Learner-centered Course Research Articles

A Phenomenological Study of Teachers’ Roles and Learners’ Responses in Learner-Centered Classes Using Metaverse Technology

This paper examines learner-centered media English learning using metaverse-based facilitation through a phenomenological method, which is a type of qualitative research. A private university in Chungcheongbuk-do gave a Liberal Arts English class in Gather.town, one of the Metaverse platforms, and designed a learner-centered course through appropriate facilitation by the professor. This study conducted an in-depth analysis on the experience of students in this new classroom environment, the roles of professors, and the internal and external changes of students by using a phenomenological research method from Mustakas (1994). The results were as follows: first, students enjoyed and felt interested in the new learning; second, the professor played the role of a facilitator who promoted student participation and cooperation; third, the course made students internally motivated to learn actively; and fourth, students externally experienced learner-centered learning through interaction among themselves. Lastly, this study discussed the need for proper facilitation by the instructor for a metaverse-based English class. In conclusion, it was found that English classes using metaverse-based facilitation were interesting, enhancing collaboration, and motivating their learning. Therefore, learner-centered learning based on the metaverse will play a role and function in attracting students’ spontaneous participation, cooperation, and learning motivation when appropriate facilitation is provided.

Subject Matter Expert (SME) Onboarding 101: Improving development efficiency and course quality through SME training

A common challenge for instructional designers and administrators of online programs is ensuring that projects are completed within the development timeframe and course content meets high standards for quality. This article describes a training course that was developed to meet those challenges. The course prepares subject matter experts (SMEs) to work with a design team made up of instructional designers and instructional technologists so that SMEs can plan their course content using a backward design framework. SMEs participate in a fully asynchronous online course with other SMEs where they can collaborate and brainstorm ideas. Having SMEs take an online course that resembles the online course they will later be designing allows them to gain insight from a learner perspective, which can help them design a learner-centered course. As a result, this training program has improved the course development process to help the university meet its goals for quality online learning.

Evaluating Student Perceptions and Performance of Active Learning Strategies in a Pharmacotherapy Course

Learning-preferences vary and thus it is beneficial for students to experience a variety of active-learning pedagogies for meaningful learning and long-term retention. This novel study attempted to evaluate systematically and longitudinally, student perceptions of multiple formats of active-learning strategies. Four different active-learning strategies were utilized in a course - team-based-learning (TBL), case-study, flipped-classroom, and interactive-technology. Student perspectives indicated active-learning strategies were helpful for learning. Faculty in higher-education could implement active-learning strategies in their courses for enhanced student-engagement, long-term retention, and success. This easily replicable method of collecting student perceptions on learning-experience anonymously enables learner-centered course design and promotes continuous-quality-improvement in higher-education.

An Action Research Study of Promoting Teachers’ Confidence and Competence in Teaching English Meaningfully

This action research study investigates the introduction, implementation and evaluation of a training course—Meaningful Communication in English (MCE)—designed for English teachers at Saudi public schools. The course aims to promote the teachers’ confidence and competence to use alternatives in classroom practices and develop an English communicative and interactive syllabus. Saudi public schools aim to educate students to use English in real-life communication. However, the current classroom practices do not meet these expectations. Despite having been taught English from Grade 4, most Saudi high school students graduate with low levels of understanding and competence when communicating in English. Saudi teachers and students are afraid of change because they are confused and suspicious about the functions and effectiveness of interactive classroom activities. This situation in schools demands the development of a training course based on communicative and interactive pedagogies and topics related to real life situations. The study is conducted in two cycles to investigate the training strategies and acquisition associated with MCE over 180 hours of training. Each cycle of MCE is based on the themes of the first three stages of research: theme 1- ‘identifying the problem’, theme 2- ‘reviewing literature’ and theme 3- ‘developing a plan’. Upon the completion of MCE in each cycle, participant teachers were encouraged to conduct the following two stages ‘implement the plan’ and ‘evaluate the outcomes’ at their classrooms while providing remote supervision and support. The MCE training course differs from the traditional trainer-directed approach to introducing a learner-centered approach. Two hundred and forty-three English teachers contributed to this study and participated in observations, directed group discussions and surveys. The study found that MCE contributes positively to teachers’ professional confidence and competence. The outcomes from this study will inform current practice and policy in the teaching and learning of English in Saudi Arabian training rooms as well as classrooms, and will contribute to creating an engaging, interactive and learner-centered training courses for the future.

