Despo Ktoridou

Investigating Mobile Devices Integration in Higher Education in Cyprus: Faculty Perspectives

Mobile devices are everywhere and mobile learning has emerged as a potential educational environment; however it is relatively new to Cyprus educational system. The purpose of this research work is to assess and determine the readiness; and evaluate the viability of integrating mobile technology in Cyprus higher education level. To address the above, a mixed method approach is employed making use of quantitative and qualitative data from faculty members working in three private universities in Cyprus. Faculty reactions were mixed with some of them seeing the benefits for mobile learning while others have doubts. The results summarize the technological and pedagogical aspects to be considered prior integrating mobile devices. Additionally, the study supports that one of the major barriers to educators is the lack of understanding regarding mobile devices integration in the teaching and learning process. Finally, there is a need to develop well-defined and well-structured requirements for mobile integration in the classroom.

Website Design and Development as an Effective and Efficient Promotional Tool: A Case Study in the Hotel Industry in Cyprus.

ABSTRACT The organizational long-term success of promotional campaigns and the integration of marketing communications (IMC) are affected by the effective use of information communication technologies (ICT). E-content that combines all media, visual, text, sound, video and animation represents the base knowledge. Internet technology, as a source of communication, has become an important and exploring tool for marketers in the past. Today, the internet implementation in the marketing process is inexpensive, delivers instant international reach, offers great real time feedback and reaches millions of people for whom the web is the centre of virtually all communications. This research is based on two survey questionnaires that were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of this research identify that successful web-based marketing can indeed be achieved by defining a websites main objectives, designing a website through applying principles of best practice usability, tracking website vi...

Exploring parents’ and children's awareness on internet threats in relation to internet safety

Purpose – The purpose of the study is to explore parents’ level of awareness in relation to the threats that children are exposed to when using the internet. Additionally, it explores the parental interest to raise their awareness on internet use and threats, as well as investigating their interest in establishing household environment safety measures in their household and a secure internet system in order to protect their children.Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a mixed method approach where quantitative and qualitative data were collected (Creswell). Questionnaires were used to collect the quantitative data and focus groups were organized for the qualitative data collection. The studys target population consisted of parents in two major cities in Cyprus, Nicosia and Larnaca. Non probability sampling was used to distribute 400 questionnaires to parents. The response rate was 55 percent, since 220 completed questionnaires were returned. The focus groups were organized as soon as the res...

Integrating Wikis as Educational Tools for the Development of a Community of Inquiry.

This article describes a study that attempted to evaluate the integration of wikis as an educational tool in successfully achieving the learning objectives of a fifth-grade linguistics and literature course. A mixed-method approach was employed—data were collected via questionnaires, reflective journals, observations, and interviews. The results revealed the development of a Community of Inquiry in a student-centered, blended learning environment through wiki integration and highlighted the significant role of the educator as well as the importance of the lesson’s and activities’ design and structure.

Engineering education: Time to reform the fragmented, content-overloaded curricula context?

Technological, economic and social challenges are continuous, influencing higher education institutions to equip students with the necessary knowledge, skills and competences to work in such challenging context. Today, in engineering education a fragmented, content-overloaded engineering curriculum is not offering engineering students the career field that will bring together the technological problem-solving and practical skills of engineering along the leadership, teamwork and collaboration, organizational and planning capabilities of business. The current work is a theoretical framework that highlights the importance of preparing future engineers to work in a developing technological, economic and social business context in higher education. More specifically the authors propose the incorporation, in computer and electrical engineering curriculum at the University of Nicosia, three management courses as business electives. Significant comments from industry professionals and academics are collected and reported.

Interdisciplinary Web-based learning practices in higher education

This paper addresses the phenomenon of interdisciplinary learning (IL) in the higher education context. The study aims to examine the employment of interdisciplinary educational practice through a cloud environment - Applications (Google Apps). More specifically, through IL the authors aim to eliminate the fragmentation and the learning of isolated skills for two distinct undergraduate courses (MGT-372 Management of Innovation and Technology and MIS-151 Business Software Applications) allowing students through the use of technology (Google Apps) to increase their motivation for learning as well as develop abilities towards recognizing particularities, thinking critically, tolerating uncertainty, recognizing and appreciating ethical concerns. To address the above, the study employed a case study approach, collecting qualitative data through focus groups with students, online/in-class observations and lecturers comments.

Designing a product development process graduate course: An interdisciplinary example

Todays technological, economic and social challenges force higher educational institutions to promote interdisciplinary reflection in order to help students understand challenging problems and frame feasible solutions. In engineering education, students need to go beyond technological knowledge and be motivated towards interdisciplinary and complex management education that will prepare them to become innovative engineer managers. The current paper reports on the pedagogical approaches used to prepare, develop and improve the delivery of ENMA-550 Product Development Process (PDP) graduate interdisciplinary course. The suggestions of the paper are expected to assist educators and practitioners to acquire the necessary knowledge on interdisciplinary course development and teaching in order to become interdisciplinary teachers.

Community of inquiry developed through cloud computing for MIS courses

Based on an earlier work, authors suggest that in higher education setting, improved learning experience for lecturers and students is possible through a meaningful collaboration, communication and authoring aiming the construction of knowledge by students [4]. The current work investigates the implementation of inquiry-based learning and the development of community of inquiry (CoI) through Google Applications for education in a higher education setting. More specifically, it provides evidence on how does cloud learning community is developed through the three presences of CoI: Teaching Presence (TP), Social Presence (SP) and Cognitive Presence (CP) for three Management Information Systems (MIS) courses. The CoI survey instrument was used to quantitatively examine the development of a CoI within the educational setting.

Case-based learning: An instructional model to incorporate information security topcis in multidiciplinary courses at the University of Nicosia

The field of information security (IS) has long been characterized by the challenge of approaching it in a systematic manner as it constantly evolves. Academic institutions offer specialized courses on security, however it is important to have students exposed to the basic security practices regardless of their field of interest. Thus the topic of IS as such is could be, in part, integrated into various multidisciplinary courses, where educators must find a common learning ground to motivate and encourage students, coming from different specializations, to: recognize relationships between concepts of IS comprehended, underline the structure of what is being learned and to show their understanding. The authors in this paper initially present an overview of the case-based learning theory, and proceed with focusing on the lectures teaching/learning development and delivery material for the undergraduate course MIS 151-Business Software Applications at the University of Nicosia. The results of this case study will offer indications on how to design a case based learning environment in the area of IS or any other course that could be taught through cases.

Website development as a means of communication: a case study for the Kolossi Grand Hotel, Cyprus

The case explores the use of internet technology as a marketing communication tool by the new management team of a medium sized hotel in Cyprus. The issues raised are typical of internet promotion in the hotel industry. The objective of the case is to acquaint the student with considerations that benefit businesses and marketers in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of a successful website, to be used as an effective online marketing communication tool.