Social media in higher education: understanding how colleges and universities use Facebook

This study provides an understanding of the current social media landscape for higher education institutions. While it is recognized that consistency in school branding across all communications with stakeholders is important to attract and retain students, relatively little work has been done to determine specifically what type of content should be included in a school’s social media campaign, nor has there been an investigation as to the relative frequency of the content. The authors use content analysis to examine Facebook posts from 66 top US colleges and universities and engagement from their constituents on these posts. Results show that there are significant differences in engagement received on posts across institution type. Additionally, media type and posting frequency are factors that contribute to engagement. This study provides direction on how university social media managers can better manage their social media content to improve engagement and increase the reach of their posts.     

Social media in higher education: A literature review of Facebook

The rapid adoption of social media technologies has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way communication and collaboration take place. As staff and students use social media technologies in their personal lives, it is important to explore how social media technologies are being used as an educational tool. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of social media, in particular, Facebook, as an educational tool in higher education. Through a review of the literature, this paper explores the myriad ways in which Facebook is being used as an educational instrument for learning and teaching. Multiple benefits of Facebook usage for learning and teaching have been identified such as increased teacher-student and student-student interaction, improved performance, the convenience of learning and higher engagement. The paper also highlights the potential problems and limitations of Facebook usage ranging from educators’ dominance to privacy concerns. Finally, Facebook usage guidelines that can be adopted by educators to encourage social media adoption are proposed. As social media usage continues to grow in higher education, future empirical research is warranted.     

The educational use of social annotation tools in higher education: A literature review

This paper presents a literature review of empirical research related to the use and effect of online social annotation (SA) tools in higher education settings. SA technology is an emerging educational technology that has not yet been extensively used and examined in education. As such, the research focusing on this technology is still very limited. The literature review has aimed at presenting a comprehensive list of SA empirical studies not limited to a particular research method or study domain. Out of more than 90 articles that were initially found, only 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. Among the included studies were eight experimental or quasi-experimental studies and eight evaluation/survey studies. The SA empirical research has provided some evidence regarding the potential effectiveness of integrating social annotation tools into learning activities. Findings from the gathered literature were synthesized to provide recommendations for using SA technology in educational settings.     

高等教育创新与高等教育科学研究创新

要推动我国高等教育创新,就必须高度重视并积极推进高等教育科学研究的创新。当前,既要克服高等教育研究脱离高等教育实践的倾向,也要克服高等教育实际工作者远离高等教育科学研究的局面。而加强院校研究是促进高等教育研究与实际有机结合的可行方法。     

The demand for higher education in Cyprus: an educational policy perspective

The article examines the reasons for the high demand for higher education in Cyprus. At present, economic, societal, and cultural forces are widely accepted as responsible for the phenomenal increase in demand. A survey of secondary school final form students conducted in Cyprus by the author reconfirms the importance of these forces but also points to another demand influencing factor, namely, the students' psychological motivation in the pursuit of higher studies. The article discusses the policy implications of the findings and suggests the following as measures to help promote a better match between higher education choices and labour market conditions: the provision of greater and more accurate information to secondary school students on the employment opportunities available with a higher education diploma; the promotion of vocational nonuniversity fields of study among secondary school students; and the frequent and closer interaction between higher education institutions and the labour market.     

从高等教育观念变革看高等职业教育发展

本文试图从高等教育的哲学背景、历史演变来追溯高等职业教育的根源，分析当前我国高等职业教育的观念误区，探讨高等职业教育今后的发展前景。     

Key educational experiences and self-discovery in higher education

This study investigates key educational experiences in higher education. Key experiences are short and intense instructional episodes that students remember to have had a decisive effect on their lives. Data comes from a sample of 3045 key educational experiences, focusing on the 11.6% that relate to higher education. The paper uses a qualitative analysis to describe different features of key experiences in higher education. The results suggest that key experiences involve a process of self-discovery where students find features about themselves they knew nothing of previously. They also help to characterize three main contexts for self-discovery in higher education. First, key experiences take place in academically challenging circumstances that get students to embark on identity adventures. Second, challenging circumstances also provided ripe ground for sage advice that professors provided their students with. These words of wisdom became leitmotifs for students’ lives henceforth. Finally, the results indicate the importance of second chance opportunities for self-discovery and identity rehabilitation in higher education.     

军地高教结合:优化国民高教资源配置新举措

本文通过探讨军事高等教育和普通高等教育体系充分结合的必要性和可能性，提出了实现两者充分结合的基本构想，优化国民高等教育资源配置，共同培养21世纪合格人才。     

普通高校诊所法律教育的路径选择

诊所法律教育在我国高校的引入已近10年,其实施效果受到各界赞许,实施的必要性毋庸置疑.但是在我国法科教育中占绝对数量的普通高校实施情况却并不理想,其中诊所法律教育路径选择上的偏差是一个重要的原因.笔者认为,普通高校应当从法律教育的定位出发,树立培养法科学生职业能力和职业伦理的双重价值目标,积极创造诊所法律教育的运行条件,通过构建多元化诊所法律教育的运作模式、选择合理有效的诊所法律教育教学方法、设计科学配套的评价体系,通过诊所法律教育路径的科学选择,实现应用型高级法科人才的培养目标.     

