Pre-service teachers use e-learning technologies to enhance their learning

The purpose of this study was twofold. The primary purpose was to improve pre-service teacher education by using technology to help pre-service teachers bridge the gap between academic preparation and practice. The secondary, but still important, objective was to familiarize pre-service teachers in the use of technology to support their future pedagogical activities. Therefore, this research sought to develop a method for training undergraduate students in designing, implementing, and evaluating lesson plans to solidify the relationship between research, pedagogy, and teaching practice. Specifically, this study investigated the implementation of e-learning as a method of instruction to help pre-service teachers evaluate and improve upon the implementation of their lesson plans during their real world practicum experiences. The study was guided by the following research questions: 1) What successes, challenges, and benefits do university instructors and pre-service teachers experience in using and analyzing video in teacher education methods coursework? 2) In what ways did the use of e-learning help the pre-service teachers improve their teaching during the practicum experience? Results showed that participants reported improved lesson planning, improved lesson implementation, visual interpretations of best practices, modeling, and peer and university instructor feedback as successes of the e-learning project. Challenges included participants’ frustrations of being overworked and overwhelmed with the technical problems associated with e-learning. Overall participants judged the e-learning project as a very positive aspect of their teacher training

Digital learning objects: a local response to the California State University system initiative

The purpose of this paper is to present a virtual library plan created by library directors of the 23 California State University (CSU) system campuses. The information literacy portion of the project offers a repository of high quality interactive digital learning objects (DLOs) in the MERLOT repository. Therefore, DLOs created locally at the Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Library at San José State University (SJSU) focus on topics that supplement the “core” DLO collection

A Case Study of Professors\u27 and Instructional Designers\u27 Experiences in the Development of Online Courses

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the experiences of instructional designers and professors during the online course development process and to determine if their experiences had an effect on the process itself. To gain an understanding of their experiences, open-ended interviews were conducted, seeking descriptions of participants’ interactions with project partners and their perspectives on technical aspects and current best practice guidelines. Five instructional designers and five professors from Utah State University (USU) who met selection criteria were purposefully selected and were recommended by an administrator from USU. Instructional designers included one female and four males, ranged from 2 to 6 years of development experience at USU. Professors, all male, had relatively little development experience, ranging from one to five courses, and had at the most, three years of online teaching experience. Data analysis revealed five emergent themes: communication, commitment to quality online courses, commitment to building robust working relationships, mutual respect for one another\u27s time and talents, and satisfaction in working with online course development. Communication was the most prevalent factor identified as having a positive effect on the development process. Lack of time was most prevalent as an impediment to the process. In conclusion, a workplace culture that fostered good experiences and the opportunity to interact in a supportive environment was beneficial to the online course development process. Managers and others involved in the process should be mindful of the workplace culture and consider dedicating effort and resources to preserve its integrity

Review of practice-led research in art, design & architecture

This review report sets out the outcomes of a 10 month investigation to describe the landscape of practice-led research in Art, Design and Architecture (ADA) in the UK and beyond. We were asked for a qualitative review but of course it has been important to gather some numbers to check and illustrate our observations. We have consulted widely, both face to face and in the virtual world, with experts and novices in the UK and around the world. We have tried to strike a balance between the natural desire of our colleagues to debate the more contentious aspects of this territory (they were never going to forgo that opportunity) and the equally strong wish of the AHRC that we should provide a clear description of what is happening. We have collected some diverse examples of research and subjected them to various examinations. We have also examined a selection of research projects funded by AHRC and other projects by creative practitioners, funded by a non-research organisation. From all this we have been able to describe the landscape in a straightforward sense: We have measures of the proportions of ADA academics involved in practice-led research. We have clarified differences in the ways that the different ADA disciplines engage with practice-led research and identified some problems that indicate possible future support strategies. We have discussed some problems with general definitions of research and identified issues that should be addressed to ensure that the AHRC definition can be applied to the full range of practice-led research. We have picked out some specific case examples that illustrate the range of contexts, methods and contributions made by practice-led researchers, and more are described in detail in Appendix F. We have also sought to assess how this research relates to the wider international picture in which the UK appears to have a strong position in both volume and development of research. We have also set out some issues that affect this community of researchers: What strengths and weaknesses have we observed and where is there a need to support development? Do the AHRC definition of research and guidance on practice-led research provide an effective framework? We have illustrated the state of development of research in ADA, and some reasons why it is less robust than might be expected from such long established disciplines. We recommend that the career path of researchers in ADA needs some attention and make some suggestions about how that could be achieved. We have also indicated some areas of inquiry that might be supported to advance the theory and methods of practice-led research. In particular we have come to the conclusion that conventional ideas of contribution to knowledge or understanding may not be serving us well. This is significant to fine artists but we believe that it relevant across ADA and a shared effort to develop appropriate new models would be a constructive development. The full set of recommendations can be found in chapter 5

