2021, Caroni, Anna, Nikoulina, Anya

Purpose: Problem-based learning (PBL) provides an appropriate instructional strategy to engage student in active learning, enhance student interest, improve retention, and promote problem-solving and critical thinking skills. The aim of this study is to report on student and faculty experiences in a problem-based learning course consisting of a preparation phase and a reporting phase during the COVID-19 lockdown and present potential implications for online PBL course design. Study design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted to compare the two instructional PBL settings, i.e. face-to-face and online. Descriptive statistics as well as a general inductive approach for analysing the qualitative data are used to evaluate the results of the survey. Findings: The results show that students appreciated the new small group discussion format in the online PBL course over the whole class discussion in the face-to-face setting and that an online PBL course can help students integrate knowledge and promote the deep learning approach. Originality/value: The study contributes to PBL research by examining student and faculty experiences in a case-based PBL course. A new instructional online PBL course design is presented, with the main change in the reporting phase. The study shows that the shift from physical to online setting has no detectable negative impact on the ability of students to achieve set learning goals if the PBL approach is slightly modified.

2020, Staley, Larssyn, Göldi, Susan, Nikoulina, Anya

Several studies have made claims for the positive effects of the use of multimedia in education; however, there is a lack of systematic and comparable research, especially when it comes to video tutorials. Research also points to a difficulty in forming a strong conclusion when it comes to their effectiveness. This study evaluates the use and benefits of short screencast video tutorials, produced with Camtasia and published on YouTube, in preparing students for research-based writing assignments. The study employs a multi-method research design, comprising of analysis of video-tutorial viewership data from YouTube and a student questionnaire (n=76) on perceived benefits of these video tutorials. Both the data on how the tutorials are used as well as the questionnaire responses enable us to highlight which aspects of these tutorials positively affect the learning process, and importantly, how such tutorials should be adapted to be more useful. Findings indicate that the use of such tutorials is more dependent on the type of information (e.g. theory, instructions or examples) in the tutorials, than their length (within the range of three to six minutes) and that, novice, introductory-level students received greater benefit from the tutorials than more advanced, academic writing and research students.

2020, Nikoulina, Anya

The paper investigates the state of academic writing literacy and research skills of graduate business program students based on an evaluation of assessment rubric evaluations. Results indicate that grad-uate business program students have sufficient general writing skills, but struggle when applying these to academic writing for a specific discipline. Results also show that students have significant deficien-cies when it comes to research skills. This paper discusses the implications of these outcomes and proposes a number of recommendations for program managers.