scholarly journals "The best part was the contact!": Understanding postgraduate students’ experiences of wrapped MOOCs

Open Praxis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tasneem Jaffer ◽  
Shanali Govender ◽  
Cheryl Brown

Mandated to provide support to postgraduate students, the Office of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Cape Town operates in a context characterised by limited funding and resourcing, varied student preparedness for postgraduate study, and increasing student mobility. Extra-curricular academic and professional skills support is offered through a range of modes, including the wrapping of MOOCs. This research explored the contribution of face-to-face, facilitated sessions to the learning experiences of wrapped MOOC participants. Interviews, surveys and course evaluations were analysed using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. Although the CoI framework surfaced complex relationships between the three presences and students’ learning experiences, with students expressing strong appreciation for the face-to-face contact in addition to online learning, the framework does not surface the substantial impact of learner and structural factors as contributors to learning.

Author(s):  
Abdul Munir Ismail Et.al

The study aims to highlight the current learning approaches used by postgraduate students to complete their postgraduate studies on time, as studies have shown many students have failed to finish their studies as planned. In particular, this study focuses on factors and methods that are perceived to be most effective by students to help them complete their studies on time.  Methodology: Thisstudy was based on a qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews. The study sample consisted of 14 postgraduate students and one lecturers as respondents. The research instrument was based on interview questions to elicit relevant information on their demography and learning practices. Data were collected and organized into four themes and were subsequently analyzed descriptively.     Findings: The findings showed that face-to-face discussions were the most popular practice adopted by the respondents. The findings also showed several factors had significant impacts on student learning, such as interpersonal relationships between students and supervisors, commitment, financial commitment, and moral support, which needs to be taken into account in helping students to complete on time.     Significance: The research findings can inform all the stakeholders, notably students, supervisors, and administrative officers, factors that have profound impacts on postgraduate students’ efforts to graduate on time.


Author(s):  
Hayriye Tugba Ozturk ◽  
Huseyin Ozcinar

<strong></strong>In a learning system, multiple communities represent a networked structure of learning experiences. Individuals belong to multiple communities connected though complex relationships consisting of people, resources, rituals, and ties. Learning occurs as individuals traverse this network from one community to the next. This paper explores the question of how learning occurs in compound communities from the perspective of <em>knowledge capital</em>, that is, the communities’ collective knowledge, skill, and perspective, as well as relationships and connections among members. Through interviews conducted with postgraduate students belonging to multiple communities, we identified issues related to conflict between communities, closed-congregation communities, privacy, and reputation. The results have implications concerning social and structural aspects of learning and instructional design in multiple communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. p36
Author(s):  
Tiffany Ko ◽  
Lisa Y. N. Law ◽  
Theresa Kwong ◽  
Eva Y. W. Wong

“Flipped classroom” is one of the popular blended learning approaches in Higher Education (HE) with significant use of technology. A “flipped” course typically engages students to do pre-class online learning at their own pace; the teachers then design active learning activities to reinforce students’ online learning in a physical classroom setting. Although literatures suggest that active learning after self-directed online learning can take place not only in traditional lectures hall but also online learning spaces, there is a lack of studies that investigate how the “relocation” of the face-to-face component online would affect students’ learning. As the COVID-19 pandemic has suspended face-to-face teaching on HE campuses worldwide, this article seizes the opportunity to examine the difficulties and possibilities of conducting flipped learning totally online. By evaluating the delivery of a flipped course for 46 research postgraduate students in Hong Kong during the pandemic-stricken period, the teaching team of the captioned course summarizes how the paradigm shift of flipped learning from partially online to totally online simultaneously distort and create new dynamics of in-class interaction and collaboration. Recommendations on how to better implement and research “flipped learning totally online” as a pedagogy across multiple disciplines will also be highlighted.


Author(s):  
Jessica Clare Hancock

This article explores action research that introduced a flipped-classroom approach to teaching dissertation writing. The cohort involved postgraduates studying at master’s level, with a high proportion of international students. Dissertation writing had previously been taught in a lecture-based format, with limited time for activities. Moving some of the information-based content to online videos, which students were asked to watch before the teaching sessions, meant that face-to-face content could be entirely based around active learning and a social-constructivist approach. The students who experienced this flipped-classroom approach became more positive about the use of online videos during the teaching period. Many favourable comments were made about the videos, although several students appeared to prefer to use video content as a recap of face-to-face teaching, rather than appreciating a true flipped-classroom approach. Nevertheless, students agreed that the face-to-face activities helped put their learning from the videos into practice, the videos helped them to complete face-to-face activities, and that the teaching was beneficial for their dissertation writing abilities. Despite an absence of existing research for this context, a flipped-classroom approach to teaching dissertation writing is therefore recommended, as long as the students are fully briefed about the reasons for teaching in this way. This teaching method may be particularly beneficial for postgraduate students who are familiar with online learning through videos in earlier parts of their master’s level courses.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Zubow ◽  
Richard Hurtig

