Video clips for YouTube: Collaborative video creation as an educational concept for knowledge acquisition and attitude change related to obesity stigmatization

Mobile phones and advanced web-based video tools have pushed forward new paradigms for using video in education: Today, students can readily create and broadcast their own digital videos for others and create entirely new patterns of video-based information structures for modern online-communities and multimedia environments. This paradigm shift in video usage can be used for advanced learning about complex topics in higher education, for example, learning about socio-scientific or medical topics. Yet–technology aside–applicable educational concepts using collaborative video creation as a method need to be developed. In the present study, we investigate a specific concept designed to fight obesity stigmatization by developing knowledge using a learning-through-design-approach. We expected that creating videos can actually contribute to a deeper understanding of obesity and to a reduction in stigmatizing attitudes–when compared to a control condition. Dependent measures were based on the students’ video products, obesity-related knowledge and attitudes. The course group assessed their own knowledge on causes of obesity and stigmatization because of obesity higher in the post-test than a control group who read a newspaper article on the topic. A corresponding significant reduction in stigmatizing attitudes was found. In sum, results indicate significant differences between students who produced YouTube videos and a control group of students. The results are interpreted as a confirmation of our initial assumptions and evidence indicating that the program is successfully applicable in higher education.     

A constructivist approach in a blended e-learning environment for statistics

In this study, we report on the students' evaluation of a self-constructed constructivist e-learning environment for statistics, the compendium platform (CP). The system was built to endorse deeper learning with the incorporation of statistical reproducibility and peer review practices. The deployment of the CP, with interactive workshops and group assignments, immerses students in a novel blended e-learning experience. Based on the Delone and McLean framework, we tested an explanatory success model with a sample of 607 business students, collected during three consecutive academic years. The results indicate that system quality and teacher support are the most important success factors, directly or indirectly contributing to a higher degree of relative advantage and satisfaction, both of which strongly determine continuous intention to use. The findings ascertain the usability and acceptance of the CP and promote a more radical constructivist approach to the teaching of statistics, but also other subjects.     

The consequences of central examinations on educational quality standards and labour market outcomes

Central examinations—that is, centrally set and marked exams—have often been discussed as an instrument for improving educational outcomes. The aim of our study was to determine whether central exams have an impact not only on educational but also on labour market outcomes. We explain school quality choice through the incentives created by central exams vs. non‐central exams and model the resulting students’ schooling decisions and employers’ wage decisions. We use the German Abitur and the variation among the German federal states with respect to central exams as a quasi‐experimental design for alternative educational quality regimes. As hypothesised from our theoretical analysis, the percentage of Abitur holders increases more quickly in quality regimes without central exams than with central exams. However, as theoretically expected in the case of a pooled labour market, the wage premium decreases not only for Abitur‐holders without central exams but also for all Abitur‐holders. This is due to the quality deterioration in the states without central exams which spills over into a pooled labour market. Thus, graduates from states with central exams and higher educational standards ‘pay’ for the quality deterioration of educational standards in states without central exams.     

Ratings of usability of didactic models: a comparative case study in Croatia and Germany

The study refers to the unfavourable reputation and status of general didactics as well as its decreasing importance in teacher education. This is a result of poor performance achieved in international tests by students. They score low on knowledge and arguments, and empirical studies indicate that didactic models are useless. In view of the above problem, the aim of this article is to examine the validity of the argument that didactic models are useless. It is necessary to examine if general didactics are being in an unfavourable position along with its possible successors in the international context. In order to achieve that, we conducted an empirical study into the usability of didactic models for lesson planning in Croatia and compared it with the results obtained in previous research in Germany. The term usability means the advantages of theory in practice. On the basis of the results of the empirical study, we concluded that didactic models are not generally unusable. Additionally, they are different according to their usability. These results open a path for further research on this topic in the international context.     

Technology intensity and agglomeration economies

This article investigates the relationship between industry technology intensity and the impacts of agglomeration economies on industrial growth. Many recent studies suggest the actual economic impacts of different forms of agglomeration economies depend on industrial characteristics such as technology intensity, but systematic empirical evidence is still lacking. To fill this gap, we analyze employment data covering all 3-digit NAICS industries of U.S. counties. The results confirm that technology-intensive industries are more likely to benefit from Jacobs spillovers as measured by related variety, while sectors with low technology intensities can better benefit from MAR spillovers as measured by regional specialization.     

Learning with videos vs. learning with print: The role of interactive features

Two complementary studies, one in the laboratory and one in the field, compared the usage patterns and the effectiveness of interactive videos and illustrated textbooks when German secondary school students learned complex content. For this purpose, two videos affording different degrees of interactivity and a content-equivalent illustrated textbook were used. Both studies showed that in contrast to previous studies working with non-interactive videos, the effectiveness of interactive videos was at least comparable to that of print, probably due to the possibilities provided for self-regulated information processing. It was shown that the interactive features of the videos were used spontaneously. However, features enabling micro-level activities, such as stopping the video or browsing, seemed to be more beneficial for learning than features enabling macro-level activities, such as referring to a table of contents or an index. This finding is explained by students’ misconceptions about the use of features enabling macro-level activities.     

Is There a Relationship between Training Quality and Premature Contract Terminations in VET?

The dominant organizational form of vocational education and training in Switzerland is the dual-track system, in which trainees sign an apprenticeship contract with a training company. Notably, 10 % to 40 % of those contracts are terminated prematurely each year, depending on region and occupational category, which is an important topic of concern for politics, practice and research. Thus, premature contract terminations (PCTs) are associated with high costs for society, companies, and young people. This study of 335 companies involving cooks and painters from German-speaking Switzerland aims to investigate the relationship between training quality and PCT. Of these companies, 136 had been affected by a PCT, and 199 had not. The results indicate that training at the workplace is universally of rather high quality. In line with the previous literature, trainees evaluate quality significantly lower than trainers. Furthermore, there are considerable differences between the two occupations: cooks evaluate their training quality more positively than painters. Moreover, cluster analyses indicate that high quality training can help companies avoid PCTs.     

The First International Recreation Congress in Los Angeles in 1932 and Its Importance as a Stage for the National Recreation Association and the International Olympic Committee

In 1932, as a prelude to the Los Angeles Olympics, an international gathering of supporters of ‘Sport for All’ held the first International Recreation Congress. The meeting sought to revive the original connection established during the early decades of the Olympic Movement by the Baron Pierre de Coubertin between the elite sporting spectacles he created and his commitment to active mass recreation for modern societies. The International Olympic Committee had a long and complex relationship with ‘Sport for All’ programmes, as revealed in this initial meeting of mass recreation enthusiasts and the subsequent congresses that followed. The International Olympic Committee leaders who inherited Coubertin's mantle used the recreation conclave to push the responsibility of implementing ‘sport for all’ onto other agencies rather than returning the Olympic Movement to the centre of the struggle – as Coubertin desired. While scholars have paid considerable attention to other elements of the 1932 Los Angeles games, the International Recreation Congress has been neglected, even though it created important legacies for the struggles between elite and mass sport during the rest of the twentieth century.