Background: Teacher stress potentially impairs personal and professional competence and compromises productivity. Aversive emotional experience has been most comprehensively encapsulated by the phenomenon of burnout, which is particularly prominent for staff in human service sectors. Burnout reactions have been characterised as tripartite: the depletion of emotional reserves (emotional exhaustion), an increasingly cynical and negative approach towards others (depersonalisation) and a growing feeling of work-related dissatisfaction (personal accomplishment). Purpose: Few studies have investigated the emotional consequences of teachers' stress and even fewer have specifically focused on university educators. A systematic literature review was thus conducted to evaluate the extent of burnout for university teaching staff and specifically to reveal predictive variables, which may explain this experience in this understudied occupational group. Design and methods: Six databases including Educational Resources ...

Burnout in university teaching staff: a systematic literature review

This paper presents a critical review of research on challenges for e-learning with a particular focus on developing countries. A comprehensive literature review including 60 papers on e-learning challenges was undertaken for the purpose of understanding how to implement e-learning in developing countries. Research questions were: what has existing research identified as the major challenges for e-learning, and, what differences, if any, are there between developing countries and developed countries in this respect? The literature study found 278 papers which were condensed to 60 based on exclusion and inclusion criteria designed to find papers of best quality as well as papers that clearly investigated well-defined challenges. The research found 30 specific challenges which were grouped into four categories, viz.: courses, individuals, technology and context. The overall conclusion is that these challenges are equally valid for both developed and developing countries; however in developing countries more papers focus on access to technology and context whereas in developed countries more papers concern individuals. A further finding is that most papers focus on one or two categories of challenges; few papers exhibit a comprehensive view. Because challenges are interrelated, based on the findings we propose a conceptual framework of emerging issues for e-learning in developed and developing countries. The framework is useful to guide both practice and research.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2009.tb00271.x

A Conceptual Framework for E-Learning in Developing Countries: A Critical Review of Research Challenges

This paper reports a project working to improve distance education in Bangladesh by means of a low-cost, large-scale interactive learning environment using video, mobile phones, SMS-based tools administered in a learning management system, and innovative pedagogy based on the student-centered learning model. The paper addresses the question of how to use existing mobile telephony technical infrastructure to create interactive learning environments which can reach a majority of the population, be able to include thousands of students, and be sustainable from a resource perspective. This question includes challenges relating to pedagogy and teaching methods, technical tools for learning and communication, and institutional arrangements. The paper addresses these challenges by the illustrative case of the Bangladesh Virtual Interactive Classroom testing the tools and ideas in course at Bangladesh Open University. We find that our tools are feasible and usable but also that sustainability requires meeting organizational and social challenges.

A mobile e-learning environment for developing countries: the Bangladesh Virtual Interactive Classroom

Online learning has been recognised as an effective pedagogical method and tool, and is broadly integrated into various types of teaching and learning strategies in higher education. In practice, the use of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in higher education has become an integral strategy for quality education. The field of design education however has not been researched extensively in regard to online learning, delivery and evaluation. This paper discusses design education from an online learning perspective. It proposes an integrated framework with three key components for online learning via VLE including an interactive delivery structure, communication channels, and learning evaluation. Additionally, the paper describes and evaluates how VLE sites for two design units were built based on an integrated framework and student learning experiences. The results indicate that online design education should be integrated with various educational values and functional features in a systematic manner, and requires designing learning evaluation protocols as part of learning activities and communicative forms within online-based learning sites.

Design education online : learning delivery and evaluation

Online learning has been recognised as an effective pedagogical method and tool, and is broadly integrated into various types of teaching and learning strategies in higher education. In practice, the use of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in higher education has become an integral strategy for quality education. The field of design education, however, has not been researched extensively in regard to online learning, delivery and evaluation. This article discusses design education from an online learning perspective. It proposes an integrated framework with three key components for online learning via VLE including an interactive delivery structure, communication channels and learning evaluation. Additionally, the article describes and evaluates how VLE sites for two design units were built based on an integrated framework and student learning experiences. The results indicate that online design education should be integrated with various educational values and functional features in a systematic manner, and requires designing learning evaluation protocols as part of learning activities and communicative forms within online-based learning sites.

