Welcome to Dr. William (Bill) Smart’s Homepage

After successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Describe the essential processes of web development.
2. Interpret and apply a web mark-up language.
3. Apply written communication skills to a website.
4. Recognise and implement ethical, legal and societal issues related to web development.
5. Demonstrate the ability to build efficient and usable websites.

This unit runs in session 1 and summer session.

After successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. Solve problems by using web-based scripting.
2. Use professional scripting methodology and techniques.
3. Integrate client and server based components.
4. Compare and contrast scripting technologies for web applications.

This unit runs in session 2.

On completion of this / these unit(s), students should:

1. Be better prepared for full-time employment in the ICT industry.
2. Be able to apply concepts and principles of their information technology studies in a way that is appropriate to meet the requirements of the work environment in the ICT industry.
3. Demonstrate capability and willingness to undertake a range of duties required for employment in the ICT industry.
4. Appreciate the nature of ICT industry organisational behaviour and culture from an employee perspective.
5. Recognise the nature of the skills and attitudes required for success as a manager or supervisor in the student's major field of study.
6. Be able to explain the nature, scope, breadth and variety of employment in the ICT sector.

This unit runs in all three sessions.

Southern Cross University is leading a collaborative initiative to support the roll-out of high speed broadband to our region the Mid North and North Coasts of NSW. This region includes the local government areas from the Great Lakes to Tweed with a total population of 541,320 (Estimated Resident Population at June 2008). Partners in this collaboration so far include Southern Cross University, all local councils, the Federal Member of Parliament for Page, Regional Development Australia (RDA) Mid North Coast, Northern Organisation Region of Councils (NOROC) and several large local Businesses.

The National Broadband Network is currently being rolled-out in Tasmania. The Southern Cross University lead initiative is to convince the Federal Government that the first mainland roll-out of high speed broadband should take place in our region, the Mid North and North Coast of NSW.

Southern Cross University has established the website www.gobroadband.com.au to provide an information portal on the roll-out of high speed broadband in our region. The site is also dedicated to obtaining support from all sectors of the community for the rollout to occur in our region. Please visit this site and express your interest.   Bill is a member of the steering committee of the National Broadband Network for the Mid North and North Coast of NSW, and is assisting the project leader Prof. Peter Croll. In his role as assistant to the project leader Bill has undertaken research into the existing broadband network available throughout the region. He has also assisted in the authoring of the projects submission to the Federal Government “The benefits of early adoption for the National Broadband Network spanning Australia’s Eastern Regional Corridor” Bill has also been tasked with oversighting work on the several Internet/Intranet sites set-up as part of this initiative.

Broadband enabling our essential services Health, Education, Regional Business and our local Environment

This is a new area of research I am becoming involved in. The first research project I will undertake will be a collaborative project with several of my colleagues. We will be conducting a E-Health Useability Project. Following is a brief description of the project.

Researchers
Dr Bruce Armstrong, Dr Graham Cooper, Dr Bill Smart

Summary
There are numerous examples of health information systems on the Web. There are a number of key projects underway in Australia such as Victoria's “HealthSMART” project, “CareWebQI” being implemented in Australian hospitals to support best practice guidelines for clinicians, and “TrakCare”, developed in Australia but being implemented in areas in the UK. As well, a number of organisation are emerging in support of the management of health information such as the ‘Health Information Management Association of Australia Ltd (HIMAA)’ and university based centres including University of Queensland’s ‘Knowledge Hub’ and Queensland University of Technology’s ‘National Centre for Health Information Research & Training (NCHIRT)‘.

This project aims to model user satisfaction and acceptance of web-based, health information systems. Key aspects of the Extended Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM) and User Information Satisfaction (UIS) models will be used as baseline constructs for examination of web-based, public e-health systems in use in Australia.

Download the entire thesis from ePublications@SCU (5.2 Meg)

Abstract

The primary aim of the research conducted for this thesis was to develop a predictive model of information systems success for a publicly-available, web-based application that provides information to users on both the value of carbon credits that result from sequestration of carbon in a forest as well as potential earnings from supply of saleable timber. The application, also developed as part of this research, is called the CO₂ Calculator. In addition attitudes of respondents to climate change and carbon sequestration were also gauged to ascertain their knowledge of key environmental issues relevant to the system.

The model used as the foundation for the research is the DeLone and McLean (1992, 2002, 2003) model of information systems success. This model was adapted to measure information systems success for the CO₂ Calculator which is a publicly available, web-based application rather than a proprietary, task-specific, organizationally focused application as measured in the prior research.

Data was collected via a survey dispatched by email to users who accessed the CO₂ Calculator. The survey instrument used builds on the existing work of Torkzadeh and Doll (1988, 1999), Seddon and Kiew (1994) and Torkzadeh et al. (2005). All of these researchers used variations of the End User Survey (EUS) to collect data on end users’ perceptions of the success of various applications, all of which were internal, organisationally-focussed, task specific, proprietary systems. This meant the survey items used for the current research were adapted to measure users’ attitudes to a publicly-available, web-based application that had no task-specific roles in an organisation.

