Lighting Talks

Implementation of Team-teaching in an Interdisciplinary Course

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , ,

FOO Maw Lin1 and MUN Lai Yoke2

1Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science (FOS)
2Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)

1chmfml@nus.edu.sg; 2ecsmunl@nus.edu.sg

 

Foo, M. L., & Mun, L. Y. (2023). Implementation of team-teaching in an interdisciplinary course [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/implementation-of-team-teaching-in-an-interdisciplinary-course/

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Interdisciplinary courses, pedagogy, co-teaching, team-teaching

 

CATEGORY

Paper Presentations 

 

INTRODUCTION

Interdisciplinary courses (IDC) are part of the core basket of courses that all students in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHS) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) are required to read. Interdisciplinary courses are typically thematic-based and team-taught by staff from both Faculty of Science (FOS) and Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS) for diverse disciplinary perspectives. In this abstract, the authors from the Department of Chemistry and Department of Economics will describe why and how a particular mode of team teaching (multi-modal) was employed in their IDC: HS2904 “Driving towards the Future: Battery Electric Vehicles” in Semester 1, AY 2022/23 to maximise interdisciplinary learning in students. HS2904 is a course about battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from both technology (chemistry-focused) and social sciences (economics-focused) perspectives.

According to the framework by Cruz and Geist (2019), there are four modes of teaching and learning integration for team-teaching: (1) co-teaching, (2) alternative, (3) blended, and (4) true team teaching, with an implicit hierarchy. They defined these four modes as follows, with increasing degree of integration:

…co-teaching, in which instructors have responsibility for largely independent sections of the same course; alternative teaching, in which instructors take turns providing instruction, requiring further coordination; blended teaching; in which instructors share elements of the pedagogical design of the course; requiring collaboration; and finally, true team teaching in which all aspects of the course are shared; requiring full integration of all aspects of the course.

 

While this framework helps to clarify the different modes of team-teaching, what is the best mode for HS2904? We find that a multi-modal approach is best suited since there are no disciplinary prerequisites for enrolment. Furthermore, being an interdisciplinary course1, linkages between the disciplines can be made salient by applying a multimodal approach. This approach entailed using different modes of the team-teaching framework at different times during the semester to adapt to the progression of the students’ interdisciplinary understanding of the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) ecosystem. The multi-modal approach corroborates with Nikitina’s (2006) three strategies for interdisciplinary learning: contextualising, conceptualising and problem-centring.

 

Table 1 shows the various modes of team-teaching (Cruz & Geist, 2019) used for the main chapters of HS2904 along with accompanying strategy (Nikitina, 2006) and rationale. The reason(s) for choosing a particular mode will be elaborated in our talk.

 

Table 1
The various modes of team-teaching employed in HS2904

Item Content  Mode of team-teaching Strategy: Rationale
Chapter 1
(Introduction)		 Electrification of urban transport Alternative Problem-centring & Contextualising: overarching theme of module
Chapter 2,3 Economics, Chemistry Co-teaching Conceptualising: bringing students up to required disciplinary background
Chapter 4 Supply chain in EVs Blended Conceptualising:
highlighting the interlinks between technology and economy
Chapter 10
(Conclusion)		 Closing remarks Alternative and Blended Contextualising & Problem-centring:
exploring possibilities for further development beyond current context
Group Project Integration True team teaching Problem-centring:
solving a problem or raising new questions with an interdisciplinary perspective

 

Akin to the working world where multidisciplinary teams collaborate and solve problems, good team teaching is important for an interdisciplinary course to succeed. Subsequent iterations of this course will build off this work as we work towards a more seamlessly integrated IDC.

 

ENDNOTE

  1. Jacobs (2010) defines an interdisciplinary approach as “a knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience. In contrast to a discipline-field based view of knowledge, inter-disciplinarity does not stress delineations but linkages.”

 

REFERENCES

Cruz, L., & Geist, M. J. (2019). A team-teaching matrix: Asking new questions about how we teach together. Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning Journal, 12(1). https://kpu.ca/sites/default/files/Transformative%20Dialogues/TD.12.1_Cruz&Geist_Team_Teaching_Matrix.pdf

Jacobs, H. H. (2010). Curriculum 21: Essential education for a changing world. ASCD.

Nikitina, S. (2006). Three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching: contextualizing, conceptualizing, and problem‐centring. Journal of curriculum studies, 38(3), 251-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270500422632

 

Interdisciplinary Learning in Music

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , ,

HO Chee Kong, CHAN Tze Law, MIAO Kaiwen, Frances LEE, Rachel HO, Xavier TAN, and Benedict NG*

Career Orientation and Community Engagement
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (YSTCM)

*ngwjben@nus.edu.sg

 

Ho, C. K., Chan, T. L., Miao, K., Lee, F., Ho, R., Tan, X., & Ng, B. (2023). Interdisciplinary learning in music [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/interdisciplinary-learning-in-music/

SUB-THEME

Communities and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Community engagement, music education, interdisciplinary learning, inquiry-based pedagogy

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks 

 

CONTEXT

The traditional role of a music conservatory is to produce professional musicians and emphasises artistic excellence. However, in the rapidly evolving musical landscape, it is no longer sufficient for professional musicians to focus solely on musical excellence to remain relevant. Moreover, the portfolio career that most musicians work in necessitates “entrepreneurial and transferable skills that often go beyond the domain of music” (Smilde et al., 2016). Furthermore, the National Arts Council (NAC) identifies the collaboration between the arts and different sectors, and audiences’ expectation for greater connection between the arts and social causes as macro trends in the industry (National Arts Council, n. d.). As such, musicians must also critically evaluate the impact of their musical practices vis-à-vis their relevance to the communities that they live in (Gaunt et al., 2021). Nurturing these values necessitates a shift from the traditional artist-apprenticeship model of education, which focuses on developing discrete musical skills (Jorgensen, 2011), to a model that develops students who learn independently and are cognisant of how their musical practices impact society.

