 | | Is a fixed specification of a set of skills or abilities or, in its simplest form, a pass mark that needs to be achieved by a student. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | The idea of minimising the complexity of something by hiding the details and just providing the relevant information. It is about providing a high-level specification rather than going into lots of detail about how something works. In the cloud, for instance, in an IaaS delivery model, the infrastructure is abstracted from the user. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is: (1) the duration of a specific programme of study (which may not last a complete 12 months and is divided into terms, semesters or quarters). (2) the start and finish dates of the annual cycle of a university or national higher education system. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | Is a term used in the United States. In the UK, for example, this would be referred to as personal tutorial support. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is the right for individual scholars to learn, teach, research and publish without interference or fear of reprisal. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is the name given to the array of quality-related processes and practices in the United Kingdom. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is a set of procedures and processes for the acknowledgement and acceptance (subject to conditions), between institutions and countries, of higher education qualifications. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin ➔ Recognition | |
| | | Is the achievement of students and can be either the standard set (to be met or surpassed) or the standard achieved by a student. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | Is: (1) the duration of a specific programme of study (which may not last a complete 12 months and is divided into terms, semesters or quarters). (2) the start and finish dates of the annual cycle of a university or national higher education system. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | An accelerated programme/program is is one completed within the normal time span. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | The process followed by a researcher to obtain permission from the members, to enter a field study setting and to carry out the field observation. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design ➔ Access Agreement | |
| | | A statement by an institution (in the UK) to government about how it intends to contribute to improving particiaption in higher education from under-represented groups. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design ➔ Access Agreement | |
| | | Determining who or what can go where, when, and how. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is a preparatory programmes for students to gain entry to higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Access | |
| | | Is money specially earmarked to support non-traditional students in gaining access to higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Funding | |
| | | The deliberate effort of ensuring that information, activities, and settings are comprehensible, meaningful, and useable by a wide range of individuals. An example of accessibility that is commonly encountered is in the realm of architectural design. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design ➔ Access Agreement | |
| | | The suitable explanations a researcher must provide when seeking access to a field study setting. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | Accountability is the requirement, when undertaking an activity, to expressly address the concerns, requirements or perspectives of others. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Is the establishment of the status, legitimacy or appropriateness of an institution, programme or module of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Is an organisation delegated to make decisions, on behalf of the higher education sector, about the status, legitimacy or appropriateness of an institution, or programme. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation ➔ Body | |
| | | Accreditation decisions are usually limited to a fixed and stated period of time, after which the institution or programme is required to engage with a more or less rigorous re-accreditation process. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | An organisation that awards accreditation to institutions or agencies for money without requiring the institution or agency to meet appropriate quality standards, lacking any review of activity and without any requirement for subsequent periodic review. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | APCL | Is learning acquired from previous experience that has been formally assessed.APCL is learning acquired from previous experience that has been formally assessed. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | APEL | Is the formal acknowledgement (based on professional assessment) of learning acquired from previous experience, usually from experience unrelated to an academic context. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | APL | Formal acknowledgement (based on professional assessment), by way of granting credit, of students' previous learning: credit is given towards a programme of study or towards professional body accreditation. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | APL | Is the accumulated evidence germane to establishing accredited status. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | APL | Is the embodiment of the decision made by the accreditation body. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | APL | Is a term mainly applicable in the US context and refers to a process of checking compliance. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | APL | Is agencies that provide recognition to institutions as part of an accreditation process (see also accreditation body). Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | The accumulation of sediment on a social artefact. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is the second step in the action research cycle. Acting means putting practical strategies in place to change and improve a teaching or social situation; the next step is observing these changes. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Action Research | |
| | | Is a term used in the United States to imply a judgment or decision following an accreditation - see also adverse action. Focus: PhD ➔ C6 ➔ Recommendations | |
| | | Research aimed at helping powerless people in society to solve their problems and be empowered to fight for social justice. - Occurs when researchers design a field experiment, collect the data and feed it back to the activists (example: participants) both as feedback and as a way of modelling the next stage of the experiment. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Action Research | |
| | | The action research cycle is the process or spiral of research in action research. It involves four steps: planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Action Research | |
| | | Are elements of the programme of study that augment the usual classroom teaching of the syllabus content. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | In discourse analysis, adjacency pairs are paired utterances such as question-answer and compliment-response. The nature of the first-pair-part (for example, how the question is asked) conditions the structure of the second-pair-part (for example, how the question is answered). Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | (1) All forms of post-school education of students above a specified age. (2) Specially designed programmes for students above a specified age, which may or may not lead to a formal qualification but is usually certificated. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | Algorithms for complex analysis of either structured or unstructured data. It includes sophisticated statistical models, machine learning, neural networks, text analytics, and other advanced data-mining techniques Advanced analytics does not include database query and reporting and OLAP cubes. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A programme offers high school students the opportunity to engage with college-level coursework and gain college credit and placement. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Is a term used in the US to refer to failure to achieve/retain accreditation. (See also action). Focus: PhD ➔ C6 ➔ Recommendations | |
| | | Agency is, in the context of quality in higher education, shorthand for any organisation that undertakes any kind of monitoring, evaluation or review of the quality of higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Agency | |
| | | An overall specification of the intention or purpose of a programme of study or institutional mission or policy. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Aim | |
| | | An alumnus (plural alumni) is a graduate of an institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ People | |
| | | Use of constant comparison specifically in developing hypotheses, which are then tested in further data collection and analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Are personal notes (including ideas, questions, hunches, and speculations) a researcher makes during the research process about the collected data, and includes the researcher’s ideas and interpretations. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Are summaries and brief commentaries of individual published works. Focus: PhD ➔ C8 ➔ Matter ➔ Reference | |
| | | A situation where even the researcher will not know who provided which specific responses or data for a research project, e.g. an anonymous survey. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Appendix (singular) or Appendices (plural) - contain all research instruments used, as well as any relevant additional materials such as sample interview transcripts, sample coding schemes, summary charts, and so forth. Each item that is included as an appendix is given a letter or number and listed in the table of contents. Focus: PhD ➔ C8 ➔ Matter ➔ Appendix | |
| | | Is required by some institutions or sector organisations to process an application to study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin | |
| | ALC | The process of maintaining a piece of code so that it is consistent and predictable as it is changed to support business requirements. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | API | A defined protocol that allows computer programs to use functionality and data from other software systems. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is the study of language in use. It can be divided into two broad areas. The first focuses primarily on language itself, and is called language analysis. The second investigates the contexts and experiences of language use. Both areas employ qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Research carried out for practical applications and problem-solving functions. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Is the process of providing formative and summative feedback to students on the development of their learning. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | Is an overarching term to cover various forms of academic recognition of a programme or institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin | |
| | | In information processing, the design approach taken in developing a program or system. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | ADA | Involves the creation and organisation of structures, with a focus on both practicality and visual appeal. The design must be tailored to the user's experience while also fulfilling the client's and project's criteria. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | | Research that examines collections of public and other documents or records, to study a specific topic, issue or phenomenon. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Public or private records or documents related to the phenomenon under study which can be examined as research data. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | The process by which a database or file data that are seldom used or outdated, but that’s required for historical or audit reasons, is copied to a cheaper form of storage. The storage medium may be online, tape, or optical disc. Companies are using the cloud as a means of archiving data. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The presentation of one or more claims backed by credible evidence that supports a logical conclusion. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | An argument based on claims that have been proven as fact and that serves as the premise for logically driving a conclusion-in this case, the thesis statement of the literature review. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | An argument proving that the findings of fact represent the current state of knowledge regarding the research topic . Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | An agreement between the University and a partner institution, typically located abroad, in which the University acknowledges certain credits and advanced standing for groups of students who have completed a specified programme. This allows these students to transfer to relevant programmes as determined by University officials. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Are things that people within a cultural group make and/or use. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | ANN | Are the latest type of computer technology. Their architecture tries to mimic the construction of the human brain. The human brain consists of billions of neurons that are interconnected. As different parts of the brain are activated, depending on the thought-processes at work, electrical signals pass along the neural network. In the computer system, neurons are represented by processors connected together in order to achieve parallel processing. Unlike ES, ANN’s can learn by experience and increase their knowledge by self-discovery. Thus, they learn in a way similar to that of a human being, through pattern-recognition. They are now used widely in industry. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | A general term that embraces all methods used to judge the performance of an individual, group or organisation. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Is the process of evaluating the extent to which participants in education have developed their knowledge, understanding and abilities. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Is the process of evaluating the quality and appropriateness of the learning process, including teacher performance and pedagogic approach. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Software that allows organisations to record all information about their hardware and software. Most such applications capture cost information, license information, and so on. Such information belongs in the configuration management database. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Equipment that enables people with disabilities to perform tasks that they could not otherwise do. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | Is a sub-Bachelor qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Associate | |
| | | Assurance of quality in higher education is a process of establishing stakeholder confidence that provision (input, process and outcomes) fulfils expectations or measures up to threshold minimum requirements. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | ACID | Are the main requirements for guaranteed transaction processing. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A check on the effectiveness of a task or set of tasks, and how the tasks are managed and documented. Auditing is also a process that is used within organisations to ensure that the data is secure and in compliance with regulatory organisations. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Review team is the group of people undertaking a quality monitoring or evaluation process. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | Is a codification of the process, findings and outcomes of the audit process, usually prepared by the auditors and project team. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | A trace of a sequence of events in a clerical or computer system. This audit usually identifies the creation or modification of any element in the system, who did it, and (possibly) why it was done. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Reviewing completed work to check and align content and to proofread. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is the provenance under which a quality monitoring agency (or other evaluation body) operates. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Agency | |
| | | Assessment of students that uses practical and meaningful tasks to demonstrate the application of knowledge and attributes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | The process by which the identity of a person or computer process is verified. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | AVA | Is an organisation or consortia licensed to certify, authorise or authenticate programmes of study.Autonomy is being able to undertake activities without seeking permission from a controlling body. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Agency | |
| | | Basing one’s beliefs as true based on the power of the source of information. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Gap | |
| | | Also known as autobiographical sociology, a process where a researcher tells personal stories about some aspects of their own life experiences. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Is being able to undertake activities without seeking permission from a controlling body. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Qualification ➔ Body | |
| | | Is an organisation that issues an educational award, following formal assessment, and includes bodies that certify professional competence, thus including higher education institutions award councils and professional bodies. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Qualification ➔ Body | |
| | | Is the study of value. In qualitative research, there is an assumption that all research is value-laden, and includes the value systems of the researcher, the theory, research methodology, and research paradigm, as well as the social and cultural norms of the researcher and participants. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | BSc | Is the first-level higher education award, usually requiring three or four years' study but more in some medical subjects. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ BSc | |
| | | That which justifies the warrant. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | A utility that copies databases, files, or subsets of databases and files to a storage medium. This copy can be used to restore the data in case of system failure. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Technically, the range of frequencies over which a device can send or receive signals. The term is also used to denote the maximum data transfer rate, measured in bits per second, that a communications channel can handle. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Research carried out to discover something simply for the sake of knowledge to improve our understanding of the world, and for academic rather than commercial purposes. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | A non-interactive the process that runs in a queue, usually when the system load is lowest, and generally used for processing batches of information in a serial and usually efficient manner. Early computers were capable of only batch processing. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | In ethnography, behavior refers to what people within a cultural group do and the acts that they perform. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | In higher education, provides a reference point against hich outcomes can be measured and refers to a particular specification of programme characteristics and indicative standards. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | Is a process that enables comparison of inputs, processes or ouputs between institutions (or parts of institutions) or within a single institution over time. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | The process of comparing an organisation’s business processes and performance metrics (based on time, quality and cost) to best practices in other organisations. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | An effective way of doing something. It can relate to anything from writing program code to IT governance. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Are questionnaire items that put one group of people in a bad light based on gender, religion, ethnicity, and so on. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A list of all sources of information consulted for the study, some of which may not have been cited within the body of the publication. Focus: PhD ➔ C8 ➔ Matter ➔ Reference | |
| | | The capability to manage a huge volume of disparate data, at the right speed and within the right time frame, to allow real-time analysis and reaction. Big data is typically broken down by three characteristics, including volume (how much data), velocity (how fast that data is processed), and variety (the various types of data). Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | It is developed by Google to be a distributed storage system intended to manage highly scalable structured data. Data is organised into tables with rows and columns. Unlike a traditional relational database model, Bigtable is a sparse, distributed, persistent, multidimensional sorted map. It is intended to store huge volumes of data across commodity servers. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is one that has higher education taught in two different type of institution, traditional (academic) universities alongside more vocationally-oriented institutions. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin | |
| | | Making the necessary connections among software components so that they can interact. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Using a person’s unique physical characteristics to prove his identity to a computer — for example, by using a fingerprint scanner or voice analyser. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A component or device with an input and an output whose inner workings need not be understood by or accessible to the user. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is a flexible approach that combines face-to-face teaching/learning with remote (usually internet-based) learning. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | Is a term used to refer to the core funding provided by a national government (via a funding council) to a higher education institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Funding | |
| | | Is an ongoing process of integration and harmonisation of higher education systems within Europe. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ integration | |
| | | A data search conducted using keywords connected by the logical operators and, or, and not to define the specific area of interest. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | BCG | Global consulting firm that partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Organisation | |
| | | Is a term used in case study to refer to the parameters of a case. These could include the individual or entity, for example a school, under investigation and the settings in which social action takes place. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | Is a separate site of a university or college established in a location away from the site of the main university, usually in another town or city either in the same country or abroad. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Campus | |
| | | A company’s distinctive look, such as its logo, choice of colours and way it communicates with customer. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | BCS | BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, promotes wider social and economic progress through the advancement of information technology science and practice. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM ➔ Organisation | |
| | BP | One of the world's leading international oil and gas companies on the basis of market capitalisation, proved reserves and production. Focus: AoR ➔ KM ➔ Organisation | |
| | | In computer programming, a program that accepts requests from one software layer or component and translates them into a form that can be understood by another layer or component. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is the (old name) for the development of European co-operation on vocational education and training. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ integration | |
| | | Is the development of European co-operation to enhance vocational education and training. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ integration | |
| | BT | Provider of telecommunications services. The company's services portfolio comprises managed networked IT services, fixed voice and data services, mobility, television, connectivity, and broadband services. Focus: AoR ➔ KM ➔ Organisation | |
| | | Is a form of financial assistance to students to facilitate completion of their study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Funding | |
| | | A technology that connects multiple components so they can talk to one another. In essence, a bus is a connection capability. A bus can be a software (such as an enterprise service bus) or hardware (such as a memory bus). Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | BIS | A discipline that encompasses the integration of information, technical systems, and human resources. This field is interdisciplinary, combining elements of computer science and management to address diverse business challenges. It applies a range of tools, approaches, and concepts to develop effective solutions. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | The codification of rules and practices that constitute a business. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | BPEL | A computer language based on WSDL (Web Services Description Language, an XML format for describing web services) and designed for programming business services. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | BPM | A technology and methodology for controlling the activities — both automated and manual — needed to make a business function. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A technique for transforming how a business operates into a codified source so that it can be translated into software. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | BPR | Goal is to fundamentally rethink and redesign business processes to achieve radical improvements. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | BPaaS | A whole business the process is provided as a service involving little more than a software interface, such as a parcel delivery service. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Constraints or actions that refer to the actual commercial world but may need to be encapsulated in service management or business applications. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | An individual function or activity that is directly useful to the business. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | An efficient method of storing data in memory so that future requests for that data can be achieved more quickly. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The process that enables learners to make well-informed decisions about future learning or work activities. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills ➔ Career | |
