The use of Facebook in tertiary education : case study of a unit-related Facebook page in a university justice class

Purpose – This study aims to evaluate the usefulness of a university unit Facebook page, which was established to support a first-year university justice unit. The study pays particular regard to the Facebook page's impact on students learning outcomes and communications amongst students and between students and teaching staff. Design/methodology/approach – All students enrolled in the unit were asked to complete an online survey, which sought to determine whether they used the unit Facebook page and if so, the nature and extent of their use. Findings – The study found that the unit Facebook page was useful in achieving most learning objectives for the unit. This included enhancing students' knowledge and understanding of unit content, as well as their ability to critically analyse unit materials. Students also indicated that they found the Facebook page better than the university's central learning management system across a range of areas. It was particularly useful for facilitating unit-related discussions. Research limitations/implications – The survey results reported in this paper are based on a relatively small sample of students (n=67) from a first-year university justice unit. Future studies should seek to garner evidence from broader and larger samples that transcend specific unit populations. However, the findings of this study do indicate further support for the use of Facebook as a supplementary tool in university education. Originality/value – This study focuses on two aspects of social networking technologies that have not been previously researched and thus contributes to the growing literature on the uses and benefits of Facebook in tertiary education.

Creating efficiencies in teaching : where are the right resources when you need them?

Early career engineering academics are encouraged to join and contribute to established research groups at the leading edge of their discipline. This is often facilitated by various staff development and support programs. Given that academics are often appointed primarily on the basis of their research skills and outputs, such an approach is justified and is likely to result in advancing the individual academic’s career. It also enhances their capacity to attract competitive research funding, while contributing to the overall research performance of their institution, with further potential for an increased share of government funding. In contrast, there is much less clarity of direction or availability of support mechanisms for those academics in their role as teachers. Following a general induction to teaching and learning at their institution, they would commonly think about preparing some lecture materials, whether for delivery in a face-to-face or on-line modality. Typically they would look for new references and textbooks to act as a guide for preparing the content. They would probably find out how the course has been taught before, and what laboratory facilities and experiments have been used. In all of these and other related tasks, the majority of newly appointed academics are guided strongly by their own experiences as students, rather than any firm knowledge of pedagogical principles. At a time of increased demands on academics’ time, and high expectations of performance and productivity in both research and teaching, it is essential to examine possible actions to support academics in enhancing their teaching performance in effective and efficient ways. Many resources have been produced over the years in engineering schools around the world, with very high intellectual and monetary costs. In Australia, the last few years have seen a surge in the number of ALTC/OLT projects and fellowships addressing a range of engineering education issues and providing many resources. There are concerns however regarding the extent to which these resources are being effectively utilised. Why are academics still re-inventing the wheel and creating their own version of teaching resources and pedagogical practice? Why do they spend so much of their precious time in such an inefficient way? A symposium examining the above issues was conducted at the AAEE2012 conference, and some pointers to possible responses to the above questions were obtained. These are explored in this paper and supplemented by the responses to a survey of a group of engineering education leaders on some of the aspects of these research questions. The outcomes of the workshop and survey results have been analysed in view of the literature and the ALTC/OLT sponsored learning and teaching projects and resources. Other factors are discussed, including how such resources can be found, how their quality might be evaluated, and how assessment may be appropriately incorporated, again using readily available resources. This study found a strong resonance between resources reuse with work on technology acceptance (Davis, 1989), suggesting that technology adoption models could be used to encourage resource sharing. Efficient use of outstanding learning materials is an enabling approach. The paper provides some insights on the factors affecting the re-use of available resources, and makes some recommendations and suggestions on how the issue of resources re-use might be incorporated in the process of applying and completing engineering education projects.

Pedagogy of Desire

Despite major inroads in demystifying creativity for the non-design disciplines, there has been little movement in the design disciplines themselves beyond traditional paradigms. This is particularly noticeable in design education where traditional pedagogical approaches persist despite the emergence of new experimental pedagogies. In response, this research aims to explore what a pedagogy of desire can offer and what this means in terms of curriculum development; learning environments; teaching approaches and staff development. Specifically, it seeks to: understand more fully the notion of desire and how students’ and teachers’ desires can be exploited in creative and productive ways; to further explore the relationship between risk (through experiencing uncertainties and anxieties) and pleasure (through assuming the subversive position of knowing); to identify and explore how to negotiate personal, professional and organisational implications; and to develop appropriate evaluation mechanisms.

