Barriers in adopting blended learning in a private university of Pakistan and East Africa: Faculty members’ perspective

Background: Education methods have undergone transformation over the centuries. Use of technology is the cornerstone for innovation in teaching methods. Hence, blended learning which includes face to face and online modalities is being increasingly explored as effective method for learning. This pilot study determines the perceptions of faculty members in a private international university on barriers influencing adoption of technology for teaching and learning. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted through a self-reported questionnaire using ‘survey monkey’. The data was entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 20). Frequencies and proportions are reported. Results: Findings indicated that 51.6% faculty members perceived the importance of integration of technology in their teaching. Around 54% of the participants recognized that they do possess the ability and accessibility to integrate information communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning, but there is a need to hone the basic information technology (IT) skills to initiate technology driven teaching. Findings revealed that 55% faculty members acknowledged the constraint of not getting protective time to develop and deliver technology driven courses. Further, results showed that 45% faculty members perceived that their innovation efforts in terms of teaching as blended learning do not count towards their professional promotion or recognition, as usually priority is given to research over teaching innovation. The findings also indicated that 54.5% participants asserted that university lack mentorship in the field of blended learning. Conclusions: Therefore, study suggests that universities should provide adequate mentorship programmes for the faculty members in enhancing their skills of integrating technology in their teaching

O DESENVOLVIMENTO DE COMPETÊNCIAS ELETRÔNICAS DOCENTES PARA EAD: UM ESTUDO EM UMA UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL

Este estudo tem o propósito de discutir o perfil e o desenvolvimento de competências dos professores da Educação a Distância (EAD). Para o atingimento do objetivo, foi realizado um estudo qualitativo interpretativo básico. Onze professores vinculados a Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco (UNIVASF) e com atuação na EAD responderam as entrevistas semiestruturadas. Os dados coletados foram examinados pela análise de conteúdo proposta por Bardin (2011) com auxílio de software específico para pesquisa qualitativa, o Atlas.Ti. Disponibilidade tecnológica e interação entre os participantes foram as competências mais importantes citadas pelos professores. O desenvolvimento de tais competências, no entanto, acontece mediante o aprendizado com as próprias experiências profissionais (sejam elas docentes ou não) ou trocando experiências com seus pares. Sugere-se, para pesquisas futuras, a análise do contexto organizacional em que as necessidades e desafios específicos são definidos e em que a competência individual é desenvolvida, analisando a interferência das condições institucionais das Instituições de Ensino Superior no desenvolvimento de competências eletrônicas dos professores

Elearning. Una visión de las publicaciones en revistas de alto impacto

El estudio tuvo como objetivo analizar las tendencias reportadas en las investigaciones en elearning y puede considerarse como un estado del arte con aplicación de técnicas bibliométricas, Con el objetivo de poder revisar sólo publicaciones en revistas de reconocido prestigio cientí­fico, se decidió limitar la búsqueda a las revistas indexadas en Scopus y esta se .limitó a artí­culos en  que apareciera en el tí­tulo del mismo el término “elearning”.  Los primeros artí­culos sobre elearning reportados   aparecieron en el año 2002 y hasta el 2016 se pudieron obtener un total de 162 referencias, fundamentalmente en  Ciencias Sociales, Computación, Medicina, Ingenierí­a; Administración y Enfermerí­a. A partir de los artí­culos más citados se determinaron las 10 tendencias investigativas más importantes entre las que se encuentran: la caracterización de recursos efectivos para el elearning, el papel del elearning en la educación a distancia, la integración de recurso multimedia, la creación de nuevas experiencia de aprendizaje, la percepción de los estudiantes y la integración con las redes sociales. Desde el punto de vista de los métodos empleados en las investigaciones analizadas   emplean mayoritariamente el análisis de casos y relativamente pocos estudios exploran los métodos cuantitativos para establecer modelos

The role of e-learning for faculty development in China

While discussion on faculty development in China has been increasing in recent years, our understanding of the strategy for the development remains limited. Th is study with a survey aimed to examine whether e-learning could meet faculty members’ expectations for their professional development. Our findings suggest that e-learning is identified as a preferred means of opening new opportunities to meet the needs of faculty in China where faculty development still remains traditional training and it has bright prospects. Th e result also highlights individual perspectives as a critical factor shaping e-learning behavior, and provides implications for the policy of faculty development

