Attitudes to the application of a Web-based learning system in a microbiology course

Computer-based systems have great potential for delivering learning material. Here, a Web-based learning management system is employed by a medical university to support undergraduate courses. The objective was to help the university’s staff to understand the readiness and attitudes of students to the use of information technology, their orientation to new learning environments, and the functionality of the system. The participants were a cohort of first-year medical students enrolled in an introductory microbiology course. Students’ attitudes to information technology and learning styles were measured by a rearranged questionnaire, and a principal component analysis identified the students’ orientations to information technology and the learning environment. The results of the study revealed that students showed readiness to and positive attitudes towards information technology in education and exposed a possible benefit from its use in the long run. However, they also conveyed negative opinions of the learning management system used in their coursework, suggesting a need for change of the technology. This study provides evidence that in order for computer-based system to be effective they must be designed and implemented with care, otherwise they may risk to lower students’ interests and activation.     

The Design and Assessment of a Proposed Library Training Unit for Education Graduate Students

This article presents the design and assessment of a proposed library training unit for education graduate students. A literature review of graduate students’ information-seeking behavior and training initiatives supports the selection of the course content as well as the assessment of student learning. In addition, research on behaviorist and constructivist learning theories and related instructional design strategies directed the development of the learning environment. The proposal represents a collaborative effort between an institution's librarian and a department faculty member in a required Ethics and Laws in Education class for beginning students. The objectives for the pilot project were to teach students how to use scholarly resources, to mirror the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Information Literacy Competencies, and to include hands-on database demonstrations as well as inquiry-based learning exercises. The learning environment supports students’ diverse learning styles and offers opportunities to utilize technology, underscoring its importance to information use and especially to libraries in the digital era.     

Investigating hazard recognition in augmented virtuality for personalized feedback in construction safety education and training

Accidents resulting from poorly planned or set up work environments are a major concern within the construction industry. While traditional education and training of personnel offer well-known approaches for establishing safe work practices, serious games in virtual reality (VR) are used more often as a complementary approach for active, personalized learning experiences. Their designs yet have to take full advantage of how trainees can potentially manipulate and interact with virtual objects. In addition, little construction safety research has focused on generating and analyzing the inherent data that can be collected about the trainees’ actions in the virtual environment. The objective analysis of their performance in the virtual environment offers precise feedback to sensitize their work behavior later in real practice. This research presents a novel framework for the generation and assessment of the trainees’ data in augmented virtuality (AV). The proposed approach is tested in a virtual work environment consisting of multiple stages and hazards that are consistent within today’s construction sites and workshops. A real angle grinder has been reworked and repurposed as an interactive AV controller to further enhance immersion. Results on the performance in the proposed system and the experiences of two groups of volunteering participants are presented and discussed. An outlook presents future avenues towards enhancing existing construction safety education and focus points on correlating objective tracking data with self-assessment.     

Gender,Internet and computer attitudes and experiences

It is widely assumed that participation by females on the Internet is hampered by their attitudes towards computers, which in turn is reflective of their attitudes towards new technology. Research generally supports that females have less overall experience with computers and are more likely than males to have negative attitudes towards computers. Although limited, research on Internet experiences and attitudes has found parallel gender differences, with females reporting lower levels of experience and more negative attitudes. This paper explores whether Internet and computer experiences, skills and attitudes are related, using evidence from two studies of incoming college students, in 1989/90 and 1997. There were significant gender differences in many computer experiences and attitudes of incoming students in 1989/90. Males were more experienced with computers, more likely to have taken high school courses requiring computer use, and reported higher skill levels in applications such as programming, games and graphics than females. By 1997, incoming students were more experienced with using a computer than the earlier students. However, gender differences in computer experience and skill levels had diminished in some areas. The 1997 survey also assessed Internet experiences, skills, competence and comfort. Students had more exposure to computers than to the Internet. Males were more experienced and reported higher skill levels with the Internet than females, with the exception of e-mail. The overall competency and comfort level for students in 1997 was significantly higher for computers than for the Internet; 19% of the students did not feel competent and/or comfortable with the computer compared to 36% with the Internet, with females reporting higher levels of incompetence and discomfort for both. Competence and comfort levels with the Internet and computers were highly intercorrelated, and both predicted Internet skills and experiences.     