 

CURRICULAR CHANGES

One of our initiatives was to create space within the Music & Society, Music Collaboration & Production (MS/MCP) curriculum to include problem-based, investigative projects with inquiry dimensions that critically evaluate how their musical practices can have a meaningful impact on wider society. These self-directed projects aim to develop “critical thinking skills and an awareness of the interconnectedness of various domains” (MS/MCP Roadmap, 2023). The inquiry process also aims to instil intellectual curiosity and nurture research-thinking mindsets. These are vital for musicians to be able to seek new knowledge and advance their own professional practices (Aditomo et al., 2011) amidst the turbulent nature of the music industry, especially where there are few developmental career structures (Smilde, 2016).

 

Pedagogy in the MS/MCP context also shifts from one-to-one learning to a team-taught process. Students are assigned an overseeing mentor who, in regular consultation with a team of tutors, can tap on a wider pool of expertise. Moreover, collaborative teaching has the potential to raise the quality of teaching as students would be exposed to a wider variety of perspectives and ideas (Knieter, 1963) as the faculty team comprises active practitioners from different sectors of the music profession that stay abreast of current developments in the industry. From the pedagogical perspective, team-teaching also helps instructors to sharpen ideas, role model collaboration, and expand existing networks with industry stakeholders.

 

The mode of assessment also evolves to give greater weight to assessing the student’s learning process. This includes continuous assessment dimensions, where the student is evaluated on their artistic growth and demonstration of critical thinking. Written and presentation assessments are also included to evaluate the student’s ability to communicate their artistic processes. The assignment weightage is also scaffolded where in the first two years, students would be assessed largely through continuous assessment and the focus would gradually shift to the quality of student projects in the later years.

 

EXAMPLES

The changes in curriculum and pedagogy have given rise for expanded possibilities with interdisciplinary dimensions. For instance, the team-teaching concept was expanded to include collaborations across faculties including the NUS Museum. During the seminars, MS/MCP students were introduced to themes surrounding the museum’s artefacts and created informed musical responses to them. This was later expanded in the subsequent semester, where students collaborated with the NUS Baba House to produce a full-length performance. These experiences developed the students’ curatorial and production skills as well as critical thinking in connecting their music to wider issues.

 

The intermodal nature of students’ projects also reflects these new creative possibilities. One of the capstone projects, emergent, combined violin performance with lighting and sound design, composition, and dance, to create an interdisciplinary performance. Rather than producing a presentational style performance that focuses primarily on the music, the student here sought to use interdisciplinary performance as means to explore perspectives on issues of identity. With a critical lens, the student was able to articulate her artistic choices and demonstrate how the arts can be a powerful means to unpack these issues in an impactful manner.

 

The nature of student projects have also developed to encompass non-performative contexts that seek ways to use music to have a wider impact on society. The third-year project ‘Gesture as Connection: A Study of Soundpainting’s Effects on Composer and Performer Communication’, explored intermodal communication between musicians and audiences. The visualisation of music through gestures also has the potential to represent music to hearing-disabled communities, empowering them to appreciate music. Another capstone project, the ‘No Pain More Gain’ symposium, on performing arts health was also instrumental in spreading awareness about wellness for performing artists. The impact is clearly seen when the student was also invited by the Singapore Armed Forces Military Band to facilitate a workshop on wellbeing for their musicians.

 

As the nature of the musical landscape is ever-changing, it is thus pertinent that the academic faculty and curriculum at the conservatory is dynamic and constantly evolving to anticipate the needs of the industry. While the effects of the revised curriculum and pedagogy is still nascent, the preliminary results of these efforts have been positive and we intend for the team teaching concept to be expanded to include collaborations with new faculties, opening up new possibilities for music major students as well as non-music major students. We have also embarked on the Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG) to explore greater ways to assess the effectiveness of team teaching, establish best practices, and seek ways to expand collaborative instruction to include other disciplines.

 

REFERENCES

Aditomo, A., Goodyear, P., Bliuc, A.-M., & Ellis, R. A. (2013). Inquiry-based learning in higher education: Principal forms, educational objectives, and disciplinary variations. Studies in Higher Education, 38(9), 1239-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.616584

Gaunt, H., Duffy, C., Coric, A., González Delgado, I. R., Messas, L., Pryimenko, O., & Sveidahl, H. (2021). Musicians as “makers in society”: A conceptual foundation for contemporary professional higher music education. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 713648. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.713648

Jorgensen, E.R. (2011). Pictures of Music Education. Indiana University Press, 53-57.

Knieter, G. L. (1963). The creative arts symposium. A four-year experiment team-teaching music and the fine arts. Music Educators Journal, 49(5), 62–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/3389950

National Arts Council Singapore (n.d.). Our SG Arts Plan (2023-2027). Retrieved from https://www.nac.gov.sg/docs/default-source/the-arts-plan/our-sg-arts-plan_2023—2027_phase-4_updated.pdf?sfvrsn=bf188896_2.

Small, C. (1998). Musicking: The meanings of performing and listening. University Press of New England, 2-4.

Smilde, R., Tómasdóttir, B. M., Hall, Þ. D., Pedersen, G., Gaunt, H., Lopez-Real, C., Bork, M., Jonker, R. (2016). Research in NAIP. Musicmaster.eu, 7.

