Abstract: Four cycles of a value creation conceptual framework including: immediate value; potential value; applied value; and realized value, were used to analyze the role of social capital in the creation of experienced and aspired value in collaborative learning. Students’ narratives on team development dynamics in a Team Lecture Hybrid (TLH) instructional design implemented from August 2011 to May 2016 were analyzed. The study covered 201 public affairs and healthcare administration students. in 40 in-class permanent teams, 15 courses, and straddling two US institutions of higher learning. The findings suggested an alignment between social capital and performance in in-class permanent teams. The social interactions created immediate, potential, applied, and realized value, and the results appear to validate the explanatory strength of the value creation framework in relation to social capital as a value creator and as value created in learning communities. The value created from social capital dynamics in the learning community aligns with the anticipated outcomes of TLH and appeared to support the TLH design theory hypothesizing improved performance when we combine active learners and an active instructor in the same learning community. In a mezzo learning environment, both students and their instructor created and benefited from social capital. The recommendation is for value creation drivers uncovered in this study to be given significant consideration when designing objectives, activities, structures, and cultures in learning communities.

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Abstract: Mixed Methods Research (MMR) is growing rapidly, globally, and continues to develop across disciplines. A competency-based course design can better help develop mixed methods research scholars with competency-based learning outcomes. MMR-specific guidance, which informs meaningful design features for competency-based learning outcomes in graduate programs, has been scarce. The overarching aim of the study was to conduct a mixed methods evaluation of an innovative MMR course among doctoral students on MMR competency outcomes. This study examined five cohort groups of doctoral students enrolled in an MMR course during 2016–2020 (n=54) and provided a research-tested MMR tool that is sensitive to detect changes and easily administered. This MMR-Competency Outcomes Measurement Tool (MMR-COMT) included a 15-item quantitative Mixed Methods Research Competency Scale (MMRCS_15), a 2-item MMR overall competency assessment (MMROV_2), and 3-item qualitative probing questions. The findings showed strong convergent evidence from both the significantly increased MMR learning objectives and competency scale scores quantitatively, as well as overwhelmingly positive qualitative quotes, convergently demonstrating the significant impact on MMR competencies. The current study contributes to the overall scholarship of the teaching and learning community with MMR-specific empirical studies, providing MMR competency measurement tool, as well as highlighting key course design features with students’ voices.

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Abstract: This article describes minoritized college students’ encounters with faculty-generated or -condoned racial and gender microaggressions in college classrooms. The Racial Microaggressions Model (Pérez Huber & Solorzano, 2015) and the Taxonomy of Gender Microaggressions (Capodilupo et al., 2010) were used to inform the experiences of microaggressions of 88 college students with minoritized identities at seven institutions around the U.S. Based on the findings, the authors delivered recommendations for teaching and learning in four areas: faculty awareness and training; classroom management; policy, assessment, and evaluation of teaching; and improved mechanisms for student feedback.

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Abstract: Feedback is an important component of online instruction. Few experiments have examined combined types of feedback (teacher feedback or student self-assessment) compared to extra practice with each on student learning. In this study, the experimental effectiveness of four methods of feedback delivery on students’ acquisition of behavioral observation skills was evaluated—teacher feedback only (TT condition), student self-assessment only (SS condition), teacher-then-student self-assessment (TS condition), or student self-assessment-then-teacher (ST condition). The results, both for a random sample of individual learners as well as at an overall group level, suggest that the SS condition was superior to the TS condition. In the SS condition, not only did participants perform better but also their accuracy of self-assessment on strengths was positively correlated with their Behavioral Observation Post-Training Assignment 1 scores and total Post-Training Assignment scores. Across all conditions, participants perceived their feedback experience as positive. Further research is needed to determine whether additional training scenarios and variations in training methodology to promote students’ learning.

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Abstract: This article focuses on the issue of reflection for music studio teachers in higher education. Although stimulated recall and reflection on action are well-developed research fields in classroom education settings, the application of these methods to studio teaching is rare, a form of pedagogy which is heavily influenced by the master–apprentice tradition, with many teachers engaging in this practice without any formal training. The article presents the findings associated with three different studio pedagogues reflecting on video recordings of their lessons via cooperative analysis. Each of the three pedagogues took part in a live session with the researchers where their practice and methods were considered and discussed in significant detail, applying the principles of stimulated recall and shared reflections. Findings reveal that in addition to the need for inexperienced teachers to be courageous in reviewing their own work, stimulated recall and reflection on action offer benefits for teachers by assisting them in identifying areas of their practice to revise and re-examine. The findings therefore propose that the process of stimulated recall may be a useful component of professional development for teachers in the higher education sector.

