Monday, January 27, 2020

Investigation Of British Airways PLC Strategy

Investigation Of British Airways PLC Strategy Flying an extensive route network of more than 300 different destinations in more than 70 countries, with nearly 250 aircrafts in service, British Airways is today the largest airline in the UK and the leader in terms of transatlantic flights globally. They are a group mainly based in Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick and Manchester, where they operate international domestic scheduled air services for carriage of passengers, freight mail. In addition, British Airways is part of the oneworld alliance that together comprises 700 destinations. Founded in 1999, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Lan Airlines, Malà ©v, Qantas and Royal Jordanian are also members of this association. The establishment of this kind of business partnership benefits customers expanding their access to a much wider network of destinations. In terms of shareholding, for instance, the group has participation of 13.5% in the Spanish airline Iberia and 15% in Flybe. According to Key Note (2009), other British Airways ventures include a 10% stake in Eurostar (UK) Ltd as part of the InterCapital and Regional Rail alliance. BA also operates a number of subsidiaries and franchises organisations, for example, British Airways World Cargo, BA Cityflyer and OpenSkies. BAs financial overview defined by Key Note (2009) says that in the year ending in 31st March 2008, British Airways PLC increased its turnover to  £8.76bn from  £8.49bn in 2007. Pre-tax profit increased to  £922m in 2008 from  £611m in 2007. In the year ending 31st March 2009, turnover was up to  £8.99bn and there was pre-tax loss of  £401m. The companys annual report of 2009 describes in more details that 87.1% of this revenue is from passenger traffic, 7.5 % from cargo and 5.4 remains from other activities. The great financial results in the year that anticipated the credit crisis, a record of profitability in BAs history, left the company in a good position to a much harder period that should arrive in 2008/09. The airline industry Key Note (2009) considers Aviation an important sector of the economy, enabling people to visit countries it contributes to the development of other sectors and to warm the economy in general. It is a competitive field which has been recently affected by the low-cost companies, specially the scheduled flights market, where price pressure has being on emphasis influenced by short-term issues as, for instance, the economic recession, oil price fluctuation, government taxation and international environmental and health concerns. In accordance to Key Note, the number of companies on the air travel market significantly increased since 2004, the main reason to explain the expansion was the increasing operation of non-scheduled flights, which represented 48.7% of the overall total on that year and 63.9% in 2008. Even though the rising demand stopped in 2008, this period was a continuous growth for airline enterprises, companies were still able to operate revenues of  £18.25bn that year, which means an increase of 6% on 2007 figures. In summary, all the positive results are certainly a consequence of globalisation, the airline industry has an important role in this process as it stimulates tourism, global trade, foreign investments and therefore despite the recent economic recession it remains a large and growing industry. Environmental Influences Political and Legal There have been some major political issues since the start of the millennium, which have affected the airline industry and British Airways in particular. One specific event was the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack to the world trade centre in New York and the London attack on July 7th 2005, which have resulted in introducing new regulation and security procedures in European countries and the United States. The new regulations have come into effect in 2006 to try to combat the threat of terrorism and illegal immigration which have indirectly affected the buyers travelling confidence (BAs Annual Report). In addition, the 2003 war in Iraq and, the political situation in the same nation have contributed to drive oil prices high and therefore, higher cost of fuel for airline companies were experienced. In recent years, substantial deregulations like open skies agreement 2008, has given more opportunity to airlines and also had a great impact on the long-term business strategies in British Airways. In addition, there are some legal factors affecting BA which are as the results of trade unions power in the UK. British Airways has suffered significantly from the strikes over the last decades which are believed to be taken place under the implication of trade unions. The strikes are mainly concerned with the employee rights, environmental and ecological issues (Clarke, 2007). According to Key Note, from November 2009 the new Air Passenger Duty (APD) will be implemented increasing charges applied for every passenger flying from an UK airport. This measure is going to be based on distance and will make long flights significantly more expensive, which consequently might reduce overseas travellers demand. Moreover, increasing government taxation might affect competitiveness against other transports in the domestic market, as can be observed in the economic effects below. Economic With the economic downturn in 2008 the demand for air travel declined, this is due to the lower demand by business travellers as a cost reduction strategy of their organizations. Key Note defines the effects of the current recession as one of the worst experiences passed by the air travel trading market, specially occurred because of the incremental rising of oil price in the recent past years. Companies were vulnerable to surges in oil price, what could easily affect their trading and profitability. Even though it has fallen since the peak of nearly $150 a barrel during 2008, many companies were locked with fuel bills acquired through hedging into higher prices. Lastly, the financial impact caused by the global recession might persist until 2010/11. Apart from the economic downturn, according to features presented by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), in comparison to other forms of transport, the air travel industry had its prices increased by more than a third (34.3%) in 2008, against for instance, annual increases of 4.3% and 6.8% of road rail and sea, respectively (Key Note, 2009). Social As BA is a global organization operating in different countries it needs to consider different social and cultural factors. These factors are important as they can affect customer needs and the size of potential market. Nowadays, for example, the changes in demographics has changed the customers needs with new life styles, tastes and fashions, customers seek opportunities to go for long-haul destinations interested in new holidays places. Since 2001, after the terrorists attacks in the US, Great Britain did not suffer such decline in the percentage of adults travelling by air. In the year ending in March 2008 this percentage fell to a 3-year low of 47.3%, making it the first annual fall in 8 years (Key Note, 2009). Despite the fact that the domestic demand suffered a considerable decline, air travel is very popular among UK costumers and often the only way of transport to international destinations. International scheduled flights are mentioned by Key Note as the growth sector of the airline industry. In 2008, more than 83 million passengers represented 5.1% increase in demand for international travels, a considerable part of that can be attributed to the large volume of tourists visiting the UK even in a time of economic crisis. Following the same idea, although the industry expected a decline on the number of passengers uplifted until the end of 2009, this situation will be surely recovered from 2010. The UK is a leading tourist and business destination and a boost is forecast on 2012 when the London Olympics should provide a significant increasing on air travel, therefore the number of passengers uplifted is expected to jump from 123.5 million in 2009 to 134 million in 2013, according to Key Note. Finally, an issue that was recently observed in a global perspective was the spread of diseases such as the Swine Flu; such phenomenon might reduce travel and tourism, consequently affecting the airline performance. Technological BA is not different from any company of the 21st century. The aviation sector has grown together with the fast advances in high technology systems, and nowadays it