Bridging the gap: an alternative tool for course evaluation

The increasing perception of students as customers of services puts a stronger focus on improving the quality of the student experience. Satisfaction with aspects of service, such as access, flexibility and fitness for purpose can be assessed through student feedback questionnaires. The results of these surveys may not immediately suggest strategies for making improvement. How to bridge any gaps between what students look for and what they experience requires knowledge of student expectations and experiences separately. This paper describes an alternative evaluation tool, QUEST, based on a service template approach and explains how it has been used for evaluating the level of student satisfaction with HE distance education courses. QUEST is web‐based and produces a measure of satisfaction for a range of service quality aspect of the course provision. The results can be interrogated at several layers of detail to produce a clear picture of where issues arise and to identify how they might be addressed. The paper describes how these outputs from an evaluation might be interpreted to suggest strategies for improving the fit between what students look for from a particular course of study and what they experience.     

远程教育服务增值模型研究

通过借鉴市场营销领域的顾客参与理论对远程教育服务体系增值模型的研究,表明学生对于目前的远程教育服务具有中等偏高的满意度,女生满意度高于男生;学生学习参与行为的维度及程度影响这一满意度指标;学费性价比的认知、教学设施使用、教学信息接收、教学信息获取、教学要求、学习疑难提出、教学服务人员接触等行为正向影响学生满意度;学生的学习兴趣满足、网上资源获取及保安服务等参与行为则对满意度起负向影响。远程教育服务体系可以通过学生参与行为的良好互动来提升服务品质,创造学生满意度最大化。     

远程教育学习支持服务满意度影响因素研究

为明确远程教育学习者对学习支持服务的满意度现状,根据满意度量表,运用SPSS19．0统计软件对问卷数据进行分析,发掘其影响因素。研究显示不同年龄、学历和专业的学生对满意度有显著差异,根据远程教育学校在管理和服务等方面存在的问题,提出了远程教育机构要＂以学生为中心＂,提高学习支持服务质量的建议,以促进远程教育科学发展。     

服务德育：德育新思维

服务德育是一种全新的德育理念和德育方法。服务德育把教师的“教”看成是教师职业实现的活动和过程;把学生的“学”看成是在教师的帮助下自主创新性学习和自我教育活动的过程。就教育工作者而言,德育的过程就是提供教育服务的活动和过程;就学生而言,德育的过程就是通过接受教育服务自我生成与发展良好道德素质的活动和过程。服务德育的理论基础是服务劳动价值论、服务产品理论、“学生中心论”和“以人为本”教育思想。     

Book reviews

When designing lessons to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse population of students, educators need to rethink planning and structuring lessons so that all students achieve better results. Therefore, teacher preparation programmes need to prepare pre‐service teachers accordingly. Within this paper, a new lesson planning template is unveiled that builds on many of the foundational concepts of inclusive education. This template is meant for teacher educators to use with pre‐service teachers across the curriculum to guide the design of inclusive lessons. This paper discusses the foundations, unique features, and applications of this student‐centred lesson design template to create creative and active learning for students in inclusive classrooms.     

Towards Advocacy: post‐positivist directions for progressive teacher educators

This paper seeks to draw attention to the extent to which liberatory pedagogical intentions can function as part of a technology of surveillance unless, as socially critical educators, we actively work against our own tendency to totalising educational discourse. It notes a number of folkloric traditions in pre‐service teacher education that derive from discursive practices which position students either as inevitably acting out a well‐documented scenario or as ‘victims’ of the dominant technocratic model of teacher education. This paper suggests a way forward for teacher educators through the application of post‐positivist theorising to what has come to be understood as ‘proven’ by past and current educational research. This process is exemplified in the discussion by the application of post‐structuralist deconstructive techniques to avant garde educational text in order to bring forward for scrutiny the binary oppositions in our own ‘transformative’ educational discourse. The implications of ‘advocacy’ research are discussed and a plea made for pedagogy that intervenes in socially critical practices by making problematic our own ‘versions’ of student teacher needs.     

