Search results for: undergraduate student

Authors: Muhammad Ashraf

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It is experimentally conceded reality that education not just promotes social and intellectual abilities yet, in addition, the incomes of people. The present study is directed to investigate the connection between education level and student income. Data of different education levels is acquired from 300 students through field review from four public sector Universities; two from upper Punjab (University of Gujarat and Government college university-Lahore) and two from lower Punjab (Islamia University-Bahawalpur and The University of Sahiwal). Two-phase estimation is based on the Mincerian human capital model. The first stage presents statistical/descriptive investigation, which shows positive linkage among higher education and income of the students. Econometric estimation is estimated in the second stage by applying Ordinary least Square Method (OLS). Econometric examination reaffirms the importance of higher education as the impact of higher education on students’ incomes accelerates as we move from lower-level education to higher-level education. Educational levels, experience, and working hours are sure and noteworthy with student’s income. Econometric estimation additionally investigated that M. Phil and Ph.D. students have a higher income than bachelor students. Concerning the students, the income profile study commended that the Government ought to give part-time jobs or internships to students as indicated to labor market demand.

Keywords: education, student’s income, experience, universities

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Authors: Mahfoodh Saleh Al Sabbagh, Venkoba Rao

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There is plenty of research, both in academic and consultancy circles, about the importance and benefits of employee engagement and customer engagement and how it gives organization an opportunity to reduce variability and improve performance. Customer engagement is directly related to the engagement level of the organization's employees. It is therefore important to measure both. This research drawing from the work of Human Sigma by Fleming and Asplund, attempts to assess engagement level of customer and employees - the human systems of business - in an educational setup. Student is important to an educational institute and is a customer to be served efficiently and effectively. Considering student as customer and faculty as employees serving them, in–depth interviews were conducted to analyze the relationship between faculty and student engagement in two leading colleges in Oman, one from private sector and another from public sector. The study relied mainly on secondary data sources to understand the concept of engagement. However, the search of secondary sources was extensive to compensate the limited primary data. The results indicate that high faculty engagement is likely to lead to high student engagement. Engaged students were excited about learning, loved the feeling of they being cared as a person by their faculty and advocated the organization to other. The interaction truly represents an opportunity to build emotional connection to the organization. This study could be of interest to organizations interest in building and maintaining engagement with employees and customers.

Keywords: customer engagement, consumer psychology, strategy, educational institutes

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Authors: Maria Georgiou

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This study examined whether there was a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest achievement scores for students who received multimedia-based instructions in science. The paired samples t-test was used to address the research question and to establish whether there was a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores that may have occurred based on the students’ learning experience with multimedia technology. Findings indicated that there was a significant difference in students’ achievement scores before and after a multimedia-based instruction. Students’ achievement scores were increased by approximately two points, after students received multimedia-based instruction. On a paired samples t-test, a high level of significance was found, p = 0.000. Opportunities to learn with multimedia are more likely to result in sustained improvements in student achievement and a deeper understanding of science content. Multimedia can make learning more active and student-centered and activate student motivation.

Keywords: constructivist learning, hyperstudio, multimedia, multimedia-based instruction

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Authors: Shurui Bai, Biyun Huang, Khe Foon Hew

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Gamification is defined as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts. The primary purpose of using gamification in an educational context is to engage students in school activities such that their likelihood of completion is increased. But how actually effective is gamification in improving student learning? In order to answer this question, this paper provides a systematic review of prior research studies on gamification in K-12 and university contexts limited to computer science discipline. Unlike other published gamification review works, we specifically analyzed comparison-based studies in quasi-experiment, historical control, and randomization rather than studies with mere anecdotal or phenomenological results. The main purpose for this is to discuss possible causal effects of gamified practices on student performance, behavior change, and perceptual skills following an integrative model. Implications for practice are discussed, along with several suggestions for future research studies.

Keywords: computer science, gamification, learning performance, systematic review

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Authors: Sokkhey Phauk, Takeo Okazaki

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The challenging task in educational institutions is to maximize the high performance of students and minimize the failure rate of poor-performing students. An effective method to leverage this task is to know student learning patterns with highly influencing factors and get an early prediction of student learning outcomes at the timely stage for setting up policies for improvement. Educational data mining (EDM) is an emerging disciplinary field of data mining, statistics, and machine learning concerned with extracting useful knowledge and information for the sake of improvement and development in the education environment. The study is of this work is to propose techniques in EDM and integrate it into a web-based system for predicting poor-performing students. A comparative study of prediction models is conducted. Subsequently, high performing models are developed to get higher performance. The hybrid random forest (Hybrid RF) produces the most successful classification. For the context of intervention and improving the learning outcomes, a feature selection method MICHI, which is the combination of mutual information (MI) and chi-square (CHI) algorithms based on the ranked feature scores, is introduced to select a dominant feature set that improves the performance of prediction and uses the obtained dominant set as information for intervention. By using the proposed techniques of EDM, an academic performance prediction system (APPS) is subsequently developed for educational stockholders to get an early prediction of student learning outcomes for timely intervention. Experimental outcomes and evaluation surveys report the effectiveness and usefulness of the developed system. The system is used to help educational stakeholders and related individuals for intervening and improving student performance.

