LIB 4900 – Social Informatics – Fall 2015

We are just one person short of having a 100% response rate for the course evaluations. If you are that one person, please complete your evaluation. You can log in to do it at:

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/ote/evals/

If you missed a class, you can still get credit for the freewriting exercises we did that day. Just go back to the “Classroom Activities” page on the course website, scroll down to the day that you missed, and find the freewriting prompt. Then complete the exercise (allot yourself the usual ten minutes) and share the Google Doc with me.

I’ll accept these missed freewriting opportunities up to 6 pm on December 17 (the day of our final exam).

Assisted Learning in E-Assessment: A Closer Look at Educational Supports

MLA Citation: Lafuente, Marc, Ana Remesal, and Ibis M. Álvarez Valdivia. “Assisting Learning In E-Assessment: A Closer Look At Educational Supports.” Assessment & Evaluation In Higher Education 39.4 (2014): 443-460. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

Research Question: After analyzing 2 different classes ( one blended and one virtual case) what and how are the patterns revolving around two interaction processes this type of education fosters; “the promotion of greater autonomy in the students and (2) the construction of more appropriate meanings by them. The main purpose of this study is to analyse how specific support devices in e-assessment practices may or may not help to making students more autonomous and to the construction of more adequate meanings (Mark Lafuente)”.

Research Method: The method for this was a case study where they looked at and examined two different universities in Spain.

Extent to which this article takes a social informatics approach to the research study: This definitely relates to S.I. approach because it followed a scientific research methods approach in the way they laid out their research question all the way to the conclusion. The way they researched was even comparable as they did not just look for one or two patterns but the whole general scope of the field. This includes what happened prior to the assessment activity itself (or test), while discussing and clarifying norms and expectations, for instance and afterwards. At the same time correcting or giving feedback throughout the process. It goes on to read that it collected and identified 148 educational supports received by the individual student in the blended case and 412 supports in the virtual case. Lastly it studied the all the negotiation of meanings around the assessment contents, which is very similar to the Social informatics approach to looking at the ties and connections in the field. This case went in depth and the study was definitely if not extremely close to following a S.I. like approach.

Almost every year that I’ve assigned an annotated bibliography assignment, one of my students has made the fateful mistake of copying phrases or sentences from the abstracts of the articles (or from the text of the article) they have listed. Please make sure that in your annotated bibliography and in your literature review, you always use quotation marks to indicate language that isn’t yours or you may also paraphrase.

For advice about how to paraphrase or use quotation marks, please see these guides:

• “Quoting, Paraphrases, and Summarizing”
• “Using Quotations”
• “Paraphase and Summary”
• “Paraphrase: Write It In Your Own Words”
• “Verbs for Referring to Sources”

If you need help, please contact me or stop by the Writing Center.

In the past, I’ve had to give an F on the assignment when a student has plagiarized.

MLA:

Corbitt, Gail, and James Mensching. “Integrating SAP R/3 into a College of Business Curriculum: Lessons Learned.” Information Technology and Management 1.4 (2000): 247-58. Web.

Research Question:

What is the problem of implementation the SAP and how does the college overcome these challenges?

Methodology:

The research methodology that the author uses in this article is case study. The authors use the case study from a team at CSU Chico to discuss the research question. In this case study, authors explain how does the SAP, a ERP system begin to develop and what is the challenges that they could face since the first year until the third year.

Another methodology that authors use in this article is survey. Authors send surveys to the faculty and student. Authors say, “A brief survey that was sent to our faculty confirms this interwoven nature of business disciplines” (256). The purpose of this survey is to get the rank about how faculty and feel after using SAP ERP. Another survey is send to student, authors say, “survey data from students completing the ERP Configuration classes indicate that students have a sense that they understand the integrated nature of the discipline better” (256). Authors got the survey result and then explain the overall outcome of the SAP.

Extend to the aspect of Social Informatics perspectives:

Individual: Student is the individual aspect in this article. Student who complete ERP configuration classes has higher salary compared to student who doesn’t has any experience or understanding of ERP.

