Education Commons^™

An Investigation Into The Factors Affecting The Retention And Achievement Of Computing Students Attending Institutes Of Technology In Ireland, (Volumes 1), Carol O Shea

Theses

This research is a longitudinal case study of a cohort of five hundred and seventy-eight students attending computing courses at seven Institutes of Technology in Ireland. The investigation charts the progress of this cohort of students throughout the four-year duration of their programme from the time they commenced their course in 2001 to their graduation in 2005. The central aim of this research is to investigate the factors contributing to the achievement and retention of these students as they progress through their course. Relationships and patterns of association between attainment on the course and students’ prior educational, socio-economic and demographic …

Enhancing Science Education Through Engaging Visual Content, David Kavanagh

Theses

In recent years a decline in the number of Irish students choosing to study science, at second level and on into third level, has become potentially harmful to the desired creation of a science-based knowledge economy. A primary contributing factor towards this decline is a lack of interest in the subject within the classroom, as was established by The Task Force on the Physical Sciences in 2002.

The primary aim of this Masters research is to investigate the role of visualisation in making the study of science more accessible and engaging to students to counter this decline. To this end …

Electronic Mathematics, Aidan O'Donoghue

Theses

Recent times have seen an explosion in the use of interactive technologies in the delivery of learning content to students in all educational sectors in Ireland. This expansion has led to the creation of modem day phenomenons such as global and ‘teacherless’ classrooms.

The research study I have undertaken is to determine if students perform to the same standard when learning through an interactive educational software application as opposed to a more traditional setting of learning ’through’ a teacher in a classroom. The application being developed for this study enables students to learn the ordinary level leaving certificate mathematics course …

Towards A Best Practice Framework : The Case Of Institutes Of Technology Campus Incubators, Mary Fenton

Theses

Campus incubators catalyse campus enterprise development by encouraging Third Level “spin offs”, commercialisation of research and facilitating “spin-in” enterprises. They provide academic staff, graduates and “spin-in” entrepreneurs with a range of support services including space, advice, training, mentoring and networking opportunities. The real value of a campus incubator location for clients is their association with a reputable Third level Institute and access to the Institute’s resources namely academic staff, embedded knowledge, manager’s expertise and enterprise netvyorks. The researcher explored literature on campus and business incubators and identified a lacuna of research on campus incubation, particularly within Irish Higher Education Institutes. …

Ict Integration To Second-Level Schools, Maria Hartnett

Theses

An in-depth questionnaire was sent to the twenty seven second level schools in Kerry. Results were then analysed and compared to similar results obtained by Aidan Mulkeen in his statistical report of the ICT 2002 Survey. An online class on Preparing for College was designed and developed. This class was delivered to three second level schools in Kerry who had shown an interest in taking part. None of the three schools had the ICT facilities required to accommodate such a learning environment. All students were required to fill out an online questionnaire in order to determine their reaction to the …

A Case For Constructivism In Workplace Education : Substantiated With The Design, Development, Implementation And Evaluation Of A Collaborative And Resource-Based Web Learning Environment, Carmel Burke

Theses

This thesis addresses the role of constructivism in workplace education, where organisations are currently going through a time of great change. The study starts with questioning the suitability of information and communication technology in current web based learning in the workplace. Organisations increasingly require professionals to possess knowledge in a dynamic way in order to deal with change and just-in-time demands. The research is firmly anchored in learning theories as they apply to workplace education and particularly as they apply to collaborative and resource-based web learning. An extensive literature review is produced in order to establish a theoretical starting point …

Higher Education In And For The Workplace: Models And Methods, Ray Coughlan

Theses

This dissertation reports on research and development work, undertaken from 2000 to 2005, to develop and apply innovative models and methods to the establishment of a provision, within higher education in Ireland, tuned to the identified needs of diverse groups of learners in the workplace and in society at large.

Initial research identified, from the workplace perspective, the characteristics required of such provision and the topics it should address. The role of higher education in establishing such provision is reviewed in supporting learner development through the continuum; competence, capability, creativity. Relevant models and methods are identified as existing along a …

The Construction And Maintenance Of A School Intranet Based Discipline Monitoring System : Design Development And Implementation Using Open Source Software Mysql, Php And Apache, Seán Geary

Theses

This aim of this project is to build a School Discipline Database, which will record and display student breaches of discipline, using dynamic web pages. Management presently implements a school discipline system based on the issuing of Yellow or Red cards to students, depending on the gravity of the offence. A student incurs detention, when 3 Yellow Card offences for general misbehaviour or 1 Red Card offence for serious misbehaviour occurs. The database is created and populated using open source software MySQL, PHP and Apache. A database driven web site allows the content of the site to reside in a …

A Blueprint For Physical Activity Promotion In A Small Urban Town (Mallow, Co. Cork), Elaine Mary Dennehy

Theses

This research project aims to establish current levels of participation in physical activity amongst the adult population of the Mallow Urban District Council (UDC) area. Using an adaptation of The Scottish Physical Activity Questionnaire (SPAQ) (Lowther et al, 1999) used by the Health Education Bureau for Scotland (HEBS) an attempt will be made to establish the respondents’ readiness for change in relation to physical activity participation. This research methodology is new to Ireland but has been used successfully by the HEBS, (Lowther et al, 1999).

