Categories Of Projects Research Articles

Supporting Educators to Co-Design Interdisciplinary Projects Integrating Educational Robotics and Arts

The growing call to foster interdisciplinary learning has found educators struggling to co-design learning across disciplinary boundaries. Aiming to contribute to the area of interdisciplinary learning design, we explored how to support educators in co-designing interdisciplinary projects integrating Educational Robotics (ER) and Arts, hereafter called Artful ER projects. Our research included developing the "FERTILE" Learning Design methodology as a conceptual tool scaffolding the integration of discipline-oriented viewpoints while educators co-design. Acknowledging that one of the challenges in interdisciplinary collaboration derives from educators’ different intentions for students’ learning outcomes, the "FERTILE" methodology introduces Computational Thinking (CT) skills as an Artful ER project’s primary learning outcome. In this line, the “FERTILE” methodology adapts the Creative Computational problem-solving model, which has been reported to cultivate CT skills through its staged process. Furthermore, we developed the "FERTILE" Community Platform as an online environment providing two-fold support to educators as designers of interdisciplinary learning. The "FERTILE" Community Platform incorporates community functionalities that address collaboration practicalities while educators co-design. Additionally, it integrates authoring functionalities scaffolding educators in designing Artful ER projects based on the "FERTILE" Learning Design methodology. This paper explores how the authoring functionalities of the "FERTILE" Community Platform support educators in designing interdisciplinary learning. We report on a pilot study conducted with Greek and Spanish educators. In this study, we applied a mixed-method research design with a quantitative strand adopting indicators from the Usability Metric for User Experience (UMUX) model and a qualitative strand providing insights into participants’ perceptions. The findings indicate that scaffolding disciplinary elaboration (e.g., robot technical requirements and art forms) and systematising interdisciplinary context (e.g., through project categories) may trigger educators’ mutual understanding. The participants endorsed authoring functionalities that adopted high contextualisation levels for learning design representation to communicate their design ideas across disciplinary boundaries. Also, the participants valued CT skills as the primary outcome of interdisciplinary learning, indicating that CT skills’ cultivation may be the broker among disciplines and trigger educators to overcome disciplinary barriers. Finally, we discuss the findings and implications for refining the "FERTILE" Community Platform as an online environment for educators co-designing Artful ER projects.

Impact of behavioral factors on the investor’s intention in peer-to-peer lending

PurposePeer-to-peer lending has emerged as a promising alternative investment avenue globally. This study explores the variables influencing investors' intention in peer-to-peer lending. Studying these factors is crucial for inspiring investor motivation, which leads to the growth of peer-to-peer lending platforms in India.Design/methodology/approachThe research utilizes information gathered from 293 investors of the Rang de platform through a questionnaire. It employs ordinal logistic regression to assess how demographic characteristics, investor experience, social projects and investment factors influence the study’s outcomes.FindingsThe research indicates that the education qualification and income level of the investors are significant demographic variables in their investment decisions. Moreover, social projects, the experience of the investors and investment factors affect their intent to invest more in peer-to-peer lending projects.Research limitations/implicationsIt helps stakeholders and borrowers of crowdfunding platforms think about these aspects when creating plans to bring in and keep investors. This approach also enhances the openness and dependability of lending processes.Originality/valueThis research sheds light on Indian investors' behavior toward peer-to-peer lending platforms and includes new investment factors like project categories and impact partners that other researchers did not identify.

Project management in healthcare: An examination of organizational competence

This research aims to identify the factors that influence the organizational competence (OC) of hospitals in effectively managing projects. It follows a quantitative approach, analyzing data collected from three Portuguese hospitals (51 respondents) using R software. An organizational competence score (OCS) was calculated based on standardized values across five different competence areas.The results indicate significant associations between the competence areas and project categories, organizational alignment, governance, management, people's competence, and resources. Furthermore, the study explores the relationships between the competence areas and quantitative variables such as the number of project team members and former experience in projects. The OCS is also examined regarding project categories, region, experience in projects, and number of project members.The findings provide insights into the features that impact the OC of hospitals in PM, highlight the importance of organizational alignment, effective governance, competent management, skilled personnel, and adequate resources in enhancing PM capabilities. However, the wide confidence interval for the Odds Ratio indicates a high degree of uncertainty in the effect size estimates, suggesting the need for larger sample sizes and more robust models in future research to obtain more precise estimates.

