Figure 1. The Effect of Reading, Seeing, and Doing on the Human Memory
This article is an attempt to explore why the efforts of universities fall short of accomplishing their objectives, and fail to improve the caliber of their graduates, as large numbers of them are unable to encounter real-life problems. It also probes the relations between four independent demographic variables (gender, age, experience, and specialization) and four dependent variables (role of faculty members, learning experiences focused upon, measures principally administered to achieve learning experiences, and the skills necessary to create synergy and momentum). A relevant online questionnaire is devised to survey the views of a sample of (176) faculty members, comprising (60.5%) of the faculty society at Philadelphia University/Jordan in 2015-2016. SPSS program is utilized for data processing. The article concludes that faculty members focus upon facilitating provision of information instead of achieving self-actualization. The farther objectives of learning experiences are from that, the more learners are subject to become incompetent.
The vision, the mission and the objectives of all universities reflect ambition to establish Harvard-type universities, provide the best services possible, and engender highly qualified graduates. Yet the majority of them fall short of achieving such goals due to the mismatch between instructional design and the learning experiences targeted, or the sum result of interaction between students and their universities over the duration of their study there. They also concentrate upon maintaining a very low level of students' learning experiences attained compared with their expectations.
According to all systems of university ranking, prestigious universities have special merits and sustainable competitive advantages, and adopt unique processes that make them dominate the area of higher education. Examples of such merits are discipline, strategy planning, goal-oriented management, and teamwork. Throughout the period of study at such universities, students are motivated to achieve self-fulfillment, and do something creative that will eventually change the world, rather than just to attain meaningful information. In other words, they are prompted to deal with proper learning experiences. Students may fail to achieve their goals, yet they become convinced that they can actually accomplish the impossible. Incessant diligent attempts to overcome failure constitute the basis of the attribute of perseverance, which is one of the main distinguishing characteristics of graduates of prestigious universities.
To achieve high ranking among universities, one type of universities assumes adopting edutainment strategies, stressing the role of learners in the teaching/learning process. A second type theorizes that the right recipe to achieve education goals is through the adoption of proper paradigms of instructional design, utilizing e-pedagogy, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), and virtual reality applications. Actually, it is not merely the number of students enrolled, or space and physical environment, or the provision of sophisticated equipment that make a good university, but above all the skill of the faculty in delineating their objectives with learning experiences in mind, in working according to strategic and operational plans to achieve targeted goals, and in deploying the procedures of learner relationship management to serve students better and facilitate closer relationships with them.
Education basically begins with the acquisition of meaningful information and ends up with selfactualization, construed as making learners better, safer, and more powerful. This article hypothesizes that the major problem in higher education institutions is that educationists do not view learning experiences as objectives, but as a means to the end of determining instructional design. Such tables-turned situations should be rectified, as learning experiences are the right objectives of universities, and instructional design is a means to the end of achieving targeted objectives. Accountability for the failure of university educational performance endeavors is customarily ascribed to lack of qualified faculty members. Planners of curricula, as well as quality assurance professionals, are not considered associates in achieving better efficiency. Discerning the weaknesses of learning experiences, and fixing them through faculty training and use of ICT, assuredly have positive effects on university success. But such measures alone are not adequate to make distinguished universities with high quality graduates. The logic embraced in this article is to crack the code of effective learning through evaluating the effect of addressing advanced learning experiences instead of restricting interest to the attainment of in-depth information and the improvement of methods of instructional design.
This descriptive analytical article attempts to probe the effect of concentration upon the design of learning experience, with a vivid understanding of learners' evolving needs and expectations. It tries to decipher the code of effective learning, and outline clear parameters to evaluate the efficacy of faculty members, and rectify the mismatch of academia's aspirations and processes. It tackles the topic of defining learning experiences, and highlights that self-actualization is the proper learning experience that should be addressed, not just that of accumulation of meaningful information. It also spreads awareness of the importance of learning experience management, and surveys the levels of learning experiences generally adopted by faculty members in Jordan Universities, exemplified by Philadelphia University. Besides, it explores the relation between the levels of learning experiences and certain independent demographic variables related to faculty members like gender, age, experience, and specialization. The study will hopefully reflect positively upon the educational throughputs and the quality of university graduates.
