Component Of Course Research Articles

Excellence and reinvigoration of teaching: ERT insights from a New Zealand specialist land-based university

ABSTRACT Purpose To evaluate what aspects of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) pedagogical practices used during the COVID-19 pandemic should be used to inform and improve in-person and online higher education programmes for the traditionally practical courses of agriculture, food and horticulture. Design/methodology/Approach Following the Triangulation Design for Validating quantitative data mode, an online Likert scale and open-ended questions survey collected 126 responses from students in mid-2021. Categorised questions focused on technology, virtual classes, laboratories, field trips/tours, assessments, and methods to retain, modify or remove from use. Qualitative data was thematically analysed and quantitative data employed descriptive statistics. Findings Results revealed that students would like some elements of ERT retained irrespective of future modes of teaching. Some virtual and online tools were very effective aids for learning practical components of courses, however, students’ well-being was affected by some university practices. Practical implications As the use of online tools is the reality of today’s classroom, understanding what worked for students is critical for improving learning. Theoretical implication Agricultural classes with practical components can be transitioned to online but need time, funding and online pedagogy to be successful. Originality/Value What was learnt during ERT measures for Agriculture Education should be reviewed to prepare for future issues that may disrupt in-person education practices.

Cheat sites and artificial intelligence usage in online introductory physics courses: What is the extent and what effect does it have on assessments?

As a result of the pandemic, many physics courses moved online. Alongside, the popularity of Internet-based problem-solving sites and forums rose. With the emergence of large language models, another shift occurred. One year into the public availability of these models, how has online help-seeking behavior among introductory physics students changed, and what is the effect of different patterns of online resource usage? In a mixed-method approach, we investigate student choices and their impact on assessment components of an online introductory physics course for scientists and engineers. We find that students still mostly rely on traditional Internet resources and that their usage strongly influences the outcome of low-stake unsupervised quizzes. We empirically found distinct clusters of help-seeking and resource-usage patterns among the students; the impact of students’ cluster membership on the supervised assessment components of the course, however, is nonsignificant. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Experimental competence formation in chemistry teacher training

Relevance. The research relevance is determined by the need to adapt the educational system to the rapidly changing requirements of the labour market and technological progress. Purpose. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of analytical chemistry training programmes in leading universities of Kazakhstan from the point of view of developing the scientific competence of students necessary for employment. Methodology. The study employs comparative, qualitative, and statistical analyses, questionnaires, surveys and observation. Results. The study examines the role of universities in training analytical specialists. The requirements of the labour market and academic institutions for candidates for positions in analytical chemistry, as well as the current state of research and development in training, were considered. The findings showed that many university graduates trained in analytical chemistry prefer not to go to work in industry or factory laboratories, but plan to stay in academia and continue their research. This indicates the need to revise curricula to better meet the requirements of the labour market and academic institutions. Problems and gaps in current programmes and methods of teaching analytical chemistry at universities in Kazakhstan have been identified. Approaches to strengthening the practical component of courses have been critically analysed, considering the current requirements and assessments of industry specialists. Conclusions. The study highlighted the high demand for qualified specialists, emphasizing that the issue lies not in the shortage of vacancies but in the level of training. The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that its results can be used to modernise the system of education in the field of analytical chemistry and improve curricula and teaching methods. This, in turn, will help to improve the quality of training of analytical chemists who will be able to meet the needs of the labour market and scientific institutions. Keywords: active learning; analysis methodology; students; specialist qualifications; researchers

Writing instruction for social justice: an investigation into the components of a teacher preparation course

AbstractFuture teachers must notice, navigate, and address ideologies in order to counter inequities in the literacy classroom. This article presents the findings of two teacher educators who have taken up the call to critically reflect on their own underlying beliefs and discourses regarding writing instruction. Through an education design framework, they analysed important components of the course, arguing for a higher degree of visibility of the ideologies and social forces that impact writing instruction. They found that despite encouraging a fairly complex and all‐encompassing view of learning to write to the future teachers in their course, the creativity discourse was present passively and the socio‐political was downright absent, despite clear social justice aims in the course. They discuss how well‐established discourses can serve as gateways to embed the socio‐political into the course and address more granularly the question of exclusion through selected mentor texts.

