Shifting Issues in Higher Education (Asynchronous Session)
The Intersection between Data-Driven Action and Diversity in Higher Education: Promoting Equity, Access, and Inclusion View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Misty LaCour, Julia Nyberg, Dena AuCoin, Kelvin Beckett, Lisa Wright, Carolyn Mckeon
This session shares the details of how a committee in a higher education environment utilized data to make informed decisions for equity, access, and inclusion initiatives. The Diversity & Inclusion Action Committee collected, analyzed, and used surveys to make data-driven program improvements across departments and programs. The responsive action recommendations made based on data included the development of diversity standards for curriculum development, syllabi initiatives to expand access, a continuum for developing global cultural competence, the development of reports to further faculty understanding of the student population, and the analysis of desegregated data by subgroup. The presentation highlights the five-year progress and examples of implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives based on data and share actionable ideas other institutions of higher education can implement to advance equity and access.
Development of an Industrially Relevant Module in a Blended Format : A Practical Approach to Teaching Control View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Suraj Vasudevan
This study describes the introduction and implementation of a new industrially relevant module in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum. Process dynamics and control is an important core module in chemical engineering. Students are introduced to dynamic modelling, and analysis of simple process and control systems at the unit level with a heavy inclination on mathematical analysis. Besides this, it is important for chemical engineering graduates to have a proper understanding of complex control systems at the plant level, as these are vital for optimal and safe operation of chemical processes. With the aim of providing students with this much-needed exposure to practical applications of control, I proposed a Year 4 elective module named Control of Industrial Processes. Students get to perform the design and performance analysis of plant-wide control systems with the aid of realistic dynamic (real-time) simulation. The course learning outcomes have been carefully formulated (incorporating all six hierarchies of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives). The teaching, learning, and assessment methods include interactive lectures, hands-on simulation tutorials, in-class activities, class test, individual assignments, and a group project. The flipped classroom approach and peer instruction has been extensively adopted whereby active learning is facilitated by having student group discussions in groups of 4-5 followed by sharing sessions in class (for example, before every important topic or concept is introduced). The new module complements the theory-based control module and has been very well received by students as indicated by overwhelming subscription, students’ active participation in class activities, and positive feedback comments.
College Students’ Experiences with the Transition to Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jill Walls
Undergraduate students (N = 165) completed an online survey about their experiences with the sudden transition to online learning, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of multiple regression analyses suggested that satisfaction with the transition online, concerns about COVID-19, and computer time were associated with signs of distress (changes in grades, stress level, and depressive symptoms), after accounting for preference for online instruction, housing satisfaction, and other covariates. Students’ responses to open-ended questions identified approaches employed by instructors that were perceived as helpful or unhelpful. Students advocated for fewer assignments, better communication, and greater empathy and understanding from their instructors.
Exploring the Effect of a Community of Inquiry on Geometry Education Studies in Open Distance Learning: Community of inquiry in Geometry View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Motshidisi Masilo
There are misconceptions associated with the teaching and learning of geometry in either a secondary school or a university context where both contexts of learning geometry are characterized by high retention rates. However, in order to improve geometry cognition in open and distance learning (ODL) contexts where a fully online learning context is dominant, a community of inquiry remains critical. This research avers that teaching that is based on complete online context poses challenges of social and cognitive presence in learning geometry while teaching that applies a hybrid mode sets a good base for online learning. Nonetheless, facilitation in a context where online learning dominates should prioritize teaching presence that is open to particularism through maintaining universal standards of learning geometry. That is, teaching presence should promote confidence and group competency in order to initiate individual competency. Developed teaching and social presence in ODL support cognitive presence. A qualitative case study inquiry engaged 37 purposively sampled education students in online and blended discourses in learning geometry. The findings reveal that community of inquiry has a positive effect on geometry teaching and learning in an ODL context. The effect emerges through effective teaching presence through blended learning coursework where social presence is initiated in order to support relatedness, group cohesion, collaboration, free expressiveness, and ultimately individual autonomy and competence. In essence, ways of assisting students to acquire better cognition in geometry education pertains to nurturing their need for relatedness, competency, and autonomy through a community of inquiry.
