Kiruthika Ragupathi | National University of Singapore (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Kiruthika Ragupathi

The relationship between assessment and learning in higher education often comes down to a single... more The relationship between assessment and learning in higher education often comes down to a single thing: a grade. Despite widespread criticism of grades as inexact tools, whose overemphasis undermines student learning and negatively affects student well-being, they continue to be the norm in the assessment of student learning. This paper analyses an alternate form of assessment: so-called ‘gradeless learning’. This study theoretically and geographically contextualises the recent implementation of a gradeless learning policy at a large public university in Asia, and presents findings from a student opinion survey about the policy. The paper shows that respondents overwhelmingly understand and often agree with the central claims of gradeless learning, including its potential to ease students into college life, allow them to make more daring choices in their studies and even develop as lifelong learners. However, the aim of relieving stress among one group of students has increased stress for others. The study explains the circumstances that create this divergence in student stress levels, which are both locally specific and common to all gradeless systems. The paper concludes by discussing the effectiveness of the gradeless system in achieving its aims and suggesting future research avenues.

Increasing use of educational technologies on university campuses globally demands that these ini... more Increasing use of educational technologies on university campuses globally demands that these initiatives, at both institutional and faculty levels, be rigorously evaluated for impact and on-going improvements. Very few studies have documented new faculty member initiatives that focus on scholarly approaches to learning technology integration in research-intensive contexts. This paper examines multidisciplinary applications of learning technologies by new faculty members following the ‘Technology in Pedagogy’ faculty development initiative to enhance scholarly approaches to learning technologies integration at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Data suggest that new faculty members in multidisciplinary settings at NUS, when engaged in a community of practice demonstrated examples of flipped learning, games and simulations of real-life experiences, social media tools for knowledge and reflection, and, collaborative and peer-learning tools for student engagement. Key challenges and useful new faculty initiatives for technology integration are discussed.

With large student enrollment, MOOC instructors face the unique challenge in deciding when to int... more With large student enrollment, MOOC instructors face the unique challenge in deciding when to intervene in forum discussions with their limited bandwidth. We study this problem of instructor intervention. Using a large sample of forum data culled from 61 courses, we design a binary classifier to predict whether an instructor should intervene in a discussion thread or not. By incorporating novel information about a forum's type into the classification process, we
improve significantly over the previous state-of-the-art.
We show how difficult this decision problem is in the real world by validating against indicative human judgment, and empirically show the problem's sensitivity to instructors' intervention preferences. We conclude this paper with our take on the future research issues in intervention.

"Engineering education is at an important juncture more than ever before – engineers need to play... more "Engineering education is at an important juncture more than ever before – engineers need to play an important role in creatively solving global and complex challenges related to energy, health care and environment; they need to work with an understanding of multiple disciplines in collaborative teams that are culturally and philosophically diverse; cultivate complex communication and social skills; and, among other things, engineers need to be able to explain science and technology to a society that is increasingly more doubtful of its impact and intentions despite enjoying the comforts that come with the progress in engineering & technology. This growing pace of innovation, both in terms of products and business models, is also likely to make the job of an engineer quite challenging. Engineers must, therefore, learn to work with ambiguity, diversity of disciplines and with humility regarding their own skills and abilities.

To prepare engineers for the global workplace, it is clear that a traditional engineering curriculum which is content heavy will not be sufficient. There are already indications that there is a significant gap between what undergraduate engineering students are taught and assessed and what the professional engineers and industry practitioners expect them to be capable of (Felder, R.M., On-the-Job Training, Chemical Engineering Education, Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 96-97, 2008). This gap will significantly widen unless intentional, well-targeted measures are put into place in engineering education to specifically foster 21st century skills. Learning outcomes, curriculum design, classroom practices, learning and assessment tasks all have to be coherently crafted and implemented so as to facilitate a flexible, personalized and significantly meaningful experience for the student.

The paper begins by exploring students’ knowledge and skills of the 21st century that are needed for the modern engineer. We provide our perspective on aspects of curriculum design, impactful classroom practices and methods of assessment that can be expected to form the bedrock of engineering education for the next decade. Our paper will only attempt to throw light on the immediate path ahead based on progress made in understanding how learning works, how information and communications technology can augment good teaching and learning methods and how assessment practices (which remains a major handle to drive the learning process) may be re-envisioned to help students grapple with grand societal challenges and equip them with philosophies, concepts, ideas and imagination for contributing to the greater good of humankind.
"

""Considerable work has been done on student evaluation of teaching/teachers, but reservations re... more ""Considerable work has been done on student evaluation of teaching/teachers, but reservations remain about its use for summative purposes. Student ratings are not universally accepted as being reliable, nor can they provide really meaningful information. Qualitative comments can provide a better understanding but they tend not to be user-friendly from lack of structure and connectedness. This study attempts to devise a method for ‘quantifying’ students’ comments to increase their usefulness in complementing/confirming ratings. The quantified results enable the profile construction of what students regard as an effective/ineffective teacher, and enable identification of strengths and weaknesses. Our findings counter some commonly held assumptions, including those which held that high ratings are dependent on small class size and ‘dumbing down’ of courses and the consequent expectation of high grades. The findings also indicate that students value teaching quality more than teacher characteristics, suggesting their ability to make valid judgments about teaching effectiveness.

