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1 – 10 of 120Jacques van der Meer, Jane Skalicky and Harriet Speed
Increasingly, universities are involved in providing leadership development opportunities that support students’ academic endeavours and their personal and professional…
Abstract
Increasingly, universities are involved in providing leadership development opportunities that support students’ academic endeavours and their personal and professional development, including employability and citizenship skills. Leadership experiences are beneficial not only for students, but also for universities, the wider community, and future employers. To develop a greater understanding of students’ perceived benefits of their involvement in peer leadership activities, a group of Australasian universities participated in a pilot survey based on the United States National Survey of Peer Leadership. Overall, the results suggest students believe they benefit from peer leadership experiences across a range of key outcomes areas, most prominently creative problem solving, appreciation of diversity, and a sense of belonging and contributing to the university community.
Jasna Pocek, Diamanto Politis and Jonas Gabrielsson
This study focuses on extra-curricular start-up programs for students at higher educational institutions. It explores the social and situated learning experiences of students who…
Abstract
Purpose
This study focuses on extra-curricular start-up programs for students at higher educational institutions. It explores the social and situated learning experiences of students who participate in start-up programs, as well as how the processes and outcomes of entrepreneurial learning are potentially shaped by this context.
Design/methodology/approach
The study follows multiple cohorts of students who have participated in an extra-curricular start-up program managed by three collaborating universities in Greater Copenhagen. The data have been inductively analyzed using semi-structured interviews with students and project managers during and after the start-up program, complemented with project progress reports, observation notes and survey data.
Findings
The analysis generates a grounded, theoretically informed process model of entrepreneurial learning situated in extra-curricular start-up programs. The model depicts how the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice subsequently enables students to expand knowledge structures and develop greater self-confidence in performing entrepreneurship. The model identifies three interconnected components that trigger entrepreneurial learning among students, which allow them to acquire two set of competencies: venture creation competencies and enterprising competencies.
Originality/value
The findings offer unique insights into how the social and relational environment influence and shape the learning experience of students, hence filling the research void on entrepreneurial learning in the situated context of extra-curricular enterprise activities. The findings also elucidate how individual learning experiences of students are potentially shaped by the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice.
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Saba Munir and Muhammad Zaheer
The first objective of this study is to review the mechanism of conducting extra-curricular activities (ECAs) in the open and distance learning (ODL) setting. To achieve this…
Abstract
Purpose
The first objective of this study is to review the mechanism of conducting extra-curricular activities (ECAs) in the open and distance learning (ODL) setting. To achieve this objective, the procedure of ECAs at the Virtual University of Pakistan has been studied. The second objective of this study is to find the impact of ECAs on student engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a cross-sectional quantitative study. The questionnaire has been used to collect the data. The purposive sampling technique has been used, while this study's sample size is 970. An independent sample t-test has been used to find the difference between the groups.
Findings
This study shows a significant difference between the engagement levels of students who have been part of any ECA at university compared to the students who never participated in any ECA.
Research limitations/implications
The results have been derived from the data gathered from one university only that might hinder the generalizability of the findings. The same study can be conducted in other ODL institutions to authenticate the findings.
Practical implications
This study will help in realizing the policymakers of ODL about the importance of ECCAs. This study has also discussed an existing system of conducting ECCAs in an ODL setting that can be generalized and implemented across all the ODL universities to enhance student engagement.
Originality/value
This study has highlighted the importance of ECAs in ODL institutions that have been neglected since forever. This study is novel because it has highlighted the importance of social interaction of students in ODL and its relation with student engagement that has not been highlighted by any study so far.
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Perry Heymann, Ellen Bastiaens, Anne Jansen, Peter van Rosmalen and Simon Beausaert
In a fast evolving labour market, higher education graduates need to develop employability competences. Key in becoming employable is the ability to reflect on learning…
Abstract
Purpose
In a fast evolving labour market, higher education graduates need to develop employability competences. Key in becoming employable is the ability to reflect on learning experiences, both within a curriculum as well as extra-curricular and work placements. This paper wants to conceptualise how an online learning platform might entail a reflective practice that systematically supports students in reflecting on their learning experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
When studying online learning platforms for developing students' employability competences, it became clear that the effectiveness of the platform depends on how the platform guides students' reflective practice. In turn, the authors studied which features (tools, services and resources) of the online learning platform are guiding the reflective practice.
