Are students' impressions of improved learning through active learning methods reflected by improved test scores?

Science.gov (United States)

Everly, Marcee C

2013-02-01

To report the transformation from lecture to more active learning methods in a maternity nursing course and to evaluate whether student perception of improved learning through active-learning methods is supported by improved test scores. The process of transforming a course into an active-learning model of teaching is described. A voluntary mid-semester survey for student acceptance of the new teaching method was conducted. Course examination results, from both a standardized exam and a cumulative final exam, among students who received lecture in the classroom and students who had active learning activities in the classroom were compared. Active learning activities were very acceptable to students. The majority of students reported learning more from having active-learning activities in the classroom rather than lecture-only and this belief was supported by improved test scores. Students who had active learning activities in the classroom scored significantly higher on a standardized assessment test than students who received lecture only. The findings support the use of student reflection to evaluate the effectiveness of active-learning methods and help validate the use of student reflection of improved learning in other research projects. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning to Control Advanced Life Support Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Subramanian, Devika

2004-01-01

Advanced life support systems have many interacting processes and limited resources. Controlling and optimizing advanced life support systems presents unique challenges. In particular, advanced life support systems are nonlinear coupled dynamical systems and it is difficult for humans to take all interactions into account to design an effective control strategy. In this project. we developed several reinforcement learning controllers that actively explore the space of possible control strategies, guided by rewards from a user specified long term objective function. We evaluated these controllers using a discrete event simulation of an advanced life support system. This simulation, called BioSim, designed by Nasa scientists David Kortenkamp and Scott Bell has multiple, interacting life support modules including crew, food production, air revitalization, water recovery, solid waste incineration and power. They are implemented in a consumer/producer relationship in which certain modules produce resources that are consumed by other modules. Stores hold resources between modules. Control of this simulation is via adjusting flows of resources between modules and into/out of stores. We developed adaptive algorithms that control the flow of resources in BioSim. Our learning algorithms discovered several ingenious strategies for maximizing mission length by controlling the air and water recycling systems as well as crop planting schedules. By exploiting non-linearities in the overall system dynamics, the learned controllers easily out- performed controllers written by human experts. In sum, we accomplished three goals. We (1) developed foundations for learning models of coupled dynamical systems by active exploration of the state space, (2) developed and tested algorithms that learn to efficiently control air and water recycling processes as well as crop scheduling in Biosim, and (3) developed an understanding of the role machine learning in designing control systems for

Learning to Support Learning Together: An Experience with the Soft Systems Methodology

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez, Adolfo; Mejia, Andres

2008-01-01

An action research approach called soft systems methodology (SSM) was used to foster organisational learning in a school regarding the role of the learning support department within the school and its relation with the normal teaching-learning activities. From an initial situation of lack of coordination as well as mutual misunderstanding and…

Internal and External Regulation to Support Knowledge Construction and Convergence in Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)

Science.gov (United States)

Romero, Margarida; Lambropoulos, Niki

2011-01-01

Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities aim to promote collaborative knowledge construction and convergence. During the CSCL activity, the students should regulate their learning activity, at the individual and collective level. This implies an organisation cost related to the coordination of the activity with the team-mates…

Observation on the uses of Mobile Phones to Support Informal Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohd Azlishah Othman

2012-10-01

Full Text Available This paper explores how a group of undergraduate students in one of the university in South of Malaysian use their mobile phones to perform informal learning activities related to the content of their courses outside the classroom. The paper also addresses the usefulness of informal learning activities to support students’ learning. The study adopts an exploratory case study design and uses two methods of data collection including questionnaires and interviews. Main findings suggest that students performed informal learning activities mostly from office, home, interacting mainly with classmates. It also shows that students were in control of their informal learning activities without tutor or SMEs’ input. However, it was found that students used only a limited number of applications but these were considered useful to their learning. The paper contributes to a discussion of the implications of training and instructional support to help students to take more advantage of mobile phone applications to support informal learning. The conclusion is discussed about the further research in this domain.

Tracking Active Learning in the Medical School Curriculum: A Learning-Centered Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Lise; Pettit, Robin K; Kellar, Charlyn; Morgan, Christine

2018-01-01

Medical education is moving toward active learning during large group lecture sessions. This study investigated the saturation and breadth of active learning techniques implemented in first year medical school large group sessions. Data collection involved retrospective curriculum review and semistructured interviews with 20 faculty. The authors piloted a taxonomy of active learning techniques and mapped learning techniques to attributes of learning-centered instruction. Faculty implemented 25 different active learning techniques over the course of 9 first year courses. Of 646 hours of large group instruction, 476 (74%) involved at least 1 active learning component. The frequency and variety of active learning components integrated throughout the year 1 curriculum reflect faculty familiarity with active learning methods and their support of an active learning culture. This project has sparked reflection on teaching practices and facilitated an evolution from teacher-centered to learning-centered instruction.

Tracking Active Learning in the Medical School Curriculum: A Learning-Centered Approach

Science.gov (United States)

McCoy, Lise; Pettit, Robin K; Kellar, Charlyn; Morgan, Christine

2018-01-01

Background: Medical education is moving toward active learning during large group lecture sessions. This study investigated the saturation and breadth of active learning techniques implemented in first year medical school large group sessions. Methods: Data collection involved retrospective curriculum review and semistructured interviews with 20 faculty. The authors piloted a taxonomy of active learning techniques and mapped learning techniques to attributes of learning-centered instruction. Results: Faculty implemented 25 different active learning techniques over the course of 9 first year courses. Of 646 hours of large group instruction, 476 (74%) involved at least 1 active learning component. Conclusions: The frequency and variety of active learning components integrated throughout the year 1 curriculum reflect faculty familiarity with active learning methods and their support of an active learning culture. This project has sparked reflection on teaching practices and facilitated an evolution from teacher-centered to learning-centered instruction. PMID:29707649

Incorporating active learning in psychiatry education.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Sonia; McLean, Loyola; Nash, Louise; Trigwell, Keith

2017-06-01

We aim to summarise the active learning literature in higher education and consider its relevance for postgraduate psychiatry trainees, to inform the development of a new Formal Education Course (FEC): the Master of Medicine (Psychiatry) at the University of Sydney. We undertook a literature search on 'active learning', 'flipped classroom', 'problem-based learning' and 'psychiatry education'. The effectiveness of active learning pedagogy in higher education is well supported by evidence; however, there have been few psychiatry-specific studies. A new 'flipped classroom' format was developed for the Master of Medicine (Psychiatry). Postgraduate psychiatry training is an active learning environment; the pedagogical approach to FECs requires further evaluation.

ONLINE EDUCATION, ACTIVE LEARNING, AND ANDRAGOGY: An approach for Student Engagement

OpenAIRE

CARUTH, Gail D.

2015-01-01

Online learning opportunities have become essential for today’s colleges and universities. Online technology can support active learning approaches to learning. The purpose of the paper was to investigate why active learning in online classes has a positive effect on student engagement. A review of the literature revealed that research studies have been conducted to investigate the benefits of active learning. There exists extensive evidence to support the notion that active learning enhances...

Incorporation of Socio-scientific Content into Active Learning Activities

Science.gov (United States)

King, D. B.; Lewis, J. E.; Anderson, K.; Latch, D.; Sutheimer, S.; Webster, G.; Moog, R.

2014-12-01

Active learning has gained increasing support as an effective pedagogical technique to improve student learning. One way to promote active learning in the classroom is the use of in-class activities in place of lecturing. As part of an NSF-funded project, a set of in-class activities have been created that use climate change topics to teach chemistry content. These activities use the Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) methodology. In this pedagogical approach a set of models and a series of critical thinking questions are used to guide students through the introduction to or application of course content. Students complete the activities in their groups, with the faculty member as a facilitator of learning. Through assigned group roles and intentionally designed activity structure, process skills, such as teamwork, communication, and information processing, are developed during completion of the activity. Each of these climate change activities contains a socio-scientific component, e.g., social, ethical and economic data. In one activity, greenhouse gases are used to explain the concept of dipole moment. Data about natural and anthropogenic production rates, global warming potential and atmospheric lifetimes for a list of greenhouse gases are presented. The students are asked to identify which greenhouse gas they would regulate, with a corresponding explanation for their choice. They are also asked to identify the disadvantages of regulating the gas they chose in the previous question. In another activity, where carbon sequestration is used to demonstrate the utility of a phase diagram, students use economic and environmental data to choose the best location for sequestration. Too often discussions about climate change (both in and outside the classroom) consist of purely emotional responses. These activities force students to use data to support their arguments and hypothesize about what other data could be used in the corresponding discussion to

Active-constructive-interactive: a conceptual framework for differentiating learning activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Chi, Michelene T H

2009-01-01

Active, constructive, and interactive are terms that are commonly used in the cognitive and learning sciences. They describe activities that can be undertaken by learners. However, the literature is actually not explicit about how these terms can be defined; whether they are distinct; and whether they refer to overt manifestations, learning processes, or learning outcomes. Thus, a framework is provided here that offers a way to differentiate active, constructive, and interactive in terms of observable overt activities and underlying learning processes. The framework generates a testable hypothesis for learning: that interactive activities are most likely to be better than constructive activities, which in turn might be better than active activities, which are better than being passive. Studies from the literature are cited to provide evidence in support of this hypothesis. Moreover, postulating underlying learning processes allows us to interpret evidence in the literature more accurately. Specifying distinct overt activities for active, constructive, and interactive also offers suggestions for how learning activities can be coded and how each kind of activity might be elicited. Copyright © 2009 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

SupportNet: a novel incremental learning framework through deep learning and support data

KAUST Repository

Li, Yu; Li, Zhongxiao; Ding, Lizhong; Hu, Yuhui; Chen, Wei; Gao, Xin

2018-01-01

Motivation: In most biological data sets, the amount of data is regularly growing and the number of classes is continuously increasing. To deal with the new data from the new classes, one approach is to train a classification model, e.g., a deep learning model, from scratch based on both old and new data. This approach is highly computationally costly and the extracted features are likely very different from the ones extracted by the model trained on the old data alone, which leads to poor model robustness. Another approach is to fine tune the trained model from the old data on the new data. However, this approach often does not have the ability to learn new knowledge without forgetting the previously learned knowledge, which is known as the catastrophic forgetting problem. To our knowledge, this problem has not been studied in the field of bioinformatics despite its existence in many bioinformatic problems. Results: Here we propose a novel method, SupportNet, to solve the catastrophic forgetting problem efficiently and effectively. SupportNet combines the strength of deep learning and support vector machine (SVM), where SVM is used to identify the support data from the old data, which are fed to the deep learning model together with the new data for further training so that the model can review the essential information of the old data when learning the new information. Two powerful consolidation regularizers are applied to ensure the robustness of the learned model. Comprehensive experiments on various tasks, including enzyme function prediction, subcellular structure classification and breast tumor classification, show that SupportNet drastically outperforms the state-of-the-art incremental learning methods and reaches similar performance as the deep learning model trained from scratch on both old and new data. Availability: Our program is accessible at: \\url{https://github.com/lykaust15/SupportNet}.

SupportNet: a novel incremental learning framework through deep learning and support data

KAUST Repository

Li, Yu

2018-05-08

Motivation: In most biological data sets, the amount of data is regularly growing and the number of classes is continuously increasing. To deal with the new data from the new classes, one approach is to train a classification model, e.g., a deep learning model, from scratch based on both old and new data. This approach is highly computationally costly and the extracted features are likely very different from the ones extracted by the model trained on the old data alone, which leads to poor model robustness. Another approach is to fine tune the trained model from the old data on the new data. However, this approach often does not have the ability to learn new knowledge without forgetting the previously learned knowledge, which is known as the catastrophic forgetting problem. To our knowledge, this problem has not been studied in the field of bioinformatics despite its existence in many bioinformatic problems. Results: Here we propose a novel method, SupportNet, to solve the catastrophic forgetting problem efficiently and effectively. SupportNet combines the strength of deep learning and support vector machine (SVM), where SVM is used to identify the support data from the old data, which are fed to the deep learning model together with the new data for further training so that the model can review the essential information of the old data when learning the new information. Two powerful consolidation regularizers are applied to ensure the robustness of the learned model. Comprehensive experiments on various tasks, including enzyme function prediction, subcellular structure classification and breast tumor classification, show that SupportNet drastically outperforms the state-of-the-art incremental learning methods and reaches similar performance as the deep learning model trained from scratch on both old and new data. Availability: Our program is accessible at: \\\\url{https://github.com/lykaust15/SupportNet}.

e-Learning initiatives to support prescribing

Science.gov (United States)

Maxwell, Simon; Mucklow, John

2012-01-01

Preparing medical students to prescribe is a major challenge of undergraduate education. They must develop an understanding of clinical pharmacology and acquire knowledge about drugs and therapeutics, as well as the skills to prescribe for individual patients in the face of multiple variables. The task of delivering the learning required to achieve these attributes relies upon limited numbers of teachers, who have increasingly busy clinical commitments. There is evidence that training is currently insufficient to meet the demands of the workplace. e-Learning provides an opportunity to improve the learning experience. The advantages for teachers are improved distribution of learning content, ease of update, standardization and tracking of learner activities. The advantages for learners are ease of access, greater interactivity and individual choice concerning the pace and mix of learning. Important disadvantages are the considerable resource required to develop e-Learning projects and difficulties in simulating some aspects of the real world prescribing experience. Pre-requisites for developing an e-Learning programme to support prescribing include academic expertise, institutional support, learning technology services and an effective virtual learning environment. e-Learning content might range from complex interactive learning sessions through to static web pages with links. It is now possible to simulate and provide feedback on prescribing decisions and this will improve with advances in virtual reality. Other content might include a student formulary, self-assessment exercises (e.g. calculations), a glossary and an on-line library. There is some evidence for the effectiveness of e-Learning but better research is required into its potential impact on prescribing. PMID:22509885

The Role of Digital Libraries to Support of E-learning

OpenAIRE

Akbar Majidi

2012-01-01

E-learning is the new pattern of teaching and learning process. The main characteristic of e-learning is delivery of content and learning activity within learning management systems (LMS). E-learning for its success requires that access to resources and information services. Digital libraries can offer different resources and information services on the Internet. Therefore, it will be very useful to support e-learning in this article, after expression of definitions of e-learning and ...

Using LEGO for learning fractions, supporting or distracting?

Science.gov (United States)

Rejeki, Sri; Setyaningsih, Nining; Toyib, Muhamad

2017-05-01

The role of games used for learning mathematics is still in debate. However, many research revealed that it gave positive effects on both students' motivation and performance in mathematics. Therefore, this study aims at investigating the effects of using LEGO-as one of games which students are familiar with, for learning mathematics, on both students' conceptual knowledge of fractions and students' attitude in learning mathematics. A set of learning activities consisting three meetings of fractions learning was designed for this study. The activities were mainly about solving word-context problems using LEGO as the model. Thirty students of seven grade with high-ability in mathematics and thirty two students with low-ability in mathematics were involved in this study. The data were collected through students' written works, video registration and field notes during the teaching and learning activities. The results indicate that in general the use of LEGO in learning activities support the conceptual understanding on fractions for both students with high-ability and low-ability in mathematics. Moreover, for students with low-ability in mathematics, it promotes the computational skill of fractions operation. The evidences also suggest that bringing LEGO into classroom activities improve students' motivation and engagement. However, in some cases, students were more focus on playing than learning. Therefore, teachers play important roles on providing clear pedagogical instructions about the way to use LEGO properly.

e-Learning initiatives to support prescribing.

Science.gov (United States)

Maxwell, Simon; Mucklow, John

2012-10-01

Preparing medical students to prescribe is a major challenge of undergraduate education. They must develop an understanding of clinical pharmacology and acquire knowledge about drugs and therapeutics, as well as the skills to prescribe for individual patients in the face of multiple variables. The task of delivering the learning required to achieve these attributes relies upon limited numbers of teachers, who have increasingly busy clinical commitments. There is evidence that training is currently insufficient to meet the demands of the workplace. e-Learning provides an opportunity to improve the learning experience. The advantages for teachers are improved distribution of learning content, ease of update, standardization and tracking of learner activities. The advantages for learners are ease of access, greater interactivity and individual choice concerning the pace and mix of learning. Important disadvantages are the considerable resource required to develop e-Learning projects and difficulties in simulating some aspects of the real world prescribing experience. Pre-requisites for developing an e-Learning programme to support prescribing include academic expertise, institutional support, learning technology services and an effective virtual learning environment. e-Learning content might range from complex interactive learning sessions through to static web pages with links. It is now possible to simulate and provide feedback on prescribing decisions and this will improve with advances in virtual reality. Other content might include a student formulary, self-assessment exercises (e.g. calculations), a glossary and an on-line library. There is some evidence for the effectiveness of e-Learning but better research is required into its potential impact on prescribing. © 2012 The Authors. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology © 2012 The British Pharmacological Society.

eLearning techniques supporting problem based learning in clinical simulation.

Science.gov (United States)

Docherty, Charles; Hoy, Derek; Topp, Helena; Trinder, Kathryn

2005-08-01

This paper details the results of the first phase of a project using eLearning to support students' learning within a simulated environment. The locus was a purpose built clinical simulation laboratory (CSL) where the School's philosophy of problem based learning (PBL) was challenged through lecturers using traditional teaching methods. a student-centred, problem based approach to the acquisition of clinical skills that used high quality learning objects embedded within web pages, substituting for lecturers providing instruction and demonstration. This encouraged student nurses to explore, analyse and make decisions within the safety of a clinical simulation. Learning was facilitated through network communications and reflection on video performances of self and others. Evaluations were positive, students demonstrating increased satisfaction with PBL, improved performance in exams, and increased self-efficacy in the performance of nursing activities. These results indicate that eLearning techniques can help students acquire clinical skills in the safety of a simulated environment within the context of a problem based learning curriculum.

Shifting the Balance in First-Year Learning Support: From Staff Instruction to Peer-Learning Primacy

Science.gov (United States)

van der Meer, Jacques; Scott, Carole

2008-01-01

Effective response to the learning needs of first-year students is a contested issue. In many learning support centres the dominant approach to developing student learning skills is through generic or tailored workshops and/or individual consultations. Although there is a place for these activities, we argue that the balance should be shifted…

USING WIKIS AS A SUPPORT AND ASSESSMENT TOOL IN COLLABORATIVE DIGITAL GAME-BASED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yavuz SAMUR

2011-04-01

Full Text Available In computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL environments, there are many researches done on collaborative learning activities; however, in game-based learning environments, more research and literature on collaborative learning activities are required. Actually, both game-based learning environments and wikis enable us to use new chances for learning, especially in collaborative learning activities. Therefore, in this paper, related literature on wikis and how game & instructional designers can leverage from wikis in game-based learning settings for enhancing students’ collaborative learning activities are examined. Based on the reviewed literature, two main suggestions are given in this paper with their underlying reasons. First, using wikis as a support tool for enhancing collaboration in digital game-based learning (DGBL environments, and second using wikis as an assessment tool in DGBL are suggested.

The planning illusion: Does active planning of a learning route support learning as well as learners think it does?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bonestroo, W.J.; de Jong, Anthonius J.M.

2012-01-01

Is actively planning one’s learning route through a learning domain beneficial for learning? Moreover, can learners accurately judge the extent to which planning has been beneficial for them? This study examined the effects of active planning on learning. Participants received a tool in which they

A Lecture Supporting System Based on Real-Time Learning Analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Shimada, Atsushi; Konomi, Shin'ichi

2017-01-01

A new lecture supporting system based on real-time learning analytics is proposed. Our target is on-site classrooms where teachers give their lectures, and a lot of students listen to teachers' explanation, conduct exercises etc. We utilize not only an e-Learning system, but also an e-Book system to collect real-time learning activities during the…

A Knowledge Comparison Environment for Supporting Meaningful Learning of E-Book Users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jingyun Wang

2016-05-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we present an ontology-based visualization support system which can provide a meaningful learning environment to help e-book learners to effectively construct their knowledge frameworks. In this personalized visualization support system, learners are encouraged to actively locate new knowledge in their own knowledge framework and check the logical consistency of their ideas for clearing up misunderstandings; on the other hand, instructors will be able to decide the group distribution for collaborative learning activities based on the knowledge structure of learners. For facilitating those visualization supports, a method to semi-automatically construct a course-centered ontology to describe the required information in a map structure is presented. To automatically manipulate this course-centered ontology to provide visualization learning supports, a prototype system is designed and developed.

Learning with peers, active citizenship and student engagement in Enabling Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nick Zepke

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper examines one specific question:  What support do students in Enabling Education need to learn the behaviours, knowledge and attitudes required to succeed in tertiary education, employment and life? Success appears in many guises. It can mean achieving officially desired outcomes such as retention, completion and employment. It can also mean achieving less measurable outcomes such as deep learning, wellbeing and active citizenship. The paper first introduces an overarching success framework before exploring how the widely used student engagement pedagogy can support learners to achieve both official and personal success outcomes. It then develops two specific constructs applicable to Enabling Education as found in student engagement: facilitated peer learning and active citizenship. Peer learning is here connected to tutor supported but peer facilitated mentoring; active citizenship to educational experiences in classrooms, institutions and workplaces that support flexibility, resilience, openness to change and diversity. The paper includes examples of how facilitated peer learning and active citizenship can build success in practice.

The Use of Group Activities in Introductory Biology Supports Learning Gains and Uniquely Benefits High-Achieving Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gili Marbach-Ad

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This study describes the implementation and effectiveness of small-group active engagement (GAE exercises in an introductory biology course (BSCI207 taught in a large auditorium setting. BSCI207 (Principles of Biology III—Organismal Biology is the third introductory core course for Biological Sciences majors. In fall 2014, the instructors redesigned one section to include GAE activities to supplement lecture content. One section (n = 198 employed three lectures per week. The other section (n = 136 replaced one lecture per week with a GAE class. We explored the benefits and challenges associated with implementing GAE exercises and their relative effectiveness for unique student groups (e.g., minority students, high- and low-grade point average [GPA] students. Our findings show that undergraduates in the GAE class exhibited greater improvement in learning outcomes than undergraduates in the traditional class. Findings also indicate that high-achieving students experienced the greatest benefit from GAE activities. Some at-risk student groups (e.g., two-year transfer students showed comparably low learning gains in the course, despite the additional support that may have been afforded by active learning. Collectively, these findings provide valuable feedback that may assist other instructors who wish to revise their courses and recommendations for institutions regarding prerequisite coursework approval policies.

Using Wikis as a Support and Assessment Tool in Collaborative Digital Game-Based Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Samur, Yavuz

2011-01-01

In computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments, there are many researches done on collaborative learning activities; however, in game-based learning environments, more research and literature on collaborative learning activities are required. Actually, both game-based learning environments and wikis enable us to use new chances…

Analytics of biometric data from wearable devices to support teaching and learning activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisco de Arriba Pérez

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper introduces the preliminary results of a piece of research whose main purpose is to take advantage of data collected from wearable devices to support learning processes. This goal is approached through the application of learning analytic techniques. The innovation point is the use of data collected from wearables, that will be used in conjunction with data collected from other sources (e.g. Learning Management Systems, Student Information Systems. The paper reviews the results achieved during the last year about the relationships among biometric data collected from wearables and relevant features described in the educational literature. In this way sleep and stress have been identified as interesting areas that could be informed from data collected in wearables and processed by applying machine learning techniques. Our preliminary results show some initial promising results that need further validation, also these results show an interesting opportunity to support awareness and intervention functionalities.

Development of a Blended Learning Environment to Support Achievement of Graduate Outcomes through Optimal Learning in an Undergraduate Pharmacy Course

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alyson Brown

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The development of graduate attributes through health professional courses requires the opportunity to engage with learning and teaching activities that reflect the work-based role to which the student aspires. Such activities allow the contextualisation of discipline-specific knowledge, forging a critical understanding of the underpinning theory, and providing a firm foundation for the development of lifelong learning skills. A blended learning approach can be particularly valuable in supporting achievement of the learning outcomes in modules where performance is measured in terms of competency in work-based scenarios. An action research approach was taken to develop and evaluate a cardiovascular risk assessment as the basis for clinically and professionally relevant problem-based learning. Support for this was provided by means of blended learning including a number of online activities. Talking wall focus groups were used to evaluate the student experience, and this was combined with quantitative data regarding student examination performance. Student performance in the cardiovascular section of the examination paper was significantly higher than in other sections. Students reported very favorably on the use of this approach to support not only examination preparation, but also in terms of developing professional identity and enhancing employability skills.

Creating a supportive learning environment for students with learning difficulties

OpenAIRE

Grah, Jana

2013-01-01

Co-building of supporting learning environment for the learners with learning difficulties is one of the 21st century inclusive school’s elements. Since the physical presence of learners with learning difficulties in the classroom does not self-evidently lead to an effective co-operation and implementation of 21st century inclusive school, I have dedicated my doctor thesis to the establishment of supporting learning environment for the learners with learning difficulties in primary school wit...

STEM learning activity among home-educating families

Science.gov (United States)

Bachman, Jennifer

2011-12-01

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning was studied among families in a group of home-educators in the Pacific Northwest. Ethnographic methods recorded learning activity (video, audio, fieldnotes, and artifacts) which was analyzed using a unique combination of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Mediated Action (MA), enabling analysis of activity at multiple levels. Findings indicate that STEM learning activity is family-led, guided by parents' values and goals for learning, and negotiated with children to account for learner interests and differences, and available resources. Families' STEM education practice is dynamic, evolves, and influenced by larger societal STEM learning activity. Parents actively seek support and resources for STEM learning within their home-school community, working individually and collectively to share their funds of knowledge. Home-schoolers also access a wide variety of free-choice learning resources: web-based materials, museums, libraries, and community education opportunities (e.g. afterschool, weekend and summer programs, science clubs and classes, etc.). A lesson-heuristic, grounded in Mediated Action, represents and analyzes home STEM learning activity in terms of tensions between parental goals, roles, and lesson structure. One tension observed was between 'academic' goals or school-like activity and 'lifelong' goals or everyday learning activity. Theoretical and experiential learning was found in both activity, though parents with academic goals tended to focus more on theoretical learning and those with lifelong learning goals tended to be more experiential. Examples of the National Research Council's science learning strands (NRC, 2009) were observed in the STEM practices of all these families. Findings contribute to the small but growing body of empirical CHAT research in science education, specifically to the empirical base of family STEM learning practices at home. It also fills a

Representative Model of the Learning Process in Virtual Spaces Supported by ICT

Science.gov (United States)

Capacho, José

2014-01-01

This paper shows the results of research activities for building the representative model of the learning process in virtual spaces (e-Learning). The formal basis of the model are supported in the analysis of models of learning assessment in virtual spaces and specifically in Dembo´s teaching learning model, the systemic approach to evaluating…

In their own words: Student stories of seeking learning support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mark Brown

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Many Open and Distance Learning (ODL providers report that their students are prone to lower rates of retention and completion than campus-based students. Against this background, there is growing interest around distance-specific learning support. The current research investigated the experiences of students during their first semester as distance learners at Massey University in New Zealand. The overarching methodology was Design-Based Research, within which phenomenological data gathering methods were used to study the experiences of twenty participants from their own point of view. Using video cameras, over twentytwo hours of self-reflections were gathered between July and November 2011 using a technique adapted from previous studies. A grounded theory approach was applied to the process of thematic data analysis. Results revealed how participants varied in their engagement with learning supports, including orientation events, outreach activity, cultural services, learning consultants, library services, fellow students, lecturers, residential courses, and other people. The discussion reflects on clusters of participants who utilised learning supports effectively, moderately and barely. The paper concludes by summarizing how the current research has had an impact on the design of learning support services at one of the world’s leading providers of distance education.

Influences of Formal Learning, Personal Learning Orientation, and Supportive Learning Environment on Informal Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Woojae; Jacobs, Ronald L.

2011-01-01

While workplace learning includes formal and informal learning, the relationship between the two has been overlooked, because they have been viewed as separate entities. This study investigated the effects of formal learning, personal learning orientation, and supportive learning environment on informal learning among 203 middle managers in Korean…

Lectures Abandoned: Active Learning by Active Seminars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Henrik Bærbak; Corry, Aino Vonge

2012-01-01

Traditional lecture-based courses are widely criticised for be- ing less eective in teaching. The question is of course what should replace the lectures and various active learning tech- niques have been suggested and studied. In this paper, we report on our experiences of redesigning a software ......- tive seminars as a replacement of traditional lectures, an activity template for the contents of active seminars, an ac- count on how storytelling supported the seminars, as well as reports on our and the students' experiences....

A Context-Aware Ubiquitous Learning Approach for Providing Instant Learning Support in Personal Computer Assembly Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Hsu, Ching-Kun; Hwang, Gwo-Jen

2014-01-01

Personal computer assembly courses have been recognized as being essential in helping students understand computer structure as well as the functionality of each computer component. In this study, a context-aware ubiquitous learning approach is proposed for providing instant assistance to individual students in the learning activity of a…

OPUS One: An Intelligent Adaptive Learning Environment Using Artificial Intelligence Support

Science.gov (United States)

Pedrazzoli, Attilio

2010-06-01

AI based Tutoring and Learning Path Adaptation are well known concepts in e-Learning scenarios today and increasingly applied in modern learning environments. In order to gain more flexibility and to enhance existing e-learning platforms, the OPUS One LMS Extension package will enable a generic Intelligent Tutored Adaptive Learning Environment, based on a holistic Multidimensional Instructional Design Model (PENTHA ID Model), allowing AI based tutoring and adaptation functionality to existing Web-based e-learning systems. Relying on "real time" adapted profiles, it allows content- / course authors to apply a dynamic course design, supporting tutored, collaborative sessions and activities, as suggested by modern pedagogy. The concept presented combines a personalized level of surveillance, learning activity- and learning path adaptation suggestions to ensure the students learning motivation and learning success. The OPUS One concept allows to implement an advanced tutoring approach combining "expert based" e-tutoring with the more "personal" human tutoring function. It supplies the "Human Tutor" with precise, extended course activity data and "adaptation" suggestions based on predefined subject matter rules. The concept architecture is modular allowing a personalized platform configuration.

An active-learning strategies primer for achieving ability-based educational outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Gleason, Brenda L; Peeters, Michael J; Resman-Targoff, Beth H; Karr, Samantha; McBane, Sarah; Kelley, Kristi; Thomas, Tyan; Denetclaw, Tina H

2011-11-10

Active learning is an important component of pharmacy education. By engaging students in the learning process, they are better able to apply the knowledge they gain. This paper describes evidence supporting the use of active-learning strategies in pharmacy education and also offers strategies for implementing active learning in pharmacy curricula in the classroom and during pharmacy practice experiences.

Unpacking "Active Learning": A Combination of Flipped Classroom and Collaboration Support Is More Effective but Collaboration Support Alone Is Not

Science.gov (United States)

Rau, Martina A.; Kennedy, Kristopher; Oxtoby, Lucas; Bollom, Mark; Moore, John W.

2017-01-01

Much evidence shows that instruction that actively engages students with learning materials is more effective than traditional, lecture-centric instruction. These "active learning" models comprise an extremely heterogeneous set of instructional methods: they often include collaborative activities, flipped classrooms, or a combination of…

Faculty motivations to use active learning among pharmacy educators.

Science.gov (United States)

Rockich-Winston, Nicole; Train, Brian C; Rudolph, Michael J; Gillette, Chris

2018-03-01

Faculty motivations to use active learning have been limited to surveys evaluating faculty perceptions within active learning studies. Our objective in this study was to evaluate the relationship between faculty intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and demographic variables and the extent of active learning use in the classroom. An online survey was administered to individual faculty members at 137 colleges and schools of pharmacy across the United States. The survey assessed intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, active learning strategies, classroom time dedicated to active learning, and faculty development resources. Bivariate associations and multivariable stepwise linear regression were used to analyze the results. In total, 979 faculty members completed the questionnaire (23.6% response rate). All motivation variables were significantly correlated with percent active learning use (p active learning methods used in the last year (r = 0.259, p active learning use. Our results suggest that faculty members who are intrinsically motivated to use active learning are more likely to dedicate additional class time to active learning. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation may be positively associated with encouraging faculty members to attend active learning workshops and supporting faculty to use various active learning strategies in the classroom. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Application of ICT supported learning in fluid mechanics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brohus, Henrik; Svidt, Kjeld

2004-01-01

of tools for knowledge transfer facilitates deep understanding and increases learning efficiency. Air flow is by nature invisible and represents a further challenge in the effort of providing sufficient understanding of typical flow patterns and behaviour of room air flow. An example of visualisation......This paper focuses on the application of ICT, Information & Communication Technology, supported learning in the area of fluid mechanics education. Taking a starting point in a course in Ventilation Technology, including room air flow and contaminant distribution, it explains how ICT may be used...... actively in the learning environment to increase efficiency in the learning process. The paper comprises past experiences and lessons learnt as well as prospect for future development in the area. A model is presented that describes a high efficiency learning environment where ICT plays an important role...

