Jonathan Foster

Networked professional development: Issues and strategies in current practice

The Computer Based Collaborative Group Work (CBCGW) Project is an institutional Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) Project based in the Department of Educational Studies. The Project aims to support those within and beyond institutional boundaries in the exploration and uptake of collaborative work in a networked environment. This paper reviews examples of current practices in online professional development from around the world and considers some of the issues for providers of academic support. This will in turn be used to contextualize the response to these needs being developed by the Project.

Individual differences in learning entrepreneurship and their implications for web-based instruction in e-business and e-commerce

This paper reports on outcomes from a White Rose Centre for Enterprise funded project Managing Innovation in the Digital Economy. This project aims to incorporate learning for enterprise into undergraduate and postgraduate curricula in information management and information systems. The paper presents results from a survey distributed to postgraduate information management and information systems students following completion of a module in E-Business and E-Commerce delivered by the Department of Information Studies at the University of Sheffield. The findings suggest that differences in levels of prior knowledge of business studies and in cultural background can impact on students’ acquisition of domain knowledge and intellectual and information research skills during collaborative development of a business plan. Implications of the results for web-based instruction are addressed, by identifying teaching and learning strategies that support differential treatment of learners in terms of content and process. It is concluded that empirical investigation of individual differences within a student body can inform more effective methods for information systems and information management graduates to learn about and for entrepreneurship.

Collaborative information behavior : user engagement and communication sharing

Collaborative Information Behavior: User Engagement and Communication Sharing fulfills that urgent demand by presenting current research and practices in the area of collaborative information behavior. Providing empirical research findings, theoretical frameworks, and models relevant to the myriad aspects of collaborative information behavior, this book is an ambitious and important work for professionals, educators and researchers in the fields of information science, knowledge management, human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work.

Blast Theory's Rider Spoke, its Documentation and the Making of its Replay Archive

This article addresses modes of documentation and archiving of live performance. It also constitutes a documentation of the practical and theoretical concerns encountered while documenting Blast Theorys Mixed Reality Performance Rider Spoke (2007) over a period of three years (2007-2010) through two different technologies developed by the Mixed Reality Laboratory at the University of Nottingham: the Digital Replay System (DRS), and a CloudPad. Conducted by an interdisciplinary team with expertise in Performance Studies, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Information Management, this documentation comprises: a reflection on the imperative to archive which underpins significant aspects of the digital economy; an analysis of Blast Theorys work Rider Spoke; a discussion of a prototype archive developed using the DRS as part of the EPSRC-funded Creator project; a ‘bespoke’ documentation of Rider Spoke, including a description of how the team from the Mixed Reality Laboratory, the Centre for Intermedia at the University of Exeter and the Ludwig Boltzman Institute Media.Art.Research used off-the-shelf technologies innovatively to capture the participant experience when the work was shown at the ars electronica festival in Linz (2009); and a contextual analysis of our methodology and the first presentation of an original archiving tool, the CloudPad, developed by the RCUK-funded Horizon research project specifically for the documentation and annotation of Mixed Reality Performance.

Collaborative E-Business Planning: Developing An Enterprise Learning Tool For Information Management And Information Systems Curricula

This paper presents an evaluation of a collaborative e-business planning assignment implemented on two e-business and e-commerce modules: an undergraduate Information Management in the Digital Economy module and a postgraduate E-Business and E-Commerce module. The modules were delivered to students of information management and information systems. The paper outlines the general design of the modules, and a specific assessment in the form of a collaborative e-business planning assignment is presented. An evaluation of this assignment is presented, based on the findings of a survey instrument distributed to the students at the end of the module. Data were collected on students’ domain knowledge and transferable skills acquired as a result of undertaking the task. Analysis of the data suggests that the task was an effective learning tool for the students in acquiring domain knowledge and transferable skills appropriate to learning about, and for the practice of, e-business and e-commerce. Differences in the type and level of transferable skills acquired by undergraduates and postgraduates are identified. The implications of these findings for further face-to-face and Web-based education in e-business and e-commerce are addressed

Managing institutional change for networked learning: a multi-stakeholder approach

