BIBSYS: Open Journals Systems
Not a member yet
393 research outputs found
Sort by
Enhancing Bi-directional English-Tigrigna Machine Translation Using Hybrid Approach
Get PDFMachine Translation (MT) is an application area of NLP where automatic systems are used to translate text or speech from one language to another while preserving the meaning of the source language. Although there exists a large volume of literature in automatic machine translation of documents in many languages, the translation between English and Tigrigna is less explored. Therefore, we proposed the hybrid approach to address the challenges of applying syntactic reordering rules which align and capture the structural arrangement of words in the source sentence to become more like the target sentences. Two language models were developed- one for English and another for Tigrigna and about 12,000 parallel sentences in four domains and 32,000 bilingual dictionaries were collected for our experiment. The parallel collected corpus was split randomly to 10,800 sentences for training set and 1,200 sentences for testing. Moses open source statistical machine translation system has been used for the experiment to train, tune and decode. The parallel corpus was aligned using the Giza++ toolkit and SRILM was used for building the language model. Three main experiments were conducted using statistical approach, hybrid approach and post-processing technique. According to our experimental result showed good translation output as high as 32.64 BLEU points Google translator and the hybrid approach was found most promising for English-Tigrigna bi-directional translation
From Teachers’ Predispositions to Different Socio-didactical Situations
Get PDFThe use of textbooks and other learning resources in mathematics teaching has changed in the last decade. It is essential to investigate how this change is happening and what it means to students’ learning in order to improve teaching. In this paper we investigate more specifically how mathematics teachers make predispositions and interactions with their textbooks and other resources, and how these orchestrations and interactions influence their teaching. Three competent teachers were selected, interviewed, observed and videotaped in seven, nine and ten double lessons, respectively. The empirical data were analysed using Siedel and Stylianides’ (2018) classification of teachers’ different predispositions and driving forces, and by Rezat and Sträßer’s (2012) socio-didactical tetrahedron. The findings indicate that teachers’ predispositions and driving forces influence teaching in a very visible way in the socio-didactical tetrahedron, and this is an essential aspect to articulate in teacher-education programmes as well as in professional-development programmes
Pedagogical agents: Influences of artificially generated instructor personas on taking chances
Get PDFEducational institutes are currently facing the new normality that an ongoing pandemic situation has brought to teaching and learning. Distributed learning with content that blends over several platforms and locations needs to be created with didactic expertise in a feasible manner. At the same time, the possibilities for creating and distributing digital content have developed rapidly. Advanced computing supports the creation of artificial images, natural speech, and even natural-looking but non-existent persons. Since such generative content is often also published under a Creative Commons license, it presents as viable option for designing learning content, assignments, or instructions for tasks. However, there is still limited evidence on how, for example, generated pedagogical agents (tutors) influence behaviour and decisions. This study investigated the influences of artificially generated tutor personas in a decision-making task distributed internationally on the Google Play store. The field experiment extended the balloon analogue risk task (BART) with instructions from generated persona photographs to evaluate potential influences on risk-taking behaviour. In a between-subject design, either a female tutor, a male tutor, or no tutor picture at all was presented during the task. The results (N=74) show a higher risk propensity when displaying a male artificial instructor compared to a female instructor. Participants also proceed with greater caution when instructed by a female tutor as they reflect longer before initiating the next step to pump up the balloon. Further lines of research and experiences from the distribution of an investigative instruction app on Google Play are summarised in the conclusive implications
Science and Math Courses in a Danish Digital Learning Platform: What makes them more or less popular?
