Instructional Media Design Commons^™

Introduction: Jewish Gamevironments – Exploring Understanding With Playful Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

The study of Judaism, Jewish civilizationi, and games is currently comprised of projects of a rather small set of game scholars. A sample of our work is included in this issue.

Finding Lost & Found: Designer’S Notes From The Process Of Creating A Jewish Game For Learning, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides context for and examines aspects of the design process of a game for learning. Lost & Found (2017a, 2017b) is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed to teach medieval religious legal systems, beginning with Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (1180), a cornerstone work of Jewish legal rabbinic literature. Through design narratives, the article demonstrates the complex design decisions faced by the team as they balance the needs of player engagement with learning goals. In the process the designers confront challenges in developing winstates and in working with complex resource management. The article provides insight into the pathways the team …

Testing The Effectiveness Of Two Natural Selection Simulations In The Context Of A Large‑Enrollment Undergraduate Laboratory Class, Denise S. Pope, Caleb M. Rounds, Jody Clarke-Midura

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Simulations can be an active and engaging way for students to learn about natural selection, and many have been developed, including both physical and virtual simulations. In this study we assessed the student experience of, and learning from, two natural selection simulations, one physical and one virtual, in a large enrollment introductory biology lab course. We assigned students to treatments (the physical or virtual simulation activity) by section and assessed their understanding of natural selection using a multiple-choice pre-/post-test and short-answer responses on a post-lab assignment. We assessed student experience of the activities through structured observations and an affective …

A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis To Synthesize The Influence Of Contexts Of Scaffolding Use On Cognitive Outcomes In Stem Education, Brian Robert Belland, Andrew Walker, Nam Ju Kim

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Computer-based scaffolding provides temporary support that enables students to participate in and become more proficient at complex skills like problem solving, argumentation, and evaluation. While meta-analyses have addressed between-subject differences on cognitive outcomes resulting from scaffolding, none has addressed within-subject gains. This leaves much quantitative scaffolding literature not covered by existing meta-analyses. To address this gap, this study used Bayesian network meta-analysis to synthesize within-subjects (pre–post) differences resulting from scaffolding in 56 studies. We generated the posterior distribution using 20,000 Markov Chain Monte Carlo samples. Scaffolding has a consistently strong effect across student populations, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) …

Critical Digital Literacies Across Scales And Beneath The Screen, Noah Asher Golden

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Digital technologies and education scholarship tend to focus on either individual creative design or analysis of the political economy. To better understand how ideologies travel across networks, critical digital literacies must focus on enactments beneath the screen, as the linguistic constructs known as software can enact interests across scales of activity to “disembed” local actions and meaning. Investigations of these mobilities and disembedding effects challenge popular notions of digital technologies as neutral, rendering overt the ways that algorithms can naturalize manifestations of power and social arrangements. Such a framework allows for descriptive analyses of the ways hegemonic discourses are enacted …

Using Tablet Technologies To Engage And Motivate Urban High School Students, Nicol R. Howard, Keith Howard

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this two-year study, researchers examined the impact of using tablet technologies across content areas in an urban high school setting. Class observations provided notable examples of how student motivation and learning appeared to be enhanced by use of the iPads in conjunction with opportunities to collaborate and be creative in the context of their learning. Interviews from a set of teachers with a range of classroom teaching experience provided multiple perspectives of the program’s impact. The opportunity for teachers and students to have the flexibility to select the apps they believe achieve curricular and/or learning goals supports the shift …

Nebraska Acrl Scholarly Communication Roadshow Sharing Session, Catherine Fraser Riehle, Linnea Fredrickson, Margaret Mering

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Conference Presentations and Speeches

The session includes a report about the 2017 Nebraska ACRL [Association of College and Research Libraries] Scholarly Communication Roadshow that was held July 12, 2017, on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) campus. The presenters share key takeaways from each of three main program segments, which focused on (1) open education, (2) copyright, and (3) research metrics and author identifiers (e.g., ORCID). The session includes updates about (1) open education–related initiatives at UNL, including the UNL Libraries’ efforts to partner with other units on campus to increase awareness and integration of OERs in curricula; (2) selected copyright issues and continuing education …

