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Title: Knowledge Management: Style, Structure, and the Latent Potential of Documented Knowledge.
Creator: Mcmahon, Sean, Ford, Cameron, Schminke, Marshall, Ciuchta, Michael, Sivo, Stephen, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Despite the volume, growth, and accessibility of documented knowledge (-) the insights and experiences stored on paper and in electronic form - management research has yet to demonstrate the same usefulness for documented knowledge as for knowledge residing in human sources. This dissertation explores two areas of potential for documented knowledge, suggesting the efficacy of a piece of documented knowledge is contingent not only on content, but upon the style and structure associated with...
Show moreDespite the volume, growth, and accessibility of documented knowledge (-) the insights and experiences stored on paper and in electronic form - management research has yet to demonstrate the same usefulness for documented knowledge as for knowledge residing in human sources. This dissertation explores two areas of potential for documented knowledge, suggesting the efficacy of a piece of documented knowledge is contingent not only on content, but upon the style and structure associated with that content. Style, how cognitively 'concrete' and affectively 'memorable' documented knowledge is perceived to be, is hypothesized to affect how much attention it draws and, in turn, to impact its transfer to users. Structure, reflecting the level of parsimony and modularity in documented knowledge, is hypothesized to impact attention to and manipulation of knowledge such that it affects knowledge transfer and creation. Hypotheses were tested in two laboratory studies using scientific research as an exemplar of documented knowledge. Results indicated that style was associated with documented knowledge, but was not related to its transfer. Likewise, structuring documented knowledge for greater parsimony and modularity did not improve knowledge transfer or knowledge creation. Shortcomings of the empirical tests are evaluated and possibilities for future improvements are discussed.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004717, ucf:49812
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004717

Title: GEOGRAPHIC CLUSTERS AND FIRM INNOVATION.
Creator: Vestal, Donald, Danneels, Erwin, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Scholars dating back to the early 1900s have been interested in the idea that organizations benefit from locating in close proximity to other similar organizations (Marshall, 1920). Largely, this research suggests that economies of agglomeration accrue to clustered organizations which create performance advantages when compared to more isolated organizations. Recently, agglomeration theory researchers have focused on high technology clusters where the primary benefit of collocation is argued...
Show moreScholars dating back to the early 1900s have been interested in the idea that organizations benefit from locating in close proximity to other similar organizations (Marshall, 1920). Largely, this research suggests that economies of agglomeration accrue to clustered organizations which create performance advantages when compared to more isolated organizations. Recently, agglomeration theory researchers have focused on high technology clusters where the primary benefit of collocation is argued to be access to knowledge spillovers from local organizations. This dissertation argues that in order to access local knowledge, firms must be active participants in the local research community. Furthermore, in clusters where inventive activity, measured using patent data, is highly concentrated in one or a few organizations, firms derive less benefit from their participation in local research. Clustering does not come without a price, however. Membership in local research networks, which initially provides an advantage for clustered organizations, ultimately drives a convergence of inventions in the cluster. That is, networks of organizations in clusters channel institutional pressures which ensure that firms' inventions come to resemble the inventions of other organizations in the cluster, over time.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003901, ucf:48756
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003901

Title: Political Knowledge and Political Engagement in the United States.
Creator: Shaul, Brittany, Knuckey, Jonathan, Fine, Terri, Seigler, Daniel, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis examined the impact of political knowledge on forms of political engagement in the United States. Prior literature has established a relationship between political knowledge and political engagement, where those with higher political knowledge were more likely to engage politically through acts such as voting. This study distinguished between the various forms of political engagement and political knowledge, and seeks to provide relevant data on who is more likely to have...
Show moreThis thesis examined the impact of political knowledge on forms of political engagement in the United States. Prior literature has established a relationship between political knowledge and political engagement, where those with higher political knowledge were more likely to engage politically through acts such as voting. This study distinguished between the various forms of political engagement and political knowledge, and seeks to provide relevant data on who is more likely to have political knowledge, and what impact having political knowledge has. This served to reexamine trends found in past literature, in order to see if these trends have persisted or changed over time. This study analyzed data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) from 1988-2016 to explore the relationships between political knowledge and political engagement utilizing various regression models. Consistent with past literature, this study found demographic gaps in the distribution of political knowledge, although these gaps appear to be closing. While political knowledge had a strong and significant relationship with voting, the effects of political knowledge did not hold across all forms of engagement.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFE0007530, ucf:52590
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007530