This chapter describes a survey of the views held by university stakeholders as to the readiness of their university for implementing networked learning. Stakeholders included members of the university’s Networked Learning Strategy Group and further representatives from academic, management and support staff. A number of factors relevant to a discussion as to the readiness of an institution for implementing networked learning are identified. These factors include stakeholders’ understandings of networked learning, their opinions of the current situation at the university with regard to the implementation of networked learning, their visions for the development of networked learning, and enabling and constraining factors that affect the realizations of those visions. Stakeholders ’ individual views are presented along with an interpretation of the shared response by each group to each of the factors mentioned. An evaluation of the university’s current readiness for implementing networked learning is presented. It is considered that the university’s readiness to implement networked learning is at an early stage. Networked learning is practised within the university but conducted in the main by interested but isolated individuals with little central support. In conclusion it is suggested that if the university wishes to engage in the development of networked learning further emphasis needs to be placed on the internal infrastructure within the university that supports the delivery of networked learning and on collaboration with external agencies. Such external collaboration is considered to be not only national but also international.

Towards an understanding of data work in context: Emerging issues of economy, governance, and ethics

Purpose – It is a commonplace that innovation in the digital economy is now driven by data. Business organizations, media companies, and government, for example all create economic and societal value from the digital traces left by the user population. At the same time the data captured also contains information that personally identifies consumers, citizens and patients as individuals. The purpose of this paper is to place this new form of data work in the context of previous approaches to information work; to identify the differences between information and data work and the resulting challenges for data professionals. Design/methodology/approach – Informed by a review of previous approaches to information work, the paper argues that the shift in value from information to data as an economic asset and a societal good entails a new form of human-oriented data work. One that is more sensitive to the contextual conditions and consequences of the capture, processing and use of data than has been the case hi...

Approaches to studying and students' use of a computer supported learning environment

Although studies of students’ study approaches in face to face learning environments are commonplace, studies investigating the role of students’ study approaches in online learning environments is currently a less explored area. This paper presents the findings of a survey aimed at investigating the relationship between students’ approaches to studying and their perceptions and use of a computer-supported learning environment in e-business and e-commerce. Participants in the study were a group of post-graduate students studying an E-Business and E-Commerce module. The ASSIST inventory is used to identify the main study approaches within the population. Descriptive statistics of the responses to the inventory confirm the validity and consistency of the results, while a factor analysis identified two main study approaches within the population, a ‘deep-strategic’ and a ‘surface-strategic’ study approach. Positive correlations were found (i) between WebCT and two aspects of a deep and one aspect of a strategic approach and (ii) between the E-Business and E-Commerce CSLE and two aspects of a strategic approach and one aspect of a surface approach. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research investigating study approaches in online learning environments.

The Ghost in the Museum Website: Investigating the General Public’s Interactions with Museum Websites

Museums are increasing access to their collections via web-based interfaces, but are seeing high numbers of users looking at only one or two pages within 10 s and then leaving. To decrease this rate, a better understanding of the type of user who visits a museum web-site is required. Existing models for museum web-site users tend to focus on a small number of groups or provide little detail in their definitions of the groups. This paper presents the results of a large scale museum user survey in which data on a wide range of user characteristics was collected to provide well founded definitions for the user group’s motivations, tasks, engagement, and domain knowledge. The results highlight that the general public and non-professional users make up the majority of users and allow us to clearly define these two groups.

Digital archiving as information production: Using experts and learners in the design of subject access

Purpose – This article aims to develop a framework that considers digital archiving as a form of networked information production, in which the different stages of producing a digital archive are modularized and distributed across different actors. The framework is applied and developed within the context of designing a digital archive for the electronic artwork Rider Spoke. More specifically the framework is applied and developed within the context of designing a subject scheme that provides its users with consistent yet relevant access to the content of the archive. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 74 postgraduate students from the Information School at the University of Sheffield were invited to tag four videos from the Riders Have Spoken archive as a voluntary exercise. Students were evenly distributed across the four videos and each participant was invited to generate up to ten tags; with each tag or annotation representing a point of interest in the content of the video for viewer. The time ...