Advisors are always examining best practices when serving students with technology. Online instruction has become a popular choice for students in higher education, and educators and other student personnel are looking to further accommodate their students by including academic services as part of a virtual environment. This study examines the usefulness of an online advising module geared at graduate students. I conducted a usability study of an online advising module created for graduate students in the College of Education and Human Performance (CEDHP) at the University of Central Florida. The online advising module was presented to current graduate students in the CEDHP. They were asked to make observations and provide feedback about their interactions with the online advising module. The final part of the usability test included giving students a survey to rate their overall satisfaction with the module. Results of the study showed that graduate students did benefit from viewing the online advising module. Participants reported an overall strong satisfaction rate with the module.

全球化下，企業之競爭日益激烈且為了整合資源與拓展新市場，全球跨國購併案件逐漸增加。全球跨國購併案件增加的同時，也彰顯了財務顧問在跨國購併案件中扮演之角色與價值。財務顧問之職責主要為客戶降低各方面之成本，以及為客戶談妥好議價、購併後帶來綜效。本研究主要從財務顧問之角度出發，探討不同特性財務顧問之價值以及聚焦在跨國購併案件。跨國購併案件較複雜，更能彰顯財務顧問在跨國購併案件中之價值與效應。 本研究主要從兩個角度探討不同特性之財務顧問，分別為精品（Boutique）之財務顧問以及過去績效好之財務顧問，探究兩者在跨國購併案件中能為主併公司帶來多少價值。更進一步探究，在不同且複雜之交易特性下，不同特性之財務顧問在跨國購併案件中能為主併公司帶來何價值。 本研究之結果發現，精品（Boutique）財務顧問與過去三年績效佳之財務顧問，兩者皆能為主併公司帶來顯著的正向效應。且在跨國購併案件中，若被併公司屬於未上市公司，兩種特性之財務顧問皆能為主併公司帶來顯著之正效果。進一步發現，精品（Boutique）且過去三年績效佳之財務顧問，能為主併公司帶來較大之價值。在跨國購併案件中，不僅在被併公司為未上市時帶來顯著之正效應外，且在交易特性為非現金支付的情況下，也能為主併公司帶來顯著之正向價值。 / This study examines the value of financial advisors for acquirers in cross-border M&As and the impacts of deal outcomes. Two hypotheses are tested in the study:“Boutique” financial advisors create much more values for acquirers in cross-border M&As. The other one is financial advisors whose prior client performances were good, create much more values for acquirers in cross-border M&As. The study finds that“Boutique” financial advisors and financial advisors whose prior client performances were good both can create positive value for acquirers in cross-border M&As. Moreover, both can deal with complex transactions. While the target are private firms, both can create positive value for acquirers in cross-border M&A. In conclusion, the“Boutique” financial advisors whose prior clients performances were good create much more values for acquirers in cross-border M&As, and it can deal with more complex transactions.

Universiẗat, Diss.--St. Gallen, 2004.

Poor Physical Science performance in South African schools is due to ineffective Physical Science teaching. Quality Physical Science teaching stems from quality Physical Science subject advisory services. Traditionally interventions to raise teaching standards were done by inspectors who established if schools functioned according to set rules rather that supporting teaching staff. School inspection was considered a fault finding mission with punitive objectives; hence principals and teachers were negatively disposed to it. The Department of Basic Education since has re-interpreted intervention from checking compliance to support and development of school personnel. This task is allocated to units in district offices in provincial Departments of Education and district staff members’ responsibilities are linked to responsibilities of principals and teachers. The subject advisory unit focuses on curriculum matters in each school subject; thus Physical Science subject advisors support Physical Science teachers with content, pedagogical content knowledge, assessment and Interventions for improved results. This study investigated the role of Physical Science subject advisors in enhancing the quality of Physical Science teaching. Requirements for employment of a subject advisor (qualifications, work experience, interest, attitude and competence), challenges and solutions were explored by a mixed method study. A Physical Science provincial DCES, Physical Science subject advisors, principals, Physical Science teachers in four districts and four PLC support groups were purposefully sampled to explore perceptions of the subject advisor’s role in improving Physical Science teaching. Quantitative data collected by document analysis and questionnaires and qualitative data collected by individual and focus group interviews were analysed. Findings showed that the Physical Science subject advisors possessed minimum qualifications and experience; however, the school subject (Physics and Chemistry combined) does not match the specialization in tertiary institutions (divided into Physics and Chemistry). Thus, some subject advisors may major in one of two parts. Further, certain school content is not included in the university syllabus. This may limit advisors’ content knowledge, the core of content support in Physical Science. This influences support offered to Physical Science teachers and requires advisors’ professional development which is not currently offered by the Department of Basic Education. Recommendations based on the findings include immediate and long term solutions to improve effective subject advisory. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

