USING ACADEMAGOGY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF MILLENNIAL LEARNERS: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

Higher education institutions across the world are experiencing a new generation of students, known as millennial learners. They are more technologically literate and digitally connected than previous generations of learners. To meet the teaching and learning needs of these learners, we must offer more deliberate and meaningful learning experiences and opportunities, where students can see the connections between new material and their own experiences and real world applications – an academagogic approach. This study compares the implementation of academagogy for two different groups of millennial learners – one a traditional face-to-face undergraduate Engineering unit, and the other a mixed-mode (online and face-to-face) undergraduate Design unit. The units are discussed in terms of their student evaluation results, both qualitative and quantitative, and in terms of their academic outcomes for students. Conclusions are drawn about the applicability of academagogy as a heuristic for improving teaching and learning across disciplines, as well as its strengths and limitations in terms of student results

ACADEMAGOGY FOR ENHANCING ADULT ONLINE LEARNER ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the online learning revolution in tertiary education. However, the commonly applied “one-size-fits-all” paradigm poses challenges such as high attrition rates among online adult learners. This paper highlights the potential benefits and limitations of academagogy to enable the personalisation of online learning in terms of fostering better learner engagement

Nursing Education: What Fits Best in a Changing World of Education Gogies?

Nursing education has roots in religious organizations, and apprenticeship approaches to ‘training’ nurses. Over time nursing education has moved to universities; yet retaining the critical practice nature of nursing. As a practice profession, nursing educators have to face the realities of ensuring that knowledge, skills, and values are taught in order for graduates to meet the entry to practice competencies. As graduates, nurses must also have the capacity to assess their knowledge gaps and be self-directed in filling those gaps so that they are providing evidence-based practice to those in their care. Educators must facilitate learning within best education practice, often identified as learner-centred approaches. In this discussion paper, we examine how nursing education has evolved, we critically examine the broader concepts of pedagogy, andragogy, heutagogy and academagogy, and discuss how these fit within learner-centred approaches to nursing education. Résumé Les racines de la formation en sciences infirmières remontent aux organisations religieuses et aux approches d’apprentis pour « former » les infirmières. Au fil du temps, la formation en sciences infirmières s’est déplacée vers les universités, tout en conservant la nature essentielle de la pratique infirmière. Dans le cadre d’une discipline professionnelle, les infirmières professeures et enseignantes doivent faire face aux réalités de l’acquisition des connaissances, du développement des compétences et de l’appropriation des valeurs afin que les diplômées accèdent avec compétence à leur champ de pratique. En tant que diplômées, les infirmières doivent également avoir la capacité d’évaluer les lacunes dans leurs connaissances et de les combler de manière autonome afin d’offrir une pratique fondée sur des résultats probants aux personnes dont elles s’occupent. Les professeures et enseignantes doivent faciliter l’apprentissage dans le cadre des pratiques exemplaires en matière de formation, souvent identifiées comme des approches centrées sur l’apprenante. Dans cet article de discussion, nous examinons l’évolution de la formation en sciences infirmières, nous examinons de manière critique les concepts plus larges de pédagogie, d’andragogie, d’héutagogie et d’académagogie, et discutons de la manière dont ceux-ci s’intègrent dans les approches de la formation en sciences infirmières centrées sur l’apprenante

A move towards heutagogy to empower theology students

Society is transforming from the industrial era to an information based, network society. There is widespread consensus that due to this revolution in society, education needs to make a paradigm shift in order to stay relevant to the changing needs of society. Although this paradigm shift is promoted widely in academic literature, it seems as if in practice there are stumbling blocks preventing higher education to make positive strides into a new direction within the South African context. This research highlights some of the hurdles that Open Distance Learning higher education in South Africa is experiencing and also suggests a possible way forward to overcome these obstacles through the implementation of selfdetermined learning (heutagogy). In order for heutagogy to be implemented successfully, student support is of the upmost importance both in the curriculum design and the actual teaching and presenting of courses.Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiolog

Beyond "It Gets Better:" utilizing seminary student affairs professionals to support millennial seminarians through crises of faith

Seminarians’ existential crises of faith are often-experienced but little-studied. Through surveys of Millennial MDiv students (n=30) and seminary Student Affairs and Student Services Professionals (SASSPs) (n=44), this study suggests crises of faith are fundamental to MDiv students’ spiritual formation, mirroring the pattern of Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory model (TLT). TLT also undergirds secular Student Affairs, where SASSPs regularly provide co-curricular “student learning” support. This study recommends training seminary SASSPs to be similarly-utilized within theological education, which would require resources for professional development from both their institutions and the Association of Theological Schools. Implications for multi-cultural theological education are also discussed

Alternative assessment for effective open distance education

The knowledge-driven, network society is founded upon technology. Educators need to implement technology effectively into the three main pillars of education, namely teaching, learning and assessment. This would assist students to become independent, confident and motivated life-long, self-directed learners that can use technology effectively in an educational environment. It would also ensure that graduates are able to become change agents, transferring their knowledge, skills and values to others in their communities. Alternative assessment methods that are technology driven could enable both educators and students to become more effective in a network society. This study advocates the use of alternative assessment methods by using technology driven assessment tools for possible replacement of traditional, paper based and "one size fits all" assessment methods within the subject field of Theology. Document analysis was used in a broad sense to evaluate technology-based multimedia documents. Ten documents were identified and evaluated as possible alternatives for traditional assessment methods. Inter-rater reliability ensured that the investigation provided constant estimates and results. The SECTIONS model used for this evaluation provided opportunities to include criteria important for higher education, the use of technology and subject relevant information to ensure that the evaluation was done with a specific purpose and scope in mind; to find technology-based tools that can substitute traditional assessment tools in order to enhance effective education to students.Educational StudiesM. Ed. (Open and Distance Learning