Education Commons^™

Collaborative Assessments Of Learning Outcomes: Generating Positive Institutional Change, Jacob Pearce, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

Insight into the development of higher education assessment collaborations in two fields (medical education and engineering education) is presented. These collaborations aim to improve and share assessment and assessment practice in order to enhance educational outcomes of students. This model is efficient and effective, can be applied nationally or internationally, and can generate positive institutional change around the globe.

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Jessica Townsend

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Vincent P. Manno

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Lynn Andrea Stein

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education, Lynn Stein, Mark Somerville, Jessica Townsend, Vincent Manno

Mark Somerville

The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering was created to address several perceived needs for engineering graduates of the future and to be an experimental laboratory for engineering education. As such, Olin College is not only dedicated to innovation within its boundaries but also to catalyzing change throughout the engineering enterprise. The curriculum aims to support life-long learning, teamwork, communication, and contextual understanding, along with rigorous quantitative and qualitative skills.

Supported Student Success: Communities Of Practice In Higher Education, Aimee Dechambeau

Aimee deChambeau

This research tells a story about how students form communities of practice that help them succeed in graduate school. Told within the context of individual and collective experiences, it holds valuable lessons for how student success can be supported across the higher education landscape. Communities of practice can develop spontaneously when individuals involved in a common activity or with a sense of shared identity come together to deal with organizational complexities or establish a forum for continued learning. The practice of becoming an accomplished and successful student who is able to develop scholarly abilities and deepen disciplinary understanding, experience personal …

Growth And ‘Quality’ In Higher Education, Daniel Edwards, Ali Radloff

Ali Radloff

Strong growth in university enrolments may not necessarily be affecting quality, according to analysis by Daniel Edwards and Ali Radloff.

Growth And ‘Quality’ In Higher Education, Daniel Edwards, Ali Radloff

Dr Daniel Edwards

Strong growth in university enrolments may not necessarily be affecting quality, according to analysis by Daniel Edwards and Ali Radloff.

Ensuring Quality In Ahelo Item Development And Scoring Processes, Jacob Pearce

Dr Jacob Pearce

This chapter summarises the work undertaken in the Engineering Strand of the OECD's Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) Feasibility Study. The iterative processes of design, review and revision that were followed to ensure that the assessment instrument and scoring processes were of high quality are outlined in detail. There are several lessons which can be drawn out of these experiences for future practice. The chapter offers an example of the amount of thinking and effort that is required in the development of an assessment instrument and the scoring processes related to it, if high quality data and directions …

A Critical Turn In Higher Education Research: Turning The Critical Lens On The Academic Language And Learning Educator, Alisa Percy

Alisa Percy, PhD

This paper suggests that historical ontology, as one form of reflexive critique, is an instructive research design for making sense of the political and historical constitution of the Academic Language and Learning (ALL) educator in Australian higher education. The ALL educator in this paper refers to those practitioners in the field of ALL, whose ethical agency has largely been taken for granted since their slow and uneven emergence in the latter half of the twentieth century. Using the lens of governmentality, genealogical design and archaeological method, the historical ontology proposed in this paper demonstrates how the ethical remit of the …

Profiling Diversity Of Australian Universities, Marian Mahat, Hamish Coates, Daniel Edwards, Leo Goedegebuure, Eva Van Der Brugge, Frans Van Vught

Dr Daniel Edwards

This chapter contributes to the discourse about diversity of public institutions in the Australian Higher Education system. While there is scepticism around whether or not universities in Australia are significantly different from each other, there has been little effort to objectively examine whether this claim is reasonable. The research in this chapter offers a contribution to taking the discussion of diversity to the next level. The research does not promise neat solutions, but our analysis aims to go beyond existing discourse to explore emerging dynamics - regardless of the traditional 'groupings' of institutions. We do this by creating classification structures …

Using A Media Technology Showcase To Bridge The Gap Between K-12 & Higher Education: Creating A Professional Development Workshop., Sonya Shepherd

