Generative AI (GenAI) tools offer opportunities to support higher education students in adopting effective learning strategies, an area where guidance is lacking. Although evidence-based strategies such as retrieval practice and distributed practice enhance long-term learning, students frequently rely on less effective approaches due to limited instruction. GenAI could provide personalised, just-in-time support, but concerns about accuracy, trustworthiness, and pedagogical quality complicate its responsible use. This mixed-methods study examines how a compact retrieval-augmented generation system (<8B parameters) can support Dutch higher education students' use of effective learning strategies. The system, grounded in curated domain knowledge, was evaluated using automated assessment (RAGAS) and expert validation. Seven domain experts evaluated fifteen responses using the Content Validity Index and qualitative feedback. While RAGAS indicated technical robustness, expert validation revealed insufficient pedagogical robustness in actionability and readability, demonstrating that automatic performance does not guarantee pedagogical robustness and underscoring the need for responsible GenAI in education.
In digitally mediated higher education, sustaining student engagement remains a persistent challenge. Rather than treating engagement as a product of activity intensity, this study reconceptualises instructional rhythm as a structural condition and introduces the Dynamic-Static Five-Step Model (DS-5Step) as procedural scaffolding. Adopting a longitudinal action research design, data were collected across six phases in practice-oriented courses. Students enacted the DS-5Step model through group-based presentations supported by peer evaluation and reflective feedback. Data were analysed using thematic and descriptive trend analysis. Findings indicate a shift from activity-centred completion to process-based instructional judgement, alongside more sustained attention. Collaboration, leadership, and digital tool use emerged as adaptive responses, while performance remained stable. These findings suggest that instructional innovation depends less on replicating activities and more on designing transferable process structures.
Integrating teacher feedback with GenAI feedback has attracted growing interest, yet how different teacher feedback types interact with GenAI feedback to shape undergraduate students' academic writing remains underexplored. This study adopted a quasi-experimental design to explore the impact of three feedback types on undergraduate students' academic writing. The results indicated that the combination of teacher cognitive feedback and GenAI feedback most effectively enhanced academic writing performance; teacher affective feedback paired with GenAI promoted more extra revisions, whereas GenAI feedback alone often led to non-implementation. Semi-structured interviews revealed markedly distinct perceptions across three dimensions: the gap between feedback recognition and implementation, emotional responses to feedback, and developmental trajectories of academic writing strategies. This study advocates for a human-centred approach to human-AI feedback integration, offering insights into leveraging their complementary strengths for meaningful learning.
The current study examines the reinterpretation of faculty development in terms of gamified online training course design. Drawing on an interpretive stance and a qualitative inductive research approach, the study examines expert perceptions on embedding gamification within organisational faculty training. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 academic experts in education management and educational technology fields of various Iranian universities, selected by means of purposive snowball sampling. Data were processed using thematic analysis method. The results show that gamified training plans have the potential to enhance faculty involvement, motivation, and learning effectiveness by incorporating aspects such as competition, incentives, and narrative-based challenges. The study highlights that gamification strategies should reflect adult learning principles and organisational goals. By offering a deeper understanding of how gamification can be used profitably within faculty development, this study contributes to the dialogue regarding emerging, tech-based professional learning in higher education.
Research on video-based learning often relies on behavioural indicators to infer engagement, yet it remains unclear whether these behaviours reflect meaningful cognitive engagement or mere activity. To address this gap the present study analysed relationships between time-on-video, click frequency, playback speed manipulation, and learners' intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load in a learner-controlled video environment (N = 96). Time-on-video and click frequency showed no associations with cognitive load, however, playback speed manipulation did. Slowing down videos was associated with lower intrinsic load, speeding up videos with higher germane load, and both forms of speed adjustment with lower extraneous load. The findings demonstrate how cognitive load theory can be used to interpret digital trace data to distinguish between behavioural activity and cognitively meaningful engagement. Researchers and practitioners should therefore interpret coarse indicators such as viewing time and click frequency with caution and give greater attention to pacing-related behaviours when using trace data.
Flipped university classrooms are widely celebrated for enhancing student engagement and pedagogical innovation, yet the same conditions that empower leaners intensify teachers' performative demands, exposing instructors to heightened visibility, affective strain, and technologically mediated accountability. This paradox reveals a blind spot in existing Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) scholarship, as neither competency-acquisition nor relational-embeddedness accounts can theorise what happens when the teaching stage itself is reorganised by digital infrastructures. Drawing on Goffman's dramaturgical theory and Clandinin and Connelly's narrative framework, grounded in sociomateriality, postdigital perspectives, and emotional labour as generative conditions of TPL, this study examines how flipped pedagogy reconfigures teachers' professional learning. Interviews with ten teachers and classroom and workshop observations yielded the ACTOR in action model, demonstrating that TPL unfolds as an iterative, identity-constitutive assemblage of Acting, Co-performing, Technologizing, Organizing, and Reflecting. Failing to understand these mechanisms risks misaligning professional development and evaluation in increasingly hybrid higher education.
