Active Learning in Higher Education

In recent years there has been growing concern to improve standards in postgraduate research. Much of this has focused on generic research skills training. However, there are other, equally important, supervisory aspects such as welfare, mentoring and support arrangements. This article focuses on the initial expectations, of both students and supervisors, of their roles and duties at the start of the supervisory process. Using concepts from the service quality literature, an instrument ‘Superqual’ is developed aimed at exposing any gaps in expectations that, if not resolved, could generate problems during the life of a doctorate. The use of Superqual in a number of case studies is reported. The results are mostly positive, and suggestions are made for its improvement and adoption.

Encouraging students to participate during class time is important to facilitate the learning process and encourage deep learning to take place. However, students with certain cultural and education backgrounds are often reluctant to participate in class discussion. This article provides some initial insight into the use of the Personal Response System (PRS) to encourage class participation at the postgraduate level. I found that students' participation levels were increased when using the PRS, and further class discussion and debate was stimulated as a result.

This article summarizes a longitudinal study of employed MBA students with particular emphasis on findings involving their choice of action research model to implement personal and organizational change in their environment. A multi-method approach merging both quantitative and qualitative techniques was utilized. A questionnaire consisting of open and closed questions was administered over a three-year period to 261 respondents, of which 243 responses were usable. Comparing the demographic variables of gender, age, country of origin, English proficiency and learning experience with classifications of learning style and choice of AR model, four significant results demonstrating a relationship between the variables were uncovered. Chi-squared analysis confirmed significance for AR model and age (2 (12) = 26.223, p< .05), country of origin (2 (4) = 17.871, p< .05) and English proficiency (2 (4) = 18.335, p< .05), while only English proficiency showed any relationship to learning style (2 (1) = 6.382, 0p< .05). Implications for the teaching of action research and management education are discussed.

This study focuses on comparing the results of self-, peerand teacher-assessment of student essays, as well as on exploring students' experiences of the self- and peer-assessment processes. Participants were 15 law students. The scoring matrix used in the study made assessment easy, according to both teachers and students alike. Self-assessment was sometimes considered difficult, because the students felt it impossible to be objective when considering their own work. In peer-assessment, the students found it difficult to be critical when assessing the essay of a peer. The students found it easier to assess technical aspects of the essays when compared to aspects related to content.

Seven experienced university teachers who already required reflective journal writing from their students undertook an innovative experiment in which they made the same demand of themselves, with their own continuing professional development (CPD) in mind. Six of them received and considered confidential facilitative comments upon each journal written, provided by the seventh member, who had had experience of this form of facilitation. An original feature of the pilot was for the facilitator to act as a primus inter pares, genuinely compiling his own reflective journal with his own CPD in mind, and offering it for comment, in return for each incoming journal. The teachers' experiences and reactions to these are reported, together with their suggestions for refinement of this scheme.

This article describes the way in which colleagues from the Business faculty, the Careers Service and the Library at Dublin City University collaborated to design and deliver an integrated approach to personal development planning (PDP) with the aim of motivating first year undergraduate students to take greater responsibility for their own learning, development and career planning. The article describes the approach adopted in the introduction of the PDP module and the measures used to evaluate its outcomes. There are indications from the research that undertaking PDP benefits students in several ways. In particular, it appears to impact on student retention by clarifying career goals and increasing motivation towards the chosen degree programme.

Plagiarism by students is seen as an increasing problem. The fear is that students will use the internet to obtain analysis, interpretation or even complete assignments and then submit these as their own work. Electronic plagiarism detection services may help to prevent such unfair practice but, in doing so, they create a new problem: certifying the absence of plagiarism. This article reports the results of an evaluation of one such service within an interdisciplinary school of social sciences. The article describes how the system works and the experiences of staff and students in using the service, together with an evaluation of the data generated. The key findings are that the service did identify examples of poor scholarship and unfair practice that had been missed under the usual marking system but that rigorously checking every script for plagiarism was impractical. Trust and student honesty thus remain central to a successful academic system.