Week 11: Education Evaluation

Evaluations in education can simply be referred to as making a precise judgment. To making a judgment is to confirm value. Evaluation can be a systematic process to separate the valuable from worthless (Cowen, 1996). Different educational aspects can be evaluated to review and enhance the learning they are endeavoring to facilitate. In addition, Cowen (1996) emphasizes that evaluations are carried to demonstrate effectiveness to funders and other stakeholders, and to provide a measure of performance for marketing purposes.

The Education Supervision and Quality Improvement Section (ESQIS) of Ministry of Education (MoE) is responsible for improving the quality of the teaching and learning process in all the schools (MoE, 2014). Teams of internal and external supervision are mobilized to implement their schools monitoring and evaluation programmes. The evaluation concentrates on five main areas

• ·         Standard of students
• ·         Teaching and learning
• ·         Leadership and academic management of the schools
• ·         Financial management
• ·         Infrastructure and physical learning environment of the school

As for the evaluation of leadership and academic management of the schools, ESQIS is responsible to provide necessary training and guidance to school managers and strengthen the internal supervision of schools (MoE, 2014). With the feedback collected from the 4 other areas of evaluation, ESQIS provide constructive feedback for the school administrator on the performance of school administrators in managing students learning. According to (MoE, 2014), professional advancement seminars, workshops, induction, online programmes, and content upgrading courses are initiated by ESQIS for the school leaders. Moreover, after the evaluation, promotions to exceptional leaders are given as an appreciation to their management.

References

Cowen, R. (1996). The Evaluation of Higher Education Systems. Kogan Page Limited: London

Ministry of Education. (2014). Leadership and Managemnt. Retreived on May 26, 2014 from http://www.moe.gov.mv/assets/upload/LEADERSHIP_AND_MANAGEMENT.pdf

Week 10: Academic Development and Building Academic Careers

Academic development and building academic careers in higher education in Maldives

The successful achievement of a high quality of education depends on the availability of an adequate stock of professionally educated, competent and motivated staffs. According to Ministry of Education-MoE (2014), Maldives MoE published a Professional Development Policy (PDP) on 2006 and encouraged Higher education institutions to conduct Professional Development (PD) activities. In this policy it states that it is mandatory for all academic staff in the higher education sector to receive a minimum of 15 hours (3 days) of professional development every year. This program focuses on the leading areas which are significant for the staffs to enhance the teaching and learning programs. In addition, new academics are mentored and coached by experienced academics within the field (MoE, 2014). Moreover, under the staff development policy, scholarships and study loans are granted for the most eligible staffs in the Education sector (Department of Higher Education, 2014).

However, a specific framework to guide the learning and teaching and research development has not been yet established. Moreover, an outline to recognize the talents or a staff promoting excellence criteria is not well articulated or accepted by the staffs. Hence, a lot of outstanding Maldivians do not enter the education sector. Especially the higher education sector faces the challenges in recruiting qualified staffs (Villa College, 2014). According to Hameed (2012), there was a favorable increment in the academic staffs of Maldives National University (MNU), the only university in Maldives. Due to this, lots of newly qualified staffs are attracted to work in MNU and also this acted as a huge strategy to retain the existing staffs (Hameed, 2012).

Impact of National Higher Education Academic and Career development on Villa College

Since, Villa College (VC) is a private higher education institution; it mainly follows its own policies for academic and career development. Firstly, in VC highly qualified staffs are hired (Villa College, 2014). For instance, to teach Certificates, Foundation and Diploma level courses, a minimum of Bachelor degree is required. Similarly to teach bachelor level courses a minimum of Masters level qualification is required and to teach masters level a minimum of Doctoral level qualification or masters and 5 years working experience is required.  Due to the challenge of recruiting fulltime qualified staffs, most of the academics in VC are visiting/part time lecturers who has the aforementioned qualifications (Villa College, 2014). Hence, VC provides annual Professional development programs, workshops and seminars for all its staffs.

My Reflection

A considerable amount of importance is given to the professional development of the staffs in the higher education system. In addition, other means of aid (scholarships, part time studying opportunities, small workshops, opportunities to attend international conferences) are provided to improve staff's capabilities within the field. However, absence of a formal framework on academic and career development in Maldives higher education and in VC indicates the negligence of a structured strategy to enhance the teaching and learning within the higher education system.

