For e-Learning to be successful, it is simply not enough that the courses are well designed, that the module delivery adopts appropriate pedagogical approaches, that tutors are well versed in their subject matter areas and are able to facilitate online courses. The intricacy of the various interest groups involved in this process has prompted this investigation into critical success factors for e-Learning. This holistic investigation seeks investigate the whole range of issues that might impact on the success of e-Learning and the key research question to be addressed is 'What are the underlying Critical Success Factors (CSFs) required to support the design, development, implementation and management of e-Learning in HE institutions?' In the context of this research, a compelling justification for adopting a more interpretivist approach is that it is often neither possible nor desirable to engage in research that is purely based on quantification when investigating attributes such as • attitudes, beliefs or judgements. In the context of this research, the goal was to allow the e-Learning CSFs to emerge from the evaluation of factors in the limited sphere of five high level categories, rather than placing a wider focus on the key performance indicators of HE programme provision in its entirety. By adopting a critical research approach, it was possible to elicit views from participants attending a number of international conference workshops in an environment away from their day to day work. The data was collected through focus groups at international workshops and was analysed through thematic analysis using a process of isolating and selectively coding similarities and differences of key issues within a particular aspect of e-Learning as identified by participants emerging from their own professional practice.

This thesis presents an Irish university case study-Oils coil-which examines alumni relationships and Institutional Advancement (IA). The research question is: How has IA emerged in an Irish university setting to build relationships with alumni? IA is defined as a strategic approach to building relationships with key university players-including alumni- to increase support for the institution (Jacobson 1986). Communications, development (fundraising) and alumni relations are the three main IA components. IA at Ollscoil is adapted from international IA practice. The Ollscoil IA offices are new and mirror the three IA components. Initially separate from other University functions, IA practice is becoming more integrated within the institution, responding to the higher education climate. The findings suggest that IA plays an increasingly significant role in steering the Ollscoil strategy. I contend that IA is also a catalyst in addressing the priorities ofthe University, such as increasing student enrolment, building the University's profile and elevating its position in international university rankings. Through IA practice, these priorities are fostered by alumni relationships. An alumni relationship building cycle, developed by consulting IA literature, provides the framework for analysing the case study. The role of the offices in charge of IA is to educate the University community on the new IA practice and to highlight the merits of alumni relationships for the individual as well as for the institution. IA systems, such as the alumni database, set a foundation for organising the alumni connections. The positive student experience, reported at Ollscoil, anchors alumni affinity to the institution. Social events entice alumni to re-engage with Ollscoil. Volunteering and philanthropy are also ways for alumni to "give back" to their alma mater. The findings show that individual alumni are at different stages of the relationship cycle and progress through this cycle by interacting with the University and with each other. IA at Ollscoil steers alumni interaction from a closed selfcentred focus to an open altruistic one. Building alumni relationships is the output of successful IA practice. The outcome is the benefit of these interactions for Ollscoil: from creating strong advocates to the ultimate advancement of the University. The title, 'Active University, Interactive Alumni' suggests that as IA takes root at Ollscoil, it creates ideal conditions for dynamic lifelong relationships between the institution and the alumni.

There is very little published research into key skills and Further Education in the UK; nothing at all about the situation in Hong Kong. This study provides base-line data about the views and values of some curriculum stakeholders in relation to the key skills and personal attributes of Further Education students intending to work as engineering technicians after leaving college in England and Hong Kong. It explores key skills curriculum management in the context of two case study engineering departments using qualitative data collected primarily through semi-structured interviewing and card sorting activities, with the data being applied to an original conceptual model. Many engineering students at 'Northern College' take the UK key skills qualifications. At 'Asian College' Year 1 students take a 15-hour key skills introductory module and some engineering students also take the modules Key Skills for Lifelong Progress I and II. The UK system is well-established, government funded and subject to externally-driven change; a 'top-down' system. In the absence of a key skills framework (and qualifications framework) 'Asian College' have developed their own: in effect creating a 'bottom up' system. Despite quite different organisational cultures and contexts in 'Asian College' and 'Northern College' overall there were found to be more similarities than differences in the actual skills and personal attributes that curriculum stakeholders valued. From the research a key skills curriculum management checklist was developed that should be of value to those working in vocational areas other than engineering.

The use and impact of guest speakers in higher education learning communities is a phenomenon little studied to date. This multiple case study examined this phenomenon in two undergraduate humanities courses, each of which focused on issues and trends in their respective disciplines. Guests formed an integral, authentic resource and component in each case. This project had two aims: to investigate participants' (guests' , instructors ', and students') perceptions of what guests bring to learning communities in their interactions with students; additionally, it sought to discover the qualitatively different ways students experienced guest speakers impacting their learning communities as seen through the concepts (lenses) of students' group activity, engagement, enhanced learning experience, social presence, cohesiveness, and reflection. This research project employed an exploratory case study perspective in addressing the first aim, while a phenomenographic approach to analysis of students ' experiences was used in addressing the second. These lenses are discussed in the literature, along with learning community, networked learning, and guest speakers. Five types of learning communities (traditional, online, networked, virtual, and community of practice) are compared and contrasted across nine constructs to detern1ine their similarities and differences. An alternate definition of networked learning is proffered in an attempt to clarify the necessity and role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in networked learning. Guests, instructors, and students each shared their experiences in semi-structured interviews. Documents and archival records were also used to inform the case studies. Results contribute to the body of knowledge about guest speakers from participants' perspectives. Guests', instructors ', and students ' experiences either echoed previous reports or contributed new knowledge, sometimes in the sense of cautionary advice. Student extracts relating to the six lenses under consideration were analyzed phenomenographically and an outcome space evolved. It shows that social presence is the construct which underpins the other lenses. Students ' understanding of the concept of learning community is explored and the type of learning community is identified.

