Old Apprehensions, New Anxieties: A Study of Student 'Psychological Cost' in Traditional and Distance Education

Two hundred and four students enrolled at a Greek university in the Economics department were asked to estimate the costs for participation in traditional and in distance education. These costs included 'psychological cost', which this paper reports on. 'Psychological cost', such as stress and anxiety for each educational method, was estimated by students on the assumption that they would hire (1) an assistant to facilitate learning and using a PC in the case of distance learning, and (2) an independent expert to help the student understand courses and to overcome any stress associated with class participation in the case of traditional learning. It was hypothesised that the psychological cost for each educational procedure would decline with experience. It was found that for university students following a distance learning course, psychological cost declined with experience and familiarisation with elearning. However, psychological cost did not decrease with experience in the case of students following a traditional course. The latter finding may be partly due to constantly changing professors, classmates and expectations, and to the cyclical nature of academic stress in the traditional setting. In conclusion, it is suggested that a mixture of distance learning and traditional learning may be the soundest strategy, allowing the student to profit from the advantages of both distance and traditional higher education methods.

The ‘Japanization’ debate from 1980 to 2000: A brief historical review

The industrial success of Japan in the latter half of the twentieth century led to great interest in the Japanese management model and its associated concepts such as kaizen, JIT, and satei. When Japanese companies began expanding into the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western countries, a debate ensued about whether the Japanese management model could be successfully transferred to Western firms. This transference was often termed the Japanization of the West. The debate was at its prime from 1980 to 2000. After outlining the key features of the Japanese model, this paper reviews relevant literature from the period to determine the prominent positions and arguments presented in the debate. The paper concludes by identifying several main themes reflected in the controversy and questioning the usefulness of the blanket term Japanization in examining the transference of the Japanese model to the West

The promise of blockchain for HRM: A transaction cost theoretical perspective

Previous research has shown that implementing blockchain technology in businesses can lead to more secure and efficient processes in various organizational areas, including human resource management. This review paper examines the use of blockchain in human resources departments from the perspective of transaction cost economics theory, which identifies several fundamental variables that increase transaction costs for firms. These variables include bounded rationality, the pervasive possibility of opportunistic behavior, and uncertainty. The paper explores how blockchain implementation, including blockchain-enabled smart contracts, can mitigate these challenges. The paper also identifies some limitations to using blockchain and smart contracts that may increase transaction costs and thus reduce transaction cost savings

The Position of Women Employees in Organizations: A Desk-Based Research of Past Studies for the EU and Greece

In previous years, many developed countries, firms and other organizations have given job opportunities to women, but in most cases have kept them in the lower- or middle-level managerial ranks. In Greece the corporate doors had not opened to women, as much as in other countries, and only an extremely small number of the women who had managed to pass through them had advanced to the upper levels of the managerial ladder. In this paper we review and examine past studies that confirm this disparity in order to provide an adequate basis to future research in this field, for companies in the EU and Greece. Keywords: Literature review, Past surveys, Women, Organization culture, EU, Greec

A Note on University Admission Tests: Simple Theory and Empirical Analysis

University admission mechanisms are often quite complex. This paper examines one effect of their design on the students' incentives to exert effort in preparation for the test. We adapt a multi-unit all-pay model of auction to draw the conclusion that abler students work harder: this conclusion is in line with the behaviour of a sample of students who apply for admission to the Greek university system with the complex rules newly introduced in 2013

FUNDING E-LEARNING: A REVIEW OF PAST STUDIES

Although it may be a cause of regret for some, modern education providers seem poised to continue and extend the use of technology in the provision of education. The precise details of how this use of technology unravels over time will be revealed gradually, but important decisions about how to fund distance learning provided electronically and what the expected outcomes will be, need to be made on the ground. However, even though the technologies now available are rather new, distance learning does have a recognised history to which we can and should refer. The purpose of this paper is to shortly present past studies with ideas and models of funding e-learning university programmes from both institutions’ and students’ point of view

The promise of blockchain for HRM: A transaction cost theoretical perspective

Previous research has shown that implementing blockchain technology in businesses can lead to more secure and efficient processes in various organizational areas, including human resource management. This review paper examines the use of blockchain in human resources departments from the perspective of transaction cost economics theory, which identifies several fundamental variables that increase transaction costs for firms. These variables include bounded rationality, the pervasive possibility of opportunistic behavior, and uncertainty. The paper explores how blockchain implementation, including blockchain-enabled smart contracts, can mitigate these challenges. The paper also identifies some limitations to using blockchain and smart contracts that may increase transaction costs and thus reduce transaction cost savings

Evaluating the performance of alternative blended learning designs using DEA

The extensive demand for blended learning programs imposes the problem of selecting the most appropriate instructional design from amongst a variety of alternatives that may be feasible for a particular program. The decision-making process should consider a number of qualitative factors such as the satisfaction of learning needs, educational efficiency, ease of implementation and total financial cost. In this paper, we propose that Bates’ (1995) e-learning instructional design model ACTIONS, which describes seven qualitative dimensions pertinent to selecting a design, can be used in conjunction with Data Envelopment Analysis to provide a distinct decision-making framework to aid administrators in determining which blended learning programs are the most effective. The first stage in the analysis is to explain which ACTIONS dimensions can be regarded as inputs and which can be treated as outputs for the sake of the decision process, with all seven dimensions being measurable by ordinal scores assessing the expected performance of alternative designs. In the second stage of analysis, we use Data Envelopment Analysis with ordinal data to obtain an overall expected performance index that is able to discriminate the designs most efficient and most suitable for implementation. The methodology is illustrated by an example. Discussion and Conclusions follow