Browsing by Author "Whyte, Grafton"

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    Transforming distance learning in South Africa with emerging technologies: the academic view
    (University of the Western Cape, 2008) Erasmus, Margaretha; Whyte, Grafton; Mansfield, GIen
    Within a context of rapid technological change and shifting market conditions, the South African education system is challenged with providing increased education opportunities without increased budgets. Many educational institutions are answering the challenge without increased budgets. Several educational institutions are answering the challenge by developing distance education programs through information technology, but in the case of one institution, strategic intentions involving information technology and distance learning have not been fulfilled. At its most basic level, distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are separated by physical distance. Technology, often in combination with face-to-face communication, can be used to bridge instructional gaps. It can be argued that modes of teaching and learning are changing, and we must redefine what is meant by the word "student". For example: what should we really call an adult involved in lifelong learning? The term "student" seems inappropriate. These types of programs can provide adults with a second chance at tertiary education, reach those disadvantaged by limited time, distance or physical disability, and update the knowledge base of workers at their places of employment. The aim of this research is to determine and understand the growing role of information technology in promoting quality assurance in higher education, and in expanding the education opportunities and workplace learning through the use of distance learning. This work investigates how distance learning can be improved by making use of IT with particular regard to the underprivileged, and the potential contribution to national transformation. This is summarized in the research question: "How can we improve distance learning in South Africa with emerging technologies?" A review of the literature, interviews with experts, and reviews of conference papers provided the principle inputs. The academic literatures were supplemented by studies of papers from the Department of Education and other non-academic sources. Based on the reading of the literature, and the views of experts, questionnaires and field experiments were designed and applied to a statistically significant population of respondents. A combination of statistical analysis and content analysis of open questions from the questionnaires lead to comparative evidence about different learning styles and different communities of learners, and the extent to which different learning styles are effective for the different kinds of learners.
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    Transforming distance learning in South Africa with emerging technologies: the academic view
    (2008) Erasmus, Margaretha; Whyte, Grafton; Mansfield, Glen
    Within a context of rapid technological change and shifting market conditions, the South African education system is challenged with providing increased education opportunities without increased budgets. Many educational institutions are answering the challenge without increased budgets. Several educational institutions are answering the challenge by developing distance education programs through information technology, but in the case of one institution, strategic intentions involving information technology and distance learning have not been fulfilled. At its most basic level, distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are separated by physical distance. Technology, often in combination with face-to-face communication, can be used to bridge instructional gaps. It can be argued that modes of teaching and learning are changing, and we must redefine what is meant by the word “student”. For example: what should we really call an adult involved in life long learning? The term “student” seems inappropriate. These types of programs can provide adults with a second chance at tertiary education, reach those disadvantaged by limited time, distance or physical disability, and update the knowledge base of workers at their places of employment. The aim of this research is to determine and understand the growing role of information technology in promoting quality assurance in higher education, and in expanding the education opportunities and workplace learning through the use of distance learning. This work investigates how distance learning can be improved by making use of IT with particular regard to the underprivileged, and the potential contribution to national transformation. This is summarized in the research question: “How can we improve distance learning in South Africa with emerging technologies?” review of the literature, interviews with experts, and reviews of conference papers provided the principle inputs. The academic literatures were supplemented by studies of papers from the Department of Education and other non-academic sources. Based on the reading of the literature, and the views of experts, questionnaires and field experiments were designed and applied to a statistically significant population of respondents. A combination of statistical analysis and content analysis of open questions from the questionnaires lead to comparative evidence about different learning styles and different communities of learners, and the extent to which different learning styles are effective for the different kinds of learners.
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    Understanding IT management in Higher Education
    (2015) Bytheway, Andrew J.; Whyte, Grafton; Venter, Isabel
    A meeting of academics concluded that the management of IT resources in education is sub-optimal and under-researched. The extent of IT-related changes indicates a need for strategic management, proper attention to the expectations of stakeholders, and careful management of the implementation of new systems. Representative role players provided both open and structured input to a study that contrasted open coding of transcribed text and structured analysis of repertory grid data. The results of the open coding were limited but the repertory grid data provided useful insight into the management of information technology and information systems in higher education. The principal findings were that the management of the scope of information systems, services and projects must be managed well, and when coupled with risk management this provides the best possibility of successful working. The controlled management of cost, value, and innovation, are revealed to be distinct areas of strategic importance.
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    Understanding stakeholder expectations in higher education
    (CONF-IRM, 2017) Bytheway, Andrew J.; Venter, Isabella; Whyte, Grafton
    Higher education invests heavily in information technology and information systems, with variable outcomes. Organisations in other sectors, such as engineering, the defence industry, public administration and business, have developed and adopted good practice for the choice, development and operation of software-based systems that are only sometimes understood in higher education. In order to assess the extent to which good practice might assist higher education, the four tertiary institutions in the Western Cape of South Africa were approached and a representative range of academic, administrative, technical and managerial respondents agreed to contribute to the study. Interviews were organised in two parts: the first an open conversation about their involvement with systems, and the second a structured examination of systems-related events that they considered significant. By inspection of those events, bipolar scales were developed by which respondents were able to characterise events (for example as ‘challenging’ or ‘easy’, or as ‘functional’ or ‘dysfunctional’). Respondents rated events on those scales. Repertory Grid analysis was applied so as to investigate which scales correlated with event success. 30 scales (out of 170) proved to be adequately correlated with success, and by principal component analysis they were combined to form ten ‘success scale’ groups, indicating ten areas where the deployment of good practice might be expected to lead to more effective use of improved information systems. A new Reference Model is developed that has a role to play in resolving the transitions between the domains of the Information Management Body of Knowledge (IMBOK).
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    Using storytelling to elicit tacit knowledge from subject matter experts in an organization
    (2010) Classen, Selwyn Ivor; Whyte, Grafton
    Knowledge Management has been at the heart of mounting focus over the last several years. Research and literature on the area under discussion has grown and organizations have come to realize that success is often determined by one’s ability to create, disseminate, and embody knowledge in products and services. This realization has led to increased interest in examining the ways in which knowledge can be effectively identified, elicited, codified, distributed and retained.When an employee leaves an organization, the knowledge they possess often goes with them. This loss can potentially have a negative impact on the productivity and quality of the organization. Knowledge Management seeks to find ways to minimize loss of knowledge when an employee leaves an organization. One of the impediments that knowledge management seeks to overcome is the accepted tendency in people to hoard knowledge. People often withhold knowledge when they feel it provides them with a competitive advantage over others. The argument of this study was intended to provide the organization with an approach that it can utilize to facilitate tacit knowledge elicitation by means of the storytelling method.In keeping with Grounded theory principles, and utilising an interpretive approach, stories from Subject Matter Experts were collected and re-coded into fitting knowledge management constructs. The coding of the stories into the various knowledge management constructs was then further refined by means of expert review. Pearson’s cross correlation analysis was also used as a supporting tool to determine and validate that the collected stories were classified correctly under the knowledge management constructs. The research findings eventually demonstrated that storytelling is an effective means of eliciting tacit knowledge from experts. In addition to this, the research has inadvertently resulted in the construction of a knowledge management framework for storytelling.
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    The V-model of service quality: An African case study
    (Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2017) Whyte, Grafton; Bytheway, Andy
    This paper aims to introduce and demonstrate a new model for service quality that separates out the measurement of service quality in ways grounded in psychological theory and methodological symmetry.A review of experience in service quality management suggests that new approaches are needed. By seeking a way of managing service at different levels, with symmetry between data collection and data analysis, a model is presented that has more potential applicability and flexibility than is found in traditional models.