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1
9-10 October 2019
Business & Advanced Technology Centre (BATC),
UTM Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
e-Proceedings
Editors
Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd Rani
Mohammad Hussaini Wahab
Khairul Zahreen Mohd Arof
Nurul Azreen Ahmad
Rohayah Che Amat
Basyarah Hamat
Syuhaida Ismail
e-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference
(CuC 2019)
October 9-10, 2019, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur,
Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra,
54100 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
Published by:
Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra,
54100 Kuala Lumpur,
Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Copyright © 2019 by Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, UTM.
eISBN: 978-967-16755-2-6
Printed in Malaysia.
1
e-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference
(CuC 2019)
October 9-10, 2019, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Conference Chair
Beat Hulliger
Programme Chair
Mohamad Syazli Fathi
Teresa Freiburghaus
Head of Publication
Syuhaida Ismail
Scientific Committee
Mathias Binswanger
Anya Nikoulina
Raoul Waldburger
Rainer Schnaidt
Tita Evasco-Branzuela
Le Nhat Hanh
Editors
Wan Nurul Mardiah Wan Mohd Rani
Mohammad Hussaini Wahab
Khairul Zahreen Mohd Arof
Nurul Azreen Ahmad
Rohayah Che Amat
Basyarah Hamat
Syuhaida Ismail
2
Table of Contents
No
Contents
Page
1
A Bibliometric Analysis of Human Resource Management in Higher Education Research
1
2
Skills for Business Analytics and Academic Curricula
5
3
On the Use of Virtual Reality-Based Engineering Education
9
4
Behaviourism Theory: Application into Structure of Atoms Via the Use of
Educational Robotics (ER)
13
5
Overview of Malaysia E-Government Online Services Through Benchmarking
Approach
19
6
Artificial Neural Network for Predicting Oil Pipeline Condition
25
7
The Transformation of Construction Processes Through Building Information
Modeling- Based Contractual Approach for Design-Build Construction Projects
29
8
Digital Transformation - Corporate Social Responsibility of Food Safety in
Vietnam
32
9
Digital Transformation for Affordable Housing Development in Malaysia
35
10
Digital Transformation and Employment: Where Will New Jobs Be Created?
39
11
Cultural Transformation Through Digital Media: Reception Analysis Against
Violence and Sexuality on Sasusaku Fanfiction
43
12
The Evaluation on The Ability to Achieve Efficiency: A Case
Analysis of Freight Forwarding Firms in Vietnam
48
13
Social Media Marketing: Creative Strategies, Contents and Customer
Engagement in Vietnam
53
14
Teacher Training and Development in The United States – Reality in Vietnam
58
15
Virtual Retailing Environments: Presence, Value Experience, and Decision-
Making Evaluation
66
16
Factors Influencing the Decision of Applying to The High-Tech Transportation
Companies: The Case of Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam
70
17
Value Co-Creation Experiences and Customer Satisfaction in E-Retailing
Sectors: The Mediating Role of Participation Behaviors
74
18
Students’ Awareness of Cybercrimes in Viet Nam Banking Sector: The
Evidence by SEM Analysis
78
19
Determinants of Online Engagement: The Case of Facebook Travel Fan Pages
in Vietnam
82
20
World of Digitalization from The Perspective of Intellectual Property Rights
(IPRs) Policies in Malaysia
87
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
1
A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER
EDUCATION RESEARCH
Phan Tan Luc1, Dong Phong Nguyen2, Nhat Hanh Le3*
1 Thu Dau Mot University
2 ,3 University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Email: 1 hanhln@ueh.edu.vn
Abstract
Higher education institutions (HEIs) play an increasingly important role in the social and economic development of any
society. Being known as knowledge-based organizations, HEIs strongly focus on the quality of teaching and doing research to
generate knowledge to the society. Thus, the quality of human resource is considered the most powerful asset for the success
of HEIs and the human resource management (HRM) should get much more attention from both academics and policy makers.
This article aims at systematically synthesizing the conceptual themes and the evolution HRM research in HEIs from 1966 –
2019. By using the bibliometric method to analyze 352 related publications from Scopus database, the co-word analysis of
thematic networks reveals that research on HRM in HEIs tends to be related to student and teaching systems, decision-making
systems, information management, societies and institutions, and sustainable development. The in-depth scrutiny of these
themes also provides fruitful directions for future research regarding HRM in HEIs.
Keywords: human resource management; higher education; bibliometric; co-word analysis.
1. INTRODUCTION
Higher education is a tool to improve social life of a nation. A human characteristic is one of the factors affecting the quality
of a civilization and the role of education, especially higher education, is to improve these characteristics (Teir and Zhang,
2016). The role of higher education is increasing under the challenge of globalization, technological development, and
competition. Therefore, quality assurance in higher education is getting more and more attention from the academic
community. The quality of human resources is believed to be the foundation for the success of any educational institution.
HRM is considered the most powerful asset that an institution has to fit in competitive environment because human resource
management transforms the organizational strategic goals into human resource policies and creates human resource strategies
that could achieve a better competitive advantage. In the past three decades, strategic human resource management research
(SHRM) is increasingly focused on the performance of human resource systems rather than HR practices because the effects
of HRM practices are most dependent on other practices within the system (Boon et al., 2019). Unlike other forms of business,
universities as knowledge-based organizations strongly focus on the quality of teaching and research, which depends heavily
on the quality of HRM system. Although specific HRM systems have been established and developed in the last decade in in
various areas (Lepak et al., 2006), research on HRM systems in education is still limited (Boon et al., 2019). Because of the
difference of higher education, the issues that HRM systems approach at universities will also be different from traditional
businesses. This study focuses on understanding the issues that HRM system is addressing at universities and future
development of HRM system in HE. Co-word analysis is used to portrait the evolution HRM system research in HE because
it helps us explore research themes, current research interests, conceptual structure and the evolution of HRM system in HE.
The results will provide a better understanding of the research topic including major research streams, thematic evolution and
future lines of research. Specifically, this study identifies the following objectives: a) to use co-word analysis to review
publications on HRM in HE in Scopus database; b) to identify the conceptual structure of HRM in HE research and research
steam; and c) to predict the direction of future research. This paper is divided into five sections. Following the introduction,
section one introduces the literature of HRM in higher education and co-word analysis. Section two describes the process of
data collection and methods. Section three focuses on descriptive statistics HRM research in HE and co-word analysis results.
1
2
Section four focuses on discussion and indicates future lines of research. Finally, section five provides the main conclusions,
identifies some limitations.
2. METHODOLOGY
The term ‘bibliometrics’ is defined as the application of mathematical and statistical methods to books and the other means of
communication. Bibliometric allows researchers to analyze literature of research topic to explore the conceptual structure and
the evolution in research themes through different methods, such as co-citation analysis, co-word analysis, bibliographic
coupling and co-authorship analysis (Leung et al., 2017). This study uses a co-word analysis to review published documents
about HRM in higher education. Co-word analysis is a content analysis technique based on mapping the strength of links
between items in text data (de la Hoz-Correa et al., 2018). Co-word analysis is based on the frequency of occurrence of two
keywords in an article (Whittaker, 1989). The more keywords appear together, the greater the strength between them. Co-word
analysis explores a list of the most important keywords and the interaction between keywords in the research topic (Börner et
al., 2003). Bibliometric map is used to visualize the research themes and detect future trends (Cobo et al., 2011).
3. RESULTS
This paper findings reveal that “Human resource management” (258) is the most common keywords. The top ten keywords
with high frequency of occurrence are societies and institutions (59), students (56), information management (46), teaching
(45), engineering education (31), knowledge management (21), curricula (21), information systems (18), project management
(18), innovation (16), decision-making (16), sustainable development (15), research (14), education computing (14), human
resources (14), resource allocation (14), e-learning (13), management science (12), motivation (12), natural resources
management (12), information technology (11), research and development management (10), personnel management (10).
Based on the criteria of the keyword and the article title, this study conducted quantitative content analysis to calculate the
occurrence or number of joint recurrences of two words. To design a visual representation of keywords, the minimum
frequency of each keyword is set to ten. The software used to extract the network graphs was VOSview (Waltman, 2017). In
addition, to better understand the structure of conceptual sub domains of HRM in higher education, the analysis extracted five
thematic clusters (see Fig. 1 and Table 1). The size of the bubble indicates the frequency of the keyword, while the thickness
of the line indicates the strength of the co-occurrence of keywords. The link and the distance between two keywords identify
their relationship. The colour of the bubble indicates the group in which the keyword is linked and the groups were named
based on the majority of keywords belonging to them.
Cluster 1. Studies regarding HRM system and societies and institutions
This cluster comprises papers regarding combining HRM system and various systems in universities like knowledge
management, information system. In addition, there are studies related to societies and institutions in this cluster.
Cluster 2. Studies regarding teaching and the field of application of HRM in education
Studies in this group mainly focus on supporting students in various issues such as course advising system, scholarships
eligibility checking, e-learning management systems, curricula design systems, and evaluation of the university curriculum.
This cluster also includes themes relating to industry that focus on developing applications for human resource management
at universities such as education computing, engineering education.
Fig 1: The thematic network of HRM research in higher education
3
Cluster 3. Studies on issues related to performance and motivation
Papers included in cluster this mostly relate to the relationship between HRM and performance such as universities
performance, research performance, financial performance, natural resources management, resource allocation, organizational
commitment. Papers on motivation are also included as they reveal the importance of HRM systems in universities such as
monthly estimation of personnel activity, e-course or research on motivation of lecturers.
Table 1. Groups resulting from cluster analysis of the co-word analysis on HRM research in higher education
Cluster
Keywords
Cluster 1
Information management; information systems; information technology; knowledge management;
management science; research and development management; societies and institutions
Cluster 2
Curricula; e-learning; education computing; engineering education; students teaching
Cluster 3
Human resources; mottivation; natural resources managemnt; resource allocation
Cluster 4
Innovation; project management; sustainable development
Cluaster 5
Decision making; personnel management
Cluster 4. Studies on innovation and sustainable development in universities
This cluster comprises a group of papers linking project management with innovation and sustainable development in
universities such as university-industry linkages and knowledge creation in eastern and southern Africa, innovative six course
in engineering design instruction, sustainability in Swedish university and innovation strategy in China universities.
Cluster 5. Studies on decision-making and personnel management
Works included in this cluster explore the decision-making process and decision-making support system of administrators in
various HRM issues. In addition, the studies also focused on issues in the personnel management in such as career mobility,
compensation, job security, job satisfaction, work environment, human relation, job stress, occupational health.
4. CONCLUSION
This analysis provides a guide to researchers by improving the understanding of the conceptual structure of HRM in higher
education research from academic literature and predicting the direction of future research by co-word analysis. This is the
first study using co-word analysis to explore this research topic. On the basis of the papers included in Scopus database, authors
can assert that research on HRM research in higher education first appeared in 1966. This research topic has broadened its
focus since 1966. In this period, HRM in higher education research has witnessed an upward trend because of the emergence
of many publications.
Thematic networks reveal that research on HRM in HE tends to be related to student and teaching system, and decision-making
system, information management, societies and institutions, sustainable development. This implies that the HRM research in
HE focusses on solving problems for students with the help of technology. In addition, HRM in higher education also faces
many opportunities and challenges from issues of societies, institutions and globalization. Sustainable development and
decision-making in university can become attractive topics in the future. From the six clusters of thematic networks extracted,
clusters 2 shows an important development on the next years due to their recent discussion and interest of the academic
community while cluster 5 has a lot of potential to become a major research stream in the future. However, there are some
limitations due to the biases involved in an analysis of this type. Firstly, the definition of the clusters as the conceptual structure
of HRM in higher education research might be biased because it depends on the author’s judgment. Secondly, research results
may not cover all studies of HRM in HE because of the limitations of keywords in documents. Finally, due to the limitations
of co-word analysis, other methods need to be combined such as bibliographic coupling, co-citation analysis, citation analysis.
REFERENCES
Boon, C., Den Hartog, D. N., & Lepak, D. P., “A Systematic Review of Human Resource Management Systems and Their
Measurement”, Journal of management, (2019), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0149206318818718.
Börner, K., Chen, C., & Boyack, K. W., “Visualizing knowledge domains”, Annual review of information science and
technology, Vol. 37, No 1, (2003), pp: 179-255.
Cobo, M. J., López-Herrera, A. G., Herrera-Viedma, E., & Herrera, F., “An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing
the evolution of a research field: A practical application to the fuzzy sets theory field”, Journal of informetrics, Vol. 5, No.
1, (2011), pp: 146-166. de la Hoz-Correa, A., Muñoz-Leiva, F., & Bakucz, M., “Past themes and future trends in medical
tourism research: A co-word analysis”, Tourism management, Vol. 65, (2018), pp: 200-211.
Lepak, D. P., Liao, H., Chung, Y., & Harden, E. E., “A conceptual review of human resource management systems
in strategic human resource management research”, Research in personnel and human resources management, Emerald Group
Publishing Limited, (2006), pp: 217-271.
Leung, X. Y., Sun, J., & Bai, B., “Bibliometrics of social media research: A co-citation and co-word analysis”, International
journal of hospitality management, Vol. 66, (2017), pp: 35-45.
4
Teir, R., & Zhang, R.-Q., “The current practices of human resource management in higher education institutions in Palestine,
Journal of human resources management and labor studies, Vol. 4, No. 1, (2016), pp: 65-83.
Waltman, L., “Citation-based clustering of publications using CitNetExplorer and VOSviewer”, Scientometrics, Vol. 111, No.
2, (2017), pp: 1053-1070.
Whittaker, J., “Creativity and conformity in science: Titles, keywords and co-word analysis”, Social studies of Science, Vol.
19, No. 3, (1989), pp: 473-496.
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
5
SKILLS FOR BUSINESS ANALYTICS AND ACADEMIC CURRICULA
Beat Hulliger1
1 FHNW School of Business, Switzerland
E-mail: 1beat.hulliger@fhnw.ch
Abstract
On the one hand digital transformation is relying on much more data and insights based on this data than ever before. On the
other hand, digital transformation is needed to produce this data and to make it productive. The link between the data and its
use must be provided by Business Analytics or Business Intelligence. This task needs new skills and abilities and even a new
culture. The paper discusses skills and abilities needed for different actors in Business Analytics, and the implication for an
undergraduate academic curriculum.
Keywords: analytics; data savvy manager; statistician.
1. INTRODUCTION
The huge demand for "data-savvy managers" and data scientists (Manyika et al., 2011) is a challenge for businesses and for
business schools. The reason for this huge demand is seen by many in the Big Data availability through todays massive data
collection efforts (Chiang et al., 2014; Manyika et al., 2011). However, the pure fact of massive data is not a sufficient reason
for the demand. Massive data does not mean massive information. The main reason for the huge demand is that businesses
must be competitive in a global market and information, not data on itself, is paramount to succeed. Information needs, not
only data, is the driver for the increasing demand! Often it is not even Big Data but just normal, structured data, which is the
basis for actionable information. But to convert data into information it must be analysed!
A particular problem of business analytics is the naming which has been coined by different communities. While the computer
science and information system communities have put more weight on the data side, coming up with denominations like "data
science", the business communities knew already "business intelligence" and were happy to use "business analytics", too. The
natural sciences, mathematics and statistics have long been using "data analysis" for many of the activities covered by data
science. The statistics community has used "statistics" in a much more general sense than is used by most other sciences, which
often have only a narrow understanding of the term "statistics".
To fix ideas we use an abbreviation by (Chiang et al., 2014) who avoided at least the discussion about the distinction between
Business Intelligence and Business Analytics by coining the acronym BIA for Business Intelligence and Analytics.
This article explores the need for BIA skills on the background of developing the curricula of FHNW School of Business at
the undergraduate level.
2. BUSINESS DEMAND FOR ANALYTICAL SKILLS
The demand of business for analytical skills is large but also varied. And it is not concentrated on the entry generation but is
manifest on all levels including the elder work force. The main barriers for the correct use of information from data often are
not the younger generation but managers which have acquired a lot of experience but do not know how to contrast and
complement their experience with knowledge gained from data.
BIA cycle
A process model may help to understand the different skills needed for successful use of data in decision support. We use a
model which is well aligned with Demings PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle (see, e.g. Deming, 1965)with the addition of the
role of data and the importance to start with a problem, i.e. not with data (Hulliger and Bill, 2014):
2
6
Fig. 1: Business Analytics Cycle
Source: Hulliger and Bill (2014)
The steps in the cycle need to be filled with more concrete activities to see what the business demand actually is.
Problem: The problem in BIA is a business problem. Therefore, it must be aligned with the business strategy and the objectives
of the business. It needs business understanding to formulate such a problem and even to understand it fully. Often a particular
functional area knowledge is needed to capture the essence of the business problem. The business problem must be cast into
such terms that the quantitative aspect becomes clear and that it lends itself to studying with data.