is considerably dependent on its IT structure. At the same time IT is a defining agent in BAs strategic position contributing to various facilities that comprise customers high expectations and satisfaction; on the other hand BA is exposed to a great risk whether this system comes to a failure. Hence, it is extremely necessary that the organization prepares itself through prevention and recovery plans in order to minimize reputation impacts among customers in case of disruption. For example, different strategies (operational, commercial and social) mentioned in this report could not be possibly implemented if the technology was not available; actually this tool is essential for the company to follow the rise in customer needs as well as their competitors innovations. In the aviation industry, technology plays a significant role. Premium airlines want to serve the passenger a convenience journey, starting from the booking to the entertainment onboard, what can only be possible through incremental advances in IT solutions. In addition, efficient engines can consume less fuel and gives more mileage. It can reduce the cost and fulfil quality. BA is trying to minimize the average noise per flight it operates by 15% by 2015 with the use of new technology. Lastly, all the investments in technology helps air travel to remain as one of the safest modes of transport. Environmental Regarding environmental concerns, Key Note (2009) states that the EU is planning to include aviation as part of its emissions trading scheme, this can be considered a reaction to respond critics received for the reluctance of airlines in taking climate-change initiative. Cooperation between BA and Virgin proposes a carbon trading agreement; they are among other companies who volunteer to initiate a process to develop the emissions trading system to the airline industry. Because of the global warming, protection of environment has become a substantial issue for the organizations to consider. Today many of the airlines are trying to reduce CO2 emission and BA is one of them. BAs long term goal is to reduce the Carbon Dioxide by 50% by the year 2050. BA also aims at zero waste to the landfill by the end of 2010 in the UK and reuse or recycling of all the waste. To the airline industry, severe changes in weather conditions represent lost of revenue, things such as heavy snow might disrupt air schedule and lead to operations disruption. Industry Structure and Attractiveness Porters five forces model facilitates an analysis on the competitive environment as well as identifying the forces that affect the level of competition in the airline industry. Existing Competitive Rivalry in the Industry Air travel industry is a large industry with high speed of growth which results in creating more opportunity for competition. According to the annual report, BA faces fierce competition in most of its markets whereby different routs have different levels of competition. The high Competition in short-haul market comes from the free market for internal flights, where European airlines are allowed to choose any route within Europe and set its own fares. Additionally, the emergence of no frills companies like EasyJet and Ryan Air contributes further to the intense rivalry in the short-haul market. The longhaul market is significantly influenced by deregulation. Due to the EU-US Open Skies liberalisations, which allow any EU or US airline to operate flights to US from Heathrow, the competitive environment on transatlantic routes increased dramatically. However, there are few international routs with competition restricted to national airlines. Threat of Entry Most new comers to the airline industry would find it difficult to enter the market as it needs high investments to establish a competitive structure, for example, an aircraft fleet covering the airlines route network. Over the last decade, however, there were a number of newcomers within the low-cost niche; EasyJet and Ryan Air in the European market have dominated the segment. Established airlines, while dominating the market, would not allow new companies to easily compete with them. They would always defend themselves strategically through price reductions, special offers and most of the times a better service. Lastly, these days, it is even more costly to adopt new requirements regarding legal concerning over health and safety regulations that are in evidence in this industry worldwide. The power of Buyer Due to the high competition and an increase in the number of airlines in todays market the buyer has got a large number of airlines to choose from and therefore, has got high power. Therefore, the quality of service the customers receive has become even more important these days. The switching cost for the leisure travellers is very low and so they can easily switch from one airline to the other. As a result, airlines like British Airways would focus on keeping loyalty of business travellers who tend to travel more frequently by introducing incentives such as air miles, hotel reservations or car hire. Power of Supplier Bargaining supplier power will be high with the dominance of Boeing and Airbus as the suppliers of aircraft and there is not much of competition amongst suppliers, therefore, there is a low possibility of vertical integration. Threat of Substitutes As the product and services in the airline industry are similar in nature, therefore, the threat of substitute is considerably high. This can be presumably higher for the local airlines for example for UK or French local airlines. Euro star as train service operating between London and Paris can be considered a threat. However, for the international airlines operating in long distances, trains and sea craft cannot be considered as substitution. Travelling with airplane is no longer a luxury; therefore, some people prefer to travel with cheaper airlines which are sometimes even cheaper than travelling by car or train. These cheap airlines have made the threat of substitutes lower than before. However, there is still higher expectation from airlines, therefore, better service and higher frequency of flights would help lowering the threat of substitute. Capabilities and Core Competences Strengths British Airways PLC is the largest UK airline with  £8.75bn sales in the year ending 31st March 2008, it is nearly four times the second-largest carrier, easyJet with  £2.35bn. This difference can become even greater as according to Key Note, British Airways is allowed by the Government to merge with Iberia and maybe become a Spanish company. What makes BA successful is the companys capability to effectively deploy its resources through its activities and processes. Although financially the company goes through very difficult times, operationally however, BA is achieving levels of excellence never experienced before. BA has made remarkable operational progress during the last year. In accordance to its annual report last year, improvement of 20% in punctuality is achieved and, nearly 82.5% of the flights at Heathrow, Terminal 5 have delay less than 15 minutes of their scheduled time. In addition, 72% less mislaid or misdirected bags during the year compared with the previous one (British Airways Annual report 2009). Furthermore, according to the companys investor relations website, British Airways launched a 32-seat flight from London City airport to New York that for the first time ever will provide internet services on a transatlantic flight, an exclusive service to attend the business demand. This can be certainly an example that any strategic change that will be taken by BA is going to happen gradually, without leaving behind the nature and history that makes the company a synonym of high quality services. In addition, a unique resource that underpins BAs competitive advantage and represents their major strength is the companys long-established brand, which is synonym of high quality services and represents BA as a high-performing, customer orientated, and global premium airline. During 2008 the satisfaction level across BAs network has risen to 72 per cent. Furthermore, the opening of Terminal 5 at Heathrow and the way BA organises its operations and services at the new Terminal delivered a steady rise in customers satisfaction reaching 76 per cent at the end of 2008. During its first year of operation Terminal 5 has served 21 million passengers (British Airways Annual report 2009). Moreover, BAs participation in oneworld alliance builds unique relationships with other airlines and allows the company to offer its customers much wider network of destinations. This business relationship, along