%0 Journal Article
%T Utilisation-Focused Evaluation of ICT in Education: The Case of DFAQ Consultation Space
%A Dick Ng£żambi
%A Irwin Brown
%J Educational Technology & Society
%D 2004
%I International Forum of Educational Technology & Society
%X This paper describes an evaluation of a web-based consultation space (a dynamic frequently asked questions environment - DFAQ) in which learners consult one another using questions, and in which both the flow of interaction and its artefacts become a resource available to a community of learners. The DFAQ is a special form of a Computer-Mediated-Communication tool specifically developed to facilitate question-based interaction. We argue that education is too complex a social structure to be evaluated using deterministic positivist quantitative approaches. Given the volatility of determining what constitutes value, costs, inputs and outputs and the complexity of dynamics of socialization, a non-deterministic qualitative approach, utilisation-focused evaluation approach is used. Our conclusion is that the DFAQ does contribute to students  academic performance and frees the lecturer-learner consultation time.
%K Utilisation-Focused-Evaluation
%K ICT in Education
%K Computer-Mediated-Communication
%K and Dynamic Frequently Asked Questions (DFAQ)
%U http://www.ifets.info/abstract.php?art_id=5