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Abstract: Research shows that a cohesive classroom community, or the relationships built between students within a classroom setting, leads to a long list of positive student outcomes in higher education. This research seeks to better understand how to build cohesion in a classroom community, a goal that has become even more urgent given the student isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses the tool of social network analysis, a tool particularly well suited for studying networks of relationships, to examine how two common collaborative learning techniques—small group discussions and team-based projects—affect the structure and strength of the classroom community networks in two public affairs undergraduate courses. The results show that both collaborative learning techniques created a network of denser, more inclusive relationships between students. Teamwork, in particular, had a large impact on the formation of relationships between students. Further, the collaborative teaching strategies were effective in improving student learning outcomes. Students received higher grades and reported higher satisfaction with the course if they were more embedded in the classroom community network. The results of this research reveal the importance of focusing on relationship-building instructional techniques for student success in higher education.

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Abstract: Group work is often used in university courses. This article examines group work in a widely interdisciplinary holography course that combines both art and science, for students from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In these interdisciplinary teams, how much specialization of labor (dividing work according to students’ pre-existing abilities or personal interests) is acceptable? We present student survey responses regarding their attitudes toward interdisciplinary group work, and their practices in dividing the work, to determine how much specialization of labor is taking place within the interdisciplinary teams. The surveys indicate a mix of approaches among groups concerning the division of labor based on prior skills. In the presence of specialization of labor, students learned from their partners and displayed a positive attitude toward working with someone from a different discipline. We believe that the intriguing nature of the holography projects helped many students avoid dividing the work according to their prior skills, and helped them see the value of working in a widely interdisciplinary team.

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Abstract: Personal stories serve learning and socioemotional functions in teaching. Instructors share personal stories with students to promote engagement, foster learning, and create a sense of community. Students may also share personal stories with each other for similar reasons. Thus, the current study explored how often, and why, students (N = 79) shared personal stories as well as responded to other students’ stories in online discussion forums (ODFs) that were part of a remotely taught adult development and aging class. The students ODF posts (f = 1,354) were content-coded for: (i) whether they contained a personal story, (ii) were a direct response to another students’ personal story, and (iii) whether they served a teach and inform, empathic, or social-bonding function. Twenty-two percent of the posts made in the ODFs were personal stories, and almost half served a teach and inform function. Ten percent of students’ posts were responses to other students’ personal stories, and primarily served empathic and social-bonding functions. Results highlight the possibility that students can engage with one another to foster the pedagogical benefits of personal stories and provide insights into how personal stories can be infused into teaching and learning.

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Abstract: Online course instruction remains one of the fastest growing sectors in the higher education industry but has been historically stigmatized with poor quality and low standards. Early distance education programs were heavily teacher-centric in design and were used as a means to disseminate information to students at a distance. However, institutions have worked to re-envision distance education through a student-centered learning approach to improve the modality quality. In light of the rapid shift to online teaching as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic response, there is a need to improve practices for preparing quality courses to support student learning in hybrid and online learning formats. There are a variety of quality assurance frameworks and evaluation instruments, such as the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, that are utilized to measure the quality of course design. The purpose of this case study is to analyze the faculty and student perceptions of the impact of course design on student learning at a small public college in Central Florida.

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Abstract: The higher education Spring semester of 2020 was heavily impacted by stakeholders' calls for a complete shutdown of in-person gatherings. This call to action forced instructors and students to transition from face-to-face education to the virtual, online classroom. Institutions were given a few days to 2 weeks for this transition. During this crisis, 14 faculty from across Georgia formed a research consortium to investigate the perspectives of instructors and students on multiple topics, including academic honesty. As part of a mixed method approach, surveys were distributed via email across the university system, which included both quantitative items and narrative, open-text response options. The results of thematic analysis and frequencies revealed the application of well-documented strategies from instructors for reducing the occurrence of cheating during assessments but also revealed new and challenging tactics of cheating by students. These perspectives from the instructors and students provide a rich description of how the shutdown impacted academic honesty in the higher education community. The authors detail these participant narratives and provide information on strategies to encourage academic honesty that move beyond creating more tests, such as revision, randomizing items, and proctoring to catch cheaters in the act.

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Abstract: Previous research has produced mixed results related to online courses with selection often driven by their benefits. However, some students and instructors were avoiding this format because of their drawbacks. Given that the pandemic forced a shift to online education, those reluctant individuals gained experience with online courses. Being forced into a particular format could lead to acceptance because of the experience or resentment because of the lack of choice. Therefore, it is important to examine if the pandemic altered opinions of online courses. The current study was a replication of previous pre-pandemic work (omitted for peer review) and examined opinions of students who are enrolled in online courses and the faculty who teach them. Results were similar but slightly more supportive of a preference for face-to-face courses. Questions were added to address reasons for withdrawal and failure, main challenges of online courses, and how the university could better support online teaching or enhance student success in online courses. Answers to these questions reflected struggles of pandemic teaching and learning along with high levels of self-awareness. As higher education continues to adapt based on the pandemic, research on opinions about course learning outcomes and satisfaction are important. It is essential to examine the challenges and needed support to enhance both student access and achievement are enhanced.

