Computer science students’ use of the internet for academic purposes: difficulties and learning processes

ABSTRACT

Higher-education students now have more alternatives for searching for information than previous generations had. The Internet is a vast ocean of information sources, albeit with diverse reliability and quality. In Web 2.0 platforms, any participant can be a content creator. This reality is challenging for both the instructors and the students. We conducted interviews with 12 Computer Science students and 8 instructors from two universities to (a) identify the difficulties students encounter, if at all, (b) identify the learning processes that students undergo, if at all, when using the Internet for their CS studies, in particular, programming tasks; and (c) elicit instructors’ perceptions of students’ use of the Internet. Both students and instructors agreed that although using the Internet is not trivial, direct teaching of this skill is unnecessary. Instructors differed in their attitudes towards students’ use of the internet. We found that in the first year the students’ use of the Internet and their difficulties are similar to reports in the empirical literature, and echo the instructors’ concerns. However, after extensive experience, students undergo a learning process, and their ability to navigate the myriad sources, as well as to search, manage, and effectively evaluate Internet sources improves. Students mentioned their improved abilities to code as a means to effectively evaluate information sources.     

工科毕业设计指导教师的作用及其对学习投入与学习成效的影响

经济增长模式转型要求工科人才培养的转型升级.毕业设计作为工科人才走向工作岗位或继续深造前最重要的工程实践与综合素质的锻炼平台,是培养创新实践人才的关键环节.如何优化毕业设计过程,充分发挥指导教师的作用从而实现毕业设计的教学目标是本科工科人才培育的改革重点.本研究整合了教师角色的相关理论,聚焦教师角色与作用,从教师专业素...     

高校商科本科PBL教学模式影响因素的实证分析

近年来,PBL教学模式已成为国内高校教改的方向。对某所高校商科本科PBL教学模式进行了问卷调查,因素分析结果显示,PBL教学模式的整体教学效果较好。影响教学效果的主要因素为参与者课前准备情况、学生课堂讨论参与程度、课程类型、学生修习PBL课程与专业结合的紧密程度、同一学期课程数目、教师是否"双师型"导师和学生对PBL教学模式的认知程度。为进一步提高PBL模式的效果,提出通过教师课前的精心设置问题,组员间的分工合作来实现共同提升,教师合理导引以促进知识的内化和学习的迁移及构建多元评价指标体系对学习效果进行客观真实的评价等策略。     

博客对研究生思想政治教育的影响及其对策

博客对研究生思想政治教育工作的影响如同一把"双刃剑",既有积极影响,也有消极影响。积极影响表现为:为思政工作者准确掌握学生思想动态提供途径,在一定程度上改进了传统思政教育的局限,为学生自我教育和管理提供平台。消极影响表现为:博客有时会出现负面信息的宣传,主流思想受到挑战,研究生集体观念的淡薄。博客时代研究生思想政治教育工作对策为:建立辅导员博客,搭建思政教育新平台;设立年级博客,发挥同辈群体影响;建设专栏博客,做到有的放矢;设立"把关人",建立层层监督制度。     

Teaching the Mediterranean Diet in Italy

ABSTRACT:  Problem-based learning (PBL) can provide an enhanced appreciation of the relationship between culture and food for students who aspire to become dietitians or nutrition educators; however, large university classes often inhibit the use of PBL. A professor who specializes in research documenting the relationships among food and culture took 17 Canadian university students, many of whom were studying nutrition and food science, to southern Italy where they learned about Mediterranean diets and Italian food culture. PBL was implemented by encouraging students to work together to solve problems, and by the completion of assignments that promoted observation of and interaction with the local culture. Students evaluated the experience positively with majority agreement that the quality of course content was excellent, that knowledge of the subject areas increased, and that the courses challenged students to critically think about issues. Despite a focused effort on PBL in the courses, not all students agreed that the courses helped them to develop the ability to solve real problems in this field. This may have been due to unawareness of dietetic competencies by some students. Many of the assignments used in Italy could be adopted for use in food culture classes in North America, or by postsecondary instructors planning travel study programs in Italy.     

Case study of a problem-based learning course of physics in a telecommunications engineering degree

Active learning methods can be appropriate in engineering, as their methodology promotes meta-cognition, independent learning and problem-solving skills. Problem-based learning is the educational process by which problem-solving activities and instructor's guidance facilitate learning. Its key characteristic involves posing a ‘concrete problem’ to initiate the learning process, generally implemented by small groups of students. Many universities have developed and used active methodologies successfully in the teaching–learning process. During the past few years, the University of the Basque Country has promoted the use of active methodologies through several teacher training programmes. In this paper, we describe and analyse the results of the educational experience using the problem-based learning (PBL) method in a physics course for undergraduates enrolled in the technical telecommunications engineering degree programme. From an instructors’ perspective, PBL strengths include better student attitude in class and increased instructor–student and student–student interactions. The students emphasised developing teamwork and communication skills in a good learning atmosphere as positive aspects.     