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. (2023). MSMCP Roadmap (AY2022/2023). National University of Singapore, 1

 

Navigating on a Kayak: Transcending Disciplinary Boundaries in Sustainability Education

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , , ,

Eunice S. Q. NG* and YONG Jia Yu
Ridge View Residential College (RVRC)

*e.ng@nus.edu.sg

 

Ng, E. S. Q., & Yong, J. Y. (2023). Navigating on a kayak: Transcending disciplinary boundaries in sustainability education. [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/navigating-on-a-kayak-transcending-disciplinary-boundaries-in-sustainability-education/

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Interdisciplinary education, sustainability education, environmental stewardship, experiential learning, outdoor learning

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks 

 

ABSTRACT

The pressing sustainability crisis has resulted in an increasing number of educational institutions integrating sustainability into their formal curriculum as a way to develop sustainability-oriented attitudes among the youth of today (Leal Filho et. al., 2019). Yet, sustainability education is focused on providing students with a cognitive understanding of issues and challenges in sustainability from a specific discipline’s perspective (Kim & Coonan, 2023). As a result, sustainability education often overlooks leveraging the power of affective reactivity towards sustainability to promote deeper appreciation of sustainability and motivate sustainable behaviour (Brosch & Steg, 2021). Transcending disciplinary boundaries to foster students’ fundamental connectedness to nature – defined as “individuals’ sense of oneness with, and belonging to, their natural environment” (Coughlan et al., 2022, p. 1)—is vital to holistically developing their sustainability-oriented attitudes (Maller, 2018; Nisbet & Zelenski, 2013).

 

As a way to develop students’ connectedness to nature, Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) organised RV Kayak and Clean (RVKC), which provides marine trash clean-up experiences to undergraduate students. Offered beyond the formal academic curriculum, RVKC enables students from multidisciplinary backgrounds to have a common yet personal experience of being in direct contact with nature. Specifically, RVKC aims to achieve three student learning outcomes:

  1. Learn about the biodiversity within Singapore’s mangroves,
  2. Appreciate the extent of marine pollution in Singapore, and
  3. Relate the importance of sustainable living to individuals’ personal lifestyles.

 

First, students develop a deeper appreciation of Singapore’s biodiversity by kayaking through mangroves with explanations of wildlife sighting. Experienced kayak guides facilitate student learning by explaining the importance of mangrove ecosystems, allowing students to discover flora and fauna native to mangrove biomes. For example, students saw a Great Blue Heron and its nestling, a Strangler Fig Tree, and mud lobsters on a trip in February 2023, leading a student to reflect on “how important it is for us to preserve and protect nature for wildlife for future generations to be able to still kayak this route”.

Sea lettuce almost mistaken by participants as green plastic trash bag floating on water.
Figure 1. Sea lettuce almost mistaken by participants as green plastic trash bag floating on water.

 

Second, RVKC provides students with a first-hand experience in witnessing the extent of marine trash pollution, especially in hard-to-access areas around Singapore’s waterways and nearby islands. With students’ direct involvement in collecting marine debris, they obtain a visual representation of the impact of marine pollution. A recent trip in January 2023 saw 77kg of marine trash collected by 20 participants within half an hour (Figure 2). Trash collected is weighed and reported to Ocean Conservancy, which encourages students that their clean-up has made a difference, and reminds them that marine pollution is a far-reaching and ongoing problem.

Trash collected from a trip to Seletar Island weighed 77kg.
Figure 2. Trash collected from a trip to Seletar Island weighed 77kg.

 

Figure 3. Participants pulling out a fishing net entangled on Pulau Ubin’s shore.
Figure 3. Participants pulling out a fishing net entangled on Pulau Ubin’s shore.

 

RVKC also aims to facilitate personal appreciation and connection to the need for sustainable living. For example, students witnessed the rural, disconnected lifestyle by remaining residents on Pulau Ubin on one of the kayak trails. This facilitated site observation led students to rethink their assumptions: both that their current urban way of life and consumption levels are ideal, and how they can apply sustainable practices to their lives even without modern amenities.

Participants interacted with Ah Ma at her residence in Pulau Ubin.
Figure 4. Participants interacted with Ah Ma at her residence in Pulau Ubin.

 

RVKC allowed students to experience nature while being confronted with difficult issues of marine trash and personal lifestyle changes to be made for sustainability. Being in direct contact with nature has been effective in activating students’ affective response towards Singapore’s biodiversity and sustainability, transcending disciplinary backgrounds to foster their human- nature relationship instead.

 

REFERENCES

Brosch, T., & Steg, L. (2021). Leveraging emotion for sustainable action. One Earth, 4(12), 1693–1703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.11.006

Coughlan, A., Ross, E., Nikles, D., De Cesare, E., Tran, C., & Pensini, P. (2022). Nature guided imagery: An intervention to increase connectedness to nature. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 80, 101759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101759

Kim, E., & Coonan, T. (2023). Advancing sustainability education through a cross-disciplinary online course: Sustainability and human rights in the business world. Sustainability, 15(6), 4759. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064759

Leal Filho, W., Shiel, C., Paço, A., Mifsud, M., Ávila, L. V., Brandli, L. L., Molthan-Hill, P., Pace, P., Azeiteiro, U. M., Vargas, V. R., & Caeiro, S. (2019). Sustainable Development Goals and sustainability teaching at universities: Falling behind or getting ahead of the pack? Journal of Cleaner Production, 232, 285–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.309

Maller, C. (2018, August 1). Embracing the chaos: By transcending disciplinary boundaries researchers can reconceptualise human-nature relations. London School of Economics. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/08/01/embracing-the-chaos-by-transcending- disciplinary-boundaries-researchers-can-reconceptualise-human-nature-relations/

Nisbet, E. K., & Zelenski, J. M. (2013). The NR-6: A new brief measure of nature relatedness. Frontiers in Psychology, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00813

 

Scaffolding Team Dynamics for Team Effectiveness in Project-based Learning Courses

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , , ,

Vinod VASNANI1*, Ameek KAUR2, and Randall SIE1

1Institute for Engineering Leadership, College of Design and Engineering
2NUS Business School

*vinod@nus.edu.sg

 

Vasnani, V., Kaur, A., & Sie, R. (2023). Scaffolding team dynamics for team effectiveness in project based learning courses [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/scaffolding-team-dynamics-for-team-effectiveness-in-project-based-learning-courses/
 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Team dynamics, interdisciplinary, coaching, entrepreneurship, scaffolding

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

ABSTRACT

Experiential learning, a process in which learning occurs through experience (Kolb, 1984) is increasingly being used in several domains of education, namely, engineering, medicine, business etc. (e.g. Conger et al., 2010; Yardley et al., 2012; Kosnik et al., 2013). Experiential learning can take many forms, such as case studies, simulations, and projects. The experience of working on real-life team projects provides a rich learning opportunity for students where real-life stakeholders offer students the opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge they acquire. In the experiential learning course MT5920 “Enterprise Development” (National University of Singapore, n.d.), students work in teams to identify new market opportunities for real existing technologies from participating companies, ranging from multinational companies, small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to growth startups. The class setting emulates a real industry environment and process for new product/solution design and validation. Students benefit from working with stakeholders from real organisations. At the same time, the course provides a safe and sheltered environment to experiment and take risks.

