Active Learning for Autistic Learners: Enabling or Disabling?

In this paper, the relationship between relative and absolute participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia is investigated. That relationship results from the interrelationship between factors contributing to relative participation in higher education and the size of youth populations. The development patterns of the relative and absolute participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia are presented. In order to empirically test the authors' hypotheses, two separate multiple regression analyses were conducted. The first analyzes factors of the demographic base, and the second analyzes factors of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education. The results reveal the factors contributing to both the demographic base and relative participation in undergraduate higher education and identifies the significant factor linking them to each other. This factor works in one direction in the case of the demographic base and in the opposite direction in the case of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education, causing the relationship between changes in relative and absolute participation in higher education. At the end of the paper, findings confirming the hypotheses are presented with an explanation of the background of the empirical findings.

As more autistic college students enroll in higher education, the need for capable faculty to support their learning experiences rises. Although well intentioned, many educators are not always the most adept in supporting their autistic learners. This descriptive phenomenological reflective lifeworld research seeks to understand the essence of autism-specific college support program faculty experiences in teaching autistic college students. This study entailed conducting interviews with four full-time faculty, two staff who teach part-time, and eight other administrators or staff at a community college boasting an autism-specific college support program. Additionally, the author drew on observing a classroom session, program information session, and the campus via a tour, as well as course syllabi, to provide a fuller picture. Dahlberg and colleagues' data analysis methods provided a mechanism for interpreting the information. Four themes helped describe the essence of faculty experiences in teaching their autistic learners: unfamiliarity, flexibility, disruption, and optimism. Whereas faculty may, at first, lack familiarity with autism, they draw on that desire for further knowledge to directly learn from their students, creating opportunities for trust building. They also welcome feedback from students and fellow staff alike to engage in flexible teaching techniques. Adaptability and willingness to learn help them navigate difficult course experiences. These experiences ultimately enhance faculty members' confidence to teach autistic learners and translate inclusive teaching measures to their courses writ large. This study unveils the many aspects of faculty members' experiences in interacting with autistic students, particularly within the unique landscape of a college with an autism-specific college support program that highlights neurodiversity. Importantly, this study contributes new knowledge about how faculty draw on their resources, knowledge, and past teaching experiences to shape their iterative approaches to working with autistic students. Why is this an important issue?: Autistic college students are increasingly enrolling in higher education institutions, yet many of the faculty and staff who work with them are unaware of, and unprepared to, support their classroom experiences. This issue contributes to faculty sometimes misunderstanding autistic students and missing opportunities to build more inclusive classrooms.What was the purpose of the study?: My aim was to find out what faculty experience in working with autistic learners, and how they adapt their teaching approaches.What did the researcher do?: This study was set in a community college, with an autism-specific college support program that works toward college and career skills for its neurodivergent learners. I conducted interviews with four full-time faculty teaching in this program, two additional part-time faculty who are college staff, and two additional staff members. I also observed a class session and program information session, toured the campus, and reviewed all current course syllabi to understand faculty members' evolving experiences in supporting autistic learners.What were the results of the study?: I found that faculty felt a mix of emotions and adopted various teaching approaches, when working with autistic college students. For instance, faculty often entered from a place of unfamiliarity, though they sought knowledge from colleagues and additional resources to enhance their understanding of, and comfort to teach, autistic learners. This context helped them in navigating moments when students acted in a disruptive manner. Many faculty relied on past course experiences, and interactions with autistic learners, to inform their feelings of optimism in teaching future students.What do these findings add to what was already known?: To date, while there have been a handful of studies focused on faculty members' engagement with autistic learners, few have concentrated on settings within an autism-specific college support program. Study findings show how faculty working in these environments committed to neurodiversity, incorporated inclusive and transferable teaching techniques, while also growing in their comfort and confidence to work with autistic learners.What are the potential weaknesses of the study?: As I engaged only with faculty members teaching in, and staff familiar with, the autism-specific college support program, I did not necessarily gather perspective from individuals with less context on neurodiversity. In the end, the campus and participants selected for this study may not be representative of most college campuses without such autism acceptance.How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?: Study findings will give perspective into how faculty members can more inclusively serve autistic learners, ultimately benefitting the academic experiences of future generations of autistic students entering college.

