Transforming distance learning in South Africa with emerging technologies: the academic view

Magister Commercii - MComWithin a context of rapid technological change and shifting market conditions, the South African education system is challenged with providing increased education opportunities without increased budgets. Many educational institutions are answering the challenge without increased budgets. Several educational institutions are answering the challenge by developing distance education programs through information technology, but in the case of one institution, strategic intentions involving information technology and distance learning have not been fulfilled. At its most basic level, distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are separated by physical distance. Technology, often in combination with face-to-face communication, can be used to bridge instructional gaps. It can be argued that modes of teaching and learning are changing, and we must redefine what is meant by the word “student”. For example: what should we really call an adult involved in life long learning? The term “student” seems inappropriate. These types of programs can provide adults with a second chance at tertiary education, reach those disadvantaged by limited time, distance or physical disability, and update the knowledge base of workers at their places of employment. The aim of this research is to determine and understand the growing role of information technology in promoting quality assurance in higher education, and in expanding the education opportunities and workplace learning through the use of distance learning. This work investigates how distance learning can be improved by making use of IT with particular regard to the underprivileged, and the potential contribution to national transformation. This is summarized in the research question: “How can we improve distance learning in South Africa with emerging technologies?” review of the literature, interviews with experts, and reviews of conference papers provided the principle inputs. The academic literatures were supplemented by studies of papers from the Department of Education and other non-academic sources. Based on the reading of the literature, and the views of experts, questionnaires and field experiments were designed and applied to a statistically significant population of respondents. A combination of statistical analysis and content analysis of open questions from the questionnaires lead to comparative evidence about different learning styles and different communities of learners, and the extent to which different learning styles are effective for the different kinds of learners

Input Quality in Internet Delivered Education at a Large Comprehensive University

A case study conducted at a large accredited comprehensive university in its developmental stages of Internet-delivered education supports the research that higher education organizations should not just alter how they perform their traditional tasks, but question whether these tasks and their missions are in line with the newly emerging environment. This study constituted a large-scale replication of Hensrud's (2001) study, this study closes gaps in the research literature using Moore's (1987) theories of transactional distance education and applying Moore's and Kearsley's (1996) systems theory framework to this specific online program, the case study evaluated the Internet-delivered education program both conceptually and holistically. Utilizing Hensrud's (2001) survey instrument, validated through extensive review of the accreditation and best practices literature, the seven component parts of the program were identified as institutional support, course development, teaching and learning, course structure, student support, faculty support, and evaluation and assessment. Subjects: administrators, instructional academic staff, faculty, and support staff. Population: 130 with a 67% (N = 87) response rate. Descriptive parameters: measures of central tendency (mean and median), dispersion (standard deviation and variance), and distribution (skewness and kurtosis). Respondents: 47 males and 40 females, 2 respondents ages 20-30, 21 ages 31-40, 30 ages 41-50, 27 ages 51-60 and 7 over 61 years old. Online teaching experience: 18 had 1-2 years experience, 25 had 3-5 years, and 32 had 5+ years.Findings: The program met the quality criteria in two of the seven categories: institutional support and teaching/learning process. Quality criteria not met: course development, course structure, student support, faculty support, and evaluation and assessment. Recommendations: Additional focus on hybrid curriculums, the life cycle of Internet-delivered education programs to determine if quality criteria are being met on a system-wide level.School of Teaching and Curriculum Leadershi

Administration of Higher Education Extended Campus Locations with a Distance Learning Component: An Analysis of Best Leadership Practices at Columbia College

The purpose of this study was to analyze the leadership practices of extended campus directors in the context of the administration of distance learning programs. The leadership practices of the 30 extended campus directors working for Columbia College of Missouri, at various locations around the country were measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory - Self (LPI - Self). This survey instrument was distributed using a secure email account established for the purposes of this study. The researcher analyzed the quantitative data collected from the study using the one-sample z-test to complete a comparison of the leadership practices of the directors and the baseline data associated with the survey instrument. There were statistically significant differences at the .01 level (p \u3c .01) noted for all leadership practices measured by the LPI-Self. There were also differences in the frequency of use between the self-reported leadership practices of the directors and the established norms for the LPI-Self. Qualitative data for this study was obtained from a series of face-to-face interviews with selected participants. The interview transcripts were analyzed for 2 common themes. Three common themes, societal change concerning access to higher education, new challenges, and staff and faculty support, were identified relative to the campus directors and their immediate supervisors perceived utilization of best leadership practices. These themes were directly related to the most frequently used leadership practices, enabling others to act, encouraging the heart, and modeling the way reported by the campus directors during the quantitative phase of this research study. The researcher determined that there were no differences related to the perspectives of the campus directors and their immediate supervisors associated with the utilization of best leadership practices measured by the LPI-Self. The findings also indicated that organizational expectations relative to the utilization of best leadership practices in the administration of distance learning programs at the extended campus locations included the common themes of revenue with quality, and seamless integration of distance learning courses with the traditional curriculum. These common themes were associated with the self-reported leadership practices of challenging the process and inspiring a shared vision

The role of edutainment in e-learning: An empirical study.

