Level Up

Author(s):  
Oliver Dreon ◽  
Greg Szczyrbak

Gamification is becoming increasingly popular in both K-12 and higher education settings. By infusing game elements into learning environments, educators believe that students will be more engaged and more motivated to learn (Bowman, 1982, Deterding, 2012, Dominguez et al, 2013). But what about the use of gamification to support the professional development of educators? What impact would gamification have on the participation and motivation of professors and faculty involved in an intensive professional development experience? This chapter describes the creation and implementation of Level Up, a two week long professional development game involving twenty faculty member participants. The chapter outlines the process of designing the game and the game elements used throughout its implementation. The chapter also examines some challenges the designers and participants experienced during the game implementation and provides several design considerations for professional developers who wish to gamify their faculty programs.

Author(s):  
Gina Tovine ◽  
April Fleetwood ◽  
Andrew Shepherd ◽  
Colton J. Tapoler ◽  
Richard Hartshorne ◽  
...  

While the growth of blended learning environments in higher education and non-educational settings has continued to increase in recent years, this has not been the case in K-12 settings. Recently, in an effort to explore the viability and effectiveness of K-12 blended learning environments, Florida Virtual School (FLVS) has been piloting blended learning communities in a number of their schools, providing opportunities to explore factors that influence the effectiveness of K-12 blended learning communities. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to report the results of a study designed to assess conditions that influence the effectiveness of K-12 blended learning communities, and to explore learner, instructor, course, and other factors important to successful blended learning communities. Findings will inform the design, development, and implementation of future K-12 blended teaching and learning environments in an effort to support and strengthen student achievement, the preparation of teachers to facilitate effective blended learning environments.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 299-301
Author(s):  
Kimberly E. Feiler

As health education specialists, we are called to practice what we promote. American adult physical activity levels are low, and too much time is spent sedentary. New habits can be learned early in adult life in the higher education setting. Most time students and faculty spend in higher education learning environments is spent while sedentary—this norm must change. Brain breaks in formal learning environments have worked well in K-12 schools; they can be incorporated into higher education in order to reengage students and improve their academic achievement. Brain Breaks are short (2-5 minutes), movement-based activities to break-up prolonged periods of sitting by students, thus increasing physical activity. Health and health-related college courses provide an ideal platform to begin adding back in brain breaks and active learning strategies where there has traditionally been little to none.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia H. Yoo

Abstract The current study examined the effect of an online professional development learning experience on teachers’ self-efficacy through 148 (Male=22; Female=126) K-12 teachers and school educators. The Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) developed by Tschannen- Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) was administered twice with a five-week gap. Additionally, all participants’ descriptive self-analysis of their own score change was examined to analyze teachers’ attributions of their self-efficacy change. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that teacher efficacy increased as a result of their online professional development experience. Participants’ self-analysis of their efficacy change provided some possible explanations for mixed reports for the influence of experience on teacher efficacy.


Author(s):  
Kathleen P. King

Until now, research on podcasting in education mostly examined teacher created podcasts in K-12 and higher education. This paper explores podcasts in professional learning across several genres of podcasts. Using a popular typology of podcasts, teacher created, student created and professional development podcasts (King & Gura, 2007), this paper compares, contrasts and reveals the potential of multiple educational contexts and instructional strategies, formative instructional design, interdisciplinary strategies, formal and informal learning, and effective uses of data gathering methods. The significance of the study extends from not only the extensive reach of the data gathering and production, but also the robust research model, formative and dynamic instructional design for staff development and recommendations for podcasting research strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Adam Janicki ◽  
Michele Dorfsman

Elective rotations are valuable, allowing trainees to personalize their educational experience, focus on areas of weakness, and offer personal and professional development. Emergency medicine (EM) residency program elective rotations may be limited due to the absence of awareness of opportunities and administrative support. We sought to increase the breadth of elective rotation opportunities, improve residents’ satisfaction with their elective rotations, and enhance the opportunities for clinical training. To increase the breadth of our elective rotation opportunities, we established an elective rotation director—a dedicated faculty member to aid in elective planning and provide administrative support. This faculty member met with all residents during their second year, coordinated new electives with the graduate medical education office, and assisted with administrative tasks. Ten new rotations (two local, five domestic away, three international away) were established during the position’s first two years, increasing available rotations from nine to 19. A survey was sent to graduates of the program two years before and two years after the position was established to inquire about their elective experience. Of 64 graduates, 49 (76.6%) participated in the survey. Graduates exposed to the dedicated faculty member reported increased exposure to novel learning environments (p<0.001), improved wellness (p<0.001), and were more likely than pre-director graduates to choose the same elective rotation (p=0.006). Programs with multiple elective rotations may benefit more from this position, but additional resources may be needed given the associated increase in administrative time.


2020 ◽  
pp. 63-69
Author(s):  
Nataliya Vapnarchuk

Problem setting. Today, high-quality higher education and vocational training is recognized by the world community as a significant dominant in the creation of a system of values by economies and the ability to quickly adapt to changing environments for production processes. Preservation and development of human creative potential is the main goal of innovative education, which should be permeated with universal values. To do this, it is necessary to make it develop harmonious thinking, which is based on a combination of inner freedom of the individual and his social responsibility, as well as tolerance. Analysis of recent researches and publications. A significant contribution to solving the problems of personnel development has been made by domestic and foreign scientists and practitioners, including O. Amosov, O. Ataeva, V. Vesnin, N. Gavkalova, G. Dessler, O. Yegorshin, V. Kovalev, N. Markova. E. Morgunov and others. Issues related to personnel development management were studied by such scientists as V. A. Savchenko, T. P. Zbrytska, G. O. Savchenko. A. O. Vornachev, A. N. Boyko, and Y. I. Kravets studied the world experience of professional training of skilled workers. Target of research to analyze the modern world experience of professional development of personnel of enterprises on the example of leading economies. Article’s main body. The article points out that the priority areas for further development of our country’s enterprises are the wider use of the experience of leading economies of the world in the field of quality management and development, formation and maintenance of a culture of quality, development and implementation of standards for personnel development, adapted to the needs of a specific organization. As the development of national vocational education becomes innovative through the use of the experience of the leading countries of the world, the need for specialists to improve their skills during work in accordance with the requirements of the modern world labor market is increasing, the national system of competences and qualifications and so on is being improved. Conclusions and prospects for the development. In order to overcome the shortage of highly qualified specialists, it is proposed to introduce at the state level legislatively regulated financial support of enterprises in the field of vocational training and development of employees, namely: (1) to develop and legislatively invest the funds in the training of employees and their professional development through loans, government tax incentives for companies to organize training, training, retraining, retraining and advanced training of staff; (2) allocate government subsidies to employers who create additional training places for industrial and on-the-job training; (3) stimulate the interest of employers in improving the professional level of staff through a system of encouraging them and improving the organization and improving the quality of education; (4) create funds for employers to transfer a percentage of their payroll to cover most of their employers’ training costs; (5) envisage, within the framework of collective agreements, the creation of training funds, the assets of which are formed either from a payroll tax or through government subsidies; (6) strengthen the responsibility of employers and employees themselves for their professional level in order to increase the efficiency of the use of funds for vocational training of staff; (6) develop draft legal acts to encourage and encourage staff to continue learning and appropriate mechanisms for their implementation (financial assistance – state or sponsorship, educational leave - partially or fully paid, grants, scholarships, etc.); (7) to encourage enterprises to expand cooperation with higher education institutions, research institutes and other institutions of social and pedagogical orientation for the development of scientific and methodological foundations of professional development of staff.


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