 

Team dynamics is a key component for the success of projects in the real world, and it is also a key component in this course. Student teams manage team dynamics throughout the course whilst working and completing their various project assignments and deliverables. This course follows a project-based learning pedagogical approach (De Graaf & Kolmos, 2003). Project-based learning enables a process in which the students can learn, experience, reflect and manage team dynamics. This is accompanied by a deliberate effort by the instructors to scaffold the process of managing team dynamics, which subsequently impacts the team effectiveness in carrying out its project with the actual companies.

The teams are typically multidisciplinary and multicultural. Along with the challenges of finding new market opportunities for these companies, a common challenge that arises for the students is team dynamics. The right team dynamics greatly impacts the success of the team and the intended outcomes (Delice et al, 2019; DiTullio, 2010 ). As mentioned in Kokotsaki et al. (2016), project-based learning is a student-centred form of instruction characterised by students’ autonomy, constructive investigations, goal setting, collaboration, communication, and reflection within real-world practices. The team dynamics scaffolding effort in MT5920 exhibits the above-mentioned characteristics.

 

In this course, these tools are applied to manage team dynamics:

  • GRPI [Beckhard, R. (1972)],
  • A self-assessment (National University of Singapore, n.d.)
  • Team reviews and interventions
  • Individual self-reflection

 

Please refer to the chart below for an overview of the course and the various tools that we apply.

MT5920: Course overview with team dynamics scaffold

 

The scaffolding on team dynamics takes students through a structured process. It begins with self-assessment and understanding of personal strengths and weaknesses followed by a Team Dynamics Workshop. This explores conflict management, communication styles using the self-assessment, and culminates in the creation of a team GRPI1. Data about the team dynamics is collected on a continuous informal basis through student mentors (alumni who act as mentors and join the teams), as well as on a formal basis through student self- and peer review evaluations and surveys. Mid-semester, based on evaluations and surveys completed, an individual team review takes place between all team members and faculty. This is a critical review to gauge and improve on team effectiveness. Any other team dynamics are dealt with on an ad hoc basis through team meetings with faculty or student mentors. All the while, teams reflect and update their GRPI. At the end of the course, students submit individual reflection papers that have specific questions regarding team dynamics, ensuring students gain practical insights and skills for effective teamwork in the future.

 

We have found that this scaffolding process helps teams to navigate the four stages of Tuckman’s (1965) group development, i.e. forming, norming, storming, and performing. The storming phase is critical for the team to emerge from, in order to work effectively towards the end of the course for the final presentation to all stakeholders. This paper will discuss the motivation for this scaffolding and the benefits for both the instructors and the teams. The approach and steps used will be shared as an approach that can be adapted for use by other such courses.

 

ENDNOTE

  1. GRPI is an acronym that stands for Goals, Roles, Processes, and Interpersonal relationships. The GRPI model is an approach to team development that was introduced in the early 1970s by Richard Beckard, an organizational development expert and professor at MIT.

 

REFERENCES

Beckhard, R. (1972). Optimizing team-building efforts. Journal of Contemporary Business, 1(3), 23-32.

Conger, A. J., Gilchrist, B., Holloway, J. P., Huang-Saad, A., Sick, V., & Zurbuchen, T. H. (2010, April). Experiential learning programs for the future of engineering education. In 2010 IEEE transforming engineering education: Creating interdisciplinary skills for complex global environments (pp. 1-14). IEEE.

Delice, F., Rousseau, M., & Feitosa, J. (2019). Advancing teams research: What, when, and how to measure team dynamics over time. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1324. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01324

De Graaf, E., & Kolmos, A. (2003). Characteristics of problem-based learning. International Journal of Engineering Education, 19(5), 657-62. Retrieved from https://www.ijee.ie/articles/Vol19-5/IJEE1450.pdf.

DiTullio, L. (2010). Project team dynamics: enhancing performance, improving results. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Kokotsaki, D., Menzies, V., & Wiggins, A. (2016). Project-based learning: A review of the literature. Improving Schools, 19(3), 267-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480216659733

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.

Kosnik, R. D., Tingle, J. K., & Blanton III, E. L. (2013). Transformational learning in business education: The pivotal role of experiential learning projects. American Journal of Business Education (AJBE), 6(6), 613-30. https://doi.org/10.19030/ajbe.v6i6.8166

National University of Singapore (n.d.). Enterprise Development. IEL website. Retrieved June 20, 2023, from https://cde.nus.edu.sg/iel/graduate/overview-of-graduate-modules/enterprise-development/

National University of Singapore (n.d.). Self Assessments -16 Personalities. Centre for Future-ready Graduates. Retrieved June 20, 2023, from https://nus.edu.sg/cfg/students/career-resources/self-assessments

Tuckman, B. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-99. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0022100

Yardley, S., Teunissen, P. W., & Dornan, T. (2012). Experiential learning: Transforming theory into practice. 63. Medical Teacher, 34(2), e102-e115. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2012.643264

 

Bringing Immersive Technology Closer to Education and Research in the NUS Community

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , , ,

Lyndia CHEN*, Raudhah THONGKAM, Jie Ying MAK, Magdeline NG Tao Tao, and Steven CHOW
TEL Imaginarium, NUS Libraries

*lyndiachen@nus.edu.sg

 

Chen, L., Thongkam, R., Mak, J. Y., Ng, M. T. T., & Chow, S. (2023). Bringing immersive technology closer to education and research in the NUS community [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/bringing-immersive-technology-closer-to-education-and-research-in-the-nus-community/

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Technology education, immersive technologies, game-based learning, training, student engagement

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks 

 

ABSTRACT

To prepare for the digital era, it is important to familiarise students, educators, and the NUS community with various technologies that will soon be a mainstay in education, work, and daily lives, especially for immersive technology that is reshaping research and interaction with information. While its potential is promising, it can be challenging to keep up with the development of immersive technology (Dengel et al., 2021).