No description available.

Higher education in the UK has been moving towards an increasingly demand driven model, encouraged to better serve and grow the economy through becoming more attuned to what the marketplace needs and wants, and then supplying educational commodities that better meet these demands. New educational commodities have emerged to replace lost income, such as the university accreditation of learning associated with training courses delivered by commercial training organisations. This involves university academics reconceptualising training activity into academic content and then enabling professionals in the training organisation and the university to navigate the demands placed on them in this space. Yet this is widely reported to be a problematic sphere of professional activity, with ‘cultural’ and ‘communicative’ issues still without resolution. These issues and the tackling of them, as experienced by this study’s researcher, formed the initial motivation for this study. This study investigates the academic’s professional struggles and tensions in encountering and mediating the widely differing demands of the two sectors, with a view to offer fresh insight into this troubled space. Qualitative data from an academic’s daily practice are analysed from a professional interested perspective to elucidate and better understand these tensions. This thesis demonstrates that, problematically, the academic variously identifies with and understands his practice from both perspectives, and in doing so, activates different and sometimes competing expectations of how he thinks he should act in a situation. In identifying in such ways, the academic practically becomes a custodian of the regulative apparatus that simultaneously polices his own practice. Through documenting how such diverse perspectives meet and materialise in academic practice, the thesis addresses the more fully theoretical concern with how such expectations, from particular ideological positions, operate through the engine of conceptualising and regulating professionalism in academic locations. In turn, this provides a critical platform from which to better understand the changing parameters of academic practice, that is, what university study becomes when its pursuit is increasingly a function of economically oriented demands. In this way, the thesis addresses how the professionalism of certain university academics involved in ‘business and community engagement’ is being understood and rethought to meet evolving funding parameters, and how the very notion of academic study is changing to meet these new expectations.

The central purpose of this thesis is to analyse the experiences of mature men and women students studying full-time in higher education. The data presented in this thesis are derived from in-depth interviews with mature students studying in Swansea University College. The thesis demonstrates the ways in which class and gender affected the experience of mature students both within and outside their place of study. The thesis argues that higher education, which is a transitional process for traditional age students, is a TRANSFORMATIVE process for mature students. This process centred upon the attempts of mature students to renegotiate their personal identity. The thesis thus focuses on the person and upon issues of identity. The theoretical framework draws upon the symbolic interactionist tradition and upon the sociology of gender. It explores the ways in which the relationship between gender and identity are articulated within 'every-day' social interaction. The thesis works with four class/gender categories. The extent of self transformation and the problems of achieving affirmation of the new self by a transition of pre-existing social statuses were least in the case of middle-class men and most acute for working-class women. The process of being the new person can only be continued within parameters set by the individual's social circumstances. Class and gender determine the extent to which these lie within the power of the individual to change. Working-class women experienced the greatest incongruence between their new selves and their unchanged domestic/social situations AND found the expression of their new selves blocked by untransformed relationships.

No description available.

This thesis examines the roles of the staff development trainer in the University of Aberdeen. Staff development, (activities provided for university teachers intending to improve all aspects of their work), is examined with particular reference to one university. It is argued that university staff development is now becoming more or less accepted. From an indifferent start in the middle of the 1960's, staff development has become more important for British universities in the early 1970's. The thesis examines the work undertaken by the author as a staff development trainer. In general such work can be divided into four types of activities: formal courses; research-based studies; consultancies and system engineering. Formal courses are concerned with induction training and advanced and innovative teaching techniques. Research-based studies are empirically based and relate to problems encountered in training; e.g. self-confrontation, systematic observation of lecturing. Consultancies involve work where the trainer works with individual staff members, or departments on curriculum development problems. In system engineering, the trainer attempts to create a favourable working environment. Four general training tactics have been developed: seeding (achieving a multiplier effect); weaning (progressively removing the trainer's help); course teams (trainer, subject and media specialist, student); riding the educational wave (using a recent educational innovation as a starting point). Barriers to staff development are seen as: homeostatis (natural resistance to change); dependency (the system liking the current state); vested interests; rejection of outsiders; knowledge about training; trivialisation of knowledge about teaching; and innappropriate use of knowledge about teaching. The trainer adopts six overlapping sub-roles: organiser; teacher; researcher; facilitator; counsellor and consultant. The thesis argues that the central problem in staff development is an ambivilance between active intervention and non-direct support of teaching activities - by the trainer. The trainer is seen as an adaptive interventionist, shifting between sub-roles depending on the type of. work undertaken, or problems encountered.

The aims of this research is to identify the factors that influence the decision making process in Saudi higher education institutions and to find the way to manage these factors so that they exert a positive influence on this process. Based on a pilot study, field work and literature review, the thesis identifies and explores five cultural factors and five structural factors. The cultural factors are: organizational environment, nepotism, innovation, social change and professionalism. The structural factors are: centralization, formalization, routinization, communication and coordination. This thesis studies the influence of these factors using a multi-method approach in order to develop and propose a new approach toward a more efficient decision making processes. The outcome of this research reveal the lack of efficiency in the decision making process in Saudi higher education institutions. Recommendations for the development of a new approach are made because of the negative influence of the factors identified. Through an understanding of cultural and structural factors, the data gathered suggests that the adaptation of this approach would lead to greater efficiency of the decision making process in Saudi higher education institutions by managing the identified factors as a mean of improving the decision making process. A further outcome is an increase in our knowledge and understanding of those factors which influence the decision making process in Saudi Arabia.