Gamification and E-learning for Adolescents View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nirma Jayawardena
The main objective of this paper is to show the application of elaboration likelihood model to gamification and e-learning for adolescents. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) is a social psychology theory and is a dual process theory of attitude formation and change resulting in persuasion outcomes. This model was introduced to the academic literature by Petty and Cacioppo in 1986. According to ELM there are two different persuasion routes that leaners could follow when they come across persuasive communication. These two routes are 1) the central route and 2) the peripheral routes of persuasion. When learners have high involvement (personal or situational) or high MAO (Motivation, Ability and Opportunity) to process communication, they are willing or able to exert a lot of cognitive processing effort, called high elaboration likelihood. In this situation, central cues such as existing beliefs, argument quality and initial attitude are important in determining persuasion effects. In contrast to high MAO situations (high involvement), when MAO is low, leaners are either not willing or unable to exert a lot of processing effort. In this low elaboration situation, peripheral persuasion cues such as attractive sources, music, and visuals are determining factors of persuasion effects. These factors create a temporary attitude shift. Therefore, this paper presents an illustrative example on how education policy makers could use gamification elements in e-learning context for leaner attitude formation and change resulting in persuasion outcomes through the ELM.
Mindfulness, Intersubjectivity, and Empathy in American and Polish Counseling Professional Discourses: A Mixed Methods Study View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Beata Latawiec
Counseling sessions (124) of American and Polish counsellors-in-training were analyzed for externalizations of mindfulness, empathy, and intersubjective-affinity in counseling discourses. The mixed-methods study aimed to identify metadiscursive patterns (pre/post-instruction) of American (n=28) and Polish (n=34) counselors-in-training, cross-group differences, and effective empathic/mindful language-uses to inform counseling-technique pedagogy and therapeutic practice/practitioners. The coding-scheme of audio-recorded counselor-talk used a taxonomy of metadiscourse w/sentiments (40+ categories) that draws on Hallidayan systemic-functionalism, sociolinguistic variation and Vande Kopple’s metadiscourse model. Also, Affective-Cognitive Empathy, Listening Styles Profile/LSP-16, Myers-Briggs Type-Indicator/MBTI (personality-types) and demographics (age, teaching-experience, tertiary-education) were measured. Among other findings, American counselors-in-training indicated higher empathy (on the self-report measure though). They were more verbose and had more teaching-experience than Polish counterparts. Interestingly, Polish counseling-trainees showed greater People and Content-orientation in listening (LSP-16). Within-groups discourse analyses show increased mindfulness/intersubjectivity in both ethnicities. The findings seem attributable to metacognitively-rich instruction with dyadic practice-series. Between-groups comparisons reveal different ethnic-group trajectories. American-counsellors highlight implicit stance, simply-structured, sentiment-rich counsels, while Polish counsellors – causally-linked, complex-structures, with epistemic-support, ‘socially lubricated’ with intersubjective/”camaraderie”-marking. Cross-ethnic results suggest different conceptualizations of client-needs. American counsellors-in-training assisted clients with more modulating, sentiment-attuning counsels, while Polish – with logical-appeals and persuasive engagement-discourse. The study offers tentative implications for institutional/ educational practitioners.
The Art of Fairs and Festivals: Decolonizing Visual Arts through Intangible Cultural Heritage View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Catalina Millán Scheiding
The visual arts course 'The Arts of Fairs and Festivals' examines local festivities to illustrate the connections between art, history, sociology and anthropology by looking at representation and identity. The analyses of local and particular events based in the city of Valencia, as part of the context of a Study Abroad program, requires students to engage with their own background and communities and present these to the classroom. Issues of mobility, power, and influence are illustrated through the global network, while the commonalities of cultures are highlighted.
