The Scope And Limitation Of The Study An Example

The Scope And Limitation Of The Study An Example The current traditional help desk mechanisms used in UUM-CAS postgraduate help desk department at UUM are no longer enough to support the increase of the interactions between the users and the technical support employees because There is no standard and organized process for handling the users requests. This paper proposes a technical support system that can help students, staff and even lecturers at UUM Postgraduate CAS department to freely interact with the customer service employees by sending their requests and inquiries through a web-based help desk system. In the other side, this proposed system will also increase the productivity of the employees of the customer service department since each specific ticket or problem will received by a specific group of the technical support employees. In order to achieve that , we are going to use a problem tracking technique . This technique will enable the users (students, staff or lecturer) to send their inquiries to the proper person in the customer service department. Also this technique will aim to track the problem or ticket of the users until it gets their direction to the proper person of the customer service employees who will try to solve it within a convenient time. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.0 Background Nowadays, a technical support service plays a main role in a Universitys ability to assist their students , staff and lecturers who really need some information and technical support guides. In the meanwhile , Educational institutions face the challenge of providing technical support to faculty, staff, and students for answering their questions and responding to their inquiries and problems with a suitable solutions and within a convenient time. (Cruess, 2002 and Niedzwiecki Peterson, 2002). Moreover, The main goal of customer service is to provide better overall service to the customer when they contact the customer service employees, either through email, or a phone call. We want to make sure that everyone is satisfied with the first answer they receive with a correct solution in a timely manner. We want to be proactive and resolve as many issues as we can before the customer even notices that something may have gone wrong. The customer should notice an improvement in the turnarou nd time when a help request is submitted, as well as a reduction in the number of times they have to ask for help until he/she gets the solution. (Schauer Thompson, 2004). This proposed study will make an enhancement in the current technical support mechanism used by the UUM Postgraduate technical support department. It will be conducted based on Problem Tracking Technique which help to ensure consistent and quality support, track the information and problems that come into the Help Desk and assign or forward the problems to the appropriate workgroup and follow-up to make sure the problems were corrected. Problem statement Previously, by using the traditional help desk tools, the web interface was just a simple interface with an engine for generating an e-mail to our support staff. When an e-mail is sent to the [emailprotected] for example, different staff will receive it. This sometimes resulted in duplication of work since multiple people could work on the same ticket or email, or no one would handle it since some groups would assume other groups or individuals would be handling a certain email. There was no standard and organized process for handling the users requests. Sometimes no one responded right away and other times multiple people did, showing that we were not very coordinated. The same thing happens when using a traditional phone call as a tool of communicating with the customer service (Schauer Thompson, 2004). Also Recently, there have been increasing number of interactions between users and customer service employees online. Therefore employees must take great deal of time to process in quiries from customers through the Internet (Iwai, Iida, Akiyoshi Komoda, 2010). In this research we are going to concentrate on the UUM Postgraduate CAS department to be as a domain of our study. In the meanwhile, students, staff and lecturers at UUM Postgraduate CAS department have always been able to submit problem reports via e-mail, or by phone. That is still true, but the question is : How effective is the use of these tools? In fact , The current campus help desk has become the hub of support with the many spokes of user services centered on it (Cruess, 2002). Students, staff and lectures do not have to be waited and passed on from one technical support employee to another until they get the answer of their problem or inquiry. In addition, once the student sends his/her problem to the help desk department by email , it will take long time until it gets solved. Because the ticket will not send immediately to the proper person that he/she is aware of the problem that has already been sent .In this case, the number of times that they have to ask for help will increase . As a consequence, and based on the points that we mentioned previously, we proposed a web-based help desk system that can be used as a bridge between the users (students, staff, lecturer) and the technical support employee at UUM Postgraduate CAS department. In order to provide consistent and quality support to the students, staff and lecturers. In the proposed system we are going to use a problem tracking technique to track the information and problems that come from the customers into the Help Desk. In addition, assign or forward the problems to the appropriate workgroup and make sure that the problems are solved. Research Questions Based on the problem statement mentioned before, the following questions are constructed: What are the Limitations of the current UUM Postgraduate CAS help desk system? What are the techniques that we are going to use during the developing stage of the prototype of Postgraduate UUM help desk system? How can we evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system? Research Objectives The main objective of this study is to enhance the current technical support of UUM Postgraduate department by developing an organized and significant web-based technical support system based on a problem tracking technique. In order To achieve this main objective, some sub-objectives can be formulated: To identify limitations of the current help desk system. To design and develop a prototype web-based help desk system based on problem tracking technique. To evaluate the prototype web-based help desk system based on problem tracking technique among the users. Significance of the study The proposed model will provide a significant and flexible way of communicating between the customer service at UUM and their users. Here are some significant and beneficial achievements that the proposed system is expected to provide: The system can