Student technology skills and attitudes towards Internet-based courses: The potential benefits of an internet tutorial

A “Criminal Justice Systems and Processes” course was among nine Internet courses offered at Florida Gulf Coast University during the fall of 1997. This course provided an “Internet tutorial” during the first few weeks of the semester to familiarize students with basic computer skills and Internet use. After evaluating the benefits of providing the tutorial, faculty and administrators adopted the tutorial for use in all Internet courses. During the Summer 1998 semester, a survey was administered to those students registered for Internet-based courses in the Division of Criminal Justice. This article focuses on the use of the Internet tutorial in Internet courses and provides some preliminary information regarding its potential benefit to students. Issues discussed include: (1) an explanation of the Internet tutorial, (2) the benefits of the tutorial to students and faculty, (3) preliminary information regarding the potential baenefits of implementing a technical tutorial, and (4) implications for future computer-based Internet courses.     

The Coronavirus and Higher Education: Faculty Viewpoints about Universities Moving Online during a Worldwide Pandemic

The purpose of this study is to examine faculty’s views about the move from face-to-face (F2F) instruction to online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The researcher used Q methodology [Q], a mixed method, to determine and describe faculty views about this situation. The participants sorted 36 statements to reveal and describe their subjective viewpoints. In Q, similar sorts are grouped together mathematically into factors, each representing a unique viewpoint. The Q-sorting process is reflective and self-referent. The operation of sorting items allows participants to provide their internal viewpoint. This is different from responding to a Likert-type survey. Additionally, the analyses allow for differentiation of views rather than an aggregate of views. Each unique viewpoint is described by a representative sort, distinguishing statements, and participants’ post-sort responses. Three views emerged: Techies who like to teach (the view most positive in relation to teaching online); Overwhelmed as human beings (populated by caregivers); and It’s about what cannot be done online (those who are focused on the limitations of technology and abilities for online instruction). Generally, faculty felt frustrated with their ability to best support their students within the online format. Administrators should consider the results of this study to better understand the instructional and mental-health needs of faculty especially in an emergency situation, such as COVID-19. The findings indicate that creating the best learning situations for students is not one-size-fits-all and that there are discipline and pedagogical issues to consider when moving F2F courses online that are not fixed simply with technology.

     

Can we engage postgraduates in active research methodology learning? Challenges,strategies and evaluation of learning

ABSTRACT

Due to the complex nature of research methodology courses, the current study focused on implementing the active teaching and learning approach to a postgraduate research method course in a Malaysian university over an academic semester. A qualitative analysis of observations, instructor-learner interactional exchanges, students’ drafts of tasks and pre-course and focus group discussion was performed. The findings revealed three types of challenges: student-oriented challenges, subject-matter-related challenges and instructor-oriented challenges. Three main pedagogical strategies: instructional scaffolding, peer scaffolding and engaging the postgraduates in drafting their tasks were employed as a response to these challenges. Although the active teaching and learning practices resulted into students’ enhancement of the assigned research methodology tasks and positive research learning experience, such practices were time and effort-consuming. Therefore, future research will need to examine the applicability of our active teaching and learning approach to research methodology courses in different contexts.     

High school students’ approaches to learning physics with relationship to epistemic views on physics and conceptions of learning physics

Background and purpose : Knowing how students learn physics is a central goal of physics education. The major purpose of this study is to examine the strength of the predictive power of students’ epistemic views and conceptions of learning in terms of their approaches to learning in physics. Sample, design and method : A total of 279 Taiwanese high school students ranging from 15 to 18?years old participated in this study. Three questionnaires for assessing high school students’ epistemic views on physics, conceptions of learning physics and approaches to learning physics were developed. Step-wise regression was performed to examine the predictive power of epistemic views on physics and conceptions of learning physics in terms of their approaches to learning physics. Results and conclusion: The results indicated that, in general, compared to epistemic views on physics, conceptions of learning physics are more powerful in predicting students’ approaches to learning physics in light of the regression models. That is, students’ beliefs about learning, compared with their beliefs about knowledge, may be more associated with their learning approaches. Moreover, this study revealed that the higher-level conceptions of learning physics such as ‘Seeing in a new way’ were more likely to be positively correlated with the deep approaches to learning physics, whereas the lower-level conceptions such as ‘Testing’ were more likely to positively explain the surface approaches, as well as to negatively predict the deep approaches to learning physics.     

