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Much has been written in the last few years about 'Net Generation' students in western industrial advanced countries (e.g. Kennedy et al. 2007; Salaway et al. 2008; Jones et al. 2010). However little is known about these students and their use of technologies at universities in China. As one of the first empirical studies of the Net Generation university students' use of technologies in mainland China, a survey was administered to students across eight disciplines in one university during May-July 2010. The aim was to understand how university students in mainland China use technologies in their daily lives and to support their learning. In total, 2920 students completed the survey and 29 students participated in the follow up interviews. The results indicate that students are not naturally competent with technologies and there is a diverse range in students' experiences with technologies even within the age group. There are statistically significant differences in students' access and skill levels with ICT across gender, disciplines and year of study. Students are frequent users of instant messaging (1M), blogs and social networking sites (SNS). Nevertheless, the use of more recent web 2.0 technologies that are often associated with this generation is relatively low. There are also an increasing number of students who access the Internet via their mobile devices. Computers and the Internet have not been fully integrated into the university system, and most students use computers and the Internet for social and leisure purposes more than for learning. More in-depth investigation into students' technology practice is essential in developing appropriate guidance towards a digital culture at university in China.

The thesis aims to develop a possible description of electronic discourse in CSCL through a data-driven description of the linguistic behaviour and discourse strategies of 4 groups of postgraduate students engaged in an asynchronous CSCL task during-February 2000 and February 2001. The study develops an analytic framework for the coding of the messages. The framework consists of three levels, with a default inheritance relationship between these levels. The top level concerns the aim of the messages, identified within the broad context of Levinson's Activity Type. The mid-level consists of the traditional conversational analysis categories, with some minor adaptations to the CMC medium. The third level is based on a neo-Gricean approach to utterance interpretation, with special attention to Levinson's (2000) theory of generalised conversational implicature. The analysis was conducted through intensive reading of the coded data to identify categories of speaker behaviour. The categories were then collated to address the research question. 19 categories were identified, covering 4 aspects of discourse behaviour. As an additional test of the discourse analysis framework, the coded output was used as data for a separate theory-driven question. The question was to seek evidence of behaviour typical of the iterative dialogue that characterises Laurillard's (2002) model of learning through conversational dialogue. The research study found that the majority of the discourse categories identified by the framework are valid, although some need to be refined. In particular, 4 basic message structure types, and distinctive patterns in the use of indirect and direct forms of expression are clearly identified in this data. There are also clear indicators of strategies used to maintain cohesion and coherence. In the test case, the coded data was used to identify six types of critical learning behaviour that are broadly consistent with Laurillard's model of learning.

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In the first decade of the twenty-first century Higher Education in Britain faces an uncertain future, in what, as will be discussed, some commentators have referred to as a ‘crisis of mission’. The period of relative homogeneity and state-funded protection of the previous century is over, and universities now find themselves exposed to hostile external forces. The sector may be approaching a major point of fracture. Elite, research-led universities are positioning themselves in lucrative niche markets and can command high tuition fees; they are pulling away from the more vulnerable, teaching-led regional institutions left to survive in the mass market. Moreover, rapid developments in the educational use of information and communications technology (ICT) – known loosely as eLearning – have the potential to transform pedagogical practice, and are making this market an increasingly globalised one. This thesis examines the complex of factors which threaten the traditional mission of the University and which have already begun to reshape its ways of working. It views the British university in an historical context, charting the changes from universities as successively: associations of scholars, teaching monasteries, agents of the state, and corporations driven by financial imperatives. It examines the nature of eLearning, linking this to the explosive growth in the popular use of ICT and to wider epistemological and social changes. Scenario projections of the future are compared, leading to the synthesis, from a wide range of causal factors and viewpoints, of a comprehensive and longitudinal projection of the ways in which Higher Education is likely to develop over the next three decades.

This thesis addresses the following research paradox: Despite continual investment in e-mediated learning technology by higher education institutions, why has technological diffusion within UK universities been a slow process? It will be argued that the level of investment in e-mediated learning technology by UK universities and the impact of this technology across higher education as a whole, makes this subject area an appropriate setting in which to study this phenomenon. An interpretivist case study investigation of the adaptation process of e-mediated learning technology by academic staff is analysed through the development of a grounded theory approach. The investigation will show that the majority of academic staff in the School of Management at the Case Study University are adopting e-mediated learning technology at a basic level. Various factors can combine to influence technological adoption. These include conflicting priorities for academic staff, IT skills levels and the potential for the technology to transform the social relation between the academic member of staff and student leading towards a heightened culture of expectation. In addition, the study will show that e-mediated learning technology has the ability to place the expertise of the academic member of staff in a vulnerable position. Together these factors can combine to affect the successful diffusion of e-mediated learning technologies in UK universities. At a more critical level, the research identifies that using models of critical mass in isolation to indicate the take-up of multi-functional e-mediated learning technologies are misleading. As such, models that incorporate the levels and stages, as well as the pace of adoption provide a more detailed perspective of the successful diffusion of e-mediated learning technology.