This paper investigates the determinants of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia. The determinants of participation in higher education can be investigated at the micro or macro level. Using regression analysis we focus on the macro-level determinants of the increasing relative rate at which the relevant population of youth participates in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia from 1980-81 to 2006-7. Since 1980 the relative participation in higher education has increased more than twice the initial level. We investigate possible reasons for that dramatic increase in association with the overall economic conditions, the financial conditions of individuals, the expected benefits from undergraduate higher education, the proportion of the relevant population who fulfilled the enrollment requirements, the changing personal and social values related to higher education, and the supply side variables of higher education. In a regression analysis we include trend and autoregression effects. Finally, we make a simple simulation estimate of the expected development of the relative participation in undergraduate higher education in Slovenia in the near future.

Active learning transforms the learning process and activities from tutor focused to learner-cantered and is driven by the learner's learning ability. In other words, active learning provides an opportunity for self-directed learning that enables the learners to engage with the learning materials at personal level and pace. Thus, this chapter argues that active learning can provide equal learning opportunity for every single learner irrespective of the differences in their personality traits that would otherwise affect how they learn. Hence, this chapter proposes a framework for technology-enriched active learning for young learners that provides a personalized learning that deviates from the traditional “fit-for-all” classroom setups that tends to favour only the extrovert students. The proposed framework leverages advancement in technology such as personal learning network, virtual physics labs, massive open online courses, and crowd-sourced expert opinions to provide the learners with just-in-time active learning opportunity.

Major challengesin toxicity prediction include dealing with imbalancedand limited data sets, especially when evaluating the harmful potentialof chemicals. These issues often lead to poor predictive model performance.Stacking ensemble learning enhances performance by combining predictionsfrom multiple base models, enabling the stack model to improve overallgeneralization. Active learning (AL), on the other hand, reduces theneed for large-scale data sets by effectively training models usingcarefully selected samples. One effective approach to address dataimbalance is the use of strategic sampling techniques. Hereby, weintroduce an active stacking-deep learning framework that integratesdeep neural networks (DNNs), including a convolutional neural network(CNN), a bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM), and an attentionmechanism, with strategic data sampling to tackle challenges posedby imbalanced and limited data, ultimately improving the performanceof a chemical risk assessment predictive model. In this study, wefocused on thyroid-disrupting chemicals (TDCs) that target thyroidperoxidase, as they are linked to thyroid dysfunction, making it essentialto evaluate their risks to human health. Using stacking ensemble learningwith strategic sampling within an AL framework, our approach achievedan MCC of 0.51, AUROC of 0.824, and AUPRC of 0.851. Although performancedecreased across varying test ratios, our uncertainty-based methoddemonstrated superior stability under severe class imbalance. Whilea full-data stacking ensemble trained with strategic sampling performsslightly better in MCC, our method achieves marginally higher AUROCand AUPRC, requiring up to 73.3% less labeled data. Molecular dockingfurther validated our predictions, especially for highly toxic compounds,reinforcing the reliability of our framework in identifying TDCs.These findings highlight how active stacking-deep learning with strategicsampling can transform toxicity prediction, offering a more accurateand data-efficient alternative to traditional chemical risk assessmentmethods.

Limited experimental data remains a key challenge in applying machine learning to drug discovery, particularly for cancer-related targets. In this study, we present a data-efficient active meta-deep learning framework to predict mitogen-activated protein kinase 1 (MAPK1) inhibitors, which are promising candidates for cancer-related therapies. Our approach integrates active learning (AL) with a meta-model that combines four deep architectures: a convolutional neural network, an attention, a graph convolutional network, and a graph neural network-attention, trained on molecular descriptors and graph-based representations. These models generate four probability-based features that feed into an attention-based meta-learner, improving predictive performance by 5.12% in the area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) and 5.48% in the Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) using only 10% of the training data. Among the AL sampling strategies evaluated, entropy sampling showed competitive performance in selecting informative molecules for model improvement. Overall, our framework achieves an AUPRC of 0.835 ± 0.017 and MCC of 0.817 ± 0.017, on par with a traditional training method despite using only 26.7% of the training data. Compared to a conventional random forest model trained on brute-force, a 100% full training set, our approach shows a 10.6% improvement in AUPRC and modest gains in MCC, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Under severe class imbalance, balanced accuracy steadily increased across AL iterations, reaching values greater than 0.85 at the final iteration for all uncertainty-driven strategies. Molecular docking confirmed successful prioritization of the top four predicted compounds. Evaluation on an external MAPK1 data set demonstrated generalizability, with our approach achieving an AUPRC of 0.818 and an MCC of 0.403, comparable to the independent test set. These results highlight the potential of combining intelligent data selection with deep learning architectures through the meta-model to accelerate predictive performance in data-scarce drug discovery. Scientific contribution: This study contributes a novel, data-efficient active meta-deep learning framework for predicting MAPK1 inhibitors, addressing the challenge of limited experimental data in a cancer-specific target. By integrating AL with a meta-model composed of four deep architectures, the approach significantly enhances the predictive performance using only a fraction of the training data. The framework achieves superior metrics compared to traditional training methods, highlighting its potential to accelerate drug discovery in data-scarce settings.

