scholarly journals Enrollment, Engagement and Satisfaction in the BlendKit Faculty Development Open, Online Course

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patsy Moskal ◽  
Kelvin Thompson ◽  
Linda Futch

BlendKit is a 5-week course designed by the University of Central Florida in an open, online format specifically for the professional development of higher education faculty and designers preparing to design and teach blended learning courses. The evaluation of this course provides us with interesting and valuable information on the success of using an open approach of a MOOC compared to more traditional, highly structured professional development offerings typically seen in higher education. This article will focus on the lessons learned from the third iteration of this open, online course.

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leanne Bilodeau ◽  
Jackie Podger ◽  
Alaa Abd-El-Aziz

Purpose – Universities can provide a leadership role to develop and mobilize knowledge to meet societal needs. In fulfilling this mission, universities can also serve as agents of sustainable development on campus and in communities they serve. The purpose of this article is to describe the drivers that have advanced the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus' operational and academic sustainability objectives; the initiatives and partnerships developed on campus and in the community in response to these drivers; and the outcomes and lessons learned. Design/methodology/approach – This article summarizes the experience of the University of British Columbia Okanagan campus in leveraging key drivers to develop sustainability initiatives and partnerships for greater operational efficiencies, cost savings, environmental stewardship and applied research. The university's leadership commitment to sustainability, economic opportunities and provincial legislative requirements are among the drivers discussed. This paper also provides an innovative partnership framework to support sustainable community development. Findings – Drivers of sustainability in higher education can contribute to the development of sustainability initiatives and partnerships that benefit institutions and communities and achieve operational and academic sustainability mandates. Practical implications – This article provides information that can be applied by institutions of higher education to advance sustainability within the context of current economic conditions and societal needs. Originality/value – The experience of the campus and the partnership framework presented in this paper is original. The framework provides a mechanism to engage students, faculty and the community in sustainable community development research. Key insights from multiple perspectives and lessons learned are shared.


2018 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Association Of College & Research Libraries

Penny Beile is associate director for research, education, and engagement at the University of Central Florida, a position she has held since 2013. Prior to this, Beile served as head of the Curriculum Materials Center and interim head of reference services at the University of Central Florida (1998–2013), as head of education resources and social sciences reference librarian at Louisiana State University (1994–98), and as social sciences reference librarian at Miami (OH) University (1992–94).Karen Munro is associate dean of libraries, learning, and research services at Simon Fraser University, a position she has held since 2017. Prior to this, Munro served as head of the Portland Library and Learning Commons at the University of Oregon (2008–17), as e-learning librarian at the University of California-Berkeley (2005–08), and as literature librarian at the University of Oregon (2002–05).


2021 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 01004
Author(s):  
Tatiana Tregubova

In the context of socio-pedagogical transformations of higher education organizations, the modernization of the system of teachers’ professional development becomes an integral component of the reforms. Today university teachers have to be ready for continuous development and advanced training throughout their lives. Thus, the study of the problem of university teachers’ professional development in Russia and abroad is very relevant and timely as a response to the modern requirements of civil society for the personality of the teacher. The need for professional development among university teachers is closely related to his (her) desire for more successful indicators in teaching activities. To do this, it is necessary to fulfill several pedagogical conditions, including the teacher's own awareness of the need for professional development; the interest of the university administration and the availability of resources to organize an effective professional development system, etc. The purpose of the article is to show some successful practices of the teachers’ professional development in Russian, Chinese and European universities which the author observed while visiting those universities within the realization the project “Enhancing teaching practice in the universities of Russia and China”. The article presents the possibilities of benchmarking in higher education, in particular, the use of the benchmarking technology as a method of studying the effective practices of organizing the teachers’ professional development in a modern university.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 697-714 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wim Lambrechts ◽  
Elli Verhulst ◽  
Sara Rymenams

Purpose This paper aims to provide insights into the relation between professional development (PD) and organisational change processes towards sustainability, with a specific focus on empowerment. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds upon a constructivist approach, combining a literature review, a desk research on key publications and reports and a socio-political analysis to reveal the specific context in Flanders, Belgium. Findings are then connected to earlier insights from research on organisational change for sustainability. Findings The paper provides a number of PD initiatives that focus on sustainability in general and in a single higher education (HE) institution. Framing such initiatives as an organisational change process offers insights on how elements of empowerment are currently incorporated in PD initiatives and how it can strengthen them to lead to the further integration of sustainability competences in HE. Research limitations/implications Limitations are linked with the kind of sources used in the constructivist approach. The analysis only looks at written reports on the topic, albeit it also builds upon the first-hand experiences of educators in the HE institution focused upon in the case. Practical implications There is a need to frame PD initiatives as an organisational change process towards sustainability with specific attention towards empowerment. Without this framing, PD approaches comprise the risk of being left in the margins or being understood as single initiatives without any connection to the bigger picture, i.e. the transition towards sustainability in HE. Social implications Interlinking PD and organisational change provides opportunities to frame the sustainability transition within the university in a wider societal context. Originality/value The paper provides an original contribution to the debate on sustainability competences, as it frames the PD within an organisational context, rather than focusing on the individual role of educators.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 479-481
Author(s):  
Isabelle Arnet ◽  
Pascal C. Baumgartner ◽  
Vera Bernhardt ◽  
Markus L. Lampert ◽  
Kurt E. Hersberger

