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The purpose of this study is to provide insights about the usefulness of management education for the public sector in the Republic of Mauritius, which embarked on reforms initiatives around two decades ago. In this context, public officers were encouraged to follow specialised management courses. However, as at date, there is considerable evidence to say that the Mauritian public sector has not been successful in adopting new public sector management (NPM) doctrines. This study investigates into the effectiveness of the public sector management courses offered to the public servants in Mauritius to cope with NPM. It tries to identify the barriers that they face to implement what they have learnt, back at the workplace.

The study makes use of the qualitative method using thematic analysis to analyse data, which was gathered through an unstructured interview carried among principal assistant secretaries and assistant secretaries of the Mauritian public sector.

The study showed that while NPM is still making its way in the Mauritian public sector, officers perceived that management education has helped them in gaining the required scientific skills and competencies to cope with their day-to-day work. But applying them to the workplace has not been easy. The major factors put forward by these officers have been mainly the ingrained public sector culture and existing leadership.

While extant researches focus on the success or failure of the implementation of NPM in various governments around the world, this study investigates how far management education has helped public sector officers adopt NPM doctrines in the Mauritian government. In doing so, it has also identified the barriers to the implementation of NPM in the Mauritian public sector.

The paper aims to explore and examine the factors that influence the post-consumption behavioral intentions of education consumers with the help of online reviews from a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform in the knowledge payment context.

The paper adopted a novel mixed-method approach based on natural language processing (NLP) techniques. Variables were identified using topic modeling drawing upon 14,585 online reviews from a global commercial MOOC platform (Udemy.com). The relationships among identified factors, such as perceived quality dimensions, consumption emotions, and intention to recommend, were then tested from a cognition-affect-behavior (CAB) perspective using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

Results indicate that course content quality, instructor quality, and platform quality are strong predictors of consumers' emotions and intention to recommend. Interestingly, course content quality displays a positive effect on invoking negative emotions in the MOOC context. Additionally, positive emotions mediate the relationships between three perceived qualities and the intention to recommend.

Limited research has been conducted regarding MOOC consumers' post-consumption intentions in the knowledge payment context. Findings of this study address the limited literature on MOOC qualities and consumer post-consumption behaviors, which contribute to a comprehensive understanding of MOOC learners' experiences at a meso-level for future paid-MOOC creators.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2021-0482/

In a collaborative learning environment there will be many learners with diverse cultures. These learners should be supported to communicate and collaborate among themselves. The variety of the communication and collaboration tools and modes available to each learner would depend on his/her personal cultural background. The purpose of this paper is to suggest the adaptation of the collaborative learning environment to the learner's cultural profile. So, first it aims to present learner's models with respect to his/her cultural characteristics. It also aims to present the various communication and collaboration tools and modes that would be available to the learners. Then, each learner has at his/her disposal the appropriate communication and collaboration tools and modes according to his/her cultural characteristics.

The cultural models of Trompenaars and Hampden‐Turner, as well Hofsted are modified relaxing the dualism of their dimensions. The modified models are used in a collaborative learning environment. The various attributes and types of communication and collaboration among learners and teachers in a collaborative learning environment are also identified.

This paper presents learner's cultural models across several cultural dimensions. Each cultural dimension weights differently. Also, a learner may not belong strictly to a cultural extreme of a dimension, but he/she may have characteristics from both cultural extremes of each dimension. Based on a learner's cultural profile, different communication and collaboration tools would be available to the learner.

Based on the learner's profile, either the adaptation engine, or the teacher, or the learner him/herself may select the appropriate communication and collaboration tools and modes for the particular learner. Designers, developers and evaluators of collaborative learning systems may benefit from these learners' cultural models and the communication and collaboration attributes. For example, they may create collaborative learning systems with flexible communication and collaboration attributes that provide to each learner personalized communication and collaboration tools according to his cultural profile.

This paper proposes the adaptation of the collaborative learning environment to the cultural characteristics of the learner. Future research may assign the specific communication and collaboration tools to each particular learner's cultural profile.

This paper proposes the adaptation of the communication and collaboration tools and modes that are used by a learner in a collaborative learning environment to the learner's cultural characteristics. First, the paper presents new cultural models of a learner. Then, it presents the communication and collaboration attributes and types that would be used by the learners in a collaborative learning environment. A learner would have at disposal the appropriate personalized communication and collaboration tools.

Although extant literature links overstimulation to various job outcomes, most studies do not consider a service-learning context, and they suggest a linear association between stimuli and outcomes. This paper examines the link between the number of service-learning hours students work and three educational outcomes – student satisfaction with the service-learning project, class relevancy to the service-learning project and expected community involvement.

Applying activation theory and Yerkes–Dodson law, we test curvilinear relationships between service-learning hours and student outcomes.

Results suggest that students benefit from service learning up to a certain duration of a service-learning project.

This study identifies the tipping point of the number of service-learning hours beyond which students perceive decrements to three outcomes.

This research aims to investigate how a generic web‐based ITS can be created which will adapt the training content in real time, to the needs of the individual trainee across any domain.

After examining the various alternatives SCORM was adopted in this project because it provided an infrastructure that makes it possible to deliver personalised learning dynamically using re‐usable learning objects.

