Purposefully-Designed and Mindfully-Facilitated Online Courses

The COVID-19 pandemic seriously impacted the ability of educational institutions to deliver in-person instruction. A pragmatic solution was remote teaching, which in most cases was essentially in-person courses delivered synchronously via computer-mediated technology and videoconferencing. Student reaction to, and faculty experience of, remote teaching and learning was varied but generally less than enthusiastic. There was a growing realization that, pedagogically, emergency remote teaching could not satisfactorily replicate either well-delivered in-person instruction or well-designed distance online courses. With the anticipation that higher education will increasingly focus on online delivery, there has been renewed interest, at both the institutional and faculty level, in how effective distance learning online courses are conceptualized, designed, and facilitated. This chapter attempts, briefly but comprehensively, to explore the theoretical and practical issues involved in purposefully designing and mindfully facilitating online distance learning courses.

Exploring the Effects of Blended Learning, Flipped Learning, and Online Remedial Teaching on Improving Students' Learning Performance and Motivation

The maturation of digital and technological learning in recent years has prompted a global transformation of teaching approaches. The aim of this research is to effectively improve students' learning motivation and their performance of dance skills. Through a quasi-experimental research design, teaching research was conducted with four different teaching approaches including blended learning (BL), flipped learning (FL), online remedial teaching (ORT), and traditional teaching during an 18-week term. The subjects of study were 199 university students in four sections of a dance course. Analysis based on the research results shows that BL is significantly more effective than FL in improving the learning effects of students 'dance skills; it is also significantly more effective than ORT and traditional teaching in improving students' learning motivation, and student reaction to two aspects, “value” and “expectancy.” In addition, students receiving FL not only have better “task value” than students receiving ORT.

An Observational Narrative of Student Reaction to Video Hooks

Digital video has become a dominant form of student learning in and beyond the classroom, and thus its pervasive nature in contemporary learning environments commands scholarly inquiry. In this paper we explore a participatory design-based research approach to the integration of video hook technology in the post-primary science classroom (students aged 12–15). Video hooks were designed with the intention of engaging students and augmenting their interest in science. Teachers across ten schools voluntarily agreed to implement the video hooks, and with their students (N = 128) engage in a qualitative, observational methodology to ascertain their effect. Triangulated data was collected through teacher interviews (N = 10), structured lesson observation and researcher journal documentation. Results reveal that student reaction was instant and impactful with evidence of both triggered and maintained student interest.

Enhancing fieldwork learning experiences for the architectural conservation curriculum

PurposeFieldwork in architectural conservation education is a proven practice to develop skills in documenting current conditions and start methodological engagements with a site's architectural and historical values. It is a vehicle to generate intensive learning experiences in comprehensive degrees or short courses. Review of the practice within conservation education is not extensive and the purpose of this paper is to reflect on enhancing pedagogy further.Design/methodology/approachThis reflection was triggered by a major case study, a workshop to generate UG teaching capacity for an Architecture school in Colombia. This led to mapping the fieldwork spectrum, reviewing the authors' experiences (PG courses and external workshops) and activities planned in other MSc programmes. Fieldwork is often seen as skills training, so enhancement is explored through the affiliate geography and architecture UG curricula.FindingsThe Colombia workshop provoked strong engagement among students and tutors, and their commitment to make heritage meaningful to their projects is a measure of this pedagogy's success. Fieldwork around a site's essence, beyond skills development can induce conservation students into critical enquiries by motivating them to develop personalised contexts and enhance engagement with the unexpected through inversion of linear learning processes. Setting up site exercises early on PG programmes can encourage curiosity in exploring historic environments and contextualise surveying methods.Research limitations/implicationsStudent reaction to these ideas has still to be tested by designing new activities. The educational methods of this implementation need deeper analysis, beyond the paper's scope.Originality/valueThe paper maps the academic value of fieldwork in conservation education, investigating enhancement and cross-fertilisation from architecture and geography.

