InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching最新文献

{"title":"Tweeting To Learn: Understanding Twitter through the Lens of Connectivism","authors":"Nirupama Akella","doi":"10.46504/09201405AK","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201405AK","url":null,"abstract":"Twitter, primarily a social media outlet, has recently started foraying and gaining a foothold in higher education. Written from a student perspective, this paper attempts to explain and critically discuss the usage and popularity of Twitter as a tool of active learning in higher education. The author writes about her student experience of using Twitter in her Public Relations Communications graduate class. The paper explores and scrutinizes the social media channel within the theoretical framework of connectivism. Twitter appeared on the contemporary education scene in late October 2006. Originally developed as a social messaging microblogging tool, Twitter found its way into higher education institutions (Grosseck & Holotescu, 2008). At present, a growing number of higher educational institutions all over the world are teaching courses through this microblogging social media application. Twitter is a microblogging tool which allows users to send brief but informative messages to each other in fewer than 140 characters (Grosseck & Holotescu, 2008). The messages are called tweets, the people who tweet are called twitterers, and the people who read these tweets and respond to them are called users. It allows for real-time communication, diverse interaction, discussion with collaboration, and sharing of experiences and opinions (Skiba, 2008). Twitter has become a popular teaching tool that provides for active learning, learner attention, learner discovery, learner participation, and learner knowledge schema development. Written from a graduate student’s viewpoint, this paper examines and discusses the usage of the educational technological tool of Twitter in the classroom. The author writes in depth about her experience and observation of using Twitter in her graduate Public Relations class at an international university in south-east USA. She explains the role and usage of Twitter using the contemporary online learning theory of connectivism. The paper is divided into three sections. Section One provides a brief explanation of connectivism theory, followed by the author’s story in Section Two. The third and final section of the paper embodies the discussion where the connectivism theory is revisited in greater depth. Through her paper, the author hopes to generate relevant and meaningful debate about using Twitter as a method of student engagement in graduate classrooms.","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"9 1","pages":"64-69"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using the Comfortability-in-Learning Scale to Enhance Positive Classroom Learning Environments.","authors":"M. Kiener, Peter J. Green, Kelly H. Ahuna","doi":"10.46504/09201402ki","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201402ki","url":null,"abstract":"A goal of higher education is to advance learning. This study examined the role “comfortability” plays in that process. Defined as the level of comfort students experience with their classmates, instructor, and course material, comfortability addresses how secure a student feels in the classroom. Comfortability was assessed multiple times during one semester with undergraduate students and found student comfortability significantly increased across the course of the semester and significantly predicted affective learning. These findings suggest the importance of the classroom environment in the learning process and support the need for faculty to consider “non-academic” factors in addition to course content. Constructs such as engagement, community, relatedness, and connection are common in higher education. Multiple studies have demonstrated when students were more engaged, aware, and comfortable with their environments they would become more active in their learning (Tinnesz, Ahuna, & Kiener, 2006), had a positive perception of learning and performance (McKinney, McKinney, Franiuk, & Schweitzer, 2006) and persisted until graduation (Cheng, 2004; Harris, 2003). There are at least two underlying themes among these constructs that support positive learning environments, intellectual safety and affective learning. Schrader (2004) defined intellectual safety as a learning atmosphere in which students feel secure in challenging and strengthening ideas to deepen learning. Affective learning examines student intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, methods students use to interact with content, and how students receive, respond to, and integrate information to form an intellectual disposition (Delcourt, Cornell, & Goldberg, 2007; Holt & Hannon, 2006). It is feasible to believe a further examination of the interaction of intellectual safety or learning environment and affective learning will lead to additional insights on emphasizing student learning. Rodriguez, Plax, and Kearney (1996) sought to analyze the indirect relationship between instructor nonverbal immediacy and cognitive learning; specifically examining if affective learning or student motivation had a more significant impact on cognitive learning. Examples of instructor nonverbal immediacy include: smiling, eye contact, and forward body lean. The researchers used a correlational design with path coefficients to determine which model (motivational or affective learning) had a greater fit to predict cognitive learning. The results of the study found when instructors displayed immediacy both student motivation and affective learning predicted cognitive learning; however, the affective learning model produced less error and thus had more theoretical relevance (Rodriguez et al., 1996). In addition to nonverbal instructor communication predicting affective learning, Henning (2010) examined the impact communicative style and instructor credibility had on student affective learning. Communicative style r","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"9 1","pages":"36-43"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Healthcare Learning Community and Student Retention","authors":"Sherryl W. Johnson","doi":"10.46504/09201401jo","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201401jo","url":null,"abstract":"Teaching, learning, and retention processes have evolved