Education Commons^™

Incentives And Disincentives For The Use Of Opencourseware, Anne Arendt

Anne M Arendt

This article examines Utah residents’ views of incentives and disincentives for the use of OpenCourseWare (OCW), and how they fit into the theoretical framework of perceived innovation attributes established by Rogers (1983). Rogers identified five categories of perceived innovation attributes: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. A survey instrument was developed using attributes that emerged from a Delphi technique with input from experts in the OCW field. The survey instrument was sent to 753 random individuals between 18 and 64 years of age throughout Utah.

Results indicated that the greatest incentives for OCW use were the following: (a) no …

Google Tools: Creative Options For Faculty, Sandie Waters, Suzy Cox

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

Connecting People With Online Resources: The Instructional Architect, Mimi Recker, Andrew Walker, Heather Leary, M. Robertshaw

Heather Leary, Ph.D.

The National Science Foundation (nsf.gov) has funded a large initiative to catalog collections of high-quality online resources into the National Science Digital Library (nsdl.org). The mission of the NSDL is to help improve education for all teachers and students. The purpose of this module is to help you find high-quality online resources, learn strategies for incorporating them into a free software tool called the Instructional Architect, and use these projects in an instructional situation. In this module, you will learn to access online resources and to use tools to help solve instructional or learning problems or issues that you currently …

Get Real With Wikis – A Great Way To Encourage Collaboration, Paula Jones

Paula Jones

Wikis are not new – but some instructors or trainers don’t always use them effectively to support learning through collaborative efforts. It could be because they don't see the value or the need of a Wiki, or it could be they don’t know the technology and therefore ignore it. So there is a need to clarify what a Wiki is and what it is not. Then instructors and trainers can begin to utilize Wikis more effectively to support learning through collaborative efforts. Participants in this session will get a foundation in the use of Wikis to support collaborative learning in …

Expert Versus Novice Tutors: Impacts On Student Outcomes In Problem-Based Learning, Heather Leary, Andrew Walker, M. Fitt, Brett Shelton

Heather Leary, Ph.D.

The tutor is an essential part of problem based learning (PBL). However, tutor characteristics and role are inconsistent. Meta-analysis was used to investigate both the role and training of PBL tutors as moderators of student learning. Weighted effect sizes were calculated on student outcomes with a modest favorable overall effect size for PBL; a vote count shows favorable results as well. Results indicate a mixture of peers and instructors do best when compared to peers and instructors alone. Tutor training appears to make a difference by itself, but when considered with tutor background, tutor training does not appear to moderate …

Ethically Notable Videogames: Moral Dilemmas And Gameplay, Jose Zagal

Jose P Zagal

In what ways can we use games to make moral demands of players and encouraging them to reflect on ethical issues? In this article we propose an ethically notable game as one that provides opportunities for encouraging ethical reasoning and reflection. Our analysis of the videogames Ultima IV, Manhunt, and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn highlights the central role that moral dilemmas can play towards creating ethically notable games. We discuss the different ways that these are implemented, such as placing players in situations in which their understanding of an ethical system is challenged, or by creating moral tension between the …

The Mean Reply Depth: A Practical Application To The Theoretical Model, Sandie Waters

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

Web 2.0 Technologies, Sandie Waters, Susan Cox

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

Web 2.0 Technologies: Creative Options For Faculty And Students, Sandie Waters, Suzy Cox

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

Web 2.0 Tools In The Classroom, Sandie Waters, Suzy Cox

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

Penmel Adventures In Genealogy, Mel Regnell

Mel Regnell

Results of tracing the Maine Sawyers and Bachelders back to the Revolutionary War. Artifacts from gathering family oral history, photos, documents and records, this site is a compilation of ten years of research and wandering through DownEast graveyards in Maine.

What Do Great Teachers Do?, Sandie Waters, Susan Cox

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.

Assessing Credibility In Online Abortion Information, Caitlin Shanley

Caitlin Shanley

No abstract provided.

Dispersed Web Content Management In Higher Education Dispersed Web Content Management In Higher Education, Anne Arendt

Anne M Arendt

* Colleges and universities can choose a centralized or a dispersed management model for handling content on their websites. * Utah Valley University chose a dispersed web content management system for its website, leaving control in the hands of individual content owners. * Somewhat customizable templates and a centralized but inclusive governance structure facilitate dispersed web content management at UVU.

A Meta-Theory For Understanding Systems Within Socio-Technical Systems, Robert Bostrom, Saurabh Gupta, Dominic Thomas

Saurabh Gupta

Information systems (IS) research often attempts to examine and explain how technology leads to outcomes through usage of IS. Although extensive research in this area has resulted in a significant number of theories, limited work has been done on integrating these theories. This paper presents adaptive structuration theory (AST) as a meta-theory for examining IS within an organizational context. The two main contributions of the paper are an understanding of meta-theory’s role in IS and building a case for using AST as a meta-theory to (1) provide an overarching perspective for understanding and integrating existing literature and theories, (2) provide …

Engaged Learning: A 21st Century Skill, Sandie Waters, Suzy Cox, Cassidee Steele

Sandie H Waters

No abstract provided.