Contextual Sensitivity in Grounded Theory: The Role of Pilot Studies

Grounded Theory is an established methodological approach for context specific inductive theory building. The grounded nature of the methodology refers to these specific contexts from which emergent propositions are drawn. Thus, any grounded theory study requires not only theoretical sensitivity, but also a good insight on how to design the research in the human activity systems to be studied. The lack of this insight may result in inefficient theoretical sampling or even erroneous purposeful sampling. These problems would not necessarily be critical, as it could be argued that through the elliptical process that characterizes grounded theory, remedial loops would always bring the researcher to the core of the theory. However, these elliptical remedial processes can take very long periods of time and result in catastrophic delays in research projects. As a strategy, this paper discusses, contrasts and compares the use of pilot studies in four different grounded theory projects. Each pilot brought different insights about the context, resulting in changes of focus, guidance to improve data collection instruments and informing theoretical sampling. Additionally, as all four projects were undertaken by researchers with little experience of inductive approaches in general and grounded theory in particular, the pilot studies also served the purpose of training in interviewing, relating to interviewees, memoing, constant comparison and coding. This last outcome of the pilot study was actually not planned initially, but revealed itself to be a crucial success factor in the running of the projects. The paper concludes with a theoretical proposition for the concept of contextual sensitivity and for the inclusion of the pilot study in grounded theory research designs

Language design for a personal learning environment design language

Approaching technology-enhanced learning from the perspective of a learner, we foster the idea of learning environment design, learner interactions, and tool interoperability. In this paper, we shortly summarize the motivation for our personal learning environment approach and describe the development of a domain-specific language for this purpose as well as its realization in practice. Consequently, we examine our learning environment design language according to its lexis and syntax, the semantics behind it, and pragmatical aspects within a first prototypic implementation. Finally, we discuss strengths, problematic aspects, and open issues of our approach

Exploring Software Engineering Subjects by Using Visual Learning Analytics Techniques

[EN]The application of the Information and Communication Technologies to teaching and learning processes is linked to the development of new tools and services that can help students and teachers. Learning platforms are a clear example of this. They are very popular tools in eLearning contexts and provide different kinds of learning applications and services. In addition, these environments also register most of the interactions between the learning process stakeholders and the system. This information could potentially be used to make decisions but usually it is stored as raw data, which is very difficult to understand. This work presents a system that employs visual learning analytic techniques to facilitate the exploitation of that information. The system presented includes several tools that make possible to explore issues such as: when interaction is carried out, which contents are the most important for users, how they interact with others, etc. The system was tested in the context of a software engineering subject, taking into account the stored logs of five academic years. From this analysis it is possible to see how visual analytics can help decision-making and in this context how it helps to improve educational processes

A Framework for Semi-automated Web Service Composition in Semantic Web

Number of web services available on Internet and its usage are increasing very fast. In many cases, one service is not enough to complete the business requirement; composition of web services is carried out. Autonomous composition of web services to achieve new functionality is generating considerable attention in semantic web domain. Development time and effort for new applications can be reduced with service composition. Various approaches to carry out automated composition of web services are discussed in literature. Web service composition using ontologies is one of the effective approaches. In this paper we demonstrate how the ontology based composition can be made faster for each customer. We propose a framework to provide precomposed web services to fulfil user requirements. We detail how ontology merging can be used for composition which expedites the whole process. We discuss how framework provides customer specific ontology merging and repository. We also elaborate on how merging of ontologies is carried out.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures; CUBE 2013 International Conferenc

Big Data – Opportunities and Challenges for Education

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2015The paper reveals the potential of Big Data applied in education. The specifics of Big Data in educational contexts and different sources for their extraction are described. The power of innovative tools for data collection, management, and analysis by which to identify best practices or problems in the educational process is shown. Considering these findings, a conceptual proposal for an example of educational system using Big Data is presented. The possible effects of the implementation of Big Data in education are discussed.Association for the Development of the Information Society, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Plovdiv University "Paisii Hilendarski

Prime indicators of current teaching methodologies and students’ perceptions in quantum physics

With the growing revolution in the education system, imparting quality education has become a priority for instructors and students in any educational institution. The challenge grows high when it comes to teaching advanced subjects like quantum physics. The present study considered the case study of the University of Rwanda College of Education. It investigated the impact of current teaching methodologies and teaching staff and students’ perceptions in quantum physics for a quality knowledge delivery system. It employed a quantitative method of data collection. About 300 students and ten lecturers participated in this study. Data obtained from this study were analyzed using descriptive quantitative analysis. Students suggested that multimedia tools in teaching and learning quantum physics can improve the understanding of concepts and help solve complex mathematical problems in quantum physics. Likewise, the teaching staff finds quantum physics more comprehensive and effective when appropriate multimedia tools are used. The investigation outcome is meant multimedia utilization can improve quantum physics’ teaching and learning experience at Rwanda high educational institutions