Group items tagged

"The integration of technology in higher education has been swiftly changing since 2000. This study, which focused on issues related to technology integration in higher education, included 24 interviews done in 15 universities. The interviews documented an accelerated pace of change as well a wide range of innovations. Relying on the idea that technologies used in hybrid and online learning require specific functionalities for effective collaboration, the study explored the features required from these technologies to enable more flexible online learning environments. According to study results, the primary reasons why universities chose to integrate technologies were not specifically for educational purposes. Consequently, the technologies used are not necessarily interactive or instructional. Even though many changes have taken place, such as retooled legacy LMSs or MOOC platforms, more up-to-date and educational technology features are still required for collaborative and interactive online education environments."

"The integration of technology in higher education has been swiftly changing since 2000. This study, which focused on issues related to technology integration in higher education, included 24 interviews done in 15 universities. The interviews documented an accelerated pace of change as well a wide range of innovations. Relying on the idea that technologies used in hybrid and online learning require specific functionalities for effective collaboration, the study explored the features required from these technologies to enable more flexible online learning environments. According to study results, the primary reasons why universities chose to integrate technologies were not specifically for educational purposes. Consequently, the technologies used are not necessarily interactive or instructional. Even though many changes have taken place, such as retooled legacy LMSs or MOOC platforms, more up-to-date and educational technology features are still required for collaborative and interactive online education environments."

"The integration of technology in higher education has been swiftly changing since 2000. This study, which focused on issues related to technology integration in higher education, included 24 interviews done in 15 universities. The interviews documented an accelerated pace of change as well a wide range of innovations. Relying on the idea that technologies used in hybrid and online learning require specific functionalities for effective collaboration, the study explored the features required from these technologies to enable more flexible online learning environments. According to study results, the primary reasons why universities chose to integrate technologies were not specifically for educational purposes. Consequently, the technologies used are not necessarily interactive or instructional. Even though many changes have taken place, such as retooled legacy LMSs or MOOC platforms, more up-to-date and educational technology features are still required for collaborative and interactive online education environments."

"The integration of technology in higher education has been swiftly changing since 2000. This study, which focused on issues related to technology integration in higher education, included 24 interviews done in 15 universities. The interviews documented an accelerated pace of change as well a wide range of innovations. Relying on the idea that technologies used in hybrid and online learning require specific functionalities for effective collaboration, the study explored the features required from these technologies to enable more flexible online learning environments. According to study results, the primary reasons why universities chose to integrate technologies were not specifically for educational purposes. Consequently, the technologies used are not necessarily interactive or instructional. Even though many changes have taken place, such as retooled legacy LMSs or MOOC platforms, more up-to-date and educational technology features are still required for collaborative and interactive online education environments."

"This paper systematically reviews current research on using iPads in the higher education sector. Since the release of iPads by Apple in 2010, this new technology has been quickly adopted everywhere, especially by the younger generation and professionals. We were motivated to find out how iPads have been adopted for use in the higher education sector. We searched for and collected all the peer-reviewed publications in conference proceedings and scholarly journals in EBSCOhost, Scopus, Informit A+ Education, ProQuest Academic Research Library and Google Scholar, and conducted a content analysis of the full-text papers collected. The results show that the reported studies are at an early exploratory stage from both the student and staff perspectives. From the student perspective, the iPad was found to enhance the learning experience but not necessarily lead to better learning outcomes. From the staff perspective, the iPad was found to offer benefits associated with electronic information dissemination, academic administration and professional development support. A finding common to both perspectives is that while the iPad has the potential to offer benefits to the academics and students who were found to be eager adopters of this technology, it is not clear how best to align and integrate it within the academic programmes and workflows, and how best to manage it as a resource within a university's organisational setting."

"The increasingly widespread use of iPads in higher education (HE) brings to the forefront questions about the contribution of these computer tablets towards teaching and learning. However, there is a noticeable gap of research on the instructional potential of iPads in HE. This paper describes the first stage of a research project on the use of iPads in undergraduate art and design disciplines, and is a collaboration between the research lab "Networked Learning Technologies in Art and Design" at Cyprus University of Technology, and the "Centre for Pedagogic Research" at Falmouth University in England. The participants from both institutions provided a student-centred perspective, and the qualitative analysis (phenomenography) revealed varied perceptions. Based on the findings of this project, the implication is that there are a number of challenges and obstacles in embedding the use of iPads in art and design education. Further research in the second stage of this collaborative research will investigate the views and motivations of art and design faculty."

"Online discussion forums are often the only interaction or communication a student in an online learning environment will have with the course instructor and fellow students. Discussion forums are intended to elicit a range of thinking skills from the students, from purely social interaction to metacognition in order to achieve deep learning. Given the increasing use of online learning environments, it is timely to question whether students from different disciplines use online discussion forums in different ways, particularly in terms of their level of thinking. If there is differentiation, educators need to provide discipline specific opportunities for undergraduate students to interact in dynamic online discussions as part of a rich learning experience. This ethnographic study explored the types of online postings provided by students as part of their learning journey in two undergraduate online courses, one in an Engineering program and another in a Teacher Education program at a regional university. The goal of the research was to identify evidence of higher order thinking within students' online posts. Data were analysed according to Henri's Content Analysis Model for Asynchronous Conferencing."

"Can social media be used to enhance the process of learning by students in higher education? Social media have become widely adopted by students in their personal lives. However, the application of social media to teaching and learning remains to be fully explored. In this study, the use of the social media tool Twitter for teaching was considered. Undergraduate students in Business and Management (n = 252) were encouraged to use Twitter for communicating with their tutor and each other during a 12-week course. Their involvement was evaluated using a survey considering amount of Twitter usage and students' attitudes and experiences. The data were analysed using factor analyses, which revealed a single usage construct and three attitudinal factors. Three findings emerged. Firstly, a positive correlation was found between amount of Twitter usage and student engagement in university-associated activities including organising their social lives and sharing information. Secondly, course-related tweeting was not related to interpersonal relationships between students and their tutor. Thirdly, Twitter usage did not impact class attendance. The results are salient for educational practitioners wishing to introduce social media into their teaching."