Data: Collecting, procuring, organising, systematising, preparing, accessing is typically a very technically oriented set of
activities which are basic in computer science and statistics. A wide knowledge about potential data sources is needed to plan
a successful BIA-cycle. Getting the right data and understanding the potential and limitations of data well is key for the quality
of the final information gained. The collection of data has always been a topic in statistics (surveys, experiments, observations,
quality control) and now is also a topic of informatics (sensors, transaction data, customer data bases). What in computer
science is often called Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) may be called data preparation, merging, editing and imputation in
statistics. The essence is that data almost never is in the shape and in the quality that it can be used directly. It must be brought
into a form and quality that is suitable for the analysis tasks. Sometimes it may be standardised to be held in a data warehouse
but often the analysis data must be reconstructed from raw data or new data must be collected or acquired.
Analysis: Analysing the data through visualisation, exploration, modeling, association, in short by the full tool kit of BIA is
the core of activities where most statistical and mathematical skills are needed. Without good skills in analysis tools like R,
SAS, SPSS, in methods and in data analysis strategy this is a daunting task. Novices drown in the infinite number of tools and
pathways and in the myriad of decisions to take along the paths. They typically underestimate the importance of keeping track
of decisions and documentation. After all the results of the analysis must be reproducible to be able to discuss, correct, re-
execute them. Often interactive software like Microsoft Excel does not provide this functionality. The distinction into
descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics (Manyika et al. 2011) may be of some help but can also disguise the true
nature of the activities. For example, it is not only the purpose of descriptive statistics to critically asses what has occurred but
also to explain which factors influenced an outcome and to what extent including a quantification of the uncertainty. Thus an
important component of the analysis phase is to deal and clarify variability and uncertainty.
Decision: In order to make a decision based on the evidence of the analysis a proposal and alternative must be formulated.
Often it is this formulation and hence the translation of the analysis into actions where the BIA process fails. The reasons are
many, like lack of understanding of the limits and/or the quality of the analysis, lack of understanding the implications of
variability and uncertainty, lack of capability to transfer the analysis results into the business context, lack of sufficient
quantification of the consequences of actions. It becomes obvious that this crucial step needs a thorough understanding of the
analysis, of the data and of the business to lead to successful actions. The implementation of a particular decision is a part of
the decision phase. But often the actual implementation of a BIA decision is not in the hand of the team that followed the BIA
process cycle and communication is essential then. It is often due to the implementation that a good decision has undesired
effects. To detect and remedy this the evaluation phase is necessary.
Evaluation: The evaluation needs understanding of the full cycle of problem definition and planning, of data acquisition and
treatment, of analysis, results, decisions and implementation. Only then the crucial question can be answered whether the
initial problem is actually solved, whether at least the actions lead closer to a solution, or whether the exercise was a failure.
Evaluation usually leads to a new problem formulation and is thus the beginning of a new cycle of BIA.
Problem
Data
AnalysisDecision
Evalua-
tion
7
A map of skills for BIA
The skills needed for the full BIA cycle are to be characterised by the actors involved. The distinction into business, analytics,
and informatics function similar to (Wilder and Ozgur, 2015) is helpful because usually BIA problems must be tackled in
teams with different functions. A data scientist may be able to integrate these three functions into his/her skill set. However,
is seems more realistic to assume that one person will fulfil one function or, maybe, two functions. Table 1 shows the three
functions Business, Analytics, Informatics and shows what types of skills at what level are needed for the function.
Table 1 also shows which of the skills/competences would be important to a major in BIA for undergraduate students of
Business Administration (BA) or Business Information Technology (BIT). It turns out that the weights may be a bit more on
the technical side for BIT than for BA and more on the management side for BA than for BIT students. However, the analytical
skills and the culture skills are equally important for both.
Basic statistics must be further exemplified to make the scope clear. It contains the important concepts of random variables as
mathematical formulation for the mechanisms that are of interest for business problems. The formulation and quantification
of the uncertainty within a model, a random variable etc. and outside the model (modeling and prediction uncertainty) must
be clarified. It is important to embed the classical concepts of confidence intervals and testing into this wider field of capturing
the true quality of the information gained from data.
3. CONCLUSION
A major in Business Intelligence and Business Analytics is a must for a business school to cope with the demand of the
businesses and to keep track of the needs of doing business. The major may have a more technical orientation in BIT and may
be called Business Intelligence and a more managerial orientation in BA and may be called Business Analytics. The largest
lack in present curricula can be seen in the lack of overall practical training going beyond the basic statistical concepts of
undergraduate studies. This means that using pocket calculators with toy examples to teach visualisation should be replaced
by professional statistical software and real data. In addition, the methods-based course design should be replaced by a case-
based design for problem solving along the BIA-cycle.
Table 1: A characterisation of skills according to job profile
Area
Skill/Competence
Business
Analytics
Informatics
BScBA
BScBIT
Business
Functional Area
3
2
1
3
2
Management
3
2
2
3
2
Strategy
3
1
1
3
2
Culture
Communication
3
3
3
3
3
Project
management
2
2
2
2
2
Documentation
1
3
3
3
3
Informatics
Programming
1
2
3
2
3
Data bases
1
2
3
2
3
ETL
1
3
3
3
3
Storage
1
1
3
2
3
Interfaces
1
2
3
2
3
Analytics
Analytics software
1
3
2
3
2
Basic statistics
3
3
3
3
3
Data preparation
1
3
2
3
3
Visualisation
2
3
1
3
3
Modeling
1
3
1
3
3
Prediction
1
3
1
3
3
Association
1
3
1
3
3
Simulation
1
3
2
3
3
8
Optimisation
1
3
1
3
3
Risk
2
3
1
3
3
**Level of skill needed: 1 low level, 2 middle level, 3 high level
REFERENCES
Chiang, Roger H. L., Paulo Goes, and Edward A. Stohr. (2014). “Business Intelligence and Analytics Education, and Program
Development.” ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems 3 (3): 1–13.
https://doi.org/10.1145/2361256.2361257.
Deming, W Edwards. (1965). “Principles of Professional Statistical Practice.” The Annals of Mathematical Statistics 36 (6):
1883–1900. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2239137.
Hulliger, B, and M Bill. (2014). “Business Analytics: Nutzen Sie Ihre Daten Für Bessere Entscheidungen!” Wirtschaftsforum
Olten . http://web.fhnw.ch/plattformen/wirtschaftsforum/workshopunterlagen/business-analytics-b-
hulliger%5Cnhttp://business-analytics-b-hulliger.pdf.
Manyika, J, M Chui Brown, Bughin B. J., R Dobbs, C Roxburgh, and A Hung Byers. (2011). “Big Data: The next Frontier for
Innovation, Competition and Productivity.” McKinsey Global Institute, no. June: 156.
https://bigdatawg.nist.gov/pdf/MGI_big_data_full_report.pdf.
Wilder, Coleen R., and Ceyhun O. Ozgur. (2015). “Business Analytics Curriculum for Undergraduate Majors.” INFORMS
Transactions on Education 15 (2): 180–87. https://doi.org/10.1287/ited.2014.0134.
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
9
ON THE USE OF VIRTUAL REALITY-BASED ENGINEERING EDUCATION
Shomitro Kumar Ghosh1, Md. Toheen Bhuyian2, Raihan Chowdhury3 and Md. Ismail Jabiullah4
1,2,3,4 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
E-mail: 1skg.bishal@gmail.com
Abstract
Uses of virtual reality are very much increasing day-by-day in the era of science and technology. Many areas of engineering
education, training, demonstration, researches and higher education using virtual reality offers more innovative and
challenging opportunities. The cost of engineering education is always very high. In this area, learner improves their skills and
knowledge by using the different tools, techniques and processes and reduces the cost. After improving software and hardware,
tools and instruments by virtual reality the engineering education are now in easier, sophisticated way, attractive and cheaper.
Here, more difficult problems like as 3D digital technologies, medical training, and military training etc. in engineering
education are presented and analysed by using the implementation of virtual reality, so that the learner's get educational benefits
by using virtual reality technics.
Keywords: virtual reality; engineering education; training; researches; 3D digital technologies.
1. INTRODUCTION
Virtual Reality (VR) is an impetuous development of technology leading to amazing change in human life. This VR technology
deliver us new educational thinking and deal with difficult problems. Computerized systems provide wide variety of learning
approaches such as multimedia presentations, teaching tools, realistic simulations of situations, complex question-and-answer
sessions so that students can be benefitted. Besides, some of the approaches are quite costly and hazardous to bring in the
classroom in reality. As a result, the usage of computers is increasing more and more as it provides better education. So, VR
technologies are now developing widely and new methods are continually emerging.
The Virtual Reality engineering lab teaching system has a complete engineering method. The lab operator handles the
engineering method of the classroom of different virtual environments through the controlled device. The user can experience
and notice different elements at a closer range.
Students can know the better of all engineering experiments, although immersive learning, learners better immersed in their
own, feel the presence of learning and fun. During the observation process, the lab operator can also be in the hands of the
controller for the required observation of the engineering method to observe the beginning of the lab operator can be the best
visual point of observation and learning, this is completely beyond the reach of traditional teaching methods and effects clearly.
Each method with a voice introduction, the operator in the process of operation effects due to the impact of voice through
immerse learning. In subtle natural learning and objectives, this part behaves as a traditional learning. Finally, by using the
VR technology, engineering methods can easily be understood to all the learners. So, teachers not only can guide students to
learn, but also can explain other students synchronously though the display screen using in the VR environment. Most of the
engineering sectors using this classroom like as Computer engineering, Chemical engineering, Civil engineering, Mechanical
engineering, Architecture engineering, etc.
In this paper, an engineering educational class is designed and developed with the VR equipment for some students and
implemented for taking the class in VR environments. In the class, students wire the VR devices and feel the thrills of using
the VR class room, gather the engineering knowledge more effectively and with better understanding and realization of the
engineering knowhow.
3
10
2. REVIEW WORKS
Virtual Reality (VR) are of two types based on the level of interaction and immersive environment and they are immersive
virtual environment and non-immersive virtual environment. In immersive virtual environment, environments are presented
on multiple, room-size screen i.e., through a stereoscopic, head mounted display unit. On the other hand, non-immersive virtual
environment, computer simulation is represented on as the conventional personal computer and usually explored by keyboard,
mouse, joystick, or touch screen [1-6]. Special hardware equipment such as gloves, suits and high-end computer system might
be needed in immersive VR environment. VR computer simulation has been defined as a highly interactive, 3-D computer
generated program in multimedia environment which provides the effect of immersion to the users [6]. Users are able to
become a participant concrete spaces which is a computer-generated version of real-world objects or processes. These
simulations could take many forms, ranging from computer rendering of 3-D geometric shape of highly interactive,
computerized laboratory experiments [6]. There are 5 identified key properties of good VR learning experience are presented
here, so that one can easily apply the appropriate Virtual Reality application for one’s targeted field.
Virtual Reality experiences in education should have following properties:
• Immersive: Designers should strive to create the feeling that users are in an experience. For example, if one develops a
medical app, make organs or bones come realistic for medical students.
• Easy to use: Reduce the need to have special skills to interact with a VR app.
• Meaningful: The VR experience must be made meaningful to students so that they can grasp the concept or idea. It
would be a very good idea if the VR learning is delivered through a story. Stories quite simply provide better
understanding of something.
• Adaptable: VR realization should allow students to explore at their own pace. The app should provide complete control
over the level of difficulty. Designers should establish how students learn and then use this knowledge to design VR
products that allow effective learning.
• Measurable: Each education tool should provide measured influence. Teacher should be able to track the metrics of
education so they can measure the resulting knowledge of a subject. When designing VR experiences, it’s essential to
choose appropriate metrics and make it clear what criterion will be used to measure success and failure.
The aim of this work is to enhance student learning more effectively and the more engagement of the students in the class. In
this process, the delivered educational content transforms more properly by allowing the users to interact with it.
3. VIRTUAL REALITY BASED EDUCATION
Virtual Reality (VR) is a new concept where immerging people watching the display in 3D digital environment with great
thrilling. One can interact with the display and receiving information by virtue of computer-generated images and contents
with animation. In this environment, one can feel the senses by using the sight, hearing, touch, etc. and achieve realization that
is close to the real environment though it is an artificially developed and arranged environment. Virtual reality environment
can be build up by using a digital 3D computer equipment and VR display equipment instead of the normal display. A
simulation process for the virtual environment requires two main components and they are headsets, all-direction treadmills,
special gloves, goggles, etc. These VR tools provides natural, high-quality images, more realistic and more interactive.
Accuracy and better performance of these devices depend on image resolution, field of views, refresh rate, motion display,
pixel persistence and audio/video synchronization. To accomplish them, they need headset, a computer smartphone, or another
machine to create a digital VR environment and a motion tracking device in many cases. A headset display content before a
user’s eyes, while a cable (HDMI) transfers images to the screen from a computer. The other option is headsets working with
smart phone, such as Google Cardboard and GearVR that is a phone act as a display and a source of VR contents. Some
vendors apply lenses to change flat image into three- dimensional. Usually, a 100/110- degree field of sight is achieved with
VR devices. The next key is the frame rate per second, which should be 60fps at a minimum to make virtual simulations look
realistically enough.
For user interaction there are several options:
Head tracking
Head tracking system in VR headsets follow the movements of your head to side and angles. It assigns X, Y, Z, axis to
directions and movements, and involves tools like accelerometer, gyroscope, a circle of LEDs (around the headset to enable
the outside camera). Head tracking requires low latency, i.e. 50 milliseconds or less, otherwise, users will notice the lag
between head movement and a simulation.
Eye tracking
Some headsets contain an infrared controller which tracks the decision of your eye inside a virtual environment. The major
benefit of this technology is to get a more realistic and deeper field of view.
Motion tracking
Though not engineering and implemented well enough yet, motion tracking raise VR to a totally new level. The thing is, that
without motion tracking you’d be limited in VR-unable to look around and move around. Through concepts of the 6DoF (six
degrees of freedom) and 3D space, options to support motion tracking fall into 2 group, optical; and non-optical tracking is
11
typically a camera on a headset to follow the movements, while non –optical means the use of other sensors on a device or a
body. Most of existing devices actually combine both options.
4. IMPLEMENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Implemented in the classroom
There are some methods for implementing the Virtual Reality (VR) and they are: Simulation-based VR, Project-based VR,
Desktop-based VR, Head mounted display VR, Avatar Image-based VR, etc. The proposed system is based on the combination
of Simulation-based VR and Head mounted display VR. To implement the virtual reality enabled class room environment 2
GB RAM, VR headset, Screen display at least 5.0 inches, Android 5.0 higher (For iPhone iOS 8 or higher), VR app- Cardboard
or VeeR, Quality Headphones for Immersive Experience. VR technology has been implemented in a class room in the
Computer Science and Engineering Department of the Faculty of Science and Information Technology of the Daffodil
International University (DIU), Bangladesh as a test case. For that a VR device is installed and set to the students of the class.
The students have enjoyed the environment and also filled thrill in the class. Without the VR device the class has been
performed and enjoyed for some engineering topics on a class of students. And also the class with the VR devices in the same
set of students and the same topic has been taken and measured. The engineering class with using the VR devices is found
better. The implemented class environment with using the VR devices are depicted in the Fig. 1, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.
Fig. 1: Students wired the VR device Fig. 2: Students feel the VR class device
Fig. 3: VR setup class room
Data analysis
The proposed system has been implemented in a class room of the Daffodil International University which has 23 students
with the VR equipment. Students using in this class are found very much excited for learning the matters and all of them are
found very happy. Among all the students a combination of the two methods are working with the proposed method and the
comparative output is presented in the following table (Table 1).
Table 1: Comparative output
Methods/Characteristics
Positional
Tracking
Audio
Input/Output
Real World
Environment
Head Mounted VR
√
√
√
Simulation-based VR
√
x
√
Proposed Method
√
√
√
5. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Some identified advantages and disadvantages are presented below.
Advantages
Applications of Virtual Reality has some advantages. The identified advantages of Virtual Reality applications are presented
below.
• Increase knowledge area
• Active experience rather than just passive
• Helps to understand complex concepts, subjects or theories
12
• No any distractions while the study
• Boosts student’s creativity
• Creating interest
• Improves educational value
• Expands learner’s efficiency to gain knowledge
• Outstanding visualization
Disadvantages
There are also some disadvantages for the applications of Virtual Reality. The identified disadvantages of Virtual reality
applications are given below.
• Lacks flexibility
• Ineffective human connections
• Getting addicted
6. CONCLUSIONS
A virtual reality based class room has been designed and developed for a group of students for Department of computer science
and engineering department in the Daffodil International University and has been implemented for an engineering class. It is
found as the doorstep of engineering education system that will change the classroom as the technologically advanced place
of learning. It is realized that by using VR technology a significantly increasing student’s engagement is found in learning
system. This can be applied for all engineering education system where it be needed and will be appropriated.
REFERENCES
Polina Häfner, Victor Häfner, Jivka Ovtcharova, “Teaching Methodology for Virtual Reality Practical Course in Engineering
Education”, Procedia Computer Science, Vol.25, (2013), pp:251-260.
Abdul-Hadi Ghazi Abulrub, Alex Attridge, Mark A Williams, “Virtual Reality in Engineering Education: The Future of Creative
Learning”, International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, Vol.6, No.4, (2011), pp:4-11.
A.Z. Sampaio, P.G. Henriques , O.P. Martins, “Virtual Reality Technology Used in Civil Engineering Education”, The Open
Virtual Reality Journal, Vol.2, (2010), pp:18-25.
