Kwok-Bun Yue

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10657.1/891

Image Bun Yue (B.S., M.Phil., Physics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, M.S., Ph.D., Computer Science, University of North Texas) is a Professor of Computer Science and Computer Information Systems at University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL).

His research interests are in concurrent programming, Internet computing, semi-structured data, and information systems and computer science education. He has published more than 40 papers, and is the principal investigator of 10 external grants with a total amount of $1.8 million. He is a member of the senior editorial board of the Journal of Information Systems Education.

He has consulted a number of companies, including serving briefly as a CTO of a startup company.

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Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 20 of 46
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    Querying Bitcoin Blockchain Using SQL
    (Proceedings of the EDSIG Conference, 2018-11) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Bitcoin is the first major decentralized cryptocurrency with wide acceptance. A core technological innovation of Bitcoin is blockchain, a secure and pseudonymous general ledger that stores every Bitcoin transaction. Blockchain has received enormous attention from both the commercial and academic worlds, and it is generally recognized as the enabling technology of the Internet of Value (IoV), in which securely stored valuable entities are intended to be transferred as easily as information. Current blockchains are designed as special kinds of Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) systems, but not Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems. Data analytics by querying the blockchain directly can be ineffective. To incorporate the increasingly important blockchain technology into Information Systems curriculum, one approach is to store the blockchain in a SQL database, thus allowing fast data access and an easier understanding of the underlying concepts. This paper describes our experiment of using three different methods for accessing Bitcoin data from SQL databases. It elaborates an assignment of querying a Bitcoin’s SQL database in an undergraduate database course. The paper discusses our experience on using SQL databases for blockchain analysis, elaborates the characteristics of Bitcoin blockchain that make it an interesting database case, examines the relative merits of the three different methods, and provides suggestions on how they may be used in IS courses. Overall, we find that using SQL to query blockchains can be an effective educational technique for introducing it to IS curriculum.
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    Formative Assessment of Meaningful Learning in IS Education Using Concept Mapping
    (Proceedings of the EDSIG Conference, 2017-11) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Information Systems (IS) education needs to focus on meaningful learning because it is essential in cultivating students’ problem solving and critical thinking skills. In formative assessment of the meaningful learning, we need to provide feedback to guide and enhance learning. In this study, we propose a conceptual model of meaningful learning. The model justifies the values of Concept Mapping (CM) as a formative assessment tool because of its effective dual role as both assessment artifact and communication artifact. The model suggests four potential feedback focal areas for effective feedback. We conducted preliminary experiments to validate CM’s utility as a communication tool. The CMs constructed by the students provide new lens for instructors to gauge students’ meaningful learning, and, more importantly, to provide detailed and precise feedback on students’ learning effectiveness. The major contribution is the adaptation of a widely used thinking tool for meaningful learning and its assessment in IS education, which is validated by models based on learning theories and cognitive science.
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    An Investigation Dimension for Understanding and Characterizing Computing Disciplines
    (Proceedings of the 23rd Americas Conference on Information Systems AMCIS, 2017-08) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Computing disciplines are diverse and overlap extensively. ACM provides two dimensions, theory and target level, as a tool to describe the problem spaces of five disciplines of computing: computer science, information systems, information technology, computer engineering, and software engineering. However, there are still many studies reporting that even majors are not entirely clear about the scopes and tasks of their computing disciplines. Various supplementary approaches and models have been proposed to assist the understanding and characterization of computing disciplines, such as through computing traditions, research-focuses, and positions in the business-technology continuum. This paper proposes a new investigation dimension based on a popular inquiry approach as a complementary third dimension to serve as an additional high order lens for understanding computing disciplines. The application of the model on understanding and characterizing the five ACM disciplines and data science is discussed. The model encourages systematic critical thinking, meaningful learning, and deep reasoning.
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    Concept mapping in computer science education
    (Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 2017) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Concept Map (CM) is a graphical tool for organizing and structuring knowledge by depicting concepts as nodes, and relationships between concepts as edges. It can be used as an effective tool for teaching, learning, and assessment in many flexible ways. Although widely researched and utilized in many other disciplines, the uses of CMs in Computer Science (CS) education have been relatively scarce. This paper describes how CMs are used in our computing courses. It discusses our experience using CMs in various experiments and provides suggestions on how CS educators may explore and experiment on incorporating this versatile and effective tool in their own classes.