| | | Is the in-depth examination of just one or a few cases, instances or ‘objects of interest’ to analyse a complex, contemporary phenomenon. - An in-depth study of a case or cases (a ‘case’ can be a programme, an event, an activity, an individual), studied over time using multiple sources of information (example: observations, documents, archival data, interviews). Can be exploratory, explanatory, or descriptive, or a combination of these. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | Is a method of data analysis that identifies categories by selecting utterances from a text, which are then classified and grouped together. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Narrative Inquiry | |
| | | Researchers create a category in the data analysis process by grouping together related codes, either as examples or components of a particular concept. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Narrative Inquiry | |
| | | Examining if one variable causes changes in another, in a given phenomenon. This cause and effect link is examined using experimental research where the time order release of the two variables is controlled, to see if the cause precedes the effect. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | A sample that includes every member of the targeted population of the research study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | CoE | A group of key people from all areas of the business and operations that focus on best practices. A center of excellence provides a way for groups within the company to collaborate. This group also becomes a force for change, because it can leverage its growing knowledge to help business units benefit from the experience. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is the process of formally acknowledging achievement or compliance: it can be used to signify the achievement of an individual, such as a student, or of an institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin ➔ Recognition | |
| | | The management of change in operational processes and applications. Change management is critical when IT organisations are managing software infrastructure in conjunction with new development processes. All software elements have to be synchronised so that they work as intended. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | CEO | Is the highest-ranking executive in a company. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | The work of an author by name (and usually by year of publication, depending on stylistic conventions) in the body of a research report. Focus: PhD ➔ C8 ➔ Matter ➔ Reference | |
| | | A declaration of proposed truth. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is (1) the process of identifying types of institution based on their core functions or economic status; (2) the process of delineating the class of award gained by a student. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Is a conservative, defensive and isolationist type of collegialism that is usually inward-looking and elitist. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | A system that is unaffected by external factors or the environment as it cannot interact or be influenced by them. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design ➔ Access Agreement | |
| | | Are questionnaire items in which participants select from a limited list of options provided by the researcher by circling them, making an ‘X’ and so on; participants are not requested to respond in their own words. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | In discourse analysis, closing is the action which shuts down an interaction. It is composed of at least one adjacency pair, such as ‘see you later’ – ‘bye’. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | A computing model that makes IT resources such as servers, middleware, and applications available as services to business organisations in a self-service manner. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is the idea in discourse analysis that language use is a product not just of its speaker but also those who are interacting with that speaker. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | Is education that includes work experience as part of the learning experience. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | A novel approach to studying that establishes a strong connection between higher education and professional practice. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Formal written guidelines produced by an official body or trade association outlining how something should be done. They may support a law but do not have legal standing. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | One aspect of data analysis. When researchers code, they are trying to make sense of the data by systematically looking through it, clustering or grouping together similar ideas, phenomena, people, or events, and labelling them. Coding helps researchers find similar patterns and connections across the data. It helps researchers get to know the data better and to organise their thinking, and it also makes storage and retrieval of data easier. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Narrative Inquiry | |
| | | Is created during data analysis. It is a list of the labels of the categories created when the researcher is coding. Frequently these labels are derived from the data itself (in which case they are called emic terms), but often they are terms created by the researcher (in which case they are called etic terms). In verbal reports, these labels attempt to capture the intentions of all of the thought units mentioned by the participants. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Examines different samples of a specific sub-population or cohort across time to examine how they may have changed during that period. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | CPC | A business strategy where several stakeholders, including suppliers, manufacturers, and customers, collaborate to enhance product creation and management processes. This technique utilises the sharing of information, communication, and integration through collaborative tools and platforms. The main objective of CPC is to optimise and improve product design, innovation, and delivery, while simultaneously lowering time-to-market and operational expenses. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | CVE | Facilitate the collaboration and interaction of numerous participants who may be geographically dispersed. Examples of this nature include distributed simulations, 3D multiplayer games, collaborative engineering tools, collaborative learning programmes, and various others. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | | The researcher uses more than one case, so as to better shed light on a particular issue. A collective case study often focuses on exploring an issue rather than describing one case in detail, by comparing and contrasting different cases. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | In higher education is a process of governance that prioritises shared decision making among the (usually senior) academic community. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Related to the functionalist paradigm, research under this school of thought looks at how things may be improved by looking at how and why people do things a certain way and how they work. It is also known as administrative research. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | A database that stores data across columns rather than rows. This is in contrast to a relational database that stores data in rows. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | CST | Theories based on what we know to be true from experience, which can be scientifically proven. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | The process of sharing information between people. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | It define what information should be communicated, who should receive that information, when that information should be delivered, where (e.g., email, social media, mail) communication will be shared, and how those communications will be tracked and analysed. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | CoP | A collective of individuals who are united by a common interest or enthusiasm for a certain activity, and by regular interaction, they enhance their skills and knowledge in that area. This definition acknowledges the inherent social aspect of human learning. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | | In the USA, is an intermediate college between compulsory education and higher education, although it offers some programmes that may be defined as higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ USA | |
| | | Is learning that takes place in a setting external to the higher education institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | Is the formal acceptance between two or more parties that two or more qualifications are equivalent. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Is the acquisition of knowledge skills and abilities at a level of expertise sufficient to be able to perform in an appropriate work setting (within or outside academia). Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | Arguments consisting of multiple claims formed to build premises that lead to a major thesis. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | CEP | A technique for tracking, analysing, and processing data as an event happens. This information is then processed and managed based on business rules and processes. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | This review extends the work of the simple review to identify and define an unanswered question requiring new primary research. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is undertaking activities or establishing practices or policies in accordance with the requirements or expectations of an external authority. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | A piece of computer software that can be used as a building block in larger systems. Components can be parts of business applications that have been made accessible through web service-related standards and technologies, such as WSDL, SOAP, and XML. See: Web Service. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | CFD | A multilayered and dynamic model. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | CFDiA | A visual decision making device. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | CAD | The utilisation of computers to assist in the process of creating, modifying, analysing, or optimising a design. The software is utilised to enhance the efficiency of the designer, enhance the standard of design, optimise communication through documentation, and establish a production database. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Design | |
| | CPDM | Incorporates multiple control mechanisms that synchronise the different segments of information that represent its intelligent components. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | A situation where some information about the project is kept hidden from the participants or respondents. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | A name or label given to a specific phenomenon, which is easily recognisable and distinguishable. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Gap | |
| | | Is software that lists occurrences of any word or phrase from a given text, along with a certain number of words on either side of it. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A person working for or with the researcher who is instructed to act in a certain way as designed in the study to examine how participants react to it. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | A situation where the identities of the respondents are protected and not made pubic by the researcher. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | The complete description of the way in which the constituent elements of a software product or system interrelate, both in functional and physical terms. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The management of configurations, normally involving holding configuration data in a database so that the data can be managed and changed where necessary. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | CMDB | In general, a repository of service management data. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is the concept that researchers should fully explain or disclose the data that they are basing their interpretations on, or at least make those data available. Confirmability can be improved by maintaining precise data records and keeping all data for additional scrutiny. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | The implied meanings of a sign/message/text. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Include Delphi and nominal group techniques and consensus development conferences. They provide a way of synthesising information and dealing with conflicting evidence, with the aim of determining the extent of agreement within a selected group. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is the belief that ends justify means; that is, that the results of actions determine their rightness or wrongness. Any particular action is neither intrinsically good nor bad; rather, it is good or bad because of its results in a particular context – its consequences. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | The consistency notion states that once a business has chosen a specific approach for handling an accounting item, it will consistently apply the same method to other identical things in the future. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | The constant comparative method is a method of data analysis from grounded theory in which the researcher constantly compares new data to data already placed in existing categories, to help develop and define that category and decide if a new category should be created. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Narrative Inquiry | |
| | | An iterative method of content analysis where each category is searched for in the entire data set and all instances are compared until no new categories can be identified. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | The epistemology which assumes that there is no one absolute truth or ‘reality’ and that reality is socially constructed. It is most often used in qualitative research and the interpretivist paradigm. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | A theory about how people learn – where they ask questions and find answers via exploration and assessment of what they already know. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Since concepts are abstract and unobservable, they need to be assigned a specifically created construct for a given research project that carries a specific meaning within that context. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | In computer programming, a data structure or object used to manage collections of other objects in an organised way. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A quantitative research method used to analyse the manifest content (literal meaning) of messages in a systematic and objective manner to measure and compare their various characteristics. - A form of analysis which usually counts and reports the frequency of concepts/words/behaviours held within the data. The researcher develops brief descriptions of the themes or meanings, called codes. Similar codes may at a later stage in the analysis be grouped together to form categories. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | CMS | A system that provides methods and tools to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organisational processes. The technologies include document management, records management, imaging, workflow management, web content management, and collaboration. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Are the codification of an expected or prescribed curriculum. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | The physical, psychological, social, and/ or temporal factors of authentic language in use. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | Extra time built into a schedule to allow for unforeseen issues and delay. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | Is: (1) a generic term for any programme of study (award-bearing or not) beyond compulsory education. (2) post-compulsory education of a short-term nature that does not lead directly to a major higher education qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | CPD | To study (that may accumulate to whole programmes with awards) designed to upgrade knowledge and skills of practitioners in the professions. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills | |
| | | Is the process of regulating or otherwise keeping a check on developments in higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | COBIT | An IT framework with a focus on governance and managing technical and business risks. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A sample made up of readily available subjects used in a research study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Are customary stylistic choices in writing that scholars within disciplines agree upon as a group to use, such as ways of citing sources and formatting a reference list. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | CA | A sociological approach to discourse analysis which attempts to describe the systematic properties of conversation. It focuses upon the sequential organisation of ‘talk-in-interaction’, in terms of machinery, rules, and structure. Example topics include openings and closings in telephone talk or e-mail. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | Was launched in November 2002 during a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, with the aim of reaching a consensus on a declaration that would promote increased collaboration among European countries in the field of vocational education and training (VET). Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ integration | |
| | | Provides a meaning to the interest statement under study. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is a collection of authentic spoken and/or written texts created so that researchers can see how language is commonly used. Some corpora are extremely large and are stored electronically; this allows researchers to easily search the corpora for individual words or phrases. Detailed information about the context of collection and/or of use is also usually provided. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | In discourse analysis, correction is the actual remedy of a language error. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | Is process of rectifying problems. Focus: PhD ➔ C6 ➔ Recommendations | |
| | | Interdependence between factors within a system. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Is a study unit undertaken by the student remotely from campus via written communication with teachers. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | A traditional technique of imparting education to students who are not physically present. This approach is usually used for adults, who get lessons and exercises through mail or other means. After completing the assignments, they send them back for analysis, criticism, and grading. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | CBA | An analysis that explores how to reach the desired goal at the lowest cost or in the most efficient manner. - Weighing up the negative aspects of an action (costs) against the positive aspects (benefits) to show the costs are worthwhile. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Is either a programme of study or a subunit of a programme of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | Theories that are expected to apply or ‘cover’ the broadest possible number of similar issues, events or phenomena under study (generalisability) in a given research project. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | CPO | A field study where the members or its leaders are aware of the researcher’s presence and where the researcher openly carries out the observation, note taking, interviews etc. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | Refers to the quality or trustworthiness of a piece of qualitative research. It can refer specifically to the extent to which the findings and explanations within a qualitative report are recognised and understood by the participants, but can also be extended to include considerations of all aspects of the study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Recognition of a unit of learning, usually measured in hours of study or achievement of threshold standard or both. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Accreditation ➔ Credit | |
| | | Is the process of collecting credit for learning towards a qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Accreditation ➔ Credit | |
| | | Is a specification of elements against which a judgment is made. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | Is the process of evaluating (and grading) the learning of students against a set of pre-specified criteria. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | A type of ethnography that examines cultural systems of power, prestige, privilege, and authority in society. Critical ethnographers study marginalised groups from different classes, races, and genders, to advocate the needs of these participants. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Research carried out under this paradigm examines the ideologies and power relations in society or a given situation pointing out what is wrong or unfair, who benefits from the current situation and tries to make positive changes to benefit everyone – especially those who are powerless, marginalised and negatively affected. It is related to the Frankfurt School. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | CSS | A one-off study conducted using a representative sample from the relevant population. It provides a snapshot of the present with findings that are limited in scope. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Is a term used in ethnography to refer to a detailed and rich holistic description of a cultural group. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | This perspective is also credited to the Birmingham school. It looks at ‘representation’ or how meanings are given to different things depicted in a text. It also looks at how the same text may be ‘read’ or interpreted in different ways by different people, how it works and in what contexts. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Is an abstract concept used to account for the beliefs, values, and behaviors of cohesive groups of people. It is a narrower term than race (which accounts for biological variation); a racial group may contain many different cultures, and a cultural group may contain members of different races. Although a cultural group may refer to a particular nationality, cultures may cross political boundaries and a nation may contain many cultural groups .... Within a cultural group, behaviors are patterned and values and meanings are shared. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | CTIT | International research conference on learning with smart and mobile technologies and learning across contexts will provide a forum where academics, researchers, scientists, developers, practitioners, student scholars, industry, government, and organisations present, discuss, and debate the most recent innovations, trends, experiences, and challenges. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Conference | |
