Nordic and Baltic Journal of Information & Communications Technologies

Transitioning into Fully Blended Learning: A Model for Faculty Blended Learning Adoption

2023-04-07T03:42:01+00:00

Higher education institutions the world over is turning to Blended Learning (BL) as the preferred teaching and learning delivery approach. However, to attain campus-wide adoption requires an understanding of the influencing factors that motivate academics towards teaching in BL mode. Given this context, this paper presents findings from a qualitative study that investigates the lived experiences of academics as they adopt BL for teaching and learning in a Ghanaian university. Adopting a Grounded Theory as the methodology for this research within a sequential qualitative research design, data was collected from multiple sources. Primary data was obtained from in-depth interviews of 22 academics carried out to understand how they construct and navigate the BL teaching experiences. Secondary data was obtained from policy documents, faculty training signing sheets and Learning Management Systems (LMS) activity logs. The data was analysed using the constant comparative method and thematic analysis and triangulated to organize the themes and concepts for the proposed model. The outcome of the analytical process is theorized into an adoption model and grounded in the literature. The findings of the research provide very useful and practical model for administrators to stimulate Faculty motivation as they embark on BL implementation. The model indicates that external and internal environmental factors stimulate Faculty motivation to make a choice regarding the teaching modalities they prefer. It posits that as Faculty members begin to implement teaching process using technology, they become sensitized and begin to internalize the differences between the two teaching modalities/models and thus decide to adopt BL based on the level of implicit and explicit motivational factors that exist within the faculty members and the university.

Validation of 5G Use Case Solutions – Simultaneous Assessment of Business Value and Social Acceptance in Early Stages of the Research and Innovation Projects

2023-04-07T03:46:37+00:00

This article recommends a lean approach when validating next generation mobile technology (5G) use case solutions in research and innovations projects (R&I). This validation should include a simultaneous and iterative assessment of business value and social acceptance beyond the traditional assessment of technological performance. The context studied in the article is R&I projects funded by the European Commission. Here a consortium of academic and enterprise partners jointly develops 5G product and service solutions for different industry verticals. From the literature review we learn that partnerships and ecosystems accelerate innovations as well as the significance of performing the validation already in the initial steps of the innovation projects. Based on a case study of seven completed 5G R&I projects we revealed that lean methodology for development of use case solutions were not applied. Furthermore, the assessment of potential business values from the 5G use case solutions, was postponed to the later stages of the R&I projects, and that assessing the social acceptance of these solutions were absent. After piloting the lean start-up methodology in an ongoing 5G R&I project (5G SOLUTIONS) we found that the partners advocated technological performance, business value and social acceptance to be ranked equally important to successfully validate the 5G use case solutions in the early steps in the innovation process. The two pilots we executed was performed as online workshops with partners from the 5G SOLUTIONS consortium and the media and entertainment vertical. The prototype was presented and feedback from the stakeholders were collected using surveys and interactive software tools. We recommend further studies and pilots of our lean start-up validation methodology in forthcoming 5G R&I projects funded by Horizon Europe for confirmation of our findings and further refinement.

Activities and Outputs from SME and MNC Collaboration on R&I Projects

2023-05-23T02:22:12+00:00

The fifth generation (5G) of telecommunication systems is creating new business opportunities for many industry verticals. Managing the innovation process is risky and calls for collaboration with various ecosystem stakeholders to meet the demands of technology, business, and customers. This article investigates the activities and output of participation in collaborative research and innovation (R&I) activities for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Multi National Corporations (MNCs) and how they engage with such activities. A survey was conducted with a non-random sample of 42 respondents involved in R&I projects and further supplemented with three in-depth interviews of a subset of the survey respondents. Our key findings indicate that SMEs benefit from technology-related activities and access to decision makers in MNCs. Heavy-handed bureaucracy in projects is a friction point for SMEs, which prefer development speed over scheduled reports and deliverables. In contrast, MNCs benefit from business-related activities by advertising technology to clients, suppliers, and downstream business models. Suggested improvements include additional client needs assessments, trialing of technology and service concepts, and dissemination of the results of R&I activities. SMEs and MNCs view establishing relationships with other partners as valuable for accessing key competencies and vertical industry ecosystems. Our findings provide novel insight in the collaboration of R&I projects with SMEs and MNCs and contributes to the business ecosystem and open innovation literature. Further research should include follow-up studies of the SME–MNC collaboration towards commercialization of innovative 5G use cases.