Purpose: the aim of this paper is to identify the problems of low effectiveness of public participation in higher education on the basis of the analysis of theoretical-methodological and empirical literature. Methods: this study is based on the institutional paradigm, through the application of the tools of which the main actors with the potential for participation in higher education, roles, opportunities for influence and interests of participants in relation to the system of higher education are identified. The problems of efficiency of interaction between universities and society were identified and characterized in terms of institutional economics. Results: the directions of organization of social involvement in higher education were defined, the taxonomy of directions of interaction between university and society on the example of Ural State University of Economics was given. Based on the correlation of interests and opportunities for influence, their projection on the potential of interaction between the main stakeholder groups of the higher education system was carried out. The problems of low efficiency of interaction between society and higher education were revealed. The most important problems include the lack of a system of informal institutions that mediate the participation practices of the population, employers, and civil society institutions in the implementation of higher education programs. There is no consistent formalization of the processes of interaction between society and higher education through state regulation of this sphere. The most widespread problem is the lack of an established mechanism (model) of public involvement in the educational process that has the necessary methodological and instrumental support in the state policy in the sphere of education. The right of the public to participate in education management is not obvious and understandable for individuals. Сonclusions and Relevance: the potential of studying the sphere of public participation in higher education requires the creation of an independent research program in order to develop areas for improvement and development of institutions mediating the interaction between universities and society.

The teaching and learning activities of any undergraduate curriculum will have a specific set of learning outcomes that should be successfully achieved by the students. The balance between the workload of a student and the available time to achieve the learning outcomes plays a major role in achieving these learning outcomes, as well as a good student satisfaction score and excellent final grades for that particular module (Whillier & Lystad, 2013). In a traditional educational experience, a teacher stands in front of the classroom, delivers a lecture to a group of students, who sit in rows, quietly listening to the lecture and taking notes. At the end of the lecture, students are given homework or an assignment to be completed outside of the classroom environment. This characterises the principle of “sage-on-the stage”, and is synonymous with the present day term of teacher-centered learning. This is also referred to as the transmittal model (King, 1993), which assumes that the students are passive note-takers, receivers of the content or accumulators of factoids (Morrison, 2014). Usually, the teacher does not have time to interact with the students individually during the class (Hamdan, McKnight, McKnight & Arfstorm, 2013), thus neglecting those students who do not understand the lecture. The traditional didactic way of teaching is primarily unidirectional and consists of limited interactions between the source of knowledge (teacher) and the passive recipients (students). One of the main challenges faced by lecturers is the overload of academic content that needs to be taught in a relatively short period of time. Equally, the main challenge faced by the students is loss of interest or motivation to learn within the stipulated period of time (Prober & Khan, 2013). The traditional way of teaching, therefore, discourages the students from active learning and critical thinking. There is also increasing pressure from accreditation institutions, which demand “an ability to communicate effectively”, “an ability to identify, formulate and solve problems”, and “an ability to function on multidisciplinary teams” (Bishop & Verleger, 2013). As such, there is a need to transform the current pedagogical strategies, in order to enhance active learning in a more effective way (Al Faris et al., 2013). Synthesis of research on the effectiveness of lectures shows that lectures are not very effective for teaching and developing values or personal development, and may only be effective for the sole goal of transmitting information (Bligh, 2000). Taking these points together, it is important to explore methods that have the potential to maximise the use of classroom time and transform the classroom into a platform for teacher-student interactions and critical thinking (Rui et al., 2017). Numerous factors have cumulatively led to several challenges for traditional teaching in health professional education (HPE), including the availability of digital technologies, digitally-empowered learners, the prolific expansion of courses, the amount of factual knowledge that has accumulated in the courses, prolific growth of health knowledge, advancement in healthcare disciplines, and investment into the scholarship of teaching and learning. To this end, newer delivery systems encompassing active learning