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Abstract: Mindful practices have been found to decrease levels of stress, anxiety, and burnout, while enhancing resilience and coping in those who engage in them. The beneficial effects of mindfulness on improving physiological and psychological well-being are well supported within the literature. However, little has been done to learn how faculty in higher education, specifically in nursing, may experience the effect of mindful practices. The purpose of this study was to explore nursing faculty perceptions of how mindfulness may influence their teaching-learning practices as well as their daily lives. Fourteen full-time and part-time nursing faculty participated in a three-part mindfulness training workshop series delivered over 6 weeks. Upon completing the workshop series, seven of the 14 nursing faculty participated in a focus-group interview about their experiences engaging in the mindful activities during and in-between the workshops. Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) narrative inquiry method was used to analyze participant accounts. This process entailed crafting a composite story that was sent to the participants for member checking. The composite story was analyzed using the three levels of justification: personal, practical, and social. Two significant patterns emerged: (1) Integrating mindful practices into personal life, and (2) Integrating mindful practices into the teaching and learning situations. The findings from this study contribute to the growing body of knowledge on how engaging in mindful practices may enhance the personal and the professional well-being of faculty in higher education, and thus support their teaching-learning encounters.

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Abstract: The abrupt switch to online teaching and learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic caused a disruption to the instructional practices professors and students had grown accustomed to prior to March 2020. After 18+ months of virtual instruction, many colleges and universities returned to face-to-face classrooms. In order to understand how faculty planned to use their COVID-based virtual teaching experience to inform future face-to-face instruction, 436 faculty members from colleges and universities in the mid-Atlantic and southeast US were asked to reflect on their experiences teaching during the pandemic. These faculty members were asked two questions: Considering your COVID-based teaching over the past 18 months, (1) What did you learn during that COVID teaching that you will apply in your Fall 2021 course(s)? and (2) As we move toward classes in the Fall, keeping in mind your experiences over the past 18 months, what can we do to better support our students' learning? The 119 responses fell into several themes, (a) reflections on the consequences of the change to online learning, (b) the necessity of flexibility in instruction and policy, (c) the importance of student engagement and open communication, and (d) the increased need to prioritize relationships. Ultimately, the faculty members acknowledged the value in reframing students as individuals with lives outside the classroom, acknowledging that these pressures can impact learning, and the necessity to remember as we come together that we can support students by following this advice: “Be humane. Be human.”

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Abstract: This paper presents a Teaching Motivation Model that conceptualizes motivation for faculty teaching. The model was informed by the self-determination theory, the self-control strength model, and the review of the literature on college teaching. The Teaching Motivation Model presents a more comprehensive account of faculty teaching motivation and group factors affecting faculty teaching motivation into three groups: environmental, individual, and institutional-level factors. Ongoing interactions between these mutually interrelated and influential groups of factors may either support or inhibit faculty engagement in a particular method of teaching. The model posits self-control strength, which plays a central role in faculty engagement in an intended form of teaching. Implications for research and practice are included.

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Abstract: Higher education institutions strive to turn out graduates that are well-rounded, engaged, and civic-minded individuals no matter their discipline or major. The authors believe that more can be done to ensure that this goal is attained. To address this issue, two librarians designed a learner-centered course that embraced the uncertainty found in today’s information landscape through the use of dialog, questioning, and reflection. This article will describe the social and educational atmosphere at colleges that necessitates looking deeper into how and why colleges and universities need to build these new types of courses to meet their goals. From there, it will move into describing the foundational concepts that the class is built on which include Socratic discussion, team teaching, and a learner-centered classroom. It will also describe the specific methods, assignments, and goals used within so other educators may apply the course to their own institution. Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media, famous for its aphorisms, is the course’s foundational text and primed the class for discussion and questioning throughout the course. Discussion and questioning are seen as two of the keys to educating the next generation to be able to not only survive but thrive in the 21st century.

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Abstract: What if the focus of learning outcomes shifted from telling students what they will know at the end of a course to who they will become? Learning outcomes have drifted away from informing curriculum design to providing parameters for external assessment. This article reviews this shift along with a proposal to reimagine learning outcomes as transformative learning outcomes. It discusses previous work on transformative learning outcomes and proposes a new conceptual definition: learning outcomes that articulate habits of mind or ways of being that students will develop because of a learning experience or sequence of learning experiences. Such learning outcomes must target specific aspects of a student’s identity that the course will develop and be perceived by the student as connecting to multiple life domains. Courses designed to target transformative learning outcomes provide possibilities for interdisciplinary curriculum development and may more effectively facilitate learning transfer. The article also provides a short case study as an example of how transformative learning outcomes can influence course design and delivery.

