scholarly journals Using a VLE to enhance a Foundation Chemistry laboratory module

Author(s):  
Gareth J Price ◽  
June Chalmers ◽  
Clare Goodfellow

For the past few years, we have been experimenting with an e-learning approach to our introductory laboratory classes for first year students. Our overall objective was to maximise students’ useful time in the laboratory. We considered that time spent with students gathered around a desk watching a demonstration is not an efficient use of staff or students’ time.It is well recognised that students’ performance in the laboratory can be enhanced if they are familiar with the background of the experiments which will be conducted, hence the use of ‘pre-labs’. We have been delivering our ‘pre-labs’ electronically by requiring students to work through a package before coming to the laboratory. As well as covering the theory and background to the experiment, short video clips have been included so that students will also have seen the experiment being performed. They should at least recognise the apparatus! The package concludes with a short assessment quiz which must be completed.The packages were mounted on the University network using WebCT and meant that students could undertake the exercises at a time (and place) of their choosing rather than being confined to set laboratory hours.This communication will describe the packages and our experiences as well as an initial evaluation of our approach. Although largely anecdotal, staff felt that they spent less time on more mundane aspects of laboratory work and more time discussing chemistry.Students also felt that they were better prepared for the experiments before they came to the laboratory. Some of the pitfalls and technical problems that had to be overcome willalso be described.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Heba Almbayed

The study aimed to analyze the reality of e-learning at Palestine Technical University-Khudouri/Tulkarem, and to identify the most important challenges facing students when using the education system, as well as to analyze the extent to which university students interact with the e-learning system, and to show the differences between the average opinions of the study sample on e-learning according to the study variables due to the nature of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was used, in order to reach practical results, and to achieve and analyze the reality of e-learning  a questionnaire consisting of (34) paragraphs was designed, where the study community consisted of (6,559) students, and a simple random sample of (522) students was taken, and the questionnaire was distributed electronically because it was not able to be distributed manually due to the prevailing conditions _ the spread of the Corona pandemic- at the time of the preparation of the study. The results of the study showed that (63.136%) of the researched believe that the reality of e-learning at the university suffers from different problems. The study indicated that (87.97%) among respondents, complaints have increased in the e-learning system after the Corona pandemic and that (81.36%) among the researchers, the infrastructure was one of the most barriers in e-learning. While (63.934%)of the researched that e-learning has a role to play in achieving Interaction among students, as the results of the study showed no differences Statistically significant to the reality of e-learning according to the gender variable, and there are no differences depending on the variable of the scientific qualification except in the field of e-learning reality, there are also no differences Statistics according to the variable of the academic level ,except for the field of Interaction with students. In the light of the results of the study, a series of recommendations were made, the most prominent of which were: 1.Include an e-learning system item in The computer course assigned as a university requirement for first-year students 2. Provide opportunities to train and develop the capabilities of all educational parties to use and apply E-learning.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
James L. DeBoy ◽  
Sally B. Monsilovich

In response to the obesity problem that has dramatically increased over the past 30 years, Lincoln University’s HPER faculty petitioned the University faculty to accept a somewhat radical approach: test all entering first year students using Body Mass Indices (BMI) data for placing students in a Fitness for Life class. This class would constitute the intervention for students with BMI scores of 30 or higher (obese rating). This paper describes the chronology of events that unfolded once the placement policy became known beyond the campus green. Arguments both for and against the controversial course are presented. While the placement policy has been modified, the aim of the intervention has not wavered: identify those students who are most at risk for hypokinetic disease and provide them with the appropriate resources to effectively address those amenable lifestyle factors that will rob them of quality and quantity of life. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-188
Author(s):  
Aulia Faqih Rifa'i ◽  
Sumarsono Sumarsono

As an impact of Covid-19, the learning methods is shifting from conventional into e-learning. Therefore, UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta as an educational institution have to implement online lectures for all students. This event causes the first year students to not having the opportunity to understand how lectures work. On the other hand, lecturers and the university did not yet have a picture of the readiness of new students to study with e-learning method. For that case, the university needs to know if the students are ready to be doing e-learning lectures. This descriptive quantitive research uses a questionnaire and e-learning readiness factors by Chapnik [1] to see the readiness of new students. As a result, the score of new students e-learning readiness is 45.09. Thus, new students of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta are not ready enough for studying in e-learning methods. This research also provides suggestions about how e-learning methods should be done for the lecturers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Channarong Intahchomphoo ◽  
Margo Jeske ◽  
Emily Landriault ◽  
Michelle Brown

AbstractThe Principles of Legal Research (PLR) website of the University of Ottawa's Brian Dickson Law Library is a bilingual (English and French) online learning tool for all first year students in both Common Law and Civil Law.1 Law librarians use this e-learning website to facilitate teaching components such as student assignments and assessments. This user experience study aims to investigate law students’ real experience with the system. Their feedback will be used for future development planning as well as analysing user behaviour trends. The authors investigate the following aspects: accuracy of information, interface design, navigation system, Web 2.0, social media, and smartphone version.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Jabulani Owen Nene

