Readiness in Systems Implementation

Author(s):  
Eric Lou ◽  
Hafez Salleh

Higher education sector is notorious for lagging behind the industrial sector in the application of IT/IS systems and infrastructure. This chapter presents the application of the IT/IS readiness model in a higher education organization. This organisation was established in 1967 and currently has about 2,500 staff and 18,000 students, of which, 3,000 are international students from all over the world. The organization comprises of 14 schools and 13 research institutes and offers programmes various fields, which include virtual reality, magnetic and optics, business, law, genetic algorithms, health-related studies, and building construction. In 1996, Academic Division (AD) identified the need to improve the management of the student database due to the increase of students and programs offered by the organization. AD also identified that the Legacy Student Information System (SIS) was unable to cope with the increasing demand of data administration. This case study presents the overview of issues encountered while assessing the e-readiness of the organisation after most of the systems went live. Post implementation, the system has been able to reduce the redundancies in processes and has been able to provide a more effective support to students and staff. However, still there are several issues and conflicts that need to be resolved, and a radical rethink of the processes supporting the IT system is needed to achieve any further efficiency.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-60
Author(s):  
Heidi A. Smith

One way in which higher education has responded to globalisation and the emergence of transculturality has been to expand its focus on internationalisation at an unprecedented rate. Traditionally this occurred through international students and their contact with local students. A longitudinal case study into the student experience of transculturality in the Erasmus Mundus Transcultural European Outdoor Studies Masters programme found transcultural self-growth and transcultural capabilities of resilience, intelligence and the ability to work through fatigue to be central to their experience. Using Kemmis and Smith’s (2008a) themes related to praxis (doing, morally committed action, reflexivity, connection, concreteness and a process of becoming) this theoretical article explores the place of critical transcultural pedagogical praxis in supporting transcultural learning experiences of higher education students.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 607-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tang T. Heng

Scholars have critiqued the current understanding of international students for glossing over its diversity, resulting in the reification of the “international student experience” as either homogeneous or clustered along nationality. Through a qualitative case study of 18 Chinese international students, this article examines the heterogeneity of their experiences despite a common nationality. Findings reveal that Chinese international students’ communication in English, engagement with subject content, preparation for the future, and participation in extracurricular activities vary by year of study, field of study, and, to a small extent, gender. Even within a single nationality, experiences of students are uneven and intersect across various categorical lines, suggesting the possibility that other international students may encounter diverse and intersectional experiences as well. Findings point to how we need to re-conceive and research international students by examining the heterogeneous nature of their experiences, and how higher education institutions can differentiate support given to internationals.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Cao ◽  
Tingting Zhang

This study aims to find out the relationship between the use of SNSs and educational adaptation process of Chinese international students (from China) in New Zealand. Based on interview data, this paper addressed how Chinese international students use SNSs (RenRen, Facebook, etc.) to expand and manage their online social networks to help their adaptation to new educational environment. As a case study of Chinese international students in New Zealand and from the narrative of students, we examined the relationship among educational difficulties, life satisfaction, and the use of SNSs. This study would help in further understanding how and why SNSs can be adopted in higher education to support effective overseas learning experiences.


Author(s):  
Joyce W. Gikandi

The affordances of online learning have coincided with increasing demand for higher education across disciplines. The need to provide appropriate learning support while fostering self-regulation in online higher education calls for formative assessment to facilitate meaningful learning. This chapter attempts to conceptually generalize the findings of a recent collective case study and develop a relevant theoretical framework for online formative assessment. The theoretical framework is intended to inform successful implementation of formative assessment in online learning contexts. The collective case study purposefully conceptualized formative assessment from a holistic pedagogical approach. Investigating application of formative assessment in the recent study explored multifaceted elements including provision of a variety of embedded authentic assessment activities. The theoretical framework advanced through this chapter is therefore an attempt to coherently unify the diverse elements and techniques from the collective case study, and explicate how this creates an effective pedagogical design to promote meaningful learning.


Author(s):  
Yukari Takimoto Amos

Higher education institutions welcome international students because of their status as resources for fostering intercultural competencies among college students and because of financial benefits the institutions receive. The author in this ethnographic case study investigated the level of academic expectations undergraduate international students from Japan received from faculty members in a U.S. teacher education program. Findings reveal that the program's faculty members had low expectations of these international students. Their expectations were reflected in the participants' receiving good grades, praise, and advice which told them not to worry, but failed to address their academic weaknesses. It appears that the faculty members' niceness ironically contributed to a trajectory of academic inequity and produced negative educational outcomes.


Author(s):  
Yukari Takimoto Amos

Higher education institutions welcome international students because of their status as resources for fostering intercultural competencies among college students and because of financial benefits the institutions receive. The author in this ethnographic case study investigated the level of academic expectations undergraduate international students from Japan received from faculty members in a U.S. teacher education program. Findings reveal that the program's faculty members had low expectations of these international students. Their expectations were reflected in the participants' receiving good grades, praise, and advice which told them not to worry, but failed to address their academic weaknesses. It appears that the faculty members' niceness ironically contributed to a trajectory of academic inequity and produced negative educational outcomes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Ashley Simpson

Universities throughout the world contain people of Chinese heritage studying, researching or working in higher educational institutions. This paper offers a case study example from a higher education institution in China in analysing the fluctuating identity positions of Chinese heritage students. From a critical intercultural perspective, the study explores Chinese heritage students’ reflexivity about perceptions of their own Chineseness and foreignness. The paper argues against labeling or categorizing Chinese heritage students as local or international students as the notions are biased insofar that they negate the possibility for identity. Thus, a critical intercultural lens is used as a way to problematise a deeper engagement into dialogues about the self and the other. The paper also problematises the implications the study has for teacher education in terms of attempting to move beyond essentialist logics and practices in how Chinese heritage students are understood and researched.


2021 ◽  
pp. 209653112097665
Author(s):  
Carlos Mendoza ◽  
Fred Dervin ◽  
Mei Yuan ◽  
Heidi Layne

Purpose: Meeting “others,” especially so-called “local” students, is usually seen as a sign of success for intercultural learning and integration in research on study abroad and internationalization of higher education. Previous studies have focused on how international students themselves describe their (mis-)encounters. In this article, the authors consider lecturers’ voices about this phenomenon. Lecturers have an influence on the students’ experiences since they spend a lot of time together in and outside class. Design/Approach/Methods: Using a thematic analysis and social network analysis of interview data with lecturers, and a critical perspective toward the dichotomy of “local” versus “international” students, a university in Finland, a popular destination thanks to its positive image in global education, serves as a case study. Findings: The article identifies privileges, limits, and (missed) opportunities of encounters, as shared by the lecturers in focus group discussions. Furthermore, the lecturers created hierarchies in the way they describedthe encounters between different kinds of students. Some signs of pluralizing both local and international students were also found in some lecturers’ discourses. Originality/Value: The article ends with recommendations for institutions regarding the lecturers’ problematic role of gatekeepers in student encounters and the limiting categories used in institutions of higher education to refer to students.


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