Fieldnotes as a Social Practice: Elevating and Innovating Fieldnotes in Applied Ethnography, Using a Collaborative Online Tool as a Case Study

In the last decades, the fast growth of Information and Communication Technologies changed our way to communicate and share information. Traditional groups or teams frequently give way to virtual teams, working with tools for online collaboration. Interaction between persons geographically dispersed has become easier. However, the use of new collaboration tools can also bring many challenges. Some technologies, like e-mail, can create delays on reply or even misunderstandings, case the message is not well understood by the recipient. Can these new technologies improve the productivity and enhance the creativity between group members, improving also their confidence and motivation? Although virtual teams have a high capacity to adapt to constant market changes, personal interactions are still important, mainly to clarify tasks and goals. The main purpose of this study is to understand how tools for online collaboration may improve the productivity (and enhance creativity) in teamwork. This study was conducted through an internet platform and the survey was hosted online by SurveyMonkey.com. We intended to verify, among other questions, what users think about different collaboration tools, how often they use these tools, and how they perceive these technologies as adequate ways to communicate, to work with, and to improve productivity. Findings show that e-mail is the most used tool, and personal contact is still more important for teamwork than any tools for online collaboration. Our results contribute to perceive in what extent collaboration tools are indeed an asset or a barrier in teamwork. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s4p511

BackgroundOnline collaboration tools have been identified as potentially effective means for enhancing student learning, motivation, and engagement in science education. However, their effectiveness in improving science education outcomes among middle school students remains uncertain.ObjectivesThe study aimed to investigate the impact of online collaboration tools on science education outcomes among middle school students, focusing on learning achievement, engagement, and motivation.MethodsA quasi‐experimental design with a pretest‐posttest control group was used in this study. A total of 60 eighth‐grade middle school students were involved in the study, with both the experimental and control groups comprising 30 students each. The experimental group incorporated the use of digital collaboration platforms, including Asana, Slack, and Team Viewer, as instrumental components of group project execution and discussion in their science lessons. Conversely, the control group adhered to the current educational approach in Turkey, characterized by the employment of an inquiry‐based learning strategy in their science instruction. Data was collected over eight weeks using a science achievement test, engagement scale, and science motivation scale.ResultsThe experimental group demonstrated significantly higher post‐test scores compared to the control group, suggesting that online collaboration tools positively impacted science education outcomes. Additionally, survey data indicated high levels of engagement and motivation among the experimental group students when using the online collaboration tools.ConclusionsThe findings support the notion that online collaboration tools can effectively enhance learning, motivation, and engagement in science education among middle school students. These results have significant implications for educators, educational institutions, policymakers, and curriculum developers. Further research is needed to examine the potential of these tools in various educational contexts and with different student populations. This will help broaden the understanding of how online collaboration tools can be integrated into diverse learning environments, potentially benefiting a larger number of students and further improving science education outcomes.

This thesis deals with the broad question of how Australian universities and their teachers are meeting the changing market conditions of the 21st century. This examination occurs in the context of changing legislative and regulatory circumstances and strategic efforts to meet the broader goals of 'graduate attributes' and increased accessibility of tertiary learning. The underlying query of this thesis is how technology can assist in transcending traditional models of higher education teaching delivery. Related to this is a focus on collaborative learning, with the question of its desirability and what it might offer in terms of improved outcomes relevant to teaching and learning in higher education. These questions are primarily discussed in the context of how online environments can aid collaboration and result in both discipline specific and generic outcomes. Through a case study of Australian International Relations (IR) and Politics teachers at the undergraduate level, this thesis finds that there has been limited innovation in the online delivery of these subjects and that there is little consistency in any e-learning approaches that have been adopted. In particular, collaborative online learning is infrequently pursued. This is surprising because in a climate of increasingly market-driven higher education, collaborative online tools may offer a solution to many of the pressures teaching academics face. These findings point to a significant gap between the strategic goals expressed by universities and what is actually being delivered to undergraduates. This includes meeting ambitions in 'graduate attributes', satisfying regulatory oversight, contending with financial pressures and the societal drive to make learning more accessible to a wider audience. The thesis also examines some of the barriers teaching staff feel prevent them from utilising online collaborative methods, including perceptions of time poverty, support, skills, institutional factors and peer experience. The findings indicate that teachers of IR/Politics feel little incentive to implement online collaborations, chiefly because of time constraints,but also a prevailing sense that such innovations are not worth their investment in terms of career advancement and institutional support. Unfamiliarity with the technology involved serves to exacerbate these perceptions to the point where investing any effort in the pursuit of online approaches is seen as wasteful. A theoretical Technology-Assisted Teaching Adoption Model is proposed as a means of demonstrating the barriers to innovation uncovered by this research. Finally, this thesis explores online role play as a possible solution to some of these barriers perceived by IR and Politics teachers, as well as how such an approach could address the market factors currently shaping Australian higher education. There is strong and consistent support within the literature for role play as a collaborative learning strategy with identified pedagogical benefits. In the disciplines of IR and Politics, where much of the subject matter being studied concerns the concept of people and entities communicating and co-operating, role plays can help generate deeper and broader understanding. The thesis concludes by making recommendations as to how Australian universities can move towards fostering online innovation amongst teaching staff, both to better meet institutional goals, as well as serve their students better by producing qualities conducive to their future careers.