Automation of information decision support to improve e-learning resources quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.L. Danchenko

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose. In conditions of active development of e-learning the high quality of e-learning resources is very important. Providing the high quality of e-learning resources in situation with mass higher education and rapid obsolescence of information requires the automation of information decision support for improving the quality of e-learning resources by development of decision support system. Methodology. The problem is solved by methods of artificial intelligence. The knowledge base of information structure of decision support system that is based on frame model of knowledge representation and inference production rules are developed. Findings. According to the results of the analysis of life cycle processes and requirements to the e-learning resources quality the information model of the structure of the knowledge base of the decision support system, the inference rules for the automatically generating of recommendations and the software implementation are developed. Practical value. It is established that the basic requirements for quality are performance, validity, reliability and manufacturability. It is shown that the using of a software implementation of decision support system for researched courses gives a growth of the quality according to the complex quality criteria. The information structure of a knowledge base system to support decision-making and rules of inference can be used by methodologists and content developers of learning systems.

Organizational Support in Online Learning Environments: Examination of Support Factors in Corporate Online Learning Implementation

Science.gov (United States)

Schultz, Thomas L.; Correia, Ana-Paula

2015-01-01

This article explores the role of different types of support in corporate online learning programs. Most research has not specifically focused on all of the support factors required to provide a corporate online learning program, although many research studies address several in regards to the research outcome. An effort was made in this article…

Toward Personalized Vibrotactile Support When Learning Motor Skills

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Olga C. Santos

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Personal tracking technologies allow sensing of the physical activity carried out by people. Data flows collected with these sensors are calling for big data techniques to support data collection, integration and analysis, aimed to provide personalized support when learning motor skills through varied multisensorial feedback. In particular, this paper focuses on vibrotactile feedback as it can take advantage of the haptic sense when supporting the physical interaction to be learnt. Despite each user having different needs, when providing this vibrotactile support, personalization issues are hardly taken into account, but the same response is delivered to each and every user of the system. The challenge here is how to design vibrotactile user interfaces for adaptive learning of motor skills. TORMES methodology is proposed to facilitate the elicitation of this personalized support. The resulting systems are expected to dynamically adapt to each individual user’s needs by monitoring, comparing and, when appropriate, correcting in a personalized way how the user should move when practicing a predefined movement, for instance, when performing a sport technique or playing a musical instrument.

Interaction Analysis for Supporting Students' Self-Regulation during Blog-Based CSCL Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Michailidis, Nikolaos; Kapravelos, Efstathios; Tsiatsos, Thrasyvoulos

2018-01-01

Self-regulated learning is an important means of supporting students' self-awareness and self-regulation level so as to enhance their motivation and engagement. Interaction Analysis (IA) contributes to this end, and its use in studying learning dynamics involved in asynchronous Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) activities has…

Supporting Learning with Wireless Sensor Data

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Arttu Perttula

2013-03-01

Full Text Available In this article, learning is studied in in situ applications that involve sensors. The main questions are how to conceptualize experiential learning involving sensors and what kinds of learning applications using sensors already exist or could be designed. It is claimed that experiential learning, context information and sensor data supports twenty first century learning. The concepts of context, technology-mediated experiences, shared felt experiences and experiential learning theory will be used to describe a framework for sensor-based mobile learning environments. Several scenarios and case examples using sensors and sensor data will be presented, and they will be analyzed using the framework. Finally, the article contributes to the discussion concerning the role of technology-mediated learning experiences and collective sensor data in developing twenty first century learning by characterizing what kinds of skills and competences are supported in learning situations that involve sensors.

Coordinated computer-supported collaborative learning: Awareness and awareness tools

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janssen, J.J.H.M.; Bodermer, D.

2013-01-01

Traditionally, research on awareness during online collaboration focused on topics such as the effects of spatial information about group members’ activities on the collaborative process. When the concept of awareness was introduced to computer-supported collaborative learning, this focus shifted to

The Design of Effective ICT-Supported Learning Activities: Exemplary Models, Changing Requirements, and New Possibilities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cameron Richards

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Despite the imperatives of policy and rhetoric about their integration in formal education, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs are often used as an "add-on" in many classrooms and in many lesson plans. Nevertheless, many teachers find that interesting and well-planned tasks, projects, and resources provide a key to harnessing the educational potential of digital resources, Internet communications and interactive multimedia to engage the interest, interaction, and knowledge construction of young learners. To the extent that such approaches go beyond and transform traditional "transmission" models of teaching and formal lesson planning, this paper investigates the changing requirements and new possibilities represented by the challenge of integrating ICTs in education in a way which at the same time connects more effectively with both the specific contents of the curriculum and the various stages and elements of the learning process. Case studies from teacher education foundation courses provide an exemplary focus of inquiry in order to better link relevant new theories or models of learning with practice, to build upon related learner-centered strategies for integrating ICT resources and tools, and to incorporate interdependent functions of learning as information access, communication, and applied interactions. As one possible strategy in this direction, the concept of an "ICT-supported learning activity" suggests the need for teachers to approach this increasing challenge more as "designers" of effective and integrated learning rather than mere "transmitters" of skills or information through an add-on use of ICTs.

Understanding well-being and learning of Nigerian nurses: a job demand control support model approach.

Science.gov (United States)

van Doorn, Yvonne; van Ruysseveldt, Joris; van Dam, Karen; Mistiaen, Wilhelm; Nikolova, Irina

2016-10-01

This study investigated whether Nigerian nurses' emotional exhaustion and active learning were predicted by job demands, control and social support. Limited research has been conducted concerning nurses' work stress in developing countries, such as Nigeria. Accordingly, it is not clear whether work interventions for improving nurses' well-being in these countries can be based on work stress models that are developed in Western countries, such as the job demand control support model, as well as on empirical findings of job demand control support research. Nurses from Nurses Across the Borders Nigeria were invited to complete an online questionnaire containing validated scales; 210 questionnaires were fully completed and analysed. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Emotional exhaustion was higher for nurses who experienced high demands and low supervisor support. Active learning occurred when nurses worked under conditions of high control and high supervisor support. The findings suggest that the job demand control support model is applicable in a Nigerian nursing situation; the model indicates which occupational stressors contribute to poor well-being in Nigerian nurses and which work characteristics may boost nurses' active learning. Job (re)design interventions can enhance nurses' well-being and learning by guarding nurses' job demands, and stimulating job control and supervisor support. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Using assistive technology adaptations to include students with learning disabilities in cooperative learning activities.

Science.gov (United States)

Bryant, D P; Bryant, B R

1998-01-01

Cooperative learning (CL) is a common instructional arrangement that is used by classroom teachers to foster academic achievement and social acceptance of students with and without learning disabilities. Cooperative learning is appealing to classroom teachers because it can provide an opportunity for more instruction and feedback by peers than can be provided by teachers to individual students who require extra assistance. Recent studies suggest that students with LD may need adaptations during cooperative learning activities. The use of assistive technology adaptations may be necessary to help some students with LD compensate for their specific learning difficulties so that they can engage more readily in cooperative learning activities. A process for integrating technology adaptations into cooperative learning activities is discussed in terms of three components: selecting adaptations, monitoring the use of the adaptations during cooperative learning activities, and evaluating the adaptations' effectiveness. The article concludes with comments regarding barriers to and support systems for technology integration, technology and effective instructional practices, and the need to consider technology adaptations for students who have learning disabilities.

The Impact of Supported and Annotated Mobile Learning on Achievement and Cognitive Load

Science.gov (United States)

Shadiev, Rustam; Hwang, Wu-Yuin; Huang, Yueh-Min; Liu, Tzu-Yu

2015-01-01

We designed activities for learning English as a foreign language in a mobile learning environment with familiar authentic support for this study. Students learned at school and then applied their newly gained knowledge to solve daily life problems by first using a tablet to take pictures of objects they wished to learn about, then describing them…

Evaluating the Acceptability and Usability of EASEL: A Mobile Application that Supports Guided Reflection for Experiential Learning Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jerry C Schnepp

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Aim/Purpose: To examine the early perceptions (acceptability and usability of EASEL (Education through Application-Supported Experiential Learning, a mobile platform that delivers reflection prompts and content before, during, and after an experiential learning activity. Background: Experiential learning is an active learning approach in which students learn by doing and by reflecting on the experience. This approach to teaching is often used in disciplines such as humanities, business, and medicine. Reflection before, during, and after an experience allows the student to analyze what they learn and why it is important, which is vital in helping them to understand the relevance of the experience. A just-in-time tool (EASEL was needed to facilitate this. Methodology: To inform the development of a mobile application that facilitates real-time guided reflection and to determine the relevant feature set, we conducted a needs analysis with both students and faculty members. Data collected during this stage of the evaluation helped guide the creation of a prototype. The user experience of the prototype and interface interactions were evaluated during the usability phase of the evaluation study. Contribution: Both the needs analysis and usability assessment provided justification for continued development of EASEL as well as insight that guides current development. Findings: The interaction design of EASEL is understandable and usable. Both students and teachers value an application that facilitates real-time guided reflection. Recommendations for Practitioners: The use of a system such as EASEL can leverage time and location-based services to support students in field experiences. This technology aligns with evidence that guided reflection provides opportunities for metacognition. Recommendation for Researchers: Iterative prototyping, testing, and refinement can lead to a deliberate and effective app development process. Impact on Society: The EASEL

Supporting Children with Learning Disabilities

OpenAIRE

John k. McNamara

2010-01-01

This paper presents a prevention model for supporting children with learning disabilities. The model holds that children can be identified as at-risk for learning disabilities by identifying and supporting potential academic failure early in their elementary years. A prevention model includes two elements, identification and instruction. Identification entails recognizing those children at-risk for poor achievement in the early primary grades. The second component of the model is to...

Google classroom as a tool for active learning

Science.gov (United States)

Shaharanee, Izwan Nizal Mohd; Jamil, Jastini Mohd; Rodzi, Sarah Syamimi Mohamad

2016-08-01

As the world is being developed with the new technologies, discovering and manipulating new ideas and concepts of online education are changing rapidly. In response to these changes, many states, institutions, and organizations have been working on strategic plans to implement online education. At the same time, misconceptions and myths related to the difficulty of teaching and learning online, technologies available to support online instruction, the support and compensation needed for high-quality instructors, and the needs of online students create challenges for such vision statements and planning documents. This paper provides analysis and evaluation of the effectiveness of Google Classroom's active learning activities for data mining subject under the Decision Sciences program. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been employed to measure the effectiveness of the learning activities. A total of 100 valid unduplicated responses from students who enrolled data mining subject were used in this study. The results indicated that majority of the students satisfy with the Google Classroom's tool that were introduced in the class. Results of data analyzed showed that all ratios are above averages. In particular, comparative performance is good in the areas of ease of access, perceived usefulness, communication and interaction, instruction delivery and students' satisfaction towards the Google Classroom's active learning activities.

Portfolios as "Learning Companions" for Children and a Means to Support and Assess Language Learning in the Primary School

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Jane

2012-01-01

This article explores the idea of portfolios as a way to collect evidence of pupils' learning and achievement in their language learning in the primary school. The emphasis is on portfolio work as an active and reflective process to underpin and support learning and to show evidence of achievement and progression. Pupil choice and reflexivity are…

Interpretable Active Learning

OpenAIRE

Phillips, Richard L.; Chang, Kyu Hyun; Friedler, Sorelle A.

2017-01-01

Active learning has long been a topic of study in machine learning. However, as increasingly complex and opaque models have become standard practice, the process of active learning, too, has become more opaque. There has been little investigation into interpreting what specific trends and patterns an active learning strategy may be exploring. This work expands on the Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations framework (LIME) to provide explanations for active learning recommendations. W...

Developing a Dynamic Inference Expert System to Support Individual Learning at Work

Science.gov (United States)

Hung, Yu Hsin; Lin, Chun Fu; Chang, Ray I.

2015-01-01

In response to the rapid growth of information in recent decades, knowledge-based systems have become an essential tool for organizational learning. The application of electronic performance-support systems in learning activities has attracted considerable attention from researchers. Nevertheless, the vast, ever-increasing amount of information is…

Resource Letter ALIP-1: Active-Learning Instruction in Physics

Science.gov (United States)

Meltzer, David E.; Thornton, Ronald K.

2012-06-01

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on research-based active-learning instruction in physics. These are instructional methods that are based on, assessed by, and validated through research on the teaching and learning of physics. They involve students in their own learning more deeply and more intensely than does traditional instruction, particularly during class time. The instructional methods and supporting body of research reviewed here offer potential for significantly improved learning in comparison to traditional lecture-based methods of college and university physics instruction. We begin with an introduction to the history of active learning in physics in the United States, and then discuss some methods for and outcomes of assessing pedagogical effectiveness. We enumerate and describe common characteristics of successful active-learning instructional strategies in physics. We then discuss a range of methods for introducing active-learning instruction in physics and provide references to those methods for which there is published documentation of student learning gains.

Supporting Collective Inquiry: A Technology Framework for Distributed Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Tissenbaum, Michael

This design-based study describes the implementation and evaluation of a technology framework to support smart classrooms and Distributed Technology Enhanced Learning (DTEL) called SAIL Smart Space (S3). S3 is an open-source technology framework designed to support students engaged in inquiry investigations as a knowledge community. To evaluate the effectiveness of S3 as a generalizable technology framework, a curriculum named PLACE (Physics Learning Across Contexts and Environments) was developed to support two grade-11 physics classes (n = 22; n = 23) engaged in a multi-context inquiry curriculum based on the Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI) pedagogical model. This dissertation outlines three initial design studies that established a set of design principles for DTEL curricula, and related technology infrastructures. These principles guided the development of PLACE, a twelve-week inquiry curriculum in which students drew upon their community-generated knowledge base as a source of evidence for solving ill-structured physics problems based on the physics of Hollywood movies. During the culminating smart classroom activity, the S3 framework played a central role in orchestrating student activities, including managing the flow of materials and students using real-time data mining and intelligent agents that responded to emergent class patterns. S3 supported students' construction of knowledge through the use individual, collective and collaborative scripts and technologies, including tablets and interactive large-format displays. Aggregate and real-time ambient visualizations helped the teacher act as a wondering facilitator, supporting students in their inquiry where needed. A teacher orchestration tablet gave the teacher some control over the flow of the scripted activities, and alerted him to critical moments for intervention. Analysis focuses on S3's effectiveness in supporting students' inquiry across multiple learning contexts and scales of time, and in

Understanding, Evaluating, and Supporting Self-Regulated Learning Using Learning Analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Roll, Ido; Winne, Philip H.

2015-01-01

Self-regulated learning is an ongoing process rather than a single snapshot in time. Naturally, the field of learning analytics, focusing on interactions and learning trajectories, offers exciting opportunities for analyzing and supporting self-regulated learning. This special section highlights the current state of research at the intersection of…

In Search of Attributes That Support Self-Regulation in Blended Learning Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Van Laer, Stijn; Elen, Jan

2017-01-01

Blended forms of learning have become increasingly popular. Learning activities within these environments are supported by a large variety of online and face-to-face interventions. However, it remains unclear whether these blended environments are successful, and if they are, what makes them successful. Studies suggest that blended learning…

Seven Affordances of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: How to Support Collaborative Learning? How Can Technologies Help?

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Heisawn; Hmelo-Silver, Cindy E.

2016-01-01

This article proposes 7 core affordances of technology for collaborative learning based on theories of collaborative learning and CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning) practices. Technology affords learner opportunities to (1) engage in a joint task, (2) communicate, (3) share resources, (4) engage in productive collaborative learning…

A Comparison between LMS tools to support e-health educational activities.

Science.gov (United States)

de Araújo Novaes, Magdala; Soares de Vasconcelos, Gabriel; Florencio da Silva, Jackson Raniel

2015-01-01

The objective of this study is to understand how a Learning Management System (LMS) plataform is used in a telehealth center to support two virtual learning enviroments focused on the education of the healthcare professionals and the students of a medical schoool. The study outcome is expected to provide indications towards choosing a better LSM for the telehelath center to support their educacional activities.

Mobile Affordances and Learning Theories in Supporting and Enhancing Learning

Science.gov (United States)

MacCallum, Kathryn; Day, Stephanie; Skelton, David; Verhaart, Michael

2017-01-01

Mobile technology promises to enhance and better support students' learning. The exploration and adoption of appropriate pedagogies that enhance learning is crucial for the wider adoption of mobile learning. An increasing number of studies have started to address how existing learning theory can be used to underpin and better frame mobile learning…

Active Learning Through Discussion in E-Learning

OpenAIRE

Daru Wahyuningsih

2016-01-01

Active learning is generally made by a lecturer in learning face to face. In the face to face learning, lecturer can implement a variety of teaching methods to make students actively involved in learning. This is different from learning that is actuating in e-learning. The main characteristic of e-learning is learning that can take place anytime and anywhere. Special strategies are needed so that lecturer can make students play an active role in the course of e-learning. Research in order to ...

Cooperative activity and its potential for learning in tertiary education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cirila Peklaj

2007-01-01

Full Text Available A learning situation can be structured in different ways, as an individual, competitive, or cooperative activity. Each of these structures can be used for different purposes and can lead to different learning outcomes. This paper focuses on cooperative activity and its potential for learning in tertiary education. After defining cooperative activity (or, in a broader sense, learning in interaction and introducing the CAMS theoretical framework to analyse cooperative activity, the main discussion focuses on the theoretical reasons for the usefulness of group learning and on the research of effects of cooperative learning on cognitive (metacognitive, affective-motivational and social processes in university students. The key elements that should be established for successful cooperation are also discussed. At the end, a new direction in using cooperative activity in learning—computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL, which emerged with rapid technology development in the last two decades—is presented and discussed.

Professional Learning Design Framework: Supporting Technology Integration in Alberta

Science.gov (United States)

van Thiel, Lydia

2018-01-01

Researchers around the world are interested in knowing how to support teachers in developing both their technology skills and their understanding of how educational technologies can provide opportunity to engage all learners at their skill and interest level in learning activities that were not possible without technology. The solution involves…

The sociability of computer-supported collaborative learning environments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kreijns, C.J.; Kirschner, P.A.; Jochems, W.M.G.

2002-01-01

There is much positive research on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments in asynchronous distributed learning groups (DLGs). There is also research that shows that contemporary CSCL environments do not completely fulfil expectations on supporting interactive group learning,

Linking Motivation and Commitment through Learning Activities in the Volunteer Sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Serafino, Allan

2001-01-01

Volunteer motivation and commitment are linked through learning about the organization, the job, and oneself. Volunteer managers should (1) identity volunteer motivations and establish conditions to support them; (2) identify learning activities appropriate for motivations and learning styles; (3) ensure congruence between volunteer learning and…

Teacher Knowledge for Active-Learning Instruction: Expert-Novice Comparison Reveals Differences.

Science.gov (United States)

Auerbach, A J; Higgins, M; Brickman, P; Andrews, T C

2018-01-01

Active-learning strategies can improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates' abilities to learn fundamental concepts and skills. However, the results instructors achieve vary substantially. One explanation for this is that instructors commonly implement active learning differently than intended. An important factor affecting how instructors implement active learning is knowledge of teaching and learning. We aimed to discover knowledge that is important to effective active learning in large undergraduate courses. We developed a lesson-analysis instrument to elicit teacher knowledge, drawing on the theoretical construct of teacher noticing. We compared the knowledge used by expert ( n = 14) and novice ( n = 29) active-learning instructors as they analyzed lessons. Experts and novices differed in what they noticed, with experts more commonly considering how instructors hold students accountable, topic-specific student difficulties, whether the instructor elicited and responded to student thinking, and opportunities students had to generate their own ideas and work. Experts were also better able to support their lesson analyses with reasoning. This work provides foundational knowledge for the future design of preparation and support for instructors adopting active learning. Improving teacher knowledge will improve the implementation of active learning, which will be necessary to widely realize the potential benefits of active learning in undergraduate STEM. © 2018 A. J. Auerbach et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2018 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

The Effectiveness of WhatsApp Mobile Learning Activities Guided by Activity Theory on Students' Knowledge Management

Science.gov (United States)

Barhoumi, Chokri

2015-01-01

This research paper explores the effectiveness of using mobile technologies to support a blended learning course titled Scientific Research Methods in Information Science. Specifically, it discusses the effects of WhatsApp mobile learning activities guided by activity theory on students' knowledge Management (KM). During the 2014 academic year,…

Technology Trends in Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning in Elementary Education from 2009 to 2014

Science.gov (United States)

Carapina, Mia; Boticki, Ivica

2015-01-01

This paper analyses mobile computer supported collaborative learning in elementary education worldwide focusing on technology trends for the period from 2009 to 2014. The results present representation of device types used to support collaborative activities, their distribution per users (1:1 or 1:m) and if students are learning through or around…

Assessment of (Computer-Supported) Collaborative Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Strijbos, J. -W.

2011-01-01

Within the (Computer-Supported) Collaborative Learning (CS)CL research community, there has been an extensive dialogue on theories and perspectives on learning from collaboration, approaches to scaffold (script) the collaborative process, and most recently research methodology. In contrast, the issue of assessment of collaborative learning has…

Using an Activity Dashboard to Support Awareness and Reflection in a European Virtual Seminar

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scheffel, Maren; Drachsler, Hendrik; Specht, Marcus

2017-01-01

In order to support students in online learning environments to become more aware of and reflect on their activities we have implemented an Activity Dashboard within the learning environment of an online course. The Activity Dashboard provides feedback, visualised in radar diagrams and bar charts.

Learning with Support Vector Machines

CERN Document Server

Campbell, Colin

2010-01-01

Support Vectors Machines have become a well established tool within machine learning. They work well in practice and have now been used across a wide range of applications from recognizing hand-written digits, to face identification, text categorisation, bioinformatics, and database marketing. In this book we give an introductory overview of this subject. We start with a simple Support Vector Machine for performing binary classification before considering multi-class classification and learning in the presence of noise. We show that this framework can be extended to many other scenarios such a

Peer Learning and Support of Technology in an Undergraduate Biology Course to Enhance Deep Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Tsaushu, Masha; Tal, Tali; Sagy, Ornit; Kali, Yael; Gepstein, Shimon; Zilberstein, Dan

2012-01-01

This study offers an innovative and sustainable instructional model for an introductory undergraduate course. The model was gradually implemented during 3 yr in a research university in a large-lecture biology course that enrolled biology majors and nonmajors. It gives priority to sources not used enough to enhance active learning in higher education: technology and the students themselves. Most of the lectures were replaced with continuous individual learning and 1-mo group learning of one topic, both supported by an interactive online tutorial. Assessment included open-ended complex questions requiring higher-order thinking skills that were added to the traditional multiple-choice (MC) exam. Analysis of students’ outcomes indicates no significant difference among the three intervention versions in the MC questions of the exam, while students who took part in active-learning groups at the advanced version of the model had significantly higher scores in the more demanding open-ended questions compared with their counterparts. We believe that social-constructivist learning of one topic during 1 mo has significantly contributed to student deep learning across topics. It developed a biological discourse, which is more typical to advanced stages of learning biology, and changed the image of instructors from “knowledge transmitters” to “role model scientists.” PMID:23222836

Peer learning and support of technology in an undergraduate biology course to enhance deep learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsaushu, Masha; Tal, Tali; Sagy, Ornit; Kali, Yael; Gepstein, Shimon; Zilberstein, Dan

2012-01-01

This study offers an innovative and sustainable instructional model for an introductory undergraduate course. The model was gradually implemented during 3 yr in a research university in a large-lecture biology course that enrolled biology majors and nonmajors. It gives priority to sources not used enough to enhance active learning in higher education: technology and the students themselves. Most of the lectures were replaced with continuous individual learning and 1-mo group learning of one topic, both supported by an interactive online tutorial. Assessment included open-ended complex questions requiring higher-order thinking skills that were added to the traditional multiple-choice (MC) exam. Analysis of students' outcomes indicates no significant difference among the three intervention versions in the MC questions of the exam, while students who took part in active-learning groups at the advanced version of the model had significantly higher scores in the more demanding open-ended questions compared with their counterparts. We believe that social-constructivist learning of one topic during 1 mo has significantly contributed to student deep learning across topics. It developed a biological discourse, which is more typical to advanced stages of learning biology, and changed the image of instructors from "knowledge transmitters" to "role model scientists."

Self-entrustment: how trainees' self-regulated learning supports participation in the workplace.

Science.gov (United States)

Sagasser, Margaretha H; Kramer, Anneke W M; Fluit, Cornelia R M G; van Weel, Chris; van der Vleuten, Cees P M

2017-10-01

Clinical workplaces offer postgraduate trainees a wealth of opportunities to learn from experience. To promote deliberate and meaningful learning self-regulated learning skills are foundational. We explored trainees' learning activities related to patient encounters to better understand what aspects of self-regulated learning contribute to trainees' development, and to explore supervisor's role herein. We conducted a qualitative non-participant observational study in seven general practices. During two days we observed trainee's patient encounters, daily debriefing sessions and educational meetings between trainee and supervisor and interviewed them separately afterwards. Data collection and analysis were iterative and inspired by a phenomenological approach. To organise data we used networks, time-ordered matrices and codebooks. Self-regulated learning supported trainees to increasingly perform independently. They engaged in self-regulated learning before, during and after encounters. Trainees' activities depended on the type of medical problem presented and on patient, trainee and supervisor characteristics. Trainees used their sense of confidence to decide if they could manage the encounter alone or if they should consult their supervisor. They deliberately used feedback on their performance and engaged in reflection. Supervisors appeared vital in trainees' learning by reassuring trainees, discussing experience, knowledge and professional issues, identifying possible unawareness of incompetence, assessing performance and securing patient safety. Self-confidence, reflection and feedback, and support from the supervisor are important aspects of self-regulated learning in practice. The results reflect how self-regulated learning and self-entrustment promote trainees' increased participation in the workplace. Securing organized moments of interaction with supervisors is beneficial to trainees' self-regulated learning.

Exploring students' learning effectiveness and attitude in Group Scribbles-supported collaborative reading activities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lin, C. P.; Lin, Chih-Cheng; Chen, W.

2014-01-01

Improving students' reading comprehension is of significance. In this study, collaborative learning supported by Group Scribbles (GS), a networked technology, was integrated into a primary reading class. Forty-seven 10-year-old students from two 4th grade classes participated in the study...

Learning Environments’ Activity Potential for Preschoolers (LEAPP): Study Rationale and Design

OpenAIRE

Tucker, Patricia; Vanderloo, Leigh M.; Newnham-Kanas, Courtney; Burke, Shauna M.; Irwin, Jennifer D.; Johnson, Andrew M.; van Zandvoort, Melissa M.

2013-01-01

Background The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the study protocol for the Learning Environments’ Activity Potential for Preschoolers (LEAPP) study, the goal of which is to describe the activity levels of preschoolers attending various early learning venues and explore which attributes of these facilities (e.g. curriculum, policies, equipment, etc.) support activity participation. Design and methods This cross-sectional study aimed to recruit approximately 30 early learning ...

Beyond Lecture and Non-Lecture Classrooms: LA-student interactions in Active Learning Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez, Dayana; Kornreich, Hagit; Rodriguez, Idaykis; Monslave, Camila; Pena-Flores, Norma

Our expanded multi-site study on active learning classrooms supported by Learning Assistants (LAs) aims to understand the connections between three classroom elements: the activity, student learning, and how LAs support the learning process in the classroom. At FIU, LAs are used in a variety of active learning settings, from large auditorium settings to studio classroom with movable tables. Our study uses the COPUS observation protocol as a way to characterize LAs behaviors in these classrooms. With a focus on LA-student interactions, our analysis of how LAs interact with students during a 'learning session' generated new observational codes for specific new categories of LA roles. Preliminary results show that LAs spend more time interacting with students in some classes, regardless of the classroom setting, while in other classrooms, LA-student interactions are mostly brief. We discuss how LA-student interactions contribute to the dynamics and mechanism of the socially shared learning activity.

Effects of teacher autonomy support and students' autonomous motivation on learning in physical education.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Bo; McCaughtry, Nate; Martin, Jeffrey; Fahlman, Mariane

2009-03-01

This study applied self-determination theory to investigate the effects of students' autonomous motivation and their perceptions of teacher autonomy support on need satisfaction adjustment, learning achievement, and cardiorespiratory fitness over a 4-month personal conditioning unit. Participants were 253 urban adolescents (121 girls and 132 boys, ages = 12-14 years). Based on a series of multiple regression analyses, perceived autonomy support by teachers significantly predicted students'need satisfaction adjustment and led to learning achievement, especially for students who were not autonomously motivated to learn in physical education. In turn, being more autonomous was directly associated with cardiorespiratory fitness enhancement. The findings suggest that shifts in teaching approaches toward providing more support for students' autonomy and active involvement hold promise for enhancing learning.

Effects of the ISIS Recommender System for Navigation Support in Self-Organised Learning Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Drachsler, Hendrik; Hummel, Hans; van den Berg, Bert; Eshuis, Jannes; Waterink, Wim; Nadolski, Rob; Berlanga, Adriana; Boers, Nanda; Koper, Rob

2009-01-01

The need to support users of the Internet with the selection of information is becoming more important. Learners in complex, self-organising Learning Networks have similar problems and need guidance to find and select most suitable learning activities, in order to attain their lifelong learning goals in the most efficient way. Several research…

Computer Support for Vicarious Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Monthienvichienchai, Rachada; Sasse, M. Angela

This paper investigates how computer support for vicarious learning can be implemented by taking a principled approach to selecting and combining different media to capture educational dialogues. The main goal is to create vicarious learning materials of appropriate pedagogic content and production quality, and at the same time minimize the…

Using Toys to Support Infant-Toddler Learning and Development

Science.gov (United States)

Guyton, Gabriel

2011-01-01

Choosing toys and activities that are suitable for infants and toddlers can challenge even the most experienced teacher. By being mindful of the basic principles of child development and the role of play, teachers can intentionally select toys to meet young children's unique needs and interests, supporting learning. It is also important to be…

Support system for Neutron Activation Analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sasajima, Fumio; Ohtomo, Akitoshi; Sakurai, Fumio; Onizawa, Koji

1999-01-01

In the research reactor of JAERI, the Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) has been utilized as a major part of an irradiation usage. To utilize NAA, research participants are always required to learn necessary technique. Therefore, we started to examine a support system that will enable to carry out INAA easily even by beginners. The system is composed of irradiation device, gamma-ray spectrometer and data analyzing instruments. The element concentration is calculated by using KAYZERO/SOLCOI software with the K 0 standardization method. In this paper, we review on a construction of this INAA support system in JRR-3M of JAERI. (author)

Medical Student Perspectives of Active Learning: A Focus Group Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Walling, Anne; Istas, Kathryn; Bonaminio, Giulia A; Paolo, Anthony M; Fontes, Joseph D; Davis, Nancy; Berardo, Benito A

2017-01-01

Phenomenon: Medical student perspectives were sought about active learning, including concerns, challenges, perceived advantages and disadvantages, and appropriate role in the educational process. Focus groups were conducted with students from all years and campuses of a large U.S. state medical school. Students had considerable experience with active learning prior to medical school and conveyed accurate understanding of the concept and its major strategies. They appreciated the potential of active learning to deepen and broaden learning and its value for long-term professional development but had significant concerns about the efficiency of the process, the clarity of expectations provided, and the importance of receiving preparatory materials. Most significantly, active learning experiences were perceived as disconnected from grading and even as impeding preparation for school and national examinations. Insights: Medical students understand the concepts of active learning and have considerable experience in several formats prior to medical school. They are generally supportive of active learning concepts but frustrated by perceived inefficiencies and lack of contribution to the urgencies of achieving optimal grades and passing United States Medical Licensing Examinations, especially Step 1.

ICT support for students’ collaboration in problem and project based learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rongbutsri, Nikorn; Khalid, Md. Saifuddin; Ryberg, Thomas

2011-01-01

This paper reports and analyses quantitative and qualitative data from a study, which seeks a better understanding of how students use various technologies to support their project collaboration activities in a problem and project based learning environment. More generally the aim of the study......, and the present paper, is to shed light on students’ technology practices within higher education – particularly in relation to problem and project based learning....

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Tim, Ed.

