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  • Information Management in the Canadian Federal Government: Principles, Practices and the Role of Information Professionals

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Stricker, Ulla de and Jordan, Isla
    Abstract:
    Information management (IM) in the Canadian public sector is a complex area involving many professions such as librarians, archivists, records managers and information technology professionals. This exploratory study looks at the literature and experiential (qualitative) evidence from IM professionals in order to paint a picture of information management principles and practice in the Canadian federal government. Personal interviews were conducted with 20 librarians, information managers, records managers and other information professionals. Responses indicated that although the public sector has made tremendous strides in IM, there is often a gap between IM policy and practice as shown by inconsistencies and confusion in day to day operations compounded by the decimation of federal libraries (which are repositories of external as well as government information). The study also looks at roles of librarians and other IM professionals now and in the future. These professionals are well positioned to help close the gap between information policy and practice, moving forward toward more coordinated and integrated practices in information management as well as making information accessible and usable for their clients. Such functions aid the Canadian public sector in becoming a more effective knowledge organization.
    Date Created:
    2013-04-02

  • Personal Learning Environments (PLEs): Ecologies for building student capability for lifelong learning

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Renon, Flavia
    Abstract:
    The purpose of this working paper is to examine the role of Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) in higher education. This information will serve as a framework to inform a study of PLE use at Carleton University.
    Date Created:
    2013-04-30

  • Assessment Practice in Canadian University Libraries: Survey Results

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    McKenna, Julie and Jordan, Isla
    Abstract:
    Accountability and data-informed decision-making are increasingly important for Canadian public institutions such as governments and universities. Canadian university libraries also appear to be placing more emphasis on evaluating and assessing their services and products. To discover more about the current assessment culture in Canadian university libraries, in 2007 Isla Jordan from Carleton University and Julie McKenna from the University of Regina conducted an online survey of services assessment practices in Canadian university libraries. The goals of this project were to gain a sense of assessment practices within the libraries and to provide a baseline for future comparisons and research into services assessment practice. Results showed that survey respondents were at different stages in assessing a variety of services and products. Respondents indicated that their libraries intended to increase their assessment activities in the future, particularly the LibQUAL survey.
    Date Created:
    2013-09-30

  • Evaluating Community/Post-Secondary Collaboration in support of Community Environmental Sustainability : Includes: Final Report

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Cullen, Blair
    Description:
    Completed for: Trent Centre for Community-Based Education : Supervising Professor: Nadine Changfoot
    Abstract:
    The Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) is a Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded research project designed to provide insights into how post-secondary institutions and community partners can establish and maintain successful relationships that ultimately maximize the value created for non-profit organizations. CFICE is organized into five self-managing research hubs; the focus of this report is the Peterborough and Haliburton section of the Community Environmental Sustainability (CES) hub. Hub members participated in interviews and a focus group to discuss the results of four first year demonstration projects. For the most part, results were favourable, especially for community-based organizations, who pointed to a high level of influence and a number of net gains such as increased capacity and the development of valuable resources. A notable finding was the important role of community-university bridging organizations, U-Links and the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education. Participants identified both organizations as a critical ingredient to the smooth functioning of demonstration projects. Challenges participants identified included delay of grant funds, delayed ethics approval and university resistance to community-based research projects in some areas.
    Date Created:
    2013-12-02

  • Approaches to Social Innovation Hub Governance: Workshop Report: Includes : Final Report

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Pulido, Andreina, Fralin, Sara, and Andreina, Elizabeth
    Description:
    Completed for: Community Opportunity & Innovation Network (COIN) Supervising Professor: Tom Whillans Trent Centre for Community-Based Education
    Abstract:
    Abstract: This workshop implemented SAS2 community-based research methods to facilitate direction for the Peterborough Centre for Social Innovation (PCSI) on their governance, operations, collaborations and finance strategies during their pilot project. The results will be used to provide direction on the selection of two or three case studies for interview to understand how successful social innovation organizations have connected to the community need. The results of the governance models workshop demonstrated that the PCSI should remain flexible to be reactive to the environment as many participants supported a hybrid governance and collaboration model. In addition, the operation and collaboration workshop showed that there was strong support for work space, kitchen space and programming that would provide outreach opportunities to the community. Facilitating a locally-focused social innovation centre was also a key foundation for the participants. This workshop report outlines phase one's literature review on social innovation governance and strategies, workshop results and discussion, as well as recommendations and the conclusions of this community-based research. Prepared by Sara Fralin,Andreina Pulido and Elizabeth Teleki
    Date Created:
    2013-05-06

  • Approaches to Social Innovation Hub Governance: Case Study Report

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Teleki, Elizabeth, Fralin, Sara, and Pulido, Andreina
    Description:
    Completed for: Community Opportunity & Innovation Network (COIN), Supervising Professor: Tom Whillans; Trent Centre for Community-Based Education
    Abstract:
    The Trent Centre for Community Based Education (TCCBE) brought together graduate students from Trent University’s Sustainability Studies Masters program with Peterborough’s Community Opportunity & Innovation Network (COIN), to collaborate on a community based research project for the Peterborough Centre for Social Innovation (PCSI). This workshop report outlines phase one's literature review on social innovation governance and strategies, workshop results and discussion, as well as recommendations and the conclusions of this community-based research.
    Date Created:
    2013-05-07

  • On the Effectiveness of Contracts as Test Oracles in the Detection and Diagnosis of Faults in Concurrent Object-Oriented Software

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Araujo, Wladimir, Briand, Lionel Claude, and Labiche, Yvan
    Abstract:
    Design by Contract (DbC) is a software development methodology that focuses on clearly defining the interfaces between components to produce better quality object-oriented software. The idea behind DbC is that a method defines a contract stating the requirements a client needs to fulfill to use it, the precondition, and the properties it ensures after its execution, the postcondition. Though there exists ample support for DbC for sequential programs, applying DbC to concurrent programs presents several challenges. Using Java as the target programming language, this paper tackles such challenges by augmenting the Java Modelling Language (JML) and modifying the JML compiler to generate Runtime Assertion Checking (RAC) code to support DbC in concurrent programs. We applied our solution in a carefully designed case study on a highly concurrent industrial software system from the telecommunications domain to assess the effectiveness of contracts as test oracles in detecting and diagnosing functional faults in concurrent software. Based on these results, clear and objective requirements are defined for contracts to be effective test oracles for concurrent programs whilst balancing the effort to design them. Main results include that contracts of a realistic level of completeness and complexity can detect around 76% of faults and reduce the diagnosis effort for such faults by at least ten times. We, therefore, show that DbC can not only be applied to concurrent software but can also be a valuable tool to improve the economics of software engineering.
    Date Created:
    2013-09-01

  • Multi-objective construction of an entire adequate test suite for an EFSM

    Resource Type:
    Report
    Creator:
    Labiche, Yvan and Asoudeh, Nesa
    Abstract:
    In this paper we propose a method and a tool to generate test suites from extended finite state machines, accounting for multiple (potentially conflicting) objectives. We aim at maximizing coverage and feasibility of a test suite while minimizing similarity between its test cases and minimizing overall cost. Therefore, we define a multi-objective genetic algorithm that searches for optimal test suites based on four objective functions. In doing so, we create an entire test suite at once as opposed to test cases one at a time. Our approach is evaluated on two different case studies, showing interesting initial results.
    Date Created:
    2013-10-01