scholarly journals Using Generic Templates to Promote the Use of High Quality Learning Designs in Higher Education

Author(s):  
Leanne Cameron

Designing for learning in the higher education sector is a complex task, especially in light of the increasing diversity of the student body. With research pointing to an inverse relationship between student engagement and attrition rates, lecturers need to be mindful of a wide range of student ability levels, socio-economic backgrounds, learning styles, and specific curriculum requirements when designing for their students’ learning. Learning design is a professional activity for which many of our academic staff are not trained. There are examples of learning designs which apply the most recent research into learning but a number of studies have shown that they are not widely utilised in all universities. This current study took a mixed methods approach to explore whether generic templates (a learning design pattern to which subject content can be added) could be used to share well-researched, high quality learning designs across a range of disciplines. The results revealed that generic learning design templates can provide a means for lecturers to access a broad range of learning designs but there are barriers to sharing these in the higher educational sector. At a time when providing students with a quality learning environment is considered highly desirable, it might be time these barriers were reviewed. By using generic templates, lecturers might be encouraged to explore new learning designs and reflect on how their existing teaching approaches affect their students’ learning.

Author(s):  
Barry Harper ◽  
Ron Oliver

This chapter describes the development of a taxonomy of learning designs based on a survey of 52 innovative ICT-using projects that formed the basis of a grounded approach to classifying high quality learning designs. The concept of learning designs has the potential to support academics in the process of offering high quality ICT supported learning settings in the higher education sector. The taxonomy is proposed as a mechanism to explore ways in which learning designs can be made accessible to academics and to help with the understanding of the goals of the learning design movement. The development of the taxonomy is described, and user review of the representation of learning designs in a Web context is discussed. Finally, the current gap in the literature about accurate and effective taxonomies describing and distinguishing between various forms of learning design is discussed in relation to future research agendas.


2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-58
Author(s):  
Aina Strode

Students' Independent Professional Activity in Pedagogical PracticeThe topicality of the research is determined by the need for changes in higher education concerned with implementing the principles of sustainable education. The article focuses on teacher training, highlighting the teacher's profession as an attractive choice of one's career that permits to ensure the development of general and professional skills and an opportunity for new specialists to align with the labour market. The empirical study of students' understanding of their professional activity and of the conditions for its formation is conducted by applying structured interviews (of practice supervisors, students, academic staff); students and experts' questionnaire. Comparative analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and triangulation were used in case studies. As a result, a framework of pedagogical practice organisation has been created in order to form students' independent professional activity. The criteria and indicators of independent professional activity have been formulated and suggestions for designers of study programmes and organisers of the study process have been provided.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49
Author(s):  
A. V. Melikyan

The article presents the results of a study based on statistical methods for analyzing trends in the Russian higher education system over the five-year period preceding the global crisis provoked by the coronavirus pandemic COVID-19. This study is one of the first attempts at a large-scale analysis of the growth rates of the performance indicators of universities in recent years. Its results, according to the author, make it possible to form both a general picture of changes in Russian higher education and a detailed picture for individual groups of universities.The author has analyzed the dynamics of six indicators of the activity of organizations of higher professional education (535 universities from 80 constituent entities of the Russian Federation): the passing score of the Unified State Examination (USE), the qualifications of academic staff, their publication activity, the internationalization of the student body, the profitability of activities and the provision of educational and laboratory premises. Trends in the change in the values of these indicators are revealed depending on the form of ownership, specialization and status of the university.It was found that, in general, the average values of the indicators for five years increased: the passing score of the USE - by 5%; the share of the teaching staff with an academic degree in the total number of teaching staff - by 5%; the number of publications per one scientific and pedagogical worker (SPW) - 2.2 times; the share of foreign students in the total number of students - 1.5 times; profitability of activities - 1.3 times; the total area of educational and laboratory premises - by 8%.At the same time, in non-state universities, the USE passing score has decreased, and they lag behind state universities in terms of growth in the publication activity of the teaching staff and the internationalization of the student body. However, their results are higher in terms of the growth of profitability of activities and provision of educational and laboratory premises.Specialized universities have achieved an increase in the indicators of the publication activity of academic staff and the internationalization of the student body. Among the negative trends, a decrease in the passing score of the USE in medical universities, as well as in the equipment of teaching and laboratory facilities of medical and sports universities, was revealed.The highest growth in the publication activity of SPW was observed in national research universities (24.5%), and in the internationalization of the student body - in federal universities (33.3%).Changes in the operating conditions of universities during a pandemic are likely to have an ambiguous effect on the analyzed indicators in subsequent periods. For their adequate assessment, it may be necessary to adjust the methodology for calculating indicators of the activity of higher education institutions, taking into account their intensive use of distance learning technologies.


