No abstract

This paper presents experiences in applying the goal decomposition and scenario analysis model in the context of Business Process Reengineering (BPR). The relationships of goals, scenarios, as well as the understanding and description of business processes are discussed. Different methods of goal refinement, and the application of scenarios to support this process of refining goals and roles are reviewed. A case study is presented which serves to exemplify and validate the process of using scenarios in refining business process descriptions. We tried deriving full scenarios for business processes, but obtaining them from the organization's prescriptive goals was difficult. Explanatory scenarios that justify descriptive goals are easier to obtain but are fragmentary. We conclude that both types of scenario and goal analysis are necessary for effective BPR. The need for technology support for this process is discussed and attention is given to future anticipated research in this area 1

This article concerns the first stage of a research and development project that aimed to produce both parent and professional guidelines on the promotion and provision of informed choice for families with deaf children. It begins with a theoretical discussion of the problems associated with the concept of informed choice and deaf child services and then focuses specifically on why a metastudy approach was employed to address both the overcontextualized debate about informed choice when applied to deaf children and the problems associated with its investigation in practice with families and professionals. It presents a detailed analysis of the conceptual relevance of a range of identified studies "outside" the field of deafness. These are ordered according to 2 main conceptual categories and 7 subcategories-(a) the nature of information: "information that is evaluative, not just descriptive"; "the difficulties of information for a purpose"; "the origins and status of information"; and "informed choice and knowledge, not informed choice and information" and (b) parameters and definitions of choice: "informed choice as absolute and relative concept", "preferences and presumptions of rationality", and "informed choice for whom?" Relevant deaf child literature is integrated into the discussion of each conceptual debate in order both to expand and challenge current usage of informed choice as applied to deaf children and families and to delineate possible directions in the planning of the next stage of the main project aimed at producing parent/professional guidelines.

No abstract

The efficacy of courses that mix face-to-face and online instruction, such as blended, hybrid, flipped, and inverted courses, is contested in the literature. Some studies find that they improved learning outcomes and some do not. We argue that these unreliable results are due to inconsistent definitions of these courses. To address this problem, we propose the Mixed Instructional eXperience (MIX) taxonomy to define hybrid, blended, flipped, and inverted based on two dimensions. To test the usefulness of the taxonomy to organize the literature, we reclassified research using the taxonomy. The analysis of the literature after reclassification revealed themes that illuminate how mixing face-to-face and online instruction affects learning.These findings validate the taxonomy as a useful tool for classifying literature and further knowledge in this field.