Memories

 I found an old textbook yesterday. It reminded me of my master's program at UMBC. I especially remember that I prepared a paper on the furniture industry for my Electronic Commerce course. I discovered that the industry is fiercely competitive. I remember furniture businesses were closing all around Maryland. Years after, I wrote a signature assignment on IKEA, a dominant player in the US furniture industry.

Back then, I preferred the physical books. I did not use/purchase a single electronic textbook during my program.

Weird coincidences

At some point in my life I didn't want to invest in a PhD. Later, I thought a PhD was not necessary for some things. I had reason to question what jobs and opportunities the PhD provides because of weird coincidences I mentioned before:

Isn't it interesting that there was a guy with a PhD in my master's degree program at GW? And, later, there was a professor in my training program at Fannie Mae?

(From: https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/07/commencement-documents.html)

Just another weird coincidence in my life.

PhD funding

 I am happy that I invested in a PhD. I am better off because of the degree program (You may know that I wanted to join a program in Florida. I ended up in another). Funding it (tuition, expenses such as food and transportation) was a challenge.

Funding for a PhD and finances during the program is an issue for many. I remember my struggles during my PhD program. I had several "side jobs" but still had issues. I missed my regular paycheck from an IT job. I sought funding from different sources.

There is good information out there on the finances of PhD students. I was piqued by a website on Personal Finance for PhDs. There were different experiences.

Flutophone

 My post yesterday mentioned a red and white flutophone. A red and white flutophone is shown in my blog for the Research Methods course (https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com/2016/08/work-continues_17.html and https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com/2016/08/taking-break.html). The blog shows a lot of my background (There is a lot of ME. Some would say it stinks of Fahmeena Odetta Moore). There is a photo of the dorm at UG (https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com/2016/08/rewrite.html), a photo of the presentation on Guyana for my church's International Day (https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com/2016/08/working-despite-issues.html), and so on. Incidentally, my Research Methods course includes a lot of economics and IT. I used knowledge gained at UG. That was a good course!! I enjoyed it.

Note: UG refers to the University of Guyana rather than the University of Georgia in the US.

Using Your Background

 This is an interesting post. I was not very close to my professors during my Master's programs and did not keep in contact. I suspect most students do not stay in touch.

I learned a lot too. I did not use the knowledge at work as much as the poster did though. I used my background a lot in my papers. At one point, I had a similar list showing how I used my background to produce a paper.

Ideas

One of the ideas/thoughts I am proud of is the connection I made between utils and usability. Usability could be used to better understand/model utils. See my post on Utils and Usability:

https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/10/utils-and-usability.html?m=1

Employee Feedback Technologies

I found an interesting article on technologies used for employee feedback, referred to as employee feedback technologies. It is:

Employee feedback technologies in the human performance system, 2010
By Nathan Baker
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13678868.2010.501994

One of the technologies/techniques is 360-degree feedback. I was not familiar with it so I looked it up. I found a lot of resources on 360-degree systems for feedback. Here is an annotated bibliography on using 360-degree feedback in organizations:

Using 360-Degree Feedback In Organizations: An Annotated Bibliography
By: John W. Fleenor and Jeffrey Michael Prince
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Fleenor/publication/317284725_Using_360-degree_feedback_in_organizations/links/593030d145851553b67efe9b/Using-360-degree-feedback-in-organizations.pdf

This is an interesting topic!

ORCID profile

I worked on / updated my ORCID profile a short while ago. It is a work-in-progress.

Currently, the main information in the profile includes a summary and my education (degrees/diplomas). Here is a challenge: If you had only my current ORCID profile and my papers to review, could you guess my experience or employment history?

Screenshot of ORCID profile of Fahmeena Odetta Moore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (I reused this post as my response to the Wordpress prompt for 1/5/2023. Topic: Colleges attended)

Strong Background Needed

There is a lot of economics in my papers. "Where does the economics come from?" some may ask. I actually have a bachelor's degree in economics. And, I was studying economics long before then. I studied economics in high school. I passed economics at GCE O-level in 1991 (the certificates I posted about a month ago show this - see https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/10/pc-certificates.html). Back then, economics was not offered at CXC so I wrote it through the London external examinations.