Balamuralithara Balakrishnan, Peter Woods, “Virtual Laboratories in Engineering Education: The Simulation Lab and Remote
Lab”, Computer Applications in Engineering Education, Vol.17, No.1, (2009), pp:108-118.
Majid Hashemipour, Hamed Farahani Manesh, Mert Bal, “A modular virtual reality system for engineering laboratory
education”, Computer Applications in Engineering Education, Vol.19, No.2, (2011), pp:305-314.
Elinda Ai-Lim Lee and Kok Wai Wong, “A review of using virtual reality for learning”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science
(including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), (2008), pp:231-241.
Wei-Kai Liou and Chun-Yen Chang, “Virtual reality classroom applied to science education”, 2018 23rd International
Scientific-Professional Conference on Information Technology, (IT), (2018), pp:1-4.
Zhao Guoliang and Meng Caiping, “The research on virtual reality applied for digitalize education of mining engineer
speciality”, ICETC 2010 - 2010 2nd International Conference on Education Technology and Computer, Vol.2, (2010), pp:
304-306.
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
13
BEHAVIOURISM THEORY: APPLICATION INTO STRUCTURE OF ATOMS VIA THE USE OF
EDUCATIONAL ROBOTICS (ER)
Nur Lisa Zaharin1*, Sabariah Sharif1, Muralindran Mariappan2
1,2,3,4 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
E-mail: 1skg.bishal@gmail.com
Abstract
Uses of virtual reality are very much increasing day-by-day in the era of science and technology. Many areas of engineering
education, training, demonstration, researches and higher education using virtual reality offers more innovative and
challenging opportunities. The cost of engineering education is always very high. In this area, learner improves their skills and
knowledge by using the different tools, techniques and processes and reduces the cost. After improving software and hardware,
tools and instruments by virtual reality the engineering education are now in easier, sophisticated way, attractive and cheaper.
Here, more difficult problems like as 3D digital technologies
Keywords: Educational Robotics (ER); behaviorism theory; operant conditioning; gamification; chemistry.
1. INTRODUCTION
Technology has certainly taken over many aspects in the human society. One of the aspects that has gradually evolved through
technology incorporation is the education field. This has been proven through the improvement of the classroom environment
with the use of tablet computers or any smart device that has slowly replaced the traditional text book approach (Killic, 2013).
In fact, during the last decade, the field of robotics has attracted numbers of teachers and researchers as one of constructivism
tool to be used in classrooms. Educational robotics (ER) has benefited learning in terms of the development of cognitive and
social skills from students ranged from pre-school up to higher education (Alimisis, 2013). Other than that, ER has been a tool
that is able to support learning, not only for the Science (Saad, 2018) and Mathematics (Kim and Lee, 2016) subjects, but also
for linguistic subject such as English (You et al., 2006). Nevertheless, issues such as lack of continuous development for
teachers (Barnard, 2019) are observed. In addition to this, some teachers are reluctant to learn new skills, such as programming,
as they feel that it is not relevant to their daily practice in classroom. Other concerns, such as lack of knowledge in integrating
ER into current syllabus of their studies and are also included. This is because they are lacking exposure in connecting the use
of ER with the educational learning theories of Behaviourism Theory.
Thus, this paper aims to provide clarification on the use of educational robotics (ER) and its impact based on the learning
theories of Behaviourism with a direct focus on Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory. This aim is achievable via objectives
of proposing suggestions on the activities that can be used through gamification approach via the use of ER into Chemistry
subject and examining the dynamics of Behaviourism Theory and its application into Structure of Atom chapter. This paper
starts off with a description on Behaviourism Theory are continued to ideas on how to integrate the use of ER into Structure
of Atoms chapter.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Behaviourism theory
Behaviourism theory can be described as a learning process that can be obtained its outcome based on the environmental
conditions that the learner are exposed to (Kay and Kibble, 2016). It is related to the observable aspects of the human behaviour.
Zhou and Brown (2015) highlight behaviourism theory on the changes in behaviour that resulted from the stimulus-response
relationship of the learner. It focuses on the stimuli that are given to the learner and the response given out from stimulus to
the learner itself. Besides that, this theory stated that human behaviour is learned based on the observation done on the actions
and human’s thoughts. It focuses on the learned habits and the effort on the habits are formed. Having stated that, the main
focus of this theory is the rewarded response which the learner will receive response in order for the learning process to take
into place. In the education context, this theory upholds the ‘rewards and punishment’ system in classroom by rewarding
4
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desired behaviours and punishing undesired behaviour among students. The selection of the rewards varies and its selection
are based on the students’ stimulus and response (Rumfola, 2017).
The advocates for this theory are Watson and McLeod (2017), who define ‘behaviourism’ as a subject that studies on the
behaviour of the human being based on the science of observable behaviour. It can be observed, recorded and measured and
Watson’s theory rejected the internal mental state of an individual as it cannot be observed and be subjected to any
interpretation. Watson’s view of the theory are based on Ivon Pavlov’s classical conditioning, which studies on the conditioned
stimulus and conditioned responses between sound of the bell to stimulate the salivation of a dog (McLeod, 2017). However,
the works of Watson are further explored on by Skinner (1938), who proposed Operant Conditioning, which is described as a
repetitive behaviour in individuals is due to positive reinforcements and negative reinforcements or rewards are less likely to
be repeated among individuals.
Examples in positive reinforcement is complimenting student on their good performance, meanwhile negative reinforcement
includes example such as a free homework pass for handing in all assignments. On the contrary, punishment for students has
a strong stimulus to lower down the frequency of a particular response. Through the learning theories of Behaviourism Operant
Conditioning Theory, students’ behaviour towards learning can be promoted and changed in a positive manner.
Operant Conditioning
Skiner (1938) stated that association between behaviour and its impact is done through operant condition. In this type of
condition, learning is done through rewards and punishment for an individual’s behaviour. It is based on Thorndike’s law of
effect which stated that response that produces a satisfying effect in any situation more likely to occur again, meanwhile
response that produces a unsatisfying effect become less likely to occur again in that situation (Burke, 2001).
Thus, in the works of Skinner, the experiment involves on conditioning experiment by using mice in a conditioned environment
called the ‘Skinner Box’. Skinner’s operant conditioning is explained further through three types of response as follows
(Mcleod, 2017):
a) Neutral operant: Responses form the environment either increase or decrease the chances of behaviour being repeated.
b) Reinforces: Responses that increases the chances of a certain behaviour to be repeated. It can either be positive or
negative.
c) Punishers: Responses from the environment that decreases the probability of a certain behaviour to repeat. This type of
conditioning can decrease the moral behaviour of an individual.
For the type of response of (b), Skinner (1938) experiments on ‘positive reinforcement’ on hungry mice in his invention of the
‘Skinner Box’. The box is described as a box with lever on the side and the when the mice move around in the box, they will
unknowingly knock the lever. The ‘accidental’ situation leads to the drop of food pellets that would drop it to a container near
to the lever attached. The drop of the food pellet will drive the mice to lean by themselves to go directly to the lever after many
trials of their presence in the box. The response from this environment will allows them to get food and this situation will
provoke them to repeat the action repetitively. Skinners’ work has impacted many researcher to explore further on the relations
between changes of human behaviour and reinforcements given in a controlled environment such as in the ‘Skinner Box’.
Meanwhile, negative reinforcement is described by Skinner (1938) by placing mice repetitively in the ‘Skinner Box’ and
electrocute them with electric current that caused them to have discomfort. This condition will ensured the mice to go in a
straight way towards the lever in order to switch off the electric current by the switching off the lever. Thus, the mice then
learned that in order to turn off the electric current, they need to go straight towards the lever without any divert.
On the other hand, McLead (2017) stated that punishment is also a part of the operant conditioning. It can be either in the form
of positive and negative punishment (Sidman, 2006). It is stated that ‘punishment’ is the opposite of reinforcement as it is able
to decrease or remove any responses. Positive punishment can be explained in lowering the behaviour probability of a certain
behaviour by inserting aversive stimulus. This type of punishment leads to the low frequency of behaviour from reoccurring.
The common positive punishment is slapping as it involves pain in order to teach a student to not misbehave. In comparison,
negative punishment can be defined as a punishment to decrease an inappropriate behaviour by removing a pleasurable
stimulus (Crosbie, 1998). One example to explain negative punishment is by removing a student in a classroom if the student
starts to misbehave. Criticism towards punishment includes its effect towards an individual’s development. It might suppress
a response but it does not remove any intentions in changing an undesirable behaviour. Examples of punishment include
spanking a student in which leads to the feeling of guilt and fear and does not exactly teach the student the correct way of
behaving. However, Gershoff (2002) supported the idea of punishment in handling discipline, especially in maintaining silence
and order especially in large classrooms. Furthermore, there are still numbers of parents who believe that punishment should
be continued as they were used to receive punishment during their school days (Cicognani, 2006).
Nevertheless, this theory has been applied into many fields, such as study done by Perotti et al. (2003) in the field of business
and e-commerce. For Perotti et al. (2003), this theory is able to differentiate between products that are able to provide
pleasurable experiences as positive reinforcement and products that are increasing uncomfortable experience as negative
reinforcement as one of the approaches in determining the behaviour of the online shoppers. From this study, the theory is able
to provide the list of product that offers a positive and negative reinforcement among consumers. Besides that, this theory is
applicable towards the hospitality industry in which employees who received feedback, whether negative or positive remarks
from their employers exhibited positive performance among employees (Hinkin and Schrinsheim, 2004).
15
Meanwhile, in the education context, McAllister et al. (1969) applied the dynamics of positive reinforcement in investigating
the effects of teacher’s praise with a statement of disapproving certain behaviour in classrooms as positive reinforcement as
one of the approaches in changing the students’ behaviour. The finding from this study demonstrated positive change towards
the students’ attitude especially in removing unwanted behaviour in classrooms. In fact, this theory is also applied as a
foundation by the study performed by Schonewille (1970) in modifying unpleasant classroom actions by implementing
punishment and positive reinforcement. The intervention proved that both intervention is found effective in lowering the
frequency of students’ unpleasant actions, however, positive reinforcement is more effective in reducing unpleasant action
involving verbal response. Although punishment is considered as one of an effective ways in controlling behaviour among
children (Parke, 2002), factors such as intensity, consistency and its impact must be put into consideration during the
implementation. On the other hand, negative reinforcement in operant conditioning was investigated through the study of
DiGennaro et al. (2005) in examining the treatment integrity among teachers from the written feedback on their performance
and negative reinforcement that they received in classroom daily. Results demonstrated that the intervention has been proven
to exhibit positive significance in terms of increasing the integrity of plans developed by the teachers.
Therefore, rewards or positive punishment can provide a platform for teachers in ensuring that each student conquers each
concepts in the chapters of Structure of Atom. This is because each concepts in the Structure of Atom is interrelated to the
subsequent chapter in the Malaysian Chemistry syllabus. Due to this notion, this learning theory is able to provide support
in the design process of integrating educational robotics (ER) into the Chemistry syllabus.
The design process included rewards and punishment for each level of the activity. A summary on the Operant Conditioning
Theory is illustrated in Figure 1.
Fig. 1: Summary of operant conditioning
Thus, dynamic of this theory is also applicable to be the foundation in designing modules to achieve the objectives of changing
of behaviour among students. Literature, such as Saad (2018), applied the similar theory dynamics into his investigation of
integrating ER into concepts of Kreb’s Cycle in Biology subject. Variables of achievement, motivation and communication
among students were investigated, where positive significance was identified. As such, this paper provides input and examples
in applying ER with fundamentals of the Operant Conditioning especially Positive Reinforcement and Negative
Reinforcement, which lie within the design of the gamified activities. Enforcement of concepts in the Structure of Atom chapter
were designed with consideration of the application of these two theory dynamics, namely Positive and Negative
Reinforcement to produce a change of behaviour among students in order to learn these two fundamental chapters in Chemistry
subject. Scratch4Arduino (S4A) programming is used in the examples in the gamified design activity. Other programming
software such as Pictoblocks are also suggested.
Integration of Educational Robotics (ER) into syllabus
Example 1: Changes in the Atomic Structure concepts
In the Atomic Structure chapter, one of the subtopics being studied in the topic is the concepts of changes in the atomic
structure. Applications in the subtopic include experiments involving naphthalene, which require students to have the
knowledge in constructing graphs in regards to the boiling and melting point of naphthalene. In order to do so, each stages of
the graphs require students to explain on the concepts of changes in the atomic structure in terms of their kinetic energy,
particle arrangement as well as the forces of attraction between the particles (Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran,
2018). In fact, one of the learning objectives in this topic requires students to plot heating and cooling curves and at the same
time determine the melting and freezing points of naphthalene (Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran, 2018).
However, it is observed that students are not interested to learn this topic as they felt that this topic is not relevant and does
16
not bring any meaning to their daily life (Broman et al., 2011). Thus, the need to intervene gamified activities into this topic
is crucial to attract students’ interest towards learning this topic. Furthermore, gamified activities planned should also include
applications of naphthalene in daily life so that students can relate what they have been learning in class. Therefore, this paper
proposes the following gamified activity for students to link the subtopic of naphthalene with its application in our daily life
via the use of educational robotics (ER):
In order for students to move the robots according to the instructions, they need to put into the correct codes and instruction in
the Scratch4Ardunio (S4A) programming. In each correct temperature points of the graph, students are given questions related
to the topic and are required to answer them correctly for the robotic to move to the correct point of the graphs. If the wrong
answer were given or the wrong temperature point were chosen, the students are then required to start back from the starting
point of the game field. Here lies the basis of the Operant Conditioning theory used throughout the gamified robotic activity.
A summary of the first example from Figure 2 and Figure 3 robotic activities with its description on the Operant Conditioning
Theories are illustrated in Table 1.
17
Based on Table 1, it can be concluded that the gamified robotic activity designed have included the basis of Operant
Conditioning into it. Through series of “reward” and “punishment” integrated into the activity designed, it can further
promote students’ interest towards learning the contents in the chapters of Structure of Atoms.
3. CONCLUSION
The example afore described provided suggestions on how to integrate the use of educational robotics (ER) into the Chemistry
syllabus. In addition to this, it is recommended that each activity planned out with ER must include learning goals in order to
have a better direction of the gamified robotic activity. Moreover, the Behaviourism Theory is able to provide a solid
foundation for teachers in planning out activities and proves the flexibility of ER as a constructivism tool which can be used
in classrooms. Nevertheless, the use of ER requires teachers to be creative and competent in order to integrate elements of
gamification or game-based learning into the designated activities. Although they are required to add their skills in basic
programming, it will benefit them in the long run.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study is supported by Yayasan Inovasi Malaysia (MSI 16085) and Sabah Net Sdn. Bhd. We also thank our colleagues
from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) who have provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research.
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Alimisis, D. (2013). Educational robotics: Open questions and new challenges. Themes in Science and Technology Education,
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Barnard, B. (2019). 6 TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGES EDUCATION IS FACING. Retrieved from
https://www.robotlab.com/blog/6-technology-challenges-education-is-facing
Broman, K., Ekborg, M., & Johnels, D. (2011). Chemistry in crisis? Perspectives on teaching and learning chemistry in
Swedish upper secondary schools. NorDiNa; 1, 7.
Burke, R. C. (2001). It's about time: Temporal representations for synthetic characters (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology).
Cicognani, L. (2006). To punish or Discipline? Teachers' attitudes towards the abolition of corporal punishment (Doctoral
dissertation).
Crosbie, J. (1998). Negative reinforcement and punishment. In Handbook of research methods in human operant behavior (pp.
163-189). Springer, Boston, MA.
DiGennaro, F. D., Martens, B. K., & McIntyre, L. L. (2005). Increasing treatment integrity through negative reinforcement:
Effects on teacher and student behavior. School Psychology Review, 34(2).
Dokumen Standard Kurikulum dan Pentaksiran. (2018). Putrajaya: Malaysian Ministry of Education.
Fernandes14, E., Fermé, E., & Oliveira, R. (2006). Using robots to learn functions in math class. Technology Revisited, 152.
Gershoff, E. T. (2002). Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviors and experiences: a meta-analytic and
theoretical review. Psychological bulletin, 128(4), 539.
Hinkin, T. R., & Schriesheim, C. A. (2004). “If You Don’t Hear from Me You Know You Are Doing Fine” The Effects of
Management Nonresponse to Employee Performance. Cornell hotel and restaurant administration quarterly, 45(4), 362-
372.
Kay, D., & Kibble, J. (2016). Learning theories 101: application to everyday teaching and scholarship. Advances in physiology
education, 40(1), 17-25.
Killic, A. (2013). An investigation of the use of the iPad and textbooks on the achievement of students with special needs in
algebra.
Kim, S., & Lee, C. (2016). Effects of robot for teaching geometry to fourth graders. International Journal of Innovation in
Science and Mathematics Education (formerly CAL-laborate International), 24(2).
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McAllister, L. W., Stachowiak, J. G., Baer, D. M., & Conderman, L. (1969). THE APPLICATION OF OPERANT
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Parke, R. D. (2002). Punishment revisited--Science, values, and the right question: Comment on Gershoff (2002).