Learner Presence Matters: A Learner-Centered Exploration into the Community of Inquiry Framework

In the present study we explored the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, a theoretical structure identifying processes leading to effective online learning, within one particular learning context. Drawing from research supporting the significance of three presences—teaching, social, cognitive presence—we add to a line of research on a potential fourth presence, learner presence. We employed a mixed-method approach to investigate learner perceptions, thoughts, and actions in MBA online/blended courses. Stimulated recall interviews with individual learners regarding their course experience highlighted three qualities of the learners’ presence in their courses: intentions, metacognition, and peer monitoring. They also pointed to ways in which certain facets of the three CoI presences supported these qualities. The findings prompted questions for further CoI research investigating learner presence and suggested implications for learner-centered course design and online instruction.

Evaluating a novel faculty development program in teaching at a research-intensive university

ABSTRACT Early-career faculty (ECF) are faced with maintaining excellence in teaching and research for tenure. However, many enter academia with little or no teaching experience. Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence, a year-long professional development program, was designed to mitigate these pressures and help faculty become fast, efficient, and effective teachers. The authors evaluated this program on participants’ use of learner-centered course designs and classroom practices compared with non-participants and also measured challenges encountered by ECF. Participants’ gains in effective course design were positive, stable, and transferable to other courses. Participants reported feeling more prepared for tenure review and possessed a heightened self-awareness and assessment of their teaching. Although participants scored moderately high on measures of learner-centered practices, their scores were similar to non-participants. The authors hope their evaluation will inform faculty development programs; they summarize challenges they encountered to spur development of better evaluation tools that balance practitioners’ needs and available resources.

Environmental influences and individual characteristics that affect learner-centered teaching practices.

Research-based teaching practices can improve student learning outcomes in a variety of complex educational environments. The implementation of learner-centered teaching practices in STEM can both benefit from or be constrained by different factors related to individual instructors and the teaching environment. Additionally, we know little of how the instructional climate varies across institutions and how this climate affects teaching practices. Our study sought to examine the relative importance of environmental influences and individual characteristics on learner-centered teaching practices across institutions. We also assessed differences in our study population and departmental climate for 35 US higher education institutions across the country. We found that self-efficacy in teaching and professional development exert a strong influence on faculty teaching practices in biology. While departmental climate did not emerge as a significant predictor of teaching practices, there was consistently low support for teaching, and institution size was negatively correlated with leadership and evaluation of effective teaching. We also found that intensive professional development programs, such as the Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching IV program, may prepare instructors to teach learner-centered courses in different collegial teaching climates. Our results suggest that through cultivating self-efficacy and participating in iterative professional development, instructors can implement effective teaching practices in a variety of institutional environments.

A Needs Analysis of English for Banking Students at the College of Business Studies in Kuwait