Competition and Information Deception in Online Social Networks

This study empirically examines the role of competition in determining intentions toward personal information deception (PID) among users of online social network (OSN) sites. PID refers to OSN users intentionally misrepresenting or refusing to disclose online personal information. The research proposes that consumers’ intentions toward PID depend on their desire for online competition with other OSN users, which in turn depends on user appraisals of available status and hedonic benefits, as well as established social norms around competition. An analysis of data gathered from 499 OSN participants (students enrolled at a state university in the southeastern United States) shows that competitive desires represent an important antecedent of PID behavior in OSN contexts. Theoretical and practical implications of the research are also discussed.     

Scholarly Communication in the Sciences—A Third World Perspective

ABSTRACT

A study was undertaken to assess the impact of the Internet on scientific communication among a group of scientists and information professionals from leading research institutions in India. The object of the study was to understand the information-seeking behavior of Indian scientists and information professionals and the use of the Internet in their work. In order to determine subject specific differences in Internet use, participants included physicists, mathematicians, chemists, biomedical scientists, and information professionals. This article also examines the perceptions of scientists on recent developments in scholarly communication and explores the role of Indian librarians and information professionals in the electronic environment.     

Students’ attitudes towards science: A long‐term perspective

Abstract

In this study the attitudes of 4 students, 2 boys and 2 girls, towards science were followed over the course of 6 years. Data were obtained in two ways: First, and principally, the students were interviewed annually in their homes from the ages of 11 to 16 years, and again at the age of 17, one year after the ending of their compulsory schooling; and secondly, the students were observed during their science lessons in an English state (non‐fee‐paying) school, from 1994 to 1999. Each student's attitudes towards science and her/his experiences of her/his school science education are described by means of quotations and episodic biographical vignettes. These allow us to track the ways in which the students’ attitudes about science developed over the course of the study. The findings help to shed light on the reasons why many students lose interest in science during the course of their secondary science education.     

Multiscreen Social TV System: A Mixed Method Understanding of Users’ Attitudes and Adoption Intention

Past social TV (STV) system user studies usually tested a small number of trialists in lab settings in Western countries. This Asian research took a mix method approach (interview, observation, and web survey) to examine the attitudes of 76 young adults’ experiences of using a multiscreen STV system. The results show that the majority of participants preferred shifting and complementary patterns when using STV. Their favorite feature was multiscreen video teleportation via QR codes. Nearly half of participants agreed that sociability features of the STV system could facilitate their perceived social presence and sense of community, which increased adoption intention. Additionally, text messaging was selected as the preferred mode for social interactions during video viewing. Although most participants liked the user-friendly design to upload and share videos conveniently, age has a negative association with users’ receptiveness of the user generated video channel creation and aggregation feature.     

The Designer's Self-Identity — Myths of Creativity and the Management of Teams1

This paper describes recent research conducted at Sheffield Hallam University in which practising designers reported on their experiences of working in a cross functional team. The survey related these experiences to the designers' attitudes to their creativity. Two models for creativity are proposed—one based on the romantic stereotype of the creative genius, the other taking creativity to be an attribute possessed by all human beings in some measure, which can be enhanced by personal effort or by training. Identifying features of cross functional teams which are likely to demand certain personal qualities in designers, the paper notes that these are at odds with the qualities of a ‘romantic-type’ creative person. The link between these qualities, and notions of personality as a set of fixed attributes is pointed out. Several theories of personality which describe mechanisms for change in self identity are described. It is noted that the results of the survey suggest that in many cases designers have a pragmatic attitude to their creativity, despite the prevalence of the romantic stereotype for creativity in the literature of both management and education. Principles are suggested for design education, to enable designers to re-evaluate creativity reflexively as a component of their self identity to enhance their performance as teamworkers.     

