Finding your way into an open online learning community

Making educational materials freely available on the web is not only a noble enterprise, but also fits the call of helping people to become lifelong learners; a call which gets louder and louder every day. The world is rapidly changing, requiring us to continuously update our knowledge and skills. A problem with this approach to lifelong learning is that the materials that are made available are often both incomplete and unsuitable for independent learning in an online setting. The OpenER (Open Educational Resources) project at the Open Universiteit Nederland makes more than 20 short courses, originally developed for independent-study, freely available from the website www.opener.ou.nl. For our research we start from an envisioned online learning environment now under development. We use backcasting to select research topics that form steps from the current to the ultimate situation. The two experiments we report on here are an extension to standard forum software and the use of student notes to annotate learning materials: two small steps towards our ultimate open learning environment

Division I Collegiate Women Athletic Directors\u27 Perceptions of Sexism and Career Experiences

This study investigated eight Division I (DI) collegiate women athletic directors\u27 (ADs) career experiences and perceptions of sexism within their careers and athletics as a whole. Over the last century, women\u27s sports have made great strides toward equality in athletics. Specifically, the last four decades have yielded notable progress including the amendment of Title IX in 1972, which allowed women and men equal access to federal funding for sports, as well as the creation of women\u27s professional sports leagues, increased numbers of girls and women participating in athletics, increased numbers of women\u27s collegiate teams, and increased rates of women employed in collegiate athletics (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). Despite these many efforts and accomplishments, sexism and gender inequities continue to loom within the sports\u27 world. As a result, women and girls involved in athletics are experiencing numerous harmful effects regarding poor self-concept (Leaper & Brown, 2008), distorted body image (Greenleaf, 2002; Krane, Choi, Baird, Aimar, & Kauer, 2004; Parsons & Betz, 2001; Steinfeldt, Zakrajsek, Bodey, Middendorf, & Martin, 2013), challenges in socioemotional adjustment (Leaper & Brown, 2008), and a lack of career opportunities (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014), to name a few. Moreover, the realm of college sports is no exception to gender inequality, and is of particular interest because it is federally funded vis-à-vis Title IX. Currently, only 10% of DI collegiate ADs are women, and 11.4% of collegiate athletic departments have no women in administration positions (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). With the 42nd anniversary of the enactment of Title IX occurring this year, it is imperative to acknowledge improvements around the status of women in sports, but more importantly reexamine areas that have not improved, or have in fact regressed. One of the most important areas in need of improvement is the representation of women in leadership positions within collegiate sports administrations. Due to the limited research on women collegiate ADs\u27 perceptions of sexism in athletics, this qualitative research was framed as an exploratory study, and it utilized a critical feminist theory framework and grounded theory analysis. Data was obtained in semi-structured exploratory interviews with eight current DI collegiate women ADs. Four significant concepts emerged from the data, including Luck Over Talent, which captured how participants attributed their success to luck versus talent; Ambivalent Awareness of Sexism, which described how most participants expressed ambivalence around their awareness of sexism in their careers and in athletics; Prevalence of Subtle Sexism, which encapsulated how participants acknowledged experiencing sexism but typically in a subtle fashion as opposed to a blatant fashion; and Overcoming Hurdles, which related to participants describing strategies for success. In addition, a visual model based on grounded theory was proposed to further explain how DI college women ADs might navigate sexism within their careers. Results from this study aim to provide direction for future research on sexism in athletics, improve the underrepresentation of women ADs in college athletics departments and career fields traditionally dominated by men, and inform counseling psychologist\u27s practice with girls and women who are involved in or interested in pursuing careers in athletics

Education Unleashed: Participatory Culture, Education, and Innovation in Second Life

Part of the Volume on the Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and LearningWhile virtual worlds share common technologies and audiences with games, they possess many unique characteristics. Particularly when compared to massively multiplayer online role-playing games, virtual worlds create very different learning and teaching opportunities through markets, creation, and connections to the real world, and lack of overt game goals. This chapter aims to expose a wide audience to the breadth and depth of learning occurring within Second Life (SL). From in-world classes in the scripting language to mixed-reality conferences about the future of broadcasting, a tremendous variety of both amateurs and experts are leveraging SL as a platform for education. In one sense, this isn't new since every technology is co-opted by communities for communication, but SL is different because every aspect of it was designed to encourage this co-opting, this remixing of the virtual and the real

Supporting Interaction and Co-evolution of Users and Systems

Interactive systems supporting people activities, even those designed for a specific application domain, should be very flexible, i.e., they should be easily adaptable to specific needs of the user communities. They should even allow users to personalize the system to better fit with their evolving needs. This paper presents an original model of the interaction and coevolution processes occurring between humans and interactive systems and discusses an approach to design systems that supports such processes. The approach is based on the “artisan’s workshop” metaphor and foresees the participatory design of an interactive system as a network of workshops customized to different user communities and connected one another by communication paths. Such paths allow end users and members of the design team to trigger and actuate the co-evolution. The feasibility of the methodology is illustrated through a case study in the medical domain

Virtual Communities and Achieving Electronic Institutional Excellence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - University of Hail as a Model

