Social software in Higher Education:the diversity of applications and their contributions to students' learning experiences

Higher education institutions are increasingly using social software tools to support teaching and learning. Despite the fact that social software is often used in a social context, these applications can significantly contribute to the educational experience of a student. However, as the social software domain comprises a considerable diversity of tools, the respective tools can be expected to differ in the way they can contribute to teaching and learning. In this review on the educational use of social software, we systematically analyze and compare the diverse social software tools and identify their contributions to teaching and learning. By integrating established learning theory and the extant literature on the individual social software applications we seek to contribute to a theoretical foundation for social software use and the choice of tools. Case vignettes from several UK higher education institutions are used to illustrate the different applications of social software tools in teaching and learning.

e-Learning, e-Practising and e-Tutoring: an Integrated Approach

In this paper is described a didactic methodology combining current e-learning methods and the support of Intelligent Agents technologies. The aim is to favor the synthesis among theoretical approach and based practical approach using the so-called Intelligent Agent, software that exploits the Artificial Intelligence and that operates as tutor, facilitating the consumers in the training operations. The paper illustrates how such new Intelligent Agent algorithm (IA) is used in the training of employees working in the transportation sector, thanks to the experience gained with the PARMENIDE project - Promoting Advanced Resources and Methodologies for New Teaching and Learning Solutions in Digital Education.

Distance Learning Education of Software Engineering: Principles and Experiences

Whether distance learning spells the end of traditional campuses, as some maintain, or whether distance learning instead represents a powerful addition to a growing array of delivery options for higher education, its impact on higher education is great and growing. Distance learning is creating alternative models of teaching and learning, new job descriptions for faculty, and new types of higher education providers. The advent of Distance and Distributed Learning has raised numerous questions about quality and quality assurance: ² How do established distance learning institutions ensure quality? ² What more needs to be done? ² How do quality assurance agencies view the distinction between on- and off-campus teaching and learning? This talk discusses these issues from the viewpoints of funding organisa- tion, quality assurance agencies and the learners.

Technology-Enhanced Learning: Review and Prospects

This paper is a reflection on the history and future of technology-enhanced learning. Over the last century various new technologies were introduced in education. Often, educational revolutions were proclaimed. Unfortunately, most of these new technologies failed to meet the high expectations. This paper reviews the rise and fall of various "revolutionary" learning technologies and analyses what went wrong. Three main driving factors are identified that influence the educational system: 1) educational practice, 2) educational research, and 3) educational technology. The role and position of these factors is elaborated and critically reviewed. Today, again many promising new technologies are being put in place for learning: gaming, social web, and mobile technologies, for example. Inevitably, these are once again proclaimed by its supporters to revolutionise teaching and learning. The paper concludes with identifying a number of relevant factors that substantiate a favourable future outlook of technology-enhanced learning.

Towards New Teaching in Mathematics How to Realize Inquiry Based and Problem Oriented Mathematics Lessons?

Дагмар Рааб Математиката е вълнуваща и забавна. Можем ли да убедим учениците, че това може да стане действителност. Задачите са най-важните инструменти за учителите по математика, когато планират уроците си. Планът трябва да съдържа идеи как да се очертае и как да се жалонира пътят, по който учениците ще стигнат до решението на дадена задача. Учителите не трябва да очакват от учениците си просто да кажат кой е отговорът на задачата, а да ги увлекат в процеса на решаване с подходящи въпроси. Ролята на учителя е да помогне на учениците • да бъдат активни и резултатни при решаването на задачи; • самите те да поставят задачи; • да модифицират задачи; • да откриват закономерности; • да изготвят стратегии за решаване на задачи; • да откриват и изследват различни начини за решаване на задачи; • да намират смислена връзка между математическите си знания и проблеми от ежедневието. В доклада са представени избрани и вече експериментирани примери за това как учители и ученици могат да намерят подходящ път към нов тип преживявания в преподаването и изучаването на училищната математика.

Creative thinking experimentations for entrepreneurship with a disruptive, personalised and mobile game-based learning ecosystem

Based on an unprecedented need of stimulating creative capacities towards entrepreneurship to university students and young researchers, this paper introduces and analyses a smart learning ecosystem for encouraging teaching and learning on creative thinking as a distinct feature to be taught and learnt in universities. The paper introduces a mashed-up authoring architecture for designing lesson-plans and games with visual learning mechanics for creativity learning. The design process is facilitated by creativity pathways discerned across components. Participatory learning, networking and capacity building is a key aspect of the architecture, extending the learning experience and context from the classroom to outdoor (co-authoring of creative pathways by students, teachers and real-world entrepreneurs) and personal spaces. We anticipate that the smart learning ecosystem will be empirically evaluated and validated in future iterations for exploring the benefits of using games for enhancing creative mindsets, unlocking the imagination that lies within, practiced and transferred to multiple academic tribes and territories.