Keywords: academic performance prediction system, educational data mining, dominant factors, feature selection method, prediction model, student performance

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Authors: Rita Gill Singh, Alex Chun Koon, Cindy Sing Bik Ngai, Joanna Wen Ying Ho, Mei Li Khong, Enoch Chan, Terrence Lau

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Although humour is viewed as a beneficial element in teaching, there has been little attempt to systematize humour in teaching, possibly because it is difficult to teach someone to be humorous. This study integrated planned humour pedagogical approach into teaching and learning activities and examined the effect of systematically planned humour on students’ engagement and learning in different courses. Specifically, appropriate types of humour (i.e. analogy, absurdity and wordplay) and incorporation methods and frequency were systematically integrated into the lessons of courses at some higher education institutions in Hong Kong. The results showed that the planned humour pedagogical approach increased student engagement, as well as enhanced learning and motivation while reducing students’ stress. The pedagogical implications of this study will be useful for researchers, practitioners, and educators.

Keywords: higher education, pedagogy, humour, student engagement, learning, motivation

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Authors: Ralph Barnes

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The internationalization and globalization of education are now a huge, multi-million dollar industry. The movement of international students across the globe has provided a rich vein of revenue for universities and institutions of higher learning to exploit and harvest. A concerted effort has been made by universities worldwide to court students from overseas, with some countries relying up to one-third of student fees, coming from international students. Australian universities and English Language Centres are coming under increased government scrutiny in respect to such areas as the academic progression of international students, management and understanding of student visa requirements and the design of higher education courses and effective assessment regimes. As such, universities and other higher education institutions are restructuring themselves more as service providers rather than as strictly education providers. In this paper, the high-touch, tailored academic model currently followed by some Australian educational institutions to support international students, is examined and challenged. Academic support services offered to international students need to be coordinated, sustained and reviewed regularly, in order to assess their effectiveness. Maintaining the delivery of high-quality educational programs and learning outcomes for this high income-generating student cohort is vital, in order to continue the successful academic and social engagement by international students across the Australian university and higher education landscape.

Keywords: ESL, engagement, tertiary, learning

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Authors: M. Rodionov, Z. Dedovets

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This article discusses ways to implement a differentiated approach to developing academic motivation for mathematical studies which relies on defining the primary structural characteristics of motivation. The following characteristics are considered: features of realization of cognitive activity, meaning-making characteristics, level of generalization and consistency of knowledge acquired by personal experience. The assessment of the present level of individual student understanding of each component of academic motivation is the basis for defining the relevant educational strategy for its further development.

Keywords: learning activity, mathematics, motivation, student

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Authors: Ado Ismail Sabo

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Statement of the Problem: The global trend in tertiary education institutions today is changing and moving towards engagement, promotion and marketing. The reason is to upscale reputation and impact positioning. More prominently, existing rivalry today seeks to draw-in the best and brightest students. A university or college is no longer just an institution of higher learning, but one adapting additional business nomenclature. Therefore, huge financial resources are invested by educational institutions to polish their image and improve their global and national ranking. In Nigeria, which boasts of a vast population of over 180 million people, some of whose patronage can bolster its education sector; standard of education continues to decline. Today, some Nigerian tertiary education institutions are shadows of their pasts, in terms of academic excellence. Quality has been relinquished because of the unquenchable quest by government officials, some civil servants, school heads and educators to amass wealth. It is very difficult to gain student satisfaction and their loyalty. Some of the student’s loyalties factor towards public higher educational institutions might be confusing. It is difficult to understand the extent to which students are satisfy on many needs. Some students might feel satisfy with the academic lecturers only, whereas others may want everything, and others will never satisfy. Due to these problems, this research aims to uncover the crucial factors influencing student loyalty and to examine if students’ satisfaction might impact mediate the relationship between service quality, organisational image and students’ loyalty towards public higher education institutions in Kano State, Nigeria. The significance of the current study is underscored by the paucity of similar research in the subject area and public tertiary education in a developing country like Nigeria as shown in existing literature. Methodology: The current study was undertaken by quantitative research methodology. Sample of 600 valid responses were obtained within the study population comprising six selected public higher education institutions in Kano State, Nigeria. These include: North West University Kano, Bayero University Kano, School of Management Studies Kano, School of Technology Kano, Sa’adatu Rimi College Kano and Federal College of Education (FCE) Kano. Four main hypotheses were formulated and tested using structural equation modeling techniques with Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS Version 22.0). Results: Analysis of the data provided support for the main issue of this study, and the following findings are established: “Student Satisfaction mediates the relationship between Service Quality and Student Loyalty”, “Student Satisfaction mediates the relationship between Organizational Image and Student Loyalty” respectively. The findings of this study contributed to the theoretical implication which proposed a structural model that examined the relationships among overall Organizational image, service quality, student satisfaction and student loyalty. Conclusion: In addition, the findings offered a better insight to the managerial (higher institution of learning service providers) by focusing on portraying the image of service quality with student satisfaction in improving the quality of student loyalty.

