Assessing the quality of the integrated tutor model for student support in Open Distance Learning

The demand for university education has put pressure on institutions of higher learning to provide access and quality student support because increased access to higher education should not compromise the quality of student support services. Tutorial support in Open Distance Learning (ODL) is one of the support services used by institutions to ensure increasing academic access and participation. An Integrated Tutor Model (ITM) has been used for this purpose at the University of South Africa (Unisa). However, the quality of the ITM-based tutor support services is not yet known. The aim of this qualitative exploratory study was to assess the quality of tutorial support services offered through the ITM at Unisa. The ITM model is the integration of the face-to-face and online tutor systems adopted by Unisa. Students who were involved in the tutorials of the first and second semesters in 2022 were purposively selected to participate in the study. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). We learned that the students hold positive views about the quality of tutorials in terms of time management and the quality of recordings on Microsoft Teams, the tutors who offer the modules and the communication that they receive from the tutors. There were however challenges that the students faced such as load-shedding and network-related and personal issues. The tutors mitigated these challenges by sending the students the recordings of the sessions. The study shares knowledge about the tutors’ skills and creativity in the use of the ITM to provide quality support toward student learning in an ODL higher institutional environment

Writing, Collaborating, and Cultivating: Building Writing Self-efficacy and Skills Through a Student-centric, Student-led Writing Center

This quantitative study examined the effectiveness that a peer-tutoring model facilitated through a writing center has on student writing self-efficacy and writing skills. Students completed a pre-survey of beliefs and attitudes towards writing and a pre-assessment of writing before embarking on a unit of study that required students to utilize the writing process, including extensive revision. During the writer\u27s workshop class time, students in the experiment group were assigned to attend three peer-tutoring sessions with a trained writing center tutor. After completing the writing task assigned, all students completed the post-survey of beliefs and attitude towards writing. The post-survey and the polished writing task were compared with the pre-survey and pre-assessment to assess the effectiveness of the peer-tutoring model. Findings suggest that the model does increase writing self-efficacy and writing skills. Further expansion of the research population into a wide variety of instructional settings as well as an examination into the effect of a writing center peer-tutoring model on varied demographics might allow schools to examine the secondary school writing center model as an efficient way in which to promote a student body’s growth in writing literacy

Simulation-based learning and digital tools. A trial for Pharmacy Services

This paper focuses, amidst a collective desire to re-appropriate sociality and a focus on the use of digital and ‘phygital’ practices to promote inclusion and diminish the human impact on the planet, on the choice of hybrid, physical or virtual modes of interaction as a function of punctual rather than generalised needs to foster a conscious and sustained digital transition in university education. The essay deals with the simulation method as an established tool in learning medical disciplines, declining it in an unprecedented scenario such as pharmaceuticals and experimenting with its digitisation. With a view to the development of integrated didactics between analogue and digital, the case study Pharmacy of Services provides the basis for an extended reflection on the future potential of university education

Online scaffolding in a fully online educational leadership course

Online scaffolding encompasses a range of effective teaching strategies that help students to achieve their learning goals while at the same time exercising their autonomy. Although online scaffolding is crucial for student learning, not much is known about scaffolding in an online post-graduate course. In order to address this research gap, this study explored the intricacies of online scaffolding in a fully online educational leadership course. Through a mixed-method research design, a case study was developed weaving the perspectives and actions of lecturers and students in a fully online post-graduate educational leadership course. Two interviews with lecturers, two student online surveys and two online forum discussion logs, each one from the start and the end of the course, were analysed using content and statistical analyses. The theory of transactional distance provided a theoretical framework and the literature on scaffolding in distance education guided the analysis process. A third online space, the Question & Answer section, was archived and analysed in order to enrich insights that were emerging from the other data sources. Research outcomes revealed that lecturers’ understanding of online scaffolding focused on the design and use of resources, modelling, and the use of questioning in forum discussions in order to facilitate learner engagement with content. At the beginning of the course, lecturers provided a high level of procedural and social scaffolding followed by an on-going learner support (strategic scaffolding), which peaked before assignment deadlines. Students thought of online scaffolding as a coaching process in which lecturers monitor learners’ online engagement to provide encouragement, identify misconceptions, and provide direction and feedback when necessary. Furthermore, procedural and strategic scaffolding were reported by students as essential forms of learner support. In particular, students felt that formative and timely feedback was paramount to their online scaffolding and expected lecturers to offer procedural, social, and strategic scaffolding. Sharing of professional experiences and visual resources, a more informal tone of communication, and the use of students’ and lecturers’ names in online postings were evident throughout the course. In addition, peer scaffolding in online discussions was encouraged by the lecturer and practised by students through a range of strategies, including agreement with others’ ideas, acknowledgment of peers’ postings, and answering questions raised by peers. Some suggestions for enhancing online scaffolding in this course, and online teaching in general, include creating a course road map, describing the pace of the course, creating online participation and peer facilitation guidelines, and others

Promises, Promises: The National English Curriculum in Context

This thesis locates the Australian National English Curriculum in its political, pedagogical, intellectual and historical contexts. It argues that the tripartite structure of the Curriculum into language, literature and literacy is the result of a flawed pedagogy pointing to wider ideological conflicts over curricula and that this structure undermines a coherent and pedagogically sound approach to the teaching of English in schools

Case Studies Portfolio submitted as application for Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) (D3)

Having a lifelong interest in knowledge and learning, I view the claims and practices of education and higher education practices with active and interested skepticism, which comes out of a profound optimism – that what we have now is not the best we could have. Higher education should always be in the best interests of the individual being educated, tempered by the interests of society at large; above all, education should do no harm. It seems to me that this “bottom up” approach, whereby improving the thinking abilities of individuals improves the behavior of whole societies is the primary reason for the expensive activity of education. Economic research indicates correlations between education and state prosperity (Berger and Fisher 2013) though benefits of increased productivity may not necessarily be equally distributed. Furthermore, the causal mechanisms at play are not finely elucidated

The Printing Types. A practice based study of design principles in experimental letterpress

This research proposes that the conventions of traditional printing and typographic knowledge does not sufficiently address the design aspects and locations of contemporary experimental letterpress practice. Taking a hybrid method of historical and experimental practice-based approaches to traditional design principles and environments that are applied to individual and collective creative practice. This study presents a critical dialogue between the old and the new as well as review of the emergent field in experimental letterpress. Its findings contribute a definition of the field of practice through addressing the formulation of design principles, from historical aspects to the development of new perspectives. This investigation highlights the redefinition of research methods and an understanding of inherited techniques in contemporary design and pedagogical practices. The creative and pedagogical practices of J. H. Mason, Leonard Jay, Anthony Froshaug and Alan Kitching were identified, through a chronological ordering in the literature review. They were recognised as distinguishable in the field and relevant to inform the debate in this multifaceted study. This research demonstrates new ways to connect the rules situated in the practices of Mason, Jay, Froshaug and Kitching and its importance in design and pedagogies. Such research reimagines the conventions of letterpress printing that are deeply situated in over five hundred years of a standardised system. It has seen many technological, social, industrial and educational changes while the fundamental approaches to the processes remain the same. The thesis proposes that the contexts in which letterpress were constrained by can now be reordered, and the legacies can help to innovate in revealing new typographic forms and visual systems

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience