Active Blended Learning at Scale

2021 ◽  
pp. 106-121
Author(s):  
Andrew Struan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Academic Year

This chapter analyses the deployment of active and blended approaches to course design and teaching across one of the largest writing programmes in the British higher education sector. The programme, which teaches and assesses 12,000 students per academic year, adopts an entirely active and blended approach to all elements of its design. This chapter presents the pedagogical underpinnings to the programme, a case study of how the programme has been deployed, and discussion of some key challenges. The chapter establishes that active and blended learning approaches were central to the success of the programme, and that without such pedagogical designs the programme would have failed to meet its essential requirements.

The Policy of Reducing Study Places in Communist Romania Case Study of the Academic Year 1982-1983

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Matei Gheboianu
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Education System ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
Academic Year

Abstract: In the Romanian education system, the 1980s were a time of big constraints. The most severe decline in the number of places in the higher education system occurred in the preparation of the academic year 1982/1983. This trend continued during the following years, albeit it was less drastic. In this paper I try to answer the following questions: Which was the overall significance of the cuts? How were the cuts distributed among forms of higher education – daytime courses, evening courses and extramural courses? Which were the reasons behind these cuts? Were the cuts motivated by the employers’ demand of graduates?

Environmental service-learning approach in higher education – a descriptive case study on student-led life cycle assessments of university cafeteria meals

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Johannisson ◽  
Michael Hiete
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Course Evaluation ◽  
Learning Approach ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Descriptive Case Study

Purpose This study aims to share experiences of an easy to adapt service-learning approach in a graduate course on life cycle assessment (LCA). Specifically, it reports on how students helped the university’s cafeteria to assess meals by conducting an LCA for 25 meals and identifying environmental hotspots. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive case study of a graduate course at Ulm University is presented. The course included lectures and problem-based exercises, both theoretical and software assisted. A course evaluation was conducted during the course and one year after completion to poll improvement potentials, as well as its impacts on students’ everyday life. Findings It was found that although it was the first LCA for all students, the resulting LCA information of 25 different meals were homogeneous, comparable to the scientific literature and beneficial to the cafeteria’s sustainable development strategy. The concept of service-learning had a higher impact on students’ motivation than a good grade and active-learning is explicitly requested by students. The course design sensitized students to the real-life problems of LCA and made their consumption patterns more elaborate and ecological. Furthermore, this digitization of higher education could be carried out with only minor changes in the present COVID-19 pandemic situation. Originality/value As the subject of service-learning in natural sciences is still expandable, this study presents an easy to adapt case study on how to integrate such an approach into university curricula dominated by traditional learning. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this case study presents the first published LCA university course explicitly describing and evaluating a service-learning approach. The topic touches the everyday lives of students, allows comparisons between different student groups, is easily scalable to different group sizes and credits, and supports learning both how to study in small groups and cooperation between groups to ensure comparability of LCA results.

scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Blended Learning in Improving Students’ Workplace Communication Skills: A Case Study on Olive Website Test Result

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Agnes Siwi Purwaning Tyas ◽  
Ahmad Muam ◽  
Yohana Ika Harnita Sari ◽  
Cisya Dewantara
Keyword(s):  
Blended Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Cultural Management ◽  
Engineering Department ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Learning Instruction ◽  
Listening And Speaking ◽  
Academic Year

The research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using blended-learning instruction in improving students’ communication skills at Sekolah Vokasi Universitas Gadjah Mada. They were required to take the Test of English for Vocational Students (TEVOCS) and it indicated that there was a gap between listening and speaking ability as presented in the test scores. To support the improvement of both skills, blended-learning instruction was designed and carried out in the forms of online listening activities via Online Listening for Individual Practice (OLIVE) website and offline meeting for speaking activities. The research used experimental research, which referred to the results of pre-test and post-test scores of the group. The participants of the research were 275 students from three departments of Sekolah Vokasi Universitas Gadjah Mada; Language, Arts, and Cultural Management department; Engineering department; as well as Economic and Business department academic year 2019/2020. The pre-test and post-test scores show improvement in students’ performance in both skills. The result of the t-test also shows that there is significant improvement after the application of blended-learning instruction.

scholarly journals Percepciones en torno a una educación remota y a una educación híbrida universitaria durante la pandemia de la COVID-19: estudio de caso

