http://hdl.handle.net/10500/460 2013-05-18T15:44:01Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/9380 iSemServ: a framework for engineering intelligent semantic services Mtsweni, Jabu Saul The need for modern enterprises and Web users to simply and rapidly develop and deliver platform-independent services to be accessed over the Web by the global community is growing. This is self-evident, when one considers the omnipresence of electronic services (e-services) on the Web. Accordingly, the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is commonly considered as one of the de facto standards for the provisioning of heterogeneous business functionalities on the Web. As the basis for SOA, Web Services (WS) are commonly preferred, particularly because of their ability to facilitate the integration of heterogeneous systems. However, WS only focus on syntactic descriptions when describing the functional and behavioural aspects of services. This makes it a challenge for services to be automatically discovered, selected, composed, invoked, and executed – without any human intervention. Consequently, Semantic Web Services (SWS) are emerging to deal with such a challenge. SWS represent the convergence of Semantic Web (SW) and WS concepts, in order to enable Web services that can be automatically processed and understood by machines operating with limited or no user intervention. At present, research efforts within the SWS domain are mainly concentrated on semantic services automation aspects, such as discovery, matching, selection, composition, invocation, and execution. Moreover, extensive research has been conducted on the conceptual models and formal languages used in constructing semantic services. However, in terms of the engineering of semantic services, a number of challenges are still prevalent, as demonstrated by the lack of development and use of semantic services in real-world settings. The lack of development and use could be attributed to a number of challenges, such as complex semantic services enabling technologies, leading to a steep learning curve for service developers; lack of unified service platforms for guiding and supporting simple and rapid engineering of semantic services, and the limited integration of semantic technologies with mature service-oriented technologies. vi In addition, a combination of isolated software tools is normally used to engineer semantic services. This could, however, lead to undesirable consequences, such as prolonged service development times, high service development costs, lack of services re-use, and the lack of semantics interoperability, reliability, and re-usability. Furthermore, available software platforms do not support the creation of semantic services that are intelligent beyond the application of semantic descriptions, as envisaged for the next generation of services, where the connection of knowledge is of core importance. In addressing some of the challenges highlighted, this research study adopted a qualitative research approach with the main focus on conceptual modelling. The main contribution of this study is thus a framework called iSemServ to simplify and accelerate the process of engineering intelligent semantic services. The framework has been modelled and developed, based on the principles of simplicity, rapidity, and intelligence. The key contributions of the proposed framework are: (1) An end-to-end and unified approach of engineering intelligent semantic services, thereby enabling service engineers to use one platform to realize all the modules comprising such services; (2) proposal of a model-driven approach that enables the average and expert service engineers to focus on developing intelligent semantic services in a structured, extensible, and platform-independent manner. Thereby increasing developers’ productivity and minimizing development and maintenance costs; (3) complexity hiding through the exploitation of template and rule-based automatic code generators, supporting different service architectural styles and semantic models; and (4) intelligence wrapping of services at message and knowledge levels, for the purposes of automatically processing semantic service requests, responses and reasoning over domain ontologies and semantic descriptions by keeping user intervention at a minimum. The framework was designed by following a model-driven approach and implemented using the Eclipse platform. It was evaluated using practical use case scenarios, comparative analysis, and performance and scalability experiments. In conclusion, the iSemServ framework is considered appropriate for dealing with the complexities and restrictions involved in engineering intelligent semantic services, especially because the amount of time required to generate intelligent semantic vii services using the proposed framework is smaller compared with the time that the service engineer would need to manually generate all the different artefacts comprising an intelligent semantic service. Keywords: Intelligent semantic services, Web services, Ontologies, Intelligent agents, Service engineering, Model-driven techniques, iSemServ framework. 2013-05-09T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/8626 Applying the Community of Inquiry framework: a novel tool for systematic and economic coding and analysis of forum discourse in situ and in context van der Merwe, Thomas The online discussion forum (ODF) is one of the most widely used e-learning tools in open distance learning (ODL) environments. A popular line of research focuses on producing instruments that can be used to assess the level and amount of learning that takes place via transcript analysis of ODF-discourse. Of current interest is the influential community of inquiry (CoI) theoretical framework, first described by Garrison, Anderson and Archer in 2000. With validation of an ever-evolving framework a constant research focus, the CoI literature provides little insight into educator-level experiences when applying the framework. This paper describes and documents the author's approach and experience in using the framework to assess the status of the CoI in an ODF-driven course. In particular, it describes the motivation for, design, application and analysis results achieved with a novel tool that allows systematic and economical coding and analysis of ODF discourse in situ and in context. 2012-11-12T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/8151 First year students’ understanding of the flow of control in recursive algorithms Sanders, Ian Douglas; Scholtz, Tamarisk Recursion is an important concept for any computer science student to master. Many first year students develop the viable copies mental model of recursion and can successfully trace the execution of a simple recursive function. This article discusses a study focused on deter-mining whether the ability to successfully trace a recursive function means that the student understands recursion or whether they are simply “applying a formula”. The research question investigated was thus “To what extent do students with viable trace mental models un-derstand the flow of control of recursive algorithms?” The research followed a phenomeno-logical approach. A group of first year students with viable mental models was identified by classifying the mental models in their answers to test questions. Fifteen of these students were interviewed. The interviews involved the students talking aloud while they tackled vari-ous tasks. Each student’s understanding of the active flow, the limiting case and the passive flow was assessed. The results show that in most cases even these students have some diffi-culty with the active flow, are confused about the passive flow and have misconceptions about the limiting case. This implies that more careful thought needs to be given to the exam-ples used in teaching recursion and how the concept is taught. 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10500/7764 Managing Innovative Projects Maphosa, M; Eloff, MM Businesses and organisations are undertaking innovative projects to gain competitive advantage in the market. Research into innovative project management has been biased towards how innovative projects are managed to the detriment of the formulation of success criteria for innovative projects. There is a need to evaluate how innovative projects are managed. Project managers for innovative projects find it difficult to do so because success criteria for innovative projects have not been formulated. This paper is a theoretical study on managing different types of projects as different types of projects are managed in different ways. The paper also explores the characteristics of conventional projects as opposed to inno-vative projects and R&D projects. In addition, it critically analyses the differences between project man-agement in conventional projects and project management in innovative projects. By comparing the char-acteristics of conventional projects to those of innovative projects and R&D projects, and the way these different types of projects are managed, the paper attempts to formulate success criteria for innovative projects that can be used by project managers to determine the success or failure of innovative projects. 2012-09-17T00:00:00Z