Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

What Do Students Gain From A Week At Science Camp? Youth Perceptions And The Design Of An Immersive Research-Oriented Astronomy Camp, Deborah A. Fields

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study explored American high school students’ perceptions of the benefits of a summer astronomy camp, emphasizing a full cycle of the research process and how the organization of the camp contributed to those perceptions. Semi-structured interviews with students and staff were used to elicit the specific benefits that campers perceived from their experiences and examine them in relation to the stated goals and strategies of camp staff. Among the perceived benefits that students described were peer relationships, personal autonomy, positive relationships with staff, and deepened science knowledge. These perceived benefits appear to influence the kinds of identities students constructed …

Problem-Based Educational Games: Connections, Prescriptions, And Assessment, Andrew Walker, Brett E. Shelton

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The overwhelming success of the commercial game market has brought increased attention to emerging work in educational game design. Much of the existing work in educational games a strong similarity to the field of Problem-Based Learning (PBL), which has a rich history of conceptual literature as well as empirical investigations. Despite apparent similarities between the two fields, there has been no formal effort to explore the connections between them. This conceptual paper examines the basic tenants of PBL with an eye toward making prescriptive recommendations for the design and use of problem-based educational games. Examples within existing educational games are …

E-Portfolios, Social Networking, And A Lms All In One, Dennis King

SIDLIT Conference Proceedings

The presenter discusses several Online tools which can be assembled for the containment of learning management, student electronic portfolios, and networking. Implementations discussed include Epsilen's Global Learning Project.

Free Web-Based Technology Solutions: Are They Really Free?, Corey Ray

SIDLIT Conference Proceedings

The presenters examine the conditions and models institutions may have when developing attitudes towards software, be it open source or otherwise.

Pilot Project: Technology Integration In Underserved Schools Using Thinkfinity, Spring 2008, Final Report, Sylvia Russakoff

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

The Pace Computer Learning Center has been involved in helping teachers learn to integrate technology using Internet resources since 1997, when, under a grant from the then Bell Atlantic Corporation, over 900 teachers were trained over a three year period.

Since that initial project, PCLC has continued this work with New York City and Westchester private and public schools. Most recently, funding has come from the Facilitator Center, an organization serving non-public schools in New York City and the Hudson Valley.

This pilot project was conceived as a way in which PCLC could use its experience and expertise to present …

Interim Report: Pilot Project – Technology Integration In Underserved Schools Using Thinkfinity, Sandra G. Flank

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

This pilot project was conceived as a way to enable teachers in schools with fewer technical resources than typical public schools, or with special needs for students and teachers, to explore and utilize the resources of Thinkfinity in lessons and activities.

The project will conclude at the end of May, 2008, and a final, complete report will be submitted at that time. This interim report will describe the assumptions of the project team, how the project was carried out, and highlights of the project to date.

The project team consists of the director of the Pace University Computer Learning Center, …

Unleashing The Usefulness Of Educational Resources Through Mining Of Educational Metadata, Anne R. Diekama, Jennifer A. Bailey, Blythe A. Bennett, Holly Devaul

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

While there is a strong movement to develop new educational resources to bring students to the competencies represented by educational content standards, it is recognized that there are vast repositories of educational resources already developed that are suitable to address those competencies. However, these resources need to be indexed by national and state standards to make them accessible for teachers who are increasingly required to teach to certain educational standards (Diekema and Chen, 2005). In the early 1980s, a perceived a crisis in the American education system encouraged the creation of national standards by professional subject-area organizations such as the …

Evaluation Of An Adult Education Technology Program, Iwasan D. Kejawa

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the adult education technology program at a chartered alternative adult education center in Florida. The adult education center had a low rate of students passing the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). This study examined the impact of the use of computer technology in an effort to improve student learning in mathematics, reading, and science. Computers at the institution were used by all students for tutorials to prepare them for the FCAT and to obtain a high school diploma. The research questions for this study were as follows: 1. Is the education technology …

The Design And Use Of Simulation Computer Games In Education, Brett E. Shelton, David A. Wiley

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This book, edited by Brett Shelton and David Wiley, is a view of models and simulations for education and research.

