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1 – 6 of 6Haixiao Dai, Phong Lam Nguyen and Cat Kutay
Digital learning systems are crucial for education and data collected can analyse students learning performances to improve support. The purpose of this study is to design and…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital learning systems are crucial for education and data collected can analyse students learning performances to improve support. The purpose of this study is to design and build an asynchronous hardware and software system that can store data on a local device until able to share. It was developed for staff and students at university who are using the limited internet access in areas such as remote Northern Territory. This system can asynchronously link the users’ devices and the central server at the university using unstable internet.
Design/methodology/approach
A Learning Box has been build based on minicomputer and a web learning management system (LMS). This study presents different options to create such a system and discusses various approaches for data syncing. The structure of the final setup is a Moodle (Modular Object Oriented Developmental Learning Environment) LMS on a Raspberry Pi which provides a Wi-Fi hotspot. The authors worked with lecturers from X University who work in remote Northern Territory regions to test this and provide feedback. This study also considered suitable data collection and techniques that can be used to analyse the available data to support learning analysis by the staff. This research focuses on building an asynchronous hardware and software system that can store data on a local device until able to share. It was developed for staff and students at university who are using the limited internet access in areas such as remote Northern Territory. This system can asynchronously link the users’ devices and the central server at the university using unstable internet. Digital learning systems are crucial for education, and data collected can analyse students learning performances to improve support.
Findings
The resultant system has been tested in various scenarios to ensure it is robust when students’ submissions are collected. Furthermore, issues around student familiarity and ability to use online systems have been considered due to early feedback.
Research limitations/implications
Monitoring asynchronous collaborative learning systems through analytics can assist students learning in their own time. Learning Hubs can be easily set up and maintained using micro-computers now easily available. A phone interface is sufficient for learning when video and audio submissions are supported in the LMS.
Practical implications
This study shows digital learning can be implemented in an offline environment by using a Raspberry Pi as LMS server. Offline collaborative learning in remote communities can be achieved by applying asynchronized data syncing techniques. Also asynchronized data syncing can be reliably achieved by using change logs and incremental syncing technique.
Social implications
Focus on audio and video submission allows engagement in higher education by students with lower literacy but higher practice skills. Curriculum that clearly supports the level of learning required for a job needs to be developed, and the assumption that literacy is part of the skilled job in the workplace needs to be removed.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first remote asynchronous collaborative LMS environment that has been implemented. This provides the hardware and software for opportunities to share learning remotely. Material to support low literacy students is also included.
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The purpose here is to show how the “shadow” economy has grown in scale and impetus in recent years, though even before modern times it has been present (e.g. the City of London…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose here is to show how the “shadow” economy has grown in scale and impetus in recent years, though even before modern times it has been present (e.g. the City of London, Shaxson, 2011) since at least the middle ages. The reasons for this have become complicated, but we can identify some “deep structures” that are common. Firstly, “globalisation” made it easier for multinationals to escape national regulatory regimes. Secondly, one of the ways neoliberal trading regulations allowed such actors to augment their assets was by means of what they initially called “transfer-pricing” but which now is officially known as “profit shifting” through tax havens. Thirdly, the growth in international trade in legal and illegal ways caused money laundering – even by otherwise respectable banks – to grow across borders. Conversely, from the supply-side, tax haven status was increasingly accessed by jurisdictions that sought to achieve economic growth by supplying tax haven services, both Delaware and Ireland as exemplars of a “developmental” fiscal policy.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a “pattern recognition” design, an approach that is abductive, meaning interpretive, as shown in the observation that explanation can be valid or reliable without direct observation. This is shown in the indirect observation that “rain fell because the terrace has puddles” or “ancient glaciers once carved this valley”.
Findings
Reviewing the European Union’s (EU) list of non-co-operating jurisdictions in support of the OECD’s review of base erosion and profit-shifting activity, Collin concluded the EU’s listing “moved the needle” somewhat but was only a modest success. This is because of its reluctance to sanction its own members or large economies like the USA. Data on foreign direct investment and offshore banking assets suggest listed jurisdictions did not suffer notably from being named and shamed. In all cases studied, this contribution found legally damaging, fraudulent, conflict of interest and corrupt practice activities everywhere.
Originality/value
The originality is found in three spheres. Firstly, the pattern recognition method was vindicated in yielding hard to research results. Secondly, the “assemblage-thirdspace” theory was found advantageous in demonstrating the uneven geography of tax haven clusters and their common history in turbocharging economic development. Finally, the empirics showed the ruses executed by cluster members in tax havens to circumvent the law from global management consultancies to micro-firms consisting of tax lawyers and other experts interacting in knowledge supply chains of dubious morality.
