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Vol. 20 No. 5 (2023)

Published: 3 September 2023

Articles

  • Pandemic-induced course and assessment changes for undergraduate engineering education: The Development of Graduate Attributes

    Toh Yen Pang, Alex Kootsookos, Elena Pirogova

    Educators constantly need to make adjustments to their pedagogy and learning activities to reflect the fast changes in society, the economy and industry. This has been clearly demonstrated throughout the world in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic required fully remote delivery of tertiary education. The aim of this study was comparing the experiences and perceptions of tertiary students in a fully online and a blended delivery mode, particularly in response to their laboratory skills and development of graduate attributes. Pedagogical aspects were kept consistent across delivery modes to minimise the differences in learning activities across cohorts. A comparison was made between the 2020 fully online cohort and the 2021 blended delivery cohort. The students were asked about their perceptions of how well they thought the course developed their graduate attributes; how authentic they thought the course was; and how easy the content was to navigate and understand. A mixed methods approach was used, where both quantitative and qualitative data was gathered. The blended delivery mode students appeared to benefit from having a specific reflective task, which allowed them to see their learning in a broader context. The paper discusses the blending and online learning from the students’ perspectives of developing graduate attributes and experiential learning. Specifically, where hands on skills are required, students need further guidance in “learning how to learn” or metacognition. A key challenge for future blended learning is getting the balance right between achieving efficiency in online learning and lack of social and dynamic interactions aspect of the online community.

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  • Developing Researcher Identity Through the PhD Confirmation

    Marion Heron, Nadya Yakovchuk, Helen Donaghue

    The PhD confirmation, or upgrade stage, is a key requirement and rite of passage for most doctoral students. Yet despite its significance and high-stakes nature, little attention has been paid to students’ experiences of this stage of the PhD journey and how it influences the development of their researcher identity. Through semi-structured interviews with PhD students from a range of disciplines who had recently successfully completed the confirmation stage, we found that for many the confirmation stage was a catalyst for ‘feeling’ like a researcher through external validation, recognition and legitimacy. Students also developed their researcher identity through talking about their research with significant others. We argue for recognising the pivotal role the confirmation stage plays in developing doctoral students’ researcher identity and offer suggestions on how supervisors and researcher developers can support students through this transition.

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  • Student Engagement and Satisfaction with Online Learning: Comparative Eastern and Western Perspectives

    Marcela Fang, Kijung Choi, Soojung Kim, Bing Chan

    This study investigated the antecedents of student engagement in online learning and the consequent impact on higher education students’ satisfaction with online learning. More specifically, a structural model was proposed to examine students’ perceptions of adaptability, interactivity, computer/ Internet self-efficacy and psychological safety as key factors impacting their engagement with online learning tools and satisfaction with the online learning experience. A self-administered online survey was conducted with 539 undergraduate students in China, Australia, and South Korea. Structural equation modelling and multigroup analysis were used to test the study’s hypotheses. The findings indicated that the proposed four antecedents significantly impacted their engagement with online learning tools, influencing their overall satisfaction with the online learning experience. In addition, this study found significant differences between the relationships of the four antecedents of engagement with online learning tools among students in China, Australia, and South Korea, influencing their satisfaction with the online learning experience. The study concludes with theoretical and practical implications informing future institutional practices.

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Showing 14–16 of 16 articles