Peer assessment in thesis oral presentation

Peer assessment has been studied in various situations and actively pursued as a means by which students are given more control over their learning and assessment achievement. This study investigated the reliability of staff and student assessments in two oral presentations with limited feedback for a school-based thesis course in engineering where the different disciplines ran their own assessment. Staff scores were generally found to be more reliable than student scores, but it was not consistent. The engineering disciplines displayed widely varying differences between the staff and student scores. A large variation in reliability was found for the different disciplines making it difficult to reconcile to a standard school-based overall grading scheme for the course when the reliability of marking was low. The results also showed that the average scores for oral presentations are generally much higher than for written examinations, based on the grade point average. Future research will need to investigate how best to develop a consistent assessment framework for oral presentations and moderation of scores for consistency, particularly for large classes where assessment are done by different groups of staff and students and collated into a single set of marks for the class.     

International e-benchmarking: flexible peer development of authentic learning principles in higher education

More and more, social technologies and virtual work methods are facilitating new ways of crossing boundaries in professional development and international collaborations. This paper examines the peer development of higher education teachers through the experiences of the IVBM project (International Virtual Benchmarking, 2009–2010). The e-benchmarking process in which teachers applied authentic learning criteria is described, as are the e-tools (Ning, ACP) and the methods employed collaboratively to develop e-learning competence. Cases came from Finland, Korea, Canada, Belgium and Great Britain. The project formed an international virtual learning community for teachers. In peer development, elements of authentic learning were assigned meaning, development alternatives were considered and the interpretation of authentic learning in different situations and cultures was made concrete. The results promote and inform the planning of e-benchmarking communities and flexible virtual teamwork in professional development and education contexts.     

Peer and self-assessment applied to oral presentations from a multidisciplinary perspective

This article analyses the use of peer and self-assessment in oral presentations as complementary tools to assessment by the professor. The analysis is based on a study conducted at the University of Girona (Spain) in seven different degree subjects and fields of knowledge. We designed and implemented two instruments to measure students’ peer and self-assessment, and a rubric to guide the assessment process. Results were compared with the marks awarded by the professor. In contrast with studies by other authors, which show a high correlation between these different assessment systems, our study revealed significant deviations. Applying peer and self-assessment to oral presentation activities also demonstrates their formative value above and beyond their summative usefulness.     

Oral presentations in higher education: a comparison of the impact of peer and teacher feedback

In this paper the authors analyse the competency of a sample of economics and business students in orally presenting academic content, as well as the changes that occurred after receiving feedback. The students’ presentations were videotaped, and a total of 96 were analysed at three stages: pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The participants were divided into two groups. In one, each student received feedback from a peer as part of a peer assessment with rubric activity. In the other, they received feedback from the teacher immediately after their presentation. In the post-test, the peer assessment with rubric students improved by 10% in the valuation of their presentation, while the teacher feedback students only improved by 5%. These results support the idea that undergraduates’ evaluations of their peers can be effective in improving oral presentation skills, especially when they are provided with some support instruments (videos and rubrics). However, the improvements in the peer assessment with rubric group were not maintained in the follow-up re-test. This suggests that a single session of peer assessment with rubric is insufficient to generalise any improvements in the said competency. The implications of these results with regard to the implementation of methods of formative peer assessment in higher education are discussed.     

Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education

The importance of reflection in higher education and across disciplinary fields is widely recognised and it is generally included in university graduate attributes, professional standards and programme objectives. Furthermore, reflection is commonly embedded into assessment requirements in higher education subjects, often without necessary scaffolding or clear expectations for students. Despite the rhetoric around the importance of reflection for ongoing learning, there is scant literature on any systematic, developmental approach to teaching reflective learning across higher education programmes/courses. Given that professional or academic reflection is not intuitive, and requires specific pedagogic intervention to do well, a programme/course-wide approach is essential. This paper draws on current literature to theorise a new, transferable and customisable model for teaching and assessing reflective learning across higher education, which foregrounds and explains the pedagogic field of higher education as a multi-dimensional space. We argue that explicit and strategic pedagogic intervention, supported by dynamic resources, is necessary for successful, broad-scale approaches to reflection in higher education.     

The silence about oral presentation skills in distance and online education: new perspectives from an Australian university preparatory programme

Oral presentation skills are considered essential workplace skills and are therefore highly valued in higher education. However, research into this aspect of adult learning is limited, especially in the context of distance and online education. This paper reports on an innovative approach used in a university preparatory program in Australia. Distance students were responsible for choosing a topic, setting and audience, and assessment was based on their self-reflections on the experience. Such an approach represents a radical departure from the usual methods used to practise and assess oral presentations. In this qualitative case study, we draw on students’ responses via portfolio reflections and interviews, using principles of adult learning as a framework for thematic analysis. Findings suggest that this activity fulfilled the needs of adult learners in a number of significant ways, and for some of these students, this oral presentation was a meaningful, even transformative experience.     