Abstract At the College of Business Studies(CBS) in the Public Authority of Applied Education and Training (PAAET), students enroll in business diploma programs such as Management, Banking, Computing, Finance, and Accounting. The English Department is a support unit that helps to provide students with the necessary courses, namely English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and General English (GE) required for their specific majors. In this paper, we will be addressing the English language needs of banking students. The objective of this study is to delineate the communication needs of banking students, by analyzing several factors such as the needs, wants and lacks which contribute to their real learning experiences. Needs analysis involves identifying the learners’ need and awareness for a successful learning. Among these factors, students' attitudes and perceptions towards language learning will also be examined. Additionally, implications will be discussed and relevant conclusions will be drawn. The sample consist of twenty students (ten females and ten males) who are pursuing a full time diploma program in the final semester of the 2018/2019 academic year at CBS. These respondents were selected because they are able to provide comprehensive feedback since they completed their practicum and are able to identity their language needs and problems faced during their work training. The research is based on data collected by way of questionnaires. Based on the analysis of data, it is revealed that students faced major difficulties in the following areas: i) poor speaking skills: lack of pronunciation skills and poor presentation skills, ii) writing: (different types of email ) and reports, iii) listening: poor understanding of lecturer's explanations, iv) reading: poor understanding of technical terms and general vocabulary. With regards to students’ needs, there is a demand for a learner-centered course content that will better enhance their learning experience by utilizing the tools available. The students also expressed interest in enrolling in ESP courses to improve their English.

The use of the online Inverted Classroom Model for digital teaching with gamification in medical studies.

Introduction: In 2014, a newly designed, case-based seminar was successfully implemented in the subjects of health systems, health economics and public health care (GGG). The seminar “The Lonely Patient” is based on a real patient case and deals with the German health care system from the perspective of a patient. In order to create more space for discussion and exchange among students, the seminar was redesigned on the basis of the Inverted Classroom Method (ICM). Project description: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new, purely digital teaching formats had to be developed quickly in the sense of Emergency Remote Teaching. Therefore, the Inverted Classroom concept of the seminar was transformed into an online ICM. In order to promote active learning based on the ICAP model (Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive), the online face-to-face part was designed as a synchronous interactive learner-centered course using the gamified audience response system Kahoot! Results: Evaluation results to date and feedback rounds with students indicate that the online ICM-version of the seminar leads to at least as good evaluation results as the previous face-to-face course. In particular, the students positively emphasize the use of Kahoot! as an activating digital medium. Discussion: Through the use of the ICM and the gamified audience response system Kahoot!, students could be activated in meaningful ways. The resulting discussions about the patient case and teaching content of the quiz questions in the synchronous online course could be implemented just as well as in the classroom-based course of previous semesters. Conclusion: The application of the online ICM, along with the consideration of the ICAP Model, has led to the successful implementation of a digital course within the context of the increased difficulty surrounding the emergency remote teaching. Additionally, students’ learning success has remained at a similar level as during traditional classroom-based courses of previous semesters.

Interview with Dr. Janet Zadina: Applying educational neuroscience research to instruction and elearning

In this interview Dr. Janet Zadina discusses her work as an educational neuroscientist bridging brain research and pedagogy. She provides insights and advice on how instructors can design more learner-centered course experiences and use online technologies more effectively through a better understanding of neuroscience research related to learning. This interview spans a range of topics including contributions of brain research to learning science, common neuromyths, emotions and learning and how the digital information environment is impacting our brains and learning.

Good for Business: Applying the ACRL Framework Threshold Concepts to Teach a Learner-Centered Business Research Course

This article discusses a librarian-designed and facilitated credit-bearing course, which utilizes the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Threshold Concepts and transforms from Bloom’s Taxonomy to a learner-centered course redesign with Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning. Assessment results reveal a panel of data over the 2015-2016 academic year offering perspectives at the beginning and end of each semester and over the course of the entire academic year’s trajectory of learning. In an effort to imbue more affective learning outcomes, and based on answers received from fall assessments, the author altered the spring assessment to query student confidence levels and the value of the library. This article provides lesson plans that highlight each of the six Information Literacy Threshold Concepts in a business context and offers a trajectory toward significant and lifelong learning.

An Interdisciplinary, Multi-Institution Telehealth Course for Third-Year Medical Students.