Perotti, V., Sorce, P., & Widrick, S. (2003). An exploratory study of operant conditioning theory as a predictor of online
product selection. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations (JECO), 1(1), 42-54.
Rumfola, L. (2017). Positive Reinforcement Positively Helps Students in the Classroom.
Saad, M. S., Sharif, S., & Mariappan, M. (2018). Pembangunan Modul Robot Permainan Topik Respirasi Sel Menggunakan
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E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
19
OVERVIEW OF MALAYSIA E-GOVERNMENT ONLINE SERVICES THROUGH
BENCHMARKING APPROACH
Ahmad Asmawi Abdul Samat1,a, Siti Uzairiah Mohd Tobi1,b and Rafizah Musa1,c
1 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
Email: 1 asmawi.samat@gmail.com
Abstract
Over the last two decades the electronic Government (e-Government) system has been introduced in Malaysia. It was aimed
for improving the delivery of public services to enable citizens to get an efficient service from the government agencies. There
is large amount of budget allocation have been given by the Government to improve the delivery system. However, complaints
from customers and stakeholders on the lack of alternative channels such as online services and immediate action taken to
deliver services have led to dissatisfied customers. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the effective and efficient service delivery
system of public services through e-Government platform. Thus, this paper seeks to build theoretical understanding on e-
Government as online portal on public service delivery in Malaysia. Previous studies revealed that towards investigating the
issues of the e-Government services, it should focus on the components of e-Government itself which covers legislation,
organization, information, portal, security framework, database, payment system, server and e-identification. This could be
done by comparing the best practice in international standard such as in United Kingdom and Singapore. The conclusion from
the literature helps understand the underlying reason of poor e-Government service delivery in Road Transport Department by
looking at the best practices of e-Government. Furthermore, understanding the Malaysian culture would provide an
understanding on the factors that hinder the efficient service delivery of e-Government
Keywords: benchmarking; e-government, Malaysia; public service delivery.
1. INTRODUCTION
Services offered by government agencies such as health services, license renewals, assessment tax payments have become
important transactions for customers. Those, the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) has
made online transaction most preferred channel to cater services to customers. The transformation of government services
through the online service portal could be recognized as an improvement to better serve the taxpayer. The government is now
faced with the demand of transformation and reinvention in providing services which are cost effective, efficacious and
efficient manner (Sa et al., 2016). While, Persson and Goldkuhl (2010) highlighted government agencies worldwide are going
through a rapid process of shifting moving redefined public values, such as client centric, as well as external and internal
efficiency. The services accessible via the website are the Government's dedicated approach to enhancing the public delivery
system. The objective of electronic government (e-Government) is to transform the administrative process and service delivery
through the use of ICT. E-Government is an initiative aimed at reinventing how the Government works and to improve the
quality of interactions with citizens and businesses (Rais, 1999) through improved connectivity, better access, furnishes high
quality services and better processes and systems. Seven pilot projects were introduced by the Government in an effort to drive
ICT development to achieve the vision goal of 2020, which became an important agenda to bridge the gap between Malaysia
and developed countries. Malaysia e-Government (Danila and Akilah, 2014) are one of the applications that has been
highlighted.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of e-government
The development of information and communication technology (ICT) innovations has influenced the interaction channels
and communication methods between the Government and the people (Gasova and Stofkova, 2017). The use of Electronic
Government (e-government) has led many countries and organization to improve effectiveness of communication and
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distribution channels through reducing the transaction cost and increasing the speed of service. Various literature agreed (J.
Lee, 2010; Scott et a.l, 2016; Stefanovic et al., 2016) the term of e-Government has emerged in information system literature
since the middle of 1990s. From an international organization perspective (OECD, 2003; UN, 2003) e-Government is defined
as the use of the internet and the world-wide-web for widens and speed up delivering vital information and services which is
needed by citizens from the government. Universally, e-Government can be described as the use of ICT especially the internet
and the world-wide -web to further improve the efficiency, cost saving and quality of information and services. The e-
government online service as a channel for service delivery is essentially different from other medium, for instance, branch
networks or telephone banking, because of its interactive structure. Therefore, it brings up unique types of challenges. Danila
and Akilah (2014) underline that e-Government stakeholders can be divided into two groups namely internal and external.
External stakeholders include citizens and industry players. While internally involves employees and other related government
departments.
Components of e-government
The development of information and communication technology (ICT) innovations has influenced the interaction channels
and communication methods between the Government and the people (Gasova and Stofkova, 2017). The use of Electronic
Government (e-government) has led many countries and organization to improve effectiveness of communication and
distribution channels through reducing the transaction cost and increasing the speed of service. Various literature agreed ( Lee,
2010; Scott et al., 2016; Stefanovic et al., 2016) the term of e-Government has emerged in information system literature since
the middle of 1990s. From an international organization perspective (OECD, 2003; UN, 2003) e-Government is defined as the
use of the internet and the world-wide-web for widens and speed up delivering vital information and services which is needed
by citizens from the government. Universally, e-Government can be described as the use of ICT especially the internet and the
world-wide -web to further improve the efficiency, cost saving and quality of information and services. The e-government
online service as a channel for service delivery is essentially different from other medium, for instance, branch networks or
telephone banking, because of its interactive structure. Therefore, it brings up unique types of challenges. Danila and Akilah
(2014) underline that e-Government stakeholders can be divided into two groups namely internal and external. External
stakeholders include citizens and industry players. While internally involves employees and other related government
departments.
Components of e-government
Table 1: The e-Government components by various scholars
e-Government Components
Sources
Legislation and Regulation
Rabaiah and Vandijct, 2011; Firmansyah et al., 2014
Organization
Koh et al., 2008; Rabaiah and Vandijct, 2011;
Information
Chutimaskul et al, 2008; Koh et al., 2008; Nam, 2014
Portal
Rabaiah and Vandijct, 2011; Firmansyah et al., 2014
Security Framework
Rabaiah and Vandijct, 2011; Amiri et al., 2012; Firmansyah et al., 2014
Database
Rabaiah and Vandijct, 2011; Firmansyah et al., 2014
Payment System
Rabaiah and Vandijct, 2011
Web Application Server
Kumar et al., 2013; Firmansyah et al., 2014
e-Identification
Rabaiah and Vandijct, 2011
Legislation and regulation
In order to control and monitor activities in a country's administrative ecosystem, the regulatory framework is an essential
element (Zulhuda, 2012) of the control of transactions, protection of privacy, safety, protection of intellectual property and
federal policies (Alali et al., 2016). To support the development of e-Government in Malaysia several acts have been developed
for instance Electronic Government Activities Act 2007(EGAA). Hence, this act is a legal framework for efficient and secure
electronic government services. While this act receives criticism and pressure from legal practitioners because of being
redundant and unnecessary (Zulhuda, 2012) this paper does not intend to dispute on those articulate remarks since this paper
looks into a different angle.
Organization
The organization is an organized group of people formed to fulfil a goal that has responsibilities and authority to drive out
different tasks. In this context the organization is the business owner of the relevant application developed (Rabaiah and
Vandijct, 2011). They are important because they are responsible for determining the direction and decision making.
Information
Information is an important component in a portal or website. Information will be provided to customers who access the
website or application about procedures, transactions and coverage. In a review by O'Rourke and Ringer (2016), the impact
on information on consumer purchase intentions has shown a significant relationship between the information displayed on
the website and the consumer purchasing trends.
Portal
The portal is usually referred as a gateway to a website. A decent portal contains informational displays such as online forums,
feedback forms, dashboards and search engines to customers. A decent portal to support e-Government services should be
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stable and has the capacity to accommodate transactions. Kumar et al. (2017) highlighted portal is essential to support an
efficient and sustainable e-Government growth and development system, especially for two-way communication involving
transactions such as review and payment elements in research conducted in India.
Security Framework
Security framework is an important component in the development of an e-Government application. This component will act
as a protector of threatening threats in any activity when browsing the website and application. The findings of study by Abu
Shanab (2014), carried out in Jordan revealed that this component is a driving force for the customers confidence to use e-
Government applications. The protection of personal data and transactions are no compromise in every activity that takes place
to protect the safety of consumers will expose users to cyber-attacks by irresponsible parties.
Database
The need for a database is to provide storage for accumulation of information and data. Databases contain aggregations of data
records or files for instance sales records, product catalogues and activities involve such as maintenance and customer details.
So, by analogy database can be described like the inventory card catalogue in warehouse or cabinet holding cards concept
respectively. Complexity of a database will be influenced by size, type of file and inventory information. The more parameters
and functions required, the large and complex databases that need to be developed using specialized hardware and custom
modelling techniques according to organizational approach. The development of technology has led to the advancement of
innovation and the creation of new products. In the era of internet of things (IoT) the company has started investing for cloud
technology (Hasheem, 2015) where its capacity can be adjusted with company operations. This innovation has also been able
to eliminate the need to preserve expensive computing hardware.
Payment system
Payment system is an operational component of the e-Government infrastructure and electronic services facilities that allow
secure online payments to be implemented for the transaction required. Payment system acts as a mechanism to handle all
Government payments transactions by the customers and government accounts. An electronic payment system faces various
potential risks consist of internet and infrastructure security, cybercrime and intellectual property protection (Trautman, 2015).
web application server
Server is a computer system that provides certain types of services in a computer network. The server is supported with a
scalable processor and a large random access memory (RAM), also equipped with a specialized operating system, and called
a network operating system. The server act as gateway controls access to the network and the resources it contains for instance
the printer and provides access to the network. The server also functions as a protector to applications and databases that are
configured by a connected computer using a firewall. Developing servers for e-Government services is more complicated,
especially the system to be implemented is an integrated system with the relevant business model. Therefore, many aspects
that should be analyzed not only focus on aspects of implementation costs, server security, technology used and server
configuration.
E-identification
Electronic Identification (e-Identification) is an important component tool to provide secure access to online services and to
carry out electronic transactions in a safer way. With the advance of digital era technology many methods have been introduced
to protect data protection and the prevention of online fraud. Most of internet-based services use such e-banking, online retails,
email and e-Government applications themselves for the identification of entry control identity identities (Castro, 2011).
Furthermore, this component helps reduce error and duplicating data entry. For more complex systems e-Identification uses
multi-factor authentication such as personal identification number (PIN) and token for each transaction.
3. BENCHMARKING
This paper also looks at best practices as benchmarking approach with other organizations that are in the same industry or
service. The study has compared the practice with United Kingdom and Singapore. In UK the organization that deals with
vehicle/transport and road are known as Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA, UK). For Singapore there are two
agencies involved, they are Singapore Police Force (SPF) for issuing driving license and Land Transport Authority, Singapore
(LTA) for road tax renewal. While for Malaysia, MyEG Services Berhad's as the Malaysian e-service provider concessionaire
was taken to compare. It was done by looking at any shortcomings to ensure continuous improvement to run the organization
that will deliver the outputs (Bhutta and Faizul, 1999) and achieve the goal. Generic, functional and process benchmarking are
the area of benchmarking to be compared. This comparison is to give the Malaysia Road Transport Department an external
focus and forces for institution to look at what its competitors are offering to serve their customers.
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, UK (DVLA)
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is an organization responsible for managing and controlling 48 million driver
licenses and 40 million vehicles registration in the UK (DVLA, 2019). DVLA is an agency used for benchmarking in this
paper. The DVLA selection portrayed good practices in service transformation in government. The DVLA services are
exceptional as they establish admirable examples of "fully functional e-Government" (Carter et al., 2016). In this respect, the
22
DVLA have carried out a host of services such as applying and renewing driving licenses, booking driving tests, selling
personalize registrations number and issuing vehicle registration certificates. This is similar to Road Transport Development
in Malaysia. These services involve complex integration and adjustment of business processes and IT systems across the
institution with various public and private organizations which involve financial institution vehicle dealers, insurance
companies, enforcement agencies such as the police. The DVLA e-Government service represents a genuinely "transformed"
public service that exceeds most typical transactional e-Government services offered by the public sector, such as paying local
council tax, paying summons or applying for the housing loan. This explains the reasons for choosing the DVLA in this paper.
When discussing about e-Government services implemented by DVLA, the important aspects to be considered in this paper
are from the method of payment, privacy and information security, as well as type of services offered. The efficient and
innovative management practiced by DVLA has enabled them to provide various service channels to customers for instance;
customers can perform transactions such as renewal of licenses and pay for vehicle excise duty online by credit or debit card
(DVLA, 2019).
To ensure that security aspects of the data and personal information are secure each customer who wants to conduct an online
transaction needs to have a "Government Gateway User ID" as an identity and safety features. In addition, each customer will
be given a notification notice through the registered email for any transaction. This method is a part of the security features
practiced in order to avoid or protect the risks to customers.
Fig. 1: Insight function in DVLA website
Source: DVLA (2019)
Singapore Police Force and Land Transport Authority, Singapore (LTA)
Second comparisons highlighted in this paper are e-Government practice in Singapore. The United Nations E-Government
Development Index (2018) has ranked Singapore as seventh from the assessed 193 country. Due to the advanced technology
and exceptional interest in Research and Development (R & D) since three decades ago, Singapore has built up a stature as a
regional technology-hub and has developed the ambition to become the world leader in e-Government (Ha and Coghill, 2008).
In Singapore, the agency responsible for the issuance of driving license and vehicle registration is divided into two agencies
namely the Singapore Police Force and the Land Transport Authority, Singapore (LTA), which is different from Malaysia and
the UK where the agency dealing with such matters is Road Transport Department and DVLA respectively. Through
investment in technology, these two agencies provide services to online users for core services such as renewal of road tax,
number plate registration and exchange of details in the driver license. While in Singapore, other than providing online services
to citizens, customers can still get services either at the Singapore post outlet or AXS kiosk located at strategic locations (LTA,
2018). This facility is available to accommodate customers who choose to deal with brick-and-mortal or conventional methods.
Fig.2: Alternative channel to renewal road tax in Singapore
23
Only the first word in a title must be capital and other word should be in small case. Author details must not show any
professional title (e.g. Managing Director), any academic title (e.g. Dr.) or any membership of any professional organization
(e.g. Senior Member IEEE).
To avoid confusion, the family name must be written as the last part of each author name (e.g. John A.K. Smith).
Each affiliation must include, at the very least, the name of the company and the name of the country where the author is based
(e.g. Causal Productions Pty Ltd, Australia). Email address is compulsory for the corresponding author.
4. CONCLUSION AND THE WAY FORWARD
Detailed Through the literature review discussed, various efforts to modernize the public service delivery system have been
initiated since the late 90s. Investments in information systems (IS) and ICT require significant value to provide a positive
impact on image and organization performance. The impact cannot be harvested in a short period of time but requires
continuous effort and improvement from time to time. The use of e-government and its benefits have proved to be of value to
enhance delivery of services to the public. This paper has demonstrated that having an efficient e-Government online service
is vital for the organization to face the rapidly changing business environment. The e-government components that has been
identified and compared through benchmarking approach with United Kingdom and Singapore would help to better understand
the issues and challenges faced by the Malaysia government. This challenge needs to look from various stakeholders’
involvement such as financial institution, consumer as citizens, public administrators, design and IT developers, as well as
suppliers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper presents an initial effort toward improving the public service using e-government in Road Transport Department,
Malaysia using benchmarking cross-country. It is therefore enabling better decision-making ability to stakeholders.
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E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
25
ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK FOR PREDICTING OIL PIPELINE CONDITION
Siti Sarah Azli Zuhairey1, Hafiza Abbas2, Azizul Azizan3, Noraimi Shafie4
1,2,3,4 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
Email: 1sitisarah226.ss@gmail.com
Abstract
A pipeline is the most significant asset for the oil and gas industry as it transports the petroleum product from the beneath of
the sea to the oil platform to be processed and distributed around the world. However, the maximum lifetime of the pipelines
is only ten (10) years then the pipe must be altered or changed. Today, with the availability of advanced analytics which is
predictive analytics, it should be utilized to assist the refinery segment of oil and gas industry to decide whether the pipeline
should be changed or not based on its situation. The project proposes predictive modelling to predict the oil pipeline condition
due to corrosion. The cause of pipeline corrosion occurring is due to chloride concentration, iron concentration and pH reading
in sour water. An artificial neural network is predictive modelling that can predict what could happen with a high success rate
by training the historical cause of corrosion data. This model is relied upon to assist pipeline administrators with assessing and
anticipate the state of oil pipeline condition.
Keywords: corporate social responsibility; perceived value; relationship quality.
1. INTRODUCTION
Pipelines are the foundation of the oil and gas industry, transport a great many dollars of a few sorts of items in various
conditions (i.e. offshore or onshore) [1]. In 1879, the initial 109-mile-long and 6 inches’ breadth oil pipeline, was working in
Pennsylvania. Today, there are more than 60 nations need to pipeline arranges past 2000 km long [2].
In the oil and gas industry, there is no doubt that the safest pathway to transport petroleum products from the beneath of the
sea or even onshore is by pipeline rather than railway and highway [1]. However, a single pipeline accident could cause
disastrous environmental damage due to oil spillage as well as economic losses due to production interruption [3]. As per the
report by Oil Companies' European Association for Environment, Health and Safety in Refining and Distribution, oil pipeline
disappointments could happen because of the accompanying causes: mechanical, operational, erosion, normal risks and
outsider movement. The number of accidents because of maturing pipelines in operation has essentially expanded [4]. A few
investigation systems have been produced in the most recent decade, for example, attractive flux spillage and ultrasound [5].
