Online Support for Students’ Writing Skills Development in a Technical Communication Introductory Module

2012 ◽  
pp. 772-785
Author(s):  
Yvonne Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Communication Module ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Students

This chapter explores the development of online support for writing skills in one technical communication module taught at the University of Limerick. It demonstrates the need for writing support by exploring the many complexities of teaching and learning writing skills. Central to the discussion is the principle of process, rather than product, orientation. Students on the module have been surveyed over the past two years to determine their attitudes to, and perceptions of, their writing strengths and weaknesses. The chapter outlines and exemplifies the types of writing-problems students and instructors identify. Online support is posited as an intervention which facilitates autonomous learning. The chapter concludes by discussing how online resources, and especially the university virtual learning environment, Sakai (called Sulis at University of Limerick), can support students. It also suggests related research opportunities, especially in the area of using Web 2.0 technologies to foster autonomy.

Online Support for Students' Writing Skills Development in a Technical Communication Introductory Module

2010 ◽  
pp. 280-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Online Support ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Communication Module ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Students

This chapter explores the development of online support for writing skills in one technical communication module taught at the University of Limerick. It demonstrates the need for writing support by exploring the many complexities of teaching and learning writing skills. Central to the discussion is the principle of process, rather than product, orientation. Students on the module have been surveyed over the past two years to determine their attitudes to, and perceptions of, their writing strengths and weaknesses. The chapter outlines and exemplifies the types of writing-problems students and instructors identify. Online support is posited as an intervention which facilitates autonomous learning. The chapter concludes by discussing how online resources, and especially the university virtual learning environment, Sakai (called Sulis at University of Limerick), can support students. It also suggests related research opportunities, especially in the area of using Web 2.0 technologies to foster autonomy.

scholarly journals Design and Management of a Self-Access Language Learning Space Integrated into a Taught Course

2016 ◽  
pp. 136-151
Author(s):  
Sahar Alzahrani ◽  
Vicky Wright
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Instant Messaging ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Learning Resources ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Look Ahead ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

This paper reports on the design and management of an online self-access language learning (SALL) space that was used with a group of Saudi medical students to complement classroom-based learning. The aim was to increase the opportunities for communication and language practice and, more specifically, to help develop the learners’ language learning autonomy (Little, 1999). In a pre-study, a questionnaire and a focus group were used to collect information about the students’ needs and interests in language learning. The design of this space was informed by the students’ feedback on their language learning needs and styles as recommended by Breen (1986) and Marsh (2012). Desire2Learn, a widely used virtual learning environment, was used to provide learners with an online self-access center because of the many features it has which would help learners to take control of their learning. The learning resources and online tools included instant messaging (IM), a news stream, access to a facilitator and other learning support, moderated discussions, videos, images, activities and quizzes, as well as links to external materials and to free self-access language learning resources. A description will be provided of how the materials, the tools, and the facilities were integrated within this space along with the justification for each of the elements. A look ahead to how this study could be extended for use with all learners enrolled in the medical scheme of the university will be discussed at the end of the paper.

scholarly journals Blogs: A qualitative investigation into an instructor and undergraduate students' experiences

2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkan Tekinarslan
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Qualitative Investigation ◽  
Teaching And Learning Environment ◽  
The University ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Online Sources ◽  
Undergraduate Class

<span>This study reports on the experiences of an instructor and an undergraduate class who used blogs in their teaching and learning environment at Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey. Qualitative data were collected from observation of students' activities when working on blogs in the classroom, analyses of students' blog documents on the web, and interviews with 42 students. Most students reflected that blogs are user friendly and convenient tools for publishing and sharing studies. Moreover, blog implementations contributed positively to students' information searching and writing skills, despite the limited opportunities that many students had for Internet access outside the university. However, students' ignorance regarding copyright issues and their tendency to copy information from online sources and paste it into their blogs was a common problem.</span>

scholarly journals With the integration of learning apps, what are Moodle’s prospects?

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Mogaji
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Integration Of Learning ◽  
The University

The role of technology in enhancing teaching and learning cannot be over-emphasised. Often, tutors use innovative tools from the virtual learning environment (VLE) provided by the university. In this piece, I reflect on the prospects of VLE, as tutors and students have begun to find other tools more engaging and interactive.

