Design, implementation and academic perspectives on authentic assessment for applied business higher education in a top performing Asian economy

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammadreza Akbari ◽  
Hung Manh Nguyen ◽  
Robert McClelland ◽  
Kristof Van Houdt
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Authentic Assessment ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Authentic Assessments ◽  
Asian Economy

PurposeThe purpose of authentic assessment can enrich students with a set of skills that can have a significant impact on their employability. The key aim of these actions is to equip students with the practical skills to be work ready. The focus here is to demonstrate effects on student satisfaction and observations from teaching staff accrued over several semesters in an educational institution after introducing authentic assessments.Design/methodology/approachThis paper used a set of scaffolded authentic assessments for students in logistics and supply chain management (LSCM). A combination of literature and expert input was used to design and implement the authentic assessment. A multi-phase systematic approach using cyclical model steps articulated the course learning outcomes (CLOs).FindingsReinforced evidence that authentic assessments create options for divergent learners and provide opportunities for applying practical and higher-order cognitive skills in tertiary education system of an emerging economy. With the focus on student ability in doing things, students with diversified backgrounds and abilities in Asia can be encouraged to take an active role in their own learning. The formats of the newly redesigned assessments allow multidimensional cognitive capabilities such as art development (posters and video tasks) and reflective exercises. Importantly, formative types of authentic assessments help to decrease the level of anxiety by emphasising the aspect of doing and lead to better student satisfaction with the courses. All of these effects are shown to be repeatable in an Asian economy.Practical implicationsAuthentic assessments prepare students for the new world of work through a more focused scaffolding of their learning.Originality/valueStimulation of deeper learning in tertiary education students is relevant for a top performing Asian economy.

Aspect-based sentiment analysis of reviews in the domain of higher education

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-64
Author(s):  
Nikola Nikolić ◽  
Olivera Grljević ◽  
Aleksandar Kovačević
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Content Type ◽  
F Measure

Purpose Student recruitment and retention are important issues for all higher education institutions. Constant monitoring of student satisfaction levels is therefore crucial. Traditionally, students voice their opinions through official surveys organized by the universities. In addition to that, nowadays, social media and review websites such as “Rate my professors” are rich sources of opinions that should not be ignored. Automated mining of students’ opinions can be realized via aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA). ABSA s is a sub-discipline of natural language processing (NLP) that focusses on the identification of sentiments (negative, neutral, positive) and aspects (sentiment targets) in a sentence. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a system for ABSA of free text reviews expressed in student opinion surveys in the Serbian language. Sentiment analysis was carried out at the finest level of text granularity – the level of sentence segment (phrase and clause). Design/methodology/approach The presented system relies on NLP techniques, machine learning models, rules and dictionaries. The corpora collected and annotated for system development and evaluation comprise students’ reviews of teaching staff at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, and a corpus of publicly available reviews from the Serbian equivalent of the “Rate my professors” website. Findings The research results indicate that positive sentiment can successfully be identified with the F-measure of 0.83, while negative sentiment can be detected with the F-measure of 0.94. While the F-measure for the aspect’s range is between 0.49 and 0.89, depending on their frequency in the corpus. Furthermore, the authors have concluded that the quality of ABSA depends on the source of the reviews (official students’ surveys vs review websites). Practical implications The system for ABSA presented in this paper could improve the quality of service provided by the Serbian higher education institutions through a more effective search and summary of students’ opinions. For example, a particular educational institution could very easily find out which aspects of their service the students are not satisfied with and to which aspects of their service more attention should be directed. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of ABSA carried out at the level of sentence segment for the Serbian language. The methodology and findings presented in this paper provide a much-needed bases for further work on sentiment analysis for the Serbian language that is well under-resourced and under-researched in this area.