The results show that a system which presents a student with content that is supplementary to an authored course should be accompanied by a tool to help the trainee's navigation. For such a tool, key functionality would be: first, to identify learning objects that would take the student towards the ultimate learning goals; second, to suggest a pathway through the authored course structure and additional learning objects to the student; and finally, to present the student with different choices of pathway, such as fastest, most comprehensive and most popular routes.

This investigation has taken another approach of adapting the course by displaying an adapted set of learning objects to the trainee, instead of using a linear course structure.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study which details the successful development, design and deployment of a leadership course for academic medical department chairs. The course provides a needed local and contextual alternative to the lengthy and often theoretical MBA/MHA.

Faculty developers used a multi-tiered methodology for developing the physician leadership course. The methodology consisted of literature findings, needs assessment, stakeholder input and structured interviews with administrative leaders.

The research, stakeholder input and interviews revealed an increasing number of physician leaders with a general lack of fundamental administrative leadership skills. These shortfalls are largely because of underexposure to core management competencies during medical school and limited contextual knowledge outside their organization. There is an urgent need for leadership development opportunities aimed at current and future academic medical department chairs.

This research is limited by the assumptions that the curriculum meets the ever-changing needs of health-care leaders, the course’s focus on academic medical department chairs within the Texas Medical Center and the lack of long range follow-up data to substantiate the effectiveness of the curriculum content and course structure.

The Academic Medical Department Leadership course offers valuable management skills training which complements standard medical training. Much of the course structure and content is adaptable to physician administrative and leadership positions in all settings.

Although the Academic Medical Department Leadership course is a response to a local concern, the study offers a generalizable approach to addressing the demand for skilled physician leaders.

The New Zealand Ministry of Education has constructed a wide‐ranging “Professional Development Plan” providing a four‐stage national pathway for progression to principalship; the first stage has been the conduction of the National Aspiring Principals Pilot (NAPP) programme in five regional locations. The purpose of this paper is to outline the evaluation of the programme.

A mixed method approach for evaluation was employed where qualitative and quantitative data were collected almost simultaneously, and compared and contrasted.

Key findings indicated overall sound programme delivery, curriculum coherence, high relevancy to stakeholders and good rates of principal appointments. Greater emphasis is placed on distinctive findings that have not been reported elsewhere. These included: primary‐sector participants rating course facilitation, online learning, and “relevancy of the course for principal development” more positively than their secondary counterparts; aspirants who had partial or full completion of a relevant post‐graduate leadership qualification rating eight aspects of NAPP lower than those without such qualifications; and aspirants who were approached and encouraged to apply for NAPP by their principal and subsequently supported by them, finding the programme more relevant and applicable.

The multiple positive outcomes reported reveal short‐term programme adequacy and effectiveness against a range of indicators. Long‐term impact (including capacity to change leadership practice, student learning and school improvement) evaluation is required to determine sustained effectiveness.

The paper provides distinctive findings that have not been reported previously for principal development and more general findings that should inform such development programmes.

When many upper‐level psychology majors struggle to demonstrate competence using discipline‐specific library research strategies after participating in introductory bibliographic instruction sessions, a new approach to instruction is necessary. To address this issue, psychology and library faculty collaborated on a pilot study to develop, implement, and assess a “super‐size bibliographic instruction” (SSBI). The objectives include identifying and defining a research topic, locating appropriate resources, critically evaluating and synthesizing material, and the reduction of library anxiety. A variety of assessment methods including pretest/posttest surveys and evidence of use of the material illustrated the success of the SSBI. Utilizing the expertise of teaching and library faculty, this SSBI approach addressed the many challenges in assisting students to develop essential research strategies.

This article discusses the experiences of a university's business school in enhancing the preparation of undergraduates through the innovative design and delivery of Business Policy, the capstone course taken by all business students.

The case discusses the proactive approaches taken to explicitly align efforts between thinking and doing, for both faculty course designers and student participants alike.

Ten strategic areas of innovation and improvement are identified and discussed as areas for individual course alignment as well as the impetus for college and university business program development and delivery.

These innovations can be replicated by other institutions to enhance graduates' career preparation, pursue greater consistency with their organization's mission, develop external stakeholder engagement, and enhance internal collaboration with colleagues within the business school and across the university.

The unique value of this innovative and multifaceted approach was recognized by AACSB International, the elite accrediting agency for business schools, in several articles and at a conference on undergraduate program innovation.

This paper details how we adapted a critically informed third-year career management and development course to address an identified gap in our Human Resource Management students learning at both practical and theoretical levels. In order to address this gap, we explored and challenged the aims of our critically informed pedagogy, and alongside our campus career development services, collaboratively redesigned the course to enhance theoretical and practical learning outcomes of students.

We detail changes made through three stages of curriculum redesign and provide an exploratory analysis of 106 student reflections on the third iterative redesign. This exploratory analysis focuses on student learning outcomes resulting from their engagement with the career practitioner and the revised course content.

Students found the course theoretically challenging and practically relevant and were readily able to incorporate career theory into descriptions of their own careers. However, more significantly, students were also able to situate themselves within a wider critique of the context of careers, demonstrating the development of critical reasoning skills and moving towards practical and critical action, demonstrating praxis.

Our experience provides an example of bridging the seeming paradox of critical pedagogy and practice. Specific details of curriculum design may be of interest to those looking to improve both theoretical and practice engagement.