2005-01-01

"Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning in Higher Education" provides a resource for researchers and practitioners in the area of computer-supported collaborative learning (also known as CSCL); particularly those working within a tertiary education environment. It includes articles of relevance to those interested in both theory and practice in…

Dopamine, reward learning, and active inference.

Science.gov (United States)

FitzGerald, Thomas H B; Dolan, Raymond J; Friston, Karl

2015-01-01

Temporal difference learning models propose phasic dopamine signaling encodes reward prediction errors that drive learning. This is supported by studies where optogenetic stimulation of dopamine neurons can stand in lieu of actual reward. Nevertheless, a large body of data also shows that dopamine is not necessary for learning, and that dopamine depletion primarily affects task performance. We offer a resolution to this paradox based on an hypothesis that dopamine encodes the precision of beliefs about alternative actions, and thus controls the outcome-sensitivity of behavior. We extend an active inference scheme for solving Markov decision processes to include learning, and show that simulated dopamine dynamics strongly resemble those actually observed during instrumental conditioning. Furthermore, simulated dopamine depletion impairs performance but spares learning, while simulated excitation of dopamine neurons drives reward learning, through aberrant inference about outcome states. Our formal approach provides a novel and parsimonious reconciliation of apparently divergent experimental findings.

A care improvement program acting as a powerful learning environment to support nursing students learning facilitation competencies.

Science.gov (United States)

Jukema, Jan S; Harps-Timmerman, Annelies; Stoopendaal, Annemiek; Smits, Carolien H M

2015-11-01

Change management is an important area of training in undergraduate nursing education. Successful change management in healthcare aimed at improving practices requires facilitation skills that support teams in attaining the desired change. Developing facilitation skills in nursing students requires formal educational support. A Dutch Regional Care Improvement Program based on a nationwide format of change management in healthcare was designed to act as a Powerful Learning Environment for nursing students developing competencies in facilitating change. This article has two aims: to provide comprehensive insight into the program components and to describe students' learning experiences in developing their facilitation skills. This Dutch Regional Care Improvement Program considers three aspects of a Powerful Learning Environment: self-regulated learning; problem-based learning; and complex, realistic and challenging learning tasks. These three aspects were operationalised in five distinct areas of facilitation: increasing awareness of the need for change; leadership and project management; relationship building and communication; importance of the local context; and ongoing monitoring and evaluation. Over a period of 18 months, 42 nursing students, supported by trained lecturer-coaches, took part in nine improvement teams in our Regional Care Improvement Program, executing activities in all five areas of facilitation. Based on the students' experiences, we propose refinements to various components of this program, aimed at strengthenin the learning environment. There is a need for further detailed empirical research to study the impact this kind of learning environment has on students developing facilitation competencies in healthcare improvement. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Critical Success in E-learning: An Examination of Technological and Institutional Support Factors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maslin Masrom

2008-12-01

Full Text Available In recent years, information technology (IT becomes prominent to support teaching and learning activities. IT tools allow us to create, collect, store and use the information and knowledge. E-learning was one of IT tools introduced at College of Science and Technology (CST, University Technology Malaysia (UTM Kuala Lumpur since 2001. It has enabled a paradigm shift from institutio n-centered instruction to anywhere, anytime and anybody learning models. In CST the e-learning technology was used for accessing the syllabus and course content, submitting assignments, and taking class quizzes. This paper focuses on issues relating to the e-learning critical success factors (CSFs from university students’ perspective. In this study, two main factors related to the e-learning CSFs within a university environment included technological and institutional support factors were examined. Confirmatory factor modeling approach was used to assess the criticality of the measures included in each factor. The results indicated that the most critical measures for technological factor in terms of ease of access and infrastructure are the browser efficiency, course website ease of use and computer network reliability. Meanwhile, for institutional support factor, the most critical measure is the availability of technical support or help desk.

Mapping Learning Outcomes and Assignment Tasks for SPIDER Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lyn Brodie

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Modern engineering programs have to address rapidly changing technical content and have to enable students to develop transferable skills such as critical evaluation, communication skills and lifelong learning. This paper introduces a combined learning and assessment activity that provides students with opportunities to develop and practice their soft skills, but also extends their theoretical knowledge base. Key tasks included self directed inquiry, oral and written communication as well as peer assessment. To facilitate the SPIDER activities (Select, Prepare and Investigate, Discuss, Evaluate, Reflect, a software tool has been implemented in the learning management system Moodle. Evidence shows increased student engagement and better learning outcomes for both transferable as well as technical skills. The study focuses on generalising the relationship between learning outcomes and assignment tasks as well as activities that drive these tasks. Trail results inform the approach. Staff evaluations and their views of assignments and intended learning outcomes also supported this analysis.

Using a Learning Activity Sequence in Large-Enrollment Physical Geology Classes: Supporting the Needs of Underserved Students While Motivating Interest, Learning, and Success

Science.gov (United States)

Pun, A.; Smith, G. A.

2011-12-01

The learning activity sequence (LAS) strategy is a student-focused pedagogy that emphasizes active classroom learning to promote learning among all students, and in particular, those with diverse backgrounds. Online assessments both set the stage for active learning and help students synthesize material during their learning. UNM is one of only two Carnegie Research University Very High institutions also designated as Hispanic-serving and the only state flagship university that is also a majority-minority undergraduate institution. In 2010 Hispanics comprised 40% of 20,655 undergraduates (and 49% of freshmen), 37% of undergraduates were Pell Grant recipients (the largest proportion of any public flagship research university; J. Blacks Higher Ed., 2009) and 44% of incoming freshmen were first-generation students. To maximize student learning in this environment rich in traditionally underserved students, we designed a LAS for nonmajor physical geology (enrollments 100-160) that integrates in-class instruction with structured out-of-class learning. The LAS has 3 essential parts: Students read before class to acquire knowledge used during in-class collaborative, active-learning activities that build conceptual understanding. Lastly, students review notes and synthesize what they've learned before moving on to the next topic. The model combines online and in-class learning and assessment: Online reading assessments before class; active-learning experiences during class; online learning assessments after class. Class sessions include short lectures, peer instruction "clickers", and small-group problem solving (lecture tutorials). Undergraduate Peer-Learning Facilitators are available during class time to help students with problem solving. Effectiveness of the LAS approach is reflected in three types of measurements. (1) Using the LAS strategy, the overall rate of students earning a grade of C or higher is higher than compared to the average for all large

The use of mobile learning by 6th-year medical students in a minimally-supported environment

OpenAIRE

Ken Masters; Zahra Al-Rawahi

2012-01-01

Objectives: The study aims to identify the impact of minimal support on medical students' mobile learning activities. Methods: The study was performed at the Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, on 129 medical students in their 7th year. The study consisted of a quantitative survey of the students, focussing on their mobile learning activities during their 6th year, while using their own mobile devices (such as smart phones) for mobile learning activities. In addition, their perceptions of barrier...

Different Futures of Adaptive Collaborative Learning Support

Science.gov (United States)

Rummel, Nikol; Walker, Erin; Aleven, Vincent

2016-01-01

In this position paper we contrast a Dystopian view of the future of adaptive collaborative learning support (ACLS) with a Utopian scenario that--due to better-designed technology, grounded in research--avoids the pitfalls of the Dystopian version and paints a positive picture of the practice of computer-supported collaborative learning 25 years…

Social support and child protection: Lessons learned and learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Ross A

2015-03-01

Social support has been a topic of research for nearly 50 years, and its applications to prevention and intervention have grown significantly, including programs advancing child protection. This article summarizes the central conclusions of the 1994 review of research on social support and the prevention of child maltreatment prepared for the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and surveys advances in the field since its publication. Among the lessons learned twenty years ago are (a) the diversity of the social support needs of at-risk families and their association with child endangerment, (b) the need to supplement the emotionally affirmative aspects of social support with efforts to socialize parenting practices and monitor child well-being, (c) the desirability of integrating formal and informal sources of social support for recipients, and (d) the importance of considering the complex recipient reactions to receiving support from others. The lessons we are now learning derive from research exploring the potential of online communication to enhance social support, the neurobiology of stress and its buffering through social support, and the lessons of evaluation research that are identifying the effective ingredients of social support interventions. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Supporting Learning from Illustrated Texts: Conceptualizing and Evaluating a Learning Strategy

Science.gov (United States)

Schlag, Sabine; Ploetzner, Rolf

2011-01-01

Texts and pictures are often combined in order to improve learning. Many students, however, have difficulty to appropriately process text-picture combinations. We have thus conceptualized a learning strategy which supports learning from illustrated texts. By inducing the processes of information selection, organization, integration, and…

Dopamine, reward learning, and active inference

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thomas eFitzgerald

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Temporal difference learning models propose phasic dopamine signalling encodes reward prediction errors that drive learning. This is supported by studies where optogenetic stimulation of dopamine neurons can stand in lieu of actual reward. Nevertheless, a large body of data also shows that dopamine is not necessary for learning, and that dopamine depletion primarily affects task performance. We offer a resolution to this paradox based on an hypothesis that dopamine encodes the precision of beliefs about alternative actions, and thus controls the outcome-sensitivity of behaviour. We extend an active inference scheme for solving Markov decision processes to include learning, and show that simulated dopamine dynamics strongly resemble those actually observed during instrumental conditioning. Furthermore, simulated dopamine depletion impairs performance but spares learning, while simulated excitation of dopamine neurons drives reward learning, through aberrant inference about outcome states. Our formal approach provides a novel and parsimonious reconciliation of apparently divergent experimental findings.

The philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of Active Learning in Engineering Education

Science.gov (United States)

Christie, Michael; de Graaff, Erik

2017-01-01

In this paper the authors draw on three sequential keynote addresses that they gave at Active Learning in Engineering Education (ALE) workshops in Copenhagen (2012), Caxias do Sol (2014) and San Sebastian (2015). Active Learning in Engineering Education is an informal international network of engineering educators dedicated to improving engineering education through active learning (http://www.ale-net.org/). The paper reiterates themes from those keynotes, namely, the philosophical and pedagogical underpinnings of Active Learning in Engineering Education, the scholarly questions that inspire engineering educators to go on improving their practice and exemplary models designed to activate the learning of engineering students. This paper aims to uncover the bedrock of established educational philosophies and theories that define and support active learning. The paper does not claim to present any new or innovative educational theory. There is already a surfeit of them. Rather, the aim is to assist Engineering Educators who wish to research how they can best activate the learning of their students by providing a readable, reasonable and solid underpinning for best practice in this field.

Seeing, Believing, and Learning to Be Skeptical: Supporting Language Learning through Advertising Analysis Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Hobbs, Renee; He, Haixia; Robbgrieco, Michael

2015-01-01

This study documents how a high school ESL teacher working with new immigrants ages 14-20 supported the development of their critical thinking and English language skills by using advertising analysis activities. The article examines the use of key critical questions for analyzing media messages and documents instructional activities designed to…

Invited Reaction: Influences of Formal Learning, Personal Learning Orientation, and Supportive Learning Environment on Informal Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Cseh, Maria; Manikoth, Nisha N.

2011-01-01

As the authors of the preceding article (Choi and Jacobs, 2011) have noted, the workplace learning literature shows evidence of the complementary and integrated nature of formal and informal learning in the development of employee competencies. The importance of supportive learning environments in the workplace and of employees' personal learning…

Theoretical Foundations of Active Learning

Science.gov (United States)

2009-05-01

I study the informational complexity of active learning in a statistical learning theory framework. Specifically, I derive bounds on the rates of...convergence achievable by active learning , under various noise models and under general conditions on the hypothesis class. I also study the theoretical...advantages of active learning over passive learning, and develop procedures for transforming passive learning algorithms into active learning algorithms

Learner Open Modeling in Adaptive Mobile Learning System for Supporting Student to Learn English

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Van Cong Pham

2011-10-01

Full Text Available This paper represents a personalized context-aware mobile learning architecture for supporting student to learn English as foreign language in order to prepare for TOEFL test. We consider how to apply open learner modeling techniques to adapt contents for different learners based on context, which includes location, amount of time to learn, the manner as well as learner's knowledge in learning progress. Through negotiation with system, the editable learner model will be updated to support adaptive engine to select adaptive contents meeting learner's demands. Empirical testing results for students who used application prototype indicate that interaction user modeling is helpful in supporting learner to learn adaptive materials.

Using Elearning techniques to support problem based learning within a clinical simulation laboratory.

Science.gov (United States)

Docherty, Charles; Hoy, Derek; Topp, Helena; Trinder, Kathryn

2004-01-01

This paper details the results of the first phase of a project that used eLearning to support students' learning within a simulated environment. The locus was a purpose built Clinical Simulation Laboratory (CSL) where the School's newly adopted philosophy of Problem Based Learning (PBL) was challenged through lecturers reverting to traditional teaching methods. The solution, a student-centred, problem-based approach to the acquisition of clinical skills was developed using learning objects embedded within web pages that substituted for lecturers providing instruction and demonstration. This allowed lecturers to retain their facilitator role, and encouraged students to explore, analyse and make decisions within the safety of a clinical simulation. Learning was enhanced through network communications and reflection on video performances of self and others. Evaluations were positive, students demonstrating increased satisfaction with PBL, improved performance in exams, and increased self-efficacy in the performance of nursing activities. These results indicate that an elearning approach can support PBL in delivering a student centred learning experience.

Uninformative contexts support word learning for high-skill spellers.

Science.gov (United States)

Eskenazi, Michael A; Swischuk, Natascha K; Folk, Jocelyn R; Abraham, Ashley N

2018-04-30

The current study investigated how high-skill spellers and low-skill spellers incidentally learn words during reading. The purpose of the study was to determine whether readers can use uninformative contexts to support word learning after forming a lexical representation for a novel word, consistent with instance-based resonance processes. Previous research has found that uninformative contexts damage word learning; however, there may have been insufficient exposure to informative contexts (only one) prior to exposure to uninformative contexts (Webb, 2007; Webb, 2008). In Experiment 1, participants read sentences with one novel word (i.e., blaph, clurge) embedded in them in three different conditions: Informative (six informative contexts to support word learning), Mixed (three informative contexts followed by three uninformative contexts), and Uninformative (six uninformative contexts). Experiment 2 added a new condition with only three informative contexts to further clarify the conclusions of Experiment 1. Results indicated that uninformative contexts can support word learning, but only for high-skill spellers. Further, when participants learned the spelling of the novel word, they were more likely to learn the meaning of that word. This effect was much larger for high-skill spellers than for low-skill spellers. Results are consistent with the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (LQH) in that high-skill spellers form stronger orthographic representations which support word learning (Perfetti, 2007). Results also support an instance-based resonance process of word learning in that prior informative contexts can be reactivated to support word learning in future contexts (Bolger, Balass, Landen, & Perfetti, 2008; Balass, Nelson, & Perfetti, 2010; Reichle & Perfetti, 2003). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Paramedic Learning Style Preferences and Continuing Medical Education Activities: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Staple, Louis; Carter, Alix; Jensen, Jan L; Walker, Mark

2018-01-01

Paramedics participate in continuing medical education (CME) to maintain their skills and knowledge. An understanding of learning styles is important for education to be effective. This study examined the preferred learning styles of ground ambulance paramedics and describes how their preferred learning styles relate to the elective CME activities these paramedics attend. All paramedics (n=1,036) employed in a provincial ground ambulance service were invited to participate in a survey containing three parts: demographics, learning style assessed by the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI), and elective CME activity. 260 paramedics (25%) participated in the survey. Preferred learning styles were: assimilator, 28%; diverger, 25%; converger, 24%; and accommodator, 23%. Advanced life support (ALS) providers had a higher proportion of assimilators (36%), and basic life support (BLS) providers had a higher proportion of divergers (30%). The learning style categories of CME activities attended by paramedics were: assimilators, 25%; divergers, 26%; convergers, 25%; and accommodators, 24%. These results suggest that paramedics are a diverse group of learners, and learning style differs within their demographics. Paramedics attend CME activities that complement all learning styles. Organizations providing education opportunities to paramedics should consider paramedics a diverse learning group when designing their CME programs.

Parents Supporting Learning: A Non-Intensive Intervention Supporting Literacy and Numeracy in the Home Learning Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Niklas, Frank; Cohrssen, Caroline; Tayler, Collette

2016-01-01

In Australia, emphasis in early childhood education policy is placed on the importance of the role of the family as a child's first educator, and finding effective ways to raise the effectiveness of parents in supporting children's learning, development and well-being. International studies demonstrate that the home learning environment (HLE)…

Re-imagining Active Learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dall'Alba, Gloria; Bengtsen, Søren Smedegaard

2018-01-01

is largely lacking in the literature on active learning. In this article, we explore the possibility of re-imagining, or at least extending, the meaning of active learning by drawing out dimensions that are neither readily visible nor instrumental, as much of this literature implies. Drawing from educational......Ample attention is being paid in the higher education literature to promoting active learning among students. Where studies on active learning report student outcomes, they indicate improved or equivalent outcomes when compared with traditional lectures, which are considered more passive...... philosophy and, in particular, existential philosophies, we argue that active learning may also be partly invisible, unfocused, unsettling, and not at all instrumentalsometimes even leaving the learner more confused and (temporarily) incompetent. However, such forms of undisclosed or ‘dark’ learning, we...

The role of learning technologists in supporting e-research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Susi Peacock

2009-12-01

Full Text Available This article explores how the role of learning technologists, a professional group that has emerged during the last 15 to 20 years, may be diversifying to include supporting e-research. It contributes to the current debate about the emerging profession and the roles it should play in contemporary higher education. Previous studies have shown that, typically, the profession's role has focussed almost exclusively on curriculum development; traditionally, learning technologists work with students and tutors to enhance the learning environment with technology. This article presents two case studies of PhD research that used a standard e-learning tool, the virtual learning environment (VLE, to conduct focus groups online. The case studies demonstrate the expert role of the learning technologist in supporting researchers to make informed decisions about whether and how to use e-learning tools to conduct qualitative e-research. The learning technologist advised on the potential advantages and limitations of using the VLE for research and fostered collaborative, working relationships with the researchers, acquiring extensive background knowledge about their projects. This required the learning technologist to draw upon her own experience with research into e-learning and on her professional experience gained from supporting curriculum developments. It is suggested that many learning technologists could extend their roles, transferring their knowledge to include supporting e-research. A more inclusive model of the learning technologist's role in academia could help address the potential polarisation of the profession into researchers and practitioners.

Constructivist Learning Environment During Virtual and Real Laboratory Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ari Widodo

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Laboratory activities and constructivism are two notions that have been playing significant roles in science education. Despite common beliefs about the importance of laboratory activities, reviews reported inconsistent results about the effectiveness of laboratory activities. Since laboratory activities can be expensive and take more time, there is an effort to introduce virtual laboratory activities. This study aims at exploring the learning environment created by a virtual laboratory and a real laboratory. A quasi experimental study was conducted at two grade ten classes at a state high school in Bandung, Indonesia. Data were collected using a questionnaire called Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES before and after the laboratory activities. The results show that both types of laboratories can create constructivist learning environments. Each type of laboratory activity, however, may be stronger in improving certain aspects compared to the other. While a virtual laboratory is stronger in improving critical voice and personal relevance, real laboratory activities promote aspects of personal relevance, uncertainty and student negotiation. This study suggests that instead of setting one type of laboratory against the other, lessons and follow up studies should focus on how to combine both types of laboratories to support better learning.

Active learning in optics for girls

Science.gov (United States)

Ali, R.; Ashraf, I.

2017-08-01

Active learning in Optics (ALO) is a self-funded program under the umbrella of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) to bring physical sciences to traditionally underserved Girls high schools and colleges in Pakistan. There is a significant gender disparity in physical Sciences in Pakistan. In Department of Physics at QAU, approximately 10 to 20% of total students were used to be females from past many decades, but now this percentage is increasing. To keep it up at same pace, we started ALO in January 2016 as a way to provide girls an enriching science experiences, in a very friendly atmosphere. We have organized many one-day activities, to support and encourage girls' students of government high schools and colleges to pursue careers in sciences. In this presentation we will describe our experience and lesson learned in these activities.

Unsupervised active learning based on hierarchical graph-theoretic clustering.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Weiming; Hu, Wei; Xie, Nianhua; Maybank, Steve

2009-10-01

Most existing active learning approaches are supervised. Supervised active learning has the following problems: inefficiency in dealing with the semantic gap between the distribution of samples in the feature space and their labels, lack of ability in selecting new samples that belong to new categories that have not yet appeared in the training samples, and lack of adaptability to changes in the semantic interpretation of sample categories. To tackle these problems, we propose an unsupervised active learning framework based on hierarchical graph-theoretic clustering. In the framework, two promising graph-theoretic clustering algorithms, namely, dominant-set clustering and spectral clustering, are combined in a hierarchical fashion. Our framework has some advantages, such as ease of implementation, flexibility in architecture, and adaptability to changes in the labeling. Evaluations on data sets for network intrusion detection, image classification, and video classification have demonstrated that our active learning framework can effectively reduce the workload of manual classification while maintaining a high accuracy of automatic classification. It is shown that, overall, our framework outperforms the support-vector-machine-based supervised active learning, particularly in terms of dealing much more efficiently with new samples whose categories have not yet appeared in the training samples.

A Studi on High Plant Systems Course with Active Learning in Higher Education Through Outdoor Learning to Increase Student Learning Activities

OpenAIRE

Nur Rokhimah Hanik, Anwari Adi Nugroho

2015-01-01

Biology learning especially high plant system courses needs to be applied to active learning centered on the student (Active Learning In Higher Education) to enhance the students' learning activities so that the quality of learning for the better. Outdoor Learning is one of the active learning invites students to learn outside of the classroom by exploring the surrounding environment. This research aims to improve the students' learning activities in the course of high plant systems through t...

Supporting online learning with games

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, JingTao; Kim, DongWon; Herbert, Joseph P.

2007-04-01

This paper presents a study on Web-based learning support systems that is enhanced with two major subsystems: a Web-based learning game and a learning-oriented Web search. The Internet and theWeb may be considered as a first resource for students seeking for information and help. However, much of the information available online is not related to the course contents or is wrong in the worse case. The search subsystem aims to provide students with precise, relative and adaptable documents about certain courses or classes. Therefore, students do not have to spend time to verify the relationship of documents to the class. The learning game subsystem stimulates students to study, enables students to review their studies and to perform self-evaluation through a Web-based learning game such as a treasure hunt game. During the challenge and entertaining learning and evaluation process, it is hoped that students will eventually understand and master the course concepts easily. The goal of developing such a system is to provide students with an efficient and effective learning environment.

A Team Formation and Project-based Learning Support Service for Social Learning Networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Spoelstra, Howard; Van Rosmalen, Peter; Van de Vrie, Evert; Obreza, Matija; Sloep, Peter

2014-01-01

The Internet affords new approaches to learning. Geographically dispersed self-directed learners can learn in computer-supported communities, forming social learning networks. However, self-directed learners can suffer from a lack of continuous motivation. And surprisingly, social learning networks

Supporting cognitive engagement in a learning-by-doing learning environment: Case studies of participant engagement and social configurations in Kitchen Science Investigators

Science.gov (United States)

Gardner, Christina M.

Learning-by-doing learning environments support a wealth of physical engagement in activities. However, there is also a lot of variability in what participants learn in each enactment of these types of environments. Therefore, it is not always clear how participants are learning in these environments. In order to design technologies to support learning in these environments, we must have a greater understanding of how participants engage in learning activities, their goals for their engagement, and the types of help they need to cognitively engage in learning activities. To gain a greater understanding of participant engagement and factors and circumstances that promote and inhibit engagement, this dissertation explores and answers several questions: What are the types of interactions and experiences that promote and /or inhibit learning and engagement in learning-by-doing learning environments? What are the types of configurations that afford or inhibit these interactions and experiences in learning-by-doing learning environments? I explore answers to these questions through the context of two enactments of Kitchen Science Investigators (KSI), a learning-by-doing learning environment where middle-school aged children learn science through cooking from customizing recipes to their own taste and texture preferences. In small groups, they investigate effects of ingredients through the design of cooking and science experiments, through which they experience and learn about chemical, biological, and physical science phenomena and concepts (Clegg, Gardner, Williams, & Kolodner, 2006). The research reported in this dissertation sheds light on the different ways participant engagement promotes and/or inhibits cognitive engagement in by learning-by-doing learning environments through two case studies. It also provides detailed descriptions of the circumstances (social, material, and physical configurations) that promote and/or inhibit participant engagement in these

NFC LearnTracker: Seamless support for learning with mobile and sensor technology

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Tabuenca, Bernardo; Kalz, Marco; Specht, Marcus

2014-01-01

Lifelong learning activities are scattered along the day, in different locations and making use of multiple devices. Most of the times adults have to merge learning, work and everyday life making it difficult to have an account on how much time is devoted to learning activities and learning goals.

Project management support tool implementation. DynaLearn, EC FP7 STREP project 231526, Deliverable D1.1

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bredeweg, B.; Liem, J.

2009-01-01

Different project management tools have been evaluated. We have chosen several well-known, flexible and mature tools to support management activities and communication between the DynaLearn project participants. We have created a DynaLearn website for stakeholders outside the DynaLearn website. An

Ambient Learning Displays - Distributed Mixed Reality Information Mash-ups to support Ubiquitous Learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Börner, Dirk

2010-01-01

Börner, D. (2010, 19-21 March). Ambient Learning Displays Distributed Mixed Reality Information Mash-ups to support Ubiquitous Learning. Presented at the IADIS International Conference Mobile Learning 2010, Porto, Portugal.

Challenges of Using Learning Analytics Techniques to Support Mobile Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Arrigo, Marco; Fulantelli, Giovanni; Taibi, Davide

2015-01-01

Evaluation of Mobile Learning remains an open research issue, especially as regards the activities that take place outside the classroom. In this context, Learning Analytics can provide answers, and offer the appropriate tools to enhance Mobile Learning experiences. In this poster we introduce a task-interaction framework, using learning analytics…

Learners' experiences of learning support in selected Western Cape schools

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olaniyi Bojuwoye

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The study explored Western Cape primary and secondary school learners' experiences regarding the provision and utilization of support services for improving learning. A qualitative interpretive approach was adopted and data gathered through focus group interviews involving 90 learners. Results revealed that learners received and utilized various forms of learning support from their schools, teachers, and peers. The learning support assisted in meeting learners' academic, social and emotional needs by addressing barriers to learning, creating conducive learning environments, enhancing learners' self-esteem and improving learners' academic performance.

Representation of Coordination Mechanisms in IMS Learning Design to Support Group-based Learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Miao, Yongwu; Burgos, Daniel; Griffiths, David; Koper, Rob

2007-01-01

Miao, Y., Burgos, D., Griffiths, D., & Koper, R. (2008). Representation of Coordination Mechanisms in IMS Learning Design to Support Group-based Learning. In L. Lockyer, S. Bennet, S. Agostinho & B. Harper (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Learning Design and Learning Objects: Issues, Applications and

GP Supervisors' Experience in Supporting Self-Regulated Learning: A Balancing Act

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Sagasser, Margaretha H.; Kramer, Anneke W. M.; van Weel, Chris; van der Vleuten, Cees P. M.

2015-01-01

Self-regulated learning is essential for professional development and lifelong learning. As self-regulated learning has many inaccuracies, the need to support self-regulated learning has been recommended. Supervisors can provide such support. In a prior study trainees reported on the variation in received supervisor support. This study aims at…

An Experience Sampling Study of Learning, Affect, and the Demands Control Support Model

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Daniels, Kevin; Boocock, Grahame; Glover, Jane; Hartley, Ruth; Holland, Julie

2009-01-01

The demands control support model (R. A. Karasek & T. Theorell, 1990) indicates that job control and social support enable workers to engage in problem solving. In turn, problem solving is thought to influence learning and well-being (e.g., anxious affect, activated pleasant affect). Two samples (N = 78, N = 106) provided data up to 4 times per…

Students experiences with collaborative learning in asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environments.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dewiyanti, Silvia; Brand-Gruwel, Saskia; Jochems, Wim; Broers, Nick

2008-01-01

Dewiyanti, S., Brand-Gruwel, S., Jochems, W., & Broers, N. (2007). Students experiences with collaborative learning in asynchronous computer-supported collaborative learning environments. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 496-514.

Supporting Fieldwork Learning by Visual Documentation and Reflection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saltofte, Margit

2017-01-01

Photos can be used as a supplements to written fieldnotes and as a sources for mediating reflection during fieldwork and analysis. As part of a field diary, photos can support the recall of experiences and a reflective distance to the events. Photography, as visual representation, can also lead...... to reflection on learning and knowledge production in the process of learning how to conduct fieldwork. Pictures can open the way for abstractions and hidden knowledge, which might otherwise be difficult to formulate in words. However, writing and written field notes cannot be fully replaced by photos...... the role played by photos in their learning process. For students, photography is an everyday documentation form that can support their memory of field experience and serve as a vehicle for the analysis of data. The article discusses how photos and visual representations support fieldwork learning...

Personal Learning Environments for Supporting Out-of-Class Language Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Reinders, Hayo

2014-01-01

A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) it is a combination of tools (usually digital) and resources chosen by the learner to support different aspects of the learning process, from goal setting to materials selection to assessment. The importance of PLEs for teachers lies in their ability to help students develop autonomy and prepare them for…

A study on online learner profile for supporting personalized learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jie Yang

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Digital learning as a popular learning approach has received increasing attention in modern education. The learner profile in online learning plays a critical role in supporting personalized learning. This article uses an information flow-based approach to build the learner profile for supporting personalized learning. The learner profile includes the individual profile to capture the personal features and the community profile to capture the social features in online learning environment.

Combining traditional anatomy lectures with e-learning activities: how do students perceive their learning experience?

Science.gov (United States)

Lochner, Lukas; Wieser, Heike; Waldboth, Simone; Mischo-Kelling, Maria

2016-02-21

The purpose of this study was to investigate how students perceived their learning experience when combining traditional anatomy lectures with preparatory e-learning activities that consisted of fill-in-the-blank assignments, videos, and multiple-choice quizzes. A qualitative study was conducted to explore changes in study behaviour and perception of learning. Three group interviews with students were conducted and thematically analysed. Data was categorized into four themes: 1. Approaching the course material, 2. Understanding the material, 3. Consolidating the material, and 4. Perceived learning outcome. Students appreciated the clear structure of the course, and reported that online activities encouraged them towards a first engagement with the material. They felt that they were more active during in-class sessions, described self-study before the end-of-term exam as easier, and believed that contents would remain in their memories for a longer time. By adjusting already existing resources, lectures can be combined fairly easily and cost-effectively with preparatory e-learning activities. The creation of online components promote well-structured courses, can help minimize 'student passivity' as a characteristic element of lectures, and can support students in distributing their studies throughout the term, thus suggesting enhanced learning. Further research work should be designed to confirm the afore-mentioned findings through objective measurements of student learning outcomes.

Combining traditional anatomy lectures with e-learning activities: how do students perceive their learning experience?

Science.gov (United States)

Wieser, Heike; Waldboth, Simone; Mischo-Kelling, Maria

2016-01-01

Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate how students perceived their learning experience when combining traditional anatomy lectures with preparatory e-learning activities that consisted of fill-in-the-blank assignments, videos, and multiple-choice quizzes. Methods A qualitative study was conducted to explore changes in study behaviour and perception of learning. Three group interviews with students were conducted and thematically analysed. Results Data was categorized into four themes: 1. Approaching the course material, 2. Understanding the material, 3. Consolidating the material, and 4. Perceived learning outcome.  Students appreciated the clear structure of the course, and reported that online activities encouraged them towards a first engagement with the material. They felt that they were more active during in-class sessions, described self-study before the end-of-term exam as easier, and believed that contents would remain in their memories for a longer time. Conclusions By adjusting already existing resources, lectures can be combined fairly easily and cost-effectively with preparatory e-learning activities. The creation of online components promote well-structured courses, can help minimize ‘student passivity’ as a characteristic element of lectures, and can support students in distributing their studies throughout the term, thus suggesting enhanced learning. Further research work should be designed to confirm the afore-mentioned findings through objective measurements of student learning outcomes. PMID:26897012

Re-Appropriating a Question/Answer System to Support Dialectical Constructivist Learning Activity

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Carroll, John M.; Wu, Yu; Shih, Patrick C.; Zheng, Saijing

2016-01-01

Learning can be engaged by dialectic, that is, by identifying pros and cons that inhere in propositions, and more generally, by raising questions about the validity of claims. We report here on a classroom case study of dialectical constructivist pedagogy: Students created dialectical analyses of two lectures and four books as core activities in a…

Organizational Support for Action Learning in South Korean Organizations

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Cho, Yonjoo; Egan, Toby

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was (1) to examine the impact of organizational support on employee learning and performance and (2) to elaborate on the context of organizational support for action learning in South Korean organizations. For this inquiry, two central questions were posed: What are employee reactions to organizational support for action…

Simulation as a learning strategy: supporting undergraduate nursing students with disabilities.

