English Abstracts

Quality Assurance of Online Classes
in University Education Triggeredby the Novel Coronavirus
YAMAUCHI Yuhei*This paper summarizes the events in university education
triggered by the novel coronavirus, drawing on media reports anddocuments from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology (MEXT). It also considers students’ reactions toonline classes based on surveys conducted by Kyushu University and
Rikkyo University. The results indicate that 1) students evaluate
online knowledge acquisition classes positively; 2) students feel
isolated in unidirectional online classes; and 3) with certain steps,
interactive online classes can be as effective as face-to-face classes.
Based on these results, the author proposed three avenues to ensure
the quality of university education: making online learning moreinteractive,

promotinghybridlearning,

andsupporting

extracurricular learning.

*Professor, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information
Studies, The University of Tokyo

249

The Possibilities and Challengesof Online Education and its Quality Assurance
after University Integration
IIYOSHI Hiroko

Osaka City University (OCU) and Osaka Prefecture University areplanning to integrate to establish a new university in 2022. The new
university will have multiple campuses, including a new campus from2025 that will offer general education. There will be fewer
opportunities for students to interact and learn diversity from eachother in general education because it is difficult for upper-gradestudents studying at multiple campuses to take general education at
the new campus. However, the situation might be improved byutilizing online education. Based on my trial implementation of online
distributed educational practices at both universities simultaneously,
it was found that the success of these practices would require each
student

to

have

their

own

personalcomputer,timetable

synchronization, and an integrated learning management system.
Additionally, classroom environments (Wi-Fi, webcams, microphones,
speakers, etc.) need to be prepared for high-flex, hybrid, and mixed
education.
Both universities conduct internal quality assurance (IQA),
including continuous and systematic collection of direct (OCU
indicators) and indirect evaluation indicators (student and faculty
surveys). These efforts need to be continued in the new university
system. Furthermore, quality assurance of online education should be
integrated as part of the university’s IQA efforts.

Special Advisor to the President／Vice Director and Professor,
Center for Research and Development of Higher Education, Osaka
City University

250

Toward Quality Assurance of Online
and Hybrid Classes: The Case of Online
Teaching Support at Kyoto University
TAGUCHI Mana*SUZUKI Takeo**

To prevent the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19),
Japanese

universities

conducted

fully

onlineclassesonanunprecedented scale in the first half of 2020, and Information andCommunication Technology (ICT) utilization was promoted at once.
At Kyoto University, online classes were introduced in the first halfof 2020. To support online teaching, the Center for the Promotion of
Excellence in Higher Education, to which we belong, in collaboratingwith the Institute for Information Management and Communication,
has built a support site, Teaching Online @ Kyoto University; holds
FD workshops; and has conducted a faculty survey. In the latter halfof 2020, we supported hybrid classes.
As a result of university teachers working on online teaching byforce of circumstances due to the pandemic, it has been realized what
can be taught online and what cannot. The challenge is how to ensure
the quality of online classes or hybrid classes.
In this paper, the support system of Kyoto University for online andhybrid classes is described, and we summarize how the Center for the
Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education supports online
education. Finally, the issues of quality assurance of online and hybrid
teaching are discussed.

*Associate Professor, Center for the Promotion of Excellence inHigher Education, Kyoto University**Program-Specific Researcher, Center for the Promotion of
Excellence in Higher Education, Kyoto University

251Physics Experiments and Exercisesin an Online Environment
MORIHANA Kumiko*

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it became difficult to conduct
face-to-face lectures and experiments in the 2020 academic year. In
this paper, we introduce some examples of online experiments forteaching and practical training, which are difficult to conduct in an
online environment, inPhysics Experiments,

a basic science

subject of the Nagoya University curriculum. Advantages anddisadvantages have emerged from teaching experiments in the online
environment for various subjects within Physics Experiments.
The advantages include an increase in the number of interactions
with students and an easier grasp of the entire experiment on thepart of the teacher. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages,
such as the lack of opportunity to learn the basic operation of theexperiment, and not being able to experience the experiment
operations face-to-face. In the future, we would like to take advantage
of both forms of instruction by applying the experience of online
experiments to face-to-face experiments.

