COMPUTER AIDED CREATIVITY?

Human‐computer cooperation in the creative process has a twofold nature: The human being can be either active or passive during the execution of a computer program. In the first case the human may change the course of action of the program and suggest new paths; in the second the human being may detect a particular outcome—autonomously generated by the machine–as the most interesting one. The first cooperation process is the well known one of Human Aided Creativity²(HAC) while the second one may be called Computer Aided Creativity (CAC) and will be analysed here.     

Being in the users' shoes: Anticipating experience while designing online courses

While user‐centred design and user experience are given much attention in the e‐learning design field, no research has been found on how users are actually represented in the discussions during the design of online courses. In this paper we identify how and when end‐users' experience—be they students or tutors—emerges in designers' discussions during their meetings in well‐established open universities. More precisely, we observed 15 design meetings of two design teams during the development of specific online courses. Designers' discourse was analysed on the basis of six dimensions regarding relevant actors, contents and strategies (purposes) of user experience anticipation. Results show the emergence of a solution‐oriented anticipatory discourse in form of scenarios regarding how learners and tutors will react to the course and the proposed activities. Moreover, this discourse is related to an emergent type of users‐based expertise, translated as the capacity of some designers to empathise with the end‐users more than other designers do. The participation of designers with this type of expertise in e‐learning design teams emerges as relevant for the decisions related to the course activities, interface or overall experience. Further research is invited towards this direction. Further discussion on this article can be found in “Being in the users' shoes: Is there maybe another way?” (DOI: 10.1111/bjet.12104 ).     

Assessment of the Impact of an Animal Welfare Educational Course with First Grade Children in Rural Schools in the State of Morelos, Mexico

The purpose of this study was to evaluate if an educational package used for animal welfare teaching would have significant effects on the knowledge of first grade children in a rural area of Mexico. The research was conducted with 276 students in six public schools. In the experimental group, 177 children participated in a 10 week-long animal welfare education program that covered ten one-hour animal welfare topics. The control group, consisting of 99 children, did not receive the course. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) between pretests of the experimental and control schools (ANOVA). However, a significant effect of the program on the children’s knowledge was found when the results of the posttest were analyzed using the pretest as a covariate (ANCOVA). Furthermore, the correct responses of the children exposed to the Animal Welfare program were on average 78% richer in concepts compared to responses from children in the control group. These results contribute to the growing body of research literature on the relationship between children and animals in humane education, suggesting that first grade children living in moderate economic conditions can assimilate animal welfare concepts.