Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Lgbtq Literature In Ecuador: Why It Matters, Amy L. Freyn

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

This study explored what university students in Ecuador learned in a first ever LGBTQ Literature course, as well as if the course helped to build LGBTQ allies. The research explores not only the pedagogical strategies used in the development of and during the course, but also proposes a LBGTQ+ ally development teaching framework that can guide teachers in developing curricula around LGBTQ literature that will not only work against homophobia, heteronormativity, and heterosexism, but also provide teachers with an ultimate goal of developing LGBTQ allies in their schools. The results of the qualitative phenomenological research suggest that students not only …

Learner-Centered Teaching To Educate College Students About Rural Health Disparities, Anuli Njoku

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Geographically, rural U.S. communities have higher rates of disease and health problems, compared to urban areas. This encourages development of effective, learner-centred curricula to enable students to address disparate health outcomes as future health professionals. This three-year study evaluated the effect of an undergraduate rural public health course on health disparities-related perceptions among students at a rural Midwestern U.S. university. Students reported statistically significant increases in mean scores for several survey items pre- to post-survey. Post-survey response rate was 90%. This paper details the processes, outcomes, and lessons learned from incorporating learner-centred strategies to teach health disparities material in a …

Challenging Anzac Myths In Tertiary Teaching: Engaging Preservice Teachers, Margot Ford, James Bennett, Michael Kilmister

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Challenging the embedded mythologies that surround Anzac, especially as the centenary of First World War played out over the 2014 to 2018 commemoration period, can be confronting for tertiary students as well as a difficult space for tutors to navigate. This is especially the case for teacher education students who form the majority cohort taking a first-year course in Australian History as part of their teaching education degree programs at a large New South Wales university outside Sydney. Experiences of student disruptions, confrontations and occasional anger prompted tutors to question whether the topic of Anzac should be covered at all. …

An Investigation Of Students’ Learning Achievement And Perception Using Flipped Classroom In An Introductory Programming Course: A Case Study Of Thailand Higher Education, Jarutas Pattanaphanchai

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Computer programming is a difficult subject for most novice programming students which leads to a high rate of dropout or failure. Flipped classrooms have been increasingly used to teach programming students to practice their programming skills in the class based on their knowledge acquired from outside the classroom. This study investigated students’ learning achievement which was measured by their performance on a coding test and an exam. We compared students’ programming test scores of the traditional classroom in semester 1 of the academic year 2016 with the flipped classroom in semester 1 in 2017. In addition, we studied students’ perception …

Transforming The First-Year Experience Through Self And Peer Assessment, Sean Kearney

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

The transition into higher education from secondary school is a challenging change for many students. This transition and the problems students face as a result, can affect their ability to succeed. Universities recognise the transition to university as a significant feature of student engagement and learning. The current article explores an already established assessment model as a tool to help acculturate first-year students to tertiary assessment practices. The author has moulded a model of self and peer assessment that has been utilised at all levels of schooling, as a specific means to help students engage, not only with content, but …

Understanding And Promoting Students’ Well-Being And Performance In University Studies, Henna Asikainen, Kirsikka Kaipainen, Nina Katajavuori

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

The aim of this study was to examine pharmacy students’ experiences of a small ACT-based intervention that was implemented as a 7-week course with weekly online modules. Students’ well-being, experiences of stress, organised studying and psychological flexibility were measured with questionnaires at the beginning and end of the course. Students’ experiences of how the course affected their studying were analysed from open-ended responses and a reflective journal. The results show that students’ well-being and time and effort management increased during the course. Students experienced that the course affected their studying in various ways. This study showed that it is possible …

Editorial 16.5, Alisa Percy, Jo-Anne Kelder

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

No abstract provided.