 

Some reasons for a lower than desired uptake of immersive technology are the ever-evolving novelty of the technology which can be overwhelming for a user who wants to start exploring the technology, the unfamiliarity and lack of use cases that can be done in a tertiary education setting, and the systemic difficulties in implementing immersive technology across curriculum (Dengel et al., 2021; Häfner, 2020).

 

Digital engagement strategy , adapted from Windham (2005)

 

As a team and a space in NUS Libraries, the Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) Imaginarium tries to raise awareness of immersive technology and its educational potential to the NUS community by organising bite-sized learning experiences through three main ways—short hands-on workshops, exciting game competitions, and tours that showcase popular tech tools and devices.

 

Underlying all the initiatives implemented by TEL Imaginarium is a strategy to engage participants, which its elements are succinctly described by Windham (2005), as described in Table 1.

 

Table 1
Principles to engage digital era learners [Adapted from Windham (2005)]

Interaction A classroom setting with ample opportunities to not just communicate, interact and collaborate with peers and educators, but also with multimedia material. Activities are organised to allow the building of connections in and out of the classroom setting.
Exploration Give learners an opportunity to explore and come up with their own conclusions, critique established literature, and develop an output or understanding with their unique stamp on it.
Relevancy Give learners an opportunity to impact real communities, interact with real-life case studies and applications, to acquire relevant skills and experiences.
Multimedia Provide a variety of media and keep them short and alternating to produce diverse content that meets the class’ learning objectives.
Instruction Basic research skills are still required to help learners navigate the information landscape, which can include teaching how to find, organise, evaluate, mix and use information correctly.

 

Workshops and other outreach initiatives to engage digital era learners.

 

Short hands-on workshops

The Jumpstart Miniseries are 1–2-hour workshops conducted every semester to increase familiarity with common immersive technologies. Participants from various disciplines get together to develop an output by presenting ideas in novel ways. The work is then showcased on an online exhibition platform to show possibilities of applications to research to inspire. Gamification elements such as digital badges are introduced to motivate learners to take charge of their learning and development for immersive technology (Huotari & Hamari, 2012).

 

Exciting games

In the name of education, the TEL Imaginarium team carefully weaves captivating storylines, game development concepts, and applications of immersive technology to develop escape room games. Packaged as a game competition with prize incentives, the NUS community can have fun pitting their wits to solve puzzles while learning about immersive technology. The game-based learning approach resulted in the popular reception of the games and successful engagement of the community (Kraiger et al., 1993) to share the technology’s potential in research and learning applications. Multiple partnerships were forged that increased the uptake of learning with immersive technology in NUS (Ketelhut & Schifter, 2011), such as with the Global Relations office to use games to orientate their incoming exchange students, and with the NUS Health and Wellbeing unit to develop escape room games revolving around the theme of mental health.

 

Tour showcases

TEL Imaginarium used to offer tours to interested NUS members to showcase the variety of immersive technology tools in the Library. Participants got to try out the applications and learn from use cases developed in NUS such as the 360 virtual tour application of NUS Libraries, which resulted in some notable interdisciplinary collaborations, such as with the Department of Biological Sciences where the team co-creates assessment tasks using immersive technology tools. This generated interest from the NUS community and NUS Libraries decided to organise yearly Tech Central Carnival events to do outreach on a wider scale over organising individual tours.

 

REFERENCES

Dengel, A., Buchner, J., Mulders, M., & Pirker, J. (2021). Beyond the horizon: Integrating immersive learning environments in the everyday classroom. 2021 7th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.23919/iLRN52045.2021.9459368

Gilbert, J. (2007). Catching the Knowledge Wave: Redefining knowledge for the post-industrial age. Education Canada, 47(3), 4-8. Canadian Education Association. Retrieved June 2023 from https://www.maailmakool.ee/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/gilbert-catching-knowledge-wave.pdf

Häfner P. (2020). Categorization of the benefits and limitations of immersive environments for education. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Modeling & Applied Simulation (MAS 2020), 154-59. https://doi.org/10.46354/i3m.2020.mas.020

Huotari, K., & Hamari, J. (2012). Defining gamification: A service marketing perspective. Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference, 17–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/2393132.2393137

Ketelhut, D. J., & Schifter, C. C. (2011). Teachers and game-based learning: Improving understanding of how to increase efficacy of adoption. Computers & Education, 56(2), 539–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.10.002

Kraiger, K., Ford, J. K., & Salas, E. (1993). Application of cognitive, skill-based, and affective theories of learning outcomes to new methods of training evaluation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(2), 311–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.2.311

Windham, C. (2005). The student’s perspective. In D. Oblinger & J. Oblinger (Eds), Educating the Net generation (pp. 5.1-5.16). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE. Retrieved June 2023, from https://cyberlearn.hes-so.ch/pluginfile.php/804144/mod_resource/content/2/pub7101.pdf

 

Teaching Surface Anatomy by Surgeons and Anatomists

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , ,

Eng-Tat ANG1*, Jaya B.1, Satish R. L.1, Norman LIN2, James LEE2, Sean LEE2,
GAO Yujia2, Victor LOH3, and Benjamin GOH2

1Department of Anatomy, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (YLLSOM)
2Department of Surgery, YLLSOM
3Department of Family Medicine, YLLSOM

*antaet@nus.edu.sg

 

Ang, E-T, Jaya B., Satish R. L., Lin, N., Lee, J., Lee, S., Gao, Y., Loh, V., & Goh, B. (2023). Teaching surface anatomy by surgeons and anatomists [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/teaching-surface-anatomy-by-surgeons-and-anatomists/
 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Surface anatomy, surgery, collaboration, teaching

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

WHAT PROBLEM WAS ADDRESSED?

