University of Greenwich Journals and Working Papers
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Student Video Curation
In the academic year 2020-21 Middlesex University maths students accessed all learning sessions remotely. Each of these interactive sessions was live-streamed, recorded and uploaded to our Virtual Learning Environment, providing hundreds of hours of recorded, unedited maths lecture for students to review.This case study reports on a project (partially funded by an IMA Education Grant) in which we invited undergraduates to reflect on their remote learning experiences and curate these video lectures. Students were asked to identify the most engaging, useful and interesting segments, and categorise and explain their choices in free-text comments to help us develop our approach to remote lectures and video resources.A total of 33 video clips were identified by students across levels 4 to 6 on our specialist BSc Mathematics and BSc Mathematics with Computing programmes. In this paper we will discuss our findings, illustrate with examples clips, identify themes in the student choices, and conclude with tips to produce engaging video content.We will also discuss applications of video curation as a social pedagogic tool for the current Generation Z students. We will argue that sharing how students interact with digital learning resources can help address the significant digital divide in education
Designing Institutional Systems that Support Neurodivergent Educators
In higher education (HE) institutions, neurodivergence is currently under-represented (Mellifont, 2021). This opinion piece explores the role of institutional systems in supporting neurodivergent educators who bring unique strengths and perspectives to the classroom. The paper suggests that designing inclusive hiring processes and providing professional development opportunities, mentorship programmes and accommodations in the classroom are ways to support neurodivergent educators. The paper also highlights the benefits of remote or blended work arrangements and discusses the challenges associated with designing institutional systems that support neurodivergent educators. The paper concludes that creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace culture and prioritising essential accommodations are necessary in order to foster a more inclusive and effective learning environment for all students and educators
Completing a Ph.D. – Does it have to be a Lonely Existence?
The co-authors of this paper are current Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) students with the University of Wolverhampton. We embarked on writing this opinion piece to share our experience of the first year of our Ph.D. and suggest how higher education institutions (HEIs) can enhance the academic development of doctoral researchers and minimise the detrimental experiences which studies have shown to affect this group of students
A Postgraduate Marketing Programme’s Journey Towards Internationalisation
Internationalisation has been a significant focus of educational institutions for some time now and yet many institutions are still grappling with the most effective way to achieve it. This case study provides a critical review of steps taken within a marketing postgraduate programme towards internationalisation. Three key steps are outlined here, with a view to sharing lessons learnt at each step: module-level approach, optional virtual exchange and programme-level approach. The paper concludes that internationalisation at home is a more inclusive way forward and that faculty development, use of technology and clearly defined learning outcomes are critical elements in securing effective internationalisation
Using online STACK assessment to teach complex analysis: a prototype course design?
We describe a new course design, informed by our experience of the pandemic, that we think could be used in other high-level mathematics courses. The course’s main resource was a set of interactive STACK workbooks containing the course notes, automatically-marked comprehension and practice questions for self-assessment, and short videos of examples, calculations, and high-level motivation. This freed up synchronous class time to address conceptual understanding using interactive polling. We describe the course and discuss how it worked in practice
Adapting successful online activities for in-person classes - a new challenge
Over the past few years, discussion across the sector has rightly been concentrated on how to provide a valuable and engaging online experience for students. The shift back to in-person classes has left many practitioners considering whether there are any lessons from the necessary shift to online teaching that can be applied to in-person teaching. This article will cover experiences stemming from a welcome but unanticipated dilemma - the live online classes for the module in question were extremely popular with students in 2020/21. How should the lecturer approach the return to in-person sessions? Activities for live online classes were designed as consolidation "games" which sought to encourage peer learning and discussion. The positive response to these activities encouraged the lecturer to pursue a flipped classroom model for the 2021/22 academic year. This article will discuss the various considerations when planning the transition to in-person classes for the 2021/22 academic year. In addition to reflections from the lecturer on the experience, this case study will also present preliminary findings from a formal study aiming to determine whether the activities have any positive effects on student confidence. Specifically, the study will investigate student confidence in areas such as working with peers, preparing for a class using online resources, and communicating mathematics in a written format.
Widening participation students’ experience and perception of flipped learning statistics compared with traditional teaching in higher education
This paper presents data from a study comparing student experience and attainment when teaching statistics using Traditional Teaching (TT) and Flipped Learning (FL) approaches on a Foundation level module at a UK university. A survey of students’ experience and perception of FL was conducted at the end of the year. The results showed that the students liked the flexibility of FL and believed that studying asynchronously encouraged them to improve their independent learning skill and motivated them to search for more information for the subject, a finding broadly supported by other studies (Price and Walker, 2021). However, what was surprising, is that students believed they learned ‘better’ with TT than with FL, a perception supported by student overall attainment data. The study concludes that careful considerations must be made to make FL effective. These include the student demographic and their mathematics competency, the module contents and difficulty level. Otherwise, the use of FL may reduce students’ engagement and academic performance in Maths at Foundation level
Building working relationships with peers: an induction activity for students
The initial period of transition to university (‘induction’) is important as this is when students first meet university staff and are introduced to university systems. Students also meet each other for the first time and start to form friendship groups which will provide a source of peer support throughout their programmes. This case study sets out an activity which we use with the new students on our extended accounting- and finance- related programmes to introduce students to library resources and enable them to start to build working relationships with their peers. The activity begins with information about the library from an Academic Services Librarian, delivered using an interactive quiz format. Students then work in small groups using the library PCs straight away which enables students to start to build friendships and work independently. The final part of the activity includes group presentations to the whole class