Range Of Courses Research Articles

Research on the Ideological and Political Education of College Physics under the Background of “Emerging Engineering Education”

Under the background of “Emerging engineering Education”, college physics, as a basic course of science and engineering, has a wide range of courses and a large number of students. Therefore, the content of ideological and political education in college physics teaching has a wide audience, and the material of physics development history is very rich. This paper expounds the infiltration of ideological and political education in College Physics teaching from three aspects: The history of scientific development, philosophy of science and sociology of science. Realize the whole process and all- round education during college physics teaching. In the process of imparting knowledge, we should emphasize the education of the mainstream value, scientific literacy, ideals and beliefs, and conduct virtue education.

Perpetuating student inequality? The discrepancy and disparity of global citizenship education in Chinese rural & urban schools

Global citizenship education (GCE) has been implemented in schools as an approach to address growing global issues and increase the internationalization of education. From critical discourse, however, the implementation of GCE seems to be thwarted by neoliberal practices that deepen societal inequality and gaps, and only benefit members of elite groups. This study aims to analyze teachers’ perceptions and the school-based concrete implementation of context-specific GCE in China, unveiling not only the co-existence of neoliberal and moral perspective in teachers’ conceptual framework, but the key role that teachers and schools play in the implementation. It argues that sampled teachers follow inclusive understandings of global citizenship, their definitional frameworks were profoundly shaped by the multiple interplays between global forces, official discourses, and moral tradition. Given that a central characteristic of GCE is working as an “axis” to group the cross-cutting themes or initiatives of global dimensions within a range of courses and across school ethos, extra-curricular activity and international program in particular. The discrepancies and disparities in GCE development seen between rural and urban schools extend education inequality from local to the global sphere, in which underprivileged students have heightened risks of being marginalized in the global world.

Encouraging Enrollment of Medical Students in Massive Open Online Courses

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) commonly refer to a group of courses that are offered on a wide range of interesting topics on the online platform and are generally open for all. An extensive search of materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine and relevant research articles published in the period 2016–2019 were included in the review. Amid the ongoing coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic, an exponential rise in the demand for online courses has been reported owing to the reduction in the possibility of conventional face-to-face teaching. These courses help the medical students to become self-directed and lifelong learners and eventually play a significant role in meeting the vision of a competent Indian Medical Graduate. In fact, the Medical Council of India recognized the utility of such courses and has made it mandatory for all the postgraduates and even for teaching staff to enroll in the basic course in Biomedical research as a part of enhancing their exposure to research. In conclusion, the enrollment of medical students in MOOC courses can prove to be extremely useful for them in refining their professional skills. However, it is essential to guide the students to opt for the right course out of the available wide range of courses, so that they take a well-informed decision and get benefited from job perspective as well.

Lifelong Learning Courses Recommendation System to Improve Professional Skills Using Ontology and Machine Learning

Lifelong learning enables professionals to update their skills to face challenges in their changing work environments. In view of the wide range of courses on offer, it is important for professionals to have recommendation systems that can link them to suitable courses. Based on this premise and on our previous research, this paper proposes the use of ontology to model job sectors and areas of knowledge, and to represent professional skills that can be automatically updated using the profiled data and machine learning for clustering entities. A three-stage hybrid system is proposed for the recommendation process: semantic filtering, content filtering and heuristics. The proposed system was evaluated with a set of more than 100 user profiles that were used in a previous version of the proposed recommendation system, which allowed the two systems to be compared. The proposed recommender showed 15% improvement when using ontology and clustering with DBSCAN in recall and serendipity metrics, and a six-point increase in harmonic mean over the stored data-based recommender system.

The trend of distance education: problems and prospects for implementation

Distance education has become an integral part of the educational system around the world. Official statistics on distance education, confirm a steady increase in the number of participants in distance learning and courses. The range of courses offered by more than 200 distance learning institutions, including about 1500 courses, of which about 75% – vocational and about 25% – general education. For the most part, this method of training is offered mainly by private institutes.The success of distance learning can be explained against the backdrop of changing conditions in economics, technology, and society. By the era of industrial society, the educational ideal of modern society was oriented to the classical educational systems for that time, which originated in antiquity. In many countries, traditional social norms have changed over the past 20 years.One authoritative researcher in the field of distance education noted that technology as a service delivery system has played an important role in the development of distance education and research. Over the past two decades, there has been an increase in the number of educational institutions that offer a service such as distance learning. There has also been an increase in the number of students receiving distance education not only in our country, but also in educational institutions around the world.Despite the fact that there have been extensive studies of open distance learning, there is no consensus on the indisputable benefit or inadmissibility of distance learning in higher education. Identification and study of problematic issues in the field of distance education implementation remains very relevant today.In this article we want to consider some problematic issues of distance learning in higher education, which is considered today the most favorable for the study and implementation of the model of exclusively online learning.

