Competitive marketing of distance education: A model for placing quality within a strategic planning context

Abstract

Increasing competitive forces are compelling academic administrators to think strategically about specific offerings in their distance education programs. Across a wide variety of educational contexts, quality is being recognized as a major source of competitive advantage. This paper examines the role of quality in determining appropriate market‐driven strategies. A model for integrating quality based on competitive ability and market attractiveness is presented.     

Identification of Early Risk Factors for Developmental Delay

Statewide birth certificate and preschool exceptionality records were integrated to identify risk factors for developmental delay (DD). Epidemiological methods were used to investigate both individual-level and population-level risk for DD associated with a number of child and maternal factors. Infants born with very low birth weight were at the greatest individual-level risk for DD, whereas prematurity (gestational age less than 37 weeks) and low maternal education posed the greatest population-level risk. For comparative purposes, individual-level risk for speech disability and other developmental disabilities was also determined. The individual-level risk associated with nearly all factors was significantly greater for DD than for speech disability or other developmental disabilities. The present study suggests that information available from birth certificate records can be used to target screening and early intervention services for children at high risk with the goal of reducing the incidence of DD and subsequent associated disabilities.     

It may not be that difficult the second time around: the effects of rereading on the comprehension and metacomprehension of negated text

The present research explored the awareness that readers have of the difficulty of negative text and aimed to determine whether rereading could impact comprehension and metacomprehension. Participants read passages that sometimes contained negative words such as ‘no’ and ‘not’, rated their comprehension, and answered a comprehension question about the passage. Half of the passages were read twice and rated again before the participant was prompted to answer a comprehension question. Results showed that passages that were read twice were rated as easier to understand, and questions that corresponded with those passages were answered with higher accuracy as well. However, these improvements were not exclusive to negated passages. And, while participants were aware that the negative passages were harder to comprehend, this understanding did not aid in heightened comprehension of the negative text. Rereading was demonstrated to be a helpful strategy overall but was not sufficient to specifically help with negation.     

Teaching Play Skills to Children with Disabilities: Research-Based Interventions and Practices

Play is a critical milestone that contributes to the learning and development of young children in multiple ways and is essential to their well-being. Play is also considered as a central component to promote school readiness and incorporates pre-literacy, language and numeracy skills. However, play deficits seem to be acutely apparent in some children with disabilities. This highlights the need to come to terms with the best evidence and explore the promising practices related to improved play skills for young children with disabilities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of play-based learning in early childhood and early childhood special education and provide research-based recommendations on teaching play skills to young children with disabilities.     

Learning theories for artificial intelligence promoting learning processes

This paper discusses a three-level model that synthesizes and unifies existing learning theories to model the roles of artificial intelligence (AI) in promoting learning processes. The model, drawn from developmental psychology, computational biology, instructional design, cognitive science, complexity and sociocultural theory, includes a causal learning mechanism that explains how learning occurs and works across micro, meso and macro levels. The model also explains how information gained through learning is aggregated, or brought together, as well as dissipated, or released and used within and across the levels. Fourteen roles for AI in education are proposed, aligned with the model's features: four roles at the individual or micro level, four roles at the meso level of teams and knowledge communities and six roles at the macro level of cultural historical activity. Implications for research and practice, evaluation criteria and a discussion of limitations are included. Armed with the proposed model, AI developers can focus their work with learning designers, researchers and practitioners to leverage the proposed roles to improve individual learning, team performance and building knowledge communities.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Numerous learning theories exist with significant cross-over of concepts, duplication and redundancy in terms and structure that offer partial explanations of learning.
• Frameworks concerning learning have been offered from several disciplines such as psychology, biology and computer science but have rarely been integrated or unified.
• Rethinking learning theory for the age of artificial intelligence (AI) is needed to incorporate computational resources and capabilities into both theory and educational practices.

What this paper adds

• A three-level theory (ie, micro, meso and macro) of learning that synthesizes and unifies existing theories is proposed to enhance computational modelling and further develop the roles of AI in education.
• A causal model of learning is defined, drawing from developmental psychology, computational biology, instructional design, cognitive science and sociocultural theory, which explains how learning occurs and works across the levels.
• The model explains how information gained through learning is aggregated, or brought together, as well as dissipated, or released and used within and across the levels.
• Fourteen roles for AI in education are aligned with the model's features: four roles at the individual or micro level, four roles at the meso level of teams and knowledge communities and six roles at the macro level of cultural historical activity.

Implications for practice and policy

• Researchers may benefit from referring to the new theory to situate their work as part of a larger context of the evolution and complexity of individual and organizational learning and learning systems.
• Mechanisms newly discovered and explained by future researchers may be better understood as contributions to a common framework unifying the scientific understanding of learning theory.

     

Three recommended inclusive language guidelines for scholarly publishing: Words matter

• Inclusive language will make scholarly publishing more accurate and more respectful, and it has the potential to help authors reach a wider audience.
• JAMA and the JAMA Network journals, the American Chemical Society and the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications have free guides on inclusive language, formatting and images.
• The guides provide principles and rationale, as well as examples of preferred language, in order to equip people with knowledge to choose the most inclusive words even as terminology preferences change.