Emergence of informal educative space out of an anonymous online bulletin board in Korea during the global economic crisis

This study aimed to understand how people learn and teach informally in an anonymous online bulletin board, the primary purpose of which is not learning and teaching. We conducted a qualitative analysis of comments and replies tagged to the most popular postings of an anonymous online bulletin board, during the global economic crisis in 2008–2009. The bulletin board, Agora Economy Room, is housed in the Korean portal site, Daum. We found four interrelated collective activities—recognizing teaching presence, collaborating, labeling, and guarding—among the participants that made active informal learning and teaching possible. These activities had an effect on the characteristics of the emerging informal educative space in different ways. A conceptual map of the findings of this study is discussed as a conclusion.     

[minus]plastic: influencing pro‐environmental attitudes among Singaporean youth

Plastics have much to offer as a modern convenience, but lack of responsible plastic waste management habits can lead to potentially harmful environmental effects. Past environmental initiatives revealed a lack of understanding about youth attitudes towards pro‐environmental issues. [minus]plastic, an online public environmental promotional campaign, encouraged Singaporean youth to recognize the importance of, adopt positive attitudes towards and subsequently adopt the practice of responsible plastic management. We propose the Temporal Incentives Model of Social Influence, based on Prochaska and DiClemente's stages of change model, to guide social campaign design. A pre‐post quantitative research design showed that the pre‐contemplation, contemplation and preparation stages progressed significantly after the campaign. The findings suggest that stimuli incorporating specialized information and small action steps allow migration to successive stages. With the strong presence of internet culture among Singaporean youth, the online medium was found effective in altering the attitudes of the campaign target audience, while exposure to the campaign messages proved useful in encouraging environmental learning among youth.     

An Evaluation of Oral Presentation Competency in Interior Design Education

As digital modelling programmes become increasingly prevalent in interior design education, there is concern that graduates are entering the workforce relying too much on strong graphic presentation skills while lacking the basic ability to speak about design. This study explores the gap between practitioners’ perceptions of importance regarding oral presentation competency and students’ perceptions of their oral presentation performances. Additionally, the study explores correlations between in‐class activities and students’ perceptions of their oral presentation competency. Mixed‐methods of investigation include a Delphi study with a panel of interior design practitioners and a survey questionnaire of both practitioners (n = 102) and currently active interior design students (n = 91) in the USA. An Importance‐Performance framework is employed for comparison. Results identify performance criteria for evaluating oral presentation competency and indicate variances between students’ perceptions of their performance and industry perceptions of importance. Furthermore, students’ in‐class activities including studio critiques and written peer assessments show significant correlation with student oral presentation performance indicating activities already frequently incorporated into a design curriculum may have a greater impact on improving performance than specific oral presentation instruction alone.     

Multifaceted Evaluation Criteria of Digital Libraries in Academic Settings: Similarities and Differences From Different Stakeholders

Digital library (DL) evaluation is essential to the success and enhancement of DLs. However, there is a lack of research on the assessment of comprehensive evaluation criteria across multiple dimensions of DLs. In particular, limited research is available on criteria prioritization to determine which criteria are perceived important by different stakeholders. This study was conducted to compare similarities and differences in perceptions of the importance of different DL evaluation criteria by heterogeneous stakeholders in academic settings. Ninety subjects were recruited with 30 from each of the group representing DL scholars, DL librarians, and DL users. Subjects were instructed to fill in an in-depth survey consisting of 10 evaluation dimensions with 94 criteria. ANOVA and t-test were applied to examine the similarities and differences among the three groups. This study reveals consensus and divergence in perceptions of criteria importance among the three groups, and indicates an inherent tension among the stakeholders. Moreover, the differences identify gaps not only between user expectations and the DL practice but also between what's desirable and what's possible in the academic environment. The findings provide a comprehensive list of criteria to guide practical evaluation of DLs, and contribute to the narrowing of the identified gaps.     

Detecting Differential Item Discrimination (DID) and the Consequences of Ignoring DID in Multilevel Item Response Models

Cross‐level invariance in a multilevel item response model can be investigated by testing whether the within‐level item discriminations are equal to the between‐level item discriminations. Testing the cross‐level invariance assumption is important to understand constructs in multilevel data. However, in most multilevel item response model applications, the cross‐level invariance is assumed without testing of the cross‐level invariance assumption. In this study, the detection methods of differential item discrimination (DID) over levels and the consequences of ignoring DID are illustrated and discussed with the use of multilevel item response models. Simulation results showed that the likelihood ratio test (LRT) performed well in detecting global DID at the test level when some portion of the items exhibited DID. At the item level, the Akaike information criterion (AIC), the sample‐size adjusted Bayesian information criterion (saBIC), LRT, and Wald test showed a satisfactory rejection rate (>.8) when some portion of the items exhibited DID and the items had lower intraclass correlations (or higher DID magnitudes). When DID was ignored, the accuracy of the item discrimination estimates and standard errors was mainly problematic. Implications of the findings and limitations are discussed.     

Convenience or credibility? A study of college student online research behaviors

The purpose of this study was to investigate where students turn for course-related assignments, whether an ordered pattern could be described in terms of which sources students turn to and how students evaluated the information they chose to use. Data were drawn from open-ended questionnaires (n = 282). Semantic network analysis was conducted using CATPAC, artificial neural network software. Results verify previous findings that students turn to the Internet before the library, but a deeper investigation revealed different preferences for study versus project-related research. Specifically, using search engines or Wikipedia was a pre-stage, rather than a final destination, for project work. Interestingly, students were relatively confident in their abilities to discern courses using the Internet. Recommendations for promoting information literacy, as well as recommendations for improving library resource use, are included.     

Investigating the structural relationships among organisational support,learning flow,learners' satisfaction and learning transfer in corporate e‐learning

E‐learning in corporate training has been growing rapidly because of the pursuit of time and budget efficiency in course development and delivery. However, according to previous studies, efficiency does not always guarantee training effectiveness, which is the major concern of human resource development. It is therefore necessary to identify the factors influencing the effectiveness of e‐learning courseware and understand their interrelationships. The purpose of the study is to investigate the structural relationships among organisational support, learning flow, learners' satisfaction and learning transfer. The study participants were 379 learners who completed an e‐learning courseware at a large Korean company and responded to an online survey. Based on the results of structural equation modelling, the findings suggest that organisational support and learning flow have direct effects on learning transfer and learners' satisfaction, while learning flow mediates organisational support and learners' satisfaction.     

Validation of senge ’s learning organization model with teachers of vocational high schools at the Seoul Megalopolis

This study measured and applied Senge ’s (1990) fifth discipline model of learning organizations in a culturally distinct population, namely teachers in 17 vocational high schools located in the Seoul megalopolis. The participants were 976 full-time vocational and academic teachers in public trade/industry-technical and business high schools in the Seoul megalopolis. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine responses from Korean vocational high school teachers to questionnaire items designed to test the theoretical constructs and indices of Senge ’s learning organization model to establish a measurement model. The hypothesized model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Strong evidence was provided for the construct validity of the measurement model (i.e., instrument) to measure the learning organization concept in school contexts. The results also support the notion that the theory of learning organization and related concepts, initially developed against the background of Western culture, can apply to a South Korean school context, reflecting Asian culture.