Understanding the role of the bring-your-own-device policy in medical education and healthcare delivery at the University of Botswana’s Faculty of Medicine

Purpose Seeking to leverage on benefits of personal mobile device use, medical schools and healthcare facilities are increasingly embracing the use of personal mobile devices for medical education and healthcare delivery through bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. However, empirical research findings that could guide the development of BYOD policies are scarce. Available research is dominated by studies that were guided by technocentric approaches, hence seemingly overlooking the complexities of the interactions of actors in mobile device technologies implementation. The purpose of this study was to use the actor–network theory to explore the potential role of a BYOD policy at the University of Botswana’s Faculty of Medicine. Design/methodology/approach Purposive sampling was used to select the participants and interviews, focus group discussions, observations and document analysis were used to collect data. Data were collected from 27 participants and analysed using grounded theory techniques. Emerging themes were continually compared and contrasted with incoming data to create broad themes and sub-themes and to establish relationships or patterns from the data. Findings The results suggest that the potential roles for BYOD policy include promoting appropriate mobile device use, promoting equitable access to mobile devices and content, and integrating mobile devices into medical education, healthcare delivery and other institutional processes. Research limitations/implications BYOD policy could be conceptualized and researched as a “script” that binds actors/actants into a “network” of constituents (with shared interests) such as medical schools and healthcare facilities, mobile devices, internet/WiFi, computers, software, computer systems, medical students, clinical teachers or doctors, nurses, information technology technicians, patients, curriculum, information sources or content, classrooms, computer labs and infections. Practical implications BYOD is a policy that seeks to represent the interests (presents as a solution to their problems) of the key stakeholders such as medical schools, healthcare facilities and mobile device users. BYOD is introduced in medical schools and healthcare facilities to promote equitable access to mobile devices and content, appropriate mobile device use and ensure distribution of liability between the mobile device users and the institution and address the implication of mobile device use in teaching and learning. Originality/value The BYOD policy is a comprehensive solution that transcends other institutional policies and regulations to fully integrate mobile devices in medical education and healthcare delivery.

Does context shape comprehension: evaluating the influence of presentation on inquiry strategies in science learning

Purpose Approaches to learning have the ability to influence knowledge acquisition, comprehension, retention and even motivation to learn. Previous work indicates that despite age, experience, or prior knowledge, students have a tendency to approach learning differently as a function of the presented content. The purpose of this study is to explore how context influences student approaches to learning science. Design/methodology/approach The authors adopt a question-asking methodology to evaluate if approaches to learning the same science content vary when presented within the context of Pure Science or the History of Science. Findings Results indicate that contextualizing the presentation of science content, shifts the approaches students take in attempting to learn science content as evidenced by the questions they ask to deepen their understanding. Additional variables of prior experience with each scientific concept, task persistence at a distractor task and later recall of the presented concepts were related to different inquiry strategies. Research limitations/implications Implications for instructional design and pedagogy are discussed. Practical implications The framework in which scientific information is presented may impact how students modify existing and create a new schema, impacting their beliefs about scientific knowledge and the way in which students question, hypothesize and engage within the domain of science. Social implications By studying the role of inquiry while students engage in science learning, the authors explore the role of context, content and knowledge retention. Originality/value The current study probes at the nature of student questioning and its reliance on the content, context and its relationship to outcome variables such as learning and, perhaps, even persistence as it relates to students’ prior knowledge within content areas which may, in turn, lead to varying levels of student self-efficacy.

Families’ engagement in making activities related to aerospace engineering: designing for parents as learning partners in pop-up makerspaces

Purpose The researchers conducted a collective case study to investigate how families engaged in making activities related to aerospace engineering in six pop-up makerspace programs held in libraries and one museum. The purpose of this paper is to support families’ engagement in design tasks and engineering thinking, three types of discussion prompts were used during each workshop. The orienting design conjecture was that discussion prompts would allow parents to lead productive conversations to support engineering-making activities. Design/methodology/approach Within a collective case study approach, 20 consented families (22 adults, 25 children) engaged in making practices related to making a lunar rover with a scientific instrument panel. Data included cases of families’ talk and actions, as documented through video (22 h) and photographs of their engineering designs. An interpretivist, qualitative video-based analysis was conducted by creating individual narrative accounts of each family (including transcript excerpts and images). Findings Parents used the question prompts in ways that were integral to supporting youths’ participation in the engineering activities. Children often did not answer the astronomer’s questions directly; instead, the parents revoiced the prompts before the children’s engagement. Family prompts supported reflecting upon prior experiences, defining the design problem and maintaining the activity flow. Originality/value Designing discussion prompts, within a broader project-based learning pedagogy, supports family engagement in engineering design practices in out-of-school pop-up makerspace settings. The work suggests that parents play a crucial role in engineering workshops for youths aged 5 to 10 years old by revoicing prompts to keep families’ design work and sensemaking talk (connecting prior and new ideas) flowing throughout a makerspace workshop.