To achieve the strategic objective of engendering graduates with excellent capabilities to encounter real-life problems, all university stakeholders have to show the responsibility of performing three major tasks that ultimately determine a university's sustainable success. These tasks are designing the best learning experiences for correctly identified students, delivering such experiences in proper methods, and developing the capabilities off aculty members(Allen, Frederick, and Barney, 2005).
Falling short of achieving planned objectives and developing satisfied students are commonly ascribed to lack of qualified, satisfied and dedicated faculty as well as the deficiency of adequate technicalities. Other stakeholders, physical setting, adoption of obsolete curricula, and the lack of detection of the proper learning experiences should assuredly be considered accountable for such malfunction, too.
This descriptive article argues that the major reason for the failure of education institutions is anchoring to the provision of information at the bottom of the learning experience pyramid, without endeavoring to go up to achieve selfactualization at the apex. Prioritizing this topic for extensive in-depth study gives this pioneering article an innovative reforming characteristic.
This article probes five issues: the role of faculty members in the learning/teaching process (information providers, trainers, or facilitators of learning), learning experiences mostly focused upon throughout faculty practices, measures administered to achieve the targeted levels of learning experiences, skills necessary to create synergy and momentum in pedagogical practices, and the relation between levels of learning experiences on the one hand and four demographic variables: gender, age, experience, and specialization on the other. It specifically explores the following:
Modes of instruction, which vary according to targeted objectives of education, can generally be classified into three major categories. The first is entrainment that stresses the psychomotor type of objectives which can be developed both through traditional on-campus face-toface instruction and distance education. The second is infotainment which focuses upon the cognitive type of objectives achieved both through traditional and distance education, too. And the third is edutainment in which the social affective type of objectives are attained best through the inter-activity of social networking integrated in online distance education. In infotainment, communication is typically one-directional and contains bits of meaningful information, but edutainment aims at creating interactive material that supports the learning process(AlFuqaha, 2014).
There is a tremendous gap between the entrainment and infotainment objectives of traditional institutions of education on the one hand and the edutainment type of objectives focused upon by modern universities on the other. Bridging such a gap seems obligatory. Hence the need for a hybrid type of education that combines traditional face-to-face instruction and e-learning techniques. Such a "Blended-Learning” type of edutainment heavily depends upon interactive discourse among all constituents of the pedagogical process, through utilizing modern communication technologies, both inside and outside the classroom. The hybrid blearning approach seems to propound the best potentiality to improve students' learning. The international move towards b-learning seems to form a stride towards fully personalized computer-based rather than campusbound learning. Furthermore, de-schooling society seems inevitable in the long run. Changing the role of faculty members in a wired or wireless-connected classroom forms a mechanism which stimulates new ways of thinking about pedagogy issues. Training courses for university faculty in the area of utilizing ICT in teaching and learning processes should then be provided.
For the needs of students, it is evident that students currently at school will reach their utmost productivity stage of life during the thirties of the twenty-first-century. So it is absolutely irrelevant to train them how to use the same tools of instruction prevalent in the industrial age. They assuredly prefer to use online courses, social networks, and text messaging notifications, blogs, video podcasts, and other forms of new technologies.
For content designers, it is incompatible to realize that certain textbooks prescribed in the twentieth century are still valid in the digital age, and presented in the same talk-and chalk medium applied in old ages, without any use of modern technologies such as virtual reality.
Paradigms of pedagogy have changed from transmission of knowledge to transformative pedagogy. The pyramid of learning experiences propounded by traditional faculty members focuses upon retention and transmission pedagogy, with the faculty member conceived as a knowledgeable decision maker for choosing instructional methods(Morrison, 2016).
Novel edutainment is more concerned with active learning experiences that can be transferred for application in reallife situations, in which the student dynamically participates in the learning process.