in HPE have been developed. Studies have reported that active participation is an effective method to improve learning and understanding (Freeman et al., 2014; McCoy et al., 2015). Thus, to enhance interaction during their learning, there are educational strategies, which promote active learning in traditional lectures by engaging students in doing things and encouraging them to think about what they are doing. A classic example of active learning is a think–pair–share discussion, in which a student thinks individually for a moment about a question posed on the lecture, then pairs up with a classmate to discuss their ideas, and subsequently shares their answer with the entire class (King, 1993). There are various modifications which can be incorporated into traditional lectures that enable active learning in the classroom, for instance; (a) the feedback lecture, which consists of two mini lectures separated by a small-group study session built around a study guide, and (b) the guided lecture, in which students listen to a 20- to 30-min presentation without taking notes, followed by their writing for 5 min on what they remember, and spending the remainder of the class duration in small groups for clarification and elaboration on the study material (Ellis, 2010; Johnson, 2013). Moreover, there are other active learning pedagogies, which include visual-based instruction (Johnson et al., 2016), small group problem based learning, cooperative learning, debates, drama, role playing and simulation and peer teaching. One innovative approach in education delivery system is the “flipped classroom,” an educational technique that consists of two parts, interactive group learning activities inside the classroom and direct personal computer-based individual instruction outside the classroom (Bishop & Verleger, 2013). As such, work typically done as homework in the didactic model (e.g., problem solving, essay writing) is better undertaken in class with the guidance of the teacher. Listening to a lecture or watching videos is undertaken at home. Hence, the term flipped or inverted classroom is used (Herreid & Schiller, 2013). The essence of a flipped classroom is that the activities carried out during traditional class time and self-study time are reversed or “flipped” (Veeramani, Madhugiri & Chand, 2015). Approaches to undergraduate teaching have improved over the years as the scholarship of learning and teaching has provided evidence of what works to improve the outcomes. However, educational delivery approaches have shown little change in many disciplines and have remained the same for the majority of the sectors (Van Vliet, Winnips & Brouwer, 2015). The flipped class is flexible itself and can be tailored (Tetreault, 2013). Historically, the concept of flipped classroom started in early 1990s. General Sylvanus Thayer created a system at West Point in USA, where a set of learning materials was given to engineering students so that they obtained core content prior to attending class. The classroom space was then used for critical thinking and group problem solving (Musallam, 2011). Many credited the rejuvenation of this idea with the development of, and increased access to, educational technologies (Moffett, 2015). For instance, the School of Business at the University of Miami proposed an ‘inverted classroom,’ which had events that traditionally took place inside the classroom now taking place outside the classroom and vice versa (Lage, Platt & Treglia, 2000). In 2000, a conference paper entitled ‘The Classroom Flip’ was presented by J Wesley Baker and the phrase ‘flipping the classroom’ was coined. Baker described how flipping the classroom could allow the trainer to become the ‘guide on the side’ rather than the ‘sage on the stage’ (Baker, 2000). In a sense, this reversal also flips the Bloom's revised taxonomy because the lower level of cognitive work/knowledge acquisition is done by the students, while educators work interactively with the students to develop the higher forms of cognition (Figure 1). To date, this approach has attracted a large amount of attention in the HPE and a subsequent surge of literature. A comparison between the traditional learning and the flipped classroom in the Bloom's taxonomy [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] Fundamentally, a flipped classroom encompasses two established elements of education, the recorded lecture (off campus learning) and active learning (on campus learning). Lectures are given as homework, as an aid to learning. Homework is important because it is a time where students can share their learning progress with their family, reflect on their learning, and review the material as well as the educator's feedback (Fulton, 2012). The key characteristics of a flipped classroom compared to a traditional classroom and other existing teaching methods are summarised in Table 1. It has been highlighted that the flipped classroom fits into the broader context of blended learning (Tetreault, 2013). Blended learning as defined by Staker is ‘a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home’(Staker & Horn, 2012, p.3). The flipped classroom consists of a formal education program, and online learning as a mechanism of informal learning through educational video quizzes/games. The flipped classroom approach is connected between what the students learn online (e.g., video lecture) and what they learn face-to-face (e.g., in-class active case study), and vice versa, which is a common feature of blended learning (Tetreault, 2013). In principle, the flipped classroom assigns relatively low-level cognitive learning such as memorising and understanding, outside of the classroom and teaching in class is accomplished mostly through teacher-student interactions and cooperation between peers, thereby stimulating the students’ intellectual potential (Rui et al., 2017). The option to view video lectures (as an example) outside of classroom has beneficial effects for the learners as they can replay the videos as many times as needed to better understand the key concepts at their own pace. Furthermore, this allows each student to be able to comprehend the topics being covered to his/her satisfaction, whereas this might not be possible in the context of conventional teacher-centred teaching. This is an important pedagogical consideration for international students for whom English is their second language (Moraros, Islam, Yu, Banow & Schindelka, 2015). From the teacher's perspective, a flipped classroom setting makes it easier to engage students and empower them as active participants of their own learning. There are several theoretical constructs that are applicable for a flipped classroom. Two of these include: the technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) (Venkatesh, Morris, Davis & Davis, 2003). These theoretical constructs provide a framework for the analysis and identification of relevant outcomes. We will outline how these two theories of flipped classroom learning can improve the learning outcomes such as student satisfaction and improved scores. TAM includes two theoretical constructs: (a) perceived usefulness and (b) perceived ease of use. These constructs are defined as "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance" and "the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort", respectively (Davis, 1989, p320). The first theoretical construct relies on students’ prior knowledge, gained from the pre-class video lecture (for example), in enhancing their understanding (and overall learning performance) in the active in-class activities such as problem solving. The second theoretical construct is based on students' perceptions that if a flipped class room is more user friendly than the traditional teaching mode, then they would be more likely to accept it. The goal of the UTAUT model is to explain the intentions of a user to use a given information system and the subsequent behaviour of the user. The model is based on four primary constructs: 1) performance expectancy, 2) effort expectancy, 3) social influence, and 4) facilitating conditions (Venkatesh et al., 2003, p447). The first three constructs reflect the motivation of the users (i.e., students). The fourth construct reflects the characteristics of a flipped classroom setup when students engage with the pre-class materials that are uploaded on an e-learning portal. These material could be a video, an interactive presentation, a questionnaire or sometimes a recorded audio. With regard to these theoretical constructs, if students perceive that a flipped class room is user friendly and the academic environment facilitates their learning, then it will promote students' engagement, interactions and cooperation in learning, which will further improve their performance. There are potential advantages of a flipped classroom, including increased opportunities to provide individualised education to learners (Johnson, 2013; Kachka, 2012), increased student engagement with course material (Gross, Pietri, Anderson, Moyano-Camihort & Graham, 2015), and increased educator-student interaction, compared to a ‘performing’ lecture. The Kirkpatrick model of educational outcomes (Barry Issenberg, McGaghie, Petrusa, Lee Gordon & Scalese, 2005; Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 1994) comprises ‘learners’ reaction’ (to the educational experience); learning (modification of attitudes/perceptions and the acquisition of knowledge and skills); behaviour (self-reported changes in practice and observed changes in practice, including new leadership positions); and results (which refers to change at the level of the organisation) (Figure 2). For instance, regarding the 'results' outcome, the flipped classroom allows the teacher to gain advanced, real-time insight into how students learn and quickly identify and better address curriculum content that the students find most challenging. This insight can be used to better inform decisions with regard to effective curriculum organisation, structure and the delivery of future classes. Four levels of learning in Kirkpatrick's model [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] The success of a flipped classroom approach relies on a number of assumptions. Stimulation of students’ interest in learning and guided self-study (Moraros et al., 2015), primarily depends on the opportunities to actively engage students in self-directed learning and encourage progressive improvement (Bergmann, Overmyer & Wilie, 2012; Moraros et al., 2015) in assessment performances. Thus, a flipped class will not support effective learning if students fail to engage with the assigned pre-class or in-class activities (Kachka, 2012), for reasons which might include poorly designed educational materials (e.g., long, poor audio quality) or students feeling ‘lost’ (Moffett, 2015). As such, a number of contextual and structural factors that can influence flipped classroom learning include resources (inputs to the program), activities (aspects of implementation), outputs (observable