This study investigated the differences in learners' performance and perceived engagement between three intervention groups in a Science class, using two types of pedagogical intervention: ...traditional instruction with paper-based quizzes and gamified instruction with gamified e-quizzes as formative assessments. With respect to the gamified instruction, three types of gamification applications were employed: Socrative, Quizizz, and iSpring Learn LMS. The effects of the instructional intervention (n = 94), as well as evaluative feedback, were obtained with the aid of formative quizzes, post-questionnaire surveys, and personal interviews. The results showed that the employment of innovative gamified e-quiz applications (i.e., Socrative, Quizizz, and iSpring Learn LMS) and paper-based quizzes were effective in evaluating students' learning performance, particularly as formative assessment after completing each topic. Finding ways to apply games or game concepts in the classroom can be a promising and innovative tool for educators to engage their students in creative learning skills and attractive competition.
•A gamified e-quiz was effective in evaluating learning performance.•A gamified e-quiz can be an alternative solution for a formative assessment system.•Game concepts can be a promising tool to engage students in attractive competition.•Quiz competitions after lectures motivated students to compete with one another.•Feeling of fun, interest, enthusiasm, and curiosity are the characteristics of game concepts.
This study proposes a novel research model to investigate the neglected and pivotal mediating role of knowledge-worker productivity between knowledge management processes (knowledge generation, ...knowledge sharing, and knowledge application) and innovation. The data were collected from the 369 knowledge workers in the IT sector of Pakistan and analyzed using the SmartPLS 3 Version 26. The results indicate that knowledge-worker productivity mediates between two knowledge management processes (knowledge creation and knowledge utilization) and innovation. However, surprisingly, it does not mediate between knowledge sharing and innovation. The results support the pivotal role of knowledge-worker productivity-the most striking challenge for the management discipline in the 21st century-in knowledge-based innovation. Moreover, the results signify the overarching role of the human and cultural approach to knowledge management over the Big Data and IT and system-based approaches.
The theory of trying postulates that in the less technologically advanced developing countries, online banking adoption behavior is a function of three attitudes rather a single attitude. These three ...attitudes are attitudes towards successes, failure, and learning that are expected to determine online banking adoption. These three attitudes, in turn, are dependent upon two crucial individual traits, overall self-confidence, and cynicism. However, the previous literature has not provided conclusive empirical evidence about this issue particularly in the less technologically advanced context of South Asia. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to test the role of these three attitudes and two traits as the determinants of the online banking adoption behavior. The data was collected from 215 customers who were already using the online banking in the District Attock, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was applied for hypotheses testing. The results point that in the developing context of Pakistan, all the factors - attitudes and traits - are significant predictors of online banking adoption behavior.
The adoption of gamification in learning and instruction is perceived to have mass appeal among the learners in stimulating motivation, learner engagement and social influence. This study is an ...attempt to present a summary of the empirical findings of state-of-the-art literature in the emerging field of gamification within the educational domain of learning and instruction. It reveals the latest scientific research evidence on the emerging trends of learning technologies and gamification plugins along with extending the possibilities for future research directions in revolutionizing learning and instruction through gamification. A systematic literature review examined the thematic and content analysis of 46 empirical research papers published in the Web of Science database between 2016 and 2019. The review critically appraised and evaluated the various contradictions found in the literature along with setting the stage for the significance of future research studies to re-examine the theoretical foundations of gamification, its methodological approaches, theoretical models, gaming platforms and apps, game mechanics and learning outcomes. This study not only attempts to shed light on the novelty of gamified learning perceived as a game-changer and key enabler of motivation, engagement, and user experience but also sought to outline the key challenges and barriers of gamification.
•The study aims to evaluate, synthesise, and present state-of-the-art literature on gamification in educational domains.•The review critically appraised and evaluated the various contradictions found in the literature.•Gamification research in the academic field reveals that the majority of the studies have no theoretical establishments.•A gamification concept may provide an effective strategy to intensifying learning, including eliciting friendly competition.•The study reveals three positive themes; students' engagement and motivation, academic achievement, and social connectivity.