Keywords: student loyalty, service quality, student satisfaction, organizational image

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Authors: Thierry Eude

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The use of videoconferencing platforms adapted to teaching offers students the opportunity to take distance education courses in much the same way as traditional in-class training. The sessions can be recorded and they allow students the option of following the courses synchronously or asynchronously. Three typical profiles can then be distinguished: students who choose to follow the courses synchronously, students who could attend the course in synchronous mode but choose to follow the session off-line, and students who follow the course asynchronously as they cannot attend the course when it is offered because of professional or personal constraints. Our study consists of observing attendance at all distance education courses offered in the synchronous mode by the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at Laval University during 10 consecutive semesters. The aim is to identify factors that influence students in their choice of attending the distance courses in synchronous mode. It was found that participation tends to be relatively stable over the years for any one semester (fall, winter summer) and is similar from one course to another, although students may be increasingly familiar with the synchronous distance education courses. Average participation is around 28%. There may be deviations, but they concern only a few courses during certain semesters, suggesting that these deviations would only have occurred because of the composition of particular promotions during specific semesters. Furthermore, course schedules have a great influence on the attendance rate. The highest rates are all for courses which are scheduled outside office hours.

Keywords: attendance, distance undergraduate education in computer science, student behavior, synchronous e-learning

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Authors: Tsao Jui-Jung

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Previous research findings have shown that most students do not fully utilize the written corrective feedback provided by teachers (Stone, 2014). This common phenomenon results in the ineffective utilization of teachers' written corrective feedback. As Ellis (2010) points out, the effectiveness of written corrective feedback depends on the level of student engagement with it. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how students utilize the written corrective feedback from their teachers. Previous studies have confirmed the positive impact of teacher-student writing conferences on students' engagement in the writing process and their writing abilities (Hum, 2021; Nosratinia & Nikpanjeh, 2019; Wong, 1996; Yeh, 2016, 2019). However, due to practical constraints such as time limitations, this instructional activity is not fully utilized in writing classrooms (Alfalagg, 2020). Therefore, to address this research gap, the purpose of this study was to explore several aspects of teacher-student writing conferences, including the frequency of meaning negotiation (i.e., comprehension checks, confirmation checks, and clarification checks) and teacher scaffolding techniques (i.e., feedback, prompts, guidance, explanations, and demonstrations) in teacher-student writing conferences, examining students’ self-assessment of their writing strengths and weaknesses in post-conference journals and their experiences with teacher-student writing conferences (i.e., interaction styles, communication levels, how teachers addressed errors, and overall perspectives on the conferences), and gathering insights from their responses to open-ended questions in the final stage of the study (i.e., their preferences and reasons for different written corrective feedback techniques used by teachers and their perspectives and suggestions on teacher-student writing conferences). Data collection methods included transcripts of audio recordings of teacher-student writing conferences, students’ post-conference journals, and open-ended questionnaires. The participants of this study were sophomore students enrolled in an English writing course for a duration of one school year. Key research findings are as follows: Firstly, in terms of meaning negotiation, students attempted to clearly understand the corrective feedback provided by the teacher-researcher twice as often as the teacher-researcher attempted to clearly understand the students' writing content. Secondly, the most commonly used scaffolding technique in the conferences was prompting (indirect feedback). Thirdly, the majority of participants believed that teacher-student writing conferences had a positive impact on their writing abilities. Fourthly, most students preferred direct feedback from the teacher-research as it directly pointed out their errors and saved them time in revision. However, some students still preferred indirect feedback, as they believed it encouraged them to think and self-correct. Based on the research findings, this study proposes effective teaching recommendations for English writing instruction aimed at optimizing teaching strategies and enhancing students' writing abilities.

Keywords: written corrective feedback, student engagement, teacher-student writing conferences, action research

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Authors: Susan Dodd

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This presentation details the methodology for teachers to identify and support a population of students who have historically been overlooked in regards to their educational needs. The twice exceptional (2e) student is a learner who is considered gifted and also has a learning disability, as defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Many of these students remain underserved throughout their educational careers because their exceptionalities may mask each other, resulting in a special population of students who are not achieving to their fullest potential. There are three common scenarios that may make the identification of a 2e student challenging. First, the student may have been identified as gifted, and her disability may go unnoticed. She could also be considered an under-achiever, or she may be able to compensate for her disability under the school works becomes more challenging. In the second scenario, the student may be identified as having a learning disability and is only receiving remedial services where his giftedness will not be highlighted. His overall IQ scores may be misleading because they were impacted by his learning disability. In the third scenario, the student is able to compensate for her ability well enough to maintain average scores, and she goes undetected as both gifted and learning disabled. Research in the area identifies the complexity involved in identifying 2e students, and how multiple forms of assessment are required. It is important for teachers to be aware of the common characteristics exhibited by many 2e students, so these learners can be identified and appropriately served. Once 2e students have been identified, teachers are then challenged to meet the varying needs of these exceptional learners. Strength-based teaching entails simultaneously providing gifted instruction as well as individualized accommodations for those students. Research in this field has yielded strategies that have proven helpful for teaching 2e students, as well as other students who may be struggling academically. Differentiated instruction, while necessary in all classrooms, is especially important for 2e students, as is encouragement for academic success. Teachers who take the time to really know their students will have a better understanding of each student’s strengths and areas for growth, and therefore tailor instruction to extend the intellectual capacities for optimal achievement. Teachers should also understand that some learning activities can prove very frustrating to students, and these activities can be modified based on individual student needs. Because 2e students can often become discouraged by their learning challenges, it is especially important for teachers to assist students in recognizing their own strengths and maintaining motivation for learning. Although research on the needs of 2e students has spanned across two decades, this population remains underserved in many educational institutions. Teacher awareness of the identification of and the support strategies for 2e students is critical for their success.

