Exploring factors that influence adoption of e‐learning within higher education

E‐learning is increasingly adopted in the workplace for supporting professional development and continuing education; however, in higher education, the use of e‐learning is predominantly used as a tool support teaching. As a relatively new priority for universities, this paper explores what influences its adoption. Challenges identified in the literature include organisational features of universities like faculty autonomy and dispersed academic perspectives. This study, carried out at the University of Warwick, adopted a phenomenological approach and explored participants' perceptions through a series of faculty‐based focus groups and individual interviews. Factors identified as influential to adoption of e‐learning included the institutional infrastructure, staff attitudes and skills, and perceived student expectations. Participants suggested the importance of an institutional strategy targeted at providing sufficient resources and guidance for effective implementation. This strategy needs to be supported by a varied programme of staff development and opportunities for sharing practice among colleagues. In further developing understanding in this area, it would be beneficial to replicate the study with other stakeholder groups (including the leadership team and students) to develop an institutional strategy responsive at all levels of implementation. It would also be valuable to investigate the extent to which these findings are replicated within other workplaces looking to adopt innovation.     

Measuring learning outcomes

The growing interest for measurement of learning outcomes relates to long lines of development in higher education, the request for accountability, intensified through international reforms and movements such as the development and implementation of qualifications frameworks. In this article, we discuss relevant literature on different approaches to measurement and how learning outcomes are measured, what kinds of learning outcomes are measured, and why learning outcomes are measured. Three dimensions are used to structure the literature: Whether the approaches emphasise generic or disciplinary skills and competence, self‐assessment or more objective test based measures (including grades), and how the issue of the contribution from the education program or institution (the value‐added) are discussed. It is pointed out that large scales initiatives that compare institutions and even nations seem to fall short because of the implicit and explicit differences in context, whilst small‐scale approaches suffer from a lack of relevance outside local contexts. In addition, competence (actual level of performance) is often confused with learning (gain and development) in many approaches, laying the ground for false assumptions about institutional process‐quality in higher education.     

The Changing Environment for Doctoral Education in Australia: implications for quality management,improvement and innovation

Although there has been considerable institutional attention to quality management and improvement in Australian higher education, concerns about the quality of doctoral education persist. This paper argues that addressing these concerns will require a shift in perspective. The conventional view of doctoral education which assumes an on‐campus, full‐time student experience, with socialisation arising formally and informally through interaction with the supervisor(s) and other academics in a university department, and which prepares the candidate for academic or other full‐time research work, is increasingly recognised as problematic. The rapid growth in candidate numbers is associated with a more diverse doctoral student population, and increasingly flexible patterns of research and study. These trends are likely to continue as they are in response to major changes in the higher education environment and changes in patterns of research activity. The argument presented is that addressing concerns for quality management, improvement and effective innovation demand the development of a research‐based wholistic conceptual framework for doctoral education which integrates all aspects of the doctoral education experience, and a focus on constructing and evaluating doctoral programmes in their particular organisational settings and physical locations.     

Design Issues in a Cross‐institutional Collaboration on a Distance Education Course

Collaborative learning has been gaining momentum as a promising pedagogy in higher education. Research on student collaboration is increasing. However, one arena is often overlooked—faculty collaboration. In this article, a cross‐institutional faculty collaboration is presented. The context is faculty collaboration on the design of an undergraduate engineering course. Specifically, this paper examines design issues encountered in the faculty collaborations associated with developing, delivering, and redesigning a senior‐level engineering design course that was taught simultaneously at two universities. This course was taught in state‐of‐the‐art distance learning classrooms. Both within class and outside class, participating students and faculty made use of a Web‐based environment that supported a variety of synchronous and asynchronous interactions. The course itself focused on team design projects and provided instruction on the engineering design process, in various specific skills needed for the students’ projects, and on how to function effectively as part of a geographically distributed engineering design team. The participating faculty members represented different backgrounds, academic disciplines, and academic cultures. Issues related to collaborations on development, delivery, and redesign are elaborated. Based on the lessons learned, suggestions for future cross‐institutional faculty collaboration in course development are provided.     