with the ability to manage effectively its resources represents a core competence, which helps BA to build its competitive advantage over other airlines. BAs strong fleet base allows the company to serve its robust rout network. At the end of 2008 the company possess 245 aircrafts. Although BA experiences difficult financial times, the company continuously invests in new aircraft, its lounges, a new in-flight entertainment system, cabin upgrades across their longhaul fleet and premium service training in order to further increase the customers satisfaction and sustain competitive advantage (British Airways Annual report 2009). Weaknesses Brand erosion The merge with Iberia and the joint ATI application could cause brand erosion, which will adversely impact relationship with customers and will result in decrease of revenues (British Air ways Annual report 2009).. Breakdown in the bargaining process (unionised workforce) BA planes to cut costs wherever it is possible in order to survive the difficult financial times. In this respect, the airline plans to cut 1,700 jobs and to freeze pay for current staff, in accordance to BBC News. This will increase the risk of workers strike actions, which will interrupt operations and adversely affect business performance (British Air ways Annual report 2009). Failure of a key supplier BAs sole source of in-flight meals at Heathrow was Gate Gourmet. In 2005 Gate Gourmet failed to supply BA with the necessary in-flight meals due to internal argument with its staff over working conditions, which led to a strike supported by BAs own workers. This caused major operational disruption in BA, which resulted in huge additional costs of 40 million  £ (Waters, 2007). This is one example for how a failure of a key supplier may cause disruption to the operations of the airline and adversely affect business performance. Another such example is BAs dependence on fuel supply. Any problem as contamination or breakdown in the infrastructure that provides jet fuel to Heathrow will cause a huge operational impact. Failure to prevent or respond to a major safety or security incident A major security failure could consequently damage the reputation of BA as a high secure airline (British Airways Annual report 2009). Failure to adopt an integrated environmental strategy BA markets itself as being a responsible airline. BA has set industry-leading targets for reducing its carbon emissions from 110 to 83 grammes per passenger kilometre between 2005 and 2025 and to halve its net CO2 emissions till 2005. Failure to implement this strategy could damage the reputation of BA as a responsible company (British Airways Annual report 2009). Substantial debt burden BAs net debt in 2009 is  £2,382 million, which represents an increase of  £1,072 million in comparison to the previous year. Accordingly, the companys net debt to total capital ratio is 27.6% higher than the previous year. The substantial increase in debt obligations means that considerable part of BAs operational cash flow will be spent on interest, principal and lease payments. This not only lowers the ability of the company to finance working capital and other general corporate requirements, but also limits its flexibility in planning and reacting to environmental changes (British Airways Annual report 2009). Overdependence on the European market According to Datamonitor 62.5% of BAs profit is made from serving the European Market. Taking into consideration the current unfavourable economic situation in European, the overdependence on this weak market will prevent the company from increasing its future profits. Organizational Structure and Processes There are major factors that influence an organizations strategic position, for instance, it might be its overall strategic purpose and corporate governance policy, expectations of stakeholders, social responsibility and ethics are also part of this list. The recent annual report 2008-2009 shows that BA places high importance on corporate governance. The Board is responsible for the leadership of the organization to the shareholders. Accordingly, The Board directs the Companys risk assessment, resource management, strategic planning and financial and operational management to ensure that obligations to shareholders and other stakeholders are understood and met (Annual report 2008-2009, p. 56). The principal-agent conflict might arise owing to the leadership of the business by managers, whereas they might put their interests first instead of meeting shareholders interests ladder (Johnson et al., 2009). The New Companies Act from 2006 aims to overcome this problem though. Authority and control responsibilities are determined by the clear organizational structure of BA. The companys personnel is highly qualified which is assured through the thorough recruitment process, the internal performance appraisal system and the appropriate training requirements. The performance of employees is evaluated according to action plans and targets established by the performance appraisal system to ensure that employees have all the skills necessary to complete their responsibilities. Clear and specific objectives are established for the staff in order to make their contribution to the overall performance of the company more transparent. This increases the motivation and the responsibilities awareness of the staff. Also the staff is trained to behave in a way that will create a warm and friendly atmosphere in the work place and that they are happy to work for BA. In order to measure its performance and to make its managers accountable for delivery of the set targets BA uses a comprehensive management accounting system. This system provides financial and operational performance measurement indicators which allow the company to regulate its expenses more accurately and make financial decisions more precisely. Customer recommendation carried out by an independent research company assessed the number of satisfied customers and is supposed to be a one of the most significant indicators due to the potential to affect the profitability in the future. Companys operations are evaluated via a broad scope of methods across a variety of levels; however, the most important is departure functionality. It consequently shows that the other processes are performed in a high standard and ultimately effects customer satisfaction. (British Airways Annual Report 2009). British Airways Current and Future Strategy Perspective Based on Porters generic strategies, British Airways strategic analysis is built under the importance of employing a plan through one of the three strategies, Differentiation, Overall Cost Leadership and Focus. Those three strategies are relevant factors on the process of outperforming competitors in the industry. Even though it is possible to pursue more than one strategy, this is rarely seen because of their own different characteristics as will be evident on this topic. After the initial analysis of British Airways current situation in the air travel industry, it is clear that during all its modern history as a passenger carrier, the company stayed committed to its principles and invested on what could enforce its plans to continue being very successful. As a leading airline company its brand was always associated with the best service and treat available to customers in the market. In this point of view, the company service differentiation strategies and development of new services appear to be the considerable competitive advantage to outperform its competitors. There are some authors that argue in favour that differentiation and overall cost leadership are not always mutually exclusive although it is very complicated to match both strategies in most industries. However, the market is showing a rising positive trend to companies with an overall cost leadership strategy and they are growing their market share considerably. It becomes obvious that BA could not ignore low-cost rivals if the company wants to sustain its market position. Therefore, BA established a low-cost company called Go, created in response to falling profits after 1998 due to the emerging no-frills companies. Go was later sold to easyJet in 2002 it was a proof that an opposite price-based strategy is difficult to be applied even creating a new company under the same governance. The cost leadership strategic failure pushed the company to focus on differentiating its services even more. Nevertheless, in some price sensitive segments the differentiation strategy might not be sufficient to compete successfully. Therefore, BA concentrates on long-haul flights where there are not no frills