Collaborative learning offers benefits but there is insufficient information on how students perceive specific digital tools supporting collaborative learning and whether there are content-related differences in students’ perceptions. Here, we utilised Padlet to mediate collaborative learning amongst undergraduate students from two distinct disciplines, Dentistry and Bioscience to examine students’ perceptions of Padlet-mediated learning and identify any content-specific differences. Data distribution was assessed via Shapiro–Wilk test, Mann–Whitney U test was used to assess distribution of responses and correlations were studied via Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρ). Data revealed that majority of students across both cohorts perceived Padlet as easy to use and beneficial to learning. Dentistry students perceived Padlet to be more beneficial to learning and easier to use than Bioscience students (p < 0.01). Most Bioscience students liked to undertake collaborative learning via Padlet, whereas most Dentistry students felt more confident to ask questions and better understood content via Padlet. In the Bioscience cohort, perceived benefit-to-learning strongly correlated (ρ = 0.75; p < 0.01) with fondness to use Padlet, whereas in the Dentistry cohort, it moderately correlated (ρ = 0.5; p < 0.01) with better understanding of subject content. Thematic analysis of students’ textual responses revealed anonymity, peer-learning and engagement as key benefits. Thus, this study strengthened the evidence for using Padlet for collaborative learning in a wider context. Moreover, it uncovered significant disparities in students’ perceptions of the tool, when used to foster learning of different subject contents.
In 2020, King’s College London introduced HyFlex teaching as a means to supplement online and face-to-face teaching and to respond to Covid-19 restrictions. This enabled teaching to a mixed cohort of students (both online and on campus). This article provides an outline of how such an approach was conceptualized and implemented in a higher-education institution during an intense three-month period over that summer and prior to the limited re-opening of the university campus. This was a new approach that offers a number of pointers for reflection and provides key insights in on this novel learning environment and the physical and pedagogical contexts in which learning can occur. Technical implementation factors are detailed, along with both reflections on challenges and solutions. Pedagogical issues such as cognitive load, social presence, and resolving the issues of a cohort spread across two locations are discussed. While we should be mindful of the limitations of this relatively-specific research, and shouldn’t therefore over-extrapolate our findings, one key finding is that delivering Hyflex is associated with a higher cognitive load. Further, the audio quality of our implementation enhanced the feeling of presence in the learning environment. We recommend providing appropriate technical and pedagogical training, as well as audio-visual and digital education support.
Based on the current research evidence on the effectiveness of lectures, it is possible to conclude that lectures can be of value, provided they are structured as interactive events and not periods consisting solely of presentations by the lecturer. With such a range of educational technologies available (including augmented and virtual reality), it is important to ensure that the appropriate digital tools are adopted. One of the key factors in this decision must be the views of staff and students. In this paper, a part of workshop-based research (involving teaching demonstration, direct interaction and feedback) about immersive technologies with staff and students (N = 33) from King's College London was presented. The findings have shown that participants had a wide variety of views about the use of augmented and virtual reality, as well as different needs regarding technological solutions in learning environments. Novelty of this research is demonstrated providing an overview of the landscape of pedagogical possibilities of immersive technologies using simplified didactic process maps.
Evidence suggests that lectures are of most value in Higher Education when they are interactive and support active learning. Using novel approaches within lectures can help go beyond the traditional university experience. Educational technologies offer several options for supporting this including: audience response systems, backchannel communication, mirroring and use of video. However, given the range available and the cost of implementation, it is important to ensure that the right technologies are adopted. The aims of this study were to i) investigate the feasibility of small group sessions to evaluate the use of specific technologies for lectures and ii) to better understand the potential uses of different technologies for lectures. Staff and students participated in a novel approach with hands-on interactive demonstration sessions before taking part in a focus group to give their views on a variety of technologies. The current study found that these small-scale interactive demonstrations were an effective way to evaluate technologies and that most of the technologies presented could be used to either i) enhance current lecture practice or ii) support new practice, provided they do not overwhelm or distract students. However, they must also be simple for staff and students to use.
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