assist the students in postgraduate department to find the solutions for routine questions through FAQ part and manage its requests by using problem tracking technique. The system will help the university to build a strong relationship with their students. Increase the productivity of the employees at work and provide faster and more convenient services to their students, staff or lecturers. All the users requests will directly send to the proper department of the customer service for finding a solution instead of sending all requests to one customer service department and then this department will try to find the suitable person who can answer the incoming request, and here we waste the time. Thus, we expect from this system to enhance the previous customer services tools and make it more effective and organized. Scope and limitation of the study This study will focus on developing a web-based help desk system using a problem tracking technique for Postgraduate UUM-CAS department at UUM. This system will let users (staff, students or lecturers) to freely interact with the technical support employees who have the ability to answer all problems related to the postgraduate services provided by the UUM-CAS. In addition, UUM-CAS postgraduate students can navigate FAQ section which contains a groups of frequently asked questions that are related to UUM-CAS Postgraduate department at UUM and they can find their problem or inquiry there. Moreover, the proposed system will help the students, lecturers, and staff at UUM-CAS postgraduate department to see the latest UUM-CAS postgraduate news and articles added by the technical support employees. The prototype to be developed is based on problem tracking technique. Organization Of The Report This report consists of six chapters which will cover the designing and the developing online help desk system for UUM-CAS postgraduate department at UUM. Here is an overview of the content of each presented chapter: Chapter One: this chapter introduces the problem, gives an overview about the study and describes the needs of help desk systems in the educational sectors. This chapter also discusses the scope of the study, the significance of the study and its objectives. Chapter Two: this chapter covers the literature review which is the previous related works that been done before. Moreover, this chapter represents relevant information for understanding the study more. Chapter Three: this chapter explains the details of the selected methodology that we are going to use in the project. Chapter Four: this chapter discusses about the prototype development and the implementation of the online help desk system for UUM-CAS postgraduate department at UUM. Chapter Five: this chapter discusses the evaluation process of the proposed help desk system. Chapter Six: this chapter discusses the conclusion, recommendations and future works to improve this study. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction This chapter discusses the relevant help desk researches that had been done before by researchers. Moreover, this chapter presents the current techniques used by UUM-CAS technical support department also it presents the techniques that we are going to use in the proposed study including problem tracking technique. In addition , it discusses the previous researches that had been done before using this techniques. Definition of Online Help Desk System Online Helpdesk as defined by Donna Knapp in a Guide to Customer Service Skill and Helpdesk Professional is a single point of contact within a company for managing customers problem and request and providing solution oriented support services (Knapp, 2009). Online help desk is also define a Help Desk as a formal organization that provides support functions to users of the companys product, services, or technology (Wooten, 2001). Another definition has been defined by Albin who said Technical support is a service. Its about assisting pertaining to technology, especially regarding computers. It is also has to do with providing acceptable, effective and efficient resolutions(Albin, 2002). As a consequence, Helpdesk is usually known as a department within a company that responds to users technical questions or inquires. Background of Online Help Desk Often the term Helpdesk is used for internal support within the organization or for external support groups. Educational Institutions need to provide high quality of customer service and support to respond to the users inquires and problems within a convenient time . A well designed Help Desk product should have the ability for the support customer to be part of the solution by offering a searchable knowledge base of common support issues and questions and a way for customers/users to easily create their own support tickets. With a web based interface, most users are able to navigate simple web forms with fairly high success rates to submit a trouble ticket or find answers to frequently asked questions or common problems. The helpdesk is responsible for bringing an organizations resources together in order to provide its customers with quality support and service (Czengel, 2001 and Vanderlip, 2004). Thus, to be able to choose the right techniques and to use them effectively in the he lp desk system, you have to understand what customers want. Knowing this will help you make sense of the techniques youll be looking at (Bacal, 2005). Benefits of Online Help Desk System Web-based support offers an extremely wide variety of benefits. These will vary depending on factors such as the generation of the support site, the tools employed, the profile of the customer base, the services offered, and so on. Benefits typically originate from two aspects of support: Self-service Single source access The benefits of self-service On a Web-based support site, self-service refers to all information, functions, and services that customers can take advantage of on their own, without having to contact a support representative. Users might view or download information or seminars, search for solutions in a knowledge base, download a software upgrade, or check on the progress of their support log. The primary benefit of self-service is the ability to offer customers some form of support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These extended hours of support come at no additional cost. The self-service functions you offer on your site would be available around the clock. Another significant benefit of self-service is the reduction in calls to the staffed support area. This means the more calls you are able to divert from your support area to your Web-based support site, the more benefits you will gain. This can achieved by specifying FAQ part in the system which contains the most frequently asked questions which eat up mo st of technical support employees time (Czengel, 2001). The Benefits of Single Source Access A Web-based support site that contains documents such as Knowledge base, FAQs, News, and so onà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦This documents will provide users with a single source access to the service provided by the institute or the organization. Implementing Online Helpdesk System, management can have a single point of contact with the users and resolve their problems (Czengel, 2001). In addition to the two benefits that we have mentioned before there are some other important benefits of using Online Helpdesk Systems and they are as follows: Improved help desk service quality as all inquiries or problems are immediately taken action timely identification, diagnosis and resolution of problem Improved user or customer satisfaction. Providing existing users or customers with knowledge and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) concerning the educational institutions services. 