Title: The Influence of Economics Knowledge on Students' Attitudes Toward Financial Literacy.
Creator: Beckles, Lloyd, Russell, William, Hopp, Carolyn, Hewitt, Randall, Witta, Eleanor, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Financial literacy has developed in importance resulting from the growing intricacy of financial markets and the increased responsibility placed on consumers for their own financial security. During last decade, the necessity of financial literacy has been heightened due to increasingly complex products and services. Managing personal finances is important and people must learn to engage in prudent financial decisions required when planning for retirement, education, and home purchases. The...
Show moreFinancial literacy has developed in importance resulting from the growing intricacy of financial markets and the increased responsibility placed on consumers for their own financial security. During last decade, the necessity of financial literacy has been heightened due to increasingly complex products and services. Managing personal finances is important and people must learn to engage in prudent financial decisions required when planning for retirement, education, and home purchases. The ability to understand and manage personal finances is a skill critical to long-term financial security, additionally, there are significant consequences to financial illiteracy that can last for a life-time and many of these consequences occur while young adults are in college where financial independence begins. As young people progress through life, they are inundated with financial decisions which should be made based on prudent financial knowledge, however, many consumers are faced with a myriad of significant financial decisions very early in life and imprudent financial mistakes made by young people can have negative effects for many years. Because many consumers lack adequate financial literacy skills, they often make poor financial decisions in an increasingly complex economic environment. This purpose of this dissertation is to study how economics knowledge influences students' attitudes in an effort to refine current of knowledge of financial literacy levels and attitudes of students
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Date Issued: 2017
Identifier: CFE0006564, ucf:51329
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006564

Title: Three Studies Examining the Potential for Relational Reasoning to Enhance Expertise in Complex Audit Domains.
Creator: Holt, Matthew, Sutton, Steven, Arnold, Vicky, Roberts, Robin, Dillard, Jesse, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This dissertation consists of three studies that explore the potential for relational reasoning to advance research on the facilitation of expertise in complex audit domains. Study One seeks to explicate the potential that theory and methods from relational reasoning and associated research have to advance the audit expertise research stream. The implications for future research on facilitating auditing expertise are discussed in synchrony with future research questions, including whether or...
Show moreThis dissertation consists of three studies that explore the potential for relational reasoning to advance research on the facilitation of expertise in complex audit domains. Study One seeks to explicate the potential that theory and methods from relational reasoning and associated research have to advance the audit expertise research stream. The implications for future research on facilitating auditing expertise are discussed in synchrony with future research questions, including whether or not such strategies will be effective in domains with more than minor relational complexity. Studies Two and Three experimentally examine the use of metacognitive skills intended to enhance relational knowledge, which is considered to be a fundamental component of domain expertise. Study Two investigates the effects of alternate forms of prompting for analogical comparison and Study Three explores the impact of combining analogical comparison with direct instruction on discerning the relational structure of a domain. The results of Study Two do not support the expected positive effects of the analogical comparison interventions. Implementation of effective interventions to prompt the comparison requires further research. Additionally, the results of Study Three do not support the hypotheses, by conventional standards. However, there is some evidence of positive effects associated with the analogical comparison intervention. This dissertation contributes to the literature on audit expertise by describing how relational reasoning can play a role in advancing research in this stream and by providing some preliminary information regarding the effectiveness of specific implementations aimed at enhancing relational knowledge.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: CFE0007192, ucf:52265
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007192

Title: COGNITIVE LEARNING FROM COMPUTER-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEMS BY INCORPORATING KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION INTERVENTIONS.
Creator: Wazzan, Wajdi, Williams, Kent, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The aim of the present study was to develop and empirically evaluate different categories of instructional activities, which stimulate the generation and construction of knowledge on the part of an individual student. These generative activities are primed by prompts or scaffolds, which can easily be inserted into specific curriculum addressing any domain of knowledge. To assess the manner in which the knowledge construction interventions influence the learning outcomes from computerized...
Show moreThe aim of the present study was to develop and empirically evaluate different categories of instructional activities, which stimulate the generation and construction of knowledge on the part of an individual student. These generative activities are primed by prompts or scaffolds, which can easily be inserted into specific curriculum addressing any domain of knowledge. To assess the manner in which the knowledge construction interventions influence the learning outcomes from computerized information systems, we have developed an online computer-based information system that describes the functions and mechanisms associated with the bus system of the US army Abrams M1A2 tank. Seven versions of this interactive instructional computer system were developed for this research; the type of prompt was manipulated among the seven experimental conditions. The seven experimental conditions were control, sentence completion, sentence generation, system provided questions, self-generated questions and answers, system provided advanced organizers, and generated advanced organizers. The results from this study provided strong evidence that the integration of knowledge construction interventions within the curriculum material have improved understanding of the curriculum content and reasoning about such content over and above the mere presentation and study of the curriculum. The research also delineated a practical way on how to incorporate and operationally integrate the knowledge construction interventions within computer-based information systems.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001696, ucf:47202
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001696

