Simulation-based learning (SBL) has been the focus of higher-education literature, especially in teacher education and training. Led by a professional facilitator, the SBL process requires learners to step out of their comfort zone. This multiple case-study examines the roles of SBL facilitators to better understand the conditions for creating an…

This study examines how authentic assessment could nurture students' epistemic agency: their sense of agency in using, evaluating and producing knowledge. Authentic assessment commonly emphasises 'realism' and 'employability skills'. As important as these ideas are, this approach to authentic assessment neglects the key academic value of…

Despite the widespread interest in using and researching simulation in higher education, little discussion has yet to address a key pedagogical concern: difficulty. A "sociomaterial" view of learning, explained in this paper, goes beyond cognitive considerations to highlight dimensions of material, situational, representational and…

This paper uses data gathered from 953 students to investigate how far individuals' preferences for a particular learning style are associated with the perceived usefulness of e-learning. Our findings reveal the effect of individuals' learning styles as well as their gender and professional experience on the perceived usefulness of different forms…

Virtual world technology is now being incorporated into various higher education programs, often with enthusiastic claims about the improvement of students' abilities to experience learning problems and tasks in computer-mediated virtual reality through the use of computer-generated personal agents or avatars. The interactivity of the avatars with…

Designing for the needs of people with impairments has rarely been a significant feature of urban planning theory and education. Given the role of urban planners as shapers of the built environment and public policy, the prevalence of negative and misinformed attitudes among planners toward impaired populations has been highlighted as requiring…

Teamwork is widely recognised as an important skill both generally and in the context of the computing industry. The majority of approaches to teaching teamwork are "practically" based and in higher education are often designed to run over a number of weeks. We required an approach that would work over a concentrated period of five days…