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Azzopardi, Toni; Johnson, Amanda; Phillips, Kirrilee; Dickson, Cathy; Hengstberger-Sims, Cecily; Goldsmith, Mary; Allan, Trevor

2014-02-01

To promote simulation as a learning strategy to support undergraduate nursing students with disabilities. Supporting undergraduate nursing students with disabilities has gained further momentum because of amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act in 2009. Providers of higher education must now ensure proactive steps to prevent discrimination against students with a disability are implemented to assist in course progression. Simulation allows for the impact of a student's disability to be assessed and informs the determination of reasonable adjustments to be implemented. Further suitable adjustments can then be determined in a safe environment and evaluated prior to scheduled placement. Auditing in this manner, offers a risk management strategy for all while maintaining the academic integrity of the program. Discursive. Low, medium and high fidelity simulation activities critically analysed and their application to support undergraduate nursing students with disabilities assessed. With advancing technology and new pedagogical approaches simulation as a learning strategy can play a significant role. In this role, simulation supports undergraduate nursing students with disabilities to meet course requirements, while offering higher education providers an important risk management strategy. The discussion recommends simulation is used to inform the determination of reasonable adjustments for undergraduate nursing students with disabilities as an effective, contemporary curriculum practice. Adoption of simulation, in this way, will meet three imperatives: comply with current legislative requirements, embrace advances in learning technologies and embed one of the six principles of inclusive curriculum. Achieving these imperatives is likely to increase accessibility for all students and offer students with a disability a supportive learning experience. Provides capacity to systematically assess, monitor, evaluate and support students with a disability. The students

Technology and Products Supporting E-learning by Knowledge Management - A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ying Wang

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract—Knowledge management is supported by many strategies such as business intelligence, collaboration, document management and e-learning. With the development of modern information technology and the increases of demand for building and maintaining dynamic capabilities, E-learning has played more and more important role of all the technologies in the supporting knowledge management. A successful e-learning system is supported by many critical success factors and technology has become the key factor among these factors. Consequently, the review of basic technologies and corresponding products that support e-learning will be in favor of further study on e-learning. From perspective of knowledge management, this paper makes a review about the relationship between e-learning and knowledge management and advanced technologies and corresponding products that support the design and operation of e-learning system. At the end of this paper, we analyze the main trends of the development direction of e-learning technology.

A Cybernetic Design Methodology for 'Intelligent' Online Learning Support

Science.gov (United States)

Quinton, Stephen R.

The World Wide Web (WWW) provides learners and knowledge workers convenient access to vast stores of information, so much that present methods for refinement of a query or search result are inadequate - there is far too much potentially useful material. The problem often encountered is that users usually do not recognise what may be useful until they have progressed some way through the discovery, learning, and knowledge acquisition process. Additional support is needed to structure and identify potentially relevant information, and to provide constructive feedback. In short, support for learning is needed. The learning envisioned here is not simply the capacity to recall facts or to recognise objects. The focus is on learning that results in the construction of knowledge. Although most online learning platforms are efficient at delivering information, most do not provide tools that support learning as envisaged in this chapter. It is conceivable that Web-based learning environments can incorporate software systems that assist learners to form new associations between concepts and synthesise information to create new knowledge. This chapter details the rationale and theory behind a research study that aims to evolve Web-based learning environments into 'intelligent thinking' systems that respond to natural language human input. Rather than functioning simply as a means of delivering information, it is argued that online learning solutions will 1 day interact directly with students to support their conceptual thinking and cognitive development.

Learning from instructional explanations: effects of prompts based on the active-constructive-interactive framework.

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Roelle, Julian; Müller, Claudia; Roelle, Detlev; Berthold, Kirsten

2015-01-01

Although instructional explanations are commonly provided when learners are introduced to new content, they often fail because they are not integrated into effective learning activities. The recently introduced active-constructive-interactive framework posits an effectiveness hierarchy in which interactive learning activities are at the top; these are then followed by constructive and active learning activities, respectively. Against this background, we combined instructional explanations with different types of prompts that were designed to elicit these learning activities and tested the central predictions of the active-constructive-interactive framework. In Experiment 1, N = 83 students were randomly assigned to one of four combinations of instructional explanations and prompts. To test the active learning hypothesis, the learners received either (1) complete explanations and engaging prompts designed to elicit active activities or (2) explanations that were reduced by inferences and inference prompts designed to engage learners in constructing the withheld information. Furthermore, in order to explore how interactive learning activities can be elicited, we gave the learners who had difficulties in constructing the prompted inferences adapted remedial explanations with either (3) unspecific engaging prompts or (4) revision prompts. In support of the active learning hypothesis, we found that the learners who received reduced explanations and inference prompts outperformed the learners who received complete explanations and engaging prompts. Moreover, revision prompts were more effective in eliciting interactive learning activities than engaging prompts. In Experiment 2, N = 40 students were randomly assigned to either (1) a reduced explanations and inference prompts or (2) a reduced explanations and inference prompts plus adapted remedial explanations and revision prompts condition. In support of the constructive learning hypothesis, the learners who received

Evaluating the use of augmented reality to support undergraduate student learning in geomorphology

Science.gov (United States)

Ockelford, A.; Bullard, J. E.; Burton, E.; Hackney, C. R.

2016-12-01

Augmented Reality (AR) supports the understanding of complex phenomena by providing unique visual and interactive experiences that combine real and virtual information and help communicate abstract problems to learners. With AR, designers can superimpose virtual graphics over real objects, allowing users to interact with digital content through physical manipulation. One of the most significant pedagogic features of AR is that it provides an essentially student-centred and flexible space in which students can learn. By actively engaging participants using a design-thinking approach, this technology has the potential to provide a more productive and engaging learning environment than real or virtual learning environments alone. AR is increasingly being used in support of undergraduate learning and public engagement activities across engineering, medical and humanities disciplines but it is not widely used across the geosciences disciplines despite the obvious applicability. This paper presents preliminary results from a multi-institutional project which seeks to evaluate the benefits and challenges of using an augmented reality sand box to support undergraduate learning in geomorphology. The sandbox enables users to create and visualise topography. As the sand is sculpted, contours are projected onto the miniature landscape. By hovering a hand over the box, users can make it `rain' over the landscape and the water `flows' down in to rivers and valleys. At undergraduate level, the sand-box is an ideal focus for problem-solving exercises, for example exploring how geomorphology controls hydrological processes, how such processes can be altered and the subsequent impacts of the changes for environmental risk. It is particularly valuable for students who favour a visual or kinesthetic learning style. Results presented in this paper discuss how the sandbox provides a complex interactive environment that encourages communication, collaboration and co-design.

Lifelong Learning Organisers: Requirements for Tools for Supporting Episodic and Semantic Learning

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Vavoula, Giasemi; Sharples, Mike

2009-01-01

We propose Lifelong Learning Organisers (LLOs) as tools to support the capturing, organisation and retrieval of personal learning experiences, resources and notes, over a range of learning topics, at different times and places. The paper discusses general requirements for the design of LLOs based on findings from a diary-based study of everyday…

Lifelong Learning and its support with new technologies

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Kalz, Marco

2014-01-01

This chapter provides an overview about the use of new technologies for lifelong learning. While in the past learning technologies were mostly provided by educational institutions to support a specific lifetime or shorter learning episodes nowadays more personal technologies are used for lifelong

Active Learning Methods

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Zayapragassarazan, Z.; Kumar, Santosh

2012-01-01

Present generation students are primarily active learners with varied learning experiences and lecture courses may not suit all their learning needs. Effective learning involves providing students with a sense of progress and control over their own learning. This requires creating a situation where learners have a chance to try out or test their…

Empowering Teachers to Author Multimedia Learning Resources That Support Students' Critical Thinking

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Holley, Debbie; Boyle, Tom

2012-01-01

Students studying Marketing, Fashion, Public Relations, Advertising and similar subjects need to develop a "critical eye" in relation to images, media and digital technologies. This project aims to empower teachers to develop multimedia learning resources that would support students engaging in this essential activity. Developing such…

DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP COLLABORATION FACTORS TO SUPPORT IDEA GENERATION IN COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COLLABORATIVE e-LEARNING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Niki Lambropoulos

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to identify, discuss and analyze students’ collaboration factors related to distributed leadership (DL, which correlates with interaction quality evident in idea generation. Scripting computer-supported collaborative e-learning (CSCeL activities based on DL can scaffold students’ interactions that support collaboration and promote idea generation. Furthermore, the associated tools can facilitate collaboration via scripting and shed light on students’ interactions and dialogical sequences. Such detailed planning can result in effective short e-courses. In this case study, 21 MSc students’ teams worked on a DL project within a 2-day e-course at the IT Institute (ITIN, France. The research methods involved a self-reported questionnaire; the Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NNMF algorithm with qualitative analysis; and outcomes from the Social Network Analysis (SNA tools implemented within the forums. The results indicated that scripting DL based on the identified distributed leadership attributes can support values such as collaboration and can be useful in supporting idea generation in short e-courses.

Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics.

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Freeman, Scott; Eddy, Sarah L; McDonough, Miles; Smith, Michelle K; Okoroafor, Nnadozie; Jordt, Hannah; Wenderoth, Mary Pat

2014-06-10

To test the hypothesis that lecturing maximizes learning and course performance, we metaanalyzed 225 studies that reported data on examination scores or failure rates when comparing student performance in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses under traditional lecturing versus active learning. The effect sizes indicate that on average, student performance on examinations and concept inventories increased by 0.47 SDs under active learning (n = 158 studies), and that the odds ratio for failing was 1.95 under traditional lecturing (n = 67 studies). These results indicate that average examination scores improved by about 6% in active learning sections, and that students in classes with traditional lecturing were 1.5 times more likely to fail than were students in classes with active learning. Heterogeneity analyses indicated that both results hold across the STEM disciplines, that active learning increases scores on concept inventories more than on course examinations, and that active learning appears effective across all class sizes--although the greatest effects are in small (n ≤ 50) classes. Trim and fill analyses and fail-safe n calculations suggest that the results are not due to publication bias. The results also appear robust to variation in the methodological rigor of the included studies, based on the quality of controls over student quality and instructor identity. This is the largest and most comprehensive metaanalysis of undergraduate STEM education published to date. The results raise questions about the continued use of traditional lecturing as a control in research studies, and support active learning as the preferred, empirically validated teaching practice in regular classrooms.

Panorama of Recommender Systems to Support Learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Drachsler, Hendrik; Verbert, Katrien; Santos, Olga C.; Manouselis, Nikos

2015-01-01

This chapter presents an analysis of recommender systems in TechnologyEnhanced Learning along their 15 years existence (2000-2014). All recommender systems considered for the review aim to support educational stakeholders by personalising the learning process. In this meta-review 82 recommender

Organisational Culture: Electronic Support for Occupational Learning.

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Saunders, Murray

1998-01-01

Outlines the interrelationship between telematic learning support and organizational culture of the workplace, defines occupational learning and types of organizationally generated knowledge, identifies concepts of organizational culture, and assesses the argument that telematics can effect changes in culture. Contextualizes these issues in new…

Supporting Problem Solving with Case-Stories Learning Scenario and Video-based Collaborative Learning Technology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chun Hu

2004-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper, we suggest that case-based resources, which are used for assisting cognition during problem solving, can be structured around the work of narratives in social cultural psychology. Theories and other research methods have proposed structures within narratives and stories which may be useful to the design of case-based resources. Moreover, embedded within cases are stories which are contextually rich, supporting the epistemological groundings of situated cognition. Therefore the purposes of this paper are to discuss possible frameworks of case-stories; derive design principles as to “what” constitutes a good case story or narrative; and suggest how technology can support story-based learning. We adopt video-based Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL technology to support problem solving with case-stories learning scenarios. Our hypothesis in this paper is that well-designed case-based resources are able to aid in the cognitive processes undergirding problem solving and meaning making. We also suggest the use of an emerging video-based collaborative learning technology to support such an instructional strategy.

A Contextualised Multi-Platform Framework to Support Blended Learning Scenarios in Learning Networks

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De Jong, Tim; Fuertes, Alba; Schmeits, Tally; Specht, Marcus; Koper, Rob

2008-01-01

De Jong, T., Fuertes, A., Schmeits, T., Specht, M., & Koper, R. (2009). A Contextualised Multi-Platform Framework to Support Blended Learning Scenarios in Learning Networks. In D. Goh (Ed.), Multiplatform E-Learning Systems and Technologies: Mobile Devices for Ubiquitous ICT-Based Education (pp.

Using visualizations to support collaboration and coordination during computer-supported collaborative learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Janssen, J.J.H.M.

2008-01-01

This thesis addresses the topic of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL in short). In a CSCL-environment, students work in small groups on complex and challenging tasks. Although the teacher guides this process at a distance, students have to regulate and monitor their own learning

GP supervisors' experience in supporting self-regulated learning: a balancing act

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sagasser, M.H.; Kramer, A.W.M.; Weel, C. van; Vleuten, C.P.M. van der

2015-01-01

Self-regulated learning is essential for professional development and lifelong learning. As self-regulated learning has many inaccuracies, the need to support self-regulated learning has been recommended. Supervisors can provide such support. In a prior study trainees reported on the variation in

System of Consciousness Contextual as Learning Support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jorge Eliseo Gómez Gómez

2016-08-01

Full Text Available With the inclusion of ubiquitous computing in education, it is intended that the student is an active agent in its formation process and interacts with its context. This paper presents the design and implementation of architecture for ubiquitous learning environments in which they integrate physical spaces with applications which are then executed by users. The system supports objects augmented with RFID tags, NFC and QR Code. Each tag contains data that uniquely identifies the resource. To validate the proposed architecture is developed experimentally tested a prototype at the end of it is done to verify that the proposed architecture improves the academic performance of students.

Learners' experiences of learning support in selected Western Cape ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The learning support assisted in meeting learners' academic, social and emotional needs by addressing barriers to learning, creating conducive learning environments, enhancing learners' self-esteem and improving learners' academic performance. Keywords: academic needs; academic performance; barriers to learning; ...

Supporting Inquiry-based Learning with Google Glass (GPIM)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suarez, Angel; Ternier, Stefaan; Kalz, Marco; Specht, Marcus

2015-01-01

Wearable technology is a new genre of technology that is appearing to enhance learning in context. This manuscript introduces a Google Glass application to support Inquiry-based Learning (IBL). Applying Google Glass to IBL, we aim to transform the learning process into a more seamless, personal and

Social networks as ICT collaborative and supportive learning media ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

... ICT collaborative and supportive learning media utilisation within the Nigerian educational system. The concept of ICT was concisely explained vis-à-vis the social network concept, theory and collaborative and supportive learning media utilisation. Different types of social network are highlighted among which Facebook, ...

Seamless Support: Technology Enhanced Learning in Open Distance Learning at NWU

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Esterhuizen, Hennie

2015-01-01

Frantic attempts of investing in technology to demonstrate willingness to educate for the knowledge society may result in failure to address the real requirements. This paper presents the main features of a framework for integrating Technology Enhanced Learning in Open Distance Learning at North-West University, South Africa. Support towards…

Applying active learning to supervised word sense disambiguation in MEDLINE.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yukun; Cao, Hongxin; Mei, Qiaozhu; Zheng, Kai; Xu, Hua

2013-01-01

This study was to assess whether active learning strategies can be integrated with supervised word sense disambiguation (WSD) methods, thus reducing the number of annotated samples, while keeping or improving the quality of disambiguation models. We developed support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to disambiguate 197 ambiguous terms and abbreviations in the MSH WSD collection. Three different uncertainty sampling-based active learning algorithms were implemented with the SVM classifiers and were compared with a passive learner (PL) based on random sampling. For each ambiguous term and each learning algorithm, a learning curve that plots the accuracy computed from the test set as a function of the number of annotated samples used in the model was generated. The area under the learning curve (ALC) was used as the primary metric for evaluation. Our experiments demonstrated that active learners (ALs) significantly outperformed the PL, showing better performance for 177 out of 197 (89.8%) WSD tasks. Further analysis showed that to achieve an average accuracy of 90%, the PL needed 38 annotated samples, while the ALs needed only 24, a 37% reduction in annotation effort. Moreover, we analyzed cases where active learning algorithms did not achieve superior performance and identified three causes: (1) poor models in the early learning stage; (2) easy WSD cases; and (3) difficult WSD cases, which provide useful insight for future improvements. This study demonstrated that integrating active learning strategies with supervised WSD methods could effectively reduce annotation cost and improve the disambiguation models.

Considering Peer Support for Self-Access Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Craig Manning

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper briefly examines if and how peer support can be implemented as an appropriate means to improve self-access learning. The potential for further alignment with the higher aims common among self-access learning centers will be examined. Opportunities for increasing interdependence, purpose, and level of challenge to foster student engagement will also be explored. Finally, future directions in self-access learning will be discussed.

Learning How to Design a Technology Supported Inquiry-Based Learning Environment

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Hakverdi-Can, Meral; Sonmez, Duygu

2012-01-01

This paper describes a study focusing on pre-service teachers' experience of learning how to design a technology supported inquiry-based learning environment using the Internet. As part of their elective course, pre-service science teachers were asked to develop a WebQuest environment targeting middle school students. A WebQuest is an…

Facilitating Adoption of Web Tools for Problem and Project Based Learning Activities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Khalid, Md. Saifuddin; Rongbutsri, Nikorn; Buus, Lillian

2012-01-01

and project based learning. In the area of problem and project based learning, facilitation is the core term and the teacher often has the role as facilitator or moderator instead of a teacher teaching. Technology adoption for learning activities needs facilitation, which is mostly absent. Sustainable......This paper builds on research directions from ‘activity theory’ and ‘learning design’ to provide ‘facilitation’ for students standing within decision making related to selection of web 2.0 tools and university provided web-based applications for supporting students activities within problem...... adoption might be facilitated based on tool appropriation with activities associated with courses and projects. Our mapping of different tools in a framework is reported based on interviews, observations, narratives and survey. A direction towards facilitation process for adoption is discussed as part...

Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dalsgaard, Christian

2006-01-01

The article argues that it is necessary to move e-learning beyond learning management systems and engage students in an active use of the web as a resource for their self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities. The purpose of the article is to discuss the potential of social software...... to move e-learning beyond learning management systems. An approach to use of social software in support of a social constructivist approach to e-learning is presented, and it is argued that learning management systems do not support a social constructivist approach which emphasizes self-governed learning...... activities of students. The article suggests a limitation of the use of learning management systems to cover only administrative issues. Further, it is argued that students' self-governed learning processes are supported by providing students with personal tools and engaging them in different kinds of social...

Predicting Solar Activity Using Machine-Learning Methods

Science.gov (United States)

Bobra, M.

2017-12-01

Of all the activity observed on the Sun, two of the most energetic events are flares and coronal mass ejections. However, we do not, as of yet, fully understand the physical mechanism that triggers solar eruptions. A machine-learning algorithm, which is favorable in cases where the amount of data is large, is one way to [1] empirically determine the signatures of this mechanism in solar image data and [2] use them to predict solar activity. In this talk, we discuss the application of various machine learning algorithms - specifically, a Support Vector Machine, a sparse linear regression (Lasso), and Convolutional Neural Network - to image data from the photosphere, chromosphere, transition region, and corona taken by instruments aboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory in order to predict solar activity on a variety of time scales. Such an approach may be useful since, at the present time, there are no physical models of flares available for real-time prediction. We discuss our results (Bobra and Couvidat, 2015; Bobra and Ilonidis, 2016; Jonas et al., 2017) as well as other attempts to predict flares using machine-learning (e.g. Ahmed et al., 2013; Nishizuka et al. 2017) and compare these results with the more traditional techniques used by the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center (Crown, 2012). We also discuss some of the challenges in using machine-learning algorithms for space science applications.

Active Learning with Statistical Models.

Science.gov (United States)

1995-01-01

Active Learning with Statistical Models ASC-9217041, NSF CDA-9309300 6. AUTHOR(S) David A. Cohn, Zoubin Ghahramani, and Michael I. Jordan 7. PERFORMING...TERMS 15. NUMBER OF PAGES Al, MIT, Artificial Intelligence, active learning , queries, locally weighted 6 regression, LOESS, mixtures of gaussians...COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING DEPARTMENT OF BRAIN AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES A.I. Memo No. 1522 January 9. 1995 C.B.C.L. Paper No. 110 Active Learning with

Learning outcomes between Socioscientific Issues-Based Learning and Conventional Learning Activities

OpenAIRE

Piyaluk Wongsri; Prasart Nuangchalerm

2010-01-01

Problem statement: Socioscientific issues-based learning activity is essential for scientific reasoning skills and it could be used for analyzing problems be applied to each situation for more successful and suitable. The purposes of this research aimed to compare learning achievement, analytical thinking and moral reasoning of seventh grade students who were organized between socioscientific issues-based learning and conventional learning activities. Approach: The samples used in research we...

The 8 Learning Events Model: a Pedagogic Conceptual Tool Supporting Diversification of Learning Methods

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Verpoorten, Dominique; Poumay, M; Leclercq, D

2006-01-01

Please, cite this publication as: Verpoorten, D., Poumay, M., & Leclercq, D. (2006). The 8 Learning Events Model: a Pedagogic Conceptual Tool Supporting Diversification of Learning Methods. Proceedings of International Workshop in Learning Networks for Lifelong Competence Development, TENCompetence

Understanding the Factors that Support the Use of Active Learning Teaching in STEM Undergraduate Courses: Case Studies in the Field of Geoscience

Science.gov (United States)

Iverson, Ellen A. Roscoe

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors that support the adoption of active learning teaching strategies in undergraduate courses by faculty members, specifically in the STEM disciplines related to geoscience. The focus of the study centered on the context of the department which was identified as a gap in evaluation and educational research studies of STEM faculty development. The study used a mixed-method case study methodology to investigate the influences of departmental context on faculty members' adoption of active-learning teaching practices. The study compared and contrasted the influence of two faculty development strategies initiated in the field of geoscience. Six university geoscience departments were selected that had participated in two national geoscience professional development programs. Data were generated from 19 faculty interviews, 5 key informant interviews, and documents related to departmental and institutional context. The study concluded that two main factors influenced the degree to which faculty who participated in geoscience faculty development reported adoption of active learning pedagogies. These conclusions are a) the opportunity to engage in informal, regular conversations with departmental colleagues about teaching promoted adoption of new teaching approaches and ideas and b) institutional practices regarding the ways in which teaching practices were typically measured, valued, and incentivized tended to inhibit risk taking in teaching. The conclusions have implications related to institutional policy, faculty development, and the role of evaluation.

Applying active learning to supervised word sense disambiguation in MEDLINE

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yukun; Cao, Hongxin; Mei, Qiaozhu; Zheng, Kai; Xu, Hua

2013-01-01

Objectives This study was to assess whether active learning strategies can be integrated with supervised word sense disambiguation (WSD) methods, thus reducing the number of annotated samples, while keeping or improving the quality of disambiguation models. Methods We developed support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to disambiguate 197 ambiguous terms and abbreviations in the MSH WSD collection. Three different uncertainty sampling-based active learning algorithms were implemented with the SVM classifiers and were compared with a passive learner (PL) based on random sampling. For each ambiguous term and each learning algorithm, a learning curve that plots the accuracy computed from the test set as a function of the number of annotated samples used in the model was generated. The area under the learning curve (ALC) was used as the primary metric for evaluation. Results Our experiments demonstrated that active learners (ALs) significantly outperformed the PL, showing better performance for 177 out of 197 (89.8%) WSD tasks. Further analysis showed that to achieve an average accuracy of 90%, the PL needed 38 annotated samples, while the ALs needed only 24, a 37% reduction in annotation effort. Moreover, we analyzed cases where active learning algorithms did not achieve superior performance and identified three causes: (1) poor models in the early learning stage; (2) easy WSD cases; and (3) difficult WSD cases, which provide useful insight for future improvements. Conclusions This study demonstrated that integrating active learning strategies with supervised WSD methods could effectively reduce annotation cost and improve the disambiguation models. PMID:23364851

Student Motivation from and Resistance to Active Learning Rooted in Essential Science Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Owens, David C.; Sadler, Troy D.; Barlow, Angela T.; Smith-Walters, Cindi

2017-12-01

Several studies have found active learning to enhance students' motivation and attitudes. Yet, faculty indicate that students resist active learning and censure them on evaluations after incorporating active learning into their instruction, resulting in an apparent paradox. We argue that the disparity in findings across previous studies is the result of variation in the active learning instruction that was implemented. The purpose of this study was to illuminate sources of motivation from and resistance to active learning that resulted from a novel, exemplary active-learning approach rooted in essential science practices and supported by science education literature. This approach was enacted over the course of 4 weeks in eight sections of an introductory undergraduate biology laboratory course. A plant concept inventory, administered to students as a pre-, post-, and delayed-posttest indicated significant proximal and distal learning gains. Qualitative analysis of open-response questionnaires and interviews elucidated sources of motivation and resistance that resulted from this active-learning approach. Several participants indicated this approach enhanced interest, creativity, and motivation to prepare, and resulted in a challenging learning environment that facilitated the sharing of diverse perspectives and the development of a community of learners. Sources of resistance to active learning included participants' unfamiliarity with essential science practices, having to struggle with uncertainty in the absence of authoritative information, and the extra effort required to actively construct knowledge as compared to learning via traditional, teacher-centered instruction. Implications for implementation, including tips for reducing student resistance to active learning, are discussed.

The control of tonic pain by active relief learning

Science.gov (United States)

Mano, Hiroaki; Lee, Michael; Yoshida, Wako; Kawato, Mitsuo; Robbins, Trevor W

2018-01-01

Tonic pain after injury characterises a behavioural state that prioritises recovery. Although generally suppressing cognition and attention, tonic pain needs to allow effective relief learning to reduce the cause of the pain. Here, we describe a central learning circuit that supports learning of relief and concurrently suppresses the level of ongoing pain. We used computational modelling of behavioural, physiological and neuroimaging data in two experiments in which subjects learned to terminate tonic pain in static and dynamic escape-learning paradigms. In both studies, we show that active relief-seeking involves a reinforcement learning process manifest by error signals observed in the dorsal putamen. Critically, this system uses an uncertainty (‘associability’) signal detected in pregenual anterior cingulate cortex that both controls the relief learning rate, and endogenously and parametrically modulates the level of tonic pain. The results define a self-organising learning circuit that reduces ongoing pain when learning about potential relief. PMID:29482716

The control of tonic pain by active relief learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Suyi; Mano, Hiroaki; Lee, Michael; Yoshida, Wako; Kawato, Mitsuo; Robbins, Trevor W; Seymour, Ben

2018-02-27

Tonic pain after injury characterises a behavioural state that prioritises recovery. Although generally suppressing cognition and attention, tonic pain needs to allow effective relief learning to reduce the cause of the pain. Here, we describe a central learning circuit that supports learning of relief and concurrently suppresses the level of ongoing pain. We used computational modelling of behavioural, physiological and neuroimaging data in two experiments in which subjects learned to terminate tonic pain in static and dynamic escape-learning paradigms. In both studies, we show that active relief-seeking involves a reinforcement learning process manifest by error signals observed in the dorsal putamen. Critically, this system uses an uncertainty ('associability') signal detected in pregenual anterior cingulate cortex that both controls the relief learning rate, and endogenously and parametrically modulates the level of tonic pain. The results define a self-organising learning circuit that reduces ongoing pain when learning about potential relief. © 2018, Zhang et al.

Using technology to support science inquiry learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P John Williams

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a case study of a teacher’s experience in implementing an inquiry approach to his teaching over a period of two years with two different classes. His focus was on using a range of information technologies to support student inquiry learning. The study demonstrates the need to consider the characteristics of students when implementing an inquiry approach, and also the influence of the teachers level of understanding and related confidence in such an approach. The case also indicated that a range of technologies can be effective in supporting student inquiry learning.

Mobile Apps to Support and Assess Foreign Language Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Berns, Anke; Palomo-Duarte, Manuel; Dodero, Juan Manuel; Ruiz-Ladrón, Juan Miguel; Márquez, Andrea Calderón

2015-01-01

In the last two decades there have been many attempts to integrate all kinds of mobile devices and apps to support formal as well as informal learning processes. However, most of the available apps still support mainly individual learning, using mobile devices to deliver content rather than providing learners with the opportunity to interact with…

Autonomous Motion Learning for Intra-Vehicular Activity Space Robot

Science.gov (United States)

Watanabe, Yutaka; Yairi, Takehisa; Machida, Kazuo

Space robots will be needed in the future space missions. So far, many types of space robots have been developed, but in particular, Intra-Vehicular Activity (IVA) space robots that support human activities should be developed to reduce human-risks in space. In this paper, we study the motion learning method of an IVA space robot with the multi-link mechanism. The advantage point is that this space robot moves using reaction force of the multi-link mechanism and contact forces from the wall as space walking of an astronaut, not to use a propulsion. The control approach is determined based on a reinforcement learning with the actor-critic algorithm. We demonstrate to clear effectiveness of this approach using a 5-link space robot model by simulation. First, we simulate that a space robot learn the motion control including contact phase in two dimensional case. Next, we simulate that a space robot learn the motion control changing base attitude in three dimensional case.

Blended learning models for directing the self-learning activity of “Software Engineering” specialty students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vera V. Lyubchenko

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The adoption of Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education” (2014 involves the increase in students’ self-learning activity part in the curriculum. Therefore the self-learning activities’ arrangement in a way augmenting the result quality becomes a top priority task. This research objective consists in elaborating the scenario for organization of the students’ qualitative self-study, based on blended learning models. The author analyzes four blended learning models: the rotation model, flex-model, self-blend model and online driver model, and gives examples of their use. It is shown that first two models are the most suitable for full-time students. A general scenario for the use of blended learning models is described. Although the use of blended learning models causes several difficulties, it also essentially contributes into students’ self-study monitoring and control support.

Learning about the past with new technologies : Fostering historical reasoning in computer-supported collaborative learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Drie, J.P. van

2005-01-01

Recent technological developments have provided new environments for learning, giving rise to the question of how characteristics of such new learning environments can facilitate the process of learning in specific domains. The focus of this thesis is on computer-supported collaborative learning

PACS infrastructure supporting e-learning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mildenberger, Peter, E-mail: milden@radiologie.klinik.uni-mainz.de [University Medicine Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Langenbeckstr 1, Mainz (Germany); Brueggemann, Kerstin; Roesner, Freya; Koch, Katja; Ahlers, Christopher [University Medicine Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Langenbeckstr 1, Mainz (Germany)

2011-05-15

Digital imaging is becoming predominant in radiology. This has implications for teaching support, because conventional film-based concepts are now obsolete. The IHE Teaching File and Clinical Study Export (TCE) profile provides an excellent platform to enhance PACS infrastructure with educational functionality. This can be supplemented with dedicated e-learning tools.

PACS infrastructure supporting e-learning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mildenberger, Peter; Brueggemann, Kerstin; Roesner, Freya; Koch, Katja; Ahlers, Christopher

2011-01-01

Digital imaging is becoming predominant in radiology. This has implications for teaching support, because conventional film-based concepts are now obsolete. The IHE Teaching File and Clinical Study Export (TCE) profile provides an excellent platform to enhance PACS infrastructure with educational functionality. This can be supplemented with dedicated e-learning tools.

Bridging the gap between what is praised and what is practiced: Supporting the work of change as anatomy and physiology instructors introduce active learning into their undergraduate classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Thorn, Patti Marie

constructs either facilitated or precluded belief development, conceptual change, and a more encompassing and sophisticated definition of active learning, and supported the emergence of an Attribution-Based Conceptual Change Schematic. The findings have significant implications for both change-desiring instructors and faculty development staff. The findings allow faculty to familiarize themselves with the obstacles and response patterns that may shape their own change experiences and allow development staff to design empirically grounded learning opportunities that may facilitate the development of beliefs about teaching and learning and promote faculty conceptual change.

Implementation of Multiple Intelligences Supported Project-Based Learning in EFL/ESL Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Bas, Gokhan

2008-01-01

This article deals with the implementation of Multiple Intelligences supported Project-Based learning in EFL/ESL Classrooms. In this study, after Multiple Intelligences supported Project-based learning was presented shortly, the implementation of this learning method into English classrooms. Implementation process of MI supported Project-based…

Minimax bounds for active learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Castro, R.M.; Nowak, R.