Title: EXPLORING TACIT KNOWLEDGE IN ORGANIZATIONS.
Creator: Plazas, Andrea, Salas , Eduardo, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: There has been a growing prevalent interest to explore the role of knowledge in organizations. Bhardwaj and Monin (2006) identified the knowledge of individuals' as a valuable source of competitive advantage. An organizations well-rounded institutional memory- the organizations collective experiences (Rothwell & Poduch, 2004), fosters competitive advantage. There is a prevailing need to scrutinize the role of tacit knowledge in organizations and how it's hard to articulate nature makes it...
Show moreThere has been a growing prevalent interest to explore the role of knowledge in organizations. Bhardwaj and Monin (2006) identified the knowledge of individuals' as a valuable source of competitive advantage. An organizations well-rounded institutional memory- the organizations collective experiences (Rothwell & Poduch, 2004), fosters competitive advantage. There is a prevailing need to scrutinize the role of tacit knowledge in organizations and how it's hard to articulate nature makes it difficult for organizations to acquire and preserve institutional memory value. The aim of this review is to illustrate that tacit knowledge contributes significantly to the institutional memory value, expansion and preservation. In an effort to simplify this relationship between tacit knowledge and institutional memory, a comprehensive literature search was performed. I first discuss the role of knowledge in organizations and use the literature on tacit knowledge as a guide to explain the importance of its elicitation for institutional memory expansion and preservation. I then propose: (1) the use of tacit knowledge elicitation as a mediator, and (2) recommend training and a learning organization environment as moderators, for the contribution to take place. Finally, I suggest that organizations: (a) Elicit tacit knowledge sharing at their human capital development training programs (b) develop and implement this trainings at managerial levels, and (c) a "know-why" method to elicit and capture tacit knowledge in a reference guide, to consequently add value to the institutional memory, I conclude with a discussion of implications and limitations for the proposed perspective, and provide suggestions for future research.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFH0004492, ucf:45062
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004492

Title: INVESTIGATING THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF KNOWLEDGE STRUCTURE EVALUATIONS: THE INFLUENCE OF RATER ERROR AND RATER LIMITATIONS.
Creator: Harper-Sciarini, Michelle, Jentsch, Florian, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The likelihood of conducting safe operations increases when operators ave effectively integrated their knowledge of the operation into meaningful relationships, referred to as knowledge structures (KSs). Unlike knowing isolated facts about an operation, well integrated KSs reflect a deeper understanding. It is, however, only the isolated facts that are often evaluated in training environments. To know whether an operator has formed well integrated KSs, KS evaluation methods must be employed....
Show moreThe likelihood of conducting safe operations increases when operators ave effectively integrated their knowledge of the operation into meaningful relationships, referred to as knowledge structures (KSs). Unlike knowing isolated facts about an operation, well integrated KSs reflect a deeper understanding. It is, however, only the isolated facts that are often evaluated in training environments. To know whether an operator has formed well integrated KSs, KS evaluation methods must be employed. Many of these methods, however, require subjective, human-rated evaluations. These ratings are often prone to the negative influence of a raterÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â's limitations such as rater biases and cognitive limitations; therefore, the extent to which KS evaluations are beneficial is dependent on the degree to which the raterÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â's limitations can be mitigated. The main objective of this study was to identify factors that will mitigate rater limitations and test their influence on the reliability and validity of KS evaluations. These factors were identified through the delineation of a framework that represents how a raterÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚ÂƒÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚ÂƒÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â‚ÃƒÂƒÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ‚Ã‚Â's limitations will influence the cognitive processes that occur during the evaluation process. From this framework, one factor (i.e., operation knowledge), and three mitigation techniques (i.e., frame-of-reference training, reducing the complexity of the KSs, and providing referent material) were identified. Ninety-two participants rated the accuracy of eight KSs over a period of two days. Results indicated that reliability was higher after training. Furthermore, several interactions indicated that the benefits of domain knowledge, referent material, and reduced complexity existed within subsets of the participants. For example, reduced complexity only increased reliability among evaluators with less knowledge of the operation. Also, referent material increased reliability only for those who scored less complex KSs. Both the practical and theoretical implications of these results are provided.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0002973, ucf:47950
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002973

Title: DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND?: THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF SOMEONE WITH AIDS ON ATTITUDES TOWARDS AIDS.
Creator: Lombas, Leith Leonce, Gay, David, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: ABSTRACT The study of attitudes towards those with AIDS is relatively recent. Most studies have examined attitudes concerning health and medical concerns. Little research has focused on attitudes toward social and behavior concerns. The few that have focused on such attitudes have employed relatively small samples collected primarily out of convenience. The studies that have used national samples have primarily addressed public policy issues. Using national data from the 1988 General Social...
Show moreABSTRACT The study of attitudes towards those with AIDS is relatively recent. Most studies have examined attitudes concerning health and medical concerns. Little research has focused on attitudes toward social and behavior concerns. The few that have focused on such attitudes have employed relatively small samples collected primarily out of convenience. The studies that have used national samples have primarily addressed public policy issues. Using national data from the 1988 General Social Survey, this paper examines the effects of personal knowledge about the AIDS virus and other attitudinal variables on four dimensions of social and behavioral concern for those with AIDS in American society. Sociodemographic variables, which prior studies have demonstrated as important predictors of attitudes toward AIDS, are included as controls in this research that presents findings from a multivariate analysis. Results suggests that the impact of personal knowledge of someone with AIDS does not strongly lead to more supportive attitudes regarding the rights of people with AIDS, except when the economic costs of AIDS care is concerned. Directions for future research are presented and discussed.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: CFE0000010, ucf:46071
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000010

