Information Technology Training Research Articles

Keeping ahead of the game: Innovations and challenges in e-government in Malaysia

AbstractThis article examines the development and usage of e-government in Malaysia. The history of public administration reform in Malaysia demonstrates the government’s willingness to experiment with innovations seen as improving the efficiency, effectiveness and responsiveness of public services. Thus, e-government has been enthusiastically promoted by the Malaysian government and has spread across most government organisations at central and subnational levels. The article provides details of a range of services both within government and for society that are available in e-government modes. However, there are challenges to the development of e-government including adherence to traditional models of service delivery, resistance to organisational culture change by officials, preference for counter services by clients and constraints on the availability of information technology training. Mobile phones are now seen as a new way to encourage citizens to use e-government on a regular basis.

Toward an Integrative Understanding of Information Technology Training Research across Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction: A Comprehensive Review

Toward an Integrative Understanding of Information Technology Training Research across Information Systems and Human-Computer Interaction: A Comprehensive Review

The impact of IT infrastructures on Iranian nurses' and students' health information-seeking strategies

Purpose – Health departments of Iran have attempted to encourage nursing staff to incorporate research findings into practice since 2005. Consequently, significant changes have occurred in nursing area including holding computer skills courses, digital library workshops, establishing web sites in hospitals, and developing information technology (IT) training in nursing students' curriculum to increase accessibility to best practice information and opportunity for nurses and students to use research-based information in their clinical decision. So a question has raised, what information resources are used by nursing staff and students in hospitals? The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 412 nurses and students working in hospitals connected to web and digital libraries participated. They are evaluated with a questionnaire. Findings – The results indicated that the students and the nurses preferred experiential knowledge to research-based information in their clinical decisions and they had little tendency to high-level evidence. Results showed that lack of skill in using library was the most important deterrent in using research-based information. Originality/value – It could be concluded that provision of the infrastructures for using research-based information in clinical decisions was not sufficient. In addition to infrastructures, the paper must invest on organizational, system-wide approaches such as organizational culture, information literacy culture, acceptance of innovation, role of clinical librarians and advanced nursing informatics, and social marketing in evidence-based practice to facilitate the use of higher-level evidence in practice.

Nurses’ Perception and Barriers to Use of Information Communication Technology in a Teaching Hospital in Nigeria

The impact of information technology on nursing has been a subject of discourse for the latter half of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st. Despite its obvious benefits, adapting information technology to healthcare has been relatively difficult, and rates of use have been limited especially in many developing countries. This quantitative study has shown a generally low usage of information technology among nurses in the study setting. Many of the nurses adjudged themselves as novice in information technology, with 37.8% stating that they had never had formal training in information technology and many rating themselves as possessing little or no skill in the use of spreadsheet, databases, and so on. Many (55.6%) stated that they do not have access to information technology despite the fairly widespread satisfactory perception established among them. Results further showed that unreliable network connections, high work demand, inadequate number of computers, poor access to computers consequent on wrong locations, and poor system design with associated failure to fit work demands are some of the major barriers to the use of information technology in the study setting. These factors therefore need to be taken into consideration in any intervention that seeks to improve the nurses' use of information technology in clinical setting.

Effect of Culture on Acceptance of Telemedicine in Middle Eastern Countries: Case Study of Jordan and Syria

We investigated issues that affect the use and adoption of telemedicine in Middle Eastern countries, taking the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Syrian Arab Republic as case studies. Our study is based on interviews with key stakeholders (including doctors, technicians, engineers, and decision makers) and questionnaires administered to key stakeholders (including patients), ensuring opinion was gained from people from a full range of backgrounds and roles in the healthcare system. We found doctor and patient resistance was a major issue preventing the adoption of telemedicine in both countries, followed by poor infrastructure, lack of funding, and lack of information technology training. Our research identifies that culture is a greater issue than technical matters for the adoption of telemedicine in Middle Eastern countries. Based on our preliminary results we developed a guideline framework for each country that might be applied to telemedicine projects at the pre-implementation phase. The proposed guideline framework was validated through a return visit to the stakeholders and seeking further opinion.