products of the completed activities) and outcomes (effects or impacts within various time frames) as depicted in the conceptual framework (Figure 3). Logic model of flipped class learning [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] There are individual studies, which have evaluated flipped classroom in medical education, allied health education and health science education, using a pre-and post-test design or comparative designs to explore how learning outcomes are improved. Some studies showed positive outcomes with flipped classroom (Galway, Corbett, Takaro, Tairyan & Frank, 2014; Van Vliet et al., 2015), while others showed the opposite (Whillier & Lystad, 2015). For instance, a study on integrated flipped lectures with online teaching techniques assessed learning experiences and participation through active learning. The findings suggested that the students in the integrated flipped-online lectures had achieved an increase in active learning components compared to the group that were put in a didactic model (Galway et al., 2014). It is important to understand the factors that could have contributed to this difference. As an example, for balance of the safe learning environment (to be free from discomfort and fear) between the two groups of students, a comparability of the personality traits between the students in each group needs to be considered. On the other hand, another individual study, which assessed the effectiveness of flipped classroom in ophthalmology clerkship reported that the students in flipped classroom had more burden and pressure in preparing for the pre-class compared with the students in lecturer-based classroom group. Thus far, these published individual studies varied in design, sample size and outcome measures. It is unclear, if these findings would be generalised to other HPE. A non-Campbell systematic review of the flipped classroom reported how the flipped classroom has been applied in nursing education and the achieved outcomes associated with such teaching (Betihavas, Bridgman, Kornhaber & Cross, 2016). Due to the focus on a particular educational context (i.e., nursing or ophthalmology), the generalisability of their findings to other courses in undergraduate HPE is uncertain. Another non-Campbell collaborative systematic review, consisting of 82 studies reported on the effectiveness of flipped classroom in medical education where a pooled estimate of a subset of six experimental studies showed generally positive perceptions of the students to the flipped classroom. However, there were no significant changes in knowledge and skills (Cohen's d = −0.27 to 1.21, median: 0.08; Chen, Lui, & Martinelli, 2017). These systematic reviews, focused on a particular area (either nursing education or medical education) had a limited number of included studies, considerable variation in study designs, a lack of methodological quality assessment of the included studies, and the quality of evidence reported by these systematic reviews is poor. A systematic review which combines the results of interventions, using flipped classroom compared with alternative learning or traditional learning, will help us to make recommendations for the development and implementation of successful flipped classroom amongst health professionals. The current review also aims to serve as a reference for decision makers to support evidence-based approaches to flipped classroom in HPE. The primary objective of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of flipped classroom intervention for undergraduate health professional students on academic performance and course satisfaction. The influence of context in the design, delivery and outcomes of the flipped classroom interventions in undergraduate health professional education; The barriers and facilitators of flipped classroom learning effectiveness for undergraduate health professional students. Specifically, this review is designed to answer the following research questions: What are the effects of flipped classroom learning on undergraduate health professional students' academic performance? What are the effects of flipped classroom learning on undergraduate health professional students' course satisfaction? Do any moderator variables affect the effectiveness of flipped classroom learning on academic performance outcomes? Moderators will include (if data are available), study design, student related factors such as the amount of out-of-class preparation time, classroom availability and limited high speed internet access for rural and remote students, quality of interactive tools, and faculty related factors such as faculty members' preference to a more didactic approach. Randomised designs, which include individual-level randomised trials, cluster-level randomised trials and natural experiments, where assignment to treatment or control conditions is functionally random. Non-randomised designs, which include at least one treatment group and at least one comparison group, matching designs, two-group pre-post designs, regression discontinuity designs. We do not include qualitative research. We included all undergraduate health professional students, regardless of the type of healthcare streams (e.g., medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy), duration of the learning activity (e.g., one or two semesters) or the country where the study is conducted. Any educational intervention that includes the flipped classroom as a teaching and learning activity in undergraduate programmes, regardless