The Online Learning Experiences of Adults Students: An Analysis of their Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Ethnicity at a Higher Learning Institution. Trinidad and Tobago.

The research seeks to investigate the relationship between adult students’ online learning socioeconomic status, ethnicity and gender, and academic performance. The study consisted of a random sample of 280 adult students was selected from an adult student population of 1085. A google questionnaire was used to collect and analyse the data. Quantitative-deductive descriptive statistics methods were used such as mean, mode, standard deviation, Chi-square, Independent Samples T-Tests, and inferential statistics ANOVA.   The findings have identified variations in adult students’ age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, cultural beliefs, and how they all impact on students’ academic performance on the google courses classroom platforms.  &nbsp

Can the degree of the foreign accent be reduced?

gree of the foreign accent of Albanian speaking students at the South East EuropeanUniversity, Tetovo, Macedonia. The aim of the study is to find out whether the degreeof the foreign accent of these students can be reduced by using different pronunciationimprovement techniques involving segmental and supra-segmental pronunciation training.Among the other aims of the study, an additional purpose is finding out whether the levelof performance/GPA (Grade Point Average) has a correlation with the reduction of theforeign accent. The experiment was carried out with second year BA/English Departmentstudents at the South East European University divided in two groups. Both groups ofstudents (control and experimental) were pre- and post-tested by recording their initialand improved pronunciation at the beginning and the end of the semester respectively.The stress of the study is put on spontaneous speech pronunciation as well as readingpronunciation (paragraphs and tongue twisters). After a semester of accent reductiontraining the outcome of both groups shows significant improvement in the experimentalgroup meanwhile the control group shows unexpected changes. On the other hand, thestudy shows that the GPA (Grade Point Average) had no correlation with the improvementof the pronunciation

Developing research degrees online

Research degrees have been changing radically in the last twenty years, with an extensive body of work accumulated on improving the practice of research degrees and on developing skills for independent researchers. However, most of this work focuses on full-time residential research degrees, and little attention has been paid to part-time research degrees at a distance. This paper presents a novel research degree, the Virtual MPhil in Computing, offered by The Open University (UK), supported by a blend of technologies, and designed to address this gap. We discuss the support it provides for the development of student community, research dialogue and progress monitoring of distance research students

Rates of qualification from postgraduate research degrees : projected study outcomes of full-time students starting postgraduate research degrees in 2008-09 and 2009-10

"This report introduces a new approach to measuring rates of qualification from research degree study. It provides qualification rates of students on postgraduate research degree programmes at higher education institutions in England" - front cover

PhD Research Projects 2023

PhD Research Projects 2023 is the seventeenth annual conference and exhibition related to doctoral research at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. The event involves presentations by students undertaking the MPhil/PhD Architectural Design and MPhil/PhD Architectural and Urban History & Theory. This year, we also have contributions by MPhil/PhD students from the Architectural Practice programme, as well as from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit and the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity

Threads of influence: Greek tragedy and its relevance to the contemporary novel, with specific reference to Donna Tartt's 'The secret history', and my novel, 'The first seven years'

This MPhil concerns the contemporary literary novel and how it has been influenced by the Golden Age of Greek tragedy. It comprises of three parts: the thesis and the novel, hereby presented, and the journal of creative experiences, which was observed at viva. My thesis examines the historical development of Greek tragedy and its structure. It further explores how tragedy has influenced writers through the ages, culminating in the literary tragedy of today. The methodology of tragic form is investigated in the works of writers educated in Greek tragic structure, and also those with no classical background. This thesis aims to show how novelists without a classical education have accessed the tragic form, via threads of literary influence, and utilised it successfully, albeit often unconsciously. My novel, The First Seven Years, is a work of contemporary tragic fiction. It tells the story of one woman’s attempts to do the best for her child. Trapped between raising her young son, Alfie, and caring for an increasingly frail elderly relative, Kate becomes emotionally and physically stretched. When she discovers Alfie has been badly bullied in his failing state school, her attempts to change schools have tragic consequences. Finally, my journal, presented at viva, compiles my creative thoughts, notes and research for both novel and thesis in one portfolio. My original notebooks show much of my novel’s planning and I have included visual images used of characters, buildings, locations, Kate’s photography and Martha’s pottery. Factual research is also integrated; investigating peripheral neuropathy, school league tables and admissions criteria. Thesis research includes relevant newspaper cuttings, programmes to Oedipus Rex and Phèdre, readings by DBC Pierre & Jeanette Winterson, and an interview with David Guterson. This journal has proved invaluable throughout my MPhil, both as an inspiration and an aide-mémoire

Online vs. face-to-face discussions in a web-based research methods course for postgraduate nursing students : A quasi-experimental study

Background: Web-based technologies are increasingly being used to create modes of online learning for nurses but their effect has not been assessed in nurse education. Objectives: Assess whether participation in face-to-face discussion seminars or online asynchronous discussion groups had different effects on educational attainment in a webbased course. Design: Non-randomised or quasi-experimental design with two groups – students choosing to have face-to-face discussion seminars and students choosing to have online discussions. Setting: The Core Methods module of a postgraduate research methods course. Participants: All 114 students participating in the first 2 years during which the course teaching material was delivered online. Outcome: Assignment mark for Core Methods course module. Methods: Background details of the students, their choices of modules and assignment marks were collected as part of the routine course administration. Students’ online activities were identified using the student tracking facility within WebCT. Regression models were fitted to explore the association between available explanatory variables and assignment mark. Results: Students choosing online discussions had a higher Core Methods assignment mark (mean 60.8/100) than students choosing face-to-face discussions (54.4); the difference was statistically significant (t = 3.13, df = 102, p = 0.002), although this ignores confounding variables. Among online discussion students, assignment mark was significantly correlated with the numbers of discussion messages read (Kendall’s taub = 0.22, p = 0.050) and posted (Kendall’s taub = 0.27, p = 0.017); among face-to-face discussion students, it was significantly associated with the number of non-discussion hits in WebCT (Kendall’s taub = 0.19, p = 0.036). In regression analysis, choice of discussion method, whether an MPhil/PhD student, number of non-discussion hits in WebCT, number of online discussion messages read and number posted were associated with assignment mark at the 5% level of significance when taken singly; in combination, only whether an MPhil/PhD student (p = 0.024) and number of non-discussion hits (p = 0.045) retained significance. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a research methods course can be delivered to postgraduate healthcare students at least as successfully by an entirely online method in which students participate in online discussion as by a blended method in which students accessing web-based teaching material attend face-to-face seminar discussions. Increased online activity was associated with higher assignment marks. The study highlights new opportunities for educational research that arise from the use of virtual learning environments that routinely record the activities of learners and tutors

deep|think: A Second Life environment for part-time research students at a distance

This paper reports on the design of a Second Life campus for a new innovative post-graduate research programme at the Open University, UK, a world leader in supported distance higher education. The programme, launched in October 2009, is a part- time Master of Philosophy (MPhil) to be delivered at a distance, supported by a blend of synchronous and asynchronous Internet technologies. This paper briefly discusses the pedagogical thinking behind the Second Life campus, and the way the implementation was designed to meet the pedagogy. The paper also reports on the outcome of an early evaluation we have conducted

The Allergic Bodies Conference: Postgraduate/Postdoctoral Research Conference, 2010

This is the programme document for the annual Postgraduate/Postdoctoral Research Conference with Keynotes: Dr Jennifer Bajorek (Goldsmiths), Marianne Sjelsford (National Academy of Arts, Oslo, Sweden); Dr Maarten Vanvolsem (Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Katholieke Universiteit, Brussels), Professor Pedro Lasch (Duke University)