University Students’ Knowledge Structures and Informal Reasoning on the Use of Genetically Modified Foods: Multidimensional Analyses

This study aims to provide insights into the role of learners’ knowledge structures about a socio-scientific issue (SSI) in their informal reasoning on the issue. A total of 42 non-science major university students’ knowledge structures and informal reasoning were assessed with multidimensional analyses. With both qualitative and quantitative analyses, this study revealed that those students with more extended and better-organized knowledge structures, as well as those who more frequently used higher-order information processing modes, were more oriented towards achieving a higher-level informal reasoning quality. The regression analyses further showed that the “richness” of the students’ knowledge structures explained 25 % of the variation in their rebuttal construction, an important indicator of reasoning quality, indicating the significance of the role of students’ sophisticated knowledge structure in SSI reasoning. Besides, this study also provides some initial evidence for the significant role of the “core” concept within one’s knowledge structure in one’s SSI reasoning. The findings in this study suggest that, in SSI-based instruction, science instructors should try to identify students’ core concepts within their prior knowledge regarding the SSI, and then they should try to guide students to construct and structure relevant concepts or ideas regarding the SSI based on their core concepts. Thus, students could obtain extended and well-organized knowledge structures, which would then help them achieve better learning transfer in dealing with SSIs.     

微课移动云平台的设计研究

伴随着时代的飞速发展,各种云技术、云应用离我们生活也变得更近.如今学生们对互联网、移动终端越发依赖,通过各类移动端设备随时随地获取丰富的学习信息.在教育行业中引入基于云技术的微课平台,是一种为广大学子们提供学习知识和技能的新方法.本文基于移动云平台设计一种适合中小学教育的微课平台系统,用户涵盖学生、教师和家长,使对中小...     

Effect of problem-based learning in pharmacology education: A meta-analysis

A consensus is emerging for meta-analyses regarding a range of selected topics in pharmacology education. This review provides a critical overview of problem-based learning (PBL) in pharmacology education. Based on several inclusion criteria, databases were searched, and 37 controlled trial studies were identified and extracted. The meta-analysis found that PBL had a positive effect on gaining higher theoretical scores (SMD = 6.77, 95% CI [5.23, 8.31], p < 0.00,001) assessed through examinations. The results of questionnaires for students’ feedback showed that PBL was superior to conventional teaching methods in improving students’ outcomes of self-study, learning interest, team spirit, problem solving, analyzing, scope of knowledge, communication, and expression. These results suggest that PBL in pharmacology education is considered superior to traditional lecture-based learning.     

Learning relations of knowledge transfer (KT) and knowledge integration (KI) of doctoral students during online interdisciplinary training: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Interdisciplinary training for doctoral students is an emerging scenario in higher education. The learning relations of knowledge transfer (KT: transferring knowledge from one person to another) and knowledge integration (KI: integrating or synthesizing perspectives from different disciplines) built by doctoral students play an important role in the process of interdisciplinary training. This study explores how doctoral students from a wide range of disciplines build learning relations of KT and KI during online interdisciplinary training. A mixed-methods approach was applied. First, longitudinal social network analysis (SNA) was employed to investigate the patterns of KT and KI relations over a seven-month training period. Subsequently, interviews were conducted to triangulate the SNA findings. SNA results show that the establishment of KI relations is significantly less than that of KT. Qualitative results show three themes explaining the challenges of KI relations, including challenges of online settings, the design of the training modules, and student involvement. Practical implications are drawn for the improvement of online interdisciplinary training, such as suggestions to promote KI and strategies for group learning.     

A cross-national study of teacher’s perceptions of online learning success

This study examines success factors in online learning from the instructors’ perspective. Academic success comprises not only student satisfaction and good grades, but also perception of learning and knowledge transfer. A systemic model of inputs–process–outputs of learning was used. A total of 322 online teachers from four different universities and countries were used to study factors of attainment. Findings suggest that: (i) instructors from the University of Peking and the Autonomous Popular University of the State of Puebla reported learner factors as the most important for students on online courses, (ii) instructors from the University of New Mexico perceived institutional factors as the most important for establishing effective online learning and (iii) instructors from the Open University of Catalonia reported outcome factors as the most important for learners in online courses. Compared with other research results in online learning, instructors in this study generally reflect a greater concern about the content, social presence, instruction and their interactions than about technological matters.     

A Systematic Approach in Student Reading

Abstract

The Faculty Writing Fellows Seminar was designed to develop university instructors’ skill in writing instruction: The 2015–16 professional development project offered faculty at Southern Oregon University a chance to read writing-pedagogy research, collaboratively develop their teaching practices, and—most importantly—put themselves in the shoes of student writers. The seminar had a positive impact on instructors’ teaching and students’ writing. Instructors showed growth in confidence, empathy, knowledge, and instruction. Their students’ essays outscored essays by students in nonparticipating instructors’ classes. The study argues for professional development that simultaneously builds pedagogical knowledge and skills and incorporates emotional and psychosocial aspects of teaching and learning.     

