Search results
1 – 10 of over 103000
This paper aims to explore student teachers’ views related to the online academic support e-tools used under the COVID-19 lockdown.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore student teachers’ views related to the online academic support e-tools used under the COVID-19 lockdown.
Design/methodology/approach
Mapping a pragmatic research approach, an explanatory mixed methods design was used for the study.
Findings
Empirical evidence revealed that student teachers were satisfied and experienced the academic support tools as being positively applied to their online learning. Furthermore, it is reported that student teachers preferred the discussion forum as the most appropriate academic support e-tool in the course under coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.
Research limitations/implications
This exploratory pragmatic study extends the knowledge of the online academic support e-tools for an open distance e-learning (ODeL) context that was used under COVID-19 lockdown. This study provides additional evidence concerning a revised academic support frame for an ODeL online learning context. Research limitations: small sample size was used, and therefore caution must be applied, as the findings might not be transferable to a similar context. The current study has only examined a teacher education course and could not be generalised to similar conditions as those under COVID-19 lockdown. This exploratory research has raised many questions that require further investigation. More research is required to determine the efficacy of the academic support e-tools with regard to student learning in other online courses and contexts.
Practical implications
The student teachers that participated in this study were empowered to using the academic support e-tools to support them under COVID-19 lockdown. The discussion was mostly preferred academic supportive e-tool as an engaged, participatory and communicative platform for accelerated learning in the teaching methodology of economics course.
Originality/value
A noteworthy contribution was made in the design and testing of the reliability of methodological tools, which could be replicated in blended and ODeL contexts.
Details
Keywords
Rotimi Boluwatife Abidoye, Chibuikem Michael Adilieme, Albert Agbeko Ahiadu, Abood Khaled Alamoudi and Mayowa Idakolo Adegoriola
With the increased demand for the application of technology in property activities, there is a growing need for property professionals adept in using digital technology. Hence, it…
Abstract
Purpose
With the increased demand for the application of technology in property activities, there is a growing need for property professionals adept in using digital technology. Hence, it is important to assess the competence of academia in equipping property professionals with digital technology skills. This study, therefore, assesses property academics in Australian universities to identify their level of knowledge and use of digital technology applicable to the property industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Online questionnaire surveys were administered to 22 out of 110 property academics contacted through the Australia Property Institute (API) database to achieve this aim. The collected data were analysed using mean score ranking and ANOVA.
Findings
The study found that apart from databases and analytics platforms such as Corelogic RP data, price finder and industry-based software such as the Microsoft Office suite and ARGUS software, the academics were not knowledgeable in most identified and sampled proptech tools. Similarly, most proptech tools were not used or taught to the students. It was also found that early career academics (below five years in academia) were the most knowledgeable group about the proptech tools.
Research limitations/implications
Relying on the API database to contact property academics potentially excludes the position of property academics who may not be affiliated or have contacts with API, hence, the findings of this study should be generalised with caution.
Practical implications
The study bears huge implications for the property education sector and industry in Australia; a low knowledge and use of nascent tools such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, drones, fintech, which have received intense interest, reveals some level of skill gap of students who pass through that system and may need to be upskilled by employers to meet the current day demand.
Originality/value
In response to the clamour for technology-inclined property professionals, this paper presents itself as the first to assess the knowledge levels and application of digital technology by property academics.
Details
Keywords
Shabahat Husain and Mohammad Nazim
– This paper aims to present an exploration of the potential utilisation of different information and communication technologies (ICT) in Indian academic libraries.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an exploration of the potential utilisation of different information and communication technologies (ICT) in Indian academic libraries.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey method was used for the collection of data. A structured questionnaire, containing close-ended questions, was sent by postal mail to 30 librarians of the Central University Libraries in India, of which 15 questionnaires were returned.
Findings
Academic libraries in India have mostly been involved in applying traditional ICT-based solutions for the management of various library functions and services, particularly for organising and retrieving information. Use of modern ICT-based tools of knowledge creation and sharing such as web discovery tools, blogs, wikis, Real Simple Syndication feeds, social networking and social bookmarking seems uncommon in academic libraries. Lack of trained staff in ICT, low level of ICT skills among library users, unawareness of potential benefits of ICT and inadequate ICT infrastructure were found as the major barriers of ICT applications in academic libraries.
Practical implications
Academic libraries in India are still in the early stage of understanding the importance of modern ICTs. Librarians should renovate existing library environment and develop knowledge and skills among their staff in the fields of computer programming, website or portal development, hardware maintenance and metadata or e-resource management for providing quality information services to their users.
