DCG + GTE: Dynamic Courseware Generation with teaching expertise

This paper discusses the place of GTE as an approach for bridging the gap between CAL and ITS systems. DCG is our architecture for dynamic courseware generation, which allows dynamic planning of the contents of an instructional course with a given goal. Finally, a further development of DCG by combining it with GTE is described which includes explicit representation of generic teaching knowledge. This allows dynamic planning of how a selected contents will be presented to the student.     

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.     

Evaluation of a Computer-Supported Learning System

Educational content on the Internet is rapidly increasing. Academics and businesses are placing more course material online to supplement classroom and business training situations. In addition, significant increases in undergraduate enrollments in information system courses, and the rapid pace of new knowledge in the field, have led researchers to call for new innovative approaches to learning. Prior researchers have reported that this new Web‐based training technology (which has its foundation in computer‐based training) has not integrated sound pedagogical practices into the authoring process when developing new tutorials. This paper summarizes an experiment to evaluate the effect on posttest scores of a Web‐based authoring tool that prompts the developer to build multiple presentation styles into the learning module. Early results indicate that the tool is more effective than traditional HTML‐authoring tools and that the number of exercises affects posttest scores in a positive manner. No effect on posttest scores was observed for the number of examples in the learning module.     

Teaching neuroanatomy using computer‐aided learning: What makes for successful outcomes?

Computer‐aided learning (CAL) is an integral part of many medical courses. The neuroscience course at Oxford University for medical students includes CAL course of neuroanatomy. CAL is particularly suited to this since neuroanatomy requires much detailed three‐dimensional visualization, which can be presented on screen. The CAL course was evaluated using the concept of approach to learning. The aims of university teaching are congruent with the deep approach—seeking meaning and relating new information to previous knowledge—rather than to the surface approach of concentrating on rote learning of detail. Seven cohorts of medical students (N = 869) filled in approach to learning scale and a questionnaire investigating their engagement with the CAL course. The students' scores on CAL‐course‐based neuroanatomy assessment and later university examinations were obtained. Although the students reported less use of the deep approach for the neuroanatomy CAL course than for the rest of their neuroanatomy course (mean = 24.99 vs. 31.49, P < 0.001), deep approach for CAL was positively correlated with neuroanatomy assessment performance (r = 0.12, P < 0.001). Time spent on the CAL course, enjoyment of it, the amount of CAL videos watched and quizzes completed were each significantly positively related to deep approach. The relationship between deep approach and enjoyment was particularly notable (25.5% shared variance). Reported relationships between deep approach and academic performance support the desirability of deep approach in university students. It is proposed that enjoyment of the course and the deep approach could be increased by incorporation of more clinical material which is what the students liked most. Anat Sci Educ 10: 560–569. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Adding automatic evaluation to interactive virtual labs

Automatic evaluation is a challenging field that has been addressed by the academic community in order to reduce the assessment workload. In this work we present a new element for the authoring tool Easy Java Simulations (EJS). This element, which is named automatic evaluation element (AEE), provides automatic evaluation to virtual and remote laboratories built with EJS by using the server application Goodle grading management system (GMS). The integration of both tools entitles a professor to create interactive virtual and remote laboratories and automatically evaluate the work of their students. As a test bed two case studies are presented; a non-linear controller design virtual laboratory used in an advanced control master course and a servomechanism virtual laboratory used in an undergraduate basic control course.     

谈职业院校《高等数学》教学改革

在现代社会中,数学的应用非常广泛,它是人们学习、生活、工作的必要基础和工具。《高等数学》是高等职业教育中一门重要的基础课和工具课。通过对《高等数学》这门课的改革,使学生具有学习专业知识的数学基础和能力,同时并能进一步提高高职高专学生的文化素养,培养学生运用数学方法分析和解决实际问题的能力,实现高职高专学生的专业培养目标,并与"工学结合"培养模式相适应,达到职业院校《高等数学》改革的目的。     

Flexible authoring and delivery of online courses using IMS Learning Design

Since the publication of the IMS Learning Design (IMS LD) specification in 2003, many initiatives have been undertaken to build authoring tools that are simple enough to be used by non-technical instructors and teachers. IMS LD's technical complexity is believed to be a major burden for the adoption of the specification. We have developed a new approach for course authoring and delivery that hides most of the complexities and is powerful enough to create highly flexible online courses. Key aspects in this approach are (1) integration of IMS LD authoring and delivery tools in order to enable teachers to adapt courses in runtime and (2) the use of templates to standardize aspects of the LD. This article reports on the research and development of this approach, as well as a first implementation by the Open University of the Netherlands as part of an integrated e-learning system.     

