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This paper describes a study that examined why groupware that was tailored to support collaborative student learning (Lotus Notes) was unsuccessful. In particular, it examines why the tutors' aspirations of helping the students to collaborate were not met. It was found that students tended not to use the groupware, preferring other, self-developed support tools. Our study shows that the failure was multidetermined: there was a complex interacting set of factors including software use problems, systems integration issues, conflicting tutor/student perceptions of the value of using the groupware, and conflicts in each group's view of how best to complete the course. There has been interest in using Activity Theory to approach multidimensional analysis in CSCL, but existing Activity Theory-based frameworks can be difficult to apply to instances of collaborative learning marked by conflict. To address this need, we use an Activity Theory-based analytic tool called the Activity Space. The tool is also used to show how multiple changes could be made to improve the potential for groupware to be used as intended.

The paper reports an empirical study of the use of videoconferences in decentralized university education. The study focuses on breakdowns that occur during the transition of educational practices from regular classrooms to videoconference-based environments. It was found that the main cause of breakdowns was discoordinations of teaching and learning resulting from physical and organizational distribution of decentralized education. The paper concludes that implementation of educational activities in new types of learning environments requires both downwards contextualization, an adaptation to the limitations and affordances of the environment, and upwards contextualization, locating the activity in a larger-scale context.

Implementing teaching enhancement is especially challenging when undertaken on a large-scale and with a range of participating institutions and stakeholders. This study sought to advance understand...

This study explored teachers’ classroom integration of mobile social media at universities in China and how their technology integration was influenced by institutional factors from the perspective...

During crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, people spontaneously initiate support groups, while established organizations like soccer clubs set non-regular goals, both offering help. Interested in the coordination of such help and potential challenges of collaboration, we conducted a virtual ethnography of a multi-level network located in Germany. We focused on aims, activities, and technological mediation, with Activity Theory as theoretical framework. Our findings show that the organizational aim of coordinating help was successfully achieved by connecting heterogeneous actors through digitization and institutionalization. Enabled by the context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the network acted virtually, but was also able to integrate analog spaces of help. We identified six crucial implications regarding the use of technology and collaboration for building a successful volunteering network.

In this Editorial, we take the opportunity to expand on the second Journal of University Teaching and Learning theme, Developing Teaching Practice. Building on Editorial 18(4), which articulated changes to higher education in the period roughly between 1980 and 2021, we believe it is pertinent to explore the changing conceptions of academic as 'teacher'. We use Engestrom's cultural-historical activity theory as a lens to consider how higher education teachers are situated in the current context of rapid changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore possible future purposes of higher education to consider flow-on impacts on the purpose of its teachers and how their roles might change to accommodate future expectations. We assert the need to challenge the notion of the academic as a person who is recruited into higher education largely because of their subject matter expertise while maintaining strong commitment to teaching expertise that is grounded in scholarship, critical self-reflection, and agency. In our various teaching and leadership roles, and consistent with the literature, we have observed paradoxical outcomes from the nexus between risk, innovation and development, driving risk aversity and risk management, with significant (contradictory) impacts on teaching, teachers and student learning. The barriers to implementing innovative curricula include questions of do students get a standardised and 'safe' educational experience or are they challenged and afforded the opportunity to transform and grow? Are they allowed to fail? Related, do teachers have genuine agency, as an educator, or are they positioned as agents of a higher education system? We explore these questions and invite our readers to engage in serious reflexivity and identify strategies that help them question their attitudes, thought processes, and assumptions about teaching and student learning. We welcome papers that contribute values-based conversations and explore ways of dealing with and adapting to change in our teaching practices, case studies of learning through failure, change and adaptation and the development of the field. Practitioner Notes 1. It is useful and important to explore changing conceptions of higher education teachers and teaching practice in the context of rapid changes and emergent (sometimes perverse) outcomes and impacts. 2. Engtrom's Cultural Historical Activity Theory is a useful lens for identifying issues and reflecting on the positioning of teachers and students within higher education. 3. JUTLP welcomes papers that contribute to values-based conversations and scholarly exploration of both the notion and practices of teachers.

PurposeThis paper explores how policy-level stakeholders tackle digital inclusion in the context of UK rural communities.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders that operate nationally in government departments, government funded organisations and third sector organisations that provided a policy-level perspective on digital inclusion initiative provision across England, Scotland and Wales. Activity theory (AT) was utilised as a theoretical framework, where a variety of factors–tools, rules, community, division of labour and contradictions–were found to have an influence on digital inclusion initiative provision.FindingsDigital inclusion initiative provision in UK rural communities is organised through the multi-stakeholder involvement of national organisations, and collaboration with intermediary organisations to provide digital skills training and support. The process is fraught with difficulties and contradictions, limited knowledge sharing; reduced or poor-quality connectivity; lack of funding; lack of local resources; assumptions that organisations will indeed collaborate and assumptions that intermediary organisations have staff with the necessary skills and confidence to provide digital skills training and support within the rural context.Research limitations/implicationsThis study highlights the benefit of using AT as a lens to develop a nuanced understanding of how policy-level stakeholders tackle digital inclusion.Practical implicationsThis study can inform policy decisions on digital inclusion initiative provision suitable for rural communities.Originality/valueThe contribution of this paper provides new insights into the understanding of how policy-level stakeholders tackle digital inclusion and the provision of digital inclusion initiatives; it builds on the use of AT to help unpick the complexity of digital inclusion initiative provision as a phenomenon; it reveals contradictions in relation to trust, and the need for knowledge sharing mechanisms to span and align different interpretations of digital inclusion across the policy-level; and reveals an extension of AT demonstrated through the “granularity of the subject” which enables the multi-actor involvement of the stakeholders involved in digital inclusion at policy-level to emerge.

