Systematic Review: How Technology Supports Collaborative Writing Learning in Higher Education

Higher education is a sector that can be slow to change, yet there are significant pressures on universities and other providers to change. Learning and teaching are central to what higher education does, and pressures, such as the switch to remote learning during the pandemic and the increasing use of generative AI, are causing a reconsideration about good learning and teaching. This essay provides a futures framework to explore best and next practices in learning and teaching in higher education. Four important and influential papers and reviews are used to consider past and current views of good teaching and learning in higher education. From these, six evidence-informed teaching practices are described as examples of current best-practice views, and then these are developed into possible, plausible, probable, and preferred next practices. This essay provides a stimulus for practitioners and researchers to adopt a futures mindset for thinking about the development of teaching and learning in higher education.

The Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILT) was launched in 1999 as a result of the recommendations of the Dearing committee. It is the only national body in the world which promotes the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. This book has four purposes:* to provide the background story to the evolution and establishment of the ILT* to document the central role of the assessment of prior learning (APL)* to support the institutions and individuals who are moving to engage with the ILT and in particular take the APL route for the first time* to speculate on the possible consequences of the ILT itself and APL within it. The ILT is a professional membership organisation which is open to all institutions and academics. This book will be of interest to all those who teach and support learning in higher education.

Higher education has a global structure including the influence of international trends. Such international composition naturally enrich diversity in universities. No doubt, generating diversified leadership team can help to establish scholarly environment in universities. Within this environment, scholarship of teaching and learning could be one of hot topic to empower international programmes. To this end, English language programmes expectedly gain importance to train students for global business sectors. In this issue of HEGP studies on different topics are covered. The first article, titled “English Language Teacher Education Programs at Turkish Universities: A Statistical Overview” by Asmalı analyzed the key characteristics of English Language Teacher Education programs in Türkiye. Asmalı stated that the decrease in the demand for English Language Teacher Education programs is a major challenge of these programs. Asmalı indicated that English Language Teacher Education in Türkiye needs careful planning in terms of academic employment and student quotas. The second article, titled “Striving for Diversity of Leadership: Governance in UK Higher Education Institutions” by Shafi, Clarke, Norman, and Andrews investigated the scholarship on developing the diversity of UK university boards and developed a practical toolkit to ensure board diversity in higher education. The study documented the barriers to achieving diversity in the UK higher education institutions boards. The third article of the journal, titled “Linking Sustainability and Spirituality: The University with a Soul” by Razak and Moten elaborated on key values that higher education needs to convey to link sustainability and spirituality. The fourth article of this issue, titled “Bibliometric Analysis of Research on Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education” by Ertem and Aypay documented the results of a bibliometric analysis on research of teaching and learning in higher education. The study documented the influential outlets, topical foci, and key references in research on teaching and learning in higher education.

<p>Despite the increase in massive open online courses (MOOCs), evidence about the pedagogy of learning in MOOCs remains limited. This paper reports on an investigation into the pedagogy in one MOOC - Oxford Brookes University’s ‘First Steps in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education’ MOOC (FSLT12).</p><p>FSLT12 was an open and free professional development opportunity for people moving into HE teaching. It was a small course (200 participants registered from 24 countries) which was focused on introducing HE teaching skills, and, uniquely, to deliberately integrate open academic practice as a vital part of professional development for HE teachers. A qualitative, case-study approach was used in the research, based on surveys, interviews, and social media, to provide evidence about how people learned in this course and consider wider implications for teaching and learning in higher education.</p><p>The evidence shows that participants who completed the course were able to learn autonomously and navigate the distributed platforms and environments. The most challenging issues were acceptance of open academic practice and difficulty in establishing an academic identity in an unpredictable virtual environment. An interesting and significant feature of the course was the support for learners from a number of MOOC ‘veterans’ who served as role models and guides for less experienced MOOC learners.</p><p>The research shows that small task-oriented MOOCs can effectively support professional development of open academic practice.</p>

Metacognition is a cognitive process that involves self-reflection and mental self-regulation. The objective of this study is to review the scientific literature on metacognition and its relationship with learning in Higher Education. This research aims to contribute to the general understanding of the field by mapping the scientific investigation within this area of knowledge. To achieve this, an analysis was conducted based on records from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The articles obtained were analyzed using RStudio Cloud. The analysis revealed that between 1988 and 2023, 376 articles on metacognition were published. In 2016, 56 articles were published, marking the most productive year. However, from 2018 to 2022, no publications on this topic were observed. The United States emerged as a leading country in publishing on this theme. The findings indicate that metacognition is a critical factor in learning and teaching in Higher Education. Its promotion can enhance the quality of learning and improve students’ academic performance. Moreover, teaching methods focused on metacognition, such as self-regulation strategies, were found to be more effective than traditional teaching methods. In conclusion, this study underscores the importance of metacognition in learning and teaching in Higher Education, particularly regarding its relationship with students' academic performance. It is suggested that promoting metacognition can improve the quality of learning and teaching within the Higher Education context.