24-hour availability which means that the system is available always to receive the problems or inquiries from the users at any time and in any day. Troubleshooting features gives users or customers the ability to solve many support problems on their own. This tool provides the users or customer with an easy way of connecting with the technical support employees and within a convenient time. Serves as a tool for tracking and recording helpdesk inquiries, which provides a knowledge base of resolutions to previous calls concerning similar issues. The Potential Pitfalls of Web-based Support The potential pitfalls in Web-based support come from poor planning and implementation. A site that offers little actual value to the customers or users, no matter how visually perfect it is, is worthless. Sites that are difficult to navigate, that contain out-of-date information, that do not offer help for the most common problems, that are designed at too advanced or too simple a level for the customer base they support all fall into the worthless category. You can spend a fortune on support tools, but if you havent done a thorough job in planning and implementation, your support site will fail and you will get no payback on what you invested. Customers/users will go to alternatives such as telephone support, and getting them back to the Internet would be difficult (Czengel, 2001). Web-Based Application Web application known as an online communication services that client can access through their computer or handheld devices, this communication can be optimized via network support such as the Internet or an intranet (Grove, 2009). Problem Tracking Technique There are many researches had been done before using a Problem Tracking Technique. This technique had been used in order to improve the efficiency of using help desk systems by the users. One of the research that had been already done is a help desk system that had proposed for The Information Technology Services Department in North Dakota State University . The system allows them to track problems by assigned person, assigned group, for a specific user and many other ways. They can generate ad hoc reports to analyze problems that have occurred over a set period of time or by department as needed. Thus, For a help desk to be effective and efficient, it needs to have a proper set of tools. These tools are used to manage the incoming calls, monitor servers and network connections, track problems as they enter the help desk and are transferred to other support units, being able to view the end users screen, documentation, training and many others. User Part Once the user did not find the solution of his /her problem in the FAQ part, he/she is going to use the ticketing system which is one of the system functionality. The user will create a new ticket and include his/her inquiry or problem within this ticket. The process of creating new ticket includes several steps. At the beginning the customers must choose the section that the faced problem belongs to. For example students fees section or registration section. After that, the customer will enter his/her personal information and he can specify a priority to his/her ticket for example urgent or normal .The customer can attach a file with his/her ticket in order to explain his/her problem more (Edwards, 2010 and Kayako, 2009). Technical support employees part After the user completes the process of sending his/her ticket to the suitable group of the technical support employees, here comes the role of technical support employees to respond to this ticket .Each ticket has a status which can be Open, Waiting for reply or Closed .Once the user creates his/her new ticket and sends it to the technical support employees, the status of his/her ticket will be automatically Open since it is a new ticket. Thats mean it needs a reply from the technical support employees. After one of the technical support employees replies this ticket, he/she will change the status of this ticket to be Waiting for reply which means the ticket has been replied by the suitable technical support employee and its status now is Waiting the user to send another reply if the first answer that he/she already got is not clear enough. Suppose that the customer needs more explanation or more details about his/her problem, then after he/she got the reply from the customer servic e, the user can change the status of this ticket from Waiting for reply to be Open and send it again with his/her new inquiry to the customer service employees. The status of the ticket will automatically become closed after a period of time called DUE which is specified by the administrator of the system and it is defined as the maximum time that the ticket will be remained in case of waiting for a response from the user. That means after the expiration of this time, the status of the ticket will be closed. After this time called DUE the ticket will be closed and it will become as a read-only ticket from the side of users. In other words, the problem has been solved and does not need any reply anymore. The last thing that we want to indicate that imagine that a user has sent a ticket to the technical support employees through the system and lets answer this question: what will happen if the ticket still in the queue of the tickets queue without any answers from any technical suppor t employee? In fact this case is the worst case that it might make the user in the status of waiting for reply through unlimited time. In order to handle this problem, In the proposed system there is a part for administrators which enable the help desk managers or administrators to monitor and manage the process of ticketing system. They can view the tickets that no one has answer it and assign it to the suitable technical support employee. (Edwards, 2010; Schauer Thompson, 2004; and Kayako, 2009). Building up FAQ Building up FAQ is also an important task of help desk. The purpose of building up the FAQ is to reduce the number of inquiries that come from users. Users can browse the FAQ pages and clear up their