Engaged learning in MOOCs: a study using the UK Engagement Survey

This study sets out to answer the question: how can we know what learning is taking place in MOOCs? From this starting point, the study then looks to identify MOOCs’ potential for future use in HE? Using a specially-adapted version of the HEA’s UK Engagement Survey (UKES) 2014, the research team at the University of Southampton asked participants who had completed one of two MOOCs delivered through the FutureLearn platform and designed and run at the university about their experiences as learners and their engagement with their respective MOOC. The results also show that both of the MOOCs were successful in enabling many participants to feel engaged in intellectual endeavours such as forming new understandings, making connections with previous knowledge and experience, and exploring knowledge actively, creatively and critically. In response to the open access approach – in which no one taking part in a MOOC is required to have a minimum level of previous educational achievement - the report shows that persistent learners engaged, regardless of prior educational attainment

Ethnographic methods in academic libraries: A review

Research in academic libraries has recently seen an increase in the use of ethnographic-based methods to collect data. Primarily used to learn about library users and their interaction with spaces and resources, the methods are proving particularly useful to academic libraries. The data ethnographic methods retrieve is rich, context specific, and often difficult to collect via other methods. This review provides an overview of research demonstrating how ethnography can be applied to learn about a variety of issues in academic libraries, ranging from space use to a way of teaching new students about library resources and facilities

The net generation and digital natives: implications for higher education

Executive Summary "Our students have changed radically. Today�s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." (Prensky 2001 p1) 1. There is no evidence that there is a single new generation of young students entering Higher Education and the terms Net Generation and Digital Native do not capture the processes of change that are taking place. 2. The complex changes that are taking place in the student body have an age related component that is most obvious with the newest waves of technology. Prominent amongst these are the uses made of social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), uploading and manipulation of multimedia (e.g. YouTube) and the use of handheld devices to access the mobile Internet. 3. Demographic factors interact with age to pattern students� responses to new technologies. The most important of these are gender, mode of study (distance or place-based) and the international or home status of the student. 4. The gap between students and their teachers is not fixed, nor is the gulf so large that it cannot be bridged. In many ways the relationship is determined by the requirements teachers place upon their students to make use of new technologies and the way teachers integrate new technologies in their courses. There is little evidence that students enter university with demands for new technologies that teachers and universities cannot meet. 5. Students persistently report that they prefer moderate use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in their courses. Care should be taken with this finding because the interpretation of what is �moderate� use of ICT may be changing as a range of new technologies take off and become embedded in social life and universities. 6. Universities should be confident in the provision of what might seem to be basic services. Students appreciate and make use of the foundational infrastructure for learning, even where this is often criticised as being an out of date and unimaginative use of new technology. Virtual Learning Environments (Learning or Course Management Systems) are used widely and seem to be well regarded. The provision by university libraries of online services, including the provision of online e-journals and e-books, are also positively received. 7. Students do not naturally make extensive use of many of the most discussed new technologies such as Blogs, Wikis and 3D Virtual Worlds. The use of 3D Virtual Worlds is notably low amongst students. The use of Wikis and Blogs is relatively low overall, but use does vary between different contexts, including national and regional contexts. Students who are required to use these technologies in their courses are unlikely to reject them and low use does not imply that they are inappropriate for educational use. The key point being made is that there is not a natural demand amongst students that teaching staff and universities should feel obliged to satisfy. 8. There is no obvious or consistent demand from students for changes to pedagogy at university (e.g. demands for team and group working). There may be good reasons why teachers and universities wish to revise their approaches to teaching and learning, or may wish to introduce new ways of working. Students will respond positively to changes in teaching and learning strategies that are well conceived, well explained and properly embedded in courses and degree programmes. However there is no evidence of a pent-up demand amongst students for changes in pedagogy or of a demand for greater collaboration. 9. There is no evidence of a consistent demand from students for the provision of highly individualised or personal university services. The development of university infrastructures, such as new kinds of learning environments (for example Personal Learning Environments) should be choices about the kinds of provision that the university wishes to make and not a response to general statements about what a new generation of students are demanding. 10. Advice derived from generational arguments should not be used by government and government agencies to promote changes in university structure designed to accommodate a Net Generation of Digital Natives. The evidence indicates that young students do not form a generational cohort and they do not express consistent or generationally organised demands. A key finding of this review is that political choices should be made explicit and not disguised by arguments about generational change

Cleveland Schools That Are Making a Difference

Profiles thirteen Cleveland schools -- a cross section of traditional public, private, parochial, and charter schools, where the majority of students are economically disadvantaged -- that have demonstrated progress in student achievement gains