Keywords: gifted, learning disability, special needs, twice exceptional

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Authors: Alain Gholam

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Visual thinking routines are principles based on several theories, approaches, and strategies. Such routines promote thinking skills, call for collaboration and sharing of ideas, and above all, make thinking and learning visible. Visual thinking routines were implemented in the teaching methodology graduate course at the American University in Dubai. The study used mixed methods. It was guided by the following two research questions: 1). To what extent do visual thinking inspire learning in the classroom, and make time for students’ questions, contributions, and thinking? 2). How do visual thinking routines inspire learning in the classroom and make time for students’ questions, contributions, and thinking? Eight student teachers enrolled in the teaching methodology course at the American University in Dubai (Spring 2017) participated in the following study. First, they completed a survey that measured to what degree they believed visual thinking routines inspired learning in the classroom and made time for students’ questions, contributions, and thinking. In order to build on the results from the quantitative phase, the student teachers were next involved in a qualitative data collection phase, where they had to answer the question: How do visual thinking routines inspire learning in the classroom and make time for students’ questions, contributions, and thinking? Results revealed that the implementation of visual thinking routines in the classroom strongly inspire learning in the classroom and make time for students’ questions, contributions, and thinking. In addition, student teachers explained how visual thinking routines allow for organization, variety, thinking, and documentation. As with all original, new, and unique resources, visual thinking routines are not free of challenges. To make the most of this useful and valued resource, educators, need to comprehend, model and spread an awareness of the effective ways of using such routines in the classroom. It is crucial that such routines become part of the curriculum to allow for and document students’ questions, contributions, and thinking.

Keywords: classroom display, student engagement, thinking classroom, visual thinking routines

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Authors: Celeste Lawson

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Learning to embrace and value teamwork assessment at a university level is critical for students, as graduates enter a real-world working environment where teamwork is likely to occur virtually. Student disdain for teamwork exercises is an area often overlooked or disregarded by academics. This research explored the implementation of an online teamwork assessment approach at a regional Australian university with a significant cohort of Distance Education students. Students had disliked teamwork for three reasons: it was not relevant to their study, the grading was unfair amongst team members, and managing the task was challenging in a virtual environment. Teamwork assessment was modified so that the task was an authentic task that could occur in real-world practice; team selection was based on the task topic rather than randomly; grading was based on the individual’s contribution to the task, and students were provided virtual team management skills as part of a the assessment. In this way, management of the team became an output of the task itself. Data was gathered over three years from student satisfaction surveys, failure rates, attrition figures, and unsolicited student comments. In one unit where this approach was adopted (Advanced Public Relations), student satisfaction increased from 3.6 (out of 5) in 2012 to 4.6 in 2016, with positive comments made about the teamwork approach. The attrition rate for another unit (Public Relations and the Media) reduced from 20.7% in 2012 to 2.2% in 2015. In 2012, criticism of teamwork assessment made up 50% of negative student feedback in Public Relations and the Media. By 2015, following the successful implementation of the teamwork assessment approach, only 12.5% of negative comments on the student satisfaction survey were critical of teamwork, while 33% of positive comments related to a positive teamwork experience. In 2016, students explicitly nominated teamwork as the best part of this unit. The approach is transferable to other disciplines and was adopted by other academics within the institution with similar results.

Keywords: assessment, distance education, teamwork, virtual

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Authors: Syaza Isma, Timothy Higgins

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In Malaysia, increased take-up rates of tertiary student borrowing, and reliance on retirement savings to fund children's education show the importance of public higher education financing schemes (PTPTN). PTPTN has been operating for 2 decades now; however, there are some critical issues and challenges that include low loan recovery and loan default that suggest a detailed consideration of student loan/financing scheme alternatives is crucial. In addition, the decline in funding level per student following introduction of the new PTPTN full and partial loan scheme has raised ongoing concerns over the sustainability of the scheme to provide continuous financial assistance to students in tertiary education. This research seeks to assess these issues that put greater efficiency in an effort to ensure equitable access to student funding for current and future generations. We explore the extent of repayment hardship under the current loan arrangements that presumably led to low recovery from the borrowers, particularly low-income graduates. The concept of manageable debt exists in the design of income-contingent repayment schemes, as practiced in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Hungary, USA (in limited form), the Netherlands, and South Korea. Can Income Contingent Loans (ICL) offer the best practice for an education financing scheme, and address the issue of repayment hardship and concurrently, can a properly designed ICL scheme provide a solution to the current issues and challenges facing Malaysia student financing? We examine the different potential ICL models using deterministic and stochastic approach to simulate income of graduates.

Keywords: deterministic, income contingent loan, repayment burden, simulation, stochastic

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Authors: Johanna Gamboa-Kroesen

