Recent developments in technology have increased the potential uses of electronic peer feedback. Because both computer-mediated and traditional peer review modes have their own strengths, some researchers have suggested that these two different modes can be used together; however, this combination mode of peer review has not been widely investigated. This study examines the impact of combining electronic commenting using editing features of Microsoft word and a course management system (Moodle) with face-to-face interaction as a two-step peer review process and compares this with a more traditional mode (pen-and-paper commenting and oral talk). It investigates students’ perceptions and attitudes toward these different modes of peer review and examines whether there are differences in the types of peer feedback given and the use of peer feedback in students’ subsequent revisions. Adopting a case study approach, both qualitative and quantitative data—students’ written and electronic texts (draft, peer feedback, and revisions), transcriptions of oral interactions, and pre-, mid-, post-stage interviews— were collected from eight ESL sub-degree students in Hong Kong. The results revealed that the majority of participants preferred the combination mode of peer review because it merged some of the most useful features of e-feedback and oral talk. In terms of feedback, students in both the combination group and the traditional group liked to receive revision-oriented comments; however, their preferences for feedback on their own writing were not always consistent with the types of comments they actually provided. The findings also indicated that the combination mode was more effective in terms of number of comments and different types of feedback provided. It was found that there was a complex relationship between different aspects of peer feedback, including area (global versus local), function (evaluation, question, explanation, suggestion, and alteration), and medium (written, electronic, and oral). Oral responses and comments on the Moodle forum focused more on global evaluation and suggestions, while large amounts of written comments and e-feedback generated by the editing features were corrections for surface level errors. With respect to revisions, both groups made a similar total number of changes to their texts but changes from the combination group included more frequent direct use of peer feedback, whereas a larger percentage of self-initiated changes were made by the traditional group. In addition, this study shows how other individual factors influence the efficacy of peer review, including relationship between peers; students’ attitudes and stances; motivation, and participation; (mis)match between writer’s expected feedback and reviewer’s comments and students’ prior experiences with peer response. This study has demonstrated the considerable benefits of using both electronic and face-to-face peer feedback in a combination mode and shed light on the changing roles of the instructor, students and technology in the twenty-first century writing classroom. This study has also yielded a number of pedagogical insights to help teachers to effectively implement new technologies when planning to use peer response in their writing classrooms. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree in Master of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, 2009. / This study investigated key factors impacting on blended learning delivery with particular focus on socio-cultural and human-computer-interface issues, in the hope that the outcome of this enquiry might contribute positively towards the empowerment of learners and facilitators alike. The study involved a group of first year students enrolled in a Communications Skills Course offered by the (then) Department of English and Communication at the Durban University of Technology. The PRINTS Project, a webquest around which the course activities were based, provided an example of a blended delivery course in practice. While the teaching paradigm used in the course was constructivist, the research orientation employed in this project was critical realist. Critical realism focuses on transformation through praxis and also lends itself to modelling, which provides a way to understand the factors at play within a social system. In the preliminary stages of the research, an exploratory empirical (i.e. applied) model of blended learning delivery was formulated from a theoretical model of course delivery in order to assess which factors in blended learning were systemic and which were variables. The investigation then sought to uncover key factors impacting on the blended delivery system, utilising both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The findings were analysed in terms of the empirical model to gain an understanding of any factors that might be seen to either enhance or inhibit learning in blended delivery mode. The result was that certain core issues in blended learning and teaching could be clarified, including the use, advantages and disadvantages of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in a learning environment. The notion of the digital divide could also be reconceptualised, and the relationship between literacy (be it academic, professional or social), power and culture could be further elucidated, drawing specific attention to the South African educational environment. The notion of iv culture and its relevance in a blended delivery environment was also further clarified, since the findings of this research project suggested how and why certain key socio-cultural factors might impact, as both enhancers and inhibitors, on the blended learning delivery system.

This study investigated access to and use of Information and Communication Technology by students at the University of the Western Cape. It examined how the issues of access and use play out at the microlevel of a historically disadvantaged institution in South Africa by investigating the institutional arrangements and practices of different computer laboratories.

