Monica Fedeli

A two-staged capstone project to foster university-business dialogue

Capstone projects improve the endowments of knowledge, ability and skills earned by higher-education students, and help intensify the university-business dialogue. While not solely suited for BSc curricula, capstones raise the employability of BSc graduates, whose market value is intrinsically inferior to their MSc correspondents, yet highly attractive thanks to shorter turn-around time. Designing a BSc curriculum in Computer Science after those premises requires balancing two forces. One is traditional content-centered teaching, which has many adepts and exerts higher pressure on the shorter duration of the study path. The other is learner-centered teaching, which promotes active teaching strategies, and makes room for capstone inserts. This paper discusses how the University of Padua went around that challenge designing its BSc curriculum in Computer Science in 2002, and critically assesses its outcome to date. 27 credit hours of the total 180 in the novel curriculum were devolved to a capstone project comprising an internship in business, whose critical review feeds the final exam. The capstone was organized as a two-staged progression: (a) the first leg being a preparatory, learning-for-work collaborative laboratory aimed at the acquisition of soft skills, and exposure to technology innovation challenges; and (b) the second leg promoting a learning-through-work individual internship. Evaluation of field data from 14 cohorts of graduates, from 07/2004 to 12/2017, shows that the BSc curriculum has met with the appreciation of students and employers, and it has served well the purpose of boosting the university-business dialogue.

Developing teaching and learning methods to innovate the Italian context of Higher Education. The case of University of Padua

This article looks at theories and practices related to faculty development and innovation in teaching and learning methods in Higher Education, in order to respond to the European 2020 Strategy, in which the High level group on the modernisation of higher education has been established, whose aim focuses on improving the quality of teaching and learning in Europe’s higher education institutions (2013). The paper is framed within the context of the project PRODID (Preparazione alla professionalita docente e innovazione didattica), funded by the University of Padova, Italy with the major goal of creating a permanent and effective academic center for research on learning and teaching and faculty development. The theoretical framework of PRODID is informed by constructivism and social constructivism, and the student centered approach, encouraging student-teacher partnerships as a dimension for faculty development and teaching and learning innovations. The University of Helsinki and Michigan State University are mentioned as relevant examples of organizational settings integrated in higher education institutions that offer a great variety of practices consistent with the chosen theoretical framework. They also offer the Italian program of University of Padova models for critical reflection in how their teaching strategies can be created and developed on the basis of this international experience. The final discussion aims to highlight the strategies adopted during the first year of the project, characterized by the Italian culture and revealing new insights and ideas to create an Italian model of teaching and learning center.

Estroversione, riflessione e apprendimento: eventi d’apprendimento ed emozioni prevalenti nel processo di apprendimento in ambiente virtuale

The article presents an experience of simulation-based training developed in 2014 with students enrolled in the master programme in Management of Educational Services at the University of Padova. The training programme, devoted to the development of competences in the field of human resources management, has been integrated with vLeader, an online simulator designed for the improvement of leadership competences. As part of the evaluation of the programme’s effectiveness, a test for measuring personality traits according to the Big Five model and a learning journal to support reflection on simulation have been proposed to the students. Data collected with the two tools were crossed through an automated textual analysis of the learning journal contents in order to explore connections between reflections prompted by learning journals and personality traits of students involved.

The Experience of Creating and Using Learning Contracts in a Higher Education Blended Course: Analysis of Student Voices in an On-line Discussion

This paper illustrates students’ reflections on the experience of implementing Malcolm Knowles’s 1986 model of learning contracts in an online discussion forum. The study was an attempt to improve and adapt the tool to a master’s degree course at the University of Padua. Based on this qualitative inquiry three major themes come to light in our analysis : (a) Learning Contract and the learning process, (b) Characteristics of Learning Contracts and (c) Dynamics of collaboration. The findings encouraged our reflection on how to improve the contract and better involve the students in their learning process of becoming more self-directed. Finally, we can affirm that the Learning Contract can be considered an appropriate tool to elicit reflection for the learner and facilitator in higher education.