Introduction The pandemic spread of SARS-CoV-2, a novel, highly contagious and easily transmissible pathogen, has profoundly affected all aspects of human interaction. Guided by the need to reduce face-to-face contacts, medical organisations have rapidly shifted group activities to virtual platforms. Over 1 year into the pandemic, the necessity to maintain public health restrictions ensures that virtual meetings will be the norm for the foreseeable future.It has yet to be understood how virtual technologies shape healthcare and academic cultures, affect interactions, or influence strategic decisions and policies within these systems.Conclusion In this article, the authors reflect on the move from historically situated activity systems of team leadership in healthcare to ones that now exist in virtual formats. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) is a framework that explains complex human actions, and how they unfold over time through interaction with mediational tools (eg, technology) and various people representing their own communities, roles and perceived divisions of labour. The authors use the lens of CHAT as a framework to understand the shifting dynamics at play and offer strategies for leaders to co-establish activity systems with team members to make goals of group activities explicit and to deliberately work toward them. Five specific strategies proposed are: (1) use software platforms that fit your needs and give voice to all attendees with technical support present in meetings; (2) converse explicitly about roles and emerging role fluidity during times of change and pandemic response; (3) co-construct something new intentionally; (4) engage in implementation science at this time; and (5) lead intentionally while honouring cultural norms and values. It is imperative that any changes, even the ones that are a part of the pandemic response, are made consistent with the core shared values of the medical community as this necessary new way of coming together is embraced with collective wisdom.

PurposeThis research examines the effects of the context on the relationship between work design, learning mechanism and total quality management (TQM). The exploratory study examines the differential effects in context on how human resources and their activities are strategically managed for achieving TQM. Two theoretical frameworks – activity theory and contextual learning theory – are concurrently used for analysis. Specifically, the manufacturing companies, the authors examine are (1) technology-intensive company which has bought technology from a global foreign establishment (MU1), (2) technology-intensive companies having their own technology (MU2) and (3) labor-intensive units (MU3) of varying organizational sizes.Design/methodology/approachThis case study-based research consists of 27 in-depth interviews with managers and employees of different hierarchies in each manufacturing unit. The authors interviewed them using semi-structured questions that were pre-validated by five senior HR experts from the manufacturing industry. Document analysis, multiple site visits and website content helped triangulation. The data are coded and analyzed using Dedoose software for qualitative research.FindingsActivity diagrams for each manufacturing unit provides task and interaction analysis. Within and cross-case analysis address complexity and challenges of contextual reality, influences on work design and learning mechanism. HRD executives must recognize that there may be well-differentiated learning behaviors that align with organizational strategy. The learning behaviors may not be well-differentiated and become very dynamic. This dynamism may be characterized by double loop and single-loop learning feeding into each other.Practical implicationsThis study provides substantial practical implications for HRD and other managers in the manufacturing sector.Originality/valueThe new theoretical framework adds to organizational behavior studies through multi-level and cross-contextual approach. It informs strategic combinations and interactions between internal and external context, and learning needs implicating work design and TQM.

A problem with applications of innovations and technological tools such as the digital portfolio is that, while detailed conceptions and examples of digital portfolios exist, there is a chasm of practical advice that is sufficiently generic for guiding considerations on how to integrate digital portfolios into different learning environments. In this paper, it is argued that a powerful framework for guiding thinking about the integration of digital portfolios into teacher education is provided by cultural-historical activity theory or CHAT. CHAT is useful because it has been shown to provide a clear operational framework for the design of learning environments that support the integration of various technological tools.

This study provides an insight into the duality of client and vendor relationship (CVR) in information technology (IT) outsourcing by adopting a composite view of a subject in activity theory analysis. Evidence in the literature shows a trend that outsourcing relationships have become strategic assets with clients scouting for not only technical outcomes but for business ideas and innovation from their suppliers. Whilst extant literature demonstrates the critical role of outsourcing relationships in outsourcing success and value, the research on IT outsourcing has largely examined outsourcing relationships in general, focusing on the factors, challenges and a one-sided view of the CVR and providing no insights on the relationship between the client and vendor from a composite perspective. To explore this, our study employed an interpretive qualitative case study method and activity theory as the lens. Drawing on hermeneutics to analyse the data, the findings show the need for activity theory to cater for the duality of subjects in a collaborative way. Implications of the study for practice and policy are then provided.