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Jorge Balladares Burgos
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Formal Concept ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Strategic Learning ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Key Success Factors ◽  
Estudio De Caso

El presente artículo tiene como propósito realizar un estudio sobre las percepciones en torno a una educación remota y a una educación híbrida en la educación superior.  El estudio de caso de un programa universitario de posgrado se articula con el enfoque de la investigación basada en el diseño para analizar percepciones sobre una educación remota en tiempos de pandemia e identificar factores claves de éxito para una nueva normalidad educativa a partir de los microciclos de la fase de implementación.  Entre los hallazgos, se reconoce que una educación remota respondió a la emergencia de la pandemia y se identificaron factores claves de éxito tales como la temporalización del proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje, la docencia sincrónica, el diseño tecnopedagógico de los entornos virtuales de aprendizaje, y la transformación digital universitaria.  Estos resultados permiten resignificar el concepto tradicional de educación híbrida incorporando fortalezas de la educación remota, y reposicionándola como una modalidad de estudio estratégica para una nueva normalidad educativa que recupere progresivamente la presencialidad y expanda el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. La presente investigación contribuye a plantear pistas desde la educación híbrida hacia una renovada educación postpandemia. The purpose of this article is to lead a case study on perceptions around remote education and hybrid education in higher education.  The case study of a graduate university program is articulated by the design-based research approach for analyzing perceptions about remote education in the Covid-19 pandemic and to identify key success factors for new educational normality through the microcycle of análisis and exploration.  Among the findings, it is recognized that remote education responded to the emergency of the pandemic and identified key success factors such as teaching and learning timing, synchronous teaching, instructional design of virtual learning environments, and digital transformation in universities. These results allow us to re-signify the formal concept of blended learning including key strengths of remote learning and consider it as a strategic learning model for new higher education normality that will progressively recover face-to-face classrooms and expand students’ learning. This research contributes to raising clues from blended learning to renovate post-pandemic education

scholarly journals Intercultural competence of university teachers: a challenge of internationalization

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Zelenková ◽  
Dana Hanesová
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
English Language ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Medium Study ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Significant Deficit ◽  
Intercultural Mediators

Abstract The aim of the authors is to respond to the growing demands on the intercultural competence of university teachers due to intensified internationalization pressures on higher education, especially due to the growing number of students and teachers’ international exchanges. They report on an intercultural course design responding to this need, presenting a case study from Slovakia. First, they define the need of intercultural competence of university teachers, especially those teaching in English-medium study programmes. Then they share a) findings from a needs analysis preceding the design of a new curriculum for an intercultural competence course (ICC) at Matej Bel University (MBU) with three aims (development of linguistic, cultural and pedagogic competences); and b) results from action research during piloting the ICC course. A comparison of 2011 and 2018 surveys pointed to the growing dominance of the English language, including an increasing command of English by MBU teachers. The ICC curriculum, tailored to the pre-identified teachers’ needs, proved to be a feasible way of facilitating their intercultural competence. Its implementation revealed persistent prejudices and difficulties associated with overcoming them. It also confirmed a significant deficit in preparing university teachers for their role as intercultural mediators in English-medium courses.

The ‘Pleasure Principle’ in Blended Learning Approaches

2012 ◽  
pp. 75-91
Author(s):  
Paul Peachey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Efficient Technology ◽  
Pleasure Principle ◽  
Online Technologies ◽  
The Uk

Online technologies were met with initial enthusiasm in the UK following the publication of the Dearing Report (1997). However, this excitement soon became subdued due to disappointing outcomes and unfulfilled expectations regarding the online programmes. Considering the importance that the online component has on a blended learning programme, this chapter argues that the challenge in higher education is to get learners to want to engage as opposed to have to engage and therefore a sense of enjoyment should be added to the blend along with a sound pedagogy and an efficient technology. This chapter endeavours to discern some underlying grounded theory based on classic psychology that might underpin the efficient design of a blended learning programme and offers pragmatic considerations that might help to achieve it.

Energy and environmental performance of a higher education sector – a case study in the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 497-514
Author(s):  
Khuram Pervez Amber ◽  
Rizwan Ahmad ◽  
Ghulam Qadir Chaudhery ◽  
Muhammad Sajid Khan ◽  
Bilal Akbar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
The United Kingdom
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