An acceptable degree of digital literacy has always been present among the pharmacy teaching staff in Basel, with PowerPoint being the main vehicle to present teaching materials in front of full or half classes. Because cell phones became inseparable from students over the past years, mobile voting (movo.ch) or e-quizzes (mentimeter.com) have been regularly used to hold the attention of all students during collective teaching. Moreover, e-assessment on iPad® with the software BeAxi (www.k2prime.com) was introduced in 2012 and is currently used for all evaluations and exams. Suddenly over the night of March 16, 2020, our university, as all universities around the world, had to transfer all courses to an online format and to empower lecturers to teach from their home. This paper offers one perspective for how this digitial experiment unfolded at the University of Basel in Basel, Switzerland.


Author(s):  
Paul O’Keeffe

The delivery of higher education in refugee contexts is no stranger to dealing with the unforeseen and responding to the needs of vulnerable learners. Being flexible and adaptable to a multitude of challenges and obstacles is a core component of any scaffolding that wishes to support refugee higher education programmes. InZone, an academic and humanitarian programme at the University of Geneva, has empirically developed a flexible and adaptable ‘learning ecosystem’ to scaffold its delivery of higher education programmes in Africa and the Middle East. This chapter explores how this responsive ecosystem has enabled top tier university programmes in some of the most challenging educational environments between 2017 and 2018. The functioning of the ecosystem is explored within the context of the lived reality of learners in the camps and course participation data is shared to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning ecosystem as a scaffold for enabling higher education in refugee contexts. Lessons learned point to recommendations for pedagogical innovations that could be employed to cope with pedagogical disruptions for the wider education world during testing times such as Covid19.


Author(s):  
Mark Patrick Ryan

The Japanese Lesson Study Model (JLSM) became a focus of much research after the publication of the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS). The JLSM has various possible manifestations, but most forms of the model include three key elements – collaborative planning of one or more lessons that will be taught by all participants, delivery of the lesson with fellow teacher observers in the room or with videotaping, and collaborative analysis by participants of students work and the lesson delivery. This study presents quantitative and qualitative data from approximately 400 teachers who participated in a form of lesson study. The history and research basis of lesson study is presented, followed by the researcher's adaptation of the model for use in the university classroom and professional development courses, followed by an analysis of the impacts of the model on teacher participants.


Author(s):  
Leonard J. Waks

While John Dewey wrote relatively little about higher education, he had a well-developed and largely unexplored conception of the university, grounded in his three- stage account of thought or inquiry as developed in Studies in Logical Theory and further developed in Logic: Theory of Inquiry. The first stage is antecedent to inquiry proper, residing in the situations of living that evoke thought. The second is inquiry proper, where data or immediate materials are subjected to systematic thought to yield judgment. The third is the moment after thought has considered its data and reached its result and brought it forth in situations of living as transformed by this new element. This final stage, is the “objective of thought” but lies outside of the context of inquiry proper. This chapter, building on the Dewey corpus, explains that conception, with close attention to university-based research, teaching, and service.


Author(s):  
Kathryn Janet Meldrum ◽  
Kristi Giselsson

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has been suggested as an ideal vehicle for engaging faculty with professional development for teaching in higher education. However, previous authors have identified that faculty find writing about SoTL difficult. The aim of this chapter is to support educational developers (EDs) to collaborate with faculty to support writing. Two theoretical frameworks to support collaboration are proposed: the first, the Knowledge Transforming Model of Writing, to assist with the process of writing; the second, an adaptation of Brigugilio's working in the third space framework to support collaboration. The authors utilise both frameworks to reflect on their own SoTL collaboration and subsequently pose questions to support faculty and EDs to do the same. Ultimately, it is proposed that collaboration not only enhances the practices of faculty and EDs but improves what should be an important priority for the wider academy: the learning outcomes of students.


1999 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 1282-1282
Author(s):  
Roger L. Wayson ◽  
John M. MacDonald

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