Author(s):  
Deanna Meth ◽  
Holly R. Russell ◽  
Rachel Fitzgerald ◽  
Henk Huijser

This chapter outlines the multiple ways in which Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) activities might be activated and/or realized through the processes of curriculum and learning design of a degree program. Key dual enablers for these activities are an underpinning curriculum framework, bringing a series of defined developmental steps each underpinned by SoTL, and the Curriculum Design Studio construct as a vehicle for collaborative ways of working between staff, including academics and curriculum designers and students. Drawing on evidence from the practices of four curriculum designers, examples are presented across a wide range of disciplinary areas. In many instances, SoTL not only brings an evidence base to the work, but also the potential for research outputs, thus becoming a useful lever for academic staff to engage in ongoing curriculum design discussions and evidence-informed practice. Such activities serve to mitigate against acknowledged challenges faced by academics such as lack of adequate time for such activities and the pressure to produce research outputs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 9023-9029

A key role in improving the quality of higher education belongs to the executive staff, teaching employees, and academic staff as direct performers. The purpose of the article is to analyze the possibilities of advanced training of university academic staff using innovative educational technologies based on information and communication technologies (ICT). The article notes the relevance of the search for new approaches to the organization of the professional development of the higher education system employees, as well as analyzes the experience of European countries in the professional development of university academic staff. The authors specify the requirements for the meaningful components of methodical system of training at the university, the prospects of ICT use in professional activity of academic and administrative employees of the university, training areas of university staff of different professional orientation, as well as highlight innovation areas of professional development of the academic staff in Russian universities.


Author(s):  
Olha Kravchenko

The most important characteristic feature of the current stage of development of higher education in Ukraine is integration processes that reflect, on the one hand, substantive and structural changes within the education system, and on the other hand, the processes of interaction between education and the production sphere. The priorities of state policy and the concept of innovative development in the field of education indicate the necessity to form a wide range of mechanisms for cooperation between business and educational institutions. In the educational standard of higher education in specialty it is noted that the future specialist must be ready for the following activities: production and technological activities, project activities, research activities, organizational and management activities. Specific types of professional activity, for which a specialist is mainly prepared, are determined by higher educational institutions in cooperation with students, teachers, and employers' associations. With such an essential range of requirements for future specialists, there is a need for qualitative changes in the content and organization of training. In modern social and economic conditions, the activities of higher education institutions that train specialists for the food industry are associated with solving a number of problems: the imperfection of the mechanisms of social partnership between educational institutions and employers; insufficient practical orientation in the training of qualified personnel for a particular enterprise; inconsistency of the educational and resource base of educational institutions. As a result of the search for effective forms of organizing of the educational process for solving the tasks set before education, the introduction of elements of dual education in the educational process seems to be expedient, promising, and of current interest


Author(s):  
Serena Alvino ◽  
Guglielmo Trentin

Networked Collaborative Learning (NCL) is undeniably a double-edged sword. On the one hand it can yield high-quality learning and enhance both teachers’ and learners’ satisfaction. On the other hand, however, it requires careful planning and specific skills for the design and management of online learning activities. This is one of the main reasons for the limited adoption of NCL in a number of educational contexts. The focus of this chapter is a specific proposal aimed to foster the wide diffusion of Educational Technology (ET) and NCL in higher education (HE). In this perspective the chapter analyses the main barriers that limit the diffusion of Network-Based Educational Technology (NBET) approaches, in particular NCL, and then, in order to overcome them, presents an innovative approach to faculty training in Educational Technology Instructional Design. This approach is founded on multidimensional scaffolding, which supports teachers to integrate rules, heuristics, and best practices for design of active and collaborative online learning into their everyday activity.


Author(s):  
Ulf-Daniel Ehlers

Quality has become a major factor for concern if e-learning should have its final breakthrough (Danish Evaluation Institute, 2003; Dondi & Moretti, 2004; Friend-Pereira, Lutz & Heerens, 2002; Frydenberg, 2002). This is the reason for the great variety of concepts and suggestions. One can regard quality more and more as a subjectively individual and collectively influential category. How should learning opportunities look like and learning environments be structured, now and in the future? How do we meet the demand for building high quality learning capacities in higher education— as an important contribution to transform our societies into learning societies?


Author(s):  
Anne E. Lundquist ◽  
Gavin Henning

The demographics of U.S. colleges and universities continue to evolve and higher education is being called to reinvent itself in order to ensure that all students have high quality learning experiences. An equity-minded approach to assessment helps determine the effectiveness of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and programs as well as embodies practices and procedures that themselves are socially just. This text share many research-based practices that value, prioritize, and develop diversity, intercultural fluency, and equity in campus specific settings. This chapter describes the higher education and cultural context in which the equitable assessment conversation is taking place; reviews how research paradigms, methods, and culture impact assessment decisions and methods; describes a socially just assessment continuum; and offers tips for implementing equity-minded assessment.


2014 ◽  
pp. 1301-1318
Author(s):  
Alan Hurst

Despite the progress made in the development of policy and provision for disabled students in Higher Education since the issue first received attention in the UK in 1974, there is still some way to go before a state of genuine inclusion is reached. The key to further improvement and enhancement of quality is seen to lie in training for staff. After presenting evidence showing the need for more and better training, a number of issues relating to initial training and continuing professional development are discussed. A number of sample tasks for inclusion in staff development sessions are described.


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