PENERAPAN EXTREME PROGRAMMING DALAM PENGEMBANGAN SISTEM INFORMASI PENJADWALAN KULIAH JURUSAN AKUNTANSI POLINES

Scheduling is a routine job that is carried out every semester in the college academic system. There are two schedules that are often found in universities, namely the scheduling of lectures and exams, both theoretical and practical. The scheduling process is a process for implementing events that contain components of courses, lecturers, classes and semesters in time slots that contain time and space components. Many aspects must be considered in order to process optimal class schedules and exams. The problem that occurs at this time is the process of making teaching decrees for lecturers which is automatic from the existing system. Research begins with planning, designing, coding, and testing. With the improvement of the scheduling information system using extreme programming, it is hoped that it can help make teaching decrees in the Polines Accounting department.

Teaching Asian Religions Through Film: Response and Reflections

This article presents reflections on Chien’s, Richey’s, and Mixon’s articles on the benefits of using film as a component of courses about Asian religions. I first explore how incorporating film can help meet the goals that instructors set as part of their course planning, and then shift to analysis of the various pedagogical strategies Chien, Richey, and Mixon employ, highlighting how the techniques that they use for East Asian religions and Islam can be valuable in teaching about other Asian religions as well. This paper was part of a panel on “Teaching Asian Religions Through Film” presented at the Association for Asian Studies conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 24­–27, 2022. The panel offered concrete examples on how to adopt cinema and TV to discuss Asian religions, culture, and modernity in the classroom and contributed to the developing analysis concerning the use of visual media in Asian studies pedagogy.

To touch or not to touch: evaluating student laboratory outcomes of hands‐on versus visual examination of prosected cadavers

Introduction/ObjectiveDrawing, observational activities, and touch have been shown to enhance the learning process of three‐dimensional structure in anatomy (Reid et al., 2019). However, the impact of observational activities and touch on learning outcomes specific to cadaver specimens has not been reported. We hypothesized that physical touch of prosected, cadaveric donors would lead to improved knowledge of human structure and higher scores on laboratory practicals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences in learning outcomes by comparing laboratory practical grades of students who physically touched or did not physically touch cadaveric donors.Materials/MethodsWe incorporated prosected cadaver specimens in two undergraduate, pre‐professional and pre‐Health Sciences anatomy courses in an effort to enhance student learning. The physical manipulation of cadaveric donors by students enrolled in BIO 201, Human Anatomy (majors), and BIO 221, Human Anatomy and Physiology (non‐majors) was tracked to determine if manipulation of the cadavers improves laboratory assessment outcomes. Students (n=176) from the courses across seven semesters were assigned as those who ‘manipulated’ (n=100) or ‘did not manipulate’ (n=76) the donors. Data was tallied and compared to performance on laboratory practical assessments. A Fisher’s exact test was conducted within individual course and combined course populations to assess if the relationship between physically touching a cadaver and receiving a passing grade on lab practical assessments is more than expected by chance.ResultsOverall, students who manipulated cadaveric donors were more successful in the laboratory component of Anatomy courses than those who ‘did not manipulate.’ BIO 201 students who actively touched the cadaver during laboratory sessions received a “C” or better (n=58 vs 6 DFW) on lab practical assessments. In contrast, the majority of students who did not touch the cadaver earned a DFW (n=33 vs 18 C or better) (P <0.0001). Similar outcomes were identified for BIO 221 students; the 34 students who actively touched the cadaver during lab sessions received a “C” or better vs non‐passing, DFW grades (n=2). However, ‘non‐manipulating’ BIO 221 students were able to earn outcomes of “C” or better (n=13) as compared to non‐passing grades (DFW, n=12). Despite this, statistically, students were more likely to receive a passing grade for the laboratory assessments with a “C” or better when actively involved in cadaver‐based learning (P=0.0002). The student data was also analyzed as a single cohort, providing additional statistical evidence that students who used the cadavers were more likely to earn a higher grade for the laboratory component of the course (n=92 with a “C” or better vs 8 DFW) than students who did not use the cadavers (n=32 with a “C” or better vs 44 DFW) (P <0.0001). Our data indicates that a student is 7.24 times more likely to earn a “DFW” on lab practical assessments in anatomy‐based courses when they do not touch the cadaver.SignificanceThese data suggest students enrolled in anatomy courses with cadaveric donors will have improved lab assessment outcomes if they physically touch the donors.ConclusionIt is imperative that anatomy faculty recognize that exposure to cadaveric donors may impact the overall learning experience, as students are better prepared for identification‐based practical assessments when they are encouraged to touch, handle, and manipulate anatomical structures.