Designing for others: the roles of narrative and empathy in supporting girls’ engineering engagement

Purpose Science museums provide a context for developing and testing engineering activities that support visitors in creating personally meaningful objects. This study aims to propose that narrative design elements in such engineering activities can foster empathy to support engineering engagement among girls ages 7–14. Design/methodology/approach Taking a constructionist approach to engineering design, the authors present results from an observational study (n = 202 girls) of engineering activities across three museums that were designed to foster girls’ engineering engagement by integrating narrative elements aimed to foster empathy in activities. Using quantitative counts from observation protocols, the authors conducted statistical analyses to explore relationships between narrative, engineering and empathy. Findings Linear regression demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between empathy and increased numbers of engineering practices within museum activities. Additionally, this led us to explore the impacts the potential narrative design elements may have on designing for empathy – multiple linear regressions found both narrative and empathy to be independently associated with engineering practices. Overall, the authors found that using narrative to design activities to elicit empathy resulted in girls demonstrating more engineering practices. Originality/value The authors offer design ideas to foster aspects of empathy, including user-centered design, perspective-taking, familiarity and desire to help.

SCAFFOLDing all abilities into makerspaces: a design framework for universal, accessible and intersectionally inclusive making and learning

Purpose In response to the underexplored need for holistically inclusive makerspaces for learning, we put propose the “SCAFFOLD” framework, which considers equity, inclusion and accessibility in the design of spaces and activities for socioculturally diverse learners. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a universal design (UD) framework that is intersectionally inclusive for learners with diverse needs in makerspaces and maker activities. This paper provides conjecture mapping to put forth theoretical and empirical arguments for the design of holistically inclusive makerspaces that consider gender equity and cultural inclusivity, as well as accessibility for diverse learners with divergent and unique abilities and dis/abilities. Findings Combining related literature and three existing UD frameworks (i.e. UD, web accessibility and UD for learning) and prior research on equity and inclusivity in making, this paper proposes the integration of eight principles, which leverage individuals’ diverse abilities to become agentic makers: simplicity, collaboration, accessibility, flexibility, fail-safe, object-oriented, linkability and diversity. Research limitations/implications Researchers who have implemented conjecture maps (Lee et al., 2018) have found them to be useful for developing theory and learning designs grounded in research and practice. However, it should be noted that design research is iterative and contextual, and conjecture maps are effective in providing visibility and rigor, but are meant to be flexible and responsive to changes in context (Lee et al., 2018; Sandoval, 2014). Originality/value This paper provides practical guidelines and principles for researchers, educators, instructional designers and product developers to assess and redesign makerspaces and activities that are intersectionally and universally inclusive, equitable and accessible.

How do designers and engineers practice design while Making? A narrative inquiry of designers who Make

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how designers and engineers practice design while Making. Motivated by their roots in constructionist learning principles, Makerspaces are increasingly used as sites to learn design, especially in undergraduate engineering education programs. However, there has been little work on how trained designers Make and how design emerges in their Maker practices. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a conceptual framework is constructed to identify design practices within Making informed by theories of human-centered design and designerly ways of knowing. The framework is used to analyze narratives of ten experienced designers and Makers to understand how they enact design while they Make. Findings The rich and compelling narratives of the participants support the proposed conceptual framework, providing qualitative evidence for how designers practice and know design while Making. This study also reports on a strong theme of realizing purpose and personal meaning while Making across the participants’ narratives that sheds light on the unique and educationally meaningful value of Making, as in Making being a venue for agentive constructivist learning. Research limitations/implications As an educationally meaningful practice, Making can be explored from several lenses, and this research solely uses a design lens. Practical implications The motivations of the study are twofold. First, to understand how designers practice human-centered design and use design knowledge while Making. Second, to support the epistemological legitimacy of Maker knowledge by establishing connections with design knowledge. Originality/value This paper contributes to the limited body of scholarly work to conceptualize experienced designers’ Maker practices. Work in this area can inform learning outcomes and performance expectations in educational settings.