关于远程教育学习支持服务系统构成的思考

远程教育以学生的自主学习为主要特征,但在现实中,有不少学习者限于多年接受灌输式传统学习惯性和自身工作生活处境,对＂求何知、如何学＂的认识不够充分,导致面对浩瀚如烟的网上学习资源,在短期内难以找到适合自己的学习目标和坐标,严重影响了学习质量。因此,需要建立高效、完善的学习支持服务系统,为学生提供个性化学习帮助,使学习者实现有效学习。目前设立学习中心,构建网络学习环境,已经成为远程教育学习过程支持服务的重要工作,这在客观上对学习者支持服务的产生提供了可能性。     

Situational interest,computer self‐efficacy and self‐regulation: Their impact on student engagement in distance education

This study investigates possible relationships among motivational and learning variables (interest, self‐efficacy and self‐regulation) and three types of student engagement (behavioural engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement) in a distance education setting. Participants were 203 students enrolled in online classes in the fall semester of 2008 in the Schools of Gerontology and Engineering at a large research university in the south‐western USA, who completed an online survey assessing their levels of situational interest, computer self‐efficacy, self‐regulation and engagement in distance education. Situational interest and self‐regulation were found to be significantly correlated with three types of engagement (behavioural, emotional and cognitive), while computer self‐efficacy did not appear to be associated with any of those engagement variables. Results suggested that online activities and tools such as multimedia and discussion boards may increase emotional engagement in online learning, although they do not necessarily increase behavioural or cognitive engagement, that educators should identify students who are taking online courses for the first time and provide necessary technical help to increase their emotional engagement, and that it is important for educators to offer students strategies for increasing their self‐regulation in distance education environments.     

Linking Community,Industry and Tertiary Education Community‐based Student Units in Social Work Education

Professional social work education in Australia requires students to undertake supervised and assessed field practice in addition to theoretical classroom‐based education. Field education placements take place in a wide range of social and community service organisations ‐ often partly funded by these organisations. However, in a climate of economic restraint and cutback, the social and community services sector increasingly looks to education for resources for field education. One solution is the development of student units, especially designed to offer practice‐based experience for students. This paper is motivated by the high value Phillip Institute of Technology places on student units in field education. It addresses the question, “What are student units?”, presents a tentative categorisation of types of social work student units and concludes with a possible framework for evaluation.     

A study of accounting students' motives,expectations and preparedness for higher education

Framed by the accounting education change debate and growing national concern regarding student attrition, this paper examines the perceptions of first‐year students as they commence their study of accounting at an Irish university. It explores a range of factors which impact on students' learning: their motives for entering higher education, their rationale for selecting an accounting programme, their preparedness for further study and their expectations. The findings offer accounting educators the opportunity to have a greater sensitivity to, and a better understanding of, their students. This will enable better‐informed curriculum, teaching and assessment within the accounting discipline, aiding students' transition to higher education and leading to higher quality learning.     

以生涯发展为导向的高校学生工作目标体系的构建

高校学生工作在当代大学教育中起着越来越重要的作用,但传统模式下,学生的自主性和主观能动性受到了一定程度的抑制,而现代模式正是基于传统模式下存在的问题而做出的重要改变。从学生工作目标体系的构建来阐释现代模式的学生工作。目标体系的构建是基于学生工作的总目标即学生个人全面发展提出的,主要包括学生个人生活服务、学生职业生活服务和学生社会生活服务三个方面。     

Student teachers,special educational needs and inclusion education: reviewing the potential for problem‐based,e‐learning pedagogy to support practice

Northern Ireland has invested heavily in the use of technology enhanced learning at all levels of education. Alongside this, radical changes to the school curriculum and the planned move away from academic selection towards a more inclusive system are challenging those involved in Initial Teacher Education to find ways to improve teaching and learning for more inclusive classrooms. This study reviews a pilot programme that integrated problem‐based and blended e‐learning pedagogy to support student teachers learning in the area of special needs and inclusion education. Findings indicate that using a carefully constructed blended programme can effectively support key teaching and learning aspects of pre‐service training and help develop skills in critical reflection. It also offers initial teacher educators in Northern Ireland insight into some of the most pressing problems experienced by student teachers during training, and provides a rationale for continued programme development.     