PBL in teacher education: its effects on achievement and self-regulation

Problem-based learning (PBL) as an educational practice continues to have great impact on all levels of education and across different disciplines. The aim of this experimental study is to examine the effects of PBL on prospective teachers’ academic achievements and self-regulation. The treatment group (n?=?36) and the control group (n?=?21) comprised Middle East Technical University Language Teaching Department senior students attending the Language Testing and Evaluation Course. Quantitative data were collected via an achievement test, an open-ended application exam and a scale on self-regulation in learning. Qualitative data were obtained through student interviews. The quantitative results revealed that PBL was effective for students’ knowledge, comprehension and application-level achievements, but it had no significant effects on their self-regulation. The content analysis of student interviews yielded some positive findings about the application of PBL in teacher education, its strengths and weaknesses as experienced during implementation, together with individual and group work processes involved. The study offers some suggestions for the application of PBL in large classes generally and specifically in a teacher education course.     

Alignment of Assessment Objectives with Instructional Objectives Using Revised Bloom's Taxonomy—The Case for Food Science and Technology Education

Abstract: Nine food science and technology (FST) subjects were assessed for alignment between the learning outcomes and assessment using revised Bloom's taxonomy (RBT) of cognitive knowledge. Conjoint analysis was used to estimate the utilities of the levels of cognitive, knowledge, and the attribute importance (cognitive process and knowledge dimension) for learning outcomes and assessments. Lecturers for these subjects produced learning outcomes for ability of students to Understand (4.935) Procedural (3.316) as well as Apply (4.491) Conceptual (3.083) knowledge. Lecturers’ expected students’ to move beyond mere recall and recognition of knowledge to higher order cognitive knowledge of apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. However, the assessments tested students’ ability to Understand (4.791) Conceptual (4.168) as well as Remember (3.217) Procedural (0.581) knowledge resulting in a misaligned teaching and learning exercise. For all the subjects, emphasis was more (52.9% to 72.9%) on the cognitive dimension than on forms of knowledge in formulating the learning outcomes, whereas emphasis placed on the cognitive (33.3% to 62.5%) dimension and the knowledge (37.5% to 66.7%) forms in the questions differed from subject to subject. The cognitive weight in the assessment was more for Understand (1.781)/Remember (0.787) Conceptual (1.416) knowledge. RBT provides an assessment framework that can be used to assist instructors in going beyond factual knowledge and comprehension to include academic skills such as application, analysis, evaluation, and creation.     

Comparing technology-related teacher professional development designs: a multilevel study of teacher and student impacts

This article presents a quasi-experimental study comparing the impact of two technology-related teacher professional development (TTPD) designs, aimed at helping junior high school science and mathematics teachers design online activities using the rapidly growing set of online learning resources available on the Internet. The first TTPD design (tech-only) focused exclusively on enhancing technology knowledge and skills for finding, selecting, and designing classroom activities with online resources, while the second (tech?+?pbl) coupled technology knowledge with learning to design problem-based learning (PBL) activities for students. Both designs showed large pre-post gains for teacher participants (N?=?36) in terms of self-reported knowledge, skills, and technology integration. Significant interaction effects show that teachers in the tech?+?pbl group had larger gains for self-reported knowledge and externally rated use of PBL. Three generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fit to study the impact on students?? (N?=?1,247) self reported gains in behavior, knowledge, and attitudes. In the resulting models, students of tech?+?pbl teachers showed significant increases in gain scores for all three outcomes. By contrast, students of tech-only teachers showed improved gains only in attitudes.     

Designing and implementing a PBL course on educational digital video production: lessons learned from a design-based research

This paper reports on a design-based research (DBR) process for designing, implementing, and refining a problem-based learning (PBL) course on educational digital video (DV) use and production at the University of Lapland’s Faculty of Education. The study focuses on the students’ learning processes and outcomes from the viewpoint of meaningful learning. The research subjects included two pilot students and ten students enrolled in the course. To promote the reliability of the findings, data of various kinds and from multiple sources were used, including video recordings of the PBL tutorial sessions. The results suggest that PBL offers a good model to support students’ knowledge and skills in producing and using educational DV. In addition, the results suggest that DV production can be used as a method to learn about the subject matter of the DVs.     

Problem‐based learning in an eleventh grade chemistry class: ‘factors affecting cell potential’

The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of problem‐based learning (PBL) on eleventh grade students’ understanding of ‘The effects of temperature, concentration and pressure on cell potential’ and also their social skills. Stratified randomly selected control and experimental groups with 20 students each were used in this study. To determine their misunderstandings and misconceptions about closely related, previously covered subjects, such as oxidation‐reduction reactions and electrochemical cells, interviews were conducted. Following a preparatory lesson where remediation of misconceptions were undertaken, a pre‐test was given, and no significant difference was found between the two groups of students (p>0.05). Then, the same teacher taught factors that affect cell potential using a teacher‐centred traditional format to the control group, and a PBL format to the experimental group. Results from the post‐test of both groups (p<0.05) showed that PBL is effective on students’ achievement, remedying formation of misconceptions in a significant way. Interviews were also conducted with PBL students to determine their beliefs according to PBL activity. The findings according to interviews revealed that students in the PBL class were more motivated, self‐confident, willing to problem‐solve and share knowledge, and were more active in cooperative group activities than the traditionally‐taught students.