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This paper seeks to summarize the developments, methodological design, and some of the theories framed within a PhD research about the integration of social media in higher education. Its aims are to determine significant issues, challenges and opportunities that emerge when social media are integrated into learning environments in higher education.

“Doing Online Relearning through Information Skills” (DORIS) is proposed as a research framework to address the aims, objectives, and research questions of this study. It was conceived from a participatory action research perspective. This approach is intended to help discover and reflect upon teaching and learning practices in a technologically mediated educational setting. Furthermore, the concept of affinity spaces is discussed, together with its distinction from the concept of communities of practice. The data collection methods planned to conduct the study are: diagnostic questionnaire, blog, social learners' input and reports, a second questionnaire, and semi‐structured interviews.

The theory of affinity spaces offers a powerful way of thinking about teaching and learning processes mediated by different technologies. The heuristics that will focus the data collection and analysis are: on the function of content, and on the function of participants' interactions with the content and/or with one another.

DORIS is proposed as a powerful way to organize learning interventions through the structure of information literacy skills. It is grounded on action research and on constructivist, blended, and problem‐based learning. Researchers, librarians or educators can adapt this model for teaching, learning and researching about and with social media or for other technologically mediated learning environments, or could be adapted for information literacy programs.

Presents the claim that information literacy skills are an essential characteristic of the independent learner and examines the development of the Information Literacy module devised at the University of North London for first year undergraduate law students. Information literacy is used here as an umbrella term which includes information retrieval skills required to interact with online environments, IT skills needed to manipulate the retrieval tools, and analytical and evaluative skills required to assess the relevance and reliability of the information found. Provides a detailed explanation of how the Information Literacy syllabus was developed through examination of the literature. Bases the statistical analysis of the module’s impact on the results of two separate questionnaires and categorises the results according to level of abilities, gender and mode of study. Identifies issues that arise from the data and that require further analysis for future study.

Peripheral areas generally have difficulties making the structural adjustments needed to accommodate national growth, and this in turn leads to growing unemployment rates, regional economic gaps, and continuous migration to metropolitan centers. SMEs located in rural areas or small towns are expected to play an important role in the process of economic development, absorbing excess labor force from agriculture, and leading the transition to non-farm employment (Leite, 1986). In practice, however, SMEs face substantial difficulties in their attempts to integrate into the national trends of economic growth. To a certain extent this can be attributed to the fact that management may possess inadequate skills and not have information at their disposal. In other cases, management may simply lack awareness of the importance of these fields.

Marks and Spencer's Plan A environmental strategy is an ambitious one which addresses economic, social and environmental considerations. As part of this process it recently used a sustainable learning store strategy to develop, capture and disseminate learning before, during and after construction so that learning could be transferred to future projects. Significantly, the strategy did not draw on “traditional” learning organisation concepts; instead it developed its own bottom-up approach to identify the important areas for learning. The practices developed for the learning store were then evaluated against a learning organisation blueprint.

A literature review of learning organisations in construction was complemented by a case study of the prototype Marks and Spencer learning store. The strategies adopted by the company were assessed against Pedler et al.'s blueprint for a learning company.

The systematic learning store strategy developed by Marks and Spencer matched the 11 main criteria described by Pedler et al.'s learning company blueprint and also included managing and leading. The strategies adopted by M&S have the potential to be adopted by other organisations seeking to become environmentally sustainable learning organisations.

This case study was undertaken from the perspective of one retail organisation and did not directly evaluate the other stakeholders. It was also largely cross-sectional in nature and describes the learning which occurred but not its application to any subsequent downstream projects. Its applicability to other industries and organisations therefore needs to be investigated further.

The strategies used during the development of the Marks and Spencer's learning store have the potential to be adopted by other retail, construction and organisations from other sectors and have significant benefits to the environment.

Little has been written about the practical application of sustainability approaches for learning organisations. The scale and scope of the Plan A strategy would not appear to have been achieved by other organisations.

The National Health Service (NHS) is the largest employer in the UK and has a diverse workforce with many different professional groups. This can make introducing a planned programme of change a complex and difficult task. Examines the process in the shape of Investors in People (IIP) within a public sector context. The findings come from a case study of a successful IIP project in a combined acute and community trust hospital. Drawing largely on direct experience of managing an IIP project, interview, survey and documentary evidence, the paper concludes by exploring the question of whether the IIP standard can be used as a tool for managing change and if it is sophisticated enough to reach a diverse workforce.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of a new conceptual model and the associated diagnostic tool which can measure the status of maintenance and manufacturing strategies and how well they are linked together.

The new model was developed in two stages. First, a conceptual framework was produced and then a holistic diagram. From this theoretical model a diagnostic tool was generated. This tool was then verified and tested during an empirical research phase which produced four extensive and detailed case studies. A brief overview of one of the case studies is provided in this paper.

It was found that the conceptual model provided an accurate representation of the strategic processes and links which should exist in a manufacturing plant. Moreover the diagnostic tool proved a valid and reliable instrument to measure and display this information.