companies. Furthermore, the company operates slots on popular and convenient airports such as Heathrow, what further attracts some short-haul customers (Kumar, 2006). Additionally, BA has successfully segmented its markets by offering different ticket classes which allows them to attract price sensitive customers from no frills airlines as well as manage to cover costs and increase revenues. The airline also succeeded to reduce costs through the successful implementation and management of an online booking system. BA tries to increase the economies of scale by raising the frequency of flights to popular holiday destinations like Caribbean islands or seasonal increase in the frequency of flights to religious destinations like Mecca and Vatican (Kumar, 2006). All these strategies made BA very successful during the last few years (in 2007 BA achieved the highest profit in its history) and created competitive advantages over companys traditional and low cost competitors. Reducing cost activities are taking place since 2008 over the companys renewal strategies in order to fight against the short-term crisis effects. Job-cutting would increase profitability within the company in short term, but this could lead to decrease in the quality of customer service. Furthermore, job-cuttings would lead also to confrontations with unions and employee strikes, which will disrupt the companys operations. Hence, this change in the organisational structure could damage BAs image reputation as a premium service airline in the long run. Other problems are the companys  £2.7bn pension deficit and its high debt burden. On the other hand, in an innovation sense, after huge investments and improvements on operating activities, a proof of the continually effort to maintain its first quality standard is the new terminal in Heathrow airport, which brings lots of new facilities to customers and improvement of conditions at the working place to all its employees. Despite the impact of the recent recession, in comparison to easyJet, British Airways is focused on pursuing to offer its customers the best possible service that makes its brand a synonym of first class, the innovation appears into new customer needs, environmental forces and trends to reinforce its differentiation for which people are willing to pay more. To cope with future environment trends BA has started tuning its current strategy and differentiating itself from competitors according to new patterns of responsible attitude, especially within big companies. To adapt its structure to a green efficient standard is not an easy process and requires huge investments. The environmental concern is a topic highly discussed worldwide and has become a popular issue; BA is certainly paying attention to that and has the objective of becoming reference as the most responsible airline. Sustaining and developing its current strategy BA believes that is the right decision in order to achieve always the best possible satisfaction of its stakeholders. To illustrate British Airways future actions, for instance, Terminal 5 is a set of procedures already working that underpins BAs long-term goal of creating a world-leading global premium airline with a reputation for being the very best at meeting its customers needs, according to its website, for instance: à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€ž ¢ At T5, most of the rainwater will be collected and re-used for non-potable uses. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€ž ¢ 85% of T5s heat will be supplied by excess heat produced from the Heathrow heat and power station. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€ž ¢ 30,000 native woodland plants and 4,000 trees and shrubs are being planted around T5. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€ž ¢ Smarter runway and airport design means aircraft engines idle less, reducing emissions. Aircraft will do less taxiing too. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€ž ¢ T5 offers 96 Check-in Kiosks designed to eliminate queuing. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€ž ¢ The rapid transit system connection between the two buildings making up T5 means youll move swiftly and smoothly to where you need to be. à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â€ž ¢ The baggage system has been designed to move your baggage efficiently to the aircraft ready for departure and to minimise waiting time when you land. In addition to that, a new internal program developed in parallel with the 2012 Olympic Games spirit has definitely enforced the importance of BAs culture, which has the customer as its core. Compete 2012 aims to inspire the spirit of team work and competition in all corners of the company, and as a result establish a level of excellence that competitors aspire to. The strategy of being one of the UK sponsors and the official airline for the event matches BAs future vision and reinforce its credibility among its target customers. Above, they are examples of the evolution in British Airways culture that, when added to the companys capabilities and competences and the strengths earlier described, its value chain can be clearly understood. The evolution of BAs strategy easily refers to Porters conclusion that competitive advantage frequently comes from perceiving new ways to configure and manage the entire value system. In terms of suitability, BAs current strategy successfully exploits its core competences and unique resources and allows the company to respond appropriately to key environmental trends such as economic downturn, political and legal changes and changes in social perceptions. Also their strategy is aligned with their culture. However, the current differentiation strategy could prevent some of BAs weaknesses such as brand erosion. In terms of feasibility of the strategy, BA has the financial resources and competences to invest and differentiate furt

Sunday, January 19, 2020

The Grapes of Wrath - Questions and Answers :: The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

Grapes Of Wrath: Questions and Answers What are the chief reasons for the mass migration to California? Â   I think that the chief reasons for the mass migration to California where based on a few different reasons. The first reason was because everyone was poor. They didn't have enough money to have the most basic necessities in life. They would even go to such lengths as to steal a neighbors house. No body was happy living in Oklahoma. They all had such hard lives that no one had time to do what they wanted to do. It was farm from sun up to sun down. That is what everyone did, and they didn't even get that much compensation for all the devotion that they put into their work day, after day, after day. If I worked at something for twelve hours a day, and just made hardly enough money to keep living, I would get quite frustrated and not be very happy at all. Â   Another reason that people moved to California was so they could move on to a better place. Living in Oklahoma, really wasn't all that good for the Joad's. They couldn't be very happy at what they had. They where a very proud family and wanted to get away and show everyone that they could do some good in this world for themselves. Â   Who are the members of the Joad family unit that set out for California? Briefly state what happens to each of them. Â   Ma, Pa, Ruth, Winfield, Uncle John, and Rose of Sharron all where in the barn. Rose of Sharron was breast feeding a old man, after her baby died. I think she was doing it for personal pleasures. I don't think that she was sincere about the feeling to prolong the mans life. She was always selfish, and I still think she was at the end. I don't blame Connie for leaving her. Al left with his fiancee named Aggie, to start a new life with her. Tom left to become another Jim Casey. He knew what the power of groups could do, the listed to Jim, and knew that he could make a difference. Grandpa died, of natural causes, and they buried him in a field, tore a page out of the Bible and wrote how he wasn't killed, and he died of natural causes.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Intelligent Tutoring System For Primary School Students Education Essay

LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will incorporate the reappraisal of literature of old research that is considered significance in the development of Intelligent Tutoring System for primary school pupils. 2.1 Problem Sphere Problem sphere is the country that needs to be examined to work out a job. In this undertaking, Intelligent Tutoring System is used in the sphere of instruction. Education is the field for larning and learning. It is the procedure where cognition is transferred and received. The intent to hold Intelligent Tutoring System for this undertaking is because to give an end product larning to the pupils particularly primary school pupils. Nowadays, instructors or pedagogues frequently face troubles to manage their pupils. It is because one instructor needs to provide many categories and each category will hold about 20 to 30 pupils. It is impossible to provide each pupil needs and penchant. Each pupil have their ain acquisition manner either they are good in listening, visualising, or making stuff at manus. Since the instructor is impossible to cognize each pupil larning manner, hence, there are demands for Intelligent Tutoring System that can provides a tutoring system that can find the pupils involvement so they will non holding jobs such as deficiency of apprehension and misconceptions. Besides that, the benefit of this tutoring system towards the instructor is the instructor will easy supervise the pupil ‘s public presentation and they will cognize the suited attack to cover with the pupil manners of acquisition. 2.1.1 Learning Manners Students learn in many ways such as by seeing and hearing, reflecting and moving, concluding logically and intuitively, memorising and besides visualising ( Felder, n.d. ) . Teaching and larning are different between each individual. It ‘s all depends on the persons itself. Everybody has larning manner strengths in which different people will hold different strengths ( Dunn, 1990 ) . In 1986, Marie et al. , as cited in ( Farwell, 2000 ) provided an analysis in which approximately 20 to 30 per centum of the school-aged pupils remembers what is heard, 40 per centum easy recalled what they have seen or read and the remainder were normally used both techniques which is they heard and visualise at the same clip. They have their ain manner that will assist them in larning. There are several different theories refering acquisition manners. Auditory, kinaesthetic and ocular are three types of cardinal acquisition manners ( Graham, n.d. ) . Below are the descriptions for each acquisition manners as cited in Graham ( n.d. ) and Farwall ( 2002 ) . Auditory Learners Childs who are audile learner normally prefer more on listening to account by reading them and sometimes they like to analyze by declaiming information aloud. Furthermore, audile scholar may love to environ with music while analyzing or they may necessitate a quiet infinite to analyze without diverted with any sounds. Auditory scholars learn successfully when the manner of giving information are being spoken and presented verbally. Ocular Learners â€Å" Show me and I will understand † is the keyword for ocular acquisition manner. It is a pattern to make new information by looking at something and visualise it. Normally, those people with this sort of larning manner can catch information presented in chart or graph, but they may foster impatiently listening to an account. Kinesthetic Learners Most of the school ‘s kids excel through kinaesthetic which means touching, feeling, and sing the stuff at manus. Learning activity such as scientific discipline lab, field trip, skit and many other activities are the best technique for kinaesthetic scholar. Most people use the combination of manner to acquire best acquisition manner for themselves. As for this undertaking, there are two larning manners covered which is the ocular and audile acquisition manners. This learning manners can be classify via some set of personality inquiries in which it will find the pupils country of acquisition manners. Intelligent Tutoring System will normally come across to several techniques such as Case Based Reasoning technique, Agents technique, Neural techniques, Neuro Fuzzy techniques, Track Analysis and many more. Below are other potencies techniques that can be used for this Intelligent Tutoring System ‘s undertaking despite the Agents technique. 2.1.2 Examples of utilizing Bayesian Networks for Learning Styles Detection Bayesian Networks is one technique that detects pupil ‘s acquisition manners in a web-based instruction system. In 2005, Garcia et al. , had proposed this technique to guarantee that all the pupils can larn even though they have different acquisition manners. Furthermore, Garcia et Al. ( 2005 ) , had besides stated that intelligent agent can used those information to gives the pupils personalized aid and present learning constituents that suit best harmonizing to pupil ‘s acquisition manners. Table 2.1 shows the dimensions of the acquisition manners. Detectors like particulars informations and testing ; intuitive prefer political orientation and theories. Detectors are digesting with item but do non like complications ; intuitive are uninterested by item and love complications. Table 2.1 Dimensions of Felder ‘s acquisition manners ( Beginning: Gracia et al. , ( 2005 ) ) A Bayesian Networks ( BN ) is a directed acyclic graph encodes the dependance relationships between a set of variables ( Pardalos, n.d. ) . It allows us to detect new cognition by uniting adept sphere cognition with statistical informations. In this BN, the nodes represent the different variables that determine a given acquisition manner. The arcs represent the relationships among the acquisition manner and the factor finding it. As shown in Figure 2.1, the theoretical account merely has the three dimensions of Felder ‘s model, perceptual experience, processing and apprehension. Figure 2.1 Bayesian Network patterning pupil ‘s acquisition manners. ( Beginning: Gracia et al. , ( 2005 ) ) The undermentioned sentences describe in item the different states the independent variables can take: Forum: station messages ; answers messages ; reads messages ; no engagement. Chat: participates ; listens ; no engagement. Mail: utilizations ; does non utilize. Information entree: in tantrums and starts ; sequential. Reading stuff: concrete ; abstract. Exam Revision ( considered in relation to the clip assigned to the test ) ; less than 10 % ; between 10 and 20 % ; more than 20 % . Exam Delivery Time ( considered in relation to the clip assigned to the test ) ; less than 50 % ; between 50 and 75 % ; more than 75 % Exercises ( in relation to the sum of exercisings proposed ) : many ( more than 75 % ) ; few ( between 25 and 75 % ) ; none Answer alterations ( in relation to the figure of inquiries or points in the test ) : many ( more than 50 % ) ; few ( between 20 and 50 % ) ; none. Entree to illustrations ( in relation to the figure of illustrations proposed ) : many ( more than 75 % ) ; few ( between 25 % and 75 % ) ; none Exam Consequences: high ( more than 7 in a 1-10 graduated table ) ; medium ( between 4 and 7 ) ; low ( below 4 ) . The chance maps associated with the independent nodes are bit by bit obtained by detecting the pupil interaction with the system. 30 Computer Science Engineering pupils have been interviewed to find the values by experimentation utilizing the ILS ( Index of larning manners ) questionnaire. Then, allow the pupils used the instruction system and recorded their interactions with the system. The information was used to find the parametric quantity of the BN. The Bayesian theoretical account is continuously updated as new information about the pupil ‘s interaction with the system is obtained. The chance maps are adjusted to demo the new observations or experiences. The chances reach equilibrium at certain point in the interaction. The chance values show a really little fluctuation as new information is entered. The values obtained at this point represent the pupil ‘s behaviour. This paper considered for each dimensions three values to do the consequences more comparable. For illustration, for the understanding dimension, it considered the values consecutive, impersonal and planetary. The per centum of happenstances is 100 % for the understanding dimension, 80 % for the perceptual experience dimension, and 80 % for the processing dimension. All information from this paper is cited from Gracia et Al, ( 2005 ) . 2.2 Technique In this undertaking, Intelligent Tutoring System is used to sort pupils larning manners. It used Numberss of regulations as the chief technique because it has the possible to give appropriate end product which is the acquisition manners for the pupils. Below are the descriptions of all techniques that will be used in this undertaking. 