A Systemic Approach to Sustainable Environmental Education

Efforts to introduce environmental education can be viewed as a process of educational change. This paper questions whether efforts to introduce environmental education in the last 10‐20 years have given lasting and widespread results (are sustainable) and suggests that this work could be made more sustainable by following a systemic approach to changing the institutional framework for environmental education. Such an approach would focus on placing responsibility for environmental education with the educational authorities; curriculum revision; competence; building and development of networks of intersectoral cooperation with institutions outside the school. The environmental education strategy developed by the Norwegian Education Ministry is presented and discussed as an example of a systemic approach.     

Well‐being in the Welfare State: the redistributive capacity of education

Focusing on the macro‐micro interaction between institutional arrangements and individual life outcomes, this article investigates how welfare régime types impact the association between education and well‐being, as measured by satisfaction with life. Theorising with Esping‐Andersen's ideal‐typical welfare régime typology, we hypothesise that decommodified institutional arrangements reduce the association between education and well‐being through compensatory social protections for at‐risk individuals, while stratifying forces strengthen this association. These results are only partly supported; we find that Conservative Welfare States show the most robust association, whilst Liberal and Social‐Democratic Welfare States display weaker relationships. Thus, stratification appears to play a more important role than decommodification in moderating this association. We also examine potential mediating factors and how they differ between welfare régime types, finding that health and income mediate the effects of education on well‐being to varying degrees.     

我国重点大学制度的历史沿革与问题

重点大学制度产生于20世纪50年代,它是我国重要的高等教育建设制度。我国重点大学制度经历了初步形成、曲折发展、制度重建与制度创新四个阶段。在50多年的发展过程中,我国重点大学制度存在社会参与决策、监督与评估缺乏等制度缺陷,需要进一步提高该制度的民主性与科学性。     

‘Fitting in’ or ‘standing out’: Working‐class students in UK higher education

Drawing on case studies of 27 working‐class students across four UK higher education institutions, this article attempts to develop a multilayered, sociological understanding of student identities that draws together social and academic aspects. Working with a concept of student identity that combines the more specific notion of learner identity with more general understandings of how students are positioned in relation to their discipline, their peer group and the wider university, the article examines the influence of widely differing academic places and spaces on student identities. Differences between institutions are conceptualised in terms of institutional habitus, and the article explores how the four different institutional habituses result in a range of experiences of fitting in and standing out in higher education. For some this involves combining a sense of belonging in both middle‐class higher education and working‐class homes, while others only partially absorb a sense of themselves as students.     

Institutional policies for part‐time undergraduate higher education in Scotland

Financial pressures, restrictions on full‐time participation and the public commitment to access and lifelong learning, suggest that part‐time provision may be increasingly important in undergraduate‐level higher education. However the scale and organisation of part‐time provision varies across institutions, and its future development may depend on decisions taken at institutional level. This paper describes Scottish institutions’ policies for part‐time provision of first degrees and Higher National Certificates and Diplomas (HNCs and HNDs). It is based on interviews with senior managers in all 23 Scottish higher education institutions (HEIs), and in 11 further education (FE) colleges. Most institutions planned to expand part‐time provision. New (post‐1992) universities were the most committed to expansion; non‐university HEIs and some old universities were the least committed. Policies for expanding part‐time provision were often part of a broader strategy for flexibility. The research revealed two contrasting models of flexibility: many universities pursued flexible integration, bringing full‐ and part‐time study into a common web of provision, whereas FE colleges typically pursued flexible differentiation, maintaining the distinctions between (and within) the modes. Institutional polices were influenced by four sets of factors: institutional mission, other institution‐specific factors, government policy and funding, and demand; funding arrangements and demand were seen as the main drivers. Finally, we question whether the greater formal autonomy of institutions led in practice to more independent decision‐making, and whether the trends anticipated by our interviewees are in fact well entrenched.     