This study attempts to investigate and comprehend more in-depth information about students' daily lives in the Wi-Fi coffee shops, specifically in Aceh, a province of Indonesia. The study explores ...how the wireless Internet in coffee shops relates to college students' activities. The surveys of 619 students were conducted as a preliminary report. An in-depth phenomenological interview was employed to collect data from three university students who regularly spent many waking hours in coffee shops. Findings from the preliminary survey revealed that more male students visited coffee shops than women, with an average time of more than three hours daily. Accessing information through the Internet was not the primary purpose of visiting the coffee shops by most students instead of gaming, meeting up with friends for a chat, and enjoying the coffee. Qualitative interviews reported that students often visited coffee shops for various purposes, including completing homework, meetings with friends, and finding freelance online market jobs. Wi-Fi coffee shops are essential for those who do not have Internet access at home, particularly young people and recent transplants with low incomes but high educational capital. Although the Internet in coffee shops can have both negative and positive effects on students, if users or students can access these facilities rightly, they will acquire many benefits to support their education and future career. However, if misused, it may negatively affect their lives. Suppose the Internet in the coffee shop is used properly for educational purposes. In that case, it will push for greener and healthier information practices for students who may favor low-tech environments or lack personal infrastructure or resources.
Organizational ambidexterity is a strategic challenge for the contemporary organizations. It involves the simultaneous or synchronous pursuit of two inherently incompatible and conflicting activities ...– exploitative learning to become efficient in the current business activities, and explorative learning to predict and work on future challenges, opportunities, and demands. Depending upon the form(s) of ambidexterity an organization adopts, these two conflicting activities can be pursued asynchronously across different time phases, or synchronously in separate units, and/or in the same units by the employees. This study postulated and found that the Bontis (1998) model of interplay between knowledge assets can enable the successful pursuit of all the forms of ambidexterity, either synchronous pursuit of exploration and exploitation by the employees across same or different units or asynchronous pursuit across different time phases. The study used a multisource sample of 424 respondents from the various firms in the South Korean industries. The findings demonstrated that the organisational and the social capital are central to pursuing exploration, exploitation, and ambidexterity directly while human capital played a significant role in supporting the other two types of knowledge assets. In addition, social capital played a dual role to be both supportive of organisational capital and being central in the pursuit of ambidexterity outcomes.
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•Development of sequential dissolution-self-assembly strategy for synthesis of mesostructured MMZ.•ZSM-5 as structural unit and CTAB as template is crucial for synthesis of ...MMZ.•Fabrication of MMZ and ZSM-5 with HAuCl4·3H2O via ultrasound assisted impregnation.•MMZ is better than ZSM-5 for Au NPs dispersion and size regulations.•Au/MMZ is efficient for catalytic reduction of P-NP and MB dye than Au/ZSM-5.
Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) have received great attention in diverse catalytic reactions due to their excellent activity. However, the activity is severely relying on dispersion and size of Au NPs. Therefore, regulation of Au NPs for degradation of organic pollutants in water is of vital significance for environmental remediation. Herein, we developed microporous/mesoporous silica, MMZ, using ZSM-5 (SiO2/Al2O3 = 28) as structural constructing precursor and cetyltrimethylamoniumbromide (CTAB) as template via sequential dissolution-self-assembly strategy. The Au precursor is introduced into MMZ and ZSM-5 by ultrasound assisted impregnation and subsequent reduced for Au0 formation. The obtained materials were characterized by XRD, TEM, XPS, SEM, UV-DRS, N2 adsorption and TG/DTG techniques. XRD and TEM study revealed that up to1.0 wt% of Au can be well dispersed with smaller size of 2.8 nm in the material from MMZ (denoted as 1.0Au/MMZ), while serious aggregation and formation of large Au NPs occurs over ZSM-5 with the same Au loading (denoted as 1.0Au/ZSM-5). Catalytic studies also demonstrated that Au/MMZ has much higher catalytic activity for reduction of p-nitrophenol (P-NP) and methylene blue (MB) to p-aminophenol (P-AP) and leuco methylene blue compared with Au/ZSM-5 analogue and other reported Au-based catalysts previously. Moreover, Au/MMZ has good reusability and showed no change in its original catalytic performance till 7th cycles in reduction of P-NP and MB, which is attributed to stable structure and well dispersion of Au NPs over MMZ. Therefore, compared with other Au based catalysts used for catalytic reaction, this Au/MMZ is cheap and promising for industrial applications.
