Current challenges to quality in higher education

<p>Despite the increase in massive open online courses (MOOCs), evidence about the pedagogy of learning in MOOCs remains limited. This paper reports on an investigation into the pedagogy in one MOOC - Oxford Brookes University’s ‘First Steps in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education’ MOOC (FSLT12).</p><p>FSLT12 was an open and free professional development opportunity for people moving into HE teaching. It was a small course (200 participants registered from 24 countries) which was focused on introducing HE teaching skills, and, uniquely, to deliberately integrate open academic practice as a vital part of professional development for HE teachers. A qualitative, case-study approach was used in the research, based on surveys, interviews, and social media, to provide evidence about how people learned in this course and consider wider implications for teaching and learning in higher education.</p><p>The evidence shows that participants who completed the course were able to learn autonomously and navigate the distributed platforms and environments. The most challenging issues were acceptance of open academic practice and difficulty in establishing an academic identity in an unpredictable virtual environment. An interesting and significant feature of the course was the support for learners from a number of MOOC ‘veterans’ who served as role models and guides for less experienced MOOC learners.</p><p>The research shows that small task-oriented MOOCs can effectively support professional development of open academic practice.</p>

Among all of the activity and commentary about the impact of technology on higher education, there is, unfortunately, not a high proportion of this work that could be described as rigorous or logically sound. There is a tendency for scholars and commentators to take either an overwhelmingly positive position or a skeptical position on the use of teaching technologies, either seeing them as a silver bullet to solve all educational problems, or as a direct route to a hellish, dystopian future. The focus of this bibliography is the subset of journals, books, and articles that are based on sound evidence, are well argued, and are therefore of high quality and high possible utility. As such, the emphasis is on what is known, rather than on conjectures about the utopian or dystopian versions of the future of higher education. The primary focus is on the role and impact of technologies on teaching and student learning. The bibliography is aimed at providing a high-level overview of teaching technologies in higher education from the perspective of sound, evidence-informed pedagogy. The entries in this bibliography also only include those from peer-reviewed outlets (with one key exception). As grey literature tends toward baseless claims and is based more on opinion and conjecture than sound evidence, it has been left out of this bibliography. Also left out are high-level, sensationalist publications written by former university presidents, consulting firms, or star economists and management professors (again with one exception). As these well-known publications tend to make gross generalizations based on little evidence about how teaching and learning actually work, they are of no real use and have therefore not been included. Looking across all the entries provided here, it is evident that many of the key issues that currently occupy those involved in the conceptualization, research, and implementation of technology in teaching in higher education have been of interest for some time. Many of the seminal articles and topics were published a decade or more ago. While there is probably a case for fresh, systematic reviews and possible reconceptualizations of the role technologies are playing in university teaching, the long-established theories still provide a solid basis for understanding current issues. There has, in fact, possibly been a tendency to ignore these theories in favor of the latest trend or tool. So while it may appear that many of the sources cited in this bibliography are out of date, that is far from the case. It is not the new, shiny technologies that should drive innovation in university teaching, but rather the rigorous and scholarly contributions that have stood the test of time. It is those contributions that make up much of the literature included here.

High school seniors are eagerly waiting to rip open envelopes and log onto web sites to learn the reaction to the college applications they labored over during the first part of the school year. No doubt they pored over a host of commercial guides like U.S. News and World Report's America's Best Colleges, trying to find out everything they could before making one of the most important investments of their lives. They found lots of information about colleges' status and resources from places like U.S. News, because the magazine's ratings are based largely on such measures as spending per student, schools' reputation among college administrators, and incoming students' SAT scores. But there's precious little for college applicants about what would seem to matter most: whether colleges and universities educate their students successfully. While policy makers have labored to produce increasingly detailed portraits of the performance of the nation's public elementary and secondary schools, they've neglected to provide similar information about the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. And we've failed to comprehend the extent to which the lack of such information has undermined the productivity of the nation's education enterprise. For most college students, who attend non-brand-name public colleges and universities with unselective admissions, the primary thing that their colleges have to offer them (unless they're top athletes) is a high-quality education--a commodity that's in too short supply in higher education today. Seventy-five percent of high school graduates go on to college, but only half of those students earn degrees, the U.S. Department of Education reports. And in many instances the diplomas they win don't represent a lot of learning. One study found that over half of the nation's college seniors can't do such things as compare credit card offers with differing interest rates. Yet colleges and universities have few incentives to address these challenges. They've long favored graduate students over undergraduates and research and publishing over teaching. And the influential commercial college rankings--this year marks the 26th anniversary of the U.S. News Best Colleges guide--only make matters worse by measuring mostly resources and reputation rather than performance. Many colleges seem to spend more energy improving their standing in the U.S. News horse race than on ways to help their students learn more and graduate. Public information about where students are taught the best and learn the most would force institutions to pay attention to results rather than to resources and reputation. And it would introduce the concept of value into the higher education equation. The conventional wisdom about college is that you get what you pay for, that the higher the price tag, the better the education. But that's not necessarily the case. Plenty of colleges are both good and less expensive--and information about how well schools are educating their students would, in turn, help make our vast national investment in higher education far more rational than it is today. (Ironically, the U.S. News ranking system undermines the concept of value. Ten percent of its rating is based on spending per student, meaning that a college that produces strong results at less cost and passes part of its savings on to students in the form of lower tuitions would see its ranking in the magazine decline.) Measuring Results Traditionally, there haven't been many reliable tools with which to measure teaching and learning in higher education; U.S. News focuses on resources and reputation because that's the information it can collect. But that's changing. One example is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), launched with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2000 and now administered by Indiana University. …