Analysis of the data proceeded in two distinct phases. The first phase was the examination and presentation of descriptive information about the demographic characteristics of the sample and the users’ attitudes to climate change, carbon sequestration and the overall success of the CO₂ Calculator. The descriptive data indicated the respondents are a technologically literate group who have concerns related to environmental management and the use of land for sustainable practices. It also showed that the users were extremely satisfied with the CO₂ Calculator.

In the second phase Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to examine the constructs underlying the data and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among the constructs. Both the EFA and SEM resulted in structures and relationships that differed from the hypothesised outcomes and revealed a set of constructs and relationships that were clearly associated with the success of a publicly-available, web-based application with different theoretical associations than those found by previous researchers examining organisationally-focussed, proprietary applications.

Regression analyses were also conducted to check the relationships among constructs that were omitted from the final structural model, but were on the hypothesised model. Support for their inclusion in further studies was found as the analysis identified that the scales used to measure these constructs were significant predictors of the outcome variables although not when networked with those constructs that were on the final measurement model.

Notwithstanding the limitations of the research, it has resulted in the identification of a predictive model of information success for web-based, publically available, non-organisationally focused systems.

Currently, I am involved with the SCU Converged Delivery Project. Web Development I was chosen by me to test two methods of balancing the delivery methods between external & internal students. Presently, due to the fact that this unit draws students from many degrees other than the Bachelor of Information Technology and Bachelor of Applied Computing, these basic IT skills cannot be presumed in the student cohort. At present those on-campus students have access to a tutor that can address this issue on a case basis, unfortunately distance students do not. The first method to balance this inequity between internal and external students is to capture some of these basic skills in a video format (Camtasia has been selected as the software) for demonstration to all students.

• Creating and Validating a basic XHTM file.
• Downloading, Installing and using FileZilla (freeware FTP client).
• Downloading Installing and using WinZip (creating a zip file of several directories).
• CSS in-line, document level and external file.

The second method to be used to balance the inequity between internal and external students access to face-to-face tutors is an offering of an external workshop. An offer of a workshop on a Saturday will be made to all external students within the subject. Workshop is to be held on each of campus of SCU. These workshops will be offered in weeks 8-12 of semester 1 2010. Data will be collected from students to examine the success/failure of the methods adopted. I will author a paper to present the findings of this research in semester 2 2010.

In May 2004, I received a scholarship from the Division of Arts to study the Graduate Certificate of Higher Education (Learning & Teaching). As a requirement of the unit “The Scholarship of Teaching in Higher Education” I was required to target a conference or journal, for submission of a scholarly work. This is the paper that resulted:

Smart, W.J. (2005) “Distance Education A Proactive Approach”

This paper was presented at the Fifth Online Distance Learning (ODL) conference in Brisbane, Queensland 2005.

The first paper I ever presented to a conference occurred during my undergraduate degree. As part of my computing project (3rd year unit) I assisted the “Graduate Research College” (now the Division of Research) develop the National Graduate Research Database (NGRDB). The on-line database was designed for Masters and PhD. students to share information of their research. Five universities eventually joined the database; however, the database failed to gain the funding required to maintain it. The National Graduate Research Database was closed in 1999. Following is a link to the paper itself:

Smart, W. J., Hunt, A. & Baverstock, P. R. (1997) “National Graduate Research Database”

This paper was presented at the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia’s 13th Annual conference held in Launceston Tasmania, 1997.

Download the entire thesis (3.48 Meg)

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of Web site structure on users’ perceptions of navigability. To accomplish this task, two Web sites were constructed on the World Wide Web. The two Web sites labeled “red” and “blue” use different structures. The red Web site is a strictly hierarchical site containing a total of 72 links. The blue Web site uses compromised and overlapping hierarchies as well as sequential structures. The blue site contains a total of 736 links.

The 113 subjects who undertook this experiment were drawn from the staff and student body of Southern Cross University. Each subject was given two tasks and a questionnaire to complete for each of the two Web sites. The tasks required the subjects to navigate each site. The questions posed in the questionnaire are designed to capture from the subjects their perceptions of the structure of the two Web sites. Additional data were also taken for each subject from the server log file.

• The majority of users perceive a structure that allows multiple access (heavily cross-linked structure) to the content to be more navigable than a strict hierarchy.
• Both types of Web sites tested -- strict hierarchy and heavily cross-linked structure -- can cause a user to experience the “lost in hyperspace’ phenomenon.
• Users with low levels of experience with computers and the WWW feel more lost in both structures tested.
• Inexperienced users of the WWW take longer to complete the task in a strict hierarchy than in a heavily cross-linked structure.
• Of the facilities offered by modern browsers, users most frequently use the Back facility for navigation within a Web site. Users utilize this facility even if there are dedicated Hyperlinks provided to perform this function.
• The Favorites (Bookmarks) facility of modern browsers is not utilized by users as a navigation aid within a Web site.
• Metrics developed by Botafogo et al. (1992) were applied to the WWW and found to accurately identify structures within Web sites. However, an anomaly in the design of the Converted Distance Table for a strictly hierarchical Web site was identified and a modification was developed to correct it.