Social Presence, Identity, And Online Learning Research: Research Development And Needs, Patrick R. Lowenthal, Vanessa P. Dennen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scholars across many disciplines have grappled with questions of what it means for a person to be and interact online. Who are we when we go online? How do others know we are there and how do they perceive us? Within the context of online learning, scholarly questions tend to reflect more specific concerns focused on how well people can learn in a setting limited to mediated interactions lacking various communication cues. For example, how can a teacher and students come to know each other if they cannot see each other? How can they effectively understand and communicate with each …

A Comparison Of Discovered Regularities In Blood Glucose Readings Across Two Data Collection Approaches Used With A Type 1 Diabetic Youth, Victor R. Lee, Travis Thurston, Chris Thurston

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Type 1 diabetes requires frequent testing and monitoring of blood glucose levels in order to determine appropriate type and dosage of insulin administration. This can lead to thousands of individual measurements over the course of a lifetime of a single individual, of which very few are retained as part of a permanent record. The third author, aged 9, and his family have maintained several years of written records since his diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes at age 20 months, and have also recently begun to obtain automated records from a continuous glucose monitor.

Objectives: This paper compares regularities identified …

New Design Principles For Mobile History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Presentations and other scholarship

This study draws on design-based research on an ARIS–based mobile augmented reality game for teaching early 20th century history. New design principles derived from the study include the use of supra-reveals, and bias mirroring. Supra-reveals are a kind of foreshadowing event in order to ground historical happenings in the wider enduring historical understanding. Bias mirroring refers to a nonplayer character echoing back a player’s biased behavior, in order to open the player to listening to alternative perspectives. Supra-reveals engendered discussion of historical themes early in the game experience. The results showed that use of a cluster of NPC bias mirroring …

Design And Assessment Of Deep And Active Learning In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Mathematics (Stem) Education, Juhong Christie Liu Ph.D., Elizabeth Johnson Ph.D., Jin Joy Mao Ph.D.

Libraries

This presentation draws academic significance from a focused literature review and initial data for learning design in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. The presenters will discuss strategies of fostering deep, active learning, alignment with assessment, and development of assessment instruments and methods. The presenters will share the design and development of an assessment kit to measure learning outcomes that matter in the 21st century STEM education. Through shared evidence and interactive reflection, the audience will take away up-to-date design strategies for deep and active learning as well as assessment in STEM education. The project is sponsored by National …

Stitching Codeable Circuits: High School Students' Learning About Circuitry And Coding With Electronic Textiles, Breanne Krystine Litts, Yasmin B. Kafai, Debora A. Lui, Justice T. Walker, Sari A. Widman

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Learning about circuitry by connecting a battery, light bulb, and wires is a common activity in many science classrooms. In this paper, we expand students’ learning about circuitry with electronic textiles, which use conductive thread instead of wires and sewable LEDs instead of lightbulbs, by integrating programming sensor inputs and light outputs and examining how the two domains interact.We implemented an electronic textiles unit with 23 high school students ages 16–17 years who learned how to craft and code circuits with the LilyPad Arduino, an electronic textile construction kit. Our analyses not only confirm significant increases in students’ understanding of …

Time Travel, Labour History, And The Null Curriculum: New Design Knowledge For Mobile Augmented Reality History Games, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This paper presents a case study drawn from design-based research (DBR) on a mobile, place-based augmented reality history game. Using DBR methods, the game was developed by the author as a history learning intervention for fifth to seventh graders. The game is built upon historical narratives of disenfranchised populations that are seldom taught, those typically relegated to the 'null curriculum'. These narratives include the stories of women immigrant labour leaders in the early twentieth century, more than a decade before suffrage. The project understands the purpose of history education as the preparation of informed citizens. In paying particular attention to …

Time-To-Credit Gender Inequities Of First-Year Phd Students In The Biological Sciences, David F. Feldon, James Peugh, Michelle A. Maher, Josipa Roksa, Colby Tofel-Grehl

