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Archive for the ‘Higher Education’ Category

Evaluation of iTunes University Courses Through Instructional Design Strategies and m-Learning Framework

As mobile learning technology promotes learning accessibility and flexibility, students benefit from social interactivity and connective learning process which will also foster students’ performance and satisfaction on learning content. The primary purpose of this research was to evaluate iTunes U courses based on instructional design strategies and the m-learning framework. A total of 27 iTunes […]

Helping Mathematics Teachers Develop Noticing Skills: Utilizing Smartphone Technology for One-on-One Teacher/Student Interviews

Teaching mathematics for understanding requires listening to each student’s mathematical thinking, best elicited in a one-on-one interview. Interviews are difficult to enact in a teacher’s busy schedule, however. In this study, the authors utilize smartphone technology to help mathematics teachers interview a student in a virtual one-on-one setting. Free from physical constraints and preconceived biases, […]

Connectivism in Learning Activity Design: Implications for Pedagogically-Based Technology Adoption in African Higher Education Contexts

This paper examines the possible characteristics and the value of designing learning activities grounded in connectivism—an emerging learning theory. It is an exploratory attempt to connect the theory to the prevailing technology adoption archetypes used in African contexts with the aim of extracting influences that could shape pedagogical technology adoption in African higher education contexts. […]

Comparative Analysis of Pedagogical Strategies Across Disciplines in Open Distance Learning at UnisaODL at Unisa

Re-engineering technological strategies in teaching and learning in an open distance learning (ODL) environment is paramount as the demand for access to quality higher education escalates drastically on a year to year basis. The organisational framework requires change in order to accommodate the increasing number of students. In view of the changing higher education landscape […]

Nurturing global collaboration and networked learning in higher education

We consider the principles of communities of practice (CoP) and networked learning in higher education, illustrated with a case study. iCollab has grown from an international community of practice connecting students and lecturers in seven modules across seven higher education institutions in six countries, to a global network supporting the exploration and evaluation of mobile […]

Locative mobile media and time: Foursquare and technological memory

Foursquare is a location-based social network (LBSN) that can be used to explore locations and mark one’s movements in the form of ‘check-ins’. This paper investigates why some Foursquare users are choosing to record their locational past, and in so doing using it as a ‘mediated memory object’ (Dijck, 2009). The paper explores the different […]

Functionalities provided by Annotation Systems for Learners in Educational Context: An Overview

During his activities, the learner usually uses comments, highlights and circles sections to tag consulted digital documents. Therefore, many systems have been developed to annotate different electronic resources, often adapted to specific users and for particular uses of documents. This great variety of annotation systems reveals a lack of a clear strategy of how to […]

Innovative Authoring Tools for Online-Courses with Assignments – Integrating Heterogeneous Tools of e-Learning Platforms into Hybrid Application Solutions

This paper is concerned with an essential topic in e-learning – course content authoring. Besides supporting the concept of Competence-Based Learning (CBL) our solution is aiming to make effective use of an open integration architecture fostering the interoperability of hybrid e-learning solutions. Modern scenarios ask for interoperable software solutions to seamlessly integrate existing e-learning infrastructures […]

Synthesizing Technology Adoption and Learners Approaches Towards Active Learning in Higher Education

In understanding how active and blended learning approaches with learning technologies engagement in undergraduate education, current research models tend to undermine the effect of learners’ variations, particularly regarding their styles and approaches to learning, on intention and use of learning technologies. This study contributes to further examine a working model for learning outcomes in higher […]