Purpose Technological innovation and the flexibilisation of labour markets have expanded the pool of workers engaged in globally distributed work. This paper aims to propose an analytical framework to understand and support the productive professional learning of those engaged in global work. Drawing on the theory of expansive learning in the cultural-historical activity theory tradition the study aims to stimulate and enrich the conceptual notion of work as a learning space in the discussion of workplace learning particularly in global work. Design/methodology/approach Iteration between theory and data is applied to identify the dimensions of expansion for the configuration of learning spaces in global work. Data are drawn from the experiences of 10 professionals selected by purposive sampling in Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Singapore. Findings Six dimensions of expansion are identified as challenging and potentially empowering for professionals’ configuration of learning spaces in global work: social-spatial, material-instrumental, moral-ethical, political-economic, personal-professional and temporal-developmental. Originality/value The conceptual framework for the dimensions of expansion of learning spaces provides the broad strokes for reflexive curricula that democratise the learning and development of professionals in global work, who are currently underserved given the national orientation of vocational education and training and professional development ecosystems.

PurposeThis paper aims to develop and apply a service design method that allows for stronger recognition and integration of human activities into the front-end stages of the service design process.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a discussion of different service design perspectives and activity theory, the paper develops a method called activity-set mapping (ActS). ActS is applied to an exploratory service design project to demonstrate its use.FindingsThree broad perspectives on service design are suggested: (1) the dyadic interaction, (2) the systemic interaction and (3) the customer activity perspectives. The ActS method draws on the latter perspective and focuses on the study of human activity sets. The application of ActS shows that the method can help identify and visualize sets of activities.Research limitations/implicationsThe ActS method opens new avenues for service design by zooming in on the micro level and capturing the set of activities linked to a desired goal achievement. However, the method is limited to activities reported by research participants and may exclude unconscious activities. Further research is needed to validate and refine the method.Practical implicationsThe ActS method will help service designers explore activities in which humans engage to achieve a desired goal/end state.Originality/valueThe concept of “human activity set” is new to service research and opens analytical opportunities for service design. The ActS method contributes a visualization tool for identifying activity sets and uncovering the benefits, sacrifices and frequency of activities.

From 2016, all Western Australian schools were mandated to implement the National Quality Standard (NQS) in Kindergarten through to Year 2. Over the first year of implementation, this mandate had varying degrees of success in adoption. This study examined four schools which were identified as having implemented the NQS. A qualitative methodology was employed to examine those factors that supported implementation. A key finding was the integral role played by distributed leadership in adopting new initiatives. Using Activity Theory to conceptualise the data, it was found that psychological ownership was a key factor in enabling distributed leadership. Ownership was enabled when community differences were acknowledged, and time was given for the NQS tool to be reassessed and reconfigured as one’s own. Once staff had psychological ownership, they were more likely to support implementation of the NQS. This study has implications for leaders and those implementing the NQS or other initiatives in schools.

PurposeEvaluation of public library makerspaces traditionally examines achievement of library goals, which reflect leaders’ and funders’ values. Understanding makers’ experiences and perspectives may help evaluators frame their inquiry to reflect community values, test assumptions about makers and support democratic and equity-focused aims. This paper aims to inform how evaluations of public library makerspaces are framed to address the experiences, values and visions for success of adult women, a group that is often marginalized in making and makerspaces.Design/methodology/approachInformed by democratic approaches to evaluation and activity theory, this paper draws on semi-structured interviews with women makers engaged with digital fabrication in public library makerspaces.FindingsThe women in the sample leveraged digital fabrication to deepen existing creative practices, challenging gendered distinctions between crafting and technology. They directed making toward economic survival and thriving, including creative-sector entrepreneurship. Making was also directed toward strengthening families and communities, centering relationships beyond the makerspace. Learning emerged as a byproduct of engagement, organized to produce specific artifacts. Library resources, arrangements and rules supported women with varying technology skills and also constrained some making activities.Practical implicationsFindings suggest evaluators should resist deficit framing of women and making; broaden science, technology, engineering and mathematics-focused definitions of making; focus on the personally meaningful ends to which making is directed; expand conceptualizations of community; examine arrangements and resources that mediate making and learning; and center the perspectives of local women makers.Originality/valueThis paper presents an empirical account of makers who are often marginalized and identifies six implications for evaluations of public library makerspaces.

The study analyzes data collected in two case studies in the healthcare industry, which is characterized by a variety of social and technical elements forming an activity system where all elements interact with each other. The findings indicate that many problems emerging during the implementation of a health information system can be traced back to contradictions between elements of the activity systems that are created or amplified by the new IS. The authors find that some contradictions are latent and become salient when introducing a new IS, while other contradictions are (unintentionally) newly created. Also, the study shows that contradictions are more complex than hitherto assumed and often concern more than two elements of a healthcare activity system. In a similar vein, effective interventions geared toward countering these contradictions are found to account for additional complexity while not always achieving their goal. Drawing on activity theory, the authors develop a framework to coherently synthesize the findings. The study can help increase the understanding of the IS’s role within an activity system and help guide IS implementation projects aimed at avoiding unintended consequences.