Exploring first-time online undergraduate and graduate students’ growth mindsets and flexible thinking and their relations to online learning engagement

The present study was an attempt to help us reveal the characteristics and complexity of today’s first-time online students in a higher education setting. Data were collected from undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in fully online courses for the first time during spring semester in the 2016–2017 academic year at a Southern university in the United States. Primarily, path analysis was conducted to investigate the impacts of flexible thinking, mindsets, and self-efficacy on the 254 first-time online students’ online learning engagement. The results of the path analysis supported six out of the eight hypotheses and all standardized path coefficients have values between 0.14 and 0.31. In conclusion, growth mindset and learning self-efficacy appear to be important variables for first-time online students and have a positive relation to online engagement. The practical implications and future research are discussed.

     

Training Technical and Professional Communication Educators for Online Internship Courses

ABSTRACT

This article explores how to train educators to teach online internship courses. The article introduces an online internship course focused on workplace communication available to students across the university. Approaches to training educators to teach this course include requiring educators to immerse themselves in experiential learning situations, leveraging innovative uses of contemporary technologies for communication, and reflecting on online teaching processes.     

Blended learning in higher education: professional development in a Hong Kong university

ABSTRACT

Online learning has become a ubiquitous part of the educational landscape and how teachers are supported in developing approaches to teaching online is a fundamental aspect of the students’ learning experience. Based on the implementation of a professional development course on becoming an online teacher offered in a blended learning mode at one university in Hong Kong, this article proposes that offering this type of professional development in a blended mode is very effective in facilitating enhanced usage of the university’s learning management system. In a blended mode, teachers are actively engaged with blended learning and were found to make more extensive use of features/tools in Blackboard after they attended the professional development course. Results support that offering professional development in a blended mode provides teachers with an authentic student perspective, at the same time as they take guided steps in the teacher’s role in blended learning.     

University physics students’ ideas of thermal radiation expressed in open laboratory activities using infrared cameras

Background: University physics students were engaged in open-ended thermodynamics laboratory activities with a focus on understanding a chosen phenomenon or the principle of laboratory apparatus, such as thermal radiation and a heat pump. Students had access to handheld infrared (IR) cameras for their investigations.

Purpose: The purpose of the research was to explore students’ interactions with reformed thermodynamics laboratory activities. It was guided by the research question: How do university physics students make use of IR cameras in open-ended investigation of thermal radiation as a phenomenon?

Sample: The study was conducted with a class of first-year university physics students in Sweden. The interaction with the activities of four of the students was selected for analysis. The four students are males.

Design and methods: We used a qualitative, interpretive approach to the study of students’ interaction. The primary means of data collection was video recording of students’ work with the laboratory activities and their subsequent presentations. The analysis focused on how IR cameras helped students notice phenomena relating to thermal radiation, with comparison to previous research on students’ conceptions of thermal radiation.

Results: When using the IR camera, students attended to the reflection of thermal radiation on shiny surfaces, such as polished metals, windows or a whiteboard and emissive properties of surfaces of different types. In this way, they went beyond using the technology as a temperature probe. Students were able to discuss merits and shortcomings of IR cameras in comparison with digital thermometers.

Conclusions: With the help of IR cameras, university physics students attend to thermal phenomena that would otherwise easily go unnoticed.     