As businesses increasingly use collaboration tools with audio capabilities to support online meetings, it is important for universities to examine the potential value that similar tools can add to distance learning courses. This study reveals findings from MBA students regarding the perceived benefits of online meetings supported by Wimba Classroom, an online collaboration tool with audio capabilities. The results are benchmarked against the perceived benefits of students who participated in online meetings using Blackboard Virtual Classroom, an online collaboration tool that lacks audio capabilities. The central findings of the study provide evidence to suggest that collaboration tools with audio may be an important component in distance learning courses with synchronous online meetings.

Aim/Purpose: There is a huge array of educational technology tools that are now in use today. These tools have changed the way teachers teach and the way students learn. Among the many educational technology tools that are gaining popularity are the online collaboration tools. Online collaboration tools are web-based tools that allow individuals to do things together online like messaging, file sharing, and assessment. However, when new educational technology is integrated in the classroom, its effects must be determined as this is an essential component for evaluation. Having the tool is not enough, there has to be an evaluation of its quality to make it more effective. It is on this premise that the customized online collaboration tool of one university in the Philippines was assessed. The study specifically aimed to identify the perceived effectiveness of the customized online collaboration tool; and identify the effectiveness of using Usability Metrics for Effectiveness. Background: Most studies provide evaluation of newly developed software using a set of quality standards such as functionality and usability. However, there is limited evidence where online collaboration tools are evaluated on their effectiveness using user’s perception as well as assessing their usability using a set of effectiveness metrics. Methodology: The study employed questionnaire-based (n=127) and metrics-based (n=81) approaches. Data gathered were analyzed using simple and relative frequencies, weighted mean, ANOVA, and Tukey HSD (Honestly Significant Difference). Contribution: This study supplements the literature regarding the effectiveness of online collaboration tools that are used for teaching and learning particularly those that are custom-made for an institution. It provides additional information on other ways to evaluate the effectiveness of customized online collaboration tools. It likewise provides information on the difference between what the users report about the tool’s effectiveness and what the metrics show. Findings: The customized online collaboration tool was perceived to be very effective for collaboration, teaching and learning. But there is a significant difference on the students’ perception based from their courses and year levels. The customized online collaboration tool’s effectiveness as regards its application performance is poor because of design interface faults. However, the customized online collaboration tool has good completion rate. Recommendations for Practitioners: Findings suggest that the customized online collaboration tool can be an alternative tool to open-source learning platforms which faculty members may use for teaching and learning as students find it very effective not only for collaboration but for teaching and learning as well. However, errors caused by interface design problems must be addressed to yield a higher application performance rating and higher completion rate. Recommendation for Researchers: Further assessment on the tool’s effectiveness using an empirical study is recommended to provide additional definitive evidence which may support the benefits of using online collaboration tools in the classroom.