Not knowing enough surface anatomy is challenging for the clinical students as they further their medical education. Despite efforts by the anatomists to sensitise preclinical students to this important skillset via the clinical applications of medical sciences (CAMS), the surgeons are reporting that there is still a gap. These medical students are not confident in locating important landmarks (e.g. pubic tubercle) and organs. They would also appear to be unprofessional in their general handling of patients. Is this the result of poor alignment of teaching objectives and nomenclatures? This has to be dealt with because it will lead to frustrations for both teachers and students.

 

WHAT WAS TRIED?

For the first time at the National University of Singapore (NUS), surgeons and anatomists decided to collaboratively teach surface anatomy to the Medical Year 3 (M3) students as they begin their surgical rotations at the National University Hospital (NUH) (NUS-IRB 2023-2). This is fundamentally different from the existing CAMS (NUS) and initiatives like body painting (Diaz & Woolley, 2021). Importantly, standardised patients (SP) were involved, and therefore the level of authenticity is heightened. Students were instructed to surface mark bony landmarks, organs (e.g. liver in the abdomen), and glands (e.g. thyroid in the neck) respectively. The students-to-teacher ratio was kept small (9:1) in order to facilitate more interactions. Four sessions each lasting 2-3 hours (with time allocated for practice) were rolled out between 2022-2023. Pre- and post- session quizzes to ascertain knowledge gain were done. Lastly, a survey was carried out to gauge the level of satisfaction with the interventions.

 

WHAT LESSONS WERE LEARNED?

The surface anatomy knowledge expected of the clinical students was not fulfilled by the CAMS in the pre-clinical years. Most notably, the nomenclatures used by anatomists were not properly aligned with that of the surgeons. Students were confused by these discrepancies e.g. myopectineal orifice in the groin. Overall, the students (n = 72) felt that the module was useful in clarifying these doubts, and boosted their confidence dealing with the SP. 100% of the participants rated the programme between 8-10/10 for effectiveness and gain of knowledge (pre-post-test) (p < 0.05). We also observed that while some surgeons like to defer the teachings to the anatomists, others prefer to take the lead. There were also considerable variations in teaching styles (e.g. humour). All things considered, with the learning objectives and nomenclatures standardised, the venture was much appreciated by the M3 students. The improved conversations between surgeons and anatomists made the learning of surface anatomy more constructive and meaningful for the students. However, this conclusion is limited by the fact that this was a mono-institutional research. Therefore, the idea needs to be expanded.

 

REFERENCE

Diaz, C. M., & Woolley, T. (2021). “Learning by doing”: a mixed-methods study to identify why body painting can be a powerful approach for teaching surface anatomy to health science students. Med Sci Educ, 31(6), 1875-87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01376-x

 

Overseas Experiential Learning in the City that Never Sleeps

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , ,

Norman VASU* and Lydia CHEE Qian Ting
NUS College (NUSC)

*nvasu@nus.edu.sg

 

Vasu, N., & Chee, L. Q. T. (2023). Overseas experiential learning in the city that never sleeps [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/overseas-experiential-learning-in-the-city-that-never-sleeps

SUB-THEME

Communities and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Experiential learning, sense-making, designing for reflection

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks 

 

ABSTRACT

This Lightning Talk explores the pedagogical underpinnings of designing for reflection and sense-making to an interdisciplinary group of undergraduate students on an overseas experiential learning programme. Experiential learning here is understood through Kolb’s (1976, 2015) four-stage cycle. We argue that an inordinate amount of contact hours has to be devoted to group and individual reflection and sense-making when designing for experiential learning. Based on our study, in effect, 8.5 hours of experience requires 8.9 hours of reflection and sense-making. With rounding, that suggests that for every hour of experience, educators should design for an equivalent hour of contact hour dedicated to sense-making.

 

This presentation is based on the experience of conducting NUS College’s (NUSC) Summer Study Trip Experience Programme (SSTEP), an interdisciplinary experiential learning programme with a four-week overseas component for undergraduates. SSTEP was a specially curated course to New York City (NYC) for 14 students to arrive at an appreciation and understanding of NYC as a Global City.

 

To achieve this, the programme was designed for students to have fireside chats with industry leaders, engage with guest professors, and experience field visits to important cultural sites. Throughout the course of the programme, students were expected to reflect on their learning, and conduct an independent study of a topic (of their choice) related to the theme of the programme.

 

With regard to reflection, students were provided three 30-minute individual consultations with the lecturer accompanying the trip, weekly end-of-the-week three-hour seminars at the City University of New York (CUNY) on the topic of the week, seminars for 1.5-days at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and weekly 1.5-hour group reflection seminars. Besides these formal reflection points, students were also provided with questions ahead of site visits to better aid their sense-making of their site visits.

 

Interestingly, despite these various reflection points while on the trip, students requested for more contact hours through immediate post-event discussions.

 

Through the experience of the SSTEP programme, it is clear that while the experiential element in experiential learning is important, formal learning through seminars and consultations remains firmly a key component of the process. Future research based on this finding should consider if this demand for formal learning leads to more reflection, or whether the demand for more contact hours stems from a particular orientation towards a more guided form of learning.

 

REFERENCES

Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential learning. Pearson Education.

Kolb, D. A. (1976). Learning style inventory. McBer.