This research is an investigation of the potential means to make the Information Systems (IS) course more accessible to Walter Sisulu University (WSU) students. As some IS students at this institution are unable to attend classes on a regular basis, this study aims to establish if and how the WSU Accounting Department (which offers the IS course) could use e-Iearning to support the teaching, learning and assessment of IS. This qualitative study was approached from an interpretive perspective. The study has undergone one cycle of an action research approach. The methods used in the study include surveys, an expert review and focus group interviews. The data was elicited from participants using questionnaires and an interview schedule. A staff questionnaire was used to elicit information from IS staff from four contact universities in South Africa to determine their experience of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for e-learning in an IS course. A student questionnaire was used to determine the WSU IS students' reasons for absenteeism, their learning needs, and their current computer access and skills. Data from both of these surveys informed the development of the WSU IS pilot website. An expert review questionnaire ascertained the subject expert's opinions about the newly developed WSU IS pilot website. The website was found to be of good quality with respect to the four aspects that Harvey and Green (J 993 cited in Lomas 2002) use to define quality. Some modifications were made to the WSU IS pilot website as a result of the expert's comments. After the website was used by the IS students, two focus group interviews were conducted to determine the students' perceptions of the value of the website. The data was analyzed, interpreted and linked to the literature surveyed. The main findings indicate that the WSU IS pilot website could be part of a more globalised higher education offering than the paper-based IS course offered before. However, the staff and the student surveys revealed that ICT has opened the gap in equity at the higher education institutions, highlighting that access to a university does not mean equal access to lectures and computers. The WSU IS pilot website endeavoured to capitalise on students' physical access to computers by supporting epistemological access to the curriculum, by encouraging them to exercise control over their learning. This study has ideally enabled the Accounting Department to deliver its services to students and this in turn will hopefully help WSU retain its part-time students and improve the student pass rates.

The Departments of Computer Science and Information Systems at Rhodes University currently share certain honours-level (fourth year) course modules with students from the corresponding departments at the previously disadvantaged University of Fort Hare. These lectures are currently delivered using video-conferencing. This was found to present a number of problems including challenges in terms of implementing desired pedagogical approaches, inequitable learning experiences, student disengagement at the remote venue, and inflexibility of the video-conferencing system. In order to address these problems, various e-learning modes were investigated and synchronous e-learning were found to offer a number of advantages over asynchronous e-learning. Live Virtual Classrooms (LVCs) were identified as synchronous e-learning tools that support the pedagogical principles important to the two universities and to the broader context of South African tertiary education, and commercial LVC applications were investigated and evaluated. Informed by the results of this investigation a small, simple LVC was designed, developed and customised for use in a predominantly academic sphere and deployment in a South African tertiary educational context. Testing and evaluation of this solution was carried out and the results analysed in terms of the LVC’s technical merits and the pedagogical value of the solution as experienced by students and lecturers/facilitators. An evaluation of this solution indicated that the LVC solves a number of the identified problems with video-conferencing and also provides a flexible/customisable/extensible solution that supports highly interactive, collaborative, learner-centred education. The custom LVC solution could be easily adapted to the specific needs of any tertiary educational institute in the country, and results may benefit other tertiary educational institutions involved in or dependant on distance learning.

Despite widespread use of web-based e-learning applications, insufficient attention is paid to their usability. There is a need to conduct evaluation using one or more of the various usability evaluation methods. Given that heuristic evaluation is known to be easy to use and cost effective, this study investigates the extent to which it can identify usability problems in a web-based e-learning application at a tertiary institution. In a comparative case study, heuristic evaluation by experts and survey evaluation among end users (learners) are conducted and the results of the two compared. Following literature studies in e-learning - particularly web-based learning - and usability, the researcher generates an extensive set of criteria/heuristics and uses it in the two evaluations. The object of evaluation is a website for a 3rd year Information Systems course. The findings indicate a high correspondence between the results of the two evaluations, demonstrating that heuristic evaluation is an appropriate, effective and sufficient usability evaluation method, as well as relatively easy to conduct. It identified a high percentage of usability problems. / Computing / M.Sc. (Information Systems)

