Impact of design thinking in higher education: a multi-actor perspective on problem solving and creativity

This study investigates the effects of using design thinking on students’ problem solving and creativity skills, applying a constructivist learning theory. A course where students use design thinking for analyzing real problems and proposing a solution, was evaluated. The study involved 910 novice university students from different disciplines who worked in teams throughout the semester. Data were collected at three times during the semester, i.e. at the beginning (t0), in the middle (t1) and at the end (t2), after solving a short case study. Each time the problem solving and creativity skill of each student was rated by three different actors, i.e. the students themselves (self-evaluation), one peer and one teacher (facilitator). The objective of this study is to investigate whether the problem solving skills and creativity skills improved along the course, as rated by the three actors. A repeated measures ANOVA was used for the data analysis of this within-subjects design. Results show a significant improvement on students’ problem solving and creativity skills, according to the three raters. Effect sizes were also calculated; in all cases the effect sizes from t0 to t1 were larger than t1 to t2. The multi-actor perspective of this study, the adoption of reliable and valid measures and the large sample size provide robust evidence that supports the implementation of design thinking in higher education curriculum for promoting key skills such as problem solving and creativity, demanded by labor markets. Finally, a discussion that puts forward an agenda for future research is presented.

Learning Design in Higher Education

This chapter presents the findings from four case studies by higher education curriculum teams who used the CoDesignS Learning Design Framework for designing online or blended learning modules as part of the Learning Design Bootcamp and/or an institutional community of practice (CoP). The aim of the bootcamp was to inspire and empower learning technologists, learning designers, and academics from different disciplines to acquire a learning design mindset. The learning design journeys of each team are explored and analysed. The CoDesignS Framework enabled the teams to develop their designs and to systematically scale up learning design practices within their organisations. The sharing of good practice through the Learning Design Bootcamp and institutional CoPs was a key factor in the development of educator identity and confidence. Together, the framework and CoPs positively impacted culture and mindset, resulting in improved quality of learning and teaching and enhanced student experience and outcomes.

Video-based flipped learning in higher education: Effects on students’ learning motivation, attitudes, and engagement

In the recent years, flipped learning has become popular and been widely utilized as teaching approach to activate students’ learning engagement, which is frequently used to reverse the conventional teaching. However, much more efforts are necessary to enrich the literature about its practices across different teaching and learning contexts. This study is at the cutting edge of examining the practice of flipped learning in higher education contexts; as well as exploring its effects on students’ learning motivation, attitudes, and engagement. Data were collected using a questionnaire from 35 undergraduate students enrolled in “Introduction of Educational Technology” course at a college of education, and the data were tested using 24-version IBM-SPSS linear regression. The results demonstrated that flipped learning strategy is a positive predictor for students’ learning motivation (p-value 0.001 0.05), attitudes (p-value 0.007 0.05), and engagement (p-value 0.003 0.05). The results contribute to offering valuable insights for college stakeholders to enhance the efficacy of teaching and learning process, particularly for higher education curriculum designers to adapt to the current teaching approach. Instructional implication and research suggestions are provided based on the results of the study.

UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS AMONG FRESH GRADUATES

This paper attempts to explore the topic of the unemployment crisis among fresh graduates. The two main objectives of the study are to examine the influence factors of the unemployment crisis among fresh graduates in Malaysia, and the primary determinant of the unemployment has culminated in many policy implications for higher education. The unemployment rate among fresh graduates increased to 25% in 2020 than the year before, jumping from 13.8%. The null hypothesis is that employer preference, candidate attributes, and economic instability have no significant effect on the unemployment crisis. The information for the paper typically originates from a questionnaire survey method, with one hundred and thirty fresh graduates' participation in this study. The statistical approach is required to analyze numerical data using SPSS applications. Descriptive analyses such as frequency and simple percentages on demographic characteristics were used to analyze data. Inferential statistics such as linear bivariate correlation was used to test the formulated hypothesis. The finding demonstrated a significant association between employer preference, candidate attributes, and economic instability with the unemployment crisis. This finding would shed light on more preparation for fresh graduates' employability who preserve searching for a job by the education ministry. Hopefully, a revision in the academic higher education curriculum is considered to meet the job market's and stakeholders' needs for better graduate employability.

Higher Education Curriculum Evaluation Method Based on Deep Learning Model

Higher education plays an important role in the improvement of people’s quality and the development of our country. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the higher education curriculum. This paper analyzes and constructs the deep network learning system and self-encoder and evaluates the Chongqing higher education curriculum based on the deep learning network selected by 50 universities in Chongqing. It is found that the numbers of test objects, indicators, and hidden layers have an impact on the evaluation results. At the same time, a classroom teaching model is designed to improve the quality of higher education and solve the problem of insufficient curriculum quality of higher education.