Having a strong background in an area/subject is important. My MS degree in Information Systems at UMBC (see https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/07/commencement-documents.html) provided a strong background for website creation/development, among other areas. I took the basic IS course that taught me how to build websites, including coding/developing a shopping cart and creating an application that writes to a database. It started with a basic website that included a picture and a description of myself. Before long, I was creating more complex websites with tables and scrolling banners. I still remember the "mock" magazine e-commerce website I created for the course. I designed the website to allow the purchase of subscriptions to a variety of magazines.

I am familiar with the basics.

Fahmeena Odetta Moore UMBC Education

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update Nov2

Today, I received two emails on my articles/manuscripts submitted for publishing. One journal asked me to remove information identifying the school. I will resubmit as soon as possible. I find the feedback in the responses to be very helpful.

My foot is much better. I was limping in pain a few days ago. The swelling seems to be very random. I will continue to get better.

I was at Subway today. I enjoy the meatball sub.

Work And Food

My last two posts included photos of my food/meals. I did not plan it - it just turned out that way. Those last two posts remind me posts in my food journal. I took lots of photos of my food that showed what I was working on. I actually did a lot of PhD work while eating. 

Here are some interesting posts from the journal:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCOwaTyiyP2/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

I was making s’mores at a bonfire. Then, I went home to finish my Statistics assignment…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPfaqDCyGT/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

 
https://www.instagram.com/p/_pMKwqCyGG/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= 

I was in Starbucks enjoying a Frappuccino and biscotti while working on a paper for the literature review course.  

 
https://www.instagram.com/p/-wlhwziyN0/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= 

Food at Sonny’s BBQ while working on a paper for the literature review course. The food at Sonny’s is really good. 

Past Paper On Database End Users

Remembering the paper I prepared on database skills needed by end users. One of my PC friends, Heather, responded to questions I prepared. Thank you Heather!

(Link to a past blog post on the paper: http://fmooredbadminmngtsiga.blogspot.com/2016/09/i-worked-on-my-week-2-assignmentpaper.html)

My Research Summary

I just finished a short blurb (summary) of my background to submit with my papers/manuscripts for publishing.
Here it is:

Fahmeena Odetta Moore is close to completing a PhD at Northcentral University. Her research interests include technology vs. employment decisions, usability for decision-making, achieving successful outcomes, and new and innovative uses of social media. She has taken an interdisciplinary approach in her papers. She is now working on publishing some of her papers in academic journals. Ms. Moore has a BA/Analyst background. She has worked in the IT Analyst role supporting organizations such as the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

I think I did a good job summarizing the information contained in my LinkedIn research profile (I updated the profile recently). I did not want to include the exact same research areas/topics.

(Link to the LinkedIn research profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fahmeenaodetta/. Also available at: https://www.facebook.com/FahmeenaOdettaMooreResearch)

Next Paper

I am about to select the next paper to work on for publishing. I am not sure which paper I should select. There is the literature review that focused on online reviews. I was told the paper is too long. I still want to publish my decision-making framework though. There is also the paper I prepared for the same course that compared three related journal articles (An Annotated Bibliography).

I prepared a paper that looked at the designs of five studies to learn from examples (I believe it was the Research Design course). That would be a good one too. The topic for that one was social media.

Then there are the statistics papers. I worked hard on the assignments which I thought were very good. I could write a paper on methodology.

I will look into the statistics papers I prepared when I was vacationing in Maryland (from Florida) years ago. Those papers were very good despite the issues I experienced. I recall going to Starbucks to use their internet because my mother did not have internet service (I even tried to use my sister's internet but she was going away on vacation). My mother helped me out a lot. She dropped me off at the Starbucks everyday and picked me up when she was on her way home from work. I also had issues acquiring the statistical software for the course.

Organizational Structure Paper

I made a lot of progress on the organizational structure paper. I decided to include two examples of how companies are structured to compare to the theory. The findings are interesting. I think the paper will be accepted for publishing.

Still Working On Paper For Publishing

After reviewing one of my old blogs, I now understand why I selected the three articles included in the paper mentioned yesterday.  In the paper prepared the previous week (during the course), I noticed that the selected company - Google - was known for:

 "an innovation-oriented and change-prone top management and board;
an innovation-oriented and change-prone culture;
competent and committed individuals with a passion to innovate;
leaders that empower, coach and remove obstacles for innovation;
a semi-structured and ambidextrous organisation;
innovation-oriented performance and incentive systems;
continuous learning; and open innovation."
(From Steiber and Alange (2013))

I selected papers that included innovation and ambidextrous-ness.
Maybe I should include the Google example in the paper I am editing.

