Computer-related self-concept: The impact on cognitive achievement

Teaching and learning in outreach laboratories is suitable for completion of multiple hands-on experiences of students. Digital contents may support and further enrich individual haptic experiences. Nevertheless, individual variables such as computer-related self-concepts are supposed to intervene with the cognitive learning success within this context. This potential interrelationship was a major focus of our study completed in an outreach laboratory where an eLearning module specifically was integrated into a hands-on centered gene-technology module. By monitoring cognitive knowledge levels and simultaneously applying the computer-related self-concept of 162 German students (11th grade), an increase in knowledge became apparent independently of individual computer-related self-concepts. This missing relationship exemplarily fosters the assumption that computer-supported learning may suite every student regardless of computer-related self-concept scores.     

A concept to simplify authoring of adaptive hypermedia eLearning structures

Adaptive Learning Systems have been developed to improve learning success by increasing learner satisfaction, learning speed, and educational effectiveness. However, authoring adaptive eLearning structures is still a complicated task for lecturers, because they are unaccustomed to the way of thinking and to the workflows that are needed for the creation process. This paper describes a research project developing a concept that helps authors with the structure creation process, focussed on sequencing of content. Therefore, the issue was approached from the authors' perspective. First, storytelling theory has helped understand content structures and provided insights into how authors work. Second, by investigating the linear structure of learning content, information for sequencing could be extracted, providing the basis for an approach that is based on relations of different authors' content, and defining interdependencies that delinearise the content structure.