Information technologies have become relevant enablers in knowledge management (KM) initiatives in academic institutions. A previous study by Anduvare (2015) revealed that the Marist International University College, Nairobi - Kenya had not adequately adopted information technologies into KM practices entwined in teaching, learning and research. This research study, therefore, set out to explore technologies that are capable of supporting KM practices in academic institutions in order to recommend some to the MIUC. Purposive sampling was used to select the MIUC full-time academic staff members as the target population as the researcher believed that they actively use knowledge at the MIUC and hence, would be in a position to understand the extent of information technology usage in KM practices. The study employed a qualitative research design that involved the use of Google forms to conduct an online survey in order to collect data from the target population. The study achieved a 100% response rate. Content analysis was utilised to analyse the data during which data within the specified themes (collaborative and distributive learning; knowledge discovery; knowledge mapping and knowledge application) was scrutinised for meaning. The data was then interpreted, presented and discussed based on the research sub-questions set for the study. The findings of the study confirmed the existence of KM practices at the MIUC. The study, thus, recommended some information technologies that support the KM practices to the MIUC which had been established through a review of literature. / Mini Dissertation (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Information Science / MIT / Unrestricted

Magister Artium - MA / Background: Healthcare workers are the human face of health systems, serving to connect knowledge and service delivery to improve patient care. The development of core competencies in the education of health professionals is fundamental for health improvement. Interprofessional collaboration amongst healthcare workers has been linked to improved patient outcomes as no single professional can address all healthcare issues. Aim: The aim of this research was to determine how UWC undergraduate physiotherapy students were being prepared for collaborative work as part of their professional development. Educational experiences of the third- and final-year physiotherapy cohort, physiotherapy educators’ perspectives on the development of competency for collaboration and a review of physiotherapy module outlines were explored. Research Method: A descriptive qualitative research design utilizing focus groups, semi-structured interviews and document analysis was employed. A pedagogical framework was used for instrument development and data analysis. The pedagogical framework was adapted from the CanMEDS physician competency framework, the core competency framework by the Medical and Dental Board of the Health Professions Council of South Africa and the Essential Competency Profile for physiotherapists in Canada. Research was conducted at the Department of Physiotherapy at the University of the Western Cape. Purposive sampling was undertaken with the sample population having consisted of six third- and six final-year physiotherapy students for the focus group discussions and seven lecturers formed the sample for the semi-structured interviews as well as sixteen physiotherapy module outlines. Data was collected and focus group discussion and interviews were transcribed verbatim. An inductive content analysis of the transcribed data was conducted and compared to the Pedagogical framework. Content analyses of module outlines were conducted drawing on Biggs work on constructive alignment and compared to the Pedagogical framework. Ethical clearance was received from the Senate Research Committee of the University of the Western Cape. Results: Participants showed a keen knowledge on the importance of collaboration in the teaching and clinical environment. It had relevance for personal development and learning as well as for interprofessional collaboration. Interprofessional education and group work were thought to be instrumental in collaborative learning but a lack of congruency of learning activities could be a barrier to learning. The clinical environment was highlighted as beneficial to developing collaboration through interprofessional observation and interaction but high patient loads and a lack of understanding of the roles and responsibilities of all healthcare professionals were identified as barriers. To a lesser degree, communication, conflict management and confidence were identifiable skills physiotherapy students should have to be effective collaborators. Conclusion: Students are well-positioned to participate within interprofessional team but have inadequately developed collaborative competencies. These include interprofessional role understanding and skills in conflict management, confidence and communication. Constructive alignment of curriculum by aligning learning outcomes and learning activities to develop collaboration including interprofessional learning activities would better prepare students for interprofessional collaboration.