 

Student Practicums as Community Engagement: Linking Knowledge with Application Beyond the Classroom

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , , ,

Kevin S. Y. Tan
Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre (CTPCLC)

*kevintan@nus.edu.sg

 

Tan, K. S. Y. (2023). Student practicums as community engagement: Linking knowledge with application beyond the classroom [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/student-practicums-as-community-engagement-linking-knowledge-with-application-beyond-the-classroom/

 

SUB-THEME

Communities and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Community, practicum, experiential, interpersonal, reflexivity

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

ABSTRACT

The teaching of community development is best informed by adopting an interdisciplinary approach in the classroom, due to the multi-layered and complex nature of all societies and the cultures that exist within them. Therefore, in order to prepare students to be competent community developers or even potential community leaders, it is important that their learning is not restricted to didactic and insulated social environments that are removed from interactions with persons beyond the confines of a university’s ‘safe spaces’. This is because the practice of community development often requires one to employ effective interpersonal skills and acquire a reflexive awareness of the lived experiences of persons from diverse social environments. One useful approach is by recognising the parallels between community engagement and the practice of ethnography, a qualitative research method often employed by anthropologists. This is because ethnographic work necessitates a real-world contextualisation of any community that is being studied.

 

When framed as a teaching and learning tool, ethnography can be an effective facilitator of linking knowledge and application, similar to Baker’s (2019, pp. 105-119) insights on how “interactional ethnography” enabled teachers to rethink and expand repertoires for interpreting and teaching literature by examining classroom discourses. Additional examples include the use of reflexive ethnographic writing for the uncovering of hidden issues within childcare settings (Blaisdell, 2015, pp. 83-91); the pragmatic application of “focused ethnography” (Kelly, 2022) among non-profit organisations to explain specific phenomenon; and the employment of “ethnographic sensibility” (Vanhala et al., 2022, 180-193) for uncovering the various dimensions of climate change governance research.

 

In a Singaporean context, student practicums run by the Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Centre (CTPCLC) share similar potential in the use of ethnographic approaches to community-based research. Consequently, this Lightning Talk will highlight the importance and relevance of such student practicums by discussing brief cases of how they provided a form of experiential and reflexive learning that simply cannot be replaced by classroom settings

 

REFERENCES

Baker, W. D. (2019). Transforming classroom discourse as a resource for learning: Adapting interactional ethnography for teaching and learning. In E. Manalo (Ed), Deeper Learning, Dialogic Learning, and Critical Thinking: Research-based Strategies for the Classroom (pp. 105-180). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429323058-7

Blaisdell, C. (2015) Putting reflexivity into practice: experiences from ethnographic fieldwork. Ethics and Social Welfare, 9(1), 83-91. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17496535.2015.994977

Kelly, L. M. (2022). Focused ethnography for research on community development non-profit organisations. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 23(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-22.2.3811

Vanhala, L., Johansson, A., & Butler, A. (2022). Deploying an ethnographic sensibility to understand climate change governance: Hanging out, around, in, and back. Global Environmental Politics, 22(2), 180-93. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00652

 

Making Learning “Real” in Communication Courses: Authentic Assessments for Communities

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , ,

Suwichit (Sean) CHAIDAROON
Department of Communications and New Media, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)

sean.chaidaroon@nus.edu.sg

 

Chaidaroon, S. (2023). Making learning “real” in communication courses: Authentic assessments for communities [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/making-learning-real-in-communication-courses-authentic-assessments-for-communities/

SUB-THEME

Communities and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Authentic assessments, significant learning experience, co-creational pedagogy

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks 

 

ABSTRACT

One of the common challenges we are facing in university teaching is designing assessments that facilitate students’ learning. Traditional assessments may measure students’ cognitive knowledge well but they often fail to motivate students to engage in higher-order learning. Well-designed assessments not only motivate students to excel themselves in their studies, but also serve as a catalyst to foster significant learning experiences. This refers to is education that makes a difference in how students live their lives meaningfully by enhancing individual lives, social interactions with others, inculcating a civic mindset as well as a readiness for the world of work (Brackenbury, 2012; Fink, 2013).

 

In this Lightning Talk, the author shares his practices and reflection on authentic assessments he designed for the communication courses he has taught. Defined as learning tasks that allow students to apply competencies or combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need in their professional lives, the assessments in three communication courses in particular will be discussed to illustrate the authentic assessment framework (Gulikers et al., 2004) as outlined below.

 

  • In NMC5323 “Crisis Communications and Leadership”, one assessment was a press conference simulation where professional journalists were invited to participate and ask questions to students who role-play as spokespersons in crisis situations.
  • In NMC5306 “Communications and Leadership”, students were asked to write thought leadership blog posts on their personal LinkedIn profiles. Please search #NMC5306 on LinkedIn for examples of students’ work.
  • In NM3215 “Advertising Strategies” (later converted to NM4257 “Multiplatform Advertising Strategies”), students developed actual video and printed advertisements for local clients.

 

The author’s reflection highlights two key factors for the successful implementation of authentic assessments in his clases. First, the co-creational pedagogy, or student-centred teaching as some scholars may call this approach, should be adopted where students’ inputs are consistently taken through the facilitation and coaching process that the instructors will conduct (Hou & Chaidaroon, 2022). This co-creational pedagogy highlights the importance of the learning process as much as the product, allowing students to excel themselves in their studies. Second, there must be authentic audiences for students’ work as most traditional assessment deliverables, such as tests or essays, were solely read and assessed by the instructors. This is an opportunity for the local communities to be invited to serve as authentic audiences who may also benefit from students’ work.

 

Ultimately, the authentic assessments implemented by the author were proven to be meaningful teaching and learning experiences for the instructor, students, and the communities involved in all projects. They have proven to be good indicators for significant learning experience that students gain from attending university, which reflects students’ achievement not only in their studies but also in their development of a citizenry mindset.

 

REFERENCES

Brackenbury, T. (2012). A qualitative examination of connections between learner-centered teaching and past significant learning experiences. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 12(4), 12-28. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/josotl/article/view/3139

Fink, L. D. (2013). Creating significant learning experiences, revised and updated: An integrated approach to designing college courses. John Wiley & Sons.

