Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / There has been a global transformation of higher education institutions (HEls) in response to a wave of dynamic education sector reforms; specifically, this is related to the adoption of educational technologies to enhance teaching-and-learning practices, education management, research and administration. This situation has placed a strain on HEls in South Africa and elsewhere, due to changing societal expectations, the inevitable integration of technology, and specifically eLearning into traditional interventions; and at the same time, the increasing pressure on practitioners to deliver quality education. Equally important, the question arises whether Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is indeed constructively impacting teaching-and-learning practices. Consequently, a need has arisen for ePedagogy training and support for academics and students within challenging, complex HE settings. Within this context, the research has endeavoured to position the eLearning discourse within a global perspective; as well as to explore the theoretical underpinnings which impact the application of learning, and specifically eLearning. In particular, the merging of learning theories; different teaching and learning approaches, and technology that enables the creation of effective eLearning models and provides a more structured approach to the implementation of eLearning, were studied. Building on this theoretical basis, the importance and content of models within the discourse have highlighted the recent emphasis on the delivery of quality education. The principal thrust of this research was, therefore, to highlight the main developmental phases towards the creation of an Integrated eLearning model to influence organisational cultural change in Higher Education Institutions. The research was built on an in-depth case study of a large HEL namely: the University of the Western Cape (UWC), over the period September 2005 to October 2011. This explorative, longitudinal study was undertaken because of the numerous "unsuccessful" or "incomplete" eLearning implementations in developing countries, as well as the many challenges faced by academics. As a result, the study explored the factors that contribute to the successful implementation of eLearning within the empirical setting of UWC, a complex higher education environment. This has been an accumulative exercise that started shortly before the establishment of the E-Learning Development and Support Unit (EDSU) and the 'el.earning Awareness Campaign' - reflecting on the deployment of a non-coercive approach to the implementation of el.earning and its impact on the organisational culture of the institution. The result was the development of an Online Course Creation model, which forms the core of phase 1 (September 2005 - December 2006) of the case study. Subsequently, phase 2 (January 2007 - August 2008) of the case study showcased gaps in the Online Course Creation model and emphasised that eLearning implementation in a complex higher education setting should go beyond thefocus on ePedagogy with regard to effective online course creation. Hence, this second phase of the case study involved the development of a revised eLearning model, the Inclusive ePedagogy model. Consequently, phase 3 (September 2008 - October 2011) of the case study highlighted the main developmental stages implemented in the creation of a final Integrated el.earning model, and discussed how these integrated factors contribute to the implementation of eLearning, and ultimately, influence the organisational cultural change within UWC. Interaction with various stakeholders during the phases of the study included interviews and questionnaires. As a result thereof, the research reflected on the exponential growth of eLearning; improved attitudes and mindsets; strategic commitment for the infusion of technology and ePedagogy; and the institutional teaching and learning strategy. On the other hand, these results are in stark contrast to the lack of management in the development of the home-grown Open Source platform, coupled with intermittent access to internet connectivity. This shortcoming has often hindered online teaching and learning initiatives and support processes. Furthermore, the research has indicated how educational technology has positively impacted on prevailing communities of practice, and has even led to sound practices, such as sharing online courses/modules within the institution and with the global community. The escalating numbers of students seeking eLearning training and support have been supported by blended eLearning approaches. These approaches reflect the importance of integrated curriculum design. Moreover, the presented Integrated eLearning model, shows that 'eLearning success' can never be claimed, but is rather a process undergirded by a dedicated support team committed to continuous eLearning marketing, together with the review of processes within dynamic, complex higher education settings. Equally important, eLearning implementation within a HEI inherently impacts the organisational cultural changes. This is not just a once-off event, as it entails the difficult task of changing mindsets toward the use of new pedagogies, in order to supplement traditional instruction. At the same time, considering people-development processes; as well as organisational issues, which include peoples' perceptions at different times of the eLearning continuum, is presented as various factors, which contribute to the successful implementation of eLearning. The most important factors contributing to successful eLearning implementation, as established through the research, and also incorporated into the proposed Integrated eLearning Model are: the provision of holistic online activities; integrated institutional ICT infrastructure and systems; the support of educators and students; the necessary positive attitude by lecturers to take a hands-on role in the application of blended eLearning practices - aligned to research - and the contribution to the knowledge era; the importance of communities of practice within and outside the institution; the need for motivated formal leadership and educators to take ownership of the development of aligned, integrated curriculum strategies supportive of emergent educational technologies; continuous commitment to eLearning support, and quality-assurance processes; sustainable eLearning change management and marketing strategies; as well as crucial integrated professional leadership, management and support of the elements of the Integrated eLearning model.