A qualitative study to improve the student learning experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raid A. Jastania ◽  
Gehan F. Balata ◽  
Mohamed I.S. Abd El-Hady ◽  
Ahmad Gouda ◽  
Mohamad Abd El-Wahab ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Pareto Analysis ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Net Promoter Score ◽  
Net Promoter ◽  
Additional Value ◽  
Students Satisfaction

Purpose For any educational institution, student satisfaction is an important goal. Thus, the purpose of the study is to use a structured improvement process, define–measure–analyse–improve–control (DMAIC) methodology, to improve students’ satisfaction regarding their learning experience at the College of Pharmacy/Umm Al-Qura University. Design/methodology/approach The study first defines the problem and develops the project charter. Then the study visualizes the students’ learning experience process that is defined using a flow chart and a value stream map. Students’ voices were captured through a modified version of a survey developed by Levitz (2015-2016) that covered different aspects of the students’ learning experience. Next, Pareto analysis and cause-and-effect diagrams were used to identify the few vital factors affecting students’ satisfaction. The net promoter score was chosen as a primary metric to measure students’ satisfaction regarding their learning experience. Findings The analysis results revealed that there were eight areas of dissatisfaction: poor catering services, improper physical environment, students’ feedback being overlooked, inappropriate measures for course delivery, absence of appropriate advice about future career, inefficient field experience and finally and poor academic support. Based on these results, an improvement plan was prepared and the first stage of the plan was implemented. The success of the plan was investigated by measuring the net promoter score which was increased by about 11.9 per cent after implementation of the first stage of the plan. Originality/value The study emphasizes that the DMAIC methodology can be applied successfully to improve students’ learning experience and to discover additional value for students.

scholarly journals Jamaican high school students satisfaction during the COVID-19 lockdown

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Golding ◽  
Camille Althea Jackson
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
School Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Students Satisfaction

Purpose Amid the worldwide lockdown and emergency transition to online classes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper aims to examine high school students’ satisfaction in this unique learning environment. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was first used to extract a set of important factors from a number of variables. A logistic regression was subsequently used to access student satisfaction levels during the COVID-19 lockdown. In addition, a small qualitative study was conducted to gain additional insight into student satisfaction ratings. Findings A study sample of 486 usable responses revealed that students were most satisfied with the responsiveness of teaching staff, which included the provision of assignments and feedback on performance. The study also revealed that students experienced a range of emotions; those who experienced positive emotions (joy, pride, hope) were more satisfied than those who experienced negative emotions (frustration, anxiety, boredom). Research limitations/implications Policymakers and educators in high schools could benefit from these findings when formulating policy recommendations to support the manning of operations during crisis situations and justify the introduction of future offerings of blended or online courses. Originality/value The study was conducted in a real and unprecedented crisis which created a unique environment to examine factors influencing Jamaican high school students’ satisfaction levels during the lockdown.

The effects of perceived quality differences between the traditional classroom and online distance learning on student satisfaction: evidence from COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Istijanto
Keyword(s):  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Perceived Quality ◽  
Traditional Classroom ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Distance Learning ◽  
Online Distance

Purpose This study aims to investigate the aspects of perceived quality differences that influence student satisfaction when the mode of learning is changed from the traditional classroom to online distance learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This study used an online survey for data collection by distributing online questionnaires to students at a private university in Indonesia. Convenience sampling was applied as the sample method. A total of 253 valid questionnaires were acquired, and all items were recorded on the seven-point comparative scale. Exploratory factor analysis was adopted to identify the dimensions of perceived quality. Then, multiple regression analysis was used to examine the impacts of these dimensions on student satisfaction. Findings Four dimensions of perceived quality differences were identified, namely, the perceived quality of the campus facilities, learning process, teaching staff and administrative staff. Regression analysis results proved that the perceived differences in the quality dimensions between the traditional classroom and online distance learning had positive and significant effects on student satisfaction. Research limitations/implications As a result of using a convenient sample, this study exhibited a limited sample and context. Therefore, the generalizability of these findings is limited. Future research can use a stratified sample with more diverse categories of respondents. Practical implications The findings of this study will help universities that plan to change the mode of learning from traditional classroom to online distance learning. Higher education institutions can gain a deep understanding of these perceived quality attributes that have significant impacts on student satisfaction. Originality/value To the author’s best knowledge, this study is the first to address the effect of changing modes of learning from traditional classroom to online distance learning because of the COVID-19 pandemic on student satisfaction in the Indonesian context.