Using “Just In Time” Online Feedback To Improve First Year Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Essay Writing Performance, Lisa Beccaria, Megan Kek, Henk Huijser

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Undergraduate nursing students often find essay writing challenging, and feel underprepared, yet the impact of using online feedback to support essay writing has been underexplored. First-year nursing students from a regional university were involved in a project that encouraged them to access an online tutoring service, as part of their development of an essay task. Significant differences were found in students’ final essay marks for those who accessed the online writing support. Students who accessed online writing support were also more likely to be deep, rather than surface learners. The findings indicate that the provision of prompt or ‘just in …

How Recorded Audio-Visual Feedback Can Improve Academic Language Support, Michelle Cavaleri, Satomi Kawaguchi, Bruno Di Biase, Clare Power

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Providing effective, high quality feedback that students engage with remains an important issue in higher education today, particularly in the context of academic language support where feedback helps socialise students to academic writing practices. Technology-enhanced feedback, such as audio and video feedback, is becoming more widely used, and as such, it is important to evaluate whether these methods help students engage with the feedback more successfully than conventional methods. While previous research has explored students’ perceptions of audio-visual feedback, this paper seeks to fill a gap in the literature by examining the impact of the audio-visual mode on undergraduate students’ …

Fostering And Evaluating Learner Engagement With Academic Literacy Support: Making The Most Of Moodle, Fiona Willans, Aluwesi Fonolahi, Ralph Buadromo, Tilisi Bryce, Rajendra Prasad, Sandhya Kumari

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

This paper reports on the evaluation of an ambitious attempt to embed academic literacy support within a core content course for first-year students at the University of the South Pacific. The course is offered in both blended and online modes, catering for on-campus and off-campus students, respectively, using Moodle as the virtual learning environment (VLE). We begin by explaining how we have made the most of Moodle as a learning platform, enabling us to supplement the core content resources with additional components that support students’ academic literacy development, rather than sacrificing content to create this space. Since the additional material …

The Academic Writing Skills Programme: A Model For Technology-Enhanced, Blended Delivery Of An Academic Writing Programme, Jennifer Boyle, Scott Ramsay, Andrew Struan

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Recognising the varied challenges presented by an increasingly diverse student body at our UK university (a research-intensive institution with a high proportion of international and widening participation students), an online and blended writing programme was developed. The Academic Writing Skills Programme (AWSP) is a fully online, compulsory writing diagnostic, consisting of a range of multiple-choice questions on grammar and a short essay. Run centrally by a department of multidisciplinary academic writing advisers, the programme was taken from a small, discipline-specific writing programme and transformed into an institution-wide, fully-funded technology-enhanced academic language course. This paper details and evaluates the process through …

An Important, But Neglected Aspect Of Learning Assistance In Higher Education: Exploring The Digital Learning Capacity Of Academic Language And Learning Practitioners, Anna Podorova, Sarah Irvine, Michael Kilmister, Richard Hewison, Amanda Janssen, Alejandra Speziali, Logan Balavijendran, Megan Kek, Maggie Mcalinden

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Digital literacy has become increasingly significant in tertiary environments, as institutions move towards preparing students for 21st century workplaces and careers that emphasise digital literacy. As such, Academic Language and Learning (ALL) practitioners within these institutions are under pressure to possess familiarity and skills in the digital education space. Despite this need, there is a shortage of evidence that identifies the competencies or gaps in the current knowledge that ALL advisors have in Australian tertiary institutions; there is also a lack of awareness about how to address the gaps in knowledge for technology-enhanced learning and academic support. In light of …

Yet Another Acronym - Technology-Enhanced Academic Language Support (Tals), John Smith

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Since the earliest adoption of educational technologies, teachers and researchers have been exploring its efficacy on language learning and development. The speed with which these technologies are now infiltrating academic student support will continue to increase, and so the need for good guidance in this space will likewise increase. Currently in academic language and learning support, however, the digital space while prevalent and expanding is both poorly defined and the literature widely dispersed. It is argued here that a single term of reference, such as TALS, could provide a centralised meeting point where research and experiences from the field can …

Editorial 16.4: Technology-Enhanced Academic Language Support (Tals), John Smith

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

No abstract provided.

Converting Likert Scales Into Behavioral Anchored Rating Scales(Bars) For The Evaluation Of Teaching Effectiveness For Formative Purposes, Luis Matosas-López, Santiago Leguey-Galán, Luis Miguel Doncel-Pedrera

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Likert scales traditionally used in student evaluations of teaching (SET) suffer from several shortcomings, including psychometric deficiencies or ambiguity problems in the interpretation of the results. Assessment instruments with Behavioral Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) offer an alternative to Likert-type questionnaires. This paper describes the construction of an appraisal tool with BARS generated with the participation of 974 students and 15 teachers.

The resulting instrument eliminates ambiguity in the interpretation of results and gives objectivity to the evaluation due to the use of unequivocal behavioral examples in the final scale.

