Pursuing Digital Learning Platform Success: A Meta-Analytic Investigation of User and Cultural Contingencies

Digital learning platforms (DLPs) have emerged as highly effective tools to meet contemporary organizations’ learning and knowledge-creation needs. Advanced information and communication technologies (ICT) embedded in these platforms create mobile learning workspaces that deliver ubiquitous yet targeted learning experiences. Scholars have shown a keen interest in assessing the success of DLPs, but most studies have examined only a specific aspect of DLP success. Current findings also show inconsistencies and contradictions that confound our understanding of this important topic. As a result, an integrated and accurate understanding of DLP success is missing. In this paper, we adopt rigorous meta-analytic procedures to consolidate extant findings and reconcile inconsistencies in our understanding of DLP success. Additionally, we extend our meta-analyses to investigate the contingency effects of two moderating variables—user context and cultural context. The results provide a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of DLP success. Our study contributes to the literature by extending the theory on DLPs and information systems (IS) success and by providing insightful recommendations for practitioners

Multimodal data as a means to understand the learning experience

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Public Librarians\u27 Adoption of Technology in Two Southeastern States

Public libraries have become community hubs of technology, changing the responsibilities of public librarians. The problem is a gap between public library technology needs, the skills librarians have with technologies, and the strategies they use to acquire skills. The purpose of this predictive, sequential, explanatory mixed method study was to examine public librarians\u27 attitudes about learning new technology and their behavioral intention to adopt it. Two frameworks guided this study: the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model and the diffusion of innovations theory. Quantitative data (N= 202) were collected by survey and analyzed through multiple linear regression analysis, which determined predictive relationships between determinants of technology use and moderating variables. Findings revealed that the performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions significantly affected the behavioral intention to use technology. The moderating variables of age, gender, experience, and voluntariness did not have significant impact. Twelve qualitative interviews inductively analyzed produced 4 themes of learning needs, learning strategies, barriers, and motivation. Findings have implications for social change because library stakeholders can have access to more knowledgeable and skilled staff, which will allow them to better serve the public, many of whom rely on library services for accessing social services, acquiring new skills, and locating information

Teaching is like engineering: my living educational theory

The traditional view of scientific progress is that human understanding of the world is contiguous and cumulative, with both theories and concepts ‘improving’ incrementally through gradational change. Thomas Kuhn’s (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions challenged this traditional view by arguing, on the contrary, that scientific progress is made through leaps and bounds, when “the earlier results of science [are] rejected, replaced, and reinterpreted by new theories and conceptual frameworks” (“Scientific Progress.”, 2020). Stated simply, scientific progress is revolutionary, not evolutionary. History is seemingly no different. Indeed, although it is often said that history is written by the victors, human understanding of the past is always under threat, as new data are revealed, for example, ideologies and cultural hegemonies change, or scientific developments in other academic disciplines emerge. [...] This context statement documents my historical journey through the Doctor of Professional Studies by Public Works process. The logic is largely chronological in nature, but doubtless some historical revisionism has crept into my narrative. [...

Investigation and development of a tangible technology framework for highly complex and abstract concepts

The ubiquitous integration of computer-supported learning tools within the educational domain has led educators to continuously seek effective technological platforms for teaching and learning. Overcoming the inherent limitations of traditional educational approaches, interactive and tangible computing platforms have consequently garnered increased interest in the pursuit of embedding active learning pedagogies within curricula. However, whilst Tangible User Interface (TUI) systems have been successfully developed to edutain children in various research contexts, TUI architectures have seen limited deployment towards more advanced educational pursuits. Thus, in contrast to current domain research, this study investigates the effectiveness and suitability of adopting TUI systems for enhancing the learning experience of abstract and complex computational science and technology-based concepts within higher educational institutions (HEI)s. Based on the proposal of a contextually apt TUI architecture, the research describes the design and development of eight distinct TUI frameworks embodying innovate interactive paradigms through tabletop peripherals, graphical design factors, and active tangible manipulatives. These computationally coupled design elements are evaluated through summative and formative experimental methodologies for their ability to aid in the effective teaching and learning of diverse threshold concepts experienced in computational science. In addition, through the design and adoption of a technology acceptance model for educational technology (TAM4Edu), the suitability of TUI frameworks in HEI education is empirically evaluated across a myriad of determinants for modelling students’ behavioural intention. In light of the statistically significant results obtained in both academic knowledge gain (μ = 25.8%) and student satisfaction (μ = 12.7%), the study outlines the affordances provided through TUI design for various constituents of active learning theories and modalities. Thus, based on an empirical and pedagogical analyses, a set of design guidelines is defined within this research to direct the effective development of TUI design elements for teaching and learning abstract threshold concepts in HEI adaptations