scholarly journals Dimensions driving business student satisfaction in higher education

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazirah Yusoff ◽  
Fraser McLeay ◽  
Helen Woodruffe-Burton
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
Business Student ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Higher Educational

Purpose – This study aims to identify the dimensions of business student satisfaction in the Malaysian private higher educational environment and evaluate the influence that demographic factors have on satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 1,200 undergraduate business students at four private higher educational (PHE) institutions in Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the underlying dimensions that drive student satisfaction. ANOVA and t-tests were conducted to evaluate the influence that demographic factors have on the results. Findings – Factor analysis resulted in the adoption of a 12-factor solution from an original set of 53 satisfaction items. The results also indicated the influence of demographic factors on the level of business student satisfaction. Originality/value – This study identified 12 factors or the underlying dimensions that drive business student satisfaction in the Malaysian PHE. The 12 factors are: professional comfortable environment; student assessments and learning experiences; classroom environment; lecture and tutorial facilitating goods; textbook and tuition fees; student support facilities; business procedures; relationship with teaching staff; knowledgeable and responsive faculty; staff helpfulness; feedback; and class sizes. Understanding these factors could help educational institutions to better plan their strategies and inform academics interested in studying student satisfaction.

The Predictors of Cognitive Skills Development Among International Students

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 501-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Joy Curtis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Academic Achievement ◽  
International Students ◽  
International Education ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skills Development

For international students, seeking a tertiary education outside of their home countries has been a common practice for centuries. However, recent years have brought a significant influx in the number of international students entering the United States to procure a postsecondary education. In 2018–2019, Open Doors (Institute for International Education, 2019) reported an increase in the number of international students studying in the United States for the 14th consecutive year. Because maintaining this stream of international students is of utmost importance to university officials, they strive to meet the educational goals of this student population. Understanding factors that impact the academic achievement of international students is critical. The background characteristics, precollege characteristics, and college experiences of international students have been found to predict cognitive skills development, and cognitive skills development has been linked to optimal academic achievement and student satisfaction.

Service quality and student/customer satisfaction in the private tertiary education sector in Singapore

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 430-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susie Khoo ◽  
Huong Ha ◽  
Sue L.T. McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Service Quality ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Perceived Service Quality ◽  
Behavioural Intentions ◽  
Quality Literature ◽  
Academic Services

Purpose This paper focuses on students’ perceptions of the quality of non-academic services received in higher education. While the important role played by expectations and perceptions in students’ evaluations of such services has been discussed in much of the service quality literature, there is insufficient work in the private tertiary educational sector (PTES). Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between service quality, student satisfaction, and behavioural intentions in the PTES, using Singapore as a case study. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted quantitative research to address the research questions. Primary data were collected from 324 valid responses from a survey conducted in two private tertiary educational institutes (PTEIs) in Singapore. Findings The results suggested that perceived service quality is positively correlated to satisfaction; perceived service quality and satisfaction are positively correlated to favourable behavioural intentions; and the relationships among perceived service quality and loyalty and paying more for a service are mediated by satisfaction. Originality/value This study is significant as the results provide better insights for Singaporean administrators in PTEIs, which is an under-researched area. Generally, the results will have far-reaching implications for all stakeholders in the delivery and consumption of education services in PTEIs, within and beyond Singapore.

Benchmarking for the effective use of student evaluation data

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Smithson ◽  
Melanie Birks ◽  
Glenn Harrison ◽  
Chenicheri Sid Nair ◽  
Marnie Hitchins
Keyword(s):  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
Student Evaluation ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Tertiary Sector ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
Evaluation Data ◽  
Content Type

