In this issue of IETI, three articles are by international teams of researchers and, as ever, all contributions span a wide geographic area. Most of the papers in this issue focus on various aspects of student learning and assessment, but staff concerns are present too, including one contribution focusing on an under-represented population: university administrative staff.
Ian Willis (Liverpool) and Brian Jennings (Ghana Christian University College) report on a professional development initiative aimed, unusually, at middle-level administrative staff in sub-Saharan universities. Through workshops and supported project activities, they outline the benefits of active learning and authentic assessment in producing projects with real impact on teaching and learning activities. They conclude that high-level institutional endorsement combined with local contextualisation and international accreditation are beneficial processes in development activities; focusing on strengths and personal investment in learning and assessment also contribute to success that has sustainable potential.
In another international collaboration, this time between Hong Kong and the Netherlands, Wing Hong Chui, Paul Vinod Khiatani, Minnie Heep Ching She and Chak Chong Wong report on an implementation of a simulation game foregrounding inequalities in a theoretical criminology module. The authors were interested in the use of the game, both as an active learning tool and its role in facilitating knowledge acquisition and attitude development. Using a quasi-experimental design, the authors show that the use of the game enhanced knowledge of criminology and influenced attitudes towards the causes of crime and activism-related behavioural intentions.
In ‘A comparative analysis of a pathway model and manuals to assess efficiency of pedagogical training in Doctoral Supervision in Uganda’ Aloysius Rukundo explores the situation for doctoral supervision in a growing HE system with few senior supervisors. A preliminary analysis of institutional practices and requirements shows how, as yet, formal training in supervision is a necessary but neglected aspect of Ugandan universities. In some instances, academics take on supervisory roles as soon as they have graduated their own PhD, highlighting how pressing the need is for supervisor development.
Acknowledging that many education systems use a ‘testing’ regime rather than one of the continuous assessment, Verónica Villarroel (Chile), David Boud (Australia), Susan Bloxham (UK), Daniela Bruna and Carola Bruna (Chile) have developed a framework to apply authentic practices to test design. Where testing is widespread, suggestions are made to ensure that the planning, implementation and feedback surrounding assessment are more authentic, reflecting the requirements of post-university working life. The authors show practical examples of how a test can be developed to more closely align with the professional contexts that graduates will face. Their aim in this framework is to show how higher-order thinking skills can be incorporated into testing regimes, and how self- and peer-assessment can reinforce higher quality learning.
A focus on affective learning is the aim of exploring students’ engagement with a virtual patient. Arinola Adefila, Joanne Opie, Steven Bell and Patricia Bluteau, all from Coventry University (UK) note that their collaborative virtual environment highlights students’ lack of familiarity with social and interpersonal competences in learning. In designing the interprofessional health care module reported in ‘Students’ engagement and learning experiences using Virtual Reality simulation in a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Environment’ they demonstrate effective skill acquisition amongst the students, but challenges in developing the social learning competences required in interprofessional settings.
In a study entitled ‘Students’ perception on initial experience of flipped classroom in pharmacy education: Are we ready?’ Siok-Yee Chan, Yat Kuan Lam and Theam Foo Ng suggest that the long-standing didactic tradition in Malaysia is an inhibiting factor in implementing a flipped classroom model. Using a survey approach with undergraduate pharmacy students, poor previous experiences of the flipped classroom approach, and concerns over time constraints were the most important negative student perceptions, a view more common in senior year students. It appears that fewer than half the student population who had been exposed to flipped classrooms recognised this pedagogical approach when surveyed but the majority were positive about the innovation, recognising the potential of their active involvement in class, with clear preference among earlier year students.
Student retention in an Engineering programme in Spain is investigated by José María Ortiz-Lozano, Antonio Rua-Vieites, Paloma Bilbao-Calabuig and Martí Casadesús-Fa who explore the factors influencing student drop-out to suggest an optimal time-frame for intervention. While the overall drop-out rate across 4 years of data collection was less than 20%, weaker prior academic achievement was a key risk indicator, further compounded by poor academic performances in the first semester. Including first semester attainment improved the predictive capacity of the model developed, suggesting that retention strategies should not focus only on students with lower entry grades but should incorporate continuing academic performance measures.
Karim Sadeghi and Zainab Abolfazli Khonbi from Iran look at student wellbeing in a paper entitled ‘Connecting the dots to see the whole: Learner variables, wellbeing and coping strategies in student narratives’. They sought the range of coping strategies used by postgraduate language learners, finding that the learners were more likely to be self-reliant rather than rely on peer relationships, and that male and female students used a similar range of strategies.
Chun-Ying Chen and Ying-Hsing Yang from the National Taichung University of Education, Taiwan, investigate different formats of software training materials. Traditional online instructional materials were contrasted with screencast, video and animated versions and tested for recall and transfer. Findings show that format does not affect test (recall) performance, but animated instructional materials significantly influenced transfer performance. No difference was found in performance in relation to captioned or narrated visual materials.
In a paper entitled ‘Mindfulness exercises for written communication: Key issues in large classrooms’ Nicole Westlund Stewart, A. Wade Wilson and David W. Drewery from the University of Waterloo (Canada) report on a study using different mindfulness scripts, observation and a survey with undergraduate health science students and report on how this intervention works in a large lecture setting. Whilst some students appreciated the mindfulness approach, the authors report a generally low level of engagement and interest, and the presence of many distracting behaviours. Factors relating to more positive take-up are explored.
Different forms of feedback in a Facebook learning community is the focus of the article by Fatma Gizem Karaoglan Yilmaz and Ramazan Yilmaz from Bartin University in Turkey. Aiming to enhance critical thinking skills and reduce transactional distance, the authors use a quasi-experimental design by pre- and post-testing before and after a 10-week intervention where students developed digital stories and received peer feedback in different forms. Whilst differences were found in perceptions of transactional distance with students in video and image-based feedback groups, no difference was found for critical thinking skills, and text-based feedback showed no significant difference.