The effects of mandatory and optional use on students' ratings of a computer-based learning package

Continuing developments in educational technology and increasing undergraduate numbers in the UK have facilitated the use of computer‐based learning packages. One of the effects of the increasing use of these packages is the shift in teaching of material from being primarily lecturer‐led to student‐driven. This has a number of implications concerning using the package, since it is quite likely that students will be working in isolation, and the use of the package may be mandatory or optional. In this study we report on the usefulness ratings of a software package for undergraduate use within the context of whether or not students choose to use it. Level 1 students and lecturers in Economics were surveyed at three UK universities. Findings indicate that students whose use was mandatory rated the learning package as more useful than those whose use was optional. Reasons for non‐use centred on lack of instruction and on student apathy. These results have important implications for the use of computer‐based learning packages and for understanding user attitudes.     

模拟对话式远程教材的设计探讨

远程教育教师与学生的时空分离使教材成为学生所依赖的主要学习资源。从理论上说,远程教材是学习支持的第一因素,应该是一个“教学包”,具有“教师”的作用,体现引导式模拟对话功能。相关的问卷调查和访谈,显示了学习对远程教材编制设计的特别要求。电大五年制高职教材《电子技术基础》的编制就是在教材中引入模拟对话元素进行设计的一次实践。     

Key factors affecting conceptual gains from CAL materials

This paper identifies key factors affecting conceptual gains from using a CAL package and their application to a practical laboratory class. Data was collected on over 120 first year students who studied a CAL package as an integral part of their course at two sites of a university. A variety of factors were analysed in order to identify which ones affected conceptual gains. These factors were students' biographical characteristics, design features of the CAL package and the way the CAL was integrated into the curriculum. The key factors that were identified as having an effect on conceptual gains were the students' prior academic attainment, their prior use of email, the WWW and CAL packages, and the way that the CAL package was integrated into the course. Those students, who were most successful in learning from the CAL and applying this learning, had higher academic attainment and had previously used the WWW, email and other CAL packages. They were also better at linking their study of the CAL package to other parts of the course.     

COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT AND STUDENT ATTITUDE

A mastery learning strategy was used to teach undergraduate microbiology to part‐time HNC and BSc students. Their performance was cognitively assessed in terms of Bloom's taxonomy. Their changes of attitude were measured by comparison of questionnaires after the introduction to the strategy and after the return of the assessed post‐test. Two performance groups were discovered. Both groups showed positive attitude changes toward the tutor controlling the learning experience and toward the quality of the learning materials. The low group showed negative change toward the strategy and expressed a preference for more traditional teaching, whilst the high group did the reverse. The students’ conception of the academic level of the package and its level of assessment appeared to be canalised by their knowledge of their course status in the academic hierarchy and not by their performance. It was concluded that cognitive assessment more clearly detects students failing to achieve mastery whilst indicating cognitive areas needing remedial tuition and that mastery strategies should be carefully introduced to students to avoid de‐motivating their learning. The difficulty of constructing such strategies and the time taken is compensated for by their ability to teach broader academic groups.     

Student activity and learning outcomes in a virtual learning environment

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between degree of participation and learning outcomes in an e-learning course on medical informatics. Overall activity in using course materials and degree of participation in the discussion forums of an online course were studied among 39 medical students. Students were able to utilise the course material in discussion groups focusing on the lectures, quizzes and students’ own notes. Each student’s data recording of activities and individual participation in discussion in the online course was analysed in order to assess which activities predicted learning outcome. Higher course grades were associated with studying the course material frequently and also with regular participation in reading postings and replying to them. There were no connections between learning outcome and the students’ original contributions to the discussion forums. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female students in how they utilised the various components of the learning material.     

Exploring the effects of web-mediated computational thinking on developing students’ computing skills in a ubiquitous learning environment

Much application software education in Taiwan can hardly be regarded as practical. The researchers in this study provided a flexible means of ubiquitous learning (u-learning) with a mobile app for students to access the learning material. In addition, the authors also adopted computational thinking (CT) to help students develop practical computing skills. Three classes of first-year students were chosen for the empirical study. They were divided into three groups: two experimental groups (CT&UL group and CT group) and one control group. According to the results in this study, students who received the treatment of u-learning could have significantly better computing skills in using PowerPoint and Word than those without. However, the treatment of web-mediated CT did not result in better development of students’ computing skills in this research. Finally, the researchers expect that this study provides a design and illustration of CT in a u-learning environment for schools and educators.     