"This paper examines the effect of a podcasting task on the examination performance of several hundred first-year chemistry undergraduate students. Educational researchers have established that a deep approach to learning that promotes active understanding of meaning can lead to better student outcomes, higher grades and superior retention of knowledge over time. We attempted to promote such an approach by setting a task that involved student collaboration, contextualisation of content, and communication through new media, specifically creative podcasting. Examination results were used as a source of empirical evidence of changes in understanding and retention that occurred for students who completed this task. In comparing results across 2 years on similar questions related to the podcasting topics, we found a statistically significant improvement after introduction of the podcasting task on the questions related to one of the topics on which students had actively created their own podcasts ("acids & bases"), but not on the other ("oxidisation and reduction"). Improved learning outcomes in the form of better understanding and retention over time in at least one case suggest that under some circumstances creative podcasting may indeed help to promote a deep learning approach."

"This paper examines the effect of a podcasting task on the examination performance of several hundred first-year chemistry undergraduate students. Educational researchers have established that a deep approach to learning that promotes active understanding of meaning can lead to better student outcomes, higher grades and superior retention of knowledge over time. We attempted to promote such an approach by setting a task that involved student collaboration, contextualisation of content, and communication through new media, specifically creative podcasting. Examination results were used as a source of empirical evidence of changes in understanding and retention that occurred for students who completed this task. In comparing results across 2 years on similar questions related to the podcasting topics, we found a statistically significant improvement after introduction of the podcasting task on the questions related to one of the topics on which students had actively created their own podcasts ("acids & bases"), but not on the other ("oxidisation and reduction"). Improved learning outcomes in the form of better understanding and retention over time in at least one case suggest that under some circumstances creative podcasting may indeed help to promote a deep learning approach."

"This paper examines the effect of a podcasting task on the examination performance of several hundred first-year chemistry undergraduate students. Educational researchers have established that a deep approach to learning that promotes active understanding of meaning can lead to better student outcomes, higher grades and superior retention of knowledge over time. We attempted to promote such an approach by setting a task that involved student collaboration, contextualisation of content, and communication through new media, specifically creative podcasting. Examination results were used as a source of empirical evidence of changes in understanding and retention that occurred for students who completed this task. In comparing results across 2 years on similar questions related to the podcasting topics, we found a statistically significant improvement after introduction of the podcasting task on the questions related to one of the topics on which students had actively created their own podcasts ("acids & bases"), but not on the other ("oxidisation and reduction"). Improved learning outcomes in the form of better understanding and retention over time in at least one case suggest that under some circumstances creative podcasting may indeed help to promote a deep learning approach."

"Game consoles have been adopted as a learning platform in school education. However, there is a scarcity of studies examining the utility of games consoles with built-in WiFi as affordable learning platforms in universities. This paper contributes to knowledge about the capacity of the Nintendo DSi to create new learning spaces mediated and supported by DSi consoles, free Flipnote Studio software for DS and a dedicated course website. An application of the DSi is described for remote supplemental language tutorial activities linking a dispersed body of students on a year-abroad programme. It was found that the use of DSi as a mobile learning platform has great potential if it is used in combination with shared webspace, such as Hatena, by increasing students' learning motivation and eliminating fears/uncertainty about their progress."

"Applying the Theory of Reasoned Action, this paper presents a survey instrument that measures the correlation between students' attitudes and their behavior intention to use Second Life virtual environments. One hundred and sixty-two library and information science students were introduced to Second Life virtual environments during a face-toface training session and completed a survey instrument afterward. The survey yielded a Cronbach alpha of 0.95, indicating a high reliability test score. Factor loadings for attitude and behavior intention were 76.54% and 56.02%, respectively, suggesting robust construct validity. The correlation coefficient between latent variables attitude and behavior intention was 0.54. This paper suggests approaches to motivate student intentions to use Second Life in higher education. "

"This paper examines the effect of a podcasting task on the examination performance of several hundred first-year chemistry undergraduate students. Educational researchers have established that a deep approach to learning that promotes active understanding of meaning can lead to better student outcomes, higher grades and superior retention of knowledge over time. We attempted to promote such an approach by setting a task that involved student collaboration, contextualisation of content, and communication through new media, specifically creative podcasting. Examination results were used as a source of empirical evidence of changes in understanding and retention that occurred for students who completed this task. In comparing results across 2 years on similar questions related to the podcasting topics, we found a statistically significant improvement after introduction of the podcasting task on the questions related to one of the topics on which students had actively created their own podcasts ("acids & bases"), but not on the other ("oxidisation and reduction"). Improved learning outcomes in the form of better understanding and retention over time in at least one case suggest that under some circumstances creative podcasting may indeed help to promote a deep learning approach."

"A number of factors can influence learning from lectures such as students' prior knowledge, their motivation, the instructional design, the lecturer and so forth. Instructional aid techniques such as preparing class notes, giving quizzes (either planned or spot quizzes) and the like can be used to maximise learning. This study uses two well-documented tools for learning from text-advance organisers and higher order questions-adapted for use with podcasts. Student evaluations of their experience of being primed for lectures with podcasts are described. The findings show that audio advance organisers and questions experienced by students have a positive influence on learning, because they help students bridge the conceptual distance between new and prior knowledge, better understand the topics in the lectures and stimulate thinking more deeply about the lecture's content and the possible applications of the subject of the lecture."