Designing Digital Voting Systems for Citizens: Achieving Fairness and Legitimacy in Participatory Budgeting

Participatory Budgeting (PB) has evolved into a key democratic instrument for resource allocation in cities. Enabled by digital platforms, cities now have the opportunity to let citizens directly propose and vote on urban projects, using different voting input and aggregation rules. However, the choices cities make in terms of the rules of their PB have often not been informed by academic studies on voter behaviour and preferences. Therefore, this work presents the results of behavioural experiments where participants were asked to vote in a fictional PB setting. We identified approaches to designing PB voting that minimise cognitive load and enhance the perceived fairness and legitimacy of the digital process from the citizens’ perspective. In our study, participants preferred voting input formats that are more expressive (like rankings and distributing points) over simpler formats (like approval voting). Participants also indicated a desire for the budget to be fairly distributed across city districts and project categories. Participants found the Method of Equal Shares voting rule to be fairer than the conventional Greedy voting rule. These findings offer actionable insights for digital governance, contributing to the development of fairer and more transparent digital systems and collective decision-making processes for citizens.

A microcosting approach for planning and implementing community-based mental health prevention programs: what does it cost?

BackgroundEstimating program costs when planning community-based mental health programs can be burdensome. Our aim was to retrospectively document the cost for the first year of planning and implementing Healthy Minds Healthy Communities (HMHC), a mental health promotion and prevention multi-level intervention initiative. This Program is among the first to use the Community Initiated Care (CIC) model in the US and is aimed at building community resilience and the capacity for communities to provide mental health support, particularly among those disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Our objective is to share our methods for costing a program targeting 10 zip codes that are ethnically and linguistically diverse and provide an example for estimating the cost of a mental health prevention and promotion programs consisting of multiple evidence-based interventions.MethodsWe used a semi-structured interview process to collect cost data through the first year of program planning, start-up and initial implementation from key staff. We calculated costs for each activity, grouped them by major project categories, and identified the cost drivers of each category. We further validated cost estimates through extensive literature review. The cost analysis was done from the provider’s perspective, which included the implementing agency and its community partners. We delineated costs that were in-kind contributions to the program by other agency, and community partners. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to estimate uncertainty around parameters.ResultsFor the first year of the development and implementation of the program, (funded through program and in-kind) is estimated at $1,382,669 (2022 US$). The costs for the three main activity domains for this project are: project management $135,822, community engagement $364,216 and design and execution $756,934. Overall, the cost drivers for the first year of this intervention were: hiring and onboarding staff, in-person community building/learning sessions, communications and marketing, and intervention delivery.ConclusionImplementation of community-based mental health promotion and prevention programs, when utilizing a participatory approach, requires a significant amount of upfront investment in program planning and development. A large proportion of this investment tends to be human capital input. Developing partnerships is a successful strategy for defraying costs.

Impact assessment of critical success factors (CSFs) in public construction projects of Saudi Arabia