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine current approaches to interpretation of student evaluation data and present an innovative approach to developing benchmark targets for the effective and efficient use of these data. Design/methodology/approach – This article discusses traditional approaches to gathering and using student feedback across the tertiary sector. The limitations of the customary use of the statistical mean as a quality measure of performance are presented and examined. An alternative method of interpreting student evaluation data is proposed and examples given. Findings – The traditional use of the statistical mean to interpret student evaluation data has limitations. Focusing on data at the macro level provides subject teaching staff and managers with a clearer indication of student satisfaction. The use of a percentage satisfied and percentage dissatisfied metric to classify and rank subjects is presented as an efficient alternative to the traditional approach, while recognising the value of the statistical mean to interpret data at the micro level. Originality/value – In light of the important role student feedback plays in determining university ranking, prioritising staff development and its potential function as an academic performance indicator, the effective interpretation of student evaluation data is critical. As economic factors become increasingly important to higher education providers, the role of evaluation data obtained from students will continue to gain traction. The identification of methods to fully capitalise on the value of these data, such as the one proposed in this article, is therefore crucial.

Achieving confidence in competencies through authentic assessment

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 652-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianne Thurab-Nkhosi ◽  
Gwendoline Williams ◽  
Maria Mason-Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Graduate Programs ◽  
Authentic Assessment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Capstone Courses ◽  
Student Assessments ◽  
Authentic Assessments ◽  
Professional Business ◽  
Competency Based

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which student assessments used in two capstone courses in a Master’s in Human Resource Management (HRM) Program were authentic, and encouraged confidence in competencies identified. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was taken to evaluate the perception of lecturers, clients and students regarding authenticity of assessments and the competencies achieved. The authors used a five-dimensional framework for authentic assessment developed by Gulikers et al. (2004) as a basis for an online survey of the students and focus group, reflection of the client and for self-reporting their reflections. Findings It was found that the assessments in the two courses were aligned with the five criteria of the framework for defining authentic assessments developed by Gulikers et al. (2004), however, there were challenges noted by the students and clients. Students reported attaining some of the competencies identified in the HRM graduate competency profile but needing reinforcement for more confidence. While the students felt that they benefitted, one major challenge of the authentic assessments was the heavy workload. Practical implications Graduate programs in HRM may be producing students without the relevant competencies and the confidence to perform, partly because approaches to teaching and learning and in particular design of assessments may not be sufficiently practical. The findings of this study can provide support for more authentic assessments in professional business education programs. Originality/value Few cases studies exist on application of authentic assessments to mastery of competencies in developing countries. This contributes to the discussion on competency-based education and authentic learning, with particular reference to developing country contexts.

Emergency remote teaching: an explorative tool

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
Emma Zavarrone ◽  
Maria Gabriella Grassia ◽  
Rocco Mazza ◽  
Alessia Forciniti
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Bologna Process ◽  
Teaching Quality ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Learning Assessment

The worldwide rapid spread and severity of the infectious disease caused by Coronavirus forced the WHO to declare a global state of pandemic emergency during March 2020, by leading the governments around the world to adopt policies that created the widest rift of education systems in human history. Italy have temporarily closed each educational institution, by causing the disruption of tertiary education for 16.89% of the Italian learner’s population. To ensure the “pedagogic continuity”, universities adopted the transitioning from traditional face-to-face to online learning. This paradigm shift to fully remote teaching solutions represents the so-called emergency remote teaching (ERT) in contrast to the traditional teaching inspired by Bologna process principles such as teaching quality and student satisfaction. In a landscape of emerging difficulties connected to ERT contexts, the quality assurance of higher education recalled by the Bologna Process may be not appropriate. We propose an evaluation model for the quality and ERT success across two dimensions used as proxy variables: students’ engagement (SE) and success performance (SP). Within the faculties, we analysed the performance and hence the knowledge, skills and/or attitudes acquired by learners, within the students, the focus was the engagement as interest, motivation and involvement. Under this perspective our research question has an explorative nature: we are interested in detecting empirical evidence about the learning assessment and engagement in higher education with focus on students’ engagement and their success performance during ERT. The investigation carried out on Iulm University’s student population (N=775). We integrated textual data related to the students evaluation of ERT and their career data such as credits, marks before and post disease. The results show the relations between the two dimensions taken into account, with a multidimensional approach we created a factorial plan useful to create an agile tool of analysis in the ERT context.

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