Liezel Cilliers

Wiki acceptance by university students to improve collaboration in higher education

Abstract Web 2.0 technologies, such as wikis, can play a key role in promoting interaction, delivering education and providing communication between students. However, most of the existing literature does not seem to consider relationships between designing wiki-based learning activities and the student acceptance of this technology. The purpose of the study was to investigate the acceptance of students when making use of wikis in an undergraduate course at a university in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study made use of a quantitative approach whereby an online questionnaire was distributed to 113 students involved in an undergraduate course. A forty per cent response rate was recorded while data were analysed making use of descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found that the majority of the students did experience the wiki as useful to improve collaboration in the course, however, there are fears about content being vandalised and plagiarised. Therefore, students will not voluntarily make use of the wiki despite the numerous advantages the technology can offer. The study recommends that students should be educated on the potential benefits of a wiki to improve collaboration before it is implemented in order to positively impact the perceptions and use by the students.

Improving the information security of personal electronic health records to protect a patient's health information

The electronic collection of patient information is a common practice across healthcare organisations in South Africa. Patients are encouraged to manage and control their own health data and information through the use of personal electronic health records (PEHRs). However, as this is a new type of electronic health record, there are concerns that must be addressed before patients make use of the technology. One of these concerns relate to using mobile devices to manage PEHRs, as patients fear that their health data may be breached due to the mobility and security concerns of these devices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the information security controls that health care providers must put in place to protect PEHRs accessed from a mobile device. An inductive research approach was used which included an extensive literature review, while a thematic analysis of the data was used in identifying, analysing and reporting patterns within the data. The conceptual m-Health privacy framework was used to identify the 10 privacy principles for the mobile health platform and compared with the three distinct information security threats for the mobile platform. The study found that the data in transit was not as well protected by the framework, while the individual and database of the health care organisation was better regulated. The recommendation of the study is to improve the framework through the inclusion of specific information security controls to protect a patients privacy whilst in transit when using PEHRs.

User Acceptance of Telemedicine by Health Care Workers: A Case of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

The Eastern Cape province of South Africa is one of the poorest provinces in the country with vast rural areas. A telemedicine system was implemented in the province in order to improve health care services. Despite large investments from the National Department of Health, only a third of telemedicine sites in the province are operational. Technology problems, such as unreliable electricity supply and low bandwidth, was identified as barriers to the successful implementation of telemedicine in South Africa, but these issues have since been addressed. Nevertheless, the uptake of telemedicine remains poor. One of the documented barriers to the successful implementation of telemedicine is user acceptance by health care workers. This study made use of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to identify the factors that influence the user acceptance of telemedicine among health care workers in a developing country such as South Africa. The study used a quantitative survey approach. A questionnaire was distributed to all the hospitals and clinics around the province where telemedicine had been implemented. The results were analyzed using SPSS 20 and the conclusions drawn from the results were presented to five experts in the field of telemedicine and Information Systems. In general, the attitude of the health care workers was positive towards telemedicine, although the present usage of the system was low. Health care workers, especially those in the rural areas, perceived the telemedicine system to be useful to improve the quality of health care services they provide. The perceived ease of use of the telemedicine system was influenced by both the educational qualification and area in which the health care workers worked. Those that did not complete high school and worked in rural areas were apprehensive about using the telemedicine system. However, the majority of the health care workers indicated that they did plan to make use of the telemedicine system in the future. Interventions focused on education should be specific for rural or urban areas. In rural areas education should focus on computer literacy skills and how to use the telemedicine system, while in urban areas the awareness of the telemedicine should be increased.

A study on students’ acceptance of mobile phone use to seek health information in South Africa

Background: In South Africa, inequitable access to healthcare information has made many young people with limited resources more vulnerable to health risks. Mobile phones present a unique opportunity to address this problem due to the high penetration of mobile phones in South Africa and the popularity of these devices among young adults. Objective: This research sought to examine the adoption of mobile phones to access health information among students at a traditional university in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Method: A cross-sectional survey approach was used to collect information from a convenience sample of 202 university students (58 males; 104 females), the majority (71.3%) of whom were aged between 18 and 27 years and of Black African ethnicity (75.2%). The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) framework formed the theoretical foundation for the questionnaire. A research model was developed to test the hypotheses that behavioural intention to use a mobile phone to access health information would be influenced by: perceived usefulness (PU), perceived effort, social influence (SI), attitude towards technology (AT) and mobile phone experience. Results: Factor analyses indicated that the research model explained 36% of the variance in behavioural intention to use mobile devices to search for health-related queries, with PU being the largest predictor, followed by mobile experience, SI, and AT. Perceived effort did not make a statistically significant contribution. Conclusion: Using mobile phones to disseminate health information to students is a useful, convenient, and cost-effective health-promotion strategy. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge concerning the applicability of the UTAUT framework to study the adoption of technology and provided useful information to guide future research and implementation of mHealth initiatives.

