Holistic design of online degree programmes in higher education – a case study from Finland

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present design principles for holistic design of online degree programmes (ODPs) in higher education (HE). The study adds to previous research on online programme design by examining how the digital competence and pedagogical strategy of a HE organisation can inform holistic ODP design.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a case study placed in the context of a Finnish applied HE organisation. Design-based research (DBR) process is used to create holistic design principles for new ODPs. Theoretical framework for the study is digitally competent organisation (Kampylis et al., 2015) and pedagogical strategy is innovation pedagogy (Kettunen et al., 2013).FindingsDesign principles for pedagogically informed holistic design of ODPs are presented as a three-tiered model comprising organisational, pedagogical and ODP layers. Each layer includes various principles for holistic design to integrate an organisation's pedagogical strategy in a digitally competent context to create quality ODPs.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper presents a case study from a HE organisation in Finland, but results are applicable to a wider global audience.Practical implicationsAs a contribution to practitioners, this paper presents a three-tiered holistic design of ODP in HE organisation, where the design principles are categorised in organisational, pedagogical and ODP design layers. In addition, suggestions to managers, instructional designers and educators are made for the holistic design of ODPs.Social implicationsBuilding the sense of community in ODPs and offering continuous support in pedagogy and technology are valuable for the well-being of the staff, students and the wider society.Originality/valueThe paper draws relationships between holistic design of ODPs, digital competence and pedagogical strategy. The paper provides managerial and operational viewpoints to managers, administrators and educators of HE organisations that plan to create new ODPs with a holistic focus on the educational organisation, its pedagogical strategy and digital competence. Recommendations for further development, possible applications and research of ODP education are made.

Holistic Design of Energy Pile Bridge Deicing System With Ontology-Based Multiobjective Decision Making

Even though the energy piles have been applied for the bridge deicing system, the traditional design approach is commonly a single-domain and objective-oriented method and is consequently lacking means to comprehensively consider all the relevant factors, such as life-cycle cost, investment payback cycle, carbon emissions, etc. This paper presents a holistic design scheme for the energy pile deicing system of bridge decks. In this paper, a holistic designing tool, namely, OntoBDDS, was developed based on ontology method and SWRL rules. It can automatically provide financial, safety, and heat flux information for designers to evaluate and optimize the design scheme of a deicing system in the early design stage of a bridge. After semantic and syntactical validation of the OntoBDDS system, a case study was also conducted to demonstrate how to leverage knowledge query to provide a series of design alternatives autonomously through considering different design parameters. This case study also verified the practicability and feasibility of the OntoBDDS holistic decision-making system and indicated its potential to be applied for other engineering problems when dealing with multiobjective holistic design making.

Electrically Heated Trace Flowline on Ærfugl Project - A journey from Product Qualification to Offshore Campaign

The Ærfugl field is close to the existing Skarv development located in Norwegian Sea, making it a tie-back opportunity. The hydrate management and operational savings were major drivers for the subsea system design requiring the use of an electrically heated trace flowline (EHTF). The scope of this paper is to present how the EHTF technology has been further developed, qualified and industrialized during the execution of the Ærfugl project. It will also illustrate how a unique collaborative model between an Operator, an SPS Contractor and an EPCI Contractor contributed to the delivery of the first heated Pipe in Pipe system on a sizable project. Starting from a conceptual technology selection to the project delivery, numerous qualifications were performed to validate the EHTFsystem design and ease its industrialization. The development of a new technology starts from the component design through system qualification up to the installation phase. It is of prime importance that all the different phases of the system life cycle are equally considered, as being interdependent. By using this holistic design approach right from the start of the qualification phase, the final product eventually meets all the requirements, from the component specification to the system performance. The collaborative model in place on the Ærfugl project allowed the efficient integration of the Operator at each different step of the design, qualification and industrialization process resulting in delivery schedule savings when compared to a conventional project delivery approach. Several important development activities took place during the Ærfugl project and the holistic design approach backed by robust system engineering processes enabled a smooth and efficient workflow supporting the onshore fabrication and offshore installation readiness activities. Several fabrication challenges were overcome during the project to safely deliver the EHTF solution with a continuous focus on quality and this paper will also cover the most relevant ones. Following the Ærfugl project execution, the EHTF technology, supported by a unique collaborative model with the operator, is now fully qualified, and deployed offshore based on robust and reliable manufacturing and installation methods.

Dimensioning UX Models for Design and Evaluation

This paper attemptsto find out the available dimensions of user experience models in extant literature. The study observed that there are numeroususer experience models with a number of dimensions. This notwithstanding, there appears to be no concordamong practitioners and researchers on the dimensioning of UX models. The reason for lack of consensus is due tounderlying nature of user experience which signifies that UX should be structured and dimensioned differently dependent on the context and domain of use. Seemingly every experience is particularly unique and is situated in time and context, thus making the dimensioning of UX to vary and differ. A close look at prior literature indicate that several user experience models exist but their dimensions are however not comprehensive enough for a holistic design and evaluation of digital applications experiences. To this end, this study proposed a set of dimensions for interactive systems that will aid a more comprehensive and holistic design and evaluation of the user experience of interactive applications.