Search

Erasmus mobility has become an important feature of higher education in Europe and beyond, with the potential to generate significant changes at individual, institutional and systemic levels. More than three decades after the foundation of this successful program, evaluations reveal that, despite notable progress, several aspects of the Erasmus student experience can be further improved. Based on the lived experiences of Erasmus alumni, in this article, we explore recurrent challenges that emerge in educational mobility and how they could be better addressed. Three key dimensions are identified in the qualitative accounts of former Erasmus students and analyzed in light of previous research: mobility preparation, institutional support for integration, and recognition of study abroad.

Writing a research paper as a graduation requisite by university students is an important part of university education. It is not a simple task for most university students who face several problems during writing the graduation project. Several kinds of research have been conducted onrecognising the challenges and problems that face students in academic writing, but to the researcher's best knowledge, no study has been conducted on the problems faced in writing a graduate research paper by Jordanian undergraduate students of the English Language and Literature major. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the academic writing challenges and difficulties encountered in writing graduation papers by EFL undergraduate students in the Department of English at Alzaytoonah University of Jordan (ZUJ). The data for the study was collected through distributing a questionnaire of three parameters: attitude about writing a research paper, methodology challenges, and background knowledge about research. The questionnaire is based on identifying the causes of the students' challenges in writing their graduation papers. The respondents were 45 undergraduate students of the English Language and Literature. The findings revealed that the most important problems were lack of an academic prerequisite of teaching the techniques of how to write a research paper, lack of knowledge of research paper writing process, lack of resources, lack of the methodology, etc. Thus, for these reasons, the present study attempts to present suggestions and recommendations to overcome such hurdles faced by graduate students in writing their graduation research papers.

Students often recruit digital devices to complete their classroom activities. To determine best practices for the classroom, the present study explored the use of tablets relative to laptops and paper in the understudied context of brief, in-person, small group academic tasks. One-hundred twenty small groups of two to three undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one device (paper, laptop, or tablet) and one set-up (a single shared device or multiple individual devices) in a 3 × 2 between-subjects design. Data were collected in 2019-2021. Students completed one group task that culminated in a knowledge quiz and a second group task that culminated in writing their own quiz together. They then individually rated group members as well as reported their perceptions of satisfaction, effort, and difficulty. Open-ended questions further assessed their perceptions of technology and the three devices in question. Results showed equivalency in group outcomes and individual perceptions across devices and set-ups, with very few exceptions. Quantitative and qualitative data supported that students found advantages and drawbacks to each device and believed that all were effective tools in such a context. Educators must consider the affordances of different technologies when encouraging their use in the classroom but should be open to students using their device of choice for groupwork.

This paper presents an analysis of a hundred and one handwritten essays by master students in Informatics. The students reflected on their experiences of working with pen and paper for reading and writing as a mandatory assignment for the duration of a five-week intensive course. Taking an inductive approach, reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify patterns of meaning across the full dataset. The essays elicited insightful student reflections on learning, knowing, and being. One overarching theme, New connections, and four sub-theses were identified: Handwriting as note making, Being present for learning, Freedom to think, and Materiality of reading and writing. This study contributes to an improved understanding of the affordances of paper and laptops in the lecture room, based on a student-centred approach, and reflects on how student perspectives can be implemented during lectures.

The study explores the unaddressed washback on the English-speaking test of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE-English Language Paper 4). The HKDSE is a university entrance exam in Hong Kong which includes a group discussion speaking test known as English Language Paper 4. To identify ongoing washback effects, including sociocultural perspectives, the study analyses ongoing student washback of test-specific and non-specific preparation and how the mediating factors affect these preparations. One-hundred and ninety-nine secondary 4th to 6th grade students provided the questionnaire data in two rounds. Results from exploratory factor analysis indicate six major types of test preparation, which are categorised as two test specific, three non-specific, and one integrated type of preparation. Mediating factors comprise five categories of learner characteristics and stakeholders in and out of school. The cluster analyses identified four students' groups intertwined with the involvement of washback and the mediating factors. A strong relationship between extrinsic factors and explicit learning and intrinsic factors and implicit learning was found. The study concludes that students' washback is affected by mediating factors aside from the test; learning method choice by students (e.g. learning from entertainment content) has a strong relationship with specific mediating factors (e.g. interest in English).