Current design approaches mainly focus on co-design activities for creating (novel) digital artefacts. Less attention is paid on implications of new technologies on people and their experiences. Th...

Despite that Building Information Modelling (BIM) is often praised as a whole life-cycle methodology, possibilities for deconstruction are consistently overlooked. This study demonstrates what those possibilities may be. Previous studies showed that: deconstruction practices pose several site-based challenges; BIM implementations may help practitioners to address such challenges; and activity theory offers a framework to understand BIM implementations. We aimed to explore how deconstruction practices can be reorganised with BIM by applying an activity-theoretical perspective to a rather unique case-study. The selected case concerned the deconstruction of a nursing home so that many of its elements could be reused to construct a school. During this project, we implemented BIM in three essential activities: analysing existing conditions, labelling of reusable elements and planning deconstruction. The implementations resolved initial problems related with the use of traditional drawings, schedules and instructions. They nevertheless also triggered several additional problems that we attempted to address in successive steps. The organisation of the activities so evolved, which culminated in the formation of three new BIM uses for deconstruction: “3D existing conditions analysis,” “reusable elements labelling” and “4D deconstruction simulation”. These concepts complement existing BIM use taxonomies and can be appropriated in future deconstruction projects.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to prepare students for emergency online learning and teaching The blended-learning approach that includes online learning and teaching options in social work theoretical modules has been described as valuable in providing students with a variety of modes of learning and teaching However, its use in fieldwork modules requires further research This article aims to explore the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate student social workers and their supervisors regarding the inclusion of technologies in the first-year fieldwork module, and how this affected their online experiences during the pandemic The activity theory served as a theoretical framework A qualitative approach was followed with an explorative-descriptive research design Participants were selected through purposive non-probability sampling Data was collected through written reflection sheets that were analysed through thematic content analysis Ethics included voluntary participation, informed consent, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity The findings indicate that all the components of the activity theory were present, while challenges experienced prior and during the pandemic were identified as a lack of previous exposure to the use of technology and of access to technological resources, socioeconomic challenges, the need to become skilled in becoming independent scholars, a need for direct interaction among students and between students and supervisors/lectures, and the importance of a variety of role-players to support learning The findings provided a foundation to draw conclusions and make recommendations regarding what is needed to effectively use the activity theory’s components in fieldwork modules and to prepare students for technology-based learning and teaching in higher education settings © 2021, Kazan Federal University All rights reserved

This study explored the user-generated translation activity in the context of the Chinese online social media. It focused on Bilibili content creators dedicated to translating public comments on China-related videos posted on international social media platforms such as YouTube, and creating videos featuring Chinese translated comments. Viewing their translation actions as events in a collective activity system, the authors collected data from 30 participants through a questionnaire and follow-up interviews with two participants who have recently worked on videos about China’s fight against Covid-19. All the data were analysed by using Engeström’s activity theory model to create an activity model showing how their user-generated translation activity was conducted. In this study, we observed that the participants, as the non-professional translation community on the Chinese online social media, were breaking down linguistic borders for fans and viewers, and postulated the possible interaction between the user-generated translation work and their better understanding of how the world saw China through grassroots expression of opinions.

PurposeCritics of claims about building information modeling’s (BIM’s) capability to revolutionize construction industry practices describe it as overhyped, fallacious and therefore suggest that there is need for a more critical examination of its change impacts. Others have posited that the changes BIM induces are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. In this vein, the purpose of this paper was to undertake a careful analysis of the nature of such changes to distil actual changes that happened, and the type of agency that brings such changes about.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from appropriate qualitative research strategies, data was collected through key informant interviews from consulting organizations in South Africa that have implemented BIM within their organizations and on projects.FindingsChanges in organizations’ work practices were evident in their workflows, formal/informal methods of interaction, norms, leadership and authority structures, remuneration and the way work was conceived or conceptualized. Furthermore, changes in organizational work practices do not solely occur through the direct agency of the BIM tool’s implementation. Instead, BIM-induced change occurs by delegated, conditional and needs-based agency – which are not mutually exclusive.Originality/valueThe nature of changes in professional work practices could be misconstrued as being solely because of the actions of agents who actively participate in implementing BIM. The discussion in the literature has, therefore, been advanced from general to specific theoretical understandings of BIM-induced change, which emphasize the need for construction stakeholders to actively participate in developing the innovations that drive change in the industry rather than hand the power to drive change to BIM authoring and management application developers who have less stake in the industry.

Higher education students in English medium instruction in non English-dominant countries use L2 to share ideas and demonstrate learning thorough the medium of English and are often required to enh...