| | | Is the embodiment of a programme of learning and includes philosophy, content, approach and assessment. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | A graph plotted between the independent and dependent variables indicates a U-shaped curve. As the value of one decreases, the value of the other also decreases to a point but thereafter, as one increases, the other also increases. This process is reversed in an inverted (upside down) U-shaped curve. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | CRM | Software designed to help one run their sales force and customer support operations. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Pieces of information. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | A systematic process of working with the data to provide an understanding of the research participant’s experiences. While there are several methods of qualitative analysis that can be used, the aim is always to provide an understanding through the researcher’s interpretation of the data. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Data that is placed in storage rather than used in real-time. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Software used to identify potential data-quality problems. If a customer is listed multiple times in a customer database because of variations in the spelling of her name, the data-cleansing software makes corrections to help standardise the data. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Data collection refers to the process of collecting information systematically through data collection methods. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | In qualitative research include observation, interviews, open-response questionnaire items, verbal reports, diaries, and so on. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Data access to a variety of data stores, using consistent rules and definitions that enable all the data stores to be treated as a single resource. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Data that is moving across a network or in memory for processing in real-time. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A subset of a data warehouse that is designed to focus on a specific set of business information. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The process of exploring and analysing large amounts of data to find patterns. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A technique or process that helps one to understand the content, structure, and relationships of their data. This process also helps them validate their data against technical and business rules. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Characteristics of data such as consistency, accuracy, reliability, completeness, timeliness, reasonableness, and validity. Data-quality software ensures that data elements are represented in a consistent way across different data stores or systems, making the data more trustworthy across the enterprise. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | As researchers collect data and simultaneously create categories through data analysis, they will get to a point at which these categories are ‘saturated’ – no new information adds to their understanding of the category. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | A process by which the format of data is changed so that it can be used by different applications. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A large data store containing the organisation’s historical data, which is used primarily for data analysis and data mining. It is the data system of record. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A computer system intended to store large amounts of information reliably and in an organised fashion. Most databases provide users with convenient access to the data, along with helpful search capabilities. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | DBMS | Software that controls the storage, access, deletion, security, and integrity of primarily structured data within a database. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | In situations where deception or concealment has taken place in a research study, the researcher must reveal the true nature of the study at the end of the data collection. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | A researcher deliberately providing false information to research participants or respondents. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | DSS | An information system designed to facilitate and enhance the process of making decisions inside a business or organisation. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | An argument in which the premises necessarily imply the conclusion. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | An approach to research where the researcher predicts a relationship between the independent and dependent variables, stating it as a hypothesis. The hypothesis is then tested to see if it is true or false. Comes under the logic of reasoning. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is the core higher education award, which may be offered at various levels from foundation, through bachelors, masters to doctoral. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Bachelor-Master's is the shorthand for a two-cycle system of higher education that is being introduced across the European Higher Education Area as part of the Bologna process. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is an organisation or institution that issues degree certification for an appropriate payment, with little or no requirements for the individual to demonstrate full competence at the relevant degree level in the discipline area. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Delegated accountability refer to the process of allowing institutions and higher education systems to take control of ensuring quality providing they are accountable to principle stakeholders, not least government. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | The literal meaning of a sign/message/ text. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | A methodical process of evaluating the educational standards inside an institution faculty departmental. Its purpose is to focus on quality assurance and drive enhancements in the college's education system. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | The idea of dependability emphasises the need for researchers to account for the ever-changing context and shifting conditions within which research occurs. In their published accounts, the researcher should describe the changes that occur in the setting and how these changes affected the way the researcher approached the study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | The variable the researcher seeks to explain. These are always measured or observed – not manipulated. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | A method of qualitative data collection used when the phenomenon under study cannot be directly observed or measured. Interviewers will ask people for their opinions, views, experiences, recollections, feelings etc. on the topic, issue or phenomenon under study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | The researcher presents a detailed, contextualised picture of a particular case or phenomenon. The research purpose is simply to gain a deep understanding of the case or phenomenon itself, not to generalise this case to other cases or contexts. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | A process that examines data in order to identify or explain a phenomenon. It follows an if/ then pattern. The then part is true when the if part has been proven. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | A study where the researcher provides a description of their observations, findings, results of data analyses, what people said during interviews etc. of a phenomenon under study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is an evaluation of learning potential. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Are first-person or third-person case studies in which individuals keep a reflective journal using introspection and/or retrospection. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Introspection | |
| | | A general term that embraces all methods used to judge the performance of an individual, group or organisation. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Diploma | |
| | | Is an organisation or institution that issues certified qualifications for an appropriate payment, with little or no requirements for the individual to demonstrate full competence at the relevant level in the discipline area. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Diploma | |
| | | An official recognition by a qualified authority of the worth of a foreign educational credential, in order to get access to educational and/or career opportunities. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Diploma | |
| | | Is a detailed transcript of student attainment that is appended to the certificate of attainment of the qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Diploma | |
| | | A term used in both computing and telephony to indicate an organised map of devices, files, or people. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | DRP | An official document developed by an organisation that provides comprehensive instructions on how to effectively address unforeseen crises, including natural disasters, power failures, cyber assaults, and other disruptive occurrences. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Refers to authentic spoken or written language produced in a particular context. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | A method of data analysis used to examine how a topic or subject gets ‘talked about’ in society and in media messages, to uncover the power relations embedded in society. - The linguistic analysis of naturally occurring connected speech or written discourse. It is also concerned with language use in social contexts, and in particular with interaction or dialogue between speakers. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | Is an extended (usually written) project involving research by the student, which contributes significantly towards a final assessment for a (higher) degree. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Output | |
| | | Is higher education undertaken by students in a setting remote from the physical campus of the higher education institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | The ability to process and manage the processing of algorithms across many different nodes in a computing environment. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Occurs when the teacher and student are situated in separate locations and learning occurs through the use of technologies (such as video and internet), which may be part of a wholly distance education programme or supplementary to traditional instruction. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | An educational approach where the instructor, students, and information are situated in several decentralised locations, enabling instruction and learning to take place regardless of time and location. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | PhD | Is the highest level of award in most higher education systems. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ PhD | |
| | | Is a system or process used to capture, track and store electronic documents such as PDFs, word processing files and digital images of paper-based content. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Providing evidence for an assertion or a finding in a research report. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | A piece of written, printed or electronic material that provides information or a record of something. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | Are questionnaire items that include two or more issues in the one question. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is an award made by two or more higher education institutions for a single study programme. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Integrate theoretical academic studies with hands-on vocational training or practical experience inside a company. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | | A system stays in balance, or equilibrium, while its various parts move or remain active (dynamic) all the time. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | An educational system that combines formalised teaching methods with the use of electronic resources. It primarily relies on the utilisation of computers and the Internet, regardless of whether it takes place within or outside of traditional classroom settings. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | It is defining the connections among applications before processing to improve speed. This also limits flexibility. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Making inferences about a group and applying them to all individuals belonging to that group irrespective of their individual differences. Similar to profiling or stereotyping. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Is the extent to which an activity fulfils its intended purpose or function. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | Is the extent to which an activity achieves its goal whilst minimising resource usage. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | Maintaining a good standard. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | The capability to expand or shrink a computing resource in real-time, based on need. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | EDI | The practice of businesses exchanging information electronically instead of using traditional paper-based methods. This includes transmitting documents like purchase orders, advance ship alerts, and invoices. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The use of three dots … shows the omission of words from a direct quotation. They only need to be used for an omission from the middle of a quotation not the start or end. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | Are questionnaire items that include swear words or might otherwise be embarrassing to some respondents. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is a mixed methods design. One type of data collection and analysis (quantitative or qualitative) is embedded or nested within a larger study with a different form of data as the primary database. The embedded database plays a secondary, supporting role. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Concepts (explanatory ideas) are identified from the data in the first stages of analysis and given a label or code that describes them. Concepts which are closely linked in meaning can be formed into categories: categories which have similar meanings can be brought together into a theme. The term ‘emerging themes’ refers to the development or ‘emergence’ of themes from the data and this overall method of analysis is referred to as ‘thematic analysis’. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ AoR | |
| | | Is a term used in observation to refer to theories that explain behavior that is seen during the observation process. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | Is a special term that refers to the participants’ insider viewpoint of a phenomenon, setting, or cultural group. This is in contrast with an etic view, which prioritises the researcher’s outsider viewpoint. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | A theory that sees all knowledge as derived from sensory experience. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Is the acquisition of attributes (knowledge, skills, and abilities) that make graduates more likely to be successful in their chosen occupations (whether paid employment or not). Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills ➔ Career | |
| | | Is an individual who actively participates in their own learning process and possesses the essential skills, information, and resources to assume control over their educational journey. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is the development of knowledge, skills and abilities in the learner to enable them to control and develop their own learning. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | When hardware, software, or a combination of both duplicates the functionality of a computer system in a different, second system. The behaviour of the second system will closely resemble the original functionality of the first system. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is a process of augmentation or improvement. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | The research activity of choosing a research setting and gaining access to the site. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | EIS / EES | A type of information system that enhances the operations of enterprise business processes through integration. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | ERP | A packaged set of business applications that combine business rules, processes, and data management into a single integrated environment to support a business. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | ESB | A packaged set of middleware services that are used to communicate between business services in a secure and predictable manner. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | ER | A data management approach that graphically represents relationships between data. This allows developers to create new relationships between data sources without complex programming. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A way of understanding and explaining how we know what we know or believe in. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | High school equivalency examinations assess students' knowledge in courses typically taught in high school. They offer an opportunity for individuals who did not complete high school to demonstrate their equivalent level of knowledge to that of a high school graduate. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Involves wear and tear and some form of reduction of a social artefact. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Addresses the effect of any action on the human relationships in a given context. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Upholds the unconditional worth of human beings and the respect to which they are entitled. It recognises that these universal rights impose corresponding responsibilities on the researcher to respect and uphold them. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Is an ethical theory that argues for the redistribution of resources and opportunities to achieve equity and to overcome prior discriminatory practices. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Are codes written to guide ethical practice in a profession or in the conduct of a research study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Are guiding principles or theories that inform ethical codes of conduct. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Research ethics relate to the standards that should be upheld to guard participants from harm or risk. Ethical considerations should be made at each stage of the research design and include informed consent, voluntary participation and respect for confidentiality. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Ensuring that research is done in an educationally and morally responsible way that does not affect the educational aims of the classroom. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | A qualitative research methodology used to observe people in their natural and uncontrolled social and cultural settings. - A qualitative research methodology that enables a detailed description and interpretation of a cultural or social group to be generated. Data collection is primarily through participant observation or through one-to-one interviews. The importance of gathering data on context is stressed, as only in this way can an understanding of social processes and the behaviour that comes from them be developed. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | A term that refers to the researcher’s outsider viewpoint of a phenomenon, setting, or cultural group. This is in contrast with an emic view, which prioritises the participants’ insider viewpoint. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | EBANK | KM Project Failure Case Study of EBANK. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | ECIE | The conference is generally attended by participants from more than 40 countries and attracts an interesting combination of academic scholars, practitioners and individuals who are engaged in various aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship teaching and research. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | ECKM | The conference is generally attended by participants from more than 40 countries and attracts an interesting combination of academic scholars, practitioners and individuals who are engaged in various aspects of Knowledge Management. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | ECTS | Is a system for recognising credit for learning and facilitating the movement of the recognised credits between institutions and across national borders. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Credit | |
| | | Evaluation (of quality or standards) is the process of examining and passing a judgment on the appropriateness or level of quality or standards. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Accreditors engage in a process to ensure institutional integrity, quality, and effectiveness, providing guarantees to students, the public, and each other. The purpose of accreditation is to motivate institutions to develop strategies for enhancing their quality and effectiveness. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Research carried out to gauge the relevance, suitability and effectiveness of a specific (public relations or other) campaign or program, being implemented. It is also known as program evaluation. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Procedures guarantee the presence, accessibility, and distribution of resources (such as personnel, physical assets, finances) and technology infrastructure to facilitate students' attainment of programme vocational learning outcomes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | A set of data presented as the grounds for substantiating a claim. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Involves undertaking an evaluation of the conditions for the launch of a programme or institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Involves undertaking a review of an operational programme or institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Exhibiting characteristics that are very good and, implicitly, not achievable by all. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | ERA | The official research evaluation system of Australia, which was created and is managed by the Australian Research Council. The initial complete iteration of ERA took place in 2010, and successive iterations ensued in 2012, 2015, and 2018. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Framework | |
| | | Is used to characterise a someone or object that possesses a specific attribute, typically a positive one, to an exceptionally high extent. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | EIS / ESS | An executive information system, often referred to as an executive support system, is a specialised management support system designed to assist and enable top executives in accessing and analysing information for the purpose of making informed decisions. It facilitates convenient retrieval of both internal and external information that is pertinent to the objectives of the organisation. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | EIS / ESS | Offers specialised administrative and operational aid to top-level executives, including CEOs, Directors, or Senior Managers. The primary responsibility of an Executive Support Officer is to facilitate the efficient operation of the executive's office and assist with their daily tasks. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | The plan set in place to leave a field study setting at the end of the data collection. This should include debriefing, if any form of deception was involved. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Measurements | |
| | | A research methodology used to examine the behaviour of people in controlled settings. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is a research study that follows strict scientific methods and procedures. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | ES | in the field of artificial intelligence refers to a computer system that replicates the decision-making capabilities of a human expert. Expert systems are specifically developed to address intricate problems by employing logical reasoning based on extensive knowledge bases, primarily represented as if-then rules rather than traditional procedural code. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Is used to explain cause-effect relationships related to a phenomenon. It is often used as the basis for comparing a case to other cases. An explanatory case study is frequently a long-term, or longitudinal case study, and often uses quantitative research approaches. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | A a mixed methods design in which quantitative data is collected and analysed first and qualitative data is collected and analysed second. Qualitative data and data analysis are used to help elaborate on or further explain the quantitative results. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | The researcher provides a causal explanation of ‘why it is so?’ or a functional explanation of ‘how is it so?’ for a phenomenon under study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | When little is known about a case, the researcher can use an exploratory case study. This helps to define the boundaries and the main aspects of the case and lays the groundwork for subsequent, possibly more quantitative studies by helping define questions and hypotheses. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | A mixed methods design in which qualitative data is collected and analysed first, to lay the groundwork or to inform subsequent quantitative data collection and data analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Preliminary research that explores a relatively new or unknown topic to gain a basic understanding of it, but not to provide satisfactory answers to a research question. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | XML | A way of presenting data as plain-text files that have become the lingua franca of SOA. In XML, as in HTML, data is delimited in tags that are enclosed in angle brackets (< and >), although the tags in XML can have many more meanings. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | XSLT | A computer language, based on XML, that specifies how to change one XML document into another. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is: (1) a generic term for most forms of quality review, enquiry or exploration. (2) a process that uses people external to the programme or institution to evaluate quality or standards. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Is the group of people, including persons external to the programme or institution being reviewed, who undertake the quality evaluation. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Is a person from another institution or organisation who monitors the assessment process of an institution for fairness and academic standards. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ People | |
| | | Is someone with appropriate knowledge who undertakes a quality or standards review (of any kind) as part of a team or alone and who is external to the programme or institution being reviewed. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ People | |
| | | Is a process by which an external person or team check that procedures are in place across an institution to assure quality, integrity or standards of provision and outcomes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | EQA-agency | In the context of higher education, this refers to any reputable organisation that is separate from a higher education institution that offers assessments, evaluations, audits, or comparable services related to the academic operations of that institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | External quality evaluation, also known as external quality assessment systems, evaluates the efficacy of a laboratory's quality management system, primarily in the context of medical laboratories. The term "external" indicates that the laboratory's results are evaluated by an independent third party. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | EQM | Is an all-encompassing term that covers a variety of quality-related evaluations undertaken by bodies or individuals external to higher education institutions. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | Is a measurable characteristic pertinent to an external quality evaluation. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | Is a process by which an external person or team check that procedures are in place to assure quality, integrity or standards of provision and outcomes in part of an institution or relating to specific aspect of institutional provision or outcomes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | The generalisability of research findings to those other than the sample or population used in the study. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | ELT | Tools for locating and loading data into a business application so that it can be later transformed. This is similar to ETL (see its entry) but is associated with big data integration processes. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | ETL | Tools for locating and accessing data from a data store (data extraction), changing the structure or format of the data so it can be used by the business application (data transformation), and applying the data to the business application (data load). Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A higher education institution, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (and previously in Liechtenstein), focusing on vocational education. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Vocational | |
| | | Is: (1) the organisational unit into which cognate disciplines are located in a higher education institution. (2) a shorthand term for the academic (teaching and research) staff in a higher education institution. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Faculty | |