The major psychological theories of learning conceive the objective of learning experiences differently. It is producing behavioral changes towards desired objectives from the point of view of the behavioristic theories; developing capacity to learn better as defined by the cognitive theories; self-actualization and autonomy as outlined by the humanistic theories; and full participation in community practices as described by the social and situational theories.
The behavioristic theories describe the learning process as performing positive changes in behavior. The cognitive theories depict it as mental processes that embrace insight, memory, perception, and information processing. The humanistic theories outline it as a personal act aiming at fulfilling the potentials of learners. Whereas the social and situational theories view it as interaction in social contexts.
Teachers' roles differ much according to theories of learning adopted. For the behaviorists, it is changing the environment to elicit desired responses. For adherents of cognitive theories, it is structuring content of learning activity. It is promoting the total development of the person for humanistic theories, and working to establish interactive practice for social and situational theories. Figure 1 sums up the effect of reading, seeing, and doing on the human memory(Beyersdorf, 2017 & Subramony, 2002).
Figure 1. The Effect of Reading, Seeing, and Doing on the Human Memory
Educationists usually outline the learning experiences needed to enable students solve their own real-life problems arranged from the bottom up in the following order: furnish learners with information needed to solve problems; then going up to students' counseling designed just to offer students' services; and reduce their complaints as quickly as possible; then up to satisfying students' needs when demanded; and up to satisfying students' needs to prove a university's commitment and gain students' loyalty; and up to satisfying students' needs without being themselves aware of such needs; and at the top achieving self- actualization by making learners better, safer, and more powerful.
Most initiatives of learning experience management, which involve the provision of a certain type of stethoscope to identify problems of university practices, prove to be a complete failure. That is hypothetically ascribed to the assumption that universities are anchored to the bottom experience level of just furnishing learners with information to enable them solve problems. Based on Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience, Figure 2 sums up the learner experience pyramid, showing mindset, medium, action, relationships, and processes administered (Seels, 1997 & Mitra, 2009).
Figure 2. The Pyramid of Learner Experience with Adopted Mindset, Medium, Action, Relationship, and Processes
This seems evocative of the pyramid of mental abilities, with provision of meaningful information bringing to mind the ability of remembering, and self-actualization reminding of the ability of will. To achieve efficient teaching processes that facilitate learning, faculty members should embrace the ambitious self-actualization objective at the top of the learning experience pyramid. The farther from the top of the pyramid objectives are, the more the learner will be subject to become reactive, narrow-minded and selfinterested. With this background in mind, universities are supposed to apply more integrated experiences chosen from the top of the six-layer pyramid of learning experiences arranged from the bottom to its top as follows: furnishing learners with meaningful information; enabling learners solve problems faced (upon request); resolving learners' needs (upon request); satisfying learners' needs (without request); satisfying learners' needs (without being aware); and making learners better and capable of encountering challenges.
To achieve each of the levels of learning experiences, the following relevant procedures arranged from down to the top of the pyramid of learning experience should be implemented:
It is evident that the closer universities keep to the apex of the pyramid of learning experiences, the better they will be able to achieve their missions, visions, and objectives.
Modern communication technologies facilitate effective instruction both inside the classroom and outside it. Social software networking technologies that stress collaboration and inter-activity are utilized to achieve the objective of learning to be an effective member of a community. Such technologies help in establishing an interactive learning society twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, instead of the limited class hours in traditional education.
In the traditional pre-web synchronous stage of learning, stakeholders involved during class sessions are the teacher and student in a one-to-one process. In the web 1.0 electronic blended synchronous and asynchronous learning, stakeholders involved during connection are the teacher and student in a one-to-many process. In the web 2.0 mobile blended synchronous and asynchronous learning, stakeholders involved during dialing and social networking are the teacher and student in a many-to-many logging. In the web 3.0 pervasive blended synchronous and asynchronous learning, stakeholders involved during social networking are the teacher and student in an all in one process (AlFuqaha, 2014).
Regarding faculty members as entrepreneurs in the field of education, the following independent interconnected skills are considered essential to create synergy and momentum in the learning process: turn set-backs into successes; deploy online and off-line forums; strengthen relationships; enquire as that sharpens the mind and senses; be an integrator; be an architect and problem finder; and master the rapid succession of observing, orienting, deciding, and acting (Wilkinson, 2016).