Get PDFAs part of a Danish context of educational reforms since 2013, digital learning platforms (DLPs) are mandatory in primary and lower secondary education. Teacher-created courses are available in DLPs and can be shared, remixed, and reused by other teachers, providing a wide range of courses for systematic studies. In this article, we present an analysis of the Science and Math courses’ popularity. Based on previous research and didactical theory, we focus on the question: Can didactical variables discriminate the most and least popular Science and Math courses in the learning platform Meebook? If so, which variables? The study was based on the random collection and coding of the 102 courses. Multivariate analysis techniques detected that eight variables can differentiate the course's popularity with a success classification rate of about 75%. Visual attractiveness, easy implementation, and students’ work are the three aspects that teachers use to select courses. The study results have potential implications for platform designers, local and national authorities, as well as teachers who use the course builder daily
Merits of the technology-enhanced flipped classroom (TEFC) concept in higher education
Get PDFDistance education hype has created a lot of speculation among educators on how it could facilitate and support formal learning, when the unprecedented global pandemic Covid-19 in early 2020 evidently highlighted the pressing need for this education method. Distance education is not a new phenomenon and the flipped classroom concept is also a wellresearched method. However, there have been rather few studies about the applied flipped classroom approach with support of technology within the distance-learning paradigm. There were claims that suggest a variety of advantages for flipped classroom. This is whileavailable publications were lacking the perspective of the primary beneficiary (the students), and focusing on the advantages of Technology-Enhanced Flipped Classroom (TEFC) in distance education, specially when it comes to such pandemic situations as Covid-19. This study contributes by critically exploring how distance students perceive the usefulness of the TEFC approach to support their studies, and perceive the benefits and limitations of this approach, compared with other means. The empirical data for this qualitative research was collected through semi-structured interviews that were preceded by a preliminary observational study. By the means of a thematic analysis, three major themes were identified that offered a broader insight into the students' perspective with regards to the benefits and challenges of the TEFC concept. The findings revealed that the discussion-based sessions in flipped classrooms enables or assisted students to foster the knowledge transfer and advance the ability to contribute in and influence on the discussion flow. This confirms the earlier claims concerning a positive perception of the flipped classroom concept in formal learning process. This research discovered that TEFC is a viable tool to support learning in a pandemic situation by empowering students and facilitating constructivism through communication and enhancement of cognitivism
Introducing ePortfolios to IT students: The support process
Get PDFImplementing ePortfolio takes time and increases teachers’ workload due to the support the students need. In a preliminary study, support material was developed and tried out among four student assistants from the second year of a three-year bachelor’s degree program in information technology. The objective was to identify types of support and how to design the support to make students as independent as possible when developing ePortfolio for the first time. Based on the preliminary study findings, we customized the support before introducing ePortfolio to an entire class in the study described in this paper. The aim of this research is to gain insight into students' perception of the support they received and how a support process should be carried out to succeed with ePortfolio implementation. Empirical data was collected among students attending the second year of an IT education emphasizing organization and business. The findings demonstrate the importance of motivating the students to work on their ePortfolios and providing students with sufficient support. The findings can be the basis for the design of principles for e-portfolio implementation on a micro-level.
 
IT bachelor capstone project during lockdown: Student experiences
Get PDFMedical lockdown was a fact in Norway March 2020. As a result, bachelor students were no longer able to complete their studies in an ordinary way. New forms of collaboration and communication had to be established quickly, while many companies were closed down and employees worked from home. This study focuses on students in a bachelor program in IT working on their bachelor thesis. We used a survey questionnaire and grades from the bachelor capstone project to evaluate effects caused by the situation. The findings show that infection control measures due to Covid-19 has had a significant perceived negative effect on collaboration, communication and results. In contrast to this, the results in the form of grades are unaffected by the situation. This indicates that students felt stressed by the situation, but in practice handled this stress well. For future projects such as these, we recommend guiding students to regularly use online communication tools, even when physical proximity is possible. If major disruptions happen, supervisors should help students focus on this as a learning opportunity.
 
IT Students Project Group Work in the Day of COVID-19: Understanding the Impact and Attitudes
Get PDFCOVID-19 pandemic has resulted in disruptive impacts on teaching and learning experience around the world. In a particular context of project-based courses, where students need to interact and collaborate frequently, there appears additional challenges in implementing and learning from projects. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on project-based courses does not only provide recommendations for preparing such courses in post-pandemic eras, but also has some implications for physical IT projects in industry. We investigated 30 student teams in Spring semester 2020, when COVID-19 measures were applied in the middle of the course. We adopted a mixed-method approach; a bottom-up analysis with a thematic analysis, and a top-down approach with attribution theory. We found that COVID19 measures introduced as external attributions to the course had direct and sudden impact manifestations on individual level, which leads to internal attributions, such as lack of motivation, lack of commitment, realization of usefulness of some online tools, and mental struggle. This creates an indirect impact on team, process and product factors in the course