知识建构对学生学习观念的影响分析——以《基础英语》课程教学为例

知识建构教学强调学习者主动参与和伙伴之间交流,重视学习者对学习过程和知识状态的反思,强调深层知识的构建。本研究以《基础英语》课程教学为例,探讨了知识建构对学生学习观念的影响。研究结果表明,在应用知识建构的课程学习中,80%的学生持积极的赞同态度。知识建构教学影响了学生的学习观,因为只有学习者积极参与到学习中,成为主动的学习者之后,才能实现更深层的学习。教师是学生学习过程的促进者、引导者和帮助者。同时,知识建构教学也需要教师为学习者的参与提供多方面的支持和帮助。     

Sites for Power and Knowledge? Towards a critique of the virtual university

Traditional discourses emanated from sites where agents of knowledge received their professional formation. Postmodernists suggest that the principle that the acquisition of knowledge is indissociable from personal formation is becoming obsolete and that the nature of knowledge cannot survive the information technology revolution unchanged. We examine these propositions with reference to a qualitative study of university staff who were developing and using World Wide Web (WWW) courses. The interview material supports the view that the WWW exemplifies a weakening of the framing of knowledge, has an elective affinity with the individual indulgence of postmodernism and is not effectively controlled through the community of science. Yet the WWW is parasitic on the project of modernism. Its user-friendly surface conceals extreme underlying complexity. The project of reducing professional training to the telematic transmission of an organised stock of knowledge is shown to be ultimately incoherent because it ignores the crucial need for implicit understanding and skill.     

对网络课程写作工具的一点思考

本文从网络课程目标、流程化与自动化操作、模板化操作与交互式可视化的编辑环境四个维度揭示了现在的网络课程写作工县应该具备的设计思想。基于以上这四个维度，初步搭建了一类网络课程写作工具，并对其结构与功能进行详细的阐述。     

Initial Experiences of Creating Multimedia Computer Simulations to Replace Pharmacology Practicals

The replacement of traditional practicals by CAL simulations was prompted by a combination of economic factors, a decreased level of technical support and the requirement for a large capital investment to replace old and broken equipment. In an economic climate which promised only further increases in the number of undergraduates and no assured commensurate increase in resources, CAL appeared to be a possible alternative (Brown et al , 1988). Our only previous attempt to produce our own CAL package had been written in Turbo Basic on a 286 PC. It had involved considerable time and effort and the results were not particularly realistic. The increase in computing power offered by the 486 series of PCs, availability of low cost sound and video capture expansion cards, and the emergence of authoring systems, such as Toolbook, Hypercard and Authorware , appeared to provide an opportunity to produce better simulations (Purcell, 1993; Hartley, 1993).     

Authoring Tools for Component-Based Learning Environments

We argue that a focus on building an authoring tool for a complete learning environment is misplaced. An analysis of the task of authoring a commercial educational system reveals it to be best accomplished through authoring separate components. For many of these components, authoring tools already exist and need not be duplicated for use in educational systems. Connecting the various components together is a separate authoring task, and parts of this task are different for educational systems than for typical component-based software. The second half of this article describes the Visual Translator, an authoring tool we have written specifically for this purpose.     

