The main objective of this dissertation is to examine, both theoretically and empirically, the specific requirements of a blended learning instructional model aimed at facilitating higher education adult-learners into online interaction. Three objectives were formulated: Objective 1: to investigate adult-learners’ perceived satisfaction in relation to blended learning and the factors that foster their interaction with the ‘added’ online mode; and a thorough understanding of adult-learners’ educational needs and learning characteristics derived from theory. Objective 2: to understand the factors of social presence and convergence, and how these can be ingrained into design principles that foster online interaction. Objective 3: to explore the specifics of an instructional model for the design of a blended learning environment for adult-learners in higher education, both theoretically and empirically, and how said principles can be actualised in a validated model.
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Sports are activities enjoyed by many across the globe, regardless of age. The existence and promotion of youth sports has often been based on various assumptions about its value and role in society. Sports participation is assumed to be fun and good and is assumed to contribute to the development of young people. As a result, sports are often seen as an essential part of life for youth. Participation in sports and physical activity is assumed to help young people to develop in a context in which they are able to learn important positive societal values (Fraser-Thomas et al., 2005; Holt, 2008). Although there is a widespread belief in the positive dimensions of sports participation for young people, there is a need for research and theory that identifies and critically looks at the processes through which sports participation by youth is experienced and shapes their lives (Coakley, 2011). I return to this critical perspective after I elaborate on the ways sports are viewed as important effective activities for positive youth development.
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The Salvation Army has been battling social problems in the Netherlands for more than 125 years. Over the course of this period, the Dutch Salvation Army has developed into a well-known faith-based organization as well as an important professional social service provider. These two characteristics: religious work and social work, are regarded by the Army as essential to its identity, and are considered distinct but in – separable. However, as this study shows, during much of the Army’s history this bilateral character created an inescapable field of tension. This became explicitly clear with the development of the Dutch social policy system during the twentieth century, when the evolving relationship between the Salvation Army and the Dutch government created certain problems for both actors. How would the government cooperate with a valued social service provider that had an explicit faith-based identity? And on the other hand, how did the Army cope with this relationship in relation to its identity? The work presented in this thesis was supported by the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (HU) and the VU University Amsterdam.
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Author Supplied: In the last decades, architecture has emerged as a discipline in the domain of Information Technology (IT). A well-accepted definition of architecture is from ISO/IEC 42010: "The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution." Currently, many levels and types of architecture in the domain of IT have been defined. We have scoped our work to two types of architecture: enterprise architecture and software architecture. IT architecture work is demanding and challenging and includes, inter alia, identifying architectural significant requirements (functional and non-functional), designing and selecting solutions for these requirements, and ensuring that the solutions are implemented according to the architectural design. To reflect on the quality of architecture work, we have taken ISO/IEC 8402 as a starting point. It defines quality as "the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated requirements". We consider architecture work to be of high quality, when it is effective; when it answers stated requirements. Although IT Architecture has been introduced in many organizations, the elaboration does not always proceed without problems. In the domain of enterprise architecture, most practices are still in the early stages of maturity with, for example, low scores on the focus areas ‘Development of architecture’ and ‘Monitoring’ (of the implementation activities). In the domain of software architecture, problems of the same kind are observed. For instance, architecture designs are frequently poor and incomplete, while architecture compliance checking is performed in practice on a limited scale only. With our work, we intend to contribute to the advancement of architecture in the domain of IT and the effectiveness of architecture work by means of the development and improvement of supporting instruments and tools. In line with this intention, the main research question of this thesis is: How can the effectiveness of IT architecture work be evaluated and improved?
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In this dissertation Maarten ter Huurne investigates why users in the sharing economy trust each other.
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Phd Thesis Higher professional education aims to prepare graduates for the complexity of professional practices. The development of conceptual understanding is important to deal adequately with this complexity, especially in an unstructured professional domain such as international business. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the concept conceptual understanding in this professional domain, how it can be measured, what it looks like, how it changes, and in what ways it differs between students. The dissertation comprises five empirical studies for which data collection took place at a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands.
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This dissertation presents the results of a research project on unraveling the dynamics of facilitating workplace learning through pedagogic practices in healthcare placements. Supervisors are challenged to foster safe learning opportunities and fully utilize the learning potential of placement through stimulating active participation for students while ensuring quality patient care. In healthcare placements, staff shortages and work pressure may lead to stress when facilitating workplace learning. Enhancing pedagogic practices in healthcare placements seems essential to support students in challenging experiences, such as emotional challenges. This dissertation proposes approaches for optimizing learning experiences for students by highlighting the value of day-to-day work activities and interactions in healthcare placements, and shedding light on agency in workplace learning through supervisor- and student-strategies.
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The first reason for this study is that a gap appears to exist in the available theories on corruption; very little research is available on corruption by a network, nor does the network theory thoroughly discuss the risks or pitfalls of networks. The second reason for this study is the observation that policies and investigations appear to be limited in dealing with corruption in network-like structures, while at the same time international and European organisations refer to ‘trading in influence’, political and high-profile corruption and the need to eradicate these forms of corruption. The descriptions of both trading in influence and ‘political corruption’ are such that they refer to a web, circle or network in which corruption occurs. The current literature and research on corruption in network-like structures is not extensive, nor do literature and research on networks extensively discuss the pitfalls of networks or how such a collective can become corrupt. This study seeks to bridge both themes, thereby learning from the day-to-day reality of large corruption cases which are difficult to investigate, and comparing them to what is described in the existing bodies of literature on corruption and networks. Thus, understanding network corruption is relevant to prevent, detect and address corruption in our modern society. It will help create awareness and understanding of when social capital becomes corrupted. In this study I consider the structure of the network and the responsibility in these networks in real-life cases: what consequences this has in terms of how the conduct should be assessed; what it means when corruption is a collective behaviour; and whether the behaviour of individuals can be assessed independently of the network. We need to understand which norms are laid down in the anti-corruption policies and models and compare them with the norms upheld in social networks, to explore whether it is possible to distinguish networks from network corruption. In particular, the various roles that individuals take on in such networks needs consideration. The three case studies (the FIFA case, the News of the World case and the Roermond case) concerned serious misconduct by a given set of persons having some form of loose association, but sometimes with little individual behaviour being criminal. In this study the link between networks and corruption is explored by means of the following central question: In what way and to what extent is corruption linked to the functioning of social networks, and what does this entail for our knowledge of corruption and networks and the policies to eradicate corruption?
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