Background The early identification of hearing loss and ear disorders is important. Regular screening is recommended for all age groups to determine whether a full hearing assessment is necessary and allow for timely treatment of hearing problems. Procedural training is needed for new speech-language pathology students as well as continuing education for those trained to perform this screening procedure. Limited availability and access to physical training locations can make it difficult to receive the needed training. Objective The aims of this study were to (1) develop a new hearing screening simulation software platform and (2) assess its effectiveness in training a group of graduate-level speech-language pathology students in hearing screening procedures. Methods An audiology simulator modeled after the commercial Grason-Stadler GSI39 combination audiometer and tympanometer device was developed to serve as a precursor to traditional face-to-face clinical instruction. A description of the simulator development process, guided by a design science approach, is presented. The initiation phase established the initial criteria for the simulator design. This was followed by an iterative process involving prototype development, review, and critique by the clinical faculty. This feedback served as input for the subsequent iteration. The evaluation of the final prototype involved 33 speech-language pathology graduate students as part of an introductory audiology class. These students were randomly assigned to control (receiving in-person instruction) and test (in-person instruction and simulation tool use) groups. Students in both groups were subsequently evaluated as they performed audiology screenings on human participants and completed a 25-item pretest and posttest survey. Nonparametric Mann-Whitney U tests were conducted on the mean differences between pretest and posttest ordinal survey response data to compare the control and intervention groups. Results The results indicated that the students who used the simulation tool demonstrated greater confidence in their ability to (1) explain hearing screening procedures to a child (P=.02), (2) determine whether otoscopy results are normal (P=.02), and (3) determine whether otoscopy results are abnormal (P=.03). Open-ended responses indicated that the students found that the hands-on experience provided by the simulator resulted in an easy-to-use and useful learning experience with the audiometer, which increased their confidence in their ability to perform hearing screenings. Conclusions Software-based education simulation tools for audiology screening may provide a beneficial approach to educating students and professionals in hearing screening training. The tool tested in this study supports individualized, self-paced learning with context-sensitive feedback and performance assessment, incorporating an extensible approach to supporting simulated subjects.

This paper argues for the inclusion of tools that utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs) in information technology (IT) undergraduate courses that teach the fundamentals of software. LLM tools have become widely available and disrupt traditional methods for teaching software concepts. Learning objectives are compromised when students submit AI-generated code for a classroom assignment without comprehending or validating the code. Since LLM tools including OpenAI Codex, Copilot by GitHub, and ChatGPT are being used in industry for software development, students need to be familiar with their use without compromising student learning. Incorporating LLM tools into the curriculum prepares students for real-world software development. However, students still need to understand software fundamentals including how to write and debug code. There are many challenges associated with the inclusion of AI tools into the IT curriculum that need to be addressed and mitigated. This paper presents strategies and techniques to integrate student use of LLM tools, assist students’ interaction with the tools, and help prepare students for careers that increasingly use AI tools to design, develop, and maintain software.

This paper is an experiential report describing the faculty and student experiences and knowledge gained from developing an Internet of Things (IoT) course within an Information Technology (IT) Department at a large southeastern United States public university. The paper contributes insights gained developing the introductory IoT course, and it recommends the inclusion of IoT technology within an IT curriculum due to its disruptive and transformative nature. Many industries are deploying IoT applications making it imperative that IT graduates have the knowledge and skills needed to work with this emerging technology. The faculty leveraged the use of the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) Instructional Design Model to develop a pilot course in the summer of 2022 and then, based on the pilot feedback and analysis using ADDIE, refined the course design for spring 2023. The continuing course development draws on IT undergraduate curricula guidelines in Information Technology Curricula 2017 (IT2017), research into how industry uses IoT applications, and the use of hands-on educational technologies to identify and apply IoT knowledge and skills needed for IT graduates. The pervasive nature of IoT requires IoT faculty to have knowledge of each of the IT Pillars (programming, networking, human-computer interaction, databases, and web systems) as well as the IT Supplemental IoT Domain guidelines developed in IT2017 .