Performance monitoring of university research: A perspective from Australia

The purpose of this paper is to report on who creates branding within institutions of higher learning, and what impact branding has on core institutional activities such as student recruitment and fundraising, as well as on socio‐psychological factors such as community respect and national prestige. Eighty‐nine tertiary education experts covering three world regions were surveyed in order to gather information to fulfil the paper’s objectives. The nature and extent of involvement of enrolled students, alumni, higher management, external consultants, civic leaders and the business community were investigated to identify the part each plays, if any, in the development of an institutional brand. Findings indicate that institutions have a tendency to brand from the top down rather than from the bottom up.     

Work‐related adult education: challenges and possibilities in poverty areas

The aim of this article is to talk about the possibilities of work‐related adult education programmes within the context of developing countries. The focus of the analysis is on poor populations, particularly those dwelling in rural and marginal urban areas. The background comprises the challenges for productive incorporation, social exclusion, the relative absence of skill development programmes in these areas and the historical ineffectiveness of adult education programmes. In the light both of lessons drawn form several experiences carried out mainly in developing countries and insights coming from educational and developmental research, the article puts forward some theses that may serve as guidelines when carrying out work‐related adult education programmes, such as the need to stem from integral and inter‐institutional perspectives, to rely on sound strategies that can have a direct impact on both social and economic development, to learn from local contexts (knowledge and opportunities) and evaluate the potential within these spaces, to properly assess the different areas (health, housing, organization etc.) that are related to any social development process, and the importance of taking productive activities—work—as the axis and starting point of programmes.     

Universities and the Development of Social Capital in Bulgaria: New Strategies for Change

This article offers some thoughts on the idea that universities can and should contribute to the development of social capital in countries undergoing profound social change, like Bulgaria. It discusses the role of universities in the transformation and development of civil society through an examination of institutional capacities for innovation and change. An analysis of the new responsibilities assumed through the social mission of universities reveals obstacles to the implementation of their strategies for the development of human capital. A consideration of the policy context identifies two different policy approaches to higher education that give rise to contrasting strategies for change. These are further explored in terms of institutional employment‐related strategies and policies for the transmission of cultural values.     

The global–local interface in multicultural education policies in Japan

This paper examines interactions between the global and the local in the context of Japanese mainstream schooling, by focusing on the development of local government policies to manage diversity in schools. This paper reveals how local governments developed education policies in interaction with grassroots professional groups, activists and schools, and by selectively incorporating national policies. These local policies are multicultural education policies but differ in two significant ways. The first is their predominant concern with human rights education, leaving celebration of cultural diversity as a marginal consideration, and the other is the official use of the term ‘foreigners’ in the title of these policies; both of which reflect the pre‐existing local context. The paper demonstrates that new immigrants do not unilaterally impact on supposedly ethnically homogeneous Japanese classrooms, but that the pre‐existing local contexts (national, local and institutional) have mediated global forces in effecting changes.     

Changing state–university relations: the experiences of Japan and lessons for Malaysia

This article investigates the changing state–university relations in Japan and Malaysia. Its main objective is to identify and examine possible lessons for Malaysia, based on the Japanese experience. Notably, since the late 1970s, Malaysia has been looking towards Japan as a model for socio‐economic development (the ‘look‐east’ Policy) and this article was written with the same underlying thrust. Of particular interest in this article is the Japanese experience with the Incorporation of National Universities in 2004. Malaysia has corporatised all state‐controlled universities since 1998 but has stopped short of implementing the kind of institutional autonomy, which resulted in precarious state–university relations in Japan. Based on the situation in Japan with regard to incorporation of national universities, what steps should Malaysia take in order to develop a higher education system and higher education institutions that are comparable to that of matured higher education systems?     

Informational capital and the transition to university: First‐in‐family students' experiences in Austrian higher education

The agenda for widening participation in higher education has led to increasing numbers of students with a broader range of education and family backgrounds. However, transitioning to the university landscape remains a highly complex negotiation process, especially for first‐in‐family students, who cannot draw on previous experience from higher education in their families. Gaining access to informational capital—a combination of cultural and social capital—plays a crucial role in managing education transitions. We draw on rich empirical data obtained from 26 autobiographical narrative interviews with first‐in‐family university students in Austria to investigate how transitions to university are affected by informational capital. We also explore how access to informational capital was influenced by (1) institutional practices, such as initiatives to support students, especially first‐year students; and (2) cultural fit—the extent to which a student's cultural capital corresponded with the dominant cultural capital in the field of their chosen discipline or higher education establishment. Our findings show that gaining access to informational capital was strongly affected by the institutional practices at universities within the different disciplines, thus highlighting the importance of higher education institutions in supporting their students during transition processes. We conclude with policy implications for how higher education institutions can assist first‐in‐family students to succeed at university.     