Methodological aspects of cloud-oriented tools in information technology training

Professional training in information technology requires building an integrated system, which, as T.I. Koval notes, "is based on person-centered and activity-oriented approaches, an organic combination of traditional and computer-oriented methods, the integrated use of ... traditional and computer-oriented teaching aids, introduction of both traditional and distance forms of organizing the educational process". The saturation of the educational process with modern ICT tools creates conditions for increasing the share of active forms of students' learning activities, intensification of their independence in acquiring knowledge and mastering skills, and technological integration of classroom and extracurricular work using combined learning.

Knowledge and utilization of information communication technology (ICT) among health science students at the University of Gondar, North Western Ethiopia

BackgroundDespite the relatively huge ICT investment and policy deployment in higher institutions in Ethiopia, there is still scant information about the success of implementation of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the higher education. This study, therefore, was carried out with an aim to assess knowledge and utilization of Information Communication Technology (ICT) among medicine and health science students and its associated factors in Gondar College of Medicine and Health sciences, University of Gondar.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Ethiopia. Data regarding socio-demographic characteristics of the students, level of knowledge and utilization of ICT were collected by means of a self-administered questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 13.ResultsA total of 1096 students responded giving a response rate of 97.8%. The mean age of the study participants was 20.3 (±1. 3) years. Females constitute only 26% of the respondents. The majority (79%) were fulltime students. Only half of the respondents (51%) had ICT knowledge and only 46% students utilized ICT while 47% of the respondents never used electronic communication (e.g. email or chat room) and 39% of the respondents never used Microsoft office (e.g. word ® or WordPerfect ®). ICT knowledge [AOR = 2.5, 95% CI: 1.7-3.5], family educational background [AOR = 4.36, 95% CI: 2.16-8.80], and perceived quality of training [AOR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.3-2.8] showed strong and positive associations with ICT utilization. Students from urban areas were more likely to utilize ICT compared with those from rural areas [AOR = 2.7, 95% CI: 2.097, 3.497], and information technology training was found to be positively associated with ICT utilization [AOR = 2. 07, 95% CI: 1.18, 3.62].ConclusionsThe result showed that students’ knowledge was inadequate and utilization of ICT was poor. Therefore, the university should sustain professional development to improve teaching, to raise student performance and equip the college with student centered ICT computer labs to increase students’ ICT utilization.

Training in Information Technology and Communication (ICT) for Language Teachers Through Contemporary Teaching Methods and Wikis

Training in Information Technology and Communication (ICT) for Language Teachers Through Contemporary Teaching Methods and Wikis

A study on the motivational aspects of information management practice

This research investigates the motivational aspects of information management practice by developing and performing an initial test of the theorization on the components and structural properties of a new variable, called information management motivation (IMM). Based on a synthesis of the motivation and information processing literature in the information systems, psychology, management, and information technology training fields, we theorize IMM as a second order construct composed of formative sub-constructs of proactiveness, sharing, transparency, and formality. New measures were developed for the constituent constructs of IMM and refined through two studies involving 120 knowledge workers. The model of IMM was tested, confirming the proposed structural relationships between the constituent constructs and IMM. The study findings provide important insights on understanding and improving individual knowledge workers’ information management activities.

Connecting communities in arid lands with knowledge in East Africa

To connect communities living in arid lands in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and provide them with Internet and information services, Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) operates 12 community knowledge centres. These Maarifa centres act as the main hub for sharing information resources with the community, for capturing indigenous and local information, and for providing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services and training to the community. ALIN's systematic process of capturing, sharing, and analysing quantitative and qualitative information about its centres' activities and about the needs of its beneficiaries helps the organization provide its demand-driven knowledge and information services to some of the most marginalized communities in the world. This case story presents an overview of ALIN's approach to monitoring and evaluating this knowledge management initiative, describing what was helpful and what were the main challenges in this evaluation process. This article also presents som...

