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    A model of user acceptance of learning management systems : a study within tertiary institutions in New Zealand : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Systems at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2006) Nanayakkara, Charith
    Digital technologies are revolutionizing the practices of teaching and learning at colleges and universities all around the world. With the emergence of internet and web technologies, tertiary institutions are increasingly exploring the potential use of e-learning technologies to cater for the ever growing demands of flexible teaching needs in distance education. The teaching institutions are making significant efforts in e-learning development and investing significantly in associated information technology infrastructure with the expectation of high return on their investment. However, in spite of this effort and investment the teachers and faculty do not always use the technology as expected and more often e-learning systems continue to be underutilised. This research investigates the factors that influence or inhibit the adoption of e-learning systems in the universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics in New Zealand. A cross section of teaching staff from different tertiary institutions was surveyed to ascertain their views on adopting learning management systems (LMS) in their teaching process. The survey questionnaire is based on factors that are being advocated by well known practitioners and academics, which were identified through a literature review. The study reveals three key groups of factors: individual, system and organisational, affecting the adoption of e-learning systems in the tertiary institutions. The report introduces a theoretical framework for user acceptance of e-learning systems and presents a detailed analysis for factors relating to: (a) individual characteristics (b) individual perceptions (c) LMS system characteristics (d) external system characteristics (e) organisational support and (f) organisational characteristics. The results show that whilst individual factors have significant contribution to the LMS adoption, the system and organisational factors are most crucial for user acceptance in e-learning systems. The users ranked that release time for staff, the ease of use of LMS, perceived usefulness of LMS, training and support to develop online content and the reliability of information and communication technology infrastructure are the five most essential factors for staff uptake in e-learning systems.
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    Multi-criteria based negotiation for learning content selection : submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Information Sciences, Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2006) He, Jian
    With the rapid evolution of information technology and continuous expansion of all sorts of content on the internet, enormous opportunities have become available for learners to enhance their learning. Consequently, learners need effective support mechanisms that assist them in efficiently selecting the most appropriate learning content for achieving their learning goal, rather than blindly grabbing materials that are largely available on the internet. However, it is a challenging problem to provide appropriate learning content selection facilities for the learners to efficiently identify learning content that best suit their needs, due to the large varieties of the factors that influence the process of learning content selection. Previous research has presented various solutions targeting the facilitation of learning content selection. Many of them provide content selection rules by simply grouping learners into different pedagogical categories merely based on limited theories or designers' own judgments Disadvantages of these approaches are obvious: the lack of comprehensive supports of pedagogical theories reduces the preciseness and reliability of the content selection results. Based on the literature review regarding the factors that influence learning content selection, standardized educational metadata, and current computer software technologies, this project therefore proposes a web based interactive system for learning content selection by introducing a multi-criteria decision making methodology. Based on the methodology, a mechanism for matching learning content with subject matter characteristics of the learning resources and learner's preference is developed. By taking dynamic and interrelated parameters as user inputs, recommendations for the content selection are generated based on the built-in parameter dependency rules.
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    Fostering inter institutional knowledge sharing among students : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2006) Smestad, Øyvind
    The aim of this research was to develop a system to allow students from various tertiary educational institutions, taking similar courses, to share common discussion forums. This was seen as important to enable larger communities of learners which could help each other, encourage discussion and give exposure to a more diverse range of opinions. In general to create a system that would make it easier to find knowledge in large networks of information and people. For this purpose a special discussion forum system was developed that can easily be integrated with institutions existing software systems for course management. The system handles the inter-institutional communications transparently, and was developed to be flexible in how it can be installed on various server configurations. The special features of the system allow students to specify the type of message they are contributing, and the system then uses this information to adapt the user interface. For instance, when a question is added, the system searches for possible answers in the existing knowledge base and displays them. An evaluation of the system in three tertiary educational institutions in New Zealand showed positive feedback from students, indicating they would use a system like this if it was made available to them in their future studies. An evaluation among teachers also showed a generally positive response. In the evaluation of the system's automatic answer finding capabilities, it was identified that this functionality should be improved to increase the effectiveness of how the system identified and highlighted possible answers.
