VKRD magistritööd - Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10062/41922

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Challenges of implementing customer discovery in learning analytics: a case study of Algole
(University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, 2014) Laks, Ivar; Gaurav, Himshwet; Sults, Marge, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
There is a strong mismatch between demand and supply in current state of higher education in India. Over a million students aspire for a seat in the coveted top tier universities offering around 15 000 places. The students have to undergo a series of entrance examinations and based on their performance top candidates are offered a place. This gap between demand and supply has given birth to a highly competitive environment where students reach out to professional coaching institutions to improve their chances of success in the entrance examinations. The teaching methods of the coaching institutions do not consider the characteristics of different students and do not provide guidance based on the students actual needs. Algole, a learning analytics startup, is building a system to optimize students test taking strategy and help them achieve a higher score in the entrance examination. To validate the problem and solution the Algole’s team used the knowledge of Eric Ries’ Lean startup and Steve Blank’s customer development methodology. This aim of this thesis is to discover the specific challenges of implementing customer discovery methodology, the first of customer development, in the field of learning analytics. The thesis further concentrates on Algole with an aim to discover flaws in their conducted customer discovery process and provide critique and recommendations for validating their business model hypothesis. To conduct this research authors had access to all the data Algole’s team had gathered during their customer discovery process and held several interviews with the team members. Based on this information a detailed account is given about the chosen methods used by Algole and by analysing gathered data the authors of this thesis derive to the following conclusions.
Open government data application possibilities in Estonian nutrition sector
(University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, 2014) Liutkevičius, Markko; Saarmann, Monika, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
The aim of the current piece is to investigate Open Government Data application possibilities by the example of Estonian nutrition sector. The piece goes through defining various data types and analyzing Open Government Data situation in different countries. By comparing the recent developments, it finds Estonia’s lag on Open Government Data developments compared to many other countries. By investigating more thoroughly current situation in Estonian e-service developments in healthcare, it presents the lack of success in dealing with innovation in a public sector organization. Based on existing e-services, examples are presented to illustrate the benefits and advantages of using Open Government Data in nutrition sector. By conducting a research in Estonian nutrition sector, the piece finds that awareness-level and usage of public sector e-services among people interested in healthy nutrition is low. Based on empirical internet-based research, information gathered visiting public sector events and questionnaire conducted in Estonian nutrition sector, the piece suggests that there should be a clear strategy towards Open Government Data by finding resources to establish stable version of Open Government Data Portal, giving a strong political signal towards Open Government Data and using the support of Estonian Open Data Community to facilitating events where the creation of pilot e-services using Open Government Data would be addressed.
Combining real-life and internet marketing methods in construction field to market RentSOS
(University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, 2014) Allik, Annely; Borissov, Roman; Maibak, Heleen, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
The purpose of this thesis is to provide some ideas as to whether it is possible and effective for a new IT product to create value for construction companies via relationship marketing and internet marketing within the construction industry. As well as to provide a modified marketing mix for RentSOS, combined by relationship marketing and internet marketing methods, that can be applied at the same time. The motivation of the thesis is to look inside on an area, which gets very little attention in marketing literature, which is the B2B relationships on construction industry and effective internet marketing in B2B and B2C methods taking into account the specificities of the construction rental sector. The following hypothesis have been set: H1: Construction companies in Estonia are not using all the possible real-life marketing methods. H2: Construction companies in Estonia are not using all the possible internet marketing methods. The companies studied for relation marketing are Ramirent, Cramo and Storent. They have the ambition to be a big player in whole Estonian construction rental market. The companies studied for internet marketing are Ramirent, Cramo and Storent. These companies are considered an interesting and rewarding object for a research due to author’s goal to investigate their marketing methods in order to find out the best marketing mix for new IT product-RentSOS.
