'Constructive alignment' and learning technologies: some implications for the quality of teaching and learning in higher education

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Mimirinis
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Constructive Alignment ◽  
Quality Of Teaching

scholarly journals Characteristics of Online Learning in Higher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-155
Author(s):  
Diana-Crina Marin ◽  
Mușata Bocoș
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Learning ◽  
Time Management ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Students Success

"In the context in which the teaching, learning, and assessment processes take place in the online environment, the question arises whether the currently organized learning situations are as effective as the learning situations carried out in the classroom, before the beginning of the pandemic. One of the disadvantages of online learning is related to the teacher’s low control over students’ activity. Factors such as initiative, creativity, efficient time management, intrinsic motivation, responsibility, and intellectual curiosity play an important role in students’ success in learning activities. Attendance at courses should not be formal and superficial and should be a process that involves the active and interactive participation of the students in the learning process. Providing high-quality educational opportunities to all students is a goal that is increasingly difficult to achieve in the context of the absence of face-to-face interactions. Also, applying a curriculum focused on the needs of the learner is becoming hard to achieve. Through this research, we aim to investigate issues related to how online learning takes place and to establish ways in which we can increase the efficiency of current teaching and learning processes. The study revealed that in the opinion of most of the students, the current epidemiological context has influenced in a negative way the quality of teaching and the student-teacher educational relationship. Keywords: Interactive learning, eLearning, independence in learning, higher education, efficient strategies "

Modern University Education: Administrative and Bureaucratic Pressures and Their Consequences

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4-1) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Andrey Ivanov ◽  
◽  
Irina Fotieva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
University Education ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Russian Higher Education

The article considers two interrelated problems of modern Russian higher education: the strengthening of administrative coercion and control as well as the introduction of distance education. As a theoretical and methodological basis of the study, the authors rely on the socio-philosophical analysis of the problems of education in the famous S.I. Hessen’s work, where three basic principles of the effective functioning of the university are highlighted: the completeness of scientific knowledge, the freedom of teaching and learning, and self-government. The authors substantiate the view that at present all these principles are violated. Violation of the first of them is manifested in a decrease in hours devoted to the teaching of fundamental disciplines and in a general orientation toward the graduation of a “narrow” specialist; the second principle is incompatible with the extremely increased reporting of universities and overly formalized indicators of the quality of their work. Violation of the third principle is manifested in the gradual elimination of university autonomy, in particular, free election of rectors. The most negative manifestation of administrative pressure, according to the authors, today is the forced introduction of distance learning. The authors critically analyze the main arguments put forward in favor of this project: saving university budgets, ensuring a higher quality of teaching, the need to follow the general logic of modernization of education as a whole. The solution to financial problems, according to the authors, should not be based on forced economy, but on the competent organization of the country’s economic life. An appeal to a higher quality of teaching, which, it is argued, must be provided by teachers from the country’s central universities, is based on biased and unproven ideas. In addition, for mastering critical and systematic thinking skills, conducting scientific discussions, direct communication between teachers and students is necessary, which is not feasible in the conditions of online teaching with a very large number of students. In addition, the authors highlight the idea that nobody takes into account the need for close knowledge of a particular audience by a teacher to choose an adequate style of lecturing or conducting practical classes. The article concludes that the current administrative-bureaucratic style of managing higher education, in which not only the basic principles of the successful functioning of the latter are violated, but also destructive reforms are carried out, is destructive not only for education as such, but also for the state itself.

'A place where open minds meet': The constraints of alignment and the effects of compulsory teacher training on teaching and learning in higher education

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Mihailova
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Academic Practices ◽  
Disciplinary Expertise ◽  
University Lecturers ◽  
The University ◽  
Shed Light

The article investigates how university lecturers taking part in the compulsory teacher training at Stockholm University (SU) conceive of the effects of standardised and formalised training on their teaching. The study explores the emotions and responses evoked among academics when everyone is required to embrace the same pedagogic philosophy of constructive alignment (Biggs 2003), adopt the language of learning outcomes and assign the same standards to diverse academic practices. The article attempts to shed light on different conceptions of the quality of teaching and learning in higher education and the interplay between the lecturers' values of academic freedom, collegiality and disciplinary expertise and the university leadership's values of efficiency, accountability and measurability of performance. The article considers how these conceptions coexist and are negotiated within the university as an organisation.

scholarly journals Leveraging AI and Machine Learning for National Student Survey: Actionable Insights from Textual Feedback to Enhance Quality of Teaching and Learning in UK’s Higher Education

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 514
Author(s):  
Raheel Nawaz ◽  
Quanbin Sun ◽  
Matthew Shardlow ◽  
Georgios Kontonatsios ◽  
Naif R. Aljohani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Free Text ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Quality Of Teaching

