Informatica Economica Vol. 19 No. 3/2015

Issue Topic: Knowledge Society

CONTENTS

An Information Systems Master Programme in Romania. Some Commonalities and Specificities
Marin FOTACHE, Florin DUMITRIU, Valerica GREAVU-SERBAN 5
This paper presents some preliminary results of a survey conducted in 2013 and 2015 for the graduates of Information Systems (IS) master programme at Al.I.Cuza University of Iasi. The survey main objectives were to gather information about graduates employability, to identify the required skills on the IT market, to find out the graduates opinion about the programme (including curricula, syllabi, internship, infrastructure, teaching staff), and program strengths and weaknesses and realign curricula to the industry demand. A brief description of main IS career tracks was provided according to ACM/AIS curricula guidelines. Enrollment for both undergraduate and master IS programmes were compared to international trends. Some other assumptions which were checked relate to: the type of employers and customers of the IT projects the graduates work for, the moment of getting the first job, the structure IT vs. non-IT and managerial vs. non-managerial ( also overall and by genre) positions/jobs of the graduates. The IT functional (sub)areas of graduates positions were discussed in relation to the current state of Romanian IT market which is massively dependent on off shoring.
Keywords: Information Systems Curricula, Graduates Survey, IS Employability, IS Programmes – Industry Alignment

Some Behavioral Considerations on the GPS4GEF Cloud-Based Generator of Evaluation Forms with Automatic Feedback and References to Interactive Support Content
Daniel HOMOCIANU, Dinu AIRINEI 19
The paper introduces some considerations on a previously defined general purpose system used to dynamically generate online evaluation forms with automatic feedback immediately after submitting responses and working with a simple and well-known data source format able to store questions, answers and links to additional support materials in order to increase the productivity of evaluation and assessment. Beyond presenting a short description of the prototype’s components and underlining advantages and limitations of using it for any user involved in assessment and evaluation processes, this paper promotes the use of such a system together with a simple technique of generating and referencing interactive support content cited within this paper and defined together with the LIVES4IT approach. This type of content means scenarios having adhoc documentation and interactive simulation components useful when emulating concrete examples of working with real world objects, operating with devices or using software applications from any activity field.
Keywords: Short History of Forms, Java Script (JS), Google’s Applications, Reasons for using Google Apps Script (GAS), General Purpose System for Generating Evaluation Forms (GPS4GEF), Interactive Support Content for On-Line Forms

A Multi-Dimensional Assessment Model to Evaluate Web Based Learning Systems
Anal ACHARYA, Devadatta SINHA 32
The growth of communication technology in the last decade has prompted researchers to develop web based learning systems for various types of applications. The entities involved in the development of such systems are learners, instructors, system designers, administrators to name a few. With varying nature of applications and entities involved, the task of evaluating these web based learning systems appears quite challenging. The present study uses factor analysis to develop an assessment model for evaluating the web based learning systems developed by the authors. The analysis is performed on a data set derived by applying a survey instrument on a set of 140 learners using these systems. These learners ranked 20 items used for evaluation in order of their perceived degree of importance. It was found that the most important dimension was learning outcome which coincides with the general outcome of any mode of learning.
Keywords: Web Based Learning Systems, Web based Learning Assessment, Survey Instrument, Factor Analysis, SPSS

Learning Support for Standard e-Classroom
Gabriel ZAMFIR 46
Normative approaches developed in the traditional education system are based on the classical resources, and this type of formal education reveals more and more restrictions, both for teaching and for evaluations, as soon as information has still an exponential development. At the same time, the informal education recognised as the regional information systems and the non-formal education reflected as the global information system evolve as a learning environment with more and more consequences for students. In this context, the formal education requires to be reorganized as a national information system according to the functionalities of the e-society, consolidated on the main three building blocks: e-Education, e-Science and e-Business. This article is designed as a conceptual one, focused on specific features of the e-classroom, considered as the standard technological infrastructure, defined as an extension of the traditional classroom in e-education. The purpose of this analysis is to highlight the new paradigm of meta-instruction in e-education as it is profiling as the basement of the learning support in standard e-classroom.
Keywords: Assisted Instruction, Educational Research, E-Articles, Assisted Individual Study, Qualifications and Occupational Standards

Evolution towards a Cloud Deployed Business Support System
Ioan DRAGAN, Razvan Daniel ZOTA 59
Although less known outside strictly specialized environments, Business Support Systems (BSS) are highly complex and the subject of their installation in cloud implementations is less addressed. This paper presents a short history of BSS evolution, starting from basic voice and messaging services and ending up to 4G and M2M services, presenting new features and their new challenges. Moreover, we present, as a baseline for future developments, a study based on direct interviews with representatives of telecom operators about their vision of possible future BSS solutions depending on the services they will provide. This area of investigation has a certain number of challenges that require collaboration between providers and operators; in this context, we have been established a framework of requirements which will be handled and studied individually.
Keywords: Business Support Systems, Cloud implementations, Telecom Providers