Therefore, with the knowledge I gained from world ranking universities academic development focus, I recommend Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education and VC to establish an integrated framework to guide the teaching, learning and research development within the higher education sector to develop staff capabilities throughout their academic career. In addition, a framework needs to be established to promote excellence in learning and teaching strategies to ensure that the higher education sector provide incentive, reward and recognition of excellence for the staffs.

References

Department of Higher Education (2014). Announcement Number 46. Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from  http://dhe.gov.mv/wp-content/uploads/Masters-list-iulaan-46.pdf

Hameed (2012). Attaining Salary Raise in Austere times. Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from  http://mnu.edu.mv/vc/

Ministry of Education (2014). Staff development Policy. Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from  http://www.mnu.edu.mv/images/staff/current_staff/Policy/policy_staff_development.pdf

Villa College (2014). Retrieved from May 19, 2014 from http://www.villacollege.edu.mv/index.php/centres/institute-for-academic-development

Week 9: Blended Learning

My critique on two Definitions of Blended Learning

Blended learning is a systematic process of selecting appropriate learning and teaching strategies, technology and media to achieve learning outcomes set (adapted from Dick, Carey, & Carey, 2009; Holden & Westfall, 2010)

Strengths

·         This definition is more generalised, so the party which is going to establish blended learning can structure the course in their own way

·         Torrisi-Steele (2011) stresses that in this type of definitions teaching and learning aims are inherent

Weakness

·         It is more vague and formless.

·         It identifies almost any teaching endeavour as blended learning (Torrisi-Steele, 2011)

Blended learning is 'a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; at least in part in a supervised physical environment; and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course are connected to provide an integrated learning experience’ (UNSW Faculty of Medicine)

Strengths

·         This definition provides more specific characteristics of blended learning.

·         As highlighted by Torrisi-Steele (2011), the key ideas/concepts of blended learning is acquired from this definition (eg: flexibility, integration, variation, transformation, interaction)

·         Garrison & Vaughan (2008), advocates the idea of 'integration' rather than superficial approach, since it allows room for re-examination of existing approach and subsequent adoption of the new approach

Weakness

·         Too many words for definition. A simple and meaningful definition is always better

·         According to Torrisi-Steele (2011), this definitions place emphasis solely on the presence of both f2f interaction and technology rather than on the potential pedagogical impact.

My Definition of blended learning Proposed for VC

Blended learning is a student centred systematic integration of enriched f2f interaction with best of online technologies.

Why adopt blended learning

Driscoll (2002) & Singh (2003) emphasizes on the benefits of blended learning on the university administrators, faculties and students.

For administrators, blended learning…

·         offers a learner-centered pedagogy

·         may integrate with the strategic plan

·         improves classroom utilization

·         can help match delivery to academic need

·         can help fill under-enrolled courses and programs.

For faculty, blended learning….

·         gives access to new resources

·         introduces them to online learning

·         is an opportunity for faculty development and lets them experiment with new pedagogies and techniques

·         helps meet student expectations and build student skills

·         allows for more flexible scheduling

·         retains the face-to-face aspect faculty may cherish

For students, blended learning…

·         meets expectations for utilizing technology

·         develops independent learning skills

·         offers increased flexibility and convenience

·         provides better access to those with job, family, or distance barriers

·         helps reduce educational costs

From my experiences of teaching, assessing and/or providing feedback in a blended or open mode.

At the beginning it took time and new skills to engage in the online community and to develop course materials but once the initial preparation and readiness was over it was more convenient to organize and automate learning activities. In addition, blended learning provided me to work in more flexible schedules and got access to new resources and skills. The new teaching approach made me achieve the teaching objectives more efficiently and effectively. Through blended learning student participation and engagement was enhanced. I also experienced the efficiency in documenting online group and individual work and participation for assessment purpose. In general, I found the change of my role as a traditional teacher to a more student centered facilitator.

Quadrants related to Staff Engagement and Method of Delivery

According to the quadrants related to staff engagement and method of delivery proposed by Marshall (2014), the courses currently offered in VC mainly stands in the traditional University Courses. However few online distant course characteristics are found. With shift in the HE paradigm it is expected that the courses will shift from fully delivered on campus courses to partially delivered online courses. I do not yet see the trend where all the courses might be shifted to fully delivered courses.