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School connectedness, or the sense of belonging at school, is a critical factor in adolescent health, academic achievement, and socioemotional well-being. In educational research, the construct of the psychological sense of school membership is often referred to as school engagement, school bonding, or school attachment. While current research recognizes school connectedness as integral to a child’s mental health and academic success, many schools have yet to develop adequate interventions to promote a child’s overall sense of belonging at school. However, prior researches in music education indicates that, among other benefits, music classrooms may provide an environment where students feel they belong. While studies indicates that music learning environments, specifically performing ensemble learning environments, instill a sense of school connectedness and, more broadly, contribute to a student’s socio-emotional development, there has been inadequate research on how the actions of music teachers contribute to this phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school connectedness and music learning environments with middle school music students enrolled in a school-based music ensemble. In addition, the study aimed to provide a descriptive analysis of the instructional practices that music teachers use to promote an inclusive environment in their classrooms and an overall sense of belonging in their students. Using 191 student surveys of school membership, student reflective writings, 5 teacher interviews, and 10 classroom observations, this study examined the relationship between 7th and 8th-grade student-reported levels of connectedness within their school-based music ensemble and teacher instructional practice. The study found that students reported high levels of positive school membership within their music classes. Students who participate in school-based orchestra ensembles reported a positive change in emotional state during music instruction. In addition, evidence in this study found that music teachers use instructional practices to build connectedness through de-emphasizing competition and strengthening a student’s sense of relational value within their music learning experience. The findings offer implications for future music teacher instruction to create environments of inclusion, strengthen student-teacher relationships, and promote strategies that enhance student connection to school.

Keywords: music education, belonging, instructional practice, school connectedness

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Authors: Vilma Zydziunaite, Monika Kelpsiene

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Research problem: PhD students represent a crucial group within the academic workforce. They importantly contribute to their departments’ and universities’ research efforts by, among others, carrying out data collection, running experiments, helping with or leading publication writing, presenting at conferences, and sometimes applying for research funding. PhD students and supervisors can face a number of issues: supervisor can be overbearing, which can lead to personal conflicts or mismatched expectations regarding PhD students; PhD students often work while experiencing feelings of loneliness; PhD students may be required to teach, tutor, and mark as part of her/his training, which can prevent them from doing their research; PhD student may experience non-effective feedback and mentorship practices while supervisor has a responsibility to provide guidance, feedback, and support to PhD student. PhD students experience issues when they do not agree with supervisors regarding the dissertation parameters, methodologies, interpretation of findings, and conclusions. Such a situation creates tension between the PhD student and her/his supervisor because the preparation of the dissertation becomes aggravated. While the reasons for a PhD student’s decision to discontinue their doctoral studies are multifaceted – from personal and family issues to departmental and disciplinary cul-tures, issues with supervisors contribute to a PhD student’s decision to discontinue their PhD. This is hardly surprising since, to a PhD student, their supervisor is commonly the central and most powerful person who controls many aspects of the PhD trajectory: the PhD student’s integration into the academic community and discipline, the topic and process of their dissertation research, their career path following the doctorate, and sometimes the PhD students’ funding. The research aim of this study was to reveal and describe PhD students’ experiences of issues and expectations in their postgraduate studies while collaborating with their supervisors. Methodology: The sample consisted of 16 PhD students from Lithuanian Universities representing social, agricultural, technological, natural sciences, humanities, and arts. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews; for data analysis, the latent qualitative content analysis was applied. Findings highlighted issues and expectations experienced by PhD students while they prepare their dissertations and interact with their supervisors. Expectations of PhD students regarding supervision: support, availability, expertise in the field surrounding the PhD, good communication, constructive feedback, helping with direction and structure, being approachable and establishing good rapport, having experience in supervision, and being interested in PhD student’s career for the future. Issues that meet PhD students while collaborating with supervisors: non-effective performance of supervisor’s role, poor feedback, lack of supervisor’s commitment and interest in PhD student’s project, lacking experience in supervision, having limited knowledge and expertise in the field surrounding the PhD, being selfish and disrespectful. Conclusions: Meaningful, respectful, co-creation-based working relationship between a PhD student and supervisor is essential. It’s important to raise concerns early on and not let them drag out. A healthy relationship between PhD student and a supervisor should allow issues to be addressed without fear of criticism.

Keywords: academic collaboration, academic interactions, PhD student, supervisor, university, postgraduate studies

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Authors: Yafa Haron, Hanna Adami

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Background: World Health Organization emphasizes the contribution of nurses in planning and implementing health policies and reforms. Aim: To evaluate nursing students’ attitudes towards nurses’ involvement in health policy issues. Methods: Mixed-methods; qualitative and quantitative – a descriptive study. Participants - nursing students who were enrolled in their last year in the undergraduate program (BSN). Qualitative data included two open-ended questions: What is health policy and what is the importance of studying health policy, and 18 statements on the Likert Scale range 1-5. Results: Qualitativeanalysisrevealed that the majority of students defined health policy as a set of rules and regulations that defined procedures, borders, and proper conduct. 73% of students responded that nurses should be active in policymaking, but only 22% thought that nurses were currently involved in political issues. 28% thought that nurses do not have the knowledge and the time needed (60%) for political activity. 77% thought that the work environment did not encourage nurses to be politically active. Nursing students are aware of the importance towards nurses’ involvement in health policy issues, however, they do not have role models based on their low evaluation regarding nurses’ involvement in the health policy decision making process at the local or national level. Conclusions: Results emphasize the importance and the need of implementation the recommendation to include “advance policy changes” as core competency in nursing education and practice.