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Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, Munish Thakur and Payal Kumar
All of us are born critical thinkers; some perfect this talent; others ignore it as useful in daily life. This chapter follows those who perfected this talent in order to learn…
Abstract
Executive Summary
All of us are born critical thinkers; some perfect this talent; others ignore it as useful in daily life. This chapter follows those who perfected this talent in order to learn from them the art and models of critical thinking in terms of its optimal inputs, processes, and outputs. According to great critical thinkers in business management, critical thinking questions – or should question – the obsessive generalizations, constraints, and “best” practices of the prevailing system of management, and try to replace them with more valid assumptions and more meaningful generalizations that uphold the dignity, uniqueness, and inalienable rights of the individual person and the community. After setting out some cases illustrating the lack of critical thinking, in Part I of this chapter, we introduce some representative management thinkers on critical thinking, and in Part II, we introduce eight models or practical approaches for critical thinking.
Santosh Kharat, Shubhada Nagarkar and Bhausaheb Panage
The purpose of this study is to systematically examine the existing literature published on the circulation methods used in academic libraries and to discuss a proposed model for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to systematically examine the existing literature published on the circulation methods used in academic libraries and to discuss a proposed model for the self-check-in and check-out methods using quick response (QR) codes.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review (SLR) provided a complete overview of circulation systems used in academic libraries for the last more than 140 years. Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) method for SLR was used. Several databases such as ProQuest, Emerald, Library and Information Science Abstracts, EBSCO and Google Scholar were searched. Out of 277 papers retrieved in the search, 43 most relevant papers were taken up for the SLR. These were classified into four themes based on the systems of circulation used, namely, manual (5), mechanized (13), automated (5) and networked system (20). Based on the findings of the SLR, a model of circulation system in which QR code technology has been used.
Findings
The result of SLR identified 33 systems used in above mentioned four groups. Among this, a large number 48.48% of mechanized systems were found. Each system has limitations either because of devices used or of technology. The present study proposes a QR code-based model at the circulation desk, for which a prototype of Android app has been designed. This would help to initiate the new “self-services” facility to users at the circulation desk.
Practical implications
The proposed model, after its successful implementation, can be adopted by academic libraries. Guidelines and a graphical representation of this study can be used by any researcher for further experimentation.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first kind of study in which a QR code-based Android app model has been proposed for library circulation records.
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Monika Sheoran and Devashish Das Gupta
India generates around two million tonnes of e-waste every year, and it is increasing at a very high rate of 30%. However, due to inefficient handling of infrastructure and…
Abstract
Purpose
India generates around two million tonnes of e-waste every year, and it is increasing at a very high rate of 30%. However, due to inefficient handling of infrastructure and limited number of collection centres along with the absence of proper incentive structure for producer and recyclers, 95% of e-waste reaches to unorganized sector for disposal. Consumers are not aware of the need of proper e-waste disposal and in absence of proper motivation and they are not inclined towards recycling process. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the best practices of e-waste take adopted all over the world to implement effective policy interventions for e-waste management in India and other emerging economies.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper has recommended preventive as well as curative policy interventions on the basis of best e-waste management practices of Germany, Italy and Japan; life cycle assessment of e-waste; and SWOT analysis of Indian electronic product industry.
Findings
Preventive measures include a deposit refund scheme wherein a consumer will be responsible for depositing a refundable fees during the purchase of the product. The amount should be arrived at keeping in mind cost involved in handling e-waste and ensure some motivation for the consumers to give back used product. To ensure proper tracking of the product, Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be used which will be activated at the time of sale of product and remain so until product reaches some designated recycling space or recycler and consumer is returned back his deposit fee. Subsidy to the producers and recyclers can also be provided by the government to further incentivize the whole process. An example of mobile phones has been used to understand the proposed deposit fees and associated cost structure. Curative measures to reduce the generation of e-waste in long run for managing the discussed issue have also been proposed.
Originality/value
This study is an initiative for proposing and implementing best e-waste take back techniques in a developing economy like India by acquiring learnings from best/advanced economies in terms of e-waste take back.
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The article contributes to affective ethnography focussing on the fluidity of organizational spacing. Through the concept of affective space, it highlights those elements that are…
Abstract
Purpose
The article contributes to affective ethnography focussing on the fluidity of organizational spacing. Through the concept of affective space, it highlights those elements that are ephemeral and elusive – like affect, aesthetics, atmosphere, intensity, moods – and proposes to explore affect as spatialized and space as affective.
Design/methodology/approach
Fluidity is proposed as a conceptual lens that sits at the conjunction of space and affect, highlighting both the movement in time and space, and the mutable relationships that the capacity of affecting and being affected weaves. It experiments with “writing differently” in affective ethnography, thus performing the space of representation of affective space.
Findings
The article enriches the alternative to a conceptualization of organizations as stable entities, considering organizing in its spatial fluidity and in being a fragmented, affective and dispersed phenomenon.
Originality/value
The article's writing is an example of intertextuality constructed through five praxiographic stories that illustrate the multiple fluidity of affective spacing in terms of temporal fluidity, fluidity of boundaries, of participation, of the object of practice, and atmospheric fluidity.
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