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    Using Concept Maps to Assess Students’ Meaningful Learning in IS Curriculum
    (Proceedings of the EDSIG Conferenc, 2016-11) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Concept map (CM) is an easy to learn tool and can be effectively used to represent knowledge. Many disciplines have adopted CMs as teaching and learning tools to improve learning effectiveness, even though its application in IS curriculum is sparse. Meaningful learning happens when one iteratively integrates new concepts and propositions into her existing cognitive structure. It is the process of how one acquires knowledge in certain domains such as Information Systems (IS). As important as meaningful learning is in IS education, there is a void of method to assess it effectively. This study reports a series of experiments of adopting CMs as a tool to evaluate students’ learning, especially meaningful learning in an IS curriculum. Based on theoretical foundation of CMs and prior related empirical work, we designed assignments that require students to complete CMs in three participating courses. We also designed and implemented a tool to help analyzing the CMs with certain level of automation. The completed CMs are collected and analyzed to answer our research questions. We believe the results demonstrate the utility of CMs in IS education as an effective tool to understand and assess students’ learning. Our work also experimented with various methods to use CMs and the findings provide valuable insights as to how CM-based teaching tools can be incorporated into the curricula seamlessly.
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    Using Concept Maps to Teach and Assess Critical Thinking in IS Education
    (Proceedings of the 22nd Americas Conference on Information Systems AMCIS, 2016-08) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Concept maps have been widely used in education as tools for knowledge representation in both teaching and learning. Built on rigorous learning theories, concept mapping is a technique that is easy to learn and use. Therefore, concept map construction tasks can be incorporated into teaching effectively. By analyzing students’ concept maps, we can assess their learning and gain insights into their thinking processes, especially the amount and nature of critical thinking involved. In this study, we explored the feasibility and effectiveness of using concept maps in Information Systems education. Different approaches of using concept maps are experimented and discussed with respect of critical thinking. Questionnaires are designed to gauge students’ perception of and attitude toward concept mapping. Moreover, we studied the shift of students’ opinion on critical thinking before and after interventions including concept mapping. This study sheds lights on effective teaching methods to teach critical thinking using concept maps.
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    Incorporating Applied Critical Thinking into Computer Information Systems Curriculum under a University-Wide Initiative
    (Proceedings of the EDSIG Conference, 2015-11) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Information Systems (IS) educators have long recognized the importance of critical thinking (CT) as an essential element in the success of their curricula. Past research on CT in IS curricula mainly focused on individual courses. This paper discusses our experience in incorporating CT in our Computer Information Systems (CIS) curricula under a university-wide initiative. Our university adopted a formal process for approving Applied Critical Thinking (ACT) syllabi for courses. The approval process is based on incorporating selected CT elements into the Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), identifying CT-enhancing activities, and setting up a CT assessment plan according to a university-wide evaluation guideline. Six required and four elective courses for CIS students have been approved as ACT courses. This paper reports our activities, experimentation, and preliminary results. It discusses five unique features of our approach of weaving CT into our IS curricula. Our experience indicates that incorporating CT in the program level, and not only in the individual course level, has a good potential to be cost effective. The approaches reported here may also be adopted in individual courses.
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    Acoustic Flame Suppression Mechanics in a Microgravity Environment
    (Microgravity Science and Technology, 2015) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    The following paper deals with acoustic flame suppression mechanics in a microgravity environment with measurements taken from an Arduino-based sensor system and validation of the technique. A Zippo lighter is ignited in microgravity and then displaced from the base of the flame and suppressed using surface interactions with single tone acoustic waves to extinguished the flame. The analysis of data collected shows that the acoustic flame suppression measurementtechniques are effective to finding qualitative differences in extinguishing in microgravity and normal gravity. Further, the results suggest that the suppression may be more effective in a microgravity environment than in a normal (1g) environment and may be a viable method of extinguishing fires during space flight.