| | | A methodical process of evaluating the educational standards inside an institution faculty. Its purpose is to focus on quality assurance and drive enhancements in the college's education system. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | Has two different meanings, the first based on faculty as an organisational unit, the second based on faculty as a term for academic staff (1) Faculty review is a process of reviewing the inputs, process or outputs of a faculty as an organisational unit; its structure, mode of operation, mission, aims and objectives. (2) Faculty review, (meaning review of academic staff) evaluates the performance of researchers and teachers. (See also assesment of teaching and learning). Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Faculty | |
| | | Wrong assumptions made in research. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | An argument that leads to an erroneous or misleading conclusion. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | The capability of a system to provide uninterrupted service despite the failure of one or more of the system’s components. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The combination of disparate things so that they can act as one — as in federated states, data, or identity management — and to make sure that all the right rules apply. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Providing information or giving opinions about someone’s performance. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | Are the financial contribution made by students to their post-compulsory education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin | |
| | | Is the extension of feminism into the academic field, looking at women’s roles and lives in society. The goal of feminist research is to understand the nature of inequality, and it focuses on gender politics, power relations, and sexuality, to promote women’s rights, interests, and issues. Feminist researchers endeavor to establish collaborative and nonexploitative relationships with participants and avoid objectification. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | A researcher’s notes on the observations made at the setting during a field study. - A collective term for records of observation, talk, interview transcripts, or documentary sources. Typically includes a field diary, which provides a record of chronological events and development of research as well as the researcher’s own reactions to, feeling about, and opinions of the research process. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | A qualitative data collection method borrowed from anthropology, also known as field observation. It is carried out in the natural setting where the phenomenon takes place. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | The research activity of collecting data through observation (and other means) in the ‘field’, the designated research setting or settings. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Are open-response questionnaire items that require the respondents to provide relatively brief bits of personalised information, such as name and address. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | This involves using the pronouns I, me and my in writing. First person is often used for reflective writing such as journals and evaluations. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | Equates quality with the fulfilment of a specification or stated outcomes. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | Evaluates whether the quality-related intentions of an organisation are adequate. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | Fly-in staff (or fly-in academics, or flying faculty) are staff based at the home higher education academic provider who travel to service a franchised programme in a branch campus. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ People | |
| | | Off-campus delivery is a programme arrangement where the degree-awarding institution sends its staff to another site, typically in a different nation, to deliver the curriculum and conduct all assessments. Local workers may offer assistance to students. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Faculty | |
| | | A qualitative data collection method using a group interview of 6-12 people to gather their opinion on a specific social/political/environmental issue. - Used to elicit the views of a group (usually around 6 to 10 individuals) who have shared experiences or interests. They are brought together with the purpose of discussing a particular subject, under the guidance of a facilitator. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is shorthand for procedures to ensure that outcomes of review processes have been, or are being, addressed. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Anticipated issues or hurdles that one expects to encounter when observing in a research context. They assist individuals in organising their observations. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | Is planned learning that derives from activities within a structured learning setting. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | Is evaluation of student learning that aids understanding and development of knowledge, skills and abilities without passing any final judgement (via recorded grade) on the level of learning. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Is an intermediary (sub-degree) qualification in the UK designed in conjunction with employers to meet skills shortages at the higher technician level. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Foundation | |
| | | Provides an introduction to degree-level study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | | A method of qualitative data analysis involving five key stages: (1) familiarisation, (2) identifying a thematic framework, (3) indexing, (4) charting, and (5) mapping and interpretation. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | A support structure for developing and managing software products. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A structured system that incorporates learning level descriptors and qualifications to facilitate the comprehension of learning outcomes. This enables the capacity to cultivate, evaluate, and enhance high-quality education in many settings. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Qualification | |
| | | The way the messages of a discourse are regulated and controlled, that shapes how the message is interpreted. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Introducing and concluding a study with the conceptual or theoretical issues that the writers have used to explain their findings. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | Are study units of one higher education institution adopted by and taught at another institution, although the students formally obtain their qualification from the originating institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | | Linked to the critical theory paradigm and the theories of Karl Marx. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | FTE | Is the proportion of a nominal full-time student in higher education that a non-full-time student is judged to constitute. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | Research carried under the functionalist paradigm examines why people behave the way they do and assumes it is because people know the consequences and uses (functions) of their behaviour or actions. It is also known as administrative research and is linked to the Columbia School. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Is post-compulsory education at pre-degree level, which may include (the opportunity to take) qualifications also available at the level of compulsory schooling. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | Are a very visual way to allocate time to one’s dissertation tasks and there are many free tools to help one build their own. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Is a person whose permission or approval is necessary for a researcher to gain access to a research site or setting. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Are editors of print and electronic journals and the reviewers who evaluate submissions. Their job is to select the best quality articles they can for their publications. Focus: PhD ➔ Publication ➔ Journals | |
| | GPSS | A programming language specifically tailored for executing discrete-event simulations. Automating the collecting of several statistics, it is very beneficial in simulating queuing systems. A typical simulation entails the creation of transactions within the system, usually occurring at consistent intervals. These transactions adhere to a predetermined set of requirements, including resource utilisation, waiting time, and transfer. After the Transactions have finished their tasks, they are eliminated from the simulation. Focus: AoR ➔ Mathematics ➔ Statistics | |
| | | A method of analysing texts classified according to the distinct categories or genres they belong to based on their structures and subject matter. It is a method of qualitative content analysis of the latent or hidden aspects of messages. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | The ability to ensure that corporate or governmental rules and regulations are conformed with. Governance is combined with compliance and security issues across computing environments. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | HM | HM Treasury is the government's economic and finance ministry, maintaining control over public spending, setting the direction of the UK's economic policy. Focus: AoR ➔ KM ➔ Organisation | |
| | | Is the process of scoring or ranking student academic work as part of assessing student learning.A graduate is someone who has successfully completed a higher education programme at least at bachelor degree level. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | Is someone who has successfully completed a higher education programme at least at bachelor degree level. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ BSc | |
| | | An important software design concept, especially in relation to components, referring to the amount of detail or functionality — from fine to coarse — provided in a service component. One software component can do something quite simple, such as calculate a square root; another has a great deal of detail and functionality to represent a complex business rule or workflow. The first component is fine-grained, and the second is coarse-grained. Developers often aggregate fine-grained services into coarse-grained services to create a business service. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A step beyond distributed processing, involving large numbers of networked computers (often geographically dispersed and possibly of different types and capabilities) that are harnessed to solve a common problem. A grid computing model can be used instead of virtualisation in situations that require real-time where latency is unacceptable. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A systematic method of analysing qualitative data. - A qualitative research methodology with systematic guides for the collection and analysis of data that aims to generate a theory that is ‘grounded in’ or formed from the data and is based on inductive reasoning. This contrasts with other approaches that stop at the point of describing the participants’ experiences. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Grounded Theory | |
| | GDSS | Is a software tool that enables a group of participants to make decisions interactively and is occasionally known as a 'computerised collaborative work system.'. The objective of a GDSS is to enhance the efficiency of a collective in reaching a consensus. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Rules, statements or instructions describing how something should be done. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | An Apache-managed software framework derived from MapReduce and Bigtable. Hadoop allows applications based on MapReduce to run on large clusters of commodity hardware. Hadoop is designed to parallelise data processing across computing nodes to speed computations and hide latency. Two major components of Hadoop exist: a massively scalable distributed file system that can support petabytes of data and a massively scalable MapReduce engine that computes results in batch. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | HDFS | A versatile, resilient, clustered approach to managing files in a big data environment. HDFS is not the final destination for files. Instead, it is a data “service” that offers a unique set of capabilities needed when data volumes and velocity are high. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The act of subdividing and isolating elements of a physical server into fractions, each of which can run an operating system or an application. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The impact of the researcher on the research participants or setting, notably in changing their behaviour. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A4 paper with the company’s logo and contact details at the top onto which letters or faxes can be printed. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | HKM | Described as the way in which multi-disciplinary teams, working in healthcare, harvest the personal expertise that is essential to patient safety, learn from it, adapt it to local situations and individual patients and distribute it via reliable networks to the people caring for the patients, so that they can use it to improve the quality of care delivered. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | | The study of understanding human action and text. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Indicates if a theory can generate research and take our knowledge further. Focus: PhD ➔ C7 ➔ Conclusion | |
| | | Is an award beyond the basic-level higher education qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is usually viewed as education leading to at least a bachelor's degree or equivalent. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | HEI | Encompass not just universities and colleges, but also a range of professional schools that offer training in disciplines such as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | HEL | Libraries associated with higher educational institutions. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Library | |
| | | A non-university higher education institution, in the Netherlands and Belgium, focusing on vocational education. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Vocational | |
| | | Exploration of a research question multi-dimensionally, exhaustively and in its entirety, preserving the complexity of human behaviour. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | | A computing environment that includes the use of public and private clouds as well as data centre resources in a coordinated fashion. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Hardware that allows multiple operating systems to share a single host. The hypervisor sits at the lowest levels of the hardware environment and uses a thin layer of code in software to enable dynamic resource sharing. The hypervisor makes it seem like each operating system has the resources all to itself. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A formal statement made about the predicted relationship between variables in a research study, which is directly tested by the researcher. Generally linked to deductive reasoning. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | The aim or purpose. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Keeping track of a single user’s (or asset’s) identity throughout the engagement with a system or set of systems. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Only valid for a specific situation or ‘case’ and not generalisable to others. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Is a representation of a shared value or belief held by a group or society. A researcher will examine the specific beliefs or ideologies of a culture that are revealed in the signs and texts its society uses and creates. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Reasoning that logically interprets evidence, producing propositions that signal a specific conclusion. If A is true, then we can assert that B is also true. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is the process of enhancing, upgrading or enriching the quality of provision or standard of outcomes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | A database structure where information is managed and processed in memory rather than on disk. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | These are quotations that are 4 lines or more. They need to be indented from the margin and start on a new line. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | The variable that is systematically changed or manipulated by the researcher, which creates changes in the dependent variable. These are measured and observed or manipulated. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Is something that points to, measures or otherwise provides a summary overview of a specific concept. A set of indicators that are combined is referred to as an index. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Measurements | |
| | | Are indirect questions used in interviews when using more direct questions could be problematic. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | Taking an exception to a general rule and considering it as cancelling the rule. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Induction (inductive process) - Logical thought process in which generalisations are developed from specific observations: reasoning moves from the particular to the general. For example: grounded theory uses an inductive process, for example: explores new, unforeseen issues that emerge during the research and theories develop/hypotheses are generated from the data. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Reasoning that moves from particular instance(s) to a general conclusion. The premises do not cause the conclusion, but the preponderance of evidence makes the conclusion likely or probable. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | The researcher begins with an open mind looking at the full picture to see what is going on. It uses research questions and comes under the logic of reasoning. - Induction (inductive process) - Logical thought process in which generalisations are developed from specific observations: reasoning moves from the particular to the general. For example: grounded theory uses an inductive process, for example: explores new, unforeseen issues that emerge during the research and theories develop/hypotheses are generated from the data. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Works from the specific to the more general, taking specific observations or instances, noting patterns, then extrapolating from them to create general conclusions or a general theory. The opposite is deductive thinking. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | An indicator is something that points to, measures or otherwise provides a summary overview of a specific concept. A set of indicators that are combined is referred to as an index. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | A person who helps a researcher in a field study by helping them gain access to the setting, introduce them to the members of the setting, answer questions the researcher may have and provide clarifications. Often it is a member of the setting. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | A process using software to link data sources in various departments or regions of the organisation with an overall goal of creating more reliable, consistent, and trusted information. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | IS | A networked arrangement of components utilised for the purpose of gathering, retaining, manipulating, and transmitting data and digital information. Essentially, it is a combination of technology, software, data, individuals, and procedures that collaborate to convert unprocessed data into valuable information. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | IT | The use of hardware, software, services, and infrastructure to effectively handle and distribute information through voice, data, and video. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | ITIL | A framework and set of standards for IT governance based on best practices. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Based on the principles of beneficence and respect for persons, informed consent helps to ensure that participants understand their role in a study, agree to participate voluntarily, and can withdraw from the study at any time without prejudice. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | The fundamental systems necessary for the ordinary operation of anything, be it a country or an IT department. The physical infrastructure that people rely on includes roads, electrical wiring, and water systems. In IT, infrastructure includes basic computer hardware, networks, operating systems, and other software that applications run on top of. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Services provided by the infrastructure. In IT, these services include all the software needed to make devices talk to one another, for starters. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | IaaS | Infrastructure, including a management interface and associated software, provided to companies from the cloud as a service. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | An orientation of wondering, questioning, and being off-balance about a phenomenon or situation; this orientation then propels the research process. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is the direct, independent observation and evaluation of activities and resources by a trained professional. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Is shorthand for institution of higher education, which is an educational institution that has students graduating at bachelor degree level or above. Focus: PhD ➔ University | |
| | | An educational institution, such as a college, university, technical school, or business school, that provides academic teaching at a post-secondary level. These institutions are authorised by the government's education authority to give associate degrees or higher degrees. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | APL | Provides a licence for a university or college to operate. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Aims to evaluate an institution's ability to effectively manage the quality of its academic activities in alignment with its mission, goals, and objectives. It also ensures that the institution adequately addresses the expectations and requirements of both internal and external stakeholders. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | Are overarching declarations that encapsulate the fundamental principles and beliefs of an institution. They have a crucial role in shaping and influencing the academic culture of an institution, as well as determining the desired characteristics and qualifications of its graduates. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | The internal examination and approval process conducted by an institution for new courses, programmes, or any other curriculum-related matters. The evaluation process may vary among schools and is determined by each respective institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Is a case study conducted with the goal of shedding light on a particular issue, problem, or theory, rather than with the goal of simply understanding the issue or research setting for its own sake. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | IC | The intangible assets that are created through mental processes and can be used for economic purposes, generating income for the owner (organisation). It encompasses the competencies of the individuals within the organisation (human capital), the value derived from relationships (relational capital), and the remaining assets when employees leave (structural capital). Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | IPO | Official government body responsible for intellectual property rights in the UK and is an executive agency of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Focus: AoR ➔ IP ➔ Organisation | |
| | ICR | Recoding of (randomly selected) 10% of the units of analysis coded by one coder, by another in a content analysis, to examine the agreement between the two for reliability and consistency. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | | Factors that influence each other within a system. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Measurements | |
| | | Research or study that integrates concepts from different disciplines resulting in a synthesised or co-ordinated coherent whole. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is a self-governing, unbiased assessment and advisory process intended to enhance an organisation's operations and provide added value. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | Is a process of quality review undertaken within an institution for its own ends (with or without the involvement of external peers). Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Is a process that institutions undertake for themselves to check that they have procedures in place to assure quality, integrity or standards of provision and outcomes across the institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | IQM | Is a generic term to refer to procedures within institutions to review, evaluate, assess, audit or otherwise check, examine or ensure the quality of the education provided and/or research undertaken. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Is a process that an institution has for checking that procedures are in place to assure quality, integrity or standards of provision and outcomes within a department, faculty or other operational unit or that specific issues are being complied with across the institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | IAKM | Group of KM researchers who share a vision of the central role of knowledge and knowledge management in modern organisations. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | INSPIRE | Aims to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes involved in software quality. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | ISO | An organisation that has developed more than 17,000 international standards, including standards for IT service management and corporate governance of information technology. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | In higher education is the process of developing a multilateral and multicultural learning and research environment through, for example, redesigning curricula, engaging non-local staff, encouraging students to study abroad and aatracting overseas students. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | A role is undertaken by a student or trainee in an organisation, sometimes without pay, with the purpose of acquiring practical experience or fulfilling the criteria for qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills ➔ Career | |