2.2.1 Intelligent Tutoring System An early lineation of Intelligent Tutoring System ( ITS ) demands was delivered by Hartley and Sleeman in 1973 ( Shute & A ; Psotka, n.d ) . As stated by Shute and Psotka, Hartley and Sleeman argued that ITS must possess cognition of the sphere ( adept theoretical account ) , cognition of the scholar ( student theoretical account ) , and cognition of learning schemes ( coach ) . Furthermore, in order for ITS to hold appropriate control schemes, it need to hold capturing environment of acquisition, effectivity of communicating and to hold flexible determinations. The ITS is a plan in which pupil can communicated through a sequence of natural linguistic communication inquiries and replies and the coach could both ask and reply inquiries and maintain path of ongoing duologue construction ( Corbett, Koedinger & A ; Anderson, 1997 ) . The authoritative ITS architecture consist of four constituents which are a undertaking environment, a sphere cognition faculty, a pupil theoretical account and pedagogical faculty. Figure 2.2 ITS architecture ( Beginning: Corbett, Koedinger & A ; Anderson, ( 1997 ) ) As cited in Corbett, Koedinger & A ; Anderson ( 1997 ) , pupils engage in job resolution environments and these actions are evaluated with regard to the sphere cognition constituents. Student ‘s cognition province is maintained based on the rating theoretical account. Finally, the pedagogical faculty delivers instructional actions based on the rating of pupil ‘s actions and on the pupil theoretical account. Advantages of ITS as described by Yousoof, Sapiyan & A ; Kamaludin ( 2002 ) , ITS is a systems that can supply considerable flexibleness in presentation of stuff and greater adaptability to react to idiosyncratic pupils need. It besides found to be extremely effectual in their intent. It has been proved by research that the pupils who tend to larn utilizing ITS really could larn fast when compared to the pupils utilizing traditional manner of instruction. Disadvantages of ITS as besides cited in Yousoof, Sapiyan & A ; Kamaludin ( 2002 ) , hazard issues affects the execution of ITS, unsuccessful ITS can do the barrier in execution of ITS, replacing of human coach will besides be a barrier in execution and broad spread of ITS will take topographic point in another five old ages. 2.2.2 Rule Based Expert System Expert system is a computing machine plan that uses cognition and illation process to work out job that are hard plenty to necessitate important human expert to work out for their solution ( Negnevitsky, 2002 ) . It is besides a computing machine plan in which it is able to execute at the degree of a human expert in a all right job country. The most popular expert systems is a regulation based expert system. It besides called as production regulations in which it contains IF-THEN statement. Structure of Rule Based Expert System A rule-based expert system has five constituents: the cognition base, the database, the illation engine, the account installations, and the user interface. Knowledge Base Database Inference Engine Explanation Facility User Interface User Figure 2.3 Basic Structure of Rule Based Expert System ( Beginning: Negnevitsky, ( 2002 ) ) The cognition base contains the sphere cognition utile for job resolution. In a rule-based expert system, the cognition is represented as a set of regulations. Each regulation specifies a relation, recommendation, directive, scheme or heuristic and has the IF ( status ) THEN ( action ) construction. When the status portion of a regulation is satisfied, the regulation is said to fire and the action portion is executed. The database includes a set of facts used to fit aligned with the IF ( status ) parts of regulations stored in the cognition base. The illation engine brings out the concluding whereby the expert system reaches a solution. It links the regulations given in the cognition base with the facts provided in the database. The account installations enable the user to inquire the expert system how a peculiar decision is reached and why a specific fact is needed. An adept system must be able to explicate its logical thinking and warrant its advice, analysis or decision. The user interface is the agencies of communicating between a user seeking a solution to the job and an expert system. The user is the 1 who will be used the system. User is besides the 1 that will seek for solution. Advantages of Rule Based Expert System Natural cognition representation. An expert normally explains the job work outing process with such looks as this: ‘in such-and-such state of affairs, I do so-and-so ‘ . These looks can be represented rather of course as IF-THEN production regulations. two. Uniform Structure. Production regulations have the unvarying IF-THEN construction. Each regulation is an independent piece of cognition. The really sentence structure of production regulations enables them to be self-documented. three. Separation of cognition from its processing. The construction of a rule-based expert system provides an effectual separation of the cognition base from the illation engine. This makes it possible to develop different applications utilizing the same expert system shell. It besides allows a graceful and easy enlargement of the expert system. To do the system smarter, a cognition applied scientist merely adds some regulations to the cognition base without step ining in the control construction. Disadvantages of Rule Based Expert System Opaque dealingss between regulations Although the single production regulations tend to be comparatively simple and self-documented, their logical interactions within the big set of regulations may be opaque. Rule-based systems make it hard to detect how single regulations serve the overall scheme. This job is related to the deficiency of hierarchal cognition representation in regulation based expert systems. two. Ineffective hunt scheme The illation engine applies an thorough hunt through all the production regulations during each rhythm. Adept systems with a big set of regulations ( over 100 regulations ) can be slow, and therefore big rule-based systems can be unsuitable for real-time applications. Inability to larn In general, rule-based expert systems do non hold an ability to larn from the experience. Unlike a human expert, who knows when to ‘break the regulations ‘ , an expert system can non automatically modify its cognition base, or adjust bing regulations or add new 1s. The cognition applied scientist is still responsible for revising and keeping the system. All information for Rule Based Expert System is cited from Negnevitsky ( 2002 ) . 2.2.3 Intelligent Agent An agent is anything that can be viewed as comprehending its environment through detectors and moving upon that environment through effecters ( Rusell & A ; Norvig, 1995 ) . Presently, agents are the point of involvement on the portion of many countries of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Harmonizing to Jennings & A ; Wooldridge ( n.d. ) , an intelligent agent is a computing machine plan that is able to execute immediate response in order to run into its design aims. Flexible here means that the systems must be antiphonal in which agents should separate their environments and react in a timely to alterations that occur in it. Agents should besides be proactive whereby they should be able to exhibit chances, purposive behaviour, and take the enterprise where appropriate. Finally, agents should be societal in which agents should be interrelate when they comfortable with other Artificial Agents and worlds in order to finish their ain job resolution and to assist others with their activities. Advantages of utilizing Intelligent Agent are because agents represent a powerful tool for doing system more flexible. Agents should act like an ‘expert helper ‘ with regard to some application, knowing about both the application and the user, and capable of moving with user in order to accomplish the user ‘s ends. Agents are besides good in bettering the efficiency of Software Development. The restrictions or the disadvantages of utilizing agent as discussed by Jennings & A ; Wooldridge ( n.d. ) are: – No overall system accountant An agent-based solution may non be suited for spheres in which planetary restraints have to be maintained, domains where a real-time response must be guaranteed, or in spheres in which dead ends or unrecorded locks must be avoided. No planetary position Agents may do globally sub-optimal determinations since in about any realistic agent system ; complete planetary cognition is non a possibility. An agent ‘s action are by definition determined by that agent ‘s local province. Trust and deputation Users have to derive assurance in the agents that work on their behalf, and this procedure can take some clip. During this period of clip, the agent must strike a balance between continually seeking counsel ( and needlessly deflecting the user ) and ne'er seeking counsel ( an transcending its authorization ) . An agent must cognize its restrictions. 