The introduction and refinement of the assessment of digitally recorded audio presentations

This case study critically evaluates benefits and challenges of a form of assessment included in a final year undergraduate Religious Studies Open University module, which combines a written essay task with a digital audio recording of a short oral presentation. Based on the analysis of student and tutor feedback and sample assignments, this study critically examines how teaching and learning practices linked to this novel form of assessment have been iteratively developed in light of the project findings over a period of two years. It concludes that while this form of assessment poses a number of challenges, it can create valuable opportunities for the development of transferable twenty-first-century graduate employability skills as well as deep, effective learning experiences, particularly – though not exclusively – in distance learning settings

Communication, Collaboration and Enhancing the Learning Experience: Developing a Collaborative Virtual Enquiry Service in University Libraries in the North of England

This paper uses the case study of developing a collaborative ‘out of hours’ virtual enquiry service by members of the Northern Collaboration Group of academic libraries in the north of England to explore the importance of communication and collaboration between academic library services in enhancing student learning. Set within the context of a rapidly changing UK higher education sector the paper considers the benefits and challenges of collaboration and the contribution of library services to the student experience. The project demonstrated clear benefits to student learning and evidence of value for money to individual institutions as well as showing commitment to national shared services agendas. Effective communication with students, with colleagues and stakeholders in our own and other Northern Collaboration member institutions, and with OCLC, our partner organisation, was a critical success factor in the development, promotion and uptake of the new service

Gamification as transformative assessment in Higher Education

Gamification in education is still a very new concept in South Africa. Being a 21st-century invention, it has already established itself in the world within the environs of the corporate market, marketing, training and the social world. This article will first discuss gamification (and all its other designations) and its applications in general; thereafter, the focus will be on the application of gamification within the environment of education, and more specifically with an emphasis on assessment. The burning question for South Africa is whether gamification can enhance a module or course on the level of higher education so much that an educational institution cannot do without it anymore, knowing that we are working with students belonging to the ‘Digital Wisdom generation’. This article would like to open the way for the implementation of gamification as a transformative online assessment tool in higher educationChristian Spirituality, Church History and Missiolog

Horses for courses, or a grumble in the jungle? HE in FE student perceptions of the HE experience in a land-based college

This paper presents a summary of preliminary findings regarding the perceptions of the legitimacy and quality of the higher education (HE) student experience through the lens of those studying animal/equine studies foundation degrees and BSc degrees within a small, ostensibly further education (FE) land-based college setting. As part of a PhD study, research data was collected using two student focus groups. Empirical student perception data from animal/equine studies students gathered whilst discharging external examiner duties at six English FE land-based colleges from 2007 to 2013 was also included. Despite FE college claims regarding the ‘supportive environment’ and ‘small classes’ being the unique selling point for those studying HE in FE (as opposed to HE within the university sector), responses from animal/equine studies students reported dissatisfaction with regard to the predominating FE culture, as well as concerns surrounding their HE status and the perception of others, as being bona fide HE students. Drawing on Bourdieu’s conceptual framework of habitus and field and notions of an institutional habitus, the HE in FE student experience is contextualised, together with recommendations for enriching HE in FE from the student perspective