PurposeThere is a limited number of research work on critical success factors (CSFs) in public construction projects in Saudi Arabia. In response to this knowledge gap, the objective of this paper is to assess the impact of CSFs on the government construction projects in Saudi Arabia. The success factors are investigated from a broader consideration of failure criteria, from consideration of most effectiveness in successful project completion and also from consideration of the impact of implementing control processes for successful project completion.Design/methodology/approachThis study has analysed the impact of success factors on construction projects in Saudi Arabia using a descriptive methodology. An exhaustive literature survey is undertaken to identify the success and failure factors related to government construction projects in Saudi Arabia. The survey data are sorted out and analysed by cost, schedule, technical, context and finance dimensions of the projects based on project types, engineering complexity, size, modality, jurisdictional control and funding approach. To evaluate the influence of success factors implementation, qualitative data were collected in a survey via a web-based questionnaire that was sent to officials working and occupying a responsible position in national project guidelines organizations and in government construction organizations in Saudi Arabia. In all, 28 CSFs were identified, ranked and evaluated for their impact on project success. The four identified factors belong to process categories of construction projects, nine factors belong to management of construction projects and 15 success factors are identified for impact assessment of implementation in construction projects.FindingsThe study's findings have identified and ranked the top five CSFs that significantly influence project outcomes, including meeting time targets, adhering to financial budgets, delivering desired outcomes for all stakeholders, effectively managing risks and assembling the appropriate team while optimizing resource allocation. Additionally, the research indicates that hindrances to projects primarily stem from execution, economic, human and political factors. The study advocates for strict controls over incomplete engineering designs and advises against contractors independently handling design work to ensure project success. Additionally, addressing contractors' qualifications and financial matters is crucial for project success. By highlighting these CSFs and challenges, the research provides actionable insights to enhance project management practices in the construction industry.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to the infrastructure projects constructed by governmental bodies with the participation of officials from government organizations. Further study, including private projects and officials working on private projects, may be needed to generalized the research outcome.Originality/valueNumerous studies have investigated CSFs in construction projects, but few have examined their relevance to Saudi Arabian government projects. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying key CSFs specific to Saudi Arabian public sector construction projects and assessing their impact on project success. It advocates for stringent controls in the Saudi Arabian construction sector, emphasizing the importance of preventing incomplete or altered engineering designs by contractors to increase the success rate of public sector projects. This research offers practical insights to stakeholders, advancing project management practices in Saudi Arabia's construction sector for improved outcomes and resource utilization.

Manajemen Risiko Pelaksanaan Proyek Peningkatan Jalan Kota Denpasar Dan Dampaknya Terhadap Lingkungan

Good roads are one of the important things in the world of transportation, especially in Denpasar City. This encourages improvements to road infrastructure in Denpasar City through road management activities including road maintenance and improvement. Road improvement construction work is the work that has the most risks and impacts on the surrounding environment during the road improvement project process. This research aims to identify and mitigate risks in road improvement construction work in Denpasar City. The method used in the research was interview methods with respondents involved in road construction projects in Denpasar City. The risk assessment is carried out after receiving answers from respondents, this aims to measure the dominant risks that exist. The risk mitigation process and risk ownership will be held accountable by the project owner as well as contractors, supervisory consultants, and planning consultants. The results of the research were 30 risks found in road improvement projects in Denpasar City with the sources being the environment (14.3%), politics (5.8%), planning (8.5%), economy (5.7%), natural (8.52%), technical (22.08%), human (8.5%), criminal (6.7%), safety (5.7%), project (14.2%). From the results of this analysis, risks in the technical, environmental, and project categories have the highest percentage. The environmental impact factor is also considered in this construction work because it is ranked second after technical risk. This encourages the implementation of risk management in every road improvement project activity in the following years, to create appropriate handling strategies that do not harm the environment.

Empowering Rural Transformation: Assessing the Impact of MPLADS Funds Utilisation on SAGY Initiatives in Chandigarh's Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana Village

This study evaluates the impact of Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds utilization on Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) initiatives in Chandigarh's Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana village. Utilising quantitative analysis, the research examines the distribution and allocation patterns of MPLADS funds across various project categories within the SAGY framework. Data obtained from the MPLADS office include project names, categories, expenditures, and work numbers for projects executed during Phase-I of SAGY. Findings reveal significant investment across sectors such as healthcare, sanitation, infrastructure, and livelihood enhancement. The study underscores the importance of continuous monitoring and evaluation to optimise resource allocation and enhance community development outcomes.

