Joyce Jordaan

The use of a learning management system to facilitate student-driven content design : an experiment

Technology is everywhere, we only need to look around and observe the world around us. Teaching any course today cannot be done without some form of technology incorporated, if not the central point of delivering material and content to students.

Exploring the use of computer-mediated video communication in engineering projects in South Africa

Globally-expanding organisations that are trying to capitalise on distributed skills are increasingly using virtual project teams to shorten product development time and increase quality. These virtual teams, which are distributed across countries, cultures, and time zones, are required to use faster and better ways of interacting. Past research has shown that virtual teams that use computer-mediated communication (CMC) instead of face-to-face communication are less cohesive because they struggle with mistrust, controlling behaviour , and communication breakdowns. This study aims to determine whether project practitioners in South Africa perceive virtual teams that use videoconferencing as suffering from the same CMC disadvantages described in past research in other environments; and if they do, what the possible causes could be. This paper reports on a survey of 106 project practitioners in South Africa. The results show that these project practitioners prefer face- to-face communication over CMC, and perceive virtual teams using videoconferencing to be less cohesive and to suffer from mistrust and communication breakdowns, but not from increased conflict and power struggles. The perceived shortcomings of videoconferencing might result from virtual teams that use this medium having less time to build interpersonal relationships.

Suicide risk in schizophrenia - a follow-up study after 20 years Part 1: Outcome and associated social factors

Objective. This study re-evaluated, after a period of 20 years, a cohort of patients with schizophrenia who had been considered to be at high risk for suicide. The outcome and social factors associated with their suicide risk were investigated over the two decades. Method. Subjects were contacted and interviewed face to face using a questionnaire devised for this purpose. The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) was administered and ratings were compared with those from the original study. The Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) was administered. Cross-tabulations were performed to identify factors associated with increased suicide risk. A psychological autopsy was performed for those subjects who had committed suicide since the original study. Results. Fourteen of the original 33 high-suicide-risk schizophrenia patients were traced. Three subjects had committed suicide during the 20-year period. Among the living subjects, risks for suicide were found to be lower than those 20 years earlier. Male gender, poor social support, early age of illness onset, current admission to or recent discharge from hospital, and a higher level of education were all factors associated with increased suicide risk. Conclusion. Demographic factors and those related to illness course found to be associated with suicide risk in patients with schizophrenia in this study are in accord with those reported in the literature.