Keywords: health policy, nursing education, health systems, student perceptions

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Authors: Ece Sarigul

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It is an undeniable fact that, teachers need new strategies to communicate with students of the next generation and to shape enticing educational experiences for them. Many schools have launched iPad/ Tablets initiatives in an effort to enhance student learning. Despite their rapid adoption, the extent to which iPads / Tablets increase student engagement and learning is not well understood. This presentation aims to examine the use of iPads and Tablets in primary and high schools in Turkey as well as in the world to increase academic achievement through promotion of higher order thinking skills. In addition to explaining the ideas of school teachers and students who use the specific iPads or Tablets , various applications in schools and their use will be discussed and demonstrated in this study. The specific” iPads or Tablets” applications discussed in this presentation can be incorporated into the curriculum to assist in developing transformative practices and programs to meet the needs of a diverse student population. In the conclusion section of the presentation, there will be some suggestions for teachers about the effective use of technological devices in the classroom. This study can help educators understand better how students are currently using iPads and Tablets and shape future use.

Keywords: ipads, language teaching, tablets, technology

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Authors: Mohsine Jebbour

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Motivation and classroom interaction are of prime significance for second/foreign language learning to take place effectively. Thus, a considerable amount of motivation and classroom interaction helps ensure students’ success in and continuation of learning the TL. One way to enhance students’ motivation and classroom interaction in the Moroccan EFL classroom then is through the use of self-disclosure. For the purposes of this study, self-disclosure has been defined as the verbal communication of positive personal information including opinions, feelings, experiences, family and friendship stories to classmates and teachers. This paper is meant to demonstrate that positive self-disclosure can serve as an effective tool for helping students develop favorable attitudes toward the EFL classroom (i.e., English courses, teacher of English, and classroom activities) and promoting their intrinsic motivation (IM to know and IM toward stimulation). A further objective is that since self-disclosure is reciprocal, when teachers of English reveal their personal information, students will uncover their personal matters in return. This will help ensure effective classroom participation, foster teacher-student communication, and encourage students to practice and hence improve their oral proficiency (i.e., the speaking skill). A questionnaire was used to collect data in this study. 164 undergraduate students (99 females and 65 males) from the department of English at the faculty of letters and humanities, Dher el Mehraz, Sidi Mohammed Ben Abd Allah University completed a questionnaire that assessed self-disclosure in relation to motivation (i.e., attitudes toward the learning situation and intrinsic motivation) and classroom interaction (i.e., teacher-student interaction, participation, and out-of-class communication) on a 1 to 5 scale with (1) Strongly Disagree and (5) Strongly Agree. The level of agreement on the positive dimension of self-disclosure was ranked first by the respondents. The hypothesis set at the very beginning of the study, which posited that positive self-disclosure is essential to enhancing motivation and classroom interaction in the EFL context, was confirmed. In this regard, the findings suggest that implementing self-disclosure in the Moroccan EFL classroom may serve as an effective tool to have positive affect of teacher, class and classroom activities. This in turn will encourage the learners to attend classes, enjoy the language learning activity, complete classroom assignments, participate in class discussions, and interact with their teachers and classmates. It is hoped that teachers benefit from the results of this study and hence encourage the use of positive self-disclosure to develop English language learning in the Moroccan context where opportunities of using English outside the classroom are limited.

Keywords: EFL classroom, classroom interaction, motivation, self-disclosure

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Authors: Adewale O. Ogunde, Emmanuel O. Ajibade

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The task of selecting a few elective courses from a variety of available elective courses has been a difficult one for many students over the years. In many higher institutions, guidance and counselors or level advisers are usually employed to assist the students in picking the right choice of courses. In reality, these counselors and advisers are most times overloaded with too many students to attend to, and sometimes they do not have enough time for the students. Most times, the academic strength of the student based on past results are not considered in the new choice of electives. Recommender systems implement advanced data analysis techniques to help users find the items of their interest by producing a predicted likeliness score or a list of top recommended items for a given active user. Therefore, in this work, a collaborative filtering-based recommender system that will dynamically recommend elective courses to undergraduate students based on their past grades in related courses was developed. This approach employed the use of the k-nearest neighbor algorithm to discover hidden relationships between the related courses passed by students in the past and the currently available elective courses. Real students’ results dataset was used to build and test the recommendation model. The developed system will not only improve the academic performance of students, but it will also help reduce the workload on the level advisers and school counselors.

Keywords: collaborative filtering, elective courses, k-nearest neighbor algorithm, recommender systems

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Authors: Adelia Desi Agnesita

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The advent of a new disease called covid-19 made many major changes in the world, one of which is the process of learning and teaching. Learning formerly offline but now is done online, which makes students need adaptation to the learning process. The covid-19 pandemic that occurs almost worldwide causes activities that involve many people to be avoided, one of which is learning to teach. In Indonesia, since March 2020, the process of college learning is turning into online/ long-distance learning. It's to prevent the spread of the covid-19. Student online learning presents some of the obstacles to poor signals, many of the tasks, lack of focus, difficulty sleeping, and resulting stress.

Keywords: learning, online, covid-19, pandemic

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Authors: Xin Gao, Jun Wu

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'In Dialogue with Humanity’ and ‘In Dialogue with Nature’ are two compulsory General Education Foundation (GEF) courses for all undergraduates at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). These courses aim to enrich students’ intellectual pursuits and enhance their thinking capabilities through classic readings. To better understand and evaluate students’ thinking habits and abilities, GEF introduced Narrative Qualitative Analysis (NQA) in 2014 and has continued the study since then. Through the NQA study, a two-way evaluation scheme has been developed, including both student self-evaluation and teacher evaluation. This study will first introduce the theoretical background and research framework of the NQA study and then focus on student self-evaluation. An interactive online application, MASCOT, has been developed to facilitate students’ self-evaluation of their own thinking complexity. In this presentation, the design and development of MASCOT will be explained, and the main results will be reported when applying it in classroom teaching. An obvious discrepancy has been observed between students’ self-evaluations and teachers’ evaluations.