CSR HERITAGE PROJECTS IN UNESCO GEORGE TOWN WORLD HERITAGE SITE, PENANG, MALAYSIA

In 2008, George Town was granted the UNESCO status. The state government has initiated the establishment of the State Heritage Committee (SHC) to manage the heritage enclave. Founded in 1996, the Committee includes the local, state and federal-level organisations, local community leaders, and heritage experts. However, there have been issues with efforts to manage George Town’s heritage properties. The problem occurs among the state, federal governments and civil society organisations. This paper investigates CSR heritage projects in UNESCO George Town, Penang. Participants involved in this paper are the CSR executives of local, state and federal organisations. This qualitative research employs in-depth interviews. Research findings indicate three patterns of CSR heritage projects in UNESCO Penang: (1) CSR heritage project categories relating to cultural heritage, (2) the institutionalisation of CSR heritage projects are established according to organisations’ objectives, and (3) CSR heritage projects are being practised across religions, regardless of ethnicity.

Charitable versus commercial crowdfunding: Which is more successful on StartLab?

AbstractCrowdfunding is currently one of the funding options for charitable non‐profit projects created by non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). This paper aims to analyse the charity projects created by NGOs and individuals on crowdfunding platforms and then compare them with commercial crowdfunding, emphasizing the success factors of charity campaigns. The data is from the crowdfunding portal StartLab from 2015 to 2022. The main methods are comparison, descriptive and correlation analysis concerning project categories and seasonality. From the investigation results, it can be concluded that charity projects are more successful in conducting crowdfunding campaigns than commercial projects. For practitioners, it might be of interest that the length of the campaign and seasonality significantly influence the project's success. In the case of Slovakia, it is recommended to set a shorter campaign and run it from October to December.

Strategies of Elaborating and Implementing Innovation Business-Projects on Crowdfunding

The article studies practice of elaborating and realizing Russian and overseas crowdfunding campaigns of innovation business-projects aimed at finding criteria of their success and identifying their problem zones.The standing of the global market of crowdfunding was analyzed, key principles of raising money on crowdfunding platforms were studied and the most popular categories of projects realized on the biggest platforms in Russia and abroad were identified. On the basis of comparative analysis of processes of crowdfunding campaign realization the authors formulated and checked several hypotheses dealing with strategies of elaborating and realizing crowdfunding projects. During the research in-depth interviews with representatives of platforms and developers of innovative crowdfunding projects were conducted and on their basis criteria of crowdfunding campaign success were defined and challenges of their realization were shown.

A Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) Semantic Text Analytics Approach to Explore Topical Features in Charity Crowdfunding Campaigns

Crowdfunding in the realm of the Social Web has received substantial attention, with prior research examining various aspects of campaigns, including project objectives, durations, and influential project categories for successful fundraising. These factors are crucial for entrepreneurs seeking donor support. However, the terrain of charity crowdfunding within the Social Web remains relatively unexplored, lacking comprehension of the motivations driving donations that often lack concrete reciprocation. Distinct from conventional crowdfunding that offers tangible returns, charity crowdfunding relies on intangible rewards like tax advantages, recognition posts, or advisory roles. Such details are often embedded within campaign narratives, yet, the analysis of textual content in charity crowdfunding is limited. This study introduces an inventive text analytics framework, utilizing Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to extract latent themes from textual descriptions of charity campaigns. The study has explored four different themes, two each in campaign and incentive descriptions. Campaign description’s themes are focused on child and elderly health mainly the ones who are diagnosed with terminal diseases. Incentive description’s themes are based on tax benefits, certificates, and appreciation posts. These themes, combined with numerical parameters, predict campaign success. The study was successful in using Random Forest Classifier to predict success of the campaign using both thematic and numerical parameters. The study distinguishes thematic categories, particularly medical need-based charity and general causes, based on project and incentive descriptions. In conclusion, this research bridges the gap by showcasing topic modelling utility in uncharted charity crowdfunding domains.

