Academics’ ICT Capabilities in a New Educational Paradigm in Developing Countries

Tertiary institutions in the developing countries are investing a lot in equipping their institutions with Information Communication Technologies (ICT) for teaching and learning. However, there is still a low adoption rate in the use of the new technologies among many academics in these countries. This chapter aims at analysing the factors that impact on the academics’ effective use of ICTs for teaching and learning in the new education paradigm. Sen’s Capability Approach was used as a conceptual lens to examine the academics’ phenomena. Data was collected through in-depth interviews. The analysis of the findings has shown that individual, social, and environmental factors are preventing some academics from realising their potential capabilities from using the new technologies. It is recommended, therefore, that institutions in the developing countries should look into, and deal with accordingly, the conversion factors that are impacting on the academics’ capabilities when utilising the new technologies.

Evaluation of Transversal Competences of the Engineering Students and their Relation to the Enterprise Requirements

The importance of the evaluation of the transversal competences in engineering studies is explained in this chapter. Transversal competences are of great importance to enterprises that like to recruit students after their graduation. They look for trained professionals, thoroughly prepared not only to solve practical problems but also to be successfully integrated in a team work. Transversal competences are not directly related to the theoretical content of the curricula, and the assessment of the level of transversal competences developed through the university studies is not an easy task. A methodology for evaluating transversal skills during the Final Year Project (FYP) assessment is proposed. And a new modality of FYP to improve the acquisition of transversal skills is presented.

ERP Modules for Industry-Institute Interaction, Training and Placement, and Alumni Management

Industry-institute interaction, training, and placement are very important aspects to be considered while designing any system to improve the methodologies for the education sector. This chapter deals with the different modules related to industry institute management, training and placement, alumni database, and management to be covered while designing an erp system for improving these most important areas for any academic institution. Some of the modules to be covered in industry-institute management are as follows: database of industries, industrial visits for enhancing knowledge of students as well as faculty, regular lectures from speakers from industry, providing technical training to staff from industry by means of workshop/seminar/small term courses, and providing technical/consultancy services to industry. Some of the modules to be covered in training and placement management are as follows: database of industries, vocational training to students for enhancing their knowledge, database of students and their academic performance, arrangement of programmes for soft skill development, guidance to students for written exam, group discussions, and personal interviews. Some of the modules to be covered in alumni management are as follows: database of alumni, networking of alumni, interaction with alumni for different issues like industrial visits, placement, guest lectures, institutional developments, et cetera.

Business Process Simulation in Academia

In light of the proliferation of information technology in every area of society/business, its adoption by academia seems like a natural extension of this trend. What the authors find, however, is that few examples exist of the use of Business Process Management to improve processes in academia. This chapter presents simulations as a necessary mechanism for understanding and overseeing organizations as they undergo a continuous process of change. Enterprises, their organization, business processes, and supporting information technology must be understood as socio-technical systems that consist of people (human actors) and technical subsystems and their complicated relationships. In designing, redesigning, and improving such systems, modeling and simulation methods are not only relevant, but essential.

ERP Adoption

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been a major investment for most companies since the early nineties. ERP is a type of investment that has an integrated approach, and has been widely adopted, but there is little empirical evidence about how ERP implementation affects company performance. This chapter begins with the discussion of ERP investment and its role as a commodity or as a strategic investment. Then follows a discussion of an industry in which companies have invested enormous amounts of money on ERP. Finally, in spite of the growing dominance of ERP systems, there is still little empirical evidence on the type of benefits that companies get from an ERP implementation. Therefore, it is important to understand the effects of ERP in cross-functional systems.

Institutional Knowledge Repositories

An Institutional Knowledge Repository (IKR) is “a digital archive of intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution, with few if any barriers to access.” This chapter discusses the growing trend in Open Access Repositories, Institutional Repositories worldwide. It throws light on the concepts of enterprise resource planning and enterprise content management and then explores academic institutions in India who have already initiated the use of Institutional Knowledge Repositories, as an enterprise content management system for knowledge sharing & management with regard to content, access, and other factors.

Design, Development, and Implementation of an ERP Security Course

Contemporary organizations rely on ERP systems to implement their business processes. Moreover, there is a high demand from companies for ERP systems because it is an effective management system that optimizes productivity. It is important for next generation managers to understand what ERP systems are as well as the impacts for an organisation to implement an ERP system. This reliance on ERP indicates the importance of studying security issues and requirements in an ERP Environment. Information Security is both a theoretical and practical discipline and can vary from a technical aspect to the management aspect. Educational institutions must educate students to concepts, strategies, and tools that promote security of ERP systems so that after studying the certain course students understand technical, technological, management, and human security problems, identify and respond to information security challenges in ERP systems, evaluate and implement security solutions and tools to protect ERP systems against risks, and finally design information security policies, and evaluate and apply organizational security objectives. This chapter examines how universities and educational institutions are responding to current educational needs by integrating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) security course to current curriculum programs and propose a course framework.

Towards an Ontology-Based Educational Information System

Nowadays in higher education, we create lots of documents and datasets for every activity. We have to maintain course, program, and syllabus information, and also the connections between the course themes. We can download some documentation for this information, but there are many questions difficult to answer. Also we can find some HR related or organizational issues. The authors are working for an ontology which is able to picture the connections between the actors of a higher education system. Their ontology is built with integrating some existing one, for example AIISO (Academic Institution Internal Structure Ontology), FOAF (Friend of a Friend) and DC (Dublin Core). The ontology has four connected parts. These can describe an organization with its internal structure, the program and courses of a University, the people connected with the organizations, the courses or some documents. The authors can also characterize course materials, such as documents, books, or multimedia contents and can connect the knowledge base with ERP systems also.

Learn to Learn to Integrate ERP-Systems and Content Knowledge Using Problem Based Learning and Cases

Research in the integration of technology and content knowledge using problem-based learning (PBL) is a challenge. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to describe experiences and lessons learned from integrating ERP-systems (enterprise resource planning systems) into economic topics course using PBL and cases created for the integration of technology and content knowledge in a business school setting. The mission was to develop the economic students’ analyzing abilities using a ERP-system as a pedagogical tool. A summary table describes how problem-based learning and cases were developed and used within collaboration among universities, colleagues, businesses, and students to accomplish integration of both technology and content knowledge. The experience was that students developed abilities to analyze technology from both theory and a deeper understanding of theory by analyzing technology. The lessons learned were that integration of technology and content knowledge using problem based learning and cases is a never-ending cooperative and learning process.

Knowledge Management Model for Electronic Textbook Design

This chapter aims to describe a new knowledge management (KM) model, which can be considered an enterprise resources planning model proved in Electronic Textbook in Electronic Portfolio technology. The model comprises a dynamic and flexible instructional strategy which allows constructing the personalized digital content through development of core structure of competence. This strategy allows bidirectional transitions from tacit to explicit knowledge and hermeneutic dialogues. The KM model can be described using adjacency matrix and optimized knowledge graphs techniques. The target audience of this chapter is expected to be consisted of educational management students, professionals and researchers working in the field of education including policy makers, consultants, and agencies. Applications and methodologies validate the educational efficiency of KM model for electronic textbook design. The affordance of the KM model for education relies on informational / communicational processes, cognitive processes, and computerized assessment processes.