The renewed 2017 EU Higher Education Agenda expresses the intention to “develop and implement a digital readiness model” to assist higher education institutions, their staff, and students in implementing digital learning strategies and maximising the potential of cutting‐edge technologies such as learning analytics. The anticipated digital transformation will only be successful if higher education institutions and teachers strengthen their digital competences and skills and “become” digitally competent. Many of the incentives for these processes were prompted by the unexpected Covid‐19 crisis, which highlighted the importance of higher education teachers’ digital skills in the need to digitise the higher education environment. The Covid‐19 crisis experience and the accelerating development of digitalisation are changing both the conditions for education and education itself, which is why higher education teachers face the challenging task of lifelong development of digital competences. To complete this task, they must learn about information and communication technology (ICT)/digital technologies and how they can be integrated into the pedagogical process. The challenge for higher education teachers is to develop ICT‐based teaching. This is not about how higher education teachers (and students) master ICT, but about how to make ICT one of the tools for carrying out pedagogical activities in general. The article addresses the development of digital competences among higher education teachers as a critical issue in the renovation of higher education didactics. To that end, various digital competence models and concepts are presented. Among other things, the European Digital Competence Framework for Teachers is highlighted. The case study of activities aimed at developing digital competences of higher education teachers at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and thus higher education teachers working in the field of education for public administration. Based on the analysis of activities, we discover an increased interest in the development of digital competences, which is reflected in various forms of institutional (university) support for educators (e.g. training), as well as an increased interest in the development of digital competences among higher education teachers.

Teaching –Learning is coming out as an important area on this planet pertaining to higher education on account of changing nature of students, improvement of modern information communications tools and certain demands from higher education inclined to placement and other job opportunities or entrepreneurship so the teaching –learning process can be categorized in different ways, some are more peculiar to general way while other wanted to analyze the intricacies and complexities in higher education . The paper goes through some prominent theories pertaining to teaching –learning in higher education. This paper will let you know about the various levels of teaching, efficiency, capabilities, presence of mind, concentration and certain outcomes and possibilities on learning. It has also been observed that there are certain factors which create a kind of impact in higher education throughout the world. For this we have to include external factors excluding teachers, students and pedagogy. This paper emphasizes that there is an urgent need to search or develop tool with introspection to meet this challenge of teaching –learning process in higher education beyond theoretical model but with an aim to facilitate, analyzing and deciphering teaching –learning from different perspective and dimensions.

Sylvia Ashton and Rachel Stone have written a truly brilliant, holistic, and creative resource for teaching and learning in Higher Education. In recent years, the Higher Education sector has embarked on a dramatic transformation, and with a greater diversity of learners and growing expectations amongst the student population, this has subsequently placed a new profound importance on ‘teaching excellence’ at the heart of academia. Viewed through a critical lens, this resource explores a wealth of themes offering innovative approaches and practical suggestions for teaching and learning in Higher Education. In addition to sharing nuggets of sound teaching experience, this book also incorporates current pedagogical evidence and reflective dialogues to engage the reader throughout. This text is an essential read for anyone seeking to enhance their teaching practice and support student learning in Higher Education, from those individuals pursuing professional accreditation or early career teachers, to advanced experienced practitioners.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic significantly affected the mode of delivery in higher education worldwide, with Zimbabwe not being an exception. The goal of this study was to understand how the coronavirus pandemic positively and negatively affected teaching and learning in higher education in Zimbabwe. Literature on how higher education in Zimbabwe has been operating before the pandemic was reviewed. A further attempt was made to understand how COVID-19 changed teaching and learning in higher education institutions in Zimbabwe. In order to understand this, firstly an effort was made to appreciate how the Government reacted in a bid to control the spread of the pandemic. Secondly, the effects of the actions of the government on teaching and learning in higher education institutions were assessed. Thirdly, adaptation techniques adopted by higher learning institutions in order to survive in the new normal situation were probed. The inevitable, new strategies, which include an increase in the use of distance education, e-learning, online teaching, were appraised in order to realize their positive and negative effects on the achieving of student outcomes. The study concluded that the most significant effects of COVID-19 on teaching and learning in higher education in Zimbabwe are delayed syllabus coverage by instructors, compromisation of students’ right to quality education, lack of sufficient resources for standardised learning of students, level of literacy in the computer technology on both instructors and learners and additional costs in learning such as acquiring e-learning gadgets, WIFI and internet accessibility. However, higher education benefited from the emergence of COVID-19 in advanced use of ICT, globalisation in networking by students in various Institutions through online learning and innovation by students through opening of learning forums such as Google classroom and student mobile libraries. The study advocates for continued use of E-learning methods in teaching and learning to counter COVID -19 consequences, adoption of all teaching strategies in Higher and tertiary education and maximum use of ICT in teaching and learning for sustainability. The findings will benefit Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Universities and other institutions of higher learning and research boards in Academic Institutions. Being only based on the review of literature carried out as a snapshot of an ongoing situation, the study recommends an empirical inquiry for further research, to potentially more deeply interrogate the effects of COVID-19 on both students and educators.