historically to include multifaceted techniques beyond the traditional lecture. This article presents related results of a study using a healthcare learning community in a southwest Georgia university. The value of novel techniques and tools in promoting student learning and retention remains under review. This study includes a healthcare learning community as a cutting-edge teaching and learning modality. The results of an introspective survey of 22 students in a learning community explore strategies to enhance culturally relevant teaching, learning, and retention. Although learning and retention studies have been conducted at numerous universities, few have included feedback from students in a healthcare learning community. Frequencies from student responses were tabulated using five thematic factors: social support, career knowledge/opportunities, academic support, networking and faculty rapport/relationship building. Of the five theme areas, social support was identified most frequently by students as a means to support their learning and retention in the university setting. An emerging trend in higher education is the formation of learning communities. Learning communities came to the forefront in the late eighties and early nineties (Browne & Minnick, 2005). Learning communities in their most basic form begin with block scheduling that enables students to take courses together. In some cases, learning communities link students by tying two or three courses together (Tinto, 2000). Such was the case with a healthcare learning community at a four-year southwest Georgia university. Three courses were linked together using a healthcare theme. The courses were Healthcare Administration Practicum, Human Resources Management, and Quality Management in Healthcare. Each course was taught by a faculty member in their area of specialty. Two faculty members had a specialty in health administration, and one faculty member had a specialty in human resources management. Each faculty member hoped to resolve a dilemma in the teaching and learning process during the learning community, while promoting student retention. The dilemmas were as follows: to minimize the lecture teaching format and thereby encourage critical thinking among the students; to modify the teaching pace and delivery methods so as to enhance student comprehension; and to successfully transition from industry to academia with positive student responses and adaptation. The learning community was specifically designed to provide healthcare management students with an overview of human resources and quality functions in the healthcare setting. Another goal of the healthcare learning community was to increase interdisciplinary learning by reinforcing communication in all three of the linked courses. To facilitate the activities in the learning community, group sessions were held on a monthly basis for one semester. The group sessions are","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"9 1","pages":"28-35"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving Secondary School Students' Achievement and Retention in Biology through Video-Based Multimedia Instruction.","authors":"A. Gambari, A. A. Yaki, E. S. Gana, Queen Eguono Ughovwa","doi":"10.46504/09201407ga","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201407ga","url":null,"abstract":"The study examined the effects of video-based multimedia instruction on secondary school students' achievement and retention in biology. In Nigeria, 120 students (60 boys and 60 girls) were randomly selected from four secondary schools assigned either into one of three experimental groups: Animation + Narration; Animation + On-screen Text; Animation + Narration + On-screen Text or a control group. The pretest, posttest experimental, and control group design was adopted. A 50-item multiple-choice objective test termed Biology Achievement Test (BAT) was used for collecting data. The validated BAT was tested for reliability using Kuder Richardson (KR20), which yielded 0.89. T-test, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and Scheffe’s post-hoc analysis were used in determining the significant differences among the four groups. The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference among the experimental groups. Generally, students under multimedia instruction performed better than their colleagues in the conventional teaching method. However, students in conventional teaching method had better retention than other groups. Biology is a natural science that deals with the living world: How the world is structured, how it functions and what these functions are, how it develops, how living things came into existence, and how they react to one another and with their environment (Umar, 2011). It is a prerequisite subject for many fields of learning that contributes immensely to the technological growth of the nation (Ahmed, 2008). This includes medicines, pharmacy, nursing, agriculture, forestry, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and many other areas (Ahmed & Abimbola, 2011). Biology is seen as one of the core subjects in Nigerian secondary school curriculum. Because of its importance, more students enrolled for biology in the senior secondary school certificate examination (SSCE) than for physics and chemistry (West African Examination Council, 2011). Biology is introduced to students at senior secondary school level as a preparatory ground for human development, where career abilities are groomed, and potentials and talents discovered and energized (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2009). The quality and quantity of science education received by secondary school students are geared toward developing future scientists, technologists, engineers, and related","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"9 1","pages":"78-91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Study of the Effectiveness of Blackboard Collaborate for Conducting Synchronous Courses at Multiple Locations.","authors":"Guillermo Tonsmann","doi":"10.46504/09201404to","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201404to","url":null,"abstract":"This paper will analyze the experience the author had in teaching Discrete Mathematics using Blackboard Collaborate, videoconferencing software that allowed students at various locations in the United States to take part in live regular class sessions. The course was designed to test the feasibility of