Browsing by Author "Heinrich E"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A proposal for student-centred first year teaching
    (Ako Aotearoa, 2018-07-01) Heinrich E; McDonald J
    We present a new proposal for teaching at first year university level that better adjusts to the individual strengths and weaknesses of students as they enter university. We suggest that changes in teaching approaches and student support are urgently required to facilitate successful outcomes that serve individuals, institutions and society well. Students come from diverse backgrounds, many study part-time and have additional responsibilities beyond their studies. Students invest their time and money and may accumulate large financial debts for their years of study. Failure rates are substantial and even students who pass often do not build the strong foundations in subject knowledge and study skills required for successful degree completion. The pressure on students to achieve affects not only the students but also higher education institutions and teaching staff, as pass rates determine funding. Our proposal builds on a large body of literature and strong evidence of effectiveness of the Personalised System of Instruction (PSI) that was popular more than 50 years ago. Combining this with Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and our experience of effective educational practice we provide an outline for how such a proposal might be implemented. Through paying close attention to the design of the learning environment and following the principles of SDT, our proposal advocates explicitly supporting the development of autonomy, competence and relatedness in our students and thus aims to increase both student motivation to succeed and student success. Fundamentally, our proposal is about substantially increasing the opportunity for meaningful pedagogic conversations between students and teachers. How fast and how well a student progresses through the course will be determined not by administrative constraints but by the student themselves. Students at all levels of subject knowledge and learning skills at the start of the course should have a strong chance to pass the course and do so well. Through direct engagement with students, the teaching team can adapt and focus their formative feedback to meet individual student needs as well as inform course design. In effect, we present a way to transform the conventional course from a static set of resources, lectures and activities programmed for administrative convenience to a living, breathing and continually evolving process. Important elements include: flexible semester durations based on individual student needs; opportunity to learn from formative feedback to ensure students cover all learning objectives; mandated, focussed, one-to-one discussions with teachers; scheduled opportunities for student-led problem-solving and discussion; study plans developed by students to match their own circumstances and knowledge; and a well-structured and responsive support network. We ask students to take responsibility for their learning. Through a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews, higher education teachers and learning and writing consultants have provided feedback on our proposal. Their feedback echoes the literature reviewed and we have documented their endorsements, cautions and insights with respect to potential implementation. Our interviewees see the potential for assisting students based on their individual needs and for ensuring that students move on with solid knowledge foundations and study skills. What came across strongly is the passion educators have for helping students and the satisfaction they gain from direct contact with students. It is central to our proposal to significantly increase the number of hours invested into student support. The number of casual support hours per student in first year courses in the mathematical and information sciences sits currently at about 1.5 hours per student and semester, lacking well beyond what is offered in other disciplines. We argue that this needs to be lifted substantially to about 8 hours to ensure that students pass first year courses with strong levels of subject knowledge and learning skills. We propose that the additional support would result in substantially higher pass rates and improved retention at higher levels of study, paying back the initial outlay. From the evidence presented in this report, our clear recommendation is that our proposed approach is piloted within one or two institutions with a limited number of courses in order to i) properly determine the costs of implementation and ii) evaluate the degree to which anticipated benefits accrue.
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    An exploration of course and cohort communication spaces in Discord, Teams, and Moodle
    (ASCILITE, 2022-12-30) Heinrich E; Thomas H; Kahu ER
    This research examined the impact of supplementing a learning management system, Moodle, with communication tools, Discord and Teams, to support communication in blended and distance undergraduate courses in computer science, information technology, mathematics and statistics at a New Zealand university with well-established use of Moodle. Nineteen students participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings show that adding Discord or Teams increases information and knowledge exchange and helps students to connect with peers and teachers in their courses. Teams was beneficial particularly in settings with formal group work. Discord, which enables both students and staff to set up additional communication channels that are not restricted to course enrolments, was instrumental in connecting students across year levels with peers and alumni. This enabled discussions on course selection, career options and disciplinary topics beyond the course curriculum. Importantly, these beyond-course communication spaces nurtured belonging to wider discipline and study communities. The research establishes the importance of the increased levels of communication by highlighting the effects on student learning and connections to others. Looking beyond the specific tools, the level of formality and the degree of student co-ownership are identified as key factors in supporting the within- and beyond-course communication spaces. Implications for practice or policy: Learning management systems provide valuable course support but do not meet all learning and teaching communication needs, partly due to their formal and university-controlled nature. Educators and students benefit from using strong chat tools with improved information and knowledge exchange. Both educators and students experience enhanced belonging when using collaboration and chat tools. Students value Discord’s informality and student-led characteristics. Educators who use Teams to support formal group work must carefully manage integration with Moodle.