The environment in which higher education institutions operate is changing, and these changes are impacting on all aspects of higher education, including postgraduate levels. Changes wrought by globalisation, heralded by rapid advances in technology have inaugurated a new era in which there are long term consequences for higher education. The shift towards more quantitative and measurable "outputs" signifies a fundamental change in the educational ethos in institutions. Effectiveness is now judged primarily on numbers of graduates and publications rather than on other aspects. The drive is to produce a highly educated population, especially through increasing postgraduates who can drive national innovation and improve national economies. This affects academics in a range of ways, not least in the ways in which they engage in teaching, what they are willing to do and how they do it. Such changes influence the kinds of research done, the structures and funding which support research, and thus naturally shapes the kinds of postgraduate programmes and teaching that occurs. This study, situated in the field of Higher Education Studies, adopting a critical realist stance and drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and the concepts of expert and novice, explores the experiences of postgraduate supervisors from one South African institution across a range of disciplines. Individual experiences at the level of the Empirical and embodied in practice at the level of the Actual allow for the identification of possible mechanisms at the level of the Real which structure the sector. The research design then allows for an exploration across mezzo, macro and micro levels. Individuals outline their own particular situations, identifying a number of elements which enabled or constrained them and how, in exercising their agency, they develop their strategies for supervision drawing on a range of different resources that they identify and that may be available to them. Student characteristics, discipline status and placement, funding, and the emergent policy environment are all identified as influencing their practice. In some instances supervisors recognise the broader influences on the system that involve them in their undertaking, noting the international trends. Through their narratives and the discourses they engage a number of contradictions that have developed in the system with growing neo-liberal trends and vocationalism highlighting tensions between academic freedom and autonomy, and demands for productivity, efficiency and compliance, and between an educational focus and a training bias in particular along with others. Especially notable is how this contributes to the current ideologies surrounding knowledge and knowledge production. Their individual interests and concerns, and emergent academic identities as they take shape over time, also modifies the process and how individual supervisors influence their own environments in agentic moves becomes apparent. Whilst often individuals highlight the lack of support especially in the early phases of supervision, the emergent policy-constrained environment is also seen as curtailing possibilities and especially in limiting the possibilities for the exercise of agency. Whilst the study has some limitations in the range and number of respondents nevertheless the data provided rich evidence of how individual supervisors are affected, and how they respond in varied conditions. What is highlighted through these experiences are ways pressures are increasing for both supervisors and students and changing how they engage. Concerns in particular are raised about the growing functional and instrumental nature of the process with an emphasis on the effects on the kinds of researchers being developed and the knowledge that is therefore being produced. As costs increase for academics through the environments developed and with the varied roles they take on so they become more selective and reluctant to expand the role. This research has provided insights into ideas, beliefs and values relating to the postgraduate sector and to the process of postgraduate supervision and how it occurs. This includes the structures and cultural conditions that enable or constrain practitioners as they develop in the role in this particular institution. It has explored some of the ways that mechanisms at international, national and institutional levels shape the role and practices of supervisors. The effects of mechanisms are in no way a given or simply understood. In this way the research may contribute to more emancipatory knowledge which could be used in planning and deciding on emergent policies and practices which might create a more supportive and creative postgraduate environment.

