THEORY-DRIVEN DESIGN OF A MOBILE-LEARNING APPLICATION TO SUPPORT DIFFERENT INTERACTION TYPES IN LARGE-SCALE LECTURES

Universities face increasing numbers of students leading to increasingly large lectures, and decreasing interaction and collaboration, which are important factors for learning success and satisfaction. The use of IT can help overcoming this challenge by increasing the interaction in large-scale lectures without massively increasing the workload of lecturers. In this research-in-progress paper, we present the design and pre-test of a mobile-learning application aiming to increase the interaction in large-scale lectures and the learning success of learners. For designing our application, we follow a design science research approach. We rely on insights from interaction theory as well as requirements gathered from lecturers and students in a focus group workshop. A pre-test of our application showed high valus for Perceived Usefulness, User Satisfaction, and Perceived Presentation Quality for the overall application and moreover high valus for Performance Expectancy and Intention to Use of all but one functions. The results show that the application is ready for being used in large-scale lectures. As a next step, the application will be used in one of our large-scale lectures aiming to evaluate whether using our application has a positive impact on interaction, satisfaction and learning success

To Slack or Not to Slack: Internet Usage in the Classroom

This paper investigates cyber-slacking with Internet technologies in the classroom. Rooted in Lewin\u27s Field Theory, we develop a model linking external forces (i.e., social norms, distraction by other students\u27 cyber-slacking, and awareness of instructor monitoring) and internal forces (i.e., cognitive absorption with Internet technologies and multitasking) to an individual\u27s behavior (i.e., intent to cyber-slack). Using data collected from 451 students, we found social norms, multitasking, and cognitive absorption contributed to the intent to cyber-slack. Further, we found cognitive absorption with Internet technologies mediated the relationship between multitasking and intent to cyber-slack. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for teaching, course design, and research

Penyalahgunaan internet sewaktu kuliah: kesan daripada penyerapan kognitif dan tabiat berinternet

Fenomena penyalahgunaan internet dalam kalangan pelajar terjadi apabila pelajar menggunakan internet bagi tujuan lain selain daripada aktiviti berkaitan pembelajaran sewaktu kuliah. Penyalahgunaan internet mampu memberi kesan yang negatif kepada pelajar dan universiti dalam melahirkan graduan yang bertaraf dunia. Penyerapan kognitif adalah motivasi intrinsik yang mampu mempengaruhi tingkahlaku pelajar apabila mereka terlibat secara mendalam dengan teknologi internet. Penyerapan kognitif boleh menyebabkan pelajar tersebut merasai seperti terputus daripada realiti, mempunyai tahap rasa ingin tahu yang tinggi, keseronokan yang melampau, fokus yang mendalam dan hilang kawalan. Oleh itu, kajian ini bertujuan untuk menguji samada penyalahgunaan internet sewaktu kuliah didorong oleh penyerapan kognif pelajar tersebut. Kajian ini juga ingin menguji tabiat berinternet sebagai pembolehubah peyederhana. Borang soal selidik telah diedarkan kepada pelajar Institusi Pengajian Tinggi di Malaysia. Data mentah yang diperoleh telah dianalisis menggunakan SPSS. Hasil kajian mendapati penyerapan kognitif dan tabiat berinternet mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan penyalahgunaan internet, namun tabiat berinternet tidak menyederhanakan hubungan antara penyerapan kognitif dan penyalahgunaan internet

BUILDING DSS USING KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY IN DATABASE APPLIED TO ADMISSION & REGISTRATION FUNCTIONS

This research investigates the practical issues surrounding the development and implementation of Decision Support Systems (DSS). The research describes the traditional development approaches analyzing their drawbacks and introduces a new DSS development methodology. The proposed DSS methodology is based upon four modules; needs' analysis, data warehouse (DW), knowledge discovery in database (KDD), and a DSS module. The proposed DSS methodology is applied to and evaluated using the admission and registration functions in Egyptian Universities. The research investigates the organizational requirements that are required to underpin these functions in Egyptian Universities. These requirements have been identified following an in-depth survey of the recruitment process in the Egyptian Universities. This survey employed a multi-part admission and registration DSS questionnaire (ARDSSQ) to identify the required data sources together with the likely users and their information needs. The questionnaire was sent to senior managers within the Egyptian Universities (both private and government) with responsibility for student recruitment, in particular admission and registration. Further, access to a large database has allowed the evaluation of the practical suitability of using a data warehouse structure and knowledge management tools within the decision making framework. 1600 students' records have been analyzed to explore the KDD process, and another 2000 records have been used to build and test the data mining techniques within the KDD process. Moreover, the research has analyzed the key characteristics of data warehouses and explored the advantages and disadvantages of such data structures. This evaluation has been used to build a data warehouse for the Egyptian Universities that handle their admission and registration related archival data. The decision makers' potential benefits of the data warehouse within the student recruitment process will be explored. The design of the proposed admission and registration DSS (ARDSS) will be developed and tested using Cool: Gen (5.0) CASE tools by Computer Associates (CA), connected to a MSSQL Server (6.5), in a Windows NT (4.0) environment. Crystal Reports (4.6) by Seagate will be used as a report generation tool. CLUST AN Graphics (5.0) by CLUST AN software will also be used as a clustering package. Finally, the contribution of this research is found in the following areas: A new DSS development methodology; The development and validation of a new research questionnaire (i.e. ARDSSQ); The development of the admission and registration data warehouse; The evaluation and use of cluster analysis proximities and techniques in the KDD process to find knowledge in the students' records; And the development of the ARDSS software that encompasses the advantages of the KDD and DW and submitting these advantages to the senior admission and registration managers in the Egyptian Universities. The ARDSS software could be adjusted for usage in different countries for the same purpose, it is also scalable to handle new decision situations and can be integrated with other systems