Grant application: QUT Learning and Teaching scheme 2012 Cracking the Code - A checklist to complement CRAs for first year Justice students.

Widening participation brings with it increasing diversity, increased variation in the level of academic preparedness (Clarke, 2011; Nelson, Clarke, & Kift 2010). Cultural capital coupled with negotiating the academic culture creates an environment based on many assumptions about academic writing and university culture. Variations in staff and student expectations relating to the teaching and learning experience is captured in a range of national and institutional data (AUSSE, CEQ, LEX). Nationally, AUSSE data (2009) indicates that communication, writing, speaking and analytic skills, staff expectations are quite a bit higher than students. The research team noted a recognisable shift in the changing cohort of students and their understanding and engagement with feedback and CRAs, as well as variations in teaching staff and student expectations. The current reality of tutor and student roles is that: - Students self select when/how they access lectures and tutorials. - Shorter tutorial times result in reduced opportunity to develop rapport with students. - CRAs are not always used consistently by staff (different marking styles and levels of feedback). - Marking is not always undertaken by the student’s tutor/lecturer. - Student support services might be recommended to students once a poor grade has been given. Students can perceive this as remedial and a further sense of failure. - CRA sheet has a mark /grade attached to it. Stigma attached to low mark. Hard to focus on the CRA feedback with a poor mark etched next to it. - Limited opportunities for sessionals to access professional development to assist with engaging students and feedback. - FYE resources exist, however academic time is a factor in exploring and embedding these resources. Feedback is another area with differing expectations and understandings. Sadler (2009) contends that students are not equipped to decode the statements properly. For students to be able to apply feedback, they need to understand the meaning of the feedback statement. They also need to identify, the particular aspects of their work that need attention. The proposed Checklist/guide would be one page and submitted with each assessment piece thereby providing an interface to engage students and tutors in managing first year understandings and expectations around CRAs, feedback, and academic practice.

Time, place and space – student group collaboration using Google Drive

Virtual working environments are intrinsic to the contemporary workplace and collaborative skills are a vital graduate capability. To develop students’ collaborative skills, first year medical laboratory science students undertake a group poster project, based on a blended learning model. Learning is scaffolded in lectures, workshops in collaborative learning spaces, practitioner mentoring sessions, and online resources. Google Drive provides an online collaborative space for students to realise tangible outcomes from this learning. A Google Drive document is created for each group and shared with members. In this space, students assign tasks and plan workflow, share research, progressively develop poster content, reflect and comment on peer contributions and use the messaging functions to ‘talk’ to group members. This provides a readily accessible, transparent record of group work, crucial in peer assessment, and a communication channel for group members and the lecturer, who can support groups if required. This knowledge creation space also augments productivity and effectiveness of face-to-face collaboration. As members are randomly allocated to groups and are often of diverse backgrounds and unknown to each other, resilience is built as students navigate the uncertainties and complexities of group dynamics, learning to focus on the goal of the team task as they constructively and professionally engage in team dialogue. Students are responsible and accountable for individual and group work. The use of Google Drive was evaluated in a survey including Likert scale and open ended qualitative questions. Statistical analysis was carried out. Results show students (79%) valued the inclusion of online space in collaborative work and highly appreciated (78%) the flexibility provided by Google Drive, while recognising the need for improved notification functionality. Teaching staff recognised the advantages in monitoring and moderating collaborative group work, and the transformational progression in student collaborative as well as technological skill acquisition, including professional dialogue.

Pedagogical tools designed to promote engagement and active learning in the biomedical sciences and allied health disciplines

