As engaged educators we think about the atmosphere of the classes we facilitate. How can I design welcome activities to foster an atmosphere of belonging? How can I use icebreakers to nurture an atmosphere of relaxation or fun? How can I disrupt the monotony of online classes to provoke an atmosphere of intrigue, or inspiration?Continue reading “Learning foams: A new way to think about learning atmospheres”
Category Archives: publications
Enhancing Experiential Learning in Large Classes: Insights & Innovations
We have long observed a level of frustration among our academic colleagues, despite their dedication to providing high-quality education. Many feel helpless in achieving their goals, especially when managing large cohorts. This research investigated the challenges of experiential education and links to the latest challenges involving GenAI technologies.
Understanding the Determinants of Academic Success in Undergraduate Management Education
The transition from high school to university can be challenging (Kift & Nelson, 2005), and understanding what helps students succeed in their early university years is crucial for educators and administrators. In our study, we analysed data from 990 undergraduate students to identify which factors significantly influence their academic performance.
Nomadic analysis of belonging
A strong sense of student belonging is often emphasised as essential to higher education. This emphasis is often supported by the positive relationship between belonging and student perceptions of quality (Bridgeman, 2019; MIT Teaching + Learning Lab, 2023). Building on the previous blog Belonging & Learning (Menner, 2023), we aim to discuss alternative concepts toContinue reading “Nomadic analysis of belonging”
Enhancing Online Learning: Insights from a Comparative Analysis of Design and Student Experience
As educators, we strive to create learning experiences that not only impart knowledge but truly engage and resonate with our students. This challenge becomes even more pronounced in the realm of online education, where many pedagogical frameworks and design principles have been developed to address these issues. However, it remains unclear whether online courses thatContinue reading “Enhancing Online Learning: Insights from a Comparative Analysis of Design and Student Experience”
Helping Students Overcome Social Isolation at University
Have you heard about the recently passed Higher Education Support Amendment Bill 2023? It aims to ensure that students have appropriate support, particularly those from underrepresented groups in higher education. For that reason, educators are putting support for students at the centre through early assessment, feedback and personalised communications. It’s also helpful to understand howContinue reading “Helping Students Overcome Social Isolation at University”
Co-design practices in innovative education projects in higher education
‘The purpose of an educational co-design project is to design collaborative solutions, which can include designing new courses, educational tools, student experiences or curricula’. In a rapidly evolving educational landscape, higher education institutions are always on the lookout for new ways to innovate and improve. One such avenue that has been gaining traction is theContinue reading “Co-design practices in innovative education projects in higher education”
Dreaming the Future: The Role of Speculative Fiction in Shaping Education – Part 1
How might speculative fiction help us to imagine and move towards our preferred educational futures? In Part 1 of this blog post we look at the ‘what, why and how’ of speculative fiction.
Leveraging the possibilities of ‘learning at scale’: Future proofing business and management education
This call for papers invites submissions to a special issue of the Journal of Work Applied Management. We welcome practical case study-based articles that demonstrate quality learning experiences in large business and management learning contexts. We also invite conceptual, empirical and viewpoint pieces. At scale contexts Work-applied management methods such as action learning, work-based orContinue reading “Leveraging the possibilities of ‘learning at scale’: Future proofing business and management education”
Entangled pedagogy, design and the messiness of education
In a recently published open access paper on “entangled pedagogy” (Fawns, 2022), I presented a diagram of a few views of the relationship between technology and pedagogy. This was an attempt to show some problems with emphasising one over the other (e.g. putting technology or pedagogy first or last). I sympathise with the desire ofContinue reading “Entangled pedagogy, design and the messiness of education”