Online learning experiences of new versus continuing learners: a large-scale replication study

A vast body of research has indicated the importance of distinguishing new vs. continuing students’ learning experiences in blended and online environments. Continuing learners may have developed learning and coping mechanisms for ‘surviving’ in such learning environments, while new learners might still need to adjust their learning approaches to the new learning context. In this large-scale replication study, we investigated whether and how the learning satisfaction experiences of 16,670 new vs. 99,976 continuing students were different. Using logistical regression modelling of learner satisfaction scores of 422 undergraduate blended and online modules (including 232 learner and module learning design variables), our findings indicated that new learners indeed differed subtly in their learning and teaching experiences across two consecutive academic years. The minor differences in key drivers between the 2014 and 2015 cohorts also indicate that institutions need to continuously monitor and act upon changing learning needs.     

Perceived employability among undergraduates and the importance of career self-management,work experience and individual characteristics

Underemployment, continued growth in the supply of graduates and seemingly perpetual instability are dominant trends in graduate labour markets. In order to negotiate an increasingly complex career terrain, graduates require sharpened skills in effectively managing their own careers and a strong assurance of their own capabilities. This study focuses on the individual dimensions of perceived employability (PE) and explores perceptions among undergraduates and the associated influence of career management competencies, work experience and individual characteristics. Data were collected for 480 business undergraduates at a UK and Australian university using an online survey. Findings indicate that, overall, undergraduates demonstrated reasonably high levels of PE. Certain career management competencies influenced perceptions, in addition to work experience and individual characteristics. The study is relevant to stakeholders, including educators, employers and students, from developed economies as it highlights coherent strategies to enhance PE among higher education students. These may lead to increased individual success in the labour market and more effective recruitment, retention and performance of new graduates.     

Acquiring Color Names via Linguistic Contrast: The Influence of Contrasting Terms

Linguistic contrast of the form "It's not X; it's Y" is often used by adults to correct children's naming errors. The present studies examined whether such linguistic contrast could help preschoolers learn a novel color name. In Experiment 1, a novel color term was contrasted only once with 1 or 2 familiar color names. Contrasting a new color term with children's own label for the stimulus color helped 5-year-olds learn the new term, but contrasting the new term with randomly chosen familiar color terms did not. For 4-year-olds, neither kind of contrast helped much. Experiments 2 and 3 showed that when the contrastive information was presented more than once, even 3- and 4-year-olds performed much like the 5-year-olds in Experiment 1. Together, these findings suggest that contrasting a new term with a child's own term facilitates the acquisition of the new term, perhaps because it gives the child specific information about how two terms are related in meaning.     

Relational Predictors of Psychological Distress in Women and Men Presenting for University Counseling Center Services

The authors examined psychological distress and relational patterns in college men and women. Peer, mentor, and community relationships; year in school; and family experiences were hypothesized to predict psychological distress, although predictive patterns were expected to differ in women and men. Overall, results supported the hypotheses. Findings are interpreted from the perspective of the relational‐cultural model. Counseling implications focus on interventions congruent with the specific relational needs of women and men.     

Understanding children’s motives when using iPads in Saudi classrooms: is it for play or for learning?

ABSTRACT

Even though studies of the accessibility of digital technologies in educational contexts have become progressively more extensive, understanding children’s motive for play or for learning is essential for identifying the way they relate to touch technology. This research paper seeks to understand the relation between the motive for play and the motive for learning when iPads are introduced into a grade one class in the Saudi Arabian education setting, where there is no custom for the use of digital technologies (five children, age range 5.5 (6 years old; n=80 hours of video observations; n=12 hours of children and class teacher interviews). The teacher put in place a new learning configuration involving the iPads, and by studying how the children interpret this new situation it is possible to see what factors influence the development of their motive for play to their motive for learning. The findings are important for the Saudi context, but also for early years teachers generally because it gives insights into how digital tools can act as a vehicle through which learning can be enhanced.     

Perfect presence: What does this mean for the design of virtual learning environments?

One of the advantages of building a virtual reality system is that it allows students to enter new worlds which in these instances include trips to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, a field visit to an Oak Wood and a close encounter in a 3D maze. In all these environments the factors affecting a sense of being there or presence was investigated. Enhanced audio feedback increased a subjective sense of presence but did not increase students' conceptual learning scores. We have also found that a sense of social presence enhanced the notion of being there together with measures of collaboration. However being there can take its toll on students and our findings suggest it imposes a cognitive overload. Where students have a choice, they try and reduce this overload by asking for conceptual tools to assist them in their learning tasks. The studies reported in this paper provide some benchmark data about these issues which deserve further investigation if we are to design effective virtual environments for conceptual learning.     

Use of the Digital Camera to Increase Student Interest and Learning in High School Biology

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Technology can be thought of in two ways: as a set of tools that amplify or extend what we currently do (make it better, faster, stronger), or as...     

