In this issue of IETI two papers from Spanish institutions look at strategies for student engagement. First, to enhance the teaching of statistics, de la Torre and Berbegal-Mirabent (Universidad Pública de Navarra and Universitat Internacional de Catalunya), explored the use of gamification principles. Extra point questions were available through in-class activities to enhance motivation and encourage regular study habits. Simulation at local, national and international levels is the focus of the article by Javier Sierra (University of Salamanca). Students completed pre- and post-simulation surveys demonstrating their enhanced understanding of public sector economics, and captured overwhelming support for the integration of the simulations and role-plays in their learning experience.
Vereijken, Van der Rijst, Van Driel and Dekker at Leiden University used a curriculum change to examine students’ perceptions of the embedding of authentic research practices in undergraduate medical education. Examining the perceptions of integrating research into teaching, and beliefs about research use in practice, students following the original and the changed curriculum were included in a longitudinal survey across three years. The new curriculum achieved its aims by increasing participation in and motivation for research, and heightened critical reflection skills.
Student interviews were used by Fisher, LaFerriere and Rixon from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia to explore the benefits and drawbacks of flipped learning. Disaggregating the flipped approach into ‘influencing’ and ‘facilitating’ factors, they show that activities that facilitate learning are more effective, but that a number of students simultaneously hold both positive and negative feelings about flipped classrooms. They highlight the difficulties associated with required preparatory work for those to whom this was a new approach. Student perceptions are also the focus of the contribution by Fu, Han, Dong, Huang, Shi, Liu and Li from Jiangxi Normal University, China. Students’ views on the personality of a team leader in PBL settings is a rarely considered perspective. A large post-course survey sought to test the relationship between team leader personality, gender and academic outcome. More conscientious team leaders had a positive effect on student grades.
In the field of e-learning, Jung and Lee surveyed students from Japanese universities participating in MOOCs to see their impact on learning outcomes. Students self-reported growth in knowledge acquisition and, to a lesser extent, development of attitudes and skills, influenced by time on task and learning in a native language. Thongsri, Shen and Bao, from Huazhong and Jiangxi Universities in China, report on students’ intentions towards e-learning in relation to the major field of study. Their findings support previous research that shows high computer self-efficacy indicates a greater willingness to use e-learning and is more prevalent amongst STEM students.
Pazio and Ntonia explore the challenges of engaging academic staff at a UK university with technology-enhanced aspects of a course in teaching and learning. They outline a lack of engagement, particularly for publicly shared tasks, demonstrating that academics can be just as reluctant as any novice student new to a field of study. A second paper looking at UK academic staff by Platt focuses on the scope and use of peer review in teaching development. By aligning the peer review framework to institutional strategic priorities, outcomes reflected a more purposeful engagement with the system and greater collaboration across teaching teams.
Engagement in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning is explored in a transatlantic collaboration by Webb and Tierney (University of British Columbia and Edinburgh Napier University). Two independent studies are brought together, to synthesise the nature of threshold concepts in SoTL and the challenges it presents to novice scholars. Local and institutional cultures play a large part in successful SoTL engagement, and to make it sustainable, recognition and reward are needed in much the same ways as in disciplinary research.
Jan Smith, Galway