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1 – 10 of over 23000Poh Kiong Tee, Tat-Huei Cham, Eugene Cheng-Xi Aw, Adham Khudaykulov and Xiaoyu Zhang
Digitalisation is reshaping the learning process, shifting it towards personalisation and online learning, and fuelling the growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and…
Abstract
Purpose
Digitalisation is reshaping the learning process, shifting it towards personalisation and online learning, and fuelling the growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and micro-credentials. Despite being a popular global trend, limited studies have looked at micro-credentials and their impact on learners' behavioural outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of programme design factors on learning experience, as well as the inter-relationships between programme design, learning experience and behavioural responses (e.g. engagement and willingness to pay more (WTPM)) towards micro-credentials. In addition, the study aims to investigate learning enjoyment as a moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 354 respondents who are working adults living in the major economic states in Malaysia. Data analysis was performed using the analysis of a moment structures (AMOS) statistical software and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) PROCESS macro.
Findings
The results show the significance of programme design factors (i.e., flexibility, system quality and content quality) in determining the learning experience. The learning experience is found as a mediator in the relationship between programme design factors and learner engagement and WTPM. In addition, the moderation assessment confirms that enjoyment during learning strengthens the relationship between experience and behavioural responses.
Originality/value
This study is amongst a few selected studies that focus on engagement in and WTPM for micro-credentials. In addition, it emphasises the mediating role of the learning experience and the moderating role of enjoyment in understanding the impact of programme design on learners' experiences and behavioural responses.
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Jessie Nixon, Erica Halverson, Andy Stoiber and Andy Garbacz
The purpose of this study is to understand how learners describe their experiences with short-term, introductory maker experiences and to test a method for assessing learners’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to understand how learners describe their experiences with short-term, introductory maker experiences and to test a method for assessing learners’ experiences authentic to short-term learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected written responses from participants at a two-day event, STEM Center Learning Days. Through an analysis of 707 unique instances of learner responses to participation in drop-in maker activities, they examined how participants describe their short-term learning experiences.
Findings
The authors found that although some activities appear to onlookers to create passive experiences for learners, these seemingly passive moments have a significant impact on learners. In addition, some learners described themselves as working in tandem with tools to make something work and other learners viewed the tools as working autonomously. They found that the assessment method allowed them to gain an understanding of how learners describe their experiences offering important implications for understanding short-term learning events.
Originality/value
The findings provide researchers studying short-term learning in its natural setting a new method to understand how learners make sense of their individual experience. Further, designers of short-term learning experiences may gain insights into their unique activities and indications of where additional guidance and scaffolds will improve small learning moments.
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Moritz Philip Recke and Stefano Perna
The authors present concepts developed at University of Naples Federico II (Italy), where the Challenge Based Learning methodology (CBL) is utilised in a programme aimed at…
Abstract
The authors present concepts developed at University of Naples Federico II (Italy), where the Challenge Based Learning methodology (CBL) is utilised in a programme aimed at software development for the Apple technology ecosystem. The collaborative and self-guided, inquiry-based learning method focusses on intrinsic motivation of learners, working on real world problems organised in projects (Challenges in CBL) with an experiential and progressive approach. As entrepreneurship is best promoted through practice, the programme is a guided immersion into reality that is entrepreneurial in nature, rather than a simulation of hypothetical projects, and requires learners to take ownership of entrepreneurial skills to complete the course. Academic research has shown that use of storytelling is beneficial to learning and can foster engaging and more formative experiences. Additionally, scholars have developed systems to design unscripted narratives within educational contexts using emergent narrative concepts. This conceptual chapter describes an educational experience design system that encourages unscripted, emergent narratives for experiential education. It categorises the components for designing an educational experience that allows the learning progression to be affectively driven by learners. By focussing on setting parameters and giving learners autonomy as co-authors, the model describes mechanisms that allow powerful, unscripted narratives to emerge based on intrinsic motivation. The Emergent Narrative System developed by the authors is a contribution to innovation in entrepreneurship teaching and intends to empower learners towards building entrepreneurial and twenty-first century skills complementary to software development education in a conducive and experiential learning environment.