Perceiving students, science students especially, as mere consumers of facts and information belies the importance of a need to engage them with the principles underlying those facts and is counter-intuitive to the facilitation of knowledge and understanding. Traditional didactic lecture approaches need a re-think if student classroom engagement and active learning are to be valued over fact memorisation and fact recall. In our undergraduate biomedical science programs across Years 1, 2 and 3 in the Faculty of Health at QUT, we have developed an authentic learning model with an embedded suite of pedagogical strategies that foster classroom engagement and allow for active learning in the sub-discipline area of medical bacteriology. The suite of pedagogical tools we have developed have been designed to enable their translation, with appropriate fine-tuning, to most biomedical and allied health discipline teaching and learning contexts. Indeed, aspects of the pedagogy have been successfully translated to the nursing microbiology study stream at QUT. The aims underpinning the pedagogy are for our students to: (1) Connect scientific theory with scientific practice in a more direct and authentic way, (2) Construct factual knowledge and facilitate a deeper understanding, and (3) Develop and refine their higher order flexible thinking and problem solving skills, both semi-independently and independently. The mindset and role of the teaching staff is critical to this approach since for the strategy to be successful tertiary teachers need to abandon traditional instructional modalities based on one-way information delivery. Face-to-face classroom interactions between students and lecturer enable realisation of pedagogical aims (1), (2) and (3). The strategy we have adopted encourages teachers to view themselves more as expert guides in what is very much a student-focused process of scientific exploration and learning. Specific pedagogical strategies embedded in the authentic learning model we have developed include: (i) interactive lecture-tutorial hybrids or lectorials featuring teacher role-plays as well as class-level question-and-answer sessions, (ii) inclusion of “dry” laboratory activities during lectorials to prepare students for the wet laboratory to follow, (iii) real-world problem-solving exercises conducted during both lectorials and wet laboratory sessions, and (iv) designing class activities and formative assessments that probe a student’s higher order flexible thinking skills. Flexible thinking in this context encompasses analytical, critical, deductive, scientific and professional thinking modes. The strategic approach outlined above is designed to provide multiple opportunities for students to apply principles flexibly according to a given situation or context, to adapt methods of inquiry strategically, to go beyond mechanical application of formulaic approaches, and to as much as possible self-appraise their own thinking and problem solving. The pedagogical tools have been developed within both workplace (real world) and theoretical frameworks. The philosophical core of the pedagogy is a coherent pathway of teaching and learning which we, and many of our students, believe is more conducive to student engagement and active learning in the classroom. Qualitative and quantitative data derived from online and hardcopy evaluations, solicited and unsolicited student and graduate feedback, anecdotal evidence as well as peer review indicate that: (i) our students are engaging with the pedagogy, (ii) a constructivist, authentic-learning approach promotes active learning, and (iii) students are better prepared for workplace transition.

Warrington Collegiate: LRC pop-up training area to enhance staff training and development

Warrington Collegiate wanted to locate an area of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) and equip it with a smart board and ten laptops primarily for staff development. Since the pop-up seminar area has been created it has been used for Vado, Moodle, Quizdom and e-book training plus much more. From an empty corner in the LRC the addition of this technology has created a welcoming comfortable learning space. It has encouraged staff across all the curriculum areas to come into the LRC and extended their role in a place for high quality staff development.

Burnley College: Engaging staff with an 'Olympic Feast' themed CPD

As part of its award winning staff development programme Burnley College has introduced an end of year ‘Feast’ of staff development activities. The Feast includes two weeks of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) workshops for all staff designed to promote e-Learning techniques, develop innovative teaching and learning methods as well as encourage staff to develop sharing hobbies and interests while always looking to expand the learning element.

