This paper discusses two studies - the one in a business context, the other in a university context - carried out with expert educational designers. The studies aimed to determine the priorities experts claim to employ when designing competence-based learning environments. Designers in both contexts agree almost completely on principles they feel are important. Both groups emphasized that one should start a design enterprise from the needs of the learners, instead of the content structure of the learning domain. However, unlike business designers, university designers find it extremely important to consider alternative solutions during the whole design process. University designers also say that they focus more on project plan and desired characteristics of the instructional blueprint whereas business designers report being more client-oriented, stressing the importance of "buying in" the client early in the process.
In dynamic business environments, the ability to adapt is highly important for organizations in order to best their competition. This is necessary because throughout the years of doing business, organizations have experienced but one constant factor: change. The concept of enterprise agility is designed to counter this phenomenon. In this regard, IT is perceived to play a vital role in enterprise agility, most often viewed as an enabler. However, IT can be an inhibitor of enterprise agility as well because of its potentially restricting nature, structural thinking, bureaucracy, rigor, etc. This especially becomes apparent in information systems (IS) that have been operational in organizations for several years. This research aims at discovering processes of IT management that empower or obstruct enterprise agility. We identify processes on the one hand and aspects of enterprise agility on the other and relate them to each other using propositions. We conclude with the identified contribution of IT management to enterprise agility, propose directions for optimization as well as offer suggestions for additional research.
Dit artikel beschrijft onderzoek naar de rol die Enterprise Architectuur kan hebben bij het verduurzamen van een organisatie van hoger onderwijs. Hierbij zijn de volgende producten opgeleverd: - Een overzicht van relevante literatuur met betrekking tot Enterprise Architectuur en Duurzaamheid. - Een overzicht van de rol die Enterprise Architectuur speelt in geselecteerde organisaties en instellingen voor Hoger Onderwijs. - Een validatie van de beschreven ‘best practices’. - Lesmateriaal over de rol van Enterprise Architectuur en Duurzaamheid. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de rol van Enterprise Architectuur bij het behalen van duurzaamheidsdoelstellingen op dit ogenblik nog gering is. Wel zien de geïnterviewde architecten en duurzaamheidscoördinatoren op termijn een grotere rol weggelegd voor Enterprise Architectuur.
Historical sites, specifically former military fortifications, are often repurposed for tourism and recreation. While some of over 100 Dutch forts are recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites, a substantial number are currently underdeveloped, putting their heritage value and biodiversity at risk. This demands action, as forts are well-positioned to relieve overtourism in other locations, responding to the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Convention's call to spread visitors to lesser-known areas. Furthermore, developing lesser-known fort sites could provide tourism and recreation opportunities near populated areas, thus contributing to the well-being not only of visitors but also the environment. Development initiatives depend on a transition from isolation to cooperation across sites. However, for cooperation to be effective, enterprises and agencies managing these forts still lack data regarding visitor expectations and experiences. We will employ a multidisciplinary approach to capturing visitor demographics, motivations, and experiences, through conducting quantitative questionnaires, lab-driven physiological experience measurement, and location tracking. This proposal builds on the previous project, “Experiencing Nature”, funded by Centre of Expertise in Leisure, Tourism, and Hospitality, which utilized Breda Experience Lab technologies to explore visitor experiences at Fort de Roovere. In sum, the purpose of the present project is to measure and analyze visitor demographics, motivations, and experiences at less-developed forts, and to develop a toolkit to inspire, support, and monitor development of these forts for heritage preservation, visitor experience, and biodiversity. The project will be conducted in collaboration with Flemish partners, thereby forming the consortium comprised of the Alliantie ZuiderWaterlinie (NL), Regionale Landschappen (VL), and Agentschap Natuur en Bos (VL), with support from municipalities in both countries. The project will promote regional synergies and facilitate long-lasting cross-border collaboration, especially toward coming Interreg EU proposals, whilst informing the design of interregional marketing campaigns and supporting planning for visitor flows and biodiversity conservation efforts. Collaborative partnersNHL Stenden, Alliantie Zuidwaterlinie, RLRL, Agentschap Natuur en Bos.
The scientific publishing industry is rapidly transitioning towards information analytics. This shift is disproportionately benefiting large companies. These can afford to deploy digital technologies like knowledge graphs that can index their contents and create advanced search engines. Small and medium publishing enterprises, instead, often lack the resources to fully embrace such digital transformations. This divide is acutely felt in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Scholars from these disciplines are largely unable to benefit from modern scientific search engines, because their publishing ecosystem is made of many specialized businesses which cannot, individually, develop comparable services. We propose to start bridging this gap by democratizing access to knowledge graphs – the technology underpinning modern scientific search engines – for small and medium publishers in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Their contents, largely made of books, already contain rich, structured information – such as references and indexes – which can be automatically mined and interlinked. We plan to develop a framework for extracting structured information and create knowledge graphs from it. We will as much as possible consolidate existing proven technologies into a single codebase, instead of reinventing the wheel. Our consortium is a collaboration of researchers in scientific information mining, Odoma, an AI consulting company, and the publisher Brill, sharing its data and expertise. Brill will be able to immediately put to use the project results to improve its internal processes and services. Furthermore, our results will be published in open source with a commercial-friendly license, in order to foster the adoption and future development of the framework by other publishers. Ultimately, our proposal is an example of industry innovation where, instead of scaling-up, we scale wide by creating a common resource which many small players can then use and expand upon.
The textile industry is responsible for over 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 20% of the world’s wastewater, surpassing the emissions from international flights and shipping combined. In the European Union, textile purchases in 2020 led to around 270 kg of CO₂ emissions per person, yet only 1% of used clothing is recycled into new garments. The municipality of Groningen manages an estimated 950 kilotons of textile waste but is only able to collect, sort, and recycle 250 kilotons. To address these challenges, Textile Hub Groningen (THG) seeks to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and stakeholders in creating circular textile value chains. However, designing circular value chains presents challenges, including conflicting interests, knowledge gaps on circular design principles, and inadequate tools for collaborative business model development. Potential stakeholders often find current tools too abstract and not conducive to collaboration, learning, or experimentation. As a result, circular value chains remain difficult to achieve from the perspective of individual stakeholders. Serious games have been employed to simulate and experiment with complex adaptive systems , . Research shows that well-designed playful learning enhances both learning and motivation, particularly when social elements are integrated . This project aims to answer the following research question: How can serious games be leveraged to design circular textile value chains in the region? The expected outcomes are: 1. Serious Game: Design, test, and deliver a serious game to facilitate the joint design of circular textile value chains. 2. Publications: Extract insights from the game’s design and evaluation, contributing to both academic and practical discussions. 3. Consortium for Follow-up: Mobilize partners and secure funding for future projects in related fields. Through game-based collaborative circular value chain and business model design experiences, this project overcomes barriers in designing viable circular value chains in the textile industry