Developing an inclusive curriculum for visually disabled students

[Aims] The purpose of this guide is to help staff identify and remove the barriers that visually disabled students may encounter when studying one of the GEES disciplines - i.e. geography, earth and environmental sciences - and to suggest ways in which students can be helped to enjoy a fulfilling learning experience. Some of the advice and guidance offered will be generic, reflecting the importance of a strategic approach within institutions and departments to the planning and delivery of inclusive curricula. However, much of the advice will apply to specific forms of visual disability, and to the demands made by the study of GEES disciplines. Moreover, because each student is unique, most of what is discussed here will need to be made relevant and personal to individual students. It is a key principle of this guide that a blanket approach to the management of the learning needs of visually disabled students on a GEES programme of study is likely to be ineffective

Measuring fidelity of implementation using the survey of enacted curriculum

The proper implementation of a curricular program is crucial in ensuring that the curricular content and learning intentions are delivered to students consistently and reliably. This being the case, it is essential that newly adopted curricular initiatives are evaluated for fidelity to the program\u27s original standards. Currently, state and federal regulations require teachers to use instructional programs that have been shown to be effective through scientifically based research (Stavin, 2003). to satisfy the scientifically based research requirement of NCLB, curricular programs undergo rigorous efficacy and effectiveness testing to ensure that the program\u27s standards are indeed valid. to further measure the validity, efficacy and effectiveness testing is often accompanied by fidelity of implementation (FOI) assessments (Century, Freeman, & Rudnick, 2008). FOI assessments serve to ensure that curricular programs are delivered to the standards prescribed by the original program model (Carroll et al., 2007; Century et al., 2008; Gresham, MacMillan, Boebe-Frankenberger, & Bocian, 2000; National Research Council, 2004 Reschly & Gresham, 2006; Schoenfeld, 2002)

Australian University Students’ Short-term In-country Study in China: An Ecological Perspective

The constant academic debate about the value of short-term in-country study (ICS) indicates the need for more research into ways to maximise the experience. There has been a disproportionate academic emphasis on the experiences of American students studying abroad, and hardly any research on Chinese learners from Australian universities can be found. To fill the gap, this study conducts a case study investigating this issue. It aims to examine the extent to which the ICS in China is beneficial for students’ learning, as well as to explore ways to maximise the short-term ICS experience. This study employs an ecological perspective which has redefined the goals of language education. Compared to the more traditional cognitively or socially orientated research, the ecological perspective offers broader interpretations of the four key constructs, namely, interaction, language learning, culture learning, and identity. Therefore, it can shed new light on the learning experience during ICS. Four questions to be answered regarding the key constructs of ICS are: (1) To what extent did the ICS facilitate interaction in different settings? (2) To what extent did the interaction during ICS contribute to language learning? (3) To what extent did the interaction during ICS contribute to culture learning? (4) What was the role of identity in the participants’ learning process in the ICS? The study used a mixed-method research design (the “quan-QUAL” design) for the triangulation of data sources. Pre-departure and end-of-program surveys were used to collect data on students’ learning experiences in the home country and host country respectively. In-country observations were conducted to capture more information on students’ sojourn experiences. Post-program interviews with participants collected nuanced details about their personal perceptions and re-entry experiences. Quantitative data were analysed by Excel and SPSS. The analysis of qualitative data included thematic content analysis, conversation analysis of observation data, and narrative analysis of student interviews. The main argument of this thesis is that while the ICS promoted in-class and out-of-class interactions which further facilitated language and culture learning to a great extent, Australian students’ identities and self-concepts also played a core mediating role throughout individual learning trajectories. The results have highlighted multi-level affordances for interaction, “seamless” opportunities for authentic language use, the diversity of cultural experiences that bolster intercultural learning, and the critical role of identity in different timescales in the ICS context. To maximise the ICS, participants should be facilitated with explicit program intervention to be fully aware of various affordances available and the power of their own subjectivity and agency. Since the ecological perspective has seldom been used to examine the ICS context, the findings of this research have made a substantial contribution to the practical field of study abroad and the theoretical domain from an ecological perspective. At the practical level, the findings will redound to the benefits of stakeholders in Australia and China. At the theoretical level, it has furthered our understanding of the theoretical framework of an ecological perspective on language education. The redefined success of language education from an ecological perspective allows us to evaluate the ICS with more subjective and relative criteria, which should be recognised in future research and by universities aiming to prepare their students for an increasingly multilingual and multicultural world