Learning Analytics (LA) tools analyse data from Learning Management Systems (LMS) and are being increasingly adopted by Higher Education Institutions (HEI). Analysed LMS data can offer helpful insights into student academic performance and allow predictions based on various metrics to be made, it can also help provide personalised feedback and learning experiences/trajectories for students. Adoption of these systems, however, may be potentially hampered by factors such as lack of user trust, ethical issues regarding data collection, unintended negative consequences of its use and a lack of insight into data accuracy and statistical methods applied by the LA systems. To facilitate the adoption and implementation of LA and also to inform data collection policymaking at HEI it is important that values such as trust between the entity collecting data and the student whose data is being collected be maintained. Stakeholders’ views and values are important factors to be taken into consideration when developing these systems. The study was performed at two Swedish HEI, Stockholm University (SU) and Linnaeus University (Kalmar), and although both institutions utilise LMS and collect student data, at the time of writing, neither have defined strategies for using LA. The study consisted of an initial questionnaire to explore student awareness of data collection and usage and how comfortable students are with data collection and what values they consider important. This questionnaire was distributed to students attending courses at the aforementioned universities. A plugin developed for Moodle was then published to several summer courses at Linnaeus University (LNU) and subsequently followed up by a second questionnaire. The plugin presented students with an analytics dashboard where they could explore graphical representations of data being collected about them by the Moodle LMS. The second questionnaire attempted to gauge student perceptions after they reflected on the data collected by the HEI. This gives a more detailed understanding of the contexts in which data collection and usage are considered acceptable by students. It also offers insight into how students expect to be informed about data collection at their HEI. Further, it reveals how awareness seems to influence acceptance, values and identification of possible uses of LA together with associated ethical concerns. The results from the surveys indicate that awareness significantly impacts the value of privacy, in terms of who has access to and control of the data. Awareness also impacts how worried students are about data collection, an increased awareness of how the data can be used increases how worried students are concerning data collection and the use of this data. Furthermore, this awareness impacts students’ levels of engagement with institutions’ privacy policy documents. The results also reveal that acceptance of data collection and use is highly contextual and depends greatly on who the data is shared with and in what context.

Grounded in the Design Science Research Approach in Information Systems, the goal of this research project was to conceptualise, design, and develop, an innovative framework for Programme Alignment, Implementation, and Reporting (PAIR) in order to facilitate student success at a South African higher education institution (University ABC) . For this study, the researcher applied PAIR to two academic departments at University ABC. Construction of the framework was interpretively considered and informed by the Diffusion of Innovations Theory of Everett Rogers (1995). The Blackboard Learn® Goals Area (BbGA), a feature embedded in the official Learning Management System (LMS) of University ABC, was incorporated into PAIR as it afforded the two departments mentioned above the opportunity to provide proof of evidence that programme outcomes were constructively aligned with course content, course assessment, student digital activities, the tracking of students’ performance, and the monitoring of students’ progress. It was argued that PAIR could also provide a basis for professional programme outcomes in the departments mentioned above when aligned to their respective Professional Boards’ accreditation criteria requirements. It was found that, within a decentralised higher education institution (such as University ABC) where an annual quality review of programme and module outcomes alignment and reporting in departments is not compulsory, that PAIR could facilitate such a process as part of a faculty’s and a department’s teaching goals. It was also concluded that PAIR could afford South African higher education institutions in general the opportunity to contextualise outcomes coverage and achievement reporting to improve programme quality and to inform intervention strategies to advance effective student learning and student success. / Thesis (PhD (Information Systems))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Informatics / PhD (Information Systems) / Unrestricted