The article has been initiated with four basic hypotheses in mind concerning the role of faculty members, learning experiences extremely focused upon, measures mainly administered to achieve learning experiences, and skills necessary to create synergy and momentum, and probing the relation among four independent variables (gender, age, experience, and specialization) and the dependent variables. Specifically, it explores the following:
The following hypotheses are formed for this study:
The population of the society studied consists of (291) faculty members, resembling the total number of faculty working at Philadelphia University, Jordan in 2015-2016, without calculating the language center. The sample amounts to (176) members, after excluding those who didn't respond fully to all items included in the questionnaire. Actually, all Faculty members were expected to participate, but probably due to constraints of work, lack of proficiency in English, as well as lack of awareness in the subject discussed, the sample is limited to around (60.5%) of the whole society. The sample distributed as shown in Table 1 is fairly adequate to represent the society studied.
Table 1. The Distribution of Group Studied and Sample Chosen
The five-part questionnaire utilized has been devised in an online form that facilitates an easy organization of data accumulated (AlFuqaha, 2016).
The reviewed online form of the questionnaire is distributed among the faculty through their official emails at the university. The first part investigates personal information to delineate gender, age, experience, and specialization of respondents. The second defines the role of faculty members conceived by themselves ranging from changing environment to elicit desired responses to establishing communities of practice. The third tries to probe learning experiences prioritized by faculty members, ranging from attaining information at the bottom of the pyramid and going up to self–actualization at the top. The fourth investigates the relevant measures administered to test the level of learning experiences. The fifth tries to find out the independent pedagogical skills used and steps followed to create synergy and momentum.
All data collated are processed and hypotheses tested using SPSS program with a set of statistical methods based on the following: general characteristics of participants, the distribution of the sample (frequencies and percentages), and Chi-square test (Pearson Chi-Square and contingency coefficient).
The sample of study is distributed according to the four variables of gender, age, experience, and specialization as summed up in Table 2.
Table 2. The Distribution of the Sample of Study According to Gender, the Age, Experience, and Specialization
The questionnaire probing the possibility of deciphering the code of effective learning in universities comprises five questions: the role of faculty members conceived by the sample studied, learning experiences focused upon, measures commonly administered by faculty members, skills deemed necessary to create synergy and momentum, and the relation between the alternatives of each and four demographic variables (gender, age, experience, and specialization).
The relation of the role of faculty members conceived by the sample studied and the demographic independent variables can be summed up in Table 3. Counting the mean and standard deviation of responses indicate that faculty members studied conceive their roles as structuring content of learning activities (mean 2.42, standard deviation 1.049).
Table 3. The Relation between Role of Faculty and the Demographic Variables Included Conceived by the Sample Studied
The question comprises six alternatives of learning experiences. The percentages of responses given to each alternative are summarized in Table 4. The highest percentage (40.9%) is given for “Achieving selfactualization by making learners better, safer, and more powerful", while the lowest (1.1%) is given to "Students counseling is designed just to offer a student service, and reduce complaints only".
Table 4. The Relation between Learning Experiences Focused Upon by Faculty and the Demographic Variables Included
Reflecting on the mean and standard deviation of responses, it seems evident that faculty members studied conceive the learning experiences they focus upon as satisfying students' needs to prove university commitment and gain students' loyalty ( mean 3.93, standard deviation 2.124).
This question includes (6) alternatives. The percentages of alternatives are summarized in Table 5. The alternative "Give learners instant access to the best information resources in the world; and deliver such services free of charge" got the highest percentage (29.0%), while the alternative "Give learners one-click access to the best information resources in the world, and on affordable easy terms" got the lowest percentage (3.4 %). Contemplating on the mean and standard deviation of responses indicate that faculty members studied conceive the levels of learning experiences as letting learners know types of experiences mostly needed as evidenced by previous demand (mean 3.16, standard deviation 1.760).