Les coopératives agricoles sont tantôt présentées comme une alternative au capitalisme financier, tantôt dénoncées pour leurs « résistances » à prendre en charge les problèmes d’environnement. Mais comment, concrètement, intègrent-elles ces enjeux dans leurs stratégies et leurs organisations ? Comment leurs agents sont-ils affectés dans leur travail par la montée des injonctions environnementales et comment font-ils avec ? J’aborde ces questions par l’analyse des dispositifs que ces entreprises déploient pour conseiller les agriculteurs, en m’appuyant sur une enquête socio-historique en Champagne-Ardenne. Je montre que la question de qui prend en charge les questions environnementales, et comment, structure les dynamiques du conseil coopératif. Les dirigeants des coopératives ajustent leur modèle économique et leurs dispositifs de conseil pour faire face à la concurrence et répondre aux critiques environnementales. D’un côté, ils internalisent la compétence de la durabilité dans leurs stratégies de création de richesses, en amont du conseil, afin de défendre des modalités d’écologisation de l’agriculture alignées avec leurs intérêts, tout en permettant aux agriculteurs individuels de déléguer la prise en charge de l’environnement. D’un autre côté, ils développent des démarches de conseil innovantes pour les agriculteurs refusant de déléguer cette compétence. Par ailleurs, les technico-commerciaux ne considèrent pas la prise en charge de l’environnement comme un moyen efficace de captation des clients. Ils font avec cette contrainte via leur expertise réglementaire, et développent de nouvelles compétences techniques pour répondre aux attentes diverses des agriculteurs. / Agricultural cooperatives are sometimes presented as an alternative to the excesses of financial capitalism, and sometimes criticized because of their reluctance to cope with environmental concerns. But how, actually, do they integrate these environmental stakes into their strategies and organization? How are their agents affected in their work by the increase of environmental normalization, and how do they deal with them? I address these issues through the analysis of the schemes these organizations build to bring technical advice to the producers, with a socio-historical focus based on an investigation in the French Region Champagne-Ardenne. I show that the question “who handles the environmental concerns, and how” shapes the dynamic of these schemes. Executives of cooperatives adjust their economic model and advisement frame to cope with concurrence and to respond to environmental criticism. On the one hand, they integrate the competence of sustainability into their strategies of wealth creation, upstream of the advice activity, to defend ways of environmental reform of agriculture in line with their interest, and in the same time they let individual producers delegate a part of their environmental responsibility. On the other hand, they develop new advice methods for producers who don’t want to delegate this competence. Otherwise, technical sales advisors don’t think that dealing with environmental concerns is an effective means to strengthen their links with their customers. They do with this constraint through their regulatory expertise, and develop new competences to meet the producers’ request for services.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vad ESG har för påverkan på privatainvesterare vid investeringsbeslut. I studien undersöks även hur den socialaomgivningen och finansiella rådgivare kan påverka investeringsprocessen ienlighet med ESG.Den teoretiska referensramen består av legitimitetsteorin, the socialcomparison theory och befintlig forskning på ämnet. Studien utgår från endeduktiv ansats med induktiva inslag. En kvalitativ forskningsmetod haranvänts och datainsamling har skett via semistrukturerade intervjuer.Efter genomförda analyser av datainsamlingen framgår det att företagensattityd till ESG inte har särskilt stor inverkan på privata investerare vidinvesteringsbeslut. Förväntad avkastning är alltid högst upp påprioriteringslistan. ESG-faktorer ses framförallt som ett komplement vidinvesteringsbeslut. Av studien framgick det även att de sociala aspekterna (S)är den faktor av de tre som värderas högst. Miljöaspekter (E) värderas främstnär den potentiella investeringen ska ske i ett företag som har en starkkoppling till miljön. En bra bolagsstyrning (G) skapar en trygghet förinvesteraren men är väldigt sällan en avgörande faktor. Fortsättningsvispåvisar studien att den sociala omgivningen påverkar en privat investeraresbeslut. I den sociala omgivningen är det närstående personer som har störstinverkan. Finansiella rådgivares påverkan på investeringsprocessen är låg dåförtroende ofta saknas. / The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of ESG on individualinvestors investment decisions. The study also investigates how the socialenvironment and financial advisors can influence the investment process inline with ESG.The theoretical framework consists of legitimacy theory, the socialcomparison theory and existing research on the subject. The study adopts adeductive approach with elements of an inductive approach. A qualitativeresearch method was applied and data collection was conducted throughsemi-structured interviews.After analyzing the collected data, it appears that a company's attitudetowards ESG does not have a significant influence on individual investors'investment decisions. Expected returns always rank highest on individualinvestors' priority list. ESG-factors are primarily seen as a supplementaryconsideration in investment decisions. The study also reveals that the socialaspects (S) are the most valued among the three factors. Environmentalaspects (E) are particularly prioritized when investing in companies withstrong environmental ties. A well-managed governance (G) provides a senseof security for investors but is seldom a decisive factor. Furthermore, thestudy demonstrates that the social environment influences the investmentdecisions of individual investors, with close acquaintances having the mostsignificant impact. The influence of financial advisors on the investmentprocess is low, often due to a lack of trust.