Impersonal, non-face-to-face contact and text-based interfaces, in the e-Learning segment, present major problems that are encountered by learners, since they are out on vital personal interactions and useful feedback messages, as well as on real-time information about their learning performance. This research programme suggests a multimodal, combined with an edutainment approach, which is expected to improve the communications between users and e-Learning systems. This thesis empirically investigates users’ effectiveness; efficiency and satisfaction, in order to determine the influence of edutainment, (e.g. amusing speech and facial expressions), combined with multimodal metaphors, (e.g. speech, earcon, avatar, etc.), within e-Learning environments. Besides text, speech, visual, and earcon modalities, avatars are incorporated to offer a visual and listening realm, in online learning. The methodology used for this research project comprises a literature review, as well as three experimental platforms. The initial experiment serves as a first step towards investigating the feasibility of completing all the tasks and objectives in the research project, outlined above. The remaining two experiments explore, further, the role of edutainment in enhancing e-Learning user interfaces. The overall challenge is to enhance user-interface usability; to improve the presentation of learning, in e-Learning systems; to improve user enjoyment; to enhance interactivity and learning performance; and, also, to contribute in developing guidelines for multimodal involvement, in the context of edutainment. The results of the experiments presented in this thesis show an improvement in user enjoyment, through satisfaction measurements. In the first experiment, the enjoyment level increased by 11%, in the Edutainment (E) platform, compared to the Non-edutainment (NE) interface. In the second experiment, the Game-Based Learning (GBL) interface obtained 14% greater enhancement than the Virtual Class (VC) interface and 20.85% more than the Storytelling interface; whereas, the percentage obtained by the game incorporated with avatars increased by an extra 3%, compared with the other platforms, in the third experiment. In addition, improvement in both user performance and learning retention were detected through effective and efficiency measurements. In the first experiment, there was no significant difference between mean values of time, for both conditions (E) & (NE) which were not found to be significant, when tested using T-test. In the second experiment, the time spent in condition (GBL) was higher by 7-10 seconds, than in the other conditions. In the third experiment, the mean values of the time taken by the users, in all conditions, were comparable, with an average of 22.8%. With regards to effectiveness, the findings of the first experiment showed, generally, that the mean correct answer for condition (E) was higher by 20%, than the mean for condition (NE). Users in condition (GBL) performed better than the users in the other conditions, in the second experiment. The percentage of correct answers, in the second experiment, was higher by 20% and by 34.7%, in condition (GBL), than in the (VC) and (ST), respectively. Finally, a set of empirically derived guidelines was produced for the design of usable multimodal e-Learning and edutainment interfaces.Libyan Embass

Integration of Virtual Programming Lab in a process of teaching programming EduScrum based

Programming teaching is a key factor for technological evolution. The efficient way to learn to program is by programming and hard training and thus feedback is a crucial factor in the success and flow of the process. This work aims to analyse the potential use of VPL in the teaching process of programming in higher education. It also intends to verify whether, with VPL, it is possible to make students learning more effective and autonomous, with a reduction in the volume of assessment work by teachers. Experiments were carried out with the VPL, in the practical-laboratory classes of a curricular unit of initiation to programming in a higher education institution. The results supported by the responses to surveys, point to the validity of the model

EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF ONLINE COURSES WITHIN THE KENTUCKY COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE SYSTEM (KCTCS)

The purpose of this exploratory, multi-phased iterative study was to explore the extent to which Kentucky Community and Technical College (KCTCS) faculty utilize quality standards during the design and continuous improvement of their online courses. The study also explored how leadership supports quality online instruction. More specifically, this study sought (a) to determine to what degree KCTCS quality assurance rubrics aligned with national quality standards, (b) to what degree did faculty use quality standards to design, develop, and improve courses, (c) to what role did KCTCS leadership play in ensuring course quality, (d) to examine the quality of KCTCS online courses, (e) to what degree did courses meet national quality indicators based on faculty self-ratings and researcher ratings, and (g) to examine if quality differed on faculty-self-rated courses based on faculty characteristics? The results of this study indicated a lack of quality measures available to support faculty in reviewing and improving course quality in many KCTCS sites. Quality ratings indicate KCTCS online courses are high-quality and meet national quality standards. Leadership at the college level should develop and implement a quality review process to ensure courses not only meet current quality standards, but are continuously improving to meet future standards. System leadership should provide support and training to local colleges in the form of a system-wide quality rubric and guidelines for a quality assurance program

The Development of eServices in an Enlarged EU: eGovernment and eHealth in Poland

In 2005, IPTS launched a project which aimed to assess the developments in eGoverment, eHealth and eLearning in the 10 New Member States at national, and at cross-country level. At that time, the 10 New Member States were Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. A report for each country was produced, describing its government and health systems and the role played by eGovernment and eHealth within these systems. Each report then analyzes, on the basis of desk research and expert interviews, the major achievements, shortcomings, drivers and barriers in the development of eGovernment and eHealth in one of the countries in question. This analysis provides the basis for the identification and discussion of national policy options to address the major challenges and to suggest R&D issues relevant to the needs of each country ¿ in this case, Poland. In addition to national monographs, the project has delivered a synthesis report, which offers an integrated view of the developments of each application domain in the New Member States. Furthermore, a prospective report looking across and beyond the development of the eGoverment, eHealth and eLearning areas has been developed to summarize policy challenges and options for the development of eServices and the Information Society towards the goals of Lisbon and i2010.JRC.J.4-Information Societ