Title: THE EFFECTS OF PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ACTIVATION ON LEARNER RETENTION OF NEW CONCEPTS IN LEARNING OBJECTS.
Creator: Henderson, Kelsey, Hirumi, Atsusi, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Establishing relationships between a learner's prior knowledge and any new concepts he or she will be expected to learn is an important instructional activity. Learning objects are often devoid of such activities in an attempt to maintain their conciseness and reusability in a variety of instructional contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of using questioning as a prior knowledge activation strategy in learning objects. Previous research on the use prior...
Show moreEstablishing relationships between a learner's prior knowledge and any new concepts he or she will be expected to learn is an important instructional activity. Learning objects are often devoid of such activities in an attempt to maintain their conciseness and reusability in a variety of instructional contexts. The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of using questioning as a prior knowledge activation strategy in learning objects. Previous research on the use prior knowledge activation strategies supports their effectiveness in helping to improve learner retention. Approaches such as questioning, advance organizers, and group discussions are examples of techniques used in previous studies. Participants enrolled in a Navy engineering curriculum were randomly assigned to two groups (experimental and comparison). The experimental group was exposed to a prior knowledge activation component at the start of session I, while the comparison group received no treatment. Participants in both groups were tested at three different times during the course of the study– the pretest, at the start of session 1, posttest I, at the conclusion of session1, and posttest II, during session 2. The findings indicate that the prior knowledge activation strategy did not result in statistically significant differences between the levels of retention gained by the experimental and comparison groups. Due to administrative constraints experienced during the course of the study, statistical power was not achieved due to an insufficiently sized sample. Potential limitations and implications for future research directions are described.
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Date Issued: 2007
Identifier: CFE0001739, ucf:47307
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001739

Title: AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE, AND ATTITUDE ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION: RESPONSES FROM ENVIRONMENTAL SPECIALISTS, HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUCTORS, STUDENTS, AND PARENTS.
Creator: Lasso de la Vega, Ernesto, Holt, Larry, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Over the last 30 years, environmental education has been part of the curriculum in Southwest Florida public schools. Curriculum objectives, such as, environmental attitude, knowledge, and awareness (AKA), have been investigated in the literature as ways to improve the overall behavior of future citizens toward the environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the aforementioned objectives among the following groups: environmental specialists, high school instructors, high school...
Show moreOver the last 30 years, environmental education has been part of the curriculum in Southwest Florida public schools. Curriculum objectives, such as, environmental attitude, knowledge, and awareness (AKA), have been investigated in the literature as ways to improve the overall behavior of future citizens toward the environment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the aforementioned objectives among the following groups: environmental specialists, high school instructors, high school students, and the parents of the corresponding students in three Southwest Florida counties during the 2003-2004 school year. An instrument was developed to measure the groups' levels of awareness, knowledge, and attitude as well as their levels of self-efficacy. The returned surveys represented responses from: 27 environmental specialists, 15 high school instructors, 224 high school students, and 222 parents. This study found statistically significant differences among the groups regarding the levels of awareness, knowledge, and attitude as related to environmental issues. The environmental specialists scored highest for all AKA components as compared to the lowest levels presented by parent awareness, parent attitude, and high school student knowledge. In addition, factors such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and preference of leisure activities resulted in differences among the groups regarding their levels of environmental AKA. This study supports the evaluation of AKA levels among participants as an appropriate approach to the evaluation of environmental curriculum objectives. In addition, the study suggests a simplified measurement of AKA as an attempt to unify the parameters measured by numerous instruments found throughout environmental education literature. The results of this study may assist environmental specialists, instructors, and school districts in the evaluation of environmental education curricula.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: CFE0000207, ucf:46266
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000207

Title: THE ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNING STYLES AND THE LEARNERS' KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION AND REACTIONS THROUGH THE ONLINE CASE STUDY.
Creator: ZENG, RUI, Blasi, Laura, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between learning styles and student performance on a pre and post test, using an online case study, while also documenting their reactions to the case study. The case studies used in this research contained different storylines that showed multiple perspectives of case scenarios, giving students more choices to see what may happen in real school situations. Working with undergraduate students (N = 138) from the College of Education at...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between learning styles and student performance on a pre and post test, using an online case study, while also documenting their reactions to the case study. The case studies used in this research contained different storylines that showed multiple perspectives of case scenarios, giving students more choices to see what may happen in real school situations. Working with undergraduate students (N = 138) from the College of Education at a southeastern university, the researcher examined how students learned and responded to an online case study relative to their learning styles. Kolb's learning style inventory and a learner feedback survey questionnaire were administered respectively before and after the case study. Scores on Kolb's learning style inventory were used to classify the students' learning style preferences. A paired samples t-test was used to analyze the learners' knowledge test scores before and after the case study. The data revealed that the mean of students' post-test scores was significantly higher than the mean of their pre-test scores. Using descriptive methods, students' responses to the feedback questionnaire were analyzed. There was no difference shown between students with different learning style preferences, their overall reactions to the case study, and their reactions to certain elements (e.g., the content map, the assistants, and the navigation) included in the case study. Overall, most students' reactions to the case study were positive. Open-ended questions in the feedback questionnaire were analyzed and three assertions were generated. Of the optional features included within the case study, eighty two percent of students used the practice quizzes to self-check whether they understood the concepts and content covered in the cases. Students' post-test scores were congruent with their reactions to the online case study (with higher scoring students expressing more positive responses); and students' preferences regarding the use of online cases for study emerged in patterns relative to their career background. The study results showed that case studies can be used effectively in teacher education programs, while many learners (74%) favored using the case study and developed positive reactions through their case study experiences.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: CFE0001279, ucf:46884
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001279