Use of SECTIONS tool in Adopting New Technology

SECTIONS tool offered by Bates & Poole (2003) to help in technology selection seems perfect in choosing the technology which is appropriate for the courses in VC. Most of the time, good guidance in the selection of the appropriate technologies is neglected. Due to this time and money is wasted by falling for the glossy technologies which are not well planned for the possibilities of implementation. However, SECTIONS framework considers the main aspects related to adopting technology. This tool guides us to think critically towards the factors in which the technology might affect.

Levels of Engagement Across the Institution

This tool will help institutions

·         To in cooperate technology into teaching and learning

·         To encourage its staffs to be up to date with the varieties and the use of latest enhancement of educational technologies (hardware's and software's)

·         To assess the extent in which the staffs are using technology (frequency and quality of technology use).

·         To guide the staffs to be techno friendly

References

Driscoll, M. (2002). Blended learning: Let’s get beyond the hype. E-learning,1(4).

Garrison, R., & Vaughan, H. (2008). Blended learning in higher education: Framework, principles and  guidelines. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Singh, H. (2003). Building effective blended learning programs. Educational technology-saddle brook then englewood cliffs nj-, 43(6), 51-54.

Torrisi-Steele, G. (2011). This Thing Called Blended Learning — A Definition and Planning Approach. In Krause, K., Buckridge, M., Grimmer, C.and Purbrick-Illek, S.(Eds.) Research and Development in Higher Education: Reshaping Higher Education, 34, 360 – 371.

Week 8: Quality Assurance

Assurance and improvement of quality processes and outcomes in higher education in Maldives

The Maldives Accreditation Board (MAB) was created in August 2000 with a mandate to enhance the quality of post-secondary qualifications awarded in recognition of educational attainments (Maldives Qualification Authority (MQA), 2014).

MQA (2014) reported that on 2001,  MAB established the Maldives National Qualifications Framework (MNQF) with a view to provide learners, employers and education providers with qualifications that are nationally standardized and quality assured.

With the rapid growth of post-secondary education, it became increasingly clear that the existing time based framework needed to be replaced by a competency based framework in order to enhance the quality of qualifications and align it with internationally accepted standards (Baartman, Bastiaens, Kirschner, & van der Vleuten, 2007).

According to MQA (2014), the process of revising the framework began in 2005. After extensive research and discussions with experts and concerned authorities, the process was completed in February 2009 and the strengthened MNQF came into effect when MAB formally endorsed it in September 2009.

The migration from a time based to a competency based system is one of the fundamental features of the strengthened framework. In the new framework, quality and content are given precedence over duration and hours (Baartman et al., 2007).

Figure 1: Maldives National Quality Framework (Source: http://www.mqa.gov.mv/)

In addition to increasing the relevance and quality of post-school education and training in the Maldives, the strengthened MNQF incorporates a broader and more coherent technical and vocational qualification. Baartman et al., (2007) identifies that this provides the opportunity to put in place sustainable and strategic solutions for national human resource development needs.Furthermore, the establishment of a national technical and vocational qualifications system based on national competency standards makes possible considerable flexibility in worker skills acquisition (Cowling, Newman, & Leigh, 1999). MQA (2014) suggests that one of the primary focuses of the strengthened MNQF is the unified qualifications system which guarantees more international recognition for the qualifications and the skills and knowledge of Maldivian citizens.

The framework is internationally benchmarked, flexible, and responsive to the national, economic and social development of the Maldives. As a key step to promote international benchmarking of the qualifications, the Maldives Accreditation Board aligned qualifications to its 10 level framework using the level descriptors of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF). The assigning of levels to all MAB accredited courses and qualifications would inadvertently facilitate student pathways for a smooth progression of qualifications and encourage life-long learning (Cowling et al., 1999). Also this means that all qualifications no matter which area, can be recognized.

In addition, the Maldives Accreditation Board aims to formally benchmark the qualifications with the frameworks in the UK (including Scotland), with the new framework in Malaysia, with the vocational frameworks in Sri Lanka and Singapore and with the frameworks in Australia and New Zealand. Using the mechanism provided by new European Qualifications Framework, it is possible to determine the alignment of levels with Frameworks in all EU member states.