unfamiliar matters before they send emails or tickets to the help desk employees. Help desk employees also can analyze inquiry records, construct questions and add them to the FAQ part. For example, if the help desk employees see that there are questions that come out from users several times, then they can simply organize these questions by added them to the proper group of FAQ section so the users can find it there before they send a new question which is already exists at FAQ section (Iwai, Iida, Akiyoshi Komoda, 2010 and Kayako, 2009). UUM-CAS help desk mechanisms In the meanwhile, the current technical support mechanisms used by UUM-CAS postgraduate technical support department are still limited to phone call and email as a way of communicating between users and the technical support employees. Generally, the disadvantages of using this current techniques are divided into two parts based on email or phone call. The first part of disadvantages are the problems of using phone call as a tool of providing the technical support service. The first problem of using the phone call is that the technical support employees are not always the same who answer the phone. Which means, every time you talk to different technical support employee, you should explain your problem again and again until you get the solution of your problem. The second issue of using a phone call is the wasted time that the user should wait since he/she may pass on from one technical support employee to another until he/she gets the answer of his/her problem or inquiry. The third issue appears during the registration time while the pressure on the technical support center is more comparison to other time and especially on using phone call. At that time, the user should wait on the phone until he/she can talk to the customer service employees since the phone is busy. From the other side, there are some issues comes from using the email as a way of interacting between the users and the customer service employees. First of all, it takes long time from the customer service employees side until they solve the issues since the problem will not be received from the proper technical support employee who has an infrastructure about the problem that had been sent by the users. The second thing is multiple people could work on the same email or no one would handle it since some customer service employees will assume that other employees would handle it. Thus, and as we can see there is no standard and organized way of handling with the users inquiries and problems. Chapter Summary The analysis of literature review had broadened the scope of Online Helpdesk issues. The information and findings collected form this chapter is used as a guidance to develop the Online Helpdesk system. By reviewing the UUM-CAS postgraduate help desk case study, we can conclude that helpdesk system plays an important role in the educational institutions. This chapter has also demonstrated the importance of helpdesk system in the context of UUM-CAS postgraduate help desk department. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Introduction This chapter discusses the adopted methodology which applied to achieve the objectives of the study in designing and developing the proposed web-based help desk system for UUM-CAS help desk department. Research Methodology Research methodology plays a very important role to proceed and carry out with the whole all research study. Moreover, it is very important to choose the suitable methodology for your study in order to achieve the objectives of the study. In general, a lot of studies that had been done before use the research methodology to achieve many purposes such as gathering data and information, development and evaluation (Refsdal, 2008 Schmuller, 2002). Besides that, Research methodology step makes us fully awareness about the requirements of our study and the problem statement of the research. Thus, The methodology of this research the we are going to apply is based on the five general research steps that are proposed by Vaishnavi Kuechler. These steps includes the awareness of problems, suggestions, development, evaluation, and the conclusion of the research as they are illustrated in the Figure 3.1. The awareness of problems In this step, some important information had been gathered about the current problems and limitations of using the current traditional help desk mechanisms at UUM-CAS help desk department. This can be achieved by interviewing the students, lectures, and staff to see what are the disadvantages of using the current customer service in order to overcome it. Moreover, we can use some beneficial instruments such as questionnaire. In addition, we can collect some information from some related work that had been done before by other researchers. Thus, This step aims to identify the problems and come out with a significant and more organized solution. Suggestions The second step of the methodology of this research is to suggest building a web-based application based on problem tracking technique in order to enhance the current technical support tools used by UUM-CAS help desk department. In this phase, some flow charts and some Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams will be used to design the proposed prototype. The Figure 3.2 illustrates briefly the technical support operation of the proposed system: Figure 3.2: Diagram explains the proposed system Design Pattern Design patterns describe how objects communicate without become entangled in each others data models and methods. Keeping this separation has always been an objective of good OO programming, and if you have been trying to keep objects minding their own business, you are probably using some of the common design patterns already (Cooper, 2002). Why Design Pattern? Why do we need to use design pattern? Nowadays computers programs is becoming more complicated, for this reason it is important to have a way of making building software easier and less complexity. For example, SQL Server and Oracle are become the most common databases used in the meanwhile . Lets imagine that we are working in a software company and we already developed a costly system using SQL Server database and because of a certain reason the company wants to change its database server into Oracle. Does that mean we want to ignore everything has been built and start building our new system from scratch? The answer is no of course. By using a design pattern we will be able to build a system which rebuilding ability exists. As a result, we just need to change the part of code which deals with SQL Server with Oracle one. Design pattern has divided the system into layer each layer has its own job starting from the View layer and ending with the database layer and the figure 3.4 belo w is really express what i just mentioned. If we ignore using design pattern in our system , then our system simply will miss the usability technique. As the figure 