| | | The capability of a product to interface with many other products; usually used in the context of software. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is the researcher’s explanation of why participants behave or think in the way that they do. In qualitative research, this is usually based on the data, and is developed through inductive thinking. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | Exploration of the human experiential interpretation of any observed phenomena. Enables researchers to gain a better understanding of the underlying processes that may influence behaviour. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Emphasises the role of the researcher as an interpreter of the data, and the self-reflective nature of qualitative research. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | The theoretical paradigm where research seeks knowledge through the interpretation or understanding of human action, by examining how people make meanings of them. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Relationships between factors within a system. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | A new text borrowing aspects from or making references to existing ones. Focus: PhD ➔ C8 ➔ Matter ➔ Reference | |
| | ILV | Variable categories which carry names or labels indicating some rank order, have equal distances between adjacent categories, but have no true zero. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | An interview guide, or interview schedule, is a list of topics and questions that the researcher writes before an interview. It helps the researcher prepare for the interview, ensuring that all of the important areas of interest are being considered, and it can also guide the interview itself. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | Are actions taken by an interviewer during the interview, such as checking/reflecting a respondent’s reply, following up that reply with further questions or probing aspects of it more deeply. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | A data collection strategy in which participants are asked to talk about the area under consideration. Interviews can be See: Unstructured, Semi-structured & Structured. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | In a content analysis when only one person carried out all the coding, 10% of the units of analysis are randomly selected and recoded by the same person at a later stage to examine the agreement between them, for reliability and consistency. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | | Is a case study conducted out of interest in the case itself, without the goal or expectation of illuminating any particular issue. They tend to be primarily descriptive. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | Is the process by which individuals reflect on their thoughts, feelings, motives, and reasoning processes. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Introspection | |
| | | Are data collection methods, such as diaries and verbal reports, which are used to find out what participants think about something as they reflect on their experience with it. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Introspection | |
| | | Seeing truth as obvious, self-evident or based on commonsense knowledge. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Relates to the process of repeatedly returning to the source of the data to ensure that the understandings are truly coming from the data. In practice, this means a constant process of collecting data, carrying out a preliminary analysis, and using that to guide the next piece of data collection and continuing this pattern until the data collection is complete. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | The normal environment for the research participants for the issues being researched. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Insider or technical vocabulary related to a particular field that can be used pretentiously or because there are no other suitable terms. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | a collaborative system in which two or more awarding bodies work together. Collectively, they offer a curriculum that leads to a unified certification granted by all involved parties. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is a single degree awarded by more than one higher education institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | JISC | Not-for-profit company that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education institutions and research as well as not-for-profits and the public sector. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Organisation | |
| | | An educational curriculum at the Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD level that has been collaboratively designed and implemented by two or more universities, either within the same country or across different countries. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | JKM | Peer-reviewed academic journal covering knowledge management. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | | An educational institution that offers two years of academic instruction beyond secondary school, together with technical and vocational training, to equip graduates for their future employment. Community colleges are also referred to as public junior colleges. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ USA | |
| | | Those words or phrases that control and define meaning. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | KNWL | An awareness of facts, a familiarity with individuals and situations, or a practical skill. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | KM | Collection of methods relating to creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organisation. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | KMM | A systematic approach for examining the process of KM employed by an organisation to analyse its characteristics and customise it to meet the organisation's unique requirements. Essentially, all models consist of four fundamental components: data acquisition, storage and customisation. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | KM Software | Subset of content management software, which contains a range of software that specialises in the way information is collected, stored and/or accessed. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | KMS | A methodical approach to generating, distributing, and utilising an organiSation's information and documentation in order to enhance business operations, foster innovation, and gain a competitive edge. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | KMS | Kind of IT system that stores and retrieves knowledge to improve understanding, collaboration, and process alignment. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | KMSD | The development of a KMS is initiated in line with the organisation's growth. The implementation of the system is perceived as a well-planned project to execute the concept of knowledge management and the subsequent application of KMS tools, which also involves its organisational customisation. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | KBS | A computer program that reasons and uses a knowledge base to solve complex problems. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | | Deferring the necessary connections among applications to when the connection is first needed. Late binding allows more flexibility for changes than early binding does, but it imposes some cost in processing time. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The amount of time lag before a service executes in an environment. Some applications require less latency and need to respond in near real-time, whereas other applications are less time-sensitive. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Are poorly written questionnaire items that suggest or indicate a particular answer to the respondents. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is a term used to refer to ranking of higher education institutions or programmes of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Agency | |
| | | Should clearly articulate the knowledge or skills that students are expected to acquire by the conclusion of the course, which they did not possess prior to undertaking the course. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Objectives | |
| | | Is the specification of what a student should learn as the result of a period of specified and supported study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | Any application that is more than a few years old. When applications can’t be disposed of and replaced easily, they become legacy applications. The good news is that they are still doing something useful when selected pieces of code can be turned into business services with new standardised interfaces. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | (1) Level refers to the complexity and depth of learning. (2) Level refers to the formally designated location of a part of a study programme within the whole. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | Is a statement that provides an indication of appropriate depth and extent of learning at a specific stage in the programme of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | Is the formal granting of permission to (a) operate a new institution (b) a new programme of study (c) practice a profession (d) use an educational product (paper or online) or computer application. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | The act of authorising someone, particularly in the context of professional practice. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Research that examines the entire chronological life history of a person, by interviewing a few people to gain insights into the person whose life history is examined. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Is a genre of narrative inquiry that distinguishes itself from other genres by the extent to which it takes into account the social, historical, and cultural contexts within which the story is situated. While life history research may focus on a particular period or aspect of a person’s life, these are usually considered within the context of the person’s whole life. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Narrative Inquiry | |
| | | Is all learning activity undertaken throughout life, whether formal or informal. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | Also known as the summated ratings approach, a Likert scale has several statements that address the concept under examination with an interval scale, prepared by the researcher. The numbers given by a respondent to each of the statements on the interval scale are added to obtain a composite score. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Measurements | |
| | | A situation where one or more of the dependent variables will change when the independent variable changes. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | An open-source operating system based upon and similar to UNIX. In cloud computing, Linux is the dominant operating system, primarily because it is supported by a large number of vendors. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The vast majority of websites run on the Linux operating system managed by a Linux web hosting service using the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) software stack. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | LAMP | An increasingly popular open-source approach to building web applications. LAMP is a software bundle made up of the Linux operating system, the Apache web server, a MySQL database, and a scripting language such as PHP, Perl, or Python. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A detailed analysis that interprets the current understanding of the research topic and logically determines how this knowledge answers the research question. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | An examination of the existing research publications on the topic area of a new study, to discuss their theorising, research designs, data collection methods, findings, strengths, limitations and contexts as relevant to the new one. This also includes the researcher’s own views and observations, and alternative explanations of the findings as to what other factors may have given rise to those findings. - A written document that develops a case to establish a thesis. This case is based on a comprehensive understanding of the current knowledge of the topic. A literature review synthesises current knowledge pertaining to the research question. This synthesis is the foundation that, through the use of logical argumentation, allows the researcher to build a convincing thesis case. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Collecting, cataloging, and documenting data that will determine salient works and refine the topic. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Building the argument about the current knowledge of the research topic. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | LAN | A computer network that links computers inside a confined geographical region, such as a home, school, laboratory, university campus, or office building. In contrast, a wide area network has a greater geographical expanse and typically entails the use of rented telecommunication lines. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Network | |
| | | A researcher fails to correctly identify the relevant unit of analysis in a study, leading to confusion, inaccurate conclusions and research findings. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Is a case study conducted over a relatively long period of time. The length of this period may vary depending on the nature of the case and the researcher’s interest in it. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | A study that collects data from the same population (but different samples) at different points in time. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | An approach to distributed software applications in which components interact by passing data and requests to other components in a standardised way that minimises dependencies among components. The emphasis is on simplicity and autonomy. Each component offers a small range of simple services to other components. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is based on the premises warranted by a complex argument. These premises are based on simple claims and their simple arguments. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Managers need to take project stakeholders on board so that everyone involved stays on the same page. One must have to ensure that the stakeholders understand the major dependencies and how each of them will affect the project. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Is a mental attitude held by researchers of trying to see well-known, taken-for-granted settings afresh or in a novel way. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | In higher education, is a process for checking that management structures and abilities are appropriate for assuring quality, integrity or standards of provision and outcomes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | MIS | A specialised system that facilitates decision-making and enables the organisation to coordinate, control, analyse, and visualise information. The field of management information systems encompasses the examination of individuals, procedures, and technology within the framework of an organisation. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | A technique that organises the results of skimming to put the topic story together, building core idea and author maps and cross-referencing them. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Google designs it as a way of efficiently executing a set of functions against a large amount of data in batch mode. The “map” component distributes the programming problem or tasks across a large number of systems and handles the placement of the tasks in a way that balances the load and manages recovery from failures. After the distributed computation is completed, another function called “reduce” aggregates all the elements back together to provide a result. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A way of encoding information that uses plain text containing special tags often delimited by angle brackets (< and >). Specific markup languages are based on XML to standardise the interchange of information between different computer systems and services. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A program (possibly installed on a web page) that combines content from more than one source, such as Google Maps and a real estate listing service. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | MMORPG | A type of online video game that allows a substantial number of people to interact and play together on a single server. Massively multiplayer online games typically showcase an expansive and enduring open environment, although there are exceptions in the gaming realm. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | Msc | Is an award higher than a bachelor's degree. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ MSc | |
| | | Also known as the ‘average’, it is the median of a set of values. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Analysis | |
| | | The way data are collected and observations made for a given concept or variable. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Errors in the findings caused by the shortcomings of the research instrument used to collect the data. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | The mid-point of a set of values, when they are arranged in ascending or descending order. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Analysis | |
| | | The process of researchers taking the data back to the participants and asking whether their interpretations fit with what the participant intended to say or do. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | As researchers collect, analyse, and interpret data, they write up thoughts, ideas, reflections, and insights about the participants, research setting, phenomenon, and also the research process and study itself; this is called memoing. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | Informal writing that includes a record of current activities and reminders of necessary further activities. Memoranda contain directive, advisory, and informative matter. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | MOM | A precursor to the enterprise service bus. See: Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), a set of packaged middleware services. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The definitions, mappings, and other characteristics used to describe how to find, access, and use the company’s data and software components. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A container of consistent definitions of business data and rules for mapping data to its actual physical locations in the system. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Use of several methods of data collection in the same research project to obtain several perspectives of the same phenomenon. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | The strategic plan of action, process or design used in a research study, e.g. experimental research, ethnography. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | | The various data collection and analysis techniques, practices and procedures followed in research, e.g. survey questionnaires, focus groups. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | MPS | The territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime within the ceremonial county of Greater London. Focus: AoR ➔ Police ➔ Organisation | |
| | MDX | Public research university in Hendon, northwest London. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Multipurpose software that lives at a layer between the operating system and application in distributed computing environments. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | An application that a business cannot afford to be without at any time. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A research approach. It is a procedure for collecting, analysing, and ‘mixing’ quantitative and qualitative data at some stage of the research process within a single study in order to understand a research problem more completely. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | The way quantitative and qualitative data and results are integrated during the research process in mixed methods research. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Is shorthand for students and academics studying and working in other institutions, whether in the same country or abroad. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | The value that occurs most often in a distribution of values for a given variable. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | The person conducting a focus group. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is a formal learning experience encapsulated into a unit of study, usually linked to other modules to create a programme of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | Is statement of the aims, objectives/learning outcomes, content, learning and teaching processes, mode of assessment of students and learning resources applicable to a unit of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | Two meanings (1) the specific process of keeping quality activities under review; (2) a generic term covering all forms of internal and external quality assurance and improvement processes including audit, assessment, accreditation and external examination. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | MAKE | Evidence of this impact of KM comes from the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) survey. The 2002 'Global MAKE Winners' were chosen, in various categories, by an international panel of senior executives and leading KM experts. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | MMR | Research that uses more than one paradigm, methodological tool or data collection method in the same study to obtain a more holistic view. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | MUVE | A virtual environment that is accessible to numerous users at the same time, either through a computer, server, or the internet. The virtual environment remains in existence even after individual users have logged off. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | MDDS | Organises data in a matrix-like structure, whose dimensions correspond to different qualities. These dimensions may encompass time, product, location, and additional factors. The matrix stores several metrics, such as sales income, amount sold, or customer count, in the cells where they intersect. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | MDMS | A specific type of database management system that efficiently stores data in a multidimensional array. This storage method is designed to enhance the efficiency of data warehousing and online analytical processing (OLAP) tasks. By permitting the inclusion of several dimensions, it facilitates intricate queries and analysis. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The researcher uses more than one case, so as to better understand a particular issue. A multiple case study often focuses on exploring an issue rather than describing one case in detail, by comparing and contrasting different cases. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | This refers to the situation where a single instance of an application runs on a SaaS vendor’s servers, but serves multiple client organisations (tenants), keeping all their data separate. In a multitenant architecture, a software application partitions its data and configuration so that each customer has a customised virtual application instance. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A study which has more than one independent variable or several dependent variables under analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Is agreement between two (or more) organisations to recognise each other's processes or programmes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin ➔ Recognition | |
| | | An open-source option to SQL. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Describes the formal narrative (story telling) structure of a message and is a form of qualitative content analysis of latent messages. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | A qualitative research approach. It employs a variety of data collection methods, particularly interview, to elicit, document, and analyse life experiences as they are recounted by the individuals who live them. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Narrative Inquiry | |
| | NPfIT | A bold initiative introduced in 2002 with an initial funding of approximately £6.2 billion. The initiative aimed to provide a comprehensive digitisation process for healthcare across England's National Health Service (NHS) via a top-down approach. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Organisation | |
| | | Natural settings refer to the ordinary, everyday worlds of participants – where they live, work, and study. These natural settings include such places as homes and workplaces, staffrooms, classrooms and self-access centers, and online chat rooms. These settings are complex, dynamic, and multifaceted. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | An analysis that identifies potential problem areas, their severity and how they may be addressed. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Gap | |
| | | When the value of the independent variable increases, the value of the dependent variable decreases. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | NPV | A method used to assess the value of an asset with cash flow by calculating the sum of the present value of all future cash flows that the asset will produce. Focus: AoR ➔ Mathematics ➔ Statistics | |
| | | The connection of computer systems (nodes) by communications channels and appropriate software. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is a powerful tool for understanding the structure and function of complex systems. It allows researchers to identify patterns and trends in the relationships between the entities in a network and to understand how these relationships influence the behavior of the system as a whole. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Is a responsive approach to organisation and governance in higher education that retains control within the academy. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | NOLA-VTS | When the river reaches high water levels of eight feet in New Orleans, the VTS controls traffic at the Algiers Point Special Area. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | NLV | Variable categories, which are simply given names or labels. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | A string of nouns and noun phrases that can often be unpacked into nouns, verbs, and prepositional phrases. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | Allows for generalised explanations rather than unique or idiosyncratic ones. Often used in positivist research. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is the belief that ends do not justify means. Rather, universal standards, such as individual rights and responsibilities, social justice and care, exist to guide all behavior, regardless of their consequences. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Involves a structured or semi-structured learning environment but does not lead to formalised certification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | NLR | A situation where no predictable pattern or relationship seems to exist between the independent and dependent variable in the phenomenon. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Data collection methods, like interviews or diary studies, which researchers use to obtain data that they cannot acquire through observation. In action research, these methods are used to respond to the question, ‘What do I need to know about this situation?’ Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | NPO | A field study where the researcher does not take part in the activities of the setting being observed or studied. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | NPS | A sample where each member or unit in the study population does not have an equal chance of being selected. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | NRS | A sample that does not include cases or individuals from all subgroups of the targeted population. Findings of such as study are not generalisable to the population. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | NRR | The percentage of the respondents that did not answer a specific question. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | NSS | Newspapers, magazines, trade journals, websites and other sources examined for suitable articles and information for a research study. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Data | |