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    Using a Semi-Realistic Database to Support a Database Course
    (Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), 2013) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    A common problem for university relational database courses is to construct effective databases for instructions and assignments. Highly simplified "toy" databases are easily available for teaching, learning, and practicing. However, they do not reflect the complexity and practical considerations that students encounter in real-world projects after their graduation. On the other hand, production databases may contain too much domain nuances and complexity to be effectively used as a learning tool. Sakila is a semi-realistic, high quality, open source, and highly available database provided by MySQL. This paper describes the use of Sakila as a unified platform to support instructions and multiple assignments of a graduate database course for five semesters. Based on seven surveys with 186 responses, the paper discusses our experience using Sakila. We find this approach promising, and students in general find it more useful and interesting than the highly simplified databases developed by the instructor, or obtained from textbooks. We constructed a collection of 124 problems with suggested solutions on the topics of database modeling and normalization, SQL query, view, stored function, stored procedure, trigger, database Web-driven application development with PHP/MySQL, Relational Algebra using an interpreter, Relational Calculus, XML generation, XPath, and XQuery. This collection is available to Information Systems (IS) educators for adoption or adaptation as assignments, examples, and examination questions to support different database courses.
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    Undergraduate Research Experience through the NASA Microgravity University Program
    (Journal of Computer Sciences in Colleges, 2013) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Meaningful Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) is known to provide many benefits including enhancing enrollment and retention, supporting richer experiential education, improving students’ personal, professional and cognitive skills, and encouraging further professional and academic development. Successful REU may be provided through participation in faculty research projects, real-world projects, independent studies, and internship. This paper describes our experience in utilizing the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program (RGEFP) of NASA’s Microgravity University to provide REU. A team of six undergraduate students from two universities successfully proposed, designed, and completed a project titled ‘Robotic control using gesture.’ Using it as a case study, we discuss the cost effectiveness and lessons learned in using external programs to provide REU. The perspectives from the students, faculty mentors, and organizing institution are provided to present a holistic overview. The goal of the paper is thus to encourage others to experiment with RGEFP or other similar external program opportunities to support REU.
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    Assessing Information Systems and Computer Information Systems Programs from a Balanced Scorecard Perspective
    (Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), 2012) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Assessment of educational programs is one of the important means used in academia for accountability, accreditation, and improvement of program quality. The assessment practices, guidelines, and requirements are very broad and vary widely among academic programs and from one institution to the other. In this paper, from the theoretical lenses of a strategic planning and management methodology, the Balanced Scorecard, we try to integrate various perspectives into a performance assessment framework for an educational assessment of computing and information systems. Particularly, based on the actual accreditation experience, we propose two assessment models: a conceptual model and a process model. This modeling approach addresses the critical conceptual elements required for educational assessment and provides practical guidelines to follow for a complete, smooth and successful assessment process. In addition, we present a set of robust tools and techniques, incorporated into the process steps, team work, and task-driven management process. We were successful in our accreditation efforts, and improved the quality of our computing and information systems programs by using these presented assessment methods. We share our views and thoughts in the form of lessons learned and suggested best practices so as to streamline program assessment and simplify its procedures and steps.
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    A Realistic Data Cleansing and Preparation Project
    (Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), 2012-11) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Although data cleansing and preparation are significant tasks in many real-world data projects, they are rarely found in project assignments in IS database courses. This paper describes a pilot study of a relatively open-ended project assignment in a graduate database course. The project required the students to cleanse and prepare five datasets on educational statistics from United Nations Data before storing them in relations that they designed. To gauge the level of students' prior knowledge on data preparation, the instructor deliberately provided no prior lecture on the topic. A follow-up assignment was a PHP/MySQL Web database application to display educational statistics for a user-specified country. Submitted works and post assignment surveys were studied and analyzed. The result indicated that both assignments were well received and generally beneficial. Although our students appeared not to be well trained in data preparation in their undergraduate studies, they were able to learn quickly enough to produce acceptable products. This approach also appeared to encourage more creativity and better diversity in students' database designs. Our experience suggested that while it was not difficult to identify interesting realworld datasets of appropriate complexity, the instructors will need to put in extra effort on project evaluation. We believe that this kind of assignment can be adapted in many ways to satisfy different educational objectives and it fits well in a well-rounded IS curriculum. Thus, the goal of the paper is to foster interests in real-world data cleansing projects in database courses with a well-examined case study.
