Rethinking professional learning in higher education: a study on how the use of Open Educational Resources triggers the adoption of Open Educational Practice

This study explores how the practices of higher education educators evolve towards open educational practice (OEP) as they use open educational resources (OER) as a form of social media. Drawing on the theories of self-regulated learning (SRL) and cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), the study provides a novel way of analysing learning and development at work by focusing on related tensions. The interview data were, firstly, analysed by a thematic categorisation of 6 sub-categories of self-regulated learning and secondly, by using the method of discursive manifestations of contradictions. The findings evidence that educators find that their OEP does not fit easily within the current educational system. They have to balance conventional forms of education at scale with new and emerging open forms of education. This creates tensions indicating that educators need support in evolving their educational practice towards OEP and to reflect on what this change means for their practice

Developing a User Typology for the Analysis of Participation in Enterprise Collaboration Systems

In this paper, we propose a user typology for Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS). We draw on and extend findings from previous research in the area of CSCW and Social Collaboration Analytics. The proposed typology includes: (1) a definition of user types, (2) dimensions of ECS use and (3) a classification of action (event) types. The typology contains the following user types: creator, contributor, lurker, inactive and non-user. These types are characterized by differences in the following dimensions: type of use, frequency of use, variety of use, choice of content type and platform preferences. The definition of user types along these dimensions facilitates the implementation of database queries (scripts) for Social Collaboration Analytics (SCA), with the aim of determining the dis-tribution of types of users in an Enterprise Collaboration System. We present selected results of such SCA for an integrated collaboration platform and discuss the findings. We successfully demonstrate that our classification of user types allows us to draw conclusions on (1) the form and degree of participation of users in the ECS and, derived from that, (2) the likely purpose of the examined communities

Higher education students’ media usage: A longitudinal analysis

Responding to the lack of longitudinal analyses on media usage in higher education, this study explores the changes of higher education students’ access to and use of technology for learning in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Using an online questionnaire, a total of 5,572 German higher education students participated. Via descriptive and inferential analysis, the data show a clear trend towards using flexible, location-independent devices, accompanied by a rapid increase in the use of instant messaging. This is in line with an increasing demand for digital and flexible learning opportunities such as web-based training and lectures as podcasts or vodcasts, which is not met by higher education institutions. On that basis, improvements in development and application of these digital tools seem crucial for German higher education institutions and should be considered by educational technologists and decision makers. Of particular relevance against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in Spring 2020, this longitudinal analysis provides a framework for the ongoing development and implementation of digital media in teaching and learning at higher education institutions

Higher education students’ media usage: A longitudinal analysis

Responding to the lack of longitudinal analyses on media usage in higher education, this study explores the changes of higher education students’ access to and use of technology for learning in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Using an online questionnaire, a total of 5,572 German higher education students participated. Via descriptive and inferential analysis, the data show a clear trend towards using flexible, location-independent devices, accompanied by a rapid increase in the use of instant messaging. This is in line with an increasing demand for digital and flexible learning opportunities such as web-based training and lectures as podcasts or vodcasts, which is not met by higher education institutions. On that basis, improvements in development and application of these digital tools seem crucial for German higher education institutions and should be considered by educational technologists and decision makers. Of particular relevance against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that started in Spring 2020, this longitudinal analysis provides a framework for the ongoing development and implementation of digital media in teaching and learning at higher education institutions

An Exploratory Study Of The Effects Of Virtuality On Team Effectiveness

Recent studies on virtual teams reveal that team virtuality may be considered from different levels which have a considerable impact on team processes and management. However, as a recent concept introduced to virtual team literature, virtuality and its effects on team effectiveness are still under studied. The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to define the concept of virtuality and provide a multidimensional approach to assess its different levels based on the main characteristics of virtual teams expressed in the literature. On the other hand, it analyzes how variations in virtuality influence team effectiveness. The effectiveness measures retained in this study are: work performance, attitudes and behaviours. A longitudinal qualitative study was conducted on ten virtual teams composed of three to five students involved in online Master degree programmes at a French university. The results highlighted the importance of differentiating technological and social virtuality to improve our understanding of team virtuality and to better apprehend its effects on team effectiveness

A METHOD TO CLASSIFY STANDARDS IN EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES: THE CASE OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Standards are an important part of any product or service as they impact many aspects such as interoperability, portability, and security. Hence, they constitute the cornerstone of any distributed, open, and flexible system “ even more so for emerging technologies such as cloud computing as the rate of their adoption can heavily depend on it. Often there is a plethora of standards available and “ despite their importance “ accurate information that can be used to guide the selection of standards is missing. Selecting the wrong standards can increase cost, reduce uptake, profitability, or lead to a product or service being stuck in a niche. Selecting the right standards can result in as much as the exact opposite. Despite numerous efforts to create classifications of standards that should provide guidance for the selection of standards, there is a lack of conceptualization and methods on how to build standards classifications. In this paper, we provide a conceptualization of technology standards, which serves as the basis for our method to classify standards in emerging technologies (C-SET). The method provides a procedure to classify standards based on a conceptual data model and a stakeholder model. In doing so, C-SET provides the basis to structure the information that is required for an informed selection of standards in emerging technologies. In this paper, we illustrate C-SET referring to cloud computing as an example of an emerging technology

ARCHETYPES OF DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS IN LOGISTICS START-UPS

Our work develops an archetypical representation of current digital business models of Start-Ups in the logistics sector. In order to achieve our goal, we analyze the business models of 125 Start-Ups. We draw our sample from the Start-Up database AngelList and focus on platform-driven businesses. We chose Start-Ups as they often are at the forefront of innovation and thus have a high likelihood of operating digital business models. Following well-established methodological guidelines, we construct a taxonomy of digital business models in multiple iterations. We employ different algorithms for cluster analysis to find and generate clusters based on commonalities between the business models across the dimensions and characteristics of the taxonomy. Ultimately, we use the dominant features of the emerging patterns within the clusters to derive archetypes

TELMA Cross Experiment Guidelines

Cerulli, M., Pedemonte, B., Robotti, E. (eds.). Internal Report, R.I. 01/07, I.T.D. - C.N.R., GenovaThis document contains the guidelines developed by members of TELMA as a means for planning, conducting, and analysing a cross experiment aimed at contributing to the construction of a shared research perspective among TELMA teams . This is the product of the PhD students and young researchers that brought forward the whole activity. The actual experimental phase was proceeded by a reflective phase in which an agreement was achieved on what research questions to address during the experiment. On this basis the first version of the guidelines document was built, containing all the research questions to be addressed, but also the experimental plans for each team. This included the employed didactical functionalities of the considered ICT tools, indications of the experimental settings, and the methods of data collection and analysis. During the whole experimental phase, the document was constantly updated, and shared among the involved persons which were periodically required to compare the different activities and reflections brought forward by all the teams