In a situation of an unexpected catastrophe, uncertainty and demand for information are constant. In such a disaster scenario, the CRISIS system arises as a tool to contribute to previous coordination, procedure validation, exercise execution, a good and frequent communication among organizations, and weakness and threat assessment for an appropriate risk management. It offers a wide variety of tools for online communication, consultation and collaboration that, up to this day, includes cartography, tasks, resources, news, forums, instant messaging and chat. As a complement, mathematical models for training and emergency management are being researched and developed. For Argentinean society, it is a necessity to switch from the current handcrafted, bureaucratic emergency management method to a decision-making management model. Previous coordination, exercise execution, a fluid communication among institutions, and threats and weaknesses assessment are required for a proper risk management. With that goal in mind, it is important to reduce confusion, avoid the duplication of efforts to fulfill the same tasks, and have access to a complete vision of the situation, generated from the data of all the organizations taking part. The CRISIS system is a secure web application, accessible to every node in a network formed by the organizations which have complementary responsibilities during prevention and response. It offers a wide variety of tools for online communication, consultation and collaboration that, up to this day, includes cartography, tasks, media (organization and resources), news, forums, instant messaging and chat. As a complement, mathematical models for training and emergency management are being researched and developed. Currently, there are toxicological and epidemiological emergency models available. The present paper analyses, from the perspectives related to risk management for emergencies and disasters, the strengths and weaknesses of the CRISIS system to be used for prevention, response and recoveries in the case of a catastrophe.

The increasing use of online or cloud collaboration tools in organizations creates a need for students to develop skills in the use of these tools. Instructors have an opportunity to prepare students by incorporating these collaboration tools into their courses. The use of these online collaboration tools has the potential to expose instructors and educational institutions to potential violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). In this paper we will explore the benefits of collaboration, a variety of online collaboration tools, FERPA considerations when using such tools, and strategies for staying in compliance.

With the uncertain trajectory of COVID-19 conditions worldwide, there lies the potential for emergencies to arise, abruptly yielding mass social and economic disruption. Gaining insight into how digital technologies may be leveraged for effective emergency response is therefore pertinent. Emergency-induced needs may prompt citizens to organize mutual aid initiatives where people give what they can and get what they need in response. An increasingly prominent technology used for emergency response, online collaboration tools (OCTs), enables the appropriate match between the supply of aid and its relevant demand in mutual aid initiatives by mediating information and interactions between participants. Through analysis of mutual aid cases during the 2022 Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown, this study elucidates the benefits OCTs provide through the lens of affordance theory and identifies five key affordances of OCTs for emergency mutual aid: persistent accessibility, iterative modifiability, structured consolidation and retrieval, multisynchronous participation, and multichannel broadcasting. We illustrate how such affordances are actualized and how their enabling features work across information flow processes, specifically highlighting benefits of software minimalism with implications for practitioners and future software design in emergency situations. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on OCTs and affordances by disentangling its role in emergency responses.

The paper presents an overview of a pilot study aiming at developing university students’ writing competence with the use of a selected Web 2.0 collaboration tool as authoring environment for Task-Based Language Teaching. Online word processors were used to design a pre-task, task and post-task sequence which was implemented in varied modes of work when teaching English to students at the Department of German Studies, Maria CurieSkłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. The specific aim of the study was to investigate the applicability of one particular online collaborative environment, namely an online word processor such as Google Docs (http://docs.google.com), to implement form-focused language teaching at a tertiary level. The study was conducted in an action research fashion, with two parallel groups of students using two different collaborative environments (wikis and online word processors). As it was found out, the idea of learning writing in collaboration mediated by online resources was new to students and the awareness of how to make the best use of peer editing and peer feedback had to be established among students first. Once it was done, however, collaborative learning online proved to be a powerful vehicle for language instruction. The emergence of new Web 2.0 tools facilitating collaboration and publishing such as online word processors has helped to redefine the process of teaching language skills, and specifically writing, in the TBLT framework.

The instructors generally utilize conventional methods in teaching software engineering courses, where the students are provided theoretical knowledge based on text books or lecture notes. Usage of collaborative tools may be a solution to the problems of not practicing the depth of the components of the subject. This study proposes the usage of a collaborative tool, namely, Google Docs in a software engineering course based on predefined scenarios. The review meeting subject was selected for this purpose and students’ reactions were assessed with a survey after the completion of the experiments. The survey data were analysed using least square regression method. The results have shown that efficiency, certainty, satisfaction, advantage, complexity, learnability, and intention are indicators of the adoption of the online collaborative tool.