Video game engagement testing with prototypes: comparing video game prototypes in different development stages by testing these on six to eleven years old kids
(University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, 2014) Rebane, Rene; Roost, Kaspar; Tenno, Ander, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
The goal of this thesis is to research how fun and engaging the game is during different development and prototyping stages. Need for this research comes from real life. Game developers usually make several prototypes or proof of concepts of a game to find out if the core mechanics are fun. This thesis helps to find out how comprehensive these prototypes have to be to test the engagement of the game so in the future game developers can maybe spend far less time developing the prototypes. This is important because from the authors’ experience every next logical step in the prototype design increases the scope of the development multiple times. For example creating a paper prototype may take only several hours to make but developing a working playable game prototype may take several days up to several weeks. There is very little academic research done in the field of game development and game design as the field itself is still quite young — only about 30 years. There is very little academic work regarding playtesting especially with children. Testing object of this research is an educational kids’ iPad game that authors have been developing with a small team themselves. This game is also going to be released in 2015 to the public. So the research focuses on playtesting with kids who are 6 to 11 years old. Testing was conducted mostly at the public school with the help of teachers who already use video games in their curriculum. Playtesting has been divided into three parts as there were three game prototypes to represent the different stages of game prototyping: paper prototype, low fidelity prototype and high fidelity prototype. Pretest and posttest surveys were created based on Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow and psychology of optimal experience but during the tests authors also used the observation of kids and how they played the game. Authors consider the low fidelity prototype to be optimal in the context of game testing and measuring the flow with elementary school kids.
ICT implementation in Estonian construction industry and industry related business opportunities for ICT start-ups
(TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia, 2014) Tähepõld, Tarmo; Graudina, Marika; Sults, Marge, juhendaja; University of Tartu, Viljandi Culture Academy, Design and Development of Virtual Environments
The current research identifies the hindrance posed by the construction industry to ICT innovation based on the experience of BIM implementation in Estonia. The results of the study show that there are six main hindrances to the ICT implementation in construction that are caused by the fundamental structure of Estonian construction industry. The authors argue that by avoiding these six hindrances and minimizing the other hindrances identified when building new ICT solutions for the construction market, the ICT companies (IT start-ups) can achieve a competitive advantage when entering the construction market.
Implementing a service software to relieve waiting line frustration
(TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia, 2013) Karu, Markko; Nemeržitski, Stanislav, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Infohariduse osakond; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
Service companies have used waiting lines as a way of buffering the constant flow of providing a service for a long time. The introduction of hurdles, line numbers, time based appointments and virtualization have all worked for better and faster service, but the problem of long waiting lines has so far not been solved. The subject of this work is a startup company which has built a queue management service that enables smartphone users to wait in line remotely. The startup team to which I belong has built a product around the promise of allowing people to use the waiting time in their own terms. Therefore making the the issue of long period between request for service and actual service less important from customer perspective. By developing a minimum viable product for validating the market we have discovered that the customer pain of long queues does not convert into service provider’s pain: the combination of long waiting time, recurrence of the wait and option for replacement are rare combination that exists only on theoretical level. This work will concentrate on the findings on introducing new technology of remote queuing to the market and the specifics of waiting lines and the conditions where this technology would be most adaptable. This study maps out all the methods the team used for introducing the technology, all the findings and the conclusions that were made during the process. By testing different methods a model was developed that describes the problems of introducing new technologies that require personal hardware support from both parties in the context of physical services
Things.info - how to create a WEB platform representing all man-made objects and their relationships
(TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia, 2013) Kõnnusaar, Anu; Trapido, Toomas; Velleste, Piret-Klea; Ojasaar, Yrjö, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Infohariduse osakond; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
Booking systems of small and medium-sized enterprises and organisations
(TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia, 2013) Neuvonen, Sakari; Murakas, Rain, juhendaja; Viin, Tiina, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Infohariduse osakond; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
Using Scrum in a side project with distributed teams
(TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia, 2013) Tallinn, Harri; Aavik, Henrik; Virkus, Mihkel; Liive, Raul; Sults, Marge, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Infohariduse osakond; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
Scrum is the most popular agile software development methodology in use today (VersionOne, 2013), (West & Grant, 2010), (Begel & Nagappan, 2007). Many of the Scrum teams work in virtual distributed formations (VersionOne, 2013). The distributed work model introduces multiple burdens, like communication issues, matter of trust, time zones and cultural differences to the teams, which can severely affect performance (Deemer, s.a.). As a result, dislocated Scrum teams have a considerably lower success rate than collocated ones according to various surveys (Ambler S. W., 2008), (Ambler S. W., Agility at Scale Survey 2012, 2012), (Cohn, 2010). This paper researches the topic of “Using Scrum in a side project with distributed teams” and consist of three main parts: theoretical background, methods and results. In the theoretical background we cover the different software development methodologies, agile methodology in particular. We take a deeper look into Scrum; it's history, roles in Scrum, Scrum artifacts and ceremonies. We also briefly discuss virtual teams theory. In the methods we cover the online contract bridge card game development, Lean Startup and Business Model Generation as part of business development, background info on contract bridge, validating the idea, the design and development tools used to build the minimum viable product and the methods of data collection for Scrum. In the results we describe our implementation of Scrum, the building of the minimum viable product, and research made into other early stage startup teams to support our own findings.
