scholarly journals Adult postgraduate students’ learning in online spaces—Images of identity and belonging

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Azumah Dennis ◽  
Gill Clifton
Keyword(s):  
Adult Students ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
Learning Trajectories ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Critical Exploration ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
Digital Pedagogy

AbstractThis research seeks to animate the voices of postgraduate students registered on a UK distance learning online Masters in Education or Childhood & Youth programme. Such a critical exploration is timely given the HE landscape is premised on its openness and accessibility. Our study reports on 33 interviews with postgraduate students using photo elicitation and unstructured interviews. We prioritise the perspectives of students whose experiences do not replicate the success stories which generally epitomize representations of HE study, favouring instead the voices of students who interrupted or in some cases terminated their studies. Our aim is to better understand the PG students’ personal, professional, and academic learning trajectories.In reading the data we produced four “manifesto” statements crafted from a series of dialogues between ourselves as researchers, our colleagues, the online experiences of adult postgraduate students and our reading of literatures surrounding withdrawal, persistence and retention. Interpretations gravitated towards four themes: identity, belonging, digital pedagogies and uncanny spaces and which point towards students’ perspectives about the interconnections between identity and belonging and how these concepts help develop understanding of “social presence”, what Bayne (2008) and Cartens (2016) assert as “uncanny” spaces. Our manifesto statements represent our reading of the data to stimulate further thinking around the HE digital pedagogy landscapes. The four statements have implications for how we understand, participate in and manage postgraduate adult students’ learning in digital spaces.

scholarly journals To Be or Not to Be: Social Justice in Networked Learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Öztok
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Group Work ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Networked Learning ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
Made In

The potential for more egalitarian or democratic forms of engagements among people is accepted to be somehow actualised naturally within collaborative or cooperative forms of learning. There is an urgent need for a theoretical framework that does not limit social justice with access or participation, but focuses on the otherwise hidden ways in which group work can yield suboptimal outcomes. This article aims to expand the current understandings of social justice in networked learning practices by challenging the ways in which online subjectivities are conceptualised in communal settings. It is argued that the mediated experience in online spaces should be conceptualised in tandem with one's social presence and social absence if education is to be studied more rigorously and if claims of justice are to be made in networked learning.

scholarly journals Teaching the disembodied: Othering and activity systems in a blended synchronous learning situation

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Una Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Student Beliefs ◽  
Learning Situation ◽  
Student Expectations ◽  
Online Students ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Synchronous Learning ◽  
Low Levels

<p>This study examines what happens when online and campus students participate in real time in the same campus classroom. Before this study, postgraduate students studying online in a course intended primarily as professional development for language educators were taking the course through reading the course literature including assigned articles, writing reflective texts in the asynchronous forum and doing the course assignments. They had a very different experience than the campus students who met weekly for discussion of the reading. Some online students were not active enough in the course, and showed low levels of engagement. The online students were invited to participate in scheduled campus classes via Skype on iPads. After some hesitation, four of the six online students took up this real-time participation option. Initial difficulties with the technology were addressed after seeking input from campus and online students. A series of adjustments were made and evaluated, including a move to a model in which three online students in different locations participated in a single Skype group video call on a laptop in the campus classroom rather than on multiple individual Skype calls on iPads. After the course, the online and campus students were asked to evaluate the experience of having physical and virtual participants sharing a physical space and to relate this experience to the asynchronous channels previously available to the participants. The comments of both groups of participants were interpreted in the light of previous work on social presence and of activity theory. It appears that student beliefs and student expectations lead to hidden challenges associated with mixing these groups of students, and the study concludes that unless teaching assistance is available, it is not easy to afford online students the same right to speak as campus students.</p>

The Effects of Web-Assisted Learning on Students' Anxiety

2003 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 221-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Macaulay
Keyword(s):  
Adult Students ◽  
Common Method ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Study Materials ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Anxiety Levels ◽  
The Web

As increasing amounts of study materials migrate onto the Web, a future is now conceivable in which using the Web for studying will be the most common method of studying. However, there is the suggestion that using the Internet can evoke specific types of anxiety in novice adult students. This study investigated the effects of using the Web to study on the anxiety levels of students who have used the Web regularly for at least six months and considered themselves familiar with it. The subjective anxiety levels of two groups of 30 postgraduate students were recorded immediately before and after using either the Web or a non-Web-based medium for studying. The group that used the Web recorded significantly higher anxiety levels than those who did not. The implication of this finding and possible solutions are discussed.

scholarly journals Web 2.0 for fostering students' social presence in online learning-based interaction

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yahya Al-dheleai ◽  
Zaidatun Tasir
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Research In Education ◽  
The Difference