Title: HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS AND VACCINATION OF MALES: KNOWLEDGE, BELIEFS AND PERCEPTIONS OF REGISTERED NURSES.
Creator: White, Leah, Waldrop, Julee, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are the most common sexually transmitted infections in the world today. HPV has been identified as the cause of both cancer and genital warts. A vaccine to prevent select types of HPV infection was developed and approved for males and females ages 9 to 26. This vaccine has not been universally accepted by healthcare providers, parents, or the public and has lower vaccination coverage rates than other recommended vaccines for the same age group...
Show moreBackground: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are the most common sexually transmitted infections in the world today. HPV has been identified as the cause of both cancer and genital warts. A vaccine to prevent select types of HPV infection was developed and approved for males and females ages 9 to 26. This vaccine has not been universally accepted by healthcare providers, parents, or the public and has lower vaccination coverage rates than other recommended vaccines for the same age group. Multiple studies addressing the knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs of providers and parents regarding the vaccine have taken place. Only a few studies with the nursing profession are found in the literature and they do not look at the vaccine in regards to males. Nurses are seen as one of the most trustworthy of professions. What nurses know, perceive and believe can impact both patients and those they come in contact with on an informal basis. Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine knowledge, beliefs, and perceptions of registered nurses about the human papillomavirus and associated vaccination for males. Methodology: This study took place in February of 2013 and used a descriptive correlational design with a cross-sectional survey. The survey was administered online to alumni of the University of Central Florida (UCF) College of Nursing, members of the Theta Epsilon chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, and current graduate nursing students and faculty of UCF College of Nursing. There were one hundred and twelve Registered Nurses that participated in the study. Findings: Knowledge of HPV varied among respondents. The vast majority knew that HPV was a common sexually transmitted infection however less were knowledgeable on specific iii information about the vaccine. Less than eighty percent of study participants knew that the vaccine was available for both males and females. Close to ninety percent of respondents agreed that vaccinating males would be important to protect their future partners from complications associated with HPV, such as genital warts and cervical cancer, and to protect themselves from future complications, such as genital warts and cancers. Participants with doctoral degrees possessed a significantly more favorable attitude (p<0.001) towards vaccine use in males than those with a bachelors degree. Conclusions: Nurses in this study were knowledgeable about specific HPV information but were less knowledgeable about the extent of infection seen in males or the availability of the vaccine for males. This study found inaccuracies and lack of knowledge among Registered Nurses that demonstrates the need for education about HPV and the associated vaccine. While the attitudes of the respondents reflect favorably toward the vaccine, there is still a need for education among this population.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFH0004467, ucf:45128
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004467

Title: EFFECTS ON TEACHERS' MATHEMATICS CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY.
Creator: Price, Beverley, Kaplan, Jeffrey, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of this research was to study the implementation of a professional learning community comprised of one group of third-grade teachers in a Florida elementary school where the emphasis was on research-based practices in the teaching of mathematics. Investigated were the growth of teachers' content knowledge in mathematics, specifically in the areas of multiplication and division, and the effects of their professional learning within their classrooms. Specifically this study looked...
Show moreThe purpose of this research was to study the implementation of a professional learning community comprised of one group of third-grade teachers in a Florida elementary school where the emphasis was on research-based practices in the teaching of mathematics. Investigated were the growth of teachers' content knowledge in mathematics, specifically in the areas of multiplication and division, and the effects of their professional learning within their classrooms. Specifically this study looked at whether or not the participation of a group of third grade teachers in a professional learning community PLC improved the mathematical content knowledge of the participants of the study. This research design called for the research to be conducted in three phases. In Phase I, the researcher interviewed all participants using a researcher-designed interview guide. A researcher-adapted survey, based upon previously released items Ball (2008) was administered as a pre-test of mathematical content knowledge,. In Phase II of the study, the researcher documented the activities that occurred within a 10-week long professional learning community (PLC) of third-grade teachers. In Phase III of the research, a post-study interview was conducted with each of the participants by an independent observer to elicit participants' perceptions and observations based on their participation in the PLC. A post-test of content knowledge was also administered to the participants. Several themes were identified in the research study. These themes led to recommendations for practice and future research. Themes were related to the lack of mathematical understanding experienced by some teachers and the lack of professional development specifically related to mathematics, the value of the professional learning community, and the benefits of sharing current research and best practices. During this study, the participants were able to read and share examples of research-based best practices in mathematics, and participants then used this new information and additional mathematics content knowledge in their classrooms in teaching their students.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003619, ucf:48856
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003619