Children with Rett Syndrome (RS) are reported to use multiple modalities to communicate although their intentionality is often questioned (Bartolotta, Zipp, Simpkins, & Glazewski, 2011; Hetzroni & Rubin, 2006; Sigafoos et al., 2000; Sigafoos, Woodyatt, Tuckeer, Roberts-Pennell, & Pittendreigh, 2000). This paper will present results of a study analyzing the unconventional vocalizations of a child with RS. The primary research question addresses the ability of familiar and unfamiliar listeners to interpret unconventional vocalizations as “yes” or “no” responses. This paper will also address the acoustic analysis and perceptual judgments of these vocalizations. Pre-recorded isolated vocalizations of “yes” and “no” were presented to 5 listeners (mother, father, 1 unfamiliar, and 2 familiar clinicians) and the listeners were asked to rate the vocalizations as either “yes” or “no.” The ratings were compared to the original identification made by the child's mother during the face-to-face interaction from which the samples were drawn. Findings of this study suggest, in this case, the child's vocalizations were intentional and could be interpreted by familiar and unfamiliar listeners as either “yes” or “no” without contextual or visual cues. The results suggest that communication partners should be trained to attend to eye-gaze and vocalizations to ensure the child's intended choice is accurately understood.


2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
조현 ◽  
Jaeshin Park ◽  
ki-jin jang

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina A. Meyer

Thirteen students in a graduate-level course on Historical and Policy Perspectives in Higher Education held face-to-face and online discussions on five controversial topics: Diversity, Academic Freedom, Political Tolerance, Affirmative Action, and Gender. Students read materials on each topic and generated questions for discussion that were categorized by Bloom’s taxonomy so that the level of questions in the two discussion settings would be closely parallel. Upon completion of each discussion, they answered questions that addressed depth and length of the discussion, ability to remember, and a self-assessment of how the student learned. Students’ assessments show a consistent preference for the face-to-face discussion but a small number of students preferred the online setting. However, what is perhaps more interesting is a minority of approximately one-third of the students who perceived no difference between the settings, or that the two settings were perhaps complementary.


Author(s):  
R J Singh

This article reports on the use of blended learning in higher education. Blended learning has become popular in higher education in recent years. It is a move beyond traditional lecturing to incorporate face-to-face learning with e-learning, thereby creating a blend of learning experiences. The problem is that learning in higher education is complex and learning situations differ across contexts. Whilst there is face-to-face contact at some institutions, others offer distance learning or correspondence learning. In each context, the mode of learning may differ. The challenge is to cater for various learning opportunities through a series of learning interactions and to incorporate a blended approach. The aim of this study was to examine various ways of defining blended learning in different contexts. This was done through an examination of experiences of the use of blended learning in different higher education contexts. The study presents a case of blended learning in a postgraduate course. The experiences from all these cases are summarised and conclusions and recommendations are made in the context of blended learning in higher education in South Africa.


Trictrac ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petru Adrian Danciu

Starting from the cry of the seraphim in Isaiahʹ s prophecy, this article aims to follow the rhythm of the sacred harmony, transcending the symbols of the angelic world and of the divine names, to get to the face to face meeting between man and God, just as the seraphim, reflecting their existence, stand face to face. The finality of the sacred harmony is that, during the search for God inside the human being, He reveals Himself, which is the reason for the affirmation of “I Am that I Am.” Through its hypnotic cyclicality, the profane temporality has its own musicality. Its purpose is to incubate the unsuspected potencies of the beings “caught” in the material world. Due to the fact that it belongs to the aeonic time, the divine music will exceed in harmony the mechanical musicality of profane time, dilating and temporarily cancelling it. Isaiah is witness to such revelation offering access to the heavenly concert. He is witness to divine harmonies produced by two divine singers, whose musical history is presented in our article. The seraphim accompanied the chosen people after their exodus from Egypt. The cultic use of the trumpet is related to the characteristics and behaviour of the seraphim. The seraphic music does not belong to the Creator, but its lyrics speak about the presence of the Creator in two realities, a spiritual and a material one. Only the transcendence of the divine names that are sung/cried affirms a unique reality: God. The chant-cry is a divine invocation with a double aim. On the one hand, the angels and the people affirm God’s presence and call His name and, on the other, the Creator affirms His presence through the angels or in man, the one who is His image and His likeness. The divine music does not only create, it is also a means of communion, implementing the relation of man to God and, thus, God’s connection with man. It is a relation in which both filiation and paternity disappear inside the harmony of the mutual recognition produced by music, a reality much older than Adam’s language.


Author(s):  
Mary Cavanagh

The face to face interactions of reference librarians and reference assistants are studied from a theoretical practice perspective. Rather than reinforcing professional boundaries, the results of this analysis support reference practice in public libraries as a highly relational activity where reference “expertise” retains a significant subjectivist, relational dimension.Les interventions en personne des bibliothèques de référence et des adjoints à la référence sont étudiées du point de vue de la pratique théorique. Plutôt que de renforcer les frontières interprofessionnelles, les résultats de cette analyse appuient l'idée que les pratiques de référence en milieu public sont des activités hautement relationnelles où l'expertise de la référence conserve une dimension subjectiviste et relationnelle. 


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