Learning design and learning analytics in mobile and ubiquitous learning: A systematic review

Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning (m/u-learning) are finding an increasing adoption in education. They are often distinguished by hybrid learning environments that encompass elements of formal and informal learning, in activities that happen in distributed settings (indoors and outdoors), across physical and virtual spaces. Despite their purported benefits, these environments imply additional complexity in the design, monitoring and evaluation of learning activities. The research literature on learning design (LD) and learning analytics (LA) has started to deal with these issues. This paper presents a systematic literature review of LD and LA, in m/u-learning. Apart from providing an overview of the current research in the field, this review elicits elements of common ground between both communities, as shown by the similar learning contexts and complementary research contributions, and based on the research gaps, proposes to: address m/u-learning beyond higher education settings, reinforce the connection between physical and virtual learning spaces, and more systematically align LD and LA processes.     

Learning to be critically reflective: exploring fiction writing and adult learning

Many educators in adult, community and higher education contexts are concerned with fostering reflective learning amongst their students. This paper explores the concept of critical reflection and considers how engaging with fiction may be an innovative pedagogical approach to support critical learning opportunities. Drawing upon interviews with fiction writers, ways in which critical reflection may be encouraged in connection to reading and writing fiction are taken up by exploring three different thematic areas that relate to a Habermasian framework of knowledge constitutive approaches to learning. These different areas can be categorised as (a) technical-rational, (b) humanistic and (c) critical or emancipatory. The first of these considers critical reflection as a way to develop technical capacities as a creative writer. The next section takes up a humanistic framework to explore the value of individual and collective learning opportunities to enhance personal growth and critical reflection. The third area of discussion considers a deeper critical or emancipatory framework of learning through critical reflection which may lead to social change. The paper concludes by considering the value of arts-informed adult education approaches, such as those related to fiction writing, to enhance the development of critical reflection amongst adult learners.     

Early Second Language Learning through SparkLing™: Scaling up a Language Intervention in Infant Education Centers

Infancy (0–3 years) represents a unique time for language learning. Previous research shows that infants' second language (L2) learning advances rapidly in early education centers, through a research‐based method and curriculum delivered by native‐speaking language tutors. Here we test the potential of this method for broad application, through an interactive online tool, SparkLing?, which trains and certifies language tutors to implement the program in infant education centers. Intervention infants (n = 168) from families of predominantly low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds in Madrid, Spain, experienced 18 or 36 weeks of L2 (English) exposure, through daily, 45‐min, group sessions led by SparkLing?‐trained tutors and were compared to a matched Current Practice Comparison (CPC) group of peers (n = 72). Intervention children outperformed the CPC group and showed rapid gains in English comprehension and production. SES was not a significant factor in learning. Infants' L2 skills advance quickly using this research‐to‐practice, scalable program for play‐based infant L2 instruction.     

Restructuring: Imperatives and Opportunities for Academic Leaders

In an era when market imperatives have reached an unprecedented level of legitimacy within academic management, the spotlight is on campus leaders to respond strategically. For research universities, particularly public research universities, there are critical institutional legacies to consider in the process of weighing alternative academic futures. Campus leaders need support to reaffirm their broader institutional mandates so that vital educational and social justice values are not jeopardized in the service of short-term economic functions.of which she is a 1987 Ph.D. graduate. She serves concurrently as the director of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research and as executive director and principal investigator of the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement     

Community College Counseling: Why Are Research Outcomes So Elusive?

This article focuses on counseling research in the community college context. The article suggests the need for a robust community college knowledge base, describes some limitations of the current community college literature, and suggests a framework for more effective work in this area. The authors’ own experiences and selected examples of published studies are used as illustrations of the hurdles encountered and solutions available when examining counseling theories, practices, and outcomes in 2‐year settings.     

Detectability and choice during visual search: joint effects of sequential priming and discriminability

Pigeons searched for symbolic targets among heterogeneous distractor items displayed on a video monitor. Phase 1 varied target identity and overall display size, thus establishing differential discriminabilities of three target symbols. Phase 2 varied the relative probability of these targets within sessions. The findings showed that reaction time was lower not only when targets were more discriminable, but also when they were relatively frequent; these effects did not depend on the discriminability of the less frequent targets. Phase 3 was similar in design but provided occasional choice trials on which two targets appeared. The birds were more likely to respond to the more frequent target on such trials only if it was also the most discriminable. The data are not consistent with certain predictions from Guilford and Dawkins’ (1987) reinterpretation of effects attributed to search images. The data indicate that detection and choice are modified jointly by priming-induced expectancies and stimulus-driven perceptual processes.     

Reinstatement of postresponse stimuli prior to reward in delayed-reward discrimination learning by pigeons

Delayed-reward learning in pigeons was examined using a simultaneous red-green visual discrimination task in which the conditions during the delay interval were varied between groups. The nondifferential group received training in which the stimulus present during the 1-min delay was the same following a peck on the correct and incorrect colors. The other three groups received 1-min delay training in which different stimuli occurred in the delay interval following correct and incorrect choices. The differential group received continuous, differential stimuli during the delay. The reinstatement group received the differential stimuli in the 10 sec immediately following the choice and during the last 10 sec of the delay. The reversedcue group was treated in the same way, except that the 10-sec delay stimulus immediately following an incorrect response was also presented for 10 sec prior to reward on correct choices, and the stimulus following a correct response also occurred 10 sec before nonreward on incorrect choices. Nondifferential birds failed to learn the discrimination, while differential and reinstatement birds learned it readily. The reversed-cue birds learned to choose the incorrect stimulus. Differential and reinstatement birds showed no decrement in performance when the delay was increased to 2 min. These findings suggest that similarity of prereward and postresponse delay stimuli controls choice responding in long-delay learning, a finding compatible with both memorial and conditioned reinforcement interpretations.     

Pigeons see the Ponzo illusion

Three experiments were performed to address factors contributing to the Ponzo illusion. In Experiment 1, pigeons learned to peck at the longer of two bars in varying line contexts. When these lines converged, the birds had difficulty in learning several patterns in which a Ponzo illusion would reduce the perceived difference. In Experiment 2, the subjects chose one response if a stimulus bar was longer than a predetermined length and a second response for shorter bars. The subjects were more likely to choose “long” as the stimulus bar approached the apex of converging lines. These results suggested that pigeons experience the Ponzo illusion. In Experiment 3, the effects of contexts that did and did not form a texture gradient were compared. The magnitude of the illusion did not differ according to context lines. This result failed to support a perspective theory of the Ponzo illusion.     

Young children's learning and transfer of biological information from picture books to real animals

Preschool children (N = 104) read a book that described and illustrated color camouflage in animals (frogs and lizards). Children were then asked to indicate and explain which of 2 novel animals would be more likely to fall prey to a predatory bird. In Experiment 1, 3- and 4-year-olds were tested with pictures depicting animals in camouflage and noncamouflage settings; in Experiment 2, 4-year-olds were tested with real animals. The results show that by 4 years of age, children can learn new biological facts from a picture book. Of particular importance, transfer from books to real animals was found. These findings point to the importance that early book exposure can play in framing and increasing children's knowledge about the world.