Online Experimentation @FEUP: Five Years of Evaluations

The Online Experimentation @FEUP lab gathers a set of experimental resources based on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Haptic Systems. The design, development and implementation of those resources are guided by the following main goals: familiarizing students with the referred technologies, complement hands-on experimentation, motivate students and promote knowledge gain. A brief presentation of the online experimental activities most utilized and evaluated in the past five years in context of different undergraduate courses and at the K12 level is presented. In all the studies conducted, the strategies adopted involve pre- and post-testing to assess knowledge gain, experimental group activities, and individual response to surveys to assess student reaction. The results published in journals, conferences proceedings and book chapters are discussed.

Online Experimentation @FEUP: five years of evaluations

The Online Experimentation @FEUP lab gathers a set of experimental resources based on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Haptic Systems. The design, development and implementation of those resources are guided by the following main goals: familiarizing students with the referred technologies, complement hands-on experimentation, motivate students and promote knowledge gain. A brief presentation of the online experimental activities most utilized and evaluated in the past five years in context of different undergraduate courses and at the K12 level is presented. In all the studies conducted, the strategies adopted involve pre- and post-testing to assess knowledge gain, experimental group activities, and individual response to surveys to assess student reaction. The results published in journals, conferences proceedings and book chapters are discussed.

Dear White People

The film Dear White People takes place at the fictional primarily white institution Winchester University. The cast of Caucasian American, African American, and biracial students reflect the increasing racial tensions plaguing colleges and universities throughout the United States. Incidents such as the racist chants of Ohio University’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members and the assault of Martese Johnson at the University of Virginia are blatant exemplars of the pervasive nature of institutionalized racism that is present in higher education yet remains rarely discussed. This chapter involves a critique of student reaction papers to the film and its efforts to promote awareness and understanding of race in the context of higher education. Colleges and universities are environments where students are encouraged to deliberate more critically about abstract thoughts and ideas, which oftentimes is assumed to result in a more liberal and open-minded way of thinking. Unfortunately, the myth that increased education naturally translates into acceptance of racial, ethnic, and cultural difference is a fallacy for many people.

Business school space, the hidden curriculum, and the construction of student experience

Recent trends in business school architecture and design have sparked significant interest in exploring the ways space is used to build organisational identity and reputation. In this article, we add to these conversations by exploring the ways in which spatial designs and practices shape student experiences of business school education. Drawing from Lefebvre’s theorisation of spatiality as simultaneously physical, social and imaginary, we conceptually link spatial designs and practices to the business school’s hidden curriculum. The empirical study we conducted at a UK business school predominately focused on student accounts of their experiences with and within the school. The findings point out three aspects of the relationship between spatiality and the student experience: (1) space is deliberately used to symbolically orientate the school, and to reflect organisational values and ideals; (2) the way in which spatiality shapes student experiences relies on the student contextualisation of spatial designs and practices; (3) student reaction to spatiality is framed by their ideal vision of business school experience. We add to the current conversations on business school spaces and the student experience by showing how spatiality plays an active role not only in student on-course experiences, but also in their conceptualisation of business school education.

Does That A Really Make Up for the C? Student Reaction to Above- and Below-Average Grades

Grades function as an important tool for instructors, both to communicate information to students about their performance and to motivate them to try harder to succeed. This research examines student reactions to the presentation of grades in a marketing course to observe their impact on student ratings, perceptions, attributions, and emotions. A study compared different patterns of grades for three exams in which students could receive a 3.0 or similar grade point average (GPA). The results indicate that, holding overall GPA equal, students like a decline in grades the least, but they do not necessarily prefer improvement of grades over receiving the same grade throughout the term. Grades perceived to be bad have a disproportionate impact, regardless of the quality of the grades received later in the semester. Findings regarding student reactions support the literature on relative deprivation and on the asymmetry of negative and positive information.