Industry requirements, thesis-writing and the emergence of flexible educational programmes: Reflections on the university learner experience

2021 ◽  
pp. 095042222110329
Author(s):  
Ingrid Hunt ◽  
Alan Ryan ◽  
Mícheál Ó hAodha ◽  
Morteza Rezaei-Zadeh

The transformation of new paradigms for online learning delivery has evolved rapidly over the past few years. For postgraduate programmes, the thesis module is regularly the capstone and significant in terms of academic credits. In reality, this module can be just an ‘add on’ set of resources with no dedicated online learning space. Industry students undertaking postgraduate programmes online traditionally feel overwhelmed while embarking on a thesis. Notably, too, they face the challenge of not being on campus and having the same learning opportunities as their on-campus counterparts. This paper highlights the importance of supporting and assisting online industry learners in participating fully with their thesis. The authors identify the challenges that face these learners at postgraduate level, recognising that a new way to help and prepare them to carry out and write a good thesis is essential. By focusing on a dedicated online module for ‘all things thesis’, the paper presents the positive experiences learners can have when participating in this module. The findings emphasise the need for educational providers to offer as part of their programmes a high-quality thesis module designed to support the postgraduate online industry learner.

Author(s):  
Chee Leong Lim ◽  
Siew Fun Tang

With the implementation of various innovations and transformative learning and teaching practices, Taylor's University continues to serve as the torchbearer in the sphere of private tertiary education in Malaysia. Since 2012, Taylor's University has embarked on an ambitious journey to re-define student learning for better academic outcomes. The effective use of LMS (Learning Management System) or better known as TIMeS (Taylor's Integrated Moodle e-learning System) @ Taylor's University has yielded highly engaging learning opportunities for students to learn at anytime and anywhere. It is Taylor's University's aim to be in the cutting edge of technology and to implement the finest learning design for its students as the university realizes that learning space plays an important role in producing work-ready graduates.


Open Praxis ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 427
Author(s):  
Janet Small ◽  
Andrew Deacon ◽  
Sukaina Walji ◽  
Tasneem Jaffer ◽  
Jeff Jawitz

Our research explores the experience of adults looking for flexible online learning opportunities that intersect with university study. We interviewed 58 people living in 14 African countries who have taken a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) developed by the University of Cape Town. The interview data reveals diverse uses of MOOCs in workplace contexts. While only two of those we interviewed articulated a goal of making a career change, there were many more taking a MOOC for some form of self-development within their current profession. There were also cases where people had not yet identified a new career, but believed the knowledge and skills would support future transitions. Our intentions for exploring the expectations of MOOC takers regionally is to improve our understanding of how universities, following open practices, could support the educational aspirations of this audience through the provision of flexible online learning opportunities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-193
Author(s):  
Dmytrash O ◽  

The article presents an overview and analysis of the state of research in the field of design and exploitation of modern educational spaces in universities around the world, namely areas with flexible planning, called informal learning space. According to the research conducted, the general characteristic and classification were developed and the basic principles of designing this space were revealed. The study identified several problems that arise during its exploitation, which should be taken into account in the designing process. There is described the experience of educational design of interuniversity cultural centres with the application of the developed theoretical bases of designing of informal educational space.


Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 2665-2673
Author(s):  
Parmanand Tripathi

Every teacher must realize that he/she needs to be highly motivated, committed, passionate, and optimistic towards his/her students as well as his/her teaching in order to create a positive and productive impact on the students and their learning outcomes. It is a proven fact that teachers who are sincere, caring, approachable, supportive and inspiring can easily enable their students to become enthusiastic, successful and creative learners. John Hattie, a proponent of Evidence Based Quantitative Research Methodologies on the Influences on Student achievement, who is also a Professor of Education and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, has noted in his study that a harmonious classroom can assist with the development of creativity as well as reduce anxiety levels amongst students. In my opinion, the primary objective of all effective and conscious teachers should be to promote a safe and healthy learning environment wherein students will feel confident, comfortable, happy and accepted. Time and again, I am convinced of the fact that only effective and conscious teachers understand, acknowledge and therefore, appreciate the significance of creating a rapport and bonding with their students for providing an education that is positive, productive and progressive. When teachers display a positive and congenial attitude towards their students, they not only make them ‘learn better, faster and deeper’ but make them self-confident and self-reliant too. Building positive, supportive, cooperative and mutually strong teacher-student relationships is the key to create a welcoming, healthy and conducive learning space in which students are enabled to thrive, prosper and go on to become what they are meant to be in life. And it is only by forging and nurturing a strong and positive relationship with their students, can teachers create a healthy and conducive learning atmosphere wherein students feel welcome, accepted, respected, loved and cared for, wherein learning becomes fun and joy. Conscious and committed teachers promote the art of positive parenting in every classroom and in every school to enable the students to become confident learners by willingly and happily shouldering the responsibility of being their ‘second parents’.When teachers teach with passion, display positive attitude towards their students and their success, and show genuine care for them, the students reciprocate with respect for their teachers, interest and love for their learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (169) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
Christy M. Rhodes ◽  
Steven W. Schmidt

