Academic workload: the silent barrier to the implementation of technology-enhanced learning strategies in higher education

The effect of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) strategies in higher education has arguably been transformative despite the not-insignificant barriers existing in this context. Throughout the discourse very little attention has been paid to those primarily responsible for this implementation—academic teaching staff. This paper aims to highlight the impact of academic workload allocations, an often silent barrier to the uptake of TEL strategies in higher education. We will discuss the effects of academic identity and culture, preferential time allocation to associative activities, academic technological capacity, university policies and workload and funding models on the uptake, and implementation on TEL in higher education. Our aim is to highlight the risks to staff, students and institutions should these concerns not be addressed and to propose a model for utilisation by all staff responsible for implementing flexible workload models supportive of further implementation of TEL strategies across the sector.     

Academic workload planning revisited

This report extends and updates a 1996 paper ondepartmental planning of workload for academicsin UK universities. Categories of workloadplanning system can be discerned by introducinga set of differentiating dimensions. Usingthis taxonomy the situation in departments in a(pre-1992) UK university is explored via casestudy and survey. The study finds a highdegree of variety and limited reliance onformal workload planning systems. The questionof whether these systems are effective isconsidered and leads on to identifying keycriteria for effective systems. Increasedenvironmental pressures are driving departmentsto confront workload planning in a morerigorous and effective manner.     

Allocation of Academic Workloads in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at a South African University

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the results of a statistical analysis of the weekly working hours of academics in a Faculty of Human and Social Sciences at a South African university. The aim was to quantify, analyse and compare the workload of academic staff. Seventy-five academics self-reported on their workload by completing the workload measuring instrument. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in the total working hours per week in terms of gender, schools, academic qualifications and positions. However, there were statistically significant differences in the hours spent performing core academic activities such as teaching and learning, administration and management, research and postgraduate supervision, and community engagement and services to the scholarly community. The results indicated inequalities in the workload allocation of academic staff, with some staff members being underutilized and others significantly over worked.     

论高校内部的学术尊重

建立在学术制约上的学术尊重,应以学术自重为基础,而学术自重应以学术自律为起点。在大学内处理好学术权利与行政权利关系是学术尊重的关键。在具体的办学实践中,高校可采取行政权力扶持学术权利、利用学术权力与行政权力的互补性提升学术尊重;同时,通过提升学术自律水平、倡导学术创新达到学术自重,建构学术尊重的制度保障体系,形成尊重学术权利的文化氛围。     

The effect of work placements on the academic performance of Chinese students in UK higher education

The main controversy as a result of the commercialisation of international education markets is that international students especially those from China are unable to perform as well as UK students in UK universities. So far, research has yet to identify the influence of placements on the academic performance of Chinese students from entry to graduation. Using four cohorts of accounting and finance students in a UK university, this present work is the first to find that Chinese students who undertake placements in the third year are seven times more likely to achieve good degrees (2.1 or 1st) than those who opt out of work placements. It is also found that Chinese students who have a high prior academic achievement and better academic results from years 1 and 2 are likely to undertake placements. Finally, the results show that the academic performance of international students is influenced by domicile.     

Exploring the utility of workload models in academe: a pilot study

The workload of academics in Australia is increasing. Among the potential ramifications of this are work-related stress and burnout. Unions have negotiated workload models in employment agreements as a means of distributing workload in a fair and transparent manner. This qualitative pilot study aimed to explore how academics perceive their current workload and the utility of workload formulas within their workplace. The findings revealed five themes: scepticism, anger, vindication, justice and balance. Workload models appear to have utility within academia as a means of balancing role expectations in an equitable and transparent manner. They are also useful for demonstrating workloads to management objectively and identifying staff at increased risk of burnout because of inappropriately high workloads. Problematic issues identified were perceptions that workload models are management tools to control and monitor the workplace, and their implementation would not result in change.     

Academic conferences: representative and resistant sites for higher education research

The overarching argument made in this article is twofold. Firstly, academic conferences are posited as sites for higher education research. Secondly, the well-recognised emotional and social processes of conferences are used to make space at the boundaries of higher education research for psychosocial analysis. The article theorises conferences in relation to the current concerns of higher education, such as globalisation, technologisation and neoliberalisation, but simultaneously delves into the micro-conventions of academic spaces. This latter mode of analysis is adapted from Butler's (1997) work Excitable speech: A politics of the performative (New York: Routledge), around naming and vulnerability to language. An autobiographical example of naming and misnaming at a conference is worked through, both zooming in to micro-processes and zooming out to the wider concerns of higher education research. The article asserts the importance of recognising the connection between micro- and macro-scale analyses of higher education.     

The Contested Curriculum: Academic learning and employability in higher education

This article explores the discourse of employability in higher education by investigating the understanding of different stakeholder groups (students, staff, employers) of the University of Nottingham (UK and China), and their fit to each other and to the educational literature. It finds that, while theories of life-long or life-wide learning position employability as an outcome of a holistic curriculum embracing both discipline and employability, stakeholders perceive learning for employability as a threat to disciplinary learning. The results suggest that to progress significant curriculum development in support of employability, a greater consensus of stakeholder views is needed with a deeper sympathy towards the integration of academic learning and employability. The article concludes with an assessment of the re-envisioning needed by Nottingham and other universities as they prepare students for an “employability” fit for purpose in a twenty-first century characterized by change and challenge.     