Acompanha: 6 apresentações em Recurso Educacional Aberto (REA): Introdução à semiótica Peirceana; Arquitetura de Peirce; Categorias cenopitagóricas; O signo como relação triádica; Tricotomias. / Capes / A contribuição desta pesquisa se deu pela sistematização de um recurso educacional aberto para a disciplina de Semiótica para os cursos de graduação em Design. Por se tratar de um recurso educacional aberto, o modelo proposto pode ser adaptado para outras áreas do conhecimento, ou constantemente aprimorado, de modo colaborativo por diversos autores. A escolha da área da Semiótica no Design se deu por interesses de pesquisa da autora e da necessidade de materiais na área. A abordagem escolhida começou com a revisão de alguns conceitos e definições sobre o Design, sobre a Semiótica de Peirce e como essa área do conhecimento está inserida na formação do designer. A fundamentação teórica sobre Recursos Educacionais Abertos delimitou princípios e elementos importantes que configuram um material como tal e determinam o percurso para sistematização do recurso que conta com um conjunto de seis objetos de aprendizagem. A sistematização de um recurso educacional com base na filosofia de REA teve por intuito nortear usuários que viessem a usar conceitos expostos nesta pesquisa acerca das possibilidades da prática de construção de material didático, bem como do reuso de objetos de aprendizagem, adaptação para contextos distintos, compartilhamento de forma a permitir acesso ao conhecimento e um ciclo de vida sustentável de materiais educacionais. Com base nos conceitos de Semiótica discutidos nesta pesquisa, pode-se considerar esse ciclo de vida onde os materiais estão em constante adaptação conforme a interpretação de cada usuário, como uma semiose ilimitada, onde um signo produz outro signo, que produz outro signo. O signo imaginado por Peirce está em movimento constante, é dinâmico. A partir das interpretações pessoais é possível alterar os signos contidos no recurso, seja fisicamente alterando textos e imagens, ou na utilização do recurso em sala de aula, incorporando ao signo suas próprias experiências. / The contribuitiuon of this research came out of the systematization of an open educational resource for the discipline of Semiotics for Design Graduation Courses. As it's an open educational resourse, the model proposed may be adapted to any other area of knowledge, or may be constantly improved collaboratively with several authors. Semiotics in Design was chosen due to the Author's research interest and the lack of materials in the area. The approach started with a review of some concepts and definitions about Design, about Peirce's Semiotics and how this area of knowledge takes part in the designer instruction. Theoretical groungs about Open Educational Resourses established principles and important elements that configurate a material as being of that kind and determine the route for the systematization of the resourse that counts with a group of six learning objects. The aim of the systematization of an educational resourse based on REA (open educational resourse) filosofy was to guide users that might come to use the concepts pointed in this research about the possibilities concerning didactic material construction, as well as the reuse of learning objects, adaptation for distinct contexts and sharing in order to allow acess to knoledge and a sustainable life cycle of educational materials. Based on the Semiotics concepts discussed in this research, it's possible to consider this cycle of life where the materials are constantly being adapted according to the interpretation of each user as an unlimited semiosis, where a sign produces another sign, that produces another sign. The sign Pierce imagined is in constant movement, it is dynamic. Based on personal information, it's possible to change the signs presented in the resourse, whether phisically, changing texts and images or during the use of the resourse in the classroom, incorpotating his/her own experiences to the sign.

Acompanha: 6 apresentações em Recurso Educacional Aberto (REA): Introdução à semiótica Peirceana; Arquitetura de Peirce; Categorias cenopitagóricas; O signo como relação triádica; Tricotomias. / Capes / A contribuição desta pesquisa se deu pela sistematização de um recurso educacional aberto para a disciplina de Semiótica para os cursos de graduação em Design. Por se tratar de um recurso educacional aberto, o modelo proposto pode ser adaptado para outras áreas do conhecimento, ou constantemente aprimorado, de modo colaborativo por diversos autores. A escolha da área da Semiótica no Design se deu por interesses de pesquisa da autora e da necessidade de materiais na área. A abordagem escolhida começou com a revisão de alguns conceitos e definições sobre o Design, sobre a Semiótica de Peirce e como essa área do conhecimento está inserida na formação do designer. A fundamentação teórica sobre Recursos Educacionais Abertos delimitou princípios e elementos importantes que configuram um material como tal e determinam o percurso para sistematização do recurso que conta com um conjunto de seis objetos de aprendizagem. A sistematização de um recurso educacional com base na filosofia de REA teve por intuito nortear usuários que viessem a usar conceitos expostos nesta pesquisa acerca das possibilidades da prática de construção de material didático, bem como do reuso de objetos de aprendizagem, adaptação para contextos distintos, compartilhamento de forma a permitir acesso ao conhecimento e um ciclo de vida sustentável de materiais educacionais. Com base nos conceitos de Semiótica discutidos nesta pesquisa, pode-se considerar esse ciclo de vida onde