However, BARS methodology presents the problem of losing behavioral information during …

Achieving Wil Placement And Theoretical Learning Concurrently: An Online Strategy For Higher Education Institutions, Lynnaire Sheridan, Belinda Gibbons, Oriana Price

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

The Australian Government requires Higher Education Institutions to demonstrate the work-readiness of graduates. Consequently, Work Integrated Learning (WIL) has been adopted to enhance the workplace skills and professional networks of students to improve graduate employability. While WIL can take many forms, experiences located in workplaces (placements, internships) have been popular. The introduction of the Australian Government’s Fair Work Act 2009 required that placements be tightly embedded within curriculum thereby presenting the challenge of how to enable WIL via placements and theoretical learning in already compact study programs. As a response, we present the pragmatic use of online theoretical instruction and …

Bridging Distances: Professional Development For Higher Education Faculty Through Technology-Facilitated Lesson Study, Melissa Soto, Dittika Gupta, Lara Dick, Mollie Appelgate

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Higher education faculty benefit from participating in communities of practice focused on developing and improving their own instruction. However, collaborators with common interests are not always located at the same physical location. In this article, we share how participation in a technology-facilitated lesson study provided the means for five higher education faculty across the U.S. to engage in professional development and evolve into a virtual community of practice. Through the use of synchronous and asynchronous communication technology, we formulated goals, planned a common lesson, conducted research on our students’ learning, and reflected on our own teaching practice. For this paper, …

Comparison Of Faculty And Student Perceptions Of Videos In The Online Classroom, Elizabeth Valenti, Tennille Feldbush, Jean Mandernach

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

While instructors and students generally value the integration of videos in the online classroom, there are a number of practical considerations that may mediate the utility of videos as a teaching and learning tool. The current survey examines faculty and student perceptions of videos in the online classroom with an emphasis on the practical factors that influence video integration. Results indicate differences in faculty and student acceptance and endorsements of videos for content presentation compared to assignment feedback. Faculty desire more opportunities to interact with their students (i.e., video-based discussions, video-conferencing, and student-generated videos) and highlighted efficiency as a key …

An Online Testing Design Choice Typology Towards Cheating Threat Minimisation, Albert Munoz, Jonathon Mackay

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Online testing is a popular practice for tertiary educators, largely owing to efficiency in automation, scalability, and capability to add depth and breadth to subject offerings. As with all assessments, designs need to consider whether student cheating may be inadvertently made easier and more difficult to detect. Cheating can jeopardise the validity of inference drawn from the measurements produced by online tests, leading to inaccurate signals and misperceptions about what students know and can do. This paper extends theoretical understanding about cheating behaviours to link online test design choices and their influence on a student’s capability and willingness to cheat. …

Students’ And Teachers’ Perceptions And Experiences Of Course Scheduling In Undergraduate Sports Sciences Program: An Ethiopian Case Study, Beshir Edo, Tefera Tadesse, Eyerusalem Mulugeta

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Flexibility in course scheduling is an integral part of institutional strategies used to increase student engagement and success, yet little research exists that examines scheduling as a key factor that determines students’ experiences and educational outcomes. This study explored the undergraduate sport science students and their teachers at Jimma University, Ethiopia, regarding their experiences in semester-based and block scheduling formats as well as their reflections and perspectives on the effectiveness of these scheduling formats for teaching and learning. For this, the study used an exploratory mixed-methods design consisting of individual interviews with six teachers and focus group interviews with undergraduate …

Impact Of Eportfolios On Science Student-Teachers’ Reflective Metacognitive Learning And The Development Of Higher-Order Thinking Skills, Thelma De Jager

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

A concern in higher education is that most students do not acquire higher-order thinking skills, ‘cannot think’, are not engaged in reflective student-centred teaching and learning and do not always acquire technology skills. Numerous studies have indicated the importance of a digital learning environment that facilitates the acquisition of IT skills, reflective and critical thinking learning skills while creating an electronic portfolio. To establish the impact of portfolios on the reflective metacognitive learning and the development of higher-order thinking skills in student-teachers (n=167) in the field of science, qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to collect data. The results showed …

Creative Teaching Design In Stem: Using Graduate Learning Outcomes To Distribute Students' Existing Knowledge In First-Year Biology Practical Work Groups, Julia Savage, Jillian Healy

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

In Australia, a significant number of students enrol in first-year university biology without the benefit of high school biology. In order to help students support each other, the authors of this paper (a central unit academic developer and a biology coordinator of first-year biology) created a classroom activity that facilitated the distribution of the more experienced students of biology throughout the practical work groups. An important feature of this creative design for forming groups, called the GLO Activity in this paper, was the embedding of two of the University’s key teaching and learning priorities within the activity. These were the …

Editorial 16.3, Alisa Percy, Jo-Anne Kelder

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

No abstract provided.