Originality/value
Because no empirical study on the use ICT-based knowledge management (KM) tools in academic libraries in India has been carried out before, this study closes this gap and provides guidelines for practising librarians, policy makers, management and the University Grants Commission of India to promote the use of ICTs in libraries, and to design courses of information communication technology and related skills.
Details
Keywords
Melissa A. Hofmann and Sharon Q. Yang
This paper aims to determine the current usage of next generation online public access catalogs (OPACs) and discovery tools in academic libraries in the USA and Canada.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to determine the current usage of next generation online public access catalogs (OPACs) and discovery tools in academic libraries in the USA and Canada.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the same random sample of 260 colleges and universities in the USA and Canada from their original study, the authors revisited each institution's library web page to ascertain whether the OPAC interface(s) offered were the same or different than in their initial data collection. Data was collected and analyzed in October and November 2011.
Findings
Discovery tool use has practically doubled in the last two years, from 16 percent to 29 percent. A total of 96 percent of academic libraries using discovery tools still provide access to their legacy catalog. The percentage of institutions using ILS OPACs with faceted navigation has increased from 2 percent to 4 percent. Combining the use of discovery tools and faceted OPACs, at least 33 percent of academic libraries are now using a faceted interface. Discovery tools that aim to be the “single point of entry for all library resources” are the most recently popular.
Research limitations/implications
About 16 percent of the institutions (n=43) in the sample either did not have web sites or did not provide access to their online catalogs. Thus, some data might be underreported.
Practical implications
The findings identify trends that may inform academic libraries in the quest to providing next generation interfaces to their varied resources.
Originality/value
This study gives a timely update of next generation catalog (NGC) and discovery tool usage in academic libraries in the USA and Canada.
Details
Keywords
Marie L. Radford, Vanessa Kitzie, Stephanie Mikitish, Diana Floegel, Gary P. Radford and Lynn Silipigni Connaway
Scholarly identity refers to endeavors by scholars to promote their reputation, work and networks using online platforms such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Twitter. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholarly identity refers to endeavors by scholars to promote their reputation, work and networks using online platforms such as ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Twitter. This exploratory research investigates benefits and drawbacks of scholarly identity efforts and avenues for potential library support.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 30 semi-structured phone interviews with faculty, doctoral students and academic librarians were qualitatively analyzed using the constant comparisons method (Charmaz, 2014) and Goffman’s (1959, 1967) theoretical concept of impression management.
Findings
Results reveal that use of online platforms enables academics to connect with others and disseminate their research. scholarly identity platforms have benefits, opportunities and offer possibilities for developing academic library support. They are also fraught with drawbacks/concerns, especially related to confusion, for-profit models and reputational risk.
Research limitations/implications
This exploratory study involves analysis of a small number of interviews (30) with self-selected social scientists from one discipline (communication) and librarians. It lacks gender, race/ethnicity and geographical diversity and focuses exclusively on individuals who use social networking sites for their scholarly identity practices.
Social implications
Results highlight benefits and risks of scholarly identity work and the potential for adopting practices that consider ethical dilemmas inherent in maintaining an online social media presence. They suggest continuing to develop library support that provides strategic guidance and information on legal responsibilities regarding copyright.
Originality/value
This research aims to understand the benefits and drawbacks of Scholarly Identity platforms and explore what support academic libraries might offer. It is among the first to investigate these topics comparing perspectives of faculty, doctoral students and librarians.
Details
Keywords
Glenn Haya, Else Nygren and Wilhelm Widmark
This paper aims to understand how students experience the search tools Google Scholar and Metalib and the role of prior instruction.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how students experience the search tools Google Scholar and Metalib and the role of prior instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 32 undergraduate students searched academic articles for their thesis work. Searches were recorded using Morae software and were analysed along with the number of articles saved and responses to a questionnaire. All searched with both tools. Half of the students received training before searching.
Findings
Google Scholar performed better in almost all measures. Training had a positive effect on the amount and quality of articles saved. Responses to Google Scholar were more positive than to Metalib. However, the students were not overwhelmingly enthusiastic about either of the tools. Research limitations/implications – Each Metalib implementation is to some extent unique, which limits the extent to which results can be generalised to other implementations.
Practical implications
Training is valuable for both tools. The user interface to Metalib does not conform with students' expectations and needs further improvement. Both tools strive to be a first alternative search tool for academic literature but neither performed well enough in this study to recommend it to be used in that role in an academic library setting.
Originality/value
These tools are important to academic libraries but few user studies have been published, particularly on Google Scholar. To one's knowledge no other user study on these tools has looked at the effects of instruction.