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / This study investigates how students in an online Masters Programme in Adult Learning, although geographically dispersed used SNs to develop a supportive environment that enables collaborative learning to support and deepen their learning. Web 2.0 social software provided the tools for various forms of communication and information sharing amongst student within the social networks. This study shows how the use of Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, podcasts, blogs, chat rooms, social networking sites and email have the potential to expand the learning environment, increase participation and enrich the learning experience. Rapid technological developments transform our world into a global society which is ever changing and interconnected. The SNs as a learning environment in this technological driven global society is complex and not clearly defined; therefore it was not easy for me to understand the nature of the SNs as learning environment. The social nature of this study has therefore urged me to use social constructivism as a conceptual framework to gain insights into how students have used the social networks to develop a supportive environment that enables collaborative learning to support and deepen their learning. The utilisation of social constructivism as theoretical lens has helped to broaden my perceptions of the SNs as learning environment, to deepen my understanding of how learning occurs in the SNs and to comprehend learner behaviour within this pedagogical space. Social constructivists view learning as a social process in which people make sense of their world by interacting with other people (Doolittle & Camp, 1999). Social constructivists belief in the social nature of knowledge, and the belief that knowledge is the result of social interaction and language usage, and, thus, is a shared, rather than an individual, experience (Prawat & Floden, 1994). Furthermore, they believe that this social interaction always occurs within a socio-cultural context, resulting in knowledge that is bound to a specific time and place (Vygotsky, 1978).

Trends in teacher education increasingly emphasize the need for quality ongoing teacher professional development that is accessible, flexible, fosters advanced skillset development, and has the power to change teachers' practice. Participatory approaches to learning that are situated, collaborative, dialogic, and inquiry-oriented promote the development of such knowledge, skills, and practices within professional communities of practice and form a foundation for quality teacher professional development. Current online and collaborative technologies offer significant access, flexibility, and economic advantages and afford individuals ways to connect with others without time and space restrictions, making online teacher professional development possible. Online learning environments where deep knowledge and complex understanding emerge through dialogue and collaboration within communities of practice must be carefully designed. These learning environments are typically context-dependent, and the design solutions and their implementation may vary substantially. Therefore, these designs must be guided by the most current theoretical understanding and best instructional and design practices. Research in this dissertation adds to our understanding of effective online teacher professional development design, development, and implementation practices by responding to a local problem of redesigning existing teacher professional development courses into an online modality. This dissertation is presented in a three-article format. The first article is an integrative literature review. It contributes by bringing together theories, frameworks, and practices from several different disciplines and could inform online participatory professional development design solutions across various contexts. The second article is a design case featuring a template designed to support progressive knowledge-building discourse, a fundamental feature connecting multiple characteristics that contribute to effective teacher professional development. The third article presents findings from a self-study of design practice. It provides insight into decision-making during purposefully employing technology to meet pedagogical needs during the design process. This study demonstrates that aligning technology and pedagogy is feasible. The concept of pedagogical intent is proposed as a potentially valuable guiding principle that could enable such alignment while designing technology-mediated instruction. Designing high-quality online teacher professional development is a complex yet worthwhile endeavor. This dissertation offers valuable information about theoretical grounding related to designing online professional development, ways that productive dialogue and collaboration can be supported online, and the importance of technology-pedagogy alignment during the design process. We are only beginning to understand what works in online teacher professional development and why it works. More research is needed to identify theoretical frameworks, principles, and processes that could guide both practitioners and researchers in its design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

Increased impact of technology leads numerous studies to conduct research on the effect of social media on performance. Very limited of such studies have tried to observe and record the use of social media for collaborative learning as a way to improve collaborative authoring. This paper tries to the validation of the technology acceptance model (TAM) on social media use for collaborative learning to enhance collaborative authoring among research students. To achieve the study objective, this paper employed a questionnaire as the main data collection method and distributed it to 1118 responses of various researchers from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) all of whom use social media. The findings were obtained via a quantitative research method, structural equation modeling (SEM-AMOS). The findings from our empirical study indicate that all the hypotheses were supported; we demonstrate that the use of social media positively and significantly related to collaborative authoring through collaborative learning between researchers in higher education. Therefore, the proposed model will help academic and decision-makers formulate the strategies that can encourage students and researchers to use social media to improving collaborative authoring through collaborative learning.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第19856号 / 情博第607号 / 新制||情||105(附属図書館) / 32892 / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 喜多 一, 教授 守屋 和幸, 教授 松下 佳代 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