Keywords: narrative qualitative analysis, thinking complexity, student self-evaluation, interactive online application

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Authors: Lizmol Mathew, Divya Thomas, Shiney Rajan

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Educational paradigm all over the globe is undergoing significant reform today. Because of this, so-called flipped classroom model is becoming increasingly popular in higher education. Flipped classroom has proved to be more effective than traditional lecture based model as flipped classroom model promotes active learning by encouraging students to work on in collaborative tasks and peer-led learning during the class-time. However, success of flipped classrooms relies on students’ ability and their attitudes towards collaboration and group work. This paper examines: 1) Students’ attitudes towards collaborative learning; 2) Main challenges to successful collaboration from students’ experience and 3) Students’ perception of criteria for successful team work. 4) Recommendations for enhancing collaborative learning. This study’s methodology involves quantitative analysis of surveys collected from students enrolled in undergraduate Architecture program at Qatar University. Analysis indicates that in general students enrolled in the program do not have positive perceptions or experiences associated with group work. Positive and negative factors that influence collaborative learning in higher education have been identified. Recommendations for improving collaborative work experience have been proposed.

Keywords: architecture, collaborative learning, female, group work, higher education, Middle East, Qatar, student experience

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Authors: N. Pritchard

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Within architectural education, students arrive fore-armed with; their life-experience; knowledge gained from subject-based learning; their brains and more specifically their imaginations. The learning-by-doing that they embark on in studio-based/project-based learning calls for supervision that allows the student to proactively undertake research and experimentation with design solution possibilities. The degree to which this supervision includes direction is subject to debate and differing opinion. It can be argued that if the student is to learn-by-doing, then design decision making within the design process needs to be instigated and owned by the student so that they have the ability to personally reflect on and evaluate those decisions. Within this premise lies the problem that the student's endeavours can become unstructured and unfocused as they work their way into a new and complex activity. A resultant weakness can be that the design activity is compartmented and not holistic or comprehensive, and therefore, the student's reflections are consequently impoverished in terms of providing a positive, informative feedback loop. The construct proffered in this paper is that a supportive 'armature' or 'Heuristic-Framework' can be developed that facilitates a holistic approach and reflective learning. The normal explorations of architectural design comprise: Analysing the site and context, reviewing building precedents, assimilating the briefing information. However, the student can still be compromised by 'not knowing what they need to know'. The long-serving triad 'Firmness, Commodity and Delight' provides a broad-brush framework of considerations to explore and integrate into good design. If this were further atomised in subdivision formed from the disparate aspects of architectural design that need to be considered within the design process, then the student could sieve through the facts more methodically and reflectively in terms of considering their interrelationship conflict and alliances. The words facts and sieve hold the acronym of the aspects that form the Heuristic-Framework: Function, Aesthetics, Context, Tectonics, Spatial, Servicing, Infrastructure, Environmental, Value and Ecological issues. The Heuristic could be used as a Hermeneutic Model with each aspect of design being focused on and considered in abstraction and then considered in its relation to other aspect and the design proposal as a whole. Importantly, the heuristic could be used as a method for gathering information and enhancing the design brief. The more poetic, mysterious, intuitive, unconscious processes should still be able to occur for the student. The Heuristic-Framework should not be seen as comprehensive prescriptive formulaic or inhibiting to the wide exploration of possibilities and solutions within the architectural design process.

Keywords: atomistic, hermeneutic, holistic, approach architectural design studio education

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Authors: Md. Ataur Rahman Bhuiyan, Quazi Mahabubul Hasan, Md. Rifat Ullah

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In this research, we did explore the effectiveness of the gaming environment in education and compared it with the traditional education system. We take several workshops in both learning environments. We measured student’s performance by providing a grading score (by professional academics) on their attitude in different criteria. We also collect data from survey questionnaires to understand student’s experiences towards education and study. Finally, we examine the impact of the different learning environments by applying statistical hypothesis tests, the T-test, and the ANOVA test.

Keywords: gamification, game-based learning, education, statistical analysis, human-computer interaction

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Authors: Fidelia A. Orji, Julita Vassileva

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This research aims to develop machine learning models for students' academic performance and study strategy prediction, which could be generalized to all courses in higher education. Key learning attributes (intrinsic, extrinsic, autonomy, relatedness, competence, and self-esteem) used in building the models are chosen based on prior studies, which revealed that the attributes are essential in students’ learning process. Previous studies revealed the individual effects of each of these attributes on students’ learning progress. However, few studies have investigated the combined effect of the attributes in predicting student study strategy and academic performance to reduce the dropout rate. To bridge this gap, we used Scikit-learn in python to build five machine learning models (Decision Tree, K-Nearest Neighbour, Random Forest, Linear/Logistic Regression, and Support Vector Machine) for both regression and classification tasks to perform our analysis. The models were trained, evaluated, and tested for accuracy using 924 university dentistry students' data collected by Chilean authors through quantitative research design. A comparative analysis of the models revealed that the tree-based models such as the random forest (with prediction accuracy of 94.9%) and decision tree show the best results compared to the linear, support vector, and k-nearest neighbours. The models built in this research can be used in predicting student performance and study strategy so that appropriate interventions could be implemented to improve student learning progress. Thus, incorporating strategies that could improve diverse student learning attributes in the design of online educational systems may increase the likelihood of students continuing with their learning tasks as required. Moreover, the results show that the attributes could be modelled together and used to adapt/personalize the learning process.

