scholarly journals Role-Playing Gamification Technologies with Adult Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Kirsten Fantazir ◽  
Murray Bartley

The purpose of this quantitative scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) research study was to examine the impact Classcraft had on adult criminal justice students in a face-to-face context in a western-Canadian institution. Specifically, the role-playing digital game was integrated into a first-year applied English and investigative writing course; learners earned points, received “real world” prizes, and completed random, content-related challenges with their teams. Using a survey with Likert-style and open-ended questions, it was determined that most elements of Classcraft motivated and engaged participants. The most impactful finding was that Classcraft promoted teamwork and problem-solving abilities. While little research has been conducted in adult post-secondary settings related to the implementation of Classcraft, it is evident more research is required in other post-secondary learning contexts.

Author(s):  
Mark Hoyert ◽  
Cynthia O'Dell

The scholarship of teaching and learning literature is replete with examples of pedagogical techniques that have been demonstrated to be effective in improving learning, motivation, and student success. The extension of these techniques beyond the original context has tended to be slow, difficult, and incomplete. The following paper examines an intervention designed to encourage the exploration and use of a variety of pedagogical techniques by faculty in a traditional, four-year college faculty within the context of the AASCU Re-imagining the First Year Initiative. Small groups of six to eight faculty, joined and created communities of practice. The groups were known as Pedagogical Interest Groups, or PIGs for short. The faculty read about and analyzed a series of pedagogical techniques and committed to introducing at least one technique into their courses to further explore the techniques. When the techniques were successful, the faculty members redesigned entire classes to expand the impact. The communities of practice were successful in encouraging faculty to explore a wide variety of techniques. The average faculty group explored eight different pedagogical techniques. Faculty were able to use the opportunity to experiment with techniques with the support from their colleagues in their PIG. A dozen techniques were explored across the PIGs and dozens of class sections have been completely redesigned. To date, over 2000 students have experienced redesigned courses. Measures of student success, satisfaction, and interest in those sections have increased. The effort has been accompanied by a robust increase in the campus-wide retention rates. ​


Author(s):  
Jillian R. Powers ◽  
Ann T. Musgrove ◽  
Jessica A. Lowe

This chapter examines how technology has shaped the teaching and learning process for individuals residing in rural areas. Research on the history and unique needs of rural communities and the impact of technology in these areas is discussed. Educational experiences of students across all grade levels, from early childhood though post-secondary education, is examined. Examples of innovative and creative uses educational technologies in distance and face-to-face settings are described from the perspective of rural teachers and students.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
Nantha Kumar Subramaniam ◽  
Maheswari Kandasamy

Blended pedagogy is an important delivery mechanism for open and distance learning. Here, face-to-face meetings in the blended pedagogy model remain as an important platform for teaching and learning. While there are many instructional techniques employed in faceto- face meetings, there is an urgent need to determine how face-to-face interactions in the blended pedagogy can be elevated to boost students' learning. This paper investigates whether productive failure (PF) as an instructional strategy boosts students' understanding of the subject matter in a face-to-face tutorial. PF instructional design advocates the delaying of support for learners during learning. The more they struggle, and even fail, while trying to master new information, the better they are likely to recall and apply that information later. Current research on the impact of PF treatments has shown that effective learning is achieved when learners are presented with a cycle of low structure, high structure and low structure activities. PF instructional design has been used successfully, especially in secondary schools in which learners have regular contact with the instructor. It is unknown whether the use of PF instructional design among adult learners in face-to-face interaction will yield such a positive effect. Can PF instructional design be used in tutorials that cater for adult learners resulting in fruitful learning outcomes? This paper reports an initial study of a quasi-experiment that compares a “productive failure” instructional design with a traditional “lecture and practice” instructional design for a 2-hour tutorial session attended by adult learners. A total of 17 adult learners participated in the study. Learners experienced either a traditional lecture and practice teaching cycle or a PF cycle, where they solved complex problems in small groups without the provision of any support or scaffolds up until a consolidation lecture by their teacher during the last hour of the tutorial. Findings suggest that learners from the PF condition produced a variety of problem models and methods for solving the problems but were unsuccessful in their efforts, be it in groups or individually. They also reported low confidence in their solutions. Despite failing in their group and individual problem-solving efforts, learners from the PF condition performed better than their counterparts from the lecture and practice condition on both knowledge and higherorder application problems based on the post-test. Implications of PF instructional design for adult learners based on these findings are presented.


