GPT Chat: Useful or Not in Supporting Learning in Higher Education

Peer Assessment plays an important role in facilitating a collaborative learning environment among students in Higher Education. It can be an effective platform for Team-Based activities and to promote cooperative learning. Such approaches are being introduced at different curricula levels as students who engage with cooperative learning tend to exhibit higher academic achievement, better critical thinking and deeper understanding of teaching contents. They can also build more positive and supportive relations with peers which is a crucial organizational skill. However, very few studies have investigated the use of peer assessment for informing cooperative learning in Higher Education. Can Peer Assessment be used to promote cooperative learning among students in Higher Education? This paper explores a second year undergraduate module titled ‘Design, Construction and Test’ in the Department of Electronic Engineering at York. This module has a Peer Review component in one of the assessments. A total of 12 groups participated in this module and using content analysis, their peer review reports were analyzed. The findings highlighted five key factors that contribute towards cooperative learning: delegation, team leadership, attendance, active engagement and effective communication. Groups which implemented these elements within their teams experienced effective collaboration among team members whereas groups which experienced conflicts among peers reflected on the lack of some of these. Peer Assessment gives students an efficient platform to understand the benefits of cooperative learning. To facilitate collaboration in an effective manner, educators must emphasize these factors when exercising Team-Based activities in their curricula.

PurposeThere is a need for higher education to produce graduates who are motivated to transfer learning into the workplace. Motivated graduates are work-ready and associated with increased performance. Presently, the research field around motivation to transfer learning by students in higher education is not clear and is inconsistent.Design/methodology/approachThis scoping review provides an overview of the characteristics of the literature, including key concepts, recommendations and gaps based on eight published articles on the motivation of students in higher education to transfer learning.FindingsThe results reflected a research field, which focused primarily on the influence of specific factors, namely student characteristics, educational design, the workplace environment, and on higher education students' motivation to transfer learning. The lack of a shared conceptual definition of motivation to transfer learning in higher education appears to influence the description of the results from the included studies. Most of the previous studies applied rigorous research designs.Originality/valueThis seemingly stunted research field related to higher education students' motivation to transfer learning needs to be amplified to influence the development of work-ready graduates from higher education. Approaches towards including all elements of motivation, expanding to other fields in higher education, including low-income countries, may be a proximal step in enhancing the trajectory of this research field.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast characteristics of use and adoption of mobile learning in higher education in developed and developing countries. A comparative case study based on a survey questionnaire was conducted with 189 students (undergraduate and postgraduate) from Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Adelaide in Australia. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was employed as the theoretical framework. The results indicated that higher education students in developed and developing countries use a range of technologies for learning, with major differences between Uganda and Australia. The study concludes that mobile learning in higher education in developed and developing country contexts is still at an experimental stage with students using mobile devices in pedagogically limited ways.

<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>

Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in pedagogy and learning in higher education supports the concept of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). Mobile devices and applications with educational purposes are part of using online ICT and facilitate autonomous learning in education. Using mobile applications for education has significantly improved in the last few years. However, there is still a gap, in which this concept is still not widely known and frequently experienced by learners. As a part of supporting TEL in higher education and filling this gap, the department of Computer and System Sciences at Stockholm University in Sweden is planning to develop a mobile application for the SciPro system. SciPro is the computer-mediated communication platform to support enhancement of thesis quality and facilitate autonomous learning in higher education, at both Bachelor and Master levels. This study aims to investigate and evaluate learners’ perspectives about utility of mobile applications in higher education and specifically to support SciPro functionalities. Almost 95% of the respondents use mobile applications for higher education and believe in the utility of mobile applications for supporting learning in higher education. This is while there are a few respondents (less than 5%), who do not fully share this opinion. More than 70% of the respondents think that a SciPro mobile application will add value to their thesis process. Even though it may not directly affect the speed and quality of the thesis, it will increase mobility, availability, and flexibility of accessing information and resources in SciPro.KeywordsTechnology Enhanced Learning (TEL)Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)Mobile ApplicationApplicationsLearningHigher EducationThesis Process