3.5 shows that we should not ignore the Business tier and dealing directly with the data tier if we do so then it is hard to make changes in the application. Thus, In this case and if we want to change in one place, then we should change in many other places that are related to the change instead of make the changes in one place by using the organized design patterns. To explain how does the design pattern technique work, lets take the following scenario : Once the system has started, it will collect some configurations from configuration file about the connection string of the database and the name of Business Logic Layer DLL (BLL). That means the connection with the database will not establish until the business layer successfully retrieved the configuration from the configuration file. Business Logic Layer is responsible for retrieves data from the data layer, so the business logic layer plays the role of mediator between presentation layer and database layer. IDAL (Interface Data Access Layer) is an interface that we just need to deal with it regardless the type of database that the system works with. Hardware Requirements Of The System Since the proposed system is a web-based application, so to run the system on the web environment we need a web application server that can handle the requests that come from the users of the proposed help desk system. In addition to the web server, To run the system on the web server, it has to have the minimum hardware characteristics that enable the web server from installing dot net features such as dot net framework which is necessary to run the application on the web server smoothly and successfully. Software Requirements Of The System As we mentioned in the hardware requirements of the system, we need to install the dot net framework on the web server since the developing environment of the proposed system is Microsoft Visual Studio and this framework is necessary to run the application successfully on the server. Besides that, a web browser application is necessary to be installed which is the middle tool that will make the connection with the system application which is running on the server side. User Requirements Of The System Generally, The user of the proposed system is divided into three categories. That is, UUM users (student and lecturer), technical support employee, and administrator. Each group of the system has its role based on its authority of using the system. Since the proposed system consists of three parts ( User, Technical support employee, Administrator) , each group of the users can use the suitable part based on their authority. UUM users can use the user part of the system to submit the problems as a tickets to the customer service employees. In addition, they can see the latest news and articles added by the customer service employees and download the files that are related to UUM-CAS. While the technical support employees are responsible to respond to the tickets that come from the user part, in addition to manage the articles, news and download sections in the user part. The last part is the administrator which is responsible to manage the technical support part throw adding new group in addition to manage the technical support employees. Development A software development process is a process to build a software product or to enhance an existing one. Moreover, the Development stage of the research methodology is the most significant stage in our study since it represents the answer o

Cochlear Implants and the Internet :: Health Disability

On-line communities are something I have never participated in. I have always felt (due to personal observations of friends using chat rooms and listening to other’s renditions of their experiences) these communities can, and most often do, consume inordinate amounts of time and spare time is a rare commodity for me. Beyond the time consumption, from my observations of chat rooms, there are rarely any well-thought-out responses to the topic of discussion. In fact, often there are inane and childish retorts that just stir up the emotions of those involved and tend to sidetrack the majority as they rally against the perpetrator. On the other hand, I assume there are places where professionals can have relevant and introspective discussions, but I had never viewed, participated in or even read archived logs of such discourse. I imagine these â€Å"professional† discussions could be highly beneficial interactions for problem solving, as well as being supportive while offering constructive criticism. Since my specialty is education of the deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH), I have been exposed to the highly emotionally charged debates on the issue of cochlear implants (CI). I was interested in finding out how easy (or difficult) it would be for hearing parents with deaf children to receive balanced and unbiased information on cochlear implants. Could they acquire the knowledge they would need in order to make informed decisions on behalf of their children on the World Wide Web? For those unfamiliar with CIs, the simplest explanation is to think of it as a high powered hearing aid which is surgically implanted in the recipient’s head (actually the inner ear) and feeds electrical impulses directly to the brain. It does not take away or alter a person’s deafness. When the processor is on, the implant stimulates hearing. When it is turned off, the hearing is gone. Maybe a short description of the process would be appropriate to insert here before continuing. First a recess is drilled in the temporal bone of the skull (behind the ear) and a magnetic disk is placed in this well. Connected to this disk is a wire—actually a bundle of wires depending on the CI’s number of channels or frequencies.

Domestic Violence among African Americans Essay

Domestic violence is abuse that occurs within a personal relationship. It can occur between former or current spouses or significant others. Domestic violence doesn’t have a name it affects both men and women of any race, religion; gay or straight; upper class or low class; adolescents, adults, or seniors. But most of its victims are women rather men. While domestic violence is present in all races, the existence among African Americans is significantly higher in the United States. There are many elements that have been shown to stimulate a person to engage in domestic violence examples are failing relationships, lack of employment, poor school systems, violent communities, drug use and the multitude of nearby accessible liquor stores. Experiencing any these situations can lead to strong emotions that can ultimately result in domestic violence. People who experience domestic violence are deeply affected and often live in fear. This plague has broken down and destroyed many African American communities. There are serious physical and mental health risks involved in domestic Violence. Abortion, stress, unconsented