Ubiquitous Learning for Undergraduate Education
Online Student Engagement through Service Learning Photovoice Project
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Robert Lucio, Courtney Wiest, Rhondda F Waddell
Student engagement refers to the quality time students devote to educationally purposeful activities that contribute to a desired educational outcome. Finding unique ways to engage students in their own education through a deeper level of critical thinking is a continual challenge. The use of photo voice is one method for engaging students in critical consciousness, or the discussion and reflection on choice of subject and the economic, social, psychological, and political forces that shape decisions. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of photo voice on social work student’s engagement in their volunteer experience, their connection to the social work program, and their perceptions of veterans. Participants were asked to take photographs of four specific questions during an annual event connecting veterans to needed resources and services. The social work student participants took photographs which answered: What motivated you to volunteer for the veteran’s stand down event? How has volunteering at the veteran’s stand down event enhanced your social work skills? How has volunteering at the veteran’s stand down event developed your connection to the social work student community? How has this event influenced your perceptions of veterans? Participants were then interviewed and asked to describe each picture and how it related to each of the questions. This paper will explore emerging trends from the data around the key constructs of student engagement, the impact of volunteering impact on social work skills and connection to the community, and perception of veterans.
Open Educational Resources in the Learning by Design Language Classroom
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alessandra Ribota
The paper describes the development and implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) material grounded in the pedagogical framework of Learning by Design for the teaching of L2 Spanish to Intermediate-Mid college students in a public American university. The implementation of the newly-developed resources was investigated in a study that involved the participation of 75 students, and that examined the effects of the OER materials versus that of textbooks on the development of participants’ performance in the three modes of communication: Interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational. The presentation will discuss the effects of OER material versus that of textbooks in the participants’ performance. Also, we will focus on the importance of OER materials for L2 learning, and important issues that can affect their successful implementation. Recommendations for the development and implementation of open instructional resources will also be offered.
ePortfolio: A Catalyst in Undergraduate Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lingma Acheson
Synthesizing, integrating and assessing student learning both inside and outside of the classroom is often a marker yet also a challenge for high-quality undergraduate education in USA. ePortfolio, when integrated into the curriculum, can serve as a powerful vehicle to undertake part of this task. Besides being a collection of electronic evidences that showcase students signature work, it is also a process of summarizing students’ learning experience. ePortfolio has been listed as one of the High Impact Practices by American Association of Colleges and Universities since 2016. This proposal provides a practical framework and concrete examples to show how ePortfolios can tie teaching, learning, reflection, research, co-curricular experience and assessment together. It demonstrates how ePortfolios encourage deep learning and serve as a catalyst for students’ intellectual growth and personal development throughout their four years of undergraduate study. This proposal demonstrates the theoretical backgrounds of how ePortfolio practice is used as a reflective pedagogy and provides practical guidance to institution administrators in assisting learning outcome assessment through a quantifiable rubric, instructors through sample portfolios and approaches of integrating ePortfolios into various courses such as first year seminar, junior/senior level classes and capstone projects.
Multi-Touch iTextbook for an Animation Foundation Course in Higher Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jing Zhang
According to a 2018 study on traditional textbook industry-- Total value of the industry is $7-10 billion; Since 2006, textbook costs increased 4 times faster than inflation; 30% of post-secondary students use financial aid money to buy textbooks, and the average cost textbooks per student per year is $1,168. iTextbook is a digital publication of scholarly work in the iBook format, which could be used within an iPad- and iTunesU-enabled curriculum. It contains rich elements and widgets to enhance the learning experience, such as interactive image, scrolling side bar, pop-over image, timelines, quizzes and vocabulary puzzles, before & after image, multimedia and image galleries, video & intro media, and infographics, etc. iTextbook can be distributed to course-registered students freely, dramatically relieving students with any financial burden and preparing them to be successful in our evolving digital world. Animation foundation course has been listed in many associate, under/graduate degrees’ curricula in art, media, communication, or film. A faculty-authored iTextbook is specifically for college students, so the content and tone are tailored for their community, rather than the general public.