This study proposes Faculty Presence as a new construct for faculty development in higher education, aimed at enhancing classroom effectiveness and engagement. With Gen Z learners demanding relatability, validation and empathy from instructors, traditional models of faculty effectiveness require rethinking. In this paper, the evolution of leadership presence concepts from Executive Presence to Teaching Presence are explored and Faculty Presence is introduced as a novel framework for academic settings. Faculty Presence integrates Gravitas, Communication, Appearance, Empathy and Humour to enhance classroom dynamics and student outcomes. This mixed-methods study implements a custom training programme for five faculty members, targeting developing these attributes, comparing their effectiveness with a control group of untrained faculty members. Faculty Presence emerges as a viable model for faculty development, differentiating it from Teaching Presence by its holistic, personality-driven approach. The study offers a structured approach for faculty development, addressing Gen Z learner needs, with broad global implications.
This study examines how inclusive instructor leadership relates to self-directed learning (SDL) in higher education and tests student agency as a mediating mechanism. Survey data were collected from 195 international students enrolled at a state university in T & uuml;rkiye. The proposed model was analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Results indicate that inclusive instructor leadership is positively associated with both student agency and SDL, and that student agency is strongly associated with SDL. Mediation analysis further shows that student agency partially mediates the relationship between inclusive instructor leadership and SDL, suggesting that inclusive teaching practices may support students' autonomous learning primarily by strengthening their sense of agency. The study contributes to higher education teaching and learning research by clarifying a pathway through which inclusive instructor behaviours are linked to student self-directed learning. Practical implications are discussed for inclusive, student-centred instructional design and professional development.
The challenges facing students in Higher Education are increasing. Peer mentoring can be used to support students, promote integration, and reduce drop-out, yet any peer-mentoring programme should meet the needs of students without replacing other forms of support. This project used two co-creation workshops to explore undergraduate student (N = 9) and staff (N = 4) values of academic and pastoral support, to inform the design of future peer mentoring programmes. Thematic analysis was conducted on the audio recordings of the workshops. Themes included issues impacting mentees and mentors, and the mechanics of peer mentoring. These align with past research; however, there was a clear emphasis on the wellbeing of the mentors, showing the importance of providing training and support for peer mentors. Co-creation gives a voice to students and staff and is an innovative way to approach peer mentoring. This method could be used to design future peer-mentoring programmes.
Research on writing education has primarily examined the relationship between student writers and their individual development, but the role of peer-writing groups in fostering academic writing growth among undergraduates remains underexplored. This qualitative study draws on 13 interviews with UK business students who participated in regular writing groups while completing their undergraduate projects. Findings reveal that peer interaction within these groups facilitated the emergence of a community of practice, which in turn supported the development of new writing-related practices and enhanced students' confidence and performance. The study contributes to the literature by challenging the assumption that threshold concepts must be acquired before a community of practice can form. Instead, the data indicate that such communities actively enable the formation of practices through which students achieve threshold concept acquisition and develop as writers.
This systematic literature review examines how Internationalisation at Home (IaH) initiatives contribute to student skill development in higher education. Analysing empirical studies from 2019 to 2024 published in Q1-rated journals, the review applies a deductive content analysis based on Di Pietro's (2022) and Pellegrino and Hilton's (2012) frameworks of 21st-century skill domains. Findings reveal that IaH activities most significantly foster skills within the intrapersonal and interpersonal domains, particularly cultural awareness and sensitivity, intercultural competence, and attitudes such as curiosity and respect. To analyse co-occurrence patterns, a heatmap was created to show areas of significant alignment between IaH interventions and targeted skill development, underscoring that these are not incidental but systematically cultivated across curricular, co-curricular, and interpersonal learning contexts. The review emphasises the need for strategic and pedagogically aligned IaH design to effectively support globally relevant student skills, reinforcing the role of internationalisation in higher education.
This study employed a comparative quantitative design to examine the quality of grammar teaching activities generated by three AI models - ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini - and by pre-service teachers. Data were collected using the Grammar Activity Assessment Form (GAAF) and evaluated by 10 field experts. Findings indicated that AI models consistently produced high or very high-quality activities, with DeepSeek achieving the highest proportion of top-tier outputs. While inferential analyses revealed no statistically significant differences in overall quality among the groups, pre-service teacher outputs displayed greater variability. These findings highlight the pedagogical viability of AI-generated activities as structured scaffolds; however, they also underscore the need for teacher educators to balance AI efficiency with the preservation of the foundational teaching craft. The study concludes that AI should be positioned as a co-designer that requires active human intervention to ensure context-specific relevance and pedagogical creativity.