Rhizomatic learning doesn't always align with formal higher education structures and processes perhaps because of its heavy emphasis on nonlinear and community-based approach. In this chapter, we discuss this tension based on our experiences using rhizomatic pedagogy in higher education and identify points for pedagogical praxis. We first provide a review of the literature describing rhizomatic learning with an emphasis on applications in open and networked learning. We then present and discuss two cases of rhizomatic learning in British and Turkish higher education institutions in the context of academic development and educational technology. The case studies demonstrate that rhizomatic learning in higher education should be considered in relation to the macro context of the institution and the disciplinary practice, the meso context of the classroom ecology, and the micro context of the individual learner. We particularly highlight the extent to which teachers may need to facilitate rhizomatic learning in formal higher education for inclusive participation. We also argue that the notion of an independent, or individual, nomadic learner enjoying educational freedom is an imaginary construct that needs to be critically analysed in rhizomatic pedagogy.

This case study relates to a mixed-reality game that has been developed and used by the author in the area of Academic Development and specifically within the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE) module of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP). The game aims to provide a highly immersive learning experience to the players and opportunities to enhance their teaching in more creative ways as a result of their engagement and participation. The author shares details about this mixed-reality game and the pedagogical rationale on which it is based with other practitioners. The following also explores how this approach could be adapted and used in different learning and teaching contexts to transform learning in Higher Education into a more playful and creative experience which has potentially the power to motivate and connect individuals and teams combining physical and virtual spaces.

<span>This paper examines the possible influence of podcasting on the traditional lecture in higher education. Firstly, it explores some of the benefits and limitations of the lecture as one of the dominant forms of teaching in higher education. The review then moves to explore the emergence of podcasting in education and the purpose of its use, before examining recent relevant literature about podcasting for supporting, enhancing, and indeed replacing the traditional lecture. The review identifies three broad types of use of podcasting: substitutional, supplementary and creative use. Podcasting appears to be most commonly used to provide recordings of past lectures to students for the purposes of review and revision (substitutional use). The second most common use was in providing additional material, often in the form of study guides and summary notes, to broaden and deepen students' understanding (supplementary use). The third and least common use reported in the literature involved the creation of student generated podcasts (creative use). The review examines three key questions: What are the educational uses of podcasting in teaching and learning in higher education? Can podcasting facilitate more flexible and mobile learning? In what ways will podcasting influence the traditional lecture? These questions are discussed in the final section of the paper, with reference to future policies and practices.</span>

Preparing Graduates for Professional Practice: Findings from a Case Study of Project-based Learning (PBL)

In this opinion piece, I argue that positive emotions are so fundamental to the student experience that they deserve a prime place within activities relating to teaching and learning in higher education (HE). Research from the learning and medical sciences demonstrates that positive emotions hold considerable benefits for many factors of fundamental importance for learning, teaching, and employment such as general physical health, cognitive health, and mental health and wellbeing. To support my argument that they should be actively cultivated in learning situations throughout HE, first, I highlight scientific research into the affordances of positive emotions for cognitive health. In this regard, I mention the Higher Education Learning Framework (HELF), a research initiative of the Australian Research Council that was created by synthesising scientific work on effective learning and teaching in HE. I then consider scientific research that is, perhaps, less explored in the context of education. This is the work of Professor Andrew Steptoe and his colleagues from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) project whose research offers helpful data for HE educators regarding the supportive relationship between positive emotions, mental health, and wellbeing. I end with some practical ideas for cultivating positive emotions in teaching situations to stimulate both positive affect and two aspects of cognition that are crucial for learning: attention and memory.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic that spread globally in 2020, higher education courses were subsequently offered in fully remote, online formats. A plethora of primary studies began investigating a range of topics exploring teaching and learning in higher education, particularly during the initial semester. In order to provide an overview and initial understanding of this emerging research field, a systematic mapping review was conducted that collates and describes the characteristics of 282 primary empirical studies. Findings reveal that research was carried out mostly descriptively and cross-sectionally, focusing predominantly on undergraduate students and their perceptions of teaching and learning during the pandemic. Studies originate from a broad range of countries, are overwhelmingly published open access, and largely focused on the fields of Health & Welfare and Natural Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics. Educational technology used for emergency remote teaching are most often synchronous collaborative tools, used in combination with text-based tools. The findings are discussed against pre-pandemic research on educational technology use in higher education teaching and learning, and perspectives for further research are provided.

