E-Learning for Teachers and Trainers : Innovative Practices, Skills and Competences

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The Role of Access to Personal Support in Fostering Frequent Information Systems Use

Recent research has begun to examine some of the factors underlying the continued use of information systems. This paper seeks to contribute to this emerging research stream through a preliminary investigation of the role played by user access to various support resources in encouraging frequent system use in personal use contexts. Although organizations typically provide users with access to formal support resources through help desk services, a body of literature exists which suggests that individuals may rely to a significant extent on resources such as friends and co-workers to support their ongoing use of personal information systems. An examination of this possibility was performed using an archival data set. Analysis of the data using structural equation modeling (SEM) indicates that user perceptions that they can rely on friends, co-workers, and personal abilities to resolve technical difficulties are associated with more frequent system use

Score Reporting Research and Applications

Score reporting research is no longer limited to the psychometric properties of scores and subscores. Today, it encompasses design and evaluation for particular audiences, appropriate use of assessment outcomes, the utility and cognitive affordances of graphical representations, interactive report systems, and more. By studying how audiences understand the intended messages conveyed by score reports, researchers and industry professionals can develop more effective mechanisms for interpreting and using assessment data. Score Reporting Research and Applications brings together experts who design and evaluate score reports in both K-12 and higher education contexts and who conduct foundational research in related areas. The first section covers foundational validity issues in the use and interpretation of test scores; design principles drawn from related areas including cognitive science, human-computer interaction, and data visualization; and research on presenting specific types of assessment information to various audiences. The second section presents real-world applications of score report design and evaluation and of the presentation of assessment information. Across ten chapters, this volume offers a comprehensive overview of new techniques and possibilities in score reporting

The role of inventory control in service quality in a South African academic library

Service quality has always been a tacit assumption within the delivery of academic library services, but since the 1990s demands for accountability from different stakeholders, including the clients, made service quality a highly debated and researched focus in academic libraries all over the world. The scope of the study covers a wide-ranging analysis of discourses underpinning service quality and its accompanying performance indicators in academic libraries. Using the academic library of the University of South Africa as an illustrative case study, this study examines the possible impact of inventory control on the service quality of the academic library in three areas, namely access to information resources, retrieval of information resources and positive implications for sound financial management. The study's findings all point to a positive enhancement of service quality in regard to the three areas mentioned.Information ScienceM. Inf

What happens when it all goes wrong? A study into the impacts of personal financial shocks

This thesis examines the impact on individuals who suffer from significant financial loss. It also highlights broader environmental issues relating to financial provision for individuals, particularly in retirement. Such issues include regulation, financial literacy, the significant choice available, and the need for professional financial advice. These are particularly significant in the Australian context where financial self-sufficiency is promoted as a desired option in retirement. The collapse of Queensland-based Storm Financial is used as a casestudy to investigate these matters. A qualitative approach was taken with elements of grounded theory and narrative inquiry utilised when engaging with the available data. Available data from a 2009 Parliamentary Inquiry includes 823 pages of public hearing transcripts and 2879 pages of written submissions. Interviews with 15 different parties were also carried out, giving rise to 33 hours of recorded conversation. To mitigate issues of researcher and participant bias and a reliance on qualitative interpretation as the primary tool of analysis, various procedures including triangulation and member checking were adopted. It is apparent that sudden and significant financial loss is devastating. An individual's emotional wellbeing is a primary casualty, and one's mental health is also vulnerable. An individual's social world is also impacted, including relationships with family and friends, how one engages in community activities, and the ability to partake in familial and cultural roles. Financial victims also perceive a sense of judgement from society at large about their losses. A loss of trust may be the epitome of financial loss. Any financial promise requires trust in institutions, professional service providers, government via licensing and regulation, and others including oneself. Trust in all of these entities is impacted when loss occurs, and is highly dependent on not just the size but also the circumstances of those losses. The loss of trust and the loss of financial means leads in turn to a lack of control over one's life. Many of these impacts are reflected in other traumatic circumstances, and some are seen to be particularly exacerbated in the specific case of Storm. These impacts demonstrate that vulnerability exists when encouraging self-sufficiency in retirement. Greater individualisation in financial provision introduces risks that current regulation may not be equipped to mitigate, particularly in the areas of licensing and disclosure. Information asymmetry between informed and non-informed participants exacerbates these risks. This highlights the importance of ethical disposition when dealing with financial affairs. The current retirement 'pillars' of the age pension, superannuation and other savings describe 'mechanisms' of income, but an alternative pillared system of government, other institutions, and oneself is offered to highlight the underlying sources of trust. Storm's collapse highlights that money matters but not for its own sake - it is the subsequent loss of control and options that is tangibly impacted. Significant financial loss is therefore anything but trivial, and a strong dependence of overall wellbeing on financial wellbeing is highlighted. Any system which allows unnecessary risks upon the attainment of such financial wellbeing for individuals should therefore be subjected to critical scrutiny