Title: EXAMINING FACTORS THAT AFFECT KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND STUDENTS' ATTITUDE TOWARD THEIR LEARNING EXPERIENCE WITHIN VIRTUAL TEAMS.
Creator: He, Jinxia, Gunter, Glenda, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study examined factors that might impact student knowledge sharing within virtual teams through online discussion boards. These factors included: trust, mutual influence, conflict, leadership, and cohesion. A path model was developed to determine whether relationships exist among knowledge sharing from asynchronous group discussion and the above five factors. In addition, this study examined if there are any relationships between quality and quantity of knowledge sharing and students'...
Show moreThis study examined factors that might impact student knowledge sharing within virtual teams through online discussion boards. These factors included: trust, mutual influence, conflict, leadership, and cohesion. A path model was developed to determine whether relationships exist among knowledge sharing from asynchronous group discussion and the above five factors. In addition, this study examined if there are any relationships between quality and quantity of knowledge sharing and students' grades. A correlation design was conducted to discover if there are any relationships among these five factors and knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Participants in this study were 148 undergraduate students from two classes in the Health Services Administration program in the College of Health and Public Affairs. The two classes were asynchronous online courses and both instructors used virtual teaming in their online courses. Online interaction occurred via online discussion boards, email, and online chat rooms. The results indicate that mutual influence and team cohesion are two major factors that directly affect knowledge sharing within virtual teams. Conflict mediates the relationship between trust and knowledge sharing. Leadership was also found to have a strong relationship with team cohesion, which then had a relationship with knowledge sharing. As far as the relationship between quality and quantity of knowledge sharing and the student's grade, it was found that there is relationship between the quantity of knowledge sharing and students' grades, however, no significant relationship exists between quality of knowledge sharing and students' grades. The implications of this research for use of virtual teams in online distance education are also discussed.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: CFE0002960, ucf:47980
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002960

Title: TRANSFORMING LEARNING INTO A CONSTRUCTIVE COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE ACTIVITY:USE OF A GUIDED LEARNER-GENERATED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY WITHIN COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING.
Creator: Cuevas, Haydee, Bowers, Clint, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study explored the effectiveness of embedding a guided, learner-generated instructional strategy (query method), designed to support learners' cognitive and metacognitive processes, within the context of a computer-based complex task training environment (i.e., principles of flight in the aviation domain). The queries were presented as "stop and think" exercises in an open-ended question format that asked learners to generate either simple (low-level elaboration) or complex (high-level...
Show moreThis study explored the effectiveness of embedding a guided, learner-generated instructional strategy (query method), designed to support learners' cognitive and metacognitive processes, within the context of a computer-based complex task training environment (i.e., principles of flight in the aviation domain). The queries were presented as "stop and think" exercises in an open-ended question format that asked learners to generate either simple (low-level elaboration) or complex (high-level elaboration) sentences from a list of key training concepts. Results consistently highlighted the benefit of presenting participants with low-level elaboration queries, as compared to the no-query or high-level elaboration queries. In terms of post-training cognitive outcomes, participants presented with the low-level elaboration queries exhibited significantly more accurate knowledge organization (indicated by similarity to an expert model), better acquisition of perceptual knowledge, and superior performance on integrative knowledge assessment involving the integration and application of task-relevant concepts. Consistent with previous studies, no significant differences in performance were found on basic factual knowledge assessment. Presentation of the low-level elaboration queries also significantly improved the training program's instructional efficiency, that is, greater performance was achieved with less perceived cognitive effort. In terms of post-training metacognitive outcomes, participants presented with the low-level elaboration queries exhibited significantly greater metacomprehension accuracy and more effective metacognitive self-regulation during training. Contrary to predictions, incorporating the high-level elaboration queries into the training consistently failed, with only a few exceptions, to produce significantly better post-training outcomes than the no-query or the low-level elaboration query training conditions. The results of this study are discussed in terms of the theoretical implications for garnering a better understanding of the cognitive and metacognitive factors underlying the learning process. Practical implications for training design are presented within the context of cognitive load theory. Specifically, the increased cognitive processing of the training material associated with the high-level elaboration queries may have imposed too great a cognitive load on participants during training, minimizing the cognitive resources available for achieving a deeper, integrative understanding of the training concepts and hindering successful performance on the cognitive measures. The discussion also highlights the need for a multi-faceted approach to training evaluation.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: CFE0000265, ucf:46221
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000265

