The purpose of this study is to investigate the weaknesses of current e-learning environment development models and to establish a comprehensive e-learning environment development model (EEDM). In the literature study I established the components of a comprehensive EEDM by looking at five existing models. The main concern in all of the models is the lack of configuration management, which lead to the investigation of other characteristics that an EEDM should have to be described as a comprehensive model. I then used these characteristics to establish the E-learning Dome - a comprehensive EEDM. The E-learning Dome consists of three layers, namely the Infrastructure layer, E-learning administration layer and the Course development layer. The Quality Dome encompasses the combination of these three layers. Through the use of case studies to test the feasibility of the E-learning Dome I concluded that the E-learning Dome is successful as a comprehensive EEDM. / Theoretical Computing / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / Web technologies have necessitated a transformation culture in higher education institutions. Many of these institutions are employing web technologies whose development, for varying reasons, is not supported by research in their field and domain of use. One such field is instructional design for the web learning. Although there is a lot of research on the most effective instructional design strategies, the use of research for web-based learning applications has been limited. This thesis reports on a study aimed at transforming the research on instructional design into practice by designing an instructional design system and providing an argument for its implementation. The argument is intended to facilitate the design and development of an instructional design subsystem of the web, that would in turn offer effective and efficient ways for creating web-based learning materials to instructors. The study started by examining the various paradigms, theories and practices of instructional design with the intent of using them to enrich and improve the practice of instructional design in web learning. It undertook a thorough and systematic review of the literature on instructional design in order to come up with an instructional design system. The design approach used successful design patterns that have been used elsewhere, e.g. in software design, to create common responses or solutions to recurrent problems and circumstances. Instructional design patterns were identified in this study as the recurrent problems or processes instructional designers go through while creating instructional materials, whose solutions can be reused over and over again. This study used an iterative developmental research process of finding and modelling an instructional design process as the research methodology. This process follows and builds on existing research on instructional models, theories and strategies, and ensures that the same methodology can be used to test the theories in the design, thus improving both the research and the design. / South Africa

Textiles and Clothing programmes in universities worldwide experience numerous challenges in effectively implementing ICT integrated teaching and learning. The aim of this study was to explore how ICT integrated teaching and learning was implemented in Textiles and Clothing programmes at one university of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, with a view to developing a suitable model to enhance effective implementation. The study was informed by the Activity theory and triangulated by the Technological pedagogical content knowledge framework (TPACK) and the Functionality framework. The study made use of the interpretive research paradigm, the qualitative approach and intrinsic case study design, to generate the necessary data. The participants of the study were purposively and quota sampled from the Textiles and Clothing department of the selected university of Science and Technology, and consisted of seven lecturers, three administrators, two ICT technicians and thirty-two students. Four methods were used to generate data namely in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. After coding, data were analysed for content using thematic analysis. The study established that there were no specific ICT hardware and software packages acquired by the universityfor the Textiles and Clothing programmes. Instead, general design related softwares such as CorelDraw, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Mac Paints were used to support the implementation of ICT integrated teaching and learning. The findings of the study further revealed that lecturers lacked thorough technological pedagogical knowledge to apply a variety of ICT in the teaching and learning of students. The study established that there was lack of an effective mechanism for providing monitoring and evaluation as the peer review and evaluation mechanism that was used in the Textiles and Clothing programmes did not identify the specific indicators for the implementation of ICT integrated teaching and learning. Among the conclusions emanating from the findings were that the Textiles and Clothing programmes suffered serious shortage of suitable ICT hardware and subject-specific ICT software applications to facilitate the teaching of practical components thereby compromising the effective implementation of ICT integrated teaching and learning to foster effective skill acquisition in relation to ICT among students. It was also concluded that lecturers were finding difficulties in implementing ICT integrated teaching and learning as they lacked thorough technological-pedagogical-content knowledge and skills that would enable them to select appropriate technological resources and technological pedagogical strategies to teach students appropriate content. The study recommended that the Textiles and Clothing department, through the support of the university, should acquire subject related educational hardware and software like Gerber or Lectra to teach the practical courses of the programmes. The university should organise professional development programmes focussing on TPACK to assist lecturers to develop competences in ICT necessary for implementing ICT integrated teaching and learning. A model was proposed to enhance the effective implementation of ICT integrated teaching and learning into the Textiles and Clothing programmes at the University.