Organization: Faculty team is the organization aspect in this article because they begin the implementation of SAP system and also introducing the courses into the curriculum. Faculty team also set up as technical support team and monitor and administrates the SAP.

Technology: The main technology aspect in this article definitely is the SAP. Authors say that, “SAP AG produces a client/server, enterprise information system…logistics” (250). The whole article has been discussing about the implementation issue of SAP and how to overcome this technology’s challenges.

MLA CITATION:  Ullah, Mohammad Sahid, Weiyu Zhang, and Emmanuel C Lallana. “ICTs Changing Youths’ Political Attitudes and Behaviors in Bangladesh.” International Communication Gazette 75.3: 271-83. Web.

Research Question:How information and communication technologies (ICTs) changing the political views of the youths in Bangladesh?

Methodology: The author collected data through interview. 63 focus group took part in to the research process.

Extent to which this article takes a social informatics approach to the research study: 

The information technology has a major impact on the socio-economic and political change in the world. The political views and values of the young generation are changing through the use of social media. The journal article tried to find out what societal change does the ICT brought to a developing country like Bangladesh.

Because of the easy access to the internet the internet the young generation of Bangladesh are more connected to each other. They can express their views to the social media, which would have been impossible without the ICT development. Now the young generations coming out with new ideas and they can spread those very easily through the use of social media.

MLA: Millichap, Nancy. “Integrated Planning and Advising for Student Success: Focus on the Transformation of Advising.” EDUCAUSE. 30 Oct. 2015. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

This article is relevant to my research topic because it discuss about how student may struggle when registering class and the ways to solve this problem. The author mentioned the tool called, “iPass” that some college used to help college student to register.

MLA Citation:

Bichsel, Jacqueline. “The State of E-Learning in Higher Education: An Eye Towards Growth and Increased Access.” Educause. Educause. Web. 12 Nov 2015.

How it is related to topic:

This is related to our topic directly because it studies how e-learning technologies in its totality. This source detailed everything including the uses of e-learning technologies in higher education, the economic stats to ways in which e-learning technologies can reach a broader range of students to increase growth. There was a very neat statistic that displayed the most important factors in e-learning technologies from the students’ perspective and one of the most important factors included overall effectiveness, ease of use for students and also accessibility. There was also a section that explored the perceived concerns about e-learning technologies which relates to our topic and can also be very helpful.

US Department of Education. “Total Amount of Student Aid Distributed in The United States, by Federal Grant Program from 2009 to 2015 (in 2014 Million U.S. Dollars).” Statista – The Statistics Portal. Statista. 13 Nov 2015. <http://www.statista.com/statistics/235630/student-aid-distributed-in-the-us-by-program/>

We found the above table on Statista. Statista compiled its information of from U.S. Department of Education. The table breaks it down year, between 2009 and 2015 and type of federal grant awarded, from Pell grants to SMART grants, etc.

Online Computer Library Center. “Benefits of Online Learning According to U.S. Users in as of January 2014.” Statista – The Statistics Portal. Statista. 13 Nov 2015. <http://www.statista.com/statistics/334291/benefits-of-online-learning-usa/>

Why it’s applicable?: Looks at the statistics for what is the most common listed benefits to online learning for the year 2014. Responses were from an open ended question to be fair: “Thinking about your overall online learning experiences, what would you say has been the most beneficial aspect of those experiences?”

Online Computer Library Center. “Challenges Encountered by Online Learners in The United States in 2014.” Statista – The Statistics Portal. Statista. 13 Nov 2015. <http://www.statista.com/statistics/334356/challenges-encountered-by-online-learners-usa/>

Why? Looks at the top problems/challenges for online learners for the year 2014. Very useful to our subject as we’re trying to find out why students disregard blackboard and its tools. Looking at the challenges we can see the correlation with the issues and the use of Blackboard.

Parker, Kim et. al. “The Digital Revolution and Higher Education”

Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center Web 12 Nov 2015

Why?: It relates to the topic of the prevalence of online courses, online students, future of online learning and  digital text books.