Learning Strategies Employed by Undergraduate Anatomy Students

IntroductionHuman anatomy is a required course for many undergraduate health science programs. Studies show predictors of success in undergraduate anatomy include self‐efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and task value. They also show that effective learning tools for anatomy include the textbook, lectures, and regular examination of cadaveric donors. However, the laboratory components of courses vary widely in format and resources and it remains unclear how study strategies vary across courses. Therefore, this pilot study aims to assess the frequency of strategies used in an undergraduate anatomy course, how use varies across exams, and the relationship between learning strategies used and performance on lab exams.MethodsTwo surveys were distributed via email to 57 students enrolled in an undergraduate anatomy course prior to their first and second lab exams (LE1 and LE2, respectively). Each lab consists of a 30‐minute demonstration followed by 1.5 hours of independent study where students are encouraged to examine anatomical models and histology slides, but are not required to stay. Surveys asked students how frequently they used certain resources and specific learning techniques (e.g., attending academic mentoring sessions, visiting the tutor center, reading the lab manual before class) and included free responses to gauge students’ metacognition. The surveys were identical except for the free response questions. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test compared matched surveys while Spearman’s correlations investigated relationships between frequency of learning technique and exam scores.ResultsTwenty (35%) and 18 (32%) students completed the first and second surveys, respectively, and 10 completed both. Students who reported increased frequency of staying in the lab after the demonstration performed significantly better on LE1 and LE2 (p=0.036; p=0.007). Students who reported reading the associated textbook chapter prior to lab did significantly worse on LE2 than those who did not (p=0.008). Finally, students reported a significantly increased frequency in lecture attendance in the second survey (p=0.026). However, this was not associated with an increase in grades. In the metacognitive free responses, students generically reported their need to study more, of which only one stated how exactly they were going to do so.DiscussionThese results indicate that spending time in the lab is the most effective technique to perform well on lab exams and suggest that reading the associated textbook chapter may be detrimental. The latter finding may be indicative of a misalignment with the lecture and lab topics after LE1 or that reading may not be an effective use of time for the practical component of the course. Lastly, the only significant change in study habits following the first exam was attending lecture more, although this was ineffective in improving lab performance.SignificanceSpending time in undergraduate anatomy labs improves performance on laboratory examinations. Future research will focus on the relationships between the time spent on specific lab activities and exam performance as well as how metacognition is developed in undergraduate anatomy courses.

Influence of role models on the entrepreneurial skills of science and technology undergraduates

PurposeThis study examines the perspectives of undergraduate science and technology students in Thailand regarding the influence of various role models on their entrepreneurial skills.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed the single case study research method. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants. The sample consisted of 142 key informants, whose responses were analysed using a direct content analysis method.FindingsFrom the students' perspectives, entrepreneurial role models indirectly influenced their entrepreneurial skills.Practical implicationsThe findings have clear implications for educators and policymakers. Educational institutions should design and implement educational strategies that help connect informal learning gained from the family with formal training at higher education institutions. On-the-job or apprenticeship training should also be included as a component of course content.Originality/valueOur findings regarding the influence of role models differ from those of previous studies in relation to two of the four role models considered here. First, according to the students, their family environment has no direct impact on their entrepreneurial skills. In addition, science- and technology-based educational environments should adopt an entrepreneurial orientation to help students understand various market and business pressures, which will enable them to make a positive contribution to the workplace.