Information Literacy and Web Based Teaching: Teachers Untangle the Web with Online Learning and Information Literacy Skills

The Centre for Information Studies at Auckland College of Education has delivered a range of courses to primary, intermediate and secondary teachers throughout New Zealand since 1991 using distance delivery methods. The courses have focused on designing strategies, frameworks and learning experiences that enhance information literacy in classrooms. These papers credit to one of three specialist diplomas: the Diploma of Teacher Librarianship; the Diploma of Information Studies; or, the Diploma of Information Technology. The course referred to in this paper is called Telelearning. It was converted to web-based delivery in 1999. The main considerations in the conversion of the course were to maintain the original course aim and objectives, to ensure adequate support for the students in their use of the technology, and to make sure that the use of the technology actually added value to the learning process.

Integration and potential of teaching communication skills in the study of veterinary medicine in Germany.

Goal: Presentation of the current range of courses regarding communication at the five German educational institutions for veterinary medicine. In addition to learning objectives and individual solutions, possible potential for future developments are presented. Methods: Interviews with communication educators at the five German education institutions and subsequent synopsis. Results: To date, there are no binding education guidelines regarding communication in veterinary medicine. Nevertheless, communication education has been introduced at all five education institutions, albeit depth and formats vary considerably. The learning objectives are largely consistent and based on the recommendations for day-one-skills made by the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education. Communication is not recognized as a fully-fledged subject in the curricula of any of the education institutions. All education institutions clearly fall short of teaching the recommended 150 lecture hours. Conclusion: To ensure communication skills in veterinary medicine graduates, binding education guidelines should be agreed upon. Communication education should be integrated into all veterinary curricula as a fully-fledged subject with longitudinally increasing depth.

Developing Online Master's Programs for Teacher-Librarians

The Department of Library and Information Studies (DLIS) at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus presently offers the Master of Library and Information Studies (39 credits) and the Master of Arts in Library and Information Studies (36 credits). These programs offer a wide range of courses over two to three years. As a result of the decrease in registration and the heavy demand for a multi-modal delivery approach, the DLIS has written a proposal to the university to implement the two postgraduate programs in this format. The Our Virtual Learning Environment (OurVLE) has been selected as the learning support system for these programs as its features are ideal for multi-modal delivery. The DLIS awaits final approval from the campus-wide committee.

Micro-credentials

Micro-credentials (MCs) are emerging as a viable form of non-degree qualification as they can offer flexible, inexpensive contents which closely match learners’ needs. The opportunities to gain MCs are increasing and academics involved in online learning are particularly situated to help make, assess and validate MC courses. However, the lack of agreed definitions as to what MCs are can undermine their value and uptake. This presentation attempts to fill this gap by summarizing common features and challenges of MCs.
 
 In practice, MCs tend to be offered online (Gallagher, 2018) and are often seen as short courses for learners to reskill or upskill for work (Kato, Galán-Muros & Weko, 2020). Among a large range of courses leading to MCs, the most common are MOOCs. The top five providers in 2019 were Coursera, EdX, Udacity (all US); Future Learn (UK) and SWAYAM (India) (Shah, 2019). Such courses range from general skills (language learning) to more specific ones (coding). The top three courses from the most popular MOOC provider (Coursera) in 2019 were Machine Learning; Learning How to Learn; and the Science of Well-Being. Overall, the most popular courses are business and IT-related (Shah, 2019). The majority of learners who have been awarded MCs via MOOCs “tend to be relatively well-educated, male, and within the core-working age group (25-54)” (Kato, Galán-Muros & Weko, 2020, p. 23). Not enough data is yet available as to what degree these learners have found MCs are beneficial, either professionally or personally. A further question to be asked is to what extent MCs can reach out to non-traditional learners who can take advantage of these types of lifelong, alternative learning opportunities.
 