The American Medical Association has called for telehealth to become a core competency of medical students. Studies indicate that a principal reason physicians do not practice telehealth is lack of training, yet patient interest in and satisfaction with telehealth are high. No comprehensive U.S. undergraduate medical education curriculum teaching telehealth principles has been published. In February 2018, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) provided an innovative telehealth training experience for third-year medical students. USU led an interinstitutional, interprofessional learner-centered course including six segments: (1) multiple-choice pretest; (2) asynchronous lectures covering telehealth history, applications, ethics, safety, military uses, etiquette, and patient considerations; (3) in-person interactive telehealth instruction including patient selection, current uses, and risk management; (4) faculty-supervised mock patient telehealth encounters; (5) hands-on diagnosis and advanced surgical procedures using telehealth equipment; and (6) multiple-choice posttest. This course was piloted with 149 third-year medical students. Students' improvement in telehealth knowledge was demonstrated through (1) 10.1% average improvement between pre- and posttest scores, (2) completion of competency-based checklists, and (3) postcourse preceptor and student feedback. Faculty feedback indicated that technology use was novel and effective based on student input. Faculty noted that students enjoyed engaging via videoconference. Of participating medical students, 119 (80%) indicated future plans to practice telehealth; several requested to be part of future telehealth courses. Telehealth will be integrated into clinical rotations in collaboration with other institutions. As the telehealth curriculum is taught at other institutions, lessons learned will inform enhancements at USU.

"Is This Class Hard?" Defining and Analyzing Academic Rigor from a Learner's Perspective.

Despite its value in higher education, academic rigor is a challenging construct to define for instructor and students alike. How do students perceive academic rigor in their biology course work? Using qualitative surveys, we asked students to identify “easy” or “hard” courses and define which aspects of these learning experiences contributed to their perceptions of academic rigor. The 100-level students defined hard courses primarily in affective terms, responding to stressors such as fast pacing, high workload, unclear relevance to their life or careers, and low faculty support. In contrast, 300-level students identified cognitive complexity as a contributor to course rigor, but course design elements—alignment between instruction and assessments, faculty support, active pedagogy—contributed to the ease of the learning process. Overwhelmingly, all students identified high faculty support, learner-centered course design, adequate prior knowledge, and active, well-scaffolded pedagogy as significant contributors to a course feeling easy. Active-learning courses in this study were identified as both easy and hard for the very reasons they are effective: they simultaneously challenge and support student learning. Implications for the design and instruction of rigorous active-learning college biology experiences are discussed.

English

This study investigated the effectiveness of a learner-centered course designed based on student voice. Two research questions were posed. The first question addressed two of Fielding’s patterns of partnership regarding student voice, students as data source and students as active respondents, which were employed to the collected data for the learner-centered course design. The second question aimed to determine the effectiveness of the learner-centered course design. A group of 111 Thai students enrolled in a business communication course conducted in a business program for undergraduates at a university in Thailand participated in the study. A total of 222 e-mail scripts were collected as the students’ passive productions before and after the 12-week course, and were analyzed quantitatively. The findings show that the learner-centered course design was effective; the paired t test results indicate that the students made significant progress during the learner-centered course. Moreover, the success of the course design was demonstrated further by the students’ enhanced confidence levels shown in their critical self-reflections as active respondents. Key words: Student voice, learner-centered, course design, e-mail writing.

Mind the gap: Enabling online faculty and instructional designers in mapping new models for quality online courses

Distance education has provided the foundation for new generations of learning, including courses delivered through various web-based educational technologies, also referred to as online learning. Many post-secondary institutions face the challenge of creating processes and systems to support instructors who are required to design, deliver, and frequently update online courses. Effective online course design prioritizes a student-centered pedagogical approach through active learning and meaning-making using modern technologies. This requires a wide spectrum of experience, technological skills, and pedagogical knowledge that is difficult to achieve. On one hand of the spectrum, are instructors with experience in online course delivery, learning technologies, and knowledge of online learning pedagogies. On the other hand of the spectrum, are instructors with insufficient experience, technological skills and awareness of online pedagogies. This disparity in instructors' experiences, skills and knowledge results at times in a gap in ability. By providing a flexible and interactive model of support to instructors, instructional designers can shorten this gap in theoretical knowledge and practical skills. This paper explores the skill gap that some instructors face in the online learning domain and presents selected approaches to support instructors when transitioning to online courses based on the authors' professional experiences. This paper considers two models of course design support from two unique higher educational institutions in the United States and in Canada, using different learning management systems. The results show that while these models have different contexts, they offer significant insights about common goals, flexible content, and learner-centered course design.