of the type of healthcare streams (e.g., medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy) will be considered. To be included, a study must explicitly indicate that the teaching/learning activities for undergraduate students included in the flipped classroom, reversed classroom or flipping class, aiming to improve student learning and/or student satisfaction. Standard lectures and subsequent tutorial formats will not be considered as flipped classroom. Studies on flipped classroom methods among undergraduate or postgraduate students who are not from the healthcare streams (e.g., engineering, economics, computer science) will be excluded. We explored the impact of flipped classroom learning in undergraduate health professional students on academic related outcomes. The primary outcome is academic performance measured by examination scores, final grades or other formal assessment methods at immediate post-test. The secondary outcome is student satisfaction measured at immediate post-test using a self report scale, which may include the training institution's own format of assessing student satisfaction. 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This co-produced study explores the experiences of autistic students regarding their transition to and enrollment at an Irish Higher Education Institution (HEI). Autistic students' experiences of belonging, acceptance, and support were explored, and the study was collaboratively conducted by autistic and non-autistic researchers at all stages of the research. A sample of autistic student participants (n = 14) took part in either flexible semi-structured interviews (n = 12) or text-based responses to the interview framework (n = 2). Interviews were conducted flexibly in accordance with participant preferences and communication needs. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings of this study reveal diverse experiences across the participants in higher education, emphasizing the need for inclusive approaches recognizing autistic neurology and differences to support belonging and acceptance in university. The transition experiences for some participants were challenging, with a lack of personalized and flexible support leading to anxiety and a lack of predictability. Participants also identified barriers while navigating college life, including hostile learning environments, a lack of understanding regarding autistic neurology among university staff and peers, inconsistent and inflexible pedagogical approaches used by academic staff, and stringent requirements to access disability support services. These barriers often led to students being unable to access support or choosing not to disclose their autistic status. Participants also found socializing and developing relationships with non-autistic peers challenging but reported that autistic student community groups, such as the Neurodivergent Society, were a very positive factor in supporting well-being, social acceptance, and a sense of belonging. Other supports were specialist support staff, such as the autism-friendly coordinator and occupational therapist at student services. The study highlights the importance of early guidance, systemic integration, and increased awareness among university staff. It underscores the role of structural support systems, such as specialist disability access routes into university and specialist support staff, in easing transitions and supporting predictability and acceptance.

Interest in active learning continues to grow worldwide. Although the large volume of active learning research has provided a myriad of ways to implement active learning in the classroom, the construct remains underdeveloped and difficult to operationalize because of three main issues in the research literature: (a) the variation in active learning activities in research and in practice; (b) the dichotomy between active learning and lecture; and (c) whether “active” in active learning refers to behavioral activity, cognitive activity, or both. The purpose of this reflection article is to articulate these issues so that active learning can move beyond its current status as a “curious construct.” By discussing avenues for future research that address those issues, our goal is to move the field forward by helping researchers focus on why active learning is effective, which forms of it are the most effective, how it should be implemented to maximize learning, and for whom different active learning interventions are the most effective. Just as active learning is easy to prescribe, it should also be easy to implement.

This study investigates the determinants of adult learners’ participation in higher education in a lifelong learning environment. The author argues that the determinants of adult learners’ participation in higher education include individual demands, state and institutional policy objectives and industry-driven demands rather than demographic factors in the Ghanaian context. Framed along an interpretive paradigm, the study sought to examine the underlying principle for adult learners’ participation in higher education in Ghana and juxtaposing their views with those of policy-makers and managers of higher education institutions. Using an explanatory research design and a mixed method of gathering and analysing data from respondents in two structurally diverse universities, the study concludes that industry-driven factors play important role in the decisions of adult learners to enrol in Higher Education Institutions.