Keywords Profiling teacher/teaching - Student ratings - Qualitative feedback - Students’ written comments - Text analysis - Formative evaluation - Summative assessment""

""The present study examines the influence of faculty development – specifically the Professiona... more ""The present study examines the influence of faculty development
– specifically the Professional Development Programme (PDP) at
the National University of Singapore (NUS) – on teaching styles.
Canfield and Canfield’s Instructional Styles Inventory (ISI) (1988)
is used to measure teacher-focused and student-focused teaching styles in sample populations with and without PDP intervention, and analyses are run for all disciplines combined. The findings suggest that the PDP accelerates an overall shift towards student-focused teaching styles. The paper identifies key issues and strategies for promoting faculty development through PDP.""

This paper discusses results from a survey conducted in 2006 that examined what motivates faculty... more This paper discusses results from a survey conducted in 2006 that examined what motivates faculty to adopt and use IT in their classes and what inhibits them.

Technology in Pedagogy series

Technology in Pedagogy Series

Online Learning and Educational Apps seem to be the new buzzwords in education. The advent of MOO... more Online Learning and Educational Apps seem to be the new buzzwords in education. The advent of MOOCs, educational applications (apps) and online lectures delivered via iTunesU, Coursera and TED, look set to bring about a paradigm shift in modern pedagogy. Yet, it is always important to be mindful of the educational principles that underpin good (and sound) pedagogy says Erle Lim, an Associate Professor at the Department of medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine from the National University of Singapore. As educators, it is important to ask, "Are we engaging our students?", and more importantly, "Are we teaching students to curate knowledge rather than just acquire lots of meaningless facts?"

Technology in Pedagogy Series

Written by Kiruthika Ragupathi (kiruthika@nus.edu.sg) 7 then I am not the teacher that I am.

Technology in Pedagogy Series

Large class sizes are very common on university campuses, and teaching such large classes can be ... more Large class sizes are very common on university campuses, and teaching such large classes can be extremely demanding. For new teachers, the task of lecturing 300-400 students in huge lecture theatres may be intimidating particularly at the beginning of term. However, the feeling usually eases out with experience and after the very first lecture. As the term progresses, the bigger challenges that emerge are catering for diverse student capabilities and explaining the same concepts multiple times (via email or in person) and finally, marking, sorting and entering marks for a large class at the end of the semester is not an easy task either.

Technology in Pedagogy Series

It is well known that interaction during lectures is beneficial for both teachers and students an... more It is well known that interaction during lectures is beneficial for both teachers and students and enhances the teaching and learning process. Interaction in classes can provide feedback to the lecturers, increase student engagement and promote an active learning environment (Mazur, 1998). However, it is well-acknowledged that to engage students in interactive activities, particularly in large classes, can be very challenging. Classroom Response System (CRS) is one such technology that can be used to enable interaction in large classes.

From keeping track of files, folders and email messages to sharing lesson plans on numerous gadge... more From keeping track of files, folders and email messages to sharing lesson plans on numerous gadgetsthe PC, the MAC, the iPAD and/or Smartphone, educators now have a host of web-based applications to stay organized and be productive. In this session, Mr Dewanto, an Instructor with the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and an Assistant Director for the Special Programme in Science shared his experience with using Apps. He offered solutions on why and how he used applications like Dropbox, Sugarsync, Evernote, Wunderlist, Skitch, Team Viewer and Splashtop Remote and elaborated on the pros and cons of these apps. These apps are cloud-based, compatible across major platforms, relatively easy to use, and, most important of all, they are free. He also discussed on how these apps helped him in teaching and for effectively managing his administrative tasks.

Computational thinking is an emerging basic skill that is becoming an integral part of higher edu... more Computational thinking is an emerging basic skill that is becoming an integral part of higher education together with reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving. Not only is it critical to all physical sciences but also highly relevant in other domains. The recent data deluge requires our students to be computationally competent and IT savvy, not just in theory but particularly in practice says A/P Tan, an Associate Professor and the former Head of the Department of Biochemistry, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. The world of computing has made possible profound leaps of innovation and imagination as it facilitates our efforts to solve and expands our understanding of the world around us. The way in which the world is progressing technologically (in particular with the bombardment of datasets), students are expected to think statistically, computationally and quantitatively making it critical to provide our students a chance to experience and learn this skill set.

