Handbook of successful open teaching practices

The document presents 24 open teaching practices, with the aim to inspire teachers to adopt open approaches, as well as an original competences framework for Open Education.Erasmus +info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How are Higher Education Institutions Dealing with Openness? A Survey of Practices, Beliefs, and Strategies in Five European Countries

Open Education is on the agenda of half of the surveyed Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. For the other half of HEIs, Open Education does not seem to be an issue, at least at the time of the data collection of the survey (spring 2015). This report presents results of a representative a survey of Higher Education institutions in five European countries (France, Germany, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom) to enquire about their Open Education (OE) practices, beliefs and strategies (e.g MOOCs). It aims to provide evidence for the further development of OE to support the supports the Opening Up Communication (European Commission, 2013) and the renewed priority on Open Education, enabled by digital technologies, of ET2020JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Digital Literacy for Older Adult English Language Learners

When essential services transition to digital platforms, individuals with limited digital proficiency, immigrant English Language Learners (ELLs), and older adults aged 65 and above face challenges accessing these resources, leading to potential exclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift to online interactions and services due to lockdown measures, reducing face-to-face interactions. This sudden transition left individuals without digital skills unable to access healthcare, essential services, and maintain connections with their support networks. Addressing this issue presents an opportunity to promote inclusivity, empowerment, and community engagement through targeted digital literacy training. Digital literacy encompasses the ability to navigate technology such as smartphones, applications, and the internet. However, existing digital literacy courses for adults often assume familiarity with computers, website navigation, and intermediate English proficiency. This gap highlights the need for tailored digital skills training for beginner ELLs. The Digital ESL field project, informed by Kolb\u27s Experiential Theory and aligned with the U.S. Department of Education recommendations on digital literacy education, aims to bridge this gap. By supporting community-based programs, this project equips newcomers, immigrants, and refugees with essential digital skills, empowering them to thrive in a digital society

A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities

Examines the state of the foundation's efforts to improve educational opportunities worldwide through universal access to and use of high-quality academic content

Education Research Using Data Mining and Machine Learning with Computer Science Undergraduates

In recent decades, we are witness to an explosion of technology use and integration of everyday life. The engine of technology application in every aspect of life is Computer Science (CS). Appropriate CS education to fulfill the demand from the workforce for graduates is a broad and challenging problem facing many universities. Research into this ‘supply–chain’ problem is a central focus of CS education research. As of late, Educational Data Mining (EDM) emerges as an area connecting CS education research with the goal to help students stay in their program, improve performance in their program, and graduate with a degree. We contribute to this work with several research studies and future work focusing on CS undergraduate students relating to their program success and course performance analyzed through the lens of data mining. We perform research into student success predictors beyond diversity and gender. We examine student behaviors in course load and completion. We study workforce readiness with creation of a new teaching strategy, its deployment in the classroom, and the analysis shows us relevant Software Engineering (SE) topics for computing jobs. We look at cognitive learning in the beginning CS course its relations to course performance. We use decision trees in machine learning algorithms to predict student success or failure of CS core courses using performance and semester span of core curriculum. These research areas refine pathways for CS course sequencing to improve retention, reduce time-to–graduation, and increase success in the work field

Collaboration in online courses in Slovakia

Comprehensive analyses of online and collaborative learning methods in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe are nearly non-existent. Yet, these nations typically have authoritarian teaching and learning traditions which present unique and significant challenges to the development of these methods, and which are poorly understood at present. This thesis provides a thorough examination of how collaborative activities are used in online courses, and of student and teacher perceptions of these methods, in the Slovak Republic (Slovakia), and postulates that its findings are relevant and valuable for the many newly open societies in the region that are now entering the online teaching world. Research involved case studies of two Slovak higher education institutions, and interviews with administrators and teachers from a number of Slovak educational institutions. Findings can be summarized as follows: • Collaboration is rarely used as a teaching method in Slovakia, particularly in online settings • Students do not expect to be asked to participate in discussions, but when asked they seem to have no problem embracing the method. • Instructors at many Slovak institutions lack the motivation and training to promote and use collaborative methods in their online courses • The few instructors who make the effort to implement some of these methods use mostly asynchronous discussions. Further analysis of data and findings leads to suggestions for improving the use of collaborative methods in online learning on three key levels: the course level, the institutional level, and the national policy level

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Russell Sage College: The Journey Toward Thriving

In partnership with Russell Sage College (RSC), the following service-learning project outlines our situation analysis, literature review and application plan to implement strategies and resources to enable RSC’s strategic initiative toward becoming a college known for well-being through an initiative called Thrive@Russell Sage. Leveraging research in Positive Psychology, and best practices from other colleges and universities, our team developed a Thrive “playbook” designed to support RSC’s ability to 1) communicate and engage the RSC community 2) expand Thrive through the curriculum beginning with RSC 101, an introductory freshmen course and 3) enhance and expand Thrive through appreciative inquiry. We suggest measuring Thrive@Russell Sage impact through an annual well-being survey of students and faculty and use survey data as input to evolve their strategic plan