"With the unique characteristics of anonymity and non-physical interaction, the Internet has provided numerous depression support sites that can enable older people with stigmatized illness to seek for health information and acquire... more
"With the unique characteristics of anonymity and non-physical interaction, the Internet has provided numerous depression support sites that can enable older people with stigmatized illness to seek for health information and acquire social support effectively. However, few studies have been conducted to evaluate the sites on user-focused support features for geriatric depression. Hence, in this paper, we report a study using content analysis with a hybrid coding approach to systematically analyze and assess the usefulness and usability of 60 depression-related sites worldwide, with 27 Asia-based and 33 Western-based. The intention of the study was to determine the benefits of these sites for geriatric depression. We formulated a research tool, a checklist of user-focused support features, critical to the effectiveness of depression sites in four aspects – purposes, information quality, interactivity and accessibility. Findings have reflected an overall high coverage of depression information in the sites in general description (93.3%), causes (76.7%), symptoms (90.0%) and treatment (88.3%), although most of them were not elderly-focused. New forms of “patient-to-helper” and “patient-to-patient” interaction types were observed in the sites with high social media involvement, yet more assistant features need to be introduced in order to address elderly users’ physical and cognitive problems. Western sites were more likely to be depression-focused, while Asian sites have higher percentage of features for assisting elderly. We believe the findings will benefit web developers and healthcare researchers in building depression sites with higher quality and user experience for elderly users."
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Research Interests: Psychology and Malaria
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Appropriately measuring information literacy skills is essential to understand their educational impact as well as exploring pedagogies to improve teaching of these skills. This paper reports findings of a baseline study to understand the... more
Appropriately measuring information literacy skills is essential to understand their educational impact as well as exploring pedagogies to improve teaching of these skills. This paper reports findings of a baseline study to understand the information literacy level of secondary school students in Singapore. A comprehensive instrument encompassing a new dimension of ethical usage of information as well as major IL principles and guidelines was developed for data collection. A total of 298 responses were gathered through the online survey. The findings indicate that overall there was a scope to improve students’ IL skills. That stated, higher order IL skills (such as information use, synthesis, and evaluation) demand more attention, as comparatively lower levels of proficiency were observed in this study.
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Background: A study was conducted at Singapore’s National University Hospital to elicit registered nurses’ attitudes, knowledge, barriers, facilitating factors, education, and training regarding evidence-based practice. Methods: A... more
Background: A study was conducted at Singapore’s National University Hospital to elicit registered nurses’ attitudes, knowledge, barriers, facilitating factors, education, and training regarding evidence-based practice. Methods: A 13-question survey that was administered to all registered nurses yielded 1,114 (75.4%) usable returns for analysis. Results: Findings showed that Singapore nurses had a positive and supportive attitude toward evidence-based practice but lacked the competence and knowledge to conduct it. Time constraints were identified as the main barrier to implementing evidence-based practice. There is a need for proper training, mentoring by senior nurses, and adequate time for evidence-based practice. Nurses with a higher level of nursing education who indicated the greatest perceived barriers tended to have less difficulty applying evidence-based practice but identified a need for more training in information skills. Conclusion: Evidence-based practice is still in it...
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History has taught us that inadequate understanding of users, scenarios of use and technologies have led to failures of many research as well as development projects. An understanding on how learning objects (LOs) should be designed,... more
History has taught us that inadequate understanding of users, scenarios of use and technologies have led to failures of many research as well as development projects. An understanding on how learning objects (LOs) should be designed, organized and used are necessary in ...
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Based on three constructs of alerts, care, and education, we describe the design and development of CuePBox, an instrumental pillbox, with a physical as well as a virtual entity, that aims to address needs for enhanced patient care, in... more
Based on three constructs of alerts, care, and education, we describe the design and development of CuePBox, an instrumental pillbox, with a physical as well as a virtual entity, that aims to address needs for enhanced patient care, in the monitoring of medication adherence on a continuous basis. CuePBox will be facilitated by social media technologies that support patient-to-patient communities and patient-to-healthcare communities to exchange state-of-affairs information and testimonials, with advice and encouragement towards speedy recovery. The care component along with the alerts (audio, visual, and vibration) integrated within the CuePBox hopes to empower patients to manage their health conditions.
