Towards Supporting Academic Authors, Researchers and PhD Students in Higher Education

Academic authors, researchers, PhD, Doctoral, and Master’s students, write articles for journals, books, book chapters for inclusion in edited books, papers for conferences and conference proceedings, and so forth as a method of communicating and sharing scholarly research findings. This chapter reviews the supports necessary to learn how to effectively undertake research and successfully publish the findings. These supports could satisfactorily be provided through an e-learning portal or an e-learning platform. An e-learning module could be used to facilitate collaboration amongst staff, researchers, PhD, and post graduate students, who share similar research interests. Staff and students should be encouraged to develop a community of practice with fellow researchers as this relationship could provide beneficial peer support for as long as their research interests evolve and endure

Technology-Enhanced Learning: Towards Providing Supports for PhD Students and Researchers in Higher Education.

There are many elements to an individual’s life. Each individual engages in a variety of different activities which all require different types or forms of supports. Through family, friends, and colleagues, supports are available for many of the activities in which we engage. But, for students conducting research, specific types of support are necessary that can only be provided by supervisors and peers. This chapter reviews the supports necessary to learn how to effectively undertake research and how these supports could satisfactorily be provided through an e-learning portal or an e-learning platform. An e-learning module could be used to facilitate collaboration amongst student learners and researchers who share similar research interests. Students should be encouraged to develop a community of practice with fellow researchers as this relationship could provide beneficial peer support for as long as their research interests evolve and endure

A Review of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D): To Assist Patients’ and Carers’ Understanding of This Condition

The diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) will come as an unwelcome surprise to most people. Within a short period of time, the person will have to come to understand and manage this chronic illness. The terminology associated with the T1D condition will also be totally new to the person: diabetes mellitus, pancreas, hyperglycaemia (hyper), hypoglycaemia (hypo), bolus (fast acting insulin), basal (slow acting insulin), ketones and blood glucose levels. The purpose of this article is to assist newly diagnosed patients’ understanding of T1D, people who are already living with T1D, carers of people with T1D, partners and family members of someone with T1D, work colleagues, and friends who participate in the same sporting activities or go on holiday with a person who has T1D. In addition, this article reviews how people living with T1D can still enjoy exercise and maintain the best quality of life possible; whilst controlling the blood glucose levels in their body for the rest of their lives to prevent the onset of complications associated with diabetes

A Review of Virtualisation and Cloud Computing in Higher Education

Virtualisation in the classroom provides students with the impression that they are interacting with applications, services, and files which are stored locally, when in fact the applications, services, and files may be stored on a server off site, or at an alternative location on site. “Virtualization is a technology that permits the abstraction of the software from one computer and its easy deployment in another one, which may house additional virtualized machines” (Martín, Marrero, Urbano, Barra, & Moreiro, 2011, p. 349). Server virtualisation is when an Information Technology manager or computer administrator partitions a server to create several instances of virtual servers, thereby multiplying the working capacity of the physical server

Can E-Learning Be Used to Further Improve the Learning Experience To Better Prepare Students For Work In Industry

In the context of this study, the term e-learning refers to the use of an e-learning platform as an enhancement to traditional teaching methods in the form of blended learning. The term industry is used here in a generic sense i.e. a form of employment that will remunerate the employee. This dissertation sets out to explore the hypothesis ‘Can e-learning be used to further improve the learning experience, to better prepare students for work in industry?’ The theoretical framework consists of empirical research to identify the conclusions drawn by others who have previously explored similar hypotheses. Initially a Survey of Representatives from Industry was conducted, to establish what they considered to be the characteristics students should have if they are to be regarded as being prepared for work in industry?From the responses received from the hundred and twenty surveys distributed to representatives from various industries (i.e. recruitment agencies, banks, hotels, retail chains, manufacturing, etc.), surveys for students and lecturers were then created, to establish their views on whether e-learning was improving the learning experience (in accordance with the expectations of representatives from industry) to better prepare students for work in industry. The survey of students and lecturers was undertaken to find out how they perceived elearning with respect to improving the learning experience and how effective e-learning was over traditional teaching methods in preparing students for work in industry. The final conclusion is that e-learning blended with traditional teaching methods when used effectively, further improves the learning experience, to better prepare students for work in industry

The Student Perspective: Can the Use of Technologies Transform Learning?