carrying out a course using only remote synchronous connections between instructor and students, and to gain firsthand experience in the process. Park University, the author’s institution, currently delivers asynchronous distance education to more than 20,000 students worldwide. The University currently uses eCollege and eCompanion as its main software platform for course delivery. Park University has also more than 40 campus centers at various locations in the United States where face-to-face instruction is offered in various disciplines. Blackboard Collaborate software was recently acquired to be used as an administrative tool. Given this context, the main motivations for the development of this course were: • The desire to increase student enrollment by fighting fragmentation of student population. This condition appears when sections of the same course are cancelled due to low enrollment at various campus centers. Linking students from various campus centers in a synchronous course would avoid eliminating these sections and satisfy course loads. • The desire to provide added sections of courses that may not be offered regularly at campus centers due to unavailability of credentialed faculty for the specific disciplines. • The low appeal for online offerings amongst a significant number of campus center students. • The desire to increase the quantity of course offerings at campus centers and limit the number of cancellations to improve customer service.","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"13 1","pages":"54-63"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Challenging Multiple-Choice Questions to Engage Critical Thinking","authors":"D. Kerkman, Andrew T. Johnson","doi":"10.46504/09201408ke","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201408ke","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines a technique for engaging critical thinking on multiple-choice exams. University students were encouraged to “challenge” the validity of any exam question they believed to be unfair (e.g., more than one equally correct answer, ambiguous wording, etc.). The number of valid challenges a student wrote was a better predictor of exam scores than the number of invalid challenges or GPA. The technique also allows instructors to gain insight into the sources of students’ errors that may be useful in improving instruction.","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"93 1","pages":"92-97"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leading the Charge for SoTL--Embracing Collaboration.","authors":"A. Cassard, B. Sloboda","doi":"10.46504/09201403ca","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201403ca","url":null,"abstract":"The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) enables colleges and universities to assess student learning and measure the outcomes by engaging in meaningful research, and to disseminate this research. The objective of this paper is to give a snapshot of and assess the current thinking behind this scholarship by presenting examples of SoTL, and to provide insights into the measurement of SoTL research by faculty members. By presenting a carefully crafted research agenda in SoTL, colleges and universities can disseminate this research as a means of providing useful assessments of student learning and measurements of relevant outcomes.","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"9 1","pages":"44-53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Multimodal Assignment that Enriches Literacy Learning: The Problem.","authors":"Tim Oldakowski","doi":"10.46504/09201406ol","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/09201406ol","url":null,"abstract":"In education the linguistic is the mode most commonly assessed because it is important for students to write clear, complex pieces to show their understanding of content. However, in worlds outside of classrooms additional modes, such as visual, aural, and digital are often used to convey messages. This article demonstrates the value of multimodal learning (the use of more than one mode) as a means for student expression, specifically in responding to young adult literature. Here, I share how students had rich interpretations of a text through the use multiple modes.","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"9 1","pages":"70-77"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70555154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Institutional Assessment and the Intellectual Work of Teaching and Learning in First-Year Composition.","authors":"Emily Donnelli-Sallee","doi":"10.46504/08201307do","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/08201307do","url":null,"abstract":"Institutional assessment initiatives can provide opportunities to make the intellectual work of teaching and learning in composition studies more visible. Reciprocally, the scholarship of teaching and learning’s situatedness within disciplinary norms and values can enhance institutional assessments, providing a check on the tendency to rely on singular, overly generalized mechanisms for capturing courseor program-level data. This article shares one example of the reciprocal relationship that can occur between disciplinary and institutional assessment initiatives.","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"8 1","pages":"51-58"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Student's Experience and View on College Teaching and Learning.","authors":"B. Atkinson","doi":"10.46504/08201304at","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46504/08201304at","url":null,"abstract":"Through my college experience and my reflection on The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered, I have come to recognize several ideas that have greatly impacted me, my views on learning, and my actual learning. My overall experience in college has been beneficial because of the teachers who approached teaching with a more conscious effort and taught me to approach learning and my role as learner in the same way. This essay highlights many of the aspects of the chapter, “Teachers and Learning,” that have been beneficial for me throughout my educational career, and a few notes on changes that may have helped.","PeriodicalId":30055,"journal":{"name":"InSight A Journal of Scholarly Teaching","volume":"8 1","pages":"32-36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70554320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}