2.2.4 Multiagent System As stated by Capuano et Al. ( n.d. ) , multiagent system ( MAS ) can be defined as loosely-coupled webs of pass oning and collaborating agents working together to work out jobs that are in front of their single capablenesss. In order to obtain consistent system behaviour, single agents in a multiagent system are non merely able to portion knowledge about jobs and solutions, but besides to ground about the procedures of coordination among other agents ( Capuano et al. , n.d. ) . The thought of multiagent system is that an agent is a computing machine plan that has capableness to execute independent action on behalf of its proprietor or user. In add-on, agent can calculate out for itself what it needs to make in order to fulfill its design aims. A multiagent system is one that consists of figure of agents, which interact with another, typically by interchanging messages through some computing machine substructure ( Wooldridge, 2002 ) . In order to successfully interact, these agents will therefore necessitate the ability to collaborate, co-ordinate and negotiate with each other. 2.2.5 Distributed Case Based Reasoning Case Based Reasoning ( CBR ) is another technique that is widely used in Intelligent Tutoring System and in the field of instruction so. As proposed by Rishi et Al. ( 2007 ) , they combine both technique which are CBR and agent technique to supply pupil patterning for online acquisition in a distributed environment with the aid of agents. In this paper, it focused more on Case Based Distributed Student Modeling ( agent based ) ITS architecture to back up student-centred, self-paced, and extremely synergistic acquisition. The first measure is to construct the effectual acquisition environment which is the CBR where the system maintains a complete and full set of instances ( scenarios ) of pupil ‘s acquisition form and employs an efficient and flexible instance retrieval system. The system as cited in Rishi et Al. ( 2007 ) must used the pupil ‘s larning profile such as larning manner and background cognition in selecting, forming and showing the larning stuff to back up instance based acquisition. As Rishi et Al. ( 2007 ) cited from Yi Shang et Al. ( 2001 ) and Kumar ( 2005 ) , Distributed CBR based pupil patterning enables adaptative bringing of educational contents and facilitates automatic rating of larning results. This system consists of three agents with different expertness. The first agent which is personal agent will concentrate on pupil profiler which include cognition background, larning manner, involvements, class enrolled etc. The other two agents communicated with each other through different communicating channel which situated in distributed environments are learning agent and class agent. Figure 2.4 show the communicating theoretical account among agents. Figure 2.4 Communication theoretical account among agents ( Beginning: Rishi et Al. ( 2007 ) ) Furthermore, the undermentioned activities as shown in figure 2.5 return topographic point during the pupil patterning when the pupil interacts with the system as such, choice of subject by the pupil and acquire to cognize pupil ‘s background by showing jobs to the pupil, analysing the pupil ‘s response by the system, choice of instance by the system based on response, version of the instance by the system, accomplishing the cognition constituent of the pupil theoretical account through instance retrieval, coevals of learning scheme by the system and showing the following job to the pupil. Figure 2.5 Procedure of Student Modeling ( Beginning: Rishi et Al. ( 2007 ) ) Finally, this system is to the full distributed in which it does non bounded with any web topology, it reduces the demand of big storage infinites at the user ‘s site to hive away all the instances and redundancy is maintained for mistake tolerance. The whole system is managed in the distributed environment with merely three agents which are Personal Agent, Teaching Agent and Course Agent. 2.2.6 Path Analysis Learning indexs is the manner of working and analysing the paths and supplying cognition on the activities ( Bousbia et al. , n.d. ) . This will assist instructors to comprehend and construe the scholar ‘s activities in e-learning state of affairss. As in figure 2.5 this paper by Bousbia et Al. ( n.d. ) considers three stairss in the analysis. The first 1 is index ‘s pick. The first measure is fundamentally to steer the aggregation procedure. It helps the instructor to take high degree indexs in which the instructor intends to seek from the indexs base. It will so inquire the instructor to supply extra informations required for their computations. The following measure is observation. In this phase, the system identified the necessary paths extracted through a aggregation tool which installed on the learner side. This tool has specific history such as visited pages URLs, clip and actions. Finally, the analysis and interpretation measure. This is the most of import measure in which it divided into three chief phases which are shoping way rebuilding, indexs ‘ computation and learning manner tax write-off. Figure 2.6 Learning Style Deduction Steps ( Beginning: Bousbia et Al. ( n.d. ) ) There will be three beds remain which are educational penchant bed, larning procedure bed and cognitive abilities bed. The first bed includes properties related to the preferable acquisition clip, environment penchant, information representations and encoding methods. The 2nd bed includes larning scheme, comprehension and patterned advance attack. For the last bed, it includes motive and concentration capacity. The learning manner can be determined by ciphering the value of each bed ‘s property. By utilizing the necessary high degree indexs, the value is deduced. Furthermore, to link the indexs to the acquisition manners, Bousbia et Al. ( n.d. ) sort them harmonizing to theoretical account beds. The possible values of each bed ‘s property are chosen from the bing acquisition manner theoretical accounts, by doing their definitions closer. 2.3 Related Plants Related plants are plants from other research workers which have related to this undertaking or possibly the same technique used but in different field or sphere. Intelligent Tutoring System and some other techniques is the chief focused in this research to compare and distinguish sphere and techniques with other undertakings. 2.3.1 Intelligent Agent in E-commerce Ecommerce or e-commerce is the ability and accomplishment of selling merchandises or services over the Internet ( Ward, 2010 ) . As discussed by Pivk & A ; Gams ( n.d. ) in their article on Intelligent Agent in E-commerce, the article discussed on appraisal of agent engineerings which involved in purchasing and selling. Several agent-mediated electronic commercialism systems are analyzed in the position of a general theoretical account of the purchasing procedure. E-commerce involves business-to-business ( B2B ) , business-to-customer ( B2C ) and customer-to-customer ( C2C ) minutess. It encounters a broad scope of issues such as security, trust, electronic merchandise, catalogues and many more. Intelligent agent can be used or applied to any of these. Pivk & A ; Gams ( n.d. ) had given illustrations on the use of agent in ecommerce such as Tete-a-Tete ( T @ T ) . For illustrations in Figure 2.7, a shopping agent may have proposals from multiple gross revenues agents. Each proposal defines a complete merchandise offering including a merchandise constellation, monetary value and the merchandiser ‘s value-added services. The shopping agent evaluates and order these proposals based on how good they satisfy its proprietor ‘s penchants. If the shopper is non satisfied, he can review them along one or more dimensions. User shopping agent broadcasts this penchant changes to the gross revenues agents in which, in bend, utilize them to counter-propose better merchandise offering. Figure 2.7 Consumer-owned shopping agents integrative negotiate with multiple merchant-owned gross revenues agents. ( Beginning: Pivk & A ; Gams ( n.d. ) ) 2.3.2 Intelligent Agent Based Graphic User Interface ( GUI ) for e-Physician This paper is proposed by Jung, Thapa & A ; Wang ( 2007 ) . It is all about the attack of utilizing ontology based intelligent interface agent that will help the doctor to get on-line entree interface to patient ‘s chart, fast rescheduling such as exigency instance, easy entree to research lab consequences and cut downing overall cost because of optimal use of clip. In this paper, medical homecare system model is designed in real-time environment. There are four types of agents that are used in this system which are Interface Agent, Admin Agent, Laboratory Agent, Diagnosis Agent and Schedule Agent as in Figure 2.8. Figure 2.8 Conceptual Framework of Intelligent Agent Based user interface ( Beginning: Jung, Thapa & A ; Wang ( 2007 ) ) As cited from Jung, Thapa & A ; Wang ( 2007 ) , interface agent is the agent that will interact with the user and will work as an information filtering agent and choose the most critical instance per precedence. On the other manus, research lab agent will be able to supply the item scrutiny study from the research lab database. Furthermore, diagnosing agent will assist the interface agent to propose proper diagnosing by utilizing determination devising regulations. In add-on, administrative agent will supply pre-historic diagnosing tendency of the patient and eventually schedule agent will assist in fixing patient ‘s chart, programming, and fat rescheduling of the program on footing precedence. Those agents will assist in the development of the system and will give user ‘s concluding control for optimisation of their best Graphical user interface. 