The objectives of this work are to:

1. Establish current levels of participation in physical …

The Convergence Of Traditional Higher Education And E-Learning: Organisational, Societal, Technological And Pedagogical Trends, Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin

Theses

The thesis is about the coming together of two traditions and how they are both changing dynamically in relation to each other, giving rise to a number of discernable organisational, societal, technological and pedagogical trends. Each tradition is examined in turn in the first two chapters, which deal with issues such as what the definitional characteristics of each tradition are and what factors have determined them. Organisational and societal trends in the convergence of traditional higher education and e-learning, as described in chapter three, highlight the tensions between the two traditions, as evidenced in the specific challenges e- learning represents …

Integrating Experiments And Simulators Into A Distributed E-Learning Environment, Frank Koehler

Theses

New information and communication technologies have emerged in the last few years which have made an impact on learning at all levels. At universities, the spectrum of learning support ranges from enriching traditional lectures and courses with multi- media elements to complete web-based interactive learning environments. A special aspect based on the new media technologies is learning within model worlds by use of simulations or real-life experiments. There are normally no links between these applications and the learning content, so it is impossible to tap the full potential of these applications. Research activities in the area of e-learning underline the …

Speech Enabled E-Learning Technology For Adult Literacy Tutoring, Jason Meade

Theses

This research presents the work involved in developing a speech-enabled e-Learning prototype for use in literacy tutoring. As the main objective was to develop an interface for literacy learning, initial research concentrated on establishing a framework for literacy e-Leaming through the use of speech technology. Requirements for best practice e-Learning and the relevance of learning theories to an e-Learning application were also investigated. The technologies to facilitate this, such as text to speech technologies and mark-up languages, were addressed during the implementation of speech-enabled prototypes. Both server-side and client-side prototypes were implemented to investigate speech technology. Testing found the server-side …

Balancing The 'E' With Learning And Teaching Skills, Áine O'Brien

Theses

Many lecturers today want to move past passive learning to active learning, to find better ways of engaging students in the learning process. Since most groups of individuals have a variety of learning styles, the lecture material needs to be presented in a variety of ways. With the introduction of web-based learning and e-leaming, lecturers can use a variety of teaching methods with their students.

This study will focus on what is required to balance the ‘E’ with the ‘learning’ skills and ‘teaching’ skills. Too often there is more emphasis placed on the ‘E’ aspect with little consideration given to …

An Assessment Of Distance Learning Delivery Methodologies And The Proposal Of An Open Distance Learning Delivery Model For A Third Level Course In Sports Development, Deirdre Kiely

Theses

In the development of a distance learning curriculum the appropriate choice of media, in terms of both presentation of course materials, and of the approach to providing tutorial and other support, is a key question that needs to be addressed at the outset. However, very few studies provide guidelines for distance learning facilitators to help them in choosing these delivery methods. This study aimed to propose an Open Distance Learning (ODL) delivery model for a third level course in Sports Development and in doing so identifies a number of criteria which may be used by institutes when deciding on their …

An Investigation Of The Influence Of Irish As An L1 Or L2 On Subsequent Instructed Language Acquisition In L3 Or L4, Corina Griffin

Theses

Research in Ireland to date has paid little attention to the fact that all foreign language teaching occurs in the context where the FL (foreign language) is an L3. The present study examines the extent to which students transfer or modify strategies they had previously deployed in learning Irish to their L3/L4. It is proposed that students are deploying the same strategies in their learning of Irish as an L1/L2 and the foreign language (FL) as an L3/L4, thus indicating a similar approach to the learning process. Cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective strategies are examined. The research also focuses on differences …

A Physical Activity Intervention Program, Jackie Ní Mhuircheartaigh

Theses

Physical activity levels decline dramatically during adolescence, particularly among adolescent girls. Data is lacking on ways to tailor physical activity interventions to the needs and interests of young girls to prevent this rapid decline. This study aimed to design and implement a physical activity intervention program aimed at promoting increased participation in physical activity among adolescent girls.

Forty-five transition year female students (mean age 15.65yrs) from two girls secondary schools participated in this study. Schools were assigned to intervention and control conditions. All students participated in focus groups, two questionnaires were utilised in the study and a random sample of …

Tackling The Deficit - It Solutions For Art Appreciation - Needs Study And Provision Project At Primary School Level., Séan Ó Hargáin

Theses

This project looks at the changing environment in terms of the approach to the Visual Arts curriculum at Primary School level. It aims to provide an innovative solution to the art appreciation area, which is being given equal status with the art creation area, which traditionally has been the main focus of the curriculum.

The Project includes a review of the curricular climate, both at home and abroad. In this context it focusses particularly on the role of Information Technology in addressing access problems from those living remote from major population, and therefore major artistic centres.

Primary Research included involved …

An Approach To Networking In Irish Primary Schools, Donal A. O'Connor

Theses

In this Thesis, I hope to develop an approach to networking in the Irish Primary school which will provide practical as well as theoretical advice to Primary Teachers. In the pages that follow, I will detail a general outline of the principles of computer networking and detail models appropriate to the primary school.

At the outset, I wish to acknowledge that there are as many solutions to the primary school’s networking requirements as there are individual schools. This document is intended as a general set of guidelines for the average Primary school in this country. By this, I mean schools …

Using Computers In The Administration Of Primary Schools, Donncha Ó Fiannachta

Theses

This project investigates the use of computers in the administration of primary schools. A survey has been undertaken to determine current usage and future needs of schools such as training requirements.

It contains an overview of international thinking in this area and looks at aspects such as the legal issues involved in the keeping of electronic data on individuals in schools. Reference is made to the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act and the Education Act.

The author has determined the type of data that is most commonly needed by primary schools in Ireland. Some of this information must …