sexual encounters, possible suicides, complicated pregnancies and murder are few possible physical results from domestic violence. (Bent-Goodley, 2004) Abuse, control and violence are components of domestic violence. Neither the abuser nor the person being abused are winners in these type of situations. The abuser actions shows characteristics of controlling, anger, oppressor, possessiveness, power and liar. The abusers victims are usually people that can be manipulated, scared and shielded by the abuser. Although the abuser may be an adult most often their mental capacity displays child like behavior. A child will typically throw fits and become angry when things don’t go their way or they didn’t get what they wanted. This anger that possess is shown through mental and physical abuse . Abuser are usually not very open people and they believe that are right in every situation. However, they never take the blame for their actions and tend to blame others, most often their spouse. The victims  of abuse tend to show characteristics of having low self-esteem, sadness and being unconfident about themselves. Often the victim believes that this type of physical and verbal abuse should be inflicted upon them. (Agazie, 2011) Generally, a victim or spouse show signs of previously experiencing an unstable and hostile childhood, and possibly being abused as a child. As a result, they feel like an unwanted and scared child who is weak, instead of like an adult. African Americans who survive domestic violence, child abuse and community violence consistently engage in various types substance abuse at higher rates. (Hill, et al, 2012) African American abusers who has previously used a weapon or threatened their spouse with one during arguments, will more than likely kill them by lethal violence. It is stated that 80% of African American women who have murdered their partners had a history of abuse. Violence and nonviolence have been proven behaviors that are learned. Social and cultural beliefs, outlooks on life, examples, role models influences on whether a person decides to engage in volatile or nonvolatile behavior. It is very key to know how a person elects to use violence or nonviolence. (Wimberly, 2000) Statistics have shown that African American women are more prone to leave an abusive relationship and then return to it compared to white women. (Agazie, 2011) African American women suffer mistreatment over a long period of time and have a tendencies fight back. Close to 50% of victims that attempt to leave their abusive relationship are killed by their partners. (Williams, et al, 2008) African American women are brought up as younger girls under strong religious belief and family values. They are taught at a young age that once you get married you do what it takes not to become a victim of divorce. They are told that it may not be easy but you are married for life once you have made that commitment. With this type of upbringing African American women tend to procrastinate and often hesitate leaving an unhealthy marriage due to their beliefs. Most people don’t not understand the reasoning behind women staying in this form of relationship. While the reasons for their reluctances to leave an abusive relationship are uncertain, some likely justifications would be (1) when searching for a spouse African American women have a smaller amount of choices than White women; (2) African American women’s income is normally lower than of most  White women; (3) Black women are reluctant to call the police due to the trust that African American in the justice system. Unfortunately, most battered and abused Black women find no other way out of the relationship and resort to killing their partners. Losing financial means may also contribute to the reason why African American women of lower class are reluctant to report abuse. The abusing spouse may take care of the victim financially by providing a place to stay, clothes and food and, in order to keep their current living status so they remain quiet about the abuse. Reputation may play a part in why African American women of higher class hesitate to report abuse because they don’t want to put their reputation at risk. Another reason why abused victims remain quiet is because they may not be taken serious by law enforcement. It has been confirmed that domestic violence is treated more like a private family matter rather than serious matter. Typically when law enforcement is called to a domestic violence scene, no arrest is usually made and if they are ever prosecuted the case is usually dismissed. (Hampton, et al, 2008) In many cases I have found that the African American community seems to accept, if not encourage, the domestic violence that exists within it. While it is easy to blame education or social rank for a couple’s behavior or society’s reaction to it, these factors are often not as important as one might expect. A woman with multiple degrees or at the highest level of social strata is as vulnerable to domestic violence as the woman who did not graduate form high school. It equally as likely for a man who is born to an upper middle class family and a man born to a family tha t lives in poverty to participate in an abusive relationship. The Black church has always and continues to be a pillar of strength to Black families and communities. The Black church has been a powerful force in the Black community. Domestic violence is a tough situation to endure, so many African Americans turn to prayer to cope with the difficulties in their lives. (Watlington & Murphy, 2006) The Black church has been unreliable and, at times, inadequate in reacting to domestic violence situations. (Bent- Goodley, et al, 2012) For instance on August 22, 2007, Bishop Thomas Weeks, pastor of an independent ministry that worked out of the Global Destiny Church (Haines, 2007) assaulted his wife, Juanita Bynum. This assault is significant not only for the positions held by the participant, but also for the actions taken by the African American  community itself. According to Haines (2007) the community did not speak out against the pastor after the beating. Rather, some members of the community spoke in support for the pastor. Haines quotes one individual as posting a message to Weeks’ MySpace page that read, â€Å"Bishop Weeks, don’t be discouraged, but be encouraged. Stand firm and know that the Lord is mighty in battle†. Haines reports that another community member asked her own pastor about the Weeks domestic abuse case, only to find that â€Å"he had no reaction to the abuse and only provided him with scriptures.