Most of the developed condition assessment or failure prediction models are either subjective or not comprehensive where it
deals with only one failure cause [6]. Therefore, there is a need for the development of a more objective failure prediction
model for oil and gas pipelines that are based on data that has been measured daily for example; temperature, pH, and flow
rate. The model will help pipeline operators take the necessary actions to prevent catastrophic failure [7].
Corrosion of crude tower overhead continues to be a significant concern towards integrity and reliability within the refining
industry; failure mechanisms have been the subject of many technical papers over the years [8], [9]. Assessing the condition
of the pipeline could help the engineers decide whether to change or not the crude tower overhead pipe based on its condition.
For many crude units, good desalting and caustic injection practices are first lines of defence in managing overhead corrosion
issues while injection of organic amine neutralizers and corrosion inhibitors is also applied to keep corrosion rates to a
minimum [3].
Predictive analytics bolster oil and gas organizations by tending to the test of basic hardware execution, life cycle,
trustworthiness, and security, and increment used. Now and again, hardware administrators can totally dodge disappointments
by making an early remedial move. The utilization of predictive analytics builds the traverse of finding and arranging a time
that falls between an occasion and the resulting practical gear disappointment. It additionally bolsters the difficulties of
reducing and restricted faculty skill and is fit for strengthening the capacity to wisely work different resources from a focal
area, for example in the boring condition [10]. At last, predictive analytics go past early cautioning by giving experiences into
the foundations of issues.
Neural network investigation fills in as an exceptionally helpful instrument for examining and anticipating the conduct of
frameworks that can't be depicted by any logical conditions [11], [12]. One of the unmistakable qualities of the simulated
neural network is its capacity to gain as a matter of fact and illustrations and after that to adjust to evolving circumstances. The
complexity of real neurons is highly abstracted when modelling artificial neurons. These essentially comprise of data sources
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like neurotransmitters, which are increased by weights or quality of the separate signs, and after that processed by a scientific
capacity which decides the initiation of the neuron. ANNs join simulated neurons keeping in mind the end goal to prepare data
[13], [14].
2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
A wealth of descriptive analytic tools is available that tell analysts what has happened previously. The problem is that these
kinds of analytic focus on the past and only for the reporting purpose rather than to utilize the corrosion data to estimate the
pipeline’s condition although they know corrosion can affect the pipeline maintenance decision they made, whether to change
or not to change the pipeline. Salt fouling and associated corrosion in the crude tower overhead are complex phenomena that
affect refining reliability, flexibility, and profitability. Affected components are atmospheric-tower overhead condenser tubes
and reflux drums, atmospheric-tower fractionation trays, and vacuum-tower overhead condenser tubes and jet-ejector bodies.
Thus, to avoid or to reduce the problems stated, prediction of crude tower overhead condition is needed.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Artificial neural network
The human brain consists of nearly 10 billion of nerve cells, or basic information-processing units, called neurons and 60
trillion connections, called synapses, between them. Generally, an artificial neuron is a computational model inspired by the
natural neurons [15]. Natural neurons receive signals through synapses located on the dendrites or membrane of the neuron.
When the signals received are strong enough, the neuron is activated and emits a signal through the axon. This signal might
be sent to another synapse and might activate other neurons [3].
Neural networks represent the first machine learning algorithm for predictive modeling [11]. The motivation behind the method
is mimicking the structure of neurons in the brain. The basic structure of a neural network involves a set of inputs or known
as predictor fields that feed into one or more hidden layers, with each hidden layer having one or more "nodes" or also known
as neurons [16].
In certifiable circumstances, the gathered information is normally either boisterous or deficient. In this way, the primary test
for chiefs is how to utilize the accessible information to settle on sensible expectations and choices [17]. In these circumstances,
the artificial neural system procedure gives great forecasts considering accessible verifiable information. The ANN copies the
capacity of the human mind in anticipating designs in view of learning and reviewing forms. It is a powerful prescient
instrument because its capacity to gain from recorded information. Cottis et al. (1999) expressed that ANN is a displaying
method that is valuable for applications where causal connections among factors are obscure [7].
ANNs can be considered as accumulations of exceptionally straightforward computational units which can take a numerical
info and change it, often by means of summation, into a yield. ANNs can be depicted either as scientific and computational
models for a nonlinear capacity guess, information grouping, bunching, and non - parametric relapse or, as a reproduction of
the conduct of an accumulation of model organic neurons. ANNs can be utilized as a part of an assortment of effective courses:
to learn and replicate guidelines or operations from offered cases; to dissect and sum up from test realities and make forecasts
from these, or to retain qualities and elements of given information and to match or make relationship from current information
to the old information.
Relation between artificial neural network and pipeline corrosion
The basic prerequisite for an effective control of pipe corrosion is by getting to know the corrosion behaviour. Therefore, an
extensive corrosion literature is compulsory so that we can simply look up the relevant information though, at first sight, we
found it was easy [4]. Moreover, in real world corrosion never seems to appear quite the same situations as tested before, and
it is also troublesome in the inquiry of the inherent variability of the corrosion process [7].
Henceforth, this neural network approach has been received to dissect, decipher and anticipate the capability of the implanted
steel in solid pieces under two unique conditions viz. without chloride (less likelihood for consumption) and with chloride
(high likelihood for erosion) [1]. These estimations were done in a lab level framework and the potential was measured at
indicated lengths.
An early posted try and observe a neural network to a corrosion problem become that of Smets and Bogaerts. They developed
a sequence of neural networks to expect the SCC of type 304 chrome steel in close to-neutral answers as a characteristic of
chloride content material, oxygen content, and temperature [5]. They discovered that the neural community method out-
performed conventional regression strategies this should constantly be the case with a properly-geared up community, as it's
far constantly feasible for the network to version a linear suit. The community used had nearly as many weights as the variety
of examples in the statistics set used to teach it. for that reason, there can also have been a bent for the community to match
the ‘noise’ in the statistics in addition to the suggest conduct [18].
Urquidi-Macdonald built up a neural system display for foreseeing the number and profundity of pits in warm exchangers. No
data was given about the system estimate other than that it had two concealed layers, or the quantity of preparing focuses, even
though there seem, by all accounts, to be fairly few. Henceforth there must be some vulnerability about the unwavering quality
of the forecasts got. Then again, the anticipated development of pit profundity and the number appears conceivable [13].
27
Neural network strategies were used to fit the corrosion price of austenitic stainless steels in sulphuric acid the usage of the
facts set defined earlier [13]. The predictions acquired appeared affordable, but the work raised the fundamental questions of
the validation of the output of the neural network and the self-belief that would be positioned within the prediction [19].
Unpublished aspects of this work additionally validated the blessings of the use of simulated data to check the neural
community methods. Simulated statistics have constructed the use of a feature that about modelled the system under take a
look at, and those facts were used to teach neural networks with a comparable configuration to that used on the actual records
[12]. because the genuine output of the simulation became known for all combos of entering variables, the overall performance
of the simulation network might be evaluated very accurately [20]. This then gave a higher level of self-assurance in recognize
of the overall performance of the network skilled on the real statistics. Its miles recommended that there is a valuable approach
to support the use of neural networks to version corrosion statistics.
4. CONCLUSION
In the nutshell, Artificial Neural Network is a predictive method that is useful for applications where causal relationships
among parameters are unknown. Though the relations between the three parameters; iron, pH, and chloride are unknown, ANN
can produce high successful rate of the model with custom arguments of the model to compute predictive condition of crude
tower overhead. Thus, to achieve high accuracy of ANN model, a comprehensive training of the corrosion data is needed in
order to increase the accuracy of prediction output. Formulation on ANN also important as it will affect the model’s accuracy.
The collected data were prepared, organized, and subsequently used to train, test, and validate the models.
Next is the prototype to visualize the predicted output must be in an interactive environment so that it can be a meaningful and
useful information to the users which in the end the users can optimize their decision making.
With predictive analytics using ANN, the users now can make an efficient decision making on changing crude tower overhead
pipe as their information are now being automatically computed by ANN to do prediction of the pipe condition using business
intelligence tools.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My earnest gratitude to Ts. Dr. Hafiza Abas for the continuous support of writing this paper, for her trust, and immense
knowledge.
REFERENCES
D. D. Macdonald and G. R. Engelhardt, “Predictive modeling of corrosion,” Shreir’s Corros., pp. 1630–1679, 2010.
M. S. El-Abbasy, A. Senouci, T. Zayed, F. Mirahadi, and L. Parvizsedghy, “Artificial neural network models for predicting
condition of offshore oil and gas pipelines,” Autom. Constr., vol. 45, pp. 50–65, 2014.
I. Abdul Aziz and K. E. Lee, “A Hybrid Prediction Model for Pipeline Corrosion Using Artificial Neural Network with Particle
Swarm Optimization,” J. Eng. Appl. Sci., vol. 13, no. 3 SI, pp. 3131–3138, 2018.
N. S. Reddy, “Neural Networks Model for Predicting Corrosion Depth in Steels,” Indian J. Adv. Chem. Sci., vol. 2(3), pp.
204–207, 2014.
C. Yang, J. Liu, Y. Zeng, and G. Xie, “Prediction of components degradation using support vector regression with optimized
parameters,” Energy Procedia, vol. 127, pp. 284–290, 2017.
M. M. Din and N. Ithnin, “an Artificial Neural Network Modeling for Pipeline,” vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 512–519, 2015.
R. A. Cottis, “Neural network methods for corrosion data reduction,” Shreir’s Corros., pp. 1680–1692, 2010.
A. P. Teixeira, C. G. Soares, T. A. Netto, and S. F. Estefen, “Reliability of pipelines with corrosion defects,” vol. 85, pp. 228–
237, 2008.
S. N. Hassanudin, I. A. Aziz, J. Jaafar, S. Qaiyum, and W. M. A. M. Zubir, “Predictive analytic dashboard for desalter and
crude distillation unit,” 2017 IEEE Conf. Big Data Anal. ICBDA 2017, vol. 2018-January, no. September 2018, pp. 55–
60, 2018.
N. Muthukumar, Petroleum Products Transporting Pipeline Corrosion-A Review. Elsevier B.V., 2014.
K. Liao, B. Cao, and Z. Liu, “An effective internal corrosion rate prediction model for the wet natural gas gathering pipeline,”
Proc. - 2011 Int. Conf. Comput. Inf. Sci. ICCIS 2011, pp. 698–701, 2011.
J. Hu, Y. Tian, H. Teng, L. Yu, and M. Zheng, “The probabilistic life time prediction model of oil pipeline due to local
corrosion crack,” Theor. Appl. Fract. Mech., vol. 70, pp. 10–18, 2014.
G. De Masi, R. Vichi, M. Gentile, R. Bruschi, and G. Gabetta, “A Neural Network Predictive Model of Pipeline Internal
Corrosion Profile,” 2014 First Int. Conf. Syst. Informatics, Model. Simul., pp. 18–23, 2014.
Z. Jančíková, O. Zimný, and P. Koštial, “Prediction of metal corrosion by neural networks,” Metalurgija, vol. 52, no. 3, pp.
379–381, 2013.
G. Jiang, J. Keller, P. L. Bond, and Z. Yuan, “Predicting concrete corrosion of sewers using artificial neural network,” Water
Res., vol. 92, pp. 52–60, 2016.
X. Li et al., “Evaluation of data-driven models for predicting the service life of concrete sewer pipes subjected to corrosion,”
J. Environ. Manage., vol. 234, no. September 2018, pp. 431–439, 2019.
28
J. L. Alamilla, E. Sosa, C. A. Sánchez-Magaña, R. Andrade-Valencia, and A. Contreras, “Failure analysis and mechanical
performance of an oil pipeline,” Mater. Des., vol. 50, pp. 766–773, 2013.
W. Xu, C. Bao, J. Choung, and J. Lee, “Advances in Engineering Software Corroded pipeline failure analysis using artificial
neural network scheme,” vol. 112, pp. 255–266, 2017.
S. Hernández, S. Nešić, G. Weckman, and V. Ghai, “Use of artificial neural networks for predicting crude oil effect on carbon
dioxide corrosion of carbon steels,” Corrosion, vol. 62, no. 6, pp. 467–482, 2006.
M. Engineering, “Artificial Neural Network Simulation Model for Predicting Oil and Gas Pipeline Corrosion Rate in Nigerian
Niger Delta,” vol. 1, no. 1, 2017.
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
29
THE TRANSFORMATION OF CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES THROUGH BUILDING
INFORMATION MODELING- BASED CONTRACTUAL APPROACH FOR DESIGN-BUILD
CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
Ahmad Huzaimi Abd Jamil1,3, Mohamad Syazli Fathi1,2*
1,2 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
3 Universiti Malaysia Pahang
Email: 1syazli@utm.my
Abstract
The implementation of building information modeling (BIM) throws up a host of interesting legal and contractual challenges,
especially in an industry as multi-faceted as construction that is vulnerable to risk due to the complexity of the construction
processes characterized by unforeseen circumstances. However, the existing BIM contracting systems may not extensively
facilitate the practice of BIM management processes. Contract research has emerged as facility management and
deconstruction procedures do not appear to reflect the BIM requirements. This paper seeks to set out an innovative contractual
framework of contract for use in any BIM-based construction project. Thus, this paper contributes new knowledge of the
proper use and harmonization of contract functions by extensively identifying the contractual issues within BIM functionality
with design and build contract procurement method throughout the phase of the building construction project life cycle.
Keywords: building information modeling (BIM); contract management; construction processes.
1. INTRODUCTION
The global construction industry has been showing great interest in BIM implementation specifically within the AECOO
(architecture, engineering, construction, owner and operator) industry. For this study, the concise categorization was adopted,
under which technical risks are exemplified as inadequate project experience, lack of software compatibility, model
management difficulties, and inefficient data interoperability. It is worthy of note that the technical risks of BIM actively feed
into its legal uncertainty, and therefore addressing the latter will result in the resolution of former (Olatunji, 2011; Manderson
et al., 2015). As a result, the contracts may not give a comprehensive digital representation of BIM environments and also may
not include the special conditions and amendments that are due to the issues around unsatisfactory technological
interoperability, and which can cause the flow of information through a project lifecycle to be impeded (Grilo and Jardim-
Goncalves, 2011; Stapleton et al., 2014).
As BIM becoming ingrain in the delivery process, the inefficiencies of these existing contracts have become visible due to
inadequate digital representation of the building process that would facilitate the exchange and interoperability of information
in a digital format (Olatunji, 2015). Although prior research has determined some of the contractual and legal issues with
regard to BIM execution, less attention has been given to the influence of BIM upon interoperability issues. The development
preliminary framework of contractual challenges is based on a systematic review of the literature and is presented in Abd Jamil
and Fathi (2018).
A case study was conducted within the Malaysian building construction project as an investigative and exploratory study
because it provides an in-depth comprehension of that event. To be precise, this study provided insights into BIM-based
contractual challenges associated with inadequate information interoperability management from the conceptual design to the
facility management (FM) phase are neither automated nor seamless. The findings and discussion of the case study attempted
to achieve the primary objective of this research paper that is to formalize an understanding of the roles of the BIM project
teams on the information interoperability management process by assessing the project contract requirements specifically of
how information is generated, processed and executed on.
2. RESEARCH APPROACH
The first step of the research consisted of a review of the project documents that the project team had made available to the
researchers with the aim in answering research question. The reviewed documents included the project’s BIM execution plan,
7
30
the project organization chart, appendices dedicated to the BIM processes and appendices related to the profiles of the BIM
stakeholders. Other subsidiary documents related to the BIM modelling activities were also reviewed by the researchers. These
documents included the BIM objects organization tree and nomenclature, the file transfer protocol, the clashes and
interferences management process, the quality control plan, the generator of conflict spheres guide, the BIM Collaboration
Format (BCF)-based collaborative communication process, the level of detail LOD specifications file, the BIM processes and
requirement manual tutorial, the data transfer tool guide and the ‘need for’ statement including the contract form for the project.
Following the review of documents, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key design and construction personnel
on the selected project involving BIM. The same set of questions was used in all the interviews to examine how BIM could
potentially improve the efficiency of the personnel and information process particularly from the contractual and legal
perspective on the basis of the evidence that emerged. The information interoperability issues were highlighted in the case
study with iterative guides from literature review using content analysis of primary data sources. An NVivo software qualitative
analysis conducted data mining on the interview transcripts input into the NVivo software.
3. RESEARCH FINDINGS
This research has relied on a construction project case study in Malaysia has been procured under a design and build (D&B)
contract where the consultants were hired by the main contractor and the contractor held a single contract with the client, the
infrastructure arm of the provincial government. The original plan for the project was to utilize a traditional low bid
procurement design-build contract whereby it shall include to plan, design, construct, complete, test and commission the works
in accordance with the contract. During the design phase, design teams are required to provide a coordinated ‘Full Design
Model’ based on the tenderer’s scope of BIM requirements. There was general inclusion of file sharing platform including
hardware and software version for access to sharing site but however, the contract does not clearly specify information and
model exchange protocol. Although the contract has stated that the contractor shall be responsible for creating and maintaining
the construction model and the creation of the As-Built model. However, the requirements of BIM models inspection and
validation procedure are not detailed out in the contract. There will be no discussion regarding the precise details and
characteristics of the project for reasons of confidentiality.