2008-01-01

This paper analyzes the potential advantages and theoretical challenges of "active learning" algorithms. Active learning involves sequential sampling procedures that use information gleaned from previous samples in order to focus the sampling and accelerate the learning process relative to "passive

Analysis of student’s scientific attitude behaviour change effects blended learning supported by I-spring Suite 8 application

Science.gov (United States)

Budiharti, Rini; Waras, N. S.

2018-05-01

This article aims to describe the student’s scientific attitude behaviour change as treatment effect of Blended Learning supported by I-Spring Suite 8 application on the material balance and the rotational dynamics. Blended Learning models is learning strategy that integrate between face-to-face learning and online learning by combination of various media. Blended Learning model supported I-Spring Suite 8 media setting can direct learning becomes interactive. Students are guided to actively interact with the media as well as with other students to discuss getting the concept by the phenomena or facts presented. The scientific attitude is a natural attitude of students in the learning process. In interactive learning, scientific attitude is so needed. The research was conducted using a model Lesson Study which consists of the stages Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and applied to the subject of learning is students at class XI MIPA 2 of Senior High School 6 Surakarta. The validity of the data used triangulation techniques of observation, interviews and document review. Based on the discussion, it can be concluded that the use of Blended Learning supported media I-Spring Suite 8 is able to give the effect of changes in student behaviour on all dimensions of scientific attitude that is inquisitive, respect the data or fact, critical thinking, discovery and creativity, open minded and cooperation, and perseverance. Display e-learning media supported student worksheet makes the students enthusiastically started earlier, the core until the end of learning

A Development of Game-Based Learning Environment to Activate Interaction among Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Takaoka, Ryo; Shimokawa, Masayuki; Okamoto, Toshio

Many studies and systems that incorporate elements such as “pleasure” and “fun” in the game to improve a learner's motivation have been developed in the field of learning environments. However, few are the studies of situations where many learners gather at a single computer and participate in a game-based learning environment (GBLE), and where the GBLE designs the learning process by controlling the interactions between learners such as competition, collaboration, and learning by teaching. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a framework of educational control that induces and activates interaction between learners intentionally to create a learning opportunity that is based on the knowledge understanding model of each learner. In this paper, we explain the design philosophy and the framework of our GBLE called “Who becomes the king in the country of mathematics?” from a game viewpoint and describe the method of learning support control in the learning environment. In addition, we report the results of the learning experiment with our GBLE, which we carried out in a junior high school, and include some comments by a principal and a teacher. From the results of the experiment and some comments, we noticed that a game may play a significant role in weakening the learning relationship among students and creating new relationships in the world of the game. Furthermore, we discovered that learning support control of the GBLE has led to activation of the interaction between learners to some extent.

The Journal of Learning Analytics: Supporting and Promoting Learning Analytics Research

OpenAIRE

Siemens, George

2014-01-01

The paper gives a brief overview of the main activities for the development of the emerging field of learning analytics led by the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR). The place of the Journal of Learning Analytics is identified Analytics is the most significant new initiative of SoLAR. 

The "Journal of Learning Analytics": Supporting and Promoting Learning Analytics Research

Science.gov (United States)

Siemens, George

2014-01-01

The paper gives a brief overview of the main activities for the development of the emerging field of learning analytics led by the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR). The place of the "Journal of Learning Analytics" is identified. Analytics is the most significant new initiative of SoLAR.

Active Learning Using Arbitrary Binary Valued Queries

Science.gov (United States)

1990-10-01

active learning in the sense that the learner has complete choice in the information received. Specifically, we allow the learner to ask arbitrary yes...no questions. We consider both active learning under a fixed distribution and distribution-free active learning . In the case of active learning , the...a concept class is actively learnable iff it is finite, so that active learning is in fact less powerful than the usual passive learning model. We

Sleep Spindles in the Right Hemisphere Support Awareness of Regularities and Reflect Pre-Sleep Activations.

Science.gov (United States)

Yordanova, Juliana; Kolev, Vasil; Bruns, Eike; Kirov, Roumen; Verleger, Rolf

2017-11-01

The present study explored the sleep mechanisms which may support awareness of hidden regularities. Before sleep, 53 participants learned implicitly a lateralized variant of the serial response-time task in order to localize sensorimotor encoding either in the left or right hemisphere and induce implicit regularity representations. Electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded at multiple electrodes during both task performance and sleep, searching for lateralized traces of the preceding activity during learning. Sleep EEG analysis focused on region-specific slow (9-12 Hz) and fast (13-16 Hz) sleep spindles during nonrapid eye movement sleep. Fast spindle activity at those motor regions that were activated during learning increased with the amount of postsleep awareness. Independently of side of learning, spindle activity at right frontal and fronto-central regions was involved: there, fast spindles increased with the transformation of sequence knowledge from implicit before sleep to explicit after sleep, and slow spindles correlated with individual abilities of gaining awareness. These local modulations of sleep spindles corresponded to regions with greater presleep activation in participants with postsleep explicit knowledge. Sleep spindle mechanisms are related to explicit awareness (1) by tracing the activation of motor cortical and right-hemisphere regions which had stronger involvement already during learning and (2) by recruitment of individually consolidated processing modules in the right hemisphere. The integration of different sleep spindle mechanisms with functional states during wake collectively supports the gain of awareness of previously experienced regularities, with a special role for the right hemisphere. © Sleep Research Society 2017. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Sleep Research Society].

The Effect of Instructional Method on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Skill Performance: A Comparison Between Instructor-Led Basic Life Support and Computer-Based Basic Life Support With Voice-Activated Manikin.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson-Sands, Cathy; Brahn, Pamela; Graves, Kristal

2015-01-01

Validating participants' ability to correctly perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills during basic life support courses can be a challenge for nursing professional development specialists. This study compares two methods of basic life support training, instructor-led and computer-based learning with voice-activated manikins, to identify if one method is more effective for performance of CPR skills. The findings suggest that a computer-based learning course with voice-activated manikins is a more effective method of training for improved CPR performance.

Machine learning-enabled discovery and design of membrane-active peptides.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ernest Y; Wong, Gerard C L; Ferguson, Andrew L

2017-07-08

Antimicrobial peptides are a class of membrane-active peptides that form a critical component of innate host immunity and possess a diversity of sequence and structure. Machine learning approaches have been profitably employed to efficiently screen sequence space and guide experiment towards promising candidates with high putative activity. In this mini-review, we provide an introduction to antimicrobial peptides and summarize recent advances in machine learning-enabled antimicrobial peptide discovery and design with a focus on a recent work Lee et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2016;113(48):13588-13593. This study reports the development of a support vector machine classifier to aid in the design of membrane active peptides. We use this model to discover membrane activity as a multiplexed function in diverse peptide families and provide interpretable understanding of the physicochemical properties and mechanisms governing membrane activity. Experimental validation of the classifier reveals it to have learned membrane activity as a unifying signature of antimicrobial peptides with diverse modes of action. Some of the discriminating rules by which it performs classification are in line with existing "human learned" understanding, but it also unveils new previously unknown determinants and multidimensional couplings governing membrane activity. Integrating machine learning with targeted experimentation can guide both antimicrobial peptide discovery and design and new understanding of the properties and mechanisms underpinning their modes of action. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning by Doing: Twenty Successful Active Learning Exercises for Information Systems Courses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alanah Mitchell

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Aim/Purpose: This paper provides a review of previously published work related to active learning in information systems (IS courses. Background: There are a rising number of strategies in higher education that offer promise in regards to getting students’ attention and helping them learn, such as flipped classrooms and offering courses online. These learning strategies are part of the pedagogical technique known as active learning. Active learning is a strategy that became popular in the early 1990s and has proven itself as a valid tool for helping students to be engaged with learning. Methodology: This work follows a systematic method for identifying and coding previous research based on an aspect of interest. The authors identified and assessed research through a search of ABI/Inform scholarly journal abstracts and keywords, as well as additional research databases, using the search terms “active learning” and “information systems” from 2000 through June 2016. Contribution: This synthesis of active learning exercises provides guidance for information technology faculty looking to implement active learning strategies in their classroom by demonstrating how IS faculty might begin to introduce more active learning techniques in their teaching as well as by presenting a sample teaching agenda for a class that uses a mix of active and passive learning techniques to engage student learning. Findings: Twenty successful types of active learning exercises in IS courses are presented. Recommendations for Practitioners\t: This paper offers a “how to” resource of successful active learning strategies for IS faculty interested in implementing active learning in the classroom. Recommendation for Researchers: This work provides an example of a systematic literature review as a means to assess successful implementations of active learning in IS. Impact on Society: An updated definition of active learning is presented as well as a meaningful

Using social media to support small group learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Duncan; Rengasamy, Emma; Batchelor, Shafqat; Pope, Charles; Riley, Stephen; Cunningham, Anne Marie

2017-11-10

Medical curricula are increasingly using small group learning and less didactic lecture-based teaching. This creates new challenges and opportunities in how students are best supported with information technology. We explored how university-supported and external social media could support collaborative small group working on our new undergraduate medical curriculum. We made available a curation platform (Scoop.it) and a wiki within our virtual learning environment as part of year 1 Case-Based Learning, and did not discourage the use of other tools such as Facebook. We undertook student surveys to capture perceptions of the tools and information on how they were used, and employed software user metrics to explore the extent to which they were used during the year. Student groups developed a preferred way of working early in the course. Most groups used Facebook to facilitate communication within the group, and to host documents and notes. There were more barriers to using the wiki and curation platform, although some groups did make extensive use of them. Staff engagement was variable, with some tutors reviewing the content posted on the wiki and curation platform in face-to-face sessions, but not outside these times. A small number of staff posted resources and reviewed student posts on the curation platform. Optimum use of these tools depends on sufficient training of both staff and students, and an opportunity to practice using them, with ongoing support. The platforms can all support collaborative learning, and may help develop digital literacy, critical appraisal skills, and awareness of wider health issues in society.

Ambient Learning Displays - Distributed Mixed Reality Information Mash-ups to support Ubiquitous Learning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Börner, Dirk

2012-01-01

Börner, D. (2012). Ambient Learning Displays - Distributed Mixed Reality Information Mash-ups to support Ubiquitous Learning. 2012 IEEE Seventh International Conference on Wireless, Mobile and Ubiquitous Technology in Education (pp. 337-338). March, 27-30, 2012, Takamatsu, Japan: IEEE Computer

Authoring and Enactment of Mobile Pyramid-Based Collaborative Learning Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Manathunga, Kalpani; Hernández-Leo, Davinia

2018-01-01

Collaborative learning flow patterns (CLFPs) formulate best practices for the orchestration of activity sequences and collaboration mechanisms that can elicit fruitful social interactions. Mobile technology features offer opportunities to support interaction mediation and content accessibility. However, existing mobile collaborative learning…

Enhancing students' learning in problem based learning: validation of a self-assessment scale for active learning and critical thinking.

Science.gov (United States)

Khoiriyah, Umatul; Roberts, Chris; Jorm, Christine; Van der Vleuten, C P M

2015-08-26

Problem based learning (PBL) is a powerful learning activity but fidelity to intended models may slip and student engagement wane, negatively impacting learning processes, and outcomes. One potential solution to solve this degradation is by encouraging self-assessment in the PBL tutorial. Self-assessment is a central component of the self-regulation of student learning behaviours. There are few measures to investigate self-assessment relevant to PBL processes. We developed a Self-assessment Scale on Active Learning and Critical Thinking (SSACT) to address this gap. We wished to demonstrated evidence of its validity in the context of PBL by exploring its internal structure. We used a mixed methods approach to scale development. We developed scale items from a qualitative investigation, literature review, and consideration of previous existing tools used for study of the PBL process. Expert review panels evaluated its content; a process of validation subsequently reduced the pool of items. We used structural equation modelling to undertake a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the SSACT and coefficient alpha. The 14 item SSACT consisted of two domains "active learning" and "critical thinking." The factorial validity of SSACT was evidenced by all items loading significantly on their expected factors, a good model fit for the data, and good stability across two independent samples. Each subscale had good internal reliability (>0.8) and strongly correlated with each other. The SSACT has sufficient evidence of its validity to support its use in the PBL process to encourage students to self-assess. The implementation of the SSACT may assist students to improve the quality of their learning in achieving PBL goals such as critical thinking and self-directed learning.

Designing instruction to support mechanical reasoning: Three alternatives in the simple machines learning environment

Science.gov (United States)

McKenna, Ann Frances

2001-07-01

Creating a classroom environment that fosters a productive learning experience and engages students in the learning process is a complex endeavor. A classroom environment is dynamic and requires a unique synergy among students, teacher, classroom artifacts and events to achieve robust understanding and knowledge integration. This dissertation addresses this complex issue by developing, implementing, and investigating the simple machines learning environment (SIMALE) to support students' mechanical reasoning and understanding. SIMALE was designed to support reflection, collaborative learning, and to engage students in generative learning through multiple representations of concepts and successive experimentation and design activities. Two key components of SIMALE are an original web-based software tool and hands-on Lego activities. A research study consisting of three treatment groups was created to investigate the benefits of hands-on and web-based computer activities on students' analytic problem solving ability, drawing/modeling ability, and conceptual understanding. The study was conducted with two populations of students that represent a diverse group with respect to gender, ethnicity, academic achievement and social/economic status. One population of students in this dissertation study participated from the Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA) program that serves minorities and under-represented groups in science and mathematics. The second group was recruited from the Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP) that is an academically competitive outreach program offered through the University of California at Berkeley. Results from this dissertation show success of the SIMALE along several dimensions. First, students in both populations achieved significant gains in analytic problem solving ability, drawing/modeling ability, and conceptual understanding. Second, significant differences that were found on pre-test measures were eliminated

En retorisk forståelsesramme for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (A Rhetorical Theory on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harlung, Asger

2003-01-01

The dissertation explores the potential of rhetorical theories for understanding, analyzing, or planning communication and learning processes, and for integrating the digitized contexts and human interaction and communication proccesses in a single theoretical framework. Based on Cicero's rhetori...... applied to two empirical case studies of Master programs, the dissertation develops and presents a new theory on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL).......The dissertation explores the potential of rhetorical theories for understanding, analyzing, or planning communication and learning processes, and for integrating the digitized contexts and human interaction and communication proccesses in a single theoretical framework. Based on Cicero's rhetoric...

The quality and impact of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in radiology case-based learning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kourdioukova, Elena V.; Verstraete, Koenraad L.; Valcke, Martin

2011-01-01

Objective: The aim of this research was to explore (1) clinical years students' perceptions about radiology case-based learning within a computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) setting, (2) an analysis of the collaborative learning process, and (3) the learning impact of collaborative work on the radiology cases. Methods: The first part of this study focuses on a more detailed analysis of a survey study about CSCL based case-based learning, set up in the context of a broader radiology curriculum innovation. The second part centers on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 52 online collaborative learning discussions from 5th year and nearly graduating medical students. The collaborative work was based on 26 radiology cases regarding musculoskeletal radiology. Results: The analysis of perceptions about collaborative learning on radiology cases reflects a rather neutral attitude that also does not differ significantly in students of different grade levels. Less advanced students are more positive about CSCL as compared to last year students. Outcome evaluation shows a significantly higher level of accuracy in identification of radiology key structures and in radiology diagnosis as well as in linking the radiological signs with available clinical information in nearly graduated students. No significant differences between different grade levels were found in accuracy of using medical terminology. Conclusion: Students appreciate computer supported collaborative learning settings when tackling radiology case-based learning. Scripted computer supported collaborative learning groups proved to be useful for both 5th and 7th year students in view of developing components of their radiology diagnostic approaches.

The quality and impact of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) in radiology case-based learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Kourdioukova, Elena V; Verstraete, Koenraad L; Valcke, Martin

2011-06-01

The aim of this research was to explore (1) clinical years students' perceptions about radiology case-based learning within a computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) setting, (2) an analysis of the collaborative learning process, and (3) the learning impact of collaborative work on the radiology cases. The first part of this study focuses on a more detailed analysis of a survey study about CSCL based case-based learning, set up in the context of a broader radiology curriculum innovation. The second part centers on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 52 online collaborative learning discussions from 5th year and nearly graduating medical students. The collaborative work was based on 26 radiology cases regarding musculoskeletal radiology. The analysis of perceptions about collaborative learning on radiology cases reflects a rather neutral attitude that also does not differ significantly in students of different grade levels. Less advanced students are more positive about CSCL as compared to last year students. Outcome evaluation shows a significantly higher level of accuracy in identification of radiology key structures and in radiology diagnosis as well as in linking the radiological signs with available clinical information in nearly graduated students. No significant differences between different grade levels were found in accuracy of using medical terminology. Students appreciate computer supported collaborative learning settings when tackling radiology case-based learning. Scripted computer supported collaborative learning groups proved to be useful for both 5th and 7th year students in view of developing components of their radiology diagnostic approaches. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Analysis and Assessment of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Conversations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Trausan-Matu, Stefan

2008-01-01

Trausan-Matu, S. (2008). Analysis and Assessment of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Conversations. Workshop presentation at the symposium Learning networks for professional. November, 14, 2008, Heerlen, Nederland: Open Universiteit Nederland.

Collaborative activities for improving the quality of science teaching and learning and learning to teach science

Science.gov (United States)

Tobin, Kenneth

2012-03-01

I have been involved in research on collaborative activities for improving the quality of teaching and learning high school science. Initially the collaborative activities we researched involved the uses of coteaching and cogenerative dialogue in urban middle and high schools in Philadelphia and New York (currently I have active research sites in New York and Brisbane, Australia). The research not only transformed practices but also produced theories that informed the development of additional collaborative activities and served as interventions for research and creation of heuristics for professional development programs and teacher certification courses. The presentation describes a collage of collaborative approaches to teaching and learning science, including coteaching, cogenerative dialogue, radical listening, critical reflection, and mindful action. For each activity in the collage I provide theoretical frameworks and empirical support, ongoing research, and priorities for the road ahead. I also address methodologies used in the research, illustrating how teachers and students collaborated as researchers in multilevel investigations of teaching and learning and learning to teach that included ethnography, video analysis, and sophisticated analyses of the voice, facial expression of emotion, eye gaze, and movement of the body during classroom interactions. I trace the evolution of studies of face-to-face interactions in science classes to the current focus on emotions and physiological aspects of teaching and learning (e.g., pulse rate, pulse strength, breathing patterns) that relate to science participation and achievement.

How was the activity? A visualization support for a case of location-based learning design

OpenAIRE

Hernández Leo, Davinia; Melero Merino, Javier; Sun, Jing; Santos Rodríguez, Patrícia; Blat, Josep

2014-01-01

Over the last few years the use of mobile technologies has brought the formulation of location-based learning approaches shaping new or enhanced educational activities. Involving teachers in the design of these activities is important because the designs need to be aligned with the requirements of the specific educational settings. Yet, analysing the implementation of the activities with students is also critical, not only for assessment purposes but also for enabling the identifi...

Curriculum as a support to investigative approach in learning chemistry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tomašević Biljana

2009-01-01

Full Text Available One of the main reasons for low achievement of our students in international tests is the lack of functional, applicable knowledge. Formation of such knowledge demands changing the usual way of implementation of instruction (transfer of ready-made knowledge to learning through performing simple research and practical work. Considering the fact that instruction, as an organised process, takes place in frameworks determined in advance, which are arranged and regulated on the national level by curricula, it is assumed that this kind of approach must originate precisely from curricula, which is not the case in our educational practice. The goal of this paper was to determine the way in which this kind of approach in instruction and learning of chemistry can be supported by the curriculum, in order for it to become a part of regular teaching practice on the national level. The paper presents how different structural components of curricula from eight different educational systems (four European countries, one Asian country, two American federal states and one Canadian province are used to promote and support the importance of research work in instruction and learning of chemistry. The curricula from Slovenia, England, Denmark, Malta, Singapore, North Carolina, Utah and Ontario were analyzed in order to determine the kind of information they offer within structural components and accordingly, the way in which each component promotes research approach to learning chemistry, how it guides the teacher in planning such activities in the classroom, organization and performing instruction, monitoring and evaluating students' achievements.

Collaborative learning: A next step in the training of peer support providers.

Science.gov (United States)

Cronise, Rita

2016-09-01

This column explores how peer support provider training is enhanced through collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is an approach that draws upon the "real life" experiences of individual learners and encompasses opportunities to explore varying perspectives and collectively construct solutions that enrich the practice of all participants. This description draws upon published articles and examples of collaborative learning in training and communities of practice of peer support providers. Similar to person-centered practices that enhance the recovery experience of individuals receiving services, collaborative learning enhances the experience of peer support providers as they explore relevant "real world" issues, offer unique contributions, and work together toward improving practice. Three examples of collaborative learning approaches are provided that have resulted in successful collaborative learning opportunities for peer support providers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

A field experiment of energy education using integrative learning support system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Obayashi, Fumiaki; Yamamoto, Atsumu; Ito, Kyoko; Shimoda, Hiroshi; Yoshikawa, Hidekazu

2002-01-01

A new energy learning support system for higher education was the object of this experiment. The aim of this learning support system is to support students within an integrative study environment in which various personal skills and general knowledge on energy related issues are to be developed. The main goals of this learning tool for the students are to simulate their interest and creativity, to enhance awareness, to increase capability of researching on the subject and to improve problem-solving skills on energy related issues. The salient feature of this learning support system is that it is used for group learning by which each learner can develop the ability to reflect on the subject through mutual discussion. Moreover, in order to keep the attention of the students on the topic and provide them with a better assimilation of the curriculum, a personified agent is used as a cooperative associate who assists learners through natural communication, using voice conversation function in Japanese language. Then, the subject experiment has been conducted. Also, means of effective energy education are discussed in this research. As a conclusion, this learning support system is proven to be effective and the use of it for energy education is recommended. (author)

Teacher Perspectives on Technology Integration Professional Development: Formal, Informal, and Independent Learning Activities

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Jones, Monty; Dexter, Sara

2018-01-01

This mixed-methods study examined the technology integration learning activities of four teachers throughout one year using weekly quantitative surveys and a series of three qualitative individual interviews. Through the teachers' own voices an illustration of their learning processes is presented, and the gap between what is supported by their…

Active learning in practice: Implementation of the principles of active learning in an engineering course

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rützou, C.

2017-01-01

The most common form of teaching is still the form where a teacher presents the subject of the lecture to a listening audience. During teaching history this has proved to be an effective way of teaching, however the probability of students being inactive is high and the learning outcome may...... through the same curriculum as usual during a term? • Will Active Learning reduce failure rate? • Will Active Learning give a higher learning outcome than traditional teaching? This paper deals with the results of this experiment, answers the mentioned questions and presents a way to implement Active...

An Ontology to Support the Classification of Learning Material in an Organizational Learning Environment: An Evaluation

Science.gov (United States)

Valaski, Joselaine; Reinehr, Sheila; Malucelli, Andreia

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to evaluate whether ontology integrated in an organizational learning environment may support the automatic learning material classification in a specific knowledge area. Design/methodology/approach: An ontology for recommending learning material was integrated in the organizational learning environment…

Active and Adaptive Learning from Biased Data with Applications in Astronomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kremer, Jan

This thesis addresses the problem of machine learning from biased datasets in the context of astronomical applications. In astronomy there are many cases in which the training sample does not follow the true distribution. The thesis examines different types of biases and proposes algorithms...... set. Against this background, the thesis begins with a survey of active learning algorithms for the support vector machine. If the cost of additional labeling is prohibitive, unlabeled data can often be utilized instead and the sample selection bias can be overcome through domain adaptation, that is...... to handle them. During learning and when applying the predictive model, active learning enables algorithms to select training examples from a pool of unlabeled data and to request the labels. This allows for selecting examples that maximize the algorithm's accuracy despite an initial bias in the training...

Panorama of recommender systems to support learning

OpenAIRE

Drachsler, Hendrik; Verbert, Katrien; Santos, Olga; Manouselis, Nikos

2015-01-01

This chapter presents an analysis of recommender systems in Technology-Enhanced Learning along their 15 years existence (2000-2014). All recommender systems considered for the review aim to support educational stakeholders by personalising the learning process. In this meta-review 82 recommender systems from 35 different countries have been investigated and categorised according to a given classification framework. The reviewed systems have been classified into 7 clusters according to their c...

Student Support in Open Learning: Sustaining the Process.

Science.gov (United States)

Dearnley, Christine

2003-01-01

A 2-year study included interviews with 18 and survey of 160 nurses studying through open learning in the United Kingdom. They were challenged by returning to study, requiring time management and technological skills. Professional, academic, and social networks provided important support as life responsibilities and events impinged on learning.…

Technology Support for Discussion Based Learning: From Computer Supported Collaborative Learning to the Future of Massive Open Online Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Rosé, Carolyn Penstein; Ferschke, Oliver

2016-01-01

This article offers a vision for technology supported collaborative and discussion-based learning at scale. It begins with historical work in the area of tutorial dialogue systems. It traces the history of that area of the field of Artificial Intelligence in Education as it has made an impact on the field of Computer-Supported Collaborative…

Designing Science Learning Environments That Support Emerging Bilingual Students to Problematize Electrical Phenomena

Science.gov (United States)

Suarez, Enrique A.

This dissertation investigates how emerging bilingual students make sense of natural phenomena through engaging in certain epistemic practices of science, and the elements of the learning environment that created those opportunities. Specifically, the dissertation focuses on how emerging bilingual students problematized electrical phenomena, like electric flow and electrical resistance, and how the design features of the environment (e.g., sequencing of activities, linguistic practices) may have supported students as they made sense of phenomena. The first study describes how for students presented and evaluated mechanistic models of electric flow, focusing specifically on how students identified and negotiated a disagreement between their explanatory models. The results from this study highlight the complexity of students' disagreements, not only because of the epistemological aspects related to presenting and evaluating knowledge, but also due to interpersonal dynamics and the discomfort associated with disagreeing with another person. The second study focuses on the design features of the learning environment that supported emerging bilingual students' investigations of electrical phenomena. The findings from this study highlight how a carefully designed set of activities, with the appropriate material resources (e.g., experimental tools), could support students to problematize electrical resistance. The third study describes how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices and the contextual features of the learning environment that created and hindered opportunities for translanguaging. The findings from this study identify and articulate how emerging bilingual students engaged in translanguaging practices when problematizing electrical resistance, and strengthen the perspective that, in order to be equitable for emerging bilingual students, science learning environments need to act as translanguaging spaces. This dissertation makes three

Reflections on providing sport science support for athletes with learning difficulties.

Science.gov (United States)

Hills, Laura; Utley, Andrea

2010-01-01

To highlight the benefits and the need for sport science support for athletes with learning difficulties, and to reflect on our experience of working with the GB squad for athletes with learning difficulties. A review of key and relevant literature is presented, followed by a discussion of the sport science support provision and the issues that emerged in working with athletes with learning difficulties. Pre- and post- physiological tests along with evaluations of athletes' potential to benefit from sport psychology support were conducted. The aim of these tests was to provide information for the athletes and the coaches on fitness levels, to use this information to plan future training, and to identify how well the performance could be enhanced. A case study is presented for one athlete, who had competed in distance events. The focus is the psychological support that was provided. It is clear that athletes with learning difficulties require the same type of sports science support as their mainstream peers. However, sport scientists will need to consider ways to extend their practice in order to provide the appropriate level of support.

Instructional Utility and Learning Efficacy of Common Active Learning Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

McConell, David A.; Chapman, LeeAnna; Czaijka, C. Douglas; Jones, Jason P.; Ryker, Katherine D.; Wiggen, Jennifer

2017-01-01

The adoption of active learning instructional practices in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses has been shown to result in improvements in student learning, contribute to increased retention rates, and reduce the achievement gap among different student populations. Descriptions of active learning strategies…

Doing physical activity – not learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Jens-Ole

2017-01-01

Introduction In recent years there have been a raising critique concerning PE as a subject which is more concerned with keeping pupils physically active than insuring that they learn something (Annerstedt, 2008). In Denmark, this issue has been actualized in a new sense. In 2014, a new school...... reform with 45 minutes of daily physical activity was introduced to enhance the pupils’ health, well-being and learning capabilities. Instead of focusing on learning bodily skills, physical activities has become an instrument to improve learning in the academic subjects. Physical activities.......g. Biesta, 2010; Standal, 2015) I will argue that the focus on learning outcome and effects on physical activity has gone too far in order to reach the objectives. If the notion of ‘keeping pupils physically active’ is understood as a representation of the core quality of physical activity, it seems...

Six Characteristics of Nutrition Education Videos That Support Learning and Motivation to Learn

Science.gov (United States)

Ramsay, Samantha A.; Holyoke, Laura; Branen, Laurel J.; Fletcher, Janice

2012-01-01

Objective: To identify characteristics in nutrition education video vignettes that support learning and motivation to learn about feeding children. Methods: Nine focus group interviews were conducted with child care providers in child care settings from 4 states in the western United States: California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. At each focus…

Promoting Active Learning in Technology-Infused TILE Classrooms at the University of Iowa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sam Van Horne

2012-06-01

Full Text Available In this case study, the authors describe the successful implementation of technology-infused TILE classrooms at the University of Iowa. A successful collaboration among campus units devoted to instructional technologies and teacher development, the TILE Initiative has provided instructors with a new set of tools to support active learning. The authors detail the implementation of the TILE classrooms, the process of training instructors to design effective instruction for these classrooms, and an assessment project that helps improve the process of ensuring faculty can successfully facilitate learning activities in a technology-infused learning environment.

Time to Engage? Texting to Support and Enhance First Year Undergraduate Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Geraldine Jones

2009-04-01

Full Text Available In this paper we discuss a case study investigating how the academic and personal development of first year students on an undergraduate sports education degree can be supported and enhanced with mobile SMS communication. SMS-based technologies were introduced in response to students’ particular needs (in transition to Higher Education and characteristics (‘digital natives’. Despite being unaccustomed to using their mobile phones for academic study, students willingly participated in SMS communication with their tutor via a texting management service. Drawing on evidence from two student surveys, focus groups and a tutor’s journal, we illustrate the potential that mobile SMS communication has to link and establish continuity between face to face teaching sessions and online learning activities in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE. Many students perceived the SMS communication to have had a positive impact on their management of study time. We link our findings with the existing literature and argue that mobile text based communication has the potential to support the development of time management skills, an important component of self regulatory learning, a skill which has been shown to be key in making a successful transition.

Scripting intercultural computer-supported collaborative learning in higher education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Popov, V.

2013-01-01

Introduction of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), specifically in an intercultural learning environment, creates both challenges and benefits. Among the challenges are the coordination of different attitudes, styles of communication, and patterns of behaving. Among the benefits are

The ICAP Active Learning Framework Predicts the Learning Gains Observed in Intensely Active Classroom Experiences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Benjamin L. Wiggins

2017-05-01

Full Text Available STEM classrooms (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in postsecondary education are rapidly improved by the proper use of active learning techniques. These techniques occupy a descriptive spectrum that transcends passive teaching toward active, constructive, and, finally, interactive methods. While aspects of this framework have been examined, no large-scale or actual classroom-based data exist to inform postsecondary education STEM instructors about possible learning gains. We describe the results of a quasi-experimental study to test the apex of the ICAP framework (interactive, constructive, active, and passive in this ecological classroom environment. Students in interactive classrooms demonstrate significantly improved learning outcomes relative to students in constructive classrooms. This improvement in learning is relatively subtle; similar experimental designs without repeated measures would be unlikely to have the power to observe this significance. We discuss the importance of seemingly small learning gains that might propagate throughout a course or departmental curriculum, as well as improvements with the necessity for faculty to develop and implement similar activities.

A Survey of Technologies Supporting Virtual Project Based Learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Lone

2002-01-01

This paper describes a survey of technologies and to what extent they support virtual project based learning. The paper argues that a survey of learning technologies should be related to concrete learning tasks and processes. Problem oriented project pedagogy (POPP) is discussed, and a framework...... for evaluation is proposed where negotiation of meaning, coordination and resource management are identified as the key concepts in virtual project based learning. Three e-learning systems are selected for the survey, Virtual-U, Lotus Learningspace and Lotus Quickplace, as each system offers different strategies...... for e-learning. The paper concludes that virtual project based learning may benefit from facilities of all these systems....

A work-based learning approach for clinical support workers on mental health inpatient wards.