Perspectives of University Students and Faculty on remote education experiences during COVID-19- a qualitative study.

Owing to COVID-19 the Ministry of Education in the United Arab Emirates mandated educational institutions to shift to remote learning. In this study the perspectives on remote learning, of both students and faculty, from the Science major, in a public university in Dubai have been explored. A qualitative research was conducted through focus group discussions using a semi-structured interview guide. All discussions were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic content analysis was carried out following coding and analyzing content using NVivo 12. Recurrent, emerging and diverging views were identified and represented under themes. Participants believed that altered human interaction was a major consideration in remote learning. Assessments were modified to reduce cheating however increasing students’ accountability and prudent use of questions was suggested as a more effective strategy. Challenges associated with technology, changes to the learning environment, wellbeing and institutional policies were highlighted. Advantages of remote learning included more inclusivity, flexibility, availability of recorded sessions and time efficiency. Also, remote learning had compelled faculty to enhance their technological skills. Including class participation as a graded component of courses, clear institutional guidelines on assessments, use of recordings and methods of communication were recommended. It was evident that students’ stances for learning were based on courses and disciplines, with a preference for synchronous lessons. Culture influenced interaction, assessments, acceptability, and accessibility of remote education. The views from this research will contribute to improving the adoption and outcomes of digital education in higher education in the field of science, while considering the sociocultural influences of the region.

STUDENT AND INSTRUCTOR EXPERIENCE USING COLLABORATIVE ANNOTATION VIA PERUSALL IN UPPER YEAR AND GRADUATE COURSES

Perusall is a collaborative annotation platform designed for pre-readings in a flipped classroom, but can also be used for stand-alone, asynchronous reading discussion components of courses. We examine the use of Perusall as a social constructivist learning tool in two upper year/graduate courses in Mechanical Engineering. Perusall was used to replace in-class discussion of readings during the shift to online teaching. Data was collected from student surveys and from the student and instructor annotations themselves. Annotations were coded for content, and examined for factors such as upvoting. We found substantial engagement from students, with collaborative annotation providing opportunities for: correction of misunderstanding; linking concepts from the course and between readings; discussing larger issues around research and research writing; sharing background information among peers; and critically analyzing the readings. Students reported deeper learning than in typical in-class discussions of readings; however, they also noted that annotation required much more time. Overall, collaborative annotation appears to be an effective method for course reading discussion.

Teaching white privilege: an auto-ethnographic approach

ABSTRACT The teaching of white privilege in Australian tertiary settings is beset by a number of obstacles arising especially from resistance, disbelief and outright obstructionism in white students, and occasionally colleagues. The article summarises the historical and societal context regarding race relations, racism and white hegemony in Australia, then presents the personal accounts of three academics of diverse backgrounds who teach white privilege as components of courses in Social Work and Education. The three accounts make explicit connections between their authors’ personal and ethnic origins and their respective pedagogical and epistemological approaches to teaching the topic, either explicitly, or embedded within other course content or encounters. The article contributes to the growing body of work on effective pedagogy in the area of white privilege, with emphasis on the increasingly urgent need for broad societal understanding of the issue in Australia.

A Survey of the Speaking Components of an ESP Course: The Students’ Mindset

This investigation focused on the speaking-skills component of the syllabi of Technical English I and II (Regulation 2013) at Anna University in Chennai, India. It was meant to formulate strategies for effective schemes to develop the English-speaking skills of engineering students in the colleges affiliated to the University. The major research tools consisted of data collected from: (1) A questionnaire for the students' survey, and (2) Focus group interviews with students. The interpretation of the students' survey was sub-divided into: (1) The learners' background and their comprehension of spoken English, (2) The learners' participation in the speaking activities, (3) The learners' problems with the speaking activities, and (4) The learners' expectations of their teachers and teaching. The focus group interviews were conducted after analyzing the responses to the questions in the students' survey. The paper concludes with recommendations to enhance the speaking-skills component of the course.