Title: SYNTAX-BASED CONCEPT EXTRACTION FOR QUESTION ANSWERING.
Creator: Glinos, Demetrios, Gomez, Fernando, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Question answering (QA) stands squarely along the path from document retrieval to text understanding. As an area of research interest, it serves as a proving ground where strategies for document processing, knowledge representation, question analysis, and answer extraction may be evaluated in real world information extraction contexts. The task is to go beyond the representation of text documents as "bags of words" or data blobs that can be scanned for keyword combinations and word...
Show moreQuestion answering (QA) stands squarely along the path from document retrieval to text understanding. As an area of research interest, it serves as a proving ground where strategies for document processing, knowledge representation, question analysis, and answer extraction may be evaluated in real world information extraction contexts. The task is to go beyond the representation of text documents as "bags of words" or data blobs that can be scanned for keyword combinations and word collocations in the manner of internet search engines. Instead, the goal is to recognize and extract the semantic content of the text, and to organize it in a manner that supports reasoning about the concepts represented. The issue presented is how to obtain and query such a structure without either a predefined set of concepts or a predefined set of relationships among concepts. This research investigates a means for acquiring from text documents both the underlying concepts and their interrelationships. Specifically, a syntax-based formalism for representing atomic propositions that are extracted from text documents is presented, together with a method for constructing a network of concept nodes for indexing such logical forms based on the discourse entities they contain. It is shown that meaningful questions can be decomposed into Boolean combinations of question patterns using the same formalism, with free variables representing the desired answers. It is further shown that this formalism can be used for robust question answering using the concept network and WordNet synonym, hypernym, hyponym, and antonym relationships. This formalism was implemented in the Semantic Extractor (SEMEX) research tool and was tested against the factoid questions from the 2005 Text Retrieval Conference (TREC), which operated upon the AQUAINT corpus of newswire documents. After adjusting for the limitations of the tool and the document set, correct answers were found for approximately fifty percent of the questions analyzed, which compares favorably with other question answering systems.
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Date Issued: 2006
Identifier: CFE0000985, ucf:46711
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000985

Title: A METHOD FOR DEVELOPING CHURCHMANIAN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS.
Creator: Linden, Lars, Courtney, James, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Some problems confronted by managers include ill-formulated wicked planning problems, a type of problem that is difficult to solve because, in part, it is difficult to know what the problem is. The Churchmanian Knowledge Management Systems (CKMS) (Richardson & Courtney, 2004) is comprised of design principles for aiding system designers, managers, and clients who make decisions pertaining to these ill-formulated wicked planning problems. Problemography theory is proposed as a method for...
Show moreSome problems confronted by managers include ill-formulated wicked planning problems, a type of problem that is difficult to solve because, in part, it is difficult to know what the problem is. The Churchmanian Knowledge Management Systems (CKMS) (Richardson & Courtney, 2004) is comprised of design principles for aiding system designers, managers, and clients who make decisions pertaining to these ill-formulated wicked planning problems. Problemography theory is proposed as a method for developing a CKMS. The method aims to measure CKMS development by using development tools that enables stakeholders and theoreticians to clarify CKMS development. A study was conducted to test a proof-of-concept development tool. The tool tested is a proposed list of processes that occur during CKMS development, processes derived from ChurchmanÃ‚Â's (1971) Singerian inquiring systems theory. A gap analysis was performed whereby the proposed processes were compared with the processes found during a case study of people confronting issues related to the Ã‚Â"wickedÃ‚Â" problem of FloridaÃ‚Â's invasive plant problem. A second study was conducted to explore possible design principles for developing a CKMS. Two proposed design principles, Every Person Principle and Connectedness Caretaker Principle, were used to develop a Describe a Wicked Problem Inquiring System (DAWP), a Web site which aims to enable inquirers to confront wicked problems. Participants in the study formulated problems related to FloridaÃ‚Â's native plants and suggested potential solutions. Using WengrafÃ‚Â's (2001) theory-driven qualitative research, interviews with participants were analyzed and the results suggest that the Web site being developed enabled the consideration of the ethical ramifications of knowledge.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003098, ucf:48312
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003098

Title: THE ACQUISITION OF LEXICAL KNOWLEDGE FROM THE WEB FOR ASPECTS OF SEMANTIC INTERPRETATION.
Creator: Schwartz, Hansen, Gomez, Fernando, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This work investigates the effective acquisition of lexical knowledge from the Web to perform semantic interpretation. The Web provides an unprecedented amount of natural language from which to gain knowledge useful for semantic interpretation. The knowledge acquired is described as common sense knowledge, information one uses in his or her daily life to understand language and perception. Novel approaches are presented for both the acquisition of this knowledge and use of the knowledge in...
Show moreThis work investigates the effective acquisition of lexical knowledge from the Web to perform semantic interpretation. The Web provides an unprecedented amount of natural language from which to gain knowledge useful for semantic interpretation. The knowledge acquired is described as common sense knowledge, information one uses in his or her daily life to understand language and perception. Novel approaches are presented for both the acquisition of this knowledge and use of the knowledge in semantic interpretation algorithms. The goal is to increase accuracy over other automatic semantic interpretation systems, and in turn enable stronger real world applications such as machine translation, advanced Web search, sentiment analysis, and question answering. The major contributions of this dissertation consist of two methods of acquiring lexical knowledge from the Web, namely a database of common sense knowledge and Web selectors. The first method is a framework for acquiring a database of concept relationships. To acquire this knowledge, relationships between nouns are found on the Web and analyzed over WordNet using information-theory, producing information about concepts rather than ambiguous words. For the second contribution, words called Web selectors are retrieved which take the place of an instance of a target word in its local context. The selectors serve for the system to learn the types of concepts that the sense of a target word should be similar. Web selectors are acquired dynamically as part of a semantic interpretation algorithm, while the relationships in the database are useful to stand-alone programs. A final contribution of this dissertation concerns a novel semantic similarity measure and an evaluation of similarity and relatedness measures on tasks of concept similarity. Such tasks are useful when applying acquired knowledge to semantic interpretation. Applications to word sense disambiguation, an aspect of semantic interpretation, are used to evaluate the contributions. Disambiguation systems which utilize semantically annotated training data are considered supervised. The algorithms of this dissertation are considered minimally-supervised; they do not require training data created by humans, though they may use human-created data sources. In the case of evaluating a database of common sense knowledge, integrating the knowledge into an existing minimally-supervised disambiguation system significantly improved results -- a 20.5\% error reduction. Similarly, the Web selectors disambiguation system, which acquires knowledge directly as part of the algorithm, achieved results comparable with top minimally-supervised systems, an F-score of 80.2\% on a standard noun disambiguation task. This work enables the study of many subsequent related tasks for improving semantic interpretation and its application to real-world technologies. Other aspects of semantic interpretation, such as semantic role labeling could utilize the same methods presented here for word sense disambiguation. As the Web continues to grow, the capabilities of the systems in this dissertation are expected to increase. Although the Web selectors system achieves great results, a study in this dissertation shows likely improvements from acquiring more data. Furthermore, the methods for acquiring a database of common sense knowledge could be applied in a more exhaustive fashion for other types of common sense knowledge. Finally, perhaps the greatest benefits from this work will come from the enabling of real world technologies that utilize semantic interpretation.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0003688, ucf:48805
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003688

