Individualism and collectivism

This study identifies the critical success factors that influence the acceptance of e-learning systems in developing countries. E-learning is a popular mode of delivering educational materials in higher education by universities throughout the world. This study identifies multiple factors that influence the success of e-learning systems from the literature and compares the relative importance among two stakeholder groups in developing countries, ICT experts and faculty. This study collected 76 usable responses using the Delphi method and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. The results reveal 6 dimensions and 20 critical success factors for e-learning systems in developing countries. Findings illustrate the importance of curriculum design for learning performance. Technology awareness, motivation, and changing learners' behavior are prerequisites for successful e-learning implementations. Several recommendations are provided to aid the implementation of e-learning systems for developing countries which have relevance for researchers and practitioners. Limitations as well as possible research directions are also discussed.

Critical success factors for e-learning in developing countries: A comparative analysis between ICT experts and faculty

There has been little research on assessment of learning management systems (LMS) within educational organizations as both a web-based learning system for e-learning and as a supportive tool for blended learning environments. This study proposes a conceptual e-learning assessment model, hexagonal e-learning assessment model (HELAM) suggesting a multi-dimensional approach for LMS evaluation via six dimensions: (1) system quality, (2) service quality, (3) content quality, (4) learner perspective, (5) instructor attitudes, and (6) supportive issues. A survey instrument based on HELAM has been developed and applied to 84 learners. This sample consists of students at both undergraduate and graduate levels who are users of a web-based learning management system, U-Link, at Brunel University, UK. The survey instrument has been tested for content validity, reliability, and criterion-based predictive validity. The analytical results strongly support the appropriateness of the proposed model in evaluating LMSs through learners' satisfaction. The explanatory factor analysis showed that each of the six dimensions of the proposed model had a significant effect on the learners' perceived satisfaction. Findings of this research will be valuable for both academics and practitioners of e-learning systems.

Multi-dimensional students' evaluation of e-learning systems in the higher education context: An empirical investigation

With the advent of e-learning technologies in the past decade, the accessibility of training, teaching, and learning has drastically increased. The challenge for the education enterprise now is how to attract learners to their e-learning services. In this study, a technology adoption model is developed to predict the users' intention of adoption and their continued use behavior. The results show significant evidence in support of the hypothesis. The findings indicate that perceptions of relative advantage and compatibility are significantly related to users' intention to use e-learning. Also, the intention is significantly related to their actual use of e-learning. Furthermore, the technology adoption of learners with prior e-learning experience is different from those without prior e-learning experience. These findings may contribute to deeper understanding of e-learning users' perceptions in terms of adoption and continued use behavior.

The role of experience and innovation characteristics in the adoption and continued use of e-learning websites

http://www.water-msc.org/en/knowledge_base/training_effectiveness.pdf

Validating E-learning factors affecting training effectiveness

Many colleges and universities world-wide utilize the Internet as a vehicle for E-learning. A course on database management systems (DBMS) is a foundational course that underpins many information systems (IS) degree programs and is pivotal in determining the success of its graduates. Thus, pedagogies that improve the learning for students in a DBMS course are important to not only the faculty and students but to their employers as well. This paper describes the results of a designed experiment to measure the effectiveness of two pedagogical approaches in an e-learning environment. The results are mixed but provide evidence that providing the text's multiple choice questions with answers via the Internet improves performance on the final examination not only on the multiple choice questions but also on the theory questions. These new results need further testing in different environments but provide an initial improvement worthy of consideration for those teaching a DBMS class.

Effectiveness of E-Learning Course Materials for Learning Database Management Systems: An Experimental Investigation

This paper presents the findings from the first stage of a preliminary study which assessed the potential for an electronic commerce portal in Sri Lanka?s Central Province. Sri Lanka is an island state of contrasts in terms of its electronic commerce and overall ICT capability. In the Capital of Colombo, ICT and electronic commerce capability are relatively sophisticated while in regional Sri Lanka even the most basic ICT infrastructure is almost non-existent and/or non-reliable. The proposed electronic commerce portal in Central Province is well aligned with the key strategic objectives of the E-Sri Lanka Initiative. The portal will be a resource enabler and facilitator for the adoption of electronic commerce by SMEs and MEs. It is also envisaged that the portal will facilitate the development of regional ICT capability as well as providing significant benefits to general community. This paper concludes with an outline of the infrastructure and implementation plan for the proposed electronic commerce portal in Central Province.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2004.tb00102.x

