Abstract:

In the post-online teaching era, the importance of educational value to students-as-consumers has increased. Within Japanese higher education the large number of universities in operation combined with a decreasing population means that universities must demonstrate their educational value to remain competitive as the needs of society rapidly change. Accordingly, what students think about the education they receive in terms of its relevance within the free-market economy has never been as important to universities and faculty as it is now. This research reports from an innovative Japanese university on the incremental changes in course structure, content and syllabus arising within the post-online teaching era. The research documents efforts to ascertain the educational value of a compulsory communications course from the perspective of the students-in-context. Educational value is conceptualized relative to the course emphasis on active collaborative learning and the generation of learning experiences that can be transferred to other learning situations within the university. To this end, the course in focus promotes project-based co-creation wherein students are required to become interdependent on each other to complete in-class activities relating to diverse disciplines such as meta-learning and individual difference, computational and deign thinking, and science communication and problem-solving. This quantitative survey-based research draws data from 131 students and models educational value as informed by interactions with peers, interactions with teachers, active learning opportunities provided, student engagement satisfaction, and the transference of learning outcomes. The research includes theoretical discussions concerning the format of flipped learning courses, online course management, course and materials design, syllabus context, social interaction provisions, and other such educational considerations. The results of a path analysis model will be shared, and attention will be given to those variables which made significant contributions to estimations of educational value. Implications are drawn in relation to the structure and composition of interactive face-to-face learning environments in the post-online teaching era in addition to considerations for the development of transdisciplinary teaching and learning practice.

Keywords:

Active Learning, Communication, Educational Value, Flipped Learning, Interaction.