*Lecturer, Institute of Liberal Arts and Science, Nagoya
University

252

HyFlex Course Design Reconsidered
NAKAJIMA Hidehiro*This paper examines ongoing discourse on the HyFlex course
design which has been rapidly recognized among instructors teachingin higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The
HyFlex course design has been used successfully for more than adecade at many higher education institutions around the world with awide variety of courses, particularly courses for adult and part-timestudents. However, the HyFlex course is known as the live broadcastof lectures in the classroom to remote participants via web
conference systems in recent discourse in Japan. Higher education
researchers and practitioners often introduce those kinds of concept
in a local context erroneously and spread the ideas without careful
investigation of the US’s background to save the cognitive load. This
paper aims to raise an alert over the tendency for Americanization
without critical review and reconsider the HyFlex course designconcept based on previous studies. The most important aspect ofdesigning our courses with the HyFlex model is to focus on thelearning experience rather than the mode of delivery or participation.

*Associate Professor, Center for the Studies of Higher Education,
Nagoya University

253

Education and Activities in French Universities
to Prepare Students for Employment
NATSUME Tatsuya*This article aims to clarify the situation and some characteristics of
education and activities in French universities to prepare students forwork.
Since the 1990s, the French government has engaged universities
in preparation for students’ employment. The government thoughtthat universities had to offer education and some activities for
employment besides traditional academic education to correspond to
students’ growing and diversifying demands for employment. In 2017,
legislation on higher education prescribed the preparation for
employment as one of universities’ missions.
The government introduced professional courses in the third yearof bachelor level leading to a Professional Bachelor’s degree in 1999.
Some universities began to offer special lectures as a kind of career
education and increased practical training in companies. Also, many
universities established career service offices to help students findjobs. Education and activities to prepare students for employment had
considerable impact on the academic characteristics of university
education.

*Professor, Center for the Studies of Higher Education, Nagoya
University

254

Development of Liberal Arts in Chinese
Universities in the Twenty-first Century
LU Yi*For many years, greater importance has been attached to
specialized and professional subjects in Chinese higher education thanon liberal arts subjects.
Nowadays in China, many students who graduated from highschool enter university, thereby enhancing the popularity of higher
education. In this context, the importance of liberal arts has also
increased further and there are calls for reform of the system ofliberal arts. However, this reform is taking place with no clear visionon the part of the Chinese government and is consequently facing
problems and difficulties. The reform of liberal arts in China is still in
its infancy.
This paper makes it clear why and how the reform comes to berequired in China and examines both the development of the reformof liberal arts in Chinese universities and the problems encountered.

*Associate Professor, Institute of Higher Education, Fudan
University, China(Visiting Associate Professor, Center for the Studies of Higher
Education, Nagoya University)

255

Proposal of Design Principles for University
Instruction Utilizing ICT and Based on
Re-Interpretation of Transaction Distance
Theory from Total Amount of Scaffolding
SUZUKI Katsuaki*
HIRAOKA Naoshi**This paper proposes a set of design principles for university
education for the future with COVID-19, so that student autonomy
will be nurtured through ICT utilization. First, the situation ofuniversity education faced by the sudden campus shutdown caused
by COVID-19 is examined using the four groups of distance education
theories: theories of independence and autonomy, industrialization,
two-way communication, and equivalency. Transactional Distance
Theory, which conceptualizes distance not as a physical but a
psychological phenomenon with autonomy, structure, and dialog as
the three key factors, is then introduced as a useful framework forre-designing university education. Criticisms of the theory arereviewed, which led to a proposal for its re-interpretation, with
dialogas an on-going scaffolding andstructure

as an advancescaffolding to enhance student autonomy. Eight design principles areproposed, describing the stages of the scaffoldings being taken away,
so that the students’ autonomy will be nurtured more by requiring
more from them in the later part of university education. A freely
available resource for faculty development by Kumamoto University
is available to interested readers.