| | | Are those entrants to higher education who have population characteristics not normally associated with entrants to higher education, that is, they come from social classes, ethnic groups or age groups that are underrepresented. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | Is the process of evaluating (and grading) the learning of students by judging (and ranking) them against the performance of their peers. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Scholarly theories that suggest ways to improve everyday or professional practice. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | A set of technologies that created a broad array of database management systems that are distinct from relational database systems. One major difference is that SQL is not used as the primary query language. These database management systems are also designed for distributed data stores. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The event, thing or phenomenon under study. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | OODBMS | A database management system where data is stored as an object that is closely aligned with an application. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is (a) a specific statement about what students are expected to learn or to be able to do as a result of studying a programme: more specifically this is a learning objective; (b) a measurable operationalisation of a policy, strategy or mission: this is an implementation objective. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Objectives | |
| | | Measurable goals or targets. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | An epistemology based on belief in the existence of an absolute or objective truth and reality. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | An objective researcher is assumed to be free of individual views, biases and prejudices during the research process. - To consider information based on facts and evidence rather than feelings and opinions. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | A strategy for data collection, involving the process of watching participants directly in the natural setting. Observation can be participative (for example: taking part in the activity) or non-participative (the researcher watches from the outside). Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | Data collection methods, like observation, which researchers use to obtain data empirically by observing the research setting. In action research, these methods are used essentially to respond to the question, ‘What do I need to see in this situation?’ Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | The idea that any observation of authentic communication (by researchers, video cameras, and so on) influences that communication, making it less authentic. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | The third step in the action research cycle. It means collecting information about the changes the teacher has made, and their impact on the classroom or social situation; the next step is reflecting about these changes. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Action Research | |
| | | Is the export of higher education programmes from one country to another. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Is where a single programme of study results in a final (masters-level) award. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Are those available as distance education accessed via the Internet. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | OLTP | A specific form of database system commonly employed in operational systems and other applications that need efficient handling of transactions. The term "online" denotes systems that are designed to promptly respond to user requests and efficiently process them in real-time, namely handling transactions. The phrase is juxtaposed with online analytical processing (OLAP) which, in contrast, emphasises data analysis, such as planning and management systems. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Is a set of beliefs about the nature of reality, and considers the question, ‘When is something real?’ For example, positivists believe that there is one universal reality, independent of people. On the other hand, constructivists believe that reality is constructed in the minds of the participants. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Aare interviews that develop naturally, rather than being guided by a pre-prepared interview guide or list of questions. They are also known as ‘open-ended’, ‘in-depth’, and ‘unstructured’ interviews. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | A movement in the software industry that makes programs available along with the source code used to create them so that others can inspect and modify how programs work. Changes to source code are shared with the community at large. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A system that responds to and is affected by external factors or its environment. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design ➔ Access Agreement | |
| | | Are questionnaire items in which respondents write their own answers, rather than selecting responses from a limited list of options provided by the researcher. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | The procedure followed in measuring, observing or experiencing a variable or construct. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | OIS | Primarily focus on current and practical aspects. They handle the tasks related to current, regular activities and determine the necessary actions to achieve short-term objectives and address immediate demands. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Making analytics part of a business process. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | OCR | The process of converting images of typed, handwritten, or printed text into machine-readable text. This can be done electronically or mechanically, using scanned documents, photos, scene photos, or subtitle text overlaid on an image. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Scanner | |
| | OLV | Variable categories which carry names or labels but which indicate some rank order. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Are the specification of principles and procedures by which the institution assures that it provides an appropriate learning and research environment. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | An organisational chart, also called organigram, organogram, or organisational breakdown structure (OBS) is a diagram that shows the structure of an organisation and the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs. The term is also used for similar diagrams, for example ones showing the different elements of a field of knowledge or a group of languages. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | The quantifiable products, services or facilities created by a project. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | Learning and teaching specifies in advance what the student should be able to do at the culmination of a programme of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | The products of higher education institutions: including, graduates, research outcomes, community/business activities and the social critical function of academia. Focus: PhD ➔ C7 ➔ Conclusion | |
| | | In the quality context, refers to the process of keeping a quality process or initiative under observation, such that a person or organisation has a watching brief on developments. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | OPO | A field study where the members or its leaders are not aware of the researcher’s purpose and the researcher carries out the field study undercover or while pretending to be doing something else. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | A networking system in which nodes in a network exchange data directly instead of going through a central server. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The same sample of subjects is studied at regular intervals to observe changes over time within the sample and subjects. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A paradigm is a way or framework of looking at something. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Rephrase an author’s words into their own. Be careful to change the sentence order as well as the language, and always Harvard reference. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | A field study where the researcher does take part in the activities of the setting being observed or studied. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | Are the people in the research study. They are also called respondents (particularly when data is collected using interviews or questionnaires); in quantitative research, they are often referred to as ‘subjects’. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | PAR | Is a problem-solving function for social justice to benefit people who are powerless or marginalised. Participatory action research involves community members as co- participants to make their own decisions and take action, to improve their own lives. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Action Research | |
| | | A method of analysing qualitative data using a systematic set of procedures to code data into named categories (groups) to discover patterns between them. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | In discourse analysis, a pause refers to the silence that occurs within a speaker’s turn. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | In the context of quality in higher education, is a person who understands the context in which a quality review is being undertaken and is able to contribute to the process. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | Is the process of evaluating the provision, work process, or output of an individual or collective who operating in the same milieu as the reviewer(s). Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Is an approach to quality that emphasises the need to eliminate errors. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Is a check on the competence of someone to undertake a task. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | Are data, usually quantitative in form, that provide a measure of some aspect of an individual's or organisation's performance against which changes in performance or the performance of others can be compared. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Measurements | |
| | | Specify the level of attainment of knowledge and other skills and attributes appropriate to the field of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | Is the evaluation of an institution or its programmes on a regular cycle. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | A guarantee that data stored in a database won’t be changed without permissions, and it will make available as long as it is important to the business. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | PDP | Is a structured and supported process to assist students in arranging their own personal educational and career progression. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills | |
| | | The subject or question that provokes the need to inquire. This should not be confused with a preliminary topic. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | PKM | The systematic gathering, organising, storing, searching, retrieving, and sharing of information that individuals utilise in their everyday tasks. It also encompasses the ways in which these procedures facilitate work activities. This is a response to the concept that knowledge workers must take responsibility for their own personal development and acquisition of knowledge. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | | Are subjective, culture-bound and often privately held beliefs, developed by individuals for use in their everyday communication, e.g. superstitions, prejudices. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Are deeply-held values that inform one’s practice and center on the kind of person one is and hopes to be in the world. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | The study of how people experience the world. - An approach that allows the meaning of having experienced the phenomenon under investigation to be described, as opposed to a description of what the experience was. This approach enables the reader to have a better understanding of what it was like to have experienced a particular phenomenon. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is a term used to describe something that can be seen or experienced by the human senses. It could be something physical like an object or something constructed like an event or feeling. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Some social artefacts are physical traces which can be erosion (reduced) or accretion (collected). Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Is a preliminary study in which a researcher tests and refines data collection and analysis methods and procedures. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Narrative Inquiry | |
| | | The first step in the action research cycle. It means identifying an issue or focus area for which change or improvement is desired; the next step is putting practical strategies in place to change and improve a situation through acting. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Action Research | |
| | PaaS | A cloud service that abstracts the computing services, including the operating software and the development and deployment and management life cycle. It sits on top of Infrastructure as a Service. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Multiple meanings of the same message made by the ‘readers’ of the message or text. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | Is a non-university higher education institution usually focusing on vocational education. Focus: PhD ➔ University | |
| | | All members of a group, case or class of subjects, variables or phenomena under study. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | In higher education is the ability to engage with or make use of learning in a more than one setting. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | In the constructivist paradigm, positionality refers to the idea that researchers can locate themselves close to or far from the participants’ way of seeing the world. In critical theory, positionality refers to the notion that researchers implicitly or explicitly locate their research within society through the beliefs and attitudes that underpin the study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | When the value of the independent variable increases, the value of the dependent variable also increases. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | The theoretical paradigm that seeks to obtain knowledge by discovery. It uses the epistemology of objectivism and data collection via empirical observation using the five senses. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is someone who is undertaking study at post-first degree level. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ MSc | |
| | | The most widely used open-source relational database. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | An artistic movement, time in history and a style of criticism since the late 20th century. Commonly seen in the deliberate mixing of existing texts, artistic styles, genres and media, when creating new texts. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Relates to the phenomenon of a message having several different meanings for its different receivers. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Is a perspective in social research that encompasses both qualitative and quantitative research. It is not based on a particular view of what ‘reality’ or ‘knowledge’ is – instead, pragmatic researchers focus on the impact or consequences of their research, choosing the qualitative and quantitative research approaches, methods, and techniques that best meet their research purposes. Pragmatism represents the philosophical underpinnings of mixed methods research and more broadly much practical qualitative research that is carried out without the researcher considering too deeply what truth or knowledge are. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | A statistical or data-mining solution consisting of algorithms and techniques that can be used on both structured and unstructured data (together or individually) to determine future outcomes. It can be deployed for prediction, optimisation, forecasting, simulation, and many other uses. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is an initial exploration of issues related to a proposed quality review. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | A research interest statement that has been defined, limited to one subject of study, and linked to an appropriate academic discipline, enabling access to the relevant literature. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | A previous statement of factor assertion that serves as the basis for a further argument. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is an attribute, qualification or course completion that a student must have before taking a specified course or programme of study.. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin | |
| | | Are questionnaire items that people are likely to answer one way or another because they think that it will make them look better. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is the first-level, higher education qualification (often synonymous with a bachelor's degree). Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | This necessitates drawing on sources of raw data, information, or event recordings. Some examples of this kind of data are answers to questionnaires or interviews, details gleaned from direct observation of an object, results from an online image analysis, or one's own interpretation of statistical data. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | | Scholarly publications written by those who conducted the research. Generally published as journal articles, books etc. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Data | |
| | | Is previous learning from informal and formal learning situations - see Accreditation of Prior Learning. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | The notion that the rights of participants to have their privacy protected through assurances that the data they offer, as well as their identities, will be held in confidence. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | As opposed to a public cloud, which is generally available, a private cloud is a set of computing resources within the corporation that serves only the corporation, but that is set up to operate in a cloud-like manner in regard to its management. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A sample where each member or unit in the study population has an equal chance of being selected. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Step-by-step sequences of actions that must be carried out in that order to perform a task. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | A high-level, end-to-end structure useful for decision making and normalising how things get done in a company or organisation. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A research method that determines if a program or campaign was implemented as designed. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Specify the provision that enables students to learn appropriately so that they may meet expected performance standards or or assessment requirements. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | A profession is a group of people in a learned occupation, the members of which agree to abide by specified rules of conduct when practicing the occupation. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills ➔ Career | |
| | APL | Is a the process (or the outcome of the process) by which a programme of study is validated by a professional or regulatory body as a programme that prepares students for registration in a regulated profession. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Is a group of people in a learned occupation who are entrusted with maintaining control or oversight of the legitimate practice of the occupation. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Qualification ➔ Body | |
| | | The process of acquiring additional skills and knowledge through ongoing education and career training once an individual has started working. It may involve enrolling in courses or seminars, participating in professional or industry conferences, or obtaining a certification to enhance one's expertise in their selected domain. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills | |
| | | Is shorthand for a co-ordinated set of study elements that lead to a recognised professional qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | | The formal acknowledgement of an individual's professional status and right to practice the profession in accordance with professional standards and subject to professional or regulatory controls. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Qualification ➔ Body | |
| | | Programme (or program in US/Australian English) is shorthand for a study curriculum undertaken by a student that has co-ordinated elements, which constitute a coherent named award. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | APL | Establishes the academic standing of the programme or the ability of the programme to produce graduates with professional competence to practice. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Are formal means of articulating the desired achievements of teachers and the intended knowledge and skills that students are expected to acquire. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Aim | |
| | | Is a process of reviewing the quality or standards of a coherent set of study modules. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | A programme (program) specification documents the aims, objectives or learning outcomes, programme content, learning and teaching methods, process and criteria for assessment, usually with indicative reading or other reference material as well as identifying the modules or subunits of the programme, setting out core and optional elements, precursors and levels. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Programme | |
| | | Is an explicit record of achievement, an aid to reflecting on the achievement and a mechanism to enable future planning. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | A sequence of tasks, either performed individually or in a team, that are carefully planned in order to achieve a particular aim within a defined timeframe. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | A constraint in project management is any restriction that defines a project's limitations. For example, a project's scope is the limit of what the project is expected to accomplish. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | PID | One of the most significant artifacts in project management, which provides the foundation for the business project. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Define the scope, budget, schedule, and quality of the project. There is an interrelationship among these parameters. If one choose to increase the scope, they must also increase the schedule or budget. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | A formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among project stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines. A project plan may be summarised or detailed. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Are persons or entities who have an interest in a given project. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Is the group of people, within a quality monitoring agency, who organise and arrange the external quality process. Focus: PhD ➔ C0 ➔ Matter ➔ Acknowledgement | |
| | | To read a document and identify and correct any errors in it. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | A set of rules that computers use to establish and maintain communication among themselves. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is an all-encompassing term that refers to the learning opportunities, research and community activity offered/undertaken by an institution of higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | Making resources available to users and software. A provisioning system makes applications available to users and makes server resources available to applications. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A resource that is available to any consumer either as a fee-per-transaction service or as a free service. It does not have deep security or a well-defined SLA. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | In the context of higher education, is the data and information made available to inform the public. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | PMAPA | This is a major handbook used in some fields of social science that explains how to write up research reports for publication. Focus: PhD ➔ Publication ➔ Book | |
| | | An intended or desired consequence, end, aim, or goal. Determination refers to the quality of being resolute or having a strong resolve. The topic being discussed; the matter under consideration. Pragmatic outcome, impact, or benefit: to act with efficacy. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | | A sample made up of cases or individuals who meet the requirements of the study’s design and possess the required characteristics. - The selection of participants who have knowledge or experience of the area being investigated. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Is the award to which a formal programme of study contributes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Qualification | |
| | | A qualifications framework sets out all qualifications covered by the range of the framework as a hierarchy with generic descriptors of the required achievement to attain the qualification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Qualification | |