The OER is a comparatively innovative phenomenon which perhaps seen as a part of a bigger movement towards openness in advanced education including more familiar and recognized trends, for example Open Access (OA) and Open Source Software (OSS). This study introduces a web based service for collaborative authoring learning to create, share and explore dynamic contents since many problems occurred while using the current e-learning software such as Moodle and LAMS. This paper proposed the alternative e-learning software technology based on grid portal, grid computing platform and it was implemented in two courses. The conventional web based education may not suitable for collaborative tools and online collaborative authoring environment because of slow operation in searching, uploading, visualizing output, and file sharing. The new web based service offers an efficient authoring infrastructure dealing with online collaborative tools and collaborative authoring environment based on grid portal technology to solve the unequal distribution of task and compensation problem as well as investigates how to improve access and usefulness for the users of such OER. UCLA Grid Portal open source software with parallel computing system has been implemented in order to design the efficient authoring infrastructure and to implement an online graphics, animation, audio and video technology courses. The idea is to show how the environment can offer web assisted education that goes beyond providing digital learning materials. The OER, especially in the collaborative authoring activity environment in parallel computing are designed to provide students with new environment where they can share skills, knowledge, and understanding within the group members as well as to enhance students’ teamwork skills in parallel and distributed processing for high performance computing. Based on the strong foundations, hopefully the users are ready to apply their knowledge, creativity and leadership to fulfill the need of their future career development. As a conclusion, the collaborative authoring learning becomes more effective in terms of performance evaluations analysis.

The study focused on the assessment of the technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) of graduate students enrolled in the Master of Arts in Science Education (MASE) program and tested the effectiveness of a blended learning approach using online collaborative tools, a learning management system, and interactive resources in Biology. The specific objectives of the study included describing the profile of MASE students in terms of computer and internet resources and skills, measuring their confidence levels in the four TPACK constructs, finding significant differences in pretest and posttest scores, and obtaining student feedback on the use of Edmodo as a Learning Management System. The study employed a one-shot pretest-posttest experimental design using a combination of online resources and face-to-face interactions. Based on the results, there was an increase in the median values before and after the intervention, as shown by the difference between the pre-median and post-median. Pre-implementation, the TPACK confidence level of the students was rated fairly confident (FC), but it increased after to completely confident (CC). This suggests that the students' TPACK confidence level improved positively using the BL approach. Likewise, the t-stat value of 10.68 indicates a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores after implementing the blended learning approach. This suggests that the blended learning approach had a positive and noteworthy impact on the student's performance, as seen in the improved test scores. The study's results highlighted the benefits of Edmodo as well as the use of interactive online activities in their performance and TPACK as reported by the students.

Many tools for online collaboration, information and file sharing are currently employed to facilitate the process of online education. However, as stated in [14] the existing E-learning environments are not mature enough and only a small set of them provide functionality for defining reusable learning entities, reliable publishing and republishing mechanisms and possibilities for the teachers to give feedback to or receive feedback from the E-students. In order to improve E-learning experience [14] presents PeU 2.0, a system that enables the graphical representation and editing of the learning workflow without the execution environment of a workflow management system. The present paper examines the current executability of Petri Nets and gives a mapping of the visual elements in the PeU 2.0 graphs onto Petri Net structures. An interesting approach is introduces for the physical execution of the Petri Nets.

This paper makes analysis of the tools supported online collaborative learning mode, and support tools' role in the online collaborative learning. According to the tool's roles including interaction provider, resources sharing and independent learning environment, this paper has designed an instant messaging based online collaborative learning support tool.

This study aims to investigate whether the synchronous use of online collaborative learning tools (OCLT) in a face-to-face classroom affects the participation and interest levels of undergraduates enrolled in a liberal arts course and to find out if gender differences affect the students’ perceptions on the use of the tools. The participants of this study were 242 students, including 143 females and 99 males, and their average age was 21.1 years. The 128 students in the control group and 114 in the experimental group took the same course in a different semester, and the latter group used the OCLT when participating in class activities. Google Forms was used to conduct the Participation Survey (PS) and the Instructional Activities Interest Survey (IAIS). The results of the independent t-test for mean difference and the chi-squire test for frequency distribution showed that the mean differences between the two groups were statistically significant in PS and IAIS. Also, the perceptions of the experimental group were more positive than those of the control group. The analyses revealed no significant differences between the perceptions of the students in regards to their gender. The results also found that the type of OCLT could affect the students' participation level. Discussions on the findings are presented, and limitations are discussed for further research.