The diagnostic tool provides a snapshot of the status of manufacturing and maintenance strategies which then can be used to benchmark improvements over time. When required the individual questions from the questionnaire can be reverse engineered to provide detailed information for senior managers to carry out corrective action.

The diagnostic tool provides a snapshot of the status of manufacturing and maintenance strategies and furthermore by reverse engineering the individual questions from the questionnaire can provide detailed information for senior managers guiding them towards the key areas where corrective action is needed.

This theoretical and empirical research closes a gap in the literature relating to the linkage between maintenance and manufacturing strategies. It does so by providing a unique and holistic representation of the strategic processes and links which should exist within a manufacturing plant. Moreover the diagnostic tool produced from the model is a convenient audit facility which enables companies to move towards functional coherence.

Examines the relationship between employees’ responses to the Organizational Diagnosis Questionnaire and ratings of organizational effectiveness in two organizations. Preziosi’s (1980) Organizational Diagnosis Questionnaire (ODQ), and Steele’s (1987) Organizational Effectiveness Questionnaire (OEQ), were distributed to employees in two Australian companies, and a total of 349 useable responses were obtained. Factor analysis of the ODQ yielded six meaningful factors which were interpreted in terms of the original sub‐scales of the ODQ as proposed by Preziosi. Factor analysis of the OEQ gave rise to two positively correlated effectiveness factors. Cronbach alpha reliability estimates were obtained for each of the original ODQ sub‐scales and for the six sub‐scales derived from the factor analysis of the questionnaire responses. Reliabilities for the two sets of sub‐scales were comparable, but with the factor‐based scales giving slightly higher reliabilities. Comparison of mean scores derived from the two organizations showed that significant differences existed for the organizational effectiveness measures, and for several of the measures derived from the ODQ. Regression analysis showed that the difference in the effectiveness rating of the two organizations can be partially explained in terms of the differences in responses to the ODQ.

This paper explores the results of applying a diagnostic questionnaire for measuring the dimensions of a learning organisation in a resource squeezed service organisation. The questionnaire was conducted as the first stage of an ethnographic study of workplace learning in an aged care organization. It was distributed to the 600 employees in nine facilities to provide baseline information to be complemented by qualitative data collected in the second stage. Strengths in the dimensions of leadership and systemic connection and weaknesses in the areas of dialogue and inquiry, team learning and empowering people were revealed. Preliminary qualitative data support the findings and add to the meaning of the questionnaire results. Subsequent discussions with the organisation about the questionnaire suggest that it was a useful tool to enhance workplace learning.

This study aims to examine the impact that diagnostic factors such as duration of diagnostic period, number of professionals consulted and perceived social support have on parental stress during the diagnostic process of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Forty parents of 2–18 year-old children/adolescents with a formal ASD diagnosis recruited from five specialized private clinics in Lisbon completed a survey which included diagnostic questionnaire, parental stress scale and social support scale from April to December 2022.

Data analysis indicated that the mean age of the diagnosis was 5.6 years with a delay of 3.95 years from first concern until final diagnosis. On average, parents consulted a mean of 3.62 professionals. Other findings indicated that as age of parents increased, levels of parental stress decreased. Parents with higher levels of social support had lower levels of parental stress. Furthermore, higher age of child at first concern predicted higher affective social support.

This study reflects on the experience of obtaining the ASD diagnosis in Portugal, raising awareness on the importance of providing early detection and social support for distressed parents.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use, construct, and pervasiveness of learning styles theory. Whilst extant literature has provided educational theorists with a temporal landscape for promoting or critiquing the surfeit of “models” and “diagnostic tools”, there has been little empirical research evidence undertaken on the adoption and adaptation of learning styles in the e-Learning environment, especially in respect of personalised learning environments (PLEs). In this respect, evidence identifies that the more thoroughly instructors understand the differences in learning styles, the better chance they have of meeting the diverse learning needs of their learners.

The paper provides a critical review of the development of learning styles inventories and instruments of learning styles. It focuses specifically on the reliability, validity, and rubrics behind these models. A positivist stance was adopted, using a structured case study methodology with learners as the main unit of analysis. This was undertaken to statistically explore and confirm the validity and reliability of a Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ).

A new Diagnostic Learning Styles Questionnaire was developed based upon the amalgamation of three existing models of learning styles (Kolb; Honey and Mumford; and Felder and Silverman). Research findings identified four principal learning styles categories (A, B, C, D). These are supported by Cronbach's α results ranging from 0.57 to 0.80 for the learning styles within the DQ, which provides new insight into these relationships.

This research suggests that improved construct validity can be achieved if relationships are fully understood. However, research findings need to be countered by extending the embedded case study presented in this paper to include other case studies for comparison (within this context). Further research is also needed on examining learner traits in more detail with a wider data set.

The DQ can be used to explore different approaches to use in learning environments. Specifically, it allows training providers to understand the nuances and dependencies associated with learner styles, behaviour, learner effectiveness, and motivation.

This paper uncovers new understanding on the learning process and how this links to pedagogy and learning styles. It presents a mechanism for embedding a DQ into a PLEs.