Disturbances and Dislocations: Understanding Teaching and Learning Experiences in Australian Aboriginal Music

2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mackinlay
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Educational Setting ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Women's Music ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Education Today ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

One of the biggest debates in Australian Indigenous education today revolves around the many contested and competing ways of knowing by and about Indigenous cultures and the representation of Indigenous knowledges. Using Bakhtin's theories of dialogue and voice, my concern in this paper is to explore the polyphonic nature of power relations, performance roles and pedagogical texts in the context of teaching and learning Indigenous Australian women's music and dance. In this discussion, I will focus on my experiences as a lecturer in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland and my involvement in this educational setting with contemporary Indigenous performer Samantha Chalmers. Like a field experience, the performance classroom will be examined as a potential site for disturbing and dislocating dominant modes of representation of Indigenous women's performance through the construction, mediation and negotiation of Indigenous knowledge from and between both non-Indigenous and Indigenous voices.

scholarly journals Digital Learning Tools for Mobile Devices for Accomplish Hypothesis Testing of Statistical Parameters

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (06) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Tapia Moreno ◽  
Hector Antonio Villa-Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Digital Learning ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Statistical Parameters ◽  
Arithmetic Means ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
Everyday Activities ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Students

Technological changes have been associated with the evolution of computer and telecommunications systems. These changes have resulted in a rethinking of teaching and learning methods in the new digitalized environment at all educational levels. This rethinking motivates some teachers to design new digital tools that support students in their learning process, offering them an easier and more entertaining way to obtain knowledge. The digital learning tools are software and informatics programs that make everyday activities easier for students. We have designed four digital learning tools for the learning of inferential statistics that allow college students to perform hypothesis tests for: <em>i</em>) the arithmetic mean of the population, <em>ii</em>) the proportion of a population, <em>iii</em>) the difference between two arithmetic means, and <em>iv</em>) the difference between two proportions. These digital learning tools are products from the project “Statistics-to-Go” that is being developed at the University of Sonora. This project is now in its fourth stage.

scholarly journals Drafting Pandemic Policy: Writing and Sudden Institutional Change

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 140-146
Author(s):  
Erin Workman ◽  
Peter Vandenberg ◽  
Madeline Crozier
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Institutional Ethnography ◽  
Writing Technologies ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Faculty And Administrators ◽  
The University

This article reports findings from an institutional ethnography of university stakeholders’ writing in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrating the affordances of this methodology for professional and technical communication. Drawing on interview transcripts with faculty and administrators from across the university, the authors contextualize the role of writing in the iterative, collaborative, distributed writing processes by which the university transitioned from a traditional A–F grading scheme to a pass or fail option in just a few business days. They analyze these stakeholders’ experiences, discussing some effects of this accelerated timeline on policy development, writing processes, and uses of writing technologies within this new context of remote teaching and learning.

scholarly journals Transforming the online learning space through advanced development retreats

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Belton ◽  
Sue Folley ◽  
Sophie McGown
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Technology Enhanced Learning ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Implementing Change ◽  
Changing Practice ◽  
The University

Learning technologies have the potential to transform Higher Education, although multifaceted demands on staff time, confidence and training in using new technologies, and a lack of support can make this transformation difficult. The University of Huddersfield recently transitioned to a new virtual learning environment (VLE), which provided the opportunity to change the way staff view and use the new VLE for teaching and learning. As part of this project, three off-site retreats were run to help staff to reflect on and develop their teaching practice to better support student learning in the digital space and develop advanced online resources that support the democratisation of learning, close differential attainment gaps and give every student the best chance of success. Although much is written about different models of practice, there is a lack of theory and conceptualisation around changing practice. Examining the motivations and experiences of staff who participated provides insight into the challenges of implementing change on an institutional level, whilst examining their setup and design highlights ways to support staff during this process. Using participant feedback and experiences to underpin this research, we explore the immediate and ongoing outcomes of these off-site retreats to help transform the University’s approach to technology-enhanced learning.

Enabling Public Scholars through Faculty Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Adamson
Keyword(s):  
South Dakota ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Student Voices ◽  
Student Work ◽  
Public Scholarship ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Students

To support faculty as they remained civically engaged during the pandemic, the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of South Dakota (CTL) launched a training series on public scholarship partnering with facilitators from Emory, Baylor, and Harvard. Core outcome of the series were for faculty to find a home for themselves in public engagement and to support students in their own public-facing work. The series introduced faculty to public scholarship as a dialogical partnership and offered workshops on facilitating public-facing student work and organizing virtual conferences, concluding each term with a panel featuring academics who promote the common good in different ways. This article explains the development of this series with the theoretical underpinnings that guided it and concludes by proposing a definition of public scholarship that includes student voices and repositions universities within the communities they inhabit.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document