LITERATURE REVIEW Material 1 The article discusses the difference between traditional classrooms and active learning classrooms in colleges. The size of learning spaces and how they are designed can actually affect the way students learn in classrooms or lecture halls. In lecture halls, moveable lecterns allow lecturers to move around and change position. This automatically allows students to give their full participation in class. Collaborative or interactive learning areas or rooms are effective in getting students’ full interest in class especially when there are group presentation or group discussions as students are encouraged to participate and interact with their group members. As a result, lecturers get direct feedback from their students and students are more willing to ask questions. Source : Article Journal Title : Transformation of classroom spaces: traditional versus active learning classroom in colleges Preview : Educational environment influences students' learning attitudes, and the classroom conveys the educational philosophy. The traditional college classroom design is based on the educational space that first appeared in medieval universities. Since then classrooms have not changed except in their size. History of classroom design: changes in the mission of higher education altering educational spaces Educational spaces convey an image of educational philosophy about teaching and learning. A standard lecture hall, with immovable chairs all facing the lectern, may represent an educational philosophy of essentialism, which features more on “injecting into students' brains." An active, collaborative teaching and learning philosophy is often manifested in a different philosophy, such as empiricism and pragmatism, often in the different designs of classrooms. Space can either enable-or inhibit-different styles of teaching and learning (Donovan et al. 1999:; NLII White Paper 2004) Accordingly, classroom design has changed over time in step with changes in educational purposes and methods. Tracing back to ancient Greek times, a formal higher education system did not exist. Instead, the instructional style was rhetorical, with students surrounding their teachers during educational dialogues. There was no distinct classroom boundary, instead teachers and students grouped together in an irregular pattern that was convenient for the available space. Material 2 The book chapter analyses the challenges of using technology to enhance teaching process and learning experience. This process is based on students’ active participation in class in the development of their own learning tools. It is not a matter of replacing a human teacher, but the actual thinking process needs to be different and actively involve the student in the development of this new digital material. Examples are given of interactivity in science, medicine and architecture where the new learning process might engage sounds, vision and 3D processing, and even ‘hot-o -the-press’ 3D printing. Other disciplines have used video of speeches, sounds from music, or scenes of theatre productions that can be made into serious gaming programs with interactive responses which cause the students to be actively involved in the end product of their discipline within a real-world environment. Source : Book Title : Creating Space for Active Learning: (Opportunities From) Using Technology in Research-based Education. Preview : The technology challenge: creating new forms of experience and enabling active learning Both the power and weakness of technology lie in the way it can be used. As with any tool created by humans to improve a way a process can be realised (usually by replacing labour with mechanics), it can certainly augment the time a lecturer can focus on the material itself, rather than making the material more easily accessible or perceivable for the students. Twenty-first-century blended learning models advocate a mixed use of traditional and new teaching and learning modes, combining face- to-face with online learning. However, the power of the new modes of learning is attenuated due to the limited opportunities that the existing built learning environment infrastructure can offer (Mitchell 2003). It has been argued that misuse of technology in a classroom can suppress or hinder student learning (Grasha and Yangarber-Hicks 2000; Koehler et al. 2007; Koehler and Mishra 2009). Therefore, instructors need to think about the relevance or appropriateness of using a particular technology in their classroom so that the focus remains on manipulating ideas rather than technological tools (Brown et al. 2004; Kuda-Malwathumullage 2015). The dilemma remains in setting the limits of how to utilise technology in higher education. Its role can undermine traditional lecture techniques, the human power of which cannot be easily contested. On the one hand, some researchers argue that technology is merely a tool for accomplishing teaching and learning goals for instructors and students (Grasha and Yangarber-Hick 2000; Miller et al. 2000). Others advocate incorporating technology into teachers’ knowledge base, generating a special knowledge (Koehler et al. 2007; Koehler and Mishra 2009). In any case, the debate is not around replacing tutors but about supporting their role – in the way a device may support how we accomplish a task. Technology-enabled active learning (TEAL) is an innovative approach applied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), providing a successful alternative to the potential of technology to enhance active learning in universities. TEAL describes a research project in MIT Physics freshmen classes, aiming at delivering greater learning gains than the traditional lecture format through the use of interactive engagement (which first appeared in the 1990s). A variety of assessment techniques used by TEAL have proven the efectiveness of interactive engagement across a range of student backgrounds. The teaching methods used in the TEAL classroom managed to double the average normalised learning gains for low-, intermediate- and high-scoring students when compared to traditional instruction. The method followed in such a class typically incorporates lecture, recitation and hands-on experiments in one presentation. Material 3 This journal article presses on the main factor to engage students is the use of technology by instructors by directing discussions, encouraging students to express their opinions and responding to them. Instructors should also give feedbacks to students and give them opportunity to build relationship. This is because technology has the potential to enhance these activities at higher level of education. For example, when students submit their assignments online, instructors should give their feedbacks through the messaging medium provided. This article presents the ways that several technologies can be used to enhance student learning experience. Source : Journal Article Title : Increasing Sense of Community in Higher Education Nutrition Courses Using Technology Preview : Video Conferencing Because audio and visual cues affect the perception of faculty's and students' social presence, online video discussions can foster group cohesion and increase participation. High-definition video conferencing can facilitate sharing and collaborating on presentations and documents, and some offer free accounts for shorter meeting times with limited participants and professional accounts that allow for longer and larger sessions. In online programs, video conferencing is used to make the first impression on prospective and new students. Virtual information sessions are conducted and individual virtual interviews set up for interested students. Once students are enrolled, videoconferencing is used for office hours when necessary. Because the desktop of either the instructor or student can be used, students can present their projects and research. Conferences or collaboration can be arranged among students, preceptors, and faculty. In blended or online classes, videoconferencing is used to host virtual guest speakers and hold class during weather cancellations. To infuse classes with up to the minute reports of new research, faculty conduct classes when they are away for conferences while students at similar events also can potentially share information this way. Finally, video conferencing is used for professional development faculty meetings because part-time faculty, especially those teaching in online programs, do not live close by. Aside from being able to discuss strategies to improve student learning, this use of video conferencing increases sense of community among staff. New technologies are then introduced, giving participants the opportunity to try them out in this venue. Polling Classroom response systems (clickers) have been shown to promote discussion and increase student engagement in higher education and to have positive potential in foods, nutrition, and dietetics courses. To remedy the expense and maintenance of these devices for students or the institution, Web-based polling software may be considered. This allows class members to participate in real time or through an online course. During a live presentation, the polls are embedded into PowerPoint presentations and students use their smartphones to respond via a text message, a Web page, or Twitter. Students in class via video conferencing can still participate in polling. Questions can be multiple choice, open ended, brainstorm type, or rank. Polling can be used not only to gauge opinion but also to check understanding of complex concepts; thus they can be adapted for use on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Results are shown immediately on the PowerPoint slide to all participants and open-ended questions are displayed as a text wall, wall cloud, or cluster, or in ticker format. Although polling software can be used in online courses, the lack of immediacy and access of results in real time can reduce its attractiveness. There are several options as well regarding how data are maintained in terms of student participation to make grading easier. Video/Audio-Enabled Discussion Platforms To increase the sense of community, some online instructors seek to bring the synchronous components of real-time interaction into online courses. However, students often choose asynchronous online courses or programs owing to demanding schedules or remote geographic location, and/or they may live in multiple time zones, which makes the required synchronous activity impossible. Video/audio-enabled discussion platforms circumvent this issue by allowing participants to have an online asynchronous conversation regarding images, videos, documents, and presentations during which they can see and hear each other. These platforms can be incorporated into an LMS or used as a stand-alone system. Studies suggest that within online courses these platforms can bring a perception of community and sense of the instructor's social presence closer to that of an F2F course. Furthermore, they can be more effective in promoting connectedness and reducing the sense of isolation than text-based discussion. In the first week of an online course, students can introduce themselves by creating a video. Classmates can then respond by audio or video and are delighted to see and hear each other. For course content, instructors upload PowerPoint presentations without narration into the discussion platform where narration is then added to each slide. As students go through each slide, they comment or ask questions using audio or video that can be answered by the instructor or other students in a similar fashion. Case studies are presented in which each student is assigned to answer specific questions, with all responses in full view of the class. There is potential for use with inter-professional initiatives facilitating those from different health disciplines who have different schedules having access to the same asynchronous case study. As part of an assignment in an online graduate community nutrition course, students create lesson plans that include a PowerPoint presentation uploaded and narrated through the audio/video-enabled discussion platform. Students are able to rerecord each slide until they are satisfied with how the slide sounds. All other students and the instructor view and listen to the slides and then comment or question with an option for private feedback. This type of assignment could also be appropriate for an advanced undergraduate course. In courses with some classroom component, the last few weeks may be devoted to final project presentations. Requiring part of the project via a discussion platform with a shorter inclass presentation can save classroom time and maximize class feedback. Screen-Capturing Computer App Screen capture technology is downloaded software that records anything on the desktop with narration, including mouse movements. Versions that record up to 5 minutes are often free whereas those needed for longer clips are available at reasonable fees. Because the brief clip is saved as a URL link, it is easily shared with others. Instructors often find that they can give more detailed feedback in less time and return assignments faster with this method. Because instructor feedback and response timeliness are integral to feeling connected to the instructor (but sometimes are challenging with many assignments in online courses) audio feedback thus fosters student perception of connection. Students who were asked to produce their own clips, such as an assignment creating and explaining a nutrition education handout, reported improved communication skills and increased awareness of how they actually came across when presenting. Although instructors in blended classes can review the syllabus and emphasize critical points, such as how final grades are weighted, this can be missed in online courses in which the syllabus is merely loaded into the course. Making a clip highlighting important points in the syllabus alleviates this deficit and can increase the instructor's presence.
