Mobile Learning Model of Tour Guide Business in Universities from the Perspective of Distributed Cognition

In order to promote the better development of tour guide business, this article takes the tour guide business teaching in colleges and universities as an example and analyzes the current situation and the effect of students’ learning in the tour guide business course through investigating and researching the current situation of ideological and political teaching of the tour guide business course. It also proposes corresponding improvement measures for the existing problems, so as to improve the ideological and political teaching effect of the tour guide business course. To this end, this study relies on the powerful functions of UMU platform and builds a hybrid mobile learning mode based on UMU platform by improving the traditional teaching method of “face to face instruction + online lecture.” Although the UMU-based blended mobile learning model is formally divided into online learning and offline activities, in the actual teaching process, there are both you and me. In the process of online learning, students can realize the convenient learning through mobile APP terminal anytime and anywhere, or they can sit comfortably at the study table through the computer; in the offline activity classroom, students can sit in the classroom of UMU and communicate with teachers face to face, or they can use their cell phones to project their check-in, opinions, test results, etc. to the big screen. In the whole UMU-based hybrid mobile learning model, there is no clear boundary between online learning and offline activities, and online and offline are integrated with each other and crossed according to the actual learning needs to maximize learning efficiency.

Blended Learning Activities in an e-Business Course

The objectives of this study were threefold: to understand students’ perceptions of activities in a blended learning environment; to determine their preferred learning activities in this context, paralleling the four stages of Kolb’s learning cycle; and to determine the effectiveness of the blended learning used, based on scores achieved in an e-business course supported by the BLearning assessment system, a custom-designed reflective assessment tool. A mixed-methods approach was used to identify the students’ preferred activities. Findings indicate that (1) blended learning can add interest and variety to improve the students’ learning experience, (2) students prefer blended learning activities that match the first three stages of Kolb’s learning cycle (concrete experience, reflective observation, and abstract conceptualisation), and (3) data collected from the e-business course exam results show that the blended learning process was effective. In aligning teaching activities to student preferences, the notion of “teaching patterns” is introduced as the teaching perspective on these activities. Findings further indicate that blended learning activities based on the first three stages of Kolb’s learning cycle may be more suitable for students who share similar learning preferences.

Less is more

Pedagogical practices that are effective in content courses are often effective in CLIL courses too, yet one such practice – content compression – is generally neglected. Content compression is the purposeful reduction of the content to be taught; however, the CLIL literature often warns against the reduction and simplification of content for fear that it might harm students’ understanding of the subject content. This paper explains the ostensibly paradoxical result that content compression improves students’ understanding of content and shows why it is well suited to CLIL, if applied correctly. It presents content compression principles and techniques that are appropriate to content production and teaching practice in the CLIL classroom and shows how it was used to enhance language acquisition by students in a CLIL business course at a Colombian university over a period of three semesters. This experience suggested that content compression, in combination with other pedagogical practices, not only increased students’ linguistic confidence, but also enhanced their perceived learning in both content and language.

Motivation as a key element of psychological potential for entrepreneurial activities among the retired military personnel

The article considers with the problem of diagnosing the motivation of military personnel leaving the reserve, in order to assess their psychological potential for entrepreneurial activity. The currently known approaches to assessing the psychological potential of entrepreneurial activity are analysed. The necessity of identifying diagnostics of motivation as a key element for predicting the success of a serviceman who is transferred to the reserve in creating his own business is noted. Based on the analysis of the research results obtained during the implementation of the national project “Small Business Course” for military personnel and members of their families, the most significant motivators for two types of entrepreneurs were identified: innovators (capable of generating new ideas and modifying them from a business plan) and imitators ( who prefer to distribute previously developed technologies).

Animal activism in the business school: Using fierce compassion for teaching critical and positive perspectives

This article explores a practical approach to teaching animal ethics in food systems as part of a business course. We argue that tackling such complex and emotionally charged topics is vital to shifting unsustainable and hurtful behaviours towards more positive futures. Our teaching example outlines a pedagogy of courageously witnessing, inquiring with empathy and prompting positive action; an activist approach we term fierce compassion. These three layers blend positive and critical perspectives in a classroom to address contentious issues of large-scale industrial animal production hitherto largely neglected in a traditional business curriculum. While acknowledging that academic activism is controversial, we argue that fierce compassion – noticing the suffering that is remote and often systemically hidden – can inform and structure education towards more post-anthropocentric and just futures for all living beings – human and nonhuman alike.

Can Multiple-Choice Questions Replace Constructed Response Test as an Exam Form in Business Courses? Evidence from a Business School

The discussion of whether multiple-choice questions can replace the traditional exam with essays and constructed questions in introductory courses has just started in Norway. There is not an easy answer. The findings depend on the pattern of the questions. Therefore, one must be careful in drawing conclusions. In this research, one will explore a selected business course where 30 percent of the test is comprised of multiple-choice items. There obviously are some similarities between the two test methods. Students who perform well on writing essays tend also to achieve good results when answering multiple- choice questions. The result reveals a gender gap where multiple-choice based exam seems to favor the male students. There are some challenges in how to measure the different dimensions of knowledge. This study confirms this. Hence, it is too early to conclude that a multiple-choice score is a good predictor of the outcome of an essay exam. This paper will provide a beneficial contribution to the debate in Norway, but it needs to be followed up with more research. Keywords: multiple choice test, constructed response questions, business school, gender, regression model.

Learning Methods for Accounting Students: Explore The Effectiveness of Traditional Learning and Laptop-Based Active Learning

The main purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of Traditional Learning (TL) and Laptop-Based Active Learning (LAL) in the achievement of accounting students’ competence. This study is quantitative methods approach comprising of a systematic literature review, data analysis, and experimental studies on the two classes applying a different learning approach. Class A with 40 students applied the LAL approach, while class B with 38 students applied the TL approach. Students in the two classes received different treatments, but the question items tested were the same. This study also uses the independent samples t-test to analyze the hypotheses from the two data groups, both those using TL and LAL learning types. Overall, this study demonstrates that the accounting students’ learning achievement is higher when the class uses LAL approach instead of TL approach and that the LAL approach is better than the TL approach, especially on the Descriptive Statistics for Business course at Accounting Department, Islamic University of Indonesia.

Skill-based ESP Classroom: Teaching for Preserving and Enhancing Oman’s Comparative Advantages in an Era of Economic and Digital Transformation

English for Specific Purposes oriented inquiry spans different territories and domains (Basturkmen, 2013). Firmly established in the English for Specific Purposes teaching and learning practice developed in Oman’s tertiary education, this paper explores a skill-based teaching approach ascribable to its far-reaching partnership with Oman 2040 vision initiative, and 21st-century educational thinking and planning for the future. In particular, while debating current issues related to economic and digital transformation, it aims at examining student skill development in the context of an English for Specific Purposes classroom using Omani tertiary education students’ self-perceived responses. Students responded to a survey that investigated perceptions of transferable skill importance, self-efficacy, and opportunities for improvement. The results reveal that adaptability/flexibility, time management, oral communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving are the most essential student perceived transferrable skills concerning their future employability and professional success; however, the perceived opportunities to use and improve these skills as well as satisfaction with the ability to use them in the course vary, and, therefore, should be addressed when considering further development of the English for Business course curriculum and its delivery. As an outcome of this study, English for Specific Purposes program providers and educators will have a better understanding of the students’ skill-sets and provide their students with the tools and strategies they need to learn and thrive in English for Specific Purposes courses effectively.