Responding to student expectations: a partnership approach to course evaluation

This paper presents a study that used newly developed instruments to investigate student expectations at two points in a semester‐based course. Course convenors were able to make some changes in response to the feedback, explain to students how the feedback had informed the course processes, and work with tutors on delivery enhancements. The administration of these instruments, a partnership approach involving students, tutors and lecturers, contributed to the creation of a responsive teaching and learning environment. In addition to enabling real‐time changes to be made, evaluation of the total teaching and learning experience ensured that improvements were made to subsequent offerings of the same course. Also, insights from one course were evaluated in terms of applicability to other courses offered within the same academic discipline. The study finds that establishing student expectations provides a framework for developing a responsive and iterative approach to achieving excellence in teaching and learning.     

论现代远程开放教育网络课程的系统设计

文章针对网络课程本身具有的特点探讨开放教育中网络课程的系统设计方案,主要包括学习目标设计、学习内容设计、学习资源设计、学习活动设计、学习监控系统设计、评价与反馈系统设计等六个部分的设计。     

远程英语写作教学中的书面反馈调查与研究

在远程语言教学中,由于交流机会有限,书面反馈就成为了开启和维持指导教师与学习者对话的重要手段。基于网络平台开放英语写作课程,以书面反馈为研究对象,采用问卷和访谈等方式,探索在远程语言教学环境下,指导教师和学习者对反馈的理念与实践。研究发现不同指导教师所提供的反馈类型和形式有明显差异,而不同学习者之间的期望和理解也差异较大。建议指导教师提供反馈前应了解学习者的学习需求与特点,同时,需要对指导教师和学习者进行有关有效利用书面反馈系统的培训,以提高书面反馈的对语言教学的促进效果。     

应用型本科电子系统设计课程教学改革与实践

电子系统设计课程是电子信息工程本科专业重要的课程,课程的研究内容包括信号的产生、放大、采集、分析与处理。文章以电子信息类应用型本科专业转型及本科工程教育专业认证为背景,从电子系统设计课程教学质量监控实际问题出发,提出了具有自我监测与修正功能的双闭环实时动态反馈式教学网络架构,并将其应用于电子系统设计课程教学改革与实践,提升教学效果明显。     

Inferring Student Learning Behaviour from Website Interactions: A Usage Analysis

Web-based learning environments are now used extensively as integral components of course delivery in tertiary education. To provide an effective learning environment, it is important that educators understand how these environments are used by their students. In conventional teaching environments educators are able to obtain feedback on student learning experiences in face-to-face interactions with their students, enabling continual evaluation of their teaching programs. However, when students work in electronic environments, this informal monitoring is not possible; educators must look for other ways to attain this information. Capturing and recording student interactions with a website provides a rich source of information from data that is gathered unobtrusively. The aim of this study was firstly to explore what information can be gained from analysing student interactions with Web-based learning environments and secondly to determine the value of this process in providing information about student learning behaviours and learning outcomes. This study has provided critical information to educators about the learning behaviour of their students, informing future enhancements and developments to a courseware website and the teaching program it supports.     

工程教育认证背景下“无机非金属材料工厂设计”课程的教学改革与探索

本文分析了"无机非金属材料工厂设计"课程的教学现状和不足,并根据工程教育认证的要求,提出通过修订教学大纲、注重课程设计实践、加快网络课程建设、注重学生反馈等教改措施,促进"无机非金属材料工厂设计"课程的教学改革与发展。     

Closing the feedback loop: physics undergraduates’ use of feedback comments on laboratory coursework

The laboratory notebooks of physics undergraduates taking two second-year practical courses were audited to discover whether they had used feedback comments in their subsequent coursework. Ninety-five per cent of the 37 students on the first course and 100% of the 14 students on the second course whose work was audited had used feedback. The marker’s comments were classified into two groups based on whether they addressed simple (mastery) or complex (developmental) learning outcomes. Mastery comments were more likely to be acted on than developmental comments which aimed to extend students’ skills and understanding to higher levels. This has implications for the use of feedback audit as a quality control process, since the feedback which is most commonly applied by students is not the most valuable for the development of higher order skills. Following reflection on the results for the first course, students taking the second course were given responsibility for checking their peers’ notebooks against preset criteria. Peer checking improved students’ marks but did not eliminate the need for mastery feedback. It is argued that a direct audit of students’ use of feedback is particularly valuable when undertaken by the teacher who provides the feedback.     