Table of Contents

1. In Praise of Epistemology - David Shaffer

2. Six Ideas in Search of a Discipline - Richard Van Eck

3. Building Bridges Between Serious Game Design and Instructional Design - Jamie Kirkley, Sonny Kirkley and Jerry Heneghan

4. Layered Design in an Instructional Simulation - Andrew S. Gibbons and Stefan Sommer

5. Designing Educational Games for Activity-Goal Alignment - Brett E. Shelton

6. "The Peripatos Could Not have Looked Like That," and Other Educational Outcomes From …

The Underutilization Of Internet And Communication Technology-Assisted Collaborative Project-Based Learning Among International Educators: A Delphi Study, Barry S. Kramer, Andrew Walker, Jennifer M. Brill

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study explores the barriers associated with teachers implementing Internet and Communication Technology-assisted Collaborative Project-based Learning (ICTCPrjBL) as a classroom teaching methodology with students. We used a Web-based Delphi method to engage experienced educators in anonymous consensus building consisting of three rounds of surveys. The Round 1 analysis yielded 51 barriers. The Round 2 analysis produced descriptive statistics (range, mean, and standard deviation) on the importance of each barrier. The Round 3 analysis confirmed 16 of the 51 (31.4%) barriers as “moderately significant” to “very significant” to implementing ICTCPrjBL. Important contributions of this study include: (a) identification of barriers to …

Learning Styles: A Focus Upon E-Learning Practices And Their Implications For Successful Instructional Design, Morris Cooze, Michael Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

With the proliferation of online learning into the K-12 learning environment, the focus of investigation needs to shift specific studies that pertain to this environment. One such area of investigation surrounds the development of specific online course content and the individualized learning styles of the students in these online learning environments. This review focuses upon the vast body of literature for the post-secondary online learner and argues the case for additional research in K-12 education. While recent studies have started the process of changing this focus, as online learning becomes more prevalent and accepted as a means of learning at …

Principles Of Effective Web-Based Content For Secondary School Students: Teacher And Developer Perceptions, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

In this article, I describe findings from a study of the perceptions of course developers and electronic teachers on the principles of effective asynchronous web-based content design for secondary school students. Through interviews, participants' perceptions of various web-based components and instructional strategies, and the effectiveness of both based upon the experiences of the participants were investigated in a virtual high school context for the purpose of generating a list of guidelines that future course developers might utilize.

Pedagogical Agents As Social Models To Influence Learner Attitudes, Yanghee Kim, A. Baylor

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Based on social-cognitive theory, we describe the role of pedagogical agents as “social models.” In several experimental studies we have found that pedagogical agents as social models can effectively persuade and motivate learners. We briefly describe two on-going projects where agents as social models are employed to enhance young women’s motivation and attitudes toward math and engineering.

Text Categorization For Aligning Educational Standards, O. Yilmazel, N. Balasubramanian, S. C. Harwell, J. Bailey, Anne R. Diekama, E. D. Liddy

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Standard alignment (where standards describing similar concepts are correlated) is a necessary task in providing full access to educational resources. Manual alignment is time consuming and expensive. We propose an automatic alignment system, using machine learning techniques utilizing natural language processing. In this paper we discuss our experiments on text categorization for automatic alignment. We explore the role of relevant vocabulary sets in automatic alignment.

Desirable Characteristics Of Learning Companions, Yanghee Kim

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study investigated the desirable characteristics of anthropomorphized learning-companion agents for college students. First, interviews with six undergraduates explored their concepts of desirable learning companions. The interviews yielded agent competency, agent personality, and interaction control. Next, a controlled experiment examined whether learner competency (strong vs. weak) would relate directly to agent competency (high vs. low) and to interaction control (agent-control vs. learner-control). The dependent measures included learners' perceptions of agent functionality, their self-efficacy beliefs in the task, and their learning. The results indicated that academically strong students perceived the high-competent agent higher than the lowcompetent agent and showed higher self-efficacy …

Designing Educational Games For Activity-Goal Alignment, Brett E. Shelton

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

What indeed, can we expect from our newest trend in education, implementing moving pictures and conversations with instruction through simulation games? Lewis Carroll's familiar narratives Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass provide helpful imagery for many of the queries, explorations and assumptions we currently make about this latest Wonderland of academia. So what are the goals for the designers and researchers of educational games, or perhaps more importantly, what should be the goals?