Teaching Crossroads: 11th IPB Erasmus Week

In the wake of the latest news regarding IPB’s award for best Polytechnic Institute in Portugal, we would like to congratulate the IPB community who has always striven for the quality of the institution within the national and international academic milieu. We are, undoubtedly, bowled over by the 1st place in the national context (out of the 27 national institutions under evaluation) and the 7th position in the international scope. In fact, it is worth mentioning that the IPB has won this award, three years in a row, being in a leading position in the ranking promoted and sponsored by the European Union. This year’s edition has selected and evaluated over 1300 world higher education institutions. Teaching Crossroads intends thus to give a watershed contribution to the IPB’s successful and most valued pathway. Numbers indicate that Teaching Crossroads has had over 2550 downloads since it first came out. But let’s cut to the chase. Once again, we are delighted to present the 5th number of Teaching Crossroads. This wholly calculated and well-sustained editorial adventure started in 2012 when the first number of Teaching Crossroads first saw the light. This year’s publication includes the areas of Human Geography/anthropology, Information Technology and Forensics and Language and culture, focusing on minority languages. Alongside this, as in the two last previous numbers, we’ve included the specific area for International mobility, Intensive Programmes and Erasmus+ Mobility of Individuals, being the latter financed by the European Union within the Erasmus+ Programme, whereas the former is sponsored uniquely by the foreign partner institution, in this case, Lillebaelt Academy in Denmark. These types of programmes convey very positive and overarching ideas, resonant in cross-cultural and educational benefits, valuable for all the involved partners. We would very kindheartedly like to thank the authors for having contributed with much enlightening and serious articles on a wide array of areas. Pablo M. Orduna Pórtus’s article focuses on border culture and heritage management. The author’s study is placed on two borderlands of the Iberian Peninsula: Roncal Valley (Navarre) and Riverbanks of Douro. Going beyond the linear or physical conception of the border, the author centres his study on the metaphysical and symbolic ideas of the frontier that sustain his anthropological analysis. Michal Popdora manages to find evidence for his proposal of a new conception of teaching Image Processing, based on the student-centered approach. A hands-on experience on a Project-based Learning methodology sustains the teaching project. Grounded on “a forensic-flavored style”, using the author’s own words, he shows how students can become engaged in a highly effective learning process. Cláudia Martins is already a confirmed habitué of this publication, as in every Erasmus Week she delivers a lecture on Portuguese language and culture to visiting teaching and non-teaching staff. This time, the author decided to delve into a Portugal’s official language, Mirandese, spoken in a small designated area in the northeastern part of Portugal, Miranda do Douro and its surrounding area. The author gives account of some thought-provoking facts about the language, from the origin and the survival of the language, however still a minority language, up to the moment when it was acknowledged Portugal’s second official language, together with the challenges that nowadays faces. Luís Frölen Ribeiro, João Eduardo Ribeiro, Carlos Casimiro Costa, António Duarte, Carlos Andrade from the Polytechnic Institute and Arne Svinth, John Madsen, Morten Thomsen, Kent Smidstrup, Carsten John Jacobsen from the Lillebaelt Academy, in Denmark, participate in a joint project which they describe, outlining the main goals and gains of the project. To overcome teaching difficulties regarding the engineering degrees, a 12-ECTS joint course from Lillebaelt Academy and Polytechnic Institute of Bragança was created based on the Danish model. The course Product Development and Industrial Processing was hence created. Rui Pedro Lopes presents an insightful and acute account of the Internationalization programmes in Higher Education in Europe. At one go, the author describes his own experience as a visiting lecturer, within the Erasmus+ programme, to Università Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy, in a Master’s degree in computer science, bringing to light a personal reflection on the goals and benefits of the mobility for both students and teachers. Finally, the author puts forth some suggestions that would improve the whole mobility process. We sincerely hope to have stimulated you to keep on reading, upholding the belief that these texts can represent valuable sources for both teachers and students in their research work.

Introducing Game Development into the Computing Curriculum: a Progressive Methodology

The Computer Game industry is big business, the demand for graduates is high, indeed there is a continuing shortage of skilled employees. As with most professions, the skill set required is both specific and diverse. There are currently over 30 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK offering Computer games related courses. We expect that as the demand from the industry is sustained, more HEIs will respond with the introduction of game-related degrees. This is quite a considerable undertaking involving many issues from integration of new modules or complete courses within the existing curriculum, to staff development. In this paper we share our experiences of introducing elements of game development into our curriculum. This has occurred over the past two years, starting with the inclusion of elements of game development into existing programming modules, followed by the validation of complete modules, and culminating in a complete degree course. Our experience is that our adopting a progressive approach to development, spread over a number of years, was crucial in achieving a successful outcome.

Human Resources Development in Higher Education in Kerala

The study is entitled “HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN KERALA”. The concept “Human Resource Development” is of high value in business and industry and has been used and applied since years. In industry and business the 'human' element is considred as a resource and hence its development and protection is very essential and inevitable. Of all the factors of production, human resource is the only factor having rational faculty and therefore, it must be handled with utmost care. Right recruitment, right training and right induction followed by faultless monitoring and welfare measures are but decisive factors in business and industry. Altogether there is a constant attention up on human factor there. But this is not a practice at all in education. So far there has not been any such measure of care and close watch and performance analysis of human resource on education front. This may be the main reason for lack of accountability in the sphere of education. The present study reveals the importance of introducing HRD practices in higher educational institutions in Kerala. In order to promise human capital formation through education, it is basic requirement. The higher educational institutions must follow the method of industry and commerce because education can be treated as an industry in service sector. There also we can follow the methods of right recruitment, right training and promotion, delegation, performance analysis and accountability checking of human resource. HRD is a powerful idea of transformation of human being into highly productive and contributing factor The HRD of students is the sum total of HRD of teachers. Reminding the primordial usage 'Yatha Raja Thadha Praja’ the quality of faculty resembles in students. The quality of administrative staff in colleges also affects the quality of higher education. Hence, it is high time to introduce the managerial method of HRD with all its paraphernalia in higher educational institutions so as to assure proper human capital formation in higher education in India.

