Active Learning in Higher Education

Self-assessment activities are increasingly popular in the classrooms. But regarding self-assessment accuracy, mixed results are reported without clear reasons for this. This article addresses the impact of gender and performance on self-assessment accuracy. To evaluate self-assessment accuracy, peer and professor assessments are used as reference. A research project, relating to the assessment of oral presentations using scoring rubrics, is conducted in two university degrees. Data from 155 self-assessments and more than 12,000 peer and professor assessments are gathered. The analysis differentiates by degree, gender and level of performance in the assessed competency. The results show that self-assessment accuracy is low and related to the student’s gender, that men rate themselves higher than women do, and that even using a scoring rubric, students receiving higher marks from professors are more accurate than students receiving lower marks.

Self-regulated learning assumes learners are active agents who can establish and make progress toward learning goals. Classroom activities can facilitate the emergence of self-regulated learning. One strategy to encourage self-regulated learning is to ask students to develop questions for a quiz or examination. The process of developing questions scaffolds higher-order thinking. Rather than just memorize or apply the material, students must think about how to evaluate their knowledge of the material. The purpose of this study was to identify students’ perceptions about the experience of developing questions for a quiz or examination. Three separate and slightly different quiz-building activities were conducted in a large undergraduate classroom. A follow-up student perception survey indicates that students (a) found this activity valuable for learning, (b) were concerned about the quality of questions produced, and (c) preferred team-based activities over individual activities. This article suggests ways to improve this activity and offers suggestions for future research.

Research has demonstrated that learning is impaired if students multitask with media while encountering new information. However, some have gone further and suggested that media-multitasking (as a general activity) may have a negative impact on cognitive control processes. If this were the case, students who are heavy media-multitaskers generally would have difficulties with goal-directed behaviour and organising their time effectively to meet their learning goals. The study described here explored links between total levels of self-reported media-multitasking, academic achievement and approaches to learning. Well-established measures of media-multitasking and learning approach were given to 307 students. Total levels of media-multitasking did not relate to either learning approach or academic achievement. However, surface learning approach related negatively to academic achievement and time spent engaging with printed media. Deep learning approach was positively related to time spent using printed media, email and other computer applications. These findings suggest that patterns of media use differ according to current learning approach, and that these patterns may be more relevant for learning than overall tendency to media-multitask.

This article focuses on students’ perceptions of small-group activities, discussion, and technology-based interactivity implemented in two different learning environments, namely, in a large, traditional lecture hall and in a smaller classroom. The Engaged Learning Index, developed by Schreiner and Louis, was used along with several items to determine student perceptions of the activities that they had been asked to undertake. This followed a faculty training program designed to help faculty to use discussion, technology, and small-group work to enhance student engagement. Students in a course in which faculty taught in a traditional lecture hall (in an auditorium) were compared with students who had content and material delivered within a small classroom. Data indicated more active engagement in courses hosted in small classrooms, with slightly higher ratings on meaningful processing and active participation, while students in the course run by faculty in the traditional lecture hall reported a deeper processing of material, more advanced learning, more focused attention, and a better understanding overall. An explanation of potential differences is provided.

Few studies have assessed the particular relationships between students’ emotional well-being, both positive and negative and their learning. This study followed a cohort of mature students through their first semester at university. Four dimensions of emotional well-being were captured (enthusiasm, contentment, anxiety and depression) at three points in time during the semester. In addition, at the end of the semester, assessments were made of learning behaviours, affect and academic achievement. Emotional well-being fluctuated during the semester and each of the four dimensions exhibited a unique and predictive pattern of relationships with the suite of outcome measures. The findings highlight the importance of emotional well-being in shaping active engagement in learning and in determining affective and academic outcomes. The results are interpreted and the implications for the design of learning environments and teaching practice are outlined.

This article discusses and challenges the increasing use of plagiarism detection services such as Turnitin and Grammarly by students, arguing that the increasingly online nature of composition is having a profound effect on student composition processes. This dependence on the Internet is leading to a strategy I term ‘de-plagiarism’, in which students copy/paste text into their essays and then ‘cleanse’ the text to avoid plagiarism detection. I then argue that this is being done in the context of an increasingly ‘de-authored’ writing environment, manifested by lack of formative writing development and anonymous marking, rendering the student invisible in the writing process. I then report on a phenomenon observed in class – namely that students who handwrote an exercise produced better, more original writing than those who typed, leading me to explore the affordances – via Bakhtinian notions of dialogicality and addressivity – of handwriting as a means of ‘re-authoring’ the essay-writing process.