Sonya S. Gaither

Why should students spend time navigating to find the library tools needed to search? Why not provide direct links to library resources so more time is spent finding, evaluating, and synthesizing information? These were questions asked by some academic librarians trying to help students locate resources for assignments.As a result, these academic librarians created online tutorials for using persistent links to library resources. Teaching faculty learned how to use the links in web pages and WebCT Vista. These tutorials were also shared at conferences. Attendees encouraged the presenters to develop a hands-on workshop. Attendees also suggested the workshop as a …

Why Facebook Is (And Isn't) A Pre-Service Teacher's Friend, Pauline Taylor

Associate Professor Pauline Taylor-Guy

Get Your Game On @ The Library: Collaboration Between The Learning Commons And Office Of Information Technologies, Sarah Hutton, Abigale Baines, Iris Chelaru

Sarah C Hutton

Get Your Game On @ the Library is an event series collaboration between the Learning Commons and the Office of Information Technologies geared to increase student comfort and familiarity with library spaces and staff, and build community across campus groups and departments through tabletop, board, card, and video games. This session will look a the planning, workflow and implementation of the series, with multimedia examples and video testimonials.

Learner Support Starts With Working Together: Creating Collaborative Relationships On A Large University Campus, Sarah Hutton, Fred Zinn, Mei-Yau Shih

Sarah C Hutton

No abstract provided.

An Accreditation Team Tightens Up, Sherry Penney, John Erickson

Sherry Penney

Describes how combining the campus visits from regional and specialized accreditation agencies saved the State University of New York Binghamton time, money, and effort.

Iwant Does Not Equal Iwill: Correlates Of Mobile Learning With Ipads, E-Textbooks, Blackboard Mobile Learn And A Blended Learning Experience, Jeffrey Brand, Shelley Kinash, Trishita Mathew, Ron Kordyban

Ron Kordyban

This research tested the efficacy of a blended learning iteration with iPad tablet computers, an e-textbook and Blackboard's Mobile Learn application connected with a learning management system (LMS). Mobile learning was embedded into the pedagogical design of an undergraduate subject run in two semesters with 135 students. Using design-based research (DBR), an empirical investigation examined four variables including: iPad use; mobile technology use; attitude, including the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) scale; and academic performance. Quantitative analysis with PASW Statistics included descriptive, scaling, correlations, partial correlations and ANCOVAs. Results suggested that students were positive about mobile …

Grey Literature In Australian Education, Gerry White

Dr Gerald K. White

Gerald White discusses the need to better organise the proliferation of non-commercially published reports and documents of particular importance in the area of public policy.

History Lab For Undergrads: A Day At The Museum, Elizabeth 'Libi' Sundermann

Elizabeth 'Libi' Sundermann

Museums are important venues for engaging history students in the habits of free-choice and lifelong learning. Although these sound like the pedagogical buzzwords du jour, both concepts are ones that educators today—including college professors and lecturers—should be adding to their teaching vocabulary. Unfortunately, while literature on these topics is widespread for K–12 educators, pedagogical and practical discussions for adult learners, particularly college students, have lagged. This article aims to help fill that gap. Encouraging free-choice learning through local public history venues, particularly museums, can serve as inspirations for college teachers and their students. Creatively mixed formal and informal teaching methods …

University Business Models And Online Practices: A Third Way, Beth Rubin

Beth Rubin

Higher Education is in a state of change, and the existing business models do not meet the needs of stakeholders. This article contrasts the current dominant business models of universities, comparing the traditional non-profit against the for-profit online model, examining the structural features and online teaching practices that underlie each. It then offers a third option for existing non-profit universities that would enable them to continue offering multiple value propositions while increasing efficiency and quality of outcomes. This involves emphasizing online instruction, separating research from teaching, and adopting a more complex structure based on differentiated faculty roles that would enable …

Copyright Overview For Faculty Educational Fair Use & Best Practices, Monica Brooks, Dena Laton

Dena Laton

No abstract provided.

Supporting The 21st Century Learner: Building A Mutlimedia Production Center, Sarah Hutton

Sarah C Hutton

No abstract provided.