Past literature has shown that nursing programs reported educators were at the novice or beginner level regarding use of technology and that there was a critical need for faculty development. There was a lack of current information on the perspectives of nurse faculty utilizing learning management systems. Learning management systems are being used within nursing education, faculty should be proficient implementing the technology, if not, students and faculty suffer. The purpose of this study was to understand how nursing faculty perceive the use and support for integrated online Learning Management System (LMS) technology, along with levels of self-efficacy, at the institution in which they work. The Bandura self-efficacy conceptual framework was used to explore nursing faculty perspectives on the use of LMS technology. A case study approach was used for this study to aid in identifying the perspective of nursing educators who have utilized LMS technology. Participants included 8 nursing faculty from 3 Southeastern Pennsylvania nursing program. Data sources consisted of online survey questions and telephone interviews. Survey data results were analyzed by means of central tendency. Transcriptions of interviews were analyzed using NVivo software for coding and identification of themes and patterns. The results revealed that nursing faculty did not seem to like their LMS platform; however, the majority of the faculty did consider the LMSs useful in providing materials to students and for posting grades, although faculty stated a desire for additional training and regular workshops on using LMSs. This research can contribute to positive social change by assisting stakeholders in best implementation of LMSs in student instructional practices.

Despite school leaders' attempts to implement technology designed to provide resources for parent and student use at home, many parents of at-risk children are reluctant to use the learning platforms. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the meaning of human experiences as they related to parents' reluctance to using learning management systems (LMSs). Elements from Rogers's innovation diffusion theory, Davis's technology acceptance model, and Epstein's parent involvement model were combined for the study's conceptual framework. The research questions addressed the challenges parents encounter with learning platforms; parents' experiences with teachers and schools with regard to training, orientation, and using learning platforms; and parents' feelings about establishing a learning institute to support their LMS use. Six parent participants from a small suburban school district in Southeastern United States who self-disclosed that they used LMS less than 3 times per week and had a child that scored at the beginning level of the mandatory state test were purposefully selected for this study. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed via Moustakas's modified van Kaam method, which uncovered 4 major themes. The findings indicated that parents avoided using LMSs for several reasons, which included parents' lack of knowledge regarding accessing and using LMSs, ineffective orientation practices, lack of technical support, and lack of support for training. This research contributes to the existing body of literature and advances social change by illuminating parents' challenges with implemented technology. School leaders may use the findings to devise strategic plans to facilitate training programs for parents.

This dissertation study explored: 1) instructors’ use of discussion strategies that enhance meaningful learner interactions in online discussions and student performance, and 2) learners’ interaction patterns in online discussions that lead to better student performance in online introductory mathematics courses. In particular, the study applied a set of data mining techniques to a large-scale dataset automatically collected by the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) for five consecutive years at a public university in the U.S., which included 2,869 students enrolled in 72 courses. First, the study found that the courses that posted more open-ended prompts, evaluated students’ discussion messages posted by students, used focused discussion settings (i.e., allowing a single response and replies to that response), and provided more elaborated feedback had higher students final grades than those which did not. Second, the results showed the instructors’ use of discussion strategies (discussion structures) influenced the quantity (volume of discussion), the breadth (distribution of participation throughout the discussion), and the quality of learner interactions (levels of knowledge construction) in online discussions. Lastly, the results also revealed that the students’ messages related to allocentric elaboration (i.e., taking other peers’ contributions in argumentive or evaluative ways) and application (i.e., application of new knowledge) showed the highest predictive value for their course performance. The findings from this study suggest that it is important to provide opportunities for learners to freely discuss course content, rather than creating a discussion task related to producing a correct answer, in introductory mathematics courses. Other findings reported in the study can also serve as guidance for instructors or instructional designers on how to design better online mathematics courses.

A learning analytics dashboard (LAD) is an application that illustrates the activity and progress of a user in a self-regulated, online learning environment. This tool mines source data to provide meaningful information that supports decision making and positively impacts learning behaviour. Research on this topic explores how learning activities and pedagogical goals are impacted by integrating LADs into learning and/or teaching environments. Currently, the majority of the research is centred around predicting student academic performance and identifying students that are at risk of failing. The popularity of integrating technology into educational practices has led to the adoption of LADs into learning management systems (LMS) or massive open online courses (MOOCs). The objective of this paper is to develop a concept for a standalone prototype LAD, for an Introductory Statistics course (STA 1000), to be potentially integrated into the University of Cape Town's (UCT) LMS, Vula. The dashboard aims to create and incorporate meaningful visualisations, that have the potential to primarily assist students as well as educators. Visualised information in the LAD aims to positively impact students to enhance and drive effective learning, which could consequentially aid educators. Additionally, the dashboard will aim to provide actionable feedback, derived from predictive modelling and course analytics, that positively impacts learning behaviour and identifies factors that the student could most effectively use to leverage their chances of passing and improve academic performance. Predictive analytics aim to identify academic factors, that a student has control over, such as course assessments and engagement variables, at certain time points in the academic semester and provide a useful course of action at those time points. Other than variables measured throughout the course, the predictive modelling takes certain prior academic information into consideration.

