Editorial

Jim Donohue
Independent Scholar

Nicola Grayson
University of Manchester

Andy Hagyard
Independent Scholar

Jenny Hillman
Open University

Eleanor Loughlin
Durham University

Cathy Malone
Middlesex University London

Craig Morley
University of Manchester

Gita Sedghi
University of Liverpool

Alicja Syska
University of Plymouth

September 2021 arrived out of nowhere, bringing with it unresolved uncertainties of the new academic year, and with it, we re-entered a ‘new normal’ in higher education. The ‘postpandemic’ university did not materialise and conversations around teaching in person versus online, blended or hybrid, in masks or socially distanced, still dominate our planning and delivery design. Our readers might therefore find it comforting that the conversations in this issue of our journal include both pre-Covid and pandemic-centred analyses, with most articles still reporting on the past world some of us long for and which does not rush to come back. Our next issue, the Compendium – a special issue on the impact of Covid-19 on our teaching practices – will reflect on our eventful transitions to the ‘new normal’. We are very excited to see it shaping up and cannot wait to see it out in the world soon.

Unsurprisingly, our learning development community remains as strong as ever. Colleagues have been fully engaged in the JLDHE Reading Club, with three stimulating bi-monthly meetings already under our belt. In May, we discussed Sam King’s article on metadiscourse; in July, we had the opportunity to find out more about Nathalie Sheridan’s Guerrilla Research Tactics; and in July, we exchanged views on collaborating with academic staff when adopting flipped learning to support students, as well as gaining an insight into Sheryl Mansfield’s innovative asynchronous materials for flipped teaching. Our next Reading Club will meet on 10 November 2021 and everyone’s invited – please contact Jenny Hillman for details on how to join.

Yet our LD colleagues have not only been reading; they are writing, and writing a lot. As a result, this Issue 21 is the largest we have published since our last ‘normal’ pre-Covid issue in late 2019. We bring you three new papers, four case studies, and two book reviews, whose summaries follow.

Yoanita Alexandra and Septi Fahmi Choirisa’s paper ‘Understanding college students' e-loyalty to online practicum courses in hospitality programmes during COVID-19’ provides a timely discussion of the factors that contribute to students’ continued intentional use of online courses (e-loyalty) during the current pandemic. Using quantitative research methods, the discussion is based on analysis of a survey completed by students on hospitality programmes. Information quality, system quality, and system interactions are identified as key factors in student satisfaction and engagement and the author further provides suggestions of how to ensure that digital platforms and new curricula are appropriate and responsive to students’ needs.

In ‘Sharing ownership: placing Peer Assisted Study Schemes (PASS) within the wider work of learning developers’, Maxinne Connolly-Panagopoulos makes a case for the centralisation of Peer Assisted Study Schemes (PASS). The author sets out to show that whilst PASS is routinely positioned within specific faculties or schools in the Higher Education Institutions, the evidence points to the value of a centralised model for PASS – led by learning developers. What follows is an evidence-based discussion of the benefits of reconfiguring PASS in this way – highlighting the unique position of the learning developer within HEIs for enhancing student awareness of, and access to, PASS.

And finally, Maria Moxey and Edward Simpkin’s paper, ‘Harnessing the potential of extracurricular opportunities to enhance graduate employability in higher education’, addresses the emerging theme in the literature that graduates often do not demonstrate the relevant skills to employers, and that HEIs should harness the potential of extra-curricular opportunities to enhance employability. The results of the study show that although students were confident in articulating skills gained through extracurricular activities volunteering to employers, they did not identify many skills or expand on their transferability to the workplace. The findings contribute towards the growing body of literature on student employability and provide a model that can be adopted by other universities on a larger scale to investigate this further.

Moving on to case studies, Camila Devis-Rozental and Susanne Clarke in ‘HE staff’s attitudes and expectations about their role in induction activities’ investigate how higher education staff (both academic and professional) perceive and understand their role in induction periods. The aim of their research was to evaluate current practice at their institution and present evidence-based recommendations for practice. Staff’s ideas and views were gathered through a qualitative survey, which was supported by relevant quantitative data. Their findings revealed that the main areas for improvement were communication between teams, training to better understand and support students’ needs, and a more unifying recognition that every member of the university is involved in the induction period. This case study adds a valuable insight into the growing research on induction and transition.

In ‘Learners’ perceptions of the effectiveness of using self-reflection to understand English literary texts: towards an autonomous learning approach in Libya’, Hana El-Badri and Fatma Abu-baker explore the challenges of moving towards autonomous learning in a teaching context they describe as largely teacher centred and lecture based. In order to understand the impact of introducing a self-reflection worksheet as a tool to improve reading comprehension, the authors focus on the students’ perceptions of the value of the worksheet. In so doing they show how it enabled some to identify not only areas for development but also ways forward. For others, however, the worksheets proved to be less impactful and, in some instances, confusing. The authors conclude that wider use of worksheets and increased scaffolding, guidance and support around their usage will enhance student engagement and increase self-reflection and autonomous learning.

James Elliott’s case study ‘Task-specific short PowerPoints™ for effective off-campus learning in Diagnostic Radiography’ explores the design and use of learning resources that can be used asynchronously to support independent learning. The author examines student usage patterns and looks at broad patterns of correlation between engagement with online resources and assessment results. While a number of positive inferences are drawn, recommendations include the need for more detailed tracking to understand precisely how students engage with such resources.

The starting point for Katy Jones’s case study, ‘”We had a good laugh together”: using Teams for collaborative learning’, is the transition from in-person lectures and seminars to online teaching. The author describes how the initial need to respond quickly to the challenges was replaced by the realisation that in order to promote interaction, build communities and enhance student learning, adaptation, rather than online replication of the face-to-face model was required. In deciding which tools and platforms to use, the author emphasises the importance of integration, functionality and ease of access and further outlines measures taken to ensure student participation and a fair distribution of the workload in online group meetings and collaborations. The case study further includes discussion of the thorny issue of whether it is appropriate to award marks for participation and concludes with recognition that the move to online teaching has resulted in creative solutions, in this instance the use of Teams for study groups, that can be usefully integrated into in-person teaching.

We finish this summary with Kimberly Hoffman and Michelle Breen’s review of the book Library Pedagogies: Personal Reflections from Library Practitioners by Sam Aston and Andrew Walsh. As the reviewers demonstrate, the book will help librarians to reflect on and improve their teaching to meet the contemporary needs of their learners and develop the information and digital skills of students. This book adds to the growing literature calling on the Master of Library and Information Science programmes to prioritise formal teacher training, since the majority of library jobs entail teaching and learning, even if only on an indirect or one-to-one scale.

We hope that in this collection of articles, our subscribers and readers will find thought provoking and stimulating material.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful reviewers whose critical reading of submissions and thoughtful feedback and recommendations have made invaluable contributions to the quality of articles we publish.

Our heartfelt appreciation for the time, expertise, and work it took to review papers in this issue goes to the following reviewers:

Alan Hayes
Alina Congreve
Alison Loddick
Arina Cirstea
David Heading
Dustin Hosseini
Gemma Stansfield
Jennie Blake
Liz Wilding
Rosemarie McIlwhan
Stacey Mottershaw
Paul Chin
Eva Shackel

With best wishes,

The JLDHE Editorial Board