Victoria University Open Journals
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‘It Changed My Thinking Around, Okay, What Is Really Key?’: Academic Voices of Delivering Intensive Teaching in Higher Education
No full text"Blockwise Brilliance: Harnessing Evidence-Based Professional Learning for Teaching Excellence"
No full textImplementing a new block model teaching approach in nursing and midwifery education - an evaluation
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Student Preference and Perceptions of Asynchronous Online Activities for First Year Allied Health Physiology Blended Block Units
No full textFoundational knowledge in Anatomy and Physiology is integral to all health courses, however, first year students often find the volume and complexity of the concepts challenging (Vitali et al., 2020). Furthermore, our typical demographic student profile comes from a low socioeconomic status with a limited Science background. To help students with their study, health science education literature supports the importance of self-directed study including the use of technology-enhanced learning in blended approaches to learning (Gagnon et al., 2013; Geng et al., 2019). In 2018, Victoria University (VU) launched the VU Block model (where students study only one unit at a time for 4 weeks, for all first year units, (McCluskey et al., 2019). Our design included a blended approach, combining pre and post class technology-enhanced online learning activities and resources supported by face-to-face workshops involving small team based guided inquiry learning with no lectures. Within a block, blended learning environment, little is known about which online learning activities and resources students prefer and engage with. We utilised surveys, student grades and learning analytics to investigate student outcomes including preference for and participation in learning activities. Studentspreferred and engaged the most with the asynchronous online formative quizzes and H5P learning interactives. Both the number of H5P’s and quizzes utilised by students were significant (p=.001, p=.001) in predicting final grade (F(2,1245) = 102.19, R2 =.141, p=<.001). Student satisfaction data via the institutional unit evaluation survey was high for our traditional 12- week blended design and reduced for the intensive block mode setting. We suggest that providing students with a variety of asynchronous online learning activities and resources supported the blended design for block
Connecting literary cultures: towards a methodology for ethical encounter and exchange
Get PDFWhat are the assumptions (institutional, individual, cultural, structural, artistic) of encounter andexchange? How can they be measured and tested? And how do they play out in creative writing andliterary communities in the region broadly defined as the Asia-Pacific? This paper argues thatmethodologies enabling an examination of the ethics and power relations inherent to interculturalencounters must be predicated on creative uncertainty; be collaborative; and be testable in the sensethat they allow artists and researchers to ‘meet’ structures of power and ethical knots through evolving,creative-led, iterative, practices. This paper is interested in what might be understood as a pedagogy ofencounter. The emergent methodology holds a number of overlapping principles including ethics as aprocess, holding (prepositional) space, and uncertainty and the not-yet-made
Embedding Universal Design into Intensive Learning Experiences
No full textThis paper reports on the findings of a study investigating a new intensive instructional design approach called the “Cheese Sandwich”. The Cheese Sandwich was used to create the “Effective Learning and Teaching” (EL&T) course at a post 1992 British University. EL&T is an intensive 3-day course for staff new to HE teaching, aligning with the institutional commitment to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The aim of the study was to uncover the extent to which participants in EL&T encountered an intensive learning experience reflecting the UDL principles. A second aim was to assess the importance of those UDL principles in effectively supporting participant learning. Participants were 30 university staff enrolled in EL&T. The extent to which participants encountered an intensive learning experience reflecting UDL principles, and the extent to which they perceived those principles as effectively supporting their learning was assessed via the UDL perception survey. The survey consists of two main dimensions; 1) the extent to which respondents experienced learning and teaching practices reflective of UDL on their course and; 2) the extent to which respondents perceive those practices to be effective in supporting their learning. Each dimension consists of 36 items adapted from the UDL “checkpoints”. Responses to each dimension are made on a five-point Likert scale (1 – 5). Of the 36 items in Dimension 2, 29 received a mean score ≥3.5, meaning they were considered “very” or “extremely” effective for learning. For each of the 29 items considered “very” or “extremely” effective, participant perception was that they occurred “often” or “always” in EL&T. The Cheese Sandwich appears to be an effective intensive instructional design tool, enabling the embedding of UDL into intensive learning experiences, with demonstrable perceived benefits for learning
Effective Assessment in a Block Pedagogy: Understanding the Impact of Summative Assessment Type on Student Achievement
No full textBlock mode of delivery, also known as intensive mode, has increasingly been adopted by courses in higher education institutions (HEIs) in recent years. This surge has been attributed to the efforts of HEIs to adapt to the changing student population, which involves a diverse student population, as well as the evolving education landscape, recently impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The distinctive nature of a block delivery model, and the impact of demographic, contextual and disciplinary factors on assessment performance makes an evaluation of student achievement in a block pedagogy a critical area of focus. The study presented here explores the impact of different types of summative assessment on student achievement in a block mode of delivery implemented across the different courses in a UK-based HEI. This is achieved using a quasi-experimental design, involving independent sample t-tests. The study firstly compared first and second year students’ grades in modules where summative assessment had been adapted for block, with students’ grades from the same modules that were traditionally taught in the previous year; and secondly examined the impact of different types of summative assessment in block delivery on students’ grades. Results indicate that adapting the type of assessment for block delivery had no statistically significant difference on students’ final grades. However, when comparing different types of summative assessments in block delivery, students achieved higher grades in time-constrained and multiple summative assessments, compared to single final essays (p<0.001 and Cohen’s d>0.5). The results from this study indicate that the type of summative assessment has an impact on students’ academic success and, therefore, this should be at the heart of staff training and curriculum design when adopting block delivery
Caring with Computers: a conversation between Computational Mama and Diwas Raja Kc
Get PDFComputational Mama met with Diwas Raja Kc for an online conversation about her practice in relationto artist-led public pedagogies. Computational Mama’s work explores live coding and computationalthinking as forms of friendship and care. She currently lives in Udaipur, India, in a multi-generationalhousehold of all women and her 5-year-old son. In this rich exchange ranging from feminist theorists,artists, and coders, they discuss how she chose this moniker as care-giving and motherhoodincreasingly impact her practice and strategies of creative facilitation with community