Thesis (DEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / The past decade has witnessed the proliferation and use of computer technologies or ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in varying levels in the traditional classroom within the South African context. The policy on e-Education (DoE, 2004) refers to the significance of e-Education and expects schools to be developed into e-Schools, consisting of a community of both teachers and learners. This policy also foregrounds how new models of learning are radically changing and challenging current conceptions of learning. As schools acquire technological infrastructure, teachers are expected to become technically skilled in order to deliver the curriculum utilising technology as a tool. Practising primary school teachers are generalists who subscribe to a more holistic approach of teaching. Specialised knowledge influences the in-service primary teacher's perceptions with regard to technology in the classroom. Technology integration,therefore, represents particular challenges for teachers as they search to construct a coherent, technological content base to inform their teaching. Learners with diverse ranges of learning abilities and needs are also present in classrooms, which may further compound the challenges teachers face within the confines of a rigid curriculum and emergent technologies. This study follows and documents the trajectory of a purposive sample of ten practising primary school teachers who had no specialised training in technology. A qualitative ethnographic research design, underpinned by an interpretive paradigm is employed. This research is premised on the argument that teachers can acquire the technical skill, underscored with the relevant pedagogical aims, needed for the seamless integration of emerging technologies required to enhance teaching and learning. "Without skilled pedagogical application of educational technology, technology in and of itself cannot provide innovative school practice and educational change" (Levin & Wadmany, 2006:158).

Thesis (DTech (Informatics))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / This study is about teachers’ e-Learning practices at school level. The research aims were to explore the patterns that emerge when teachers use and integrate technologies for e-Teaching and e-Learning, and to explain why teachers adopted and used technologies. My original contribution to knowledge is that the adoption and use of technologies is influenced by value propositions. Schools in the Western Cape are acquiring more technology and gaining increasing access to digital products, services and systems at an exponential rate. In spite of the prevalence of technology in the Western Cape, there appears to be an under-utilisation or non-adoption of the available tools and technologies for educational benefits. However the e-Learning practices of teachers are not fully understood by e-Learning policy makers and implementers. This study sought to address the research problem through an exploration of the technologies that teachers used and what they used these technologies for; the patterns in their use and integration of technologies; and the reasons they offered for their decisions to adopt and use technologies. The research was not strictly confined to one particular method, approach or strategy, as the nature of the phenomena under investigation and the dynamics of the situation required adaptations. A sensible selective blend of qualitative and quantitative approaches, explanatory and exploratory enquiry, and inductive and deductive techniques was employed. Existing research does not sufficiently describe or indicate patterns of use, practice and adoption of technologies by teachers. While a range of taxonomies, levels and stages exists, they deal in most instances with singularities. Existing technology adoption theories do not explicitly progress beyond the point of ‘actual use’. Use of technologies could result in some benefits. The findings of this study revealed that teachers used a purposeful selection of technologies for personal, administrative, teaching and learning purposes. Teachers’ practices were found to be incremental and progressive, and aligned to their comfort zones. Teachers adopted and used technologies on account of the value propositions afforded to them. The aggregated patterns of use, practice and adoption could be located on continuums.

