Search

The study analysed the impact of the flipped classroom (FC) approach on weaving experience, self-efficacy and students' learning achievement. To achieve this purpose, a quasi-experimental (pre-test/post-test) design, with a control group and an experimental group, was implemented. A mixed methods approach was used to evaluate the outcomes of the intervention. Forty- four first year senior high school students of an elective textile education subject participated in the study. An academic achievement test and a semi-structured group interview were employed as data-gathering instruments. Descriptive and inferential statistics (parametric and nonparametric tests), as well as thematic analysis were used to analyse the data collected. Findings of the study indicated that, regarding the acquisition of skill set and the maintenance of academic achievement, the students in the treatment group taught using the FC approach obtained higher levels of achievement juxtaposed with the students in the control group tutored with a traditional teacher-centred approach. The study further established that a flipped-classroom approach was engaging, interactive and exciting for students. The students in the experimental group, via the qualitative inquiry, expressed satisfaction with the practice in weaving and felt elevated in their knowledge, attitudes, self-learning, problem-solving and critical thinking skills acquisition. Therefore, the study recommended that the school adopt the FC approach as a method of teaching studio-based Visual Art subjects to support instructional hours.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study explores the perceptions of academic and administrative managers responsible for teacher training at a public university in Colombia, as well as their views on improving such training after learning about the performance of teachers student teachers in the 2019 Saber Pro test, the differences in their test scores, and the relationships and statistical correlations between these outcomes and the students' personal, family, socioeconomic and academic characteristics. Our findings show significant differences in the student teachers' mean scores and performance when data are grouped according to personal, socioeconomic and academic conditions; a significant relationship between performance and student teacher characteristics; and correlations between critical reading scores and the other competencies assessed. Our data also highlight the lack of knowledge among academic and administrative managers about students' life circumstances and the diversity of factors that may impact their performance; the importance of correlational data; the difference between expected and true outcomes; the inequity under which students seem to pursue their education; the limitations in access to resources; the training required for teachers to be able to analyze quantitative data and use specific software; the impact of teachers' critical reading skills on student outcomes; the importance of data-driven decision-making; and the need for teachers to engage in quantitative research practices.

This study investigated perceptions of organizational change management among executive coaches working with British higher-education leaders and factors that make leaders effective when managing change. This basic qualitative research used semi-structured interviews with eight executive coaches selected through purposeful sampling. As main challenges to efficient, inclusive change management, participants mentioned leaders' lack of a strategic vision or plan, lack of leadership and future leader development programs, and lack of clarity in decision-making. They recognized that leaders' academic and professional profiles are positively viewed and said that, with coaching and support in leadership and strategic planning, these people can inspire the academic community and promote positive change. Additional emphasis was given to the role of coaching in the development of key soft skills (honesty, responsibility, resiliency, creativity, proactivity, and empathy, among others), which are necessary for effective change management and leadership in higher education. The paper's implications have two aspects. First, the lessons of the actual explicit content of the coaches' observations (challenges to efficient change management and views of leaders); second, the implications of these observations (how coaching can help and what leaders need).

This paper looks at Ghanaian Colleges of Education tutors' perception on the personal and institutional preparedness for online teaching-learning during the COVID-19 crisis. The study selected 24 tutors from 9 Colleges of Education (CoEs) in the Eastern and Greater Accra Regions. 7 CoEs are in Eastern while 2 are in Greater Accra. Using the convenience sampling technique, 24 tutors were selected as the accessible population. The research design used was the qualitative with a semi-structured interview conducted over the telephone because of social distancing. The data collected was analysed manually. The results indicate that only 33.3% of the respondents could teach confidently online, while 66.7% needed more training to confidently deliver lessons online. Furthermore, none of the 9 colleges had policies on online teaching even though each college had at least 16 policies regarding the good governance of the colleges. It is therefore recommended that tutors of CoEs should be given support in ICT and online skills and competencies through continuous training.

Although there is consensus in the current literature that feedback plays a fundamental role to student performance and learning, there is debate about what makes it effective. Particularly, some assessment instruments, like the National Student Survey in the United Kingdom, reveal that evaluation and feedback are systematically among the areas that students are less satisfied with. The aim of this article is to describe the indirect feedback technique, which was devised and used by the principle author in his previous tenure as a professor at the University of Cadiz in Spain and to reflect on how it can be applied to overcome some of the limitations presented in a different context of practice. It is argued that indirect feedback meets many of the principles of good practice (facilitation of self-assessment skills, delivery of quality information about the students' learning, encouragement of dialogue, and improvement of teaching).