Assessing elementary students’ collaborative problem-solving in makerspace activities

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify and assess collaborative problem solving (CPS) behaviors in elementary students in science, technology, engineering, arts/humanities and mathematics (STEAM)-related making and to garner students perspectives. We offer a valid way for researchers to understand collaborative processes and for educators to create opportunities for collaboration. Additionally, the feedback from the assessment offers students a way to reflect on their CPS skills. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study evaluated 52 elementary students’ CPS skills using co-measure, a validated rubric assessing students’ CPS when working in STEAM-related makerspace activities. Students worked in collaborative groups to “make” artifacts when solving a problem posed by their teacher. They were assessed using co-measure’s four dimensions: peer interactions, positive communication, inquiry rich/multiple paths and transdisciplinary approaches and scored via each dimension’s associated attributes. Student interviews provided their perspectives on CPS. Findings A majority of students scored in the acceptable or proficient range in the social dimensions of peer interactions and positive communication. Students scored slightly lower on the cognitive dimensions of inquiry rich/multiple paths and markedly lower on transdisciplinary approaches when collaborating. Findings suggest to increase CPS skills, teachers might develop “making” activities fostering greater inquiry and model ways to strategize and verify information, approach the problem drawing on student interest and prior knowledge and collaboratively use tools, materials and methods that mimic the real world when problem-solving. Originality/value Much of the current research on assessing CPS during making is in the early stages of considering appropriate assessment approaches, especially in schools. To expand this literature the study includes elementary students between the ages of 6-10, the focus is on assessing their collaboration using an observational rubric. The authors use preliminary findings from young children’s perspectives on making to position the future work.

Epistemic beliefs and internet reliance – is algorithmic authority part of the picture?

Purpose The internet and search engines dominate within people’s information acquisition, especially among the younger generations. Given this trend, this study aims to explore if information and communication technology (ICT) practices, internet reliance and views of knowledge and knowing, i.e. epistemic beliefs, interact with each other. Everyday practices and conceptions among beginning undergraduate students are studied as a challenge for higher education. Design/methodology/approach The study builds upon survey-based quantitative data operationalising students’ epistemic beliefs, their internet reliance and their ICT practices. The survey items were used to compute subscales describing these traits, and the connections were explored using correlations analysis. Findings The results suggest that the more beginning undergraduate students rely on internet-based information, the more they are inclined to epistemic beliefs where knowledge is regarded as certain, unchanging, unambiguous and as being handed down by some authority. Research limitations/implications The approach used in the study applies to the sample used, and further research is required to test the applicability of the approach on larger samples. Practical implications The study highlights the risk of everyday information practices being transferred into the educational context. Social implications Ignorance of these changes may pose a risk for knowledge building on different educational levels and in a longer perspective, a threat to democracy. Originality/value While there is some research on epistemic beliefs in relation to internet-based information, studies approaching the problem over a possible connection between epistemic beliefs and internet reliance are scarce. In addition, this study implies a conceptual bridge between epistemic beliefs and internet reliance over the concept of algorithmic authority.

(Design) thinking out loud: adolescents’ design talk in a library makerspace tabletop game design camp

Purpose This paper aims to explore how making tabletop board games elicited adolescents’ design thinking during their participation in a summer game design camp at their local library. Design/methodology/approach This study leverages qualitative approaches to coding transcripts of participants’ talk. This study uses the design thinking framework from the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University as provisional codes to identify and make sense of participants’ verbalized design activity. Findings This study found that the making context of designing tabletop board games elicited a high frequency of design talk in participants, evidenced by both quantitative and qualitative reports of the data. Additionally, participants in large measure obviated constraints on their design activity imposed by linear conceptions of the design thinking model this study introduces, instead of moving fluidly across design modes. Finally, participants’ prior experiences in both life and in regard to games significantly influenced their design study. Originality/value This study highlights the unique affordances of making-centric approaches to designing tabletop games in particular, such as participants’ quick and sustained engagement in the study of design. This study also highlights the need for conceptions of design thinking specific to designing games.