| Autor: |
Baleni, Zwelijongile Gaylard |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL); 2011, p36-41, 6p, 1 Chart |
| Abstrakt: |
Academic staff development has become a challenge due to academics 'tight schedule and workload' at Walter Sisulu University (WSU) which is a comprehensive and multi Campus University. The question is then how to balance academic staff development with the core business of academics being in class always and how can the academic staff development unit achieve its goal of professionalising academics with least disruption of the academic programme?The purpose of the study was to evaluate the level of participation and perception of effectiveness and value among participants in using online discussion forums in Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), WiSeUp to supplement face-to-face staff development at WSU. The study adopted a qualitative interpretive approach. A normal five day face-to-face workshop was conducted over two days, and then other areas were covered on the discussion forum. Thirty lecturers with access to WiSeUp the WSU VLE were conveniently sampled and invited to participate in an on-line discussion forum on an assessment topic. Data was collected through monitoring the on-line discussion forum for five weeks and a questionnaire which was sent by e mail. Employers, for example, of the participants would likely experience relative advantage as their employees would have minimal work time loss and no travel time loss. Another example of a group that might experience relative advantage of on-line forums would be the sponsors of the forum who also have no travel or accommodation expenses. The findings of this study suggest that WiseUp has a potential to become a widespread medium for continuing professional staff development at WSU. The on-line discussion forum was found to be observable, trialable, valuable and acceptable to supplement face-to-face workshops. It is recommended for further use to supplement face-to-face staff development workshops at WSU with room for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
| Externí odkaz: |
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