1,720,997 research outputs found
Extracting Learning Performance Indicators from Digital Learning Environments
Get PDFIn the last decades, there has been a steady adoption of digital online platforms as learning environments applied to all levels of education. This increasing adoption forces a transition in educational resources which has further been accelerated by the recent pandemic, leading to an almost complete online-only learning environment in some cases. The aim of this paper is to outline the methodology involved in setting up a framework for mapping course-specific data based on student activity to standard learning indicators, which will serve as an input to performance prediction algorithms. The process involves systematically surveying, capturing, and categorising the vast range of data available in digital learning platforms. The data are collected from two sample courses and distilled into five dimensions represented by the generic learning indicators: prior knowledge, preparation, participation, interaction, and performance. The data is weighted based on course development and teaching member’s perspectives to account for course-wise variations. The framework established will allow portability of prediction algorithms between courses and provide a means for meaningful and directed learner formative feedback. Two courses, both bachelor-level and worth 5 European Credits (ECs), that use several online learning platforms in their teaching tools have been chosen in this study to explore the nature and range of student interaction data available, accessible, and usable in a course. The first course is Electromagnetics II at Eindhoven University of Technology, and the second course is Electronics at Delft University of Technology. Both Universities are located in the Netherlands. This work is in the scope of a broader study to use such learning indicators with predictive algorithms to provide a prognosis on individual student performance. The findings in this paper will enable the realization of student performance prediction at a very early stage in the course
Can Math Be a Bottleneck? Exploring the Mathematics Perceptions of Computer Science Students
No full textSoftware Engineering and Computer Science (CS) programs often contain several mathematical courses or courses with large mathematics components or dependencies. Study success in those subjects can be influenced by students' attitudes towards mathematics and their perceptions about their own relation with mathematics. To gain insights into how the mathematics perceptions of computer science students affect their studies, we collected qualitative data from fourteen CS students from two universities in the context of an elective mathematics course. In this qualitative research, we used a triangulation strategy by collecting data from three different sources (interviews, questionnaires, and math-history assignments) to develop a comprehensive understanding of CS students' mathematics perceptions. The thematic analysis revealed the factors that affect students' perceptions about mathematics, including various types of prior experiences, their self-efficacy, math anxiety, and motivation sources. The analysis also highlighted that students find mathematics important for skill transfer to specific CS topics and for supporting continuous learning
Reflection to support ethics learning in an interdisciplinary challenge-based learning course
No full textDesigning qualitative reflection in (first-year's) engineering (ethics) education is challenging. We developed a reflection activity in a challenge-based learning course, based on three open questions, a weekly coaching session and a weekly coaching assignment. We use two models (ethics goals model and pedagogical component model) to analyze (1) what the effectiveness is of the reflection method, (2) how the students' learning gains are distributed in this reflection, and (3) what the usefulness of these models is to analyze the reflection of a CBL course. We conducted a qualitative analysis, where data were drawn from weekly reflections written by 41 students participating in the course E3Challenge2. Using the text-search query by ATLAS.ti, we identified 180 relevant excerpts about ethics and 34 about coaching. Through an iterative and collaborative process, the excerpts were analyzed thematically and categorized under 12 themes describing students' attainment of ethics learning goals. We describe (1) that the method provided in-depth reflections of the students but is not scalable, (2) a distribution of different ethics goals, and (3) strengths and gaps (epistemology, pedagogical) of the two models in the use of reflective evaluation. We conclude with a plea to use the models in evaluation of reflection methods and with possible further research for the ethics goal model.</p
Now what? Pedagogical implications of a shift to open book assessment of vector calculus
Get PDFDuring the global pandemic, a drastic change in higher-level education took place in assessment. The traditional closed book format had to evolve to a technology-mediated open book assessment for engineering students in a vector calculus course. It became evident that the traditional format was no longer in line with the modern world both functionally and didactically. Such change in the assessment places a responsibility upon us as teachers for constructive alignment of the teaching and learning environment. In this paper, we identify four categories of pedagogical implications and conclude with concrete suggestions for classroom practice.</p
Responsibility in University Ecosystems and Challenge Based Learning
No full textUniversities introduce real-life stakeholders in their courses as challenge based learning (CBL). We argue that the literature has not yet discussed the role of responsibility for universities, their students and their ecosystems in this new format. This paper explores this gap by using Niklas Luhmann’s concepts of structural differentiation, structural coupling and irritation. It studies how the focus of CBL on responsibility influences the structural couplings of the subsystems education, research and economy in society. We expect that responsibility in students and universities could be promoted by creating structural couplings between these subsystems. The paper shows why practice-based education may be undersupplied at universities and how novel education formats can be understood to fill this gap
Recommended from our members
Virtual Museum Tours for Schools: Teachers’ Experiences and Expectations
Get PDFStudents have always been main targets for museums with clear learning strategies between schools and museums that contribute to a reinforced student learning experience. Although several museums offer virtual experiences (also available for schools), these cannot be easily manipulated or combined with other resources to form curriculum-focused learning activities. This study aims to explore the views and expectations of teachers on the use of Virtual Museum Tours (VMT) in their classrooms. Main findings from an online survey with 101 teachers (with or without VMT experience) shed light on their motivations and challenges when engaging their classrooms in such activities. Statistical analysis and visualisations were used to present teachers’ experiences and expectations, and a binary logistic regression analysis was employed to indicate the factors that associate with teachers’ decision to join VMTs in their classrooms. This study’s observations have implications for the design of customisable VMTs for schools, for how museums develop VMTs that facilitate school participation, and how game designers develop virtual gaming apps used in formal education settings
Exploring the factors influencing students' experience with challenge-based learning:a case study
No full textChallenge-Based Learning (CBL) is an active-learning pedagogy increasingly used in Engineering Education to prepare students for their future careers by emphasizing knowledge acquisition and application and developing disciplinary and transdisciplinary skills. The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of a CBL course, guided by the spiderweb curriculum framework, for first-year engineering students from different disciplines and explore students' perceptions of factors that facilitated or inhibited their learning. We analyzed the results of the formal course evaluation consisting of a survey and two open-ended questions. In addition, we conducted 16 individual interviews after the end of the course. Results indicated that students appreciated the real-life aspect of the challenge, and a client's involvement enhanced their engagement to the challenge and made their learning relevant. On the other hand, students seemed to find the course structure quite complicated, with many meetings during the week, several communication platforms, and the distribution of individual and group work for the final assignment. Lessons learned and future directions for practice and research are discussed.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
- …