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BACKGROUND Studies show that nurses use their own smartphones for work purposes and there are several organizational issues related to it. However, it is unclear what these organizational issues are in the Philippines and the influence... more
BACKGROUND Studies show that nurses use their own smartphones for work purposes and there are several organizational issues related to it. However, it is unclear what these organizational issues are in the Philippines and the influence they have on nurse administrators’ (i.e., superiors) support to staff nurses’ (i.e., subordinates) use of smartphones for work purposes. OBJECTIVE Drawing from Organizational Support Theory (OST), this study aims to identify organizational issues that influence nurse administrators’ support to staff nurses’ use of smartphones for work purposes. METHODS Between June and July 2017, nine focus groups with 43 nurse administrators (i.e., head nurses, nurse supervisors, and nurse managers) were conducted in nine tertiary level general hospitals in Metro Manila, Philippines. Drawing from OST, issues were classified as those that encouraged or inhibited nurse administrators to support nurses’ use of smartphones for work purposes. RESULTS Issues that encourage...
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Recently, many studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of exergames on the social well-being of older adults. The aim of this paper is to synthesize existing studies and provide an overall picture on the social effects of... more
Recently, many studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of exergames on the social well-being of older adults. The aim of this paper is to synthesize existing studies and provide an overall picture on the social effects of exergames on older adults. A comprehensive literature search with inclusive criteria was conducted in major social science bibliographic databases. The characteristics of exergames, participants, methodology, as well as outcome measurements were extracted from the relevant studies included in the review. The bibliometric and altmetric outreach of the included studies were also investigated. A total of 10 studies were included in the review, with 8 studies having used the Nintendo Wii platform. Most of the studies recruited healthy older adults from local communities or senior activity centers. Three groups of social-related outcomes have been identified, including emotion-related, behavior-related, and attitude-related outcomes. A metric analysis has...
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Exergaming is one way to foster social interaction among older adults and to improve their psychosocial well-being, which is a crucial component of healthy aging. This study examined how exergaming affects older adults' social... more
Exergaming is one way to foster social interaction among older adults and to improve their psychosocial well-being, which is a crucial component of healthy aging. This study examined how exergaming affects older adults' social anxiousness, sociability, and loneliness, and it further analyzed differences in the exergaming effects across different types of game play and between different aging cohorts. A 2 (pre-test vs. post-test) × 2 (young-old vs. old-old) × 3 (play alone vs. play with elderly vs. play with youths) mixed quasi-experiment (N = 89) was conducted in Singapore, and three-way MANOVAs were executed. Results showed a significant three-way interaction effect among exergaming, play type, and age group on older adults' psychosocial well-being. There was a significant decline in social anxiousness and an increase in sociability for young-old participants playing with youths. The sociability improved significantly for old-old participants playing with their peers. There...
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Depression is the most common mental and emotional disorder that emerges in the late stages of life. It is closely associated with poor health, disability, mortality, and suicide. The study examines the risk factors of depression in late... more
Depression is the most common mental and emotional disorder that emerges in the late stages of life. It is closely associated with poor health, disability, mortality, and suicide. The study examines the risk factors of depression in late life, especially the psychosocial factors, among a sample comprising 162 community-dwelling Singaporean adults aged 65 years and above. An interview-based structured survey was conducted in multiple senior activity centers located in different parts of Singapore. Results from the hierarchical regression analysis show that 32.9 % of the variance in geriatric depression can be explained by the three psychosocial factors, among which loneliness, perceived social support, and the emotional regulation component of resilience are significantly associated with depression in older adults. Large-scale studies should be conducted to confirm the findings of the present study, and to further examine the predictive effects of these psychosocial factors on depres...
