First Year Occupational Therapy Students’ Engagement in Learning Activities: A Qualitative Study

When students enter a bachelor program in occupational therapy, they engage in a variety of learning activities. To explore students’ perceptions of learning activities, this qualitative study investigated the experiences of six first year students participating in an occupational therapy study program at a Norwegian university. The students took part in two focus group interviews. The interview analysis focused on meaning and ended up with three main themes: 1) Getting to know each other through collaborative learning activities, 2) Engaging in classroom learning activities, and 3) Approaching the syllabus and doing assignments. The study concludes that early engagement in social and collaborative learning activities can be a meaningful prerequisite to future learning focused on meaning and feeling safe in the learning environment. Teaching styles also influence students’ engagement in the occupation of studying, with the change from one teaching style to another being particularly challenging for the students

First year occupational therapy students’ engagement in learning activities - a qualitative study

When students enter a bachelor program in occupational therapy, they engage in a variety of learning activities. To explore students’ perceptions of learning activities, this qualitative study investigated the experiences of six first year students participating in an occupational therapy study program at a Norwegian university. The students took part in two focus group interviews. The interview analysis focused on meaning and ended up with three main themes: 1. Getting to know each other through collaborative learning activities, 2. Engaging in classroom learning activities, and 3. Approaching the syllabus and doing assignments. The study concludes that early engagement in social and collaborative learning activities can be a meaningful prerequisite to future learning focused on meaning and feeling safe in the learning environment. Teaching styles also influence students’ engagement in the occupation of studying, with the change from one teaching style to another being particularly challenging for the students.publishedVersio

New methods for collaborative experiential learning to provide personalised formative assessment

Supporting diverse and rapidly changing learning styles of new digital age generations is one of the major hurdles to higher education in the age of massification of education markets. Higher education institutions must now utilize unprecedented network speed and mobile technology to create stimulating learning environments for new digital age generations. This paper presents a new learning and teaching model that combines dynamic learning space (DLS) and mobile collaborative experimental learning (MCEL) for supporting diverse learning styles of students. DLS assists students with stateof-art modern wireless network technologies in order to support fast-paced, multi-tasking, data and content intensive collaborative learning in class. The model further extends student learning activities beyond classroom by allowing students to continue their learning anywhere and anytime conveniently using their mobile devices. MCEL provides automated continuous personalized formative-feedback 24/7. The main objectives of the model are to improve student engagement and to provide ownership of their learning journey, experiential learning, contextualized learning, and formative assessment at low cost. The model employs three factors that influence collaborative experiential learning and formative assessment. The three factors are: - The use of learning space within the classroom - Wireless learning technology - Mobile learning system (m-Learning) Pilot studies of the model are conducted and evaluated on two groups of postgraduate students. Their participation is observed, and a survey is conducted. The results show that (1) DLS encourages high-level learning and diverse learning styles to move away from passive low-level knowledge intensive learning activities; (2) MCEL supports Bigg's constructive alignment in curriculum design, contextualized experimental learning, and personalized formative learning

Implementing personalizing approach in teaching academic writing

Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Innovative collaborative design in international interaction design summer schools

[About the book]: Design is changing, and to educate the next generation of designers, these changes need to be addressed. In light of the growing role research and interdisciplinary collaboration play in contemporary design performance, Design Integrations calls for an innovative shake up in design education. Poggenpohl asserts that design research is developed through a typology within academic and business contexts, and follows different research theories and strategies. Such issues in design collaboration are explored in-depth, with essays on an inter-institutional academic project, cross-cultural learning experiences, and a multi-national healthcare project, demonstrating the importance of shared values, interdisciplinary negotiated process and clear communication for tomorrow’s designers

Using styles for more effective learning in multicultural and e-learning environments

Purpose – This Special Issue contains selected papers from the thirteenth annual European Learning Styles Information Network (ELSIN) conference held in Ghent, Belgium in June 2008. One of the key aims of ELSIN is to promote understanding of individual learning and cognitive differences through the dissemination of international multidisciplinary research about learning and cognitive styles and strategies of learning and thinking. Design/methodology/approach – Three papers within this special issue consider how style differences can inform the development of e-learning opportunities to enhance the learning of all (Vigentini; Kyprianidou, Demetriadis, Pombortsis and Karatasios; Zhu, Valcke and Schellens). The influence of culture on learning is also raised in the paper of Zhu and colleagues and those of Sulimma and Eaves which both focus more directly on cultural influences on style, learning and teaching. Findings – A number of key themes permeate the studies included in this Special Edition such as: the nature of styles; the intrinsic difficulty of isolating style variables from other variables impacting on performance; inherent difficulties in choosing the most appropriate style measures; the potential of e-learning to attend to individual learning differences; the role of culture in informing attitudes and access to learning; the development of constructivist learning environments to support learning through an understanding of individual differences; and most importantly how one can apply such insights about individual differences to inform and enhance instruction. Originality/value – The papers in this Special Issue contribute to enhanced knowledge about the value of style differences to design constructive learning environments in multicultural and e-learning contexts

Group Leadership in Online Collaborative Learning

The innovations in computer and communications technologies combined with on-going needs to deliver educational programs to students regardless of their physical locations, have lead to the innovation of distance education programs and technologies. To keep up with recent developments in both areas of technologies and techniques related to distance education programs, educators, administrators, and researchers are in constant needs of learning about issues, solutions, and challenges of these technologies. The Encyclopedia of Distance Learning offers the most comprehensive coverage of the issues, concepts, trends, and technologies of distance learning. With more than 2,000 terms and definitions and over 6,000 additional references, this authoritative 4-volume encyclopedia is considered the foremost reference source for the latest understanding, discoveries, and research in the field of distance learning

Librarian and Faculty Collaborative Instruction: A Phenomenological Self-Study

Several models of librarian and faculty collaboration are found in the professional librarian literature. The literature on collaborative self-study research in higher education settings indicates collaborative self-study research can improve interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to teaching and research and facilitate the transfer of knowledge. A research librarian and assistant professor of special education conducted a phenomenological self-study to examine their multiple roles as researchers, collaborators, and educators who collaborated to develop, implement, and evaluate distance-delivered instructional services for public school teachers who live and work in remote, rural, and Native communities throughout the state of Alaska. Several themes emerged from this study, including: (a) the authors’ interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts resulted in increased opportunities to team teach and conduct future collaborative research; (b) the authors struggled to communicate effectively with students via audio-conference; and (c) the beliefs and practices of both authors were transformed by their participation in this self-study. The study suggests implications for further and improved interdisciplinary collaboration between librarians and faculty. The authors believe this collaborative approach to self-study research facilitates reflective and authentic teaching and research for academic librarians working in collaboration with teaching faculty.Ye