对BB在线教学管理平台精品课程教学模式的思考

目前网络精品课程教学存在学习资源呈现单一,评价手段低效,交互活动缺乏,共享性弱等问题。以建构主义教学理论为基础,在自主个性化、协作交互性、动态开放性和共享性四项原则的指导下,提出构建基于Blackboard在线教学管理平台的精品课程教学模式,并从自主学习模块、师生互动模块、拓展训练模块、评价反馈模块等方面进行系统的探讨。     

Hearing you loud and clear: student perspectives of audio feedback in higher education

The use of audio feedback for students in a full-time community nursing degree course is appraised. The aim of this mixed methods study was to examine student views on audio feedback for written assignments. Questionnaires and a focus group were used to capture student opinion of this pilot project. The majority of students valued audio feedback as more detailed, personalised and supportive than written feedback. Lecturers were also consulted about their experience of audio feedback and its place within current assessment strategies. Further development of this innovative assessment feedback strategy and its integration into a post-registration nursing course is considered.     

What matters for productive feedback? Disciplinary practices and their relational dynamics

Most research on feedback has paid limited attention to the role of disciplines and their relational dynamics. This article addresses this limitation by offering a conceptualisation of feedback as a relational process that emerges through feedback encounters shaped by the educational and professional practices of the discipline. Using data from a qualitative case study of an undergraduate software engineering course unit, it explores the relational dynamics between different elements of the course and how these dynamics matter for the emergence of productive feedback encounters. The findings show that a wide range of productive feedback encounters occurred between students and both human and material sources throughout the course. Feedback encounters were productive when students had the opportunity to navigate the tools and conventions necessary to participate in the educational practices of the course and, by extension, the discipline’s professional practices. Different learning activities were characterised by distinctive relational dynamics that provided various opportunities and constraints for productive feedback encounters to emerge. The findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for disciplinary practices and their relational aspects when designing for learning activities that aim to enable students to productively seek out and engage with feedback.     

基于P2P网络分布式数字签名系统研究

计算机高速的发展,网络安全也被受人们的关注,特别是网络服务、网络交易等领域的安全问题,使得数字签名技术应用越来越广泛。本文引入了门限密码的思想来设计基于P2P环境的分布式数字签名平台,整体采用有可信中心的安全增强的基于椭圆曲线门限数字签名方案。实验证明该系统具备高密钥安全性和高系统可用性。     

美国《运营管理》教材特色研究

《运营管理》是管理专业及MBA的核心课程之一。随着经济的全球化,新的管理思想、观念、技术的不断涌现,美国《运营管理》在诸多方面作了调整,内容上增添了运营战略、服务运营等,培养目标上更突出应用性,为我国教材的改进与完善提供了有益的借鉴。     

Facilitating team-based course designing with conceptual mapping

A method of rendering the design of a course visible for the purpose of discussion amongst the members of course development teams is described. The paper begins by examining the way in which design is manifested in the area of course materials development and the approaches that have been used in attempting to document designs. The strengths and limitations of the conceptual mapping method are examined and the way in which the method has been used to facilitate the work of course development teams is described. Additional uses of the method and possibilities for future enhancements of the method are discussed.     

What changes,and for whom? A study of the impact of learning analytics-based process feedback in a large course

Recent developments in educational technologies have provided a viable solution to the challenges associated with scaling personalised feedback to students. However, there is currently little empirical evidence about the impact such scaled feedback has on student learning progress and study behaviour. This paper presents the findings of a study that looked at the impact of a learning analytics (LA)-based feedback system on students' self-regulated learning and academic achievement in a large, first-year undergraduate course. Using the COPES model of self-regulated learning (SRL), we analysed the learning operations of students, by way of log data from the learning management system and e-book, as well as the products of SRL, namely, performance on course assessments, from three years of course offerings. The latest course offering involved an intervention condition that made use of an educational technology to provide LA-based process feedback. Propensity score matching was employed to match a control group to the student cohort enrolled in the latest course offering, creating two equal-sized groups of students who received the feedback (the experimental group) and those who did not (the control group). Growth mixture modelling and mixed between-within ANOVA were also employed to identify differences in the patterns of online self-regulated learning operations over the course of the semester. The results showed that the experimental group showed significantly different patterns in their learning operations and performed better in terms of final grades. Moreover, there was no difference in the effect of feedback on final grades among students with different prior academic achievement scores, indicating that the LA-based feedback deployed in this course is able to support students’ learning, regardless of prior academic standing.     

Assessment of situated orality: the role of reflection and revision in appropriation and transformation of research ethos

In this study, we aim to investigate how students on a cross-disciplinary postgraduate course in research communication describe the formative peer feedback they have received on their oral presentations and what impact they report it has had on their performance. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of 36 transcribed video recordings from the course. Our findings show that the students, through their reflections and revisions, clearly demonstrate to have appropriated and, in some cases, also transformed the course content: they were able to select parts of the feedback relevant to their development and redefine some of the concepts to suit rhetorical situations. Surprisingly, feedback on deficits in student presentations resulted both in reflection and revision, while affirmatory feedback resulted, if at all, in reflection only. These results may help develop effective educational tools for assessment of oral performances in higher education.     

Designing and implementing peer formative feedback within online learning environments

With increasing need to achieve appropriate balance between learning support and self-regulation within the context of online learning, formative feedback has been identified as a viable means to achieve meaningful engagement. Specifically, this study sought to establish how peer–peer formative feedback was facilitated in an online course and to what extent this engaged students in meaningful learning experiences. This case study entailed an in-depth investigation into the design and implementation of an online course in a New Zealand university. The studied course was part of a postgraduate programme in continuing (in-service) teacher education. The study adopted a case study methodology with a bias on qualitative techniques. Online observations, analysis of the archived course discourse and interviews were utilised as sources of data. The data from multiple sources were subsequently triangulated to corroborate the evidence. The findings indicate that peer formative feedback promoted active learners’ participation and meaningful engagement. The findings further showed that opportunities for dialogic peer formative feedback promoted learning support and self-regulation.     

Providing Effective Support: Investigating feedback to distance language learners

Interaction and feedback on performance are essential elements of the language learning process. On a distance-learning course, since opportunities for interaction may be limited, feedback plays a crucial role in opening and maintaining a dialogue between tutors and students. Using text analysis, questionnaire and interview data, this study explores both tutor and student perspectives on the feedback offered on a distance language course. It finds that there are considerable individual differences in the feedback offered by tutors and there is also variation in the type of feedback the students want and their reported uses of it. The article suggests that more training for both tutors and students is necessary to adequately exploit feedback's potential in a distance-learning context.     

The effects of a competency‐oriented learning environment and tutor feedback on students’ reflection skills

This study investigates the effects of a competency‐oriented course and the effects of feedback training on students’ reflection skills. Thirty‐one nursing students enrolled in a conventional course with lectures and assignments following a traditional test. Subsequently, they enrolled in a competency‐oriented course, which included more performance‐oriented tasks based on competencies and a performance‐based assessment. In both courses, half of the students received feedback on their assignments from tutors who were trained in feedback skills (experimental group), while the other half of the students received feedback from non‐trained tutors (control group). After each course, all students wrote a reflection report. Results show that students’ reflection reports after the competency‐oriented course were of a higher quality than the reports after the conventional course. Contrary to our expectations, the quality of the reflection reports of the control group (students supervised by non‐trained tutors) was significantly higher than the quality of reflection reports of the experimental group (students supervised by trained tutors). This study shows that a competency‐oriented design of courses enhances students’ reflection skills, but that the training in feedback skills needs to be reconsidered.     

Enhancing curriculum and delivery: linking assessment to learning objectives

Typical university‐wide course evaluations do not provide instructors with sufficient information on the effectiveness of their courses. This article describes a course assessment and enhancement model where student feedback can be used to improve courses and/or programs. The model employs an assessment tool that measures student perceptions of importance and their current competence in course‐specific learning objectives both pre‐ and post‐course. Information gained from this assessment enables course improvement over time and also allows for modification in delivery and/or content of the current course. This model is intended to augment traditional course evaluation mechanisms based on specific and actionable feedback on learning objectives.     

基于“互联网+”线上模式的英国文学课程教学探索

为了让学生更加融入线上教学课程,文章叙述了一套完整基于“互联网+”技术与理念的在线教学方法,主要包括课前教学准备、课堂教学设计以及课后练习、答疑及反馈等,并对涉及到的在线教学工具做了一一的介绍,尤其重点介绍了在该课程下采用的教学工具--超星网络教学平台,最后文章总结了在线教学的问题及解决方法。