Internationalisation of higher education: the gap between national policy‐making and institutional needs

The article discusses the impact of the growing emphasis on internationalisation on higher education institutions. Based on case studies of 12 Scandinavian universities and colleges, it is shown how issues related to internationalisation trigger processes of trying to enhance the institutional capacity for strategic decision‐making and institutional integration through processes of formalisation, centralisation and professionalisation. Based on the institutional history and tradition, strategic ability and institutional characteristics, the outcomes of this process still show a considerably degree of variation in the motives and institutional adaptation to internationalisation. In the conclusion, it is argued that future policy‐making in the field of internationalisation should pay attention to the diverse needs of higher education, and develop policies that allow more flexibility and autonomy at the institutional level.     

Accreditation,standards and diversity: an analysis of EQUIS accreditation reports

The development of various national and supra‐national accreditation systems is currently being discussed as a possible response to an increasingly internationalized and deregulated higher education sector. However, the establishment of such procedures may have unintended consequences, not least with respect to limiting the diversity of higher education. By studying a number of accreditation reports in the field of business administration (the EQUIS system), the paper discusses whether this procedure manages to balance the need for minimum standards with demands related to institutional diversity and development.     

Applying the Varieties of Capitalism Approach to Higher Education: comparing the internationalisation of German and British universities

In recent years, the global market for higher education has expanded rapidly, while internationalisation strategies have been developed at university, national and European levels to increase the competitiveness of higher education institutions. This article asks how institutional settings prevailing in national models of capitalism motivate distinct national approaches with regard to the internationalisation, globalisation, and Europeanisation of higher education systems. While the university is defined as an organisational actor embedded in the higher education system, the higher education system itself represents an institutional subsystem within the national model of capitalism. An analytical framework is then developed on the basis of the Varieties of Capitalism approach to compare the internationalisation of German and British universities. Findings indicate that the relations between the various actors involved in the internationalisation of universities are based largely on market coordination in the British case. In contrast, this process in Germany relies more on strategic interactions between the various organisational actors in higher education. The development paths in the internationalisation of universities are found to be influenced by and reflect the specific mode of coordination in the respective higher education system and the national model of capitalism more generally. This comparative case study shows that recent conceptions of path dependence as well as conceptual tools developed in the Varieties of Capitalism literature, such as institutional complementarity and comparative institutional advantage, may be fruitfully applied to research on institutional change in higher education systems.     

Distance Education at the Crossroads

A number of issues in contemporary distance education are reviewed from the perspectives of distance education as practice and as a field of study. In the practice of distance education, government agendas are supplanted by institutional agendas, the clientele shifts from undergraduate second‐chance learners to fee‐paying postgraduates, and the models and methods are under challenge by the online revolution. As a soft–applied field of study, distance education research is susceptible to externally set agendas and prone to external criticism. Distance educators need to address these externally defined issues in terms that speak to its critics.     

Singaporean Early Childhood Teachers' beliefs about Literacy Development in a Multilingual Context

It is widely recognised that teachers' pedagogical practices are influenced by many factors, including their personal experiences, their theoretical knowledge and the institutional context in which they work. Yet little is known about the beliefs held by Singaporean teachers about language and literacy development. Given the significance of early childhood for subsequent academic achievement, this study employed a survey method to explore the beliefs about literacy held by 79 teachers of 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children in prior‐to‐school settings. The findings indicate that almost all teachers viewed their primary goal as fostering children's ability to communicate and express themselves. They believed in using an eclectic approach rather than focusing on one or other ‘method’. The findings have implications for early childhood teacher education programs, professional development and implementation of Government policies in Singapore.