/pdf/design-education-online-learning-delivery-and-evaluation-c72p3h5d6b.pdf

Design Education Online: Learning Delivery and Evaluation

The inclusion of online learning technologies into the higher education (HE) curriculum is frequently associated with the design and development of new models of learning. One could argue that e-learning even demands a reconfiguration of traditional methods of learning and teaching. One of the key elements of this transformational process is flexibility. This paper considers a number of aspects relating to the flexibility inherent within models of online learning and the potential impact of this on support structures. City University, London, is used as a case study to provide examples of online practice which support strategies outlined here. A number of models of online learning are used at the University to provide evidence of the variation in modes of support and illustrate the different needs of both students and staff when using these forms of learning. What is apparent through this discussion is that to provide effective support for online learners, whether students or staff, clear and solid structures need to be put in place to assist with the creation of an online community.

/pdf/blurring-the-boundaries-supporting-students-and-staff-within-1s2etfz9ng.pdf

Blurring the Boundaries? Supporting Students and Staff within an Online Learning Environment.

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the creation of a new approach to the implementation of educational technologies at a UK Higher Education Institution. Driven by changes in technology, an evaluation of the virtual learning environment (VLE) provided the opportunity to reassess the application of technology to the curriculum. However, such an evaluation and subsequent implementation is not about technology but a social process of negotiation and stakeholder engagement. The paper seeks to explore the narrative of the evaluation to offer lessons to other institutions.Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a storytelling approach as this enables greater emotional engagement with the reader as well as the description of the social and organisational aspects of such a VLE evaluation. This approach enables the difficulty of change in complex organisations, such as a university, to be addressed more fully.Findings – Key lessons from the evaluation of the VLE and resulting creation of the strategic lea...

/pdf/creating-the-strategic-learning-environment-at-city-2y2dmtg2vo.pdf

Creating the Strategic Learning Environment at City University London

Purpose – To examine how introducing an institution‐wide managed learning environment impacts on the processes of organisational change using City University, London as a case study.Design/methodology/approach – Literature‐based discussion of current issues around the introduction of online learning to provide theoretical framework. Action research methodology used for interviews with leading members of the institution.Findings – There is a significant amount of literature available on institutional change and managed learning environments; however, how the introduction of such systems operates in practice depends on the context of the institution. In the interviews with key stakeholders six significant themes are identified for the management of change in this area: pedagogic direction; operational connections and development; organisational structure and change; system process; professional development; strategic vision and perception. Any implementation project regarding the introduction of managed lea...

/pdf/how-to-manage-the-big-bang-evolution-or-revolution-in-the-3ysdud39kg.pdf

How to manage the big bang: evolution or revolution in the introduction of an MLE?

E-Learning (M-Learning)

This paper discusses the strategies and processes used within one Higher Education institution to support curriculum design and, change the culture around this activity. The paper provides a brief discussion of two institution wide projects related to curriculum design that have been taking place over the last few years and have been used to support this area of development. The discussion will then identify some of the issues around terminology and barriers to staff engaging in curriculum design as well as processes that had been used by staff and then move to discussing the strategies used to support this activity. Throughout the paper there will also be reference to comments gained from peers during the workshop that took place at the Eighteenth International Conference on Learning in Mauritius in July 2011.

Susannah Quinsee

Papers

Blurring the Boundaries? Supporting Students and Staff within an Online Learning Environment.

Creating the Strategic Learning Environment at City University London

How to manage the big bang: evolution or revolution in the introduction of an MLE?

E-Learning (M-Learning)

Facilitating Institutional Curriculum Change in Higher Education