The present study aimed at investigating nomophobia prevalence, thus, recurrence of anxiety without a smartphone, with preservice teachers in the Colleges of Education, Ghana. An actual sample of 345 preservice teachers responded to a 20-item questionnaire on nomophobia (NMP-Q). A one-way MANOVA between different groups statistics was applied in determining the differences in nomophobic behaviours among preservice teachers based on non-technology-related variables (gender, age, specialism, subjective economic status, sleep/rest hours, and religion) and technology-related variables (number of smartphones owned, smartphone ownership duration, active internet services, and daily internet usage time). The results evidenced that the vast majority of preservice teachers had mild to severe nomophobia, and their most significant anxiety was related to access to information and communication. Besides, non-technology-related variables in gender, sleep hours, and subjective economic status significantly impacted the preservice teachers' nomophobia. Technology-related variables that significantly influenced the nomophobic behaviour of preservice teachers included the number of smartphones owned, smartphone ownership duration, and active internet service. A sizable majority of the preservice teachers showed signs of mild to severe nomophobia. The present study provides prefatory support for the prevalence of nomophobia among the Ghanaian preservice teachers.

The engagement and motivation of students in drawing activities are of great importance to their learning processes. The decline in attendance and difficulties stimulating the drawing skills of students make it crucial to develop novel methodologies that can overcome these difficulties. In visual art education research, utilizing game elements within a non-gamified setting (gamification) has become of great interest, as it can directly increase motivation to learn drawing and therefore activity in learning to draw. This research implemented gamification for home economics students as an instructional strategy in the teaching and learning of drawing and evaluated its impact on the students' drawing skills. A quasi-experimental design was implemented and a questionnaire was used to collect data, with a five-point Likert scale. Purposive sampling was used to select the one hundred Senior High School students from Ghana who participated in the study. The respondents' scores on both non-gamified and gamified tasks were compared using a paired sample test and independent sample t-test. The collected quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 16.0. The implementation of gamification stimulated the interest of the respondents in drawing, thereby engaging and motivating them to improve their drawing skills. There was a statistically significant difference between gamified and non-gamified approaches for teaching drawing. Gamification positively affected the cognition of the respondents and boosted their motivation to draw and improve upon their drawing skills.

Chatbot usage is evolving rapidly in various fields, including higher education. The present study's purpose is to discuss the effect of a virtual teaching assistant (chatbot) that automatically responds to a student's question. A pretest-posttest design was implemented, with the 68 participating undergraduate students being randomly allocated to scenarios representing a 2 × 2 design (experimental and control cohorts). Data was garnered utilizing an academic achievement test and focus groups, which allowed more in depth analysis of the students' experience with the chatbot. The results of the study demonstrated that the students who interacted with the chatbot performed better academically comparing to those who interacted with the course instructor. Besides, the focus group data garnered from the experimental cohort illustrated that they were confident about the chatbot's integration into the course. The present study essentially focused on the learning of the experimental cohort and their view regarding interaction with the chatbot. This study contributes the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot literature to improve student academic performance. To our knowledge, this is the first study in Ghana to integrate a chatbot to engage undergraduate students. This study provides critical information on the use and development of virtual teaching assistants using a zero-coding technique, which is the most suitable approach for organizations with limited financial and human resources.

Quality Assurance (QA) concepts and applications in Higher Education (HE) emerge from evolving meanings related to HE's dynamic relationship with social, economic, cultural, and technological developments. The latter has been redefined by the growth spurred by the forms distance and online education acquired during the last decades. Creating a roadmap with clearly articulated meanings of quality and consistent key actions fills a need for the involved communities to reground the research, policymaking, and the related discourse. Our current work consists of a thorough meta-analysis on all available research in every identified pertinent field. It is a qualitative review of the concepts, definitions, and approaches about quality in general, but also specifically, in e-learning in HE, as they have globally appeared in peer-reviewed journals, government reports, and web pages. As we left no stone unturned in enquiring regarding the meanings, uses, evolution, and applicability of the revealed variables it is our hope that the roadmap we provide here will guide future research and support policy-making in the field. The present study is part of the research project "e-learning Quality Assurance Design Standards in Higher Education" (e-QADeSHE), which was funded by Laureate International Universities as the winning research project for the "International David Wilson Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning" (2015 edition).

Student satisfaction is the pinnacle upon which any effective online learning hinges. It is for that reason, educators design course activities that allow students to effectively practice, work together on relevant projects to personalize their learning. In emerging institutions like the Colleges of Education in Ghana that are traditionally inclined toward teachers' professional development through conventional face-to-face interaction, online education became the medium of interaction for the first time to promote social distancing in response to COVID-19 pandemic while enhancing access and continuous professional development of the human resources for the education sector. This basic qualitative study examined the conduct of online teaching in a traditional face-to-face educational system in Ghana. The analysis of the semi-structured interviews revealed that the basic infrastructure for online teaching and learning is absent. Specifically, student trainees are saddled by poor internet connectivity, high cost of data in an emergency remote teaching environment. Due to these challenges, a significant proportion of the participating student-teachers wouldn't choose online learning for their work and professional development. In view of this, the study recommends policy makers to institutionalize online education into the curricula of all professional institutions of higher education in Ghana.