The impact of student feedback on teaching in higher education

Receiving feedback from students has become a normal part of life for university teachers worldwide. This puts pressure on them from several sides and may be an influential factor that leads them to tailor their teaching to students’ preferences. The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of student feedback and how it affects their teaching choices. A survey was sent out to all teachers at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The study found that student feedback is perceived positively by university teachers, has a large impact on their teaching and helps improve courses. Student feedback pushes teaching in the direction of fewer lectures and more tutorials, seminars and case studies. Teachers receiving negative student feedback experience more negative feelings related to the feedback, and are also more likely to introduce unjustified changes to their teaching in order to please students. These teachers also tend to have less teaching experience. However, a very large majority of teachers have a high level of professional pride and integrity and do not make (as they perceive them) unjustified changes to their teaching.     

Research issues in evaluating learning pattern development in higher education

This article concludes the special issue of Studies in Educational Evaluation concerned with “Evaluating learning pattern development in higher education” by discussing research issues that have emerged from the previous contributions. The article considers in turn: stability versus variability in learning patterns; old versus new analytic techniques; handling missing observations; measures of effect size; predispositions versus processes; and why it should be so hard to improve the quality of student learning in higher education.     

Promoting self-sustained learning in higher education: the ISEE framework

To equip graduates with the capability to meet complex demands of work and life, it is important that higher education teachers engage students in self-sustained learning – the persistent, self-initiated pursuit of expertise development in one's subject area. This requires building a positive synergy between learning and teaching, which implies various potential difficulties for teachers. Based on a critical analysis of these difficulties, it is proposed that self-sustained learning can be nurtured when teachers activate a form of dialogic reflective practice that prioritizes students’ subject expertise development. Relevant strategies are suggested and potential difficulties in implementing them are examined. These strategies are synthesized as the ISEE framework: (1) employing Inquiry-based Scaffolding Tasks to motivate students’ learning interests and scaffold their progress; (2) encouraging Engaging Classroom Dialogs to help students’ development of subject expertise and an active learner identity; and (3) using Engaged Critical Reflections to build close and trusting teacher–student relationships.     

The effectiveness of learning analytics for identifying at-risk students in higher education

Abstract

In this article we investigate the effectiveness of learning analytics for identifying at-risk students in higher education institutions using data output from an in-situ learning analytics platform. Amongst other things, the platform generates ‘no-engagement’ alerts if students have not engaged with any of the data sources measured for 14 consecutive days. We tested the relationship between these alerts and student outcomes for two cohorts of first-year undergraduate students. We also compared the efficiency of using these alerts to identify students at risk of poorer outcomes with the efficiency of using demographic data, using widening participation status as a case study example. The no-engagement alerts were found to be more efficient at spotting students not progressing and not attaining than demographic data. In order to investigate the efficacy of learning analytics for addressing differential student outcomes for disadvantaged groups, the team also analysed the likelihood of students with widening participation status generating alerts compared with their non-widening participation counterparts. The odds of students with widening participation status generating an alert were on average 43% higher, demonstrating the potential of such a system to preferentially target support at disadvantaged groups without needing to target directly based on immutable factors such as their socio-economic background.     

Using technology for teaching and learning in higher education: a critical review of the role of evidence in informing practice

The use of technology for teaching and learning is now widespread, but its educational effectiveness is still open to question. This mixed-method study explores educational practices with technology in higher education. It examines what forms of evidence (if any) have influenced teachers' practices. It comprises a literature review, a questionnaire and interviews. A framework was used to analyse a wide range of literature. The questionnaires were analysed using content analysis and the interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Findings suggest that evidence has partial influence upon practice with practitioners preferring to consult colleagues and academic developers. The study underscored the difficulty in defining and evaluating evidence, highlighting ontological and epistemological issues. The academic developer's role appears to be key in mediating evidence for practitioners.     

A case study of peer learning in higher aeronautical education

In order to improve student learning in an advanced course in aeronautics, lectures are replaced with more student-centred sessions based on peer learning. The course is organised in student teams, with the main task of delivering lecture requests for full class discussions. For the same reason, the written theory exam is replaced by a peer review of student reports. The new approach is found to result in a substantial increase of student–student and student–teacher interaction, leading to observable improvements in the course results. Finally, some feedback from the students is presented, being in great favour of the peer learning approach.     