The creation and development of educational hypermedia by teachers and educational staff is often limited by their lack of computing skills, time and support from the educational institutions. Especially the lack of computing skills is a hinderance to most of today’s educational experts. The problem is to find out how those educational experts could be supported by computer based tools which are tailored especially to their needs without having any technical limitations. In this study the separation of technical and educational content in educational hypermedia is examined as a solution to this problem. The main hypothesis of this study is that the separation of technical and educational content is possible if it is based on a fine-grained structure of different teaching and learning strategies and their conversion into an authoring tool. Such an authoring tool would make the creation of educational hypermedia very easy for teachers and therefore enable them to overcome the existing obstacles. The development of a new model, the creation of a new XML language and the implementation of a new authoring tool form the basis for a detailed investigation. The investigation was done by undertaking several research tasks like the evaluation of the XML language and the authoring tool by a group of educational experts of different knowledge domains, the practical usage of the authoring tool for the creation of real-life based educational material and the analysis of the gained research results. The analysis of the qualitative data showed that the separation of educational and technical content in educational hypermedia is possible and that it can be applied by educational experts with low computing skills as well as by technical experts with no educational background. Furthermore, the analysis allowed some additional insights into the creation of educational material by teachers and how it can be improved. The main conclusion of this study is that authoring tools in educational hypermedia should use the separation of educational and technical content based on different teaching and learning strategies which allows educational experts with low computing skills to create educational content for delivery via the World Wide Web.

Hypermedia Learning Systems (HLS) are being used increasingly widely in Higher Education, offering non-linear navigation through complex learning materials and, it is argued, leading to improve cognitive flexibility. For some learners, though, nonlinear navigation in HLS leads to higher levels of disorientation, which can have an impact on their learning performance and attitudes towards the learning system. There has been significant research into the factors that can influence individual learners‘ experiences. For example, a number of studies have confirmed that individual differences such as cognitive style, domain knowledge and computer experience affect individuals‘ levels of disorientation and learning performance, and influence their attitudes towards HLS. It has also been suggested that instructional aids (in the form of certain visual elements and audio elements) can reduce levels of disorientation and, in turn, increase learning performance in, and positive attitudes towards, HLS for some learners. However, existing studies have tended to look at only a subset of these three individual differences in relation to an individual and/or consider only a small number of visual instructional aids. No study up to this point has considered the impact of cognitive style, domain knowledge and computer experience on disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in a HLS that incorporates a full range of visual instructional aids. In terms of the research related to audio instructional aids, no studies have looked into the effects of audio aids and these three individual differences in relation to disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in HLS. This thesis addresses these two shortcomings through two experiments. The aim of experiment 1 was to examine the effects of and between these three individual differences with respect to disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in two versions of a HLS: one that incorporated the set of visual instructional aids and one that did not. Experiment 2 aimed to do the same, but with respect to a HLS that provided audio instructional aids. The experiments used quantitative and qualitative approaches to gather data to address a set of research questions and research hypotheses. The participants were 384 university students from across London. The Cognitive Style Analysis (CSA) test was administered to determine participants‘ field dependence, and participants‘ demographic information, levels of computer experience and levels of prior knowledge were gathered using questionnaires. Learning performance was measured through achievement tests and a practical task. Levels of disorientation were measured using questionnaires, and attitudes were assessed using questionnaires and interviews. Participants were also observed when they were interacting with the HLS to perform learning tasks. A number of interesting results were revealed. Significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to disorientation, learning performance and attitudes in the HLS that provided no instructional aids. No significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to disorientation or learning performance in the other two versions of the HLS – those providing visual and audio instructional aids. Significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to the use of the visual and audio instructional aids to perform learning in the HLS. No significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to attitudes in the HLS that provided visual instructional aids. Significant effects were found between the three individual differences with respect to attitudes in the version that provided audio instructional aids. Analysis of the results led to the framing of a set of HLS design guidelines which are presented in this thesis. Finally, an agenda for future research leading on from the study‘s findings is presented.