Cultural influence and learning to teach: Beginning teachers' perceptions of teacher preparation programs and school support systems

Beginning teachers in the field of English Language Arts and Reading are responsible for providing literacy instruction to students. Teachers need a broad background in teaching reading, writing, listening, speaking, and viewing, as well as critical thinking. In secondary schools in particular, beginning English Language Arts and Reading teachers are also faced with the challenge of preparing students to be proficient enough readers and writers to meet required State standards. Beginning teachers must navigate compelling challenges that exist during the first years of teaching. The school support systems available to new teachers are an integral part of their educational development. ^ This qualitative study was conceptualized as an in-depth examination of the experiences and perceptions of eight beginning teachers. They represented different racial/ethnic groups, attended different teacher preparation programs, and taught in different school cultures. The data were collected through formal and informal interviews and classroom observations. A qualitative system of data analysis was used to examine the patterns relating to the interrelationship between teacher preparation programs and school support systems. ^ The experiences of the beginning teachers in this study indicated that teacher education programs should provide preservice teachers with a critical knowledge base for teaching literature, language, and composition. A liberal arts background in English, followed by an extensive program focusing on pedagogy, seems to provide a thorough level of curriculum and instructional practices needed for teaching in 21st century classrooms. The data further suggested that a school support system should pair beginning teachers with mentor teachers and provide a caring, professional environment that seeks to nurture the teacher as she/he develops during the first years of teaching. ^

Moving toward change: Institutionalizing reform through implementation of the Learning Assistant model and Open Source Tutorials

Florida International University has undergone a reform in the introductory physics classes by focusing on the laboratory component of these classes. We present results from the secondary implementation of two research-based instructional strategies: the implementation of the Learning Assistant model as developed by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Open Source Tutorial curriculum developed at the University of Maryland, College Park. We examine the results of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) for introductory students over five years (n=872) and find that the mean raw gain of students in transformed lab sections was 0.243, while the mean raw gain of the traditional labs was 0.159, with a Cohen’s d effect size of 0.59. Average raw gains on the FCI were 0.243 for Hispanic students and 0.213 for women in the transformed labs, indicating that these reforms are not widening the gaps between underrepresented student groups and majority groups. Our results illustrate how research-based instructional strategies can be successfully implemented in a physics department with minimal department engagement and in a sustainable manner.

The role of learning design and learning analytics in MOOCs

The last couple of years there has been a lot of attention for MOOCs. More and more universities start offering MOOCs. Although the open dimension of MOOC indicates that it is open in every aspect, in most cases it is a course with a structure and a timeline within which learning activities are positioned. There is a contradiction there. The open aspect puts MOOCs more in the non-formal professional learning domain, while the course structure takes it into the formal, traditional education domain. Accordingly, there is no consensus yet on solid pedagogical approaches for MOOCs. Something similar can be said for learning analytics, another upcoming concept that is receiving a lot of attention. Given its nature, learning analytics offers a large potential to support learners in particular in MOOCs. Learning analytics should then be applied to assist the learners and teachers in understanding the learning process and could predict learning, provide opportunities for pro-active feedback, but should also results in interventions aimed at improving progress. This paper illustrates pedagogical and learning analytics approaches based on practices developed in formal online and distance teaching university education that have been fine-tuned for MOOCs and have been piloted in the context of the EU-funded MOOC projects ECO (Elearning, Communication, Open-Data: http://ecolearning.eu) and EMMA (European Multiple MOOC Aggregator: http://platform.europeanmoocs.eu).

Education and self-regulation of learning for gifted pupils: Systemic design and development.

Gifted pupils differ from their age-mates with respect to development potential, actual competencies, self-regulatory capabilities, and learning styles in one or more domains of competence. The question is how to design and develop education that fits and further supports such characteristics and competencies of gifted pupils. Analysis of various types of educational interventions for gifted pupils reflects positive cognitive or intellectual effects and differentiated social comparison or group-related effects on these pupils. Systemic preventive combination of such interventions could make these more effective and sustainable. The systemic design is characterised by three conditional dimensions: differentiation of learning materials and procedures, integration by and use of ICT support, and strategies to improve development and learning. The relationships to diagnostic, instructional, managerial, and systemic learning aspects are expressed in guidelines to develop or transform education. The guidelines imply the facilitation of learning arrangements that provide flexible self-regulation for gifted pupils. A three-year pilot in Dutch nursery and primary school is conducted to develop and implement the design in collaboration with teachers. The results constitute prototypes of structured competence domains and supportive software. These support the screening of entry characteristics of all four-year old pupils and assignment of adequate play and learning processes and activities throughout the school career. Gifted and other pupils are supported to work at their actual achievement or competency levels since their start in nursery school, in self-regulated learning arrangements either in or out of class. Each pupil can choose other pupils to collaborate with in small groups, at self-chosen tasks or activities, while being coached by the teacher. Formative evaluation of the school development process shows that the systemic prevention guidelines seem to improve learning and social progress of gifted pupils, including their self-regulation. Further development and implementation steps are discussed.