Research on Higher Education Evaluation and Decision-Making Based on Data Mining

Educational data mining is concerned with developing methods to explore the data from educational environments which provides insights that help in understanding the learning process and improving the educational outcomes. The evaluation and decision-making methods of higher education resources ignore the number of specific basic systems of resource evaluation and decision-making, resulting in the low accuracy of evaluation and decision-making. Therefore, a research on higher education evaluation and decision-making based on data mining is proposed. We analyze the application of big data in the field of higher education and design its optimal curriculum design model. We calculate the phased teaching task objectives of higher education curriculum, form its curriculum teaching guidance according to the influence degree between learners’ learning progress and learners’ thinking limitations, and obtain the learning effect produced by the optimal selection of curriculum teaching content. Then the probability of learners completing the structured teaching goal is calculated, so as to establish the optimal curriculum design model of higher education. Finally, we obtain the quantitative values of different experiences, extract the main influencing factors of resource evaluation and decision-making, and carry out higher education resource evaluation and decision-making analysis on this basis. The experimental results show that the research method improves the flexibility and universal applicability of higher education evaluation and decision-making, achieving an evaluation accuracy of above 90% and with below 7% error rate.

Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Islamic higher Education Curriculum Orientation in Independent Campus Policy

Curriculum has strategic values in the era of independent campus. This research aims to construct a curriculum based multiple perspectives tends to learners’ preference and diversity in Islamic Higher Education. It’s a mix-method research. Qualitative methods, using naturalistic design with interactive models, while quantitative methods with cross-sectional surveys to determine the level of stakeholder’s understanding and the result of it. The result found that multiple dimention leads to an eternal-essential closed to the Oneness of God, creativity, capability. The other one refers to instrument; model, knowledge, organization, sequence, need analysis, purpose, value, and stakeholder. Furthermore, the appropriate one tends to an essential-humanistic technologies curriculum in fulfilling for independent campus recognition

Veterinarians and beekeeping: What roles, expectations and future perspectives? - a review paper

Apiculture is an important economy sector, facing a real health crisis. Honeybees, as well as other insect pollinator populations have been in decline over recent decades, and diseases are one of the principal challenges. To face this situation, public and private veterinary services are needed to manage surveillance, control, eradication and prevention measures of honeybee diseases within their territories, in close collaboration with beekeepers and farmers. It is necessary urgently to clarify the current problems and threats to apiculture in the public health sector. Due to possible interactions between bee health and production, the negative effects of environmental xenobiotics and climate change, this field must be considered as an interdisciplinary research issue. Moreover, honeybee veterinary medicine is increasingly engaged in the One Health approach, due to the possibility that the poor health of honeybee colonies affects human life. This review identified the key veterinarian roles, gaps in their higher education curriculum, as well as the necessity for research linkage between expectations and professional perspectives.

Escape rooms in paramedic education

Introduction Even with paramedicine's evolution, clinical decision-making will always be a crucial learning and teaching requirement. As part of their learning, paramedic students need to develop critical thinking and collaborative approaches with others. The aim was to review the literature around escape room activity as a pedagogical approach for paramedic education. The intent is to contribute to the discussion around authentic and engaging approaches to teaching clinical thinking and decision making in paramedicine. Methods A systematic review was undertaken to review existing literature on using this approach in higher education. EBSCO, Medline, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, ProQuest and PubMed were used to review paramedic and health education strategies using a list of keywords. Results There were 23 scholarly papers examining the use of escape rooms in an educational context found. There was no reference to using this teaching methodology in paramedicine, but some health contexts were identified for nursing, pharmacy, radiology and medicine. Conclusion With an instructional design that addresses logistical requirements, educational escape rooms can be used effectively in paramedic higher education. This review highlights a longitudinal study is needed to assess an educational escape room's implementation into the paramedic higher education curriculum. A longitudinal, multi-university study can further explore the feasibility of using a blended online/offline escape room activity in large enrolment paramedic programs.

“Teaching employability is not my job!”: redefining embedded employability from within the higher education curriculum

PurposeThis paper introduces a new approach to embedding employability by extracting from higher education curriculum the knowledge, attributes, skills and experience that employers value. The Extracted Employability concept enables academics to surface the innate employability value of what they already teach across all curriculums, disciplines and programmes, enabling students to prepare better for work and make more effective career decisions.Design/methodology/approachManual textual analysis of all UK Quality Assurance Agency Subject Benchmark Statements surfaced a database of common descriptors for defining and articulating the innate employability value of higher education curriculum, enriching language in attributes and transferable skills.FindingsExtracted Employability enables academics to articulate the employability value of their existing curriculum without sacrificing rigour or integrity, which is particularly of concern in research-led universities. Piloting the concept, a database of attributes and transferable skills enabled academics to surface significantly greater value for students from curriculum in the language employers recognise, addressing the perceived “skills gap”.Practical implicationsStudents, particularly studying subjects not professionally-aligned, will find it easier to connect the extracted employability value of their curriculum with what employers are looking for. Academics can use richer language of skills for creating learning outcomes that also have employability value.Social implicationsSurfacing employability through curriculum makes it structurally unavoidable for all students to engage with, supporting social mobility and enabling students to realise more effectively the value of their higher education in work.Originality/valueResearch and practice on employability has derived from a position outside academic curriculum established by Knight and Yorke (2003), but this approach redefines employability from within academic curriculum.