MQA (2014) highlights the main objective of the strengthened MNQF as to bring all recognized qualifications into a single unified structure with systems to support:  

• ·         National competency standards setting.
• ·         Quality assurance of teaching, assessment and certification.
• ·         Student and learner support and reporting.

Impact of MNQF on Villa College

MNQF facilitated the development of a quality assurance mechanism for Villa College. According to Qasim (2014), MNQF assisted VC to

·         Offer standard-based training with measurable outcomes.

·         Provide training for nationally-recognized qualifications.

·         Transfer academic credits between qualifications and institutions.

·         Establish programs and courses recognized by employers, educational institutions, and the general public.

·         Assurance of the quality of the qualifications.

·         Education and training that are relevant for the industries in Maldives.

·         Validate the quality of their courses and certificates.

References

Baartman, L. K., Bastiaens, T. J., Kirschner, P. A., & van der Vleuten, C. P. (2007). Evaluating assessment quality in competence-based education: A qualitative comparison of two frameworks. Educational Research Review, 2(2), 114-129.

Cowling, A., Newman, K., & Leigh, S. (1999). Developing a competency framework to support training in evidence-based healthcare. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 12(4), 149-160

Maldives Qualification Authority (2014). Maldives National Qualification Framework. Retrieved on May 8th, 2014 from http://www.mqa.gov.mv/

Qasim, M. (2014). Personal communication with Villa College, Dean of Faculty of Education.

Week 7: Student Demographics

Hi all

This week I am going to identify and analyze the students demographic in our country and its impact on Villa College. Disappointingly, there are not studies accessible to evidence my analysis, therefore, graphics are limited. However, with my experience and the websites available I will try my best to describe the trend in student demographics in Maldives and its impact on Villa College.

Similar to all the other countries there is a huge increase in the student's demographics in the Maldives. In the early days (40 years back), majority of the populations was given an average of 4.7 years of school education (Ministry of Education, 2014). In Male' (capital city), there were few schools with experienced teachers. In the Islands, the seniors taught how to read and write basic Math, English, Dhivehi (mother tongue) and Arabic.  Very few elite students had the opportunity to complete grade 10 and also from these students a handful were able to access tertiary education from overseas. By then there was no tertiary education institution in Maldives. 

However, today the trend has changed.  Education is provided free for all students from grade 1-10 (Ministry of Education, 2014). Hence, students are receiving education for an average of 10 years. Grade 11 and 12 is open for the students who pass for Cambridge Ordinary Level exams (Ministry of Education, 2014). Some of the students, who do not access to free education of 11-12 due to competitive grades, go to private schools or colleges to acquire further education. Hence, within the past 10 years student's demographics have severely increased due to vast opportunities for studies and also due to challenges in the employment market (Ministry of Education, 2014; Villa College, 2014; & Maldives National University, 2014). In addition, varieties of higher education institution are established and a range of courses are being implemented (Ministry of Education, 2014). Today, the opportunity to study up to doctorate level is open in few areas (Maldives National University, 2014). Moreover, government scholarships and loan schemes are established at least once a year to cater for the financial constraints of the students in achieving their degrees (Department of Higher Education, 2014).

With the increase in student demographics in Maldives, Villa College is attempting to cater for the unforeseen boost of student's enrollment.. Each and every year new courses, faculties, center and campuses are drastically being established by the Villa College (Villa College, 2014). Moreover, Villa College is not only focusing on the capital city of Maldives but rather covering the large atolls of the country. In addition to this, internationally affiliated courses are being introduced by the college to take the advantage of the increase in student's demographics (Villa College, 2014). Therefore, the fast growth of the college depicts the thriving coverage of student's enrollment in the future.

References

Department of Higher Education. (2014). Students Loan Scheme. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.dhe.gov.mv/?p=290

Ministry of Education. (2014). Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.moe.gov.mv/

Maldives National University. (2014). Faculties and Centers. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.mnu.edu.mv/index.php/faculties-centres

Maldives National University. (2014). Programs and Courses. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.mnu.edu.mv/index.php/programs-and-courses

Villa College. (2014). College Campuses. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.villacollege.edu.mv/index.php/campuses

Villa College. (2014). Faculties and Centers. Retrieved on May 1, 2014 from http://www.villacollege.edu.mv/index.php/faculties-centres