Group items tagged

"Evidence shows that engaged students perform better academically than disinterested students. Measurement of engagement with education is difficult and imprecise, especially in large student cohorts. Traditional measurements such as summary statistics derived from assessment are crude secondary measures of engagement at best and do not provide much support for educators to work with students and curate engagement during teaching periods. We have used academic-related student contributions to a public social network as a proxy for engagement. Statistical summaries and novel data visualisation tools provide subtle and powerful insights into online student peer networks. Analysis of data collected shows that network visualisation can be an important curation tool for educators interested in cultivating student engagement."

"Given an expectation of digital literacy among students, why should we worry about student perceptions of CMS tools? For the same reason exemplary instructors stay aware of their students' general learning style preferences-to evolve their teaching styles to meet diverse preferences and maximize learning while also attempting to develop and enhance students' abilities to learn in different ways. Likewise, knowing the CMS tools that students find most effective establishes an important baseline for understanding student needs that can be addressed not only in a CMS but also through other online systems and services. The University of Florida (UF) conducted a survey investigating that question in spring 2009, during the university's most recent CMS evaluation and adoption decision to replace the existing CMS. This research bulletin presents the survey results to help inform other institutions with their own evaluation and adoption processes. The information will also benefit instructors looking to maximize their own use of a local CMS and/or to choose tools that enable personal learning environments, as well as specific tools for learning."

"As learning technologies are now integral to most higher education student learning experiences, universities need to make strategic choices about what technologies to adopt and how to best support and develop the use of these technologies, particularly in a climate of limited resources. Information from students is therefore a valuable contribution when determining institutional goals, building infrastructure and improving the quality of student learning. This paper draws on a survey of student experiences and expectations of technology across three Australian universities. Analysis of text responses from 7,000 students provides insight into ways that institutional learning technologies and academic-led technologies are influencing the student experience. This paper also discusses how the three universities have used this information to develop strategic initiatives, and identifies a need for new strategies to support academic-led use of the available tools."

The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) is designed to encourage a more sophisticated approach to recording student achievement, which acknowledges fully the range of opportunities that higher education institutions in the UK offer to their students. The HEAR has the potential to bring a wide range of benefits to students, employers and higher education institutions. The HEAR can also been seen as a symbolic and practical expression of the UK's student-centred and quality-focussed higher education culture. It is anticipated that the HEAR will become a key feature in differentiating and distinguishing the UK higher education system. This website is an information and resources portal for those involved in: * implementing and managing the HEAR at an institutional level; * creating and making the most of the HEAR at a personal level for students; or  * understanding and utilising the HEAR at a recruitment level for employers.

"All students today are increasingly expected to develop technological fluency, digital citizenship, and other twenty-first century competencies despite wide variability in the quality of learning opportunities schools provide. Social network sites (SNSs) available via the internet may provide promising contexts for learning to supplement school-based experiences. This qualitative study examines how high school students from low-income families in the USA use the SNS, MySpace, for identity formation and informal learning. The analysis revealed that SNSs used outside of school allowed students to formulate and explore various dimensions of their identity and demonstrate twenty-first century skills; however, students did not perceive a connection between their online activities and learning in classrooms. We discuss how learning with such technologies might be incorporated into the students overall learning ecology to reduce educational inequities and how current institutionalized approaches might shift to accommodate such change."

Great looking site built by 1st years. "AllAboutLinguistics.com was created by first-year linguistics students at the University of Sheffield, supported by staff in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. The website formed part of the students assessment, after they completed a course called Introduction to Linguistics, and it aims to share the knowledge they gained from this module with anyone outside the University who is interested in language and its study - especially A-Level students thinking of going on to study linguistics at University. We asked students to build the site because as beginners in linguistics themselves, they were in a good position to help explain the discipline to you."

College students love their smartphones. They use them in a myriad of ways and there's the data to prove it. A new infographic visualizes the current state of smartphone usage by college students and it's a sight to see. The infographic below from Online Degrees shows the 12 most popular ways students are using smartphones as well as the types of news they're reading, and more.

Analytics and Recommendations block uses charts and tables which are colour coded so students can quickly see they participation. Students can see single analytics about their participation in the course. Teachers can see single, comparative analytics and global analytics (all students together) too. Morover, the block shows recommendations for students about what activities they should work to improve their final grade. It shows too a estimate final grade according with a reference course.

"Mobile computing is transforming information technology and the student learning environment in higher education, yet educational institutions everywhere are just scratching the surface of the capabilities of mobile computing. This report is based on 369 student survey responses and 26 focus-group participants from the mobile-device-heavy student population in Education City, Qatar."

"As part of the JISC-funded Student Expectations of University project, aimed at enhancing applicants' understanding of university experiences, the 1994 Group have produced this report to illustrate innovative and excellent practice in the areas of: communicating with prospective students; providing information, advice and guidance (IAG) to applicants; and managing student expectations of university."

"Optimal learning occurs when students are active participants in their own learning, rather than passive recipients of teacher-delivered content. For this to be effective, students really need to think about their learning. I worked with a group of teachers recently who felt their young students were not capable of writing meaningful reflections for their end of semester reports. That might be true. But only if reflection and meta-cognition are not integral parts of the learning in their classes."

Where do students go to study? Where do they come from? UIS data on the mobility of students shed light on the shifting demand for higher education, particularly in the developing world.

"A total of 125 students taking a first year seminar course for pre-health professional majors participated in this study (70 in the experimental group and 55 in the control group). With the experimental group, Twitter was used for various types of academic and co-curricular discussions. Engagement was quantified by using a 19-item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement. To assess differences in engagement and grades, we used mixed effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) models, with class sections nested within treatment groups. We also conducted content analyses of samples of Twitter exchanges. The ANOVA results showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in engagement than the control group, as well as higher semester grade point averages. Analyses of Twitter communications showed that students and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process in ways that transcended traditional classroom activities."

"Feedback, group work and a visible papertrail are all effortless gains. Display student work for class discussion, comment on student posts as feedback; set homework to post short peer critiques; devise project tasks requiring reading multiple peers' work and synthesising an overview with linked references."

Lots of resources for students and staff. "LearnHigher - Excellence in Learning DevelopmentThe LearnHigher Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) is a partnership of 16 Universities, led by Liverpool Hope University, committed to improving student learning through providing excellent resources to support students' learning development, and through practice-led research to inform the effective use of those resources. Our resources below in 20 Learning Areas are freely available to all."

"Tweeting students were found to have a GPA (grade point average) half a point higher than other students."

website that links to a lecturer's laptop giving a score for how many students are confused - a 'confusometer'. Students can click the 'understood' button if they understand the followup explanation. Works with iPhone, laptop or tablet browser. 

The Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) is an exciting opportunity for students to experience online marketing and creating online marketing campaigns using Google AdWords & Google+. As well, students and their professors can win great prizes. Over 50,000 students from almost 100 countries have participated in past years.

Overview We have devised an interactive curriculum aimed to support teachers of secondary students (approximately ages 13-17). The curriculum helps educate students on topics like: YouTube's policies How to report content on YouTube How to protect their privacy online How to be responsible YouTube community members How to be responsible digital citizens We hope that students and educators gain useful skills and a holistic understanding about responsible digital citizenship, not only on YouTube, but in all online activity.

President of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education argues that students fail because universities don't set up situations for them to succeed.