Towards an improvement of LIS graduates ICT skills and employability needs in Kuwait

The aim of this research was to explore the ICT skills of LIS students in Kuwaiti HE that are potentially defined by the job market. These skills are deemed essential for the employment of LIS graduates in different job market sectors. As a result, the ICT skills of current LIS students, the needs of employers, and the LIS curriculum in Kuwait were all investigated. In addition the factors that had an impact on students ICT skills were also investigated. To fulfil the research aim and objectives, mixed research methods were employed. The research subjects were employers, LIS students, and teaching staff. Their views were sought through qualitative and quantitative methods that included: 54 semistructured interviews; 225 self-administered questionnaires; these were supplemented by three focus groups; and content analysis of relevant web sites, reports, and LIS syllabus to provide further documentation and analysis. The main findings of the research were: (1) overall the students had knowledge and basic ICT skills, but they lacked advanced searching and internet navigation skills. 85% of the students did not have enough ICT skills; their ICT skills level was selfrated as intermediate or beginner ; (2) the research investigated negative factors such as: unsuitable teaching and learning environment, negative attitudes, social influences, and lack of resources; (3) the students most preferred teaching and training method was group training ; (4) the employers identified further ICT skills and non-ICT skills that LIS graduates should possess for employability; (5) gaps were found in the curriculum and in teaching and training the ICT courses such as: course content was inconsistent; did not reflect the needs of the job market and were outdated; an imbalance between theory and practical training, courses had different outline and little use of the English language hindered the students ICT skills improvement and ICT use. In addition, work placement needed careful consideration. Recommendations based on the research findings and conclusions were made to the DLIS in Kuwait and stakeholders. Future ideas were identified for further research

Educating Library and Information Science Professionals in Kuwaiti Higher Education

The paper presents the results of 54 analysed interviews conducted to present the views and explanations of Library and Information Science (LIS) students, teaching staff and employers on the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) skills into the LIS curriculum in Kuwaiti Higher education (HE). Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the qualitative data. The findings indicated that there was a lack of common understanding of the term ICT. LIS students lacked ICT skills. The LIS curriculum is outdated and the department uses traditional methods to teach ICT courses. Moreover, factors were found that negatively affected the students’ ICT skills development. The current students’ ICT skills did not satisfy the job market needs. The teaching staff ICT skills were not updated; ICT skills were not incorporated into non-ICT courses; and in general, respondents disapproved of the department’s name change from LIS to Information Science (IS). In order to satisfy the LIS professionals in Kuwaiti HE, initial indications suggest that LIS graduates should posses at minimum all the research defined skills in addition to other skills needed by the job market. The curriculum should be updated; more practical training should be provided; the department of LIS needs to add new ICT courses; support new learning methods to teach these courses; adopt professional associations’ standards to enhance the curriculum; collaborate with employers to meet their needs; the teaching staff needs to update their ICT skills and incorporate ICT skills into all courses. This initial phase of the research suggested that to overcome the negative motivational factors: students need to be motivated by family, friends and teaching staff; instruction of ICT courses should be in English; the same educational opportunities should be offered to males and females; and provide the necessary resources and facilities. These findings were recognised by the teaching staff

Academic domains as political battlegrounds : A global enquiry by 99 academics in the fields of education and technology

Academic cognition and intelligence are ‘socially distributed’; instead of dwelling inside the single mind of an individual academic or a few academics, they are spread throughout the different minds of all academics. In this article, some mechanisms have been developed that systematically bring together these fragmented pieces of cognition and intelligence. These mechanisms jointly form a new authoring method called ‘crowd-authoring’, enabling an international crowd of academics to co-author a manuscript in an organized way. The article discusses this method, addressing the following question: What are the main mechanisms needed for a large collection of academics to collaborate on the authorship of an article? This question is addressed through a developmental endeavour wherein 101 academics of educational technology from around the world worked together in three rounds by email to compose a short article. Based on this endeavour, four mechanisms have been developed: a) a mechanism for finding a crowd of scholars; b) a mechanism for managing this crowd; c) a mechanism for analyzing the input of this crowd; and d) a scenario for software that helps automate the process of crowd-authoring. The recommendation is that crowd-authoring ought to win the attention of academic communities and funding agencies, because, given the well-connected nature of the contemporary age, the widely and commonly distributed status of academic intelligence and the increasing value of collective and democratic participation, large-scale multi-authored publications are the way forward for academic fields and wider academia in the 21st century.peerReviewe

Academic domains as political battlegrounds:A global enquiry by 99 academics in the fields of education and technology

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars’ reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human constituents of an academic realm, with the two shaping one another. One implication of this proposition is that these non-human elements exist as political ‘actors’, just like their human counterparts, having ‘agency’ – which they exercise over humans. This turns academic domains into political (functional or dysfunctional) ‘battlefields’ wherein both humans and non-humans engage in political activities and actions that form the identity of the academic domain. For more information about the authorship approach, please see Al Lily AEA (2015) A crowd-authoring project on the scholarship of educational technology. Information Development. doi: 10.1177/0266666915622044.</p

Academic Domains As Political Battlegrounds: A Global Enquiry By 99 Academics in The Fields of Education and Technology

This article theorizes the functional relationship between the human components (i.e., scholars) and non-human components (i.e., structural configurations) of academic domains. It is organized around the following question: in what ways have scholars formed and been formed by the structural configurations of their academic domain? The article uses as a case study the academic domain of education and technology to examine this question. Its authorship approach is innovative, with a worldwide collection of academics (99 authors) collaborating to address the proposed question based on their reflections on daily social and academic practices. This collaboration followed a three-round process of contributions via email. Analysis of these scholars' reflective accounts was carried out, and a theoretical proposition was established from this analysis. The proposition is of a mutual (yet not necessarily balanced) power (and therefore political) relationship between the human and non-human constituents of an academic realm, with the two shaping one another. One implication of this proposition is that these non-human elements exist as political actors', just like their human counterparts, having agency' - which they exercise over humans. This turns academic domains into political (functional or dysfunctional) battlefields' wherein both humans and non-humans engage in political activities and actions that form the identity of the academic domain. For more information about the authorship approach, please see Al Lily AEA (2015) A crowd-authoring project on the scholarship of educational technology. Information Development. doi: 10.1177/0266666915622044.Wo