Gulikers, J. T. M., Bastiaens, T. J. & Kirschner, P. A. (2004). A five-dimensional framework for authentic assessment. Educational Technology and Development, 52, 67–86. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02504676

Hou, J. Z., & Chaidaroon, S. S. (2022). A co-creational turn to online strategic communication education: Prospects and challenges. Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, 24. https://www.pria.com.au/pria-newsroom/asia-pacific-public-relations-journal/apprj-volumes/volume-24/?fbclid=IwAR1qjBSnYHm7vn1Qqlp8KN1uuif2ZbqErNeW5yKO1gzoXBMysLlV8JsyIBw

 

Methods in Madness–Exploring the Use of Toolkits in Project-based Learning

cdtlsd Lighting Talks , , , , ,

Mark CHONG* and Bina RAI
Department of Biomedical Engineering

*markchong@nus.edu.sg

 

Chong, M., & Rai, B. (2023). Methods in madness–Exploring the use of toolkits in project-based learning [Lightning talk]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/methods-in-madness-exploring-the-use-of-toolkits-in-project-based-learning/

 

SUB-THEME

Interdisciplinarity and Education

 

KEYWORDS

Project-based learning, interdisciplinary studies, design, instructional aids, training aids

 

CATEGORY

Lightning Talks

 

BACKGROUND

Project-based Learning (PBL) is commonly used to engage learners in meaningful projects and developing real-world products. Student-led inquiry is integral towards knowledge construction, with instructors engaged more heavily in coaching, rather than didactic delivery of content. Inherently, this results in an increased workload, both for staff and students (Brown, 2020), and PBL approaches are notorious for being time-consuming. The diverse nature of problem statements used, as well as instructors involved, often result in inconsistent expectations, further limiting efforts to scale-up delivery of instruction (Aldabbus, 2018; Shpeizer, 2019).

 

Peer instruction may provide part of the solution to these issues. As defined and popularised by Eric Mazur (Crouch & Mazur, 2001), peer instruction benefits from not having the “curse of knowledge”, with recent learners being better placed to explain concepts to each other, particularly in the learning of content knowledge. It follows that PBL can be integrated with peer instruction for improved outcomes, and has been proven effective for skills-based courses (Putri & Sumartini, 2021). As described above, however, design projects tend to be more open-ended and require some prior experience to steer the learning in the right direction; students within the project teams often lack the “big picture”, and require additional guidance in their discovery journey.

 

In this project, we proposed the use of students who have recently completed the course to return as teaching assistants (TAs) for future teams. To make up for the lack of general real-world experience, the TAs are trained and equipped with teaching aids in the form of toolkits that serve to standardise instruction and also provide a vehicle to report student progress for targeted feedback from the course instructor/faculty. Frameworks and toolkits, as used in innovation and design, serve to focus the users’ attention on immediate topics and to provide a platform for collaborative design (Clemente et al., 2016).

 

The following are the research questions explored in this project:

  • What are the major gaps in PBL that can be effectively addressed with teaching toolkits?
  • How effective are teaching toolkits in (a) facilitating teaching, and (b) nurturing confidence in instruction in student guides?

 

PROJECT AIMS & METHODOLOGY

We hypothesise that instructional toolkits improve teaching effectiveness and efficiency in design innovation courses for TAs. To test this hypothesis, the following aims have been developed:

 

Aim #1. We will develop toolkits to be used by learners in the course BN3101 “Biomedical Engineering Design”. Additionally, we will develop training guides for TAs to prepare them to transition into teaching roles. We expect these efforts to improve confidence of the teaching aids and enable them to provide focused guidance to the student groups throughout PBL. As a result, students will be steered in the right direction and converge on the course learning outcomes more quickly.

 

Aim #2. We will measure the effectiveness of the toolkits in facilitating peer instruction through a combination of direct and indirect measures at specified time points throughout the course. Two aspects of effectiveness of the training toolkits will be studied: (i) Ability to improve learning outcomes, and (ii) Ability to facilitate moderate facilitation by the TAs. Evaluation of (i) will be performed through self-reported surveys by learners, and qualitative assessments from instructors as direct measures of learning. Similarly, evaluation of (ii) will take place through surveys on learners and focus group discussions with student assistants at the end of the course.

 

Aim #3. We will analyse the data collected to reveal distinct material from the course that can be most effectively structured into a general set of toolkits to improve instruction and/or identify portions that can be digitised for online training of the student guides. This can also be useful for onboarding new course instructors, and may result in more consistent expectations of deliverables amongst course instructors.

 

CENTRAL MESSAGE

This presentation describes the process of developing toolkits for project-based learning courses for effective learning.

 

REFERENCES

Aldabbus, S. (2018). Project-based learning: Implementation & challenges. International Journal of Education, Learning and Development, 6(3), 71-79. https://eajournals.org/ijeld/vol-6-issue-3-march-2018/project-based-learning-implementation-challenges/

Brown, N. (2020). Practical solutions to manage staff and student workloads in project-based learning courses. Global Journal of Engineering Education, 22(1), 20-25. http://www.wiete.com.au/journals/GJEE/Publish/vol22no1/03-Brown-N.pdf

Clemente, V. Vieira, R. & Tschimmel, K. (2016). A learning toolkit to promote creative and critical thinking in product design and development through Design Thinking. In 2016 2nd International Conference of the Portuguese Society for Engineering Education (CISPEE), Vila Real, Portugal (pp. 1-6). http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/CISPEE.2016.7777732

Crouch, C. H., & Mazur, E. (2001). Peer instruction: Ten years of experience and results. American Journal of Physics, 69, 970-77. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.1374249

Putri, S. T., & Sumartini, S. (2021). Integrating peer learning activities and problem-based learning in clinical nursing education. SAGE Open Nurs, 7, 23779608211000262. https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608211000262

Shpeizer, R. (2019). Towards a successful integration of project-based learning in higher education: challenges, technologies and methods of implementation. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7, 1765-71. http://dx.doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2019.070815

 

Viewing Message: 1 of 1.
 Warning

Blog.nus accounts will move to SSO login, tentatively before the start of AY24/25 Sem 2. Once implemented, only current NUS staff and students will be able to log in to Blog.nus. Public blogs remain readable to non-logged in users. (More information.)