Using the first principles of instruction and multimedia learning principles to design and develop in-game learning support videos

Educational technology research and development - Over three years, our research team has designed various learning supports for promoting content knowledge and solving game levels. In this case...     

History of abuse and neglect in patients with schizophrenia who have a history of violence

Objective

To determine the prevalence of five forms of abuse/neglect during childhood and adolescence in a group of schizophrenic patients with a history of violence.

Methods

Twenty-eight patients hospitalized in a highly secured psychiatric unit were included. Abuse and neglect during patients’ growth were evaluated with the childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ). History of substance abuse (consumption of cannabis, and/or alcohol, and/or heroin, and/or cocaine during the year that preceded the hospitalization), incarceration, and death of a close parent were also collected.

Results

We found that 46.4% of patients experienced at least 1 form of abuse and/or neglect during childhood and 21.4% of them had experienced more than 2 forms of abuse and/or neglect. The 2 most frequent forms of neglect and abuse were physical abuse (39.3%) and emotional neglect (17.9%). History of substance abuse was found for cannabis (57.1%), alcohol (57.1%), and cocaine and/or heroin (35.7%). We found that 42.8% of patients had 1 close relative who had died during their growth and that 41.6% of these deaths were violent.

Conclusion

It appears important to systematically search for and assess a history of abuse and neglect during growth in schizophrenic patients with a history of violence, in order to offer specific treatments for this group of patients.     

College cheating: Immaturity,lack of commitment,and the neutralizing attitude

Through the use of a 49-item questionnaire administered to 380 university students, we investigated student cheating on exams, quizzes, and homework assignments. More than half the students reported cheating during the academic year on at least one of the above. The purpose of this paper was to uncover fundamental factors underlying cheating behavior. Through the use of correlational and factor analysis, three primary factors were identified: student immaturity, lack of commitment to academics, and neutralization. We offer interpretations of these factors and suggestions for testing these and other factors in future research.     

Effects of an instructional gaming characteristic on learning effectiveness,efficiency, and engagement: using a storyline for teaching basic statistical skills

The study explored instructional benefits of a storyline gaming characteristic (GC) on learning effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement with the use of an online instructional simulation for graduate students in an introductory statistics course. A storyline is a game-design element that connects scenes with the educational content. In order to examine the interactions between the storyline GC and human performance, a storyline was embedded in a simulation. The goal of the simulation was to engage students in problem-solving and data analysis in the context of basic statistics by using real-world examples. The authors developed two different versions of the simulation: (1) Simulation+No GC, and (2) Simulation+Storyline GC. Both versions shared the same instructional content but differed in the presence or absence of a storyline GC. The results indicated that adding a storyline to a simulation did not result in significant improvements in learning effectiveness, efficiency, or engagement. However, both instructional methods (simulation and simulation with a storyline) showed significant learning gains from pre- to post-test. The findings of this study offer future directions for embedding a storyline GC into learning content.