Individual Networks Of Practice For Phd Research Socialisation, Richard Watson Todd, Stephen Louw

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

A PhD combines experiential learning of the research process with socialisation into the research community. Studying a PhD is a highly individual experience with each student seeking and receiving different types of support from different agents. In this paper we investigate the experiences of four PhD students at a Humanities faculty at a Thai university through a series of interviews. To account for the unique nature of each student’s experience, we use Individual Networks of Practice (INoPs) as the main method of analysis. The interviews were first analysed by adapting Sala-Bubaré and Castelló's (2016) model of socialisation, identifying the social …

Supporting Scholarly Thinking In A Nordic Teacher Education Webinar Practice, Linda Reneland-Forsman, Maria Magnusson

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

With this study we have a twofold aim. Firstly, to develop a model for identifying and analyzing the status of students' scholarly thinking, and secondly to design and evaluate an educational practice with the aim of supporting these skills. A series of webinars connected researchers and students from Finland, Norway and Sweden and gave the students access to an authentic Network of researchers, otherwise not accessible to them. The webinars were recorded and an analysis, inspired by variation theory, were conducted in order to identify signs of scholarly thinking in student reasoning when discussing students' final thesis. Findings were then …

A Practice-Based Study Of Chinese Students’ Learning - Putting Things Together, Jinqi Xu

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

This paper investigates Chinese students’ learning experience in the business Faculty of an Australian university. Chinese students are often characterized as “rote learners” or stereotyped as “reduced Other”. Areas of concern are limited to addressing the differences in learning styles, language, and sociocultural barriers. However, learning occurs in many forms. There is an absence of discussion about what practices Chinese students use in order to learn. Based on practice-based theory, a longitudinal ethnographic study of the journeys of five students was traced and investigates what practices Chinese students use in the learning and how these students “put things together” in …

Practices To Improve Collaboration By Reconfiguring Boundaries In Transnational Education, Lynne Maree Keevers, Oriana Price, Betty Leask, Fauziah Kp Dawood Sultan, Jane See Yin Lim, Vin Cent Loh

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

This paper investigates quality assurance as boundary-making practices that establish and re-establish boundaries of a transnational education (TNE) partnership between an Australian and a Malaysian higher education institution. Drawing on practice theory we offer a conception of boundaries as enacted, shifting and performed by the multiple actors involved in the partnership. We employ a relational, practice-based approach and a participatory action research methodology to investigate how quality assurance could be re-configured to enhance relationships and collaboration, and support on-going dialogue, co-developed curriculum and context–sensitive quality measures. This paper re-casts boundaries and borders as collective performances, offering an expanded conception of …

Assessing Written Communication Skills Using A Continua Model Of A Guide To Making Judgments (Gtmj), Peter R. Grainger, Michael Christie, Michael Carey

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

Written communication skills are one of the most assessed criteria in higher education contexts, especially in humanities disciplines, including teacher education. There is a need to research and develop an assessment grading tool (i.e. criteria sheet or rubric) that would assist students in pre-service teacher education programs to better understand and practice written communication and to assist markers when grading academic essays that include this criterion. When rubrics are used the criterion that covers the written communication skills part of the task is often too general to truly assist students to know what they must do in order to obtain …

Making The Case For Oracy Skills In Higher Education: Practices And Opportunities, Marion Heron

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

In this paper I make the case for embedding oracy practices in the HE curriculum through explicit teaching of oracy skills and a shared common language to describe these skills. Active learning and teaching approaches as well as growing expectations of graduate employability skills have resulted in greater demands on students in UK higher education in terms of their oracy (speaking and listening) skills. Whilst oracy skills have long been the focus of studies in compulsory educational contexts, there is little transfer of research findings to a higher education context. With the aim of opening up the discussion on oracy …

Editorial 16.2, Alisa Percy, Jo-Anne Kelder

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice

No abstract provided.