scholarly journals Partnerships and Pedagogy: Transforming the BA Online

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Lloyd ◽  
Annika Herb ◽  
Michael Kilmister ◽  
Catharine Coleborne

There has been much written recently round the “digital revolution” of universities (Nascimento Cunha et al., 2020). Indeed, in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for universities to adapt and adopt new technological tools for teaching and learning, as both the global world we live in changed, and as students adapted to the continually evolving digital landscape. The BA Online is a new interdisciplinary online presence for the humanities and social sciences, and includes a focus on constructive alignment, innovative learning objects, and social learning. The semester-long courses were built as a supported social learning experience that is purposefully constructed with a narrative. This article reveals how the BA Online project was realised through the use of partnerships, particularly that of the university learning designers who worked very closely with both the online learning platform FutureLearn and academic staff in curriculum design and course transformation.

Author(s):  
Jiabin Zhu ◽  
Bo Yang ◽  
Qunqun Liu ◽  
Bing Chen

Higher education institutions are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges due to the rapid development of global contexts. With the momentum of higher education internationalization, leading universities in China began to launch international summer programs. These summer programs offer multiple benefits to university stakeholders, especially students. This chapter reviews the context and characteristics for international programs in leading Chinese universities. The significant role these programs play in designing an innovative learning platform were argued by reviewing and analyzing the trends among sample programs on aspects of curriculum design and implementation. The authors provide an in-depth understanding of students' learning outcomes during these programs by conducting a qualitative study utilizing sample summer programs. Last but not least, the opportunities and challenges concerning the organization and implementation of programs were analyzed and possible recommendations were proposed for future study abroad improvements.


Author(s):  
Jiabin Zhu ◽  
Bo Yang ◽  
Qunqun Liu ◽  
Bing Chen

Higher education institutions are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges due to the rapid development of global contexts. With the momentum of higher education internationalization, leading universities in China began to launch international summer programs. These summer programs offer multiple benefits to university stakeholders, especially students. This chapter reviews the context and characteristics for international programs in leading Chinese universities. The significant role these programs play in designing an innovative learning platform were argued by reviewing and analyzing the trends among sample programs on aspects of curriculum design and implementation. The authors provide an in-depth understanding of students' learning outcomes during these programs by conducting a qualitative study utilizing sample summer programs. Last but not least, the opportunities and challenges concerning the organization and implementation of programs were analyzed and possible recommendations were proposed for future study abroad improvements.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Bamurange ◽  
Abeer Hassan ◽  
Kieran James

This research is an explanatory study of the learning experience of international students when they come to study at UK. Survey collected from both undergraduate and postgraduate students who are studying at the University of The West of Scotland (UWS).  The survey consisted on many dimensions such as selection and admission, pre arrival activities, induction, orientation, teaching and learning and engagement. Our results provide some recommendations for academic staff and for international office at UWS. For academic staff, they should integrate the international dimension while they are designing their courses. They should implement interactive lectures and involve the international students into discussions. For staff who are working in the international office, they should attend training on how to deal with international students to be able to offer good service for them. They might ask for current international students to help in recruiting international students. Our study has a number of limitations that should be taken into account in future research. The focus on this study was on one university only. Future research should collet data from different universities to allow for comparisons. This is the first study to explore the whole experience of the international students. More research is needed to focus on each of the dimensions separately i.e induction, engagement, etc…


Author(s):  
Josef Malach ◽  
Tatiana Havlásková

The paper presents an overview of study felds at universities in the Czech Republic, which are aimed at achieving the qualifcations required for the performance of educational professions, respectively educational roles. The fundamental differentiation criterion is their main focus on one of the aspects of complex education, specifcally education and upbringing. Professions of an educator, special and social pedagogue or a leisure time teacher are considered to be the professions predominantly focused on education. University education for the previously stated occupational subgroups implemented so far is built on study programs that have been created by teams of academic staff and accredited by the Accreditation Commission. They are usually based on the erudition and personal experience of their authors and assessors and without any professional standards. The amendment to the University Education Act has fundamentally changed both the procedures for the accreditation of study programs and the functioning of the newly established accreditation institution — the National Accreditation Ofce. The study introduces the legal standards applicable to accreditation procedures as well as the fundamental changes in functioning of universities due to these rules. Apart from that, the curriculum design includes current education and training practices with a number of national (both positive and negative) characteristics and oddities identifed on the basis of the (inter)national research, analysis, monitoring or good practice. Today´s educational reality is the result of the involvement of stakeholders who reflect it critically in terms of their expectations and needs. They provide feedback to universities necessary for the innovations of graduate profles, the aims and content of their studies and the future educators´ teaching and learning processes. With regard to the implementation of the national digital education strategy, the possibilities of universities to respond to its objectives by preparing new subjects for teacher education are mentioned.


Author(s):  
John Stoszkowski

Flipgrid is an online video discussion platform designed to empower learners and facilitate social interaction between students. This paper reviews the use of Flipgrid to develop social learning with a cohort of undergraduate students at the University of Central Lancashire. Strengths and weaknesses of the Flipgrid platform are outlined, as well as potential barriers to its use, and future plans for incorporating it in teaching and learning.