Алгоритм разбиения проекта на партии при гибких технологиях планирования

The article proposes and justifies an algorithm for dividing a project into batches, which allows you to choose the optimal path for its implementation, without resorting to detailed planning of the entire scope of work, based on local data on the state of the project and the nearest milestone. Categories of projects for which the viability of a flexible ap-proach to planning can be justified when the focus of project management is aimed at short-term goals are identified. For this purpose, a classification of projects into composite and indivisible, as well as into projects with and without memory is proposed. An example of the work of the developed algorithm for dividing a project into batches is considered, on the basis of which it is concluded that the algorithm complies with the best industry practices. The main directions for further research are listed.

Exploring and Documenting Urban Renewal Projects in Kisumu City, Kenya with Emphasis on Preservation of Urban Landscape Identity

Urban renewal is undertaken to respond to physical deterioration within cities to improve the quality of urban life. Urban renewal in Africa is undertaken in once colonial societies with their existing spatial built forms undergoing changes in post-colonial times. This paper aimed to explore and document the various projects undertaken in Kisumu City's urban renewal in Kenya with emphasis on preservation of urban landscape identity. The main aim of the various projects was to improve the urban infrastructure, public facilities and spatial planning and carry out slum upgrading in addition to modernisation of public policies to improve public service delivery through effective city management. Consequently, several urban renewal projects were implemented in Kisumu City from 2019 to 2022. The research was done as a case study analysis of Kisumu City, Kenya, which has been undergoing the upgrading of various urban forms and spaces. Data capturing was based on mixed methods, including archival records, mapping, photographic documentation, and semi-structured interviews. This paper sets out the categories of ongoing and completed projects and describes them in terms of project locations, type of project, what components it entailed. Data collection was through desk review on urban renewal and review of City of Kisumu documents, interviews and field investigations. The interviews were carried out with purposively selected officials from Kisumu County including the City Planning Department, Environment Department, Kisumu Urban Project. The findings revealed the projects included non-motorised transport (NMT) within the CBD that comprises the improvement of pedestrian walkways, parking spaces, construction of new markets, bus parks, rehabilitation of public parks, beautification of roundabouts, road islands and proposed new high-rise affordable housing

Precautionary Principles of Sustainability versus Promotion of the Ease of Doing Business in the Proposed EIA Regulation in India: A Critical Analysis and Application of an Ex-Ante Framework to Review the Regulation

The tenets of environmental policy evolved in India and how precautionary principles of sustainability are sidelined in the draft EIA regulation 2020 are analyzed. The emphasis on exempting several categories of projects from the EIA requirements and public consultation, standardization of sector-specific terms of reference and environmental clearance conditions, and decentralization of the decision-making to simplify and fast-track the environmental clearance procedure for development projects is apparent. The list of projects/activities requiring prior environmental clearance and the procedures reveal that promoting the ease of doing business scores over precautionary principles. Efforts to increase the effectiveness and improve transparency in monitoring the implementation of environmental clearance conditions are visible. Still, the prime issues of improving the efficiency and efficacy of the EIA framework and institutional reforms in the EIA system need to be earnestly addressed. The evaluation using an ex-ante framework unveils the areas needing meticulous attention to revamp the EIA regulation.

Assessment of Government Policies, Farm Subsidies, and Agriculture Growth

Political ideology serves as the nexus that intertwines various aspects of farming policy formulation, subsidy distribution, foreign grants, and the growth rate of the agricultural sector. This article takes a comprehensive look at the intricate relationship between People’s Multiparty Democracy (PMPD) and the development of farmer-centric policy formulation, the different types of farm subsidies, and their allocation. This examination is conducted by evaluating the various categories of agricultural funding projects and their outcomes, as well as analyzing the performance of the agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP). The descriptive findings of this study illuminate the direct influence of PMPD in shaping pro-farmer policy formulations. Farmers have been benefiting from moderate-level input subsidies designed to facilitate the acquisition of capital assets for the promotion of agricultural technology. These subsidies are sourced from both regular government funds and donor-supported initiatives that have been executed over varying periods. The average subsidy rate remains below 50%, contingent upon its intended purpose. Despite the positive political support, the AGDP has consistently hovered around the 3% mark throughout different development plans. It’s worth noting that not only PMPD but also other political paradigms such as the Panchayat system or multi-party democracy have significantly propelled economic growth. This underscores the need for renewed endeavors to leverage farmer’s equity funds, the government’s routine budget, loans, and grant funds. This study recommends the establishment of a collaborative platform involving farmers, the government, financial institutions, and donors, to successfully execute a growth-oriented business plan. Additionally, the study strongly advocates for three major investments: the establishment of fertilizer manufacturing facilities, hybrid seed production projects, and the creation of a resource center. These investments are crucial for the enhancement of key agricultural value chains.