Synchronous education is being integrated at various levels and capacities in distance education offering learners and facilitators a virtual web-conferencing environment where, although they may be geographically separated, they are afforded the flexibility of being virtually present in a shared real-time space. This research aims to reflect on what skills synchronous facilitators perceive as necessary for entry-level facilitators to demonstrate competence in to adequately support learners in the synchronous learning environment. Participants were interviewed based on their experience facilitating within the Adobe Connect learning environment and discussed perceived technical/operational, classroom management, communication and design/delivery competencies an entry-level facilitator must possess to foster learner success in a synchronous virtual environment. Based on the data collected, the researchers developed a competency guideline that may assist higher education organizations, leadership and educators in ensuring entry-level facilitators are prepared with the appropriate level of competence to support learners while overcoming the challenges that may arise in such a technology enhanced and dependent environment. The researchers also suggest an orientation pathway to support the entry-level synchronous facilitator with their transition into the synchronous environment.

Distance education requires an instructional design approach that can lead to educational transformation. This is characterised by advanced flexibility, learner autonomy and extensive use of digital technologies to enhance learning outcomes. The main feature of such methodology is the physical distance between teaching staff, peers and educational institutions. Various technological tools are used to bridge this distance and improve communication and interaction. This article attempts to review the literature in the field, with the aim of highlighting strategies for enhancing communication and interaction in online learning environments. After discussing the theoretical framework for online communication and interaction, the authors outline the factors involved in creating well-structured, interactive and dynamic online courses and programmes for higher education students. The article explores the multi-dimensional aspects of communication in online learning environments and the differing forms of interaction involved. Using qualitative methods, the authors' aim is to produce a framework to help tutors and instructional designers develop more effective online courses in higher education. In addition, this article may be of value to researchers and scholar-practitioners interested in communication issues, to online learning designers, and to institutional managers recruiting teaching staff for online educational courses.

E-learning is part of the new dynamic that characterises educational systems at the start of the 21st century. Like society, the concept of e-learning is subject to constant change. In addition, it is difficult to come up with a single definition of e-learning that would be accepted by the majority of the scientific community. The different understandings of e learning are conditioned by particular professional approaches and interests. An international project, based on the participation of experts around the world, was undertaken to agree on a definition of e-learning. To this end, two main research activities were carried out. First, an extensive review was conducted of the literature on the concept of e-learning, drawing from peer-reviewed journals, specialised web pages, and books. Second, a Delphi survey was sent out to gather the opinions of recognised experts in the field of education and technology regarding the concept of e-learning with a view to reaching a final consensus. This paper presents the outcomes of the project, which has resulted in an inclusive definition of e-learning subject to a high degree of consensus that will provide a useful conceptual framework to further identify the different models in which e-learning is developed and practiced. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) imply the rethinking of many of the current evaluation systems, since the new pedagogical models now focus on the learning acquired through the students' personal work and on the establishment of the ideal conditions for them to achieve the learning outcomes of the proposed educational objectives. In this context, it has been a standard practice in the last years for social science undergraduate programmes to incorporate at least one major assessment exercise in the final (fourth) year of studies in the form of a project. This Final Year Project introduces a new problem-solving situation in undergraduate programmes and students must use their initiative to identify the research problems, decide on the information they need and how to obtain it, use the collected information to solve the research problems and present the results in an adequate way. This article presents an efficient and objective guide for the assessment process of the Final Year Project (FYP) in social sciences which can easily be customised for different social sciences curricula. More analytically, the guide which has been developed to help higher education institutions create their own FYP assessment systems starts with the definition of the final year project and the description of the structure that has to be followed for its realisation, continues with the analysis of its competences and their assessment, and ends with a proposal for implementation of the assessment procedure and the role of the evaluation agents. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)

This paper presents the fundamental characteristics of the Final Year Project (FYP), its associated competences and some evaluation standards that derived from a research conducted by the regional government of Catalonia (Spain) and the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency. More analytically, the paper begins with the definition of the Final Year Project in social sciences, continues with the identification and analysis of its associated competences and the basic phases for its realization and finishes with the presentation of some fundamental evaluation standards. Our final proposal is considered as objective and effective not only for the realization of the FYP by the students, but also for its evaluation by the instructors, since it can easily be customized for different social sciences curricula. (Contains 6 tables.)