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    A Model for Long Term Assessment of Computing and Information Systems Programs
    (Information Systems Education Journal, 2011-08) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Assessment practices and requirements are very broad and vary widely among academic programs and from one institution to the other. Consequently, we noticed, in the recent years, increased volumes of research and interest geared into the assessment process and procedures in various disciplines in higher education. In this paper, we present and explain a model for long term assessment and a set of robust tools and techniques within the framework of process steps, team work, and task-driven process management. Using this presented assessment methodology, we have been successful in our accreditation efforts, and improved the quality of our programs. This model can be used for long-term assessment with several years of task scheduling and assessment timeline. We share our views and thoughts in the form of lessons learned and best practices so as to streamline the process of assessment and simplify its procedures and steps.
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    From Expectation to Actual Perception after Experience: A Longitudinal Study of the Perceptions of Student Response Systems
    (Proceedings of the 17th Americas Conference on Information Systems AMCIS, 2011-08) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Interactive student response systems (SRSs) are becoming popular as many instructors at the tertiary level education institutions adopt the systems to transform traditional passive lectures into interactive classes. Despite the popularity and numerous benefits of SRSs, there is conflicting evidence regarding the current levels of perceptions and actual performances before and after use the systems. We believe the inconsistent result stems from the differences between the level of expectation and the level of actual perceptions after they use the systems. Students’ beliefs and attitudes are key perceptions toward the information technology (i.e., SRSs) usage. However, these perceptions may change over time as they gain direct experience with the technology. In this study, therefore, we test students’ expectations and perceptions of the technology and provide a comparative result from a longitudinal perspective. More specifically, in this study, we examine students’perceptional differences in terms of well-known technology acceptance constructs such as perceived usefulness, ease of use,enjoyment, and intention to use the systems before and after they actually use the systems.The results confirm that there are differences between the levels of expectations and actually perceptions of cognitive beliefs across three-stage of experience. However, there are no differences of students’ perceptions between initial usage and second-time usage. In other words, the very first direct experience of students will become a salient determinant of their perception of cognitive beliefs and behavioral intention, but the second experience does not provide the same level of impact as much the first one does. We believe that the result of the study will provide solid understanding of the gap between the levels of expectations and actual perceptions of a technology before and after usage, which will explain the inconsistent results related to the SRSs. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
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    A case study of metrics for assessing STEM scholarship programs
    (Journal of Computer Sciences in Colleges, 2011) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    As the challenges in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education become more prominent, resources for promoting STEM education are more available. STEM scholarship programs, such as the S-STEM program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), can be an important tool for computing educators to meet the challenges of recruiting, retaining and preparing more computing undergraduates. These scholarship programs usually require a rigorous assessment plan in the proposals for evaluating program effectiveness. Although there is an abundance of literature on assessment metrics on student learning outcomes, especially those related to accreditation, similar papers on scholarship program assessment are lacking. This paper is intended to contribute toward filling this gap. Based on our experience on managing two consecutive NSF S-STEM grants over eight years, the paper proposes a simple set of criteria for designing good assessment metrics for scholarship programs: that they need to be essential, measurable, sensible and simple. The paper presents our evaluation plan and results of the evaluation that ascertained the program effectiveness. It discusses how the metrics are refined and evolved in light of the proposed criteria. It then elaborates on lessons learned and our future directions. The paper can thus be considered as a case study for computing educators interested in submitting scholarship proposals and managing scholarship programs.
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    The use of free and open source software in real-world capstone projects
    (Journal of Computer Sciences in Colleges, 2011) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    This paper analyzes the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in 22 real-world graduate computer science projects mentored by industrial partners in the past 2.5 years. It serves as a case study on how FOSS is used in an academic setting as well as by the mentoring companies. A diverse list of FOSS was used, suggesting its ubiquity. The general recognized advantages of FOSS drove their adoption: no licensing cost, flexibility of modification, niche functionality, and perceived growing popularity. Our experience agrees with the perceived advantages of FOSS in engaging students with interesting technologies. It also agrees that the potential to communicate with software professionals was beneficial and sometime inspiring, provided that the students took the initiatives to do so. To provide a complete perspective, the paper also includes a section written from the students' point of view on their experience with FOSS in one project.
