Collaborative Learning Communities for Sustainable Employment through Visual Tools

Abstract

Higher education institutions must enable students to acquire skills and capacities that prepare them for working life and enhance their employability. This will lead to an applied learning- and teaching-enhancement-oriented sustainable Higher Education System. This research aims to contribute to that goal by analyzing student interactions in a collaborative learning community. It assesses the impact of visual tools on academic performance and student satisfaction in employment-focused blended studies, in which enrollees were geographically dispersed undergraduates with a diversity of profiles. A financial studies learning community was created to test students’ interactions in a model conducive to participation as visual content creators and users. Three surveys (pre-project, appraisal of classmates’ visual exercises, and post-project) were conducted to assess project impact. First, we used a univariate approach, focused on students’ characteristics, course and project appraisals, and the effects of the project on academic performance and expectations. Secondly, a bivariate approach was conducted to detect relationships between respondents’ appraisals and personal characteristics and to determine whether their mean scores were the same irrespective of such characteristics. The findings showed that: (1) Students’ preferences concur with those of their employers; (2) participation in innovative initiatives improves students’ perception of course procedures; (3) visual tools have a positive impact on learning, in terms of both academic performance and student satisfaction. The study concludes by providing support for educational institutions´ decision-making around courses and the overall curricula by defining the factors determining academic performance and student satisfaction.

Sustaining Students’ Identities within the Context of Participatory Culture. Designing, Implementing and Evaluating an Interactive Learning Activity

“…Indeed, educational practices have been transformed by digital media into active methodologies that allow the student to have an active role in the learning processes, interacting with peers and technologies over time [13,14]. In particular, social online networking communities can be considered a public space for socialization, interaction, creation, and diffusion of culture and identity; a place where people can participate, learn, and bring about social transformation [4,15,16].…”

Exercise for Pain Relief in Yoga is Effective in Reducing Pelvic Girdle Pain During the Third Trimester of Pregnancy

“…The results of this study are consistent with a randomized controlled trial conducted in Brazil that involved 60 pregnant women with lumbopelvic pain. This trial found that the hatha yoga exercise was effective in reducing pain after 10 time-practice (Martín-García et al, 2020). In addition, a prospective randomized controlled pilot clinical trial involving 115 pregnant women without complications in Israel showed that yoga was safe for pregnant women without any adverse effects and it was able to improve biomechanics (gait speed, turn time, double support time and instrumented timed-up and go), so that it has the effect of reducing bodily discomfort due to pelvic pain (Holden et al, 2019).…”

The Influence of MEDULA (Education Media for Snakes and Ladders) on Adolescent Knowledge Levels on Reproductive Health

“…This was because in this game there had been many messages in the form of writing, letters, pictures, and symbols that encouraged participants to involve more than one of their five senses to interpret them (Nachiappan, 2017;Prayuni et al, 2018). In other study, the simulation method with the game of snakes and ladders had been shown to be able to make a passive learning atmosphere become active which allowed them to capture more information effectively and efficiently though the had been discussing difficult things (Annamalai et al, 2015;Martín-García et al, 2020;Nachiappan, 2017). The success of learning by including play activities could not be separated from the conceptual impact of the method as explained by Mezak & Pejic-Papak (Dlab et al, 2020).…”