Science.gov (United States)

Kemp, Philip; Gilding, Moorene; Seewooruttun, Khooseal; Walsh, Hannah

2016-09-14

Background With a rise in the number of unqualified staff providing health and social care, and reports raising concerns about the quality of care provided, there is a need to address the learning needs of clinical support workers. This article describes a qualitative evaluation of a service improvement project that involved a work-based learning approach for clinical support workers on mental health inpatient wards. Aim To investigate and identify insights in relation to the content and process of learning using a work-based learning approach for clinical support workers. Method This was a qualitative evaluation of a service improvement project involving 25 clinical support workers at the seven mental health inpatient units in South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Three clinical skills tutors were appointed to develop, implement and evaluate the work-based learning approach. Four sources of data were used to evaluate this approach, including reflective journals, qualitative responses to questionnaires, three focus groups involving the clinical support workers and a group interview involving the clinical skills tutors. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings The work-based learning approach was highly valued by the clinical support workers and enhanced learning in practice. Face-to-face learning in practice helped the clinical support workers to develop practice skills and reflective learning skills. Insights relating to the role of clinical support workers were also identified, including the benefits of face-to-face supervision in practice, particularly in relation to the interpersonal aspects of care. Conclusion A work-based learning approach has the potential to enhance care delivery by meeting the learning needs of clinical support workers and enabling them to apply learning to practice. Care providers should consider how the work-based learning approach can be used on a systematic, organisation-wide basis in the context of budgetary

Supportive Elements for Learning at a Global IT Company

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kolbæk, Ditte

2016-01-01

This paper presents a completed research study that connects design, theory and practice. It explores learning in an online community of practice, which reflects upon experiences from facilitating learning situations in the context of work. The study’s aim is to identify supportive elements...... for learning at a global IT company that is classified as ‘big business’ and supports hundreds of communities of practice. This study examines an online community with members from more than 30 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The members never meet, and yet develop new working practices...... by collaborating online. The study draws on Silvia Gherardi’s (2015) work on working practices and Etienne Wenger’s (1998) theory of communities of practice. The research question is: ‘How can the context support the development of new working practices in communities of practice, when the members only interact...

Enriching Classroom Learning through a Microblogging-Supported Activity

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Kun; Darr, Kent; Gao, Fei

2018-01-01

Researchers have recognized the role that microblogging tools play in enhancing the effectiveness of communication and interaction in the classroom. However, few studies have specifically examined how to use microblogging tools to bring educational resources into the classroom to enrich the student learning experience. The exploratory case study…

Using IMS Learning Design to model collaborative learning activities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tattersall, Colin

2006-01-01

IMS Learning Design provides a counter to the trend towards designing for lone-learners reading from screens. It guides staff and educational developers to start not with content, but with learning activities and the achievement of learning objectives. It recognises that learning can happen without

A guided note taking strategy supports student learning in the large lecture classes

Science.gov (United States)

Tanamatayarat, J.; Sujarittham, T.; Wuttiprom, S.; Hefer, E.

2017-09-01

In higher education, lecturing has been found to be the most prevalent teaching format for large classes. Generally, this format tends not to result in effective learning outcomes. Therefore, to support student learning in these large lecture classes, we developed guided notes containing quotations, blank spaces, pictures, and problems. A guided note taking strategy was selected and has been used in our introductory physics course for many years. In this study, we investigated the results of implementing the guided note taking strategy to promote student learning on electrostatics. The samples were three groups of first-year students from two universities: 163 and 224 science students and 147 engineering students. All of the students were enrolled in the introductory physics course in the second semester. To assess the students’ understanding, we administered pre- and post-tests to the students by using the electrostatics test. The questions were selected from the conceptual survey of electricity and magnetism (CSEM) and some leading physics textbooks. The results of the students’ understanding were analyzed by the average normalized gains (). The value of each group was 0.61, 0.55, and 0.54, respectively. Furthermore, the students’ views on learning with the guided note taking strategy were explored by using the five-point rating scale survey. Most students perceived that the strategy helped support their active learning and engagement in the lectures.

Create a good learning environment and motivate active learning enthusiasm

Science.gov (United States)

Bi, Weihong; Fu, Guangwei; Fu, Xinghu; Zhang, Baojun; Liu, Qiang; Jin, Wa

2017-08-01

In view of the current poor learning initiative of undergraduates, the idea of creating a good learning environment and motivating active learning enthusiasm is proposed. In practice, the professional tutor is allocated and professional introduction course is opened for college freshman. It can promote communication between the professional teachers and students as early as possible, and guide students to know and devote the professional knowledge by the preconceived form. Practice results show that these solutions can improve the students interest in learning initiative, so that the active learning and self-learning has become a habit in the classroom.

Supporting learning skills in visual art classes: The benefits of teacher awareness

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Helen Arov

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This study focused on middle school art teachers supporting the development of students learning skills, specifically their awareness of the framework of learning skills. It also looked at the relations between the teaching practices teachers use for supporting learning skills and students' learning motivation in art classes. The study combined qualitative and quantitative research methods. The class observations and interviews were conducted with ten Estonian middle school art teachers. One hundred and forty-eight students from the observed classes filled out the learning motivation questionnaire about their interest and achievement goals in visual arts. The study draws attention to the importance of teachers being aware of and valuing learning skills alongside subject specific knowledge, as it could enhance students autonomous motivation and support adaptive goal setting.

Designing self-monitoring warm-up strategy with blog-based learning system to support knowledge building

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Chan

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Preparing lessons before class is widely recognized as an effective means of increasing student motivation for classroom activities and learning outcome. However, the unclear status of lesson preparation generally discourages teachers and students from maintaining this effective learning strategy. This study applied the self-explanation theory and reading comprehension strategies to design a lesson warm-up mechanism that scaffolds knowledge building. A set of corresponding supporting tools were developed into a blog-based learning system (BBLS to implement the warm-up process. Results of a teaching experiment reveal positive effects of the tools on learning achievement, recall of old knowledge, connection between old and new knowledge, and understanding of new knowledge.

The Impact of Leadership Support for Blended Learning on Teachers and Students

Science.gov (United States)

Bodden-White, Michelle Marie

2015-01-01

This quantitative study examined the relationship between teachers' perceptions of leadership support for their use of a blended learning approach to teach math in fourth or fifth grade and their use of blended learning. The study also examined teachers' perceptions of leadership support for incorporating blended learning and student engagement.…

Supporting Vocationally Oriented Learning in the High School Years: Rationale, Tasks, Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Halpern, Robert

2012-01-01

This article highlights the limitations of our current educational system in terms of vocational learning and highlights the role that vocational learning can play in supporting youth development and improving youth outcomes. It discusses the role that nonschool settings can play in supporting vocational learning and suggests strategies to improve…

Face-to-Face Activities in Blended Learning

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kjærgaard, Annemette

While blended learning combines online and face-to-face teaching, research on blended learning has primarily focused on the role of technology and the opportunities it creates for engaging students. Less focus has been put on face-to-face activities in blended learning. This paper argues...... that it is not only the online activities in blended learning that provide new opportunities for rethinking pedagogy in higher education, it is also imperative to reconsider the face-to-face activities when part of the learning is provided online. Based on a review of blended learning in business and management...... education, we identify what forms of teaching and learning are suggested to take place face-to-face when other activities are moved online. We draw from the Community of Inquiry framework to analyze how face-to-face activities contribute to a blended learning pedagogy and discuss the implications...

Teachers' Knowing How to Use Technology: Exploring a Conceptual Framework for Purposeful Learning Activity

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Tony; Denning, Tim; Higgins, Chris; Loveless, Avril

2012-01-01

This article describes a project to apply and validate a conceptual framework of clusters of purposeful learning activity involving ICT tools. The framework, which is based in a socio-cultural perspective, is described as "DECK", and comprises the following major categories of the use of digital technologies to support learning:…

A MOBILE-DEVICE-SUPPORTED PEER-ASSISTED LEARNING SYSTEM FOR COLLABORATIVE EARLY EFL READING

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu-Ju Lan

2007-02-01

Full Text Available Collaborative learning methods which emphasize peer interaction have been widely applied to increase the intensity and effectiveness of EFL reading programs. However, simply grouping students heterogeneously and assigning them group goals does not guarantee that effective collaborative learning will ensue. The present research includes two studies. In Study One, the weaknesses of collaborative learning in a traditional EFL setting were observed. Then, in Study Two, a mobile-device-supported peer-assisted learning (MPAL system was developed for the purpose of addressing the identified weaknesses. Two classes of twenty-six third grade students participated in the present research to examine the unique contribution of MPAL to collaborative EFL reading activities. The collaborative behavior of elementary EFL learners was videotaped and analyzed. Detailed analysis of the videotaped behavior indicated that MPAL helped improve collaboration in elementary school level EFL learners and promotes their reading motivation.

The experiences of supporting learning in pairs of nursing students in clinical practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Holst, Hanna; Ozolins, Lise-Lotte; Brunt, David; Hörberg, Ulrica

2017-09-01

The purpose of this study is to describe how supervisors experience supporting nursing students' learning in pairs on a Developing and Learning Care Unit in Sweden. The present study has been carried out with a Reflective Lifeworld Research (RLR) approach founded on phenomenology. A total of 25 lifeworld interviews were conducted with supervisors who had supervised pairs of students. The findings reveal how supervisors support students' learning in pairs through a reflective approach creating learning space in the encounter with patients, students and supervisors. Supervisors experience a movement that resembles balancing between providing support in learning together and individual learning. The findings also highlight the challenge in supporting both the pairs of students and being present in the reality of caring. In conclusion, the learning space has the potential of creating a relative level of independency in the interaction between pairs of students and their supervisor when the supervisor strives towards a reflective approach. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Context matters when striving to promote active and lifelong learning in medical education.

Science.gov (United States)

Berkhout, Joris J; Helmich, Esther; Teunissen, Pim W; van der Vleuten, Cees P M; Jaarsma, A Debbie C

2018-01-01

WHERE DO WE STAND NOW?: In the 30 years that have passed since The Edinburgh Declaration on Medical Education, we have made tremendous progress in research on fostering 'self-directed and independent study' as propagated in this declaration, of which one prime example is research carried out on problem-based learning. However, a large portion of medical education happens outside of classrooms, in authentic clinical contexts. Therefore, this article discusses recent developments in research regarding fostering active learning in clinical contexts. Clinical contexts are much more complex and flexible than classrooms, and therefore require a modified approach when fostering active learning. Recent efforts have been increasingly focused on understanding the more complex subject of supporting active learning in clinical contexts. One way of doing this is by using theory regarding self-regulated learning (SRL), as well as situated learning, workplace affordances, self-determination theory and achievement goal theory. Combining these different perspectives provides a holistic view of active learning in clinical contexts. ENTRY TO PRACTICE, VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Research on SRL in clinical contexts has mostly focused on the undergraduate setting, showing that active learning in clinical contexts requires not only proficiency in metacognition and SRL, but also in reactive, opportunistic learning. These studies have also made us aware of the large influence one's social environment has on SRL, the importance of professional relationships for learners, and the role of identity development in learning in clinical contexts. Additionally, research regarding postgraduate lifelong learning also highlights the importance of learners interacting about learning in clinical contexts, as well as the difficulties that clinical contexts may pose for lifelong learning. However, stimulating self-regulated learning in undergraduate medical education

Do International Students Appreciate Active Learning in Lectures?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mauricio Marrone

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Active learning has been linked with increased student motivation, engagement and understanding of course material. It promotes deep learning, helping to develop critical thinking and writing skills in students. Less well understood, however, are the responses of international students to active learning. Using social constructivist theory, the purpose of this study is to examine domestic and international student perceptions of active learning introduced into large undergraduate Accounting Information Systems lectures. Several active learning strategies were implemented over one semester and examined through the use of semi-structured interviews as well as pre- and post- implementation surveys. Our results suggest broad improvements for international students in student engagement and understanding of unit material when implementing active learning strategies. Other key implications include international student preference for active learning compared with passive learning styles, and that international students may receive greater benefits from active learning strategies than domestic students due to social factors. Based on these findings this paper proposes that educators should seek to implement active learning to better assist and integrate students of diverse backgrounds.

Active Learning versus Traditional Teaching

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.A. Azzalis

2009-05-01

Full Text Available In traditional teaching most of the class time is spent with the professor lecturing and the students watching and listening. The students work individually, and cooperation is discouraged. On the other hand,  active learning  changes the focus of activity from the teacher to the learners, in which students solve problems, answer questions, formulate questions of their own, discuss, explain, debate during class;  moreover, students work in teams on problems and projects under conditions that assure positive interdependence and individual accountability. Although student-centered methods have repeatedly been shown to be superior to the traditional teacher-centered approach to instruction, the literature regarding the efficacy of various teaching methods is inconclusive. The purpose of this study was to compare the student perceptions of course and instructor effectiveness, course difficulty, and amount learned between the active learning and lecture sections  in Health Sciences´ courses by statistical data from Anhembi Morumbi University. Results indicated significant  difference between active  learning and traditional  teaching. Our conclusions were that strategies promoting  active  learning to  traditional lectures could increase knowledge and understanding.

A Digital Coach That Provides Affective and Social Learning Support to Low-Literate Learners

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schouten, D.G.M.; Venneker, F.; Bosse, T.; Neerincx, M.; Cremer, A.H.M.

In this study, we investigate if a digital coach for low-literate learners that provides cognitive learning support based on scaffolding can be improved by adding affective learning support based on motivational interviewing, and social learning support based on small talk. Several knowledge gaps

Faculty and second-year medical student perceptions of active learning in an integrated curriculum.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsang, Alexander; Harris, David M

2016-12-01

Patients expect physicians to be lifelong learners who are able to interpret and evaluate diagnostic tests, and most medical schools list the development of lifelong learning in their program objectives. However, lecture is the most often utilized form of teaching in the first two years and is considered passive learning. The current generation of medical students has many characteristics that should support active learning pedagogies. The purpose of this study was to analyze student and faculty perceptions of active learning in an integrated medical curriculum at the second-year mark, where students have been exposed to multiple educational pedagogies. The first hypothesis of the study was that faculty would favor active learning methods. The second hypothesis was that Millennial medical students would favor active learning due to their characteristics. Primary faculty for years 1 and 2 and second-year medical students were recruited for an e-mail survey consisting of 12 questions about active learning and lecture. Students perceived that lecture and passive pedagogies were more effective for learning, whereas faculty felt active and collaborative learning was more effective. Students believed that more content should be covered by lecture than faculty. There were also significant differences in perceptions of what makes a good teacher. Students and faculty both felt that lack of time in the curriculum and preparation time were barriers for faculty. The data suggest that students are not familiar with the process of learning and that more time may be needed to help students develop lifelong learning skills. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society.

Game-Based Learning in an OpenSim-Supported Virtual Environment on Perceived Motivational Quality of Learning

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Kim, Heesung; Ke, Fengfeng; Paek, Insu

2017-01-01

This experimental study was intended to examine whether game-based learning (GBL) that encompasses four particular game characteristics (challenges, a storyline, immediate rewards and the integration of game-play with learning content) in an OpenSimulator-supported virtual reality learning environment can improve perceived motivational quality of…

A CONCEPT OF SOFTWARE SUPPORT OF LEARNING PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGIES

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V. Kruglyk

2013-03-01

Full Text Available A concept of software support of learning programming language and technologies is regarded in the article. Present systems of independent study of subjects, related to programming, are examined. Necessary components of a system of support learning programming languages and technologies, which is oriented on independent study, are considered.

Developing a Matrix Organization to Unify Learning Support Services.

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Clarke, John H.; Mansfield, Barry K.

1988-01-01

Describes use of matrix management to organize learning support services on a college campus. Claims matrix management, which links support services from academic and student affairs, increases access, improves accountability, and encourages new programs. (Author/ABL)

Integrating Collaborative and Decentralized Models to Support Ubiquitous Learning

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Barbosa, Jorge Luis Victória; Barbosa, Débora Nice Ferrari; Rigo, Sandro José; de Oliveira, Jezer Machado; Rabello, Solon Andrade, Jr.

2014-01-01

The application of ubiquitous technologies in the improvement of education strategies is called Ubiquitous Learning. This article proposes the integration between two models dedicated to support ubiquitous learning environments, called Global and CoolEdu. CoolEdu is a generic collaboration model for decentralized environments. Global is an…

The Mediating Effect of Intrinsic Motivation to Learn on the Relationship between Student´s Autonomy Support and Vitality and Deep Learning.

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Núñez, Juan L; León, Jaime

2016-07-18

Self-determination theory has shown that autonomy support in the classroom is associated with an increase of students' intrinsic motivation. Moreover, intrinsic motivation is related with positive outcomes. This study examines the relationships between autonomy support, intrinsic motivation to learn and two motivational consequences, deep learning and vitality. Specifically, the hypotheses were that autonomy support predicts the two types of consequences, and that autonomy support directly and indirectly predicts the vitality and the deep learning through intrinsic motivation to learn. Participants were 276 undergraduate students. The mean age was 21.80 years (SD = 2.94). Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships between variables and delta method was used to analyze the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation to learn. Results indicated that student perception of autonomy support had a positive effect on deep learning and vitality (p motivation to learn. These findings suggest that teachers are key elements in generating of autonomy support environment to promote intrinsic motivation, deep learning, and vitality in classroom. Educational implications are discussed.

Computer assisted active learning system development for critical thinking in history of civilization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adem Karahoca

2010-03-01

Full Text Available This study investigates a Computer Assisted Learning System (CALS according to the several factors that promote flow wherestudents are fully involved into the learning activities for history of civilization lessons. The designed CALS supported bymeta – cognitive (cognitive maps and multimedia tools (movies, flash cards and quiz applications that help students to reacha flow state in learning by actively by engaging students’ critical thinking and providing an environment for active participation.The research data was collected using focus group surveys from a randomly selected 54 students enrolled in history ofcivilization at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul, Turkey. Results showed that 53.7% of students can be in flow via implementedCALS. Also according to the results, the flow has significant predictors in the course enjoyment, perceived competence ofcourse, value–usefulness and the challenge–learning style match according to nature of course in such a CALS.

The Use of a Metacognitive Tool in an Online Social Supportive Learning Environment: An Activity Theory Analysis

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Martinez, Ray Earl

2010-01-01

This investigation is an exploratory study of the use of a metacognitive software tool in a social supportive learning environment. The tool combined metacognitive knowledge and regulation functionality embedded within the content of an eight week online graduate education course. Twenty-three learners, who were practicing teachers, used the tool.…

Active Learning in Engineering Education: a (re)introduction

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lima, Rui M.; Andersson, Pernille Hammar; Saalman, Elisabeth

2017-01-01

The informal network ‘Active Learning in Engineering Education’ (ALE) has been promoting Active Learning since 2001. ALE creates opportunity for practitioners and researchers of engineering education to collaboratively learn how to foster learning of engineering students. The activities in ALE...... were reviewed by the European Journal of Engineering Education community and this theme issue ended up with eight contributions, which are different both in their research and Active Learning approaches. These different Active Learning approaches are aligned with the different approaches that can...

Learning in Educational Computer Games for Novices: The Impact of Support Provision Types on Virtual Presence, Cognitive Load, and Learning Outcomes

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Claudia Schrader

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Embedding support devices in educational computer games has been asserted to positively affect learning outcomes. However, there is only limited direct empirical evidence on which design variations of support provision influence learning. In order to better understand the impact of support design on novices’ learning, the current study investigates how support devices and their type of provision (intrinsic vs. extrinsic determine games’ effectiveness on learning outcomes. This effectiveness is also related to how the design-type of provision influences learners’ virtual presence and cognitive load. Compared to an educational adventure game without additional support, the results indicate that the game equipped with support devices enhances learning outcomes, although no differences in cognitive load were found. A variation in the design of provision shows no effect. In order to gain a more thorough understanding of support devices and their design for games, additional learner characteristics (e.g., interest should be considered in future research.

Anytime, Anywhere Learning Supported by Smart Phones: Experiences and Results from the MUSIS Project

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Milrad, Marcelo; Spikol, Daniel

2007-01-01

In this paper we report the results of our on-going activities regarding the use of smart phones and mobile services in university classrooms. The purpose of these trials was to explore and identify which content and services could be delivered to the smart phones in order to support learning and communication in the context of university studies.…

An Innovative Teaching Method To Promote Active Learning: Team-Based Learning

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Balasubramanian, R.

2007-12-01

Traditional teaching practice based on the textbook-whiteboard- lecture-homework-test paradigm is not very effective in helping students with diverse academic backgrounds achieve higher-order critical thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Consequently, there is a critical need for developing a new pedagogical approach to create a collaborative and interactive learning environment in which students with complementary academic backgrounds and learning skills can work together to enhance their learning outcomes. In this presentation, I will discuss an innovative teaching method ('Team-Based Learning (TBL)") which I recently developed at National University of Singapore to promote active learning among students in the environmental engineering program with learning abilities. I implemented this new educational activity in a graduate course. Student feedback indicates that this pedagogical approach is appealing to most students, and promotes active & interactive learning in class. Data will be presented to show that the innovative teaching method has contributed to improved student learning and achievement.

Active Learning in the Era of Big Data

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jamieson, Kevin [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Davis, IV, Warren L. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2015-10-01

Active learning methods automatically adapt data collection by selecting the most informative samples in order to accelerate machine learning. Because of this, real-world testing and comparing active learning algorithms requires collecting new datasets (adaptively), rather than simply applying algorithms to benchmark datasets, as is the norm in (passive) machine learning research. To facilitate the development, testing and deployment of active learning for real applications, we have built an open-source software system for large-scale active learning research and experimentation. The system, called NEXT, provides a unique platform for realworld, reproducible active learning research. This paper details the challenges of building the system and demonstrates its capabilities with several experiments. The results show how experimentation can help expose strengths and weaknesses of active learning algorithms, in sometimes unexpected and enlightening ways.

Alzheimer's Caregiver Support Online: lessons learned, initial findings and future directions.

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Glueckauf, Robert L; Loomis, Jeffrey S

2003-01-01

Family caregivers of older adults with progressive dementia (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) are faced with a variety of emotional and behavioral difficulties, such as dealing with persistent, repetitive questions, managing agitation and depression, and monitoring hygiene and self-care activities. Although professional and governmental organizations have called for the creation of community-based education and support programs, most dementia caregivers continue to receive little or no formal instruction in responding effectively to these challenges. The current paper describes the development and implementation of Alzheimer's Caregiver Support Online, a Web- and telephone-based education and support network for caregivers of individuals with progressive dementia. Lessons learned from the first two years of this state-supported initiative are discussed, followed by the findings of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded strategic marketing initiative and an initial program evaluation of AlzOnline's Positive Caregiving classes. Finally, clinical implications and future directions for program development and evaluation research are proposed.

Support vector machine incremental learning triggered by wrongly predicted samples

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Tang, Ting-long; Guan, Qiu; Wu, Yi-rong

2018-05-01

According to the classic Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) theorem, at every step of incremental support vector machine (SVM) learning, the newly adding sample which violates the KKT conditions will be a new support vector (SV) and migrate the old samples between SV set and non-support vector (NSV) set, and at the same time the learning model should be updated based on the SVs. However, it is not exactly clear at this moment that which of the old samples would change between SVs and NSVs. Additionally, the learning model will be unnecessarily updated, which will not greatly increase its accuracy but decrease the training speed. Therefore, how to choose the new SVs from old sets during the incremental stages and when to process incremental steps will greatly influence the accuracy and efficiency of incremental SVM learning. In this work, a new algorithm is proposed to select candidate SVs and use the wrongly predicted sample to trigger the incremental processing simultaneously. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve good performance with high efficiency, high speed and good accuracy.

Cooperative Learning, Responsibility, Ambiguity, Controversy and Support in Motivating Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald Brecke, PhD

2007-08-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that student motivation is nurtured more by intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. Rather than relying on grades alone to stimulate students, this paper explores how engendering a natural critical learning environment can give students a sense of ownership in their own learning and lead to their commitment to that learning. We examine uses of cooperative learning, shared responsibility, ambiguity, controversy and support in student motivation.

Cooperative Learning, Responsibility, Ambiguity, Controversy and Support in Motivating Students

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronald Brecke

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that student motivation is nurtured more by intrinsic rather than extrinsic rewards. Rather than relying on grades alone to stimulate students, this paper explores how engendering a natural critical learning environment can give students a sense of ownership in their own learning and lead to their commitment to that learning. We examine uses of cooperative learning, shared responsibility, ambiguity, controversy and support in student motivation.

Elements of Social Learning Supporting Transformative Change

African Journals Online (AJOL)

sound, ontologically congruent methodology to support their social-learning ..... role in strengthening democratisation of the decision-making of the participants. ... powers of the contextual social structures and cultural systems (Lindley, 2014). ... participatory practice in integrated water resource management in South Africa.

Is Peer Interaction Necessary for Optimal Active Learning?

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Linton, Debra L.; Farmer, Jan Keith; Peterson, Ernie

2014-01-01

Meta-analyses of active-learning research consistently show that active-learning techniques result in greater student performance than traditional lecture-based courses. However, some individual studies show no effect of active-learning interventions. This may be due to inexperienced implementation of active learning. To minimize the effect of…

The Effects of Mobile-Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: Meta-Analysis and Critical Synthesis

Science.gov (United States)

Sung, Yao-Ting; Yang, Je-Ming; Lee, Han-Yueh

2017-01-01

One of the trends in collaborative learning is using mobile devices for supporting the process and products of collaboration, which has been forming the field of mobile-computer-supported collaborative learning (mCSCL). Although mobile devices have become valuable collaborative learning tools, evaluative evidence for their substantial…

Student Perceptions of Active Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Lumpkin, Angela; Achen, Rebecca M.; Dodd, Regan K.

2015-01-01

A paradigm shift from lecture-based courses to interactive classes punctuated with engaging, student-centered learning activities has begun to characterize the work of some teachers in higher education. Convinced through the literature of the values of using active learning strategies, we assessed through an action research project in five college…

A Digital Coach That Provides Affective and Social Learning Support to Low-Literate Learners

Science.gov (United States)

Schouten, Dylan G. M.; Venneker, Fleur; Bosse, Tibor; Neerincx, Mark A.; Cremers, Anita H. M.

2018-01-01

In this study, we investigate if a digital coach for low-literate learners that provides cognitive learning support based on scaffolding can be improved by adding affective learning support based on motivational interviewing, and social learning support based on small talk. Several knowledge gaps are identified: motivational interviewing and small…

A Case Study on Learning Difficulties and Corresponding Supports for Learning in cMOOCs

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Shuang; Tang, Qi; Zhang, Yanxia

2016-01-01

cMOOCs, which are based on connectivist learning theory, bring challenges for learners as well as opportunities for self-inquiry. Previous studies have shown that learners in cMOOCs may have difficulties learning, but these studies do not provide any in-depth, empirical explorations of student difficulties or support strategies. This paper…

Active-Learning versus Teacher-Centered Instruction for Learning Acids and Bases

Science.gov (United States)

Sesen, Burcin Acar; Tarhan, Leman

2011-01-01

Background and purpose: Active-learning as a student-centered learning process has begun to take more interest in constructing scientific knowledge. For this reason, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of active-learning implementation on high-school students' understanding of "acids and bases". Sample: The sample of this…

Costs of Success: Financial Implications of Implementation of Active Learning in Introductory Physics Courses for Students and Administrators

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Brewe, Eric; Dou, Remy; Shand, Robert

2018-01-01

Although active learning is supported by strong evidence of efficacy in undergraduate science instruction, institutions of higher education have yet to embrace comprehensive change. Costs of transforming instruction are regularly cited as a key factor in not adopting active-learning instructional practices. Some cite that alternative methods to…

A Comparison of Professional-Level Faculty and Student Perceptions of Active Learning: Its Current Use, Effectiveness, and Barriers

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Cynthia J.; Metz, Michael J.

2014-01-01

Active learning is an instructional method in which students become engaged participants in the classroom through the use of in-class written exercises, games, problem sets, audience-response systems, debates, class discussions, etc. Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of active learning strategies, minimal adoption of the technique has…

Applications of Support Vector Machine (SVM) Learning in Cancer Genomics

OpenAIRE

HUANG, SHUJUN; CAI, NIANGUANG; PACHECO, PEDRO PENZUTI; NARANDES, SHAVIRA; WANG, YANG; XU, WAYNE

2017-01-01

Machine learning with maximization (support) of separating margin (vector), called support vector machine (SVM) learning, is a powerful classification tool that has been used for cancer genomic classification or subtyping. Today, as advancements in high-throughput technologies lead to production of large amounts of genomic and epigenomic data, the classification feature of SVMs is expanding its use in cancer genomics, leading to the discovery of new biomarkers, new drug targets, and a better ...

Online discussion compensates for suboptimal timing of supportive information presentation in a digitally supported learning environment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Noroozi, O.; Busstra, M.C.; Mulder, M.; Biemans, H.J.A.; Tobi, H.; Geelen, A.; Veer, van 't P.; Chizari, M.

2012-01-01

This study used a sequential set-up to investigate the consecutive effects of timing of supportive information presentation (information before vs. information during the learning task clusters) in interactive digital learning materials (IDLMs) and type of collaboration (personal discussion vs.

Supporting Adaptive Learning Pathways through the Use of Learning Analytics: Developments, Challenges and Future Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Mavroudi, Anna; Giannakos, Michail; Krogstie, John

2018-01-01

Learning Analytics (LA) and adaptive learning are inextricably linked since they both foster technology-supported learner-centred education. This study identifies developments focusing on their interplay and emphasises insufficiently investigated directions which display a higher innovation potential. Twenty-one peer-reviewed studies are…

How to facilitate freshmen learning and support their transition to a university study environment

Science.gov (United States)

Kangas, Jari; Rantanen, Elisa; Kettunen, Lauri

2017-11-01

Most freshmen enter universities with high expectations and with good motivation, but too many are driven into performing instead of true learning. The issues are not only related to the challenge of comprehending the substance, social and other factors have an impact as well. All these multifaceted needs should be accounted for to facilitate student learning. Learning is an individual process and remarkable improvement in the learning practices is possible, if proper actions are addressed early enough. We motivate and describe a study of the experience obtained from a set of tailor-made courses that were given alongside standard curriculum. The courses aimed to provide a 'safe community' to address the multifaceted needs. Such support was integrated into regular coursework where active learning techniques, e.g. interactive small groups were incorporated. To assess impact of the courses we employ the feedback obtained during the courses and longitudinal statistical data about students' success.

Perceived support among Iranian mothers of children with learning disability.

Science.gov (United States)

Kermanshahi, Sima Mohammad Khan; Vanaki, Zohreh; Ahmadi, Fazlollah; Azadfalah, Parviz

2009-01-01

This qualitative phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of perceived support by Iranian mothers who have children with learning disability. Twelve open interviews with six mothers of learning-disabled children (7-12 years of age) were audiotape-recorded with participants' consent. The interviews were transcribed and data were analyzed using Van Manen methodology. Two major themes emerged from 138 thematic sentences. The mothers'experiences could be interpreted as a sense of being in the light or being in the shade of support, with variations for different participants. The results indicate a need for more specialized and individually adjusted support for mothers in Iran.

Successful Implementation of a Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning System in Teaching E-Commerce

Science.gov (United States)

Ngai, E. W. T.; Lam, S. S.; Poon, J. K. L.

2013-01-01

This paper describes the successful application of a computer-supported collaborative learning system in teaching e-commerce. The authors created a teaching and learning environment for 39 local secondary schools to introduce e-commerce using a computer-supported collaborative learning system. This system is designed to equip students with…

Internal and External Factors Affecting Teachers' Adoption of Formative Assessment to Support Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Izci, Kemal

2016-01-01

Assessment forms an important part of instruction. Assessment that aims to support learning is known as formative assessment and it contributes student's learning gain and motivation. However, teachers rarely use assessment formatively to aid their students' learning. Thus reviewing the factors that limit or support teachers' practices of…

Impact of engaging middle management in practice interventions on staff support and learning culture: a quasi-experimental design.