The case study highlighted a number of ways that the Facility Manager could make a major or even a minor contribution as
regards to design and variations. These contributions include advising as to end-user behaviour and requirements, the supply
of alternative solutions to a number of issues that may arise from the project. On a day-to-day basis, the BIM manager should
be able to oversee storage of latest model is maintained to avoid parties relying on outdated information. As such, facility
management team (FMT) need to request the information they require from the project management team in a suitable format
which can then be used to maintain the facility following project completion. Such requirements can be performed at the
conceptual design stage by which the format of data and information needs to be mentioned clearly in the employer’s
information requirements (EIR) so that all stakeholders will be clear on what is needed for delivery at the end of the project.
In this regards, soft landings serve as a platform that requires the involvement of FMT in BIM meetings from the start of the
project and up to its completion in order to facilitate a proper handover and close out. The findings developed a characterization
that would provide a systemic and evolutionary account of interoperability from the unique aspect of BIM contract
administration to preserve integrity and accuracy of the information. There has been a lack of early involvement of the
contractors and FMT coupled with a reluctance to move to cutting-edge technologies for the handover of documentation where
the contractor’s information and communication technologies (ICT) system was only made known after the tender stage. FM
personnel who used industry foundation classes (IFC) as a database for their FM systems asserted that the IFC spreadsheet did
not include all the FM required data, such as the preventive maintenance data and that as a result, they had to enter this data
manually into their FM systems. As such, the following sections provide some important elements to ensure the project team’s
data and systems are sufficiently interoperable.
Understanding the necessary involvement of FMT
The way forward for adoption of BIM as part FM is necessary to provide ways of managing knowledge of building operations
that will be able to be used as part of future designs and explained in the following sub-sections:
• The D&B design team should identify and prioritize the appropriate BIM Uses that they believe will be of benefit to the
project. Before the identification of identifying BIM Uses, BIM related project goals should be outlined by the project
team. These project goals should be project specific, able to be measured, and the goals should indicate the desire of the
team to work hard on increasing and enhancing the success of the facility’s planning, design, construction and operations.
One category of the goals should be directed at the general performance of the project which includes a reduction in the
duration of the project schedule and project costs, or otherwise achieving an increase in the overall quality of the project
development; more specifically by having record models that are more accurate to improve performance modelling and
commissioning quality.
• Since model quality seems to have been raised as an issue by project participants, our study proposes the following;
requirements for BIM template should additionally be incorporated and circulated into consultant, subcontractor and
vendor agreements so that the quality and consistency of project and drawing production is maintained throughout the
entire project life cycle. As an example, each subcontractor may be asked by the team to model the 3D design coordination
scope of work, or the team might require that the vendors supply them with models and data that can be incorporated into
the coordination or record models.
31
• Should consultants, subcontractors, and vendors required modelling initiatives then these need to be defined clearly in the
contracts and also include the scope, schedule for model delivery, and file or data formats. If there are any changes in
templates during the drawing production stage this will need to be notified and mutually agreed between stakeholders.
Should the BIM not be included as part of the contracts then additional steps will need to be pursued to make sure that all
project team members follow the BIM plan. FM organizations are able presently to reap the benefits of BIM for FM by
developing a BIM specification and templates that are tailored and suit their particular project requirements.
4. CONCLUSION
The case study findings have provided a justification for the point that updated BIM content vital for the progress of
construction as it relates to maintaining, retrofitting, and demolition; the functions of model and data management of content
at the maintenance phase. This study presents an opportunity to increase the knowledge of a viable approach that gives a
potential solution to the current perception of the fragmented and isolated approach of present construction processes. The
increase in knowledge would be gained by the use of a collaborative contractual framework for BIM-based settings.
Furthermore, this study gives a number of essential insights with regard to innovation in the global construction industry. One
of these concerns the ICT protocol that should be seen as whole or as a part of the contractual setting where it is crucial to
maintaining central building information that records the details and specification of the buildings and enables to assessment
of the information quality of BIM, thus ensuring that the usefulness of data quality remains high. A future study is envisioned
that will establish a reference framework drawing together the current and probable documented legal and contractual
challenges for the BIM management process that will facilitate the seamless exchange and interoperability of information. The
exchange and interoperability would be accomplished by the enhancement of collaboration between the project participants
throughout the project life cycle.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research project was financially supported by Dana Razak Research Grant Scheme (UTM Grant No. 4J316) under
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
REFERENCES
Abd Jamil, A.H. & Fathi, M.S., 2018. Contractual challenges for BIM-based construction projects: a systematic review.
Built Environment Project and Asset Management, p.BEPAM-12- 2017-0131.
Grilo, A., & Jardim-Goncalves, R. (2011). Challenging electronic procurement in the AEC sector: A BIM-based
integrated perspective. Automation in Construction, vol 184 20(no 2), 107-114.
Manderson, A., Jefferies, M. and Brewer, G., 2015. Building information modelling and standardised construction contracts:
a content analysis of the GC21 contract, Construction Economics and Building, 15(3), 72-84.
Olatunji, O.A. (2011), “A preliminary review on the legal implications of BIM and model ownership”, Journal of Information
Technology in Construction (ITCon),Vol.16, pp. 687-696.
Olatunji, O.A. and Akanmu, A. (2015), “BIM-FM and consequential loss: how consequential can design models be?”, Built
Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 304-317.
Stapleton, K.A.J., Gledson, B.J. and Alwan, Z. (2014). Understanding technological interoperability through observations of
data leakage in Building Information Modelling (BIM) based transactions. In E. Thompson, ed. Proceedings of the
32nd eCAADe Conference. Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, UK, 10-12 September 2014: eCAADe, 515–524.
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
32
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION - CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF
FOOD SAFETY IN VIETNAM
Teresa L. Freiburghaus1, Andreas Reber2, Corinne Köpfli3*
1, 2 ,3 FHNW School of Business
Email: 1teresa.freiburghaus@fhnw.ch
Abstract
Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, causes more than 200 diseases – ranging
from diarrhoea to chronic diseases such as cancers, and it creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly
affecting children and older people. Diseases caused by unsafe food claim an estimated 2 million lives globally each year. This
paper discusses how digital transformation aligns with corporate social responsibility and the immediate action required in
order to keep safety and quality along the food supply chain in Vietnam.
Keywords: digital transformation; food safety; information; impact; Vietnam; CSR.
1. INTRODUCTION
Thanks to the open door “Doi Moi” policy in 1986, Vietnam economy has gained significant growth. Vietnam is on the
spotlight for its powerful economic growth, since it benefits from its geographical location and has attracted a high rate of
direct investment. Vietnam transformed from one of the world’s poorest nations to a lower middle-income country. After the
country's reunion until late 1980s, GDP per capita in Vietnam was stuck between $200 and $3002 but now is about
2’432.2USD3.
Rapid economic growth and development led to dramatic changes in the economic and socio-demographic structure of the
population in Vietnam. Demand is growing for food, education, medical services, infrastructure, housing, and so on.
Production and import of these products and services is following suit. Especially safe food with proper labeling is in very
high demand4.
“Food safety is one of the two most pressing issues for people in Vietnam, more important than education, health care or
governance. It is of great concern to both consumers and policymakers in Vietnam and frequently appears in the media and in
policy discussions”5.
Vietnamese consumers have a strong preference for fresh, unprocessed or only slightly processed food. Most food (90%) is
traded on informal/traditional markets. It is very difficult to trace where the food come from. Smallholders produce most (80%)
of the fresh meat and leafy vegetables6. These farmers, while producing safe or safer foods for their own consumption, hardly
follow food safety requirement when producing for the market, due to profitability considerations7. In some cases, they are
not even aware of the negative impact on the human health when using banned chemical to grow vegetables or to raise animals.
Buying food involves a lot of trust into the suppliers. Risks for unsafe food can appear along the whole production chain. Food
often consists of many ingredients from different sources. It is one of the characteristics of food, that safety and particularly
quality cannot be completely be guaranteed through an analysis of the final food. To ensure quality and safety, an appropriate
control of processes throughout the food value chain is needed8.
Information is required for food safety decision-making by all stakeholders. The most visible impact of digitalization on food
production and transaction systems counts on how information is exchanged. The availability of information introduces a new
level accountability among stakeholders at all stages of the food supply chain and enhances confidence and trust among them.
Traceability is key to build trust, increases confidence for consumers and farmers and reduces transaction costs9.
A practical and reliable tool or platform for traceability is essential for enhancing the compliance of the food industry in
Vietnam.
8
33
2. METHODOLOGY
An in-depth qualitative approach is employed in this study. The main sources of secondary data were documentation, articles,
research papers, and the report of the World Bank in 2016 about Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and
Opportunities.
Focus group discussion and interview with experts in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and digital
transformation of food safety, and related persons, were the most important source of primary data.
3. DISCUSSION
CSR research has evolved over the last 50 years10. It developed into one of the top priorities of businesses over the last decade
and was ranked as the number one focus of managers in the global retail and consumer goods sector in 201111. CSR in the
food sector faces many challenges. One of them is that small and large enterprises differ in their approach to CSR. This implies
potential conflicts regarding CSR implementation in the food supply chain12.
The framework for CSR implementation to the food supply chain includes animal welfare, environmental impact, aspects of
biotechnology, health and safety aspects, fair trade, and labor and human rights13.
“Government approaches must evolve and keep pace with food system developments in order to meet objective of ensuring
consumer confidence”14.
The food safety regulatory framework in Vietnam is the product of a complex multi- level legislative process15 . The Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Industry and Trade
(MOIT) have primary responsibility for food safety. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is responsible for the
development of standards, laboratory accreditation and the methods for quality control of imported and exported goods.
Moreover, many food safety activities and resources are decentralized to provincial and lower levels. Vietnam has a
comparably modern food safety legislation system, but further improvements are needed in food safety performance16.
Many approaches have been tried for improving the food safety in Vietnam, but there are still challenges, among them the
improvement of sustainability and scalability17. There are also major gaps between the regulations and the actual
implementation.
One of the key issues of food safety in Vietnam is that certain food value chain stakeholders lack the awareness for the
importance of ethics and compliance, valuing short term economic profit over the health of their consumers18. In turn, “the
shortfall in ethical and compliant behaviour in the food industry can be attributed to dysfunctional incentives”19.
On the other hand, although food safety problems are widely publicized, part of the problem in Vietnam is actually also the
inappropriate way of communicating food risks20. Vietnamese consumers are only at the beginning of creating a clear concept
of what exactly constitutes a food risk. If problems arise, food scares emerge but they have no lasting impact because they are
quite often unspecific. In short: Vietnam paid little attention into education and informing21.
The traceability of all ingredients and production additives is a key factor in building trust into food safety. Traceability is part
of an overall cost-effective quality management system that can also assist in continuous improvement and minimization of
the impact of safety hazards22.
Digital platforms can help improving the traceability, but the problem is very complex. Different types of food have different
challenges when trying to trace the production chain. In meat production for example, one can mark the animals and test their
health before slaughtering. However, what is about the small pieces in the following processing? In the crop production, the
problem is even bigger. To check the provenience of a charge of crop, it has to follow the whole production chain from seeding
through fertilizing and spraying, harvesting, transportation and processing.
The producers are playing an important role in this game. They must be convinced, that it is worthwhile to produce food in a
safer way not only in a long-term perspective. They must get better prices for food if the whole chain of production is traceable.
This of course requires them providing their data, data allowing to answer the questions of “who (i.e., actor/product), what
(i.e. actor/product’s information), when (i.e. time), where (i.e. location), why (i.e. cause/reasons), and how (i.e.
measure/communicate)” with regard to food safety, quality and visibility23.
34
A supplier's code of conduct is not enough24.
Precondition is a platform and accessibility to this platform through a web or a mobile client. The application should be easy
to handle and guarantee data security and privacy. The resulting database could not only be used for tracking the provenience
of the ingredients of processed food, but also be an information base for data analytics and machine learning to prevent risks
in the supply chain with the help of artificial intelligence.
4. CONCLUSION
Food safety is a shared responsibility of all stakeholders, including primary producers, transporters, traders, distributors, risk
assessors, policy makers, communicators and customers. “Consumers’ reaction to firms’ responsible conduct create important
incentives for companies to engage in CSR”25. Traceability can be used as a tool for stakeholders in order to give their feedback
to the right place at the right time. It should be included in the dimensions of CRS in the food supply chain in Vietnam.
REFERENCES
World Health Organization Representative Office Vietnam.
http://www.wpro.who.int/vietnam/mediacentre/releases/2015/world_health_day_2015_press_release/en/. April 7,
2015.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/how-vietnam-became-an-economic-miracle/, accessed June 21, 2019
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=VN, assessed June 26, 2019
https://english.vov.vn/economy/demand-growing-for-safe-food-proper-labelling-in-vietnam-346449.vov, assessed June 26,
2019
World Bank (2016), Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and Opportunities
World Bank (2016), Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and Opportunities
Hung Nguyen, et al (2017), Food safety in Vietnam: where we are at and what we can learn from international experiences,
BioMed Central. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-017-0249-7
M. Fritz, G. Schiefer, Int. Journal of Production Economics 117 (2009) 317 - 329: Tracking, tracing and business process
interests in food commodities
Myo Min Aung and Yoon Seok Chang (2012), Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives, Food
control,39:172-184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.11.007
Carroll, A. B. (1999), Corporate Social Responsibility, Business and Society 38(3): 268–295.
The Consumer Goods Forum (2011). Top of Mind 2011. France: The Consumer Goods forum
Harman, M (2011), Corporate Social Responsibility In The Food Sector, European Review of Agricultural Economics, 38:
297- 324
Maloni, M and Brown, M (2006), Corporate Social Responsibility in the Supply Chain: An Application in the Food Industry,
Journal of Business Ethics, 68:35–52
Booth, M (2019), Digital Transformation of the Food System, IFSC_1/19/TS3.5
World Bank (2016), Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and Opportunities
World Bank (2016), Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and Opportunities
World Bank (2016), Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and Opportunities
World Bank (2016), Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and Opportunities
Hung Nguyen, et al (2017), Food safety in Vietnam: where we are at and what we can learn from international experiences,
BioMed Central. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-017-0249-7
Hung Nguyen, et al (2017), Food safety in Vietnam: where we are at and what we can learn from international experiences,
BioMed Central. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-017-0249-7
World Bank (2016), Vietnam Food Safety Risks Management - Challenges and Opportunities
Myo Min Aung and Yoon Seok Chang (2012), Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality perspectives, Food
control,39:172-184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.11.007
Adapted from Myo Min Aung and Yoon Seok Chang (2012), Traceability in a food supply chain: Safety and quality
perspectives, Food control,39:172-184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.11.007
Bin Jiang, Journal of Business Ethics (2009): Implementing Supplier's Code of Conduct in global supply chains
Lev, B., et al. (2010). Is doing good good for you? How corporate charitable contributions enhance revenue growth. Strategic
Management Journal 31: 182–200.
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
35
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA
Nur Arzwin Mohamed Aris1*, Mohamad Syazli Fathi1, Aizul Nahar Harun1, Zainai Mohamed1
1Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur
E-mail: 1awinnur@yahoo.com
Abstract
The Malaysian Government has allocated a policy on the supply of affordable houses to its people, considering that there is a
critical gap between the demand and supply towards the group income of M40. This effort also involved the private sector
albeit facing the challenges in the complex market such as matching the household income with the suitable housing price in
a certain area. Along with the advancement in the digital technology, the digitisation method in planning and monitoring
development is one of the best efforts to integrate various data and information for the purpose of analytical data in the supply
and demand of the affordable housing. Hence, this paper is aimed to explore the approach of digital map with the use of
Geographical Information System (GIS) technology in analysing the equivalence of the household income and the price of
affordable houses in the districts of Selangor. The secondary data obtained from various agencies has been used to structure a
spatial model of affordable housing. The findings have ascertained that the integration of information from various
stakeholders is needed to ensure the successfulness of the affordable yet ensuring the sustainability of the housing demands
for today and in the future.
Keywords: affordable housing; business model; digital map; industrialised building system; geographical information system
1. INTRODUCTION
Malaysian housing provision has been experiencing a huge transition in the last few decades which dramatically changing the
way of society need due to the socio-economic development, urbanization and population increment factors after national
independence era (Aris et al., 2018). The evolving society needs and demands enforced business firms to become more
innovative and agile in responding to the current market’s desire. For that reason, it calls for the application of relevant
information system and information technologies that are capable to analyze various data sources by using digital tools and
techniques. Ardito et al. (2019) suggested that the use of digital technologies capable to visualize and forecast the future
opportunities offered by the complex information from digitization for matching demand and supply is crucial in meeting the
demands.