| | | Data that demand rebuttal or concession and refute or limit the claim. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is the statistical process of transforming quantitative data into qualitative data through cluster or factor analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Data that is non-numerical and embedded in their context. e.g. responses to open ended questions in a survey; opinions of people. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Are the characteristics, attributes or properties of a person, collective, object, action, process or organisation. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | Is (1) (n) the embodiment of the essential nature of a person, collective, object, action, process or organisation. (2) (adj) means high grade or high status (as in a quality performance). (3) a shorthand, in higher education, for quality evaluation processes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | The process of collecting and analysing data to determine the extent to which something meets established standards and criteria. If the quality, as determined by this method, is deemed unsatisfactory, efforts are undertaken to identify the cause of this deficiency. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | QA | The systematic measures taken in both manufacturing and service industries to ensure that the product delivered to the customer meets the agreed-upon performance, design, reliability, and maintainability expectations. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | A methodical evaluation of a quality system conducted by either an internal or external quality auditor or an audit team. It plays a crucial role in an organisation's quality management system and is a fundamental component of the ISO quality system standard, ISO 9001. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | Is a mechanism for ensuring that an output (product or service) conforms to a predetermined specification. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | Is a set of group values that guide how improvements are made to everyday working practices and consequent outputs. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | A process within quality management where a person, usually a supervisor or a member of the quality assurance team, assesses an agent's interaction using certain criteria outlined in a quality form. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | An official papers that establish specified requirements, specifications, norms, or characteristics. These documents are used regularly to verify that materials, products, processes, and services are suitable for their intended purpose. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Is the process, supported by policies and systems, used by an institution to maintain and enhance the quality of education experienced by its students and of the research undertaken by its staff. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | The systematic recording and analysis of interactions between agents and consumers in order to assess conversations, ensure quality assurance, and enhance agent performance. KPI indicators like as average handle time and first call resolution (FCR) are used to assess the quality of calls. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | A systematic evaluation that follows a precise framework, with clearly defined responsibilities and a set of steps, aimed at verifying the thoroughness and compliance of a product with established quality criteria. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Assurance | |
| | | Are are norms, expectations or specifications that provide the basis for the assurance of quality. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | Is a set of integrated policies and practices that structure the management, implememtation and adaptation of quality assurance processes. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Creating verifiable proof that ensures a process, system, equipment, or test will consistently yield the expected outcomes in accordance with predefined specifications and quality characteristics. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Is the process of transforming qualitative data into quantitative data by counting codes, categories, and themes. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Data that is numerical and can be ‘counted’. E.g. responses to close-ended questions in a survey. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is one that follows scientific methods and procedures to the extent that it can, but not fully. For example, in classroom research existing groups and teaching processes often cannot be changed for the sake of research. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Are instruments for the collection of data, usually in written form, consisting of open response items (or questions) and/or closed response items (or questions), which require a response from respondents. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A statement that functions as a solicitation for information. Questions are often differentiated from interrogatives, which are the grammatical structures commonly employed to convey them. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | | A sample that selects subjects to include known or pre-determined percentages (quotas) of people from various groups, based on their actual distribution in the population. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | RFID | A technology that uses small, inexpensive chips attached to products (or even animals) that then transmit a unique identification number over a short distance to a special radio transmitter/receiver. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | RDD | When choosing a sample of telephone households to call for a research study, randomly selecting the last digits set aside for home phone numbers for a given state, city and exchange, and using random number tables to do so. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Errors in the findings caused by unexpected, uncontrolled and unknown factors. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | | Is a term used to refer to the rating and ordering of higher education institutions or programmes of study based on various criteria. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Agency | |
| | RLV | Variable categories which carry names or labels, indicate some rank order, have equal distances between adjacent categories, and have a true zero. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | The researcher’s explanation as to why the study is important, what purpose it serves and what will be its outcome to society or the academic field. Focus: PhD ➔ C1 ➔ Introduction | |
| | APL | Is the re-establishment or re-statement (usually on a fixed periodic cycle) of the status, legitimacy or appropriateness of an institution, programme (i.e. composite of modules) or module of study or of the professional recognition of an individual. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | A form of processing in which a computer system accepts and updates data at the same time, feeding back immediate results that influence the data source. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A class of applications that demand timely response to actions that take place out in the world. Typical examples include automated stock trading and RFID. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | To discover, formulate, and conclude by the use of a carefully conducted analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is the acceptance by one agency of the outcomes of a quality process conducted by another agency. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | The UK government refers to universities and other organisations with the authority to provide UK degrees as "recognised bodies". Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Qualification ➔ Body | |
| | | Is the formal acknowledgement of the status of an organisation, institution or programme. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin ➔ Recognition | |
| | | Is formal acknowledgement of previous learning, from informal as well as formal learning situations. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | A list of all sources of information used in writing-up the research findings and cited within the body of the publication. Listed under authors’ last names in alphabetical order. Focus: PhD ➔ C8 ➔ Matter ➔ Reference | |
| | | The fourth and final step in the action research cycle. Researchers think carefully about what they have observed, and consider planning further action research in the next cycle. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Action Research | |
| | | A contemplative thought process that critically regulates, assesses, and corrects the personal knowledge, skills, and tasks used to conduct the literature review. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Critically thinking about the research process and their role in it. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | The open acknowledgement by the researcher of the central role they play in the research process. A reflexive approach considers and makes explicit the effect the researcher may have had on the research findings. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | APL | Is recognition of an institution within a regional context: it is much the same as national accreditation but is not restricted to national boundaries. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Is (1) the process of enrolment on a programme of study or course. (2) becoming recognised as a legitimate professional in a regulated profession. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Admin | |
| | | A single source for all the metadata needed to gain access to a web service or software component. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | In the context of higher education, is an external organisation that has been empowered by legislation to oversee and control the educational process and outputs germane to it. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Agency ➔ Body | |
| | RDBMS | A database management system that organises data in defined tables. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is one that adjusts the specification for each level of pass or success depending on the performance of the student cohort. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | The consistency of the findings when the study is repeated at different times or by different researchers, using the same methods and procedures. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | RPC | A way for a program running on one computer to run a subprogram on another computer. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | In discourse analysis, repair refers to the sequentially organised system for clearing up problems of speaking, hearing, and/or understanding in talk. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | Is the documented outcome or results of an evaluation process. / In an interview, a report is a neutral description of a situation. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | A database for software and components, with an emphasis on revision control and configuration management (where they keep the good stuff, in other words). Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | REST | Designed specifically for the Internet and is the most commonly used mechanism for connecting one web resource (a server) to another web resource (a client). A RESTful API provides a standardised way to create a temporary relationship (also called “loose coupling”) between and among web resources. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A sample that includes cases or individuals from all subgroups of the targeted population. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Is a tradition such as narrative inquiry, case study, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and action research, which employs generally accepted research methods. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | RAE | In the UK and Hong Kong, that assesses the quality of research to enable the higher education funding bodies to distribute public funds on the basis of research quality ratings. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Framework | |
| | RCS | A report of a research study, based on actual research and written in the style of a standard research report. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | REF | An assessment of the impact of research conducted by British Higher Education Institutions. The successor to the Research Assessment Exercise, this assessment method was implemented in 2014 to evaluate the period from 2008 to 2013. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Framework | |
| | | A systematic and rigorous way of collecting and analysing information. In qualitative research this includes observation, interviews, open-response items in questionnaires, verbal reports, diary studies, and discourse analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | | Is a theory of how inquiry should occur. It defines the kinds of problems that are worth investigating and frames them, determines what research approaches and research methods to use, and also how to understand what constitutes a legitimate and warranted explanation. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | A way of organising a qualitative research report to reflect the story of the research process. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed ➔ Observations | |
| | | The execution of a research project involves practical actions, in contrast to the research cycle, which is a structured representation of that activity. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | A personal interest or concern that has been refined by focus, limit, and perspective. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Used when the researcher is not sure what to look for. It indicates the general areas of the phenomenon under study. Data is then collected to examine the research questions. Generally linked to inductive reasoning. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Research Questions | |
| | | Is a specific procedure for obtaining information. The same research technique, such as asking open-ended questions, could be employed by a number of different research methods. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | RDI | Provided assistance and guidance for the education and advancement of researchers in the field of social sciences, regardless of their career stage. Focus: PhD ➔ Publication ➔ Workshop | |
| | | A set of compute, storage, or data services that are combined to be used across hybrid environments. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The assets or factors needed for a business task to be carried out effectively. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | Refers to seeking the participants’ views of the initial interpretations of the data. The aim is not to ensure that the researcher is in agreement as to the meaning of the data, but that the researcher has the opportunity to incorporate the participants’ responses into the analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is used in questionnaires and surveys to refer to the participants who respond to or answer the questions. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A cognitive or behavioural reaction elicited by a question, experience, or any other form of stimulation. A response can manifest in various ways, such as providing a solution to a query, expressing an emotional response, or offering a reply. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | The percentage of the sample that returned the completed surveys. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | The time from the moment at which a transaction is submitted by a user or an application to the moment at which the final result of that transaction is made known to the user or application. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Are types of verbal report in which individuals reflect on their thought processes after they complete a task. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Introspection | |
| | | (1) Review is generic term for any process that explores the quality of higher education. (2) Review refers to explorations of quality that do not result in judgements or decisions. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | Is a document used as a risk management tool and to fulfill regulatory compliance acting as a repository for all risks identified and includes additional information about each risk. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Something that may happen that could have a negative effect on a project objective. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | A selected number of individual cases or research subjects, drawn from a larger population for a specific study. - The process of selecting participants to take part in the research on the basis that they can provide detailed information that is relevant to the enquiry. See: Purposive Sampling & Theoretical Sampling. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Errors in the findings caused by differences between the sample and the targeted population. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | A complete list of all members of the target population. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | A sandwich programme is one that has a significant period of work experience built into it such that the programme is extended beyond the normal length of similar programmes without the sandwich element. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | | The point at which no further themes are generated when data from more participants are included in the analysis. The sampling process can be considered to be complete at this point. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | In regard to hardware, the capability to go from small to large amounts of processing power with the same architecture. It also applies to software products such as databases, in which case it refers to the consistency of performance per unit of power as hardware resources increase. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | An organised search of library and online catalogues, subject-area encyclopaedias, periodicals, indexes, and abstracts. The scan's purpose is to identify works for possible inclusion in the study. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Social scientific theories developed using scholarly research, systematic observation, inquiry, analysis, generalisation, and prediction. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Knowledge based on objective principles and systematic observation. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Indicates how comprehensive, inclusive or general a theory is to explain a range of situations rather than just one. - Defining exactly what will and won’t be covered by a project or business activity. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | The set of questions used when selecting suitable participants for a focus group, based on the requirements of the research design. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A computer programming language that is interpreted and has access to all or most operating system facilities. Common examples include Perl, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript. It is often easier to program in a scripting language, but the resulting programs generally run more slowly than those created in compiled languages such as C and C++. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Utilise preexisting sources or data instead than creating new ones. This can involve examining primary sources like as speeches, letters, and artworks, as well as secondary sources like books, journal articles, or other internet items. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | | Summaries of existing research, literature reviews, analyses, commentaries, opinions, textbooks etc written by those who did not carry out the original research. Helps identify the key research studies, theories and scholars in the area. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Data | |
| | SSL | A popular method for making secure connections over the Internet, first introduced by Netscape. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | SAML | A standard framework for exchanging authentication and authorisation information (that is, credentials) in an XML format called assertions. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | APL | Is a process or status that implies a degree of autonomy, on the part of an institution or individual, to make decisions about academic offerings or learning. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Is the process of critically reviewing the quality of ones own performance and provision. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | A methodical assessment of one's own performance, involving the use of specific criteria to carefully look at and assess work based on a predetermined set of standards. Performance outcomes that individuals collect themselves are provided for the purpose of intentional evaluation during conferencing or supervision meetings with an assessor. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Looking at ourselves through other people’s eyes, as when looking through a mirror. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | | The process of studying a subject alone, typically through books, records, or other resources, without the need for direct supervision or attending a formal class. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | SDS | Also known as the bipolar ratings system, it is used to measure respondents’ attitudes towards a given issue, on a 1–7 interval scale with several opinions set up at extreme ends (e.g. useful–useless). A composite score is calculated for each respondent for this scale. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Measurements | |
| | | In computer programming, what the data means as opposed to the formatting rules (syntax). Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is a division of the academic year; usually two semesters in a year. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Term | |
| | | The interviewer has a slightly more focused agenda than in an unstructured interview. Questions are phrased to allow the participants to tell the story in their own way, and an interview guide is used to ensure information is gathered on areas of interest to the researcher. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | Is ideally, a small-group teaching situation in which a subject is discussed, in depth, by the participants. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Class | |
| | | A method textual analysis or qualitative content analysis of latent messages, where the researcher looks for a ‘deeper meaning’ in texts, by examining the relationships between signs (signifier) and meanings (signified) and the use of binary oppositions (good vs bad) to create specific meanings. It is also known as structural analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | In discourse analysis, a sequence is an episode of talk, composed of at least two turns, with identifiable boundaries of action. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | A purposeful activity carried out for the benefit of a known target. Services are often made up of a group of component services, some of which may also have component services. Services always transform something, and they complete by delivering an output. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A directory of IT services provided across the enterprise, including information such as service description, access rights, and ownership. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A single point of contact for IT users and customers to report any issues they may have with the IT service (or, in some cases, with IT’s customer service). Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Monitoring and optimising service to ensure that it meets the critical outcomes that the customer values and the stakeholders want to provide. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | In education are specifications of the teaching, facilities, guidance and support provided by an institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | SLA | A document that captures the understanding between a service user and a service provider regarding quality and timeliness. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | SOA | An approach to building applications that implements business processes or services by using a set of loosely coupled black-box components orchestrated to deliver a well-defined level of service. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is the place where the research study is carried out. ‘Place’ here refers to more than just the physical location; it also includes the people, artifacts, language used, and intangible aspects (like beliefs) of that location. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Are open-response questionnaire items that require responses that are a few phrases or sentences long, but not as long as a paragraph. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | In IT, an application with a single narrow focus, such as human resources management or inventory control, no intention or preparation for use by others. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Argument composed of a simple claim, its evidence, and its warrant. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | A written document that critically reviews the relevant literature on a research topic, presenting a logical case that establishes a thesis that delineates what is currently known about the subject. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | SOAP | A protocol specification for exchanging data. Along with REST, it is used for storing and retrieving data in the Amazon storage cloud. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | SRS | A sample where each subject in the population has an equal chance of being selected for the study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | Is is when an external evaluation team goes to an institution to evaluate verbal, written and visual evidence. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design ➔ Access Agreement | |
| | | Is the ability to perform a task adeptly, using experience and professional knowledge. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills | |
| | | A rapid perusal of possible works to identify important ideas and their specific contribution to the research study and to determine whether or not to use the work. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Also known as referrals, the sample is made up of referrals from subjects who identified other suitable subjects, usually in areas that are difficult to conduct research in. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | A product of people and their activities or behaviours. They can serve as a unit of analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | Web 2.0 | A network of social connections that connect individuals via the Internet. The social web refers to the principles and practices used in the design and development of websites and software to facilitate and encourage social interaction. Focus: AoR ➔ KM | |
