This study was motivated by the need to overcome the pedagogical hindrances experienced by introductory object-oriented programming students in order to address the high attrition rate evident among novice programmers in distance education. The initial phase of the research process involved exploring a variety of alternative visual programming environments for novices. Thereafter the selection process detailed several requirements that would define the ideal choice of the most appropriate tool. An educational tool Raptor was selected. Lastly, the core focus of this mixed method research was to evaluate undergraduate UNISA students’ perceptions of the Raptor e-learning tools with respect to the perceived effectiveness in enhancing novices’ learning experience, in an attempt to lower the barriers to object-oriented programming. Students’ perceptions collectively of the Raptor visual tool were positive and despite the fact that the sample size was too small to achieve statistical significance, these quantitative and qualitative results provide the practical basis for implementing Raptor in future. Thus providing learning opportunities suited to learner interests and needs, can lead to an enormous potential to stimulate individuals’ motivation and development in creating a more positive learning experience to overcome barriers in programming and enhance concept understanding to address the diverse needs of students in distance education that could lead to a reduced dropout rate. / Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)

The aim of this study is to analyse mutual enactments of critical literacies and social visualisation tools as information resources. The central concept of critical literacies as used here extends and redefines prior critical literacy definitions to denote the pluralistic situated enactments of meaning through which study participants identify, question and transform bias, restrictions and power related aspects of access, control and use in relation to the tools. The study is based on two critical ethnography inspired case studies involving observations, interviews, and contextual inquiry and located in professional settings. Case 1 is centred on how a geographic information system (MapInfo) is used for analysing and preventing traffic accidents. Case 2 is centred on how a dynamic time series animating chart (Trendalyzer) is used for analysing and spreading knowledge about the world’s development. The results demonstrate co-existing critical literacies described in terms of three main directionalities as reactive, proactive, and adaptive, of which the adaptive varieties seem thus far largely overlooked. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that dominant cognitivist and positivist narratives of visualisations should be replaced with more nuanced alternatives that emphasise the potentials of visualisation tools as evocative and non-blackboxed information resources; i.e., as encouraging new questions and allowing alternative analyses, rather than constructing them as enunciative tools providing true answers. As theoretical contributions, the dissertation argues for a conceptualisation of visualisation tools as representational artefacts and a species of documents actuating information organisation related problems of representation. It also presents a new theoretical construct for the analysis and understanding of the mutual shaping of critical literacies and information resources that includes both cultural practices and actor interests through a combination of sociocultural theories on tools and sociotechnical theories on inscriptions. / <p>Academic dissertation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Library and</p><p>Information Science at the University of Borås to be publicly defended on Friday</p><p>14 December 2012 at 13.00 in lecture room C203, the University of Borås,</p><p>Allégatan 1, Borås.</p>