This special issue of NJLTL comprises contributions from researchers and practitioners engaged in foreign language teaching and learning in higher education – both within a Nordic context and beyond. Due to the large number of contributions received, the special issue will be published in two parts. The first part is scheduled for publication at the end of 2025, with the second part due to appear in Spring 2026. The first part includes 6 research contributions in the main section and 8 articles in the forum section. The articles, which focus on teaching and/or learning English, French, German, and Spanish as foreign languages, are written in Danish, English, Norwegian, and German.

This article explores the possible impact of lecture duration on the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. It does so based on the notion that human attention span has boundaries and limitations, therefore, the concern is: what is the best length of lecture duration for effective teaching and learning in higher education. Based on Capacity Theories of Attention and Bottleneck Attention theory which express that people have limited attention span as well as natural mental filter, this paper interrogates the three hours lecture duration per session as a risk factor that may impact on effective teaching and learning. The aim is to critically evaluate the merit and demerit in consideration to reorienting higher education teaching curriculum for sustainability including quality assurance and control. In this perspective, lecture duration is anticipated as a risk factor that could either facilitate or hinder quality teaching and learning. In conclusion, the paper calls for empirical research to be conducted among students and lecturers to ascertain the possible impact of lecture duration on completion of syllabus including the depth of input versus output and quality academic performance.

Despite national requirements for accredited teaching qualifications, there is a lack of literature on disciplinary differences in student learning in higher education. Academics at a UK research‐intensive university were asked to report on the existence of literature or knowledge concerned with how students learnt in their subject. No relevant literature or folklore was identified, but responses did demonstrate a discourse in which the academics constructed their discipline as ‘better’ than other disciplines: the finding with which the present article is concerned. The discourse of the distinctiveness and superiority of one’s own discipline can be understood as a form of ‘Orientalism’. A post‐colonial analysis of the discourse of disciplinary relationships offers a partial explanation for challenges made to the validity of cross‐university activities, such as postgraduate certificates in learning and teaching.

Virtual environments allow teachers to approach the teaching process inclusively and creatively, to facilitate the effective transfer of learning and to support student learning with new technologies regardless of various barriers. The hereby study evaluates the students’ views concerning the virtual delivery of courses during their learning process taking into consideration their former face-to-face teaching-learning experience. It was based on the theoretical part which included typical aspects of online teaching and learning are presented and the most recent studies in this area are reviewed. Following previous research, we aim to develop an innovative model of successful online teaching and learning in higher education. A questionnaire-based research methodology was designed for 355 students at a university in the North-Eastern region of Romania. The questionnaire with closed-ended items was used for assessing students’ attitudes on the online teaching activity. The results indicate students’ preference for online courses, as well as a number of significant differences, depending on the study specialisation or form of education. Any future changes to online teaching and learning in universities should also take into account students’ and teachers’ views on this particular issue. Such an approach should allow us to see whether and how effective the use of virtual teaching environments can be for both students and teachers in higher education (HE).

PurposeThis paper explores some management concepts and how applying these concepts from business to higher education can be problematic, let alone incompatible, particularly in relation to measuring quality in higher education.Design/methodology/approachIt provides a conceptual understanding of the literature on quality in the higher education context. It does so by examining the literature on students as customers, customer expectations, customer satisfaction and other management theories that have been applied to higher education.FindingsIt argues that the current bases for perceiving quality such as meeting customer expectations, satisfying the customer, ensuring quality control, meeting standards and assessing the cost associated with poor quality are in disagreement with the principal aims and measures of quality in higher education.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper can certainly benefit from many other concepts in business that have been applied in higher education, which it lacks. It only focussed on a number of key and popular ideas in management theory that have been used in higher education more broadly.Practical implicationsStudent-focussed quality initiatives can be devoid of the student as customer concept. How programs, subjects and experiences are curated can be solely for the purpose of continuous improvement. Second, universities that choose to treat the student as a customer may find it beneficial to apply a relationship marketing approach to higher education. Lastly, those against the student as customer concept may focus on the long-term impact of quality initiatives such as promoting lifelong learning, building long-term relationships with alumni and employers and those that further promote academic integrity.Originality/valueSome considerations have been offered. These considerations revisit the basic notions of teaching and learning in higher education. It puts an emphasis on sidestepping the student as customer metaphor, that learning is not expressed in dollar terms, and that the quality of the student experience cannot be measured by student evaluation alone because it is felt much later in life.

The study on electronic library and resources cannot be underestimated in the teaching and learning process in higher education in Nigeria. The paper explores the role of electronic resources as tools for effective teaching and learning in higher education. There is need to examine the benefits and challenges in the adoption of these resources. This study highlights the potential to promote teaching and learning in the digital age.