Gülten Alır

Are Turkish universities ready for e-learning: A case of Hacettepe University Faculty of Letters

Universities play an important role in lifelong learning. E-learning is one of the key elements in todays networked and knowledge oriented world. It is crucial to know whether the universities are ready to transform their courses to e-learning systems. In this paper the e-learning readiness of the academic staff of Hacettepe University Faculty of Letters HUFL is investigated. A 37-item questionnaire along with some demographic questions is used for obtaining the data. Results show that title might be a significant factor for e-learning readiness and in general, HUFL academic staff are not ready for the e-learning environment. The findings of this study will help to conduct a larger study throughout Turkey in order to determine a model for course of action for transition to an e-learning system.

Students Readiness for E-Learning: An Assessment on Hacettepe University Department of Information Management

Students are one of the key elements during the implementation of e-learning systems within universities. To be able to build solid and effective e-learning systems, it is important to know the level of students’ readiness. In this paper, e-learning readiness of the Department of Information Management (DIM) students at Hacettepe University will be investigated. A 39-item e-learning readiness questionnaire (along with some descriptive questions, such as gender and grade-level) that was tested in previous studies was used to obtain the data. The results show that, although some improvements are needed, DIM students are at the expected level of e-learning readiness, in general.

Learning, Knowledge and Impact Assessment from the Perspective of Complexity and Chaos

The paper benefits from information on selected (public-transformation) project works, mostly carried out by Stratek R&D Ltd, a private company in Turkey, linking with existing body of academic and practical knowledge on public value and system evaluation. The construction of this link will then lead to new directions for academic and practical research, including the adaptation of a reflective (& refractive) function to satisfy the principles & dynamics of a self-organizing and self-referential complex and chaotic system. Possible practical implications for ongoing project work will also be discussed before the conclusion.

An Evaluation of TS13298 in the Scope of MoReq2

TS13298 is the first Turkish standard developed for electronic records management. It was published in 2007 and is particularly important when developing e-government services. MoReq2, which was published in 2008 as an initiative of the European Union countries, is an international “de facto” standard within the field of electronic records management. This paper compares and evaluates the content and presentation of the TS13298 and MoReq2 standards, and similarities and differences between the two standards are described. Moreover, the question of how MoReq2 can be used as a reference when updating TS13298 is also dealt with. The method of hermeneutics is used for the evaluation, and the texts of TS13298 and MoReq2 were compared and reviewed. These texts were evaluated in terms of terminology, access control and security, retention and disposition, capture and declaring, search, retrieval, presentation and metadata scheme. We discovered that TS13298 and MoReq2 have some “requirements” in common. However, the MoReq2 requirements, particularly in terms of control and security, retention and disposition, capture and declaration, search and presentation, are both vaster and more detailed than those of TS13298. As a conclusion it is emphasized that it would be convenient to update TS13298 by considering these requirements. Moreover, it would be useful to update and improve TS13298 by evaluating MoReq2 in terms of terminology and metadata scheme.