文学欣赏课教学模式改革新探

作为高校人文通识类或人文基础课程的文学欣赏，有别于中文专业课程的专业化特色，其课程特征主要表现为审美的主体性与实践性。因此，在教学设计上应建立师生文本选择互助、课堂文本赏析互动、课后文本创作三位一体的模式，注重学习者主体的参与及训练。     

研究性学习理念在概率统计课教学中的渗透

研究性学习是一种以类似科学研究的方式主动地获取知识、应用知识、解决问题的学习活动。研究性学习法适合大学生的身心特点及知识结构的特点,也适合概率统计课程的特点。在实施过程中,要在课堂上和作业中逐步的渗透,并与其它课程相结合,才能逐更好的培养学生各种能力。     

The Potential of Interactive Video

Interactive video combines two well‐established media, video cassette and computer‐assisted learning (CAL), in an attempt to combine the advantages and overcome the deficiencies of both. The paper describes a feasibility study of the medium, using a package that includes a video presentation intercut with interactive CAL programs, on the subject of signals in communication technology. The necessary hardware is described, and two ways of authoring the educational software are compared. Finally, the educational implications of the new medium are discussed together with a consideration of the logistic and administrative problems it presents.     

研究生课程微弱信号检测技术的考核方式探析

在分析目前研究生课程考核的主要方式基础上,结合微弱信号检测课程的教学内容和教学目标,提出适合该课程的"课堂理论测试+文献阅读+实验测试+研讨汇报"等形成性考核方式,并在近几年的研究生教学中进行探索,收到较好的效果。形成性考核方式能更客观、更准确地反映研究生的知识水平和实践能力,对他们知识的积累和能力的培养有促进作用,对其他研究生课程的考核有借鉴作用。     

Meta-assessment in a project-based systems engineering course

Project-based learning (PBL) facilitates significant learning, but it poses a major assessment challenge for assessing individual content knowledge. We developed and implemented an assessment approach and tool for a mandatory undergraduate systems engineering PBL-based course. We call this type of assessment student-oriented meta-assessment. Research participants included 131 undergraduate engineering students who carried out team projects requiring conceptual modelling of complex systems. Next, individual students assessed their peer team projects. Finally, the course staff assessed students individually, based on the content knowledge that was reflected in students’ comments to their peers, by using the new meta-assessment tool. The research findings validated the meta-assessment tool which can serve for assessing various PBL courses. Our contribution is twofold: a new approach for assessing project-based undergraduate engineering courses, and classification of meta-assessment methods into three types, where a student-oriented meta-assessment as one of the three meta-assessment methods is our newly introduced and validated method.     

网络课程的交互设计及其实现

本文指出了网络课程交互设计的四个关键要素--学习内容、学习支持、教学策略以及教与学活动,并对这四个要素交互设计的要点、构成和方法进行了研究.依据这一理论,我们开发了53个网络课程的交互设计模板,构建了网络课程交互模板库,为目标导向网络课程写作工具的实现奠定了基础.     

问题探究式教学模式在思想政治理论课教学中的应用

问题探究式教学模式包括以问题为主线的教学内容、探究式学习方法和个性化教学评价机制,在"两课"教学中应用该模式有利于实现教育创新、强化思想政治理论课的功能,并符合大学生和课程的实际,能够增强思想政治理论课的实效性。     

Computer-based assessment of Complex Problem Solving: concept, implementation, and application

Complex Problem Solving (CPS) skills are essential to successfully deal with environments that change dynamically and involve a large number of interconnected and partially unknown causal influences. The increasing importance of such skills in the 21st century requires appropriate assessment and intervention methods, which in turn rely on adequate item construction, delivery, and scoring. The lack of assessment tools, however, has slowed down research on and understanding of CPS. This paper first presents the MicroDYN framework for assessing CPS, which is based on linear structural equation systems with input and output variables and opaque relations among them. Second, a versatile assessment platform, the CBA Item Builder, which allows the authoring, delivery, and scoring of CPS tasks for scientific and educational purposes is introduced. Third, we demonstrate the potential of such a tool for research by reporting an experimental study illustrating the effect of domain specific content knowledge on performance in CPS tasks both on an overall performance and on a process level. The importance of accessible and versatile technical platforms not only for assessment and research but also for intervention and learning are discussed with a particular focus on educational contexts.