Most first-year students lack technological skills, which hampers their learning. Within the University of South Africa (UNISA), as an open distance and e-learning (ODeL) institution, first-year students require support to succeed, particularly because they are responsible for managing their own time and studies. Using a signature course, such as ‘Language through an African Lens' (AFL1501), which is a completely online module offered by the College of Human Sciences, the author explores how qualtrics data and narrative analysis aid students in completing their coursework. The article further touches on the significance of UNISA tools and other online resources as fundamentals of connectivism, the theory of technology as an extension of human faculty, and transformative learning theory as a support mechanism. The contributions of the lecturer and teaching assistants in facilitating first-year students' success in the online module are invaluable, as is evident from this report involving 600 survey respondents from Unisa.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Heba Almbayed

The study aimed to analyze the reality of e-learning at Palestine Technical University-Khudouri/Tulkarem, and to identify the most important challenges facing students when using the education system, as well as to analyze the extent to which university students interact with the e-learning system, and to show the differences between the average opinions of the study sample on e-learning according to the study variables due to the nature of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was used, in order to reach practical results, and to achieve and analyze the reality of e-learning  a questionnaire consisting of (34) paragraphs was designed, where the study community consisted of (6,559) students, and a simple random sample of (522) students was taken, and the questionnaire was distributed electronically because it was not able to be distributed manually due to the prevailing conditions _ the spread of the Corona pandemic- at the time of the preparation of the study. The results of the study showed that (63.136%) of the researched believe that the reality of e-learning at the university suffers from different problems. The study indicated that (87.97%) among respondents, complaints have increased in the e-learning system after the Corona pandemic and that (81.36%) among the researchers, the infrastructure was one of the most barriers in e-learning. While (63.934%)of the researched that e-learning has a role to play in achieving Interaction among students, as the results of the study showed no differences Statistically significant to the reality of e-learning according to the gender variable, and there are no differences depending on the variable of the scientific qualification except in the field of e-learning reality, there are also no differences Statistics according to the variable of the academic level ,except for the field of Interaction with students. In the light of the results of the study, a series of recommendations were made, the most prominent of which were: 1.Include an e-learning system item in The computer course assigned as a university requirement for first-year students 2. Provide opportunities to train and develop the capabilities of all educational parties to use and apply E-learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bridget Grogan

This article reports on and discusses the experience of a contrapuntal approach to teaching poetry, explored during 2016 and 2017 in a series of introductory poetry lectures in the English 1 course at the University of Johannesburg. Drawing together two poems—Warsan Shire’s “Home” and W.H. Auden’s “Refugee Blues”—in a week of teaching in each year provided an opportunity for a comparison that encouraged students’ observations on poetic voice, racial identity, transhistorical and transcultural human experience, trauma and empathy. It also provided an opportunity to reflect on teaching practice within the context of decoloniality and to acknowledge the need for ongoing change and review in relation to it. In describing the contrapuntal teaching and study of these poems, and the different methods employed in the respective years of teaching them, I tentatively suggest that canonical Western and contemporary postcolonial poems may reflect on each other in unique and transformative ways. I further posit that poets and poems that engage students may open the way into initially “less relevant” yet ultimately rewarding poems, while remaining important objects of study in themselves.


GIS Business ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
Abasiama G. Akpan ◽  
Chris Eriye Tralagba

Electronic learning or online learning is a part of recent education which is dramatically used in universities all over the world. As well as the use and integration of e-learning is at the crucial stage in all developing countries. It is the most significant part of education that enhances and improves the educational system. This paper is to examine the hindrances that influence e-learning in Nigerian university system. In order to have an inclusive research, a case study research was performed in Evangel University, Akaeze, southeast of Nigeria. The paper demonstrates similar hindrances on country side. This research is a blend of questionnaires and interviews, the questionnaires was distributed to lecturers and an interview was conducted with management and information technology unit. Research had shown the use of e-learning in university education which has influenced effectively and efficiently the education system and that the University education in Nigeria is at the crucial stage of e-learning. Hence, some of the hindrances are avoiding unbeaten integration of e-learning. The aim of this research is to unravel the barriers that impede the integration of e-learning in universities in Nigeria. Nevertheless, e-learning has modified the teaching and learning approach but integration is faced with many challenges in Nigerian University.


Author(s):  
Evgeniya N. Popova

The issue of adaptation of modern first-year students to the educational process at the university is one of the current pedagogical tasks. Successful adaptation significantly affects the quality of received education, the degree of formation of personal and professional qualities, contributes to the development of motivation, self-education, and self-development. The purpose of the research is to substantiate the criteria, indicators, and levels of adaptation of first-year students to the learning process at the university. The material for the study was the domestic scientific sources of studying the peculiarities of the adaptation process of students to educational activities in higher education. Research methods: analysis and generalization of psychological-pedagogical and educational-methodical literature on the research topic. We determine as the main criteria for the adaptation of first-year students to the university, the adaptive potential and professionally important qualities of students, consider these concepts, their structure, and their basic properties. On the basis of the analysis and generalization of the existing indicators of the implementation of the adaptive potential, we formulate the author's indicators for determining the level of its development. The degree of formation of professionally important qualities of students are low, medium, and high levels of development of emotional intelligence, negative communicative attitude, intellectual lability, and stress tolerance.


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