Bringing Global Sourcing into the Classroom: Experiential Learning via Software Development Project

Global sourcing of software development has imposed new skill requirements on Information Technology (IT) personnel. In the U.S., this has resulted in a paradigm shift from technical to softer skills such as communications and virtual team management. Higher education institutions must, consequently, initiate innovative curriculum transformations to better prepare students for these emerging workforce needs. This paper describes one such venture between Marquette University (MU), U.S.A. and Management Development Institute (MDI), India, wherein IT students at MU collaborated with Management Information Systems (MIS) students at MDI on an offshore software development project. The class environment replicated an offshore client/vendor relationship in a fully virtual setting while integrating communications and virtual team management with traditional IT project management principles. Course measures indicated that students benefited from this project, gained first-hand experience in the process of software offshoring, and learned skills critical for conduct of global business. For faculty considering such initiatives, we describe the design and administration of this class over two semesters, lessons learned from our engagement, and factors critical to success of such initiatives and those detrimental to their sustenance

Emotions in response to teaching online: Exploring the factors influencing teachers in a fully online university

The aim of this paper is to understand the emotions associated with the experience of teaching online in an online university and the factors that influence these emotions. Nine hundred and sixty-five (965) online teachers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (www.uoc.edu) were surveyed. Three emotions linked to teaching online were identified: satisfaction, relief and pleasure. Multiple regression analyses were used to make inferential judgments and test the effects of the teachers' demographic and professional variables. Findings suggest that satisfaction is associated with the instructional design and learning support roles and with the knowledge building approach; relief is inversely related to the content acquisition approach; and pleasure is linked to variables such as academic background and amount of online teaching hours, as well as the knowledge building approach. The practical implications of these results are discussed

Chapter 1 : Learning Online

The OTiS (Online Teaching in Scotland) programme, run by the now defunct Scotcit programme, ran an International e-Workshop on Developing Online Tutoring Skills which was held between 8–12 May 2000. It was organised by Heriot–Watt University, Edinburgh and The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK. Out of this workshop came the seminal Online Tutoring E-Book, a generic primer on e-learning pedagogy and methodology, full of practical implementation guidelines. Although the Scotcit programme ended some years ago, the E-Book has been copied to the SONET site as a series of PDF files, which are now available via the ALT Open Access Repository. The editor, Carol Higgison, is currently working in e-learning at the University of Bradford (see her staff profile) and is the Chair of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)

Technology: Servant or Master of the Online Teacher?

published or submitted for publicatio

Growth and Decline of Second Life as an Educational Platform

Second Life, a 3D online immersive virtual environment, emerged in 2003 and was predicted to become the predominant online course delivery platform by 2013. Educational institutions initially rushed to create a presence in the Second Life; however, after 2009 those same institutions were disappointed by their experiences and deserted the virtual world. This study sought to uncover the reasons for the rapid decline of such a highly lauded educational platform. Using a mixed methods research design, utilizing a qualitative phenomenology with in-depth personal interviews of higher education administrators followed by a detailed quantitative survey instrument, the researcher was able to explain the reasons the platform did not become a mainstream course delivery method. Students reported dissatisfaction with graphical quality and hardware issues, perceived lack of relevance, and usability issues. Instructors reported dissatisfaction with hardware issues, time issues, student acceptance, the lack of a clear reward system, especially with tenure and promotion and technical support issues. Instructional designers reported dissatisfaction with hardware issues, stakeholder engagement and interest, pedagogical value, time issues, and technical support issues. The findings provided insights for higher education administrators when considering the use of emerging technology for teaching and learning. For innovative educational solutions to be effective administrators should provide sufficient technological resources, improve stakeholder engagement and interest by providing better training and more personal attention to users, allow innovative efforts by faculty to be rewarded through the tenure and promotion process, improve their own attitude and buy-in surrounding the use of emerging technology for educational and learning activity delivery, and become more patient with commercially available software to allow for improvements to occur organically

Using Shared Workspaces in Higher Education

We evaluate the use of BSCW shared workspaces in higher education by means of a comparison of seven courses in which this environment was used. We identify a number of different functions for which the BSCW environment has been used and discuss the relative success of these functions across the cases. In addition, we evaluate the cases with the 4E model of Collis et al. (2000) which predicts the chances of acceptance of ICT in an educational setting. Effectiveness for the given task appears to be a prime success factor for using ICT. But an effective tool may fail due to other factors like ease of use and organisational, socialcultural or technological obstacles. The particular strength of a shared workspace, for which BSCW is most effective and efficient, is providing a repository for objects of collaborative work. Other types of usage showed mixed results. In the future we expect that learning takes place in an integrated, open ICT environment in which different kinds of tools are available for different purposes and users can switch between tools as appropriate. We could observe this in several of the case studies, where non-use of BSCW did not mean that a particular task was not performed, but, on the contrary, a more efficient solution for the same function was available. Shared workspaces have proven to be highly useful, but it seems advisable that their purpose be limited to what they were originally designed for

Digital learning platform and students satisfaction : Regression Analysis / Farah Syazreena Azmi, Norfadzilah Abdul Razak and Ayu Rohaidah Ghazali

Technology has no boundary, people made technology as their primary routine in daily task. Technology also mainly being used worldwide and provide many outcomes towards the education system. The transformation of industrial revolution 4.0 brings the education system one step forward to meet the worldwide demand. Students nowadays are Z-generation that live in modern and digital lifestyle. Thus, the digital platform such as E-Learning has been applied in recent of teaching and learning in most of the university. However, the application and usage of e-learning in university did not well used and applied by students. Hence, there is a need for e-learning platform to transform and improve the system so that student can be more interest to use E-learning and ultimately result in better academic performance. A theory of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) applied as the fundamental of this study. Hence this study aims to investigate the perception of 152 students in selected of the local university towards the application of e-learning platform. Data collection further analysed using regression analysis and found perceive usefulness, perceived ease of use, behavioural intention and system usage predict significantly towards student satisfaction. The finding implies that the application of e-learning among students was satisfied. The improvement of the interaction system and attraction of the system can promote and encourage students active to use e-learning

Students\u27 Perceptions of Online Equine Courses and Their Impacts on Learning Outcomes

Post-secondary education is always changing and evolving. Over the last few years, significant changes in education have resulted in an increased number of online courses. Approximately 28% of students seeking higher education participate in at least one online course and 14% are enrolled exclusively in distance or online programs (Allen & Seaman, 2016). However, courses that are typically hands-on, like equine science, may be more challenging online. The hands-on experiences in equine science classes help prepare students for future careers. Due to an increase in students choosing to take courses online, a review of online teaching methods was conducted to determine students\u27 preferred teaching tools in an online equine course. The survey was sent out to approximately 10 universities that offer equine science courses online through members of the National Association of Equine Affiliated Academics (NAEAA) and equine program directors to solicit student participation. Participation was limited to college students that had previously or were currently enrolled in an online equine-focused course and was completely voluntary. Of the 77 respondents, 71 (92%) were female, 6 (8%) males, and the majority (96%) white. The primary reasons students chose an online equine science course was because it fit their schedule better (n = 8; 24.5%) and the course was only offered online (n = 36; 23.2%). Students found videos (n = 62; 92.5%) and readings (n = 57; 85.1%) were extremely or somewhat beneficial teaching methods in online equine courses. Half (n = 34; 50.8%) of the students felt they learned as much in their online courses as in a traditionally taught equine course. Additionally, students indicated they received a quality education in equine science courses whether taught online (n = 55; 82.1%) or in a traditional in-person (n = 49; 73.1%) format. Advisor: Lisa Karr and Lena Luc