*Professor, Research Center for Instructional Systems,
Kumamoto University(Visiting Professor, Center for the Studies of Higher Education,
Nagoya University)**Associate Professor, Research Center for Instructional Systems,
Kumamoto University256

Empirical Study on Rate of Return to University
Education Investment by University Rank andFaculty: Focusing on the Possibility of Failure
in University Education Investment
SHIMA Kazunori*This paper targets high- and low-ranking universities and measuresthe expected rate of return to each university education based on theinformation on the firms where all graduates work. The expected
rate of return to university education of the relevant university is
calculated based on the average, and while paying attention to theirdiversification, whether or not there is an economic effect of
university education and possibility of failure of its investments areclarified.
The following results were obtained. (1) The economic effect ofinvestment was confirmed to be greater at the case university withhigher rank than at the case university with lower rank. (2) The
existence of a certain economic effect of university education has
been clarified even in the university with low rank, which has notbeen clarified in previous studies. (3) Focusing on the dispersion of
the economic effect of the university education investment, there areno cases of investment failure at the university with high rank, butsuch cases at the university with low rank. (4) It became clear that
there are a certain number of cases where even graduates of theuniversity with low rank can obtain expected rates of return thatexceed the average value of graduates of the university with highrank.

*Professor, Graduate School of Education, Tohoku University(Visiting Professor, Center for the Studies of Higher Education,
Nagoya University)

257How has COVID-19 Changed College Students’
Perspectives on Study Abroad ? :From Student Survey Results
IWAKI Nami*
TATSUMI Yoko**

The worldwide spread of the new coronavirus continues to cast ashadow over international education. When the outbreak began in
February 2020, students studying abroad were asked to return home
immediately and for those planning to go abroad, their plans werecancelled because an end to the pandemic was nowhere in sight. This
paper presents the results of a survey on how this pandemic has
affected college students’ views on study abroad and international
education by asking questions on the following topics: 1) changes inawareness of studying abroad, 2) pros and cons of online classes, and
3) having co-learning classes with international students in Japan. As
a result, 65.4% of the students answered that they plan to study
abroad after the end of the pandemic indicating that students are notlosing motivation. As for online courses, 89.6% of the students
answered that they do not feel they can gain the same experience
compared to actual study abroad. On the other hand, students gavea high evaluation to face-to-face co-learning with international
students studying in Japan, stating that, through interaction andtaking the classes with them, they gain some international experience.

*Professor, Institute of International Education & Exchange,
Nagoya University**Designated Assistant Professor, Institute of International
Education & Exchange, Nagoya University

258

The Workshop Organized by the Pädagogische
Akademie for Elementary School Teachers
Involved in the Berufspraktisches Jahr
FUJII Toshiki

New colleges, formally known as a Pädaogigische Akademie (PA),were established in Prussia during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933)
to train elementary school teachers. Graduates of the PA after 1931
were required to participate in a Berufspraktisches Jahr (BJ) − arequired period of teaching practice for the elementary school
teacher’s qualification exam. A mentor, chosen from the teachers in
the elementary school, had the role of assisting PA graduates.
This study focuses on the workshop for mentors. The workshop
was held by the PA to introduce its activities to mentors. Since
mentors graduated from normal school, they did not have muchknowledge about the PA. Therefore, the workshop provided an
opportunity for them to learn about the PA, which played a significant
role in the BJ. However, this has not been examined sufficiently inprior research. This study seeks to clarify the content of theworkshop and how mentors evaluated the PA after the workshop.
The conclusions are as follows:1.

The content of the workshop included lectures, observing classesof the PA, and exchange of opinions. The PA was able to arrange
the content of the workshop.

2.

Most of the mentors after the workshop had a good impression of
the PA. Through the workshop, most of the mentors changed
their attitude toward the PA, which encouraged them to build agood relationship with PA graduates during their BJ.

Research Fellow, Center for the Studies of Higher Education,
Nagoya University

259

Research Trends and Key Issues Regarding
Career Support for International Students
SATO Yukiyo*

This paper examines the research trends and key issues regarding
international students’ career development and employment in Japan.
First, the titles of previous papers were analyzed to get an overall
picture, and then the content of active research areas among those
was organized. The title analysis showed that while many studies
targeted career support, few studies targeted policy, whichshould essentially influence this issue. Besides, there has been atendency in recent years for the content of career support to befocused on

Business Japanese Education.

The content of the career support research could be classified
into the following four themes: 1) content of career education, 2)
method of career education, 3) organizational structure for career
support, and 4) human resources for career support. The key issues ofeach theme were identified, which were 1) prevention of activity trap,2) consideration for diversity, 3) promotion of the understanding andparticipation of the whole university, and 4) identifying thequalifications and abilities required for career support profession andhow to develop their skills, respectively.

*Academic Specialist, Student Services Center, Nagoya University

260