In "Web Scraping for Hospitality Research: Overview, Opportunities, and Implications," Han and Anderson present the tools and methods for collecting online data through data scraping. Although the article describes in detail the processes for gathering data, and presented recent court rulings that allow data scraping in the United States, it did not adequately address the ethical collection of online data. The internet has opened up new opportunities to research interesting questions and to collect data much faster than has been possible in the past. The emergence of online databases and social media sites enables new lines of research while at the same time introducing new ethical questions for both researchers and institutional research boards (IRBs). Using web-based data for research is not new. However, as Han and Anderson point out, a 2019 ruling (HiQ Labs, Inc. v. LinkedIn Corporation, appeal from the United States District Court) has redefined what is legal in online data collection. In the following, we highlight some of the key legal and ethical issues around the use of scraped data for academic research with the intent of ensuring researchers, reviewers, and editors are cognizant of some of these (evolving) issues.

ABSTRACTAn introductory information technology (IT) course (ITEC 101) was designed to engage IT students and attract non-degree students. Student feedback suggests an update was needed. A survey gauged student sentiment and solicited positive and negative feedback, and recommendations for change. Results suggests students prefer active learning and want more emphasis on meaningful content and assignments. We discuss the course redesign. Active learning is emphasized, incorporating a flipped classroom model to engage and build student enthusiasm for information technology.

The study utilized Hofstede's national cultural dimensions as the theoretical framework to examine the impact of national culture on guests' evaluation of hotel experience. Unlike previous studies which investigate the role of nationality by merely identifying differences between nations, this study analyzed different dimensions of cultural distance between the destination country and a guest's home nation. Using a big data approach, 25,480 guests from five countries reviewed 1,533 Parisian hotels on value, room, location, cleanness, and service. The results revealed that cultural distance dimension of masculinity, individualism, long-term orientation, indulgence, and uncertainty avoidance significantly influence different aspects of hotel ratings.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how well hotel website load time performance compared against customer expectation benchmarks. In a competitive market, service interactions are important. As customers move to mobile devices, the time to load a website is a critical part of the service delivery. Long load times can lead to poor service experiences, customer frustration and lost business. Hotel website load times on both mobile and desktop devices were examined and compared to service expectations. Design/methodology/approach The study used an online service to assess and compare website load performance using both desktop and mobile devices for 259 international hotel company and sub-brand websites. Findings The time to load hotel websites was significantly slower on mobile devices compared to desktops. Load times on both platforms exceeded 3 s, which is considered best practice. Long load times represent a service gap and can cause dissatisfaction resulting in a potential customer abandoning the website for a competitor’s site, thus affecting sales. Research limitations/implications While the population for the study was robust in size and contained most of the major hotel companies worldwide, it was not exhaustive. Data also represent a snapshot and will change over time. Load times vary based on test location, access device and network traffic. Additionally, web page load times and customer expectations will change as technology evolves. Originality/value Increased use of mobile devices for hotel reservations increases the importance of mobile service delivery. This is the first known study to measure hotel website load times for mobile devices, and to examine both mobile and desktop performance against best practice. The results of this study highlight a service gap, which can lead to loss of business. Given the consistency of the results, the authors suspect that this is an issue that has not been recognized within the industry. This study is valuable because it exposes an issue of website design not generally addressed in the hospitality industry, even though tools are available to monitor site performance.

This study compares the load time for hotel and hotel company websites with the load times for online travel agencies, aggregators and peer to peer accommodation websites.A traveler's first impression of a hotel company is likely to be their first visit to the website on either their computer or mobile device.Prior research has shown that a slow loading website leads to user frustration and can cause consumers to abandon a website in favor of faster loading sites.Sites with a slower load time are at a competitive disadvantage.This study compares load times for 261 hotel and hotel company websites, 91 online travel agencies, 26 aggregators, and 40 peer to peer accommodation websites on both mobile and desktop platforms.The study found significant differences between website types for desktop load times.The management implications are discussed.

