Adopting Moodle:Case Studies in the Diffusion of Innovation

This joint research paper among five part-time English teachers at Maebashi Kyoai Gakuen University, hereafter called Kyoai University, represents a focused practical application of Action Research based on CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) in the classroom and syllabus. This research builds upon the history and development of CALL at the University, including previous research based on student perceptions of CALL (Deadman, 2014) and teacher’s perceptions and evaluations of multimedia technologies (Mason, 2014). The paper details and investigates how CALL is adopted amongst the teachers in this study, through the existent software Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). Two of the members of this group have used Moodle, whereas the three other part-time teachers have had limited exposure and experience using it. The aim of this research group is to peer-teach each other in a community of practice, in order that our own technology skills increase, ultimately transferring this to better learning experiences for the students. The paper will use teachers experience, observations and planning to detail the purposefulness of technology in the curriculum; the teacher’s own perceptions of the technology; the subsequent selection, planning and design of appropriate class-specific Moodle applications; and each teacher’s initial evaluations of Moodle as they begin to construct their own Moodle accounts for various classes.　A general　e-mail was sent to all Japanese part-time teachers who would be interested in jointly partaking in a research paper, based on the above considerations. As such, the members of this research paper are equal in membership and responsibility for the research, as per the ethical considerations of practitioner research (Hammersley, M., Gomm, R., and Woods, P., 2003)

Adoption of internet banking theory of the diffusion of innovation

The innovation diffusion theory (IDT) could be considered as one of the earliest theories that attempts to explore factors that influence an individual to adopt an innovation or a new technology. The theory suggests five key beliefs that influence the adoption of any innovation: relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability, and observability. The purpose of this study was to test part of IDT’s attributes empirically. We used Internet banking as the innovation or the targeted technology. We surveyed 1164 business and MBA students in four public universities in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. The results showed that relative advantage, compatibility, and trialability have a significant effect on att itude. Consequently, attitude significantly aff ects the intention to use Internet banking. Based on the findings, implications to practice are offere

Diffusion of Competing Innovations: The Effects of Network Structure on the Provision of Healthcare

Medical innovations, in the form of new medication or other clinical practices, evolve and spread through health care systems, impacting on the quality and standards of health care provision, which is demonstrably heterogeneous by geography. Our aim is to investigate the potential for the diffusion of innovation to influence health inequality and overall levels of recommended care. We extend existing diffusion of innovation models to produce agent-based simulations that mimic population-wide adoption of new practices by doctors within a network of influence. Using a computational model of network construction in lieu of empirical data about a network, we simulate the diffusion of competing innovations as they enter and proliferate through a state system comprising 24 geo-political regions, 216 facilities and over 77,000 individuals. Results show that stronger clustering within hospitals or geo-political regions is associated with slower adoption amongst smaller and rural facilities. Results of repeated simulation show how the nature of uptake and competition can contribute to low average levels of recommended care within a system that relies on diffusive adoption. We conclude that an increased disparity in adoption rates is associated with high levels of clustering in the network, and the social phenomena of competitive diffusion of innovation potentially contributes to low levels of recommended care.Innovation Diffusion, Scale-Free Networks, Health Policy, Agent-Based Modelling

SIMULATING THE EFFECTS OF ADOPTION OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED SOYBEANS IN THE U.S.

The paper models the distributional effects of partial adoption of genetically modified soybeans under the assumptions of imperfectly competitive markets and identity preservation requirements. Our results show the welfare costs of market imperfections and improve understanding the diffusion of innovation in agriculture.Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION IN MODERN SCHOOL

This paper presents the results of research aimed to examine how teachers are interested in the application of innovation in teaching and in their personal development. An attempt was made to determine their opinion on the application of innovation in education. Sample consisted of 162 teachers (N = 162) in primary and secondary schools. We used the technique of scaling and instrument evaluation scale that was specifically designed for this research. The results show that teachers easily and smoothly implement innovations in their educational work and the knowledge gained by applying innovation far better in terms of practical application and durability of the knowledge acquired without the use of innovation. A qualitative analysis has shown that the majority of respondents had positive views of the use of innovations in their schools

The Role of the Arts in the Humanities and Social Science Classroom

There are at least two compelling reasons to incorporate the visual arts (by which I mean architecture and urban planning, the design professions and the fine arts) in humanities and social science teaching at all levels. The first is the generative role of architecture and urban planning, the design professions and the fine arts in the education of the senses. The second is our democracy's need for an informed citizenry in an iconic age. [From the intro paragraph]]]> 1989 English http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Carp_Richard_1989_the_role.X.pdf oai:libres.uncg.edu/4545 2014-02-17T06:01:51Z UNCG Diffusion of Innovation Theory: A Bridge for the Research–Practice Gap in Counseling Murray, Christine E. NC DOCKS at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro <![CDATA[This article presents a diffusion of innovation theory–based framework for addressing the gap between research and practice in the counseling profession. The author describes the nature of the research–practice gap and presents an overview of diffusion of innovation theory. On the basis of the application of several major postulates of diffusion of innovation theory to the research–practice gap, several theory-based research practices and questions are proposed

Diffusion of Innovation: An institutional perspective

A review of the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) literature is carried out. This review is later applied to the uptake of the Internet amongst stock brokers in Australia. A framework is proposed where organizational uptake of the Internet and Internet-based trading is embedded in an institutional context encompassing an industry as well as brokerage level of analysis. It is anticipated that the industry’s governing body establishes the overall legal and professional boundaries. Within these boundaries individual stock brokers differentiate themselves through selective adoption of components of the new technology. This is to incorporate the initial setting of industry level protocols and regulations in addition to the semi-autonomous differentiation at the brokerage level. Following the proposed framework, a comparative analysis of traditional and institutional approaches to DOI is carried out