Single story layout - efficient format for digital magazine publishing on tablet devices
(TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia, 2013) Krumins, Didzis; Sults, Marge, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Infohariduse osakond; Tartu Ülikool. Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia. Virtuaalkeskkondade loomine ja arendus
The aim of this thesis is to define digital magazine format characteristics and examine its influence on the reading experience. The motivation behind was to examine the viability of single story magazine concept -- publishing format for the mobile generation. The field of research is digital publishing, focused primarily on magazines for tablet computers. Print magazine businesses and entrepreneurs with web publishing background both are approaching the new medium by experimenting with format, contents and distribution. The standards for the digital magazine formats have not yet been established, and the definition of digital magazine implies meanings within broad categories. The study reviews print and digital magazine workflows analyzing variations of mutual integrations. Theoretical chapters also include revision of digital magazine format components and overview of authoring tools. Practical experiment was conducted to reveal usability problems in digital magazine formats. Two existing magazines are tested, digital version of traditional magazine and single story magazine representing unbundled publication. Mixed methods were chosen for usability testing – heuristic analysis, observation and evaluation questionnaire. It was found that digital magazine readers prefer smaller volumes of content in comparison to print legacy formats. Research reveals that readers are not accustomed to magazine reading on tablets. Study also offers suggestions for improved usability and more satisfying reading experience concluding that single story magazines is a viable opportunity in digital magazine landscape, worth further investigation.
Verifying the application of online gamification methods to introduce pro-environmental behavior
(University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy, 2013) Kärp, Tanel; Lints, Taivo, supervisor; University of Tartu. Viljandi Culture Academy. Information Studies Department; University of Tartu. Viljandi Culture Academy. Design and Development of Virtual Environments
The goal of this thesis is to validate whether online gamification methods can be used to introduce pro-environmental lifestyle. Human activities have since the Industrial Revolution had an increasingly destructive impact on the biosphere, which has started to endanger the environment and our existence as a species. Awareness of the situation is increasing, but real actions to combat the problem are not, as environmental activists lack the knowledge and tools to drive the necessary individual behavioral change. At the same time, the emergence of the internet has created a mass medium which has proven to be very effective in altering individuals’ habits. One of the newest and most potent methodologies to spark behavioral change is gamification, which implies using game design elements in non-gaming context. Due to a vast gap between the academic and commercial practitioners’ world, little research has been so far done regarding gamification, and the results of these studies have not been implemented to create effective products. This research tried to bridge this gap and validate the use of gamification to drive proenvironmental behavior change, by deploying an experimental prototype which was developed based on Eric Ries’ Lean Startup ideology and Yu-kai Chou’s Octalysis gamification framework. In addition, a pretest-posttest survey was conducted to investigate the impact of using the prototype. The minimal prototype proved to be effective in acquiring and engaging new members by growing its user base 8.5 fold. More than one fourth of registered members became engaged users and continued to use the gamified product throughout the experiment. The pretestposttest survey results indicated that engaging with the prototype did in fact change the users’ behaviors towards a more sustainable lifestyle, moderate pro-environmental increases were detected in both respondents’ attitudes and concrete undertaken everyday activities.

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