† making her wonder what he could offer her if she were a victim of domestic abuse (Haines, 2007). While this situation may be distressing, it is not unusual. According to Jordan (2005) â€Å"When African American men act as bullies toward African American women they tend to engage in active-passive renunciation†, which leaves abused women the choice of speaking out or being ostracized. What kind of message does this send? As a young girl I watched my mother be abused countless times by my very own father. She endured this abuse for many years and it appeared as though she would never leave him. It was as if she was accepting of it or had merely gotten used to it. Then one day after 13 years she left and didn’t look back. Although she didn’t speak out about it, she removed herself from the situation. Most of my family knew about the situation but never brought it up. Years later my father eventually changed for the better. I believe that change has to come from within. You can acquire help and assistance but until you want to change no one can help you. It is difficult to create successful programs and mediation approaches that are geared towards domestic violence without fully understanding how African Americans grasp and distinguish this disease. (Bent-Goodley, 2013) Domestic abuse is not distinctive to the African American community. As it stands, whether an African American woman is rich or poor, educated or not, she is at grave risk of being abused by her partner. As it stands, that woman is also at grave risk of being rejected by her community and even her family, if she speaks up about her abuse. Domestic abuse is not limited to only woman but the percentages are outstandingly high compared to an abused make victim. This violence must come to an end. Through education from within, it might be possible to initiate change. References Williams, Oliver J.; Oliver, William; Pope, Marcus. (2008). Domestic Violence in the African American Community. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p229-237. 9p. Agazie, Maxine. (2011). Cultural Considerations Impacting Domestic Violence Among African American Women: Implications for Social Work. Conflict Resolution & Negotiation Journal, Issue 1, p138-141. 4p. Watlington, Christina G.; Murphy, Christopher M. (2006). The roles of religion and spirituality among African American survivors of domestic violence. Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 62 Issue 7, p837-857. 21p. Bent-Goodley, TB. (2013). Domestic Violence Fatality Reviews and the African American Community. HOMICIDE STUDIES, Vol. 17, Issue 4; p375-p390. Bent-Goodley, Tricia B. (2004). Perceptions of Domestic Violence: Health & Social Work, Vol. 29 Issue 4, p307-316. 10p. Hill, Nicholle; Woodson, Kamilah; Ferguson, Angela; Parks, Carlton. (2012). Intimate Partner Abuse among African American Lesbi ans: Prevalence, Risk Factors, Theory, and Resilience. Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 27 Issue 5, p401-413. 13p. Campbell, Jacquelyn; Campbell, Doris W.; Gary, Faye; Nedd, Daphne; Price-Lea, Patricia; Sharps, Phyllis W.; Smith, Cheryl. (2008). African American Women’s Responses to Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination of Cultural Context. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p277-295. 19p Bent-Goodley, Tricia; St. Vil, Noelle; Hubbert, Paulette. (2012). A Spirit Unbroken: The Black Church’s Evolving Response to Domestic Violence. Social Work & Christianity. 2012, Vol. 39 Issue 1, p52-65. 14p. Wimberly, Edward P. (2000). The Civil Rights Movement as a Potential Mentoring Model for Ending Domestic Abuse. Journal of Religion & Abuse, Vol. 2 Issue 1, p33. 16p. Hampton, Robert L. LaTaillade, Jaslean J.; Dacey, Alicia; Marghi, J. R. (2008). Evaluating Domestic Violence Interventions for Black Women. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma , Vol. 16 Issue 3, p330-353. 23p. Haines, E. (2007). Charges against husband put new focus on televangelist. USA Today.com. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-09-01-ynum_N.htm Jordan, L. M. (2005). Domestic violence in the African American community. Retrieved from http://new.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/RoleoftheBlackChurch.pdf

Free sample - The Importance of MBA Degree. translation missing

The Importance of MBA Degree. The Importance of MBA DegreeThe field of business management and administration comprises specific areas such as marketing, accounting, operations management etc. It’s my firm belief that successful business can’t do without employees possessing high level of proficiency and experience. Thus, I am convinced that it is MBA degree that provides great opportunities for aspired students with profound knowledge and potentials. MBA programs have significantly proved to lay the robust foundations of comprehensive business awareness necessary for ambitious, dependable, result-aimed leaders. Owing to the fact that the sphere of my knowledge application was and is still tightly connected with business management, I deeply realize that MBA is what I’m striving to obtain in order to further accumulate, cultivate and advance the attainments I’ve already got. Right after college I got down to work in the financial services industries namely at Citigroup, Investment Banking. By nature I am hard-working and willing to learn, so in this tough time I had to collect all my efforts not to let my team down. Because there were company staff cuts only two executives became to be responsible for the work done – my manager and me. My accountability, courage and rigor appeared to be the features which helped me successfully cope with the overwork and deadlines. The senior management decisions depended on my analyses and reports which needed to be accurate and faultless. Thus, efficiently and effectively performing my duties I managed to earn respect and become trustw orthy in the eyes of my colleagues. My further plans were conditioned by the desire to broaden the horizons of my activity in business. Moreover, my sense of responsibility was enhanced considering that I was a bread-winner in the family and the fact of my legal stay in the US only through the work visa was to some extent a challenge but I was persistent in reaching my aims. In June 2009 I became the member of Blueprint by Ronke (BbR) Event Management and thus was involved in event planning and management business. Such field of business presupposes active, initiative, creative and reliable people able both to organize and control team work, at the same time develop cohesion, unity and integrity among the members. My first project was concerned with showcasing diverse talents of different genres and I wanted to emphasize the many-faceted surrounding community and promote young artists. In addition, this event served financial contribution to the organization Link a Child focused on help for African children in need. I pursued high-standard show which could attract versatile individuals both the performers and professionals from music and media industry. It was a considerable step for me on the way of my career growth and development of supervising qualities along with previous experience as an executive. I was able to apply my managing skills to display contrast and individuality of people with varied flairs.