Today, artificial intelligence (AI) and BOTs (build–operate–transfer) transform our individual lives and businesses. Some authors even claim that this is the era of intelligence in machines. AI and BOTs are developed to mimic various human behaviors. The Systemic-Structural Activity Theory (SSAT) is the framework that offers numerous methods of analyzing and optimizing human performance and reducing the number of errors. This paper focuses on how the SSAT methodology can be utilized to develop AI and BOTs. The SSAT analysis of the tasks, their design, and testing can be improved via building a human algorithm of the task performance. Such analysis allows users to choose the most efficient method of task performance that can then be applied to the development of an AI or a BOT. This paper discusses the examples of BOT development and demonstrates the capabilities, utilization, and future applications of the SSAT framework.

Social networking sites and apps (SNSAs) are being used more frequently across the world and yet the nature of this online environment and associated interactions are not fully understood. With no ...

The migration to electronic health records (EHR) in the healthcare industry has raised issues with respect to security and privacy. One issue that has become a concern for healthcare providers, insurance companies, and pharmacies is patient health information (PHI) leaks because PHI leaks can lead to violation of privacy laws, which protect the privacy of individuals’ identifiable health information, potentially resulting in a healthcare crisis. This study explores the issue of PHI leaks from an access control viewpoint. We utilize access control policies and PHI leak scenarios derived from semi structured interviews with four healthcare practitioners and use the lens of activity theory to articulate the design of an access control model for detecting and mitigating PHI leaks. Subsequently, we follow up with a prototype as a proof of concept.

PurposeDiscussion regarding systems that promote innovation, aptly named innovation ecosystems, has been intensifying both in academia and business. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the activity theory as a theoretical framework for conceptualising and studying innovation ecosystems. Using the activity theory, it investigates elements that affect the success and viability of innovation ecosystems formed between startups and incumbent firms, collaborating with an established firm within the context of an open innovation programme.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses an exploratory case research approach and proposes the activity theory as a theoretical background to be used in innovation ecosystem research. Based on this approach, this study draws from interviews and research observations in an innovation ecosystem formed between an established firm and various startups that aim to co-develop innovative offerings.FindingsBy applying the activity theory tools, this study identifies several contradictions between interacting actors of this innovation ecosystem that can adversely affect the innovation process. Furthermore, it proposes the use of the activity theory as a fitting theoretical lens to study innovation ecosystems.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study is related to the focus on the incumbent–startup context for extending the innovation ecosystem literature. Using the activity theory as a viable methodological tool allows us to conceptualise firms as social constructs and hence pinpoint inner characteristics that can affect and shape their interactions and the broader ecosystem. This process is further enhanced by the use of primary data that give unique insights into the inner workings of innovation ecosystems by identifying underlying contradictions.

Higher education institutions often pair native speakers with English as a second and foreign language learners to encourage oral conversation practice. Born out of such circumstances, the current ...

Objective Shared Decision-Making (SDM) has been advocated as an ideal model of decision-making in the medical encounter. Much of the research into SDM has focused on measuring if SDM is happening, or facilitating SDM by developing specific models and tools. Understanding SDM as an activity in context, has remained mostly absent from the research. This study sought to garner details on the actions, judgements and motives that comprise the activity of making a decision, in the context of a shared process between physicians and families of Children with Medical Complexity (CMC). Methods 11 physicians who treat CMC were interviewed. Activity Theory framework was employed to understand the complexity of the decision-making process in context. Results Ambiguous information, conflicting rules, and beliefs on roles all contribute to the difficulty of decision-making. A decision is achieved by allocating the decision to one party. Conclusion Lack of tools, rules or beliefs that would assist sharing the decision between the physician and patient/family, contributes to the need to allocate the decision to one party. Practice Implication In developing SDM policies and tools, one must consider all aspects of the SDM activity system, and how they influence each other and the activity as a whole.

PurposeIn the domain of information science, affordance is a relatively new concept that deserves further exploration. It may serve as a bridge to narrow the research-practice gap that has persisted in information studies. Building upon previous research, we call for a broader concept of affordance that would help researchers understand information practices from an ecological perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe study focuses on conceptualizing affordances for information practices in order to theorize engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments. We develop a hierarchical model and a component model to illustrate how key tenets of affordances can be linked with the decomposition of activities and its mechanism. Following this, we describe an illustrative case of a popular Chinese cloud-based music platform to demonstrate the utility of our conceptual frameworks in guiding studies of information practices.FindingsThe study proposes to shift the focus of technology affordances, which highlights the features and functions of particular technologies, to the affordances for practices that are enacted through technology and social construction within a sociocultural environment. The illustrative case of the cloud-based music platform shows that the proposed models can provide a structured view of operations, actions and motives for music information practices. The processes of internalization and externalization offer insight into the decomposition of information practice as a chain of activity-action-operation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on theorizing engagement among people, technology and sociocultural environments through the theoretical lens of affordances and sheds new light on the challenges of information practice.

Biometric systems offer opportunities for developing countries to address citizen identification challenges. In recent years, biometric systems have been deployed at the national and sector levels ...