Effective elements on e-health deployment in Iran

The structural features of Iran’s health system obligate the development of information technology in medical field and design of an effective e-health system. Due to the importance of this issue, the current study was performed to identify the effective elements on e-health deployment in order to codify a comprehensive plan for Iran. The practical, descriptive-comparative study was conducted using semi-qualitative methods with mathematical analysis. The study populations included the following countries: Australia, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Britain, Turkey and Iran. Due to the comparative nature of the study, there were no samples and the selected countries were chosen as the sources of information. This study was performed in four stages including studying the current situation and the history of issue in Iran through documents and evidences, comprehensive study of e-health in selected countries by searching through books, materials and also the web, suggesting the primary proposal and eventually determining the proposal’s credibility and presenting the final plan using the semi-Delphi technique. The findings of the study indicated that e-health deployment priorities included individual health care identifier (IHI), patient ID, e-health card, increasing investment in information technology, electronic appointment registration, electronic prescribing and finally, telemedicine service. Strategies commonly aimed to use the information technology to provide health care services based on patients centrality. E-health infrastructures included physical networks, legal infrastructures, education, preparation and performance of e-health operation. The necessary resources to establish e-health included financial, data and other resources. The deployment of e-health included e-health record, e-health card, telemedicine service and health portals. The major obstacles to establish e-health in Iran included lack of a specific strategy, ambiguous and complicated information technology infrastructure, two cultural and educational problems in relation to training and practice in information technology and communication skills, rapid changes of managers especially in Ministry of Health and Welfare, not being able to attract skilled information technology technicians in e-health field, unclear mechanism to fund e-health system, lack of codified technical standards and weak health service implementation methods. Infrastructure of information and communication technology in Iran is complex and ambiguous and e-health strategies and priorities have not been determined yet. Key words: E-health, prerequisites, resources.

Online education, social media and other topics

Several of the articles in this issue are concerned with online education and social media, but one deals with ICT literacy in Nigerian universities and another with ICT and the teaching of Islamic studies in the UK, again demonstrating the breadth of this field. In 2013 we will have two special issues presenting the best papers from two academic conferences. We are open also to other special issues (probably from 2014) on other relevant topics. If you have any ideas on this, please contact me (Arthur.Tatnall@vu.edu.au). In this last issue for 2012 the first article is by Jared Keengwe and David Georgina on: ‘The digital course training workshop for online learning and teaching’. The authors point out that a primary concern with Information Technology training has been that such training focuses on the technical aspects of learning management system (LMS) platforms and pedagogy-enhancing software without any concern for the content of the courses. The Digital Course Training Workshop (DCTW) approach examined in this article addresses this concern by supporting a content-first approach. The article aims to stimulate reflections on the need for systematic faculty professional development programs and activities to help higher education faculty in the transition process from traditional to online courses. The second article: ‘ICT literacy among undergraduates in Nigerian universities’ is by AirenEdaleAdetimirin. The article relates a study to investigate the availability, use of Information and Communication Technology and the ICT literacy skills of undergraduates in seven Nigerian universities. The study found that computers, telephone and the Internet were the three technologies mostly used by the undergraduates, although more on an occasional basis. The three major factors affecting the ICT literacy of the undergraduates were identified as irregular power supply, inadequate ICT and limited duration of the use of the ICT. The author advocates that for increased ICT literacy among undergraduates, university administrators need to Educ Inf Technol (2012) 17:361–364 DOI 10.1007/s10639-012-9196-x

Innovative Health Information Technology Training

Healthcare staff members are faced with an ever-increasing technology-enabled care environment as hospitals respond to financial and regulatory pressures to implement comprehensive electronic health record systems. Health information technology training may prove to facilitate user acceptance and overall adoption of advanced technologies. However, there is little evidence regarding best methods of providing health information technology training. This study retrospectively examined the difference in staff satisfaction between two training methods: traditional instructor-led and blended learning and found that participants were equally satisfied with either method. Furthermore, regardless of how much time was provided for practice, participants expressed a desire for more. These findings suggest that healthcare staff are open to new methods of training delivery and that, as adult learners, they desire increased opportunities to engage in hands-on activities.

The IT productivity paradox: Effects of training in audit firms

This study examines the moderating effects of professional training on the relation between information technology (IT) investments and financial performance of audit firms in Taiwan. The organization-level financial performance includes productivity and profitability. Total IT investments are divided into software and hardware expenditures. Empirical results indicate that professional training positively associates with productivity significantly but insignificantly with profitability. IT negatively relates to productivity and profitability. Both productivity and profitability are improved by the interaction between IT and professional training, indicating that professional training mitigates the IT productivity paradox. This study takes training and IT into account simultaneously to empirically examine the moderator role of training in the organizational context in which IT is deployed. Evidences obtained thus contribute information to both IT and human resources management literatures. Taiwanese audit market structure is similar to that of many western countries, empirical results of this study possess global managerial implications.

