Imelda Smit

WhatsApp with learning preferences

Systems Analysis and Design is a second year subject offered as two modules. It forms part of the Information Technology course at the North-West Universitys Vaal Triangle Campus. As part of an initiative to create varied opportunities for students to learn, the lecturer creates instant messaging groups on WhatsApp; a forum created to allow communication between peers. It is designed to allow students not having access to Internet away from campus, access to peers while preparing for formative and summative assessment. Felder and Silverman developed five dimensions of learning preferences, each with two sections. Their research built on the research of Kolb, Meyers-Briggs and Jung. The dimensions include: perception where learning takes place in an intuitive way or by sensing; input which may be visual or verbal; organizing which may be inductive or deductive; processing where students learn through active participation or on their own through reflection; and understanding in a sequential or global way. The WhatsApp environment was included in students learning repertoire to allow for differences in learning preferences and to enable students to get answers to questions while away from campus. With WhatsApp being a social media platform, we may assume that students who learn actively will be more inclined to use it. Since text is used to communicate, we may suspect that verbal learners will also benefit. Pictures can be sent, which may assist visual learners. In this way, it may be argued that most learning preferences can be addressed in a conversation group. Are these assumptions true? Does instant messaging address most learning preferences? This paper will attempt to identify students from the different learning preferences by analyzing the WhatsApp conversations among them. Other questions that will be answered from this research include: How good is student participation - how many students prefer not to be part of a conversation group for learning, and how many would stay, but only to read conversations between peers?

The good, the bad and the ugly: Using videos to reverse systems analysis and design instruction

Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) is a second-year subject offered within the Information Technology (IT) course at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University in South Africa. The diverse environment of this campus includes students representing most ethnic groups in South Africa, adding to the complexity of classroom interaction. This is further complicated by the fact that students find the subject difficult, mostly because it includes many new concepts used in different contexts. SAD students also grapple with fuzzy issues such as fact-finding from system users and representing information obtained from models that are designed for feedback. SAD is therefore far removed from the more exact subjects like programming and mathematics that many IT students excel in. Videos explaining difficult SAD concepts were produced and made available to students on a Learning Management System (LMS). The students were motivated to come to classes prepared. During the first semester concepts were explained during formal class times. Formal explanations were not given during the second semester because students were expected to build on the knowledge that they had gained during the first semester. The students were also required to make use of all the resources available to them to come to class prepared. Group work was done in class during both semesters. The success of implementing reverse instruction in the second semester is evaluated through an interpretive lens. The fifteen modal aspects developed by the philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd were used to ensure a clearer picture of the researched situation was painted with a view on diversity and unexpected usage.

The infinity approach: a case study

As fourth-year Information Technology students make the transition from under-graduate studies towards a post-graduate degree, an honours research project may be a daunting task (For readers from outside South Africa: the South African ‘honours’ degree is an extension of the classical ‘B.Sc.’ degree which enables a student to commence with Master-studies thereafter. While already considered ‘postgraduate’ in South Africa, the ‘honours’ degree in South Africa is reasonably well comparable to the final study-year in the (longer) U.S.American ‘B.Sc.’ curriculum). At the Vaal Campus of the North-West University a series of lectures are offered in an attempt to guide students to make this transition. Students are firstly introduced to research paradigms and then each of the four prevalent information systems paradigms is focused on, to explain the methodology and methods applicable, and how it may be implemented. Each lecture in the lecture series is accompanied by an assignment. Although many obstacles present themselves in the completion of the honours research projects, a prominent one was identified. It concerns the interpretivist paradigm and specifically the collection of qualitative data with its accompanying data analysis. To assist students, the analogy of the infinity symbol (\(\infty \)) with an example were used to explain the concept. Important focuses of the explanation include the crossroad faced by researchers when they need to decide on whether they have reached a point of saturation in a study or not. This facilitation supports the gaining of insight into a phenomenon and the implementation of the methodology in collaboration with the selected method to ensure the validity of the research. This is called the ‘infinity approach’. This paper builds on earlier research by implementing a pilot case study as an evaluation of that approach.