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Tracey Ollis, Ursula Harrison and Cheryl Ryan
We argue this method of inquiry better represents the participants' learning, lives and experiences in the formal neoliberal education system prioritising performativity…
Abstract
Purpose
We argue this method of inquiry better represents the participants' learning, lives and experiences in the formal neoliberal education system prioritising performativity, categorising and ranking students.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores using poetry as a research method to reveal the learning experiences of adult learners, who have often had disruptive experiences of the formal schooling system and return to study in community-based education spaces. Inspired by Laurel Richardson’s transgressive technique of presenting sociological data through poetry as method, we use poetic representations of these learners' lives alongside case study research methodology. The research was conducted in conjunction with Neighbourhood Houses in Victoria, Australia. Qualitative data were generated through conducting multiple case studies of learners across various adult community education (ACE) sites. In this research, some case studies were presented in the traditional method of writing biography, others were written in the form of found poetry, which we refer to as data as poetry and text. The paper uses found poetry through participant-voiced poems written from interview transcripts. We argue this method of inquiry better represents the participants' learning, lives and experiences in the formal neoliberal education system prioritising performativity, categorising and ranking students. Our findings highlight the benefits of using poetry to communicate data in case study research as it effectively represents the experiences of adult learners' lives in a creative and concise form, transgressing normative practices of writing education research. These poetic representations of data reveal learner experiences in an embodied and agentic way while providing readers with a deep and rich understanding of these crucial adult learning spaces.
Findings
Our findings highlight the benefits of using poetry to communicate data in case study research as it effectively represents the experiences of adult learners' lives in a creative and concise form, transgressing normative practices of writing education research.
Originality/value
This research paper is empirical research and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication.
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Fostering the development of professional character in student physicians remains the most essential, yet challenging and sometimes elusive goal of those in medical education…
Abstract
Fostering the development of professional character in student physicians remains the most essential, yet challenging and sometimes elusive goal of those in medical education. Current understandings and contemporary approaches to learning and teaching can provide perspectives that may inform our thinking. In this chapter, learning with and from others is explored along with approaches that form the foundation for the development of professional character that integrates moral conduct into professional practice. The implications for both teaching and learning and the importance of the learning environment are discussed. Education as a moral endeavor and values-based practice is emphasized.
Yanan Wang, Lee Yen Chaw, Choi-Meng Leong, Yet Mee Lim and Abdulkadir Barut
This study intends to investigate the determinants of learners' continuance intention to use massive open online courses (MOOCs) for personal or professional development.
Abstract
Purpose
This study intends to investigate the determinants of learners' continuance intention to use massive open online courses (MOOCs) for personal or professional development.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed quantitative research design. The respondents were individual learners from six selected universities in China who used MOOCs for continuous learning. A purposive sampling technique was employed to obtain 270 valid samples. Data were analyzed and analytical outputs were produced using the techniques of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling and Importance-Performance Matrix.
Findings
Expectation confirmation was found to have a positive relationship with perceived usefulness, flow experience, learning self-efficacy and satisfaction with MOOCs. Perceived usefulness, flow experience and leaning self-efficacy were also found to have a positive relationship with MOOC satisfaction. In addition, perceived usefulness, flow experience, learning self-efficacy and MOOC satisfaction had a positive impact on continuance usage intention.
Originality/value
The outcomes of the study can serve as a practical reference for MOOC providers and decision-makers to develop relevant strategies to increase the course completion rates.
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Jane Seale, Mike Wald and E Draffan
There is a need for more in‐depth exploration of the e‐learning experiences of disabled learners in higher education, taking into account the complex relationship between learners…
Abstract
There is a need for more in‐depth exploration of the e‐learning experiences of disabled learners in higher education, taking into account the complex relationship between learners (skills, knowledge and beliefs), their assistive technologies and the e‐learning contexts in which learners are required to operate. Participatory methods appear to have great potential in enabling the voice of disabled learners to be a more central focus of e‐learning studies. This paper will describe and evaluate a two‐year research project called LExDis, which aims to use participatory methods to explore the e‐learning experiences of disabled learners in one higher education institution. The experience of conducting phase one of the LExDis project will be discussed with regards to three main challenges to using participatory methods: informed participation; valued participation; and empowered participation.