Co-Constructing Courses with Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Graduate Students: Favoring Process over Content

The author describes one method by which to co-construct a course, or even a portion of a course, with family therapy graduate students. She integrates Fink’s (2003) taxonomy of adult learning with Weimer’s (2002) learner-centered course construction process. The author focuses on the process of learning, managing students’ interests, and choosing course content and order so as to align with students’ growth edges. She finishes with co-designing assignments and grading rubrics and a brief discussion of student learning objectives and faculty teaching goals.

A Student-Initiated, Integrated Pharmacotherapeutics Learner-Centered Course

Objective: To evaluate a learner-centered, elective course complementing pharmacotherapeutic instruction.
 Design: A one credit-hour elective as developed. Enrolled students were responsible for article selection and to lead in-class discussions. A content-validated discussant rubric was use to peer review each discussant.
 Assessment: Enrolled students kept current on the literature and nurtured an obligation to themselves and their peers to be prepared on a weekly basis to discuss the selected article. Discussion demonstrated varied opinions and provided ample opportunity for students to use technical/clinical language. Also, the course allowed for thinking at a higher level, discussing complex ideas/issues, and developing oral communication skills.
 Conclusions: This learner-centered approach allowed the enrolled students to take ownership of their learning and complement their learning from the traditional mode of learning in two pharmacotherapeutic courses. It encouraged the students to investigate the clinical literature as a means to complement and enhance their knowledge.
 
 Type: Note

Recent research in science teaching and learning.

Recent research in science teaching and learning.

A Shift from Teacher Centered to Learner Centered Approach

In the framework of the project Western Eastern Teachers' Education Network (WETEN) funded by the Tempus program the network of university teachers were established to share expertise on effective teaching and learning in universities. This network for pedagogical innovation in higher education brought together the experts from EU to share good practice and new teaching methods with academic staff from two eastern countries, Moldova and Ukraine. The learner centered concept was analyzed and guidelines for creating learner centered courses were developed and piloted. The concepts and some experiences in course design were also implemented by trained teachers in the developed courses within the WETEN project.

Enhancing Inquiry, Evidence-Based Reflection, and Integrative Learning with the Lifelong ePortfolio Process: The Implementation of Integrative ePortfolios at Stony Brook University

Reflection plays a critical role in moving learning to the next level of inquiry. Stony Brook University has adopted an approach to using ePortfolios within the curriculum that emphasizes reflection. Stony Brook University successfully piloted eportfolios in the Fall 2010 Semester and discovered their use facilitated the inquiry process for the students. Integrative ePortfolios have been used successfully over the past 3 years in colleges and programs such as Writing and Rhetoric, Engineering, Business, Leadership and Service, and Technology Systems Management. Within these programs, the process of inquiry takes center stage as educators embrace learner-centered course delivery and curriculum design in which the student is an active participant in the instruction. The learner-centered educator partners with the students, encouraging them to continue their quest for discovery while building knowledge connections to the next levels of learning. This inquiry process is the foundation for high impact learning practices such as 1st-year experiences, learning communities, capstone projects, internships, and service learning that research has shown to increase student engagement and retention. The main outcome for learner-centered instruction is to engage students in the inquiry process and integrate their learning in all areas of their lives. The inquiry process and integrative learning need to become a habit of thought and connection that ignites learning and the construction of knowledge throughout a lifetime. The Lifelong ePortfolio Process is becoming a recognized method to facilitate inquiry, evidence-based reflection, and integrative learning. This process helps the student to connect learning with knowledge and develop the habit of lifelong learning.