Student engagement in virtual space

In this paper, a university course (subject or unit of study) that currently enjoys positive formal student reviews is used as a case study to demonstrate how theoretical knowledge about student engagement is effectively put into practice. This investigation identifies key aspects that have contributed to the positive student feedback with particular emphasis on student engagement online, or in virtual space. The investigation involves identifying what is considered good practice with respect to student engagement and then benchmarking the case study course against this. A key contribution of this paper is the presentation of practical examples demonstrating how the current theory is effectively realised in practice. The conclusion was that the course complied with key elements of what is considered good practice and successfully engaged students. Other practitioners may use the examples in their own context to help inform the practice of engaging students when teaching in virtual space

Innovative Work of University Libraries for Assisting MOOC Instruction

The rise and development of MOOC brings opportunities and challenges not only to the instruction and scientific research of the universities but also to the library daily work in China’s universities. On the basis of reviewing the birth and theoretical foundation of MOOC instruction, the relationship between university libraries and MOOC instruction is analyzed. Five aspects of university libraries’ innovative work in the MOOC era are put forward, which include carrying out all-round publicity and promotion, providing information sharing space combined with reality, improving the MOOC literacy of subject librarians, constructing MOOC course of “Information Retrieval”, and constructing the integration platform of MOOC courses. As an important teaching auxiliary department of university, libraries should continuously explore and innovate new method of work and service, and university librarians should make innovative efforts and obtain more professional abilities to assist MOOC instruction

Didactics of ICT in secondary education: Conceptual issues and practical perspectives

While there is a huge research literature on the field of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) as a tool in teaching and learning, there is much less research on the area of ICT as a subject or similar designations such as school informatics. As a result, there is a lack of theoretical grounding of the didactics of ICT and associated teaching and learning processes. One of the main reasons for the lack of theoretical underpinnings of the didactics of ICT is that there have been in the past and there persist even now strong disagreements and confusion about the nature of ICT as a school subject. While the content of the subject has been clearly defined in the school curriculum, the didactics of ICT is still unclear. This paper suggests ways forward in formulating a framework for conceptualizing the didactics of ICT. The framework draws on research in learning paradigms, epistemology, general didactics, conceptual, and curricular issues of ICT. The article also reports on implementations and evaluations of the framework that were carried out by trainee teachers in secondary schools

Supporting intense needs of assessment in computer programming disciplines

Completed research paperAfter several years of experience teaching computer programming disciplines, the major insight about how to succeed became very clear. Students must work in a weekly flawless base. Instead, students tend to study occasionally with strong peeks of work at assessment eves. However, implementing assessments in a weekly base requires a lot of resources and that is not easy to obtain. At an earlier stage, a sequence of experiments proved the influence of weekly assessment in students’ success in computer programming disciplines. A methodology to guide the weekly rhythm was developed and finally an automated assessment tool solved the problem of lack of resources.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Touch it, feel it and experience it: Developing professional IS skills using interview-style experiential simulations

The IS education field has made increasing use of computerised experiential simulations, but few attempts have been made to create an authentic learning environment that combines and balances elements of video-based computer simulation with real-life learning activities. This paper explores the design principles used to develop a CD-ROM simulation where learners use interviewing skills to elicit system requirements from simulated employees in an authentic context. The employees are videoed actors who converse with each other and with learners within a dynamic interaction model. The paper also describes how we combined this simulation with other teaching approaches such as in-class discussions, student team work, formal presentations, etc

Flipped Learning As A New Educational Paradigm: An Analytical Critical Study

A literature on the flipped learning model has been reviewed. Therefore, the new form of education is worthy enough to be further studied. It is believed that flipped learning has gained great attention of many researchers as a result of what educators are implementing at their classrooms. The main objective of the paper is proposing an educational analytical critical framework for flipped learning that has powerful effects for who are concerned with educational development. The broad groundwork of literature on the flipped learning, described as the inverted learning, provided a foundation for the present study. This groundwork of literature used the term flipped learning and examined its effects on the pedagogy in education. The educational analytical critical framework of flipped learning developed in this paper includes components that reveals different views of flipped learning from just a “fashion” of adding more mechanism to the classroom to it is as a tool for shifting present pedagogy customized according to the individual needs of the learners instead of the whole group. The components of the framework are: instructional foundations, learning theories, Bloom’s taxonomy, and conceptual framework of the flipped education that is discussed in the light of its connection to the educational foundations of flipped learning. Research method used was descriptive method and method of philosophical analysis

Teaching Digital Ethics in Information Systems

This paper reviews and discusses the little-explored topic of digital ethics education in Information Systems and related fields. The importance of teaching digital ethics to students studying information and communication technologies (ICT) is increasingly recognised. However, it is unclear how ethics should best be taught to these future ICT practitioners. Using a narrative literature review methodology to explore existing scholarly work, this paper identifies five pedagogical theories related to digital ethics education. Additionally, the paper outlines approaches that deploy standalone ethics units, integrated ethics teaching, and hybrid teaching approaches, and identifies the employment of and emphasis given to various moral theories in digital ethics education. The paper then discusses how these three sets of findings—namely, different pedagogical approaches, degree of integration of ethics teaching, and use of moral theories—are related to each other. It provides educators with information and reflections to consider when designing digital ethics teaching

Skills gap assessment to enhance the delivery of technical and vocational education: A case study of electrical installation graduates in Ogun and Kaduna states of Nigeria

Nigeria requires an efficient and a capable skilled workforce to manage the construction industry. The workforce comprises the engineers, technicians and the craftsmen from Nigerian universities, polytechnics and technical colleges. The importance of the skilled workforce cannot be overemphasized as it contributes immensely to the social and economic development of the country. The continuous growth in and expansion of this industry in Nigeria have led to exponential growth in positions that require certain technical skills. However, finding workers with the requisite skills remains a major challenge for employers in Nigeria. Employers have expressed concerns about the lack of adequately trained technical college graduates and feel that educational institutions under Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) are not producing graduates with skills that match the needs of industry. The aim of this research is to create a measuring and mapping framework to address the construction skills gap through improved technical and vocational education with reference to the challenges inherent in the Nigerian electrical installation education programme.The pragmatist philosophy and sequential exploratory mixed method were adopted in order to fulfil the research aim and objectives. During the early stages of the study, data were collected through focus group discussion with the electrical zonal education officers, electrical installation instructors and electrical installation heads of departments of technical colleges both in Kaduna state in Northern Nigeria and Ogun State in Southern Nigeria. Locales in northern and southern Nigeria were considered, due to previously reported educational disparity between the northern and southern parts of Nigeria in the extant literature.Their views were sought through six focus group discussions for the qualitative phase of the study. For the quantitative phase, a questionnaire survey was administered to electrical installation contractors.The key findings from the study indicated that the technical college institutions in Ogun and Kaduna states in Nigeria, faced problems with regards to their role in the provision of knowledge and skills. The study identified that skills gap exists among the skilled workforce in soft skills which comprises of thinking ability, reading skills, written communication skills, leadership skills, negotiation skills, time management skills and core skills for learning. Gaps were found in curriculum as it was out of date. Additionally, there is a lack of facilities and equipment needed for teaching and learning. The gap that exists could be addressed and improved by training and retraining the skilled workforce, introducing apprenticeship training and to make sure that the electrical installation programme curriculum is reviewed, with a view to make training more relevant to the needs of the construction industry.The findings of the study were used to develop a framework which was validated via a survey which indicated that the framework is valuable and suitable for use in practice since the research shows that most of the respondents accepted the research findings and recommendations for success.This research offers recommendations that will assist the industry, schools and public at large in resolving issues on skills gap assessment in Nigeria

A Statistically Significant Determination from Pretest to Posttest in Knowledge of Electrophoresis Concepts

The statistical significance from pretest to posttest of 109 high students constructing an electrophoresis chamber or not was explored. The students tested were from six intact biology classrooms. Three classes were treatment groups and three were control groups. The three biology teachers each taught a control and treatment group classroom. Except for building the electrophoresis chamber, students in both groups received identical instruction and testing. Pre- and posttest data was examined by means of a content valid test constructed by the researcher and biology teachers. In order to examine the statistical significance from pretest to posttest in knowledge of electrophoresis concepts among students who constructed the electrophoresis chamber or not, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was utilized. The final results showed a statistical significance but only just; therefore, the knowledge increase between students constructing the chamber compared to students who did not was marginal