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The purpose of this paper is to develop and evaluate a mobile educational application that supports fun learning for children. This paper describes an educational game application “Laut ABC”, which is an Android-based app that aims to be a learning tool with an attractive design that would help children learn alphabets. The results show that educational game app “Laut ABC” is a effective learning tool and can be used as an alternative for learning alphabets using an interesting and fun-learning concept.

Research methods include methods of data collection, design and implementation. Data collection was done through research literature, interviews and questionnaires and analyzing some similar applications. Designing game application using storyboard and implementation was the done using the waterfall model for the software development life cycle.

Most respondents stated that the introduction of alphabets is important for young children. They chose uppercase or capital letters to be used in the game. A majority of the respondents answered that the order of writing alphabets is important. These respondents agreed that educational games are a means for children to learn alphabets, as well as learn to write and pronounce alphabets. The application can also provide writing exercises to train childrens’ memory. The usual difficulties parents’ stated were that the children feel tired and are not in the mood to learn, have poor concentration, have difficulty in responding and seem to be disinclined to learn. Most of the parents mentioned that the critical points in children’s applications were the design of the educational application and completeness as a whole.

The paper reports the development of game’s design —- display, navigation, instruction and feedback. It can be said that the users had no difficulty in playing the game.

This study provides a new look at the late 19th-century university issue in Spain. Loss of self-government among universities and the state’s centralization brought a conflict between science and religion to the fore in the process of the secularization of knowledge.

We first delve into the anti-Darwinian framework associated with the scientific professionalization process, focusing on the case of the jurist Antonio Hernández Fajarnés (1851–1909). Secondly, we study the idea of the university that emerged from the Ateneo de Madrid, analyzing key speeches from the jurist Francisco Fernández de Henestrosa (1855–s.d.) given in 1887/88 and from the pharmacist José Rodríguez Carracido (1856–1928).

The study concludes that the Restoration Era in Spain was characterized by a generalized desire – shared by neo-Scholastics, conservatives and liberal rationalists – to improve the public university system. In this context, French influence was no doubt decisive; however, the Humboldtian university idea had already begun to have notable influence.

This article analyzes sources yet unknown to international research, such as the Ateneo de Madrid debates and Spanish university rectors’ inaugural speeches. It opens up a critical examination of the so-called displacement of educational principles in Spain toward a state-centered system of doctrinal moderantismo as opposed to the nation-centered system of the Cádiz liberalism. At the same time, it identifies key pockets of resistance relative to Spanish university transformation toward increased methodological secularization.

Enterprise social networks (ESNs) in organizations have become an increasingly important technology to support the exchange of information and knowledge. Many ESN projects fail due to insufficient engagement in the long run, leading to the high risk of sunk costs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how hedonic motivations, along with normative motivations, play an important role in determining an employee’s intention to continuously participate in ESN. Based on the Four-Drive Model and hence borrowing from behavioral economics, it is investigated how such hedonic motivations emerge in organizational ESNs.

This study is set within the context of a global enterprise of the logistics and courier industry. The authors first derived hypotheses from the Four-Drive Model to build the research model on the emergence of hedonic motivation. Then, the authors derived hypotheses from existing adoption literature regarding the impact of hedonic motivations and normative motivations on ESN use continuance. Following, a quantitative survey was conducted to test these hypotheses. In the study, structural equation modeling is applied, based on partial least squares.

The results show that the extent to which an ESN supports the drives to comprehend, acquire, bond and defend starkly influences an employee’s hedonic motivations. In addition, it is shown that hedonic motivations have a much stronger influence on use continuance than normative motivations.

Research on hedonic motivations in the work context is still underrepresented, in management science as well as information systems (IS) research. Hence, theoretical approaches to explain and predict the emergence of hedonic motivations in IS usage are missing. With the study, the authors will close this theoretical gap. The study contributes to IS research not only by evaluating the role of hedonic motivation for ESN usage, but also by providing an approach to explain key drivers behind it. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to empirically test the Four-Drive Model in a voluntary IS context, adding valuable knowledge about human behaviors in digital work environments.