os materiais estão em constante adaptação conforme a interpretação de cada usuário, como uma semiose ilimitada, onde um signo produz outro signo, que produz outro signo. O signo imaginado por Peirce está em movimento constante, é dinâmico. A partir das interpretações pessoais é possível alterar os signos contidos no recurso, seja fisicamente alterando textos e imagens, ou na utilização do recurso em sala de aula, incorporando ao signo suas próprias experiências. / The contribuitiuon of this research came out of the systematization of an open educational resource for the discipline of Semiotics for Design Graduation Courses. As it's an open educational resourse, the model proposed may be adapted to any other area of knowledge, or may be constantly improved collaboratively with several authors. Semiotics in Design was chosen due to the Author's research interest and the lack of materials in the area. The approach started with a review of some concepts and definitions about Design, about Peirce's Semiotics and how this area of knowledge takes part in the designer instruction. Theoretical groungs about Open Educational Resourses established principles and important elements that configurate a material as being of that kind and determine the route for the systematization of the resourse that counts with a group of six learning objects. The aim of the systematization of an educational resourse based on REA (open educational resourse) filosofy was to guide users that might come to use the concepts pointed in this research about the possibilities concerning didactic material construction, as well as the reuse of learning objects, adaptation for distinct contexts and sharing in order to allow acess to knoledge and a sustainable life cycle of educational materials. Based on the Semiotics concepts discussed in this research, it's possible to consider this cycle of life where the materials are constantly being adapted according to the interpretation of each user as an unlimited semiosis, where a sign produces another sign, that produces another sign. The sign Pierce imagined is in constant movement, it is dynamic. Based on personal information, it's possible to change the signs presented in the resourse, whether phisically, changing texts and images or during the use of the resourse in the classroom, incorpotating his/her own experiences to the sign.

A literatura da última década tem revelado a existência de tensões e conflitos, no uso das Tecnologias Digitais de Informação e Comunicação da Internet TDIC por docentes na Educação Superior, que vêm dificultando a adoção do uso dessas tecnologias por eles em seu cotidiano de ensino. A tese que se apresenta resulta de um estudo de caso, realizado em uma Instituição de Ensino Superior: a IES-P, no qual se investigou as representações de seus docentes sobre o uso educacional das TDIC pela perspectiva da Antropologia Dialética de Henry Lefebvre. Essa investigação buscou responder a seguinte questão: Qual seria a natureza das tensões e conflitos no uso educacional das TDIC que predominariam nessas representações? Teve-se como objetivo verificar quais seriam as implicações dessa natureza sobre a relação que se estabelece entre os propósitos e práticas educacionais desenvolvidos pelos docentes. Esse estudo desenvolveu-se em duas fases. Na primeira, aplicou-se um questionário que foi respondido por 62 dos 439 docentes da IES-P, com o objetivo de identificar, descrever e caracterizar o cenário da pesquisa e o perfil dos participantes. Na segunda fase, realizou-se uma entrevista semi-estruturada com 12 docentes participantes da primeira fase, sendo seus dados submetidos à análise de conteúdo com o objetivo oferecer subsídios para a análise das representações desses docentes sobre o uso das TDIC. Os resultados dessa pesquisa revelaram a predominância de uma dupla natureza para essas tensões e conflitos. Apoiando-se em autores como Bruno Latour e Pierre Lévy, chegou-se a uma proposição que explica essa dupla natureza como resultado da coexistência de dois domínios do uso educacional das TDIC: o sociotécnico e o socioeducacional, sendo que neles, atores sociais desses dois domínios associaram-se e interagiram uns com os outros estabelecendo inter-relações entre aspectos que identificam as ações entre eles nesses domínios, que podem ser tanto de tensão e conflito como de articulação e integração. O que se verificou como um dos resultados mais relevantes deste estudo foi que existiram representações, situadas no domínio socioeducacional e em contextos de uso das TDIC abertos na Internet, em que as inter-relações entre atributos da educação formal e informal ocorreram de forma articulada e integrada para um grupo de professores que transformaram seus propósitos e práticas educacionais ao apropriarem-se dessas tecnologias. Desse resultado, concluiu-se que a margem do que se encontrou como representações dominantes, que tendem a reproduzir formas de uso das TDIC programadas por uma cotidianidade, encontraram-se representações que revelaram marcas da presença de uma possível transformação efetiva de propósitos e práticas educacionais desenvolvidos por docentes na Educação Superior atendendo a demandas emergentes da sociedade por mudanças na relação com o saber na atualidade / Literature from last decade has disclosed the existence of tensions and conflicts in the use of Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICTs) from internet by higher education teachers, which have been preventing them from adopting those Technologies in their everyday practice. The thesis that follows presents the results of a case study carried out in a Higher Education Institution: HEU-P, in which the teachers representations about the