Purpose
The high turnover rate of knowledge workers presents a challenge to both organizational and personal knowledge management. Although personal knowledge management plays an important role in ...organizational knowledge management, empirical research on the practices for its application is underdeveloped. This study aims to examine the role of idiosyncratic job-design practices (i.e. job definition, job autonomy, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) in cultivating personal knowledge management among knowledge workers in organizations, to increase their productivity and safeguard the organization against knowledge loss arising from knowledge workers’ interfirm mobility.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 221 knowledge workers pursuing various knowledge-intensive jobs through a questionnaire survey and were analysed using partial least squares modelling.
Findings
The results demonstrated that three job-design practices (job definition, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) have a positive impact on personal knowledge management among knowledge workers and thus improve their productivity. However, job autonomy can affect personal knowledge management negatively.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are confined to a specific context and should be replicated across different contexts for better generalizability in future research.
Practical implications
Organizational managers should pay attention to (re)designing knowledge-intensive jobs to cultivate personal knowledge management by clearly outlining job responsibilities, offering opportunities to add relevant job activities and drop irrelevant ones, and making innovation and lifelong learning a formal job requirement. In addition, job autonomy should be judiciously provided along with sufficient social and network support to avoid lost opportunities in knowledge creation and sharing, and should be linked to job responsibilities and performance appraisals to avoid negative effects.
Originality/value
The high turnover rate of knowledge workers presents a challenge to both organizational and personal knowledge management. This study contributes to the literature by addressing the research gap in two aspects. Firstly, based on Drucker’s theory, this study identifies four idiosyncratic job-design practices (job definition, job autonomy, innovation as a job requirement and lifelong learning orientation) that reflect the distinctive characteristics of knowledge-intensive work. Secondly, this study examines whether and how these practices can cultivate personal knowledge management among knowledge workers, which can support their productivity.
Purpose Knowledge management in the public sector is relatively an ignored avenue of research and practice that has recently been given attention. Knowledge management initiatives in the public ...sector are now not limited to the developed countries anymore. The public sectors of various developing countries including Pakistan have developed knowledge management functions to address the problems of low organizational commitment (higher turnover rates) and knowledge-workers’ performance. Consequently, the purpose of this paper is to examine the mediation role of organizational commitment in the relationship between knowledge management practices and knowledge-worker performance. Design/methodology/approach The data were gathered from 341 knowledge workers of the public sector health department of Punjab Province, Pakistan, where knowledge management unit initiative has been taken. It was then analyzed using the structural equation modeling. Findings Organizational commitment partially mediates the relationship between knowledge management practices and knowledge-work performance. Practical implications The public sector policy makers are strongly advised to implement knowledge management units and practices in order to enhance knowledge-work performance as well as organizational commitment. Originality/value First, the model on the mediating role of organizational commitment has never been examined before. Second, the data collection from the public Health Department of Pakistan, a developing country, is relatively rare because the public sector knowledge management studies have mostly been conducted in developed countries. Finally, this study extends the literature on knowledge management in the public sector that is the developing theme in knowledge management discipline while adding knowledge management as a toolkit to enhance knowledge-workers’, organizational commitment and knowledge-work performance.
PurposeThe productivity of knowledge workers is crucial not only for organizational innovation and competitiveness but also for sustainable development. In the context of knowledge-intensive firms, ...implementation of knowledge management is likely to increase knowledge worker productivity. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of knowledge management on knowledge worker productivity.Design/methodology/approachA research framework on the effects of knowledge management processes on knowledge worker productivity is established and empirically tested with data from 336 knowledge workers at five mobile network operator companies in Pakistan.FindingsThe results indicate that knowledge creation and knowledge utilization impact knowledge worker productivity positively and statistically significantly. However, knowledge sharing does not have statistically significant impact on knowledge worker productivity. Demographic factors (gender, managerial position and formal education level) do not moderate the relationship between knowledge management and knowledge worker productivity statistically significantly.Research limitations/implicationsThe key limitations are the cross-sectional nature of the data and the geographic limitation to telecom companies in Pakistan.Practical implicationsIrrespective of gender, education and managerial position, implementation of knowledge management can increase knowledge worker productivity. Therefore, knowledge management practices should be implemented to enhance the knowledge worker productivity via fostering the knowledge worker’s engagement in and propensity to knowledge management processes.Originality/valueThis study is among the first to examine the likely influence of knowledge management on the productivity of knowledge workers conclusively while controlling for three individual demographic factors. This study also addresses the effectiveness of knowledge management in the little-explored cultural context of Pakistan.
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