Issues and challenges that teachers and educator encounter in implementing school-based Environmental Education have been established, described and explored against the background of the South African education system. In a succinct manner sources upon and from which Curriculum 2005 (C2005) is founded have been explored. Within C2005 the foundations of EE have been traced. International and national trends and developments have been illuminated and the contributions of these endeavours are eminent in school-based EE. The methodology and research process of study does not claim to be the only one appropriate for this research question. However, the research focus has been studied through the chosen methodology as the socio-historical context demanded. The research process has been dynamic with the researcher responding to the emerging data and being guided by the research activities outlined in the research design. The two case studies have provided the researcher with valuable data necessary for making sound judgements about issues and challenges encountered during the implementation of environmental learning in formal education structures. Although the research question has been adequately explored, the study does not claim to be exhaustive and with no limitations. It is hoped that the recommendations made in the study, based on the findings, will be valuable to teachers, educators and education policy makers involved with EE implementation in formal education. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Didactics)

This study explored the implementation of the recognition of prior learning (RPL) at Unisa by investigating the strengths and weaknesses of the RPL methodology, instruments and processes when taking students through the RPL process. The successes and challenges experienced by the RPL academic advisors and the academic assessors were determined and guidelines provided for the effective implementation of RPL at Unisa. The empirical research design was exploratory within a qualitative framework employing participant observation, focus group interviewing, individual interviewing and the distribution of questionnaires that consisted of open-ended questions. The research sample comprised 26 purposefully selected participants. With regard to the research findings, the challenges include a lack of administrative support, a lack of support from top management and the academic staff, and a lack of communication between management and the RPL department. The strength of the RPL department lay in its well-documented process manual. / Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Education Management)

At the best of times, education policy implementation is a difficult and uncertain process. Taking this as a point of departure, the researcher advanced the hypothesis that education policy implementation in a society in transition: is accompanied by a fragmentation of the pre-transition coherence in interpersonal relations among policy actors; is affected by a heightening of value conflicts and the emergence of competing interpretive schemes; is influenced by the perceived self-interest of policy actors; is affected by changing power relationships and structural adjustments; and reflects a general weakening of interpersonal, cultural, and structural linkages that had evolved in pre-transition years. The Indian education system in South Africa was studied as an exemplar of a system located in a society in transition. The data collated by means of three research strategies - historical report, questionnaire, and structured interview - gave strong support to the hypothesis. In addition, they pointed to the significance of variables such as policy content and policy quality, political interference and pressure, bias and favouritism among senior officials, religious, sectional, and language loyalties of participants, and loss of job satisfaction and morale among policy actors. These findings were discussed against the background of relevant literature. This concluded in the development_gf a theoretical model to explain education policy implementation in a society in transition. Basically, the model suggests that socio-political struggles in the larger society tend. to be replicated in the micro-contexts of the education system, producing fundamental alterations in the interpersonal, cultural, and structural aspects of the system, a general weakening of system linkages, and a progressive de-coupling of system components. All these changes recursively impact on and are impacted on by policymaking and policy implementation processes and outcomes. These impacts, however, tend to occur in a non-standard, nonlinear manner. The theoretical underpinnings of the model emerge from general systems theory, modern social systems theory, chaos/ complexity theory, conflict theory, structuration theory, organisation change theory, and loosely coupled systems theory. Finally, the study concludes with general propositions relating to education policy implementation in a society in transition and a set of research and management-oriented recommendations. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Educational Management)