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Abstract: Work-integrated learning (WIL) is a core feature of Business degrees and is increasingly common across other disciplines. Although the benefits of WIL are often promoted, students can struggle to connect learning from their WIL experiences to their progress and development, making it difficult for them to identify targeted learning opportunities, and communicate their WIL progress and achievements to prospective employers. Recognizing these challenges, this article offers an approach for those engaged in WIL that helps them benchmark and measure progress at different points in the process, thereby helping students and their Higher Education Institutions (HEI) to identify development needs and opportunities both before, during, and after the WIL experience. This article presents a tool kit for those engaged in WIL that enables measurement of students’ goals, motives, values, expectations, and competencies, at different points in the WIL activity (pre, mid, and end), alongside staged reflective exercises. Using internships as an illustrative case, this article considers the value that the approach affords for both individual students and HEIs, and will be of interest to university educators, careers services, and other professionals responsible for creating value through WIL initiatives.

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Abstract: In the Indian academia, at the undergraduate and graduate levels, the focus on teaching “writing” is relatively new; traditional focus has been on teaching the English language or Communication Skills. The novelty of academic writing has called for rigorous efforts in its operation in the Indian context. In addition, the virtual learning environment required by the pandemic posed the serious challenge of adopting the academic writing pedagogy to the new format of the virtual classroom. This article showcases successful strategies adopted for graduate and undergraduate foundation writing courses at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, which ensured maximum engagement and minimum distraction, and knowledge transference. The graduate1 and undergraduate courses differed in their goals of writing, including expected learning outcomes and practicality, as well as in terms of the disciplinary backgrounds of the students. The graduate course was concerned with the applicability and transferability of the knowledge and skills acquired in the course to varied discipline-specific and professional writings of the advanced students; the undergraduate course was conducted on the basis of general writing with intensive discussion components. In this article, we first focus on the pedagogical practices adopted in the graduate course to ensure knowledge and skill transfer to discipline-specific scholarly writing and professional writing as a whole. Thereafter, we discuss the undergraduate writing curriculum aimed at laying the foundation for practical academic communication and development of critical thinking.

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Abstract: Interprofessional Education (IPE) is a critical component of healthcare education and a requirement of many accrediting bodies. Approaching IPE from a holistic, comprehensive lens allows academic institutions to overcome challenges related to operating within program- and discipline-specific silos. Bringing students together to learn with, from, and about one another’s professions empowers them to improve their teamwork and communication skills while broadening their understanding of various roles and responsibilities. Clarkson College developed a compulsory IPE course that is documented on students’ transcripts. This online IPE 301 course was designed to provide students with educational materials to enhance their collaborative skills for better care outcomes. The Clarkson College framework was derived from best practices across the IPE landscape, including the IPEC competencies, the Quadruple Aim, and NCICLE, a thorough review of literature, and input from other institutions. To extend the reach of IPE beyond the clinical healthcare setting, Clarkson College expanded the curriculum to include community involvement and service. This course involves both synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate, as well as on-campus and distance students. It is comprised of five online modules that include four sets of didactic lectures, videos, and quizzes, followed by three IPE experiences with reflections. Quantitative data points include the use of the ICCAS survey as pre-, mid-, and post-tests. Qualitative themes were pulled from student reflection submissions. Three years of cumulative data indicate that Clarkson College’s IPE 301 course has resulted in students’ improved ability to collaborate interprofessionally, in both clinical and non-clinical settings.

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Abstract: The motivational climate and student engagement within courses are important for instructors to consider during the instructional design process because they can affect student learning. To help instructors improve the motivational climate and student engagement within their courses, we implemented an affective assessment intervention within the first- and second-year courses in a US college of veterinary medicine. Based on the MUSIC Model of Motivation Theory, the intervention was administered near the end of the courses, and the results were presented to the course instructors in an attempt to improve the motivational climate within the courses the following year. The purpose of this article is to describe the intervention, present a case study based on one of the courses, and explain the lessons learned from implementing this intervention. The intervention involved administering an online questionnaire with affective items to students in 18 veterinary medicine courses over 2 years and sharing the results with the instructors. The assessment measured the motivational climate by assessing students’ perceptions of empowerment/autonomy, usefulness, success, interest, and caring within their courses because these perceptions have been shown to be related to students’ engagement. Based on the assessment results, the instructors made changes to their instruction the following year and students were surveyed again as the intervention cycle was repeated. One of the lessons learned was that the results from the student survey were useful to instructors; therefore, this freely available assessment tool may also be useful to other instructors in higher education.

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