From The Co-Editors

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

How Teacher Attitudes And Administrator Behaviors Affect Levels Of Technology Integration In The Classroom, Sheri Leigh Bradshaw

Dissertations

Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to evaluate how well teachers’ attitudes predict levels of technology integration into the classroom. This study also investigated whether perceived support from the administrator as the instructional leader was related to teachers’ levels of technology integration into the classroom. The population for this study included identified school districts in rural North Georgia. Utilizing the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the 2002-2003 school year, the researcher identified 5 peer districts: Franklin County, Gilmer County, Stephens County, Union County, and White County. All middle and high school teachers within a district were invited to …

The Competencies And Characteristics Required Of An Effective Project Manager: A Web-Based Delphi Study, Jennifer M. Brill, M. J. Bishop, Andrew Walker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This study explores the competencies required for a project manager to be effective in the workplace. We used a Web-based Delphi method to lead experienced project managers through an anonymous consensus-building process consisting of two rounds of surveys. The Round I analysis of 147 respondents, all with 20 or more years of project management experience, yielded 117 project management success factors, 78 of which were identified as “trainable” competencies. The Round II analysis confirmed 42 of the 78 competencies (53.8%) as “very important” to “extremely important” to project manager success. Important contributions of this study include: (a) reporting on project …

Digital Equity In Education: A Multilevel Examination Of Differences In And Relationships Between Computer Access, Computer Use And State-Level Technology Policies, Jonathan D. Becker

Educational Leadership Publications

Using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) state assessment and a survey of state-level technology policies, this study examined digital equity in education as a multilevel organizational phenomenon with data from 70,382 students in 3,479 schools and 40 states. Students in rural schools or schools with higher percentages of African American students were likely to have less access to computers. With respect to computer use, girls and students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch were more likely to use computers more frequently when computers are available in the classroom. With respect to relationships between computer access and …

Harnessing Innovative Technologies In Higher Education: Access, Equity, Policy & Instruction, Kathleen P. King, Joan K. Griggs

Department of Leadership, Policy, and Lifelong Learning

This publication is an attempt to capture the evolution of distributed higher education over the last decade by tracing the applications of new technologies funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). As FIPSE surveyed the current state of distance/distributed education, there existed an opportunity to help post econdary education make the transition to this new generation of distance education made possible by the explosive growth of the Internet and other new technologies. These technologies created the potential for students to access learning that was interactive, customized, and self-paced; to more easily merge lifelong learning with the …

A Design-Based Research Strategy To Promote Scalability For Educational Innovations, Jody Clarke-Midura, C. Dede, D. J. Ketelhut, B. Nelson, C. Bowman

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This article offers insights into how the design of innovations can enhance their “scalability”: the ability to adapt an innovation to effective usage in a wide variety of contexts, including settings where major conditions for success are absent or attenuated. We are implementing the River City MUVE curriculum, a technology-based innovation designed to enhance engagement and learning in middle school science, in a range of educational contexts. Based on our studies of these scaling up activities, we offer examples of design strategies for scalability and describe our plan to develop a “scalability index.”

Perceptions Of The Value Of Problem-Based Learning Among Students With Special Needs And Their Teachers, Brian Robert Belland, P. A. Ertmer, K. D. Simons

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

While problem-based learning (PBL) has been found to be effective with gifted and average students (Hmelo-Silver, 2004), little is known about its impact on students with special needs. This study examines the perceptions of middle-school students with mild, moderate, and severe disabilities and of their teachers regarding the value of participating in a PBL unit. The unit focused on the physical accessibility of a low-SES, rural community where the students’ school was located.We used the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to analyze interview data, and used observation data and artifacts to triangulate interview comments. Among the noteworthy findings …

The Evaluation Of The Use Of Technology/Electronic Media In Teaching Or Delivering Instructions/Lectures At A Florida University: History, Philosophy And Practices, Iwasan D. Kejawa

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

According to the previous survey conducted by Florida Atlantic University Student Academic Affairs department in 2001, it was indicated that faculty uses of teaching and learning technologies/electronic instruction media to teach and deliver their lectures at the college were lacking.