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Isabelle Vandangeon-Derumez, Amina Djedidi and Eila Szendy
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of experience in learning about, and preparing for, change management.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of experience in learning about, and preparing for, change management.
Design/methodology/approach
A course with a different approach to teaching about change management has been proposed to learners. It uses drawing, simulation and exploration of case studies. Learners wrote reports on change management before and after the course and these reports were then thematically analyzed.
Findings
Results show the specific ways in which the course places learners in a position to: experience change, use their collective experiences, acquire and develop practical knowledge, and prepare themselves for change. Capitalizing on such experiences of change could arguably become an integral part of an organization’s “readiness to change” strategy.
Research limitations/implications
It would be useful to further investigate what happens after this experience by interviewing learners, later on, in order to analyze how they subsequently use, in a real professional environment, such knowledge and skills acquired during the learning process.
Practical implications
Using this approach, future managers are arguably better prepared to implement change. Capitalizing on such experiences of change could become part of an organization’s “readiness for change” strategy.
Social implications
The benefits of experiencing change management in a learning environment will only be reaped when firms allocate time and space to such experiential learning. This entails going beyond managing this change to a deeper perspective by identifying key elements to maintain and/or enhance one’s experience of managing change.
Originality/value
The value of the present paper lies in individual and collective experience as a key element to prepare managers to change management.
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This chapter traces one student teacher's (Joan) experiences of learning to teach English as a second language in a cross-cultural context during a teaching practicum in Hong…
Abstract
This chapter traces one student teacher's (Joan) experiences of learning to teach English as a second language in a cross-cultural context during a teaching practicum in Hong Kong. The school-based practicum is a core component of many initial teacher education programmes. During this induction period, usually an 8-week block, student teachers are placed in local schools to learn how to integrate theories into practice in real teaching situations. Specifically, I uncover how Joan grappled with the tensions and complexities of teaching young learners from a different cultural and linguistic background, in a small elementary school situated in the borderland between Hong Kong (an autonomous region of China) and Shenzhen (a province of Mainland China).
Critical incidents from Joan's practicum experiences were analysed to uncover how she dealt with the tensions and dilemmas in confronting difference and marginalising practices while learning to teach English as a second language (ESL) in the practicum school. Implications on how to develop initial teacher education programmes so that student teachers learning to teach across cultural contexts can be encouraged to explore, confront and ‘deal with the emotional terrain of understanding difference’ will be discussed (Boler & Zembylas, 2003, p. 123; Zembylas, 2010).
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Victoria Lynn Lowell and James Michael Morris Jr
The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential challenges learners from different generations may have with current instructional methods using educational technologies in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss potential challenges learners from different generations may have with current instructional methods using educational technologies in the classroom. The authors hope to create awareness to help improve equity in learning opportunities and assist educators in understanding the needs of multigenerational classrooms.
Design/methodology/approach
In a narrative review of the literature, the authors present the current findings of the literature on generations in higher education and concerns for equity in learning opportunities.
Findings
It is commonplace in undergraduate programs for learners of multiple generations to attend classes together and research has shown that historical context and generational experiences affect the values, attitudes and learning preferences of each generation. Therefore, higher education institutions should be aware of the demographic profile of their students, as well as the external populations from which they may recruit students, to ensure they are cognizant of the needs of these populations and can provide equality in learning opportunities.
Practical implications
To assist with the needs of this changing student population, university leaders must consider generational characteristics to ensure equity in learning opportunity. Specifically, university leaders and educators in the classrooms will need to adapt and adjust for a changing student population providing instruction that meets the needs of multiple generations of learners, often within one classroom.
Originality/value
Often when we think of diversity in the classroom we think of age, gender, race or even culture. Today we must add diversity in generations. Unlike other equity issues in education such as access (McLaughlin, 2010), educators may not be considering the equity in the design of their instruction to provide equitable learning experiences based on a learners’ knowledge and skills established by their experiences with technology. The lack of knowledge and skills a learner has with technology based on their experiences may create barriers to their ability to understand and complete instructional content involving technology (Wager, 2005). To ensure all learners can be successful, educators should strive to provide equality in learning opportunities when designing instruction including technology.
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