Themed Paper Presentations: Critical Thinking in Design and Technology
Mastering Critical Thinking Competencies in Online Graduate Courses: None
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Douglas Hermond, Tyrone Tanner
Graduate programs are expeditiously reverting to new technologies to deliver traditional courses, with a preponderance of those “new” technologies being online course delivery. Many ongoing investigations are exploring whether these courses are being delivered with quality and yield the same cognitive outcomes as traditional face-to-face courses. Implicit in the mission or strategic intention of most programs is the expectation that their students enhance their critical thinking skills. Consequently, our investigation is to determine the degree to which participants in online graduate courses value critical thinking and the degree to which they are developing these skills. In this context, given the absence of a universally accepted definition, we adopt Ennis’ explanation of critical thinking as “reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do” (1987, p. 10). More specifically, we coalesce the seven definitions of critical thinking that Moore (2013) refined, into five domains: understanding, judgment, caution/skepticism, originality, and reflection/action. We are administering a 16-item instrument designed around these five domains, to graduate students taking online classes from a university in southeast Texas. The information gleaned from this investigation will advance our knowledge of the emphasis that graduate students in an online program place on critical thinking, and the degree to which this medium accommodates the acquisition of this skill. The impact is that, if necessary, we will be better able to adjust or design our pedagogical strategies to ensure that online graduate students can consume and generate information using a critical thinking framework.
Developing Course Design Tools and Activities for the Promotion of Student Engagement and Interactivity
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kimberley Williams
With the continued enrollment of students in distance education, institutions must provide a course experience that fosters student engagement and interactivity. Since this is often left to the online instructor, understanding what course design tools to utilize in the Learning Management System (LMS) is paramount to creating an experience that reduces the feeling of isolation and lack of participation often faced by many online students. The inclusion of online course tools and activities that promote a student-centered and student-created online experience is paramount to increasing the proficiency of learning within an online course. However, what specific tools and activities to use and the combination of those tools and activities are often a challenge for online instructors to decipher. This paper will investigate the course design tools that are needed within the LMS to promote student engagement and interactivity in order to provide a framework for online instructors when designing their courses.
Transiting into the Technology-enhanced Learning Spaces: A Snapshot of a Polytechnic Scene in Singapore
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Shirley Tan
More and more educational institutions across the world are looking towards Information Technology (IT) to enhance learning. In Malaysia, the call to incorporate IT into Education was initiated by the local authorities and traditional teaching has been transformed to include new technology and constructivist approach (Neo & Neo, 2010). In Taiwan, the race to speed up IT comes in the form of mobile learning (Lan & Sie, 2010). In Singapore, institutions are looking towards telepresence technology which embodies new learning approaches such as online lessons and online consultations to enhance learning. This proposed study looks at how such ubiquitous technologies have encroached into our learning spaces and how we can better support stakeholders in transiting from the old learning spaces to such new entities.