Title: National Collegiate Athletic Association Strength and Conditioning Coaches' Knowledge and Practices Regarding Prevention and Recognition of Exertional Heat Stroke.
Creator: Valdes, Anna, Hoffman, Jay, Boote, David, Fisher, Thomas, Mitchell, Debby, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The purpose of this study was to assess and determine the current level of knowledge that National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Strength and Conditioning Coaches (SCCs) possess regarding exertional heat stroke (EHS) prevention and recognition and to determine if SCC certification type had any effect. Major findings of this study support the view that SCCs need more preparation, education and training to increase their competency in preventing and recognizing EHS. Research found that...
Show moreThe purpose of this study was to assess and determine the current level of knowledge that National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Strength and Conditioning Coaches (SCCs) possess regarding exertional heat stroke (EHS) prevention and recognition and to determine if SCC certification type had any effect. Major findings of this study support the view that SCCs need more preparation, education and training to increase their competency in preventing and recognizing EHS. Research found that there was no significant difference in scores on the EHS scale based on SCC certification (CSCS vs. SCCC) after accounting for experience, education or division but the CSCS certified professionals scored higher on all the factors as compared to SCCs without the CSCS.. The major key finding was that SCCs lacked essential knowledge to prevent or recognize EHS. Furthermore, the study defines relevant EHS prevention and recognition competencies that an undergraduate curriculum, graduate curriculum and professional certification providers, should include and emphasize in their preparation programs.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004766, ucf:49790
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004766

Knowledge (7)	+ -
knowledge (6)	+ -
Knowledge Management (5)	+ -
attitudes (4)	+ -
Expertise (3)	+ -

content knowledge (3)	+ -
knowledge acquisition (3)	+ -
knowledge management (3)	+ -
natural language processing (3)	+ -
Confidence (2)	+ -
High School (2)	+ -
Immigration (2)	+ -
Knowledge Representation (2)	+ -
Knowledge Structures (2)	+ -
Machine Learning (2)	+ -
Simulation (2)	+ -
beliefs (2)	+ -
civic knowledge (2)	+ -
discourse (2)	+ -
knowledge structures (2)	+ -
knowledge voids (2)	+ -
narrative (2)	+ -
narratology (2)	+ -
pedagogical content knowledge (2)	+ -
preservice teachers (2)	+ -
problem solving (2)	+ -
21st Century School (1)	+ -
ALEKS (1)	+ -
Abilities (1)	+ -
Abstract Declarative Knowledge (1)	+ -

ETD Collection (67)	+ -
Honors Collection (13)	+ -

University of Central Florida (80)	+ -
Dixon, Juli (4)	+ -
Murray, Barbara (4)	+ -
Boote, David (3)	+ -
Dombrowski, Paul (3)	+ -

Gomez, Fernando (3)	+ -
Hewitt, Randall (3)	+ -
Hopp, Carolyn (3)	+ -
Kotnour, Timothy (3)	+ -
Rabelo, Luis (3)	+ -
Williams, Kent (3)	+ -
Andreasen, Janet (2)	+ -
Dixon, Juli K. (2)	+ -
Doherty, Walter (2)	+ -
Elshennawy, Ahmad (2)	+ -
Gunter, Glenda (2)	+ -
Hahs-Vaughn, Debbie (2)	+ -
Hartshorne, Richard (2)	+ -
Jahani, Shiva (2)	+ -
Jentsch, Florian (2)	+ -
Karwowski, Waldemar (2)	+ -
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Russell, William (2)	+ -
Safi, Farshid (2)	+ -
Salas, Eduardo (2)	+ -
Sims, Valerie (2)	+ -
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