Author(s):  
Jacqueline Murray ◽  
Peter Wolf

First-year seminar programs have been a feature on the landscape of post-secondary teaching and learning in the United States, since they first appeared in the 1880s at Boston University (Mamrick, 2005). More recently, they have begun to appear at Canadian universities. For example, first-year seminars were introduced a decade ago at the University of Guelph, as a campus-wide initiative. To recognize the first decade that these unique, interdisciplinary seminars have been offered, faculty were surveyed to understand better the impact of the program on those teaching in it, as well as their perceptions of their students. The experience of the University of Guelph suggests first-year seminar programs can have a significant influence on the teaching and professional experience of faculty and encourages them to extend their networks beyond the department and across the campus. Significantly, seminars serve as sites for pedagogical experimentation that can influence departmental curricula. Faculty who teach a first-year seminar have high satisfaction and report myriad benefits to morale, teaching, and research. The salutary effects of a first-year seminar program are not local but would be transferable across post-secondary institutions. Aux États-Unis, on a beaucoup parlé des programmes de séminaires de première année dans le paysage de la pédagogie dans l’enseignement supérieur, depuis leur première apparition dans les années 1880 à l’Université de Boston (Mamrick, 2005). Plus récemment, ils ont commencé à apparaître dans les universités canadiennes. Par exemple, des séminaires de première année ont été introduits il y a dix ans à l’Université de Guelph en tant qu’initiative à l’échelle du campus. Afin de marquer la première décennie au cours de laquelle ces séminaires interdisciplinaires uniques ont été offerts, une enquête a été menée auprès des professeurs pour mieux comprendre les effets du programme sur les enseignants, ainsi que les perceptions de leurs étudiants. L’expérience de l’Université de Guelph suggère que les programmes de séminaires de première année peuvent avoir une influence importante sur l’enseignement et sur l’expérience professionnelle des professeurs et peuvent les encourager à élargir leur réseau au-delà du département et sur tout le campus. Il est significatif de constater que les séminaires servent de sites pour des expériences pédagogiques qui peuvent influencer les programmes d’études départementaux. Les professeurs qui enseignent un séminaire de première année en retirent une grande satisfaction et rapportent une myriade d’avantages pour le moral, l’enseignement, et la recherche. Les effets salutaires d’un programme de séminaires de première année ne sont pas ressentis uniquement au niveau local, ils sont transférables à tous les établissement d’enseignement supérieur.


Author(s):  
Laily Yahya

The article review of ‘The Impact of Fun and Enjoyment on Adult Learning’ (Lucardie, 2014) opens doors to the kaleidoscope of fun and enjoyment amongst adult learners. The essence of this review is an informative snapshot on the critical issues of how fun and joy have impacted adult learning through a qualitative research drawing upon traditions of phenomenology. It aims to explore the affective experiences of fun and enjoyment. This article review attempts to highlight an insightful assessment of the ideas and the arguments that are being discussed by the author. The different interpretation of this concept draws out contrasting elements between learners and teachers’ beliefs. A twist to this review is a reflective stance procured to address central issues emerging in the article related to the Malaysian context. It is through the lens of the reader, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI):4R is proposed. This refers to the process of continuously improving the quality of teaching and learning of an educational programme. This review concludes with the framing of CQI:4R to illustrate reflect, revisit, realign and reconstruct processes that could possibly navigate the architectural landscape of the Malaysian Teacher Education.


