Using API Data to Understand Learning in League of Legends: A Mixed Methods Study

This mixed-methods research was conducted to understand the impact of learning and player growth in a League of Legends summer camp. Eighteen adolescents engaged in a three-day sleep-over summer camp with various team building activities. Data collected included API metadata from pre- and post-camp as well as semi-structured interview data with youth who attended the camp. Exposing the participants to teamwork methods had a significant impact on changing how players approached competitive game play and engagement in digital environments. In particular, we find that participation in the summer camp led to significant changes in vision score, the most team-focused aspect of the game for which statistics were available. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the qualitative data, evidence suggests youth have an understanding for how teamwork can positively influence peer interactions within digital environments. These findings are important as they demonstrate that teaching team-focused activities can have a significant impact on the players of competitive esports games, and it also implies that the role of teamwork within various digital platforms needs deeper study. Findings indicate that a transfer of learning occurs between physical and digital spaces and that youth recognize the importance of teamwork and team-building activities in digital learning spaces.     

Introducing a scalable peer feedback system for learning teams

In the current research, we report on a peer feedback system for supporting student teamwork skill development during post-secondary education. The peer feedback system is part of a larger suite of assessments at ITPmetrics.com. This is a free assessment-based system that allows team members to provide round-robin ratings of each member’s effectiveness in the team on five dimensions (communication; commitment; foundation of knowledge, skills and abilities; emphasising high standards; and focus), as well as provide anonymous written feedback to supplement the numeric scores. Team members have access to a dashboard where they can complete the assessment and store assessment reports generated from their peers’ ratings. We summarise data from student learning teams suggesting that peer ratings are reliable (internally consistent, unidimensional and inter-rater correlated; n?>?85,000). Recommendations for implementation are provided with respect to pre-briefing, debriefing, and assessment schedules.     

What Reference Librarians Should Know about Data Science

Students of reference service can benefit by learning about data science. This column introduces the topic, the needed skills, and sources that support acquiring the related experience.     

团体心理训练提升高职学生就业能力实践研究

以提升高职学生就业能力为目的,通过对33名高职二年级家庭困难学生的团体心理训练研究,得出了团体心理训练在提高学生的心理健康水平从而提升高职学生就业能力具有一定的作用。主要表现在：情绪管理能力的提升完善了学生就业压力应对及问题处理能力;自我认识与接纳水平的提升保障了学生就业自信心及合理定位能力;人际交往与信任合作水平的提升促进了学生的职业发展能力;价值观的澄清与创造力的提升挖掘了学生职业的反思和创新能力。     

Qualified Satisfaction: First‐Year Architecture Student Perceptions of Teamwork

Across disciplines, skills associated with collaboration are now ubiquitously considered requisite graduate attributes. Despite decades of studies on the various dimensions of academic teamwork, challenges for both students and staff remain. For this year‐long study at a UK school of architecture, we considered teamwork as a thread woven through the first‐year curriculum, traversing course modules and project types. The primary aim of the study was to evaluate the collective impact of teamwork activities on the incoming cohort of 200+ undergraduate students and how the structuring and coordination of such activities might improve the holistic student experience. Across two rounds of online questionnaires and focus group sessions, student participants articulated the benefits of collaboration for learning, socialisation and professional development. However, resentment towards teamwork increased throughout the year, as frustration with disengaged cohort mates grew, and student sought greater structure and oversight from tutors. On the other hand, when given the chance to reflect on the multidimensional nature of teamwork in focus group discussions, many students adopted a productively nuanced perspective toward the topic. This implies that, whether students like or dislike certain aspect of collaborative projects, opportunities for critical conversation can promote or prompt an appreciation for the educational value of including teamwork projects in curricula. The results of this study should be relevant to educators seeking to improve the implementation and effectiveness of team‐based learning, particularly those in design‐based fields and those in higher and professional education contexts.     

Academics’ perceptions of collaboration in higher education course design

ABSTRACT

There is little empirical research related to the readiness and capacity of academics for team-based collaboration. This case study used the existing literature about collaboration as a term of reference to examine the perceptions of a group of academics engaged in course design and how prepared they were individually and as teams for collaboration. The study found that participants recognised and understood the key elements that distinguish collaboration from other forms of interaction. However, they did not express a depth of understanding about the cognitive and social capacities required for collaboration and the skills, structures and processes necessary to enable team-based collaborative practice. While the participants felt they were willing and largely prepared as individuals for collaboration, closer scrutiny indicated substantial variation in their reports about the willingness, knowledge and skills of the teams on which they served. In addition, participants reported that current conditions at the institutional level serve as inhibitors to collaboration in course design. This included the absence of committed leadership and organisational supports for collaboration. Participants described the dominant culture as more supportive of individualised, competitive and hierarchical work practices. Under these work conditions, participants noted a reliance on individuals’ goodwill to collaborate in the absence of broader organisational structures and support.     

Enhancing project-oriented learning by joining communities of practice and opening spaces for relatedness

This article describes an extension to project-oriented learning to increase social construction of knowledge and learning. The focus is on: (a) maximising opportunities for students to share their knowledge with practitioners by joining communities of practice, and (b) increasing their intrinsic motivation by creating conditions for student's relatedness. The case study considers a last year capstone course in Mechanical Engineering. The work addresses innovative practices of active learning and beyond project-oriented learning through: (a) the development of a web-based decision support system, (b) meetings between the communities of students, maintenance engineers and academics, and (c) new off-campus group instances. The author hypothesises that this multi-modal approach increases deep learning and social impact of the educational process. Surveys to the actors support a successful achievement of the educational goals. The methodology can easily be extended to further improve the learning process.     

A democratic and student-centred approach to facilitating teamwork learning among first-year engineering students: a learning and teaching case study

This work examines an innovative and evolving approach to facilitating teamwork learning in a generic first-year mechanical engineering course. Principles of inclusive, student-active and democratic pedagogy were utilised to engage students on both the social and personal planes. Learner opportunities to facilitate, direct and lead the learning direction were emphasised. This emphasis encouraged a rich learning process and motivated students dismissive of the need to examine their communication skills and those who initially perceived the topic as a personal intrusion. Through a sharing of curriculum decisions, a climate of trust, ownership and shared value arose. Students chose from a range of tools across personality-type indicators, learning style indicators and hierarchies of human needs, to assist their capacity to express and discuss engineering designs and concepts. Peer teaching and collaborative exercises were incorporated to provide an authentic learning context and to further the student's sense of ownership.     

Developing team skills through a collaborative writing assignment

Employers want students who are able to work effectively as members of a team, and expect universities to develop this ability in their graduates. This paper proposes a framework for a collaborative writing assignment that specifically develops students’ ability to work in teams. The framework has been tested using two iterations of an action research project, with this paper focusing on the second iteration. The paper provides detailed information on how the framework was implemented, and then reports on the students’ perceptions of their learning about teamwork.     

论休闲运动活动中领导力与团队精神的培育

领导力和团队精神是现代企业乃至整个现代社会所崇尚的人文精神,更作为一种先进的企业文化被企业以及众多的培训、教育机构所青睐。休闲运动活动成为培训成员领导力和团队精神的重要方式,实践证明,休闲运动作为一种外来文化和时尚运动形式在以领导力和团队精神培养为目的的培训活动中效果明显,因而得到了广泛运用。