Online guest reviews have become an important facet of consideration when customers decide on a hotel. However, limited research has been done to examine how hotel management's responses to comments posted to online review sites such as TripAdvisor influence customers' hotel perception and choice. This pilot study uses a semiexperimental approach to investigate how customers' perceived hotel image, attitude, and hypothetical intent to stay are impacted by three different hotel responses to negative guest online feedback, respectively, including "no response," "negative response," and "service recovery response" scenarios. The results reveal that providing a service recovery response to negative online reviews enhanced hotel image, attitude, and hypothetical intent to stay at the hotel. Comparatively, respondents' hotel image and attitude toward the hotel were ranked lowest under the "no response" strategy, which indicates that any hotel response, even negative, would be better than taking no action. This study provides valuable implications and strategies for academics and hotel management in terms of addressing negative online reviews.

There are many unique challenges associated with introductory programming courses. For novice programmers, the challenges of their first programming class can lead to a great deal of stress and frustration. Regular programming assignments is often key to developing an understanding of best practices and the coding process. Students need practice with these new concepts to reinforce the underlying principles. Providing timely and consistent feedback on these assignments can be a challenge for instructors, particularly in large classes. Plagiarism is also a concern. Unfortunately traditional tools are not well suited to introductory courses.This paper describes how AppGrader, a static code assessment tool can be used to address the challenges of an introductory programming class. The tool assesses student's understanding and application of programming fundaments as defined in the current ACM/IEEE Information Technology Curriculum Guidelines. Results from a bench test and directions for future research are provided.

A leading cause of Identity Theft is that attackers get access to the victim’s personal credentials. We are warned to protect our personal identifiers but we need to share our credentials with various organizations in order to obtain services from them. As a result the safety of our credentials is dependent on both the ability and diligence of the various organizations with which we interact. However, recent data breach incidents are clear proof that existing approaches are insufficient to protect the privacy of our credentials. Using a Design Science methodology, we propose a new technology, veiled certificates, which includes features that prevent fraudulent use of user’s credentials and provides a degree of user anonymity. We also incorporate biometric authentication so that service providers know that they are dealing with the owner of the credentials. Results of a bench scale test that demonstrates the feasibility of the approach are reviewed. We also suggest four major applications which could take advantage of these certificates.

The tremendous growth of social media and consumer-generated content on the Internet has inspired the development of the so-called big data analytics to understand and solve real-life problems. However, while a handful of studies have employed new data sources to tackle important research problems in hospitality, there has not been a systematic application of big data analytic techniques in these studies. This study aims to explore and demonstrate the utility of big data analytics to better understand important hospitality issues, namely the relationship between hotel guest experience and satisfaction. Specifically, this study applies a text analytical approach to a large quantity of consumer reviews extracted from Expedia.com to deconstruct hotel guest experience and examine its association with satisfaction ratings. The findings reveal several dimensions of guest experience that carried varying weights and, more importantly, have novel, meaningful semantic compositions. The association between guest experience and satisfaction appears strong, suggesting that these two domains of consumer behavior are inherently connected. This study reveals that big data analytics can generate new insights into variables that have been extensively studied in existing hospitality literature. In addition, implications for theory and practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Wireless Sensor and Robot Networks, pp. 249-265 (2014) No AccessChapter 10: Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks: Challenges and Business ApplicationsEssia Hamouda and John GerdesEssia HamoudaCalifornia State University Fullerton, USA and John GerdesUniversity of South Carolina, Integrated Information Technology, USAhttps://doi.org/10.1142/9789814551342_0010Cited by:1 Previous AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have emerged as an effective solution for a wide range of business applications. Most of the traditional WSN architectures consist of stationary nodes that are densely deployed over a sensing area. Recently, several WSN architectures deploying mobile devices have been proposed to exploit node mobility, and address problems of data transmission and collection in WSNs. In this chapter, we first define mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSNs). Then, we present an overview of the major challenges encountered in data transmission in MWSNs. Finally, we focus on the importance of MWSNs in business applications. We identify recent business applications where mobile wireless sensors have become important along with the challenges they are facing. FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited By 1Self‐stabilising hybrid connectivity control protocol for WSNsGokou Hervé Fabrice Diédié, Boko Aka and Michel Babri1 February 2019 | IET Wireless Sensor Systems, Vol. 9, No. 1 Wireless Sensor and Robot NetworksMetrics History PDF download

