Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sussex, England, 1987.

Historically the process of career development was thought of as occurring in adolescence and adulthood; however, the renewed emphasis on lifelong career development has led to a greater focus on the career developmental stage of childhood. The present research focused on the development and trialling of a research-based computerised career exploration tool, Growing-up: Children Building Careers™ (GCBC™) that can be used for early intervention in children‘s career development. The integration of developmental considerations within a career developmental context is of paramount importance, considering that child and career developmental theories share certain basic foundational principles such as the dual recognition of identifiable life stages and the resolution or accomplishment of associated tasks. The focus of the research is to provide access to a research-based tool that can assist learners with developing age appropriate career developmental skills. As the overview of education policy and existing programs will show, there are challenges in providing access to and improving the nature, level, and quality of career development services. Gaps in access to career development learning are particularly evident at the elementary education level. Furthermore it is clear that learners need to be at the centre of a radical rethink of careers services within a lifelong learning framework in order to ensure access to navigational tools throughout a lifetime of work and study transitions. Digital environments, such as the GCBC™, are tools that broaden and extend learning possibilities for children and appropriately designed digital environments can provide a vehicle that can take children further than they might travel unassisted. The research is divided into five phases and includes eight to ten year old children as participants. Phase one focused on the program design and pilot study (ensuring content validity and age-appropriate language use), while phases two to five focused on the fieldwork (i.e., pre –test, program exposure, post-test, and focus group discussions). The researcher made use of a mixed research design that combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The total sample consisted of 146 children between the ages of eight to ten years old. The control group had 72 children and the experimental group 74 children with a mean age of 8.74 years (SD = 0.63) for the total sample. The quantitative data collection entailed a pre-and post-test design with learners‘ career development measured with the Childhood Career Development Scale (CCDS) and their career awareness with the Revised Career Awareness Survey (RCAS). Qualitative data was collected in the form of two focus group discussions, which included a small sample of children from the experimental group, as well as insights gained from educators following the GCBC™ fieldwork. The quantitative statistical analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics which allowed the researcher to not only describe the research findings, but to confirm the effectiveness of the GCBC™ as an intentional career development learning program. Furthermore, the responses of the children and educators who participated in or witnessed the facilitation of the GCBC™ provided support for the GCBC™ as a meaningful career learning experience which can be successfully implemented in educational settings.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [204]-213).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-89). Also available on the Internet.

This pilot study, grounded in social learning theory, demonstrated that leisure education services can be delivered on the Internet. Participants (n=40) successfully accessed the Web page program and responded to instruments and surveys. The treatment group (n=16) effectively completed four leisure education sessions on-line. Confidentiality, privacy, and anonymity issues were controlled. Responses were monitored and feedback provided as to the complexity of the program and comprehension of the participants. The leisure education program had no significant effect on posttest measures of alcohol expectancies and leisure motivations. Mean changes frompretest to posttest may indicate trends. The small n and convenience sample may have introduced many extraneous variables. Professional implications include compliance issues (57% experimental mortality rate), technology-related anxiety, and limited professional competency to work in this environment. Future research which examines the provision of leisure education and other components of therapeutic recreation service on-line is warranted.

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M.Inf. / The Internet is a cost-effective and efficient way of distributing information to all stakeholders in a transparent, globalised business environment. It is imperative that companies adopt the Internet as a distribution method for corporate annual report information to remain competitive. The aim of this study was to determine the current state and level of adoption of the Internet as a delivery and communication mechanism for disseminating online/digital annual reports in the largest listed companies in South Africa. The population selected for the survey was the 2001 Financial Mail top 300 (SA Giants) companies based on total assets. The research was conducted by analysing the corporate websites of the selected companies. The survey was done to establish whether a corporate website existed and, if so, whether the full annual report was available and electronic format used. The aim of this study was to ascertain how many companies in South Africa are publishing full annual reports on the Web. The research consisted of a literature review and empirical study. The purpose of the literature review was to establish whether previous research exists in this field in South Africa. The results of the international literature review were compared to South Africa to determine whether the country is lagging behind global trends in this arena. The typical users, function, content and shortcomings of the annual report were identified. The benefits of and problems with digital annual reports for companies and stakeholders were described. Results indicate that the top 100 South African companies have increased their corporate Web presence from 43% in 1999 to 92% in 2002. Top 100 companies with annual reports on the Internet increased from 11% in 1999 to 84% in 2002. Results indicated that 227 (75,6%) of the top 300 companies had a website and 31 (10,3%) had no home page. The websites were also analysed to investigate how many companies had detailed electronic annual reports available. The study showed that 179 (59,6%) companies had digital annual reports and 48 (16,0%) had no digital annual report available on the Internet. Of the companies surveyed, 131 (43,6%) had their annual reports in PDF format and 58 (19,3%) in HTML. Only 38 companies (12,6%) presented annual reports in HTML and PDF format on the Internet. Very few companies provide users with the functionality to download data in spreadsheet format for manipulation. Only 7 companies (2,3%) offered this feature. This study also investigated the relationship between digital annual reports (dependent variable) and company characteristics (independent variable). The two independent variables chosen were profitability and industry type. The two dependent variables chosen were a corporate Web presence and digital annual reports. It can be concluded that there is a significant association between industry sector and digital annual reports, with 63,6% companies in the industrial sector with digital annual reports, compared to 82,1% in the financial sector and 77,4% in the mining resources sector. The conclusion can be drawn that there is no significant correlation between companies with a Web presence and the industry type in which each company operates. Of the companies in the industrial sector, 85,8% had Web presence compared to 92,3% in the financial sector and 90,3% in the mining resources sector. The investigation revealed that it is the profitable companies in South Africa with a corporate Web presence and with digital annual reports on their corporate websites.

Given the increases on global ageing population, popularity of social Q&A sites and the level of geriatric health concerns from family caregivers, it raises the uncertainty about the quality of health information on social Q&A sites for family caregivers of elderly. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the quality of geriatric health information on social Questions and Answers (Q&A) sites: Yahoo! Answers from registered nurses’ perspective, to identify the structural patterns of questions and answers vary in quality and to discover the cultural aspects in relation to the findings. A total of 60 question-answers set is retrieved from regional Yahoo! Answers sites, including Australia, Canada, UK & Ireland, US, Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. 126 English answers and 112 Chinese answers are examined. Through a mixed method approach, results show that the overall information quality provided in Chinese group is relatively poorer than those of English. About 40% of questioners form both groups are not capable of judging the best answer among choices. In terms of structural patterns, questioners from both language groups are less capable of asking questions with clear focuses. 4 structural patterns, including Chinese and English answers with good and poor quality, are identified. Furthermore, cultural differences are found to have a significant impact on the level of information quality in social Q&A site. Finally, recommendations to corresponding social sectors are made for improving the current information quality of social Q&A sites in future. / published_or_final_version / Library and Information Management / Master / Master of Science in Library and Information Management

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