A multivariate survey analysis: evaluation of technology integration in teaching statistics

Teaching and learning in higher education has been influenced by the rapid rate of innovation in technology. We have experimented with the integration of technology in our foundation Statistics subject and measured students‘ performance relative to those taught statistics by the traditional teaching of the same subject: a total of 144 students of 30 different nationalities taught by the new methodology were surveyed at the end of the subject before the final examination

The effect of autonomy, training opportunities, age and salaries on job satisfaction in the South East Asian retail petroleum industry

South East Asian petroleum retailers are under considerable pressure to improve service quality by reducing turnover. An empirical methodology from this industry determined the extent to which job characteristics, training opportunities, age and salary influenced the level of job satisfaction, an indicator of turnover. Responses are reported on a random sample of 165 site employees (a 68% response rate) of a Singaporean retail petroleum firm. A restricted multivariate regression model of autonomy and training opportunities explained the majority (35.4%) of the variability of job satisfaction. Age did not moderate these relationships, except for employees >21 years of age, who reported enhanced job satisfaction with additional salary. Human Capital theory, Life Cycle theory and Job Enrichment theory are invoked and explored in the context of these findings in the South East Asian retail petroleum industry. In the South East Asian retail petroleum industry, jobs providing employees with the opportunity to undertake a variety of tasks that enhanced the experienced meaningfulness of work are likely to promote job satisfaction, reduce turnover and increase the quality of service

Investigating efficiency of GCC banks: a non-parametric approach

The aim of this paper is to measure Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banks efficiency. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is performed to assess the technical efficiency of the top 50 GCC banks as a homogenous set over the period 2005-2008. Cross-sectional data for each year is used in the analysis to determine those banks operating on the efficiency frontiers which are used as benchmarks for their peer banks. The sensitivity of the results is investigated by applying constant return to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS) DEA models. Data on banks based on two-year period windows each and covering the overall time period 2005-2008 are incorporated into DEA analysis providing us with targets for improvement over time. The results show that only 14 banks of the sample are rated as efficient under CRS and/or VRS assumptions, and indicate that Islamic banks perform slightly better than the other types of banks

An evaluation of technology integration in teaching statistics: a multivariate survey analysis

Teaching and learning in higher education has been influenced by the rapid rate of innovation in technology. A technology intervention was used to teach Foundation Statistics. This paper reports students\u27 performance relative to those taught statistics using traditional teaching methods. Failure rate was reduced from 34% with traditional teaching to only 14% with the inclusion of technology, and in order to measure students\u27 perception towards the integration of techn0ology in the subject, a total of 144 students of 30 different nationalities were surveyed at the end of the semester before the final examination. The analysis of the survey highlighted the students\u27 positive perception independent of their overall performance. Overall, the survey expressed a significant result showing that the use of technology helped students to perform better

Dealing with large classes: a real challenge

Dealing with large classes constitutes a real challenge to every teacher: diversity of students, lack of flexibility, class climate management, difficulty of setting and enforcing classroom behaviour (crowd control), minimum attention to students, limited monitoring of students’ learning and difficulty in engaging students to activities. The major hypothesis is that effective teaching and producing learning is critically constrained by the large size of classes and the students’ perception about large classes being negative. This research is to engage in a study of the effectiveness of teaching foundation Math for very large classes (150-200 students). The baseline of our study is based on data that has been collected from students’ survey. Two surveys were conducted throughout the semester to monitor students’ expectations, motivation, own perception on performance, views and preferences about the delivery of the lecture and the learning. We designed the surveys to detect accurately as much as possible students’ attitude towards learning. Each student\u27s responses such as the students own perception has been correlated to real performance through out the semester as measured by two midterms, weekly class work, quizzes, tutorials and the final. Our study will highlight other solutions to the above critical obstacles to conducting an effective learning environment. Both the lecturing time and the mode of teaching are investigated and reviewed as a potential solution to the problems encountered during the lecture delivery. We compare our findings to the existing literature and other teachers’ experiences. Studying students’ experience is quite challenging and can be used as a quality indicator in addition to the standard quality in higher education. Evaluating or assessing students’ experience, need and expectations can lead to improvements in teaching performance and achieving learning outcomes. Since most studies on students’ achievements and class size effects are done in a western context, this study is timely and relevant for United Arab Emirates

Investigation of academic and athletic motivation on academic performance among university students

The purpose of this paper is to examine the academic and athletic motivation and identify the factors that determine the academic performance among university students in the Emirates of Dubai. The study examined motivation based on non-traditional measure adopting a scale to measure both academic as well as athletic motivation

An Asian perspective on the influence of age, job characteristics and training opportunities on job satisfaction

This study reports on the responses of 165 site staff of a reputed Singaporean retail petroleum company. Links are explored between a conceptual framework consisting of the impact of Job Characteristics on Job Satisfaction, Training Opportunities on Job Satisfaction, and the role of Age as a mediator between these variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate which variables best predict Job Satisfaction as an outcome variable. A full regression multivariate model consisting of Job Characteristics variables (operationalized in terms of Skill Variety, Autonomy, Task Identity and Task Feedback), Training Opportunities, and Age groups explained 39.8% of the variability in the dependent variable Job Satisfaction. A restricted model consisting of Training Opportunities and Autonomy explained the bulk (35.4%) in the variability of the outcome variable Job Satisfaction. Both graphical analysis using a side-by-side box plots and ANOVA was used to test the way in which the mean of the investigated variables are affected by each of five age groups. The results revealed no evidence of significant difference in the variables’ means among age groups with Age accounting for less than 1.5% of variance in the proposed model. While the findings provide strong empirical support for Autonomy and Training Opportunities as an important predictor of Job Satisfaction, Age itself was not found to moderate the relationships between the linkages. Future research could productively identify the relative contribution of specific formal and informal Training Opportunities, and the relative contribution of performance-based incentive schemes and other motivational strategies for employee Job Satisfaction

An empirical study on the importance of remittance and educational expenditure on growth: Case of the Philippines

The study undertakes an econometric analysis of the contribution of remittance, education expenditure and investment to economic growth rates in the Philippines. Remittance is the most important source of finance for the Philippines. Hence, this paper is an attempt to provide insights into understanding the implications and verifying the hypothesis that remittance is the engine that drives growth and economic development in the Philippines. The ARDL model used enables the researchers to examine long-run as well as short-run relationship between the dependant variable and independent variables. The results show a positive relationship between the rate of economic growth and remittance as well as education expenditure. However, the findings show that there is no evidence of a long-run relationship between investment in the Philippines and the rate of economic growth. A deeper understanding of the OFWs and the economic activities in the Philippines enabled the researchers to draw the conclusions that direct as well as indirect effects of remittance including expenditure on education and consumption expenditure drives economic growth in the Philippines. The Philippines thus has \u27a consumption led growth\u27