Students’ evaluation of teaching, for instance, through feedback surveys, constitutes an integral mechanism for quality assurance and enhancement of teaching and learning in higher education. These surveys usually comprise both the Likert scale and free-text responses. Since the discrete Likert scale responses are easy to analyze, they feature more prominently in survey analyses. However, the free-text responses often contain richer, detailed, and nuanced information with actionable insights. Mining these insights is more challenging, as it requires a higher degree of processing by human experts, making the process time-consuming and resource intensive. Consequently, the free-text analyses are often restricted in scale, scope, and impact. To address these issues, we propose a novel automated analysis framework for extracting actionable information from free-text responses to open-ended questions in student feedback questionnaires. By leveraging state-of-the-art supervised machine learning techniques and unsupervised clustering methods, we implemented our framework as a case study to analyze a large-scale dataset of 4400 open-ended responses to the National Student Survey (NSS) at a UK university. These analyses then led to the identification, design, implementation, and evaluation of a series of teaching and learning interventions over a two-year period. The highly encouraging results demonstrate our approach’s validity and broad (national and international) application potential—covering tertiary education, commercial training, and apprenticeship programs, etc., where textual feedback is collected to enhance the quality of teaching and learning.

ZPD Incidence Development Strategy for Demand of Internet in Life-Science Teaching of Comprehensive Regional Higher Education Institutes

2011 ◽  
Vol 267 ◽  
pp. 918-921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Ming Li
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Science Teaching ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Life Science ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Regional University ◽  
Learning Issues ◽  
Proper Strategy

Many regional higher education institutes (mainly be regional university) have been founded from 1998 in China. From 2006, most of those regional higher education institutes promoted to be comprehensive regional higher education institutes (CRHEIs) in succession. Students in those CRHEIs become more and more, and the quality of teaching should be improved. In this paper, we analyses internet–based teaching and learning issues at CRHEIs level and comprehensive nationwide higher education institutes (CNHEIs) level. We get that internet integration in CRHE need to be in lined with proper strategy.

Teachers’ Professional Training for the Implementation of Learning Technologies

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Venera Këndusi
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Learning Technologies ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Learning Facilitation ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Technological Developments

Regarding to the rapid development of technique and technology in all areas of life, also in the education field such developments have a great impact. The frequent use of technologies and their advancement influence on students for the main purpose to achieve faster the knowledge. For this reason teachers should be in trend with new technological developments and they should be familiar with the technology usage in schools. In order that teaching process to be attractive and at the same time to achieve the highest quality of education there is a need that teachers should know the usage and application of technology during the process of teaching. The effect and the progress of teaching labor are gained with usage improvement of teaching technology. The purpose of this research is related to the professional training of primary school teachers in Gjakova municipality for the use of learning technologies as computers, projectors, laptop, etc, and their application in teaching practices in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning facilitation.

scholarly journals Optimal Standards to Measure the Quality of Higher Education Institutions in Oman: Stakeholders’ Perception

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402094744
Author(s):  
Amal Said Al-Amri ◽  
Priya Mathew ◽  
Yong Zulina Zubairi ◽  
Rohana Jani
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Entire Range ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Quality Of Higher Education ◽  
Quality Of Teaching

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly being held accountable for maintaining quality in their activities by governments, industry, students, and the community as a whole. Accreditation agencies formulate assessment criteria covering the entire range of HEI activities so that the quality of HEI activities can be measured. However, as the perceptions of stakeholders varies of what makes a good HEI, it is crucial to investigate their opinions about the standards set by these agencies. This study uses focus group discussions involving Omani HEI stakeholders, including students, HEI staff, and employers, to gain insights into their perceptions on the most significant standards set by Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA) in measuring the quality of HEIs. It was found that stakeholders’ views of the key standards that measure HEI quality varies. Students were in favor of the standards related to the quality of teaching and learning. Students also show a good level of awareness about employers’ priorities. Employers were more concerned about the research skills of graduates and their industry and community involvement. There was also some agreement between staff and employers on the importance of governance and management. This study provides HEIs, OAAA, and partner universities insights into stakeholder priorities and concerns.

scholarly journals Feedback-based Learning Through Online Feedback Systems in Higher Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Figas ◽  
Alexander Bartel ◽  
Georg Hagel
Keyword(s):  
Applied Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Feedback System ◽  
Student Feedback ◽  
Feedback Systems ◽  
Quality Of Teaching ◽  
University Of Applied Sciences ◽  
Online Feedback

From scientific research it is known that feedback from students to lecturers can positively influence teaching and learning in higher education. This involves both responses concerning the quality of teaching and to the own learning process. In lessons with a large number of students it appears to be challenging to realize such kind of interaction in oral way with all students in class. One possible way is to use online feedback-systems. Through this, all students have the opportunity to express their opinion, requests or problems concerning the lecture in anonymous way any time. Furthermore, it allows discussing the results together in class. The paper deals with the issue of student feedback in higher education and presents an online feedback-system and its integration into the teaching process. In addition, the paper shows some empirical based experiences made with the feedback-system in three courses in a German University of Applied Sciences. It becomes visible that feedback-systems have the potential to improve the quality of teaching and make learning more interactive and student-oriented.

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