Student Orientations to Independent Learning

Sixty‐six students completed two questionnaires to describe their approaches to study and the relationship to their personal preference for either the conventional lecture (CL) or self‐learning package (SLP) as methods of instruction. The students were randomly assigned to either an SLP and a CL group and received instruction on the same topic. Then, six weeks after the lecture all students were given a 30‐minute test to examine their level of understanding. Ten students, chosen at random, were interviewed further to assess their attitude towards learning. The inference drawn from the results is that more students preferred CL to SLP, however there was no correlation between students’ study approach and their preference for different teaching methods, nor did the study demonstrate that either method of instruction was superior when measured by test performance, suggesting a need to review independent study packages to better match student needs. Interview analysis showed that the students were highly dependent on reassurance from their lecturers, emphasising the negotiated nature of learning.     

Learning the Cell Structures with Three-Dimensional Models: Students’ Achievement by Methods, Type of School and Questions’ Cognitive Level

The cell topic was taught to 9th-grade students in three modes of instruction: (a) students “hands-on,” who constructed three-dimensional cell organelles and macromolecules during the learning process; (b) teacher demonstration of the three-dimensional model of the cell structures; and (c) teaching the cell topic with the regular learning material in an expository mode (which use one- or two-dimensional cell structures as are presented in charts, textbooks and microscopic slides). The sample included 669, 9th-grade students from 25 classes who were taught by 22 Biology teachers. Students were randomly assigned to the three modes of instruction, and two tests in content knowledge in Biology were used. Data were treated with multiple analyses of variance. The results indicate that entry behavior in Biology was equal for all the study groups and types of schools. The “hands-on” learning group who build three-dimensional models through the learning process achieved significantly higher on academic achievements and on the high and low cognitive questions’ levels than the other two groups. The study indicates the advantages students may have being actively engaged in the learning process through the “hands-on” mode of instruction/learning.     

The effect of static and animated visualization: a perspective of instructional effectiveness and efficiency

This study investigated the effectiveness of three different levels of enhancement strategies utilized to facilitate students’ learning from static and animated visualization when taking the time-on-task into consideration. Participants were randomly assigned to six treatment groups, and then took four criterion measures. The time-on-task was measured and used as a covariate in the analysis. The results suggest that animation is more effective than static visuals for improving learning across all levels of learning. Questions plus feedback embedded into the visualized material are most effective in enhancing higher-level but not lower-level learning objectives. Furthermore, time-on-task may be interpreted differently. On the one hand, students should be allowed as much time as needed to learn material when it is enriched, such as in the animated lesson. On the other hand, requiring students in a static-only treatment to review the visuals may produce the same learning effect as the use of animated visuals.     

Using student-generated questions for student-centred assessment

In small groups, medical students were involved in generating questions to contribute to an online item bank. This study sought to support collaborative question‐writing and enhance students’ metacognitive abilities, in particular, their ability to self‐regulate learning and moderate understanding of subject material. The study focused on supporting students to write questions requiring higher order cognitive processes. End‐of‐year formal examinations comprised 25% student‐generated questions (SGQs), while mid‐year examination items were completely unseen. Data were gathered from repeated administration of a questionnaire and from examination results. No statistically significant changes were identified in self‐rated monitoring of understanding and regulation of learning. The activity of generating questions supported students to work collaboratively in developing questions and answers. The bank of questions was appreciated by students as a source of revision material, even though it was not strongly focused on higher order processes. Based on scores, it would appear that many students chose to memorise the question bank as a ‘high‐yield’ strategy for mark inflation, paradoxically favouring surface rather than deep learning. The study has not identified directly improvements in metacognitive capacity and this is an area for further investigation. Continual refinement of the study method will be undertaken, with an emphasis on education of students in developing questions addressing higher order cognitive processes. Although students may have memorised the questions and answers, there is no evidence that they do not understand the information.     

