to help healthcare sectors and medical staff protect themselves and others and limit the spread of the COVID-19. The book also presents the problems and challenges researchers and academics face in tackling this monumental task. Topics include: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drones that can be used to detect infected people in different areas; robots used in fighting the COVID-19 by protecting workers and staff dealing with infected people; blockchain technology that secures sensitive transactions in strict confidentiality. With contributions from experts from around the world, this book aims to help those creating and honing technology to help with this global threat.