Investigating Modes of Student Inquiry in Second Life as Part of a Blended Approach

2012 ◽  
pp. 184-200
Author(s):  
Sheila Webber
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environments ◽  
Second Life ◽  
First Year ◽  
Inquiry Skills ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Programme Design ◽  
Undergraduate Programme ◽  
Student Inquiry ◽  
Development Of Students

This article discusses activities carried out in the virtual world of Second Life (SL) as part of a compulsory class in the first year of an undergraduate programme. The paper identifies the contribution of SL to the students’ learning environment and an Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach to programme design. The reasons for taking an IBL approach are explained in relation to institutional and disciplinary goals. The paper reflects on the contribution of the three key learning environments—the classroom, WebCT and SL—to students’ learning. SL is evaluated in relation to a conceptual framework of IBL. It is concluded that SL has made a contribution to students’ achievement of learning outcomes from the class, and has facilitated the development of students’ inquiry skills. In conclusion, further avenues for developing research and teaching are identified.

Investigating Modes of Student Inquiry in Second Life as Part of a Blended Approach

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 55-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheila Webber
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
First Year ◽  
Inquiry Skills ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Programme Design ◽  
Undergraduate Programme ◽  
Student Inquiry

This article discusses activities carried out in the virtual world of Second Life (SL) as part of a compulsory class in the first year of an undergraduate programme. The paper identifies the contribution of SL to the students’ learning environment and an Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) approach to programme design. The reasons for taking an IBL approach are explained in relation to institutional and disciplinary goals. The paper reflects on the contribution of the three key learning environments—the classroom, WebCT and SL—to students’ learning. SL is evaluated in relation to a conceptual framework of IBL. It is concluded that SL has made a contribution to students’ achievement of learning outcomes from the class, and has facilitated the development of students’ inquiry skills. In conclusion, further avenues for developing research and teaching are identified.

scholarly journals The Opening Conference: A Case Study in Undergraduate Co-design and Inquiry-based Learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zak Rakrouki ◽  
Mark Gatenby ◽  
Stefan Cantore ◽  
Thomas Rowledge ◽  
Tom Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Undergraduate Education ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
First Year ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Academic Conference ◽  
Important Approach

The separation between “research” and “teaching” in universities has been under increasing challenge from scholars who want to place inquiry-based learning at the centre of higher education. An important approach to challenging established paradigms and structures is to question, and thereby destabilise, role distinctions, relationships, language, and learning spaces. In this article we present a case study of a conference organized in collaboration between staff and students for first-year undergraduates. Reinventing the academic conference space is our aim in challenging assumptions about undergraduate education. As co-designers of the conference, we reflect on the activities and institutional context leading to the creation of the event, its design and implementation, and its impact on the undergraduate learning community.

scholarly journals Roles, relationships and emotions: Student teachers’ understanding of feedback as interpersonal

2021 ◽  
pp. 003452372198937
Author(s):  
Caroline Elbra-Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
First Year ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Study Methodology ◽  
Undergraduate Programme ◽  
Phenomenological Case Study ◽  
International Teacher

This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study seeking to investigate how student teachers, within a three-year undergraduate programme, understand feedback. Feedback has been central to debates and discussion in the assessment literature in recent years. Hence, in this paper, feedback is positioned within the often-contradictory discourses of assessment, including perspectives on student and teacher feedback. The study focused on two first year undergraduate student teachers at a small university in England and considered the relationships between their understanding of feedback as a student, their understanding of feedback as an emerging teacher, and the key influences shaping these understandings. A phenomenological case study methodology was employed with interviews as the prime method of data collection. Themes emerged as part of an Nvivo analysis, including emotional responses, relationships and dialogue, all of which appear to have impacted on the students’ conceptual understanding of feedback as indelibly shaped by its interpersonal and affective, rather than purely cognitive or ideational, dimensions. The paper therefore seeks to contribute to the wider feedback discourse by offering an analysis of empirical data. Although situated within English teacher education, there are tentative conclusions that are applicable to international teacher education and as well as higher education more generally.