 One key challenge is that there are few validating frameworks that MCs fit in to. This can cause problems for both learners and potential employers as it is difficult to demonstrate what exact values MCs offer and to answer the crucial question: “Are MCs going to be useful?” This is further complicated as MCs also vary widely in terms of duration, modes of assessment, and whether they can lead to further qualifications or not. In order to overcome these challenges governments are establishing criteria for MCs. Perhaps the leading agency in this area is New Zealand’s Qualifications Authority; and Australia, the EU and the US have also all created various MC models. The OECD has also produced a working paper (Kato, Galán-Muros & Weko, 2020) to guide policy makers as to what MCs are. This paper uses the term “alternative credentials” and includes certificates, digital badges and MCs within that term. It defines alternative credentials as ones “that are not recognised as standalone formal educational qualifications by relevant national education authorities”.
 
 In sum, the term MCs is a contested one and there is an ongoing debate as to how they could develop in the future. What is not contested is that the number of online courses leading to MCs will continue to grow and so academics working in online education can influence their content, quality and form.

Incorporation of Small-Group Learning Activities into Biology Lectures to Enhance Learning at a University in Pretoria, South Africa

There have been intense teaching challenges at institutions of higher learning as a result of an increasing range of courses offered to students with diverse backgrounds and levels of preparedness. Lecturers are also faced with a high failure rate and increased retention rates. Student achievement is crucial, and efforts have to be made to adapt and change to methods of teaching that contribute to the better performance of students. Hence, calls have been made for a radical shift from teaching which is teacher-centered to student-centered teaching approaches. The study assessed students’ perceptions on the incorporation of active learning in small groups and the impact of the incorporation of small-group learning activities into Biology lectures on the performance of the students. Participants showed a preference for small-group learning activities and indicated that incorporating small-group learning activities into lectures should be compulsory. The average mean test marks of 72 Biology students before and after the incorporation of small-group learning activities were compared. Results showed that the mean test mark (52.7±15.7) of the participants was significantly higher after incorporation of small-group learning activities compared to before incorporation (38.9±16.4), indicating a positive effect (p<0.05) of small-group learning activities on student performance. The participants also showed a preference for the incorporation of small-group learning activities into lectures. It is recommended that other factors such as the preparedness of students before assessments be investigated in future studies.

Approach for Implementing New Topics in Learning Factories – Application of Product-specific Carbon Footprint Analysis

Due to the constant changes in the production environment and the increasing relevance of sustainability and digitalisation in the industrial sector, there is a corresponding need for constant development of learning factories and the offered range of courses. To achieve this, not only learning content but also the technical infrastructure for knowledge transfer must be expanded in learning factories. Approaches that exist so far focus on the development of new learning factories to implement new or existing topics, although the already existing learning factories could be expanded and changed to these varied needs. Since a systematic approach is lacking so far, the competency-based design for the development of learning factories was used as a basis, developed further with focus on the technical infrastructure expansion. Subsequently, this approach is applied to the ETA Learning Factory at Technical University of Darmstadt. The ETA use case focuses on the topic of product-specific carbon footprint calculation. Therefore, technical infrastructure such as traceability systems, dashboards for visualisation or newly implemented efficiency measures on machine tools is added. The approach can be applied to a variety of topics.

"It just magically happened overnight!" - support for the digitalization of medical teaching provided by an interdisciplinary e-tutor team.

Background: The forced and time-critical changeover to digital teaching and learning formats in the summer semester 2020 brought about numerous new challenges for the teaching staff of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Regensburg. Didactic and personnel support of clinical lecturers for the preparation, creation, and supervision of digital teaching materials became necessary.Project description: Since interdisciplinary teams seem to be superior in finding creative solutions, an interdisciplinary student e-tutor team was established at the Faculty of Medicine to support the digitalization of the range of courses. After their initial basic training the e-tutors had regular team meetings and internal mini-training sessions to ensure their continuous professional development. The e-tutors could be "requested" by clinical teaching staff and then accompanied the respective course preparation and implementation as required. Results and discussion: Both clinical teachers and students perceived the student e-tutors’ support to be very positive. The e-tutors described the interdisciplinarity of the team as an important learning resource and their work as an exciting and instructive task. Conclusion and outlook: Due to the positive experiences with the e-tutors, the faculty is striving to establish sustainable digital teaching and learning services in the coming semesters.

