Study abroad for secondary and higher education students: Differences and similarities in their interaction with the learning environment

Higher education is changing, and a new normal is coming. Students are even more demanding, and professors need to follow the evolution of technology and try to increase student engagement in the classrooms (presential or virtual). Higher education students recognise that the introduction of new tools and learning methods can improve the teaching quality and increase the motivation to learn. Regarding a question about which type of classes students preferred, ninety-one point ninety-nine per cent (91.99%) of the students wanted interactive classes over traditional. Having this concern in mind over the past years, a professor explored a set of methods, strategies and tools and designed a new and innovative paradigm using gamification. This approach is denominated TechTeach and explores a set of trending concepts and interactive tools to teach computer science subjects. It was designed to run in a B-learning environment. The paradigm uses flipped classrooms, bring your own device (BYOD), gamification, training of soft-skills and quizzes and surveys to increase the student’s engagement and provide the best learning environment to students. Currently, COVID-19 is bringing about new challenges, and TechTeach was improved in order to be more suitable for this new way of teaching (from 0% to 100% online classes). This article details this method and shows how it can be applied in a real environment. A case study was used to prove the functionality and relevance of this approach, and the achieved results are motivating. During the semester, more than a hundred students experienced this new way of teaching and assessment. In the end, more than eighty-one per cent (81%) of the students gave a positive grade to the approach, and more than ninety-five per cent (95.65%) of the students approved the use of the concept of BYOD in the classroom. With TechTeach, the classroom is not a boring place anymore; it is a place to learn and enjoy regardless of being physical or not.

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Minimizing Plagiarism by Redesigning the Learning Environment and Assessment

Student Plagiarism in an Online World ◽

10.4018/978-1-59904-801-7.ch013 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 194-207 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Madhumita Bhattacharya ◽

Lone Jorgensen

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Internet Use ◽

Process Approach ◽

The Internet ◽

Educational Setting ◽

Institutions Of Higher Education ◽

Education Students ◽

High Stakes ◽

Assessment Tasks

In this chapter we have raised a number of questions and made attempts to respond. These question are: Can plagiarism be stopped? Should we stop students from using the information available on the internet? Is it enough if the students just acknowledge the sources in their work? What action is required to minimize the harmful, and maximize the useful, aspects of internet use in the educational setting? We want our students to learn, and demonstrate their learning with honesty and integrity. In the institutions of higher education students learning is judged through assessment tasks in the form of assignments, tests, and examinations. We have to ensure that high stakes assessments do not act as an inspiration to cheating in the form of plagiarism. We have provided arguments in support of the integration of process approach with deliverables at the end of the course for assessment of students learning.

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Towards developing the skill of transcommunicating among tertiary education students: the role of study abroad programmes

Scripta Neophilologica Posnaniensia ◽

10.14746/snp.2020.20.03 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

Author(s):

Marlena Iwona Bielak

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Experiential Learning ◽

Study Abroad ◽

International Student ◽

Tertiary Education ◽

Student Mobility ◽

Education Students ◽

International Student Mobility ◽

Global World

The objective of the paper is to highlight the need of adjusting the skills of tertiary education graduates to the requirements of the present global world, which entails the idea that higher education should be aimed at developing abilities that will facilitate communicating within and across a variety of communities, ethnicities and cultures. In the paper it is postulated that tertiary education graduates should be equipped, inter alia, with the skill of transcomunicating based on the idea of equality of cultures and languages. Due attention is paid to the role of study abroad programmes in the aforementioned process. Accordingly, the research part of the paper delves into the influence of the Erasmus+ mobility on the development of transcommunication among tertiary education students and rests on the analysis of the material gathered during interviews with learners who participated in the international student mobility conducted within The Erasmus+ Framework. The research results point to the key role of experiential learning held in territorial contexts in the process of developing the skill of transcommunicating among the research participants.

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