educational use of DICTs are investigated based on Henri Lefebvre dialectic anthropological theory. It is an attempt to answer the following question: what would be the nature of the tensions and conflicts in the use of educational DICTs that prevailed in those representations? The aim is to check which would be their implications on the relationships that are established between the educational purposes and practices developed by teachers. This study is developed in two parts. In the first, a questionnaire was applied to and answered by 62 of the 439 teachers from HEI-P. The aim was to identify, describe and characterize research scenario and participants profiles. In the second part, a semi-structured interview was carried out with 12 teachers from the first part, their data undergoing content analysis in order to get information for the analysis of their representation on the use of the DICTs. The results of this research reveal the predominance of a two-faced nature for those tensions and conflicts. According to Bruno Latour and Pierre Lévy, it is possible to infer a proposition that explains the two-faced nature because of the coexistence of two domains of the educational use of the DICTs: the socio-technical and the socio-educational. In both of the domains, the social actors got together and interacted, establishing interrelations among aspects that identify actions between them in those domains, which can be either of tension and conflict or of articulation and integration. What was observed as one of the most relevant results of this study was that for a group of teachers, who transformed their educational purposes and practices when they took hold of those technologies, there were representations, located in the socio-educational domain and in contexts of use of open DICTs from internet, in which the interrelations between attributes of formal and informal education occurred in an articulated and integrated way. The conclusion from this result is that, besides the most important representations, which tend to reproduce usages of DICTs programmed by an everydayness, there were representations that revealed clues of the presence of a possible effective transformation of educational purposes and practices developed by teachers of higher education answering society\'s emerging demands for changes in relation with todays knowledges.

Collaborative partnerships aimed at strengthening institutional capacities are a long established trend in academia. Recent developments in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have fostered a renewed interest in collaborative initiatives in the academic sphere, however, and at the same time, have created new ways of working together. Current research models do not provide sufficient methods to guide collaborations in capacity-building processes in virtual environments, especially in contexts associated with inadequate resources. Conceptual tools are therefore needed to guide the implementation of partnerships that use technology to mediate capacity building in these contexts. This research study was aimed at understanding whether and how virtual partnerships can be used to facilitate capacity building in tertiary education institutions in the SADC region. It is based on a single case study of the SANTED Virtual Classroom Project, a partnership between the Departments of Computer Science at Rhodes University (RU) and the University of Namibia (UNAM). In the project, ICTs were used to mediate the process of building teaching and research capacity in the department at UNAM. The dynamics of the partnership are explored as the implementation process developed over a period of three years. The research adopted a sociocultural perspective in the analysis of the project‟s implementation. It uses activity theory and the notion of communities of practice as conceptual frameworks to explore how the two departments organised themselves and how they harnessed the virtual environment to enable the capacity-building partnership. Activity theory provided a lens to understand the complex relationships between the different elements of the partnership activities mediated by technological tools. The concept of communities of practice, on the other hand, enabled participants‟ progress to be analysed, as they went through the various transition stages of the capacity-building process. The thesis identifies the following four categories of challenges inherent in the implementation of virtual partnerships: infrastructural, institutional, cultural and individual expectations. It also emphasises the need for identifying the different transition stages corresponding to the levels of participation in the capacity-building process. The thesis recommends that the implementation of virtual partnerships for capacity building purposes in the SADC region must focus on: identifying the appropriate capacity building strategies at Abstract ii each transition stage; finding appropriate, light-weight virtual classroom solutions; identifying appropriate pedagogic models to suit available technology; addressing systemic tensions that can arise as a result of different institutional cultures; and developing and nurturing virtual communities of practice to ensure sustainability. The research findings contribute to the body of knowledge exploring the use of technologies to develop and strengthen human resource capacities in developing contexts in a sustainable way. More importantly, it contributes to the literature on collaborative virtual partnerships in the SADC region, and demonstrates one way in which the operations of such a partnership may be supported in similar contexts / Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in