scholarly journals Kaizen Events at the University of St. Thomas: Experiential Learning for Students

Author(s):  
Janine Sanders Jones ◽  
John R. Olson ◽  
Peter Southard

This paper describes how the Operations and Supply Chain Management Department at the University of St. Thomas uses kaizen events as a vehicle to integrate undergraduate and professional programs with local area organizations. A unique business collaboration was created where the faculty members led an actual lean kaizen event at a local organization. Project team members included lead and support faculty, undergraduate students, professional certification students, and company representatives. In a one-week intensive experience, teams addressed real issues at a local organization and implemented changes that had positive impacts on the student learning experience and the bottom lines of the participating organizations. This paper discusses how to conduct a kaizen event student project as well as challenges and benefits related to this approach.

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-400
Author(s):  
P. K. Rangachari

Twenty-eight undergraduate students in a health sciences program volunteered for an exercise in the history of examinations. They had completed a second-year course in anatomy and physiology in which they studied modern texts and took standard contemporary exams. For this historical “experiment,” students studied selected chapters from two 19th century physiology texts (by Foster M. A Textbook of Physiology, 1895; and Broussais FJV. A Treatise on Physiology Applied to Pathology, 1828). They then took a 1-h-long exam in which they answered two essay-type questions set by Thomas Henry Huxley for second-year medical students at the University of London in 1853 and 1857. These were selected from a question bank provided by Dr. P. Mazumdar (University of Toronto). A questionnaire probed their contrasting experiences. Many wrote thoughtful, reflective comments on the exercise, which not only gave them an insight into the difficulties faced by students in the past, but also proved to be a valuable learning experience (average score: 8.6 ± 1.6 SD).


Author(s):  
Veronica Sanchez-Romaguera ◽  
Robert A Phillips

Drawing from several years of experience, this work describes lessons learnt in designing, delivering and assessing two interdisciplinary enterprise units offered undergraduate students from any discipline studing at the University of Manchester (UK). Both units are electives (optional). One unit is delivered to first year undergrdaute students whereas the other unit is delivered to third/fourth year undergraduate students. Experiential learning and interdisciplinary cohorts are core aspects of both units. Students work on ‘real-world’ projects to develop a credible and competitive solution within a tight dead-line. In this paper, findings are drawn from data collected from staff and teaching assistants observations, students’ reflective diaries and students’ feedback. Findings showed that in general, students at both levels, year 1 and year 3/4, regarded the experience challenging at first due to the ‘unusual’ learning environment when compared to the education that most students have experienced prior to the units here discussed. However, most students highly regarded the interdisciplinary experiential learning experience. The paper contributes to the growth of knowledge and aids understanding of how experiential learning and interdisciplinarity have been effectively combined and introduced in the university curriculum. Although this works focused on enterprise education the experience-based guidance here described is also applicable to a much wider range of situations and academic areas of study. Keywords: Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education; Employability; Experiential learning; Interdisciplinary education;


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Mazni Saad ◽  
Rosita Husain ◽  
Wan Nurul Fatimah Wan Mohamad Nawi ◽  
Nafiza Mahyuddin

This study investigates the expected learning experience that determines their desire to further their studies at the same university. A cross sectional analysis was done on 190 undergraduate students in a public higher learning institution. Their opinions were sought regarding the present quality of services offered by the university. The students were very concerned about the quality of teaching, their lecturers and the facilities on offer, and more so the course fees structure, technology, and support systems. There is a need to look again at some of the major complaints addressed, which could guarantee the return of these students to its doorstep.Keywords: Satisfaction; learning experience; quality services; private university; Malaysia.ISSN: 2398-4287© 2017. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loleen Berdahl

Although student involvement in research and inquiry can advance undergraduate learning, there are limited opportunities for undergraduate students to be directly involved in social science research.  Social science faculty typically work outside of laboratory settings, with the limited research assistance work being completed by graduate students.  The challenge, therefore, is to find ways to involve undergraduate social science students in research projects that relate to their field of study and that allow them to develop career-relevant skills. The Taking the Pulse of Saskatchewan project presents a unique model for undergraduate student involvement in social science research.  The project involved over 30 faculty members from across the University of Saskatchewan’s Division of Social Sciences and over 40 undergraduate students.  Students were directly involved in data collection, data analysis, report writing and media communications. Through their involvement, students developed and applied research, inquiry and communications skills.  Drawing on academic literature regarding undergraduate involvement in research, this paper will present an overview of the Taking the Pulse project, and reflect on the lessons of the project.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 217
Author(s):  
Jabulani Nyawo