Score Reporting Research and Applications

Score reporting research is no longer limited to the psychometric properties of scores and subscores. Today, it encompasses design and evaluation for particular audiences, appropriate use of assessment outcomes, the utility and cognitive affordances of graphical representations, interactive report systems, and more. By studying how audiences understand the intended messages conveyed by score reports, researchers and industry professionals can develop more effective mechanisms for interpreting and using assessment data. Score Reporting Research and Applications brings together experts who design and evaluate score reports in both K-12 and higher education contexts and who conduct foundational research in related areas. The first section covers foundational validity issues in the use and interpretation of test scores; design principles drawn from related areas including cognitive science, human-computer interaction, and data visualization; and research on presenting specific types of assessment information to various audiences. The second section presents real-world applications of score report design and evaluation and of the presentation of assessment information. Across ten chapters, this volume offers a comprehensive overview of new techniques and possibilities in score reporting

The status and practice of information literacy for teaching and learning in four Tanzanian universities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status and practice of information literacy in Tanzania's four universities with the primary intention of establishing the foundation for appropriate strategies that could be adopted when introducing or developing information literacy programmes into higher learning institutions in Tanzania that are systematic, effective and capable of fostering adequate information literacy knowledge and skills in students. Information literacy is a set of skills and knowledge that allows people to find, evaluate, and use the information that they need. These skills also help people filter and synthesise the information they encounter so that they can use that which is useful and meaningful. Information literacy knowledge and skills are the necessary tools that help people successfully find their way in the present and future field of information. The importance of information literacy is based on the fact that technological developments of the 21st century require that people in all walks of life acquire information literacy knowledge and skills so as to be able to adjust, cope, work and function compatibly with various changes that are taking place in all aspect of daily life and human activities. In the academic arena information literacy enables students to become competent and independent learners because they acquire the knowledge and skills to know their own information needs and an ability to manage the tools of technology gives access to relevant information, for communication and to problem solving. Tanzania is a developing country, where the school library system has a very poor infrastructure in terms of resources. This situation denies school leavers the opportunity to acquire appropriate knowledge and the skills required to use various information resources. Systematic information literacy intervention at all educational levels is vital not only for learning independence and academic performance but also for life-long learning skills. The data for this study were collected from Sokoine University of Agriculture, University of Dar-Es-Salaam, Iringa University College and Saint Augustine University of Tanzania. Self-administered questionnaires were used together with data from 358 teaching staff, 25 librarians and 664 students and interviews were conducted with three Deputy Vice Chancellors (Academic), 12 Faculty Deans, two Library Directors and one Library Head. In addition data were also collected through observation. The study found that although the four universities' librarians provide some form of information literacy instruction, using a combination of methods that include orientation, lectures, hands-on practice and web-page, this instruction was not effective in fostering the required information literacy knowledge and skills in students. Thus the study established that most students lack adequate skills in the use of both electronic and non-electronic information sources. The study also established a number of impediments that are linked to the non-effectiveness of information instruction. The researcher considered the lack of an explicit information literacy policy, to provide guidance and directives on how information literacy activities should be conducted, as the main barrier to information literacy activities in the universities studied. Lack of an information literacy policy led to the existing information literacy programmes not being allocated official time within the university timetable, hence they were being attended by students on a voluntary basis. Lack of a formalised programme and inadequate resources are also among the factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness. However, the study found that the potential opportunity for conducting information literacy in a more systematic and effective manner can be created through involving teaching staff in infoffi1ation literacy activities and integrating information literacy into the mainstream curriculum.SUA-NORAD

The impact of the millennials generation on university library service provision.

This study investigated the expectations of Millennials in relation to academic library service provision, and compared these with the skills and competencies of subject librarians, to identify gaps in service delivery and present strategies by which these gaps could be addressed. The research took place at a time when the role, and perceived benefit, of libraries and information professionals were under scrutiny during a climate of budget cuts and in view of increased university tuition fees. Four UK universities participated in a study using qualitative and quantitative methods. A web-based survey of Millennials, based on the LibQUAL + measurement instrument, identified generational characteristics and service expectations from 410 respondents. On line focus groups with 13 Millennials were used to explore trends and issues identified from the survey data. Finally, 53 subject librarians at the same four institutions took part in a web-based survey to identify their skills, competencies, roles and responsibilities and these were compared with student expectations. Findings illustrated that the sample of Millennials were 'wired' to the networked world, that technology forms an integral part of their study technique, and that it has shaped their outlook, behaviour and expectations. The role of the subject librarian has evolved and subject librarians are increasingly required to provide learner support - often in virtual or electronic environments. They have acquired the skills to do so primarily through experiential, on-the-job, development. Three models were developed to illustrate a spiral of heightening and widening student expectations driven by technology use; an emergent paradigm of education that has been shaped by technology; and the skillsets required by next-generation blended librarians positioned to provide effective learner support to Millennials