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e001385
Author(s):  
Ali Elbeddini ◽  
Yasamin Tayefehchamani

ObjectiveTo design, implement and assess an online learning module for third-year and fourth-year medical students addressing medication safety.DesignThis study was a prospective, parallel, open-label, randomised controlled trial with two arms: (1) a control arm in which students were given five articles to read about medication safety, and (2) an intervention arm in which students were given access to an interactive web-based learning module on medication safety. Pretesting and post-testing were done online to evaluate change in medication safety knowledge.ResultsTen students completed the study in the intervention group (online module) and six students completed the study in the control group. The increase in score obtained on the post-test, relative to the pretest, was 15.4% in the group who completed the online module and 2.0% in the control group (difference=13.4%, 95% CI 0.5% to 26.2%, p=0.04).ConclusionStudents who completed an online educational tool about medication safety demonstrated a significantly greater increase in knowledge than those who completed a few readings. Online learning modules can be a convenient and effective means of teaching safe prescribing concepts to medical trainees.


2016 ◽  
pp. 136-151
Author(s):  
Sahar Alzahrani ◽  
Vicky Wright

This paper reports on the design and management of an online self-access language learning (SALL) space that was used with a group of Saudi medical students to complement classroom-based learning. The aim was to increase the opportunities for communication and language practice and, more specifically, to help develop the learners’ language learning autonomy (Little, 1999). In a pre-study, a questionnaire and a focus group were used to collect information about the students’ needs and interests in language learning. The design of this space was informed by the students’ feedback on their language learning needs and styles as recommended by Breen (1986) and Marsh (2012). Desire2Learn, a widely used virtual learning environment, was used to provide learners with an online self-access center because of the many features it has which would help learners to take control of their learning. The learning resources and online tools included instant messaging (IM), a news stream, access to a facilitator and other learning support, moderated discussions, videos, images, activities and quizzes, as well as links to external materials and to free self-access language learning resources. A description will be provided of how the materials, the tools, and the facilities were integrated within this space along with the justification for each of the elements. A look ahead to how this study could be extended for use with all learners enrolled in the medical scheme of the university will be discussed at the end of the paper.


Author(s):  
Natalya Ivankova ◽  
Oleksii Ryzhov ◽  
Oleksii Androsov

The algorithm of formation of a personal learning environment (PLE) and learning group environment for the organization of electronic distance learning in medical higher education institutions is offered. It was noted that the introduction of the COVID-19 quarantine raised the issue of reorganization of the learning space and accelerated the process of introducing the distance learning model. The experience gained by the authors during quarantine made it possible to form the stages of deploying the learning environment in the medical higher education institution and to define the educational space of the group as the main element of this environment. The main technological steps of creating subsystems of the educational space of the university for using cloud services MSO365 were considered using the example of Zaporizhzhia State Medical University. The conditions that allow creating a hierarchy of the learning environment were defined, namely: a project of the structure of the learning environment with the coordination of departments; registration of all participants of the learning process and creation of their accounts in Active Directory of the university; automated procedure of transferring group members to AD MSO365. The paper provides an example of a hierarchy of names, which is a reflection of the structure of university departments in terms of staffing and determines the rights of access to the usage of services that ensure the implementation of the corresponding functions. The authors found that the user account is the first integrating service that allows the user to form a personal learning environment using OneDrive, web-site MS SharePoint, MS Forms and other office applications. It was noted that the user account is the lowest level of the hierarchy of the learning environment, the usage of which provides a learning space for groups. According to the authors, it is reasonable to use MS Groups to form academic groups. Using MS Teams, a teacher gets a flexible tool to form a learning environment for various organizational forms, namely: lectures, seminars, practical classes, independent work, etc. The authors proposed rules for forming group names in MS Groups and MS Teams. They presented an algorithm for deploying the department's learning environment and proposed a suggestion of structuring the subject's learning environment using MS Teams channels for a small number of groups in the department.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 499-510
Author(s):  
Hermanto Hermanto ◽  
Ni Gusti Made Rai ◽  
Arfan Fahmi

The implementation of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic may affect students’ learning attitude and motivation to some extent. This paper aims to describe the university students’ opinions about learning attitude and motivation while studying from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. A non-experimental research design was used with an exploratory quantitative method. A total of 238 respondents participated in the online survey from April 22 to 29, 2020. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the collected data by using SPSS 23. The results showed that 52.5% (n = 125) of the respondent did not enjoy studying from home and 91.5% (n = 218) did not gain as much knowledge as in the traditional mode, although they still had a higher motivation to learn and had a better relationship with their family members. Interesting materials and enjoyable teaching methodology and interaction are therefore suggested.    Keywords: Covid-19; studying from home; online learning attitude; learning motivation


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