The full potential of e-learning, a trend that is of growing importance lately, will not be reaped unless the users fully utilize the system, triggering extensive research to be conducted in order to provide valuable insight on a myriad of variables influencing user acceptance in e-learning systems. The main purpose of the study is to determine the factors that affect the intention of users to use e-learning and to get results which can guide system developers and researchers. In accordance with this purpose, 203 studies investigating the e-learning acceptance of the users through the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) were found in the literature. In those studies, variables which are suggested to determine Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and results of related hypotheses are analyzed. Finally, a model is proposed. In this model, the most widely accepted hypotheses, affecting PU and PEOU according to the literature are included in the original TAM. As a result; it determines Self Efficacy-PEOU, Subjective Norm-PU, Self Efficacy-PU, Interaction-PU, Enjoyment-PEOU, Anxiety-PEOU, Enjoyment-PU, Compatibility-PU, Subjective Norm-PEOU and Interaction-PEOU as variables that have statistical significance in users’ PU and PEOU, respectively. Moreover, the study examines the relationship between the User Satisfaction and original TAM variables, and proposes the Acceptance and Satisfaction Model for E-Learning (ASME) as a model to best explain the dependent variables described above.
The wide usage of information technologies in production has led to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which has enabled real data collection from production tools that are capable of communicating with each other through the Internet of Things (IoT). Real time data improves production control especially in dynamic production environments. This study proposes a decision support system (DSS) designed to increase the performance of dispatching rules in dynamic scheduling using real time data, hence an increase in the overall performance of the job-shop. The DSS can work with all dispatching rules. To analyze its effects, it is run with popular dispatching rules selected from the literature on a simulation model created in Arena®. When the number of jobs waiting in the queue of any workstation in the job-shop falls to a critical value, the DSS can change the order of schedules in its preceding workstations to feed the workstation as soon as possible. For this purpose, it first determines the jobs in the preceding workstations to be sent to the current workstation, then finds the job with the highest priority number according to the active dispatching rule, and lastly puts this job in the first position in its queue. The DSS is tested under low, normal, and high demand rate scenarios with respect to six performance criteria. It is observed that the DSS improves the system performance by increasing workstation utilization and decreasing both the number of tardy jobs and the amount of waiting time regardless of the employed dispatching rule.
5 July 2021 in Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering