E-Simulations for educating the professions in blended learning environments

This chapter introduces digital, role-based simulations as an emerging and powerful educational approach for the professions and for broader workforce development purposes. It is acknowledged that simulations used for education, professional development, and training, have a long history of development and use. The focus is on digital simulations (e-simulations) situated in blended learning environments and the improved affordances of the newer digital media used via the web to enhance the value of their contribution to learning and teaching in professional and vocationally-oriented fields. This is an area which has received less attention in the whole “e-learning” literature compared with the voluminous body of knowledge and practice on computer-mediated communication, online community building, social networking, and various forms of online (usually automated) assessment. A framework of blended e-simulation design is outlined. The chapter concludes by examining what the future might hold for simulations in further and higher education, and ongoing work-based learning

Reflections on the impact of social technologies on lecturers in a pathway institution

Education has evolved over time from face-to-face teaching to computer-supported learning, and now to even more sophisticated electronic tools. In particular, social technologies are being used to supple- ment the classroom experience and to ensure that students are becoming increasingly engaged in ways that appeal to them. No matter how educationally beneficial, however, new technology is affected by its users. To investigate this, lecturers at the Eynesbury Institute of Business and Technology (EIBT)—a Higher Education pathway provider—were surveyed to determine their perception and application of social technolog(ies) in their personal, but predominantly ‘professional’ lives. Utilising a qualitative and autoethnographic approach, one author provides an insight into their own attitude toward social technologies, coupled with responses to three open-ended questions. Thereafter, the same questions were posed to EIBT academic staff to understand their willingness or reluctance to use social technologies in their practice as part of their first-year pathway course(s)

Infusing the Science of Learning Into a Higher Education Leadership Seminar at a Public University: Improving Graduate Learning by Design

This chapter explores how one graduate-level seminar incorporated technology and insights from the science of learning to improve the delivery and assessment of course content. Drawing on the case study, Technology and Innovation in Higher Education, an elective seminar for master\u27s and doctoral students taught at The University of Texas at Austin (2015-2017), the authors discuss the benefits of project-based learning, retrieval-based learning strategies, and the use of diverse teams in educational settings. The authors consider how technology was used in this blended-learning/hybrid course to more efficiently and effectively achieve the learning goals. The chapter concludes with practical recommendations for instructors who seek to incorporate insights from the science of learning in their graduate courses