Reviewing affective,behavioural and cognitive learning gains in higher education

The notion of learning gains has increasingly become apparent within the higher education literature and is gaining traction in government policies in the US and UK, reflecting a desire to “quantify” the impact of university study and teaching excellence in particular. Given the increased policy focus on learning gains, it is essential that researchers and policy makers are informed about common used approaches to measure learning gains, and their expected range and magnitude. Therefore, a systematic literature search was undertaken. 52 studies (n?=?41,009) were coded into affective, behavioural and/or cognitive learning gains. The review found a rich but diverse variety of adopted methodologies and approaches to “measure” affective, behavioural and cognitive (ABC) learning gains. Nonetheless, there is a lack of consistency in the ways in which learning gains are currently measured and reported. These inconsistencies and limitations hamper effective comparisons of learning gains and teaching excellence. We recommend a greater emphasis on longitudinal measurement of learning gains using validated approaches.     

Graduate capabilities required of South African food science and technology students

South African societal stakeholders are in general not satisfied with the work preparedness of newly graduated food science and technology students. There is currently little local literature available that defines the graduate capabilities required of newly graduated food scientists and technologists in South Africa. Therefore, the outcomes of an empirical analysis conducted through stakeholder engagement to identify the required graduate capabilities of newly graduated students in food science and technology are reported in this article. A self‐developed questionnaire, administered as a web‐based survey, was used to conduct a needs analysis to identify the required graduate capabilities. The results of this study showed that the identified graduate capabilities composed of generic graduate attributes, including the related employability skills and characteristics of graduateness, the desirable personal attributes, and the foundational food science and technology knowledge, skills, and competencies required to be an effective food science and/or technology graduate that meets the expectations of stakeholders within the South African context. Comparison with the minimum educational requirements of international food science and technology organizations, including the Institute of Food Technologists 2018 “Standards and Essential Learning Outcomes,” showed considerable overlap with the required graduate capabilities identified in this study. However, it was also shown that within the South African context some additional skills and competencies in food science and technology are required from South African graduates and that existing curricula must be aligned to fully prepare students to be workplace ready.     

From Competence in the Curriculum to Competence in Action

The article begins by drawing a distinction between the concepts of “curriculum” and “programme of study”, and goes on to show that curriculum reform involves much more than simply rewriting programmes of study. The reforms that are presently sweeping across education systems throughout the world qualify, in many cases, as true paradigm revolutions, given the magnitude of the transition from an objectives-based to a competency-based pedagogy. The authors discuss the complex nature of a situated approach to competence by exploring the theoretical foundations of a number of contemporary perspectives: situated action/cognition, distributed cognition/intelligence, collective intelligence and enaction. The value of a situated approach to competence is that it goes beyond an objectives-based pedagogy, while at the same time incorporating the best of what it has to offer. Original language: French Philippe Jonnaert (Belgium) Doctoral degree in educational studies from the Université de Mons; formerly, a professor at the Université de Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium and the University of Sherbrooke in Canada; a visiting professor at the Université René Descartes, Paris 5-Sorbonne; he is currently a full professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQàM); director of the Observatoire des réformes en education (ORé); and consultant to various international organizations on issues related to curriculum development. E-mail: philippejonnaert@yahoo.ca Domenico Masciotra (Canada) Doctorate in educational studies from UQáM and completed post-doctoral studies at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology; he is a researcher for ORé and consultant to the Ministère de l’éducation, du loisir et du sport (MELS) of Quebec. E-mail: masciotra.domenico@videotron.ca Johanne Barrette (Canada) A graduate student in a doctoral programme of educational studies at UQáM; her dissertation concerns informal and tacit learning acquired through practice in business settings. She has worked as an educational consultant for adult education in the workplace; as an adult education teacher; as a project manager in charge of a number of Quebec-based and international projects on the development of competencies in the workplace; and is currently a researcher at ORé. E-mail: barsav@sympatico.ca Denise Morel (Canada) Denise Morel holds two master’s degrees: in philosophy (McGill University, Montreal) and in Applied Linguistics (Concordia University, Montreal); has worked as a teacher, educational consultant and analyst for the English Montreal School Board, and as a part-time lecturer at Concordia University; has participated in several programme development projects for the MELS of Quebec, and collaborates with ORé. E-mail: dmorel@emsb.qc.ca Yaya Mane (Canada) Holds a doctorate in educational studies from the Université Montréal; has taught at the Institut supérieur des sciences de l’éducation de Guinée (ISSEG); he is presently a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the Université Montréal;, a research officer at the Centre interdisciplinaire de la formation de la profession enseignante (CRIFPE) at the Université Montréal;, and a researcher at ORé. E-mail: yaya.mane@umontreal.ca