Margarita Teresevičienė

Integrating alternative learning and assessment in a course of English for law students

Alternative approaches to learning and assessment have become common practice in higher education today. While these approaches have several learning, instructional and assessment advantages for students and teachers, a need exists for a better understanding of their consequential evidence. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ perceptions of, and satisfaction with, the experience of learning English for Law in the environment of a comprehensive learning and assessment system integrating the project component and academic writing portfolio component into the framework of traditional learning. A sample of 58 law majors from Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania participated in the study. The main findings of the study indicate that the integrated approach to learning English for Law was very well accepted by the students due to the following benefits it presented: (i) this approach is effective and useful in promoting students’ productive and receptive language skills; (ii) it enhances students’ satisfaction with their results; (iii) it fosters one’s motivation to learn a foreign language; (iv) it promotes students’ development as independent learners. It is recommended that this study be extended to the investigation of the impact of such an approach on the students’ final results in ESP in comparable groups.

The need of validation and recognition of learning outcomes acquired non‐formally and informally: A comparative study

Purpose – This paper aims to examine and summarize the findings of a comparative survey carried out to assess how learning outcomes acquired non‐formally or informally are validated and recognized. Owing to limitations of the study, this paper just seeks to consider the challenges that higher education faces, and the new possibilities that might emerge.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology of the study includes critical and systemic analysis of references, also quantitative and qualitative research, which was completed as a three‐stage survey. The following methods were used: analysis of recent legal and political educational documents, structured interviews of experts, and a questionnaire comprising open and closed type questions.Findings – The EU is committed to the principles of transferable learning but, until the principles and processes of recognition and validation of learning are integrated within national policy, this is unlikely to happen in any meaningful way. The current situation of a...

The Facebook Phenomenon for Collaborative Learning for University Studies

Abstract This article defines the shift in the concept and conditions of collaborative learning for university studies using the social networking tool Facebook and discusses the collaborative learning effect in terms of using Open Educational Resources (OER), creating learning artefacts and new generic competence development. In order to evaluate students’ learning through collaboration in Facebook, qualitative research method and survey of generic competencies based on the Tuning project framework (2003) were used. The data was collected through focus group interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The qualitative research method was chosen because it provides information of how students collaborate and what experience they gained during the activities. First, Facebook online groups have been identified at three different levels at VMU. The Facebook first level group was the social networking of Vytautas Magnus University’s students and academic staff. The second level group was created for the department dealing with social sciences, and is called “Department of Social Science”. The third level group is “Education Service Management” within the Department of Education. The research was done at the third level group with the students of the “Education Service Management” study programme. As research results show, Facebook as a social network has been changing communication between students, by facilitating the exchange of information and knowledge. The research analyses Facebook in the context of undergraduate university studies, based upon the experience of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) for using Facebook for university studies. It could be concluded that learning is about developing capabilities to think and to act. Learners using social networking tools for collaborative learning, act, provide feedback and peer-review, asses and rate information. Openness is based on the idea that knowledge is disseminated and shared freely for the benefit of society as a whole. University students collaborate online and learn by using and exchanging OER, as well as developing them as the artefacts of online collaborative learning. They influence task design by creating “educational resources” themselves.