The Crescent Student Newspaper, February 17, 2017

Student newspaper of George Fox University.https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/the_crescent/2460/thumbnail.jp

Critical success factors for e-learning implementation in Egyptian public universities: a stakeholders\u27 analysis

Higher education is witnessing major change worldwide and new methods of learning are emerging. Modern technologies are affecting the way educational institutions address learning challenges through presenting innovative solutions. E-learning is a form of education to which attention has increased worldwide. Flexibility provided by e-learning is makes it possible for universities around the world to enroll an increased number of students to meet the needs of all learners. The higher education system in Egypt faces several challenges which hinder it from development. It has become important for Egypt to strive to use new technologies to develop and strengthen higher education. Nevertheless, the take-up and use of e-learning in Egypt is still in its early stages and many difficulties and challenges need to be addressed in order for e-learning to be widely adopted. The present thesis studies the current situation of e-learning implementation and adoption at Egyptian public universities. The study analyzes the prospects of benefiting from e-learning in Egypt to minimize the problems facing the higher education system. The study further points out challenges that hinder the take up of e-learning and highlights the critical success factors needed in order to implement e-learning successfully in Egypt. Qualitative data was collected through conducting face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 21 top management officials, strategic planners, information technology experts, instructional designers, and professors teaching e-learning courses from different public universities. The thesis concludes with a set of policy recommendations in order to successfully implement e-learning in the higher education system

Designing a Curriculum in Design Thinking for Creative Problem Solving Users

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Envisioning Futures of Design Education: An Exploratory Workshop with Design Educator

The demand for innovation in the creative economy has seen the adoption and adaptation of design thinking and design methods into domains outside design, such as business management, education, healthcare, and engineering. Design thinking and methodologies are now considered useful for identifying, framing and solving complex, often wicked social, technological, economic and public policy problems. As the practice of design undergoes change, design education is also expected to adjust to prepare future designers to have dramatically different demands made upon their general abilities and bases of knowledge than have design career paths from years past. Future designers will have to develop skills and be able to construct and utilize knowledge that allows them to make meaningful contributions to collaborative efforts involving experts from disciplines outside design. Exactly how future designers should be prepared to do this has sparked a good deal of conjecture and debate in the professional and academic design communities. This report proposes that the process of creating future scenarios that more broadly explore and expand the role, or roles, for design and designers in the world’s increasingly interwoven and interdependent societies can help uncover core needs and envision framework(s) for design education. This approach informed the creation of a workshop held at the Design Research Society conference in Brighton, UK in June of 2016, where six design educators shared four future scenarios that served as catalysts for conversations about the future of design education. Each scenario presented a specific future design education context. One scenario described the progression of design education as a core component of K-12 curricula; another scenario situated design at the core of a network of globally-linked local Universities; the third scenario highlighted the expanding role of designers over time; and the final scenario described a distance design education context that made learning relevant and “close” to an individual learner’s areas of interest. Forty participants in teams of up to six were asked to collaboratively visualize a possible future vision of design education based on one of these four scenarios and supported by a toolkit consisting of a set of trigger cards (with images and text), along with markers, glue and flipcharts. The collaborative visions that were jointly created as posters using the toolkit and then presented by the teams to all the workshop participants and facilitators are offered here as a case study. Although inspired by different scenarios, their collectively envisioned futures of what design education should facilitate displayed some key similarities. Some of those were: Future design education curricula will focus on developing collaborative approaches within which faculty and students are co-learners; These curricula will bring together ways of learning and knowing that stem from multiple disciplines; and Learning in and about the natural environment will be a key goal (the specifics of how that would be accomplished were not elaborated upon.) In addition, the need for transdisciplinarity was expressed across the collaborative visions created by each of the teams, but the manner that participants chose to express their ideas about this varied. Some envisioned that design would evolve by drawing on other disciplinary knowledge, and others envisioned that design would gradually integrate with other disciplines

Open Educational Content for Digital Public Libraries

If the production of digital content for teaching -- particularly free content -- is to expand substantially, there must be mechanisms to establish a link to fame and fortune that was not perceived in a pre-digital world. How that might be done is the central question this report addresses, in the context of examining the movement for open educational content. Understanding that movement requires delving into the history of what may seem, on first pass, a totally unrelated field of endeavor. The reader's patience is requested....

Updating Undergraduate Graphic Design Programs: Recommendations for Including Communications and a History of Technology in Graphic Design Education in Order to Better Prepare Graphic Design Students for Their Profession

The knowledge required for today\u27s graphic design students to become well-rounded communication professionals is changing due to new technologies and new communication media. Revising educational curricula to satisfy these new needs must be addressed in the undergraduate graphic design programs that are currently being offered by art schools, colleges, and universities. A review of the literature, along with surveys of selected design firms in the Washington, DC area and professors at institutions offering undergraduate graphic design degrees, shows that communications studies and a background in the history of technology are two additional curriculum areas that would help to better prepare students for the professional tasks that await them upon graduation