Sustaining open source (OS) communities is fundamental to the long-term success of any open source software (OSS) project. An OSS project consists of a community of software developers who are part of a larger business ecosystem involving hardware and software companies. Peer review of software code, known as patch review comments, is an important quality assurance activity for OSS development that requires developers to provide feedback concerning their degree of satisfaction. Despite the importance of feedback, which can affect sentiment of OS communities, the underlying discourse has not been studied. In this study, we use Activity Theory to identify and categorise 20,651 discursive manifestations of contradictions that occurred in patch review comments of a large, evolving OS community. Unique community-specific expressions are identified and mapped to developers’ sentiment during a software release cycle. The study contributes new insights concerning discursive manifestations of contradictions as a driving force for sustaining OS communities.

INTRODUCTION Clinical placements are central to the process of preparing future health professionals for practice. Health care environments are increasingly complex and demanding with clinical placements often being perceived as a burden on busy health professionals giving rise to a service-education tension. This tension creates a situation ripe for simplistic solutionist approaches. For example, characterising the problem of clinical placements as students negatively impacting on service productivity results in a reductionist solution such as universities compensating health services for student education. Challenges faced by placement seekers and placement providers are multifaceted and complex requiring a more sophisticated understanding and response to the challenges of involving students in the workplace to prepare them for the future workforce. RE-CONCEPTUALISATION We argue that the health and education systems have become de-coupled. Learning and working are seen as distinct activities that are at odds with one another. Re-imagining the purposes and practices of clinical placements for the mutual benefit of patients, health services and students may fruitfully address this disconnect. WORKED EXAMPLE We present a worked example using the conceptual and analytical tools of cultural-historical activity theory to articulate what we have learnt about this health-education disconnect. Our worked example draws on research involving a series of clinical education case studies within acute care contexts. CONCLUSION Through the lens of cultural-historical activity theory, we highlight that solutionist approaches are entrenched in a de-coupling of health from education where the shared object of preparing the future workforce is fragmented. Successful re-coupling requires a partnership that is founded on a shared commitment to preparing the future workforce; recognises that learning and practice are inseparable; and understands that both activity systems are fluid and that collaboration to stay focused on the shared object of preparing the future workforce is complex, challenging and ongoing work.

The forms of human resource development (HRD) have mostly been defined through categorizing similarities among the roles, goals, methods, and theoretical foundations of empirically observed HRD practices. However, this kind of empirical generalization fails to explain how these forms have emerged and how new forms of carrying out HRD develop. This article focuses on these questions. Its purpose is to show how the emergence of new forms of carrying out HRD can be explained on the basis of an activity-theoretical, evolutionary approach. This approach views changes in HRD as processes of 'retooling' that take place as an interplay between the emerging developmental challenges in production and the available HRD theories and methods. The conceptual tools provided will thus also help researchers and practitioners assess the requirements and possibilities for developing new forms of realizing HRD that match the complex challenges posed by the current economy. A case analysis is used to demonstrate the approach and its superiority over the classification of the types of HRD practices for understanding the variation in the forms of carrying out HRD and their development.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been widely seen as bringing a paradigm change to the construction industry. However, scholars have acknowledged that neither widespread BIM implementation ...

E-learning are widely adopted in todays' university classrooms to supplement teaching approaches. Moodle is the most popular learning management system (LMS) that builds with the features of recording the learners' data and activities. Leveraging learners' data has become a trend in searching for informed guidance and actionable insights to optimise the learning design. Literature shows that the highest levels of participation do not correlate with the best academic results, and the most engaged students are likely the weakest students who try to improve their performance.This dataset contains the information about 659 students, the logs of their interactions, and the summary of site entries over one academic semester.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a qualitative observational study of how middle managers in healthcare in the UK on a work-based masters programme in leadership were introduced to foundational aspects of creativity and delivering innovation through an assignment on contemporary architectural design.Design/methodology/approachThe assignment involved individual research of a recent architectural design followed by group poster presentations of findings and structured analysis. No prior knowledge of design was required. An activity theory approach was used to explore common principles of creativity and leading innovation, key features of design processes and tools for facilitating implementation.FindingsA total of 89 managers in seven cohorts completed the assignment. Data from process records and group work, artefacts and follow-up evaluation questionnaires were analysed within an interpretive approach. Analysis of data lent support for the view that exploring architectural design as an activity system helped participants to develop conceptual and applied links between management performance, creative collaboration and delivering innovation in their own, different field of practice. Where participants expressed limited self-efficacy regarding the capacity for fostering creativity, this was usually ascribed to systemic inhibitors.Practical implicationsExploring architectural design could provide a relatively low-cost, highly stimulating component of management development programmes seeking to harness the contribution of creative industries to foster work-based creativity and innovation.Originality/valueThis study explores a novel use of architectural design within the context of work-applied development programmes for healthcare managers.