Homo Digitalis – in Search of a Patterned Usage Identity
Adrian STOICESCU 68
There is a great debate around the ways identity is shaped online, mainly as a result of understanding the online as networked individuals. The present papers tries to open the discussion on whether the quasi-synonym words constantly used to talk about the online communication cyber, virtual and digital define the same reality or whether they can be associated with particular aspects of the identity forged within the computer mediated communication. The search for the differentiating aspects is carried out against the backdrop of technological development which inevitably alters with every new aspect unveiled a new side of each individual’s identity.
Keywords: Identity, Cyber, Virtual, Digital, Historical Development

The Impact of Elaborated Feedback on Competency Assessment of IT Professionals
Elena-Alexandra TOADER, Mircea-Alexandru LUNGU 80
Feedback represents an important component in the process of assessing the competencies of the IT professionals as it allows to evaluate their performance and helps their managers to personalize the learning content according to employees’ needs and profiles. In the current paper we propose a computer-based formative feedback framework that provides personalized feedback for the technical employees. Extensive research has been carried out focusing on formative assessment aspects that includes the elaborate feedback. An online competency assessment tool was designed and it is going to be implemented in order to measure the professionals’ performance in software organizations. The subjects of the study are going to be software developers, working in departments of IT Romanian companies. Their performance is going to be evaluated through the competency-based assessment tool. At the end of the assessment process, an elaborate feedback is provided in order to improve their current level of competency acquired. The current paper reveals the role of the computer-based formative assessment within software organizations as well as the importance of an elaborate feedback that can improve the employees’ knowledge and skills.
Keywords: Elaborated Feedback, Formative Assessment, IT Competency, IT Professionals

A Quantitative Approach to Information Systems Audit in Small and Medium Enterprises
Uma VIJAYAKUMAR, D. ILANGOVAN 89
An Information Systems (IS) Auditor performs several audit related functions in a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) such as preparation of a written IS audit procedure, comparison of actual IS configuration with documented configuration standards, assess whether IS assets are secure, check the access rights for users and system services, check for the presence of IS security procedures and finally analyze transactions in an information system. The current work focuses on a quantitative approach to measure the effectiveness of the IS audit functions in selected small and medium enterprises. The variations in KPI scores between sectors and regions are analyzed for the sample SMEs. Finally, the operational best practices for IS Auditors working in SMEs are suggested.
Keywords: Information Systems (IS), IS Audit, Key Performance Indicator (KPI), Small and Medium Enterprise (SME), Maturity Level Index

Globalization Streams in Futures Studies
Ehsan MEHRABANFAR 96
This paper focuses on economic, political & cultural changes in respect to globalization. It proposes a conceptual model to discuss the effect of mutual relationships among these concepts in the view point of futures studies. Discussing the literature of globalization and its effect on fundamental concepts of human's life, i.e. culture, politics and economy leads to a better understanding of basic features of these concepts. The connections among these concepts in front of a time line with globalization growth can be put together to make a new conceptual model in order to explain their relationships in future. Proposed model shows that the growth of globalization will dismantle economic, political & cultural differentiation issues, as globalization will reduce their complexity and discrepancy. In other words, future world is not affected significantly by economic, political and cultural infrastructures since the distinctions among these concepts will be reduced by an overall convergence resulted from Globalization positive trend. To understand the best future we should stand on a tiny point to see the reality. This goal is just reached through right vision to understand the best plausible scenarios. This paper aims to propose a model in order to show the basic impact of culture, politics and economics on world which are the basic pillars events of today, but not for tomorrow.
Keywords: Futures Studies (FS), Globalization, Culture, Politics, Economics.

Stylometry Metrics Selection for Creating a Model for Evaluating the Writing Style of Authors According to Their Cultural Orientation
Madalina ZURINI 107
The present paper starts from a short introduction of the major aspects debated regarding plagiarism and author identification, along with the principles that are at the base of forming the property rights laws within the European community and the Anglo-American one. Regardless of the community involved, plagiarism is a form of using others research, as it is or modified, and presenting it as a personal creation. The terms of creativity and plagiarism are described in an antithesis analysis, reaching to the concept of originality, defined as a property that a creative research paper has when the ideas presented within in are different from the ones already published by different authors. A metric is implemented in order to obtain a measurable value in determining the level of originality of a paper. The main ways of testing a paper of plagiarism, intrinsic and external analysis, are described for choosing the proper methodology for determining originality of scientific papers. The research leads to the stylometric analysis, a field found at the crossroad of plagiarism, originality and author identification. This stylometric analysis is done within the intrinsic plagiarism detection and is formed on the bases of a number of metrics that describe unique a writing style of a specific author. The testing platform implies using a set of research papers written by European authors and extracting the values of eight writing style metrics. A clustering is applied and the best combination of metrics is resulted.
Keywords: Stylometry, Plagiarism, Metrics, Clustering analysis, Cultural orientation

Publishing Guide for Authors 120

INFOREC Association 122