Background Online focus groups have been increasing in use over the last 2 decades, including in biomedical and health-related research. However, most of this research has made use of text-based services such as email, discussion boards, and chat rooms, which do not replicate the experience of face-to-face focus groups. Web conferencing services have the potential to more closely match the face...

This mixed methods study examined 73 5th graders’ flow experience in a game-based science learning environment using two gameplay approaches (solo and collaborative gameplay). Both survey and focus group interview findings revealed that students had high flow experience; however, there were no flow experience differences that were contingent upon gameplay approaches. Results identified four gam...

This contribution describes a series of design sketches for a playful digital application designed to trigger reminiscence in older adults. The goal of the intervention is to be a preventive measure against cognitive disabilities such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Research shows that reminiscence and cognitive activities are beneficial in this area. The presented sketches have been devel...

In this qualitative study, undergraduate computing students from two mid-sized southeastern universities participated in focus groups to explore their (1) developing professional identities, (2) salient stressors within their computing education programs, and (3) coping strategies used to navigate these stressors. Students provided contextual evidence to support the formation of professional id...

Learning objects (LOs) are important information resources that support traditional learning methods. To evaluate the impact, effectiveness, and usefulness of learning objects it is necessary a theoretically, reliable, and valid evaluation tool. This paper presents a metric to compare the design of LOs, it uses the information provided by visual fixations measured from a small focus group. We c...

While there has been a tremendous increase in the number of firms engaging in IS offshoring efforts, many firms have been unsuccessful in realizing the intended benefits from offshoring. Most firms acknowledge the potential gains from offshoring, but lack the key capabilities for effective IS offshoring. Building on the dynamic capabilities perspective, and drawing upon extant research in strat...

We describe a new sequential learning scheme called “stacked sequential learning”. Stacked sequential learning is a meta-learning algorithm, in which an arbitrary base learner is augmented so as make it aware of the labels of nearby examples. We evaluate the method on several “sequential partitioning problems”, which are characterized by long runs of identical labels. We demonstrate that on the...

A qualitative method using focus group discussions (FGDs) was applied in this study to identify people's perceptions on newspaper reporting pertaining to the Southern Separatist Movement (SSM) by different Yemeni newspapers. This paper also looked into the attitudes towards the movement and the popularity of the issue of Yemeni unification. Five FGD groups with a total of 30 participants discus...