Author(s):  
Lorraine Gilpin ◽  
Yasar Bodur ◽  
Kathleen Crawford

Peer assessment holds tremendous potential to positively impact the development of preservice teachers. The purpose of this chapter is to describe our findings on the impact of different forms of peer observation and feedback on preservice teachers’ skills in analyzing classroom teaching and their perceptions of their experience with peer assessment. In addition to reporting our findings, we draw from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning literature to present peer assessment as a medium to overcome structured isolation that is present in the practice of teaching. According to our study, peer observation and feedback is beneficial to preservice teachers’ learning. However, to maximize its effectiveness, a culture of peer assessment should be established in teacher education programs.


Author(s):  
Alan Cromlish

This paper explores anonymous online learning as a tool to overcome specific teaching and learning issues within Korean post-secondary institutions. The chapter utilizes a survey of a small group of ESL students at a single Korean university to better understand student preferences and opinions about non-traditional learning options and opportunities in Korea. While many students in Korea have not been exposed to online learning, the students surveyed expressed interest in learning online and they were especially interested in collaborative learning opportunities. As more online classes and online learning opportunities start to become available in South Korea, this study explores anonymous online learning as an effective tool to overcome some significant and distinct teaching and learning challenges at Korean post-secondary institutions. The anonymous online learning suggestions and approaches in the paper can be implemented within fully online courses and blended classes but they can also be used as stand-alone online components of traditional face to face and ESL courses.


Author(s):  
Shanetia P. Clark ◽  
Lynne G. Long

In early 2020, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic ravaged countries across the world, causing them to essentially shut down. Communities had to retreat indoors and socially distance from one another. One aspect of life that drastically changed was schooling. It moved from traditional face-to-face spaces to online digital platforms. Students, faculty, and staff across all levels of schooling shifted to teaching and learning vis-a-vis online digital platforms. Those of us connected to the training of the next generation of teachers navigated through the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic at the preschool to post-secondary levels as well. This chapter focuses on the authors' experiences as a Black university supervisor and as a Black field placement coordinator.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tooran Alizadeh ◽  
Deanna Tomerini ◽  
Samantha Colbran

Planning studios, through learning by doing, introduce students to relevant practical skills. The problem is that not all students, especially in the first-year, spend the required time on task, so they fall behind and fail to catch up. The article is based on the Community of Inquiry framework and proposes an online assessment to ensure that teaching, social, and cognitive elements are present when there is no face-to-face contact between the teaching team and students. The article follows a planning cohort across their first two studios that adopted the online assessment, and it provides an opportunity to evaluate the impact on the first-year experience.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 889-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lorange ◽  
Howard Thomas

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on potential advances in pedagogy and on the process of learning in business schools. It examines innovations in teaching and learning methods particularly in the context of networked organizations. Design/methodology/approach – It approaches, and examine the impact of, three key developments in business schools, namely, recent advances in IT, changes in the architecture of classrooms and learning spaces and advances in the way teaching is undertaken. Findings – The paper suggests that a blend between self-learning via distance approaches and face-to-face learning will increasingly become the norm. Face-to-face sessions might be in a “flat room” environment with a creative mix of short lectures, experiential, group learning and conceptual plenary lectures, software innovations, and digital textbooks “open plan” learning spaces would complement the instructional process. Research limitations/implications – There are clear implications for parallel IT (developments in course modules) and architectural innovations for the design of more effective and creative learning spaces. Practical implications – Improving pedagogy together with the physical design and layout of learning spaces is critical. The aim is, through enhanced participative pedagogy and “friendly” architecture, to improve learning by encouraging dialogue and closer interaction between students and professors from different disciplines and fields. Social implications – The authors argue that this model of collaborative learning and an interactive teaching framework should enable the same amount of learning material to be covered in a business school in approximately half-the-time required in conventional pedagogical approaches. Originality/value – It offers a prescription for a participative, technology enhanced and interactive teaching pedagogy that could produce more effective and efficient, teaching outcomes. This has strong implications for the sustainability, and funding capability, of many existing business schools and business school models.


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