Frances Slack

Conducting a literature review

This article offers support and guidance for students undertaking a literature review as part of their dissertation during an undergraduate or Masters course. A literature review is a summary of a subject field that supports the identification of specific research questions. A literature review needs to draw on and evaluate a range of different types of sources including academic and professional journal articles, books, and web‐based resources. The literature search helps in the identification and location of relevant documents and other sources. Search engines can be used to search web resources and bibliographic databases. Conceptual frameworks can be a useful tool in developing an understanding of a subject area. Creating the literature review involves the stages of: scanning, making notes, structuring the literature review, writing the literature review, and building a bibliography.

What is the future for undergraduate dissertations

This article argues that the changing nature of the dissertation experience, and its associated supervision, calls for more detailed attention to the development of dissertation supervisors. Dissertations have always played a major role in student learning. The following themes constitute the kernel of the article: the role of the dissertation in the students learning experience, managing the link between theory and practice, digitization of information resources, research methodologies and design, and finally, the implications for the role of the supervisor. It is suggested that without an awareness of the changing nature of the dissertation experience, and a more proactive approach to supervisor development, there may be serious degradation of the dissertation experience and outcomes.

Kiosks in retailing: the quiet revolution

Kiosks have the potential to be a significant application of information technology in retailing, information provision and service delivery. This article discusses and analyses the application of kiosks as a channel for in‐store service delivery. For these kiosks a taxonomy that characterises kiosks by their function – inform, interact, transact and relate – is proposed. Eight case study examples of in‐store kiosks are analysed in using a framework that includes environment, task, audience, and technology. Included are kiosks used by Halifax, Daewoo, Argos, Ikea, Debenhams, GNER, Sainsburys and Boots. Both the taxonomy and the framework provide a basis for further analysis of the role of kiosks in service delivery, by allowing analysis and discussion of individual kiosks to be contextualised within a wider framework.

Consumer behaviour in multi-channel contexts: the case of a theatre festival

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to complement existing work on multi‐channel environments of shopping experiences and retail channels by exploring the use of different channels in the consumer decision‐making processes associated with ticket purchase for performances in a regional annual theatre festival.Design/methodology/approach – Analysis of the audience questionnaire focuses on the relative use of different channels and specifically the importance of the Internet in the stages leading up to attendance at the festival – awareness, information gathering, decision making and purchase transaction.Findings – The extent of use of different channels at different stages in the decision‐making process varies, although the Internet is the only channel that can be and is used to support all stages of the process. Throughout the process, with the exception of purchase transaction, the use of word‐of‐mouth is significant. Customers who started using the Internet at the awareness stage often continued to us...

The development of deep learning during a synchronous collaborative on-line course

As Internet bandwidth improves and connections become more reliable, on-line course designers will be encouraged to make more structured use of synchronous communications. Little work has so far been reported on how to make the best use of synchronous communications to support a problem solving approach. The OTIS pilot course made extensive use of synchronous communication to support learning through case studies in occupational therapy. The transcripts of communication sessions have been analysed using the SOLO taxonomy, to study the development of deep learning week by week. Results show that synchronous peer-to-peer working meetings have an important role to play in the development of deep learning.

Challenges in the delivery of e-government through kiosks

Kiosks are increasingly being heralded as a technology through which governments, government departments and local authorities or municipalities can engage with citizens. In particular, they have attractions in their potential to bridge the digital divide. There is some evidence to suggest that the citizen uptake of kiosks and indeed other channels for e-government, such as web sites, is slow, although studies on the use of kiosks for health information provision offer some interesting perspectives on user behaviour with kiosk technology. This article argues that the delivery of e-government through kiosks presents a number of strategic challenges, which will need to be negotiated over the next few years in order that kiosk applications can be successful in enhancing accessibility to and engagement with e-government. The article suggests that this involves consideration of: the applications to be delivered through a kiosk; one stop shop service and knowledge architectures; mechanisms for citizen identification; and the integration of kiosks within the total interface between public bodies and their communities. The article concludes by outlining development and research agendas in each of these areas.

Conceptions of wisdom

This article reports exploratory research on the meanings associated with the concept of wisdom by two groups of intending information professionals. Concern for the limited success of knowledge management initiatives and the complexity and hyperturbulence of organizational environments has provoked discussion of the role of wisdom in organizations, management, leadership, and decision making. A literature review provides a distillation of the literature on the notion of wisdom as a foundation for investigating the alignment between these perspectives and those of the respondents. Data was collected through a survey using one open question. The findings of the content analysis of the responses are reported and discussed. It is evident that wisdom is a polysemantic concept, but that there is some level of agreement that knowledge, experience and action are key aspects of wisdom; but there is very little allusion to possible ethical and spiritual dimensions of wisdom.

Leveraging customer knowledge – profiling and personalisation in e‐business

Summarizes the papers presented at The Second Marketing Science and the Internet Conference entitled: “Understanding Consumer Behaviour on the Internet”, held in Los Angeles, 28‐30 April 2000. Identifies key topical issues and future research agendas. Starts from the premise that research into consumer behaviour in the e‐marketplace is in its infancy, and that a variety of different types of contributions will be necessary to achieve a more informed understanding of consumer behaviour in this new context. Groups current work under four headings: cognition – concerned with the consumer response to specific features embedded in the interface between the consumer and the organisation; customisation – which reviews the various options for personalisation in the marketing exchange, and their effectiveness and acceptability to the consumer; cumulation – which explores the cumulative effect of consumer behaviour on the marketplace; and context – concerned with the relativities between online and traditional retailing and business environments.

Collaboration and Teamwork: Immersion and Presence in an Online Learning Environment

In the world of OTIS, an online Internet School for occupational therapists, students from four European countries were encouraged to work collaboratively through problem-based learning by interacting with each other in a virtual semi-immersive environment. This paper describes, often in their own words, the experience of European occupational therapy students working together across national and cultural boundaries. Collaboration and teamwork were facilitated exclusively through an online environment, since the students never met each other physically during the OTIS pilot course. The aim of the paper is to explore the observations that (1) there was little interaction between students from different tutorial groups and (2) virtual teamwork developed in each of the cross-cultural tutorial groups. Synchronous data from the students was captured during tutorial sessions and peer-booked meetings and analyzed using the qualitative constructs of ‘immersion’, ‘presence’ and ‘reflection in learning’. The findings indicate that ‘immersion’ was experienced only to a certain extent. However, students found both ‘presence’ and shared presence, within their tutorial groups, to help collaboration and teamwork. Other evidence suggests that communities of interest were established. Further study is proposed to support group work in an online learning environment. It is possible to conclude that collaborative systems can be designed, which encourage students to build trust and teamwork in a cross cultural online learning environment.

Assessment and Learning Outcomes: The Evaluation of Deep Learning in an On-Line Course

Using an online learning environment, students from European countries collaborated and communicated to carry out problem based learning in occupational therapy. The effectiveness of this approach was evaluated by means of the final assessments and published learning outcomes. In particular, transcripts from peer-to-peer sessions of synchronous communication were analysed. The SOLO taxonomy was used and the development of deep learning was studied week by week. This allowed the quality of the course to be appraised and showed, to a certain extent, the impact of this online international course on the learning strategies of the students. Results indicate that deep learning can be supported by synchronous communication and online meetings between course participants.