Non-Formal Education Focused on the Development of Critical Thinking and Media Literacy: The Role and Activities of Key Stakeholders in Slovakia

Aim. This research study aims to examine the role and activities of key stakeholders in Slovakia who participate in non-formal education activities focused on the issue of critical thinking in relation to media communication. The aim was to gain an overview of the ways and means by which these actors address their target groups and what conceptual approaches they use to increase the level of media literacy at the national level. Methods. Framework analysis of secondary data on Slovak subjects whose non-formal educational activities and tools focus on the issue of critical thinking, disinformation and fake news by increasing the level of media and information literacy of various target groups. Results. The analysis of secondary data showed that representatives of various stakeholders in Slovakia offer different categories of projects and activities to increase the level of media and information literacy of various target groups. The obtained results indicate that the most active providers of non-formal education activities are in the sector of non-governmental organisations and think tanks. Our analysis also aimed to examine what types of educational activities organisations provide. The most significant representation is static online content (various types of educational content available through the website). Conclusions. The presented research results suggest that in terms of the position of key actors, the ways of their involvement in non-formal education processes are sufficiently diversified. They use a wide range of implementation concepts and models to develop critical thinking through non-formal learning methods for different target groups.

Participatory budgeting as a public mechanism for diagnosing priorities of territorial communities

The winning projects of participatory budgeting in the cities of Ukraine and Poland are analyzed as a public mechanism for diagnosing the priorities of territorial communities. It is found out that given the unmet basic needs of community representatives (road quality, condition of schools, playgrounds, etc.) involved in participatory budgeting in Ukraine, the strategic goals of local communities are ignored. It has an adverse impact on the need to achieve sustainable development goals based on community potential. It is proposed to establish additional quotas or separate project categories related to the categories of “environment” and “renewable energy” as strategic projects.

Estimating the Energy Savings of Energy Efficiency Actions with Ensemble Machine Learning Models

Energy efficiency financing is considered among the top priorities in the energy sector among several stakeholders. In this context, accurately estimating the energy savings achieved by energy efficiency actions before being approved and implemented is of major importance to ensure the optimal allocation of the available financial resources. This study aims to provide a machine-learningbased methodological framework for a priori predicting the energy savings of energy efficiency renovation actions. The proposed solution consists of three tree-based algorithms that exploit bagging and boosting as well as an additional ensembling level that further mitigates prediction uncertainty. The proposed models are empirically evaluated using a database of various, diverse energy efficiency renovation investments. Results indicate that the ensemble model outperforms the three individual models in terms of forecasting accuracy. Also, the generated predictions are relatively accurate for all the examined project categories, a finding that supports the robustness of the proposed approach.

Crowdfunding in Europe. How to help participants of crowdfunding campaigns in making the right decisions?

The aim of the article is to present the state of crowdfunding in European countries and to enrich the available information for participants of crowdfunding campaigns to help them make the right decisions. They function in conditions of information asymmetry, i.e. lack of much information necessary for proper behavior in the crowd of campaign participants. The original methodology of the two-stage classification of project categories submitted for crowdfunding and the specification of analytical indicators presented in this work significantly complements - with the use of IT tools - the gaps in information available on crowdfunding platforms. Source data on crowdfunding in selected European countries were used for the research.