Keywords: classification models, learning strategy, predictive modeling, regression models, student academic performance, student motivation, supervised machine learning

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Authors: Nune Ayvazyan

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Since the proclamation of monolingual foreign-language learning methods (the Berlitz Method in the early 20ᵗʰ century and the like), the dilemma has been to allow or not to allow learners’ mother tongue in the foreign-language learning process. The reason for not allowing learners’ mother tongue is reported to create a situation of immersion where students will only use the target language. It could be argued that this artificial monolingual situation is defective, mainly because there are very few real monolingual situations in the society. This is mainly due to the fact that societies are nowadays increasingly multilingual as plurilingual speakers are the norm rather than an exception. More recently, the use of learners’ mother tongue and translation has been put under the spotlight as valid foreign-language teaching tools. The logic dictates that if learners were permitted to use their mother tongue in the foreign-language learning process, that would not only be natural, but also would give them additional means of participation in class, which could eventually lead to learning. For example, when learners’ metalinguistic skills are poor in the target language, a question they might have could be asked in their mother tongue. Otherwise, that question might be left unasked. Attempts at empirically testing the role of translation as a didactic tool in foreign-language teaching are still very scant. In order to fill this void, this study looks into the interaction patterns between students in two kinds of English-learning classes: one with translation and the other in English only (immersion). The experiment was carried out with 61 students enrolled in a second-year university subject in English grammar in Spain. All the students underwent the two treatments, classes with translation and in English only, in order to see how they interacted under the different conditions. The analysis centered on four categories of interaction: teacher talk, teacher-initiated student interaction, student-initiated student-to-teacher interaction, and student-to-student interaction. Also, pre-experiment and post-experiment questionnaires and individual interviews gathered information about the students’ attitudes to translation. The findings show that translation elicited more student-initiated interaction than did the English-only classes, while the difference in teacher-initiated interactional turns was not statistically significant. Also, student-initiated participation was higher in comprehension-based activities (into L1) as opposed to production-based activities (into L2). As evidenced by the questionnaires, the students’ attitudes to translation were initially positive and mainly did not vary as a result of the experiment.

Keywords: foreign language, learning, mother tongue, translation

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Authors: Azizeh Chalak, Firouzeh Baktash

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Reticence is a prominent and complex phenomenon which occurs in foreign language classrooms and influences students’ oral passivity. The present study investigated the extent in which students experience reticence in the EFL classrooms and explored the underlying factors triggering reticence. The participants were 104 Iranian freshmen undergraduate male and female EFL students, who enrolled in listening and speaking courses, all majoring in English studying at Islamic Azad University Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch and University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. To collect the data, the Reticence Scale-12 (RS-12) questionnaire which measures the level of reticence consisting of six dimensions (anxiety, knowledge, timing, organization, skills, and memory) was administered to the participants. The statistical analyses showed that the reticent level was high among the Iranian EFL undergraduate students, and their major problems were feelings of anxiety and delivery skills. Moreover, the results revealed that factors such as low English proficiency, the teaching method, and lack of confidence contributed to the students’ reticence in Iranian EFL classrooms. It can be implied that language teachers’ awareness of learners’ reticence can help them choose more appropriate activities and provide a friendly environment enhancing hopefully more effective participation of EFL learners. The findings can have implications for EFL teachers, learners and policy makers.

Keywords: anxiety, Iranian EFL learners, reticence, reticence scale-12

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Authors: Lennon Furtado, Sandro Oliveira

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The importance of an effective measurement program lies in the ability to control and predict what can be measured. Thus, the measurement program has the capacity to provide bases in decision-making to support the interests of an organization. Therefore, it is only possible to apply for an effective measurement program with a team of software engineers well trained in the measurement area. However, the literature indicates that are few computer science courses that have in their program the teaching of the software measurement process. And even these, generally present only basic theoretical concepts of said process and little or no measurement in practice, which results in the student's lack of motivation to learn the measurement process. In this context, according to some experts in software process improvements, one of the most used approaches to maintaining the motivation and commitment to software process improvements program is the use of the gamification. Therefore, this paper aims to present a proposal of teaching the measurement process by gamification. Which seeks to improve student motivation and performance in the assimilation of tasks related to software measurement, by incorporating elements of games into the practice of measurement process, making it more attractive for learning. And as a way of validating the proposal will be made a comparison between two distinct groups of 20 students of Software Quality class, a control group, and an experiment group. The control group will be the students that will not make use of the gamification proposal to learn software measurement process, while the experiment group, will be the students that will make use of the gamification proposal to learn software measurement process. Thus, this paper will analyze the objective and subjective results of each group. And as objective result will be analyzed the student grade reached at the end of the course, and as subjective results will be analyzed a post-course questionnaire with the opinion of each student about the teaching method. Finally, this paper aims to prove or refute the following hypothesis: If the gamification proposal to teach software measurement process does appropriate motivate the student, in order to attribute the necessary competence to the practical application of the measurement process.

Keywords: education, gamification, software measurement process, software engineering

Procedia PDF Downloads 317