Within the super complex higher education environment academic development inhabits a dynamic domain that varies from institution to institution. Leading academic development requires the ability to effectively lead change, people, programmes, and yourself. This paper provides a critically reflective narrative of my experiences leading academic development across a lifespan in Australia and the UK. The narrative of my leadership development is shaped by my reflection on the University of Liverpool’s Leadership Commitment Framework and the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education and integrated throughout three case studies. The first case study, set in a large Faculty in an Australian university, explores inspirational, distributed, and entrepreneurial leadership; academic development initiatives are relatively informal in this case. The second case study, set in a large Australian university at the institutional level explores strategic leadership of processes and people; academic development initiatives are more formalised through university governance processes in this case. The third case, set in a Russell Group university in the UK, explores transformational leadership relevant to leading academic development teams and programmes in a highly regulated environment. Across the three cases issues of identity, influence, and power in relation to leading academic development in dynamic environments are explored and insights highlighted to provide advice and guidance to aspiring leaders of academic development and leaders of learning and teaching in higher education.

Teaching and learning in higher education should shift from surface learning to deeper learning. Deeper learning provides opportunities for students to achieve high learning outcomes. However, there is a dearth of information on the utilization of deeper learning in higher education. Deeper learning demands educators to employ pedagogy that enhances the acquisition of higher-order skills. Through deeper learning, students develop critical skills that are necessary for the twenty-first century. Such skills enable the students to succeed in their careers and social life. In this paper, the authors explore deeper learning for enhancing teaching and learning in higher education. In particular, unpacking the competencies of deeper learning. The paper focuses on promoting problem-solving, content knowledge, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration, contextualising learning, learning how to learn, transferring of knowledge and skills, the utilisation of digital technology supporting students to become life-long learners, as well as deeper learning and the 21st-century skills. To collect data, a desktop review of deeper learning competencies was done. In conclusion, the paper proposes the most appropriate strategies for promoting deeper learning for the attainment of 21st-century skills.

The study examined the utilization of artificial intelligent (AI) in teaching and learning in higher education for global best practices. Two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design. The population of the study consisted of 3800 students and staff of the University within Calabar campus. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select 208 students and staff from a population of 3800 using proportionality of 1.12% with students and staff as basis of stratification from the population. The sample of this study was two hundred and eight (208) respondents. The questionnaire was designed to measure the two sub-independent variables. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the request questions. While Simple linear regression analysis statistical tool was employed to test the null hypotheses that were formulated to guild the study at 0.05 level of significance. The results of this study shows that there is a significant influence of utilization of artificial intelligent (AI) in teaching and learning in higher education for global best practices and the use of artificial intelligent (AI) in teaching and learning in higher education significantly predict staff and students performance in the university. The study concludes that, there is a significant influence of utilization of artificial intelligent (AI) in teaching and learning in higher education for global best practices and the use of artificial intelligent (AI) in teaching and learning in higher education significantly predict staff and students performance in the university. Based on the conclusion, it was recommended that since there is a significant influence of utilization of artificial intelligent (AI) in teaching and learning in higher education for global best practices, university staff and students should always make use of AI and the university management should put in place AI facilities to increase staff and students .....

Online teaching and learning in higher education: Lessons learned in crisis situations

Higher Education Language Educator Competences (HELECs) is an inter-institutional project which investigates the range of language educator skills needed in higher education (HE). The purpose of the project is to develop an empirically-informed competence framework which is aligned with the National Forum for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’s National Professional Development Framework for all Staff Who Teach in Higher Education (2016). The framework will provide individual language educators and programme developers with a reference point and practical tools, based on a comprehensive profile of language teaching skills, to ensure that all HE language educators are appropriately supported in their professional development. The project is funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’s enhancement fund.

Student web 2.0 authoring in higher education involves a number of challenges and opportunities for assessment and academic integrity. In this article we describe an Australian project that is investigating how lecturers are using web 2.0 activities in university assessment tasks. In the first stage of the project we documented current web 2.0 assessment practices by conducting a survey and interviews with lecturers who teach in different discipline areas across Australia. Initial findings from this stage of the project are presented here, with a focus on using examples from the interviews to illustrate the opportunities and challenges that web 2.0 affordances introduce for learning, teaching, and assessment in higher education. Student authoring in web 2.0 environments can be quite different from traditional academic writing tasks. Using web 2.0 technologies, students can publish their work to an open audience, use different communication styles and texts, draw on their unique personal identity and experiences, co-create content with other students, and manage their content outside the confines of the university. Each of these affordances provides opportunities for enhancing students' learning in higher education, while simultaneously imposing new ways of thinking about scholarly writing and assessment that can be challenging for both students and staff.