This paper will consider the OU project in relation to discussions about the wider learning implications of the inclusion of service user and carer experience in the curriculum. At the time of writing, three interviews have been recorded with members of the Service Users and Carers group.
INTRODUCTION
The NASP standards formed the basis of the study and daily, routine activities of school psychologists were identified as examples of each standard. The findings of the study will be used to examine the effectiveness of the course signature curriculum and activities.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Different definitions of competency-based curricula are identified as one of the problems with consistency of the concept. This article highlights that the role of the psychometrician is still central to the role of the school psychologist, even though universities have changed their curricula.
RESULTS
On this item, the majority of responses (48.7%) reported having somewhat high competence or very high competence (17.1%), with 34.2% feeling very low or somewhat low in competence on the area. The majority of candidates agreed that they were very proficient (23.5%) or somewhat proficient (48.8%) in this area.
DISCUSSION
Only .09% of respondents considered themselves very competent and 31.6% said they were somewhat competent in providing teacher training in school psychology information. Sixty percent of the candidates identified themselves as very confident (22.4%) or somewhat confident (37.5%), while 32% considered themselves to have low or very low competence in this area.
Bethesda MD: NASP [online] available at http://www.nasponline.org/standards/practice-model/domains-of-practice.aspx [April 30, 2013]. Bethesda, MD: NASP [online] available at http://www.nasponline.org/standards/practice-model/domains-of-practice.aspx [April 30, 2013].
1 Introduction
In 2011/12, the project was implemented across five programmes, led by deans and involving all their first-year module coordinators. Coordinators highlighted the important purpose of reducing assessment overload and developing assessment for learning activities in their first year modules.
2 Literature Review
Curriculum Design and Programme Mapping (focus on assessment)
The UCD Assessment ReDesign project focused on first year assessment but it was decided that the most useful way to address this would be to develop a program approach and use a curriculum mapping tool as a first step in exploring these assessment practices. Based on the literature in this area, UCD had developed a set of assessment design principles for the first year, both for staff working at the program level (i.e. deans, principals) and for module coordinators considering their first year assessments.
3 The Project
Key features of the UCD Assessment ReDesign Project
The instrument allowed an in-workshop score on the extent to which the program outcomes for each module were addressed (and assessed). As in Table 2 above, the workshops therefore focused on both senior program leaders (Workshops 1 and 2) and the module coordinators (Workshop 3), although these categories of staff are not always mutually exclusive and, based on the Programme/School size and context, many staff attended all three sessions.
4 Research Methodology
1-hour post-project workshops to support first-year module coordinators in implementing a new approach to assessment. However, the 'score' was mainly used as an instrument to promote reflection and discussion about the program outcomes in relation to their assessment.
5 Research Results
Programme Leaders' Perspective
- Motivation for getting involved in the Project
- Strengths of the project process
- Measuring the success of the project
Professional programs in particular recognized the potential of the inventory as a means of meeting accreditation requirements. The primary goal of the project was to redesign the first year assessment to specifically address issues such as: assessment overload; relying too much on one type of assessment;
Stage 1 Module Coordinators' Perspective
Given that the sample of 22 staff represents 31 modules, this figure could account for approximately 17-19 of the modules that applied this principle to them. Given that the sample of 22 staff represents 31 modules, this figure may account for approximately 13-15 of the modules that introduced these activities.
6 Discussion and Conclusions
The class quizzes, class discussion groups and other class group work would be introduced by many (between 7-10) staff members. There is some evidence from the participating programs of curriculum innovations stimulated by discussions over the course of the project.
7 Summary and Key Recommendations
- Introduction
- Background and literature review
- Curriculum and curriculum theory in higher education
- Higher education curriculum change
- Methodology
- Findings and Questions
- Drivers of the ''new'' - Layers of interconnected practices
- International Accreditation - An internalised external layer
- Did the Global Financial Crisis Matter?