This study aims to examine the reality of virtual communities and institutional excellence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, using the University of Hail as a case study. It aims also to investigate the extent to which mechanisms for virtual communities and institutional excellence are available at Hail University. the achievement of the goals of electronic institutional excellence, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of achieving the goals and electronic institutional excellence. This study employs a random sample and a descriptive analysis. Social survey method is descriptive and analytical studies. 245 students who got help were studied. To gain data, a sample was given a questionnaire. The study's spatial and human limitations were Hail University teachers and students. Finalizing the research will take 12 months. After analyzing the study's underlying assumptions, the first and third hypotheses were approved as the college's electronic information networks, academic communication, and information sources. Due to limited electronic collaboration, the second theory was partially accepted. Due to lack of experience, the report proposed building rehabilitation and training programs for "virtual communities." One researcher’ biggest issues was not knowing how to use virtual communities to attain greatness. Main results The most important results were a high institutional level under the coronavirus pandemic (3.82), followed by an average of 3.81 for academic processes. The results highlight the prospects for effective application of the COVID-19 crisis responses by offering a secure electronic educational environment with expanded virtual capabilities. This highlights the University's role in handling the crisis, establishing institutional excellence, and addressing education.Scientific Research Deanship at University of Ha'il- Saudi Arabia RG-2019

Women chief information officers in higher education: Voices from the field

The lived experiences of women higher education Chief Information Officers (CIOs) were investigated and documented in this qualitative study. Three women higher education CIOs provided their perspectives on the opportunities and obstacles encountered as they pursued and achieved their current positions. These women\u27s stories were gathered under a conceptual framework focusing on the intersection of applicable elements from gendered organizational theory, feminist standpoint theory, and occupational jurisdiction. Methods of overcoming obstacles and facilitating opportunities were discussed in relation to their lived lives and experiences. Examining institutional gendered norms accentuated the thoughts, values, practices, and processes that lead to muted women\u27s voices and the continuation of male-dominated organizations and social structures. The co-narrators described themselves as pioneers in the field and agreed that professional advancement opportunities resulted from having excellent personal strengths, mentors, family support, and a good educational and experiential background. Major obstacles included stereotypic responses and beliefs from co-workers or supervisors, a lack of recognition, support, and trust, and marginalization. Methods used to overcome or eliminate obstacles were strength from support groups, perseverance, and connecting with credibility to others. Elements related to genderedness and occupational jurisdiction were discussed in attempts to integrate women into typically-male and typically-less-technical positions. The perpetuation of gendered organizations was also discussed. The findings should be of interest to information technology divisions within higher education institutions as they consider designing and implementing programs to assist women aspiring to leadership roles. An awareness of the opportunities and obstacles of prospective employees may inform recruitment and retention efforts for the institution. The findings may also help institutional officials to recognize factors characterizing women higher education information technology leaders and to consider recommendations for enhancing the work environment for these women leaders. Women seeking such positions will benefit by having an understanding of the experiences of current women CIOs

Pilot Your Life Decisively for Well-Being and Flourishing

I have been a pilot, aviation instructor and FAA Pilot Examiner for over 40 years. Aviation requires a “pilot in command” mindset consistent with the tenets of positive psychology. This paper explains and advocates for this daily empowered, adaptive decision making process used by pilots in aviation as a necessary life skill to eliminate mind wandering and disengagement and optimize human performance consistent with the goals of positive psychology. Exploring the concepts of “pilot-in-command” (decisive control and self-efficacy) and “situational awareness” (alert mental functioning) I will offer techniques and suggestions for developing and deploying these critical skills in everyday life. I will examine the heuristic-based, “fast and frugal” (time and data limited) decision-making used every day in aviation and apply this to life for optimal performance and flourishing for individual lives and organizational effectiveness

Undergraduate engineering students\u27 experiences of interdisciplinary learning: a phenomenographic perspective

Engineers are expected to work with people with different disciplinary knowledge to solve real-world problems that are inherently complex, which is one of the reasons that interdisciplinary learning has become a common pedagogical practice in engineering education. However, empirical evidence on the impact of interdisciplinary learning on undergraduates is lacking. Regardless of the differences in the scope of methods used to assess interdisciplinary learning, frameworks of interdisciplinary learning are imperative for developing attainable outcomes as well as interpreting assessment data. Existing models of interdisciplinary learning have been either conceptual or based on research faculty members\u27 experiences rather than empirical data. The study addressed the gap by exploring the different ways that undergraduate engineering students experience interdisciplinary learning. A phenomenographic methodological framework was used to guide the design, data collection, and data analysis of the study. Twenty-two undergraduate engineering students with various interdisciplinary learning experiences were interviewed using semi-structured protocols. They concretely described their experiences and reflected meaning associated with those experiences. Analysis of the data revealed eight qualitatively different ways that students experience interdisciplinary learning, which include: interdisciplinary learning as (A) no awareness of differences, (B) control and assertion, (C) coping with differences, (D) navigating creative differences, (E) learning from differences, (F) bridging differences, (G) expanding intellectual boundaries, and (H) commitment to holistic perspectives. Categories D through H represent a hierarchical structure of increasingly comprehensive way of experiencing interdisciplinary learning. Further analysis uncovered two themes that varied throughout the categories: (i) engagement with differences and (ii) purpose and integration. Students whose experiences lie outside of the hierarchical structure need to engage difference in a positive manner and also have a purpose in engaging differences in order to experience interdisciplinary learning in a more comprehensive way. The results offer insights into the design of curriculum and classroom interdisciplinary experiences in engineering education