A well working communication between students and lecturers, both in and outside of class, has shown to be very important for a positive learning experience and an effective learning environment. Students need to have a critical mindset of their own cognitive reasoning and their learning process. With support from the lecturer, this will improve the student’s selfassessment but also their academic journey through their higher education. As students are becoming more native online, it is of utter most importance the online communication works as well as the direct physical communication does. This can be achieved through having a learning management system (LMS) that assists lecturers with handing out information and assists students with an easy way to receive information regarding their educational work. This study aims to examine whether the current LMS systems are sufficient enough. This by gathering data from both students and lecturers at two different universities through a survey and six semi-structured interviews to find out what the current issues are. The gathered data made it possible to determine the specific needs of both students and lecturers for a well-functioning LMS. DeLone and McLean created a system success model (D&M model), aimed to analyse the quality of an information system, which could be applicable to an LMS. The model consists of different variables and their relationship to one another. An adaptation of the D&M model is the Hexagonal E-learning assessment model (HELAM model) that includes similar but adapted variables for the information system. By comparing the results with the variables from these models it was concluded that both universities face similar issues, even though their systems are different. The results also indicated that there are significant variables in the D&Mand HELAM model that relates to how learning management systems are used to its best potential. / Väl fungerande kommunikation mellan studenter och föreläsare, både i och utanför klassrummet, har visat sig vara mycket betydande för en positiv läroupplevelse och effektiv lärmiljö. Studenter behöver ha ett kritiskt tankesätt över deras egen kognitiva tankegång och deras läroprocess. Med stöd från föreläsare kan detta förbättra studenternas självbedömning men även deras akademiska resa genom deras högre utbildning. Eftersom studenter bli mer vana online så är det viktigt att kommunikationen online fungerar lika väl som den direkt fysiska kommunikationen gör. Detta kan uppnås genom att ha en läroplattform (LMS) som kan assistera föreläsare med utdelningen av information men även assistera studenterna att genom ett enkelt sätt ta emot information angående deras studiearbete. Den här studien ämnar undersöka om det nuvarande LMS systemen är tillräckliga. Detta genom att samla data från både studenter och föreläsare på två olika universitet genom en enkät och sex stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer för att ta reda på vad de nuvarande problemen är. Den insamlade datan gjorde det möjligt att avgöra vad de specifika behoven är från studenter och lärare för ett väl fungerande LMS. DeLone och McLean skapade en systemframgångsmodell (D&M-model) ämnad att analysera kvaliteten av ett informationssystem som kan vara applicerbart på en LMS. Modellen består av olika variabler och deras relationer till varandra. En variant av D&M-modellen är “Hexagonal E-learning assessment model” (HELAM-modellen) som inkluderar liknande men anpassade variabler för informationssystemet. Genom att jämföra resultatet med variablerna från dessa modeller drogs slutsatsen att båda universiteten har liknande problem, trots att de inte använder samma system. Resultaten tyder även på att det finns variabler från D&Moch HELAM modellen som har signifikans och relaterar till hur en läroplattform bör användas för sin bästa potential.

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Two-thirds of higher education institutions are either currently involved in the process of or will soon begin to review their learning management system strategy (Green, 2012). Transitioning from one LMS to another is an endeavor that utilizes the entire institution and requires a great deal of strategic planning and cooperation. The literature described the involvement of instructional designers and technology support as key players in this transition process over a period of parallel time. When BYU transitioned from Blackboard to Learning Suite, a team of student employees managed the majority of the change. While there was very little time when Blackboard and Learning Suite ran in parallel, these employees provided support to faculty across the university. Data for this research included interviews with five faculty consultants who worked closely with faculty on the design of their courses and nine faculty members who used the student employees throughout the process along with survey data and the database kept to track interactions with the faculty members. Interview data were analyzed using a Spradley (1979) analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the survey and interaction data. Major findings suggested that the student employees were the critical component for helping smooth the transition. They were used extensively by the faculty members and logged over 41,000 points of contact over a period one year and four months. The student employees provided side-by-side help to resolve faculty concerns and answer questions. This team added capacity and tool knowledge that supported both faculty members and the consultants.