Search

Plagiarism has been a critical concern to consider by universities and research institutes worldwide for ensuring academic integrity. Even with the internet revolution, this academic dishonesty became increasingly overwhelming more especially due to easy access and use of online resources without acknowledging the original authors. Prior research explored several perspectives of plagiarism such as culture, language, internet technology, and policies from different institutional settings. However, little is known about plagiarism in the online Rwandan higher education context. The aim of this study is twofold. First it attempts to understand the tendencies of plagiarism through internet-based resources and then secondly to identify the contextual factors that contribute to plagiarism by students at University of Rwanda. Both undergraduate and master’s dissertations were randomly collected and analysed to ascertain the frequency of plagiarism tendencies from the text-based similarity indexes. In addition, open-ended interviews were conducted to 15 teachers and 15 students from UR colleges. Similarity indexes from Turnitin’s originality reports were used to determine the frequency of similarity indexes through computer-based text-matching process. Results indicated a highly critical rate of tendencies to plagiarism each referred type of plagiarism. Likewise, findings portrayed that for the sample of analysed documents, no thesis document is deemed genuine to fulfil the academic integrity. In addition, the frequency of similarity indexes of the texts matched from the analysed thesis documents and online databases is closely similar for both undergraduate and graduate students. Moreover, this study identified 17 factors contributing mostly to plagiarising through easy access to internet resources at this university. Among them, six reasons are related to social-cultural context, five to institutional context and the last six are attributed to individual factors. A holistic approach encompassing innovative, detective and preventive strategies is recommended in association with computer-supported tools to eradicate plagiarism at this institution. Further research can explore the adoption and use of computer-based text matching tools as an additional strategy for combating plagiarism in both public and private universities at national or regional level by comparing several institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrival of large groups of refugees is one of the great challenges in Europe today. In Sweden around 100 000 new immigrants is expected to arrive from Syria only during 2017 and there are large groups from various countries already staying in Sweden that are not properly integrated. There are no quick and smart solution to solve the inclusion of the large number of new citizens and the idea should rather be a holistic approach combining several initiatives. Lack of language skills is one of the underlying reasons for new arrivals exclusion from the labour market and social networks. Online informal language learning and digital mentorship with two way communication between New Arrivals and established Swedes might be a way to facilitate the inclusion and integration process. The aim of the study was to examine to which extent a digital communication tool could act as a resource in order to make the integration process more effective for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. Research was carried out as a qualitative cross-sectional study with data gathered by semistructured interviews. Five educators who are actively working with newly arrived immigrants and refugees were interviewed with use of the Skype tool. A thematic analysis was conducted to find patterns and to create themes and categories that could answer the main research question: How might a digital communication tool be designed to facilitate the integration and inclusion of new arrived refugees in Sweden? The answers could be structured according to two overall themes: "Usable" and "Flexible". The theme "Usable" consisted of three sub-themes Ease of Access, Improved language skills and Integrity Facilitation, while the theme "Flexible" was divided into two subcategories Adaptable and Educational content. The findings confirm that a digital communication tool would support integration of new arrivals by facilitating personal dialogues with established Swedes. The recommendation is to create an online platform that supports language learning and enables multiway digital mentorship in a social network with benefits for the established Swedes as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arrival of large groups of refugees is one of the great challenges in Europe today. In Sweden around 100 000 new immigrants is expected to arrive from Syria only during 2017 and there are large groups from various countries already staying in Sweden that are not properly integrated. There are no quick and smart solution to solve the inclusion of the large number of new citizens and the idea should rather be a holistic approach combining several initiatives. Lack of language skills is one of the underlying reasons for new arrivals exclusion from the labour market and social networks. Online informal language learning and digital mentorship with two way communication between New Arrivals and established Swedes might be a way to facilitate the inclusion and integration process. The aim of the study was to examine to which extent a digital communication tool could act as a resource in order to make the integration process more effective for newly arrived immigrants and refugees. Research was carried out as a qualitative cross-sectional study with data gathered by semistructured interviews. Five educators who are actively working with newly arrived immigrants and refugees were interviewed with use of the Skype tool. A thematic analysis was conducted to find patterns and to create themes and categories that could answer the main research question: How might a digital communication tool be designed to facilitate the integration and inclusion of new arrived refugees in Sweden? The answers could be structured according to two overall themes: "Usable" and "Flexible". The theme "Usable" consisted of three sub-themes Ease of Access, Improved language skills and Integrity Facilitation, while the theme "Flexible" was divided into two subcategories Adaptable and Educational content. The findings confirm that a digital communication tool would support integration of new arrivals by facilitating personal dialogues with established Swedes. The recommendation is to create an online platform that supports language learning and enables multiway digital mentorship in a social network with benefits for the established Swedes as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities in developing countries are increasingly adopting and using eLearning in their teaching and learning processes as one of the means for leapfrogging into the knowledge driven world. However, despite the recognition eLearning has received, it has not fulfilled the expectations in terms of impact on the delivery and quality of learning, pointing to the need for improved or new approaches. This paper explores the collaborative eLearning approach as one of the strategies for effective adoption and use of eLearning. Using the first stage of development research this paper presents an empirical study that aimed to explore and understand the current practices of collaborative eLearning in a developing country context. The study was carried out with university students in Uganda and placed focus on the value derived from and challenges encountered in adopting and using collaborative eLearning. From a general perspective, it was evident that learning and teaching methods are predominantly traditional, with limited/no integration of eLearning and there were inconsistencies in understanding the integration of technology into teaching and learning processes. The findings obtained indicated that students through collaborative eLearning were able to share and gain knowledge, understand course concepts and access various views and learning material. Factors such as inadequate bandwidth, inadequate Internet/computer access, conflict resolution, adequate ICT skills and face to face interaction challenged the adoption and use of collaborative eLearning in this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]