Factors affecting student attitudes toward flexible online learning in management education

In response to recent technological advances and the trend toward flexible learning in education, the authors examined the factors affecting student satisfaction with flexible online learning. The authors identified 2 key student attributes of student satisfaction: (a) positive perceptions of technology in terms of ease of access and use of online flexible learning material and (b) autonomous and innovative learning styles. The authors derived measures of perceptions of technology from research on the Technology Acceptance Model and used locus of control and innovative attitude as indicators of an autonomous and innovative learning mode. First-year students undertaking an introductory management course completed surveys at the beginning (n = 248) and at the end (n = 256) of course work. The authors analyzed the data by using structural equation modeling. Results suggest that student satisfaction is influenced by positive perceptions toward technology and an autonomous learning mode.

Does industry matter? Examining the role of industry structure and organizational learning in innovation and brand performance

A manager's perception of industry structure (dynamism) has the potential to impact various organizational strategies and behaviors. This may be particularly so with regard to perceptions driving organizational learning orientations and innovation based marketing strategy. The position taken here suggests that firms operating within a competitive industry tend to pursue innovative ways of performing value-creating activities, which requires the development of learning capabilities. The results of a study of SMEs suggest that market focused learning, relative to other learning capabilities plays a key role in the relationships between industry structure, innovation and brand performance. The findings also show that market focused learning and internally focused learning influence innovation and that innovation influences a brand's performance. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving learning in undergraduate control engineering courses using context-based learning models

Control Engineering is an essential part of university electrical engineering education. Normally, a control course requires considerable mathematical as well as engineering knowledge and is consequently regarded as a difficult course by many undergraduate students. From the academic point of view, how to help the students to improve their learning of the control engineering knowledge is therefore an important task which requires careful planning and innovative teaching methods. Traditionally, the didactic teaching approach has been used to teach the students the concepts needed to solve control problems. This approach is commonly adopted in many mathematics intensive courses; however it generally lacks reflection from the students to improve their learning. This paper addresses the practice of action learning and context-based learning models in teaching university control courses. This context-based approach has been practised in teaching several control engineering courses in a university with promising results, particularly in view of student learning performances.

Measuring environmental education program impacts and learning in the field: Using an action research cycle to develop a tool for use with young students

Despite the increasing importance of, and interest in, documenting the impact of environmental education programs on students' learning for sustainability, few tools are currently available to measure young students' environmental learning across all the dimensions of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours. This paper reports on the development of such a tool, using an iterative action research process with 134 students, aged six to eleven, attending programs at an Environmental Education Centre in Queensland. The resulting instrument, the Environmental Learning Outcomes Survey (ELOS) incorporates observations of students' engagement in learning processes as well as measuring learning outcomes, and allows both of these aspects to be linked to particular components of the environmental education program. Test data using the instrument are reported to illustrate its potential usefulness. It is envisaged that the refined instrument will enable researchers to measure student environmental learning in the field, investigate environmental education program impacts and identify aspects of programs that are most effective in facilitating student learning. [Author abstract]

Evidence for retarded extinction of aversive learning in anxious children

The habituation to intense acoustic stimuli and the acquisition of differentially conditioned fear were assessed in 53 clinically anxious and 30 non-anxious control children and young adolescents. Anxious children tended to show larger electrodermal responses during habituation, but did not differ in blink startle latency or magnitude. After acquisition training, non-anxious children rated the CS + as more fear provoking and arousing than the CS- whereas the ratings of anxious children did not differ. However, anxious children rated the CS + as more fear provoking after extinction, a difference that was absent in non-anxious children. During extinction training, anxious children displayed larger blink magnitude facilitation during CS + and a trend towards larger electrodermal responses, a tendency not seen in nonanxious children. These data suggest that extinction of fear learning is retarded in anxious children. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A misspelt youth: Spelling and orthographic learning in university students as a function of spelling-sound consistency

Pseudowords with inconsistent vs. consistent spellings (e.g., nurch, with rhyme neighbours search, lurch & perch, vs. mish, with neighbours dish, wish) were presented with definitions for naming either twice or 6 times. In an oral spelling test, there were main and interactive effects of consistency and the number of training trials on accuracy and main effects only on response latency, with the improvement in accuracy from 2 to 6 training trials greater for the more poorly learned inconsistent items. Of most interest, the smaller effect of training on accuracy in the consistent condition was reliable; contrary to the most obvious prediction of dual route spelling models that the sublexical procedure should produce correct spellings for consistent items early in training. In a second task students wrote spellings of multisyllabic words containing unstressed indeterminate (schwa) vowels. In their errors on the schwa vowel, students showed sensitivity to the most common spelling overall but also they were influenced by differences in schwa spellings in English words as a function of the number of syllables and schwa position. These results indicate that dual route models of spelling will need to accommodate the consistency of spellings within categories defined by lexical structure variables.

The judicious utilization of new technologies through authentic learning in higher education: A case study

Though technology holds significant promise for enhanced teaching and learning it is unlikely to meet this promise without a principled approach to course design. There is burgeoning discourse about the use of technological tools and models in higher education, but much of the discussion is fixed upon distance learning or technology based courses. This paper will develop and propose a balanced model for effective teaching and learning for “on campus” higher education, with particular emphasis on the opportunities for revitalisation available through the judicious utilisation of new technologies. It will explore the opportunities available for the creation of more authentic learning environments through the principled design. Finally it will demonstrate with a case study how these have come together enabling the creation of an effective and authentic learning environment for one pre-service teacher education course at the University of Queensland.