An Electronic Commerce Initiative in Regional Sri Lanka: The Vision for the Central Province Electronic Commerce Portal

The ‘new’ ICT professional should be an articulate problem-solver who understands business and technology, in particular how technology can solve business problems. Furthermore, the ideal ICT student should be adaptable. The adaptable student embraces change, learns quickly, understands the job market, thrives on variety, is autonomous, predicts change, and acts as a change agent in the organization.
This study examines the adaptability of a sample of second-year Australian ICT students. The evidence suggests that these students are less adaptable than might be expected of people who have chosen to study a subject characterized by change. One reason for this might be the fact that these students have limited knowledge about the realities of work in ICT beyond negative perceptions
about stress and long hours. A small number of more mature students with some work experience appear to be more adaptable.
An interesting paradox emerges. Younger students in particular appear to be highly adaptable in their personal lives and seek careers that maximize personal choice. On the other hand, they still prefer a degree of stability, a relatively defined career path, job security, and a career that is relatively stable.

/pdf/the-search-for-the-adaptable-ict-student-3ivkymihfj.pdf

The Search for the Adaptable ICT Student

[Executive Summary]: Adaptive and fluid applications development methodologies such as Prototyping, RAD, FAD and Extreme Programming have emerged in recent years in response to organisational realities that include rapid change, uncertainty and ambiguity. These methodologies are well suited to the team-based approach that has become so important in the modern organisation. Yet, many educational programmes in the West still focus on individual learning and assessment. This paper reports on a pilot study where team-based methods are incorporated into a demanding undergraduate IS (Information Systems) course. We review some of the new approaches to applications development, in particular team-based approaches and examine how they are highly relevant to the way business is conducted today. The study involves students who were enrolled in an undergraduate course in database development. A learning environment that incorporates elements of the “real world” and a strongly group-focused approach was designed. Although the course is relatively ‘technical’, it is a core course for many programmes and therefore attracts enrollments from students with varying levels of prior technical knowledge and ability. Based upon the results of diagnostic tests, GPA and a survey, students were allocated to groups that were specifically designed to foster group learning. Each group had a balance of skills and included at least one person identified as a lead programmer, who had scored 85% or above in the test, had a high GPA’s and exhibited confidence in overall and course-specific technical abilities. Groups were required to complete a variety of tasks relating to the creation and maintenance of databases and database programming. The group-based had a most promising influence on performance, particularly for those students who came from less technical background and / or had struggled in programming courses previously. People
with limited technical knowledge and/or an average amount of technical aptitude do benefit from working in small teams with people who are technically strong. Furthermore, these benefits seem to extend to performance indicators that are related to the group task. A number of problems emerged, however: Students expressed lower levels of overall satisfaction and made a number of negative comments about the new innovations. We are also not sure that lead programmers gained as much as the others from the experience. The course was unexpectedly demanding for the
lecturer. These demands included additional preparation and consultation time, dispute resolution, mentoring and sorting out problems related to group dynamics. A course of this nature demands a significant project and there were complaints about workload. In some groups, not everybody
made a satisfactory contribution.

http://jite.org/documents/Vol2/v2p393-406-44.pdf

Using a Team-Based Approach in an IS Course: An Empirical Study

This paper reports on the qualitative aspect of a study which investigated the importance of interpersonal trust (cognitive trust, affective trust) in virtual communities of developers involved in open source projects at the SourceForge.net web portal. The qualitative responses to an online survey from developers involved in open source projects at SourceForge.net provided rich contextual insights into open source software development. The interpretative analysis of these qualitative data provided a number of interesting findings that show interpersonal trust (cognitive, affective) is important to the effectiveness of virtual communities of core developers involved in open source projects. The findings also show that trust is dynamic and built over time, that there are different levels of trust within an open source project and cognitive and affective trust operate interdependently.

/pdf/interpretative-insights-into-interpersonal-trust-and-3u001ck8vz.pdf

Glen Van Der Vyver

Papers

Effectiveness of E-Learning Course Materials for Learning Database Management Systems: An Experimental Investigation

An Electronic Commerce Initiative in Regional Sri Lanka: The Vision for the Central Province Electronic Commerce Portal

The Search for the Adaptable ICT Student

Using a Team-Based Approach in an IS Course: An Empirical Study

Interpretative insights into interpersonal trust and effectiveness of virtual communities of open source software (OSS) developers