Search

With the globalisation of the higher education industry, service quality in the higher education services is seen as a vital factor in determining a university's competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to extend current conceptualisation of quality research in higher education by investigating the influence of self-determination and outcome valence in the form of students' feelings towards their academic result, on university service quality (USQ) evaluation. The results highlighted that students who feel good about their academic results are more self-determined and perceive a more favourable USQ experience than others. On the basis of the research findings, this study suggests that the effect of motivational differences and academic outcome valence on USQ evaluation should be taken into account when considering how students' USQ perception is formed. These pertinent issues deserve considerable attention as they have a bearing on important outcomes such as student satisfaction and staff performance appraisal.

Feedback is widely acknowledged as the crux of a learning process. Multiplicities of research studies have been advanced to address the common "cri de coeur" of teachers and students for a constructive and effective feedback mechanism in the current higher educational settings. Nevertheless, existing pedagogical approaches in feedback are fragmented and ad hoc in nature. Taken in isolation, each approach fails to capture the full role and complexity of assessment feedback in the learning process. The paper provides a synthesis of existing practices in the field of assessment feedback and identifies the core guiding elements to develop a holistic and integrated feedback system. The 360 degree (360°) feedback system is proposed and its systematic implementation is demonstrated via the interplay between self-, peer and teacher assessment. It is concluded that the elements of 360° system when combined and integrated help to maximise the functions of feedback to enhance learning.

Based on Deci and Ryan's self-determination theory, this study examines the impact of an individual's motivation in pursuing higher education towards university service quality perception, with the individual's learning style posited as the moderator of the proposed relationship. The consequent effects upon satisfaction and behavioural intentions are also assessed. From a large-scale questionnaire survey with a sample of 1919 business undergraduate students in Malaysia, this study found that those who are more self determined to participate in higher education tend to have a more favourable university service quality perception, which then leads to a greater level of satisfaction and student loyalty. The moderating effect of learning style was also found in the interaction between a student's motivation to participate in higher education and university service quality evaluation. The implication of this study underscores the complexity of the service quality construct as well as the effect of motivational differences and learning style upon university service quality evaluation. (Contains 7 tables and 3 figures.)

Purpose: This research aims to investigate how a generic web-based ITS can be created which will adapt the training content in real time, to the needs of the individual trainee across any domain. Design/methodology/approach: After examining the various alternatives SCORM was adopted in this project because it provided an infrastructure that makes it possible to deliver personalised learning dynamically using re-usable learning objects. Findings: The results show that a system which presents a student with content that is supplementary to an authored course should be accompanied by a tool to help the trainee's navigation. For such a tool, key functionality would be: first, to identify learning objects that would take the student towards the ultimate learning goals; second, to suggest a pathway through the authored course structure and additional learning objects to the student; and finally, to present the student with different choices of pathway, such as fastest, most comprehensive and most popular routes. Originality/value: This investigation has taken another approach of adapting the course by displaying an adapted set of learning objects to the trainee, instead of using a linear course structure. (Contains 5 tables, 10 figures and 2 notes.)