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Equitable gender representation is an important aspect of scientific workforce development to secure a sufficient number of individuals and a diversity of perspectives. Biology is the most gender equitable of all scientific fields by the marker of degree attainment, with 52.5% of PhDs awarded to women. However, equitable rates of degree completion do not translate into equitable attainment of faculty or postdoctoral positions, suggesting continued existence of gender inequalities. In a national cohort of 336 first-year PhD students in the biological sciences (i.e., microbiology, cellular biology, molecular biology, develop-mental biology, and genetics) from 53 research institutions, female participants logged significantly …

An Assessment Instrument Of Technological Literacies In Makerspaces And Fablabs, Paulo Blikstein, Zaza Kabayadondo, Andrew Martin, Deborah A. Fields

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

As the maker movement is increasingly adopted into K‐12 schools, students are developing new competences in exploration and fabrication technologies. This study assesses learning with these technologies in K‐12 makerspaces and FabLabs.

Purpose

Our study describes the iterative process of developing an assessment instrument for this new technological literacy, the Exploration and Fabrication Technologies Instrument, and presents findings from implementations at five schools in three countries. Our index is generalizable and psychometrically sound, and permits comparison between student confidence and performance.

Design/Method

Our evaluation of distinct technology skills separates general computing, information and communication technology (ICT), and exploration and …

A Study Of Video-Mediated Opportunities For Self-Directed Learning In Required Core Curriculum, Debra T. Bourdeau, Donna Roberts, Beverly Wood, Johnelle Korioth

Publications

Improving a required course in our curriculum that has proven to be a challenge for our students was the focus of this study. Surveys of both students and instructors attempted to identify specific problem areas. Using the information from these surveys, the researchers developed a series of videos to explain vital course concepts and deployed these into the course sections. The purpose of the videos is to provide consistency across the multiple modalities in which we offer our courses (including online, classroom and via videoconferencing) and to improve overall student understanding. This project seeks to determine how supplemental content focusing …

Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber, Kelly Murdoch-Kitt

Presentations and other scholarship

Lost & Found is a strategy card-to-mobile game series that teaches medieval religious legal systems with attention to period accuracy and cultural and historical context.

The Lost & Found games project seeks to expand the discourse around religious legal systems, to enrich public conversations in a variety of communities, and to promote greater understanding of the religious traditions that build the fabric of the United States. Comparative religious literacy can build bridges between and within communities and prepare learners to be responsible citizens in our pluralist democracy.

The first game in the series is a strategy game called Lost & …

From Wearing To Wondering: Treating Wearable Activity Trackers As Objects Of Inquiry, Joel R. Drake, Ryan Cain, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Wearable technologies represent a rapidly expanding category of consumer information and communications technologies. From smartwatches to activity tracking devices, wearables are finding their way into many aspects of our lives, changing the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. The rapid adoption of these tools in everyday life hints at the possibilities these devices may hold in school and other educational settings. Drawing on examples taken from a five-year study using wearable fitness tracking devices in elementary and middle school classrooms, this paper presents two examples of how wearable devices can be appropriated for use in school …

Design-Based Research Mobile Gaming For Learning Jewish History, Tikkun Olam, And Civics, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

How can Design-Based Research (DBR) be used in the study of video games, religious literacy, and learning? DBR uses a variety of pragmatically selected mixed methods approaches to design learning interventions. Researchers, working with educators and learners, design and co-design learning artifacts and environments. They analyze those artifacts and environments as they are used by educators and learners, and then iterate based on mixed methods data analysis. DBR is suited for any "rich contextualized setting in which people have agency." (Hoadley 2013) such as formal or informal learning environments.

The case covered in this chapter is a mobile Augmented Reality …

Examining Collaborative Knowledge Construction In Microblogging-Based Learning Environments, Tian Luo, Lacey Clifton

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the study is to provide foundational research to exemplify how knowledge construction takes place in microblogging-based learning environments, to understand learner interaction representing the knowledge construction process, and to analyze learner perception, thereby suggesting a model of delivery for microblogging.

Background: Up-and-coming digital native learners crave the real-time, multimedia, global-interconnectedness of microblogging, yet there has been limited research that specifically proposes a working model of Twitter's classroom integration for designers and practitioners without bundling it in with other social media tools.

Methodology: This semester-long study utilized a case-study research design via a multi-dimensional approach in a …