Change levers for unifying top-down and bottom-up approaches to the adoption and diffusion of e-learning in higher education

Using Giddens’ theory of structuration as a theoretical framework, this paper outlines how five prominent United Kingdom universities aimed to integrate top-down and bottom-up approaches to the adoption and diffusion of e-learning. The aim of this paper is to examine the major challenges that arise from the convergence of bottom-up perspectives and top-down strategies. Giddens’ theory is used to understand the dynamics of organisational change as they pertain to the adoption and diffusion of e-learning. This is intended to support our understanding of the interplay between top-down strategy and bottom-up adoption of e-learning. From the research and from our findings, we present a set of change levers that are intended to provide practical value for managers responsible for the diffusion of e-learning strategy in higher education

Three Key Conditions to Revitialise an ePortfolio Program in Response to Increasing Regulation of Teacher Education

This paper describes a study undertaken within the education faculty of a mid-sized university in response to the recommendations of the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) (2014) that initial teacher education (ITE) graduates emerge with an evidence-based professional standards-focused portfolio of teaching competency. In concluding that current teacher educator usage of, and attitudes to, ePortfolios limit the capacity of this particular faculty to respond to this challenge, the paper proposes three critical conditions to revitalise a stalled ePortfolio program and prepare for an increasingly demanding future. In sharing this experience, the paper seeks to support discussion of how teacher educators can respond best to the professional portfolio challenge in an environment of increasing regulation

A Influência das Condições Institucionais de Universidades Públicas para o Desenvolvimento de Competências Eletrônicas dos Professores no Ensino Superior

The expansion of Brazilian higher education institutions (HEIs), especially with the installation of several campi in the interior cities of the country and the advance of information and communication technologies (ICT) have driven the use of distance education (ODL) by universities as a way to respond to new educational demands arising from changes in the new world economic order. This new teaching-learning scenario involves changing the competences and training of higher education teachers: solid academic development, professional experience and pedagogical competence. The development of such competences may therefore be influenced by the institutional conditions of the universities in which the professors are inserted. Thus, this study sought to analyze how the development of electronic competences of higher education teachers relate to the conditions of the organizational context of higher education institutions. As locus for conducting the qualitative case study, the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) was chosen. It was evidenced that most of the construction of the profile of e-competences of teachers of UFAL is more due to the daily practice and the need of teachers to possess the knowledge and resourcefulness to teach in distance learning, without waiting for improvements. conditions presented by UFAL. It is observed that the institution still has gaps in its university management that need to be reviewed and worked in order to really contribute significantly to the development of e-skills of its faculty to work in distance education.Keywords: University context. Federal university. Electronic competences.A expansão das instituições de ensino superior (IES) brasileiras, especialmente com a instalação de diversos campi nas cidades do interior do país e o avanço das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC), tem impulsionado o uso da educação a distância (EaD) pelas universidades como forma de responder às novas demandas educacionais decorrentes das mudanças na nova ordem econômica mundial. Esse novo cenário de ensino-aprendizagem envolve mudança de competências e de formação do professor do ensino superior: desenvolvimento acadêmico sólido, experiência profissional e competência pedagógica. O desenvolvimento de tais competências pode ser, portanto, influenciado pelas condições institucionais das universidades nas quais os professores estão inseridos. Assim, o presente estudo buscou analisar como o desenvolvimento das competências eletrônicas dos professores do ensino superior relaciona-se com as condições do contexto organizacional das IES. Como locus para a realização do estudo de caso qualitativo optou-se pela Universidade Federal de Alagoas (UFAL). Ficou evidenciado que a maior parte da construção do perfil de e-competências dos docentes da UFAL se dá mais pela prática do dia a dia e pela necessidade dos docentes de possuir o conhecimento e a desenvoltura para lecionar na EaD, sem esperar pelas melhorias das condições apresentadas pela UFAL. Observa-se que a instituição ainda apresenta em sua gestão universitária lacunas que precisam ser revistas com vista ao desenvolvimento das e-competências de seu corpo docente para atuação na EaD. Palavras-chave: Contexto institucional. Universidade federal. Competên-cias eletrônicas

An e-portfolio as empowering tool to enhance students' self-directed learning in a teacher education course: A case of a South African university

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