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Doctoral Degrees (Science and Technology Education)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/7147

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Science and Technology Education) by Author "Govender, Desmond Wesley."

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    E-Learning journeys using Moodle at a private higher education institution in South Africa.
    (2023) Jabar, Raessa.; Govender, Desmond Wesley.
    E-learning tools and Learning Management Systems (LMSs), such as Moodie, have been in existence for decades. However, there has been an accelerated use of such platforms due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries all over the world underwent hard lockdowns that limited face-to-face contact in everyday aspects of our lives. Higher Education Providers responded to ensure that education was accessible via online platforms to allow students to continue their studies during the pandemic. Thus, LMSs were not merely used for uploading or downloading content, but for completing online courses, including assignments, examinations and lectures. Using an LMS became the only means of survival for many educational intuitions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores these aspects from a student and lecturer perspective during COVID-19, using constructs from the Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework and Unified Theory of Use and Acceptance of Technology (UTAUT-3) theory. The aim of the study was: To understand the experiences of lecturers and students using Moodie for e-learning in a learning journey at a Private Distance Higher Education Institution in a COVID-19 environment. This study is based on the pragmatist paradigm, this methodology was deemed appropriate for this study as the study uses a mixed methodology for collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data. This study captures the experiences of lecturers and students using interviews as well as questionnaires. This study was conducted at a Private Distance Higher Education Institution and the sample population were students and lecturers who are part of the MBA programme. The final result of the research revealed that despite initial adaptation challenges in Moodie, lecturers performed as expected and were able to complete their job function during COVID-19 as the platform was accessible and user-friendly. The research further revealed, despite classes moving online, most of the lecturers did not change their teaching methods and that engagement during online sessions was limited. Regarding students, the results revealed that despite having initial adaptation challenges students found the system to be user friendly, pleasurable and beneficial. Students were already equipped for e-learning as they were already using Moodie prior to the pandemic, the research further revealed that students incurred a cost saving as they did not need to travel to lecture venues, the library or examination venues whilst using Moodie as a tool for e-learning. Some of the recommendations arising from the findings of the study for both students and lecturers included upgrading internet packages and making preparation for loadshedding to ensure that studies are not interrupted. Recommendations for the institution included improved communication with both students and lecturers regarding training and support available to maximise the benefits of online engagement and online teaching methodologies.
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    Using web 2.0 technologies to facilitate the collaborative design process among undergraduate engineering students: an actor network study.
    (2016) Chitanana, Lockias.; Alant, Busisiwe Precious.; Govender, Desmond Wesley.
    In this thesis I am motivated by a keen interest in design collaboration, and a belief that the quality of design interactions could be enhanced by employing a repertoire of the new and emerging collaborative technologies in the design process. In this study I employed actor network theory’s (ANT’s) methodological and theoretical framework to investigate the use of Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design by Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering students at the Harare Institute of Technology. In line with ANT, I traced the collaborative design process by following the actors in action (Latour, 2005) when the forces of the network were at work, picking up the traces they left behind to constitute the empirical data for the study. By employing ANT analytical tools the data of the network-tracing activity reveals that the Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative process is an emergent actor network that evolves from associations created among the actors as they negotiate the alignment of interests through a series of translations that occur through moments of problematisation, interessement, enrolment and mobilisation (Callon, 1986b). As the actors went through the moments of translation, various interpretations of the design problem were translated into technical solutions and procedures to be followed in search of a satisfying design solution. The process of achieving agreement (or a stable network) is dependent on the translations that take place among the actors. The analysis shows that Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design is an emergent process. It is a process that evolves from a translation process, during which a hodgepodge of decisions that cannot wait are taken in a complex, dynamic, fluid and constantly changing environment where actions cannot be planned or predicted in any mechanical way (Akrich, Collan, Latour, & Monaghan, 2002). Therefore, the path that the design process takes cannot be predetermined, but emerges from the network of relations that are created by the actors as they work together to achieve their commonly agreed design goals. Considering the Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative as an emergent process clearly demonstrated that it does not take place in a step by step way, as depicted by many design models. Instead, the process moves back and forth between different domains as the design problem and solution co-evolve and are continuously up for revision (Downey, 2005; Petersen, 2013). The affordances of Web 2.0 technology supported the messy talk (Iorio, Peschiera, & Taylor, 2011) that was critical to the development of design solutions. The emergent character of Web 2.0-facilitated collaborative design allows for important theoretical and practical lessons for design educators, to improve the teaching and learning of the collaborative design process. With collaborative design as an emergent process, it is no longer methods alone that produce results, but the reassemblage of the totality of translation that takes place among the actors into a stable network of relationships, and it cannot be taught outside of authentic design projects.