Details
Keywords
Mehdi Dadkhah and Mohammad Lagzian
At the moment, business intelligence (BI) is known as the way for analyzing data in an organization. Simple search in the literature shows that there are many papers which discuss…
Abstract
Purpose
At the moment, business intelligence (BI) is known as the way for analyzing data in an organization. Simple search in the literature shows that there are many papers which discuss about BI applications and related matters. In addition, there are different approaches and tools that support using BI in organizations. This paper aims to focus on the use of BI tools for academic applications, and it describes how the academic area will benefit from using BI.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on using BI tools and other library studies.
Findings
A process for using BI tools in academic applications has been presented. Also, two cases are stated about activities of e-learning participants and literature analysis, for which BI tools are used to analyze data and simplify difficult tasks.
Originality/value
This paper shows how BI tools can be used for research and academic applications.
Details
Keywords
Margarida Rodrigues, Rui Silva, Ana Pinto Borges, Mário Franco and Cidália Oliveira
This study aims to address a systematic literature review (SLR) using bibliometrics on the relationship between academic integrity and artificial intelligence (AI), to bridge the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to address a systematic literature review (SLR) using bibliometrics on the relationship between academic integrity and artificial intelligence (AI), to bridge the scattering of literature on this topic, given the challenge and opportunity for the educational and academic community.
Design/methodology/approach
This review highlights the enormous social influence of COVID-19 by mapping the extensive yet distinct and fragmented literature in AI and academic integrity fields. Based on 163 publications from the Web of Science, this paper offers a framework summarising the balance between AI and academic integrity.
Findings
With the rapid advancement of technology, AI tools have exponentially developed that threaten to destroy students' academic integrity in higher education. Despite this significant interest, there is a dearth of academic literature on how AI can help in academic integrity. Therefore, this paper distinguishes two significant thematical patterns: academic integrity and negative predictors of academic integrity.
Practical implications
This study also presents several contributions by showing that tools associated with AI can act as detectors of students who plagiarise. That is, they can be useful in identifying students with fraudulent behaviour. Therefore, it will require a combined effort of public, private academic and educational institutions and the society with affordable policies.
Originality/value
This study proposes a new, innovative framework summarising the balance between AI and academic integrity.
Details
Keywords
Hazel Messenger and Wendy Bloisi
This chapter relates to identifying the experience, skills and competencies of those responsible for operationalizing and developing transnational education (TNE) partnerships…
Abstract
This chapter relates to identifying the experience, skills and competencies of those responsible for operationalizing and developing transnational education (TNE) partnerships. Despite the growth of TNE internationally, little detailed attention has been paid to these individuals, often called academic liaison (or link) tutors. They are good examples of “boundary spanners” (Williams, 2013, p. 17) or “third space professionals” (Whitchurch, 2008, p. 378). Using concepts associated with “distributed leadership” (Gronn, 2002, p. 423) to explain leadership in collaborative provision as distributed practice, the research represented in the chapter made use of activity theory (Engeström, 1987) to identify the range of contextual factors that an academic liaison tutor needs to take into account in developing a TNE partnership. Findings indicate that an academic liaison tutor needs experience of working in complex environments, in-depth understanding of organizational procedures, the ability to manage power differentials, sophisticated communication and interpersonal skills, the ability to create and lead a cultural context for learning and development, change management and the ability to resolve difficulties. These factors provide the foundation for suggestions for staff recruitment, development and training.
Details
Keywords
Irit Levy-Feldman and Zipora Libman
An interview is one of the most widely used tools in the admission of candidates for an academic study, particularly in the applied professions. The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
An interview is one of the most widely used tools in the admission of candidates for an academic study, particularly in the applied professions. The purpose of this paper is to present a study that assesses the quality of a new interview tool for the selection of teacher-training candidates, in order to find out its added value over other selection tools in use and to justify the effort invested in it.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was longitudinal and was conducted over the course of a three-year period. The study population consisted of all the college’s undergraduate students that were candidates for the teaching profession. The information was processed quantitatively using descriptive as well as inferential statistics while addressing diverse comparisons.
Findings
The main findings indicate a high quality of the new tool. The usage of the tool improved the selection procedure of qualified candidates, especially borderline candidates who would be rejected if using only the matriculation and the psychometric admission tools. A logistic regression model revealed the admission new interview tool to be the sole statistically significant predictor of enrollment in the college. The study reported the interview score to be the sole statistically significant predictive factor in the model that forecasts student field-practice grades, particularly in their first year of study.
Originality/value
This information further corroborates that a good interview tool allows a more in-depth and well-based discussion about worthy candidates who do not meet the strict grade admission requirements. This invites discussion regarding the critical place of the interview in selection of candidates, especially in applied professions.
Details