With the current research study, investigations were thoroughly made and suggestions are provided on the improvement of faculty performance in the use of technologies at the institution to teach and convey knowledge to their students. In this report, the institutional personnel and its administration are made aware whether all existing technologies are being optimally used by faculty. This study also …

Learning Styles: A Focus Upon E-Learning Practices And Pedagogy And Their Implications For Designing E-Learning For Secondary School Students In Newfoundland And Labrador, Morris Cooze, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

With the increase of online learning in the K-12 environment, research must turn to specific studies focused upon this level. One area of investigation surrounds the development of online course content and individualised student learning styles. This review found that although there is a vast body of research concerning online learning in the post-secondary environment, this is not true for K-12 education. Recent studies have begun the discussion for secondary school students as online learning becomes more prevalent and accepted as a means of learning. The lessons that these studies bring forward may be of particular interest to instructional designers …

Perceptions Of Effective Web-Based Design For Secondary School Students: A Narrative Analysis Of Previously Collected Data, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

In this article, I present the findings of a study on the perception of course developers and electronic teachers on the characteristics of effective web-based design for secondary school students. Through interviews, the perceptions of these participants on the use of various web-based components, how to incorporate sound instructional strategies into the web-based material, and the effectiveness of both the asynchronous web-based content and the synchronous delivery of that content are investigated in a virtual high school context.

Design-Based Research Strategies For Developing A Scientific Inquiry Curriculum In A Multi-User Virtual Environment, B. Nelson, D. J. Ketelhut, Jody Clarke-Midura, C. Bowman, C. Dede

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This National Science Foundation funded project is studying graphical multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) to investigate whether using this interactive medium in classroom settings can simulate real-world experimentation and can provide students with engaging, meaningful learning experiences that enhance scientific literacy. In the project's River City curriculum, teams of middle school students are asked to collaboratively solve a digital 19th century city's problems with illness, through interaction with digital artifacts, tacit clues, and computer-based 'agents' acting as mentors and colleagues in a virtual community of practice. This article describes the design-based research strategy by which we are currently extending an educational …

Simulating Instructional Roles Through Pedagogical Agents, Amy L. Baylor, Yanghee Kim

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper describes the design and empirical validation of three distinct pedagogical agent roles (Expert, Motivator, and Mentor) for college students within the MIMIC (Multiple Intelligent Mentors Instructing Collaboratively) agent-based research environment. The pedagogical agent roles were operationalized by image, animation, affect, voice and script, and were developed in Poser 4 and implemented via Microsoft Agent. Two controlled experiments validated the instantiation of the three roles according to learner perception (N=78) and actual impact on motivation and learning (N=71). The results confirmed that the agent roles were not only perceived by the students to reflect their intended purposes but also …

Collaborative Information Filtering: A Review And An Educational Application, Andrew Walker, Mimi Recker, Kimberly Lawless, David A. Wiley

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper reviews the literature surrounding an information filtering technique, collaborative information filtering, which supports the discovery of resources in a way that is sensitive to the context of users. Moreover, via statistical clustering techniques, the system supports automated, personalized filtering and recommendation of relevant resources and like-minded users for particular user communities. The paper also describes an educational implementation of this approach, called Altered Vista, and presents results from a 3-month trial use of the system, aimed at evaluating the educational effectiveness and usefulness of the approach.

All For One And One For All: Designing Web-Based Courses For Students Based Upon Individual Learning Styles, Michael K. Barbour, Morris Cooze

Education Faculty Publications

As e-learning begins to proliferate into secondary schools and is opened up to learners of all abilities, it is important that the effects different learning styles have upon how online instruction is provided are taken into consideration. In this study, students from a secondary-level business education class completed a learning styles inventory to determine their strengths in the traditional learning styles and in Gardner’s intelligences. A variety of web-based instructional methods were utilized throughout the school year and the students’ overall performance in the course was monitored.