Table 5. The Relation between Measures Commonly Administered by Faculty and the Demographic Variables Included
This question includes (10) preferences of skills. The percentages of preferences are summarized in Table 6. The highest percentage (23.9%) is given to the preference “Be an architect and problem finder, building learning outcomes from the bottom up. Define problems to determine the possible solutions”, while the lowest percentage (1.7 %) is given to the preference “Gamify the learning processes”.
Table 6. The Relation between Skills Necessary to Create Synergy and Momentum and the Demographic Variables Included
Bearing in mind the mean and standard deviation of responses, faculty members studied conceive the best skills necessary to create synergy and momentum as strengthening relationships and being generous to others in order to become more productive (mean 5.25, standard deviation 2.408).
The study explores the following four dependent variables: roles of faculty members, learning experiences frequently focused upon, measures typically administered to achieve learning experiences, and skills necessary to create synergy and momentum. It also explores the relation among some independent variables (gender, age, experience, and specialization) and the dependent variables included in the study in order to overcome the mismatching of academia's aspirations.
So the four hypotheses can be put in the form of four questions as follows:
Using data accumulated from the study, results of Pearson Chi-Square at (p ≤ 0.05) as summarized in Table 7 indicate the following:
Table 7. The Relation of the Demographic Variables and the Issues included in the Study
This elucidates that there is a significant relationship between the independent variable (Gender) and the dependent variables included in (Q2, Q3, Q4) mentioned earlier, that are learning experiences faculty members generally focus upon, measures largely administered to achieve learning experiences, and skills necessary to create synergy and momentum. On the other hand, there is no significant relationship between gender and the roles of faculty members.
With reference to the data mentioned in Table 8, the results of Pearson Chi-Square at (p ≤ 0.05) indicate the following:
Table 8. The Relation of Independent Demographic Variables with Dependent Variables Studied
Accumulated data denote that there is a significant relationship between the independent variable (Age) and the dependent variables included in (Q1, Q2), namely roles of faculty members and learning experiences chiefly focused upon, whereas the variable of age has no significant relationship with measures principally administered to achieve learning experiences, and independent skills necessary to create synergy and momentum.
Data deduced from figures shown in Table 8 in this respect indicate the following:
This proves that there is a significant relationship between experience as an independent variable and the dependent variables included in (Q1, Q2), which are roles of faculty members and learning experiences they principally focus upon, whereas experience doesn't have any significant relationship with the variables of measures largely administered to achieve proper learning experiences, and independent skills necessary to create synergy and momentum.
The results of Pearson Chi-Square at (p ≤ 0.05) as shown in Table 8 in this respect indicate the following:
This is indicative of a significant relationship between the independent variable (specialization) and the dependent variables included in (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4), namely roles of faculty members, learning experiences largely focused upon, measures customarily administered to achieve learning experiences, and independent skills necessary to create synergy and momentum.
The article explores the reasons why most efforts exerted by universities fall short of accomplishing their objectives, why learners are subject to become narrow-minded and selfinterested, as well as the way universities can improve the caliber of their graduates. The article advocates that it is not only through redesigning curricula enriching them with more in-depth information, adoption of edutainment strategies, use of e- learning and blended learning, implementation of new teaching techniques, or provision of complicated teaching technologies, but above all through focusing upon proper learning experiences that should be adopted. Addressing advanced learning experiences instead of restricting interest to the attainment of in-depth information and methods of instructional design have positive effects on the advancement of education. The scarcity of similar researches in this field gives this article a ground-breaking attribute.
The article points out that there is a great deal of mismatching between academia's aspirations and the levels of learning experiences adopted. Such mismatch should be rectified. Learning experiences adopted by faculty members should focus upon self-realization rather than just attaining meaningful information.
Recommendations suggested at the end of this study include the following:
Dear Colleague
Kindly find hereunder a questionnaire concerning faculty practices as regards prioritizing learning experiences, measures administered to achieve each level of the learning experiences, and the independent skills necessary to create synergy and momentum. Kindly point out to what degree you apply each in your education practices, and your estimation of priority of experiences listed. Your response will be treated as strictly confidential, and will be used for research purposes only.
