Critical events and pivotal factors as tools for analyzing the sustainability of online study programs

A critical aspect of designing and running online study programs is the identification of factors and elements that could potentially threaten the continuation of studies. In this study, we first identified a set of critical events that occurred in the running of a Finnish online doctoral study program over 16 years. Next, we analyzed the events using a four-pillar sustainability model, which consisted of the economic, social, environmental, and ethical pillars. We detected several contextually relevant and dynamic pivotal factors related to each of the pillars, which had effects on the sustainability of the program at the time of the critical events. The analysis revealed that positive pivotal factors in one sustainability pillar can be used to compensate for negative pivotal factors in the other pillars. Two aspects that were crucial for the sustainability of the online doctoral study program were the resilience and shared commitment of the community involved in its activities, which helped in overcoming any challenges encountered. Based on this study, we recommended that future research should design novel solutions that help online study programs to proactively identify potential critical events and related pivotal factors. Furthermore, studies should find creative approaches for constructively coping with critical events that have been identified

A spiral model for adding automatic, adaptive authoring to adaptive hypermedia

At present a large amount of research exists into the design and implementation of adaptive systems. However, not many target the complex task of authoring in such systems, or their evaluation. In order to tackle these problems, we have looked into the causes of the complexity. Manual annotation has proven to be a bottleneck for authoring of adaptive hypermedia. One such solution is the reuse of automatically generated metadata. In our previous work we have proposed the integration of the generic Adaptive Hypermedia authoring environment, MOT ( My Online Teacher), and a semantic desktop environment, indexed by Beagle++. A prototype, Sesame2MOT Enricher v1, was built based upon this integration approach and evaluated. After the initial evaluations, a web-based prototype was built (web-based Sesame2MOT Enricher v2 application) and integrated in MOT v2, conforming with the findings of the first set of evaluations. This new prototype underwent another evaluation. This paper thus does a synthesis of the approach in general, the initial prototype, with its first evaluations, the improved prototype and the first results from the most recent evaluation round, following the next implementation cycle of the spiral model [Boehm, 88]

A Report from the International Scientific Conference DLCC2019 in Poland, October 14th and 15th, 2019

The 11th edition of the International Scientific Conference “Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Distance learning” DLCC2019

Contextualizing ICT in Africa: The Development of the CATI model in Tanzanian Higher Education

In many parts of Africa the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education institutions offers a particularly interesting research problem. This is because of the far-reaching consequences that information and communication technology (ICT) services and education have on the university graduates during their careers in African societies. Our extensive and well-documented experience of utilizing ICTs in a Tanzanian private university has lead us to propose a four-level approach, called CATI model, that can be used as the basis for implementing new ICTs, for evaluating how ICT is used, and for planning ICT education in developing countries. We conceptually categorize the four levels that we use in our model – contextualize, apply, transfer and import – as an ethnocomputing approach. This four-level model enable educators to use ICT services and ICT education in African universities in a way that will prepare university graduates to make a positive contribution to their own societies. The success of this model is attributable to the emphasis that we placed on local needs and creativity and on applications of ICTs that were sensitive to local culture, conditions and understanding

A strategy to facilitate transition from masters degree nursing studies to PhD/doctoral thesis proposal writing

Background: Challenges in thesis proposal writing have resulted in doctoral students dropping from research studies resulting in the shortage of doctoral prepared nurses. Impediments include lack of human and non-human resources. Benner’s theory of novice to expert formed the basis for the development of the strategic intervention and action plan to address the challenges and strengths experienced by master’s prepared doctoral students during thesis proposal writing Purpose: The purpose of this research was to develop a strategic intervention and action plan that can be used to assist doctoral students to succeed in thesis proposal writing. Methods: An exploratory mixed-methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis in four phases was used. In Phase 1 qualitative data from two open-ended questions were used to gather data, combined with literature to develop a questionnaire for Phase 2. A questionnaire was developed from data obtained from Phase 2 as well as a thorough literature review to develop the strategic intervention and Action plan. In Phase 4 the strategic intervention and action plan was validated using the Delphi technique and experts acted as panellists for the validation. Framework: Benner’s novice to expert theoretical framework was adopted for the study because of the assumption that doctoral students need a change of perception and assistance in order to develop critical thinking skills that will enhance the development of research competencies. This framework was used because of its relevance to the study. Research Findings: Competence in doctoral thesis proposal writing is affected by human resources as well as non-human resources. The identified strategic interventions that were included in the action plan were: recruitment of competent supervisors, training and mentoring of new supervisors, achieving of a realistic student/supervisor ratio for supervision of students, timely allocation of supervisors, recruiting of subject librarians and employment of adequate library support, provision of peer support programmes, implementation of a student recruitment and selection plan, provision of student support programmes to enhance research skills and competencies, binding contracts to stipulate students responsibility, provision of adequate research resources, and implementation of a bursary system among others. Conclusion: The strategic intervention and action plan was developed using the input of doctoral nursing students who were in the process of completing their thesis proposal and a thorough literature review. The inclusion of the deans of nursing of universities and universities of technology of South Africa (FUNDISA) will enhance the possibility for the implementation of the strategic intervention and action plan which can contribute to assisting the master’s prepared doctoral students to successfully transition from novice students with little or no research knowledge to competent thesis proposal writers.Health StudiesD. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies

Supporting authoring of adaptive hypermedia

It is well-known that students benefit from personalised attention. However, frequently teachers are unable to provide this, most often due to time constraints. An Adaptive Hypermedia (AH) system can offer a richer learning experience, by giving personalised attention to students. The authoring process, however, is time consuming and cumbersome. Our research explores the two main aspects to authoring of AH: authoring of content and adaptive behaviour. The research proposes possible solutions, to overcome the hurdles towards acceptance of AH in education. Automation methods can help authors, for example, teachers could create linear lessons and our prototype can add content alternatives for adaptation. Creating adaptive behaviour is more complex. Rule-based systems, XML-based conditional inclusion, Semantic Web reasoning and reusable, portable scripting in a programming language have been proposed. These methods all require specialised knowledge. Hence authoring of adaptive behaviour is difficult and teachers cannot be expected to create such strategies. We investigate three ways to address this issue. 1. Reusability: We investigate limitations regarding adaptation engines, which influence the authoring and reuse of adaptation strategies. We propose a metalanguage, as a supplement to the existing LAG adaptation language, showing how it can overcome such limitations. 2. Standardisation: There are no widely accepted standards for AH. The IMSLearning Design (IMS-LD) specification has similar goals to Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH). Investigation shows that IMS-LD is more limited in terms of adaptive behaviour, but the authoring process focuses more on learning sequences and outcomes. 3. Visualisation: Another way is to simplify the authoring process of strategies using a visual tool. We define a reference model and a tool, the Conceptual Adaptation Model (CAM) and GRAPPLE Authoring Tool (GAT), which allow specification of an adaptive course in a graphical way. A key feature is the separation between content, strategy and adaptive course, which increases reusability compared to approaches that combine all factors in one model