Claire Bradley

Knowledge maturing activities and practices fostering organisational learning: results of an empirical study

Knowledge work is performed in all occupations and across all industries. The level of similarity of knowledge work allows for designing supporting tools that can be widely used. In this paper an activity-based perspective towards knowledge work is taken. Based on findings from a previous ethnographically-informed study, we identified valuable activities to be supported in order to increase knowledge maturing inside companies. The goal of this paper is to contribute to which knowledge maturing activities are deemed important, so that they can be supported by IT services. Quantitative and qualitative data have been collected in 126 organisations of different size, sector and knowledge intensity. Important feedback and issues emerged and need to be managed in order to support success in the knowledge maturing activities that allow improvement of organisational learning through the dissemination and application of the most appropriate knowledge.

Introducing a virtual learning environment and learning objects into higher education courses

This paper outlines how Higher Education courses in Computer Science have been adapted to make positive improvements to student pass rates and retention. Introductory programming is taught to large numbers of students involving a substantial commitment of staff time. The project aimed, through team work, to develop a new shared blend of materials for teaching Java programming, a major component being a set of pedagogically rich learning objects integrated into a virtual learning environment (WebCT). Each learning object, covering one discrete topic, derives its richness through its extendable design, which can incorporate examples, simulations and animations. This pedagogic pattern maintains maximum flexibility for re-use and re-purposing for use in other courses. The new blend was introduced and evaluated in 2002 2003. Pass rates improved, and student feedback showed positive views towards the approach. Some evaluation results are presented in this paper.

Organizational Learning from the Perspective of Knowledge Maturing Activities

The level of similarity of knowledge work across occupations and industries allows for the design of supportive information and communication technology (ICT) that can be widely used. In a previous ethnographically informed study, we identified activities that can be supported to increase knowledge maturing, conceptualized as goal-oriented learning on a collective level. The aim of this paper is to investigate the current state of support and success of these knowledge maturing activities and to contrast them with their perceived importance, to identify those which have the highest potential for being supported by ICT. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through telephone interviews with representatives from 126 organizations throughout Europe in a sample stratified according to size, sector, and knowledge-intensity. The activities that appear to be most promising are “reflecting on and refining work practices and processes,” “finding people with particular knowledge or expertise,” as well as “assessing, verifying, and rating information.” Rich empirical material about how these activities are performed and also the issues that emerged and need to be managed were collected. Three clusters of organizations were identified: best performing organizations, people- and awareness-oriented organizations, and hesitant formalists. It was found that a balanced knowledge strategy that leaned toward personalization outperformed a codification strategy.

Repurposing with a purpose: A story with a happy ending

Normal 0 false false false Abstract: The work reported here forms part of a UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded project (BL4ACE) ( http://bl4ace.tvu.ac.uk/ ). This project built on previous work that evaluated the effectiveness of a learning design to underpin academic competence in a Business Studies degree. A significant concern of the blended learning design was to scaffold independent learning activities by incorporating and reusing interactive Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs) within a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This paper reports on improvements in learner experience and performance following the transfer of the established Business Studies learning design across subject domains to a Science module. It reports on the enhancement of both modules by reusing and repurposing existing RLOs from other Institutions, and evaluates the experiences of both Business and Science students using the support provided through the interactive learning materials.

Improving the teaching of programming using a VLE enhanced with learning objects

This paper outlines how the teaching of programming has been improved by the use of a virtual learning environment enhanced with learning objects. The project has involved over 600 students at two higher education institutions. The new components were introduced to students in the 2002-3 academic year. A rich eLearning environment was developed and delivered in WebCT. This environment was enhanced with the use of text and multimedia learning objects. These learning objects have been designed to offer pedagogically rich resources to help students learn the main concepts of programming. They were also designed to facilitate re-use in other courses. A thorough evaluation was conducted and the results are reported in this paper. Pass rates compared to the previous year were substantially improved, and feedback from the students shows considerable support for the approach taken.

Designing multimedia learning objects for PDAs

This paper discusses the design of rich multimedia learning objects for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). It shows how successful design principles developed for web-based learning objects have been adapted for the PDA. A prototype object and technical design guidelines have been developed, and these are outlined. The prototype was evaluated with a small number of target students, to give initial feedback on the prototype and their views of using the PDA as a learning tool. The work has produced a proof of concept, which illustrates that rich multimedia learning objects can be developed for the PDA, and it informs our future work in mobile learning.

Learning journeys: exploring approaches to learner digital literacy acquisition

Abstract Digital literacy skills are a crucial attribute for today’s students. The JISC-funded Anytime Learning Literacies Environment (ALLE) project has created an online learning resource to help students acquire digital literacy skills in the form of a learner journey. The journey comprises a series of learning objects, which enable learners to embark on their own interactive journey and help them develop their learning and literacy skills. A prototype of the learner journey has been used and evaluated by over 200 first-year business students in two universities using contrasting teaching approaches. The University of West London (UWL) has scaffolded the journey in the curriculum, while at London Metropolitan University (London Met) students have been encouraged to use the journey according to their needs. Initial analysis of some of the evaluation data from pre-and post-testing of students’ digital literacy skills in both institutions has shown that students’ skill levels have increased. The picture is very complex, but there is evidence that the students at UWL have increased their skills more than those at London Met, suggesting that the more heavily scaffolded approach has produced more successful results.