Identifying Small and Medium Enterprise Smart Entrepreneurship Training Framework Components using Thematic Analysis and Expert Review

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) today are facing a competitive business environment, in a complex and rapidly changing environment. For that technology is seen as a mediator capable of transforming SMEs to greater heights in an amid and vigorous pace of a borderless world. The agenda of SMEs to generate national income as well as to create more employment opportunities has made the government much focused in providing improvements in business opportunities to SMEs to boost the country's economic growth. To ensure that the SME owners sustain their business, they should be able to adapt the use of the internet as a key component in designing new business model values, customer experiences and internal capabilities that support the key operations. However, there are still some SME owners who do not leverage on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in their business operations. This study interviewed eight SME owners who operated their businesses in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor to identify a list of most important business training courses needed for SMEs in Malaysia. The data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis method and it was found that there are five main components of courses in SMEs, namely, Business Management, Sales and Marketing, Accounting and Finance, ICT and Technology, and Production and Operations. As a result of this Thematic Analysis study, researchers have developed a smart entrepreneurship training framework related to the five components and produced a system called, the Malaysian SMEs Psychometric Test or U-PPM which has been reviewed and endorsed by the respective panels of experts. This proposed framework is important for SME owners and management and also the government and stakeholders, when making the correct decisions in selecting business training courses as well as to increase ICT and digital technologies usage in providing a positive impact to all SMEs in Malaysia.

Training of Future Musical Art Teachers: An Ethnocultural Approach

The article reveals theoretical and methodological foundations of implementing the ethnocultural approach in the process of future musical art teachers’ professional training. The results of the study have shown that implementing the ethnocultural approach in art education is one of the requirements of the new education paradigm. It is proved that in the process of future musical art teachers, professional training should be taken into account the developmental capabilities of folk music and peculiarities of ethno-musical education development. The article highlights the principles, which regulate the process of future musical art teachers’ professional training: ethnocultural basis of students’ professional skills formation; using national samples of musical art as learning repertoire; involving students in various types of musical and aesthetic activities, especially in the study of various works of national musical art; personality-centered organization of the educational process; inclusion of ethnocultural component in courses of historical-theoretical and methodological cycles; effective use of various forms of ethno-musical activity.

Creating a cross-disciplinary hub for active student learning in the library

Two recent technology-driven tendencies in library-faculty collaboration – (1) embedding librarians in the online components of courses, and (2) repurposing certain library spaces to become makerspaces – often embrace the learning strategy of focusing on students as creators. Booth Library at Eastern Illinois University, in collaboration with a faculty-led Faculty Development office and a Humanities Center, has advanced both the leveraging of technology in learning and the creation of a library makerspace, and added a third component, (3) placing an active learning classroom (ALC) connected to a design lab as the first stage of a Center for Student Innovation (CSI). This process, grounded in research on learning spaces and universal design, had led us to ask: what space best encourages creativity in the learning process?
 We propose to showcase a “think-pair-share” card game to demonstrate how we are re-centering the library as a center for knowledge creation, and a space for promoting discovery, in a format that invites Creating Knowledge participants to fine-tune our model or advance alternatives. That is, the library is building collaborations for re-thinking space, and re-positioning the library as central to teaching and learning, to foster 21st century skills around information, communication, and ethical/social impact. The card game will demonstrate ways to help students and faculty to create knowledge, and how information as a product is modeled, remodeled and reinterpreted for pedagogically creative teaching and learning. The implementation of the CSI has stimulated larger discussions in the library and across campus about the role of a “future-present” library. How can faculty and students embrace discovery as a means rather than an end? What role does the library play in facilitating teaching and learning? What does the future library look like? The presentation and card game will answer these questions through audience feedback and participation.