User generated travel reviews are becoming a prominent information source for travelers making hotel purchase decisions. This study examines 60,648 user generated travel reviews for 4,987 hotels, across hotel segments determining word use patterns and frequencies. The intent of this study was to determine areas where a hotel could take action and thereby improve their rating, varied by segment. The study found that travelers' use of words and word patterns in comments accompanying online ratings had some differences across different hotel segments. Travelers assigning ratings to the lower priced segments were concerned about cleanliness of the hotel and the bathroom, while travelers assigning ratings to the higher priced segments, mentioned words related to the bed, and the service or the staff more frequently. Travelers also frequently mentioned breakfast and a hotel's convenience to area amenities.

Publishing in top academic journals is valued by faculty, program administration, and external bodies, in part because these articles are often the most impactful in the field. At the same time there is an increased emphasis on obtaining external grants to support research. Funded research not only provides financial support needed to undertake larger research projects, it also provides support for graduate students and the research mission of the university. This study investigates the relationship that funded research plays in articles published in top tier Information Systems journals. This paper contributes by providing the first analysis of the interface between external funding and publication productivity in the field of Information Systems. Articles acknowledging external support appear more frequently in higher rated journals. Also, the sources of support claimed in IS articles is inconsistent with the published breakdown of funding sources.

Advisors with a working knowledge about course workload and the levels of learning in specific classes provide the best possible advising. Unfortunately, they often have only limited information regarding important course characteristics. With a better understanding of these factors, advisors can assist students in making appropriate course selections during the advising process and promote a positive advisor-student relationship. We explain a new means of profiling courses that integrates information about the workload and levels of learning for each course. We also explain the benefits of these new course profiles for advisors, faculty members, students, and administrators.

PurposeConsumers as well as hotel web sites are evolving, changing the requirements and expectations for online hotel room reservations. Building on previous research, the purpose of this paper is to explore hotel web site design's influence on site appeal and likelihood to purchase.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology incorporates both qualitative and quantitative methods. College‐age participants visited hotel web sites detailing their impressions. Using a grounded theory‐based approach and regression analysis, web design factors are identified and assessed.FindingsThe paper finds a preference for enhanced graphical web site design. This finding contradicts prior studies. The paper also finds continued importance in: ease of use, brand loyalty site content, and site aesthetics.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. The coding of qualitative data can be affected by researcher bias. This paper also suffers from an age and geographic population bias. While this paper suggests that certain factors influence the likelihood to purchase, more extensive definition of these factors is needed. In addition, several factors, which were important in previous studies, have incongruous findings in this paper and need further examination.Practical implicationsThe results give direction to the design of effective hotel web sites.Originality/valueRapidly evolving internet technologies and consumer behavior generate a need for ongoing research to consumer behavior. A study with valid insight and information completed previously may not accurately reflect today's internet hotel market. The findings are significant: they suggest there has been a shift in consumer preferences.

This study evaluates 60,648 consumer ratings and comments from an online distribution site to explore what factors drive consumer ratings of hotels. Ratings assigned by travelers were combined with words used in their comments to bring to light the most frequent commendations and concerns mentioned when rating hotels. Specifically, the study yields information as to the most frequently used words, as well as the pattern of word usage with either high or low guest ratings. It also explores word choices of guests scoring hotels at lower ratings versus higher ratings. Implications of the differences in word choice are discussed. The results of this study will help hotel management in allocating resources to improve ratings and guest comments.