Computer Literacy: Implications for Teaching a College-Level Course

The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ perceptions of computer literacy skills they had obtained prior to enrolling in a university and to develop implications and recommendations for teaching a college-level computer course. One hundred twenty-five students who were currently enrolled in a required university computer literacy course completed a questionnaire. Students were asked to identify their skill level in various types of software and their exposure to computer concepts and issues. Results showed that students perceived themselves to be better prepared in word processing than they did in spreadsheet and database applications and that they had not received extensive coverage of ethical, social, legal and global issues. In determining the content of a university computer literacy course, consideration needs to be given to nontraditional students who have not been exposed to computers as well as those students who enter the university with a variety of skill levels. Additionally, an improved and extended coverage of database and spreadsheets might be warranted in a college level computer course. Since required computer literacy competencies are continually changing for high school graduates, it is imperative that universities monitor design and content of the curriculum to provide an adequate computer literacy background for university students

Balancing the books: creating a model of responsible fashion business education

Abstract The fashion industry has well-documented challenges around sustainability; the predominance of the low-cost-high-turnover business model raises questions about fashion’s ethics (Shaw et al., 2004). Fashion’s engagement with sustainability is most visible in design and production areas and is much less well developed in the area of socially responsible management, although integrating ethical business and sustainability into graduates’ attributes is increasingly seen as a priority for educators (Sims, Brinkmann, Sims and Nelson, 2011). The 2007 United Nations Principles for Responsible Management Education are an engagement framework for Higher Education Institutions to embed CSR in education, research, and campus practices (unprme.org). This Global Compact initiative developed in response to the global economic crisis, as a framework against which business schools can audit progress towards a societally responsible curriculum and practices. Purpose, the first of the six Principles, challenges educators to develop their students’ capabilities ‘to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy’ (unprme.org). With our position as fashion business researchers and educators we have a responsibility to guide students as they develop their positions on the serious issues the fashion industry faces today. This paper explores a series of curriculum interventions at undergraduate and postgraduate level which introduce fashion business students to the complex practical and ethical challenges for 21st century fashion businesses, using the lens of sustainability to explore every aspect of the fashion industry: production, design and promotion. Through the authors’ research and teaching, case studies, lectures, seminars and assessment tasks have been designed to engage students with a 360 degree understanding of sustainability and to promote students’ development of creative solutions to our industry’s challenges. One such teaching initiative was a finalist in the 2015 Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) Green Gown Awards. It involved a series of guest lectures from sustainability champions after which students carried out sustainability audits on start-up fashion brands and proposed design and marketing strategies using sustainability as a key source of differentiation and added value (Aaker & McLoughlin, 2010). Learning about issues such as textile waste and opportunities e.g. co-creation and no-waste design, engagement was high and students responded positively: ‘The sustainability part of this project has changed the way in which I look at fashion due to my heightened awareness of the sustainable issues affecting fashion’ (student feedback). Another initiative based on the authors’ research into innovative business models, uses their case study on social enterprise as the basis for a Fashion Marketing Strategy unit which uses real fashion industry examples, including our own alumni, to encourage debate about fashion’s difficult questions- the balance between economic, social and environmental sustainability. In these and other innovative fashion business curriculum examples explored in this paper, our research and teaching aims to find and respond to an increased interest in concepts of shared value (Porter & Kramer, 2011) particularly evident in new generations of students (Jarvis, 2016)

Introducing digital literacy skills through IBL: A comparative study of UG and PG business information systems students

This paper reports a comparative study of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) at Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PG) levels at a university in the north west of England. Both student cohorts undertook a professional, legal and ethical module centred on IT. This study focuses on how the different student cohorts approached this style of teaching, and how it impacted on overall student engagement throughout the semester. IBL was introduced in the 2009-2010 academic years; to the UG students in the first semester and the PG students in the second semester. Key observations gained from the study were unexpected in that the UG level students fully embraced the IBL approach, they maintained a high attendance level throughout the semester, and all preliminary and formative assessment work/tasks were eagerly completed. Ultimately, this developed students’ information literacy skills. PG students enjoyed the in-class IBL activities, but actively avoided module preparation and formative assessment work/tasks, and so minimized their opportunities to develop rich digital literacy skills. This study highlights potential enablers required to employ IBL techniques successfully