Factors influencing disaster risk and resilience education in Asian HEIs

Purpose Educational initiatives can provide the crucial foundation for capacity-building of stakeholders in the field of disaster risk management and disaster resilience. The purpose of this paper is to scope current initiatives to deliver disaster risk and resilience education (DRRE) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Asia and explore factors that serve as barriers or as opportunities for promoting DRRE. Design/methodology/approach This study implemented mixed methods – scoping of existing programs of Asian universities, an online survey and a small-group workshop of Asian HEI representatives – and explored both the development and implementation phases of degree programs and coursework and other educational initiatives. Primarily involved were country partners of the Erasmus + CABARET network (CApacity-Building in Asia for Resilience EducaTion). Findings Results reflect that most of the existing formal degree programs are at the graduate level though a wide range of courses and research opportunities exist for both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Findings underscore the importance of institutional support from university leaders as a key factor for overcoming barriers, given the resources and logistics needed by DRRE as an interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral endeavor. Universities who participated in the small-group workshop gave mixed feedback on the level of adequacy of the potential drivers for DRRE, which indicates the need to level off capacities and expertise in the region. Originality/value This study provides a baseline assessment of DRRE currently lacking for the region, with recommendations for how to further build capacities of Asian HEIs.

Review of Post-Licence Motorcycle Rider Training in New South Wales

Fully licensed motorcyclists represented over two thirds of riders killed on New South Wales (NSW) roads from 2010 – 2014. An ongoing need to address crash risks among this cohort is recognised and there is strong support for post-licence rider training (PLRT) among rider advocates and stakeholders. This research, commissioned by Transport for NSW, examined the PLRT environment in NSW to assess the extent to which courses targeted specific rider skills and competencies. Before commencement of this research, key riding competencies were identified by Transport for NSW in consultation with motorcycle stakeholder groups, and included scanning, buffering, setting up brakes, basic motorcycle handling, cornering, and lane positioning. A desktop review of 40 available courses provided an overview of relevant course content, locations and costs. The review was supplemented by interviews with eight training providers to gather information on course structure, components, delivery, promotion and trainee characteristics. The collective information was used to identify which training options support riders’ risk management and promote improved safety outcomes. A wide range of courses was identified, and in most cases there was no standardised curriculum. Most courses appeared to support rider risk management and most also appeared to address roadcraft and defensive riding principles, albeit to varying degrees. Providers noted participant diversity in characteristics, needs and motivations for undertaking rider training, reflecting a need for a diverse range of course offerings including individualised training. Key groups were catered for including returning riders, female riders, inexperienced riders, commercial riders and aspirational racers.

An Interview with Associate Professor Margaret Plunkett

Associate Professor Margaret Plunkett, Federation University, Australia, has over 30 years' experience in education. She currently coordinates and lectures in a range of courses and programs in both secondary and primary education, related to gifted education and professional experience. Margaret has won a number of awards for teaching excellence including the Monash Vice Chancellors Teaching Excellence Award (Special Commendation, 2010); the Pearson/ATEA Teacher Educator of the Year Award (2012); and a National Office of Learning of Learning and Teaching (OLT) Citation in 2014.

Development of the Modern Russian Market of Online Education in Terms of the Knowledge Society

Introduction. In recent years, an online education market has emerged in Russia with proven technologies and significant financial turnover. The range of courses offered to the consumer is quite wide (marketing, management, humanities, IT, etc.). The purpose of the article is to present a classification of the online courses offered on the Russian market by subject matter and technical tools on the basis of the results of the study conducted, as well as to trace the dynamics of the market capacity for 2014–2021. Materials and Methods. Russian online education market at the present stage of its development was the object of the research. The empirical material included: a statistical analysis of the thematic diversity of online courses on the Russian market; a secondary analysis of the Online Education Barometer questionnaire for 2019, RBC’s ranking of the 35 largest Russian private companies providing services in the field of online education; education market studies for 2017, 2018 and 2020. Results. The Russian online education market capacity rapidly rose on 90 times for 2014–2019, from 0.4 to 36.5 billion rubles, which indicates the explosive growth of online education popularity. The thematic diversity of online courses is determined by the main educational society needs (programming, it-technologies, marketing and business administration). The thematic focus on the Russian “state” platforms corresponds to the education areas of the Russian offline universities. Discussion and Conclusion. The market for online education in Russia exponentially grows. On the one hand, the high demand for online courses can be explained by increasing of knowledge-intensive work number. On the other hand, labor realizes that knowledge and skills are a guarantee of employment. The diversity of online disciplines correlates with the idea of mutual incentives of supply and demand. Indeed, the most of courses are business, IT and design orientated. The article will be useful to universities’ chiefs and private educational companies planning to expand their online courses; for those who are planning to enter the Russian online education market and looking for perspective directions; for researchers and business analytics of the education market.