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    E-learning and e-systems to facilitate learning from marked student work : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2006) Lu, Jia Yi
    Heinrich (2004a) first introduced the concept of 'electronic repositories of marked student work' and suggested an innovative approach of learning from marked student work. This research project further develops this e-learning approach. The learning approach was analyzed in the framework of modern educational theories, especially those relevant to formative assessment. Learning activities that mostly suit this new approach were identified. These activities show a large degree of variation in cognitive complexity and learning effectiveness, and according to their characteristics, can be associated with various learning styles. A range of factors that need to be considered in constructing learning processes based on these learning activities were investigated. The conceptualization of an e-learning environment to support the approach of learning from marked student work was developed. Three major objectives of developing such an e-learning environment were identified. Based on these objectives the general framework of e-learning from marked student work was outlined. There were very few applications of this approach in teaching practice and no study has been done on its effectiveness in the practical teaching before this research. An initial learning experiment using this approach was carried out. The effectiveness of this approach was evaluated and various aspects associated with this approach were investigated. To fully support this new learning approach, a web-based prototype system named E-Repositories of Marked Student Work, was developed. This research project developed opportunities for student learning and provided guidelines for teaching staff on how to reuse valuable learning resources in their teaching practice in the e-learning context.
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    Experiences of early adopters in changing their thinking regarding teaching practices for the online environment in a New Zealand university : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Education in Adult Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2005) Hallas, Julia Leah
    The aim of this thesis was to investigate how early adopters changed their thinking regarding teaching practices for the online environment. The study investigated how early adopters adapted and developed their classroom based teaching practices for the online environment, the effect of online teaching practices on their students' learning, and the types of professional development lecturers engaged in to learn about online teaching practices. A mainly qualitative approach, within a case study method, was used to undertake the research in a medium sized, New Zealand university, where the researcher is an academic developer in the centralised professional development unit, jointly responsible for supporting staff in online teaching practices. Written informed consent was obtained from lecturers participating in this study. A mail-in survey, individual interviews and online course observations were used to gather data for the research questions. This is a limited case study owing to the small size of the sample. The study concluded that early adopters changed their thinking about teaching practices over time, adapting and developing student-centred approaches to learning for the online environment. The study found that early adopters' perceptions of student learning was of a higher quality online, than in the classroom, owing to student learning approaches being deeper, more interactive and collaborative. Finally, the study showed that a majority of early adopters did not engage in research based professional development activities, which made changing their thinking from teacher-centred to student-centred online teaching practices, difficult and stressful.
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    Improving support for lifelong learning in universities through enhanced eportfolio systems : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Bozhko, Yuliya
    Lifelong learning is seen as a self-directed pursuit of knowledge or skills that occur throughout one's life. While this concept is not new, the importance of lifelong learning skills, in addition to academic and subject knowledge, has been increasingly emphasised in the workplace and public policy over the last decade. Higher education institutions, universities in particular, recognise the importance of lifelong learning and de ne their own strategies to promote it. Such strategies include the development of institutional graduate pro les which represent the core learning outcomes, skills and qualities, that students should acquire during their university education. The problem identi ed and addressed in the current research is the lack of comprehensive technical support solutions for lifelong learning in universities. Currently, only basic level support is available in form of ePortfolio systems or incorporation of Web 2.0 tools into university settings. However, the shortcomings of these systems and tools, are hindering their full adoption, and as such the necessary support for lifelong learning is not available. Through a literature review process followed by stakeholder interviews, this thesis analyses the needs for supporting lifelong learning in universities. According to this analysis, better support is required for re ection, communication and collaboration, development and showcasing of lifelong learning skills, and tracking of learning progress. These identi ed needs are then translated into requirements that are used to create a prototype system that extends a current ePortfolio system, Mahara, with new features, to provide institutional support for lifelong learning. A number of studies, involving both lecturers and students, are conducted to evaluate whether the prototype will bring strong improvements towards providing comprehensive support for lifelong learning in universities. The results indicate that the new features can be successfully adopted by students to help development and understanding of lifelong learning skills, address institutional graduate attributes, track learning progress, as well as manage and share this knowledge with others. In addition to these studentfocused results, lecturers responded positively to incorporating the prototype into their teaching. Lecturers see the opportunities for employing the new features to provide students with the guidance through their lifelong learning journey at the university. Additional research in various elds needs to be conducted towards full support of lifelong learning in universities. This research provides a foundation for comprehensive technical support. It draws attention to the in uence that technology has on teaching and learning, encourages cooperation between stakeholders, and shows the importance of listening to the learner's voice.