Assessment in higher education has been dominated by traditional practices that mainly focus on grades for student progression. However, there has been some transformation in assessment due to the advancement in education. Generally, assessment is viewed as central to student learning and experience. Assessment as learning, is not just an addition to learning and teaching, but it presents an opportunity through which students’ involvement in assessment could manifest as part of learning: assessment is learning-oriented. Assessment as Learning in Higher Education is about student empowerment; hence, students take ownership of their own learning process. Furthermore, assessment as learning promotes constructivism through student engagement and knowledge construction. This bibliometric analysis analysed the trends evident from research on assessment as learning and implementation in Higher Education. Data were retrieved from the Scopus database and analysed using VOSviewer. The thematic analysis approach was also employed. The study reveals that self-assessment is important in promoting student empowerment, which is one of the benefits of assessment as learning. It is important that higher education institutions rethink assessment as learning because this might assist in achieving the 21st-century educational goal of independent learning. The study’s findings confirm that there is a need for constructive alignment of teaching, learning and assessment; hence, assessment as learning becomes more significant. The findings provided an overview of key themes, research gaps and potential areas for future research. The insight that was gained from this bibliometric analysis will be valuable for lecturers, course designers, universities, assessors and researchers seeking to improve assessment in higher education.

Adapting new learning and teaching practices during COVID-19 pandemic has impacted students’ learning in higher education. Using a cross-sectional research methodology, the study attempted to understand the cross-cultural impacts of COVID-19 on higher education students in Cambodia, Nigeria, Oman and Spain to determine the changes that COVID-19 has brought about in higher education students; examine how students' learning behaviour and attitudes have changed during COVID-19; identify the challenges they have experienced; and identify the changes that have taken place in learning and teaching in the selected countries. A total sample of 242 students was randomly selected from four higher education institutions in each of the selected countries. The study provided a cross-cultural understanding of how COVID-19 has affected students’ well-being, behaviors and learning. The results show that COVID-19 had adverse effects on the well-being of students in the four countries. Students received inadequate social support and security protection from others and instructors when they needed it. Omani students received less social support compared with the other three countries. COVID-19 had the worse effect on students’ employment in the four countries. The effect pressed much concern on Nigerian students who experience a great job loss. Students from the four countries were required to put a lot of effort and energy to fulfil the requirements in the program.

Adapting new learning and teaching practices during COVID-19 pandemic has impacted students' learning in higher education. Using a cross-sectional research methodology, the study attempted to understand the cross-cultural impacts of COVID-19 on higher education students in Cambodia, Nigeria, Oman and Spain to determine the changes that COVID-19 has brought about in higher education students;examine how students' learning behaviour and attitudes have changed during COVID-19;identify the challenges they have experienced;and identify the changes that have taken place in learning and teaching in the selected countries. A total sample of 242 students was randomly selected from four higher education institutions in each of the selected countries. The study provided a cross-cultural understanding of how COVID-19 has affected students' well-being, behaviors and learning. The results show that COVID-19 had adverse effects on the well-being of students in the four countries. Students received inadequate social support and security protection from others and instructors when they needed it. Omani students received less social support compared with the other three countries. COVID-19 had the worse effect on students' employment in the four countries. The effect pressed much concern on Nigerian students who experience a great job loss. Students from the four countries were required to put a lot of effort and energy to fulfil the requirements in the program.

The world is increasingly showing the progress of human resources in the field of science and technology, and the development of knowledge about this technology also continues to accelerate rapidly with the discovery of many features that have sprung up to be utilized according to human technological needs. Especially in the field of education, the development of technology-based features is also increasing, supported by technology-based learning systems. Newly emerging learning systems, such as an online machine-based intelligence apk that performs class teaching movements according to the connection provided by humans, this effort is a type of association in the interaction between robots and humans with correspondences that are linked between signals and movements. In this case, the robot provides an educational learning system with a discourse recognition process. The use of robots in learning Arabic in higher education also shows how an educational institution designs the latest technology-based learning system with the use of online robots to assist the learning process in the classroom. This online robot learning system is closely related to the use of supporting wireless network cables in the online robot association; therefore, a bibliometric analysis will be carried out on the use of artificial intelligence in supporting Arabic language learning in higher education with the help of VOSviewer. The results of the VOSviewer overview will provide conclusions about the extent to which artificial intelligence effectively supports Arabic language learning in higher education.

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.

Psychonephrology I: Psychological function in haemodialysis and transplantation: Edited by Norman B. Levy. Plenum Medical Book Co., New York, London, 1981, pp. 287. Price not given.