A Novel Framework for Active Learning in Engineering Education Mapped to Course Outcomes

As the fastest growing cohort of disabled student populations, autistic students are often let down by inherently ableist institutions of higher education (HE). Traditionally, institutions of HE have sought to support autistic students through an individualized approach, placing the responsibility on the autistic student to seek out and advocate for academic and nonacademic support. However, there remain opportunities for the broader community to foster autistic individual and community well-being. This conceptual analysis evaluates the current environment and approaches in HE for supporting autistic academic success and well-being and describes a community framework based on a collective combined effort that invites individual autistic students and autistic community flourishing. It contributes an alternative approach to supporting autistic students, making autistic individual and community well-being the responsibility of peers, support staff, instructors and faculty, and the institution, identifying a need to restructure institutions into ones that work to promote autistic culture and provide autonomous supports and accommodations. Right now, there are a lot of different ways in which institutions of Higher Education (HE; i.e., colleges and universities) do and do not support autistic students. There are opportunities for peers, instructors and faculty, support staff, and institutions to get involved in supporting autistic students. However, institutions of HE do not have a clear framework to make the wellbeing of autistic students a community responsibility. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the current ways in which institutions of HE support the academic success and wellbeing of autistic students and to describe a framework for a collective effort to promote individual autistic student and community flourishing. Our evaluation demonstrates that non-acceptance of autism, stigma, and oppression may impact an autistic students' experiences, making the transition to HE, academic success, and wellbeing more difficult. Traditional approaches to supporting autistic students, including formal academic supports, informal academic supports, and non-academic supports, may not be accessible to all autistic students. Our framework uses a critical understanding of learning and autism, valuing autistic experience. The goal is to support autistic academic success and wellbeing and to reduce the need for autistic students to mask, change, or seek out support to 'fit in' to HE. The framework centers individual autistic students and the autistic community, placing the responsibility of academic success and student wellbeing on the larger HE collective. Peers, instructors and faculty, support staff, and institutions are shown as having influence on the academic success and wellbeing of autistic students. These key players can promote autistic culture by being open to autistic students' decisions around disclosure; applying a Universal Design for Learning (UDL); recognizing neurodiversity as an important diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative; offering and engaging in neurodiversity trainings; developing and enhancing disability cultural centers; and featuring autistic culture in the academe; autistic culture can be promoted. Furthermore, they can support autistic student agency by honouring autistic students' autonomy, building comprehensive and connected services; normalizing academic accommodations; and offering non-academic supports. The authors hope that this article helps to create a system-wide change through a collective, combined effort to promote individual autistic student and autistic community flourishing in HE.

In 1988 the release of the Higher Education: A Policy Statement White Paper focused Australia’s national higher education equity policy on “changing the balance of the student population to reflect more closely the composition of society as a whole” (Dawkins 1990, 2-3). While improvement in access and participation has been noted for women, people from non-English speaking backgrounds, and people with disabilities, the interventions has remained less effective for people from Lower Socio-Economic Status (LSES backgrounds), Indigenous peoples; rural, regional and remote residents; (Gale & Tranter, 2011; Koshy & Seymour 2014). In 2009, in response to the Bradley Review (2008), the Australian government set a new agenda again focused on equitable participation in higher education, along with associated equity targets (which have since been abandoned), and funding to enable this reform as well as increased participation. Funding was delivered through the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP), renamed the Higher Education Participation Program (HEPP) in 2015 (Australian Government Department of Education and Training, 2015). A range of national partnerships, policy initiatives and programs has been used to facilitate improved achievement in schools as well as enable access, participation and achievement in higher education. These actions have included targeted programs through the use of intervention strategies aimed at widening participation in, and improving access to higher education.

Participation in higher education is a significant indicator of development of a society. It is continuously reported that the level of participation of the Muslim community in higher education, especially among male students, is lower than that in other communities in Sri Lanka. A comparison of the involvement of the Muslim community in Sri Lankan university education based on gender shows that male students’ university entrance rate is lower than that of female students. The main purpose of this study was to explore the level of Muslim male students’ participation in higher education. To achieve this purpose, the following objectives were formulated: to identify the status of Muslim male students’ participation in higher education, to examine the perception of Muslim male students on pursuing higher education and to find out the reasons for their low level of participation. The study was conducted as a survey and data were analyzed quantitatively. The sample for the study was selected from the Advanced Level classes of four schools in Matale Education Zone. A total of 56 out 552 students, 28 out of 49 teachers and 29 parents from these four schools were selected as the sample. It was found that willingness to participate in higher education among male students was at a minimal level. About 63% of male students in Advance Level classes wanted to complete their studies and seek job opportunities after their Advanced Level Examination instead of engaging in tertiary education. It was also found that there was a lack of awareness about the opportunities for tertiary education among these students. Therefore, it is suggested that conducting awareness programs on the importance of and avenues available to participate in tertiary education to the students would help to increase Muslim male student participation in higher education.