| | SDLC | Encompasses a comprehensive strategy for the development, modification, and maintenance of a software system. Acquire knowledge about the various phases and obtain optimal methods. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | SQM | A managerial procedure that focuses on enhancing and overseeing the quality of software. Its objective is to ensure that the software product satisfies the customer's quality expectations and complies with all applicable regulatory and developer criteria. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | SaaS | The delivery of computer applications over the Internet. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Undergraduates on their penultimate (junior) or final (senior) year of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ BSc | |
| | | A database that is optimised for data related to where an object is in a given space. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | APL | Any accreditation process that relates to specific discipline areas. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Accreditation | |
| | SQC | Are protocols that ensure that the proposed materials, manufacture, and installation strategies comply with the contract criteria. These are neither subjective impressions or subjective wishes, but rather objective qualitative processes and procedures that can be empirically examined in controlled environments such as laboratories, factories, or field settings. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | | Those people who work in educational institutions. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ People | |
| | | A phase-gate process is a project management technique in which an initiative or project is divided into distinct stages or phases, separated by decision points. At each gate, continuation is decided by a manager, steering committee, or governance board. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | People, groups or organisations that have an interest in or might be affected by the outcome of a project. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | A core set of common, repeatable best practices and protocols that have been agreed on by a business or industry group. Typically, vendors, industry user groups, and end-users collaborate to develop standards based on the broad expertise of a large number of stakeholders. Organisations can leverage these standards as a common foundation and innovate on top of them. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is any process that checks the attainment and abilities of students or the provision and conduct of an institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | The technical abilities, knowledg and skills required to become a safe and accomplished exponent of a particular profession or other field of activity. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Standards | |
| | | Are any quantitative data that provide evidence about the quality or standard of higher education. Focus: AoR ➔ Mathematics ➔ Statistics | |
| | SPSS | The computer software commonly used in the quantitative analysis of data. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data ➔ Software | |
| | | Audio-visual materials related to the research topic shown to a focus group before the discussion begins, to provide a common ground to initiate the discussions. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | SAN | A high-speed network of interconnected storage devices. These storage devices might be servers, optical disc drives, or other storage media. The difference between a SAN and a NAS (Network Attached Storage) is that a SAN runs at a higher speed than a NAS, while a NAS is generally easier to install and provides a file system. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Strategic planning is an organisation's process of defining its strategy or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to attain strategic goals. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | SMIS | A information systems that are created as a result of corporate business initiatives. Their purpose is to provide the organisation with a competitive advantage. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | An analytic computing platform that is focused on speed. Data is continuously analysed and transformed in memory before it is stored on a disk. This platform allows the analysing of large volumes of data in real-time. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | SWOT Analysis | A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a business or organisation. A powerful technique that enables one to assess their company's current strengths and weaknesses, and develop an effective strategy for future success. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills ➔ Business | |
| | | Data that has a defined length and format. Examples of structured data include numbers, dates, and groups of words and numbers called strings (for example, a customer’s name, address, and so on). Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | An interview in which the questions are pre-determined and asked to all subjects. Closed questions are used with limited response choices. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | SQL | The most popular computer language for accessing and manipulating databases. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Two meanings (1) student evaluation is an assessment by learners of the service provided by the institution, be it solely of the classroom experience or of all aspects of the learning experience. (2) in some countries, such as the United States, 'student evaluation' has the same meaning as assessment of students' learning. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Is primarily the nature of the enagagement of students with learning and teaching however it may also include other aspects that impinge on learning some of which are the responsibility of higher education institutions. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | Is a systematic procedure implemented by an institution to ensure that proper measures are in place to maintain the quality, integrity, and standards of operations and outcomes within a specific department, faculty, or operational unit. It also ensures that specific requirements are being met throughout the entire institution. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Audit | |
| | | The person or researcher carrying out the act of meaning-making. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Quality assurance process that focuses on a subject or disciple and examines it in detail. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | | Subject evaluation is the review, at the level of a specified academic (sub)discipline, of the teaching, learning and assessment processes (and the support infrastructure). Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | This epistemology sees meaning-making as carried out exclusively by the active subject (person) about a passive object (what is made meaning of). The subject will import meaning on the object from elsewhere. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Is a term used in the US to indicate that an overseas programme is essentially the same as a US programme of study. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Accreditation | |
| | | Project success criteria may be defined in a number of ways, for example as: (1) business or research objectives or goals (2) requirements, typically technical or performance requirements (3) critical success factors, typically measurable factors that, when present in the project's environment, are most conducive to the achievement of a successful project (4) key performance indicators, typically measures upon which the project will be judged. Focus: AoR ➔ Project Management | |
| | | Captures the pivotal points of something larger in one’s writing such as a film, book or article. Focus: PhD ➔ C0 ➔ Matter ➔ Abstract | |
| | | Is the process of evaluating (and grading) the learning of students at a point in time. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | SMI | Management practice in which a supplier of goods, usually the manufacturer, is responsible for optimising the inventory held by a distributor. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | A method of collecting data or information from people about their demographic characteristics, opinions, choices, preferences, attitudes, beliefs, motivations etc to answer the question ‘What do people think, do or feel about a specific issue or topic?’. They collect quantitative data from closed-ended questions and qualitative data using open-ended questions (by picking the applicable response). Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Is a data collection method which uses questionnaires and is typically distributed to many people. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A syllabus specifies the aims, objectives or projected outcomes, content, mode of delivery, chronology and form and weighting of assessment of a course or unit of study and as such makes the lerning process transparent to the student. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ Admin | |
| | | The study of structure, functions and meanings of symbol systems (such as language). Developed by the Chicago school. Uses the methodologies of ethnography and grounded theory. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | Factors working together indicating that the ‘system’ or ‘whole’ is greater than the sum of its parts. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | SNA | A simulation consists of "state variables" that can be accessed and exploited within the simulation. They produce either numerical or textual results and can be used as variables in GPSS statement operands and in expressions. Focus: AoR ➔ Mathematics ➔ Statistics | |
| | | Sets of detailed methods for carrying out an activity or solving a problem. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | SDLC | The systems development life cycle, also known as the application development life cycle, is a method used in systems engineering, information systems, and software engineering to plan, create, test, and deploy an information system. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | SoL | Deductive and inductive systems of logic in scientific reasoning are used in research studies when examining an unknown phenomenon. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method | |
| | | The theoretical paradigm that sees an individual, group, organisation, society or any social entity as an ‘organism’ made of a system of parts making up a ‘whole’ that tries to maintain a state of equilibrium or balance. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | TCS | A report of a research study which may be based on an actual case study but may contain some fictional or semi-fictional aspects and is written as a story. It could also be a completely fictional one. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | A group of people working together to achieve a common goal or complete a task. Focus: AoR ➔ Business | |
| | | is a non-university higher education institution, in South Africa, focusing on vocational education. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ Vocational | |
| | | Long-held, taken-for-granted beliefs, which are difficult to change even when faced with contradictory evidence. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Tertiary education is formal, non-compulsory, education that follows secondary education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | The process of analysing unstructured text, extracting relevant information, and transforming it into structured information that can be leveraged in various ways. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A qualitative research method used to analyse the latent content (implied or hidden meaning) of messages. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Is an exemplary piece of writing that models aspects of good research and writing. Other writers can learn to improve their own writing from it. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | Is a review of a particular aspect of quality or standards focusing on an experience, practice or resource that cuts across programmes or institutions. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality ➔ Evaluation | |
| | | Provides a context to a specific research study. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | A sampling strategy in which the selection of participants is guided by the ideas that are emerging from the data analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Grounded Theory | |
| | | Is used to explain what happens in society and what we do in practice. It describes, explains and predicts a phenomenon in order to help us understand it and thereby provide insights as to how it may be controlled. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | A conclusion based on a case developed using existing knowledge, sound evidence, and reasoned argument. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Output | |
| | | The rich, vivid descriptions and interpretations that researchers create as they collect data. It encompasses the circumstances, meanings, intentions, strategies, and motivations that characterise the participants, research setting, and events. Thick description helps researchers paint a meticulous picture for the reader. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Ethnography | |
| | | Are a type of verbal report in which participants report on their thought processes while they are completing a task. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Introspection | |
| | | Is removed and uses he/she/it/the subject being discussed. Example: This report will discuss … Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Writing | |
| | | In discourse analysis, thought units are segments of the transcribed text that reflect a particular thought or idea. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | The minimum expectations of student performance for the achievement of, or of programme content for, a particular qualification or award. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | | The rate at which transactions are completed in a system. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | In a mixed methods study, timing refers to the sequence or order of collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | A research area refined by interest, an academic discipline, and an understanding of relevant keywords and core concepts. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | TQM | A popular quality-improvement program. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Total student experience refers to all aspects of the engagement of students with higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Mode | |
| | | A computer action that represents a business event, such as debiting an account. When a transaction starts, it must either complete or not happen at all. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | TPS | A software system or a mix of software and hardware that facilitates the execution of transaction processing. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Is the process of converting verbal data to written data for analysis. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Is a printed or electronic record of student achievement while in higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Transcribing conventions, used for systematically representing features of talk in a visual format. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | Means that the research findings can be transferred from one context to similar situations or participants. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | Are attributes developed in one setting that can be applied in another. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills | |
| | | Is the process of changing from onr qualitative state to another. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative | |
| | | Is higher education provision that is available in more than one country. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | Is making activities and services clear and easily understood and open to scrutiny and challengeable. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Quality | |
| | TLS | A newer name for SSL. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | A topic is re-examined or re-studied at different points in time using different samples of the same populations to observe if any trends exist. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Quantitative | |
| | | A process by which the area under investigation is looked at from different (two or more) perspectives. These can include two or more methods, sample groups or investigators. Used to ensure that the understanding of an area is as complete as possible or to confirm interpretation through the comparison of different data sources. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | A mixed methods design in which quantitative and qualitative data are collected and analysed concurrently and then compared, in order to understand the research problem more completely. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | There are universal ethical concerns that building trust with participants may entail some betrayal of that trust once the data gathering is complete. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | The standards for judging the quality and usefulness of qualitative research studies, which are composed of criteria for methodologically competent practice and ethically sensitive practice. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Ethics | |
| | | In the context of quality in higher education, refers to the process in Europe of adjusting degree provision so that there are points of similarity across the European Higher Education Area. Focus: PhD ➔ University ➔ integration | |
| | | In discourse analysis, a turn refers to one person’s allocation of talk. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | In discourse analysis, turntaking refers to the organisational system of talk where one person speaks, stops, another starts, stops, and so on. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Discourse Analysis | |
| | | The Bologna Declaration advocates for the implementation of a degree framework consisting of two distinct cycles: the undergraduate level (bachelors) and the graduate level (masters and doctorate). Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Process | |
| | Dev8D | To bring together developers from across the education sector and wider in order to learn from one another and ultimately create better, smarter technology for learning and research. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Event | |
| | | Is a student who is undertaking a first-level degree programme of study, normally a bachelor's degree or equivalent. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Course ➔ BSc | |
| | UPS | A continuous power system that automatically delivers backup electricity to a load in the event of a failure in the input power source or mains power. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Two meanings in the context of quality in higher education, one as subject and one as object of quality review. (1) unit is the generic name for a quality monitoring department internal to an institution. (2) unit is any element that is the subject of quality review: institution, subject area, faculty, department or programme of study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | UoA | The unit of observation can be an object, event, individual, group, organisation, or society. It is the ‘who’ or ‘what’ the researcher wants to explore, describe, explain or understand. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | Is one that has higher education located in a single type of institution. Focus: PhD ➔ University | |
| | UAE | United Arab Emirates, UAE or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Country | |
| | UKOLN | Centre of expertise in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information, education and cultural heritage communities. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ Organisation | |
| | | Content analysis’ counterpart to the target population in other research. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Data | |
| | | The researcher asks the respondent a general question regarding the area of interest and asks them to tell their own story. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Interview | |
| | | Data that does not follow a specified data format. Unstructured data can be text, video, images, and so on. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The process of making transparent what students need to learn, be able to do or understand when achieving a specified learning goal. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Assessment | |
| | UDPM | Ensures the consistent execution of process activities and processes on a daily basis. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | UGT | People consume media messages to obtain uses (functions) and pleasures (gratifications). Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | A metered service that acts like a public service based on payment for the use of a measured amount of a component or asset. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | Is a process of confirming that an existing programme of study or a newly designed one can continue or commence operation. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | The level at which the study actually measures what it was meant to measure. Focus: PhD ➔ C5 ➔ Findings | |
| | | Is the enhancement that students achieve (to knowledge, skills abilities and other attributes) as a result of their higher education experience. Focus: PhD ➔ C7 ➔ Contribution | |
| | | Assesses the cost of a product or service against the quality of provision. Focus: PhD ➔ C7 ➔ Contribution | |
| | | The observable or measurable counterpart of a construct describing how a researcher will measure the construct. It has a set of values assigned to it and can be either quantitative or qualitative. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development | |
| | | Are oral records of an individual’s thought processes. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Introspection | |
| | | Where one quotes a source word for word. This is also known as direct quotation. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Is a short narrative description that captures the essential characteristics of a person or event. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Qualitative ➔ Case Study | |
| | | Is delivered, usually via information technology networks, without restricting the learner in space or time. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | Virtual memory is the use of a disk to store active areas of memory to make the available memory appear larger. In a virtual environment, one computer runs software that allows it to emulate another machine. This kind of emulation is commonly known as virtualisation. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | VDM | Tools for making decisions based on visual information. There are numerous methods to incorporate graphics into one's decision-making process, such as developing diagrams and graphs that are specifically tailored to address commercial decision-making. However, there exist alternative forms of images that can be beneficial at different stages of the decision-making process. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS ➔ SQM | |
| | | is a graphical representation of the research procedures used in a mixed methods study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | VET | Is any formal, post-compulsory education that develops knowledge, skills and attributes linked to particular forms of eemployment, although in some interpretations this would exclude professional education. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Education | |
| | | A sample made up of those responding to the researcher’s call for participants. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design | |
| | | The reasoning used in an argument to allow the researcher and any reader to accept the evidence presented as reasonable proof that a claim is correct. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | A software component created with an interface consisting of a WSDL definition, an XML schema definition, and a WS-Policy definition. Collectively, components could be called a service contract — or, alternatively, an API. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | WSDL | An XML (eXtended Markup Language) format for describing web services. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | WS | A policy framework that provides a way of expressing the capabilities, requirements, and characteristics of software components in a Web Services system. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The relative importance or priority given to each type of data in a mixed methods study. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Method ➔ Mixed | |
| | | Broadly described as the act of guaranteeing equitable opportunities for anyone to enter higher education. Focus: PhD ➔ C4 ➔ Design ➔ Access Agreement | |
| | | Is the linking of a period of activity in a work setting (whether paid or voluntary) to the programme of study, irrespective of whether the work experience is an integral part of the programme of study. Focus: PhD ➔ PDP ➔ Skills ➔ Career | |
| | | To any formal higher education learning that is based wholly or predominantly in a work setting. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | Allows students to combine learning in a higher education institution with learning in (or related to) an external work setting.Work-related learning refers to any formal higher education learning that includes a period of learning that takes place in a work setting or involves activities linked to a work setting. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | A planned activity that utilises the work environment to enhance information, skills, and comprehension that are applicable in the workplace. This includes learning through hands-on work experience, acquiring knowledge about work and work practices, and developing the necessary abilities for employment. Focus: PhD ➔ Degree ➔ Prog ➔ Learning | |
| | | This is a sequence of task-oriented steps needed to carry out a business process. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | WfMS | A framework for organising, executing, and overseeing a predetermined series of tasks structured as a workflow application. Focus: AoR ➔ IT ➔ BIS | |
| | | Theories that are at an exploratory stage and still under examination. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review ➔ Theory | |
| | | The preliminary, first, and subsequent drafts of a work that give the reader a complete and convincing understanding of the researcher's thesis. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | Journals, memoranda, notes, outlines, and all other forms of writing that allow the researcher to internalise the data, evidence, and arguments to be used in the literature review. Focus: PhD ➔ C2 ➔ Literature Review | |
| | | A language for defining and describing the structure of XML documents. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | XSD | The description of what can be in an XML document. Focus: AoR ➔ Big Data ➔ Technical | |
| | | The concept of zero flaws is based on the principle of achieving perfection in the initial attempt. This comprehensive perspective is intended to be applicable to all industries and seeks to enhance efficiency and boost profitability for organisations by decreasing the expenses incurred from their errors. Focus: PhD ➔ C3 ➔ Theoretical Development |
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