Reaching For The Brass Ring: The U.S. News & World Report Rankings And Competition, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] The behavior of academic institutions, including the extent to which they collaborate on academic and nonacademic matters, is shaped by many factors. This paper focuses on one of these factors, the U.S. News & World Report (USNWR) annual ranking of the nation’s colleges and universities as undergraduate institutions, exploring how this ranking exacerbates the competitiveness among American higher education institutions. After presenting some evidence on the importance of the USNWR rankings to both public and private institutions at all levels along the selectivity spectrum, I describe how the rankings actually are calculated, then discuss how academic institutions alter their …

[Manuscript | Japanese] Supporting The 21st Century Learners: Building The Multimedia Production Center At The University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Sarah Hutton

Sarah C Hutton

No abstract provided.

[Manuscript | English] Supporting The 21 St Century Learner: Building The Multimedia Production Center At The University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Sarah Hutton

Sarah C Hutton

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, instructors are increasingly utilizing active,group, and participatory teaching methods and are offering students opportunities to opt into more creative assignments requiring the use of advanced technologies in support of multimedia projects. Traditionally, video projects would be expected from discourses such as Film Studies, Journalism and Communications students; the insurgence of this type of multimedia project has come to subjects from Anthropology to History, and the incoming required Freshman Writing course now has a built-in unit which specifically invites writing and research in a variety of technological media outside of the traditional research paper. The …

Generation X: Redefining The Norms Of The Academy, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] The members of Generation X are the young faculty members of today and the immediate future. The panelists at this session of the conference were asked to discuss the effects of this generation on academic norms and institutional governance and the types of new models that may be emerging for academia as a result of them. More specifically, they were asked if the attitudes and loyalties of these young faculty members really do differ from that of the Baby Boom Generation, how their attitudes and behavior affect graduate programs, what academic institutions will need to do to attract the …

Group Of National Experts On The Ahelo Feasibility Study : Contextual Dimension Framework : Ahelo Feasibility Study : 8th Meeting Of The Ahelo Gne, Paris, 28-29 November 2011, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

The document provides an overview of the framework and instruments used in the AHELO contextual dimension. Building on prior work, it describes development of a framework that charts an understanding of contexts of most relevance to contemporary higher education. It describes the properties of instruments that operationalise this framework in efficient, technically informed and environmentally relevant ways. The instruments are designed to yield data on systems, institutions, teachers and students. Importantly, this data will be combined with information on student learning outcomes.

Iwant Does Not Equal Iwill: Correlates Of Mobile Learning With Ipads, E-Textbooks, Blackboard Mobile Learn And A Blended Learning Experience, Jeffrey Brand, Shelley Kinash, Trishita Mathew, Ron Kordyban

Trishita Mathew

This research tested the efficacy of a blended learning iteration with iPad tablet computers, an e-textbook and Blackboard's Mobile Learn application connected with a learning management system (LMS). Mobile learning was embedded into the pedagogical design of an undergraduate subject run in two semesters with 135 students. Using design-based research (DBR), an empirical investigation examined four variables including: iPad use; mobile technology use; attitude, including the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) scale; and academic performance. Quantitative analysis with PASW Statistics included descriptive, scaling, correlations, partial correlations and ANCOVAs. Results suggested that students were positive about mobile …

Iwant Does Not Equal Iwill: Correlates Of Mobile Learning With Ipads, E-Textbooks, Blackboard Mobile Learn And A Blended Learning Experience, Jeffrey Brand, Shelley Kinash, Trishita Mathew, Ron Kordyban

Jeffrey Brand

This research tested the efficacy of a blended learning iteration with iPad tablet computers, an e-textbook and Blackboard's Mobile Learn application connected with a learning management system (LMS). Mobile learning was embedded into the pedagogical design of an undergraduate subject run in two semesters with 135 students. Using design-based research (DBR), an empirical investigation examined four variables including: iPad use; mobile technology use; attitude, including the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) scale; and academic performance. Quantitative analysis with PASW Statistics included descriptive, scaling, correlations, partial correlations and ANCOVAs. Results suggested that students were positive about mobile …

Open Educational Resources As Learning Materials: Prospects And Strategies For University Libraries, Marilyn Billings, Sarah Hutton, Gerald (Jay) Schafer, Charles Schweik, Matthew Sheridan

Sarah C Hutton

No abstract provided.