Computer-based test has been administered in e-learning environments as part of ICT integration in education. Recently, online test is gaining attention in both regular and distance education institutions, and students' preference or perception of an online test versus paper-based test is crucial in successful adoption or implementation of either of the test modes by any educational institution. For this reason, this study examined undergraduate students' computer usage experience as a prerequisite for online test completion, and their perception and preference toward online test as opposed to paper-based test. It also examined how students' perception of online test differed across sex, program major, and computer usage experiences. The findings would contribute to knowledge on factors for consideration, especially by faculty and instructional designers, in successful adoption of online test in undergraduate programmes. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 213 undergraduate students at a university in Ghana, and the data were analyzed using median, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal--Wallis Test, and Spearman correlation. The results indicated that students had high level of experience in computer usage, they had positive perception and preference for online test, there was no significant differences in perception of online test between female and male students, and among students of different majors. However, there was a positive correlation between computer use experience of the students and their perception of online test. It was recommended that universities seeking to implement online assessment ensure their students are equipped with adequate skills and experiences in computer usage.

The preference of preschool children for interactive traditional paper books has long been proved. More novel than traditional interactive books are the Augmented Reality (AR) books, which took a place in the book market for more than a decade now. For this study, we have used the Mosaic approach as a form of participatory research. The main methods used included children's presentations, interviews, observations, photo-taking, and taking part in a voting procedure. Our findings showed that the requirements for using AR books are not yet met by mobile devices that the youngest users have, so their audience is still limited. Even though the AR book seemed to be more promising for engaging children's attention longer, this was not possible because of the constraints imposed by the very delicate screen handling and children expressed their preference for the traditional interactive book.

Background: Multimedia creation and curation for assignments have the potential to engage students in deeper learning. Objective: This study explored whether the same homework assignments delivered in paper versus multimedia format resulted in different student experiences. Method: Introductory psychology students submitted either traditional papers or multimedia projects to address the same assignment prompt, a process that was repeated seven times throughout four courses and was either instructor-determined or student-selected. Students were surveyed about the assignment formats, and assignment grades were analyzed. Results: Overall, students found the multimedia assignments more engaging, more enjoyable, more interesting, and more difficult than paper assignments. When assignments were instructor-determined, students reported higher perceived learning for the multimedia assignments. Assignment grades were not significantly different between assignment formats. Conclusion and teaching implications: These results suggest that moving traditional paper assignments into a multimedia format is a no-cost way to improve the student experience.

Designing standardized exams for EFL undergraduates is a matter of great concern in pedagogical practices that assess learners' academic achievements. This case study was conducted at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia, to explore the significance of educational exam standardization and its impact on the process of implementation, leading to a balanced and equitable assessment of English language skills. During the study, 250 final English skill exam questions of two semesters were analyzed. A mixed-method approach using a questionnaire and Focused Group Discussion was adopted to collect relevant data. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 16, and the qualitative data was processed by thematic analysis. The quantitative data results showed that questions were balanced, valid, and reliable in language skill exam papers designed for undergraduate English students. The qualitative data revealed four major themes -- standardization of questions, the efficacy of Bloom's taxonomy, assessment/evaluation, and alignment of the question with learning outcomes. These emerging themes highlighted the effectivness of standardizing exam papers, identified problems, and suggested ways of improvement. The study indicates that exams must be scrutinized for the sake of standardization in terms of maximum course coverage; the variety in the question item; clear, concise, and precise instructions; validity and reliability of exam papers; and the alignment of questions with the course and program learning outcomes to ensure the implementation of the revised Bloom's taxonomy. The study suggests, to generalize the results, that further investigation should be done in another Saudi university for the sake of comparison.

This study aimed to: (1) determine the effect of the problem-based service learning model based on the local wisdom of gugur gunung on the environmental concern of the students in Public Senior High School 1 Campurdarat; (2) determine the effect of problem based service learning models on the ability to write scientific papers at Public Senior High School I Campurdarat; and (3) knowing the students' impressions of the implementation of the problem based service learning model based on the local wisdom of gugur gunung in Lake Buret, Tulungagung. The method used in this study was quasi experiment. The research design used was the post-test control group design with 2 groups: (1) experimental group, which is students from class XI science 1; and (2) control group, which is students from class XI science 3 of Public Senior High School I Campurdarat, Tulungagung Regency, Indonesia. Data was obtained from post-test of environmental concern and ability to write scientific papers. From the Mann-Whitney test using SPSS, the Z count value was smaller than - Z table (-6.851 <- 1.960), and the significance value was smaller than [alpha] (0.000 <0.050), then the decision H0 was rejected which it meant there was a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group based on the measured score.