Learning styles in secondary vocational education: disciplinary differences

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on students’ learning in higher education in Afghanistan

With time trends toward digital patterns are more in a manner adopted by educational institutions as providing quality education requires a certain amount of medium of communication in order to continue deliverance towards enrolled students. Online education has become a trend as people are more focused on taking online education rather than physical. The adoption of e-learning increased within pandemics as higher education commissions integrated digital patterns to ensure the engagement of students during the Covid-19 situation. Collaboration among students with course instructors and university management assists in providing students with on-time lectures. The transformation of educational practices associates several challenges and benefits for both educational institutes as well as towards students. Identifying relative online processes implemented during pandemics within e-learning techniques was the centre focus as by involving educational management certain number of pros and cons will be highlighted within the current study. The current study aims to identify the influence e-learning approach on the higher education process during the Covid-19 situation. The study's research objectives focus on identifying certain benefits of e-learning and relative challenges associated with delivering online education within pandemics. The literature section in the study will highlight traditional approaches of physical teaching and transformation being practiced within a time frame. The methodological section will provide various processes and relative directions adopted in the study in order to involve participants in the study. The current study used a mixed methodology, i.e., quantitative, qualitative etc. The participants are students of higher education, i.e., universities. By conducting interviews and a five-point Likert scale questionnaire, data is being collected from the participants. Results are generated by using thematic analysis and SPSS. The results are included in the study on the basis of which developed research objectives are justified, and the purpose of the study is accomplished. Keywords : Online Learning, Higher Education, COVID-19 DOI : 10.7176/JEP/15-9-06 Publication date : September 30th 2024

When considering the evaluation mechanisms of the deaf student learning in higher education in the field of applied linguistics, the assessment processes employed in a Language Course were highlighted in what refers to the processes of assessing, measuring, monitoring student learning and monitoring all actions of the school context. In this context, conceiving evaluation as a moment of construction of knowledge and the act of evaluating as a continuous process and constant reflection on the student's formative process, this work had the general objective of analyzing how the evaluative processes that were developed in the course of Languages: Portuguese Language of the Institute of Languages and Linguistics of the Federal University of Uberlândia that received a deaf student between the years of 2012 to 2017. The analysis axis was based on the interrelationship of the evaluation procedures with different conceptions and mechanisms of evaluation of the learning of deaf students in higher education. Specifically, I mapped and described the main instruments actually used and the ways in which the performance evaluation activities and processes were carried out. I have related the assessment mechanisms adopted in the course to those determined by the legislation. Finally, I sought to select and present the evaluation proposal that was most adequate to the linguistic specificity of the deaf student enrolled, in order to give visibility to the positive experiences so as to be presented as a proposal for the evaluation of the learning of deaf students enrolled in higher education. The rarity of studies involving an evaluation process from the perspective of Applied Linguistics, being more poignant in the context of the evaluation of teaching for deaf people, justified the research. If there is a notable lack of publications focusing on evaluative aspects in the field of language teaching, when looking at the perspective of language teaching for deaf students, the vacuum shown is sufficient to motivate the effort to develop this work. The methodology adopted was based on the qualitative paradigm of interpretive basis, whose methodological procedure used documentary research and the case study. The instrument of data collection was the questionnaire and as synthesis of the database, I had: a) the answers of the teachers and the deaf student to the questionnaires; b) the academic record of the deaf student; c) Decrees 5,626 / 2005 and 7,611 / 2011 as legal documents that support the deaf student's right to have a specific assessment consistent with second language learning; and d) the Political Pedagogical Project of the referred course of Languages. Regarding the theoretical-methodological framework, the study was circumscribed in the bibliographic review of the study topic and, in order to seek support for the theme involved in the present study, works such as Felice (2013, 2016) and Fidalgo (2004, 2007) in the scope of Applied Linguistics, and those of Álvarez Méndez (2002), Fernandes (2007), Perrenoud (1999), among other authors in the scope of the general educational evaluation process, based my discussions. The results indicated that the evaluation processes applied to the deaf student favored her success in the curricular components. Now, the mechanisms adopted most adapted to the needs of the student were those that contemplated their linguistic condition, that is, correction of the evaluation activities considering their second language, the "oral" tests (which I would call visual tests) in which the student was able to express her knowledge in Pounds via mediation of the interpreters, and other actions foreseen in the legal documents cited throughout this research which aim to guarantee the quality of education of the deaf. Finally, the evaluation proposal that was most adequate to the specific nature of the deaf person was the evaluation in the formative perspective because it favors the development of her learning, since the student becomes a partaker of this process, in the promotion of critical learning -reflexive.