Orientador: Hans Kurt Edmund Liesenberg / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T11:06:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Zanaga_MariangelaPisoni_D.pdf: 1027245 bytes, checksum: ce7f46f084cee2f5195886fdaf0e938a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: A aplicação da filosofia de conteúdos abertos no campo da educação e do compartilhamento social para a criação de materiais de interesse educacional por professores na Internet é aqui proposta em decorrência de um trabalho de pesquisa realizado. Bens culturais, como os materiais de interesse educacional, são propícios para serem produzidos através de processos de compartilhamento social. Conteúdos abertos são trabalhos de criação publicados sob licenças de uso que flexibilizam os direitos autorais consolidados em leis nacionais e internacionais. No Brasil, em particular, já se trabalha com licenças de uso mais flexível. O compartilhamento social consiste na produção coletiva de bens a partir da capacidade criativa pessoal e de motivação interna, potencializada pelas tecnologias de informação e de comunicação. Como uma das atividades inerentes à atuação docente é a produção de materiais de interesse educacional, professores em exercício de escolas públicas da Região Metropolitana de Campinas atuantes no ensino infantil e fundamental foram apresentados à possibilidade de publicar e de compartilhar materiais na Internet. As opiniões destes professores foram obtidas através de questionário seguidas por entrevistas, demonstrando que há uma produção de materiais de interesse educacional, apesar da formação limitada recebida neste assunto. A produção individual e coletiva e o compartilhamento de materiais se dão a partir de motivações sociais e também são práticas correntes modificações em materiais utilizados, produzidos por outros. Os professores, contudo, ainda não se vêem como autores e eles utilizam a Internet somente para busca de informações. Licenças flexibilizadas de uso atendem às necessidades formais de compartilhamento por parte dos professores. O registro de criações próprias, no entanto, não é ainda uma prática difundida entre eles. Constatou-se a existência de condições facilitadoras para a aplicação da filosofia de conteúdos abertos e de compartilhamento social junto a professores para a produção de materiais de interesse educacional. Há, porém, uma necessidade de se incentivar algumas iniciativas específicas para que a proposta aqui colocada se efetive / Abstract: The application of the the open content philosophy in the educational field and the social sharing to the creation of contents of educational interest by teachers in Internet is here being proposed. Cultural goods, like the contents of educational interest, are suitable to be produced by social-sharing processes. Open contents are creative works published under licenses of use with a greater flexibility than the ones of the copyright consolidated in national and international laws. More flexible licenses are already being used in Brazil. The social sharing consists of a collective production of goods based on individual creative capacities and internal motivation and it is boosted by information and communication technologies. As the production of contents of educational interest is one of the activities in teaching, teachers of public schools of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas performing their duties at preschool and fundamental education level were exposed to the possibility of publishing and sharing of contents on the Internet. The opinions of those teachers were gathered via a questionnaire followed by interviews and the results demonstrated that a production of contents of educational interest exists despite their limited qualification in such matters. The individual and collective production and the sharing of contents have its origin in social motivation and the adapting of used contents that have been produced by others are current practices as well. The teachers, however, do not see themselves as authors and they use the Internet solely to search for information. More flexible licenses of use satisfy the sharing formal demands of teachers. The recording of creations is, nevertheless, not yet a wide-spread practice among them. Enabling conditions for the application of the philosophy of open contents and social sharing to the production of contents of educational interest have been identified amidst teachers. Yet it is necessary to encourage some specific initiatives in order to make the proposal presented here become effective / Doutorado / Educação, Ciencia e Tecnologia / Doutor em Educação

The study investigated the acceptance of electronic (e-learning) based instruction in selected South African companies based upon the dominants of e-learning acceptance that included computer self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and behavioral intention to use. A quantitative research methodology was conducted on a sample of male and female trainees in selected South African companies using e-learning as a mode of instruction (N=191) using the “E-learning Acceptance Measure” by Ong and Lai (2006). Analysis of variance was used to determine whether the biographical characteristic of gender could account for any differences towards the determinants of e-learning acceptance. Multiple stepwise regression was used to determine differences between dominants of e-learning acceptance and gender. The results of the study showed that there were no statistically significant differences in mean between men’s rating of computer self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and behavioral intention than that of women. In terms of influences, the results show the existence of influence between certain dominants of e-learning acceptance however no gender differences were found in influence. Recommendations were made based upon these results on how South African companies can help trainees accept and use e-learning.

