ABSTRACT
Professional development (PD) is a key element for enhancing the quality of academic teaching. An increasing number of PD activities have moved to blended and online formats, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the desire, potential, and need for collaboration among educators to learn from innovative and best practices, several institutions have started to pool their resources and expertise together and have started to implement cross-institutional and cross-national online professional development (OPD). The questions of what type of a (cross-)institutional OPD educators might prefer, and whether educators learn effectively from (and with) peers in such cross-cultural context have not been adequately explored empirically. In this case-study across three European countries, we explored the lived experiences of 86 educators as a result of a cross-institutional OPD. Using a mixed methods design approach our pre-post findings indicated that, on average, participants made substantial gains in knowledge. In addition, several cultural differences were evident in the expectations and lived experiences in ODP, as well as the intention to transfer what had been learned into one's own practice of action. This study indicates that while substantial economic and pedagogical affordances are provided with cross-institutional OPD, cultural differences in context might impact the extent to which educators implement lessons learned from OPD.
ABSTRACT
The increased use of digital learning environments augments the adoption of open practices in education which contributes to SDG4. The COVID-19 pandemic has compelled an accelerated move towards technology-enhanced learning, prompting educators to re-think and re-design learning environments grounded in innovative pedagogy and technology. In the current scenario it is imperative that educators are offered capacity development opportunities to meaningfully engage in digital and open practices. This paper presents a case study of an online capacity development intervention in OER-integrated technology-enhanced learning (TEL) material creation, implemented with a group of 15 educators selected using the purposive sampling method. It focused on the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of OER-integrated TEL materials by the educators. The intervention comprised a carefully designed learning experience with intensive hands-on activities in a Moodle online learning environment, supplemented with a series of ZOOM-based interactive workshops. The study explored the design strategies that enhanced the creation of OER-integrated TEL materials by the educators, challenges encountered by them and how those were managed, and the effects of the intervention on changing their thinking and practices. Multiple data gathering occurred via questionnaires, discussion forums, reflective journals, and focus group interviews. Primarily, an in-depth content analysis of the qualitative data gathered was conducted. The findings revealed that the systematic learning experience design, which adopted a ‘learning by designing' approach harnessing the affordances of both technology and pedagogy, empowered educators to become active creators of OER-integrated TEL materials and to take leadership in integrating digital and open practices into teaching-learning processes. © 2023, Commonwealth of Learning. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Vaccine hesitancy and uptake have been important issues in controlling the current COVID-19 pandemic in many regions around the globe, but the increase in vaccination rates has been slow or even halted in some countries. Therefore, people who have hesitated in getting the vaccine need to be addressed. One driver influencing vaccination uptake is closing the knowledge gap among the public by equipping them with a deeper understanding of how a vaccine works inside our cells to activate the immune system and develop immunity. Viral immunology is highly conceptual and requires an appreciation of molecular biology in the cell. To give individuals an intuitive awareness of the operation of a mRNA-type virus vaccine for COVID-19, we designed and developed a Virtual Reality (VR) based serious game called 'Cell Traveler'. Through this innovative VR serious game, the player can control and interact with a sequence of critical real-life events inside a cell triggered by the injected mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. In this paper, we describe the prototype of the 'Cell Traveler'. We utilize the concepts of serious game to create an experience to encourage students and the public to develop deeper mRNA vaccine knowledge through a memorable and fun experience. © 2022 IEEE.