Using interactive maps as a newest approach in the organization of teaching geography at modern school

The purpose of this article is to highlight some aspects of the introduction of interactive maps into the educational process as a means of learning, as well as means of managing the educational process and ensuring professional activity of teachers. The lack of a common approach to the development of methods of teaching geography, practical courses based on interactive maps, can be considered as the main methodological problem of teaching this discipline. Editorial preparation of interactive maps with its own characteristics requires additional research along with the traditional works of preparation of maps for publication. The main material. In recent years, the question of the use of new computer technologies and electronic means of education in General education institutions has become more and more common. A high degree of clarity of the presented material, the relationship of various components of courses, complexity and dialogue make interactive geographical maps indispensable helpers of the teacher. Interactive maps allow you to increase the level of geography teaching at the expense of better information of maps while ensuring simplicity and ease of cartographic material perception. When creating interactive maps, developers need to take into account some prerequisites: available software for the development, updating and operation of interactive maps; analysis of the volume of cartographic and text information, the number of layers, possibility of combining thematic information of different topics. Any cartographic guide requires the inclusion of illustrative material in the content. Interactive maps are sometimes called substitutes for paper wall maps and predict their dominance in the classroom. Demonstration and functionality of them is much higher than that of paper. The interactive map provides cartographic information, the content of which is presented in layers with the ability to manage different layers of thematic information and minor content editing. Conclusions and further research. Modern educational trends show that there is a main and quite interesting task before teachers-geographers: to increase the interest of pupils to study their subject through the activation of cognitive activity in the classroom. And it is possible only when the teacher competently builds teaching, using new information technologies. In the development of interactive maps, the main problem is great complexity, the need to attract highly qualified specialists. Using interactive maps in geography lessons is a significant step forward. They not only facilitate the work of the teacher, but also encourage schoolchildren to better study the subject. But we must not forget about the traditional paper cards. It is desirable to combine paper and interactive maps, which will develop a harmonious cartographic competence or geographic literacy among those who study.

Exploring the sea urchin genome with undergraduates using bioinformatic tools.

It is important to provide undergraduate students with research experiences so that they obtain essential problem-solving skills and come to appreciate the process of science whether or not they pursue graduate study. However, such experiences can be difficult to achieve at a primarily undergraduate institution where time and resources are limited. One strategy is to incorporate research into the laboratory component of courses, with students having input into the specific topic being investigated. In this chapter, we present a series of activities that can be brought together as a semester or year-long project after students select a gene with the potential to be analyzed in a novel species of echinoderm. Students become acquainted with important databases, software programs, and online tools as they clone their gene, confirm its identity through alignment with homologous sequences, and characterize its expression through both qPCR and WMISH. We provide streamlined protocols that allow the work to be accomplished in an efficient manner, and conclude with ideas for assignments that can be completed in parallel to improve students' writing and oral communication skills in preparation for any career.

Implementation of the Harmony Search Algorithm in Completing Lecture Scheduling

Scheduling lectures at a college is a routine activity every semester and is a process to implement events that contain components of courses and classes in time slots that contain components of time and space. The problem that often occurs in scheduling activities is the occurrence of conflicts between one schedule and another. One method to solve these problems is to use artificial intelligence (AI). One method in AI that is considered to provide a solution to scheduling problems is Harmony Search. Harmony Search is an area of computer science that bases its algorithms on music. The Harmony Search algorithm compares music with all its devices to optimization problems. For example, each musical instrument is associated with a decision variable; the musical pitch is associated with a variable value, harmony is associated with a solution vector. Like a musician who plays certain music, improvises playing a random tone, or based on experience to find a beautiful harmony, the variables in Harmony Search have random values or values obtained from iterations (memory) to find the optimal solution. By applying the Harmony Search algorithm to prepare the lecture schedule, it is hoped that an optimal arrangement of the lecture schedule can be created.

The Role of Clarity About Study Programme Contents and Interest in Student Evaluations of Teaching

Validity is an important issue when measuring teaching quality using student evaluations. This study examined the effects of psychology students’ subjective clarity about study contents and their prior interest in the subject as variables possibly biasing the evaluations of psychology courses. German students ( N = 292) evaluated lectures and seminars over five years with a standardized questionnaire, yielding 3,348 data points. In cross-classified multilevel models, we separated the total variance into the variance components of course, teacher, student, and the Teacher x Student interaction and found evidence for biasing effects with regard to the students’ clarity about study contents and prior subject interest. These effects were small overall and were stronger for lectures than for seminars. These results suggest that the validity of evaluations of teaching in psychology can be improved by creating realistic expectations of what psychology is about before students choose psychology as a study subject.