Student evaluations were originally seen as a feedback mechanism by which students could inform t... more Student evaluations were originally seen as a feedback mechanism by which students could inform teachers about their experiences in a module and based on which faculty members would make appropriate changes to the pedagogy and/or content. Over the years, this function has been largely superseded and student evaluations are used for summative purposes by administration for decisions regarding promotion and tenure or teaching awards and by students to select courses they like to do. The most widely used method for evaluating teaching is the end-of-semester student feedback questionnaire. While end‐of‐semester student feedback is collected for each module/teacher by a majority of universities, there is little evidence that instructors change their pedagogy based on these evaluations. But, there is ample evidence that the usage of mid-semester feedback in modules can lead to meaningful improvements in instruction, student learning outcomes and attitudes, and even lead to higher end-of-semester student ratings (Cohen, 1980; Marsh & Roche, 1993; Aleamoni, 1999; Hayward, 2002).

Over the last few semesters, the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has organised workshops on designing and administering mid-semester student feedback as a part of its continuing professional development programme for faculty members. This paper evaluates the benefits of these sessions using narratives from about two dozen faculty members on how they deployed the mid-semester feedback and how it brought about improvements in the teaching and learning process. The results of this study indicate that soliciting mid-semester student feedback encourages a more responsible attitude on the part of both teachers and students because of the opportunity to reflect upon the module at a critical juncture in the semester. The paper will also discuss issues that must be dealt with when scaling up the mid-semester student feedback practice to a University-wide scale.

In today’s ever-changing world, students need to be able to learn, to articulate, to adapt and to... more In today’s ever-changing world, students need to be able to learn, to articulate, to adapt and to work. They need to become independent, self-directed, adaptive and communicative learners. How should teaching practices change? What instructional approaches will promote this kind of learning environment? Educators will not only need to understand their past and present teaching styles and methods but also need to adapt and transform. As campus-wide experience with the use of technology continues to grow, ideas on how best to use and not to use technology to optimize student learning are emerging. However, transformations should not be driven merely by the use of technologies but by a mindset that encourages educators to develop their own teaching strategies and practices to complement technology use within the curriculum.

This paper discusses how one professional development programme – the “Technology in Pedagogy” series – uses communities of practice approach to help educators integrate technology tools into their own classrooms to enhance their students’ learning experience. Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly (Wenger, 1998). The need for supportive, reflective collegial learning communities is crucial for teachers in their attempts to implement new techniques (Darling-Hammond, 1997).

The Technology in Pedagogy series, therefore are primarily dialogue sessions where speakers have 30 minutes at the beginning to present their activity. The participants are then free to ask questions and share their own experiences. The presentation and the lively discussion that ensues keep participants engaged to see new opportunities in the way they could adopt/adapt the technology being discussed. To make its impact felt beyond the session, discussion points are then documented and shared publicly with the teaching community and their responses are invited. The paper will also look into attributes that contributed to the success of the programme since its inception and will explore ways to further strengthen it.

Keywords Profiling teacher/teaching - Student ratings - Qualitative feedback - Students’ written comments - Text analysis - Formative evaluation - Summative assessment""

Technology in Pedagogy series

Technology in Pedagogy Series

Written by Kiruthika Ragupathi (kiruthika@nus.edu.sg) 7 then I am not the teacher that I am.

Technology in Pedagogy Series

Several studies have been done on student evaluation, largely about what it tells us about teache... more Several studies have been done on student evaluation, largely about what it tells us about teachers and teaching. By and large, the studies indicate that such evaluations provide reliable information, though not of a very sophisticated kind. As such, it is used by administration for summative purposes—such as for decisions regarding tenure, promotion, awards--and by students to make judgments for the selection of their courses. Little has been done to explore how and what such evaluations tell us about learning, e.g. how does teacher/teaching effectiveness translate into effective learning? What teacher/teaching characteristics are valued by learners and do these facilitate and contribute positively to desired learning outcomes? Might such correlations be established and how do we measure such outcomes?

For such an investigation, it is clearly necessary to look beyond the quantitative feedback which provides only simple information. To extract more meaningful information, a study was undertaken at NUS to ascertain what high numerical scores translate into in terms of positive qualitative comments and teacher/teaching characteristics. The study is based on 2 sample populations: those in the highest 20% band and those in the lowest 20% band of teaching faculty, according to numerical scores. A method for quantifying students' written comments and constructing teacher profiles was devised, and based on the information derived through this method, this paper proposes to investigate the questions raised above. Such information will help the reflective teacher be more aware of learner/learning-friendly ways of teaching and, hopefully, to prompt thinking about ways to make learning more effective and efficient for learners

Keywords
Student feedback, student learning, teaching effectiveness, student evaluation of teaching

The study revealed trends in current and future technology use, the positive influence of technol... more The study revealed trends in current and future technology use, the positive influence of technology on teaching and learning as well as some barriers to IT adoption in the classroom. These findings will help faculty and administrators better understand the impact of IT from faculty and student perspectives, and identify the issues that need to be resolved to enhance the academic experience.

