E-Moderators are \"the new generation of teachers and trainers who work with learners online\" (p. viii) using Computer-Mediated Conferencing (CMC) as a learning tool, regardless of the subject they are teaching. They are the focus of E-Moderating, a recent book which provides both a theoretical framework for developing online learning using CMC (part one), and a wealth of practical advice (part two). The book is supported by a Web site. The author, Gilly Salmon, a distance education specialist with the Open University Business School in the UK, provides a five-step model of effective online education, along with copious examples of how the model relates to real-life online learning contexts. Salmon proposes that, by basing learning on a constructivist model, it is e-moderators that can make the difference in online education as they convene, direct, summarize, and archive synchronous and asynchronous discussions.

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E-Moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online

by J. Biggs and C. Tang, Maidenhead, England,
Open University Press, 2007, 360 pp., £29.99, ISBN-13: 978-0-335-22126-4

Teaching for quality learning at university

This article reports on a study for the Higher Education Funding Council for England on the impact of employability skills teaching and learning on graduate labour market prospects. The findings of the study cast doubt on the assumption that these skills can be effectively developed within classrooms. Detailed information gathered at university department level is drawn on to assess how academics perceive and engage in the teaching and learning of employability skills. It is argued that, despite the best intentions of academics to enhance graduates’ employability, the limitations inherent within the agenda will consistently produce mixed outcomes. Furthermore, it is argued that resources would be better utilised to increase employment‐based training and experience, and/or employer involvement in courses, which were found to positively affect immediate graduate prospects in the labour market and, therefore, support graduates in the transitional stage into employment.

Enhancing graduate employability: best intentions and mixed outcomes

Despite ongoing debate about whether they can and should, most higher education institutions include the development of employability skills within their curricula. However, employers continue to report that graduates are not ready for the world of work, and lack some of the most basic skills needed for successful employment. Research into why this might be abounds from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including government, employers, higher education institutions and graduates. Interestingly though, the views of undergraduates, the recipients of this employability development, are not well known. This could be important, because learning theory tells us that motivation and commitment of learners is an essential prerequisite for effective outcomes. So the question is raised as to whether undergraduate students are engaged with employability skills development. This article reports on a study exploring the views of over 400 business studies, marketing and human resource management undergraduate s...

The student perspective on employability

3. And financial aid has failed to keep up with ri sing costs. Most aid now comes in the form of loans, and studen ts from lower income families are less willing than more affluent students to take on large loan burdens to finance their education. There has also been a movement from need-based aid toward non-need -based aid. Fewer than 15-20 private institutions provide finan ci l aid based solely on students’ financial need.

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The Future of Higher Education

Feedback from employers of graduates indicates a need to include a focus on generic skills to complement disciplinary expertise. Educational research shows that such skills are most effectively taught in the disciplinary context. Therefore, in order to better meet the requirements of employers for graduates who are more 'fit for purpose', universities may need to change the curriculum and how it is taught. Such changes involve significant investment in staff development and monitoring of the change process. Measures of effectiveness of changes must be developed and used to improve graduate quality. This paper describes how a business school has identified a set of generic skills to be taught to all undergraduate students and begun implementing a project to teach and assess the skills in the context of each discipline. The measures of effectiveness that were developed are outlined and lessons learned to date in efforts to improve educational quality are discussed.

Quality and Generic (Professional) Skills

https://www.radiographyonline.com/article/S1078-8174(08)00038-2/pdf

Profession and professionalisation in medical radiation science as an emergent profession

In order to be members of the learning society, students must become lifelong learners; that is, learners who have a wide repertoire of cognitive learning strategies, are metacognitive about learning and themselves as learners, are motivated to learn, and can manage their feelings and available resources effectively. Although there is evidence that these lifelong learner characteristics contribute to academic achievement, not many teachers or students know much about them or their relationship to learning and assessment. In this paper, we describe how cognitive, metacognitive, motivational and affective aspects of learning can be assessed using both quantitative and qualitative methods and discuss how the outcomes of this assessment can inform learning, teaching and assessment practices that foster lifelong learning.

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Informed Teachers and Learners: The Importance of Assessing the Characteristics Needed for Lifelong Learning.

https://www.radiographyonline.com/article/S1078-8174(03)00040-3/pdf

University and workplace cultures: their impact on the development of lifelong learners

The expectation that graduates are able to demonstrate the attributes needed for learning, work, and life is shared by employers, the community and graduates alike. Universities have accepted and responded to this expectation by defining a list of desired graduate attributes, requiring that these are embedded in all university programs. This focus on teaching and assessing graduate attributes over the last decade has proven to be a major challenge for universities, since academic staff find changing their assessment practices one of the most
confronting tasks they face. Thus, assessment of graduate attributes is proving to be an indicator for uncovering the challenges behind this work, namely academic staff beliefs about graduate attributes and learning and teaching. Assessment is proving to be the litmus test of what academic staff value as the outcomes of their teaching. In this paper, we draw on the literature to present an opinion piece that summarises the drivers for assessing graduate attributes, outlines progress to date, identifies and acknowledges the `elephant in the room?, namely the role that academic staff beliefs about graduate attributes play in their approach to teaching and assessing these, and considers the impact of these beliefs on staff engagement in an informed and pedagogically sophisticated way in assessing graduate attributes. Only when the custodians of the curriculum, namely academic staff, engage deeply in this work can they ensure the engagement of their students in developing the attributes they need, to be what they want to be.

/pdf/assessing-graduate-attributes-engaging-academic-staff-and-2anxamtqc7.pdf

Alex Radloff

Papers

Quality and Generic (Professional) Skills

Profession and professionalisation in medical radiation science as an emergent profession

Informed Teachers and Learners: The Importance of Assessing the Characteristics Needed for Lifelong Learning.

University and workplace cultures: their impact on the development of lifelong learners

Assessing graduate attributes: Engaging academic staff and their students