Preparing millennials as digital citizens and socially and environmentally responsible business professionals in a socially irresponsible climate

As of 2015, a millennial born in the 1990's became the largest population in the workplace and are still growing. Studies indicate that a millennial is tech savvy but lag in the exercise of digital responsibility. In addition, they are passive towards environmental sustainability and fail to grasp the importance of social responsibility. This paper provides a review of such findings relating to business communications educators in their classrooms. The literature should enable the development of a millennial as an excellent global citizen through business communications curricula that emphasizes digital citizenship, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The impetus for this work is to provide guidance in the development of courses and teaching strategies customized to the development of each millennial as a digital, environmental and socially responsible global citizen

Integrating Information Literacy into the Virtual University: A Course Model

published or submitted for publicatio

Exploring the Changing Teaching Practices and Needs of Business Faculty at Santa Clara University

This report will present the findings and recommendations of a study designed to explore Santa Clara University (SCU) business faculty’s current and emerging undergraduate teaching practices. The study was led locally by researchers in the SCU Library, with parallel studies conducted at fourteen other institutions of higher education in the United States during the 2018-19 academic year. These studies were coordinated at the national level by Ithaka S&R, a not-for-profit research and consulting service that helps academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, technological, and demographic change. Ithaka will publish a capstone report of major themes across all fourteen institutions in Winter 2020 and will include recommendations that libraries, universities, and business schools can use to support the changing teaching practices of their business faculty

Teacher education and the new biology

Recent years have seen a growth not only in biological knowledge but also, and more significantly for teacher education, in the types of knowledge manifested in biology. No longer, therefore, is it adequate for teachers to retain a Mertonian or a Popperian conception of science. Today's teachers of science need also to be able to help their students discuss bioethics and the societal implications of biology, even when these are controversial and contested. Moreover, practical work can no longer be confined to ‘pure’, ‘safe’ and ‘confined’ activities. These are increasingly rejected by students, validly, as boring or irrelevant. Instead, we need to help student undertake a range of activities that help them to develop criticality and the potential for action. While some may see this as an attack on science, I would argue that this attitude is akin to those who once held that religious education (in countries that permit it) should confine itself to ‘the faith’

Coteaching social education: An oasis in changing times

With the introduction and continued steady roll-out of the Australian Curriculum, teaching Social Education in 21st Century Australia has become increasingly challenging. This article explores how two teacher-educators tackled the challenge when developing a new Social Education course at a Queensland university using the strategy of coteaching. During the case study, data were collated from cogenerative dialogues, pre-service teacher questionnaires, and reflective journals. The data were subsequently explored using concepts from cultural sociology such as capital (Bourdieu, 1977) and agency and structure (Sewell, 1992). This paper examines how coteaching afforded the teacher-educators a vehicle to develop innovative curriculum and model ways to create a productive learning environment that reflected the philosophy of Social Education. It therefore speaks to higher-education institutions and schools about ways for navigating the present educational milieu through the adoption of collaborative strategies based on ethical relations that promote shared decision-making and reflexive practices

Criminal intent or cognitive dissonance: how does student self plagiarism fit into academic integrity?

The discourse of plagiarism is speckled with punitive terms not out of place in a police officer's notes: detection, prevention, misconduct, rules, regulations, conventions, transgression, consequences, deter, trap, etc. This crime and punishment paradigm tends to be the norm in academic settings. The learning and teaching paradigm assumes that students are not filled with criminal intent, but rather are confused by the novel academic culture and its values. The discourse of learning and teaching includes: development, guidance, acknowledge, scholarly practice, communicate, familiarity, culture. Depending on the paradigm adopted, universities, teachers, and students will either focus on policies, punishments, and ways to cheat the system or on program design, assessments, and assimilating the values of academia. Self plagiarism is a pivotal issue that polarises these two paradigms. Viewed from a crime and punishment paradigm, self plagiarism is an intentional act of evading the required workload for a course by re-using previous work. Within a learning and teaching paradigm, self plagiarism is an oxymoron. We would like to explore the differences between these two paradigms by using self plagiarism as a focal point