Cooperative learning in industrial-sized biology classes

This study examined the impact of cooperative learning activities on student achievement and attitudes in large-enrollment (>250) introductory biology classes. We found that students taught using a cooperative learning approach showed greater improvement in their knowledge of course material compared with students taught using a traditional lecture format. In addition, students viewed cooperative learning activities highly favorably. These findings suggest that encouraging students to work in small groups and improving feedback between the instructor and the students can help to improve student outcomes even in very large classes. These results should be viewed cautiously, however, until this experiment can be replicated with additional faculty. Strategies for potentially improving the impact of cooperative learning on student achievement in large courses are discussed.     

Can learning of basketball be enhanced through a web-based multimedia course? An experimental study

This study’s aim is the creation of a web-based multimedia course for Physical Education (PE) students’ familiarization with the teaching of basketball, and the evaluation of its use as a complementary tool to conventional instruction, in terms of learning effectiveness and student acceptance. The course includes multimedia learning material as well as interactive learning activities and quizzes on the cognitive components of basic basketball skills and on other basketball-related topics (history of the sport, referee’s signals, training aids, basketball court). The study involved 88 undergraduate students during one semester. They were randomly assigned to two groups: a group that used the web-based multimedia course and also attended a conventional face-to-face course on the teaching of basketball (N?=?45), and another group that only attended the conventional face-to-face course (N?=?43). A pretest/posttest research design was followed. For both groups basketball knowledge was measured at the beginning and at the end of the semester through written questionnaires. The responses of the students of the first group towards the web-based course were also assessed, at the end of the semester, through a written feedback questionnaire. Within both groups, significant increases in students’ basketball knowledge were found. However, the web-based multimedia course in combination with conventional face-to-face instruction was significantly more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction alone in increasing students’ cognitive learning regarding the sport of basketball, at the same time being well-accepted by the students. These findings support the effectiveness of blended learning for PE at higher education level as well as the acceptance of this mode of learning by PE students.     

Effects of group size and advance organizers on learning parameters when using microcomputer tutorials in kinematics

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the use of CAI tutorial programs, incorporating advance organizers and involving various sizes of groups of subjects, would affect students' achievement scores, retention scores, and rates of learning. Used as subjects were 100 suburban high school physics students running interactive tutorial physics programs focusing on strobe simulation and displacement-time and velocity-time graphs. For fifty students (experimental group) an advance organizer program preceded each tutorial. The remaining fifty students (control group) had an advance non-organizer program preceding each tutorial. While pursuing the tutorials the students worked individually or together in groups of two, three, or four. Five days were allocated for the students to repeat the four tutorials until 90% competency level was attained. Achievement and retention were measured by individually administered paper-pencil teacher-made tests sampling the content of all four tutorials. Rate of learning was determined for groups by the number of times the first three tutorial programs were executed in order to attain 90% competency. In the two-way analysis of variance the only significant result at the 0.05 level pertained to group size. Results of the Tukey Test revealed that students working in groups of three and four on CAI tutorials had significantly better rates of learning than students working alone. No significant differences in achievement or retention were observed for the various groups. The implications for using CAI tutorials in physics point to grouping students in fours as a time saving and economic method of presenting material without significant loss of achievement or retention.     

基于SCORM标准的学习管理系统设计

文章详细分析了现有网络课件与学习管理系统的问题,提出了基于SCORM标准的网络学习管理系统,该系统可根据不同教学对象和教学要求对教学课件重新组织和修改,学生在学习时,系统可自动跟踪和记录学生的学习过程数据(包括:学习时长、作业与测试的成绩、论坛发言、学习进度等),并能将系统中重新组织和修改过的课件导出SCORM标准的课件包,该系统的设计显著降低了课件后期的维护成本,延长了课件的生命周期。     

The role of study centres for academic support in distance education

The results of an extensive survey of distance education students are used in a discussion of whether external students desire academic support. The conclusion is that the overwhelming body of students consider academic support valuable in remediating problems with the study package. Meetings are more likely to be attended if they are lecturer/tutor initiated and focus on learning difficulties or problems encountered in interpreting the learning package.

Provision of academic support through study centres is compared to provision through residential schools. The facilities needed to offer academic support through study centres are discussed. Changes in the mode of offering academic support are considered in the light of developments in computer and communication technology.     