STUDENT FUNDING AND UNIVERSITY ACCESS AFTER THE GREAT WAR: THE SCHEME FOR THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF EX-SERVICEMEN AT ABERYSTWYTH, LIVERPOOL AND OXFORD

ABSTRACT This article makes a fresh contribution to the literature on student funding and its history by drawing attention to a pioneering government initiative, launched in the aftermath of the Great War. From the winter of 1918–1919 until 1923, the Scheme for the Higher Education of Ex-Servicemen provided grants to university students in England and Wales. We argue that it amounted to a major educational reform venture: it supported students on an unprecedented scale, covering fees and maintenance across a broad range of courses and institutions. In order to produce an in-depth analysis of this scheme and its local operation, we have drawn on archival evidence from the Board of Education, the University of Liverpool, the University of Oxford and the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Our discussion addresses the application process, means-testing and funding decisions as well as the profiles and experiences of grant recipients. The scale and impact of the ex-service scheme raises wider questions about the societal value accorded to higher education within the context of reconstruction after the Great War.

Teaching Gender and Sexuality in the Wake of the Must Fall Movements: Mutual Disruption through the Lens of Critical Pedagogy

The recent Must Fall movements shone a light on how South African universities are exclusionary spaces in many respects. In addition to the focus on racial, financial, and epistemological exclusions, the movements also highlighted how gender and sexual minorities are marginalised in university curricula and spaces. In the wake of these movements, I taught a range of courses dealing with gender and sexuality to pre-service teachers at a South African university. Using an autoethnographic approach, I recount some of the challenges I faced in teaching subject matter that many South Africans consider controversial. Students often relied on simplistic discourses of culture and religion to voice resistance to my courses and to “disrupt” my classes, while the subject matter simultaneously disrupted their deeply held concepts of identity. These moments of disruption from students, while largely intended as resistance, offered considerable pedagogical value, especially when viewed through the lens of critical pedagogy that informs my teaching approach. In this article, I use autoethnographic reflections to describe some of these moments of mutual disruption. I examine how the discussions with students have shifted after the Must Fall movements, linking the philosophy and some of the events of the movements to the ways that students are engaging differently. I argue that these pre-service teachers also hold the potential to disrupt discourses of queerphobia, gender-based violence and HIV in the South African school system. Additionally, I contend that gender and sexuality diversity deserve greater focus in teacher education in order to create critical thinking spaces that can foster reflective capacities in teachers around how they relate to learners who are gender and sexual minorities.

Overcoming Future Professionals’ Fear of Digital Storytelling

ABSTRACT Digital storytelling assessments at university can develop emerging human service and social workers’ skills in contemporary social media production and related advocacy. Despite growing interest in digital storytelling in these disciplines, there is little support for developing the technical sides of the practice. This article shares key learnings from an Australian teaching and learning project used to develop a digital storytelling module for social work and human services students at university who are not filmmakers. Students across a range of courses undertook digital storytelling assessments using the module. A key finding was that students still experienced considerable fear but were able to turn that into significant personal and professional development. This article explores these and other key learnings from the project and offers tips for others wishing to implement digital storytelling. IMPLICATIONS Emerging social work and human services professionals studying at university often exhibit fear and resistance to new tasks such as digital storytelling. Such students need to be supported to navigate that discomfort to achieve learning. Students can be supported using online modules that support the technical and creative sides of digital storytelling. This project found that students were able to develop confidence and skills in digital storytelling after completing this module and assignment.

Supporting adults with mental health problems through further education

Aim:To identify how a college of further (tertiary) education might promote the wellbeing of adults with mental health problems.Study design:Qualitative study of the college-related experiences of people with mental health problems.Setting:A further education college in inner-city London, UK.Methods:Fifteen students, all of whom had been diagnosed with mental health problems, were selected from a range of courses, including those attending a special cookery class, those on mainstream courses, and former-students who had studied on one of a number of courses and who might or might not have completed their studies. Data were collected through two individual semi-structured interviews.Results:Findings focus on barriers to learning outside and inside college and how these were overcome, as well as participants’ perceived links between learning and their mental health and wellbeing.Conclusion:Discussion highlights the necessity of ‘bridging’ between health and education services in order to enable adults with mental health problems to benefit from lifelong learning opportunities in a potentially transformative way.