Struggle Between Good and Evil †Everyman Essay

Struggle Between Good and Evil – Everyman Essay Free Online Research Papers Struggle Between Good and Evil Everyman Essay Life is a struggle between good and evil. This concept is clearly shown in the play â€Å"Everyman.† In this play, God summons Death to search out Everyman and tell him that he must make a pilgrimage to his final reckoning to decide if he could enter paradise or not based on his actions while he was alive. Death promises to catch everyman who lives outside Gods law. While searching for everyman, Death notices Everyman walking unconcerned about anything except treasures, Death orders him to stand still and asks if he had forgotten his God. Death then goes on to say that God has asked to him to tell Everyman that he must to make a long journey, and he is to take with him his â€Å"full book of accounts.† Finally, Death warns Everyman to be careful because he has done many bad deeds and only a few good ones. Everyman argues saying that death was the farthest things from his mind at that moment and tries to bribe death into giving him more time. Death then says no man can bribe me regardless of worldly goods or rank, when summoned by god all men must obey. Everyman cries in vain for more time then asks if he must go on the long journey alone. Death says that everyman is allowed to take any companions who wish to make the journey with him. Reminding him that his life is only his on loan, Death advises that he will return soon, and in the meantime Everyman has an opportunity to find any possible companions for his journey. Unable to find an accomplice for the journey, Everyman turns to Goods, whom represents worldly treasures and greed, whom he has loved all of his life. Goods listens to his plea and offers to help him until he learns that the journey is travel far and wide. Goods promptly refused saying â€Å"I am brittle and would break easily.† But Everyman argues that Goods was suppose to solve all problems. Then goods argues that he would only make Everyman look worse in the eyes of god because bringing goods would only make Everyman look greedy. Consumed in self pity, Everyman calls aloud to Good-Deeds and asks for help. Good-Deeds answers feebly, since he is lying on the cold ground, bound by sins. Good-Deeds knows of the journey everyman has to take and wants to go along, but he is too weak. Good-Deeds tells his sister, Knowledge, to stay with Everyman until he regained his strength. Knowledge then guides everyman to Confession, who gives everyman a penance. After getting the penance, Good-Deeds is able to get up from the ground, cured of sickness, and declares himself able to go on the journey and promises to help Everyman tell his good deeds before god. Then Good-Deeds also gets his friends to counsel Everyman Strength, Beauty, Discretion, and the Five Wits. Finally, Everyman is prepared to meet Death with all his friends. Then suddenly one by one his friends all leave except Good-deeds. Then an angel comes and takes Everyman to paradise and then the play ends with a doctor reminding everyone that only good deeds will help men at final judgement and no one else. Research Papers on Struggle Between Good and Evil - Everyman EssayHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsMind TravelArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Capital PunishmentComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoThe Hockey GameThe Fifth HorsemanWhere Wild and West MeetMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product

Sacrament of Baptism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sacrament of Baptism - Research Paper Example Baptism is seen as a way to salvation for the Catholics who consider the church as the universal sacrament of salvation. Catholics believe that the manner in which one is baptized is not important but the idea that they are baptized is. The person administering the sacrament must not be a priest but anyone who has undergone baptism themselves. However, during critical moments for instance in sickness or near death, anyone can administer the sacrament provided they follow the right way of doing it. The father or other right authority will then conduct a conditional baptism (Vorgrimler, 2002). This paper will seek to critically evaluate the concept of the sacrament of baptism and its relevance in a Christian’s life or at least for the churches that practice it. The paper will seek to view the sacrament from other Christians views and also give a scholarly critique to the act. This paper will evaluate what the bible says in the old and new testaments about salvation and baptism. This is has been perhaps the most controversial concern with baptism (Berkhof, 2006). The sacrament of Baptism The practice of the sacrament is normally conducted by the pries pouring water on the forehead of the faithful while saying the words â€Å"I baptize you in the name of the Father, son, and Holy Spirit.† This indicates that the member has been officially initiated into the ways of the church and through that he or she is saved since the church is the sacrament of salvation. The Anglicans also believe the sacrament is the only sure way to salvation. So, what is the necessity of baptism? Is it really important? What does the bible say about baptism and salvation? Old Testament on Baptism The old testament doesn’t really talk about baptism, or at least as we know it. Baptism is viewed in a symbolic form. For instance, the Noah case; when God got angry and ordered that every animal in the world be allowed into the ark with eight other people. The eight people were in a way saved by God through water. The water is a symbol of baptism for the eight people in the boat. In this regard, baptism is viewed as a sort of cleansing to the world. God cleansed the world through the use of water. This is the closest that the old testament has come to baptism, albeit symbolically (Osborne, 2008). New Testament on Baptism The oldest form of baptism ever recorded was done by John the Baptist and recorded in the New Testament. He then went ahead to announce to people that people should be baptized in order to clean them off their sins. Baptism, according to John the Baptist was to show that they had repented their sins. John the Baptist performed his miracles using water in the river Jordan. He did so by immersing the believers into the river and then they emerged baptized and born again. This is in the book of Luke. When John is found baptizing people by the river and believers ask him questions, he answers by telling them that he is baptizing them with wat er but someone is coming who is greater than he is †¦ and will baptize them with the holy spirit and with fire. This form of baptism is a

The Jazz Combos Concert Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Jazz Combos Concert - Essay Example Some of the performers featured during the concert included Kelsey Marvin, Jeff Hampton, and Sarah Rodger among others. This paper discusses my thoughts and feelings about the Jazz Combos concert held on April 4 this year. The performers’ notation was good for the octatonic pieces, despite the fact that they are diatonic to a lack of the key. This demonstrates that the universal rules for non-harmonic tones were applicable to the performances. Ascending notes took naturals or sharps – either flat or descending. The signature style for Jazz performances stood throughout the performance. In developing a swing feel, there were notable ways that included the notation of the bass lines as quarter note pieces. However, there was a high sense of repetitiveness and predictability throughout the performance, which appeared to limit the forward motion aspect of the swing bass effect. Throughout the performances, the basic rule that the double bass should not be used to play a sim ple single-measure line, which is repetitive, was observed.   This shows that the performances were highly stylistic and were presented before the audience in an effective manner (Cone 48). There were instances where the piano accompaniment was placed on the music’s beat, instead of using it to anticipate alternating beats, which marked a weakness in many of the performances. In some performances, like I anticipated all the performances to be played, the chords were played in staccato-against on-the-beat music lines, which were used effectively, to create the musical yin and yang characteristic of the swing feel. The style was very effective in cultivating the interest of the audience and demonstrating its artistic nature. As expected from the performances, most artists used modified block chords – which they employed, when comping with the melody of a walking bass (Cone 42).