In responding to the higher demand of volume for houses, the construction industry moved a step forward to using the
industrialized building system (IBS) which found to be more advanced, adjacent to the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Therefore,
the manufacturing and production of the construction product such as the precast concrete should be using the precise robotic
system. Although the development of advanced manufacturing industry for the construction product such as the precast
concrete has been experiencing an evolution in agile technology relevant to the demands of current housing market which
requires the productive establishment of the affordable houses, the issue on equality of affordable house prices according to
the location has been greatly debated due to the residential price offered in the market did not target the M40 group (Bank
Negara Malaysia, 2016; The Sun Daily, 2018). This led to the disruption of whole supply chain management for affordable
housing development and supply. Hence, the step of integrating the related data proposed to the ministry by the various
stakeholders including REHDA (RI, 2018), Bank Negara Malaysia (Ling et al, 2017) and Khazanah Research Institute in
monitoring the accurate housing plan. However, to date, there is no study conducted in attempt to explore the integration of
the data to be used through the approach of GIS in tackling the affordable housing demand and supply gap. Thus, this paper
attempts to integrate the existing secondary data and predicting the future house price at a local scope of socio-economic
development.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The housing market of Malaysia faced the complex crisis in meeting the high demands and at the same time, the issue of
oversupply (Lin Lee, 2014) and overhang also occurred. This crisis is known as the mismatch of demand and supply of
affordable housing for targeted M40 income group. This will disturb the existing business model affairs and transformation
measures through the digital approach are needed. It is due to the voice and opinion of the stakeholders which requested the
9
36
establishment of a central data to visualize the real situation of residential market. Hence this paper will discuss the method of
utilizing the GIS software. The method of calculating the median multiple (MM) approach in measuring the affordable houses
recognized by the World Bank was adapted by this paperwork. It was where the house price was calculated based on the
median income ratio of 3.0. According to this calculation of affordable approach, the price of houses in Malaysia was
RM188,208 for the year 2016. However, the median incomes for each state in Malaysia were different, which lead to the
differences in the prices of affordable houses (Aris et al, 2019). Even though the government has taken the action of setting
the guideline of affordable houses’ price to RM300,000 and below (Bernama, 2019), the developers still faced the high cost
of land especially in the urban area with high density (RI, 2018)
In conducting the real estate business, developers have strategized various methods to lower the construction cost by using the
IBS as one of the method of construction work. Still, the efforts of acknowledging the utilization of the IBS were doubted by
the developers due to the lack of economies of scale towards the IBS product in the market, leading to the higher cost of the
product used for the construction (Amin et al., 2017). Nevertheless, the application of advanced technology in various fields
of business cannot be denied, and adopting the use of advanced technology as the competitive advantage for them to supply
better product to customers (Ashwell, 2017). There were more companies which have been utilizing the various platforms of
information technology to forecast the customers’ demand which will finally bring the optimum profit to them (Krishnamoorthi
and Mathew, 2018). In the matter of supplying the affordable house process, the prediction and forecast is a must so that all
stakeholders will gain the benefits from it.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Therefore, this study adopted the secondary data from various sources which then were keyed in the attribute table in the
ArcGIS software (version 10.5). The data entry and collection in this attribute table was in a form of central data processing.
This centralized data were then generated and visual maps were illustrated in Fig.1 and Fig.2. This paperwork used the
method of median multiple (MM3) approach in measuring the index of affordable houses. According to MM approach, the
median household income financially capable to afford was three times by the annual household income. So the calculation
of affordable housing is:
Market house price / annual median income by district = affordability index If RM300,000/ (RM5293 x 12 month) = 4.7
(seriously unaffordable)
Case study Selangor state
The scope of this study was narrowing down to the area of Selangor, which located in the west of Peninsular Malaysia and
contain the highest population resident in Malaysia. The Selangor government has set the guideline of housing development
requirements in Selangor by allocating a number of affordable housing units in every housing zone in that particular state.
Although this measure has been helping the people of in the state to own a house since 2013, there were still some gaps that
needed to be filled in order to meet the demands of M40 group in Selangor. Even the residential overhang in this state has
been reporting to be increased from 2016 to 2018 which exceeded 3765 units. If a research to understand the market demand
is not being conducted to study the supply of the houses which do not properly meet the affordable price, it was feared that
more overhang units will exist, interfering the economic stability.
Types of data and data sources
The collection of secondary data involved various sources from related agencies. The types of data related to the study will
be entered in the attribute table software of ArcGIS 10.5 and illustrated in the form of digital maps. The summary of the
related data is as in Table 1.
Table 1: Various data sources for affordable housing supply using precast concrete product
Data Sources
Types of Data
Data format
Construction Industry Development Board
(CIDB)
IBS precast concrete location
.xls file
PLAN Malaysia
Zoning housing land use
.shp file
Department of Statistic Malaysia (DoSM)
Median household income
.pdf file
National Property Information Centre (NAPIC)
Median all house price
.pdf file
Jabatan Penilaian dan Perkhidmatan Harta (JPPH)
Selangor
Land price
.pdf file
Lembaga Perumahan dan Hartanah
Selangor (LPHS)
Housing zoning
.pdf file
4. DISCUSSION AND FINDINGS
All in all, the integration of data related to the development of affordable houses can be displayed and analysed accordingly
to the local median income in the districts of Selangor using the ArcGIS software. Zoning land use pattern for housing in
Selangor (future supply) was centralized in the urban, suburban and small parts of rural zones. If the government has set the
house price of RM300K as the price of affordable house according to the forecast of 2018 and 2020, some of the residents
37
in the suburban and rural zone in Selangor will not be able to afford a house with that stipulation. However, the residents in
the rural area can afford to build their own house which equally fit to their income due to the lower price of land at the area.
If the developers’ strategy was to develop houses in the rural area to optimize their profit by offering affordable price to the
potential buyers, the housing project is considered having a high risk to become overhang, due to the problem such as the
convenient access to the public transportation (Olanrewaju et al, 2016). Hence, the government should take a more proactive
approach to provide the convenient public transportation based on the trend of this housing supply. Through this forecast
method, the increased in median income with the suitable affordable house price can be predicted and the developers will
have the chance to construct the strategy of utilizing the precast concrete product from the supplier, whether through
negotiation or open tender so that they are capable to minimize the transportation cost to their construction site. This forecast
method through the digital display will aid the stakeholders in evaluating the equity of the housing development project so
that it will be suitable and coincided with the targeted population.
Fig. 1: Thematic map for affordable house price for year 2016 and prediction on 2018 and 2020
Fig. 2: Affordability index for year 2018 if RM300K median house price and precast concrete manufacturer registered
with CIDB in year 2017 with zoning for housing in Selangor
5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Overall, utilizing of digitisation in integrating the information and data is crucial in transforming the affordable housing
development for all stakeholders. The cooperation among developers, government, and government agencies via information
sharing will give a great impact towards the supply chain for forecasting the wish and demands of the people which are also
the prospective buyers. The approaches that have been discussed in this paper should be further analysed by taking into
account other data factors such as customer profiling. Further study on data centralization with the utilization of cloud
computing for sharing of information between the firm and web application will enable the information to be shared by
various parties in or der to reduce the operational cost and meet the demands through the rational affordable house prices
offered.
38
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was financially supported by Dana Razak Research Grant Scheme (UTM Grant No. 4J316) under Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The first author also would like to express her gratitude to Universiti Tun Husssein Onn
Malaysia (UTHM) and Ministry of Education (MoE) for the sponsorship of PhD study.
REFERENCES
Ardito, L., Petruzzelli, A. M., Panniello, U., & Garavelli, A. C. (2019). Towards Industry 4.0. Business Process Management
Journal, 25(2), 323–346.
Aris, N. A. M., Fathi, M. S., Harun, A. N., & Mohamed, Z. (2019). Towards A Sustainable Supply of Affordable Housing
with Prefabrication Technology : An Overview. Journal of Advanced Research in Business and Management Studies,
15(1), 1– 13.
Aris, N. A. M., Syazli Fathi, M., Nahar Harun, A., & Mohamed, Z. (2018). An Overview of Housing Purchase and Delivery
System in Malaysia. International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7(3.21), 57.
Ashwell, M. L. (2017). The digital transformation of intelligence analysis. Journal of Financial Crime, 24(3), 393–411.
Bank Negara Malaysia. (2016). Assessing Demand and Supply Conditions in The Malaysian Property Market. In Bank Negara
Annual Report 2015.
Bernama. (2019). Harga Rumah Mampu Milik Harus Bawah RM300k Seunit – PM. Bernama. Retrieved from
https://www.pmo.gov.my/ms/2019/03/harga-rumah-mampu-milik-harus-bawah-rm300k-seunit-pm/
Krishnamoorthi, S., & Mathew, S. K. (2018). Business analytics and business value: A comparative case study. Information
and Management, 55(5), 643–666.
Lin Lee, C. (2014). The inflation-hedging characteristics of Malaysian residential property. International Journal of Housing
Markets and Analysis, 7(1), 61–75.
Ling, C. S., Almeida, S. J., & Ho Su Wei. (2017). BNM Quarterly Buletin: Affordable Housing : Challenges and the Way
Forward Q4. Retrieved from http://www.bnm.gov.my/files/publication/qb/2017/Q4/p3ba1.pdf
Mohd Amin, M. A., Abas, N. H., Shahidan, S., Rahmat, M. H., Suhaini, N. A., Nagapan, S., & Abdul Rahim, R. (2017). A
review on the current issues and barriers of Industrialised Building System (IBS) adoption in Malaysia’s construction
industry. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 271(1).
Olanrewaju, A., Aziz, A. R. A., Tan, S. Y., Tat, L. L., & Mine, N. (2016). Market Analysis of Housing Shortages in Malaysia.
Procedia Engineering, 164(June), 315–322.
RI. (2018). Affordable Housing – The Game Plan Transformation. Petaling Jaya: REHDA Institute.
The Sun Daily. (2018, February). Bank Negara to Reduce Affordable Housing Gap. The Sun Daily. Retrieved from
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/2018/02/14/bank-negara-reduce-affordable-housing-gap
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
39
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT: WHERE WILL NEW JOBS BE CREATED?
Mathias Binswanger 1
1 University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland
E-mail: 1mathias.binswanger@fhnw.ch
Abstract
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has enormous potential for replacing jobs by robots and algorithms. While in the past physical
labor and routine activities were replaced by machines and computers, now, for the first time, it is possible to substitute
machines for human intelligence. Thanks to artificial intelligence and self-learning systems complex mental tasks can be
performed by algorithms in a variety of different fields such as financial investment, medical diagnosis or traffic optimization.
Therefore, less labor will be needed to produce goods and services and man jobs are likely to disappear. Forecasts clearly show
that the additional demand for IT specialists will not come close to compensate for the predicted job losses. In this paper, we
will analyze the expected change in employment and show, where new jobs are likely to appear. They will be related to an
increasing complexity of many economic processes and lead to the emergence of a new bureaucracy.
Keywords: digital transformation; technological progress; unemployment; bureaucracy; bullshit job.
1. INTRODUCTION
The fourth industrial revolution has enormous potential for replacing currently existing jobs by robots and algorithms. While
in past industrial revolutions machines mostly replaced muscle power of humans, digitalization will allow substituting capital
also for the human mind. This process will be more dramatic than the process of automatization, which we observed since the
1960s. Automatization mainly described an ongoing development, where programming enabled computers to perform well-
defined routine tasks. But digital transformation will allow computers, robots and algorithms in combination with big data to
deal with increasingly complex and creative mental tasks in many domains such as trading financial products, logistics or
traffic optimization.
Therefore, we expect "smart factories" to produce goods without directly involving human labor in the future. And many
services are likely to be delivered with less and less human labor. In view of such forecasts, it is not surprising that potential
job losses feature prominently in discussions about economic consequences of the fourth industrial revolution. Depending on
data and assumptions, studies for the USA and the United Kingdom conclude that between 9 and 47 percent of all jobs are at
risk (Arntz et al., 2016; Frey and Osborne, 2017; PWC, 2017). The Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg
believes that 25 percent of jobs in Germany are likely to disappear (Dengler and Matthes, 2018). And in Switzerland it is
expected that by 2030 around a fifth to a quarter of work activities will be replaced by robots and algorithms (Mc Kinsey,
2018). But no matter how large the percentage will be: it is commonly acknowledged that a wide range of jobs will eventually
disappear.
The long-forgotten conflict between labor-saving technological progress and full employment will once again become apparent
in the fourth industrial revolution. Therefore the question arises: where will people work in the future, if a large portion of
currently existing jobs are expected to disappear?
Economists usually argue that technological progress in the past has always created a sufficient number of new jobs, which
more than compensated for the destruction of old jobs. For if technological progress increases labor productivity and thus
ultimately GDP per capita, then rising prosperity will at the same time boost demand for new goods and services. For example,
a report by the Swiss Federal Council in March 2017 stated that in the past two decades about 350,000 jobs had been lost in
Switzerland because of structural change, but that 860,000 jobs had been created during the same period. Therefore we should
expect a similar development with respect to digital transformation, as long as we always adapt our education system to the
new challenges associated with digitalization. So far economic history has proven optimists to be correct. There has never
been mass unemployment in the history of capitalist economies in the longer run. High unemployment rates were the result of
economic crises like the Great Depression in the USA at the beginning of the 1930s or the crisis in Greece after 2008 but not
10
40
the result of labor-saving technological progress. Nevertheless, many people wonder, where new jobs are supposed to be
created in the future. The forecasts mentioned above make it clear that additional demand for IT specialists will not even come
close to compensate for the expected job losses triggered by the digital transformation. In this paper we will demonstrate that
many new jobs are also likely to be created during the fourth industrial revolution. But this will happen in rather unexpected
ways.
2. BUREAUCRACY, BULLSHIT JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT
Already during earlier phases of economic history, bureaucracy has significantly contributed to employment in capitalist
economies. In the 19th century, the emergence of labor-intensive bureaucratic structures accompanied the process of
industrialization. In England, bureaucracy during the first half of the the 19th century was primarily associated with the
administration of the army (Abramovitz and Eliasberg, 1957). But during the second half of the 19th century especially post
services and the police provided employment for a growing number of civil servants.
The emergence of New Public Management (NPM) in the 1990s (e.g. Budäus (1994)) was an important trigger for a new wave
of bureaucratization, that is all around us today. This seems paradoxical at first, because one of the main objectives of NPM
was the replacement of the old bureaucratic, inefficient government by a modern, efficient and customer-oriented government.
An efficient and lean public administration was supposed to be created with the help of management tools that were developed
for private companies. It was assumed that government employees (civil servants) simply had to be given the right incentives
in order to perform well. Rules and regulations, the classic instruments of the old bureaucracy were replaced by performance-
oriented contracts and agreements.
If we look at politics since the 1990s, it is above all socialist governments that have advocated the idea of NPM. They had
been throwing overboard their old ideas of class struggle, and the new enthusiasm for the market and competition spread by
the Thatcher and Reagan governments in the USA and Great Britain in the 1980s came just at the right time. The performance
and quality of government institutions was measured by an array of indicators and then a constant improvement was supposed
to take place by incentivizing government employees accordingly (Binswanger, 2010, p. 44ff ). The "socialist" successor of
Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, led the way by trying to turn the previous bureaucratic state (or what was left of it after the
Thatcher era) upside down with appropriate reforms. In the wake of Blair, the then Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder felt
obliged to make NPM the standard program of "progressive socialists" in Germany under the euphemism "activating state".
And also consulting firms like McKinsey jumped on the bandwagon. They now had the opportunity to "advise" governmental
institutions such as universities and hospitals in order to make them fit for competition in a "pseudo market economy".
The permanent pressure to achieve measurable efficiency and measurable quality set in motion by the NPM turned out to
create a whole array of new jobs. NPM became the trigger for a new bureaucracy based on controlling, evaluation and
optimization, in which traditional rules and regulations were replaced by performance agreements and measurable goals. This
is particularly evident in education, health care and research. Not surprisingly, it is in these areas that most jobs have been
created since the 1990s in many countries. The health care system turned into a real job machine that more than compensated
for job losses in other industries.
But the new bureaucracy is not only based on ideas that have emerged from NPM (e.g. Drechsler, 2008), nor is it limited to
public administration. In addition to typically bureaucratic activities associated with administration, organization, monitoring,
controlling, registration, documentation, evaluation or coding, it also includes activities such as certification, accreditation,
consulting, coaching or mentoring. Trained specialists and experts usually carry out jobs in these domains. Sometimes they
still operate under commonly known professional labels such as coders, consultants or controllers. However, we increasingly
encounter specialists who, for example, call themselves "Data Facility Hierarchical Storage Manager", "Human Resources
Management Consultant", "Regulatory Compliance Manager", "Regional Coordinator in Education Marketing" or "Freelance
Certification Auditor". All these jobs sound very important but it is often difficult to guess what these people do.
The lack of meaning of many activities also motivated the anthropologist David Graeber (Graeber, 2018) to write a book about
this phenomenon. He observed that in recent decades more and more so-called "bullshit jobs" had emerged in governmental
as well as private organizations.. Graeber refers to bullshit jobs as useless jobs whose actual meaning remains obscure and
which nobody would miss, if they disappeared. According to Graeber, socially meaningful work, on the other hand, becomes
increasingly scarce, because computers, algorithms or robots replace employees in these domains. Graeber's observation of an
increase in "bullshit jobs" thus points to a central phenomenon in the current development of capitalist economies. There is an
increasing number of jobs that no longer correspond to our traditional idea of meaningful activities, although they are often
portrayed as important and innovative activities.