Science.gov (United States)

Henderson, Amanda; Burmeister, Liz; Schoonbeek, Sue; Ossenberg, Christine; Gneilding, Julieanne

2014-11-01

This study evaluated the impact of different levels of engaging middle management in ward based strategies implemented by a project educator. The challenge for learning in practice is to develop effective teams where experienced staff engage and foster learning with students and other novice staff. A quasi-experimental pre- and post- intervention four group design was conducted from November 2009 to May 2010 across four general surgical and four general medical inpatient matched units in two settings in South East Queensland, Australia. Staff survey data was used to compare control and intervention groups (one actively engaging nurse managers) before and after 'practice learning' interventions. The survey comprised demographic data and data from two validated scales (support instrument for nurses facilitating learning and clinical learning organisational culture). Number of surveys returned pre- and post-intervention was 336 from 713 (47%). There were significant differences across many subscales pertaining to staff perception of support in the intervention groups, with only one change in the control group. The number of significant different subscales in the learning culture was also greater when middle management supported the intervention. Middle management should work closely with facilitators to assist embedding practice interventions. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Active Learning in the Middle Grades

Science.gov (United States)

Edwards, Susan

2015-01-01

What is active learning and what does it look like in the classroom? If students are participating in active learning, they are playing a more engaged role in the learning process and are not overly reliant on the teacher (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2003; Petress, 2008). The purpose of this article is to propose a framework to describe and…

Using tablets to support self-regulated learning in a longitudinal integrated clerkship

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dylan Archbold Hufty Alegría

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The need to train physicians committed to learning throughout their careers has prompted medical schools to encourage the development and practice of self-regulated learning by students. Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs require students to exercise self-regulated learning skills. As mobile tools, tablets can potentially support self-regulation among LIC students. Methods: We provided 15 LIC students with tablet computers with access to the electronic health record (EHR, to track their patient cohort, and a multiplatform online notebook, to support documentation and retrieval of self-identified clinical learning issues. Students received a 1-hour workshop on the relevant features of the tablet and online notebook. Two focus groups with the students were used to evaluate the program, one early and one late in the year and were coded by two raters. Results: Students used the tablet to support their self-regulated learning in ways that were unique to their learning styles and increased access to resources and utilization of down-time. Students who used the tablet to self-monitor and target learning demonstrated the utility of tablets as learning tools. Conclusions: LICs are environments rich in opportunity for self-regulated learning. Tablets can enhance students’ ability to develop and employ self-regulatory skills in a clinical context.

Using tablets to support self-regulated learning in a longitudinal integrated clerkship.

Science.gov (United States)

Alegría, Dylan Archbold Hufty; Boscardin, Christy; Poncelet, Ann; Mayfield, Chandler; Wamsley, Maria

2014-01-01

The need to train physicians committed to learning throughout their careers has prompted medical schools to encourage the development and practice of self-regulated learning by students. Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) require students to exercise self-regulated learning skills. As mobile tools, tablets can potentially support self-regulation among LIC students. We provided 15 LIC students with tablet computers with access to the electronic health record (EHR), to track their patient cohort, and a multiplatform online notebook, to support documentation and retrieval of self-identified clinical learning issues. Students received a 1-hour workshop on the relevant features of the tablet and online notebook. Two focus groups with the students were used to evaluate the program, one early and one late in the year and were coded by two raters. Students used the tablet to support their self-regulated learning in ways that were unique to their learning styles and increased access to resources and utilization of down-time. Students who used the tablet to self-monitor and target learning demonstrated the utility of tablets as learning tools. LICs are environments rich in opportunity for self-regulated learning. Tablets can enhance students' ability to develop and employ self-regulatory skills in a clinical context.

Using tablets to support self-regulated learning in a longitudinal integrated clerkship

Science.gov (United States)

Alegría, Dylan Archbold Hufty; Boscardin, Christy; Poncelet, Ann; Mayfield, Chandler; Wamsley, Maria

2014-01-01

Introduction The need to train physicians committed to learning throughout their careers has prompted medical schools to encourage the development and practice of self-regulated learning by students. Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) require students to exercise self-regulated learning skills. As mobile tools, tablets can potentially support self-regulation among LIC students. Methods We provided 15 LIC students with tablet computers with access to the electronic health record (EHR), to track their patient cohort, and a multiplatform online notebook, to support documentation and retrieval of self-identified clinical learning issues. Students received a 1-hour workshop on the relevant features of the tablet and online notebook. Two focus groups with the students were used to evaluate the program, one early and one late in the year and were coded by two raters. Results Students used the tablet to support their self-regulated learning in ways that were unique to their learning styles and increased access to resources and utilization of down-time. Students who used the tablet to self-monitor and target learning demonstrated the utility of tablets as learning tools. Conclusions LICs are environments rich in opportunity for self-regulated learning. Tablets can enhance students’ ability to develop and employ self-regulatory skills in a clinical context. PMID:24646438

Active Learning Not Associated with Student Learning in a Random Sample of College Biology Courses

Science.gov (United States)

Andrews, T. M.; Leonard, M. J.; Colgrove, C. A.; Kalinowski, S. T.

2011-01-01

Previous research has suggested that adding active learning to traditional college science lectures substantially improves student learning. However, this research predominantly studied courses taught by science education researchers, who are likely to have exceptional teaching expertise. The present study investigated introductory biology courses randomly selected from a list of prominent colleges and universities to include instructors representing a broader population. We examined the relationship between active learning and student learning in the subject area of natural selection. We found no association between student learning gains and the use of active-learning instruction. Although active learning has the potential to substantially improve student learning, this research suggests that active learning, as used by typical college biology instructors, is not associated with greater learning gains. We contend that most instructors lack the rich and nuanced understanding of teaching and learning that science education researchers have developed. Therefore, active learning as designed and implemented by typical college biology instructors may superficially resemble active learning used by education researchers, but lacks the constructivist elements necessary for improving learning. PMID:22135373

e-Learning in Advanced Life Support-What factors influence assessment outcome?

Science.gov (United States)

Thorne, C J; Lockey, A S; Kimani, P K; Bullock, I; Hampshire, S; Begum-Ali, S; Perkins, G D

2017-05-01

To establish variables which are associated with favourable Advanced Life Support (ALS) course assessment outcomes, maximising learning effect. Between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2014, 8218 individuals participated in a Resuscitation Council (UK) e-learning Advanced Life Support (e-ALS) course. Participants completed 5-8h of online e-learning prior to attending a one day face-to-face course. e-Learning access data were collected through the Learning Management System (LMS). All participants were assessed by a multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) before and after the face-to-face aspect alongside a practical cardiac arrest simulation (CAS-Test). Participant demographics and assessment outcomes were analysed. The mean post e-learning MCQ score was 83.7 (SD 7.3) and the mean post-course MCQ score was 87.7 (SD 7.9). The first attempt CAS-Test pass rate was 84.6% and overall pass rate 96.6%. Participants with previous ALS experience, ILS experience, or who were a core member of the resuscitation team performed better in the post-course MCQ, CAS-Test and overall assessment. Median time spent on the e-learning was 5.2h (IQR 3.7-7.1). There was a large range in the degree of access to e-learning content. Increased time spent accessing e-learning had no effect on the overall result (OR 0.98, P=0.367) on simulated learning outcome. Clinical experience through membership of cardiac arrest teams and previous ILS or ALS training were independent predictors of performance on the ALS course whilst time spent accessing e-learning materials did not affect course outcomes. This supports the blended approach to e-ALS which allows participants to tailor their e-learning experience to their specific needs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Analysis of Creative Process Learning in Computer Game Activities Through Player Experiences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wilawan Inchamnan

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This research investigates the extent to which creative processes can be fostered through computer gaming. It focuses on creative components in games that have been specifically designed for educational purposes: Digital Game Based Learning (DGBL. A behavior analysis for measuring the creative potential of computer game activities and learning outcomes is described. Creative components were measured by examining task motivation and domain-relevant and creativity-relevant skill factors. The research approach applied heuristic checklists in the field of gameplay to analyze the stage of player activities involved in the performance of the task and to examine player experiences with the Player Experience of Need Satisfaction (PENS survey. Player experiences were influenced by competency, autonomy, intuitive controls, relatedness and presence. This study examines the impact of these activities on the player experience for evaluating learning outcomes through school records. The study is designed to better understand the creative potential of people who are engaged in learning knowledge and skills during the course while playing video games. The findings show the creative potential that occurred to yield levels of creative performance within game play activities to support learning. The anticipated outcome is knowledge on how video games foster creative thinking as an overview of the Creative Potential of Learning Model (CPLN. CPLN clearly describes the interrelationships between principles of learning and creative potential, the interpretation of the results is indispensable.

Active learning methods for interactive image retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Gosselin, Philippe Henri; Cord, Matthieu

2008-07-01

Active learning methods have been considered with increased interest in the statistical learning community. Initially developed within a classification framework, a lot of extensions are now being proposed to handle multimedia applications. This paper provides algorithms within a statistical framework to extend active learning for online content-based image retrieval (CBIR). The classification framework is presented with experiments to compare several powerful classification techniques in this information retrieval context. Focusing on interactive methods, active learning strategy is then described. The limitations of this approach for CBIR are emphasized before presenting our new active selection process RETIN. First, as any active method is sensitive to the boundary estimation between classes, the RETIN strategy carries out a boundary correction to make the retrieval process more robust. Second, the criterion of generalization error to optimize the active learning selection is modified to better represent the CBIR objective of database ranking. Third, a batch processing of images is proposed. Our strategy leads to a fast and efficient active learning scheme to retrieve sets of online images (query concept). Experiments on large databases show that the RETIN method performs well in comparison to several other active strategies.

Neural correlates of skill acquisition: decreased cortical activity during a serial interception sequence learning task.

Science.gov (United States)

Gobel, Eric W; Parrish, Todd B; Reber, Paul J

2011-10-15

Learning of complex motor skills requires learning of component movements as well as the sequential structure of their order and timing. Using a Serial Interception Sequence Learning (SISL) task, participants learned a sequence of precisely timed interception responses through training with a repeating sequence. Following initial implicit learning of the repeating sequence, functional MRI data were collected during performance of that known sequence and compared with activity evoked during novel sequences of actions, novel timing patterns, or both. Reduced activity was observed during the practiced sequence in a distributed bilateral network including extrastriate occipital, parietal, and premotor cortical regions. These reductions in evoked activity likely reflect improved efficiency in visuospatial processing, spatio-motor integration, motor planning, and motor execution for the trained sequence, which is likely supported by nondeclarative skill learning. In addition, the practiced sequence evoked increased activity in the left ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex, while the posterior cingulate was more active during periods of better performance. Many prior studies of perceptual-motor skill learning have found increased activity in motor areas of the frontal cortex (e.g., motor and premotor cortex, SMA) and striatal areas (e.g., the putamen). The change in activity observed here (i.e., decreased activity across a cortical network) may reflect skill learning that is predominantly expressed through more accurate performance rather than decreased reaction time. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pedagogical Scholarship in Public Health: A Call for Cultivating Learning Communities to Support Evidence-Based Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Merzel, Cheryl; Halkitis, Perry; Healton, Cheryl

Public health education is experiencing record growth and transformation. The current emphasis on learning outcomes necessitates attention to creating and evaluating the best curricula and learning methods for helping public health students develop public health competencies. Schools and programs of public health would benefit from active engagement in pedagogical research and additional platforms to support dissemination and implementation of educational research findings. We reviewed current avenues for sharing public health educational research, curricula, and best teaching practices; we identified useful models from other health professions; and we offered suggestions for how the field of public health education can develop communities of learning devoted to supporting pedagogy. Our goal was to help advance an agenda of innovative evidence-based public health education, enabling schools and programs of public health to evaluate and measure success in meeting the current and future needs of the public health profession.

Collaborative Multimedia Learning: Influence of a Social Regulatory Support on Learning Performance and on Collaboration

Science.gov (United States)

Acuña, Santiago Roger; López-Aymes, Gabriela

2016-01-01

This paper analyzes the effects of a support aimed at favoring the social regulatory processes in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment, specifically in a comprehension task of a multimedia text about Psychology of Communication. This support, named RIDE (Saab, van Joolingen, & van Hout-Wolters, 2007; 2012), consists…

Theory-based Support for Mobile Language Learning: Noticing and Recording

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Kukulska-Hulme

2009-04-01

Full Text Available This paper considers the issue of 'noticing' in second language acquisition, and argues for the potential of handheld devices to: (i support language learners in noticing and recording noticed features 'on the spot', to help them develop their second language system; (ii help language teachers better understand the specific difficulties of individuals or those from a particular language background; and (iii facilitate data collection by applied linguistics researchers, which can be fed back into educational applications for language learning. We consider: theoretical perspectives drawn from the second language acquisition literature, relating these to the practice of writing language learning diaries; and the potential for learner modelling to facilitate recording and prompting noticing in mobile assisted language learning contexts. We then offer guidelines for developers of mobile language learning solutions to support the development of language awareness in learners.

Sharing the learning activity using intelligent CAD

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Duffy, S. M.; Duffy, Alex

1996-01-01

In this paper the need for Intelligent Computer Aided Design (Int.CAD) to jointly support design and learning assistance is introduced. The paper focuses on presenting and exploring the possibility of realizing ''learning'' assistance in Int.CAD by introducing a new concept called Shared Learning...

The Trans-Contextual Model: Perceived Learning and Performance Motivational Climates as Analogues of Perceived Autonomy Support

Science.gov (United States)

Barkoukis, Vassilis; Hagger, Martin S.

2013-01-01

The trans-contextual model of motivation (TCM) proposes that perceived autonomy support in physical education (PE) predicts autonomous motivation within this context, which, in turn, is related to autonomous motivation and physical activity in leisure-time. According to achievement goal theory perceptions of learning and performance, motivational…

The Personal Digital Library (PDL)-based e-learning: Using the PDL as an e-learning support tool

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Xiaozhao; Ruan, Jianhai

The paper describes a support tool for learners engaged in e-learning, the Personal Digital Library (PDL). The characteristics and functionality of the PDL are presented. Suggested steps for constructing and managing a PDL are outlined and discussed briefly. The authors believe that the PDL as a support tool of e-learning will be important and essential in the future.

Supporting Case-Based Learning in Information Security with Web-Based Technology

Science.gov (United States)

He, Wu; Yuan, Xiaohong; Yang, Li

2013-01-01

Case-based learning has been widely used in many disciplines. As an effective pedagogical method, case-based learning is also being used to support teaching and learning in the domain of information security. In this paper, we demonstrate case-based learning in information security by sharing our experiences in using a case study to teach security…

Action Learning--A Process Which Supports Organisational Change Initiatives

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Joyce, Pauline

2012-01-01

This paper reflects on how action learning sets (ALSs) were used to support organisational change initiatives. It sets the scene with contextualising the inclusion of change projects in a masters programme. Action learning is understood to be a dynamic process where a team meets regularly to help individual members address issues through a highly…

Active Learning in Engineering Education: A (Re)Introduction

Science.gov (United States)

Lima, Rui M.; Andersson, Pernille Hammar; Saalman, Elisabeth

2017-01-01

The informal network "Active Learning in Engineering Education" (ALE) has been promoting Active Learning since 2001. ALE creates opportunity for practitioners and researchers of engineering education to collaboratively learn how to foster learning of engineering students. The activities in ALE are centred on the vision that learners…

The double-loop feedback for active learning with understanding

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Hans Peter

2004-01-01

Learning is an active process, and in engineering education authentic projects is often used to activate the students and promote learning. However, it is not all activity that leads to deep learning; and in a rapid changing society deep understanding is necessary for life-long learning. Empirical...... findings at DTU question the direct link between high activity and a deep approach to learning. Active learning is important to obtain engineering competencies, but active learning requires more than activity. Feedback and reflection is crucial to the learning process, since new knowledge is built...... on the student’s existing understanding. A model for an active learning process with a double-loop feedback is suggested - the first loop gives the student experience through experimentation, the second conceptual understanding through reflection. Students often miss the second loop, so it is important...

[Problem-based learning in cardiopulmonary resuscitation: basic life support].

Science.gov (United States)

Sardo, Pedro Miguel Garcez; Dal Sasso, Grace Terezinha Marcon

2008-12-01

Descriptive and exploratory study, aimed to develop an educational practice of Problem-Based Learning in CPR/BLS with 24 students in the third stage of the Nursing Undergraduate Course in a University in the Southern region of Brazil. The study used the PBL methodology, focused on problem situations of cardiopulmonary arrest, and was approved by the CONEP. The methodological strategies for data collection, such as participative observation and questionnaires to evaluate the learning, the educational practices and their methodology, allowed for grouping the results in: students' expectations; group activities; individual activities; practical activities; evaluation of the meetings and their methodology. The study showed that PBL allows the educator to evaluate the academic learning process in several dimensions, functioning as a motivating factor for both the educator and the student, because it allows the theoretical-practical integration in an integrated learning process.

Singing as Language Learning Activity in Multilingual Toddler Groups in Preschool

Science.gov (United States)

Kultti, Anne

2013-01-01

This research focused on learning conditions in preschool that support multilingual children's linguistic development. The aim of this paper was to study singing activities through the experiences of ten multilingual children in toddler groups (one to three years of age) in eight Swedish preschools. A sociocultural theoretical approach is used to…

KINAC/INSA International Training Activities and Lessons Learned

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Hyun Chul

2016-01-01

In an effort to strengthen the coordination of the nuclear security training and support centers, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established the International Network for Nuclear Security Training and Support Centres (NSSC Network) in February 2012. In February 2013, NSSC Network members from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) established the 'Asia Regional Network' under the auspices of the NSSC Network to enhance regional collaboration to harmonize activities of the regional CoEs to provide effective support on nuclear security. Japan opened its CoE, Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) in February 2011. The Chinese CoE, so called State Nuclear Security Technology Center (SNSTC), is expected to open in March 2016. As one of ROK's national commitments at the 2010 NSS, the KINAC/INSA was established in 2014 in order to share ROK's expertise and support the Summit's mission. International training activities of the KINAC/INSA for two years have been introduced and the lessons learned from those activities have been identified. While the KINAC/INSA as the ROK's CoE has begun on the right foot, it still remains challenging to achieve real excellence in training. Such international training efforts of the KINAC/INSA will eventually contribute to the ROK acknowledged as a global leader in the area of nuclear nonproliferation and security and a nuclear supplier fulfilling responsibility on global nuclear nonproliferation and security regime

KINAC/INSA International Training Activities and Lessons Learned

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Hyun Chul [Korea Institute of Nuclear Nonproliferation and Control, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-05-15

In an effort to strengthen the coordination of the nuclear security training and support centers, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) established the International Network for Nuclear Security Training and Support Centres (NSSC Network) in February 2012. In February 2013, NSSC Network members from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) established the 'Asia Regional Network' under the auspices of the NSSC Network to enhance regional collaboration to harmonize activities of the regional CoEs to provide effective support on nuclear security. Japan opened its CoE, Integrated Support Center for Nuclear Nonproliferation and Nuclear Security (ISCN) in February 2011. The Chinese CoE, so called State Nuclear Security Technology Center (SNSTC), is expected to open in March 2016. As one of ROK's national commitments at the 2010 NSS, the KINAC/INSA was established in 2014 in order to share ROK's expertise and support the Summit's mission. International training activities of the KINAC/INSA for two years have been introduced and the lessons learned from those activities have been identified. While the KINAC/INSA as the ROK's CoE has begun on the right foot, it still remains challenging to achieve real excellence in training. Such international training efforts of the KINAC/INSA will eventually contribute to the ROK acknowledged as a global leader in the area of nuclear nonproliferation and security and a nuclear supplier fulfilling responsibility on global nuclear nonproliferation and security regime.

Navigation Support and Social Visualization for Personalized E-Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Hsiao, I-Han

2012-01-01

A large number of educational resources is now made available on the Web to support both regular classroom learning and online learning. However, the abundance of available content produced at least two problems: how to help students to find the most appropriate resources and how to engage them into using these resources and benefit from them.…

Integration of evidence-based practice in bedside teaching paediatrics supported by e-learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Potomkova, Jarmila; Mihal, Vladimir; Zapletalova, Jirina; Subova, Dana

2010-03-01

Bedside teaching with evidence-based practice elements, supported by e-learning activities, can play an important role in modern medical education. Teachers have to incorporate evidence from the medical literature to increase student motivation and interactivity. An integral part of the medical curricula at Palacky University Olomouc (Czech Republic) are real paediatric scenarios supplemented with a review of current literature to enhance evidence-based bedside teaching & learning. Searching for evidence is taught through librarian-guided interactive hands-on sessions and/or web-based tutorials followed by clinical case presentations and feedback. Innovated EBM paediatric clerkship demonstrated students' preferences towards web-based interactive bedside teaching & learning. In two academic years (2007/2008, 2008/2009), learning-focused feedback from 106 and 131 students, resp. was obtained about their attitudes towards evidence-based bedside teaching. The assessment included among others the overall level of instruction, quality of practical evidence-based training, teacher willingness and impact of instruction on increased interest in the specialty. There was some criticism about excessive workload. A parallel survey was carried out on the perceived values of different forms of information skills training (i.e. demonstration, online tutorials, and librarian-guided interactive search sessions) and post-training self-reported level of search skills. The new teaching/learning paediatric portfolio is a challenge for further activities, including effective knowledge translation, continuing medical & professional development of teachers, and didactic, clinically integrated teaching approaches.

From Tootsie Rolls to Composites: Assessing a Spectrum of Active Learning Activities in Engineering Mechanics

Science.gov (United States)

2009-05-01

The introduction of active learning exercises into a traditional lecture has been shown to improve students’ learning. Hands-on learning...opportunities in labs and projects provide are additional tools in the active learning toolbox. This paper presents a series of innovative hands-on active ... learning activities for mechanics of materials topics. These activities are based on a Methodology for Developing Hands-on Active Learning Activities, a

Using active learning strategies to investigate student learning and attitudes in a large enrollment, introductory geology course

Science.gov (United States)

Berry, Stacy Jane

considered as significant as the academic merit. The qualitative data substantiated the achievement success and revealed a positive relationship between a student centered learning environment and attitudes regarding learning geology. Our findings indicated a positive trend favoring active learning instructional practices, particularly methods that emphasize independent and active thinking, and analyzing of data. Of particular interest was the correlation between the amount of student ownership in an activity and students' attitude toward authenticity and application in learning. Students' perceptions and attitudes provided depth in program evaluation and helped in identifying which components used in teaching methodologies were the most effective towards learning. Although the exigencies of high enrollment introductory courses set limits for this study, the outcomes support the positive influence that active learning has on achievement performance in a high enrollment, introductory Geology course.

Automatic Earthquake Detection by Active Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Bergen, K.; Beroza, G. C.

2017-12-01

In recent years, advances in machine learning have transformed fields such as image recognition, natural language processing and recommender systems. Many of these performance gains have relied on the availability of large, labeled data sets to train high-accuracy models; labeled data sets are those for which each sample includes a target class label, such as waveforms tagged as either earthquakes or noise. Earthquake seismologists are increasingly leveraging machine learning and data mining techniques to detect and analyze weak earthquake signals in large seismic data sets. One of the challenges in applying machine learning to seismic data sets is the limited labeled data problem; learning algorithms need to be given examples of earthquake waveforms, but the number of known events, taken from earthquake catalogs, may be insufficient to build an accurate detector. Furthermore, earthquake catalogs are known to be incomplete, resulting in training data that may be biased towards larger events and contain inaccurate labels. This challenge is compounded by the class imbalance problem; the events of interest, earthquakes, are infrequent relative to noise in continuous data sets, and many learning algorithms perform poorly on rare classes. In this work, we investigate the use of active learning for automatic earthquake detection. Active learning is a type of semi-supervised machine learning that uses a human-in-the-loop approach to strategically supplement a small initial training set. The learning algorithm incorporates domain expertise through interaction between a human expert and the algorithm, with the algorithm actively posing queries to the user to improve detection performance. We demonstrate the potential of active machine learning to improve earthquake detection performance with limited available training data.

Entertainment, Engagement and Education: Foundations and Developments in Digital and Physical Spaces to Support Learning through Making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Giannakos, Michail N.; Divitini, Monica; Iversen, Ole Sejer

2017-01-01

like problem solving, design thinking, collaboration, and innovation, to mention few. Contemporary technical and infrastructural developments, like Hackerspaces, Makerspaces, TechShops, FabLabs and the appearance of tools such as wearable computing, robotics, 3D printing, microprocessors, and intuitive......Making is a relatively new concept applied to describe the increasing attention on constructing activities to enable entertaining, engaging and efficient learning. Making focuses on the process that occurs in digital and/or physical spaces that is not always learning oriented, but enables qualities...... programming languages; posit making as a very promising research area to support the learning processes, especially towards the acquisition of 21st Century learning competences. Collecting learning evidence via rigorous multidimensional and multidisciplinary case studies will allow us to better understand...

Investigating the social configuration of a community to understand how networked learning activities take place: The OERu case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schreurs, Bieke; Van den Beemt, Antoine; Prinsen, Fleur; De Laat, Maarten; Witthaus, Gaby; Conole, Grainne

2015-01-01

Examining how OER (Open Educational Resources) communities come to live, function or learn can support in empowering educators in the use of open educational resources. In this paper we investigate how an OER community functions through its networked learning activities. Networked learning

Strategies for active learning in online continuing education.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Janet M

2005-01-01

Online continuing education and staff development is on the rise as the benefits of access, convenience, and quality learning are continuing to take shape. Strategies to enhance learning call for learner participation that is self-directed and independent, thus changing the educator's role from expert to coach and facilitator. Good planning of active learning strategies promotes optimal learning whether the learning content is presented in a course or a just-in-time short module. Active learning strategies can be used to enhance online learning during all phases of the teaching-learning process and can accommodate a variety of learning styles. Feedback from peers, educators, and technology greatly influences learner satisfaction and must be harnessed to provide effective learning experiences. Outcomes of active learning can be assessed online and implemented conveniently and successfully from the initiation of the course or module planning to the end of the evaluation process. Online learning has become accessible and convenient and allows the educator to track learner participation. The future of online education will continue to grow, and using active learning strategies will ensure that quality learning will occur, appealing to a wide variety of learning needs.

The importance of task appropriateness in computer-supported collaborative learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathy Buckner

1999-12-01

Full Text Available The study of learning in collaborative electronic environments is becoming established as Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL - an emergent sub-discipline of the more established Computer Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW discipline (Webb, 1995. Using computers for the development of shared understanding through collaboration has been explored by Crook who suggests that success may depend partly on having a clearly specified purpose or goal (Crook, 1994. It is our view that the appropriateness of the task given to the student is central to the success or otherwise of the learning experience. However, the tasks that are given to facilitate collaborative learning in face-toface situations are not always suitable for direct transfer to the electronic medium. It may be necessary to consider redesigning these tasks in relation to the medium in which they are to be undertaken and the functionality of the electronic conferencing software used.

Active learning of Pareto fronts.

Science.gov (United States)

Campigotto, Paolo; Passerini, Andrea; Battiti, Roberto

2014-03-01

This paper introduces the active learning of Pareto fronts (ALP) algorithm, a novel approach to recover the Pareto front of a multiobjective optimization problem. ALP casts the identification of the Pareto front into a supervised machine learning task. This approach enables an analytical model of the Pareto front to be built. The computational effort in generating the supervised information is reduced by an active learning strategy. In particular, the model is learned from a set of informative training objective vectors. The training objective vectors are approximated Pareto-optimal vectors obtained by solving different scalarized problem instances. The experimental results show that ALP achieves an accurate Pareto front approximation with a lower computational effort than state-of-the-art estimation of distribution algorithms and widely known genetic techniques.

Deep learning aided decision support for pulmonary nodules diagnosing: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yixin; Feng, Xiaoyi; Chi, Wenhao; Li, Zhengyang; Duan, Wenzhe; Liu, Haiping; Liang, Wenhua; Wang, Wei; Chen, Ping; He, Jianxing; Liu, Bo

2018-04-01

Deep learning techniques have recently emerged as promising decision supporting approaches to automatically analyze medical images for different clinical diagnosing purposes. Diagnosing of pulmonary nodules by using computer-assisted diagnosing has received considerable theoretical, computational, and empirical research work, and considerable methods have been developed for detection and classification of pulmonary nodules on different formats of images including chest radiographs, computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography in the past five decades. The recent remarkable and significant progress in deep learning for pulmonary nodules achieved in both academia and the industry has demonstrated that deep learning techniques seem to be promising alternative decision support schemes to effectively tackle the central issues in pulmonary nodules diagnosing, including feature extraction, nodule detection, false-positive reduction, and benign-malignant classification for the huge volume of chest scan data. The main goal of this investigation is to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of the deep learning aided decision support for pulmonary nodules diagnosing. As far as the authors know, this is the first time that a review is devoted exclusively to deep learning techniques for pulmonary nodules diagnosing.

Students' Satisfaction on Their Learning Process in Active Learning and Traditional Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Hyun, Jung; Ediger, Ruth; Lee, Donghun

2017-01-01

Studies have shown Active Learning Classrooms [ALCs] help increase student engagement and improve student performance. However, remodeling all traditional classrooms to ALCs entails substantial financial burdens. Thus, an imperative question for institutions of higher education is whether active learning pedagogies can improve learning outcomes…

Group-Based Active Learning of Classification Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Zhipeng; Hauskrecht, Milos

2017-05-01

Learning of classification models from real-world data often requires additional human expert effort to annotate the data. However, this process can be rather costly and finding ways of reducing the human annotation effort is critical for this task. The objective of this paper is to develop and study new ways of providing human feedback for efficient learning of classification models by labeling groups of examples. Briefly, unlike traditional active learning methods that seek feedback on individual examples, we develop a new group-based active learning framework that solicits label information on groups of multiple examples. In order to describe groups in a user-friendly way, conjunctive patterns are used to compactly represent groups. Our empirical study on 12 UCI data sets demonstrates the advantages and superiority of our approach over both classic instance-based active learning work, as well as existing group-based active-learning methods.

Supporting learning experiences beyond the school context

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rusman, Ellen

2015-01-01

In this workshop you’ll become familiar with two examples of how technology can support learning experiences that go beyond, but still connect to, the school context. The first example, called Elena, is for primary schools. The second example, called weSPOT, is for secondary schools. The Elena

Doctoral learning: a case for a cohort model of supervision and support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Naydene de Lange

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We document the efforts of the faculty of education of a large research-oriented university in supporting doctoral learning. The development of a space for doctoral learning is in line with the need to develop a community of researchers in South Africa. We describe the historical origins of this cohort model of doctoral supervision and support, draw on literature around doctoral learning, and analyse a cohort of doctoral students' evaluation of the seminarsoverthree years. The findings indicate that the model has great value in developing scholarship and reflective practice in candidates, in providing support and supervision, and in sustaining students towards the completion of their doctorates.

Scene recognition based on integrating active learning with dictionary learning

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Chengxi; Yin, Xueyan; Yang, Lin; Gong, Chengrong; Zheng, Caixia; Yi, Yugen

2018-04-01

Scene recognition is a significant topic in the field of computer vision. Most of the existing scene recognition models require a large amount of labeled training samples to achieve a good performance. However, labeling image manually is a time consuming task and often unrealistic in practice. In order to gain satisfying recognition results when labeled samples are insufficient, this paper proposed a scene recognition algorithm named Integrating Active Learning and Dictionary Leaning (IALDL). IALDL adopts projective dictionary pair learning (DPL) as classifier and introduces active learning mechanism into DPL for improving its performance. When constructing sampling criterion in active learning, IALDL considers both the uncertainty and representativeness as the sampling criteria to effectively select the useful unlabeled samples from a given sample set for expanding the training dataset. Experiment results on three standard databases demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the proposed IALDL.

Integrative Student Learning: An Effective Team Learning Activity in a Learner-Centered Paradigm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reza Karimi, RPh, PhD

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: An Integrative Student Learning (ISL activity was developed with the intent to enhance the dynamic of student teamwork and enhance student learning by fostering critical-thinking skills, self-directed learning skills, and active learning. Case Study: The ISL activity consists of three portions: teambuilding, teamwork, and a facilitator driven “closing the loop” feedback discussion. For teambuilding, a set of clue sheets or manufacturer‘s drug containers were distributed among student pairs who applied their pharmaceutical knowledge to identify two more student pairs with similar clues or drugs, thus building a team of six. For teamwork, each team completed online exams, composed of integrated pharmaceutical science questions with clinical correlates, using only selected online library resources. For the feedback discussion, facilitators evaluated student impressions, opened a discussion about the ISL activity, and provided feedback to teams’ impressions and questions. This study describes three different ISL activities developed and implemented over three days with first year pharmacy students. Facilitators’ interactions with students and three surveys indicated a majority of students preferred ISL over traditional team activities and over 90% agreed ISL activities promoted active learning, critical-thinking, self-directed learning, teamwork, and student confidence in online library searches. Conclusions: The ISL activity has proven to be an effective learning activity that promotes teamwork and integration of didactic pharmaceutical sciences to enhance student learning of didactic materials and confidence in searching online library resources. It was found that all of this can be accomplished in a short amount of class time with a very reasonable amount of preparation.