Student perceptions of support services and the influence of targeted interventions on retention in distance education

To improve student retention in distance education, Simpson suggested in 2003 that institutions analyse their own retention characteristics and ‘spot the leaks.’ In 2008 the Centre for Distance Learning at Laidlaw College, New Zealand, employed two part‐time academic support coordinators in an effort to improve student retention and success. This study compares the retention statistics for first‐time student outcomes across two semesters, one without and one with specific course retention interventions. Results are benchmarked across national data. Interviews with students who were retained revealed that students frequently attribute their success to their own efforts. Student support services in distance education might therefore be perceived by its beneficiaries as a ‘hygiene’ factor (Herzberg, 1968, 2008) in that their presence is not generally appreciated by students. However, their absence is noticed. The similarity of this finding with Shin’s institutional transactional presence (2002, 2003) is also explored.     

现代教育理论视野下的成人学生观探析

现代教育视野下的成人学生观与传统教育视野下的成人学生观有着本质的不同。现代教育视野下的学生观强调每一个成人学生都是具有独特发展优势的个体,要求教育者充分相信他们;强调成人学生是主体的人,要求教育者充分发挥他们的主体精神;强调把成人学生当做一个发展的人,要求教育者用发展变化的眼光看待他们;强调成人学生是一个具体的人,要求教育者因材施教;强调成人学生是一个整体的人,要求教育者用联系的、全面的观点对待他们。     

Grass roots: Using satellite technology for educational program delivery: The Iowa experience

Abstract

Flexibility in location, scheduling, and delivery of courses and programs through distance education can provide disabled students with what may be their first real access to higher education. Distance educators must stay abreast of developments (particularly technological developments) that will improve future services; in this way, they can take a proactive stance in providing and delivering courses, instruction, and testing in accessible formats. This article states a philosophy for serving disabled learners and describes practical applications of that philosophy for distance education programs based on the experiences of the Independent Study program at the University of Wisconsin‐Extension. Issues addressed include information dissemination, planning, instruction, testing, and faculty training and support.     

Teaching Family Systems Theory Through Service‐Learning

The authors present a rationale for incorporating service‐learning projects into courses that teach family systems theory. A model program is presented to provide an example of the objectives, practical considerations, and student responses to such a project. Recommendations for counselor educators are made based on experience with the model program and student feedback.     

Foundations of dynamic learning analytics: Using university student data to increase retention

With digitisation and the rise of e‐learning have come a range of computational tools and approaches that have allowed educators to better support the learners' experience in schools, colleges and universities. The move away from traditional paper‐based course materials, registration, admissions and support services to the mobile, always‐on and always accessible data has driven demand for information and generated new forms of data observable through consumption behaviours. These changes have led to a plethora of data sets that store learning content and track user behaviours. Most recently, new data analytics approaches are creating new ways of understanding trends and behaviours in students that can be used to improve learning design, strengthen student retention, provide early warning signals concerning individual students and help to personalise the learner's experience. This paper proposes a foundational learning analytics model (LAM) for higher education that focuses on the dynamic interaction of stakeholders with their data supported by visual analytics, such as self‐organising maps, to generate conversations, shared inquiry and solution‐seeking. The model can be applied for other educational institutions interested in using learning analytics processes to support personalised learning and support services. Further work is testing its efficacy in increasing student retention rates.     

做好教学支持服务，引导学生自主学习

自主学习能力是人们为适应社会发展所须具备的一种能力,建立以“学生为中心”的开放教。育教学支持服务体系,是开放教育教学质量的重要保证。探讨在现代远程开放教育环境下,如何为计算机专业学生提供多项支持服务,引导学生自主学习。     

The impact of three‐dimensional computational modeling on student understanding of astronomical concepts: a quantitative analysis

The increased availability of computational modeling software has created opportunities for students to engage in scientific inquiry through constructing computer‐based models of scientific phenomena. However, despite the growing trend of integrating technology into science curricula, educators need to understand what aspects of these technologies promote student learning. This study used a multi‐method research approach involving both quantitative (Paper 1) and qualitative data (Paper 2) to examine student conceptual understanding of astronomical phenomena, relative to two different instructional experiences. Specifically, based on students' understandings of both spatial and declarative knowledge, we compared students who had constructed three‐dimensional computational models with students who had experienced traditional lecture‐based instruction. Quantitative analysis of pre‐interview and post‐interview data revealed that construction of three‐dimensional models best facilitated student understandings of spatially related astronomical concepts — whereas traditional instruction techniques best facilitated student understandings of fact‐oriented astronomical knowledge. This paper is the first in a two‐paper set that continues our line of research into whether problem‐based courses such as the Virtual Solar System course can be used as a viable alternative to traditional lecture‐based astronomy courses.