Designing educational tasks for success in industry: a reflection on the evolution of business communication studies in tertiary education

This paper is the result of a &quot;Rip Van Winkle&quot; experience I had concerning the teaching of Business Communication. The paper focuses on the remarkable expansion in the curriculum of the traditional &quot;Business Communication&quot; or &quot;Business Writing&quot; course offered by many tertiary institutions around the world. Based on 25 years of personal observation and experience in a number of educational settings, the paper will trace the increasing sophistication and complexity of the study of business communication from one that covered little more than lessons in the design of hardcopy memos, letters, and reports to one that now covers a broad spectrum of topics such as &quot;emotional intelligence,&quot; &quot;intercultural communication,&quot; &quot;effective public speaking,&quot; as well as the effects of purpose and audience on the design of a wide variety of business communications.An example of an effective task that involves a number of on the job activities is provided in the form of a ready to use assignment that is applicable in a number of contexts.<br /

Active Learning Approach for Students in Precalculus and Calculus Classes

We would like to present practices of using Web-based audience response systems to enhance interactive learning activities in Mathematics classroom. We mostly concentrated our attention on PreCalculus classes which have had traditionally low success rates and retention. During the last couple of years, we developed a set of course specific materials in the form of lecture notes and in-class and out-of-class assignments. Each major assignment is accompanied by clear and coherent guidelines explaining what kind of skills will be attained by practicing this assignment, how it can be done, what amount of time can it reasonably take, when is it due, and where to get help. Speaking of technology, in our practice we use online homework systems (WebAssign or Willey Plus), video materials, and Web-based audience response systems (Poll Everywhere). Enhancing a class with technology helps students to be better engaged with the concepts covered, better communicate with the instructor and their peers, check their understanding of the concepts and quickly get a feedback.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/btp_expo/1115/thumbnail.jp

Providing guidance on Backstage, a novel digital backchannel for large class teaching

Many articles in the last couple of years argued that it is necessary to promote the active participation of students in lectures with large audiences. One approach to make students actively participate in a lecture is to use a digital backchannel, i.e. a computer-mediated communication platform that allows students to exchange ideas and opinions, without disrupting the lecturer’s discourse. Though, a digital backchannel, in order to be most helpful for learning, have to address the need for guidance of the users interacting. The article presents Backstage, a digital backchannel for large class lectures, and shows how it provides guidance for its users, i.e. the students but also the lecturer. Structural guidance is provided by aligning the usually incoherent backchannel discourse with the presentation slides that are integrated in the backchannel’s user interface. The alignment is thereby asserted by carefully designed backchannel workflows. The article also discusses the guidance of a student’s substantial involvement in both the frontchannel and the backchannel by means of scripts. Through the interactions of guided individuals a social guidance may emerge, leading to a collectively regulated backchannel

The Long March or Bold Strokes : Comparing Strategies for Adopting EVS Learning Technology at a UK University

In recent years there has been much encouragement to investigate the use of classroom technologies to enhance the student learning experience especially in the STEM subjects but now extending across other subject areas as well. A typical classroom technology is electronic voting system (EVS) handsets which allow a lecturer to invite students to vote for their choice from a selection of given answers. Recently, a medium-size UK University has purchased over 9000 EVS handsets for use across the academic Schools as an innovative means for supporting formative and summative testing. Numerous training and support sessions have been provided to staff with the intention of supporting new and experienced users and increasing the take up by academics. As noted in earlier research reported at ECEL 2013, the student feedback was very positive for the use of EVS for formative activities, and less so, for its use in summative assessment. A recent review of the trends of EVS adoption at the University has been undertaken to inform decision-making and future use and support for the technology. One aspect of this review has considered the effectiveness of the strategies adopted by different academic Schools. EVS adoption and use across the University has been compared and placed within Rogers’ theory of the diffusion of innovation. This paper further considers a set of six different strategies adopted for EVS use by academic Schools. They have been categorised according to several variables, including their choice of speed of uptake and the number of handsets in use. The inherent strengths and possible weaknesses of the approaches adopted are considered. Among the questions raised were, does a strategy of large-scale technology adoption over a short time period indicate a greater likelihood of long term engagement and ultimate adoption of the technology? Or, does a longer elapsed time taken for a gradual purchase and adoption of EVS technology suggest a greater inclination for the embedding of technology for enhancing learning? What other success factors should be considered alongside the training and support provided for technology adoption to enhance the likelihood of long term adoption of classroom technologies? The discussion provides a comparison of six different strategies identified across the university and the rationale behind them and then proposes a set of strategy choices which can lead to a greater likelihood of successful adoption of classroom technology

Responding to the message: Responsive written feedback in a Maori to English transition context

This paper reports on the writing component of a community and school Maori to English literacy transition programme implemented in a kura kaupapa Maori (Maori language immersion school. 21 Year 6, 7 and 8 students received responsive written feedback for their writing in English, over a ten-week period, during their weekly independent writing time. Students’ stories were mailed to a young Maori woman (the third author) in a provincial city 100 kilometres from the kura . She was not known to any of the students prior to the study, but she acted as an interested audience, and responded in writing by focussing on the content or messages in students’ stories. She did not provide any corrective feedback on students’ writing. The study employed an intra-subject multiple-baseline research design across four school terms, with the responsive written feedback being introduced sequentially to each of three student Year groups. Measures were taken of total words written, adventurous words written, as well as holistic ratings of audience impact and language quality. Data demonstrate positive gains in both the quantity and quality of students’ writing, as well as maintenance of high levels of writing accuracy for all Year groups

“Stickiness”: Gauging students’ attention to online learning activities

Purpose: Online content developers use the term “stickiness” to refer to the ability of their online service or game to attract and hold the attention of users and create a compelling and magnetic reason for them to return repeatedly (examples include virtual pets and social media). In business circles, the same term connotes the level of consumer loyalty to a particular brand. This paper aims to extend the concept of “stickiness” not only to describe repeat return and commitment to the learning “product”, but also as a measure of the extent to which students are engaged in online learning opportunities. Design/methodology/approach: This paper explores the efficacy of several approaches to the monitoring and measuring of online learning environments, and proposes a framework for assessing the extent to which these environments are compelling, engaging and “sticky”. Findings: In particular, the exploration so far has highlighted the difference between how lecturers have monitored the engagement of students in a face-to-face setting versus the online teaching environment. Practical implications: In the higher education environment where increasingly students are being asked to access learning in the online space, it is vital for teachers to be in a position to monitor and guide students in their engagement with online materials. Originality/value: The mere presence of learning materials online is not sufficient evidence of engagement. This paper offers options for testing specific attention to online materials allowing greater assurance around engagement with relevant and effective online learning activities