Academic Plate Spinning: the Difficulties of Balancing Full Time Degree Study With a Part-Time Job

The study examined full-time students engaged in part-time work during term time. A qualitative approach was used to examine how students cope with simultaneously managing the two activities, and how part-time working affects their academic study. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain data from a sample of 30 undergraduate business students. The findings confirm that students merely satisfice many aspects of their lives, with reading time and assignment preparation being key areas that suffer in order to allow students to engage with part-time work. Possible options available to HEIs to adapt to, and remedy, the situation are explored

Dont write, just mark: the validity of assessing student ability via their computerized peer-marking of an essay rather than their creation of an essay

This paper reports on a case study that evaluates the validity of assessing students via a computerized peer-marking process, rather than on their production of an essay in a particular subject area. The study assesses the higher-order skills shown by a student in marking and providing consistent feedback on an essay. In order to evaluate the suitability of this method of assessment in judging a students ability, their results in performing this peer-marking process are correlated against their results in a number of computerized multiple-choice exercises and also the production of an essay in a cognate area of the subject being undertaken. The results overall show a correlation of the expected results in all three areas of assessment being undertaken, rated by the final grades of the students undertaking the assessment. The results produced by quantifying the quality of the marking and commenting of the students is found to map well to the overall expectations of the results produced for the cohort of students. It is also shown that the higher performing students achieve a greater improvement in their overall marks by performing the marking process than those students of a lower quality. This appears to support previous claims that awarding a 'mark for marking' rewards the demonstration of higher order skills of assessment. Finally, note is made of the impact that such an assessment method can have upon eradicating the possibility of plagiarism

Two's Company, Three's a Conversation: A Study of Dialogue Among A Professor, A Peer-Writing Fellow, and Undergraduates Around Feedback and Writing

A single teacher’s comments on student writing may feel less like a readerly interpretation of a text than directive instructions for writing “better,” closing possibilities for conversations about writing. Instead, when an instructor opens a space for feedback from multiple voices, the resulting dialogue could gesture toward the plurality of readings possible for one text and create a space for a writer to exercise and articulate choice. As a writing fellow in an art history class at an urban, private, religiously-affiliated university, I worked with the professor to provide feedback to student writers that modeled a multiperson conversation around their writing. Using Microsoft Word’s “Review” function, the professor and I commented on both student writing and each other’s comments. At the end of the semester, I reviewed these comments and noticed an interesting record on the page. These collaborative comments, along with e-mails and my logs from conferences with students in the University Writing Center, reveal the development of a conversation that recognizes a multiplicity of readerly interpretations. This method of feedback has the potential to invite students and teachers to enter into an interactive and stimulating discourse that re-positions the authority of both, encouraging students to more freely discuss their writing as authors.University Writing Cente

Write Free or Die: Vol. 04, No. 02

Avoiding Introductory Courses, Page 1-2 Upcoming Events, Page 1 Writing Committee Members, Page 2 Dangling Modifier, Page 3-4 Ask Matt, Page 5 Grammar Box, Page 6 Past Perfect, Page

Astrophysicists and physicists as creators of ArXiv-based commenting resources for their research communities. An initial survey

This paper conveys the outcomes of what results to be the first, though initial, overview of commenting platforms and related 2.0 resources born within and for the astrophysical community (from 2004 to 2016). Experiences were added, mainly in the physics domain, for a total of 22 major items, including four epijournals, and four supplementary resources, thus casting some light onto an unexpected richness and consonance of endeavours. These experiences rest almost entirely on the contents of the database ArXiv, which adds to its merits that of potentially setting the grounds for web 2.0 resources, and research behaviours, to be explored. Most of the experiences retrieved are UK and US based, but the resulting picture is international, as various European countries, China and Australia have been actively involved. Final remarks about creation patterns and outcome of these resources are outlined. The results integrate the previous studies according to which the web 2.0 is presently of limited use for communication in astrophysics and vouch for a role of researchers in the shaping of their own professional communication tools that is greater than expected. Collaterally, some aspects of ArXiv s recent pathway towards partial inclusion of web 2.0 features are touched upon. Further investigation is hoped for.Comment: Journal article 16 page

Engaging Qualities: factors affecting learner attention in online design studios

This study looks at the qualities of learner-generated online content, as rated by experts, and how these relate to learners’ engagement through comments and conversations around this content. The work uploaded to an Online Design Studio by students across a Design and Innovation Qualification was rated and analysed quantitatively using the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT). Correlations of qualities to comments made on this content were considered and a qualitative analysis of the comments was carried out. It was observed that design students do not necessarily pay attention to the same qualities in learner-generated content that experts rate highly, except for a particular quality at the first level of study. The content that students do engage with also changes with increasing levels of study. These findings have implications for the learning design of online design courses and qualifications as well as for design institutions seeking to supplement proximate design studios with Online Social Network Services

Supervision, Mentorship and Peer Networks: How Estonian Early Career Researchers Get (or Fail to Get) Support

The paper analyses issues related to supervision and support of early career researchers in Estonian academia. We use nine focus groups interviews conducted in 2015 with representatives of social sciences in order to identify early career researchers’ needs with respect to support, frustrations they may experience, and resources they may have for addressing them. Our crucial contribution is the identification of wider support networks of peers and colleagues that may compensate, partially or even fully, for failures of official supervision. On the basis of our analysis we argue that support for early career researchers should take into account the resources they already possess but also recognise the importance of wider academic culture, including funding and employment patterns, and the roles of supervisors and senior researchers in ensuring successful functioning of support networks. Through analysing the conditions for the development of early career researchers – producers of knowledge – our paper contributes to social epistemology understood as analysis of specific forms of social organisation of knowledge production

Is there a net generation coming to university?

This paper reports the first phase of an ESRC funded research project to investigate first year students' use of technology in relation to the idea of young people born after 1983 forming a distinct age cohort described variously as the Net generation or Digital Natives. The research took place in five English universities in the spring of 2008. The research found a far more complex picture than that suggested by the rhetoric with student use of new technologies varying between different universities and courses. Some of the more discussed new technologies such as blogs, wikis and virtual worlds were shown to be less used by students than might have been expected. The Net generation appears if anything to be a collection of minorities with a small number of technophobic students and larger numbers of others making use of new technologies but in ways that did not fully correspond with many of the expectations built into the Net generation and Digital Natives theses

Social media in collaborative learning in higher education : a qualitative case study of teachers’ and students’ views

In this study, it was investigated how social media are used in collaborative learning in higher education and also how it can be better used in teaching and learning according to the students and teachers. The research questions of this study were: 1) How social media are used in collaborative learning by the teachers and students in higher education for educational purposes? 2) How could social media be used in collaborative learning process in higher education, according to the students and teachers? Qualitative interviews were conducted to collect the data from ten students and five teachers from the different faculties of University of Lapland and Lapland University of Applied Sciences. In conclusion it was found that, social media were not much used in collaboration with teachers by the students of both institutions. In case of teachers, it was found that all of them were using social media in their collaborative ways of teaching design and they have found social media as useful tool to deliver their teaching. Most of the students and all the teachers found social media to be useful in their teaching and learning. But there were also some challenges faced and areas of improvements identified by them. Thus the higher educational institutions should understand the importance of using social media in teaching and learning and take initiatives to overcome the current challenges identified by the students and teachers