Attitudes of individuals with visual impairments towards distance education

The aims of this work were to examine the attitudes of individuals with visual impairments towards distance education (DE) and the relationships between attitudes and participants’ personal characteristics. Forty-one adults with visual impairments, who ranged in age from 20 to 40, participated in this study. A self-constructed questionnaire measuring the attitudes towards DE was employed. The participants’ answers revealed slightly positive emotions towards DE according to the affective component of attitudes, slightly positive attitudes when DE is compared with traditional education, and positive attitudes as far as the cognitive component of attitudes and participants’ intention to participate in a DE programme were concerned. The elder participants seem to have more positive attitudes towards DE compared with younger participants. Furthermore, the greater the level of education, the more positive were the attitudes towards DE, and the greater the frequency of computer usage, the more positive were the attitudes towards DE. The analysis of the data collected revealed that the sample of individuals with visual impairments had slightly positive attitudes towards DE. Age, level of education, and frequency of computer usage were found to be significant predictors of the participants’ attitudes.     

I Know My Professor: Teacher Self-Disclosure in Online Education and a Mediating Role of Social Presence

Acknowledging the importance of teacher–student relationship for effective learning experiences, the present study examined the role of teacher self-disclosure and social presence in online education. An online survey was conducted from a sample of 262 undergraduate students with online class experiences. The findings suggest that students’ perception toward teacher self-disclosure increased students’ feeling of social presence about their teacher. Then, social presence in turn led to teacher–student relationship satisfaction, which ultimately increased perceived knowledge gain. Importantly, the association between teacher self-disclosure and teacher–student relationship satisfaction was mediated by social presence.     

Factors Influencing Students’ Major and Career Selection in Systems Development: An Empirical Study

Systems development is an academic major in many information systems (IS) programs. Attracting students who are interested in systems development is important to increasing IS enrollment. The purpose of this study aims to empirically investigate which factors influence students’ decisions to select systems development as a major and future career. This research makes three contributions to IS research and education. First, the research findings extend previous research associating outcome expectations and job availability with attitudes toward systems development. IS educators can use these findings to create better recruiting strategies and to improve the IS curriculum. Second, the findings connect academic-major choice with career choice. The findings indicate that attitudes toward systems development and personal innovativeness in IT (PIIT) positively influence students’ intentions to pursue a career as a systems developer. Third, this research paves a foundation for further investigation into systems development behavior and performance in the workplace.     

Investigating attitudes towards the use of mobile learning in higher education

Mobile learning (M-learning) has become an important educational technology component in higher education. M-learning makes it possible for students to learn, collaborate, and share ideas among each other with the aid of internet and technology development. However, M-learning acceptance by learners and educators is critical to the employments of M-learning systems. Attitudes towards M-learning technology is an important factor that helps in determining whether or not learners and educators are ready to use M-learning. Such attitudes will serve to identify strengths and weaknesses and facilitate the development of the technology infrastructure. This paper aims at exploring students and educators' attitudes towards the use of M-learning in higher educational universities within Oman and UAE; two neighboring countries in the Arab Gulf region. To serve this purpose, two survey questionnaires were conducted: one for students and another for educators. The participants of this study are 383 students and 54 instructors from five universities. Different factors have been examined to test where there is a significant difference among students and educators' attitudes towards the use of M-learning, such as gender, age, country, level of study, smartphone ownership, major in terms of students and age, country, academic rank, academic experience and smartphone ownership in terms of educators. Findings revealed significant differences among the students’ attitudes towards M-learning with regard to their smartphone ownership, country and age. Furthermore, results indicated that M-learning can be one of the promising pedagogical technologies to be employed in the higher educational environments within the Arab Gulf countries.     

A synchronous distance discussion procedure with reinforcement mechanism: Designed for elementary school students to achieve the attending and responding stages of the affective domain teaching goals within a class period

Distance education courses must cope with the difficulties imposed by delivering a class at a distance. As most courses only emphasize the cognitive aspects of the class and neglect the course’s effect on the students, this gives no help for reaching the affective domain teaching goals. Especially for younger students, in distance education, when younger students are out of the sight of teachers, they could easily be distracted by the environment around them. This research outlines a synchronous discussion procedure with reinforcement mechanism designed for elementary school students to integrate the affective aspects of teaching into distance education within a class period. The mechanism allows teachers to understand students’ attitudes within the class and provides instant feedback to the teacher. Learners can also get information about their attitudes and help to reach the affective domain teaching goals of the courses. This mechanism was implemented and investigated. Comparative assessments were made by administering interviews and questionnaires to elementary school students. The results show that the procedure can supervise learners and help them reach the response stage of the affective domain teaching goals.     