scholarly journals In search of a personal pedagogy: A Self-Study narrative on the use of Inquiry Based Learning by an early career lecturer

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-93
Author(s):  
Alexandra Louise Sewell
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Academic Identity ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Early Career ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teaching Excellence ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Self Study

This paper presents a Self-Study of my quest for a personal pedagogy as a HE lecturer in my first year of teaching. I experimented with the application of Inquiry Based Learning as a teaching method of active learning pedagogy. The influence of the experiences of choice and implementation of Inquiry Based Learning on the development of my academic identity are explored. The paper is theoretically grounded in accounts of academic identity formation put forth by Jenkins (1996), Danielewicz and Yem (2014) and King et al. (2014). Themes of identity, arising from experiences of pedagogical choice and teaching practice, were a need for conformity versus a desire for individualism, theoretical knowledge and paradigm adherence, pragmatic constraints and student – lecturer relationship and confidence. These themes are discussed in relation to existing Inquiry Based Learning research literature. With the publication of the first Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) published in 2017, the paper makes a timely addition to the discourse of new lecturer’s experiences and the often-challenging process of initial academic identity formation. It also offers research into the effects of Inquiry Based Learning for the lecturer, whereas the outcomes for students have been mostly examined by previous literature.   

scholarly journals Inquiry-Based Learning on the Cloud

2016 ◽  
pp. 291-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mikroyannidis ◽  
Alexandra Okada ◽  
Andre Correa ◽  
Peter Scott
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environments ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Inquiry Based Learning ◽  
Approach To Learning ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Education Community

Cloud Learning Environments (CLEs) have recently emerged as a novel approach to learning, putting learners in the spotlight and providing them with the cloud-based tools for building their own learning environments according to their specific learning needs and aspirations. Although CLEs bring significant benefits to educators and learners, there is still little evidence of CLEs being actively and effectively used in the teaching and learning process. This chapter addresses this issue by introducing a European initiative called weSPOT (Working Environment with Social, Personal and Open Technologies for Inquiry-based Learning) for supporting and enhancing inquiry-based learning in STEM education via a cloud-based inquiry toolkit. The chapter presents evidence of using this toolkit within a case study that investigates how a secondary education community of students / co-learners selects information sources on the web and identifies factors associated with the reliability of information sources during their collaborative inquiry (co-inquiry) project in online environments.

scholarly journals Qualitative Development of Students’ Digital Skills by Integrating a Spreadsheet Software in First Year Introduction to Engineering and Seminar Course

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (18) ◽  
pp. 213
Author(s):  
Aziatul Niza Binti Sadikin ◽  
Azizul Azri Bin Mustaffa ◽  
Hasrinah Binti Hasbullah ◽  
Zaki Yamani Bin Zakaria ◽  
Mohd Kamaruddin Bin Abd Hamid ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
Microsoft Excel ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Learning Skill ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Digital Skills ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Spreadsheet Software ◽  
Development Of Students

The Introduction to Engineering (ITE) and Industrial Seminar and Profession (ISP) courses conducted at School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, are integrated courses which implement the Cooperative Problem-based Learning (CPBL) methods in the same semester. Based on this integrated courses, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the qualitative impact of spreadsheet hands-on seminar on the first year students' digital skill. At the beginning of the semester, students are given sustainability-based project to work on, which requires them to collect and to report the data in a series of presentations and written reports. In order to present those data, they need to use analysis tools such as a spreadsheet software. The students are introduced with some in-depth applications of the Microsoft Excel software through the seminar sessions in the ISP course. With the knowledge that the students gain, they are expected to implement it in the CPBL project. A qualitative approach has been adopted to implement the study. Student’s reflections were used as the data source to identify common attributes that they have managed to gain from seminar sessions. This study has found that all students had primarily learned about digital skills. They perceived hand-on activity during the seminar as a good platform to acquire knowledge on basic calculation and developed learning skill on Excel. Moreover, students recognized the skills they are learning will be useful in other courses and future careers.

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