Mature students in higher education: Academic performance and intellectual ability

Mature students are sometimes said to be deficient in the basic skills needed for effective studying in higher education or to be impaired by age-related intellectual deficits. However, the research literature on the academic performance of mature students contains no good evidence that mature students perform any less well than younger students on courses of study in higher education. Moreover, the idea that normal ageing impairs the capacity for learning in higher education is most questionable: even the oldest mature students can obtain good results when assessed by means of both examinations and coursework.     

The differences in error rate and type between IELTS writing bands and their impact on academic workload

This paper attempts to demonstrate the differences in writing between International English Language Testing System (IELTS) bands 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0. An analysis of exemplars provided from the IELTS test makers reveals that IELTS 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 writers can make a minimum of 206 errors, 96 errors and 35 errors per 1000 words. The following section explores the differences in error patterns between IELTS 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 writers and a proposition is made that the IELTS 7.0 writer shows some convergence of error types found among native English writers. In regard to workload issues, the paper discusses the impact of errors as a distraction which affects reading time and gives an indication of the amount of extra workload that may be required to assess IELTS 6.0, 6.5 and 7.0 writing. The paper concludes with remarks about entrance requirements for tertiary study and suggests that it may be simpler to raise entry standards than attempt to remediate the writing of students with low IELTS scores.     

Soft skills in higher education: importance and improvement ratings as a function of individual differences and academic performance

Three UK studies on the relationship between a purpose‐built instrument to assess the importance and development of 15 ‘soft skills’ are reported. Study 1 (N = 444) identified strong latent components underlying these soft skills, such that differences between‐skills were over‐shadowed by differences between‐students. Importance and improving ratings on these skills predicted academic performance and accounted for the effects of personality on academic performance. Study 2 replicated the structure of the soft skills inventory and associations with academic performance in a larger sample (N = 1309). Examination of mean differences across faculties (humanities, life sciences, hard sciences) revealed higher soft skills ratings in ‘softer’ courses. Study 3 (N = 87) incorporated an IQ measure, which was found to be negatively related to importance ratings on soft skills. Results highlight the cohesive structure of beliefs concerning various non‐academic skills and their significant links to educationally relevant individual differences. Theoretical, methodological and applied implications are considered.     

Academic performance and the practice of self-directed learning: The adult student perspective

The practice of self-directed learning is important to adult students as it allows them to learn effectively while juggling work, family and other commitments. This study set out to examine the self-directed learning characteristics present in the adult students’ study process at the case university. The relationship between the adult students’ perceived competence level in self-directed learning and their academic performance was also investigated. In this study, 1695 adult students in the case university participated in a survey that included both Likert-type and open-ended response items. Eleven indicators of self-directed learning were conceptualised and quantified. These indicators included: Goal Setting, Time Management, Procrastination Management, Assignment Preparation, Exam Preparation, Note-taking Capability, Research Capability, Seminar Class Readiness, Technical Readiness, Online Class Readiness and Stress Management. The findings showed that the adult students’ perceived level of competence in the 11 self-directed learning indicators had a direct or an indirect effect on their academic performance. Based on the findings, the case university has conceptualised some new initiatives in the provision of support in terms of self-directed learning to help its adult students to do well in their studies.     

Personal understanding of assessment and the link to assessment practice: the perspectives of higher education staff

The study investigates how higher education staff understand assessment, and the relationship between these understandings and their assessment practices. Nine individuals attended a workshop that guided them through the creation of a concept map about assessment, which was subsequently discussed in one-to-one semi-structured interviews. We found considerable variation in understanding of assessment, both between and within participants, and this appeared to be a consequence of the varied contexts within which assessment operates. Some assessment practices were highly complex, and at times closely entwined with teaching. In addition, individuals’ practices helped to illuminate variation in how underlying concepts (e.g. assessment for learning) were understood. The approach supported the construction of the participants’ understanding of assessment, and enabled the exploration of the interplay between thinking and reported practice, which were closely aligned. It also drew attention to the need to further develop methodologies which capture both the complexity of thinking about assessment and real-world assessment practices.     

Professional support staff at higher education institutions in Sweden: roles and success factors for the job

This paper aims to analyse and discuss the professional support staff at higher education institutions in Sweden in terms of how they view their roles and what the success factors for them are. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with support staff from the fields of business liaison, internationalisation and strategic research support. The results show that the participants have shaped their own roles and see themselves as back-office staff. This can make it challenging for them to prove their contribution to the academic activities of education and research. Because they neither identify themselves as administrators nor hold academic positions, their ability to build credibility on a personal basis is a central success factor. Aware of being actors in a culture dominated by academic values and norms, they see a more transparent discussion of their roles as a desirable development in the sector.     