Integrative Student Learning: An Effective Team Learning Activity in a Learner-Centered Paradigm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reza Karimi

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose: An Integrative Student Learning (ISL activity was developed with the intent to enhance the dynamic of student teamwork and enhance student learning by fostering critical-thinking skills, self-directed learning skills, and active learning. Case Study: The ISL activity consists of three portions: teambuilding, teamwork, and a facilitator driven "closing the loop" feedback discussion. For teambuilding, a set of clue sheets or manufacturer's drug containers were distributed among student pairs who applied their pharmaceutical knowledge to identify two more student pairs with similar clues or drugs, thus building a team of six. For teamwork, each team completed online exams, composed of integrated pharmaceutical science questions with clinical correlates, using only selected online library resources. For the feedback discussion, facilitators evaluated student impressions, opened a discussion about the ISL activity, and provided feedback to teams' impressions and questions. This study describes three different ISL activities developed and implemented over three days with first year pharmacy students. Facilitators' interactions with students and three surveys indicated a majority of students preferred ISL over traditional team activities and over 90% agreed ISL activities promoted active learning, critical-thinking, self-directed learning, teamwork, and student confidence in online library searches. Conclusions: The ISL activity has proven to be an effective learning activity that promotes teamwork and integration of didactic pharmaceutical sciences to enhance student learning of didactic materials and confidence in searching online library resources. It was found that all of this can be accomplished in a short amount of class time with a very reasonable amount of preparation.   Type: Case Study

How do students from Student Incubators (SI) use networks and how can SI support the activity?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Henrik Mariendal

2015-01-01

This paper examines Student Entrepreneur’s (SE) use of networks as part of their activities in a Student Incubator (SI). Recommendations are made as to how SI can create activities to support students' use of internal and external relationships and discusses the paradox between running a learning...... in an entrepreneurial context. Often the increasing attention to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial processes will probably emphasise growth and development environments (e.g. SIs) at educational institutions. An aspect which is currently not given much attention but which have considerable influence on both learning...

Supervised machine learning and active learning in classification of radiology reports.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Dung H M; Patrick, Jon D

2014-01-01

This paper presents an automated system for classifying the results of imaging examinations (CT, MRI, positron emission tomography) into reportable and non-reportable cancer cases. This system is part of an industrial-strength processing pipeline built to extract content from radiology reports for use in the Victorian Cancer Registry. In addition to traditional supervised learning methods such as conditional random fields and support vector machines, active learning (AL) approaches were investigated to optimize training production and further improve classification performance. The project involved two pilot sites in Victoria, Australia (Lake Imaging (Ballarat) and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne)) and, in collaboration with the NSW Central Registry, one pilot site at Westmead Hospital (Sydney). The reportability classifier performance achieved 98.25% sensitivity and 96.14% specificity on the cancer registry's held-out test set. Up to 92% of training data needed for supervised machine learning can be saved by AL. AL is a promising method for optimizing the supervised training production used in classification of radiology reports. When an AL strategy is applied during the data selection process, the cost of manual classification can be reduced significantly. The most important practical application of the reportability classifier is that it can dramatically reduce human effort in identifying relevant reports from the large imaging pool for further investigation of cancer. The classifier is built on a large real-world dataset and can achieve high performance in filtering relevant reports to support cancer registries. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Applications of Support Vector Machine (SVM) Learning in Cancer Genomics.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Shujun; Cai, Nianguang; Pacheco, Pedro Penzuti; Narrandes, Shavira; Wang, Yang; Xu, Wayne

2018-01-01

Machine learning with maximization (support) of separating margin (vector), called support vector machine (SVM) learning, is a powerful classification tool that has been used for cancer genomic classification or subtyping. Today, as advancements in high-throughput technologies lead to production of large amounts of genomic and epigenomic data, the classification feature of SVMs is expanding its use in cancer genomics, leading to the discovery of new biomarkers, new drug targets, and a better understanding of cancer driver genes. Herein we reviewed the recent progress of SVMs in cancer genomic studies. We intend to comprehend the strength of the SVM learning and its future perspective in cancer genomic applications. Copyright© 2018, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

Enhancing Diversity in Undergraduate Science: Self-Efficacy Drives Performance Gains with Active Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Ballen, Cissy J; Wieman, Carl; Salehi, Shima; Searle, Jeremy B; Zamudio, Kelly R

2017-01-01

Efforts to retain underrepresented minority (URM) students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have shown only limited success in higher education, due in part to a persistent achievement gap between students from historically underrepresented and well-represented backgrounds. To test the hypothesis that active learning disproportionately benefits URM students, we quantified the effects of traditional versus active learning on student academic performance, science self-efficacy, and sense of social belonging in a large (more than 250 students) introductory STEM course. A transition to active learning closed the gap in learning gains between non-URM and URM students and led to an increase in science self-efficacy for all students. Sense of social belonging also increased significantly with active learning, but only for non-URM students. Through structural equation modeling, we demonstrate that, for URM students, the increase in self-efficacy mediated the positive effect of active-learning pedagogy on two metrics of student performance. Our results add to a growing body of research that supports varied and inclusive teaching as one pathway to a diversified STEM workforce. © 2017 C. J. Ballen et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2017 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Computer supported collaborative learning in a clerkship: an exploratory study on the relation of discussion activity and revision of critical appraisal papers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Koops Willem JM

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Medical students in clerkship are continuously confronted with real and relevant patient problems. To support clinical problem solving skills, students perform a Critical Appraisal of a Topic (CAT task, often resulting in a paper. Because such a paper may contain errors, students could profit from discussion with peers, leading to paper revision. Active peer discussion by a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL environment show positive medical students perceptions on subjective knowledge improvement. High students’ activity during discussions in a CSCL environment demonstrated higher task-focussed discussion reflecting higher levels of knowledge construction. However, it remains unclear whether high discussion activity influences students’ decisions revise their CAT paper. The aim of this research is to examine whether students who revise their critical appraisal papers after discussion in a CSCL environment show more task-focussed activity and discuss more intensively on critical appraisal topics than students who do not revise their papers. Methods Forty-seven medical students, stratified in subgroups, participated in a structured asynchronous online discussion of individual written CAT papers on self-selected clinical problems. The discussion was structured by three critical appraisal topics. After the discussion, the students could revise their paper. For analysis purposes, all students’ postings were blinded and analysed by the investigator, unaware of students characteristics and whether or not the paper was revised. Postings were counted and analysed by an independent rater, Postings were assigned into outside activity, non-task-focussed activity or task-focussed activity. Additionally, postings were assigned to one of the three critical appraisal topics. Analysis results were compared by revised and unrevised papers. Results Twenty-four papers (51.6% were revised after the online discussion. The

Computer supported collaborative learning in a clerkship: an exploratory study on the relation of discussion activity and revision of critical appraisal papers.

Science.gov (United States)

Koops, Willem J M; van der Vleuten, Cees P M; de Leng, Bas A; Snoeckx, Luc H E H

2012-08-20

Medical students in clerkship are continuously confronted with real and relevant patient problems. To support clinical problem solving skills, students perform a Critical Appraisal of a Topic (CAT) task, often resulting in a paper. Because such a paper may contain errors, students could profit from discussion with peers, leading to paper revision. Active peer discussion by a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environment show positive medical students perceptions on subjective knowledge improvement. High students' activity during discussions in a CSCL environment demonstrated higher task-focussed discussion reflecting higher levels of knowledge construction. However, it remains unclear whether high discussion activity influences students' decisions revise their CAT paper. The aim of this research is to examine whether students who revise their critical appraisal papers after discussion in a CSCL environment show more task-focussed activity and discuss more intensively on critical appraisal topics than students who do not revise their papers. Forty-seven medical students, stratified in subgroups, participated in a structured asynchronous online discussion of individual written CAT papers on self-selected clinical problems. The discussion was structured by three critical appraisal topics. After the discussion, the students could revise their paper. For analysis purposes, all students' postings were blinded and analysed by the investigator, unaware of students characteristics and whether or not the paper was revised. Postings were counted and analysed by an independent rater, Postings were assigned into outside activity, non-task-focussed activity or task-focussed activity. Additionally, postings were assigned to one of the three critical appraisal topics. Analysis results were compared by revised and unrevised papers. Twenty-four papers (51.6%) were revised after the online discussion. The discussions of the revised papers showed significantly higher

Experimenting on how to create a sustainable gamified learning design that supports adult students when learning through designing learning games

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Weitze, Charlotte Lærke

2014-01-01

digital learning games (small games) in cross‐disciplinary subject matters. The experiment has focused on creating a game‐based learning design that enables the students to implement the learning goals into their games, and on making the game design process motivating and engaging. Another focus......This paper presents and discusses the first iteration of a design‐based research experiment focusing on how to create an overall gamified learning design (big Game) facilitating the learning process for adult students by letting them be their own learning designers through designing their own...... of the study has been to create a sustainable learning design that supports the learning game design process and gives teachers the ability to evaluate whether the students have been successful in learning their subject matter through this learning game design process. The findings are that this initial...

Developing a learning analytics tool

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wahl, Christian; Belle, Gianna; Clemmensen, Anita Lykke

This poster describes how learning analytics and collective intelligence can be combined in order to develop a tool for providing support and feedback to learners and teachers regarding students self-initiated learning activities.......This poster describes how learning analytics and collective intelligence can be combined in order to develop a tool for providing support and feedback to learners and teachers regarding students self-initiated learning activities....

Using Authentic Medication Errors to Promote Pharmacy Student Critical Thinking and Active Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reza Karimi

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: To promote first year (P1 pharmacy students’ awareness of medication error prevention and to support student learning in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences. Innovation: A novel curricular activity was created and referred to as “Medication Errors and Sciences Applications (MESA”. The MESA activity encouraged discussions of patient safety among students and faculty to link medication errors to biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, which ultimately reinforced student learning in P1 curricular topics.   Critical Analysis: Three P1 cohorts implemented the MESA activity and approximately 75% of students from each cohort completed a reliable assessment instrument. Each P1 cohort had at least 14 student teams who generated professional reports analyzing authentic medication errors. The quantitative assessment results indicated that 70-85% of students believed that the MESA activity improved student learning in biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences. More than 95% of students agreed that the MESA activity introduced them to medication errors. Approximately 90% of students agreed that the MESA activity integrated the knowledge and skills they developed through the P1 curriculum, promoted active learning and critical thinking, and encouraged students to be self-directed learners. Furthermore, our data indicated that approximately 90% of students stated that the achievement of Bloom’s taxonomy's six learning objectives was promoted by completing the MESA activity. Next Steps: Pharmacy students’ awareness of medication errors is a critical component of pharmacy education, which pharmacy educators can integrate with biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences to enhance student learning in the P1 year. Treatment of Human Subjects: IRB exemption granted   Type: Note License: CC BY

Recommender Systems for Learning

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Manouselis, Nikos; Verbert, Katrien; Duval, Erik

2013-01-01

Technology enhanced learning (TEL) aims to design, develop and test sociotechnical innovations that will support and enhance learning practices of both individuals and organisations. It is therefore an application domain that generally covers technologies that support all forms of teaching and learning activities. Since information retrieval (in terms of searching for relevant learning resources to support teachers or learners) is a pivotal activity in TEL, the deployment of recommender systems has attracted increased interest. This brief attempts to provide an introduction to recommender systems for TEL settings, as well as to highlight their particularities compared to recommender systems for other application domains.

Examining the Roles of Blended Learning Approaches in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) Environments: A Delphi Study

Science.gov (United States)

So, Hyo-Jeong; Bonk, Curtis J.

2010-01-01

In this study, a Delphi method was used to identify and predict the roles of blended learning approaches in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. The Delphi panel consisted of experts in online learning from different geographic regions of the world. This study discusses findings related to (a) pros and cons of blended…

Using Active Learning to Identify Health Information Technology Related Patient Safety Events.

Science.gov (United States)

Fong, Allan; Howe, Jessica L; Adams, Katharine T; Ratwani, Raj M

2017-01-18

The widespread adoption of health information technology (HIT) has led to new patient safety hazards that are often difficult to identify. Patient safety event reports, which are self-reported descriptions of safety hazards, provide one view of potential HIT-related safety events. However, identifying HIT-related reports can be challenging as they are often categorized under other more predominate clinical categories. This challenge of identifying HIT-related reports is exacerbated by the increasing number and complexity of reports which pose challenges to human annotators that must manually review reports. In this paper, we apply active learning techniques to support classification of patient safety event reports as HIT-related. We evaluated different strategies and demonstrated a 30% increase in average precision of a confirmatory sampling strategy over a baseline no active learning approach after 10 learning iterations.

Active Learning for Player Modeling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shaker, Noor; Abou-Zleikha, Mohamed; Shaker, Mohammad

2015-01-01

Learning models of player behavior has been the focus of several studies. This work is motivated by better understanding of player behavior, a knowledge that can ultimately be employed to provide player-adapted or personalized content. In this paper, we propose the use of active learning for player...... experience modeling. We use a dataset from hundreds of players playing Infinite Mario Bros. as a case study and we employ the random forest method to learn mod- els of player experience through the active learning approach. The results obtained suggest that only part of the dataset (up to half the size...... that the method can be used online during the content generation process where the mod- els can improve and better content can be presented as the game is being played....

Scaling-up an efficacious school-based physical activity intervention: Study protocol for the ‘Internet-based Professional Learning to help teachers support Activity in Youth’ (iPLAY cluster randomized controlled trial and scale-up implementation evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chris Lonsdale

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Despite the health benefits of regular physical activity, most children are insufficiently active. Schools are ideally placed to promote physical activity; however, many do not provide children with sufficient in-school activity or ensure they have the skills and motivation to be active beyond the school setting. The aim of this project is to modify, scale up and evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention previously shown to be efficacious in improving children’s physical activity, fundamental movement skills and cardiorespiratory fitness. The ‘Internet-based Professional Learning to help teachers support Activity in Youth’ (iPLAY study will focus largely on online delivery to enhance translational capacity. Methods/Design The intervention will be implemented at school and teacher levels, and will include six components: (i quality physical education and school sport, (ii classroom movement breaks, (iii physically active homework, (iv active playgrounds, (v community physical activity links and (vi parent/caregiver engagement. Experienced physical education teachers will deliver professional learning workshops and follow-up, individualized mentoring to primary teachers (i.e., Kindergarten – Year 6. These activities will be supported by online learning and resources. Teachers will then deliver the iPLAY intervention components in their schools. We will evaluate iPLAY in two complementary studies in primary schools across New South Wales (NSW, Australia. A cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT, involving a representative sample of 20 schools within NSW (1:1 allocation at the school level to intervention and attention control conditions, will assess effectiveness and cost-effectiveness at 12 and 24 months. Students’ cardiorespiratory fitness will be the primary outcome in this trial. Key secondary outcomes will include students’ moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (via accelerometers, fundamental movement

Hand gestures support word learning in patients with hippocampal amnesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Hilverman, Caitlin; Cook, Susan Wagner; Duff, Melissa C

2018-06-01

Co-speech hand gesture facilitates learning and memory, yet the cognitive and neural mechanisms supporting this remain unclear. One possibility is that motor information in gesture may engage procedural memory representations. Alternatively, iconic information from gesture may contribute to declarative memory representations mediated by the hippocampus. To investigate these alternatives, we examined gesture's effects on word learning in patients with hippocampal damage and declarative memory impairment, with intact procedural memory, and in healthy and in brain-damaged comparison groups. Participants learned novel label-object pairings while producing gesture, observing gesture, or observing without gesture. After a delay, recall and object identification were assessed. Unsurprisingly, amnesic patients were unable to recall the labels at test. However, they correctly identified objects at above chance levels, but only if they produced a gesture at encoding. Comparison groups performed well above chance at both recall and object identification regardless of gesture. These findings suggest that gesture production may support word learning by engaging nondeclarative (procedural) memory. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

CLOUD EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR PHYSICS LEARNING RESEARCHES SUPPORT

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Oleksandr V. Merzlykin

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The definition of cloud educational resource is given in paper. Its program and information components are characterized. The virtualization as the technological ground of transforming from traditional electronic educational resources to cloud ones is reviewed. Such levels of virtualization are described: data storage device virtualization (Data as Service, hardware virtualization (Hardware as Service, computer virtualization (Infrastructure as Service, software system virtualization (Platform as Service, «desktop» virtualization (Desktop as Service, software user interface virtualization (Software as Service. Possibilities of designing the cloud educational resources system for physics learning researches support taking into account standards of learning objects metadata (accessing via OAI-PMH protocol and standards of learning tools interoperability (LTI are shown. The example of integration cloud educational resources into Moodle learning management system with use of OAI-PMH and LTI is given.

Automating the Analysis of Problem-solving Activities in Learning Environments: the Co-Lab Case Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Duque, R.; Bollen, Lars; Anjewierden, Anjo Allert; Bravo, C.

2012-01-01

The analysis of problem-solving activities carried out by students in learning settings involves studying the students' actions and assessing the solutions they have created. This analysis constitutes an ideal starting point to support an automatic intervention in the student activity by means of

Research on Mobile Learning Activities Applying Tablets

Science.gov (United States)

Kurilovas, Eugenijus; Juskeviciene, Anita; Bireniene, Virginija

2015-01-01

The paper aims to present current research on mobile learning activities in Lithuania while implementing flagship EU-funded CCL project on application of tablet computers in education. In the paper, the quality of modern mobile learning activities based on learning personalisation, problem solving, collaboration, and flipped class methods is…

Mirror neuron activation as a function of explicit learning: changes in mu-event-related power after learning novel responses to ideomotor compatible, partially compatible, and non-compatible stimuli.

Science.gov (United States)

Behmer, Lawrence P; Fournier, Lisa R

2016-11-01

Questions regarding the malleability of the mirror neuron system (MNS) continue to be debated. MNS activation has been reported when people observe another person performing biological goal-directed behaviors, such as grasping a cup. These findings support the importance of mapping goal-directed biological behavior onto one's motor repertoire as a means of understanding the actions of others. Still, other evidence supports the Associative Sequence Learning (ASL) model which predicts that the MNS responds to a variety of stimuli after sensorimotor learning, not simply biological behavior. MNS activity develops as a consequence of developing stimulus-response associations between a stimulus and its motor outcome. Findings from the ideomotor literature indicate that stimuli that are more ideomotor compatible with a response are accompanied by an increase in response activation compared to less compatible stimuli; however, non-compatible stimuli robustly activate a constituent response after sensorimotor learning. Here, we measured changes in the mu-rhythm, an EEG marker thought to index MNS activity, predicting that stimuli that differ along dimensions of ideomotor compatibility should show changes in mirror neuron activation as participants learn the respective stimulus-response associations. We observed robust mu-suppression for ideomotor-compatible hand actions and partially compatible dot animations prior to learning; however, compatible stimuli showed greater mu-suppression than partially or non-compatible stimuli after explicit learning. Additionally, non-compatible abstract stimuli exceeded baseline only after participants explicitly learned the motor responses associated with the stimuli. We conclude that the empirical differences between the biological and ASL accounts of the MNS can be explained by Ideomotor Theory. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Using Video Games to Support Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Learning of Basic Physics Principles

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Janice; Barnett, Michael

2011-08-01

The purpose of this work is to share our findings in using video gaming technology to facilitate the understanding of basic electromagnetism with pre-service elementary teachers. To this end we explored the impact of using a game called Supercharged! on pre-service teachers' understanding of electromagnetic concepts compared to students who conducted a more traditional inquiry oriented investigation of the same concepts. This study was a part of a larger design experiment examining the pedagogical potential of Supercharged! the control group learned through a series of guided inquiry methods while the experimental group played Supercharged! during the laboratory sections of the science course. There was significant difference F(2,134) = 4.8, p video games can lead to positive learning outcomes, as demonstrated by the increase in test scores from pre- to post-assessment. Additionally, this study also suggests that a complementary approach, in which video games and hands-on activities are integrated, with each activity informing the other, could be a very powerful technique for supporting student scientific understanding. Further, our findings suggest that video game designers should embed meta-cognitive activities such as reflective opportunities into educational video games to provide scaffolds for students and to reinforce that they are engaged in an educational learning experience.

Active Learning with Irrelevant Examples

Science.gov (United States)

Wagstaff, Kiri; Mazzoni, Dominic

2009-01-01

An improved active learning method has been devised for training data classifiers. One example of a data classifier is the algorithm used by the United States Postal Service since the 1960s to recognize scans of handwritten digits for processing zip codes. Active learning algorithms enable rapid training with minimal investment of time on the part of human experts to provide training examples consisting of correctly classified (labeled) input data. They function by identifying which examples would be most profitable for a human expert to label. The goal is to maximize classifier accuracy while minimizing the number of examples the expert must label. Although there are several well-established methods for active learning, they may not operate well when irrelevant examples are present in the data set. That is, they may select an item for labeling that the expert simply cannot assign to any of the valid classes. In the context of classifying handwritten digits, the irrelevant items may include stray marks, smudges, and mis-scans. Querying the expert about these items results in wasted time or erroneous labels, if the expert is forced to assign the item to one of the valid classes. In contrast, the new algorithm provides a specific mechanism for avoiding querying the irrelevant items. This algorithm has two components: an active learner (which could be a conventional active learning algorithm) and a relevance classifier. The combination of these components yields a method, denoted Relevance Bias, that enables the active learner to avoid querying irrelevant data so as to increase its learning rate and efficiency when irrelevant items are present. The algorithm collects irrelevant data in a set of rejected examples, then trains the relevance classifier to distinguish between labeled (relevant) training examples and the rejected ones. The active learner combines its ranking of the items with the probability that they are relevant to yield a final decision about which item

Formative assessment in an online learning environment to support flexible on-the-job learning in complex professional domains

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tamara van Gog; Desirée Joosten-ten Brinke; F. J. Prins; Dominique Sluijsmans

2010-01-01

This article describes a blueprint for an online learning environment that is based on prominent instructional design and assessment theories for supporting learning in complex domains. The core of this environment consists of formative assessment tasks (i.e., assessment for learning) that center on

Self-learning basic life support: A randomised controlled trial on learning conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Pedersen, Tina Heidi; Kasper, Nina; Roman, Hari; Egloff, Mike; Marx, David; Abegglen, Sandra; Greif, Robert

2018-05-01

To investigate whether pure self-learning without instructor support, resulted in the same BLS-competencies as facilitator-led learning, when using the same commercially available video BLS teaching kit. First-year medical students were randomised to either BLS self-learning without supervision or facilitator-led BLS-teaching. Both groups used the MiniAnne kit (Laerdal Medical, Stavanger, Norway) in the students' local language. Directly after the teaching and three months later, all participants were tested on their BLS-competencies in a simulated scenario, using the Resusci Anne SkillReporter™ (Laerdal Medical, Stavanger, Norway). The primary outcome was percentage of correct cardiac compressions three months after the teaching. Secondary outcomes were all other BLS parameters recorded by the SkillReporter and parameters from a BLS-competence rating form. 240 students were assessed at baseline and 152 students participated in the 3-month follow-up. For our primary outcome, the percentage of correct compressions, we found a median of 48% (interquartile range (IQR) 10-83) for facilitator-led learning vs. 42% (IQR 14-81) for self-learning (p = 0.770) directly after the teaching. In the 3-month follow-up, the rate of correct compressions dropped to 28% (IQR 6-59) for facilitator-led learning (p = 0.043) and did not change significantly in the self-learning group (47% (IQR 12-78), p = 0.729). Self-learning is not inferior to facilitator-led learning in the short term. Self-learning resulted in a better retention of BLS-skills three months after training compared to facilitator-led training. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Investigation into Social Learning Activities by Practitioners in Open Educational Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Schreurs, Bieke; Van den Beemt, Antoine; Prinsen, Fleur; Witthaus, Gabi; Conole, Gráinne; De Laat, Maarten

2014-01-01

By investigating how educational practitioners participate in activities around open educational practices (OEP), this paper aims at contributing to an understanding of open practices and how these practitioners learn to use OEP. Our research is guided by the following hypothesis: Different social configurations support a variety of social…

Mobile Contextualized learning games for decision support training

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland; Börner, Dirk; Suarez, Angel; Schneider, Jan; Antonaci, Alessandra

2015-01-01

This interactive workshop session introduces mobile serious games as situated, contextualized learning games. Example cases for mobile serious games for decision support training are introduced and discussed. Participants will get to know contextualization techniques used in modern mobile

Active Learning by Querying Informative and Representative Examples.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Sheng-Jun; Jin, Rong; Zhou, Zhi-Hua

2014-10-01

Active learning reduces the labeling cost by iteratively selecting the most valuable data to query their labels. It has attracted a lot of interests given the abundance of unlabeled data and the high cost of labeling. Most active learning approaches select either informative or representative unlabeled instances to query their labels, which could significantly limit their performance. Although several active learning algorithms were proposed to combine the two query selection criteria, they are usually ad hoc in finding unlabeled instances that are both informative and representative. We address this limitation by developing a principled approach, termed QUIRE, based on the min-max view of active learning. The proposed approach provides a systematic way for measuring and combining the informativeness and representativeness of an unlabeled instance. Further, by incorporating the correlation among labels, we extend the QUIRE approach to multi-label learning by actively querying instance-label pairs. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed QUIRE approach outperforms several state-of-the-art active learning approaches in both single-label and multi-label learning.

Families Support Their Children's Success in Science Learning by Influencing Interest and Self-efficacy

Science.gov (United States)

Sha, Li; Schunn, Christian; Bathgate, Meghan; Ben-Eliyahu, Adar

2016-01-01

How is a child's successful participation in science learning shaped by their family's support? We focus on the critical time period of early adolescents, testing (i) whether the child's perception of family support is important for both choice preferences to participate in optional learning experiences and engagement during science learning, and…

TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODOLOGIES SUPPORTED BY ICT APPLIED IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jose CAPACHO

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this paper is to show a set of new methodologies applied in the teaching of Computer Science using ICT. The methodologies are framed in the conceptual basis of the following sciences: Psychology, Education and Computer Science. The theoretical framework of the research is supported by Behavioral Theory, Gestalt Theory. Genetic-Cognitive Psychology Theory and Dialectics Psychology. Based on the theoretical framework the following methodologies were developed: Game Theory, Constructivist Approach, Personalized Teaching, Problem Solving, Cooperative Collaborative learning, Learning projects using ICT. These methodologies were applied to the teaching learning process during the Algorithms and Complexity – A&C course, which belongs to the area of ​​Computer Science. The course develops the concepts of Computers, Complexity and Intractability, Recurrence Equations, Divide and Conquer, Greedy Algorithms, Dynamic Programming, Shortest Path Problem and Graph Theory. The main value of the research is the theoretical support of the methodologies and their application supported by ICT using learning objects. The course aforementioned was built on the Blackboard platform evaluating the operation of methodologies. The results of the evaluation are presented for each of them, showing the learning outcomes achieved by students, which verifies that methodologies are functional.

Learning Analytics to Support Teachers During Synchronous CSCL: Balancing Between Overview and Overload

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Leeuwen, A.

2015-01-01

Learning analytics (LA) are summaries, visualizations, and analyses of student data that could improve learning in multiple ways, for example by supporting teachers. However, not much research is available yet concerning how LA may support teachers to diagnose student progress and to intervene

A comparison of professional-level faculty and student perceptions of active learning: its current use, effectiveness, and barriers

Science.gov (United States)

Metz, Michael J.

2014-01-01

Active learning is an instructional method in which students become engaged participants in the classroom through the use of in-class written exercises, games, problem sets, audience-response systems, debates, class discussions, etc. Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of active learning strategies, minimal adoption of the technique has occurred in many professional programs. The goal of this study was to compare the perceptions of active learning between students who were exposed to active learning in the classroom (n = 116) and professional-level physiology faculty members (n = 9). Faculty members reported a heavy reliance on lectures and minimal use of educational games and activities, whereas students indicated that they learned best via the activities. A majority of faculty members (89%) had observed active learning in the classroom and predicted favorable effects of the method on student performance and motivation. The main reported barriers by faculty members to the adoption of active learning were a lack of necessary class time, a high comfort level with traditional lectures, and insufficient time to develop materials. Students hypothesized similar obstacles for faculty members but also associated many negative qualities with the traditional lecturers. Despite these barriers, a majority of faculty members (78%) were interested in learning more about the alternative teaching strategy. Both faculty members and students indicated that active learning should occupy portions (29% vs. 40%) of face-to-face class time. PMID:25179615

Mobile Contextualized learning games for decision support training

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klemke, Roland

2014-01-01

This interactive workshop session introduces mobile serious games as situated, contextualized learning games. Example cases for mobile serious games for decision support training are introduced and discussed. Participants will get to know contextualization techniques used in modern mobile devices

Assessing Student Behaviors and Motivation for Actively Learning Biology

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Michael Edward

Vision and Change states that one of the major changes in the way we design biology courses should be a switch in approach from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning and identifies active learning as a recommended methods. Studies show performance benefits for students taking courses that use active learning. What is unknown is why active learning is such an effective instructional tool and the limits of this instructional method’s ability to influence performance. This dissertation builds a case in three steps for why active learning is an effective instructional tool. In step one, I assessed the influence of different types of active learning (clickers, group activities, and whole class discussions) on student engagement behavior in one semester of two different introductory biology courses and found that active learning positively influenced student engagement behavior significantly more than lecture. For step two, I examined over four semesters whether student engagement behavior was a predictor of performance and found participation (engagement behavior) in the online (video watching) and in-class course activities (clicker participation) that I measure were significant predictors of performance. In the third, I assessed whether certain active learning satisfied the psychological needs that lead to students’ intrinsic motivation to participate in those activities when compared over two semesters and across two different institutions of higher learning. Findings from this last step show us that student’s perceptions of autonomy, competency, and relatedness in doing various types of active learning are significantly higher than lecture and consistent across two institutions of higher learning. Lastly, I tie everything together, discuss implications of the research, and address future directions for research on biology student motivation and behavior.

NASA’s Universe of Learning: Engaging Subject Matter Experts to Support Museum Alliance Science Briefings

Science.gov (United States)

Marcucci, Emma; Slivinski, Carolyn; Lawton, Brandon L.; Smith, Denise A.; Squires, Gordon K.; Biferno, Anya A.; Lestition, Kathleen; Cominsky, Lynn R.; Lee, Janice C.; Rivera, Thalia; Walker, Allyson; Spisak, Marilyn

2018-06-01

NASA's Universe of Learning creates and delivers science-driven, audience-driven resources and experiences designed to engage and immerse learners of all ages and backgrounds in exploring the universe for themselves. The project is a unique partnership between the Space Telescope Science Institute, Caltech/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University and is part of the NASA SMD Science Activation Collective. The NASA’s Universe of Learning projects pull on the expertise of subject matter experts (scientist and engineers) from across the broad range of NASA Astrophysics themes and missions. One such project, which draws strongly on the expertise of the community, is the NASA’s Universe of Learning Science Briefings, which is done in collaboration with the NASA Museum Alliance. This collaboration presents a monthly hour-long discussion on relevant NASA astrophysics topics or events to an audience composed largely of informal educators from informal learning environments. These professional learning opportunities use experts and resources within the astronomical community to support increased interest and engagement of the informal learning community in NASA Astrophysics-related concepts and events. Briefings are designed to create a foundation for this audience using (1) broad science themes, (2) special events, or (3) breaking science news. The NASA’s Universe of Learning team engages subject matter experts to be speakers and present their science at these briefings to provide a direct connection to NASA Astrophysics science and provide the audience an opportunity to interact directly with scientists and engineers involved in NASA missions. To maximize the usefulness of the Museum Alliance Science Briefings, each briefing highlights resources related to the science theme to support informal educators in incorporating science content into their venues and/or interactions with the public. During this

The International Active Learning Space

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Manners, Ian James

2015-01-01

-Danish students receive the basic international and intercultural skills and knowledge they need in current society. The English-language masters’ seminars I teach at the Department of Political Science are international in terms of students and teacher, but they are also Active Learning seminars......-Danish students (and sometimes teachers) rarely speak to each other or learn each other’s names. In the international AL spaces I create, students must work together on joint tasks which require interaction to address tasks and integration in order to benefit from the multinational activity groups. Planning AL...... that complete the seminar soon become vocal advocates of international AL. Ultimately, enriching student learning through immersing Danish and international students in an international AL space is, for me, the best way of ensuring an internationalised learning outcome, rather than just international mobility....

A Study of the Relationships among Learning Styles, Participation Types, and Performance in Programming Language Learning Supported by Online Forums

Science.gov (United States)

Shaw, Ruey-Shiang

2012-01-01

This study is focused on the relationships among learning styles, participation types, and learning performance for programming language learning supported by an online forum. Kolb's learning style inventory was used in this study to determine a learner's learning type: "Diverger", "Assimilator", "Converger", and "Accommodator". Social Learning…