2.3.3 Intelligent Agent in Computer Games Games are the practical universes that are more traceable than existent universe. It is besides something that can be controlled, formal, and mensurable, supply realistic and important challenge ( Mikkulainen, n.d. ) . Intelligent agents can be deployed in games today. As cited in Lent et Al. ( n.d. ) , they discussed on the usage of intelligent agent in the games called Soar. It make the growing of intelligent agents for games easier by giving common illation engine and reclaimable cognition base that can be merely applied in many different games. Soar allows easy decomposition of the agent ‘s action through hierarchy of operation. It used Quake II and Descent 3 agents in which both have the functionality in the games such as winging in a starship without gravitation, onslaught, explore and many more. Furthermore, Soar invariably cycles through perceive in which it accept sensor information from the game, think ( choice and execute relevant cognition ) and Act ( Execute internal and external actions ) . Interface is another of import portion in developing games since the interface extracts the necessary information from the game and encodes it into the format required in Soar. 2.3.4 Nervous Network-based Fuzzy Modeling of the Student in ITS This paper is utilizing empirical attack that use the neuro-fuzzy synergy to measure the pupils in the context of an ITS is presented. Stathacopoulou, Magoulas & A ; Grigoriadou ( n.d. ) stated that fuzzed logic techniques is widely used in ITS since it have the ability to manage imprecise information such as pupil ‘s actions and to supply human descriptions of cognition and of pupil ‘s cognitive abilities. In this paper, fuzzed logic is used to supply human-like approximative diagnosing of pupil ‘s cognition and cognitive abilities and Neural Network is used to trained human instructor ‘s determinations sing pupil ‘s features and fixed weight Neural Network are used to measure and aggregate rank map. The neuro-fuzzy theoretical account has been tested in natural philosophies domain to measure pupil ‘s features for make up one's minding about the appropriate instruction scheme. Experiments have been performed by Stathacopoulou, Magoulas & A ; Grigoriadou ( n.d. ) utilizing a population of 300 fake pupil instances with the determinations of 5 instructors. The overall mean categorization success has been 95 % . As decision, rating of pupils depends on interior decorator ‘s ability to analyse the cognitive sphere appropriately, define fuzzed sets and associate the pupil response with suited cognition and cognitive features. 2.3.5 FlexiTrainer: A Ocular Authoring Framework for Case-Based Intelligent Tutoring System FlexiTrainer is an authoring model that allowed the fast fleet design of didactically rich and performance-oriented acquisition environments with tradition content and tutoring schemes ( Ramachandran, Remolina & A ; Fu ( n.d. ) ) . This authoring tool specifies a dynamic behaviour of tutoring agents that interact to present direction. FlexiTrainer has been used to develop an ITS for preparation chopper pilots in winging accomplishments. FlexiTrainer consists of two constituents which are the authoring tools and the everyday engine. Core constituent for FlexiTrainer are Task-Skill-Principle Editor, Exercise Editor, Student Model Editor, and Tutor Behavior Editor. Each of these editors has their ain specific functionality. An instructional agent is used to transport out teaching-elated to accomplish instructional ends. It used Bayesian illation to integrate pupil patterning schemes. 2.3.6 Intelligent Tutoring System utilizing Hybrid Expert System with Speech Model in Neural Networks This paper used supervised larning nervous webs to successful rate. Besides being more information bringing systems, this system aid pupils to actively build cognition. This paper by Venkatesh, Naganathan & A ; Maheswari ( 2010 ) enable learning system to be developed in assorted Fieldss and topics. Nervous Model in this system is used for Question Answering System. As shown in Figure 2.9, input bed contains the inquiries on the wanted topics. Both possible inquiries and replies are stored in the coveted end product. Figure 2.9: Nervous Network Architecture ( Beginning: Venkatesh, Naganathan & A ; Maheswari, ( 2010 ) ) On the other manus, address theoretical account consists of linguistic communication extraction ( includes categories such as noun, verb, operator, pronoun and many more ) , speech act classifier ( tutor uses strings of words and punctuation to sort each part of the scholar into speech act units ) , file direction ( used as marker for the lector ‘s manner reply which communicated with ITS faculty ) and manners ( choice individual to be communicated with the ITS either pupil, lector or admin ) . This system non merely cut down development times but besides appreciably simplifies the proficient cognition required of forces involved in the coevals of an auto-regulated intelligent tutoring duologue system ( Venkatesh, Naganathan & A ; Maheswari ( 2010 ) ) . 2.4 Drumhead There are many ways in developing Intelligent Tutoring System as mentioned above. Each technique used has its ain strengths and failings. In this undertaking, Rule-based is used since it gives more impact and significance to the paradigm. The following chapter will demo the research model on the methodological analysis for developing this paradigm.

Friday, January 3, 2020

History of the Flsa Essay - 982 Words

The History of the Fair Labor Standards Act Abstract After the great depression, unions were legalized in order to be the voice for the workers for whom they represented to their employers. Once this legalization became evident through federal statute, set the stage for what was to become the Fair Labor Standards Act. Having just survived a depression, the United States was hoping to avoid any future economic downturns, the government would accomplish this with paying higher wages that the employer could afford and employees could provide for their families. The History of the Fair Labor Standards Act The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is administered by the United States Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division.†¦show more content†¦The President set out to raise wages, create employment, and thus restore business, the Nations employers signed more than 2.3 million agreements covering 16.3 million employees (Grossman, 1978). On White Monday, March 29, 1937, the High Court reversed its course when it decided the case of West Coast Hotel Company v. Parrish, the plaintiff was suing for back wages, in a turnaround, Justice Owen Roberts voted with the four-man liberal minority to uphold the Washington minimum wage law; the FLSA had been vindicated. Justice Roberts vote and big switch was an important event in American legal history, social history in America also changed for the legal attitude toward labor standards (Grossman, 1978). The FLSA achieved its aim through a single mandatory device: forced overtime pay, it forces employers to pay employees when working lon ger than 40 hours. Rather than balancing the interests of employers and employees, the obligations and burdens imposed by the Act are completely one-sided; they favor employees alone (Wilson, 2005). 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