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    Assessment Model and Practices for Computing and Information Systems Programs
    (ISECON 2010 Proceedings, 2010) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Assessment of educational programs is one of the important means used in academia for accountability, accreditation, and improvement of program quality. The assessment practices, guidelines, and requirements are very broad and vary widely among academic programs and from one institution to the other. In this paper, from the theoretical lenses of a strategic planning and management methodology, the Balanced Scorecard, we try to integrate various perspectives into a performance assessment framework for an educational assessment of computing and information systems. Particularly, based on the actual accreditation experience, we propose two assessment models: a conceptual model and a process model. This modeling approach addresses the critical conceptual elements required for educational assessment and provides practical guidelines to follow for a complete, smooth and successful assessment process. In addition, we present a set of robust tools and techniques, incorporated into the process steps, team work, and task-driven management process. We were successful in our accreditation efforts, and improved the quality of our computing and information systems programs by using these presented assessment methods. We share our views and thoughts in the form of lessons learned and suggested best practices so as to streamline program assessment and simplify its procedures and steps. [PUBLICATION ]
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    Experience on Mashup Development with End User Programming Environment
    (Journal of Information Systems Education (JISE), 2010) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Mashups, Web applications integrating data and functionality from other Web sources to provide a new service, have quickly become ubiquitous. Because of their role as a focal point in three important trends (Web 2.0, situational software applications, and end user development), mashups are a crucial emerging technology for information systems education. This paper describes the result of a pilot experiment of an open-ended mashup assignment using an end user Web-based visual development environment: Yahoo's Pipes. Surveys, qualitative analysis, peer evaluations, and comparative analysis were used to assess the assignment. Initial results indicated that the assignment was effective, well received, and cost efficient. Students found it to be useful, interesting, appropriate, and of the right level of difficulty. They gained the needed expertise in mashups and Yahoo's Pipes within a short period of time. They developed mashup applications with the expected degree of complexity, maturity, and innovativeness. There were no logistical bottlenecks and grading the open-ended assignment appeared to be consistent among the instructor and peers. The peer evaluations were perceived by students as very useful, even more so than the actual mashup development. Although Yahoo's Pipes were in general well received, its limitations, such as the lack of programming capability, created some minor issues and changed the designs of some mashups slightly. IS educators interesting in integrating open-ended mashup assignments into their courses may consider including a robust peer evaluation component and selecting a mashup development environment that matches the assignment goals. (Contains 8 tables and 2 figures.)
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    Critical Factors Influencing the Service Quality of Information Systems: An Organizational View
    (Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) 2009 Proceedings, 2009-08) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Information systems have been a well researched topic based on their development, implementation, effectiveness, success and, more recently, business-IT alignment. A literature review has revealed that one domain (i.e., the IS service quality and its measurement) has gained considerable prominence in the last one and a half decades, after the recognition of significance of IS service quality in measuring IS effectiveness. However, there are still only few studies which identify the critical factors influencing the IS service quality from an organizational perspective. In this paper, using Giddens’ theory of structuration, we identify the factors affecting the IS service quality and organize them into a conceptual integrative analytical framework. After presenting the conceptual framework, we discuss a case study to explain how the framework can be used to improve the quality of IT services in an organization. The proposed framework will facilitate organizations to judge the present state of their IT ecosystem and guide them to improve their IT service quality.
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    Web 2.0 Technologies, Principles, and Applications: Global Diffusion of the Internet XV: Web 2.0 Technologies, Principles, and Applications: A Conceptual Framework from Technology Push and Demand Pull Perspective
    (Communications of the Associations of Information Systems, 2009) Yue, Kwok-Bun
    Web 2.0, the current Internet evolution, can be described by several key features of an expanded Web that is more interactive; allows easy social interactions through participation and collaboration from a variety of human sectors; responds more immediately to users' queries and needs; is easier to search; and provides a faster, smoother, realistic and engaging user search capability, often with automatic updates to users. The purpose of this study is three-fold. First, the primary goal is to propose a conceptual Web 2.0 framework that provides better understanding of the Web 2.0 concept by classifying current key components in a holistic manner. Second, using several selective key components from the conceptual framework, this study conducts case analyses of Web 2.0 applications to discuss how they have adopted the selective key features (i.e., participation, collaboration, rich user experience, social networking, semantics, and interactivity responsiveness) of the conceptual Web 2.0 framework. Finally, the study provides insightful discussion of some challenges and opportunities provided by Web 2.0 to education, business, and social life.