Research in education confirmed that students engage in learning when they feel connected with others and when they play an active role in their learning process. Therefore; social presence (SP) considered as an important component of effective learning in both face-face and online learning environment. Therefore, this study intended to investigate students’ perception about SP when using Web 2.0 tool for learning-based interaction and the difference in their perception based on gender and number of the semesters of the study. The participants of this study were 71 postgraduate students in one of the Malaysian public universities. The quantitative methods of data collection and data analysis were used in this study. Therefore, the researcher employed survey method using Online Social Presence Questionnaire (OSPQ) to collect the data. The data were analyzed using SPSS software to find mean, standard deviation of students’ perception of their social presence while using Web 2.0 tool for learning-based interaction. Independent sample t-test was used to find the difference in students perception based on their gender. Moreover, One-Way ANOVA was used to find the difference in students’ SP perception based on their semester of the study. The findings of this study showed that students expressed high perception about their social presence on Web 2.0 tool. Nonetheless, male students perceived higher social presence on Web 2.0 tool than female students. However, there were not significant differences in students’ perception of social presence neither based on the gender difference nor on the number of the semester of the study.

Persistence in Doctoral Education: A Part-Time Research Student Perspective in a Developing Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 152102512110071
Author(s):  
Liezel Massyn
Keyword(s):  
Adult Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Business School ◽  
Student Perspective ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Part Time ◽  
Time Basis ◽  
Working Adult ◽  
Qualitative Responses

Ample literature on the retention of undergraduate students is available. However, information on the retention of postgraduate students in doctoral research is not abundant, especially when the population comprises working adult students studying on a part-time basis. This article aims to explore factors that influence retention in this group of students. The literature identified various factors that could affect the retention of these students. Besides the academic and social integration identified by Tinto, environmental factors (finances, family and employment) and time constraints also play a role in their persistence. The data was collected from PhD students at a Business School in South Africa. The results from the survey confirm the influence of these factors on retention. The inclusion of qualitative responses as part of the survey led to recommendations that consider the finer nuances of the support needed by this group of heterogeneous students.

Photovoice and Photo-Elicitation in Management Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Trott ◽  
Paula May Tomsett ◽  
Michael Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Adult Students ◽  
Photo Elicitation ◽  
Student Outcome ◽  
Business Programs ◽  
Course Content ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Authentic Voice ◽  
Subject Material ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
User Friendly

In this article, we show that “photovoice” and “photo-elicitation” are user-friendly, versatile techniques uniquely beneficial in International Business programs where English-mediated instruction is the norm. These techniques engage young adult students deeply in subject material as well as create the opportunity for students to develop extemporaneous or impromptu English speaking skills. Photovoice and photo-elicitation lend themselves to being quintessential andragogy-in-action: learner-directed not teacher-directed, use of dialogue instead of monologue, and focus on student outcome choices instead of teacher-programmed assignments. They foster high interactivity not passive (silent) absorption in the teaching/learning process and stimulate cocreation of diverse meanings, interpretations, and imaginations. Course content is made relevant and reinforced as students are helped to find, share, and value their own personal empowering and authentic “voice”—in English.

Insights Into the Support Services for Students With Vision Impairment

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poulomee Datta ◽  
Carolyn Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Adult Students ◽  
Family Relationships ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Small Sample Size ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Vision Impairment ◽  
Academic Learning ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Adolescent Students

There is a general need for research in Australia on whether the support services provided in schools prove useful for students with disabilities (Datta, 2015; O’Rourke & Houghton, 2006), especially students with vision impairment. This qualitative study aimed to provide insights into the influence of the support services delivered in South Australian schools for students with vision impairments’ problem-solving skills, and their family, social, and academic lives. Semistructured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 14 students with vision impairment (8 adolescents and 6 adults), 5 parents, and 4 teachers. Participating students’ age ranged between 15 and 18 years for the adolescent students and between 19 and 25 years for the adult students. Adolescent students were enrolled in mainstream and specialist secondary schools, and adult students were enrolled in vocational courses at TAFE Institutes. The data reflected a range of viewpoints from which to examine the problem under investigation. The interview responses from the 3 groups of participants revealed that the support services positively influenced students’ problem-solving skills, their social behaviour, and their academic learning. Although most students with vision impairment felt that the support services had no influence on their family relationships, their parents and teachers considered it had helped in the students’ family lives. The interviews were particularly useful in evaluating the support services that students with vision impairment received. These findings have implications for teachers, special educators, policymakers, and a range of professionals in the education and special education sector in highlighting modifications and improvements in the support services for these students. This study has provided a limited basis for generalising to any wider population beyond the participants themselves due to the study's small sample size and diversity of educational settings.

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