- Money matters
- Where is the student with two, or two billion, brains, the bionic student, the borderless student?
- Conclusion and Implications
- Curriculum as layers of practice
- The process of researching curriculum practice matters…
In short, the contribution of all institutional layers ''mattered'' to the project's success. During this time, Australia's economy remained one of the strongest economies in the world.
Empowering Students
Aims and objectives
Until now, the voices and views of one of the most important stakeholders involved, namely the students themselves, can often appear largely absent from the debate. The overall aim of the project was to improve understanding of the learning and teaching needs and experiences of the diverse group of MD20 students who are participating or potentially participating in programs within the School of Health and Life Sciences.
Methodology
Using a narrative or biographical approach to capture individual life histories and student journeys from within the wider, diverse MD20 group (Field, Merrill & West, 2012). Ethical approval for the project was sought and granted by the School's Research Ethics Committee.
Research phases
- Usage of Learning Development Centre by MD20 students
- Retention and progression data: is there a problem?
Further research is needed to examine the ethnicity and gender distribution of the MD20 group. One of the key issues is whether MD20 students are as academically successful as their peers.
- Coding and initial thematic analysis
- Setting the scene
It is imperative that we determine the relevant rates of performance of the MD20 group and the general student population. This space reflects the notion of the Cultural Interface (Nakata, 2002), where cultural intersections, encounters and convergences occur.
1 Introduction
Integration
Despite some mixed results regarding the exact nature of the relationship, mental health and academic achievement appear to be related. Mental health problems are also likely to impact on, and be influenced by, a student's ability to integrate socially at university.
Help Seeking
Precursors to mental health problems such as high stress levels also play an important role. When faced with a mental health difficulty, the perception and understanding that help is needed relies on mental health education.
Aims and Hypotheses
Mental health literacy is “the ability to access, understand and use information in a way that promotes and maintains good mental health” (Lauber et al. Given the likelihood that as as the symptoms of mental illness progress, individuals are less likely to actively seek help themselves, it is important that universities proactively promote mental health literacy and help-seeking.
2 Method
48 Participants
Participants who provided their student number were invited to participate in a follow-up online survey by e-mail at the end of the first semester. At the end of the second semester, students were followed up again by e-mail using the same procedure described above.
3 Results
Regression analysis was used to evaluate the predictive power of each integration scale in predicting subsequent help-seeking attitudes. While many scales significantly predicted both forms of help-seeking, no single integration scale accounted for unique variance in predicting either form of help-seeking.
4 Discussion
Additionally, they may never have given much thought to what it would be like to seek help or how to respond if a mental health concern arose. On the other hand, many people with mental health problems spend a lot of time thinking about getting help, imagining positive and negative scenarios.
5 References
Comparison to TBL
In TBL, as in our design, students are responsible for preparation and team success. In our design, we have chosen to let students reflect on their own work instead of giving feedback to other students.
The course in general
TBL implements this by having students give feedback to each other about how they contribute to the groups' work. We have chosen to evaluate our design by analyzing how students perceived that working in basic groups affected their learning.
Collaboration in base groups
18 students from 12 different groups have suggested that one of the things they can do to improve the group's work is to encourage other group members to participate more actively in the collaboration. Several group members seem to struggle with finding their own role and that of other members in the group.
Riches
- Background
- CHILDREN 1 st Charity
- Promoting the ''Rags to Riches'' Challenge
- Student Feedback
- Feedback from the Charity
- Conclusion
- Sustainability in higher education
- Social and environmental reporting as a pedagogical tool
- Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory
- An experience of knowledge creation using SER
- Methods and Methodology
- Results
- Students' feedback
- Feedback from members of staff
- Self-generated feedback
- Discussions and final comments
Information about sustainability is intended to be one of the most important drivers for changing practices in the. This part of the coursework opened the floor for the 'socialization' mode of knowledge creation.