Research Interests: Psychology, Gerontology, Depression, Medicine, Emotions, and 15 moreActivities of Daily Living, Humans, Female, Male, Loneliness, Regression Analysis, Psychosocial, Depressive Disorder, Risk factors, Clinical Sciences, Aged, Geriatric Assessment, Risk Factors, Cross Sectional Studies, and Residence Characteristics
This chapter highlights selective key issues and assesses the current situation of digital library development in the Asia Pacific under the broad categories of design architecture and systems, implementation issues and challenges, use... more
This chapter highlights selective key issues and assesses the current situation of digital library development in the Asia Pacific under the broad categories of design architecture and systems, implementation issues and challenges, use and impact, and users and usability. Emphasis on cross-cultural and cross-lingual research would especially be beneficial to address the diversity and richness of the heritage, cultures and languages of this region. Nonetheless, a fundamental digital divide problem poses the greatest challenge as almost 70% of the population of the countries of Asia Pacific has little or no connectivity to the digital world. Concerted international collaborative efforts are much needed, not only to push ahead with the various aspects of the digital library research agenda and realize the global digital library vision of the future, but to derive novel solutions to eliminate or close the gap of digital divide across various parts of the world.
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Digital archives typically act as stand-alone digital libraries to support search and discovery by users to access its rich set of digitized materials. Additionally, content stored in these archives have been utilized and combined to... more
Digital archives typically act as stand-alone digital libraries to support search and discovery by users to access its rich set of digitized materials. Additionally, content stored in these archives have been utilized and combined to create different thematic online virtual exhibitions (VEs). Such exhibitions are important complimentary counterparts to physical exhibitions, especially in the context of cultural institutions such as museums, archives, and libraries. Well constructed VEs can offer alternative experiences to the “real thing” and open up other opportunities that include education and learning, more content beyond physical exhibits, support for active participation and contribution by visitors through forums and uploads, online shopping, and others. This chapter outlines a number of concepts and design considerations for the development of VEs from digital archives. When supported by the right tools and approaches, creation of VEs can be highly effective and efficient wi...
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As treasure houses of human history and knowledge with rich repositories on cultural heritage, museums and libraries have advantages of presence experience and powerful searching abilities respectively. We propose in this paper an... more
As treasure houses of human history and knowledge with rich repositories on cultural heritage, museums and libraries have advantages of presence experience and powerful searching abilities respectively. We propose in this paper an integrated design of virtual museum and digital library in the preservation of cultural heritage of the Chinese ���qipao���, as an example of preservation of cultural heritage resources in digital space.
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As the world population ages rapidly, it is likely that more elderly risks being detached from society. The possible isolation of many more elderly could lead to societal and mental health problems that could weigh down on public... more
As the world population ages rapidly, it is likely that more elderly risks being detached from society. The possible isolation of many more elderly could lead to societal and mental health problems that could weigh down on public healthcare systems. Using surveys, focus groups, interviews and video analysis, our pilot study examines the effects of the Nintendo Wii games, examples
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... The new friends/buddies can then make recommendation on what is worth visiting and where to get value-for-money souvenirs. ... Dornbush, S., English, J., Oates, T., Segall, Z., Joshi, A. (2007), "XPod: a human activity aware... more
... The new friends/buddies can then make recommendation on what is worth visiting and where to get value-for-money souvenirs. ... Dornbush, S., English, J., Oates, T., Segall, Z., Joshi, A. (2007), "XPod: a human activity aware learning mobile music player", Proceedings of the ...
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RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES The authors performed a baseline analysis of the information needs and information-seeking behaviors of on-call radiology residents to learn how to better serve their on-call information needs in the future.... more
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES The authors performed a baseline analysis of the information needs and information-seeking behaviors of on-call radiology residents to learn how to better serve their on-call information needs in the future. MATERIALS AND METHODS Print, electronic, and human information resources were made conveniently available to on-call radiology residents. A prospective, descriptive study was performed by using a modification of the critical incident technique to gather data from the residents every morning after being on call. Residents were asked to recall questions that arose, whether they sought answers to the questions, where they searched for answers, whether their search was successful, and whether they believed that patient care was affected. RESULTS The residents had 182 questions that encompassed all organ systems, imaging modalities, and aspects of radiologic practice. Residents sought answers to 138 of the 182 questions (76%) by using a wide variety of resources, with staff members and textbooks being the most common. They found answers to 114 of 138 questions (83%); 100 of the 114 (88%) answered questions affected patient care. CONCLUSION The ideal way to meet the information needs of on-call radiology residents is to devise an authoritative information resource that is compatible with their information-seeking behaviors.