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    Back to the future with old-fashioned conversations: Building relationships and individualising support with educational technologies
    (Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, 2018-01-01) Heinrich E; McDonald J; Campbell M; Willems J; Adachi C; Blake D; Doherty I; Krishnan S; Macfarlane S; Ngo L; O’Donnell M; Palmer S; Riddell L; Story I; Suri H; Tai J
    Recent advances in ICT have had a profound effect on tertiary education. However, critical and social theorists caution that the relationship between teacher and student is still central and educational research over many years suggests that some of the most successful pedagogical methods are those which strengthen the relationship between teacher and student and which support student development of relatedness, competence and autonomy. In this paper, we propose a new approach to course design and organisation which builds on lessons from the past while taking advantage of the affordances of contemporary technology. We summarise data from interviews with teachers and learning support staff and conclude with our hopes for the future.
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    Can learning analytics provide useful insights? An exploration on course level
    (Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, 2019-01-01) Heinrich E
    This concise paper reports on an analysis of access logs of a first year university course that was delivered in a blended format. This analysis is an initial step in a wider project aimed at investigating if learning analytics can provided useful insights on course level, targeting both student learning and the needs of teachers. Preliminary findings show potential in noting when students need targeted help, a lack of correlation between access logs and grades, and insights into the degree by which course completion rates are affected by the lack of student engagement.
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    Group-based journal review: opportunities for researcher development and enjoyment
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2025-04-03) Heinrich E; Hill G; Kelder J-A; Picard M
    The availability of expert reviewers, essential for academic publishing, is increasingly under threat, due to workload pressures and lack of development pathways. This inquiry, undertaken by the editors of an emergent higher education journal, draws on reviewers’ experiences as articulated in ‘reviewer stories’ and examines key questions around reviewer experiences and development pathways as well as the role of reviewing in the development of research skills and academic identity formation. This article shines a light on the elusive practice of journal reviewing and confirms group-based review as a successful approach for supporting researcher development and bringing enjoyment into academic practice.
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    Revolutionising educational technology: The imperative for authentic qualitative research
    (Elsevier Ltd., 2024-08-17) Heinrich E
    The field of educational technology research has been described as dominated by quantitative approaches, superficial and lacking methodological capacity. Calls for more qualitative research and for bringing researchers from diverse backgrounds together have been made to contribute towards solving complex educational challenges. This research employed a critical methodological literature review to examine 1538 research articles published in 2021 editions of 13 top educational technology research journals and identified 168 qualitative and 231 mixed research articles. Applying a research description framework, a detailed study of these two subsets shows that only half of the articles describe their research design and even less address researcher beliefs (31.5% for qualitative, 6.5% for mixed research). Of the mixed research articles, only 20% demonstrate strong qualitative characteristics. The detailed examination of the methodological descriptions undertaken in this research highlights that prior reviews overestimate the qualitative characteristics of especially mixed research studies and that those studies in general do not have the methodological underpinning required for drawing on different perspectives. The article contributes a simplified framework for the description of research approaches which can be used by editors to outline their expectations for research descriptions in a way accessible to prospective authors from a wide variety of backgrounds. The article calls on journal editors to proactively facilitate publication of educational technology research that brings together researchers from different substantive areas and belief systems. Articles that provide authentic qualitative research that is rigorously defended will offer new conceptualizations for addressing the complex challenges educational technologies aim to address.