This study aims to describe the treatment preference, especially in relation to traditional medicine, modern health care and a combination of both, in diarrheal cases among the Tengger ethnic minority group.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in all eight villages of Tosari District, Pasuruan Regency, East Java Province. Tengger people were major resident in the area for generations. Convenience sampling and a face-validated structured questionnaire were used to recruit and face-to-face interview 377 Tengger people.

The study found that modern health care was the dominant preference (52%, n = 196) selected by Tengger people when they have an episode of diarrhea, compared to traditional medicines and mixed approach. Most respondents opted to visit one facility or to stay at home (64.3%, n = 242). Statistical significant relationships were found between treatment choice and age (p < 0.001), sex (p < 0.001), religion (p = 0.011), distance (p < 0.001), educational background (p < 0.001) and job (p < 0.001). A clear pattern between treatment choice and age was revealed with younger groups tended to choose modern health care, while older groups more preferred the traditional approach.

This work could provide an insight that when the young Tengger people are having uncomplicated and common health illness, such as diarrhea, they tend to use modern treatment approach.

This study fulfilled an identified need to explore the trend of treatment approach across generations in the Tengger society as a model of the minor ethnic group in Indonesia.

At the end of World War II the destruction of German libraries and the political division of the former Reich led in the Federal Republic (BRD) to a planned development of research collections and of collection‐based bibliographic tools highly relevant to the present‐day Anglo‐American debate on so‐called holdings and access policies. Unhappily, the authors argue, current financial constraints in the Bundesrepublik after weakening the thrust of acquisitions work now pose a threat to the access tools themselves.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the nature of graduate training experiences in research groups and to identify factors that may lead to increased student retention and success.

Surveys administered at four US universities resulted in quantitative responses from 130 Master’s and 702 doctoral engineering students participating in graduate research groups. Missing data were imputed, and responses were weighted by gender, discipline, degree program and nationality. Exploratory factor analysis identified four factors describing research group experiences. Regression models were built for two outcomes: satisfaction with research group experience and intention to complete degree. Control variables included gender, discipline, degree program, nationality, year in program and institution.

Fifty-five per cent of the variance in satisfaction was described by a model including agency, support, international diversity and group climate. Sixty-five per cent of variance in intent to complete was described by a model comprising international diversity, agency and support. Several control variables were significant.

Agency and support in particular were the most influential predictors of both satisfaction and intention, suggesting that future efforts should emphasize stable funding, clear expectations, access to mentors and agency-building experiences to help students take an active role in their own success.

Saint Antonino was an early economist and social scientist who addressed the need to design theories of production, value and distribution, in part becuase he saw the interconnectedness of individual elements. The system he discussed is more general than narrowly economic, embracing as it does meta‐history, God and men. His views are notable for their generality, their optimism in the dark pages of history, and the simple notion that all good will comes from pursuing a way to Christian polity.

Officially, of course, the world is now post-imperial. The Q’ing and Ottoman empires fell on the eve of World War I, and the last Leviathans of Europe's imperial past, the Austro-Hungarian and Tsarist empires, lumbered into the grave soon after. Tocsins of liberation were sounded on all sides, in the name of democracy (Wilson) and socialism (Lenin). Later attempts to remake and proclaim empires – above all, Hitler's annunciation of a “Third Reich” – now seem surreal, aberrant, and dystopian. The Soviet Union, the heir to the Tsarist empire, found it prudent to call itself a “federation of socialist republics.” Mao's China followed suit. Now, only a truly perverse, contrarian regime would fail to deploy the rhetoric of democracy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges facing the higher education system in Egypt particularly in the area of education quality. It builds upon several existing studies conducted in Egypt to make the case for improving education outcomes while analyzing the social, political, and economic ramifications of the current higher education system.

Samples were drawn from existing studies conducted in Egypt by experts in the education field.

Results suggest that the higher education admissions process should become more competitive thereby limiting the number of enrollments. More resources should be devoted towards higher education with a particular emphasis on workforce development and Egypt should seek the help of donor agencies and experts to advise and reform the system.

The findings were based on existing literature and were not conducted in Egypt which somewhat limited qualitative analysis.

A contribution is made to the literature as the research reinforces the view that the lack of quality in the higher education system fails to prepare graduates to the workforce and impacts on the social stability of Egypt. By questioning aspects of the current higher education system and calling for more freedom of research and expression, the research raises interesting questions about the impact of closed societies on education systems.