Editorial

Over the last year or so there has been a steady supply of suggested articles about the effects of the pandemic on higher education. The pandemic may officially be over, but the ramifications are still felt and some analysis of its lasting effects on teaching and learning remains timely. The first two articles in this edition have that as their principal focus. The first of these, by Heba Younis and Said Elbanna, focusses on a single small area, namely Qatar. Some of what they have to suggest relates to crisis management, and the need for the involvement of all stakeholders, but there are also issues of change management and some suggestions for coping with change. Chris Gibbons’ article focusses on the student, rather than the system, and suggests ways of supporting students in online learning situations as well as in the perceived crisis mode induced by a pandemic.

These articles are followed by one from an international team about the pedagogies underpinning international field-trips and placements. Although the title makes reference to transdisciplinarity, there is a wider focus on generic skills and intercultural learning. The, relatively small number of, students in the two studies were from contiguous disciplines but needed to develop language and cultural skills. Different approaches were adopted in the two instances, and these are compared and contrasted. A paper from another international team of authors: Christopher Lange., Anna Gorbunova, Irinia Shcheglova and Jamie Costley, looks at the issue of student cognitive load. The study sought to examine the differences in load in the context of problem-solving, with comparison between the adoption or otherwise of direct instruction, worked examples or problem solving. The results lead to some insights but, in themselves, are inconclusive. A paper from Omid Noroozi, of Wageningen University, looks at the impact of underpinning student beliefs on their performance in essay writing. This is taken in the context of increased online learning and the results suggest that beliefs about knowledge in the context of online learning play little part, their beliefs about the nature of scientific knowledge were significant.

Enjy Abouzeid and Moataz Sallam, from Ismailia reflect on individual performance and team performance in the context of clinical education. The authors rely heavily on script concordance testing as a measure of clinical competence and the study compares student results on individual tests as against team-based tests. The results are oriented towards support for script concordance testing. Dana Aizenkot and Yifat ben David look at undergraduate skills development at different stages of a student’s progress. Significant differences in development of skills for the twenty-first century are found between first and later years, but the study was based solely on teacher training students. Whilst this might have significance for the onwards transmission of skills, the results may not be applicable across other disciplines. Moving on to postgraduate study, Kelsey Inouye and Lynn McAlpine look at differences between writing for the workplace and writing of doctoral theses. This is compounded by distinctions between academic and other workplaces. The conclusion is that the development of writing skills for a PhD is compatible with more general development of writing skills across a wider range of situations.

A group of writers from Indonesia look at the rather specialised area of Catholic seminary students, focussing on issues of self-awareness and personal responsibility. They conclude that the two concepts are related. Another specialised field is that of crystal structures, and a team from National Chiayi University, Taiwan report on the use of augmented reality as a way to bring the 3-D nature of crystals into students’ understanding. They conclude that augmented reality is indeed a suitable tool for this purpose and suggest that it might also be suitable for other applications in the STEM field.

The next two articles are focussed on the teaching of aspects of computing. First, Brian Ngac and Mihai Boicu, from George Mason University in Virginia, rehearse a novel approach to curriculum development, with the help of crowdsourcing, in cybersecurity. The prime concern here is to ensure that curricula are relevant and up-to-date in a fast-moving area. The approach of systematic consulting of external experts has some echoes of the Delphi technique, originally employed in a high-tech research environment. Second, Po-Sheng Chiu, Hua-Xu Zhong and Chin-Feng Lai from universities in Taiwan look at the teaching of computer programming. The focus here, at least in part, is on the use of ‘flipped classroom’ approaches online. The results showed that, what is described as programming self-efficacy, had positive effects on enjoyment, engagement, and ‘flow experience’, while enjoyment, engagement, and ‘flow experience’ had no positive effects on programming performance.

The final article, from Jamie Gunderson and Therese Cumming, looks at a different technology – that of podcasting. However, this is firmly in the context of Universal Design for Learning. The paper looks at 17 studies of UDL and concludes that ‘podcasting provides a unique way for educators and students to engage with content’. This is qualified to mention the needs of those for whom aural transmission is not a feasible mode at the same time suggesting that it might be the preferred mode for other students.

This is altogether an eclectic mix in this issue but the theme of educational technology often comes through, partly because of the limitations imposed upon us by the pandemic. How these translate into future application might be interesting to watch.