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Chapter 4 Students’ perspective of digital technologies in higher education
No full textThis research is based on data collected through the online survey for students of the ECOLHE project's first intellectual output - Comparative Research Report on Digital Technologies in higher education: from the European Vision to the University17. ECOLHE - Empower competences for online learning in higher education - examined the “translation into practice” of the idea of e-learning in European higher education (Latour, 2005; Freeman; 2009) at a national level by academic bodies. Universities involved were E-Campus University (IT), Roma Tre University (IT), University Oberta de Catalunya (ES), University College of Cork (IR), University of Patras (GR) and Laurea University (FI). The project aimed to highlight the experiences, practices and competencies of teachers, researchers and university staff members active in the digital field in order to promote the dissemination of good practices in training and skills development for “online” learning in Higher Education (HE). For this reason, the main scope of the questionnaire built for the present research was to investigate students’ perception of the ability to integrate digital technologies into organisational and training processes supporting teaching/learning activities. The research started from the idea that it was possible to analyse the dimensions of students’ digital maturity18 by studying their perceptions of the university’s capability to carry out good processes and services for the digital learning experience. The paper is organized into three sections. Initially, we have illustrated the four research questions that guided the entire study. In the following sections, the methodology adopted and the main techniques used to answer these questions will be explained. Then, we present the sample and the method of data collection. Work will be organised by dividing the presentation and the comment on the results according to the response given to the four research questions. Finally, the last section is devoted to concluding reflections about the main results obtained
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
University guidance services and support in the transition from education to work
No full textAbstract: Given that the transition from education to employment has become increasingly difficult, long and uncertain, legislators have been forced to consider new means of access to the job market. Guidance appears to be the most adequate tool to help young people (the most vulnerable in this process) take charge of their destinies and to sustain frequent periods of transition from school to work or from one job to another. The the aim of the present article is to understand whether and how Italian university services are able to support students by providing a range of guidance services that foster professional development and effective decisionmaking. Following a brief overview of the Italian guidance system, the paper presents some findings from an empirical pilot-study carried out in Rome (Università La Sapienza) on a small sample of cases (ten in-depth interviews). What emerges is a high level of disorientation among students, the inefficiency of guidance as the mere provision of information desk services, and individuals' difficulty in developing a realistic life project during the course of their studies. A double-dimension approach is suggested, based on a time axis and the creation of an individual life project, which identifies four types of attitudes towards transition (transition as destiny; transition as an arena, transition as performance, transition as discontinuity) found among university students
E-LEARNING USES. RISKS AND PERSPECTIVES
Full text linkWith the development of Information Communications Technology (ICT) we have observed an extraordinary opportunity in cultural and communication processes, with relevant effects on the education system and educational, pedagogical and teaching models that govern this relationship. The potential of these techno-social environments for educational systems, but not only, raises new questions for a sociological reflection more attentive to new social dynamics produced by these technologies. We start from the idea that, despite widespread criticism,the immobility of the education system and the absence of an overview regarding the use of these new devices in teaching practices, we note a significant tendency towards change. Therefore, we attempt to: highlight any differences in perspectives and models in use among the e-learning systems and teaching practices; draw a reflection of risks and opportunities, strengths and weaknesses associated with the use of such instruments / techno-social environment in educational processes
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