Addressing the theory practice gap in nurse education: evaluating teaching through audit against NMC standards and final management placement

Introduction
This paper outlines an innovative approach to auditing and evaluating the content of a management and leadership module for undergraduate nursing students after their final management clinical placement. Normally evaluations of teaching in a module take place at the end of a teaching module and therefore do not properly reflect the value of the teaching in relation to practical clinical experience.
Aim
This audit and evaluation sought to explore both the practical value of the teaching and learning, and also the degree to which it the teaching reflected against the NMC Standards of Education and Learning (2010 domain 3).
Methods
Having piloted the evaluative tool with an earlier cohort of nursing students, this evaluation explored both a quantitative assessment employing a Personal Response System (n =172), together with a qualitative dimension (n=116), thus delivering paper-based comments and reflections from students on the value and practicality of the module teaching theory to their final clinical management experience. The quantitative audit data were analysed for frequencies and cross tabulation and the qualitative audit data were thematically analysed.
Results
Results suggest a significant proportion of the students, appreciated the quality of the standard of teaching, but more importantly, ‘valued or highly valued’ the teaching and learning in relation to how it helped to significantly inform their management placement experience. A smaller proportion of the students underlined limitations and areas in which further improvement can be made in teaching and learning to the module.
Conclusion
Significantly positive evaluation by the students of the practical value of teaching and learning, to the theoretical management module. This has proved a useful auditing approach in assessing the theoretical teaching to student’s Level 3 clinical experience, and facilitated significant recommendations as far as developing the teaching and learning to better reflect the practice needs of nursing students

The Hidden benefits of “poster presentation assessment”: Skill acquirement and learning; evaluated from the nursing students perspective

Introduction
This paper reports to an exercise in evaluating poster group work and poster presentation and the extra learning and skill acquisition that this can provide to nursing students, through a creative and stimulating assessment method. Much had been written about the benefits of using posters as an assessment method, yet there appears to be a lack of research that captures the student experience.
Aim
This evaluative study sought to evaluate the student experience by using a triangulation approach to evaluation:
Methodology
All students from the February 2015 nursing intake, were eligible to take part (80 students) of which 71 participated (n=71). The poster group presentations took place at the end of their first phase of year one teaching and the evaluation took place at the end of their first year as undergraduate. Evaluation involved;
1. Quantitative data by questionnaires
2. Qualitative data from focus group discussions
Results
A number of key themes emerged from analysis of the data which captured the “added value” of learning from the process of poster assessment including:
 Professionalism: developing time keeping skills, presenting skills.
 Academic skills: developing literature search, critic and reporting
 Team building and collaboration
Overall 88% agreed that the process furnished them with additional skills and benefits above the actual production of the poster, with 97% agreeing that these additional skills are important skills for a nurse.
Conclusion
These results would suggest that the process of poster development and presentation furnish student nurses with many additional skills that they may not acquire through other types of assessment and are therefore beneficial. The structure of the assessment encourages a self-directed approach so students take control of the goals and purposes of learning. The sequential organization of the assessment guides students in the transition from dependent to self-directed learners.

Review into the Proposed Registration of Teachers and Others who Support Learning in the Independent Sector with the Education Workforce Council

During the passage of the Education (Wales) Bill, Assembly Members called for parity in the way the behaviour of practitioners within maintained schools and the independent sector are regulated. This study was therefore commissioned to gather the views of groups and individuals who work in the education sector in Wales, on whether: i) there should be a requirement for practitioners (both teaching and learning support staff) within independent schools and private FE institutions to register with the Council ii) employers should be legally required to refer cases of unacceptable professional conduct and serious professional incompetence to the Council It was also intended, through this process, to gather views on the potential implications associated with any such registration so that the resulting impact could be identified. The individuals and organisations consulted included head teachers, college principals, governing bodies, teaching staff, learning support staff, trade unions, registration bodies, independent sector representative bodies, inspectorates and teaching councils. Consultations took place between August and November 2015, with data gathered through an online survey, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews and via email.

Mapping Learning and Game Mechanics for Serious Games Analysis in Engineering Education

In a world where students are increasing digitally tethered to powerful, ‘always on’ mobile devices, new models of engagement and approaches to teaching and learning are required from educators. Serious Games (SG) have proved to have instructional potential but there is still a lack of methodologies and tools not only for their design but also to support game analysis and assessment. This paper explores the use of SG to increase student engagement and retention. The development phase of the Circuit Warz game is presented to demonstrate how electronic engineering education can be radically reimagined to create immersive, highly engaging learning experiences that are problem-centered and pedagogically sound. The Learning Mechanics–Game Mechanics (LM-GM) framework for SG game analysis is introduced and its practical use in an educational game design scenario is shown as a case study.

Contexts That Inform Racial Awareness and Affect Teaching Practice: A Study of White Bilingual Teachers

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08