Monday Online Presentation Session 2

Higher Education

Session Chair: Ziningi Nobuhle Jaya

09:55-10:20

69739 | Master Students’ Improvement in Information Literacy through Online Instruction

Esther Argelagós, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja / Universitat de Girona, Spain

Consuelo García, Universidad Internacional de Valencia, Spain

Jesús Privado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain

The ability to manage information from the Internet with learning purposes represents a hard task to most of the students, even in higher education, in which this ability acquires the hue of performing an academic text. The Information Problem Solving (IPS) model unpacks this ability into five different skills: defining research questions, planning search activities, processing the information found, and organize and presenting information. In this study, an IPS instruction was designed, implemented, and evaluated in order to train master students to accomplish a literature review task and write their final thesis. Since the university were this instruction took place was completely virtual, the instruction was also online. In addition, this pilot course was based in the Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model, which consider essential the following components: learning tasks, supportive information, procedural information, and task practice. Twenty-five master students participated in the whole twomonth course and fifty-five ones acted as a control group. The findings of this quasi-experimental study indicate that, after the instruction, trained students group obtained statistically better results in activities involving the following skills: defining initial questions, planning and searching in the Internet or other sources, and processing sources and material found. Regarding the skill to organize and present information, no differences were obtained between the two groups, which led us to a deep analysis to unravel the points that might be enhanced during the design and implementation of this instruction. Nevertheless, the online course showed to be an excellent tool to improve students’ IPS skills.

10:20-10:45

69785 | Double Didactics Design to Prepare Future Educators

Judith Hanke, University of Flensburg, Germany

Teachers are often not very familiar with reading strategies and methods. Therefore, students do not know what reading strategies are and how to apply them. However, they benefit greatly when using them as they foster reading competency. I teach a class for university students, who want to become teachers or work in the educational sector. The class‘s focus is reading support in which reading strategies and methods are incorporated. One important focus is the content. The first sessions of the class are destined to give the students an overview of the definition of reading, reading models, their own reading history, etc. The second target of the class is the student-centered learning approach in the form of a double didactics design. After we covered the basics, I prototype a “group of experts,” which is a student-led activity. A group of experts, composed of students, do research and teach the given topic. The students need to plan ""their lesson"" by selecting appropriate reading material and determining methods. This means that the student-centered learning approach puts the students in the position of the teacher, by having them teach their fellow students. A discussion follows after each session, in which the implementation of the reading strategy and reading methods applied are discussed. This intends that the students do not just give a regular presentation, but that they acquire knowledge, skills, and experience on how to actually implement reading strategies and reading methods in their future classroom. The presentation will explain the course design.

10:45-11:10

68583 | Dissertation Assessment: Reflections of a Novice Examiner at a University of Technology

Ziningi Jaya, Mangosuthu University of Technology, South Africa

In spite of its crucial role, the topic of assessment remains a source of contention within the education community. Differing assessment practices by different practitioners makes assessments unreliable. Assessment inconsistencies also exist in higher education where academics and industry professionals are responsible for assessing research dissertations. The main objectives of the current reflective study are to improve my assessment practices by critiquing a dissertation examination tool and making recommendations based on my personal experience. In trying to investigate dissertation examination practices, only limited recorded information was found on this topic. Therefore, since the assessment tool provided did not detail all assessment criteria for the dissertations, knowledge had to be drawn from personal past experience as a research student. This enabled the identification of key features for a good dissertation and to guide how dissertations should be examined. Not being an expert in all the dissertation topics caused much fear and doubt when examining them. Based on this, expert advice and guidance from colleagues was sought out. Considering all of this evidence, it has become clear that training of novice examiners is essential. An assessment rubric with an unambiguous detailed guiding criteria should be developed and standardized for assessment practices to be standardized across the department.

11:10-11:35

69629 | Rethinking Pedagogy for Teaching Finance Subjects in Higher Education

Kwang-Jing Yii, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Malaysia

The students’ anxiety about studying finance subjects was the most difficult challenge due to their diverse cultures, qualifications, and discipline areas. Students are apprehensive about studying finance subjects because of the broad concept, technical application and complex decisionmaking. Finance anxiety causes inappropriate and ineffective learning behaviour, result in failing grades and study extensions. Most students become easily bored, disinterested and disengaged in their learning when they are exposed to one-way interactive teaching practice. This study develops the Teach-Exhibit-Practice-Evaluate-Reward (TEPER) pedagogy by integrating the Connectivism Learning Theory, Constructivism Learning Theory, and Behaviourism Learning Theory. The TEPER pedagogy incorporates digital technology to create an innovative learning and teaching environment that effectively transforms students’ passive learning behaviour into more active engagement. It is hoped that this study will advocate for a rethinking of university teaching and learning in finance subjects in order to prepare students to become future-ready learners with strong industry engagement in a tech-rich future.