Enhancing students’ learning experience through support structures such as tutorial sessions is essential.  Students attending the tutorial sessions within the Discipline of Public Governance have never been given the opportunity to provide feedback on the sessions they have attended. They only get a chance to evaluate their lecturers using closed and open-ended questions to capture their learning experiences about modules’ structure, content, delivery and assessments. This implied a need to explore the students’ perceptions about the tutorial sessions during the normal conditions and under severe conditions like this of COVID-19. The quantitative approach was utilised and the data was collected through the distribution of questionnaires to the undergraduate students. The participants attended tutorials within the Discipline of Public Governance during the first semester of the year 2020. The study findings indicated that tutorial sessions occupy a critical role in students' development and learning. It is the platform for the students to easily interact with other students, discuss issues, and improve their performance. The study recommends that higher education institutions invest in the tutorial structure as one of the student support systems as it produces positive results in enhancing student learning. Redefining and reviewing the tutorial support structure is always crucial to improve the tutorial sessions' quality. 


Author(s):  
William W. Melek ◽  
Gordon D. Stubley

This paper presents the main findings of recent experience in teaching open-ended design workshops for 3rd year undergraduate students at the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering of the University of Waterloo. The paper offers several observations gathered from teaching this course two consecutive years with different classroom lecture format and project(s) scope/expectations. Based on a comparative study between the two offerings, we identify several strategies that contributed to a more enhanced learning experience during the modified course offering. Keywords: open-ended design, evaluation criteria, design workshop


The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia facing the Covid-19 pandemic, as it is trying with all its efforts to pursue higher education in its universities and schools through distance learning. The current research tried to investigate Taif University experience in distance learning and the effectiveness of BlackBoard in pursuing education in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic from the viewpoints of teachers and students. To achieve this goal, the descriptive survey approach was used. Two questionnaires were designed A random sample was chosen from all colleges of the University The sample consisted of (240) faculty members and 804 students. The results showed great effectiveness of BlackBoard in pursuing education from the viewpoints of faculty members, and to a very great degree from the students' point of view. No impact of the two variables (gender, rank) appeared in the viewpoints of faculty members in that effectiveness. male students’ viewpoints were higher than those of females, and the viewpoints of master's students were higher than those of undergraduate students on this effectiveness.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Anne Sen ◽  
Pamela McKinney

Reflective writing is a key professional skill, and the University of Sheffield Information School seeks to develop this skill in our students through the use of reflective assessments. Reflection has been used as a means of supporting Information Literacy development in the Higher Education context and recent pedagogical IL frameworks highlight the important role of reflection. This paper presents an analysis of Undergraduate students’ reflective writing on one module. The writing is mapped against two models of reflection to understand the nature and depth of the students’ reflection and through this understand their Information literacy development, with the overall aim of improving the teaching and learning experience for the future. Key findings are that students did reflect deeply and identified a number of ways in which they felt their IL had developed (e.g. developing a knowledge of specialist sources), ways they could have improved their information literacy practices (e.g. through storing information in a more organised fashion), and ways that we could improve our teaching (e.g. by providing appropriate scaffolding for the activities).


2020 ◽  
Vol 202 ◽  
pp. 15018
Author(s):  
Heriyanto ◽  
Yanuar Yoga Prasetyawan ◽  
Ika Krismayani

Information comes in different forms, and it influences people’s preference in finding and using information. The covid 19 pandemic which has been experienced by Indonesian undergraduate students may have provide new ways on how they looking and using information related to their study. This qualitative study explores the distance learning experience of undergraduate students in one of the University in Semarang during their study from home. It aims to identify how these students have developed their remote study as well as their strategies on searching and using information. A qualitative method was employed by applying semi-structured interviews for collecting data. The data then analyzed by using Thematic Analysis to uncover the pattern of the distance experience of the students. The preliminary findings show that most of the participants have some issues on using optimizing the learning systems, however they finally able to build their own strategies to cope with this new situation. Electronic resources becomes their main information resources because accessing the physical library building is no longer an option. These preliminary findings benefit not only for the next process of the research but also to inform university library about the way undergraduate students experience information resources so that it can be used for the library for developing their information services to students.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Tanya Sharma ◽  
Rini Lukose ◽  
Jessica E. Shiers-Hanley ◽  
Sanja Hinic-Frlog ◽  
Simone Laughton

This case study highlights the work of Students as Partners (SaP) as a balanced approach for implementing and evaluating an online open-access textbook in introductory animal physiology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Started in 2017 with an eCampus Ontario grant, the project involved undergraduate and graduate students developing and improving an open-access e-textbook to support student learning in a second-year undergraduate introductory animal physiology course. This case study focuses on the 2019–2020 academic term and the work of two undergraduate students working alongside faculty and two librarians. As part of their research, the partners consulted the literature and gathered feedback from students taking the course in which the open e-textbook was used. Student partners added updates and new interactive features to create a more engaging educational resource to support student learning. The partners also reflected on their role in the open educational resource development process.  


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