We have entered the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, to be successful within this era, as teacher educators, we need to transform teaching and learning. We need to use pedagogy suitable for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This paper draws attention to the future of mathematics teacher education by showcasing a flipped learning setting. This qualitative, interpretive study was framed using Activity Theory and was located at one university in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Mathematics education students were observed while learning within a flipped learning setting. Subsequently, a sample of participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Thematic coding and interpretive techniques were used to analyze the data generated. Four main themes emerged. These themes are: The flipped learning approach is inhibited by the lack of material resources, the flipped learning approach is dependent on lecturer professional development, the flipped learning approach saves time in the lecture room and the flipped learning approach encourages interaction and collaboration within the mathematics lecture room. Globally, these findings have relevance when considering the role of technology-based tools within mathematics Higher Education lecture rooms in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

We present insights from the design and development process of Singapore Heritage Trails (SGTrails), a location-aware mobile application that supports users’ exploration of sites of heritage and cultural value. Our findings are based on (a) a survey to understand users’ perceptions about the role of technology, (b) a field study to compare a prototype version with a paper guide, and (c) analysis of implementation, initial adoption, and usage to uncover the multilayered meanings of heritage locations. Drawing on Activity Theory, we examine the ecology of actors and tools necessary to facilitate the co-curating and experiencing of sites of cultural heritage.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce activity theory (AT) as a new theoretical lens to the field of information security non-compliance by explaining how research in that field can benefit from AT and to suggest eight propositions for future research.Design/methodology/approachBased on AT, the paper suggests that employees, IT systems, task characteristics, information security policies (ISPs), community and division of labor can be viewed to form an ensemble that is labeled activity. Their characteristics and/or the relationships that exist between them in organizational contexts are hypothesized to influence non-compliance behaviors.FindingsThe paper suggests that AT provides a broad lens that can be useful for explaining a large variety of non-compliant behaviors related to information security.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper focuses only on non-compliant behaviors that employees undertake with non-malicious intentions and offers avenues for future research based on the propositions that are developed in the paper.Originality/valueThe paper provides a useful step toward a better understanding of non-compliant ISP behaviors. In addition, it proposes and explains new research areas in the non-compliance field.

Purpose Knowing and understanding the spatial needs of users is imperative for the design of livable and sustainable houses. However, the practical and theoretical difficulties associated with this, especially in social housing, create a shortfall in design knowledge known as user needs gap. To bridge this gap, design researchers over the years, have sought to provide feedback for design decision-making through post-occupancy evaluation studies using preferences and residential satisfaction as constructs. In view of their limitations, this study aims to explore residential adaptations as residents’ tacit means of communicating their spatial needs, and a pathway to understanding residents’ housing requirements. Design/methodology/approach The study was exploratory in nature and a case study by design using a convergent parallel design within the mixed methods tradition. Activity Theory as used as a conceptual framework. The study involved three strands of research as follows: estimation of the floor areas of the rooms and spaces of the case study designs using the International Standards Organisation intramuros method; a survey of households and their activities using questionnaires; and observation of residents’ adaptations captured photographs and drawings. In all, 43 households out of the 66 apartments in the two case designs were surveyed. Findings The study found that while the units were theoretically large, they were practically inadequate when average household sizes were taken into account in a space per person analysis. In response, particularly to sleeping requirements of children, residents make different forms of adaptations – normative, such as house sharing, compositional and organizational, as well as add-ins and add-ons including and illegal alterations. Originality/value The paper presents residential adaptations as an empirically grounded, contextually embedded and practically useful means of exploring and understanding users’ spatial needs in housing design. Residential adaptations provide a means through which residents communicate their housing needs, albeit tacitly – a means for self-expression, self-extension and self-determination. To theory, the study shows that residential adaptations can be useful as a construct for understanding residents’ spatial needs, though fuzzy. It also helps understand how the tensions in an activity system, may result from contradictions produced by the lurking effect of contextual factors. This makes contextual knowledge, particularly cultural knowledge, critical to the design.

Holistic evaluation of educational quality necessitates considering novel and theorized measures of quality as well as more instrumental metrics. Online learning is increasingly valued by working professionals as a means of gaining a postgraduate qualification while employed, but this area of education is undertheorized and investigated. Online learning is often discussed in instrumental terms, as if abstracted from the social and material settings in which learning and work take place, but my own conversations with student and graduates about the impact of their studies contrast strongly with such views and motivated this work. Adopting a postdigital perspective, I present an activity theory analysis of interviews with students and staff about the value and perceived impact of online postgraduate programmes in healthcare professions. Four themes are identified that describe how students learning moves horizontally within and across academic and clinical settings: crossing boundaries, ripple effect, eroding structures and hierarchies and expansion. Teaching is delivered online, but learning occurs as the students move through the various contexts they inhabit. The pedagogical approaches required to realize the potential value of these programmes should not be based on the online delivery or the technologies used, but the particular needs of the student group.