An investigation of SOAR study strategies for learning from multiple online resources

This mixed-methods study investigated the effects of the SOAR study strategy for learning from multiple online resources. SOAR includes the components of selection, organization, association, and regulation. Past research confirmed that college students who study provided or partially provided SOAR materials achieved more than those using their preferred study methods when learning from a single printed (Jairam & Kiewra, 2009) or computer-based (Jairam & Kiewra, 2010) text. The present study was the first to investigate SOAR when college students create their own study materials and must learn from multiple online resources. In the present study, one hundred and thirty-four college students were assigned randomly to the preferred strategy control group or the SOAR strategy experimental group. Following a pre-survey and online training in their respective study strategy, both groups were directed to use their trained strategy to study scientific material available on multiple websites. Following the study period, participants were tested on the online material and then completed a post-survey. Qualitative analyses of pre-survey responses (before training) indicated that participants from both groups commonly use note taking, summarization, and memorization strategies to study online resources. Qualitative analyses of post-survey responses (after training) indicated that the preferred strategies control group used these same strategies to study the experimental material, whereas the SOAR-trained group used SOAR strategies. These qualitative data fit with quantitative data showing that (a) both groups created study materials reflective of their strategy training (preferred or SOAR); (b) SOAR strategy studiers achieved more than preferred strategy studiers on fact, relationship, and concept achievement items; and (c) SOAR-trained studiers had more positive attitudes about their trained methods than preferred-trained studiers.     

The value of writing-to-learn when using question prompts to support web-based learning in ill-structured domains

This study investigates the effectiveness of two variants of a prompting strategy that guides students to focus on important issues when learning in an ill-structured domain. Students in three groups studied individually Software Project Management (SPM) cases for a week, using a web-based learning environment designed especially for this purpose. The first group (control) studied the cases without any prompting. The second group (“writing mode”) studied the same cases, while prompted to provide written answers to a set of knowledge integration prompts meant to engage students in deeper processing of the material. The third group (“thinking mode”) studied the cases, while prompted only to think of possible answers to the same question prompts. Results indicated that students in the writing condition group outperformed the others in both domain knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer post-test items. Several students in the thinking condition group skipped the question prompts, while those that reported having reflected on the material were unable to achieve high performance comparable to the writing condition group. Overall, the study provides evidence that the implementation of prompting techniques in technology-enhanced learning environments may lead to improved outcomes, when combined with the requirement that students provide their answers in writing.     

Student perception of Moodle learning management system: a satisfaction and significance analysis

This research study addresses differences in student perception of the significance of Moodle learning management system (LMS) quality characteristics and differences in student satisfaction in regard to such characteristics. Therein, it has been proven in this study that male and female students are equally satisfied with Moodle LMS quality characteristics and that there is a difference in the significance that students give to these characteristics. When students were observed in regard to their age and year of study, it was found that these groups assigned different significance levels to quality characteristics and were not equally satisfied with them. It was also found that there is a substantial statistical difference in the significance students gave to quality characteristics and in student satisfaction itself, according to how much time they spent using the Moodle application, which is also noted as one of the most important aspects of the research conducted. A further analysis of the variables demonstrated that the following components of quality characteristics were more important to female students: average waiting time for a response, feedback quality, material thoroughness, material clarity, website user-friendliness, cooperation diversity, and material quantity.     

Use of comics to enhance students’ learning for the development of the twenty-first century competencies in the mathematics classroom

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of comics in teaching mathematics in the secondary mathematics classroom. We explicate how the use of comics in teaching mathematics can prepare students for the twenty-first century competencies. We developed an alternative teaching package using comics for two lower secondary mathematics topics. This alternative teaching package consists of (1) several sets of comic strips expounding all related mathematical concepts in a lively way; (2) tiered practice questions for learning reinforcement; and (3) a set of proposed lesson outlines with suggestions on how to use the comics for mathematics teaching. We also report how one of the teachers in our study used this teaching package in her mathematics lessons. Her lessons were video-recorded and 11 students were interviewed to help us understand how the mathematics comics lessons were enacted and the students’ perception of comics as instruction. We identified instances in which the teacher tweaked the provided resource to further enhance student learning and incorporated elements of the twenty-first century competencies during her lessons. Through selected student interviews, we also identified instances in which students commented on their gain from the new approach from the perspective of the twenty-first century competencies.