Measuring the impacts of administrative policies on student performance in higher education

In this study, we investigate the joint impacts of class size, modality of content delivery and instructor workloads on 1078 student performances from 2010 through 2014 in a required College of Business Administration Information Systems (IS) course at a public Midwestern university, controlling for 11 demographic and other factors that might impact student performance. Class size, modality of delivery and instructor assignments are strategic college decisions affected by and subject to administrative policies that can impact the probabilities of student performance. Using the Akaike Information Criteria (AIC) and Chi-square significance tests, we construct a parsimonious binary logit model of individual student performance in the IS course and examine the effects of the administratively controllable factors on student performance. We find that the class size and the assignment of instructors to teach the course significantly impact student performance while modality of delivery does not. We offer and evaluate administrative policy recommendations likely to improve student performances.     

International academic staff in UK higher education: campus internationalisation and innovation in academic practice

Abstract

Amidst opportunities for universities to consider international academic staff in supporting internationalisation and innovation in academic practice, there is very little research to provide insights into their attitudes towards institutional approaches and frameworks in place to enable this. This article focuses on this research gap, suggesting that this academic community might enhance the development of internationally-informed and innovative pedagogic practice. The research reported within the article constitutes a preliminary study, set within a UK higher education case study setting. Methods included focus groups and themed in-depth interviews with a sample of 34 international academic staff from over 15 countries. The findings and discussion provide insights into the perspectives and experiences of international academic staff in relation to the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning and other institutional practice. Innovative pedagogic practice as enabled by international academic staff is discussed, as are approaches to the internationalisation of the curricula. The findings are relevant to the UK higher education context but also to the global context: academic institutions need to consider whether curriculum and processes are limited and limiting in favour of a narrow cultural lens.     

Contract cheating in UK higher education: A covert investigation of essay mills

Contract cheating is currently a concern for universities and the higher education (HE) sector. It has been brought into the spotlight in recent years through the growth of online essay mills, where students can easily commission and purchase written assessment responses. This study contributes to the wider literature on academic integrity in HE by examining the phenomenon of contract cheating from a supply‐side perspective, thereby considering the essay mill offering and student interaction with it. The authors covertly engage with five essay mills, before successfully completing an assignment purchase with two of these providers. The pre‐purchase stage of an assignment transaction is first examined, unpacking ten reassurance cues used by essay mill providers in the text of their websites. These reassurance cues help to ensure the attractiveness of the essay mill product to potential student consumers. The analysis then moves to explore the ethical discourses around academic integrity that essay mills provide, revealing inconsistencies in their stance towards the potential for academic misconduct from the use of essay mill services. Finally, the article explores the quality of the essay mill product, through grading and Turnitin^® reports for the two purchased essay mill assignments. Following recent calls for the outlawing of essay mills, this article provides a timely addition to current understanding of this phenomenon, and the associated challenges of contract cheating in HE.     

Allowing course compensation in higher education: a latent class regression analysis to evaluate performance on a follow-up course

Abstract

In this study, the consequences of allowing course compensation in a higher education academic dismissal policy are evaluated by examining performance on a second-year follow-up (i.e. sequel) course that builds on material from a first-year precursor course. Up to now, differences in the consequences of compensation on student performance across groups of students who portray different unobserved study processes were not considered. In this study we used a latent class regression model to distinguish latent groups of students. Data from two undergraduate curricula were used and latent classes were formed based on similar patterns in averages, variability in grades, the number of compensated courses, and the number of retakes in the first year. Results show that students can be distinguished by three latent classes. Although the first-year precursor course is compensated in each of these latent classes, low performance on the precursor course results in low performance on the second-year sequel course for psychology students who belong to a class in which the average across first-year courses is low and the average number of compensated courses and retakes are high. For these students, compensation on a precursor course seems more likely to relate to insufficient performance on a sequel course.     

Funding, resource allocation, and performance in higher education systems

This article analyzes forms of resourceallocation in university systems and theireffects on performance in institutions ofhigher education. Internationally, highereducation systems differ substantially withregard to research and education fundingsources and to ways that resources areallocated. European universities receive themajority of their funding from public sources,but private funding plays a more important rolein Anglo-American systems of higher education.Many governments use competitive elements inthe process of allocating public funds toinstitutions of higher education. Examplesinclude the implementation of performancemeasures through formula funding, or resourceallocation on the basis of evaluated projectproposals. Corresponding forms ofperformance-based resource allocation can befound within most higher educationinstitutions. This article analyzes how variousforms of funding and resource allocation affectuniversities at the macro-level and individualbehavior at the micro-level. A theoreticalapproach to this problem suggests thatperformance-based funding tends to bring aboutpositive changes but is also a factor inunintended side effects. Forms of resourceallocation influence the behavior of academicsand managers in higher education, particularlytheir levels of activity as well as the kindsof activities they engage in and their ways ofdealing with risks. Empirical analyses partlyconfirm these hypotheses. It can be shown thatchanges in resource allocation have an impacton the level and type of activity academicsconcentrate on but not on the long-term successof universities.