219,337 research outputs found
Analytics and complexity: learning and leading for the future
There is growing interest in the application of learning analytics to manage, inform and improve learning and teaching within higher education. In particular, learning analytics is seen as enabling data-driven decision making as universities are seeking to respond a range of significant challenges that are reshaping the higher education landscape. Experience over four years with a project exploring the use of learning analytics to improve learning and teaching at a particular university has, however, revealed a much more complex reality that potentially limits the value of some analytics-based strategies. This paper uses this experience with over 80,000 students across three learning management systems, combined with literature from complex adaptive systems and learning analytics to identify the source and nature of these limitations along with a suggested path forward
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What would learning in an open world look like? A vision for the future
The pace of current technological advancement is phenomenal. In the last few years we have seen the emergence of ever more sophisticated gaming technologies, rich, immersive virtual worlds and new social networking services that enable learners and teachers to connect and communicate in new ways. The pace of change looks set to continue as annual Horizon reports testify (http://www.nmc.org/horizon). Clearly new technologies offer much in an educational context, with the promise of flexible, personalised and student-centred learning. Indeed research over the past few years, looking at learners' use of technologies, has given us a rich picture of how learners of all ages are appropriating new tools within their own context, mixing different applications for finding/managing information and for communicating with others (Sharpe and Beetham, forthcoming)
National trade associations, economic development and globalization
In the post communism regime, the responsibility of economic development has largely been shifted to private sector. The increasing role of private sector enterprises introduced the new concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR), democratization in business and finance, corporate culture, fair trade, good governance and economic freedom and participation. The ‘wealth maximization concept’ under the ‘extreme capitalism’, limited liability, separate entity, agency cost, professionalism, and competitiveness were redefined. The implementation of the separate entity concept and the code of corporate governance have become more important in the post communism regime. Now, problems in trade and investment are closely linked with the problems of unemployment, income distribution, poverty, macroeconomic growth, regional and infrastructure development, socio-cultural changes, political structure, and the rate of crimes in a country. Business related issues couldn’t be studied in isolation; they are integrated with the sociopolitical dimensions of an economy. In the present inclination of globalization where the word ‘countries’ is being silently replaced by ‘economies’, the role of trade bodies has became more important. The policy advocacy, research and to work as a leading and supreme think tank should be the core activities of the national and multilateral chambers of commerce. The power and role of the chambers in global polices has been studied and contemplated by various analysts. The role of trade associations, chambers of commerce, large corporations and the business groups in the economic development has become an important area of research which lead the drastic development in the literature of business economics. Now, Business Economics has become an important branch of the applied economics. To provide a forum for research and debates on the contemporary issues in Business Economics, the National Association of Business Economists are serving in the developing and industrialized countries. These associations have close association with the National Chambers of Commerce. Various economists have been analyzing on the productivity, importance and the role of the local chambers and the trade specific associations. Aldrich, Fiol, and Staber from Cambridge University, Arendt from University of Chicago, Axelrod, from New York, Benhabib from Princeton University, Dowling from Oxford University, Fombrun from Harvard Business School, Fukuyama from John Hopkins University, Gutmann from Harvard University, Harré from Cambridge University, Lehne from New York University, Olson from Harvard University, North from Cambridge University, Olson from Harvard University, and Shapiro from Oxford University are famous research scholars in the filed of business economics who have been serving on the role of large business houses and the business representative associations in the economic and socio political development and changes in the global business and financial environment. The paper covers the importance and background of the study, nexus of the chambers with the states and multilateral institutions and effects on socioeconomic development and policy Recommendations.Trade Associations, Globalization, Governance,
Virtual Collaboration in the Online Educational Setting: A Concept Analysis
This study was designed to explore the concept of virtual collaboration within the context of an online learning environment in an academic setting. Rodgers’ method of evolutionary concept analysis was used to provide a contextual view of the concept to identify attributes, antecedents, and consequences of virtual collaboration. Commonly used terms to describe virtual collaboration are collaborative and cooperative learning, group work, group interaction, group learning and teamwork. A constructivist pedagogy, group-based process with a shared purpose, support and web-based technology are required for virtual collaboration to take place. Consequences of virtual collaboration are higher order thinking and learning to work with others.
A comprehensive definition of virtual collaboration is offered as an outcome of this analysis. Clarification of virtual collaboration prior to using it as a pedagogic tool in the online learning environment will enhance nursing education with the changes in nursing curriculum being implemented today. Further research is recommended to describe the developmental stages of the collaborative process among nursing students in online education and how virtual collaboration facilitates collaboration in practice
Mixing and Matching Learning Design and Learning Analytics
In the last five years, learning analytics has proved its potential in predicting academic performance based on trace data of learning activities. However, the role of pedagogical context in learning analytics has not been fully understood. To date, it has been difficult to quantify learning in a way that can be measured and compared. By coding the design of e-learning courses, this study demonstrates how learning design is being implemented on a large scale at the Open University UK, and how learning analytics could support as well as benefit from learning design. Building on our previous work, our analysis was conducted longitudinally on 23 undergraduate distance learning modules and their 40,083 students. The innovative aspect of this study is the availability of fine-grained learning design data at individual task level, which allows us to consider the connections between learning activities, and the media used to produce the activities. Using a combination of visualizations and social network analysis, our findings revealed a diversity in how learning activities were designed within and between disciplines as well as individual learning activities. By reflecting on the learning design in an explicit manner, educators are empowered to compare and contrast their design using their own institutional data
Governance of a complex system: water
This paper sets out a complex adaptive systems view of water governance.
Overview
Fresh water is a life - enabling resource as well as the source of spiritual, social and economic wellbeing and development. It is continuously renewed by the Earth’s natural recycling systems using heat from the sun to evaporate and purify, and then rain to replenish supplies. For thousands of years people have benefited from these systems with little concern for their ability to keep up with human population and economic development. Rapid increases in population and economic activity have brought concern for how these systems interact with human social and economic systems to centre stage this century in the guise of a focus on water governance.
What do we mean by governance and how might we better understand our water governance systems to ensure their ongoing sustainability? This paper sets out a complex adaptive systems view of water governance. It draws on the academic literature on effective governance of complex systems and effective water governance to identify some principles for use in water governance in New Zealand. It illustrates aspects of emerging water governance practice with some examples from New Zealand which have employed a multi-actor, collaborative governance approach. The paper concludes with some implications for the future evolution of effective water governance in New Zealand. Collaborative governance processes are relatively unfamiliar to New Zealand citizens, politicians and other policy actors which makes it more important that we study and learn from early examples of the use of this mode of governance
A problem structuring method for ecosystem-based management : the DPSIR modelling process
The purpose of this paper is to learn from Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) theory to inform the development of Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs) both in general and in the specific context of marine management. The focus on marine management is important because it is concerned with a CAS (formed through the interconnection between natural systems, designed systems and social systems) which exemplifies their particularly ‘wicked' nature. Recognition of this compels us to take seriously the need to develop tools for knowledge elicitation and structuring which meet the demands of CAS. In marine management, chief among those tools is the DPSIR (Drivers - Pressures - State Changes - Impacts - Responses) model and, although widely applied, the extent to which it is appropriate for dealing with the demands of a CAS is questionable. Such questioning is particularly pertinent in the context of the marine environment where there is a need to not only recognise a broad range of stakeholders (a question of boundary critique) but also to manage competing knowledge (economic, local and scientific) and value claims. Hence this paper emphasises how a CAS perspective might add impetus to the development of a critical perspective on DPSIR and PSM theory and practice to promote a more systemic view of decision-making and policy development
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