Human Resources Development in Higher Education in Kerala

The study is entitled “HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN KERALA”. The concept “Human Resource Development” is of high value in business and industry and has been used and applied since years. In industry and business the ‘human’ element is considred as a resource and hence its development and protection is very essential and inevitable. Of all the factors of production, human resource is the only factor having rational faculty and therefore, it must be handled with utmost care. Right recruitment, right training and right induction followed by faultless monitoring and welfare measures are but decisive factors in business and industiy. Altogether there is a constant attention up on human factor there. But this is not a practice at all in education. So far there has not been any such measure of care and close watch and performance analysis of human resource on education front. This may be the main reason for lack of accountability in the sphere of education. The present study reveals the importance of introducing HRD practices in higher educational institutions in Kerala. In order to promise human capital formation through education, it is basic requirement. The higher educational institutions must follow the method of industry and commerce because education can be treated as an industry in service sector. There also we can follow the methods of right recruitment, right training and promotion, delegation, performance analysis and accountability checking of human resource. HRD is a powerful idea of transformation of human being into highly productive and contributing factor The HRD of students is the sum total of HRD of teachers. Reminding the primordial usage ‘Yatha Raja Thadha Praja’ the quality of faculty resembles in students. The quality of administrative staff in colleges also affects the quality of higher education. Hence, it is high time to introduce the managerial method of HRD with all its paraphernalia in higher educational institutions so as to assure proper human capital formation in higher education in India.

Teaching in the community: Changing and implementing a new curriculum

The Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu is changing to, and implementing a new curriculum aimed at integrating teaching and learning in the community. Emphasis is on preparing the community settings for teaching, learning and providing health care. A particular task is staff development with emphasis on problem-based learning (PBL) and training medical and nursing students in the leadership to participate in this process. The new curriculum includes the gradual introduction of clinical practice during First Year, integration of the basic sciences with clinical sciences, through integrated modules studied in small groups, and maintenance of the two year clerkship. The undergraduates are introduced gradually to the community: 8% of the total curriculum during First Year, 10% during Second Year, 10% during Third Year, 20% during Fourth Year, 30% during Fifth and Sixth Years. The basic health units at primary care level, and the regional specialty outpatients and hospitals at the second level, are the main teaching sites. An Education Development Committee was established to discuss the strategies for supporting the changes and to structure the planning for promoting the gradual transformation of staff development. After 18 months of implementation of the curriculum, there followed discussions and monitoring of the objectives of changes in medical education at our school. Successful implementation of the new curriculum would fail, if the objectives were not absorbed by every member of the implementation Committee.

Plattform Musikalische Bildung

Bei der Plattform Musikalische Bildung handelt es sich um ein Projekt der Hochschule für Musik Detmold. Die Plattform vereinigt in sich Ideen zum vernetzten Musiklernen, neu entwickelten Online-Musiklern-Tools sowie den Austausch und die Modifizierung dieser erstellten Kurse durch andere Dozenten und Lehrenden. Die Plattform steht allen Dozenten und Lehrern, Studierenden und Schülern an Hochschulen, aber auch Musikschulen und allgemein bildenden Schulen kostenlos zur Verfügung. Auf die Einblendung von Werbebannern wird verzichtet. Die Inbetriebnahme einer Betaversion ist im Oktober 2014 erfolgt. Weitere Ausbaustufen sind in Planung aber noch nicht gegenfinanziert.

Innovation in the teaching of sustainable development in Europe: the case of ISLE Erasmus Network

Sustainable Development (SD) is one of the most widely used terms during the last years. It is a multidisciplinary concept, which applies mostly to life sciences but is not limited to them. Even though the short survey conducted by the authors revealed that there are only a few cases of Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) around Europe that provide programs dedicated to SD, it is obvious that there is a constant raise in the need for implementing courses related to SD in existing programs. This paper discusses the case study of I.S.L.E., an Erasmus Academic Network, which aims to use the existing knowledge and tools in the context of teaching sustainable development topics in Universities and HEIs around Europe as a basis, and elaborate further by introducing an innovative approach towards the improvement of teaching SD in HEIs, based on the current needs as they are identified by the actions of the Network.