JuxtaLearn D3.2 Performance Framework

This deliverable, D3.2, for Work Package 3 incorporating the pedagogy from WP2 and orchestration factors mapped in D3.1 reviews aspects of performance in the context of participative video making. It reviews literature on curiosity and engagement characteristics of interaction mechanisms for public displays and anticipates requirements for social network analysis of relevant public videos from WP6 task 6.3. Thus, to support JuxtaLearn performance it proposes a reflective performance framework that encompasses the material environment and objects required, the participants, and the knowledge needed

What educational activities fit virtual worlds: towards a theoretical evaluation framework

Many universities and colleges are investing in teaching and learning developments in virtual worlds despite a lack of any clear guidelines or rules for when virtual worlds will provide benfits over established communication media. Among activities that have been successfully tried out so far are interpersonal role play and oral language education, while other practices like traditional lecturing and business transaction oriented role plays seem to be less suitable for successful implementation. Our objective in this paper is to develop an evaluative framework educational for educational activities in virtual worlds based on Media Richness and Task Closure Theories from Management Informatin Systems. We demonstrate the use of the framework for three educational activities conducted in the virtual world of Second Life

Synchronous Communication And Its Effects On The Collaboration Of Professional Workplace Employees Engaged In A Problem Activity

ABSTRACT SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE COLLABORATION OF PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE EMPLOYEES ENGAGED IN A PROBLEM ACTIVITY by MICHELE R. ROCHESTER December 2017 Advisor: Dr. Monica W. Tracey Major: Learning & Design Technology Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Asynchronous communication may have a profound impact on employee collaboration and productivity in the workplace due to the loss of face-to-face interaction and the relationships these opportunities may foster. However, as broadly defined within the literature, synchronous communication is a rich media that supports this type of collaboration and social interaction. Synchronous communication methods that encourage collaboration lead to deeper level learning, critical thinking, shared understanding, and long-term retention of the learned material (Krejins et al., 2003). Schroder et al. (2011) described the benefits of collaboration to professional organizations as they relate to the interprofessional collaborative practice on healthcare. The authors described collaboration as a key factor in better patient and provider outcomes: “This approach to healthcare has been found to reduce errors, improve quality of care and patient outcomes, reduce healthcare workloads and cost, and increase job satisfaction and retention” (Schroder et al., 2011, p. 189). The research for this study described the importance of collaboration and social interaction and the various benefits they provide, such as deeper-level learning, long-term retention of learned material, positive attitudes, group cohesion, interaction and inclusion, engagement, and learning that is actively created by the learners. In the business world, the need for effective collaboration exists as organizations seek to provide professionals with opportunities to engage in the practice of problem activities in an effort to improve efficiency and productivity in the workplace. This study, supportive of the literature, suggests that collaboration encourages interactions that make overall positive contributions to learning and the learner experience (Curtis and Lawson, 2007; Rovai, 2002; Rovai, 2007; Gunawerdena et al, 1995; Walther, 1996; Dawson, 2006; Krejins, 2002; Krejins, 2003). This literature employed for this study is synthesized into the following themes that describe actions and behaviors supportive of collaboration and social interaction: verbal communication; non-verbal communication; sense of community; contributing; planning; and participant perspective. These literature themes are then measured using a customer observation tool, Rovai’s Classroom Community Scale (2007) as a questionnaire, post-activity participant interviews, and a researcher’s journal

40P. Online Lecturing: Students’ want it, but what about the lecturers?

Universities around the world have been readily embracing online technologies to make their courses more convenient for today’s tech savvy gen Y students. However, such a change is often at the expense of the teaching staff as they are suddenly met with increased workload and the need to learn new technologies. Although student acceptance is often looked at, lecturers’ acceptance is often ignored. It is important to gauge lecturers’ acceptance of these online lecturing technologies as such technologies would be rendered useless if lecturers are not willing to accept and use them in their course. Hence, this study aims to examine the often ignored view from the lecturers’ perspective by looking at the factors surrounding lecturer’s acceptance of online media for lecturing purposes. Building on Davis’s (1989) TAM model, Daft and Lengel’s (1986) media richness theory and educational literature, this study will provide empirical evidence for the effects of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norms, self efficacy, organisational support, lecturing styles and workload on the lecturers’ choice to adopt usage of online video media. This paper reports the results of pilot study

Innovative approaches to water security:ICTs as platforms for systemic online negotiation

This paper presents the initial outcomes of the research project ‘Innovative approaches to water security using ICTs for systemic online negotiations’ carried out between the department of Systems at the OU, UNESCO PC-CP program and UNESCO-IHE Institute of water education. It explores how water conflicts could be managed - by being prevented through integrated water management and - through better communication amongst water stakeholders and more systemic analysis of water problems at stake

Creating and Maintaining Social Presence via Computer-Mediated Communication: Measuring the Self-Rated Behaviors that Lead to Social Presence

This dissertation involved the creation and validation of a new measure of social presence. The first study involved the use of focus groups to create items for the future measure. The focus groups were presented with a set of items that were created based upon past literature; an through discussion of these items, a preliminary measure was created. The second study gathers data concerning the measure that was created from study one and an exploratory factor analysis was performed to eliminate items that did not work well with each other. This reduced the measure from 54 items to 23. The third study involved gathered data to perform a confirmatory factor analysis on the reduced measure from study two to 20 items. The confirmatory factor analysis, also provide construct validity for the measure. The end result of this dissertation is a valid and reliable measure of social presence that can be used to determine if a person has difficulty projecting him or herself as a real individual who is willing to interact with other online communicators

The relationship between telework and job characteristics: a latent change score analysis during the COVID‐19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a sizable proportion of employees conducted home-based telework to contain virus spreading. This situation made it possible to investigate the relationship between telework and job characteristics. Many positive and negative associations between telework and job characteristics have been proposed in the literature, but most studies relied on cross-sectional data as well as narrow samples (e.g. employees voluntarily choosing to telework). Repeated measures designs investigating the association between telework intensity and job characteristics using less selective samples are currently rare. To address this research gap, we collected data at two time points in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 479) and investigated if change in telework intensity was associated with change in 19 job characteristics using structural equation modeling. Our analyses showed that—in contrast to several prior cross-sectional studies—telework intensity had a small to moderate association with only two out of the 19 job characteristics: Work scheduling and decision-making autonomy. Hence, the study challenges the previously assumed manifold positive and negative associations between telework intensity and job characteristics and adds to the debate about the role of telework intensity as an antecedent of work design. Future studies should investigate the generalizability of the findings to non-pandemic work contexts