This chapter on "Using Technology" addresses the presence and use of technology on campus. Just a... more This chapter on "Using Technology" addresses the presence and use of technology on campus. Just as technology has defines the way we live and interact, technology has and will continue to shape the way we learn. From crafting simple email to learning about the virtual learning platform in NUS called the IVLE, and to the need for all students to learn how to search for and make sense of information online, and to use the information gathered responsibly (academic honesty). As a final note, this chapter also touches on the productive use of social media for learning.

Enhancement and Innovation in Higher Education, Glasgow, UK

Curriculum innovations have been a long standing endeavour of the teaching community in instituti... more Curriculum innovations have been a long standing endeavour of the teaching community in institutions of higher education. Innovations happen at both micro- (course level) and at the macro-level (programme or university level changes) with incorporation of new content (e.g. multi- or trans- disciplinary content), new pedagogical approaches (e.g. active learning, problem based learning, research based learning), new structure (e.g. revamp of general education programmes) etc. The latest set of innovations leveraging technology are set to transform education in a big way – the Massively Online Open Courses (MOOCs) is seen by many as a disruptive innovation; it has the potential to alter classroom practices as well as change the curriculum structure and pathways for students in universities across the world.
It has been noted that curriculum innovation needs time (Wiles, 2009) as it is a process change that involves multiple phases (e.g. needs analysis, setting of goals and outcomes) and possibly several iterations to realize the originally intended goals. As noted by Kirkgöz (2009), ‘innovation needs to be introduced gradually’. Development, implementation and evaluation of curriculum innovations require not only a substantial amount of effort from faculty members but also the passion to carry through with the project. Such passion could be dampened by the long process, while others may feel the lack of ownership as the project could be a directive from the department to re-design the module. One of the powerful avenues of curriculum innovation is at the level of individual faculty members. Without getting involved in administrative hurdles and the need for formal alliances and MOUs, it is possible for individual faculty members working across continents to provide significant and somewhat personalized learning experiences to students. Leveraging on advances in information and communications technology – the speed and ease with which resources can be produced, exchanged and improved upon – new approaches to education can be envisaged.
This paper proposes a model that a group of faculty members from across institutions can adopt to provide an interesting, flexible and impactful learning experience to their students. Although applicable to all types of courses, such a model can be piloted in graduate courses and senior year elective courses. Our proposal is based on the assumption that there is considerable overlap in the learning outcomes and content of many courses offered at different universities. We also assume that any course will have a set of core (the ‘must know’) and non-core (the ‘good to know’) topics. The idea would then be for faculty members teaching similar courses in say N (ideally 5 to 6) institutions located in possibly different continents to collaborate and put together online resources that can be accessed and utilized by all students in this N-member network of institutions. Faculty members at these institutions may choose to employ a flipped classroom approach to get students dwell in activities that are linked to higher order learning outcomes. For the non-core elements of the course, each faculty member in the network can develop and offer (to all students in the network) topics that focus on specific subdomains related to the course – these can be based on the research interests of the faculty member, ‘classics’ or ‘hot’ topics and be in the form of readings, case studies, and problems involving application and synthesis. Such ‘elective topics’ can be taken up by students in the network depending on their individual interests and offer a great deal of flexibility and some amount of personalization within an individual course. Assessments in the module must embed the core and non-core components – and, students should be able to choose the non-core components of their choice. The evaluation of the core parts may be done locally while the non-core component can be evaluated by the respective faculty expert in the network. Again, technology can be leveraged effectively to make this as seamless as possible.
Common platforms to facilitate discussions and group work among students across these institutions can provide rich perspectives and promote some degree of internationalization in the curriculum. Students will also benefit by interactions with a panel of N faculty experts (as opposed to 1 faculty expert) with whom they can bounce off ideas, seek guidance etc. Teaching and Learning will also experience a higher level of openness and upward swing in quality.
With this model comprising of core and elective topics taught by faculty members from different institutions, students would have the opportunity to learn from a broader pool of faculty members and students from various partnering institutions. There will be exposure to different teaching and learning styles and a broad set of topics to build up an individual learning portfolio and profile. Leveraging on the affordances of technology, the flipped classroom method could be introduced into the module. It is hoped that such an environment would help to (a) deepen students’ engagement by providing them more ‘elective topics’ to choose from based on their interest, (b) nurture global citizens among learners.
The final paper will also include a case vignette that will elaborate the proposed model.

References:
1. Wiles, J Leading Curriculum Development, Corwin Press, 2009.
2. Kirkgöz, Y The Challenge of developing and maintaining Curriculum Innovation at Higher Education, Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences, 1, 73-78, 2009.