The role of governance mechanisms on the diffusion of innovation in healthcare networks

AbstractThis research investigated innovation diffusion in healthcare networks, focusing on the roles of contractual and relational governance mechanisms. The National Health Service (NHS) England is faced with many challenges, including an ageing population, austerity measures, changes in public expectations in terms of quality of healthcare delivery, advances in technology and medicines, and pressure to do more with less resources (Lacobucci, 2017; Wollaston, 2017). Several studies and practitioner reports identify innovation within healthcare networks as a means of dealing with the current challenges in NHS England (see Nicholson, 2011; Ham and Murray, 2015; Parris et al., 2016). Consequently, innovation is now at the heart of the healthcare agenda, with much of the rhetoric focused on the ability of NHS England to diffuse and adopt innovations (Barnett et al., 2011). Increasingly, studies are highlighting the linkages between innovation diffusion and governance, with many commentators suggesting that governance has an influence on innovation diffusion (Hartley, 2005; Savedoff, 2009; Mikkelsen-Lopez et al. 2011 Barbazza and Tello, 2014). Focusing on healthcare networks, researchers have stressed that governance is a function of mechanisms or processes which are formally and informally used to distribute responsibilities among actors (Kaufmann et al., 1999; WHO, 2007; Siddiqi et al., 2009). Governance affects the organisational environment in which innovation diffusion decisions are made and is typically believed to be represented by contractual and relational rules of exchange between the actors (Vandaele et al., 2007). Existing investigations have recognised that contractual and relational mechanisms play a significant role in networks (Cannon et al., 2000; Poppo and Zenger, 2002; Yang et al., 2012; Cao and Lumineau, 2015), but the nature of such roles and their interplay has not been established in relation to the diffusion of innovation in healthcare networks, particularly where a bottom-up, rather than top-down, approach to innovation has been employed. The bottom-up process of innovation diffusion highlights the key steps taken during diffusion process, whereby opportunities are created for individuals at the low and mid-level of an organisation to own the innovation, share ideas, and take decisions that enhance the diffusion process (Parnaby and Towil, 2008). This is in contrast to top-down diffusion processes, which are characterised by senior management staff developing innovation diffusion pathways that are expected to be embraced by frontline staff.Building on a review of relevant literature that included innovation diffusion, networks, governance, and contractual and relational governance mechanisms, an initial conceptual framework was developed. The study employed this framework to examine the role of governance mechanisms on the diffusion of innovation in healthcare networks, focusing on NHS England. The research adopted a case study methodology (Yin, 2014) and employed a single case design with multiple embedded sub-units of analysis. The study is part of a large collaborative research programme carried out by a multidisciplinary group of academics drawn from three different universities to evidence the value of an Academic Health Science Network (AHSN). The AHSN represented the single case and this study presents two of the seven embedded sub-units that were selected as projects supported by the AHSN that employed a bottom-up approach to innovation diffusion. The first sub-embedded unit focused on five maternity units and the second on eleven general practices in one English healthcare region. The research data were collected over an eighteen-month period, and incorporated multiple sources of evidence, including semi-structured interviews, observations and secondary data analysis. The findings indicated that the diffusion of innovation in healthcare networks can be promoted via a bottom-up approach enabled through the parallel use of formal governance mechanisms, in this case contracts, and relational governance mechanisms such as trust, information exchange and reputation. The research study also uncovered the key role played by boundary spanners and gatekeepers in orchestrating the innovation diffusion process through, for instance, the connection of experts and industry partners. Based on these findings, the research suggests that, when employing a bottom-up approach to innovation diffusion in healthcare networks it is important that the interplay between contractual and relational governance mechanisms is carefully managed, and that key actors are identified that can operate as boundary spanners and gatekeepers, supporting and championing the diffusion of innovations throughout the healthcare network

The effectiveness of the innovative process implemented by SMEs. The results of the empirical research

The essence and the importance of innovation in the process of building the competitiveness of enterprises is widely described in the economic literature. But analysis of innovative activity of companies very often indicates that the innovations introduced to the market do not bring the expected benefits. This leads to the conclusion that very often the innovation activities of enterprises are inefficient and detailed analysis of such cases may identify the key barriers to implementing effective innovation. The modern model for innovative activity indicates that one of the key factors for the success of the innovative activity of enterprises is the proper implementation of introducing new solutions to the market. The problem of the diffusion of innovation involves a number of issues related to the process of spreading and promoting innovation in the market. It is widely recognized that competencies in the area of innovation diffusion are a key determinant of the innovative potential of a company. The author put forward the following research hypotheses: Innovative activities carried out by the surveyed companies are inefficient. The purpose of this paper is to present the problems associated with the effective diffusion of innovation in the SME sector in Poland, with particular emphasis on the barriers in this area. Commonly available statistical data, the author's empirical research results on innovation potential and results of other studies conducted by the University of Szczecin were used to prepare this publication.Preparation and printing funded by the National Agency for Research and Development under project “Kreator Innowacyjności – wparcie dla Przedsiębiorczości akademickiej

Wearable Technology: Disruptive or Diffusion of Innovation?

Wearable technology is on the cutting edge of today’s consumer market, combining two ever-changing industries: fashion and technology. Deepika Raj, a doctoral candidate at the University of Missouri at Columbia, posed the question is wearable technology a diffusion of innovation or a disruption of innovation? In other words, she questions whether wearable technology is a natural progression of the market, or a cause of a disturbance in today’s market through replacement of its competitors