Thesis (Ph.D. (Applied English Language)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / Refer to document

English speaking skills and the ability to collaborate with others are essential in our global society. Students need to be provided with the knowledge to actively participate in society and develop the ability to use different strategies to support their communication. However, speaking anxiety and not knowing how to cope with speaking anxiety could pose a problem for language learners, affecting their academic achievement. This quantitative study investigated students’ perceptions of speaking anxiety and working in groups or pairs in the foreign English classroom. A questionnaire was used and answered by secondary school students, attending their last year at two different schools. The study identified which strategies students use to cope with speaking anxiety. It was found that the majority of the participants experienced working collaboratively had positive outcomes on their experienced speaking anxiety and over a half of the language learner’s believed working in groups made them speak and participate more during English lessons. Fear of negative evaluation showed being the lowest source for experienced speaking anxiety while the most anxiety-provoking situation was having to speak publicly in class. In addition, the study showed that actively encourage oneself by taking risks in the language classroom was the most common used strategy to cope with speaking anxiety in the language classroom. Moreover, a third of the participants expressed they did not know any strategy to use to cope with their speaking anxiety.

Background: Interprofessional Education (IPE) can improve teamwork among future healthcare professionals, but the academic structural environment can be a barrier to its implementation. Methods and Results: Students from seven professional programs (athletic training. exercise science, nursing, nutrition, public health, social work, and speech-language pathology) participated in a two-part IPE program consisting of: a web-based education module and an in-person interactive workshop. Students were administered a deidentified pre/post survey to assess changes in their knowledge and attitudes toward IPE. A total of 54 students participated in both components with 46 students completing both surveys. After participating in the IPE program, significantly more students reported changes in 10 of the 18 items on the survey, particularly differentiating the roles of each profession and the benefits of interprofessional collaboration in their future careers. Conclusion: This program increased students’ understanding of the roles of different health professions. Implementing an IPE program is beneficial for enhancing student knowledge and changing attitudes toward IPE.

Under läsåret 2014/2015 genomfördes ett projekt med kollegialt lärande på S:t Petriskola i Malmö. Deltagande var frivilligt och deltagarna fick 35 timmar under läsåret isin tjänst till detta. En indelning i två grupper gjordes och auskultationer och träffargenomfördes huvudsakligen inom den egna gruppen. Gemensam litteratur och filmerdiskuterades på mötena.Syftet med detta arbete är att följa detta utvecklingsarbete och göra en deskriptivstudie och utvärdering av det första året. Detta gjordes genom deltagande i projektet,enkäter med deltagarna och intervjuer med gruppledarna. Svaren på enkäterna har varitpositiva. Det deltagarna varit mest nöjda med har varit att få inspiration, feedback ochdiskussionerna efter auskultationerna. Det största problemet har varit att hitta tider, bådeför auskultationer och möten.Från läsåret 2015/2016 ska samtliga lärare på S:t Petri skola delta i kollegialt lärande.Det är inte längre frivilligt, men alla får tid i sin tjänst för det. Grupperna går från att havarit ämnesöverskridande till att vara i samma eller snarlika ämnen. / During 2014/2015 a projekt with collaborative learning among teachers took place at S:t Petri school in Malmö. Participation was voluntary and the participants were given 35 hours of ther working time during the year to take part. Two groups were formed and lesson visits and meetings were primarily performed within the smaller group. Assigned literature and films were discussed during the meetings.The purpose of this work is to follow this development work and to make a descriptive study and evaluation of the first year. This was done by participation in the project, questionnaires with the participants and interviews with the group leaders. The responses to the questionnaires were generally positive. The most positive things have been getting inspiration, feedback and the discussions after the lesson visits. The biggest problem has been finding time, both for the visits and the meetings.Starting 2015/2196 all teachers at S:t Petri will take part in the collaborative learning study. It will no longer be voluntary, but time will be given for the work. The groups will cease being mixed and instead consist of teachers having the same or similar subjects.