The purpose of this research project was to establish consensus among experts regarding best practices of online undergraduate spiritual formation with a specific focus on the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU). Prior to this project, there was no consensus regarding best practices of online spiritual formation at the undergraduate level. Even less research existed with regard to the practices used among CCCU member institutions. Therefore, this project sought to identify the best practices implemented by CCCU member institutions to provide effective spiritual formation in their online undergraduate programs. This project was a mixed methods exploratory sequential design utilizing the Delphi Method. Sixteen expert faculty and administrators teaching in or overseeing Christian ministry departments within CCCU member institutions were enlisted to participate as panelists in this study. Round 1 gathered answers to 16 open-ended questions that were developed based on the CCCU definition of spiritual formation. Round 2 utilized a four-point Likert type scale with panelists evaluating the importance of 78 thematic practices that emerged from round 1. Round 3 utilized a simple agree or disagree dichotomous scale evaluating the importance of the remaining practices to online undergraduate spiritual formation. After three rounds of a Delphi Study with experts in the field of online spiritual formation at the undergraduate level, thirty consensus best practices were identified. Chapter 1 outlines the purpose and driving questions of this project related to best practices of online undergraduate spiritual formation. Chapter 2 reviews the precedent literature regarding the theological and theoretical foundations for Christian education and spiritual formation, as well as reveals a gap in the literature related to undergraduate online spiritual formation among CCCU member institutions. Chapter 3 articulates the design of this project and the use of the Delphi Method. Chapter 4 reveals the findings from each of the three rounds in this Delphi Study. Finally, chapter 5 analyzes and evaluates the findings of this project, including the thirty consensus best practices that were identified and their contribution to precedent literature, educational practice, and advancement of online Christian education.

A significant event of the last two decades has been the appearance and subsequent explosive growth of the World Wide Web and related technologies that have had a notable effect on higher education and learning in particular (Crossman, 1997:19; Hall & White, 1997:22; Alessi & Trollip, 2001:5: Oliver 2002). Information and communication technology (ICT) or ‘elearning’ as it is known in some countries, has emerged both locally and worldwide as a prominent phenomenon in education (Oliver & Herrington, 2001) and the ensuing scramble by educators to adopt the new technologies (compare Rogers, 1995) can be seen by looking at the number of courses that have recently evolved under the banner of e-learning, web-based education or online education. The rush to implement ICT is particularly evident in Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) where technology has come to be seen as a potentially valuable tool for educational reform in higher education (Poole, 1997:2; Surrey & Land, 2000:145; Bates, 2000:7; Rosenberg, 2001:10). Educational reform at Higher Education Institutions worldwide over the past two decades is often ascribed to trends such as increased competition, decreased enrolments, greater numbers of non-traditional students, changing societal expectations and decreased government funding (Simonson & Thompson, 1997:4; Surrey & Land, 2000:145). The dwindling student base and loss of university students to corporate training programmes in South Africa is in line with these trends and is seen as a major area of concern (McKenna, 1999:[online]). The use of ICT in higher education, which is also progressively taking root in emerging nations such as South Africa, adds another perspective to the issue of educational reform (Hilliard & Kemp, 2000:22). Van Buren-Schele and Odendaal (2001:[online]) put the local situation into perspective by affirming that the introduction of ICT at institutions in developing countries like South Africa can be far more challenging than it is for their counterparts in developed countries. Factors that impact on the implementation of ICT normally include financial, logistic, and technological aspects, but in many areas in South Africa, requirements on a basic level such as access to electricity, computers and the Internet place unique demands on some educational institutions. Local institutions are therefore hard-pressed to improve teaching practice in order, firstly, to live up to consumer expectations, then to show continual improvement and innovations in the changing field of education (Cronjé & Murdoch, 2001:online). / Prof. D. van der Westhuizen

Magister Scientiae - MSc / Since there was a need for an Educational Management Information System (EMIS) in the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan, we designed and implemented a prototype for use in the ministry and investigated the appropriateness of using Agile methods for producing the EMIS. The prototype consisted of a database containing data about schools and a Dari interface which was used by educational planners, managers and policy makers of the ministry for decision making and planning. Agile methods are relatively new in software engineering and have an approach and development guidelines which strive for user satisfaction and early incremental delivery of software. We adapt them to local conditions due to their collaborative client-developer approach. The interface, a key component, is easy to use and efficient. The key research result is an evaluation concerning the appropriateness of using Agile Methods for developing the EMIS. Focus groups and surveys were used to develop the prototype and accomplish the study. / South Africa