This chapter explores students’ perspectives on the transformations that the use of technology has brought to higher education. The use of technologies in higher education facilitates flexible learning environments but the benefits to students who engage with these technologies will only be realised if the design is pedagogically sound. The pedagogic approach employed by lecturers when designing their e-learning platforms or learning management systems has the capability to transform learning. The author’s discipline is Information Technology and Business Information Systems; from experience and case studies there is ample evidence to suggest that the use of technology does not always necessarily meet user requirements. Students are the end users of the technologies that educators use to enhance students’ learning experiences. This chapter was undertaken to obtain students’ perspectives (as the end users) on the uses of technologies in higher education to assist educators in improving the pedagogical design of their e-learning platforms. The responses received from students clearly indicate they are of the opinion that the use of technologies in higher education beneficially transforms learning but will never replace lecturers. In essence, the benefits that can be achieved through the use of technologies are totally dependent on the ways they are employed pedagogically by lecturers

Learning Theories: ePedagogical Strategies for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in Higher Education

This chapter reviews various learning theories about e-pedagogical strategies for the effective use of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in higher education. E-pedagogical strategies refer to the various teaching methods or approaches used by educators when encouraging students to engage with online learning. An up-to-date broad knowledge of learning theories is required by educators to inform and inspire their teaching approaches. Before developing lesson plans, educators should have a clear idea of the learning outcomes which they hope the learners will achieve by engaging with the lessons, be they delivered on or off line. By knowing the desired learning outcomes in advance of developing the lesson plans, educators have the opportunity to consider various learning theories, teaching methods, and pedagogical strategies to select the most appropriate one(s) to use when creating course content for MOOCs. The chapter continues the discussion on ‘ePedagogy and interactive MOOCs’ from the perspective of addressing the topic of ‘ePedagogy and students’ use of HCI (integrating interactivity into asynchronous MOOCs)

Challenges Encountered in Creating Personalised Learning Activities to Suit Students Learning Preferences

This book chapter reviews some of the challenges encountered by educators in creating personalised e-learning activities to suit students learning preferences. Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) alternatively known as e-learning has not yet reached its full potential in higher education. There are still many potential uses as yet undiscovered and other discovered uses which are not yet realisable by many educators. TEL is still predominantly used for e-dissemination and e-administration. This chapter reviews the potential use of TEL to provide personalised learning activities to suit individual students learning preferences. In particular the challenges encountered by educators when trying to implement personalised learning activities based on individual students learning preferences

Academics\u27 Views on Personalised e-Learning in Higher Education

The challenges for academics in meeting the learning requirements of students are many and varied. This research focuses on the concept of personalised learning, where activities are specifically selected to suit the learning requirements of individual students. The creation of personalised learning activities to suit every student’s learning needs, are not easily achieved. A survey was conducted in June 2012 to determine academics awareness of, and views on, the ‘novel teaching approach’ of personalised e-learning in higher education. Forty academics participated in this study. 60% of academic respondents agreed with the statement: “There is a need to personalise e-learning to suit individual student’s learning requirements”. 85% of respondents agreed that e-learning can enhance the learning experience of students, and 70% were of the opinion that the use of personalised e- learning activities would enhance the learning experience of students. 43% of respondents agreed that they would use an authoring tool for personalising e-learning if one was available, and 43% did not know if they would use one or not. ‘Prior knowledge’ was perceived as the most important student characteristic on which to base personalisation and the easiest to achieve, and ‘web navigational behaviour’ was seen as the least important and most difficult to achieve. This study contributes to existing research into the development of authoring tools to facilitate the creation of personalised e-learning activities by non-technical authors

Students’ Views of E-Learning: The Impact of Technologies on Learning in Higher Education in Ireland

Students are the end users of the Information Systems that educators use to enhance students’ learning experiences. The use of technologies in education has altered the ways in which lecturers and students can interact and has expanded the volume of information that students can access. This study was undertaken to obtain students perspectives on the uses of technologies in higher education to assist educators in improving the pedagogical design of e-learning platforms, known as learning management systems. This chapter provides students’ perspectives on the academic use of technologies in two higher education institutions in Ireland. Analysis of the responses received from three hundred and twenty students indicates that students are of the opinion that the use of technologies in higher education can beneficially transform learning; however, technologies will never replace lecturers