Stop the E-train! A plea for the thoughtful use of language in computer-conferenced contexts

In this paper, I take the position that the recently increased ‘e-talk’ permeating our language potentially compromises our field's professionalism by ‘one-minutizing’ learning that uses computer-mediated technologies. In so doing, I discuss historical aspects of adult education, the importance of language as a naming function, the evolution of the romance of cyberspace, and the need for adult and distance educators to maintain a clear sense of their practice as distinct from the amorphous clamouring of the burgeoning e-world.     

Computerized Adaptive Testing With Different Groups

How does the use of computerized adaptive testing affect the performance of students from different groups? How consistent were the results of computerized adaptive and “conventional” tests? What did the students think about the test experience? What advice do the authors have for test developers and users?     

‘I’m busy (and competitive)!’ Antecedents of knowledge sharing under pressure

This study considers the dilemma faced by employees every time a colleague requests knowledge: should they share their knowledge? We use adaptive cost theory and self-efficacy theory to examine how individual characteristics (i.e., self-efficacy and trait competitiveness) and situational perceptions (i.e., ‘busyness’ and perceived competition) affect knowledge sharing behaviours. A study was conducted with 403 students who completed a problem-solving exercise and who were permitted (but not required) to respond to requests for knowledge from people who were doing the same activity. Our results suggest that people who perceive significant time pressure are less likely to share knowledge. Trait competitiveness predicted perceived competition. This and low task self-efficacy created a sense of time pressure, which in turn led to people feeling ‘too busy’ to share their knowledge when it was requested. Perceived competition was not directly related to knowledge sharing. Implications for research and practitioners are discussed.     

Engagement and learning through social software in finance: a retrospective on the Trading Room experience

The introduction of a social software blog space called the Trading Room in an undergraduate finance unit generated a great deal of activity to support student learning. A subsequent evaluation of this innovation, viewed through the lens of Activity Theory, demonstrated that students perceived high value in the opportunity it provided for them to reaffirm theories, obtain individualised feedback and benchmark their work against others. While assessment is generally seen as the carrot and the stick of learning; students in the study reported that they would still participate in reading and posting to the Trading Room even if there was no assessment requirement. Students did not see any value in the environment as a purely social space, reporting that they saw it primarily as a professional educational community. It would appear that just as there are different communities in the real world social space, there are also different types of communities in the online space.     

Contextual Constraints on Memory Retrieval at Six Months

In 3 experiments, 6-month-old infants learned to move a mobile by kicking and were tested 1 to 21 days later for retention of the newly acquired memory as a function of the training and testing contexts. In Experiment 1, decreasing the relative distinctiveness of the training and testing context did not impair retrieval of the newly acquired memory. In Experiment 2, however, testing in a different context completely eliminated retention after delays of 1 and 3 days, when retention was otherwise perfect; after progressively longer delays, retention improved paradoxically. The familiarity or novelty of the test context was not a factor in the failure of infants to recognize the mobile in the altered context after 1 day. In Experiment 3, the effect of an altered context was assessed in a reactivation paradigm. After the training memory was forgotten, infants were presented with the original mobile as a reminder and were tested for retention of the training memory 1 day later. When either the reminding context or the testing context was different, they exhibited no retention. These findings reveal that memory retrieval at 6 months is highly specific to the setting in which the memory is acquired. We propose that infants learn what specific events are associated with what specific places prior to the age when they can locomote independently and acquire a spatiotemporal map of the relations between those places.     

Managing the Process of International Collaboration in Online Course Development: A Case-Example Involving Higher Education Institutions in Ireland,Switzerland, Austria,and the United Kingdom

There has been significant growth recently in online learning and joint programmes of education involving collaborative partnerships between and among higher education institutions in different jurisdictions. Utilising an interdisciplinary team model (Care and Scanlan 2001), we describe in this article the process of collaboration among four European institutions in Austria, Ireland, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom in order to develop and deliver an accredited online course on the management of work-related stress for health and social care workers. This course was also one of the first to pilot a system of equivalency between two European vocational and higher education credit schemes to promote learner mobility and recognition of a new international qualification. Although this process of collaboration occurred within a pan-European context, important lessons may be drawn from this explanation that are of potential interest to the wider international audience.