2012 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin K. Hill ◽  
Jill W. Fresen ◽  
Fawei Geng

Lecturers in higher education often consider the incorporation of web technologies into their teaching practice. Partially structured and populated course site templates could aid them in getting started with creating and deploying webbased materials and activities to enrich the teaching and learning experience. Discussions among instructional technology support staff and lecturers reveal a paucity of robust specifications for possible course site features that could comprise a template. An attempted mapping from the teaching task as understood by the instructor to the envisaged course website properties proves elusive. We conclude that the idea of an initial state for a course site, embodied in a template, remains useful and should be developed not according to a formula but with careful attention to the context and existing pedagogical practice. Any course template provided for the use of lecturers should be enhanced with supporting instructions and examples of how it may be adapted for their particular purposes.Keywords: course template; learning platform; pedagogical dimensions; course site properties(Published: 17 December 2012)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20: 18665 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.18665


Author(s):  
Lien Cam

Many colleges and universities in Vietnam have employed e-learning platforms in teaching English with the hope to better students’ English proficiency. Recently, e-learning programs such as DNTU-LMS and Canvas have been implemented at Dong Nai Technology University. With their features of flexibility and efficiency, they have been being used as crucial tools for teaching and learning in various faculties in the university especially during the widespread of Covid-19 pandemic. The present study aimed at identifying the views of the EFL learners from Faculty of Foreign Languages on the application of e-learning platform. A group of 100 EFL students was chosen randomly to participate in this study. Data was collected using questionnaire. After analyzing student’s responses, the results proved that the introduction of e-learning was effective. E-learning also stimulates students to learn English and brings them comfort and joy.


Author(s):  
Mark Angelo C. Reotutar

The online learning platform (OLS) is currently the new normal learning setting amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Teachers need to look on the other side of the traditional classroom-based learning mode to make teaching and learning in the new normal possible. It aimed to analyze the current state of the teacher education freshmen applicants concerning the new normal learning platforms. This study employed a descriptive method of research and considered a sample of 85 freshmen applicants in the College of Teacher Education in the academic year 2020-2021. The frequencies and percent value was used to analyze the data gathered. The following are the verdicts of the study, the bulk of the respondents belong to low-income families with farming as their family source of income. Most of the respondents have their mobile phones while the great majorities are using mobile data only. All of the respondents do not have any idea about the different platforms in online learning. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that the freshmen applicants in the College of Teacher Education cannot totally survive and are not yet ready to embrace the new normal learning platforms due to poverty and lack of resources. It is therefore recommended that the University administration needs to open other sources of learning platforms such as the use of printed learning materials of which will be delivered door-to-door to the students. Besides, the College of Teacher Education should plan and initiate on how to make learning flexible and more engaging.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaw Owusu-Agyeman ◽  
Enna Moroeroe

PurposeScholarly studies on student engagement are mostly focused on the perceptions of students and academic staff of higher education institutions (HEIs) with a few studies concentrating on the perspectives of professional staff. To address this knowledge gap, this paper aims to examine how professional staff who are members of a professional community perceive their contributions to enhancing student engagement in a university.Design/methodology/approachData for the current study were gathered using semi-structured face-to-face interviews among 41 professional staff who were purposively sampled from a public university in South Africa. The data gathered were analysed using thematic analysis that involved a process of identifying, analysing, organising, describing and reporting the themes that emerged from the data set.FindingsAn analysis of the narrative data revealed that when professional staff provide students with prompt feedback, support the development of their social and cultural capital and provide professional services in the area of teaching and learning, they foster student engagement in the university. However, the results showed that poor communication flow and delays in addressing students’ concerns could lead to student disengagement. The study further argues that through continuous interaction and shared norms and values among members of a professional community, a service culture can be developed to address possible professional knowledge and skills gaps that constrain quality service delivery.Originality/valueThe current paper contributes to the scholarly discourse on student engagement and professional community by showing that a service culture of engagement is developed among professional staff when they share ideas, collaborate and build competencies to enhance student engagement. Furthermore, the collaboration between professional staff and academics is important to addressing the academic issues that confront students in the university.


Author(s):  
Athra Sultan Alawani

Teachers' professional development programs need to be reconsidered to meet their expectations in the new digital era. Thus, there is need to consider the importance of offering mobile, informal, and social learning in the workplace through smart utilization of the emerging mobile technologies. This chapter introduces the features of an innovative mobile and social learning platform, which aims at improving teachers' performance in the UAE and the Arab world by promoting knowledge and skill through better integration of ICT in the teaching and learning process and better adoption of learner-centric learning. A smart mobile learning platform called “Wamda” is providing micro-courses that are relevant to the curriculum, experiential, and immersive. It is designed to utilize the power of mobile learning technologies, artificial intelligence techniques, and social networking approach. Through this chapter, the critical pedagogical and technical aspects of creating a smart mobile learning environment were elaborated and checked against a list of attributes of smart systems.


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