However, it can be argued that the classification of a job as a meaningful activity or as a bullshit job is rather arbitrary. Graeber
himself sees this problem as well (Graeber, 2013). One could also argue, he writes, that his job as a professor of anthropology
is also a bullshit job. There is no objective way of assessing the social value of a specific job. It is not obvious where to draw
41
the line between meaningful jobs and bullshit jobs. Graeber fails to provide any convincing criteria, which would allow for
such a classification.
Despite of this ambiguity, many of us suspect that bullshit jobs actually exist and that they are often associated with
bureaucracy. However, besides of being overwhelmed by the emergence of new bullshit jobs, we observe that traditionally
meaningful jobs are turning into bullshit jobs as well (see Hamel and Zanini, 2017). For example, doctors and nurses in
hospitals have less and less time for treating patients. Instead, time has to be spent on activities such as coding, documentation,
controlling or monitoring. Scientists spend more of their time for acquiring projects, writing applications or reports or for
evaluation of other projects, so there is little time left for research. And frequently research itself is also turning into a bullshit
activity. Many research activities only serve the goal to produce a maximal number of publications in scientific journals or to
receive research funds. The content of research, however, is usually of minor importance (Binswanger, 2010, pp. 140-179).
But why do bullshit jobs exist at all? What is the incentive to pay people for activities that do not result in obvious benefits?
Graeber also fails to answer this question. Instead, he is puzzled by this fact and writes (Graeber, 2013): "It is, as if someone
were out there inventing meaningless jobs just to keep us all working". Because it would actually be enough, if we only worked
3 to 4 hours a day. In an interview in the blog "Working In These Times" of May 10, 2018 Graeber states:
"Can one imagine a better proof of a stupid economic system than the fact that the prospect of the disappearance of boring and
unpleasant jobs is seen as an economic problem? Any rational economic system would redistribute work so that everyone
would have to work less.”
But here Graeber fails to see an important point. The rationality of capitalist economies lies precisely in the fact that they also
generate useless jobs in order to prevent increasingly productive economies from higher unemployment. This is how full
employment can be maintained in spite of digitalization. If, on the other hand, we all started to work less, as Graeber imagines,
this would require a new distribution of labour. In this case people would translate labour- saving technical progress into more
leisure time and less work. The remaining meaningful jobs would be distributed among more people with shorter working
hours but also lower incomes. But in this case, aggregate income will stagnate or fall, and so will consumption. Companies
then begin to make losses, and the economy inevitably falls into a downward spiral.
Keynes had already mistakenly predicted such a decline in working hours in his 1930 essay "The economic possibilities of our
grandchildren" (Keynes, 1930). Keynes believed that a hundred years later, around 2030, people would be able to satisfy their
material needs with a fraction of their working hours. They would then only have to work three hours a day and would have
more time for leisure. This would enable people to do more meaningful and enjoyable work. Today, the year 2030 is not far
any more, but we still work considerably more than 3 hours a day. Average weekly working hours have fallen since the 1930s
from around 50 hours to 40 hours, but that was it. Since the 1980s, average working hours have hardly fallen any more
(Skidelsky and Skidelsky, 2013, p. 35 ff.). The main reason for Keynes' miscalculation is that he did not see the need for
growth in capitalist economies and instead assumed that the economy would stagnate at some point once most people's material
needs are satisfied (Binswanger, 2019).
The quest for growth prevents higher labor productivity from being translated into more leisure time. Therefore, there is an
increasing need for a bureaucracy capable of guaranteeing full employment, even if it is associated with bullshit jobs. However,
we do not find any job advertisements where people are hired in order to increase bureaucracy or to do meaningless work. The
demand for most of these jobs results from the increasing bureaucracy itself. Bureaucracy always breeds more bureaucracy.
Many people would probably agree that the profession of a certification auditor qualifies as a bullshit job. Certification systems,
however, are part of the new bureaucracy and are supposed to guarantee that quality standards are met in companies or public
organizations. It is believed that certified companies or organizations will perform better because there they have introduced
measures to ensure quality. But the process of certification only works if there are also trained certification auditors. Once
certification systems are introduced, certification auditors become a necessary part of the economy.
3. CONCLUSION
The digital transformation of the economy will cause many job losses, as is predicted by forecasts for several countries.
However, this transformation is also associated with a new wave of bureaucracy, which creates a variety of new jobs including
so-called bullshit jobs. This development is already obvious in many countries especially in domains such as health care or
education. Therefore, we are not likely to see a substantial increase in unemployment figures in the next decades. It is true that
considerably less people will be involved in production of goods and also some services. But at the same time, the economy
becomes increasingly complex, which requires new jobs for dealing with this complexity. Overall, the resulting increase in
bureaucracy will be labor-intensive and compensate for the job losses caused by the digital transformation. This is the good
news. The bad news is an increase in rather meaningless activities, which lead to more controlling, evaluation and regulation.
42
REFERENCES
Abramovitz, M. and Eliasberg, V.F. (1957). Government in Nineteenth Century Great Britain. In: Moses Abramovitz and Vera
F. Eliasberg The Growth of Public Employment in Great Britain. Princeton University Press. S. 8-23.
Arntz, M, Gregory, T., Zierahn, U. (2016). The Risk of Automation for Jobs in OECD Countries. OECD Social, Employment
and Migration Working Papers No. 189. Paris.
Binswanger, M. (2010). Sinnlose Wettbewerbe – Warum wir immer mehr Unsinn produzieren. Herder Verlag, Freiburg.
Binswanger, M. (2019). Der Wachstumszwang – Warum die Volkswirtschaft stets weiterwachsen muss, selbst wenn wir genug
haben. Wiley Verlag, Weinheim.
Budäus, D. (1994). Public Management. Konzepte und Verfahren zur Modernisierung öffentlicher Verwaltungen. (=
Modernisierung des öffentlichen Sektors. Band 2). Berlin 1994.
Dengler, K. und Matthes, B. (2018). Substituierbarkeitspotenziale von Berufen. Wenige Berufsbilder halten mit der
Digitalisierung Schritt. IAB Kurzbericht 4/2018.
Drechsler, W. (2008). Aufstieg und Untergang des New Public Management. Kurswechsel 2/2008, S. 17-26.
Frey, C. and Osborne (2017). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2017, vol. 114, issue C, 254-280.
Graeber, D. (2013). On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant. Strike Magazine, Issue 3, August. Graeber, D. (2018).
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. Allen Lane.
Hamel, G. and Zanini, M. (2017). What We Learned About Bureaucracy from 7,000 HBR Readers. Haravard Business Review,
August 10th.
Keynes, J. M. (1930), Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren. in: Essays in Persuasion, New York: W.W.Norton & Co.,
1963, pp. 358-373.
McKinsey (2018). The Future of Work. Switzerland’s Digital Opportunity. McKinsey&Company Switzerland. PWC (2017).
Will robots steal our jobs? The potential impact of automation on the UK and other major economies.
UK Economic Outlook March 2017. S. 31-47.
Skidelsky, R. and Skidelsky, E. (2012): How Much is Enough? Money and the Good Life, New York, NY, USA
E-Proceedings of 2nd Connect-Us Conference (CuC 2019)
Digital Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges
43
CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA:
RECEPTION ANALYSIS AGAINST VIOLENCE AND SEXUALITY ON SASUSAKU FANFICTION
Balqis Fallahnda 1*, Ratna Permata Sari 2 Herman Felani3
1,2,3 Universitas Islam Indonesia
E-mail: 1ratna.permatasari@uii.ac.id
Abstract
In Naruto Anime story, there is SasuSaku couple who have a lot of fans. SasuSaku fans produced stories (fan fiction) with
various types and genres. Most of SasuSaku fan fiction stories contained violence and sexuality elements.This study uses a
reception analysis from Stuart Hall that considers the active audience in understanding the basis of their personal experiences
of receiving a massage (story). The audiences were divided into three groups based on how they attach meaning to their
experiences, namely dominant hegemonic position, negotiation position, and opposition position. Respondents of this research
are readers from the story of fan fiction entitled "Little Secret (End): Chapter 1-5” written by Rina Afina which was published
on Wattpad. It is concluded that the respondents who put themselves into a dominant hegemonic position agreed with violence
and sexuality in the story of fan fiction and they did not concern with the existence of violence and sexuality because those
elements create the dynamic in the storyline. Respondents who put themselves into a negotiation position negotiated with the
limitation for the ideal age of fan fiction readers and were influenced by the original story. Meanwhile, respondents who put
themselves into opposition position refused violence and sexuality elements in SasuSaku fan fiction story because those
elements do not have any positive value and were not appropriate for the readers. The researchers also explained the
background of the respondents' ideology in defining and positioning themselves against SasuSaku fan fiction.
Keywords: Anime, Naruto, SasuSaku, fan fiction, Violence, Sexuality, reception analysis
1. BACKGROUND
The popularity of manga and anime in Indonesia began to be seen in the '90s. It can be seen through the number of television
channels which broadcast the anime program. At that time, all about Japanese things such as anime, songs, books, comics, and
toys became famous. [1]. One of the most popular anime is Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto. For about sixteen years, Naruto
anime received 8.2 / 10 fromwww.imdb.comratings[2]. The Naruto anime began to be broadcasted in Japan on TV Tokyo
from 2002 that had two sequels i.e. Naruto Shippuden and Naruto Next Generation. In Indonesia, Naruto anime was first aired
on Trans TV, but it was stopped and then GTVbroadcasted it. Besides, the Naruto anime can be viewed through an online
website for free with subtitles Indonesian language on www.samehadaku.tv and animeindo.video. Because of Naruto anime
program on Indonesia television, it made Naruto anime more famous [3]. Among many characters in the Naruto anime, the
favorite couple is Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura or often called "SasuSaku". It proved by a lot of fans made social media
accounts of that couple such as Instagram accounts: @sasukesakuras, @sasusaky, and @ssakura_x.
In this case, fans are individuals who interpret a culture with different meanings, based on their intellectual and emotional
ability [4]. The content of SasuSaku fan account on Instagram is filled with fan fiction story. Fanfiction is the products of
creative thought by fans who want another story besides the original story that was written by the original author of a comic
(manga), anime, film, or novel. The fans recreated the original plot with the story that they want, but the characters, settings,
and background still follow the original structure [5]. The reason why many fan fiction stories are made by SasuSaku fans is
because the fans assumed that Studio Pierrot (as the production house) has made a different storyline from the manga Naruto
anime, especially about SasuSaku couple. Fans assumed that Studio Pierrot has deleted important parts of SasuSaku couple.
This dissatisfaction made SasuSaku fans created their own storyline of SasuSaku couple according to what they want by
making fan fiction products such as fan art, comic books, short stories, and novels.
Among many genres of fanfictionSasuSaku, violence and sexuality became the most favorite genre. The interesting part is that
the love story of SasuSaku couple in manga and anime does not refer to any sexuality content. But, we can see the scenes of
violence between Sakura and Sasuke in episode 214, where Sasuke tried to kill Sakura as a girl who loves him. Here, the
current researchers will focus on the elements of violence and sexuality described on SasuSaku fanfiction.Based on the
background, the research question is to know how the reception of SasuSaku fans toward violence and sexuality in SasuSaku
fanfiction.
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2. RESEARCH METHODS
This research uses the analysis of the reception, which focuses on the fact that the audience is active. Besides, it also analyzes
that reception will be in line with the theory of encoding and decoding/reception theory Stuart Hall (1977) and audience
analysis by McQuail (2011). Both theories are in agreement in terms of how the audience give meaning towards something,
these meanings will be different depending on the background of viewpoints, experiences, and cultural context of each
audience.
In the context of this study, the audience is a fan SasuSaku which read fan fiction. The researchers will analyze the meanings
that the fans attributed, for violence and sexuality in SasuSaku fan fiction, these fans have different perspectives and
experiences, as well as the cultural contexts.
In this study, fans are categorized into three positions, such as: first, dominant hegemonic position, where the audience on this
group interpret the messages according to what media mean. Second, negotiating position, where the audience in this group
can accept the meaning of the message from the media, they also provide its own interpretation of the media message. Third,
the opposition position, the audience in this group interpret the message contrary to what media expected [6]. In this study,
researchers did in-depth interviews with eight respondents. Researchers attached the questionnaires before the interview
begins. Every interview was recorded and transcribed accurately, so researchers will be able to interpret the information from
the respondents. Researchers chose samples of fan fiction who is suitable with the focus of research: violence and sexuality.
For the sample of research, researchers used titled "Little Secret (End)" chapter 1 – 5 written by Rina Afina and published on
Wattpad, this fan fiction has been read more than 347 000 times.
3. DISCUSSION
Fan Reception Analysis on Violence in Fanfiction SasuSaku: This section explains the details of the understanding of each fan
about violence in SasuSaku fan fiction using reception theory. Based on the theory, fans will be grouped into three groups
based on how they give meaning to the story. Three groups of fan were labelled as: dominant hegemonic position, negotiating
position, and opposition position. All of eight respondents, fan find violence in the samples.
A. Dominant Hegemonic Position
The dominant hegemony position is a position of audience to interpret the meaning of the message as appropriate or consistent
with the producer of the message and show the acceptance or approval with the message [6].
Based on the theory of hegemony of the dominant position of the audience, interviews were conducted with eight of the
respondents, the researchers found only one from the respondents, Syauqi, who agree with violence content on this fan fiction
story.
He found many violent scenes such as kicking, slapping, pulling, or even biting. These violence forms are included in physical
violence, where physical violence is an act of injuring the victims physically [7].
The element of fan violence is also considered as a normal thing that happens in a fan fiction. Even is a necessity that will
make the story more dynamic. So that such violence genre does not become a big problem when fan read or enjoy SasuSaku
fan fiction. Because they (fanfiction writers) just write stories about what they like and what they want.[8]. Thus, their favorite
may be fan fiction with violence. Reception theory sees the audience as active, in this case, the SasuSaku fans. Fans enjoy the
process of text consumption based on their preferences. Because they recreated the story becomes something fun and satisfying
for them [8].
B. Negotiating Position
Negotiating position is a position where the audience receives the meaning of the message delivered by the media with add or
give their own interpretation based on the audience experience. The audience not only receives the message delivered by the
media but also considered the positive and negative sides of the meaning of the messages. Information from eight respondents
indicated that four of them are the audience with the negotiating positions of the elements of violence in fan fiction SasuSaku.
They are Ghifary, Diah, Shifak, and Ari. These fans give two themes of SasuSaku fan fiction that contain the abusive element.
First, fans who negotiated with the appropriate age restrictions for the readers. The underage readers are considered not mature
enough to consume violent element wisely. Because violence includes deviant actions such as destructive actions, violation
which exceeds the limit, the unjust acts, reproach, disrespectful treatment, insult, defame, weaken, abuse, attack and disrupt
[7]. The fan fiction writers usually write the genre and age restrictions on the home page of the fan fiction, but it doesn't close
the possibility that their readers who under age will read the fan fiction.
Second, the fans stated that it was not a problem for them to read fanfiction which contained elements of violence as long as
these elements were still in line with the original storyline in the Naruto anime series. As we know, fan fiction or commonly
abbreviated as fanfic is one of the genres of literature written by fans based on existing literature works. Such as novels, films,
or television shows, without the permission of the original author of the literature. In this case, fans expand the original story
both the characters and the setting of the story. Fans write fanfiction to make the stories according to what they like [8]. Fans
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admit that anime series also contains elements of violence. In this case, researchers talked about Sasuke and Sakura. The scenes
of violence between Sakura and Sasuke appear in episode 214, where Sasuke tried to kill Sakura as a girl who loves him.
C. Opposition Position
Audience with the opposition position is the audience who refused the message transferred by the media. This group oppositely
interprets the message [6]. In short, the position of the opposition is the antithesis of the dominant hegemonic position. There
are three respondents among the eight respondents who are in opposition position. They are Handri, Meutiara, and Zulfa.
Violence is a word with negative connotations and meanings that make fans strongly reject this element in fan fiction. Violence
(including clashes, riots, and fights) in its manifestation is something destructive [9]. According to KBBI online, violence is
an act of a person or group that causes physical or another people's damage [10]. Being a big fan of SasuSaku, they cannot
justify the element of violence in fan fiction SasuSaku. Respondent found the violence form in fan fiction sample are verbal
violence and sexual violence. Verbal violence is an instrument or a part of psychological mental violence. As we know,
emotional violence is violence that attacks the psychological side, such as verbal violence [7]. Moreover, psychological
violence can take form like, brainwash, intimidation, bullying, character assassination, and so on. Meanwhile, sexual violence
is the persecution either through action or speech to another person to do sexual activities. Respondents found the scene
contains sexual activities in the form of rape.
The results of the descriptions are reception analysis about violence in SasuSaku fan fiction suitable with the theory of encoding
decoding/reception by Hall. Reception theory explains the audience activity to read the text and give its own meaning based
on the audience experience. Fans in three reception groups