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For many years learning management systems have been focused on providing resources for students. More recently, the growth of digital repositories has provided resources that can be tagged and searched independently of a course... more
For many years learning management systems have been focused on providing resources for students. More recently, the growth of digital repositories has provided resources that can be tagged and searched independently of a course structure. G-portal provides resources specifically tagged for geographical learning tasks and provides a project space in which students can collaborate, create resources and share these resources amongst themselves. This paper reviews the research issues surrounding G-portal using activity theory as a ...
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Adopting a problem-centred approach helps students to learn Geography more effectively as they are able to identify and generalize about where different resources or activities are spatially located and they learn to associate certain... more
Adopting a problem-centred approach helps students to learn Geography more effectively as they are able to identify and generalize about where different resources or activities are spatially located and they learn to associate certain patterns and processes with geographical changes. In an era where web-based student-centred inquiry is gaining popularity as a mode of learning Geography, the role of digital libraries as delivery trucks (in Clark's terminology, 1983) needs to be better understood. An obvious affordance of the ...
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Virtual worlds (VWs) have paved a new and important channel for user collaboration and information sharing. Businesses are now considering using VWs as innovative means for collaboration and information sharing among its organizational... more
Virtual worlds (VWs) have paved a new and important channel for user collaboration and information sharing. Businesses are now considering using VWs as innovative means for collaboration and information sharing among its organizational members. Despite the huge potential of VWs for harnessing and increasing the flow of ideas among organizations, research on the subject is rather sparse. Drawing on the social cognitive theory, we re-specify the concept of cognitive absorption (CA) in the context of ...
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Depression is a major public health concern in current society. In recent years many studies began to investigate the potential benefits of exergames on depression. The current study aimed to provide a systematic review to synthesize the... more
Depression is a major public health concern in current society. In recent years many studies began to investigate the potential benefits of exergames on depression. The current study aimed to provide a systematic review to synthesize the existing studies and discover the overall effect size of exergames on treating depression. A comprehensive literature search was conducted among major bibliographic databases in computer technology, psychology, and medical science. Key study characteristics of participants, interventions, and experiment were extracted in the systematic review. Both studies using independent groups and matched groups were included in meta-analysis. Overall effect size of Hedges' g was calculated, followed by subgroup analyses. Nine studies included in the review, while eight studies applying exergames of Nintendo's Wii or Wii Fit. A random effects meta-analysis on eight studies resulted an overall significant effect size of g = 0.21. Demographic factors, depr...
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Users tend to lose their way in the maze of information within hypertext. Much work done to address the \lost in hyperspace" problem is reactive, that is, doing remedial work to correct the de ciencies within hypertexts because they... more
Users tend to lose their way in the maze of information within hypertext. Much work done to address the \lost in hyperspace" problem is reactive, that is, doing remedial work to correct the de ciencies within hypertexts because they are (or were) poorly designed and built. What if solutions are sought to avoid the problem? What if we do things well from the start? This paper reviews the \lost in hyperspace" problem, and suggests a framework to understand the design and usability issues. The issues cannot be seen as purely psychological or purely computing, they are multi-disciplinary. Our proactive, multi-disciplinary approach is drawn from current technologies in sub-disciplines of hypertext, humancomputer interaction, cognitive psychology and software engineering. To demonstrate these ideas, this paper presents HyperAT, a hypertext research authoring tool, developed to help designers build usable web documents on the World Wide Web without getting \lost."