我国高等教育公平的成就、问题与反思

在我国高等教育实行跨越式发展战略的过程中,如何保障弱势群体的受教育权和促进社会阶层合理流动。是人们关注的焦点。高等教育实现大众化之后,我们应该以新的视角来重新阐释并界定高等教育公平的层次性和现实选择。高等教育公平既取得了巨大的历史成就,也面临新的问题,因此,寻求高等教育公平的理想途径,是教育改革的一项重要内容。     

Meaningfulness of a learning experience: A measure for educational outcomes in higher education

Based on assumptions derived from the humanistic education theory that (1) the learners' perceived meaningfulness of a learning experience is an important measure of the educational outcomes, and that (2) the learner is a legitimate evaluator of his own learnings, this study attempts to develop a conceptual model for the meaningfulness and value of a course of study as judged by students in higher education. The model suggests that in a course, perceived meaningfulness and value are related to the perceived learnings in the cognitive-subject matter, affective-personal, and behavioral domains.A Course Valuing Inventory based on this model has been developed and tested on 141 students, participating in 19 university courses. Testing the Inventory showed that it is reliable, and that the relationship between the perceived learnings in the course and its value are as established by the conceptual model. It was also found that the tool successfully differentiates between graduate and undergraduate students, as has been hypothesized.The study was supported in part by the Jewish Memorial Foundation.     

Realigning capital portfolios: international students' educational experiences in higher education

This paper reports on first year experiences of international students who use English as an additional language (EAL) in higher education in Australia. It examines how valued resources can foster a positive educational experience of these students from sociological perspectives. It draws data from an interview study, exploring narrative accounts of 17 EAL international students from nine countries about their educational relations and strategies across their first year of study. Their narratives were analysed through Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus, capital and legitimation, as well as tools of narrative inquiry. The paper finds that the students took up strategies to realign their capital portfolios with new rules of the game. Their decisions were dependent on their personal trajectories and conditions on offer. This paper suggests that more effort needs to be made to understand international students' differentiated access to valued resources in higher education.     

高校定位与高等教育系统秩序的形成

高校定位是高校对自身发展方向和发展路径的理性选择,高等教育系统秩序的形成是建立在高校定位基础之上的组织化过程。高校分类只是对高等教育系统秩序认识的特例,仅仅用高校分类与自生秩序相结合来建构高校定位机制是不够的。高等教育系统秩序的形成是一个组织化过程,既有人类理性的安排,又有自组织方式。因而,高校定位应该由政府宏观引导、社会广泛参与、高校理性选择三者共同发挥作用。     

Sustainability policy and sustainability in higher education curricula: the educational developer perspective

Various studies have investigated the views of higher education staff and students about sustainability, yet educational developer perspectives are under-represented in the research. This project gathered educational developer perspectives about sustainability in the curriculum. It sought to capture their views about a national sustainability policy; about the relationship between educational development and sustainability curriculum change; and whether sustainability should form part of their own roles. It was informed by the ‘theory of the second-best’ and involved nine interviews. Educational developers raised concerns about the policy, whilst opinions about their own involvement varied. It is argued that policy should provide clearer statements about curriculum, and educational developers should be involved in its development.     

Engaging fans and the community in social media: interaction with institutions of higher education on Facebook

Although many universities use social media to interact with stakeholders, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Drawing on theories of self-presentation and community engagement, we develop a theoretical model to explain these crucial outcome factors. We then test the model based on secondary data from 159 universities. Our findings reveal the double-edged nature of community size: universities with a strong reputation tend to have more Facebook fans, but having many Facebook fans has detrimental effects on individual fan engagement. Furthermore, the frequency of updates is a crucial factor, as too frequent and too infrequent updates lead to lower levels of fan engagement. We discuss theoretical implications for online communities and derive implications for social media managers.     

Decentralization of higher education and its implications for educational autonomy in Taiwan

This article primarily aims to investigate the effects of decentralization on educational autonomy in Taiwan through historical and documentary analysis. To draw an analytical framework, it begins with a brief examination of the concept of autonomy. This is followed by an examination of how decentralization has influenced the state-institution-individual relationship in Taiwan's higher education by using a three-level hierarchical model. After analyzing decentralization as empowering practices, it argues that the emergence of a performativity culture has generated an antinomy of the decentralization reforms, in which decentralization has formed a new ecology of education administration in Taiwan on the one hand, and simultaneously has brought the issue of bureaucratization in education on the other.     

The need for context-sensitive measures of educational quality in transnational higher education

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and pursued educational quality in an Australian university programme delivered in partnership with a Chinese university in China. A key finding was that a home programme functioned as the single reference point for quality in the programme delivered in China. Quality in the China programme was sought through the imposition of practices and philosophies associated with the home programme, which required the suppression of local educational traditions. The paper points out that reliance on a home programme as the single measure of quality is encouraged by governing UNESCO/OECD guidelines on quality in cross-border provision.