I read the descriptions expressing all the difficulties I was experiencing.
In the post on 09/10/2018 (https://fmoorephdbus7110.blogspot.com/2018/09/paper-finally-submittedreceived.html), I wrote:
"I like the course. I am learning a lot But everything feels rushed & I feel pressured all the time. This is because of the resource constraints I am dealing with right now (issues with my laptop - need to use library resources, need to read an entire book for the assignment, and so on). I hope it gets better. I am working on solutions."

I was reading the books and articles on the go.
The post on 09/12/2018 (https://fmoorephdbus7110.blogspot.com/2018/09/week-4-assignmentjournal-articles.html), shows that I checked out the book on Organization Behavior from the library. I read that book hurriedly and was not able to sit comfortably to read it. The included Facebook post shows me holding the book (with my face).

In the post on 09/14/2018 (https://fmoorephdbus7110.blogspot.com/2018/09/reading-articles.html),
the notes I scribbled on the printout of one of the journal articles is shown.

I guess I can handle a lot.

More Work For Publishing

I am currently working on modifying a paper I prepared for one of my PhD courses many years ago. The assignment was designed to teach the student how to prepare a paper for publishing and how to select the journal to submit the paper to. I prepared the paper in New York and it was done hurriedly. I will make some changes plus add more details (to make the paper longer). I will submit it to a journal when it is complete.

A section of the original paper: 

 

 

 

 

A section of the modified paper:

Research Profile Updated

After my post yesterday, I decided to update my LinkedIn research profile. Screenshots of the updated profile are included below. I now have to work on the article for Mental Illness Awareness Week.

I am slower this week because of a slow internet connection at home. Websites are taking much longer to load. It takes a long time to make updates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Background In Statistical Analysis, Surveys

Using a questionnaire to collect information from people (conducting surveys) is an important part of research. I have lots of experience conducting surveys. My first survey was for an A-Level project at President's College. The course/subject was Pure Mathematics with Statistics (it was for the Statistics part). I designed the questionnaire and went out into the field to collect information from participants. That was about 30 years ago.

From Statistics, I learned how to prepare statistical summaries or reports that summarize information by providing statistics. Those are the reports that include statements such as: Expenditures increased by 20% to reach $1M. Such reports are used a lot in finance and economics. An example is the report 'Trends in health care spending' by AMA, available at: https://www.ama-assn.org/about/research/trends-health-care-spending.

During my PhD studies, I prepared a paper on the design of surveys/questionnaires for research. In that paper, I reviewed an actual survey. I learned current techniques as well as survey design issues.

Tags And Usability

I found an interesting paper that tested a tag-based interface in banking. The researchers hypothesized that the usability of the tag-based interface would be higher (better) than the usability of the current, conventional interface of a banking application.

Here is the paper:

Usability Evaluation of a Tag-Based Interface
By: Rajinesh Ravendran, Ian MacColl, Michael Docherty
https://uxpajournal.org/usability-evaluation-of-a-tag-based-interface/

For the tag-based interface, users would be able to enter/select tags for their banking transactions. This is a form of customization. When the user clicks on a tag, information associated with the banking transaction will be retrieved.
The conventional interface had the regular dropdowns, checkboxes, and so on.

The researchers found that the tag-based user interface would improve user satisfaction.


It is interesting that tagging could be used in this way. I like tagging - I try to add appropriate tags to my blog posts. To retrieve posts on a particular topic, the tag could be used. For example, to view posts on happiness in my blog (the blogspot blog at https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/), you could scroll down to the labels and then select happiness. The website would then provide all posts tagged happiness - using url https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/search/label/happiness.

Sometimes, it is difficult to find what you're looking for. For example, I know there is a post in my blog that is related to my recent Throwback Thursday post:


#ThrowbackThursday

Remembering those days in the computer lab at my apartment community in Gainesville, FL. I prepared lots of PhD papers in that lab.

Here is one of my videos of the lab:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z8pisPmox8k

I have a few more videos showing the computer screen as I type up an assignment.


Looking through the tags, I don't see lab or apartment or video. I can use the search box instead. Searching by keyword 'lab' returns the post I am interesting in:
https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/06/paper-on-real-time-systems.html
It is tagged: fahmeenaodetta, realtimesystems, starbucks