The role of hybrid learning spaces in enhancing higher education students’ employability

Graduate employment rates and self-reported employability are increasingly a feature of higher education funding measures. However, graduate outcomes do not denote the whole learning experience of the student nor is the student experience reducible to a single statistic. This paper discusses a design-centric approach to employability development which was enacted within a hybrid learning space. The study engaged 52 final-year speech pathology students, their lecturer, the lead researcher and a career practitioner (advisor) at an Australian university. Students first created personalized employability profiles using an established online self-reflection tool. The online tool produced a personalized report and enabled students to access developmental resources relating to employability and student success. The project team used anonymized student data to transform a previously generic “careers” workshop into a targeted workshop in which students explored individual and cohort findings and participated in developmental activities informed by the data. The initiative’s contribution to learning space research is in its composition as a hybrid learning space in which educators and students engaged as learners and developers of their online learning spaces, and educators collaborated to analyze student data and inform learning and teaching enhancements within the same study period. It is anticipated that the data from subsequent years will inform the curricular review, particularly if subsequent student cohorts express similar concerns. Implications for higher education policy and practice are discussed.     

The impact of the university context on European students' learning approaches and learning environment preferences

This article describesexperiences of 610 Dutch students and 241students from other European countries whostudied at least three months abroad within theframework of an international exchange program.The Dutch students went to a university inanother European country and the foreignstudents went to a Dutch university. By meansof a questionnaire students' perceptions ofthree main characteristics of the universitylearning environment were measured concerningthe home university, the host university andthe ideal learning environment. The studentswere also asked about their way of learning atthe home university and at the host university,in particular about the extent of constructivelearning and reproductive learning. Evidencewas found for the influence of aspects of thelearning environment on the two learningapproaches; e.g., a learning environmentcharacterized as student-oriented discouragesreproductive learning and promotes constructivelearning, especially when conceptual andepistemological relations within the learningdomain are stressed. The learning environmentpreferences of the students were partly relatedto their learning orientations at the homeuniversity, but they were strikingly similarfor students from different countries. Therewas a strong preference for those learningenvironment aspects that promote constructivelearning.     

混合型学习在高校实践类课程的应用模式研究与实践

混合型学习是课堂教学与数字化学习的优势组合,结合当前高校实践类课程学时数不足、实践力度不够、理论知识与实践能力无法深度融合的现状,该文通过课堂讲授、网络自主与协作学习、课外任务式实训3个模块,以摄影技术课程为例,介绍了混合型学习在实践类课程中的具体应用模式与方法。     

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.     

Three theses on teaching and learning in higher education

In our article, we explore the possibility of formulating theses about teaching as one way to use research as a basis for educational action. The theses are formulated from current educational research on teaching and learning in higher education. We also explore the potential for action and the consequences derived from the theses. With our theses, we criticise less complex ways of using research for educational purposes. Through theses we can suggest directions for action without prescribing certain methods or procedures and provide answers without reducing the teachers' possibilities for choice or diminishing their responsibility for their actions. Our exploration is an invitation to a collaborative exploration of theses on teaching and learning in order to broaden and deepen our shared basis for educational action.     

The exploration of student-centred approaches for the improvement of learning programming in higher education

The author has undergone a major shift in the way of teaching his undergraduate computer programming courses. In the classroom, the teacher＇s computer is connected to a splitter and a video projector that display the computer＇s screen to the entire class. Using this technology, the programming language itself is used live in class to help the students learn how to program. The students are learning in a context by far livelier than those of previous methods. Teaching computer programming is not achieved by lecturing and writing the program instructions on board or by displaying program instructions to the class on transparencies or slides of electronic presentations. With the implementation of student-centered approaches, the students migrated from the state of passive receivers to constructors of computer programming concepts. Students are coached to develop a sense of exploration, individuality and autonomous thinking. The enthusiasm for technology has been facilitating and supporting the learner-centered approach. Everyone in this approach is a learner, including the teacher.     

A social realist perspective on student learning in higher education: the morphogenesis of agency

Contemporary critiques of student learning research call for new theoretical and methodological approaches. This article proposes a social realist approach to this research, using the morphogenetic theory of sociologist Margaret Archer. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated by reference to an empirical study of engineering students at a South African university, using narrative analysis. In the article itself, two narratives are given in some detail, illustrating the key outlines of the analysis. Students’ emerging personal identities are shown to be highly dependent on their social backgrounds, yet when in the university the possibilities for the morphogenesis of student agency are very constrained. A critical interrogation of these findings proposes that a true higher education should facilitate the development of an enlarged sense of agency for students.