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Background The risk of development of chronic diseases related to poor nutrition increases with age. In the face of an aging population, it is important for health care sectors to find solutions in delivering health services efficiently... more
Background The risk of development of chronic diseases related to poor nutrition increases with age. In the face of an aging population, it is important for health care sectors to find solutions in delivering health services efficiently and effectively to middle-aged and older adults. Objective The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to consolidate the literature that reported the effectiveness of eHealth apps in delivering nutritional interventions for middle-aged and older adults. Methods A literature search from five databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Global Health) from the past 5 years was performed. Studies were selected for inclusion that used eHealth to deliver nutritional interventions to adults aged 40 years and above, and reported health and behavioral outcomes. Two independent reviewers searched for research articles and assessed the eligibility of studies to be included in the review. A third reviewer resolved disagreements on study...
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Abstract Cyberchondria describes excessive online health searches associated with increased emotional distress. While previous research has examined various antecedents of cyberchondria, how regular online health information seeking... more
Abstract Cyberchondria describes excessive online health searches associated with increased emotional distress. While previous research has examined various antecedents of cyberchondria, how regular online health information seeking (OHIS) turns into cyberchondria has received minimal theoretical attention. This study proposes a theoretical model that illuminates the processes of cyberchondria development among individuals who are anxious about their health. Results from an online survey of 426 Chinese Internet users lend support to the proposed theoretical model, which posits perceived health threat of common symptoms as a trigger of health anxiety that motivates OHIS through the perception of information insufficiency. In this process, positive source beliefs strengthen the effect of information insufficiency on OHIS. This study further identifies negative metacognitive beliefs as a boundary condition for how regular OHIS results in cyberchondria. By conceptualizing the processes of cyberchondria development, this integrative model provides guidance for future theory development and testing in this new research area.
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BACKGROUND Conversational agents, also known as chatbots, are computer programs designed to simulate human text or verbal conversations. They are increasingly used in a range of fields, including health care. By enabling better... more
BACKGROUND Conversational agents, also known as chatbots, are computer programs designed to simulate human text or verbal conversations. They are increasingly used in a range of fields, including health care. By enabling better accessibility, personalization, and efficiency, conversational agents have the potential to improve patient care. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to review the current applications, gaps, and challenges in the literature on conversational agents in health care and provide recommendations for their future research, design, and application. METHODS We performed a scoping review. A broad literature search was performed in MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online; Ovid), EMBASE (Excerpta Medica database; Ovid), PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Central with the search terms “conversational agents,” “conversational AI,” “chatbots,” and associated synonyms. We also searched the gray literature using sources such as the OCLC (Online Computer Library Ce...
Exergaming has become an important part of community programs to promote regular exercise and improve well-being for healthy aging. This study examines how different types of social playing and competitive information in exergaming affect... more
Exergaming has become an important part of community programs to promote regular exercise and improve well-being for healthy aging. This study examines how different types of social playing and competitive information in exergaming affect older adults’ inter-generational communication with youth, as well as their motivation to regular exercise through exergaming. A 2 (time: pre-test vs. post-test) * 3 (social play: play alone vs. play with elderly vs. play with youth) * 2 (competition: competition informed vs. non-competition informed) mixed experiment with 319 Singaporean older adults conducted over six weeks in 2018, analyzed through a series of three-way repeated ANOVAs. Results show significant three-way interaction effects among time, social type, and competitive information on older adults’ inter-generation communication (F (2, 300) = 3.206, p = .042, η2 = .021), extrinsic motivation (F (2, 301) = 3.364, p = .036, η2 = .022) and intrinsic motivation (F (2, 303) = 4.528, p = .0...
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The study analyzed social question and answer (SQA) threads on Stack Overflow to investigate users' interaction patterns within an SQA thread and how these patterns related to the likelihood of receiving an acceptable answer. Robert... more
The study analyzed social question and answer (SQA) threads on Stack Overflow to investigate users' interaction patterns within an SQA thread and how these patterns related to the likelihood of receiving an acceptable answer. Robert Bales' Interaction Process Analysis was used to code the data. Analysis of 125 threads (844 posts) showed differences in response time and top interaction sequences. A significant difference was found in IPA.2 (shows tension release), a category in IPA's social‐ emotional area. This suggests that users' interactions on SQA, including their emotion management, are worth investigating.
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This study reports the development and psychometric evaluation of the Smartphone for Clinical Work Scale (SCWS) to measure nurses' use of smartphones for work purposes. Items were developed based on literature review and a preliminary... more
This study reports the development and psychometric evaluation of the Smartphone for Clinical Work Scale (SCWS) to measure nurses' use of smartphones for work purposes. Items were developed based on literature review and a preliminary study. After expert consultations and pilot testing, a 20-item scale was administered in January-June 2017 to 517 staff nurses from 19 tertiary-level general hospitals in Metro Manila, Philippines. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate construct validity. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the predictive validity of SCWS on perceived work productivity. EFA results show that 15 out of 20 items loaded on five factors: communication with clinicians via call and text, communication with doctors via instant messaging, information seeking, communication with nurses via instant messaging, and communication with patients via call and text. CFA results suggest that the five factors th...
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This study aimed to examine the influencing mechanism of exercise platform effect on subthreshold depression among older adults by comparing exergames and traditional exercise. One hundred and two Singaporean older adults were assigned to... more
This study aimed to examine the influencing mechanism of exercise platform effect on subthreshold depression among older adults by comparing exergames and traditional exercise. One hundred and two Singaporean older adults were assigned to either playing Wii exergames or performing traditional exercise programs once a week, for six weeks. Results confirmed a direct negative platform effect on subthreshold depression and further supported the mediation role of positive emotions in the platform effect. It implied that exergames led to higher positive emotions than traditional exercise, which further reduced the subthreshold depression among older adults. Self-efficacy was not supported to be a significant mediator in the relations between exercise platform and subthreshold depression. A better understanding of the mechanisms behind the antidepressant effects of exercise platform would not only provide additional insight into a possible causal association, but also inspire the future us...
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Exergames are increasingly been used in the primary healthcare domain for older adults who are 65 years and above. However, most of the exergames on current market are not designed for the aging population. The current study introduced... more
Exergames are increasingly been used in the primary healthcare domain for older adults who are 65 years and above. However, most of the exergames on current market are not designed for the aging population. The current study introduced five new exergames developed for elderly and evaluated their benefits. Five new exergames were developed by researchers from Finland, Singapore, and Japan, in which the game topics, difficulties, and user interface were designed particularly for older adults. A between-group pilot study was further conducted to evaluate their psychosocial effects by comparing to traditional exercise and care-as-usual program, with a sample of 30 community-dwelling older adults in Singapore. Results showed that exergame group had significantly higher exercise enjoyment over other two groups. Exergame group has lower self-efficacy than other two groups, although it was not statistically significant. Significant subgroup difference was detected in neither life satisfacti...
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Objective This study aimed to explore the acceptance of exergames in a work environment and investigate influencing factors through examining a conceptual model. Methods After viewing a short video on playing exergames, sixty recruited... more
Objective This study aimed to explore the acceptance of exergames in a work environment and investigate influencing factors through examining a conceptual model. Methods After viewing a short video on playing exergames, sixty recruited working adults scored items associated with perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitude toward use, and intention to use. Confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to test the measurement model, followed by structural equation modeling to estimate the path coefficients. Results The conceptual model was generally supported, with most of the path coefficients being statistically significant. Employees who perceived a higher level of ease of use toward exergames are more likely to have higher perceived usefulness and attitude toward use; higher perceived usefulness and attitude toward use further increases employees’ intention of use for the exergames. Conclusion Findings emphasized the importance of usability in affecting employees’ accepta...
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This paper describes the engagement of intergenerational partners in the design of a digital library of geographical resources (GeogDL) to prepare Singapore students to take a national examination in geography. GeogDL is built on top of... more
This paper describes the engagement of intergenerational partners in the design of a digital library of geographical resources (GeogDL) to prepare Singapore students to take a national examination in geography. GeogDL is built on top of G-Portal, a digital library providing services over geospatial and georeferenced Web content. Scenario-based design and claims analysis were employed as a means of refinement to the initial design of the GeogDL prototype.