Findings
This resulted in the introduction of an online learning platform, containing a comprehensive set of online learning tools and services, which supports students' reflective practice and, in turn, their employability competences. The online platform facilitates both feedback from curricular and work-related learning experiences and can be used as a start by students for showcasing their employability competences. The reflective practice consists of a recurrent, systematic process of reflection, containing various phases: become aware, analyse current state, draft and plan a solution, take action and, finally, reflect in and on action.
Research limitations/implications
Future research revolves around studying the features of online learning platforms and their role in fostering students' reflection and employability competences.
Practical implications
The conceptual model provides concrete indicators on how to implement online learning platforms for supporting students' reflection and employability competences.
Originality/value
This is the first article that analyses an online learning platform that guides students' reflective practice and fosters their employability competences. The authors provide concrete suggestions on how to model the online platform, building further on reflective practice theory.
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Narayana Maharana and Suman Kalyan Chaudhury
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between educational qualification and entrepreneurial intent (EI) of the students of private and government universities…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between educational qualification and entrepreneurial intent (EI) of the students of private and government universities located in the state of Odisha, India.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on the responses of 485 students of selected private and government universities in Odisha, India. A multistage random sampling approach has been adopted to collect the data and was tested for the role of different elements relating to education in explaining EI.
Findings
The findings suggest that the private universities are superior to the government universities in their Quality of Entrepreneurship Education (QEE), students' Exposure to Entrepreneurship Education (EEE) and their EI. Business Management and Commerce students have more inclination toward entrepreneurship compared to the students of professional streams like Law, Pharmacy, Engineering etc. Self-employed parents, EEE and Extra-Curricular Activities (ECA) are the significant determinants of EI among the university students; whereas, Academic Achievement (AA) and Socio-economic Status (SES) do not significantly explain their EI. Finally, gender also plays a vital role where male students show higher EI compared to their female counterparts.
Practical implications
The research provides an understanding of the significance of entrepreneurship education along with ECA in developing EI among government and private university students.
Originality/value
The paper not only empirically presents the major differences between private and government-owned universities while dealing with entrepreneurship development at the university level but also highlights the impact of demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the students on their EI.
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Whether they are in a leadership program, participate in an organization, or engage in school-based extra-curricular activities, there does not appear to be a shortage of…
Abstract
Whether they are in a leadership program, participate in an organization, or engage in school-based extra-curricular activities, there does not appear to be a shortage of leadership development opportunities for youth. Despite the prominence of these experiences, the lack of youth leadership development models available for educators can pose a challenge in creating opportunities intentionally designed to enhance leadership learning and development. This study uncovers prevalent leadership competencies embedded in four professional preparation frameworks, three research studies, and objectives of four large national youth leadership organizations to create a holistic youth leadership competency development model.
Giustina Secundo, Pierluigi Rippa and Michele Meoli
This paper analyses whether the entrepreneurship education centres introduced by the Italian Ministry of Higher Education and Research in 2012 (the Italian Contamination Labs …
Abstract
Purpose
This paper analyses whether the entrepreneurship education centres introduced by the Italian Ministry of Higher Education and Research in 2012 (the Italian Contamination Labs – CLabs) are effectively adopting the emergent digital technologies for nurturing their entrepreneurship education activities and dissemination of knowledge contamination practices among university students.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-depth analysis of italian entrepreneurship education centres provides evidence about the direct role played by digital technologies in supporting and enhancing the entrepreneurial processes, as well as on their indirect role in stimulating entrepreneurship activities of nascent student entrepreneurs.
Findings
Findings provide some insights into the strategic role of some categories of digital technologies inside the CLabs. The main results show still a weak use of digital technologies in CLabs except for social media and digital platforms, mainly used for promotion scope and communication of the entrepreneurial outputs achieved by the students.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of the study consist of the need to expand the study to all the other CLabs belonging to the CLabs Italian Network and to derive a set of “invariance” among the cases in terms of digital technologies support for student entrepreneurship.
Practical implications
New ways of managing entrepreneurship centres will involve a more massive adoption of digital technologies to support and transform some processes realized inside the CLabs, even if the governance of such centres must develop new digital skills.
Originality/value
The originality of the work regards the contribution to the emerging role of digital technologies on the student's entrepreneurship.
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