Assessing ICT Access Disparities Between the Institutional and Home Front: A Case of University Students in South Africa’s Eastern Cape

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been used to promote equality and inclusivity, foster human development, enhance opportunity and fight poverty in developing countries. In spite of this effort, inequality to ICT access persists in developing countries like post-apartheid South Africa. This paper contributes to the ICT4D discourse by investigating ICT access disparities between various actors within a country. The theoretical foundation adopts elements of Engestrom’s [1] activity theory as a conceptual lens for examining the access disparities experienced by users at home and within a formal institutional activity system, such as a university. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with university students at two campuses of a previously disadvantaged university in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The study shows that the reason for different access, limited access on the home front and unlimited access on the institutional front, was due to access cost, lack of devices, inadequate skills and lack of awareness of the value of internet access. We conclude that these factors worsen poverty by limiting access to opportunities for the majority of the population that lacks institutional access.

A privacy management framework for personal electronic health records

Personal electronic health records (PEHRs) can be used by patients to manage their health and lifestyle better. PEHRs can provide a more efficient communication channel between the patient and healthcare provider; reduce medical errors and enhance the monitoring of patients. South Africa is considered to be inexperienced with the implementation and management of PEHRs, and has not introduced any specific privacy acts for protecting a patient’s privacy on mobile devices. The purpose of the study is to develop a privacy management framework (PMF) to alleviate the privacy concerns encountered by patients that use mobile devices to access PEHRs. The study used a qualitative approach to develop the PMF. The PMF consists of three tiers. The first tier manages the integration of the PMF through laws, privacy policies and procedures. The second tier comprises two main support pillars, which consist of operational privacy and to audit and review. The last tier functions as the foundations of the PMF, which manages awareness and training, communications and support for healthcare organizations and patients. The recommendation of the study is the implementation of a PMF within health organizations to reduce the privacy concerns of citizens and healthcare workers.

Exploring information assurance to support electronic health record systems

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) provide continuity of care as all the patient health information is stored in one place. Patients and health care staff have privacy concerns regarding EHRs as they are not informed how the information in the system is protected. Information assurance is a holistic approach to the protection of data in a EHR. This paper makes use of a literature review to discuss both information security risks and information assurance as it applies to EHRs. The significance of information assurance to protect patient information in an EHR is also investigated. The Maconachy cube is used to discuss the various information assurance dimensions as they relate to the EHRs. These include the information states, critical information characteristics, security measures and time dimensions. The paper provides and overview of information assurance as it relates to electronic health records and can be used in future research to improve the protection of information in EHRs.

Factors Influencing Social Media Adoption and Continued Use in Academia: A Case Study at a Traditional University

The popularity of social media amongst university students, has necessitated traditional universities to incorporate these tools in academia. However, few lecturers incorporate these tools in academia for teaching and learning activities. The objective of the study was to identify factors influencing social media integration and continued use in academic setting at a traditional university in the Eastern Cape. The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology was employed as the theoretical foundation in this study. A quantitative survey data collection method making use of a questionnaire was distributed to all the academics at the university, with a response rate of 39%. From these, data was analysed using descriptive statistics and the Pearson Chi-square test was used to establish the relationship between different variables. The results show that the following factors could influence the adoption of social media in teaching and learning amongst lecturers: Performance expectancy is influenced by the age and gender of the lecturer; facilitating condition is influenced by the faculty that the lecturer is employed in, while social influence was significant for age, knowledge of social media, management and the support from the Department of Higher Education. The study therefore recommends that traditional university management should prioritise the use of social media tools as they may be used as a tool to enhance the throughput in order to address critical skills shortage in the economy.

A User Study About the Usage of a Learning Management System in a South African University

South African universities are increasing the number of students that are admitted to their degree programs. This came as a result of massification of higher education which in turn reduces student-lecturer interaction and ability to monitor the progress of the student. Lecturers are suing technologies such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) as the solution to support these large class environments, but seldom make the effort to pedagogically integrate the technology into the teaching and learning environment. This paper investigates to what extent a LMS has been integrated into teaching and learning at a traditional university. This paper will make use of a case study to provide descriptive insight into how a LMS has been integrated into 31 large classes in the past three years dating 2015–2017 at a traditional university. The usage patterns of lecturers making use of the LMS are examined through the user statistics that were collected during this time from course request forms. The results show that the main function of the LMS during the past 3 years was course management. The LMS was used for evaluation and communication purposes, while the collaboration and teaching categories are still underdeveloped. The recommendation is then that lecturers are encouraged to properly integrate a LMS into their teaching pedagogy, and not simply use it as a management tool.

Lecturers Perceptions on Blackboard: An Investigation of Blackboard Usage in a Nursing Department at a Traditional University

Online learning environments have become an established presence in higher education, but their effectiveness in the teaching and learning environment must still be evaluated. A learner management system can be used to provide course content, evaluate the students and course, improve collaboration and blended learning environments. These functions are especially important for nursing students that have practical obligations that take them away from the campus. The purpose of this article is then to evaluate the perceptions of nursing lecturers at a traditional university in South Africa after they first started using a LMS. Perceptions of nursing lecturers were assessed making use of focus groups. The research evaluated the perceptions of the staff during a focus group after they participated in 3 workshops that trained them to make use of Blackboard. The results show that staff had a favourable view of the learning management system but needed more assistance than what was anticipated initially. These implications for teacher education staff interested in providing high quality learning environments within an online space are provided.