Introduction
The study used the Kindle e-reader as the most affordable and common e-reader in use in the UK. This article presents the early results of a pilot research project at the UK's Open University examining the experiences of 20 students and their four tutors using e-readers for study.
Educational setting
22 of the invited 52 students from both modules agreed to the project. 13 out of 20 students receive financial support for their studies, and three students are considered disabled.
Findings
I found it quite easy to concentrate and learn as much from the Kindle as from the printed text. Another interesting feature of the Kindle's size is the ability to do what we describe as stealth study.
Discussion
I would be uncomfortable reading a textbook at the hairdressers, but the kindle is invisible and no one doubts it. In fact, this week was easier for me than a textbook that would make me feel conspicuous in a public place.
Acknowledgements
The purpose of this paper is to present some studies that led to the design and development of the LMD prototype application. To what extent does the medium of video help to develop an awareness among our students, from an early stage of their degrees, of the importance of transferable skills related to employability (such as critical reflection and the ability to communicate complex concepts ) in addition to technical skills (such as the ability to use a particular programming language).
3 Studies
Study 1 - Questionnaire
A much smaller number of participants noted that the effort required to perform such activities might prevent them from doing so, for example: "Many of the tasks would be quite time-consuming, and this would be the limiting factor rather than the nature of production be itself''. First, those students who carry out some of the activities described above have recognized that the transferable skills they gain from doing so may benefit them in terms of future employment prospects, rather than for any financial rewards.
Study 2 - Student Workshop
On the other hand, respondents believed that the public nature of resources supporting such activities may reveal a (perceived) lack of or fragile knowledge, which may prevent these students, especially from the early stages of their education, from engaging with such resources. On the other hand, embarrassment associated with the video medium - for example being 'in front of the camera' and hearing one's own voice - was seen as a significant disadvantage, as was a perception that the process allegedly reveals a (perceived) lack of or fragile knowledge .
Study 3 - Embedding Video in a Module
However, there was an unavoidable interruption of video creation during the semester. In terms of feedback, many of the benefits highlighted in the previous workshop were further confirmed.
4 Towards the LMD Application
Design Methodology
In the first few weeks, all groups produced videos, but by the end of the semester this decreased to about 20% of the groups. However, there was an interesting "peak" during week 6 as part of the "printing project" in which students were required to quickly design and build a simple, playful system using a random sensor.
Technical Design
In the sessions, students were asked to write down requirements for the system on sticky notes, which were then discussed as a group and drawn together into formal functional and non-functional requirements. Currently the prototype is installed on a dedicated server (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS) at the School of Computing and can only be accessed from within the school to reduce potential.
Functionality
This will also reduce the load on the server hosting the LMD application, as the video will be embedded rather than hosted locally. As noted in the semester-long study, many of our students were happy to post their work publicly, so it could be argued that the privacy concerns we had for this project.
5 Future Work
6 References
Time-Critical conversations Example 1
Student A: I urgently need help from my fellow maters, I know this has been asked before, but where is the OTC triple room, and how do I get there. Student C: isn't the maths office just on the ground floor of the maths building.
Collaborative learning
Interactions between students
Messages of support Example 1
Awww sorry to hear that. We'll all still be here when you get back though!
Sending good wishes your way! Don't hesitate to get in touch with us if we can help in any way
- Organising meetings / study groups Example 1
- Current affairs
- Online conversations need not take place in real time
- Conversations in VPAL extend to all group members
- Provision of a more level playing field
- Constant availability and access
- Collaborative learning and co-creation of knowledge
- Developing written communication skills
- The role of a facilitator in VPAL
- Online interaction does not mean isolation
- The Present Study
- Participants and Sampling
- Survey Content
- Description of the modules
- Preliminary Findings from Phase Three
For the purpose of this study, specific assessment questions were included in the SMFS. A final potential impact of the move to include group work as a summative assessment relates to the number of students registering for the module.