Current developments put significant pressure on IT project portfolio management (IT PPM), increasingly requiring IT project portfolios to be strategically aligned and efficient yet agile. Accordingly, our aim is to identify IT-PPM-related tensions among the three design goals alignment, efficiency, and agility, and to elaborate a set of design principles that will provide organizations with recommendations for reconciling these goals. We conduct our research trough the theoretical lens of Activity Theory. Our findings are based on a revelatory case study in the financial services sector and are evaluated through focus group discussions and expert interviews.

Objective To highlight the importance of the personal experience of users who interact with technology in safety-critical domains and summarize three interaction concepts and the associated theories that provide the means for addressing user experience. Background In health care, the dominant concepts of interaction are based on theories arising from classic cognitive psychology. These concepts focus mainly on safety and efficiency, with too little consideration being given to user experience. Method Users in complex socio-technical and safety-critical domains such as health care interact with many technological devices. Enhancing the user experience could improve the design of technology, enhance the well-being of staff, and contribute to modern safety management. We summarize concepts of “interaction” based on modern theories of human–computer interaction, which include the personal experience of users as an important construct. Results and Conclusion Activity theory, embodiment, and interaction as experience provide a theoretical foundation for considering user experience in safety-critical domains. Using an example from anesthesiology, we demonstrate how each theory provides a unique but complementary view on experience. Finally, the methodological possibilities for considering personal experience in design and evaluations vary among the theories. Application Considering user experience in health care and potentially other safety-critical domains can provide an additional means of optimizing interaction with technology, contributing to the well-being of staff, and improving safety.

Change Laboratories are a methodology to deal with complex problems in society in order to both better understand these problems as well as to find potential solutions. They typically involve colla...

With the recent development in mobile devices and mobile services, mobile learning (m-learning) has become one of the most common research topics across Arab Gulf countries (AGC). The literature showed an inconsistent usage of m-learning in these countries. This paper sheds light on the progress of m-learning use in AGC, as well as offering recommendations to improve its adoption success. A systematic literature review was conducted to identify the current evidence on the use of m-learning in AGC across several groups of instructors and students. The results from reviewing 31 previous studies showed that students’ and instructors’ acceptance and use of m-learning were the main topics of concerned. In addition, the lack of research on leadership and policy practices in AGC may lead to technology failure. The key recommendations on best practices related to the use of m-learning in AGC were presented and discussed.

The focus of this paper is on the contestations and dilemmas emergent in the higher education curriculum in a context of increasing processes of unbundling, digitisation and marketisation. The paper explores the notion of contestation through the theoretical lens of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. It points to illustrative examples of this contestation from empirical data drawn from stakeholder research in South African higher education. The paper grapples with understandings of the concept of curriculum and argues how these have been shaped by – and are shaping – emergent meanings of the curriculum in an unbundling context. The argument is that these emergent meanings are a function of different explicit and tacit understandings of curriculum and what higher education offers to students. These understandings are deepened or modified by processes of unbundling. Empirical data from the research study show these understandings to be forming against the backdrop of powerful cultural and agentic forces and players.

Game jams, which are game creation events in which developers design and build a game over a short period of time, have been shown to support participatory, active STEM learning. Game jams have expanded from their origins as physically co-located experiences and many are now conducted exclusively online. Though the co-located game jam has been noted as educational, little is known about how learning happens within online game jams. To better understand the ways online game jams support self-development, we interviewed fifteen online jam participants about their learning experiences during their jams. Additionally, we observed and analyzed several jams using activity theory. We found that online game jams support participants' learning through extensive feedback from others during and after the jam. Such feedback sessions were a key social and participatory learning elements for online jams, providing much-need social support. In contrast to the group-focused development in offline jams many participants in our study chose to develop games alone. Many individuals participated in online game jams regularly, treating them as a broader experience than singular events. We use these findings to discuss how we might better design for self-directed learning online and offer suggestions on how to better attune online game jams to the needs of participants.

Background The emergence of new technology-facilitated types of crime following the advent of the Internet necessitated the re-examination of the utility of traditional theories such as lifestyle-routine activity theory to explain crimes that occur in the new and unique environment of cyberspace. Reason for study The objective of this study was to investigate whether victims’ lifestyles and routine activities can help explain the risk of victimization from direct, indirect and mixed types of cyber abuse. Research design To achieve this objective, the data from a large nationwide (US) crowd-sourced sample (N = 1463) of adult members of an online labour portal Mechanical Turk was collected using an online survey platform Qualtrics and then analyzed using Bayesian Profile Regression to identify clusters of lifestyles and routine activities of victims associated with victimization from different types of cyber abuse. Findings Our analyses were able to distinguish between victims and non-victims as well as between victims of different sub-classifications of cyber abuse. Specifically, we have identified five population subgroups based on their lifestyles and routine activities in terms of the associated risk of personal victimization from different types of cyber abuse. This paper discusses the differences in lifestyles and routine activities between the identified groups. Conclusions Our findings generally support the empirical utility of lifestyle-routine activity theory to explain cyber abuse victimization; as with other traditional types of crime (e.g. robbery or assault), victims’ lifestyles and routine activities play a significant role in their risk of various types of cyber abuse victimization.