Refugees and online education: student perspectives on need and support in the context of (online) higher education

ABSTRACT

Online education and in particular Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are often regarded as a way to solve global educational challenges. In this article, we highlight the students’ uptake of such a ‘digital solution’. Presenting initial findings from a research project in Germany, we situate our investigation in the specific context of digital educational offers for refugees, using Kiron Open Higher Education as an example. Kiron has designed an innovative academic model, with MOOCs at its core, to ease refugees’ access into higher education. Drawing from student data of 1375 Kiron students we look at students’ actual usage of the offer and the accompanying support services as well as the difficulties refugee students face while navigating online higher education. Results show, amongst others, rather low completion rates in the online courses and point to a much more nuanced picture of how students make use of the offer – putting online education as an easy, straightforward formula to the integration of disadvantaged students into question.     

The relation between mastery goals and intrinsic motivation among university students: a longitudinal study

The present work broadens previous research on students’ mastery goals and intrinsic motivation by exploring their reciprocal effects using a longitudinal approach. To this end, a study using four measurement points was conducted during 10 weeks of one semester. The sample comprised 1156 students enrolled in psychology courses at a medium-sized university in Germany who completed questionnaires. The findings showed that both constructs were intra-individually stable over the course of one semester although the rank-order stability of mastery goals was higher than the rank-order stability of intrinsic motivation. Cross-lagged structural equation models revealed that students’ mastery goals predicted their intrinsic motivation throughout the semester. However, intrinsic motivation did not predict mastery goals. Results are discussed in terms of a potential integration of achievement goal theory and self-determination theory and their practical implications.     

Assessing pre‐university students through extended individual investigations: teachers’ and examiners’ views

This paper reports a study of the views of teachers and Examination Board staff on the introduction of individual investigative work into pre‐university (Advanced level) Chemistry courses in England. The move towards investigative work at this level represented a significant change in emphasis in the nature of assessed practical work in pre‐university courses, and was initially a feature of only two courses, the Salters’ Advanced Chemistry course and the Cambridge Modular Science course. In this study, data were collected through the use of interviews with selected teachers of the two courses, and also with key staff in the relevant Examinations Boards. The findings of the study suggest that both teachers and Examination Board staff view the move towards investigative work at this level as having a number of benefits for students, though teachers reported some difficulty with their joint roles of teacher and assessor.     

Revising a College 101 Course for Sustained Impact: Early Outcomes

ABSTRACT

In response to strikingly low completion rates in public 2-year colleges, including for students who are well-prepared academically, most community colleges across the country offer student success courses as one approach to improving outcomes for students. Some colleges have begun to revise these courses in response to research indicating that their impact fades over time. This article examines Bronx Community College’s efforts to restructure their student success course into a First Year Seminar (FYS) that integrates college orientation activities, disciplinary content, and academic success skills. The course emphasizes student-centered pedagogies in order to encourage learning that persists beyond the semester of participation. We use mixed methods to assess the early outcomes of students in FYS courses and understand whether and why the course’s impact has the potential to be sustained. Using propensity score matching to compare 1,138 FYS participants to 1,138 similar nonparticipants, we find early evidence that the FYS approach leads to positive outcomes, including higher grade point averages (GPA) and earning more credits. Using classroom observations (N = 40), instructor interviews (N = 10), and interviews with participants (N = 27), we find that FYS appears to facilitate student-centered, contextualized, and applied learning, thereby helping students apply their FYS-related skills in future courses. This study has implications for reforming student success courses in a way that achieves long-term positive student outcomes.     

Breaking the habit: engineering students’ understanding of mathematical creativity

ABSTRACT

In higher education, engineering students have to be prepared for their future jobs, with knowledge but also with several soft skills, among them creativity. In this paper, we present a study carried on with 128 engineering undergraduate students on their understanding of mathematical creativity. The students were in the first year of different engineering first degrees in a north-eastern Portuguese university and we analysed the content of their texts for the question ‘What do you understand by mathematical creativity?’. Data collection was done in the first semester of the academic years 2014/2015 and 2016/2017 in a Linear Algebra course. The results showed that ‘problem solving’ category had the majority of the references in 2014/2015, but not in the academic year 2016/2017 were ‘involving mathematics’ category had the majority. This exploratory study pointed out for ‘problem solving’ and ‘involving mathematics’ categories and gave us hints for teaching mathematics courses in engineering degrees.     

Storylines in the physics teaching content of an upper secondary school classroom

ABSTRACT

Background: Physics is often seen as a discipline with difficult content, and one that is difficult to identify with. Socialisation processes at the upper secondary school level are of particular interest as these may be linked to the subsequent low and uneven participation in university physics. Focusing on how norms are construed in physics classrooms in upper secondary school is therefore relevant.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify discursive patterns in teacher–student interactions in physics classrooms.

Design and methods: Three different physics lessons with one class of students taught by three different teachers in upper secondary school were video-recorded. Positioning theory was used to analyse classroom interaction with a specific focus on how physics was positioned.

Results: We identified seven different storylines. Four of them (‘reaching a solution to textbook problems’, ‘discussing physics concepts in order to gain better understanding’, ‘doing empirical enquiry’ and ‘preparing for the upcoming exam’) represent what teaching physics in an upper secondary school classroom can be. The last three storylines (‘mastering physics’, ‘appreciating physics’ and ‘having a feeling for physics’) all concern how students are supposed to relate to physics and, thus, become ‘insiders’ in the discipline.

Conclusions: The identification and analysis of storylines raises awareness of the choices teachers make in physics education and their potential consequences for students. For example, in the storyline of mastering physics a good physics student is associated with ‘smartness’, which might make the classroom a less secure place in general. Variation and diversity in the storylines construed in teaching can potentially contribute to a more inclusive physics education.     

The product life-cycle of online courses and student engagement

ABSTRACT

With increased online course offerings at most higher education institutions, it is important to have a way to determine whether the courses continue to have value to students or outlived their usefulness. Courses are the central means of knowledge delivery for each institution and may be viewed through the lens of the product life-cycle, which is a common way for for-profit corporations to ensure they are aware of when it is time to make adjustments or completely overhaul what they provide to consumers. We leverage this concept to develop a conceptual mode of the life-span and cycle of curricular products; especially, those delivered online, which may have a shorter shelf life than in-classroom courses. To that end, we map a single course that has spanned nearly 20 years and shifted from face-to-face delivery, to a blended mode with learning technologies support, and then into a fully online format. This piece depicts the course life-cycle, which emerged from multi-strategy research analysis of that course. Understanding that online courses have a life-cycle can help department and university managers plan for the investment in the improvement of each as it comes to the end of its useful lifespan. This can ensure high-quality learning and a sustainable portfolio of programs and courses with which students are engaged.     

Linking Mathematics and Psychological Science

Abstract

We describe a successful collaboration between mathematics and psychological science faculty members to create a learning community for our students that linked sections of introductory mathematical reasoning and psychological science courses. The students in our learning community were in their second or third semester. The learning community is designed so that, throughout the semester, students regularly move across the border between the two linked disciplines by completing common assignments, including a group project. We modified our existing course topics and frameworks to be intentional about building connections between the courses.     

Motivation and Self-regulation in Community College Transfer Students at a Four-year Online University

ABSTRACT

Motivation and self-regulation were examined in a sample of community college transfer students enrolled in a 4-year, online university. The relation between motivation and self-regulation and students’ performance was examined, as was the association between these learner characteristics (i.e., motivation and self-regulation) and sociodemographic factors (e.g., marital status, employment status). Motivation was found to be significantly correlated with both semester and cumulative grade point average (GPA), while associations between self-regulation and performance were more limited. Further, motivation was found to be a significant predictor of semester GPA in a model controlling for sociodemographic factors and prior achievement. Motivation and self-regulation were also found to differ according to students’ sociodemographic status. For instance, transfer students with children under 18 were found to have significantly higher levels of motivation than nonparents. Those employed full-time had lower levels of self-regulation than did their nonemployed peers. Implications for further research on community college transfer students and online learning are discussed.