Unplugged: Exploring the costs and benefits of constant connection

Computer-mediated-communication (CMC) is a ubiquitous part of people’s lives, yet little research has investigated attitudes about unplugging, also known as media refusal. In this large-scale lifespan study we surveyed 446 participants ages 14–79 about their feelings and attitudes toward unplugging from CMC for 24 h. We also probed their actual recent experiences of unplugging. We were particularly interested in age differences. As predicted, younger people reported more negative feelings about unplugging, and people who reported higher scores on a loneliness survey also expressed more negative feelings. However, contrary to our hypothesis, there were no significant age differences in the length of time participants typically spent unplugged. Open-ended responses revealed that participants felt a mix of emotions about unplugging from CMC and were ambivalent about its use for connection; “connecting with family and friends” was listed as both a loss and a gain of unplugging. In addition, prior experience unplugging predicted less anxiety about a future anticipated unplugging experience. We discuss age-related themes that emerged about costs and benefits to unplugging, anticipated unplugging activities, reasons for unplugging, and the inherent complexity of retreating from the web of digital technology and its pull of readily available community, connection, and information.     

Students' attitudes toward playing games and using games in education: Comparing Scotland and the Netherlands

Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students' characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question:

• •What are the different game playing habits of the three groups?
• •What are the different motivations for playing games across the three groups?
• •What are the different reasons for using games in HE across the three groups?
• •What are the different attitudes towards games across the three groups?

To our knowledge this is the first in-depth cross-national survey on gaming and education. We found that a large number of participants believed that computer games could be used at HE level for educational purposes and that further research in the area of game playing habits, motivations for playing computer games and motivations for playing computer games in education are worthy of extensive further investigation. We also found a clear distinction between the views of students in regular education and those in distance education. Regular education students in both countries rated all motivations for playing computer games as significantly more important than distance education students. Also the results suggest that Scottish students aim to enhance their social experience with regards to competition and cooperation, while Dutch students aim to enhance their leisurely experience with regards to leisure, feeling good, preventing boredom and excitement.     

Re-visiting college students’ attitudes toward the Internet-based on a 6-T model: Gender and grade level difference

The purpose of this study is to propose a 6-T model (Tool, Toy, Telephone, Territory, Treasure of Information, and Trade) to explore college students’ Internet-related attitudes, and to examine whether gender and grade level make any difference in their attitudes. Data from 1069 participants were collected from 96 Taiwanese universities and colleges. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis validated the proposed 6-T model and shows that it can well explain the 6-T factors. Each T’s magnitude of path coefficient shows that for these college students, the most recognized factors were Tool and Toy, followed by Treasure of information, Territory, and Trade, and that the least weighted factor was Telephone. Male students seem to have had a more positive attitude toward the Internet-related Toy and Telephone dimensions than did female students, and graduate students seem to have had a more positive attitude toward the Internet-related Tool, Information, and Trade dimensions than did undergraduate students. This study discusses limitations, future research directions, and implications for college educators and administrators.     

Cultural values and Facebook use among Palestinian youth in Israel

Culture is a set of values that influences attitudes and social behavior. Despite the role of culture in shaping attitudes and motivations, most of the extensive research literature on the determinants and patterns of social media use has focused on psychological and social factors. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by investigating the role of cultural values in perceptions of privacy, trust and motivations for using Facebook among young Palestinians in Israel. We relied on Hall’s concept of high and low communication contexts and three of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance. Data from a survey of Arab high school students (N = 567) established that variations in the adoption of cultural values are associated with the motivation for using Facebook through their effect on trust and on privacy concerns. We discuss the findings and their implications.