Georgia manufacturing industry: key factors of exchange of knowledge with external sources

Economic studies indicated that highly innovative firms have a decisive influence on national economic growth. Some studies have shown that many industry innovations arise out of research collaboration. Therefore, states seek to implement policies that promote research collaboration leading to highly innovative behaviour among firms within their states. This research study addressed the question: what organisational characteristics of firms are most positively associated with engagement in research collaboration? Drawing data from the 2005 Georgia Manufacturing Survey, this study has compared firms not engaged in research collaboration with those engaged in research collaboration with other firms and/or public research organisations. Using a logic model from econometrics, this research has identified four variables most positively associated with firm’s tendency to engage in research collaboration between two firms (size, highly innovative, percentage of workers organised in teams and percentage of workers with training in information technology). The five public-private variables include size, highly innovative and teamwork, process innovation and intra-organisational incentives. Some of these variables are components of a firm’s capacity to absorb external knowledge and apply it toward innovation, such us, team work and IT training.

Research on the Mode of Teachers Training under Informationalization Environment in Primary and Secondary Schools of Cangzhou City

This article analyzes the problems with the current development trend of information technology training in primary and secondary schools of Cangzhou City, investigates the present situation of teachers training and makes a tentative proposal on the mode and methods of teachers training.

Preparing Biomeds For the Future

Preparing Biomeds For the Future

Using tracking software for writing instruction

Writing is a complex skill that is hard to teach. Although the written product is what is often evaluated in the context of language teaching, the process of giving thought to linguistic form is fascinating. For almost forty years, language teachers have found it more effective to help learners in the writing process than in the written product; it is there that they could find sources of writing problems. Despite all controversy evoked by post-process approaches with respect to process writing, information technology has lately offered tools that can shed new light on how writing takes place. Software that can record keyboard, mouse, and screen activities is capable of unraveling mysteries of the writing process. Technology has given teachers and learners the option of examining the writing process as it unfolds, enabling them to diagnose strategy as well as wording problems, thus empowering teachers to guide learners individually in how to think about each of their trouble spots in the context of a specific product of writing. With these advances in information technology, metacognitive awareness and strategy training begin to acquire new dimensions of meaning. Technology lays open aspects of the writing process, offering unprecedented insight into creative text production as well. This paper attempts to explain how tracking software can influence writing instruction. It briefly examines the process and post-process approaches to assess their viability, explains the concept of tracking software, proposes methodology needed for the adoption of this technology, and then discusses the pedagogical implications of these issues.

The digital course training workshop for online learning and teaching

A primary concern with Information Technology (IT) training has been that IT-based training focuses upon the technical or point and click aspects of learning management system (LMS) platforms and pedagogy-enhancing software without any concern for the content of the courses. The Digital Course Training Workshop (DCTW) approach examined in this article addresses this concern by supporting a content-first approach. The DCTW approach--an initiative at a Midwestern University--is aimed at supporting faculty through the process of transitioning from face-to-face (F2F) courses to online teaching. Participating faculty enter the week-long seminar with traditional course content and leave with digital content transitioned into the appropriate LMS platform. This article is intended to stimulate reflections on the need for systematic faculty professional development programs and activities to help higher education faculty in the transition process from traditional to online courses.

The Level of Desirability of Information Technology Systems and Its Relation with Organizational Commitment

Purpose – This paper aims to define Information Technology (IT) desirability and determine IT relationship with organizational commitment. The existence of such a relationship between IT & organizational commitment can guide the organizational leaders to promote and to develop the IT potentials in order to improve the performance of employees, and elevate job satisfaction, commitment and organizational effectiveness.Design /methodology /approach –The design of the research is descriptive – correlational and the statistical sample consists of 84 educational service experts working at educational service offices in the University of Isfahan. They were selected based on purposeful sampling.Findings – The results showed that among IT desirability components, two components of training and fitness had a significant relationship with continuance commitment (one of the organizational commitment dimensions).Research limitations – since the statistical sample was selected purposefully and the research was done on educational service experts, any generalization of the results to other organizations and employees requires caution.Practical implications – Since the results of the research show the existence of only one of the dimensions of organizational commitment ( continuance commitment ) and two components of desirability of IT ( fitness and training), managers can try to improve the levels of these dimensions of IT.Originality / value – many researchers have investigated different effects and relations between IT and employees, but in this research the aim has been to investigate a more complete account as well as different aspects of employees’ perceptions about IT (i.e. desirability of the system).