Instructional Media Design Commons^™

An Exploration Into How Physical Activity Data-Recording Devices Could Be Used In Computer-Supported Data Investigations, Victor R. Lee, Maneksha Dumont

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

There is a great potential opportunity to use portable physical activity monitoring devices as data collection tools for educational purposes. Using one such device, we designed and implemented a weeklong workshop with high school students to test the utility of such technology. During that intervention, students performed data investigations of physical activity that culminated in the design and implementation of their own studies. In this paper, we explore some of the mathematical thinking that took place through a series of vignettes of a pair of students engaged in analyzing some of their own activity data. A personal connection to the …

Teaching Note - Then And Now: Canadian And American Students Discover Each Other, Andrew C. Holman

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Pedagogical Agents On Listening Anxiety And Listening Comprehension In An English As A Foreign Language Context, Young-Ah Ko

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study aimed to explore the impact of pedagogical agents in computer-based listening instruction on EFL students' listening anxiety levels and listening comprehension skills. A total of 66 Korean college students received computer-based listening instruction. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: American agent condition, Korean agent condition, or no-agent condition. Additional data sources were included in the experimental design in order to investigate students' learning experience more thoroughly.

Results indicated that there were no statistical differences in listening anxiety levels and listening comprehension skills between students who worked with the agent and students who worked without the …

The Usu Tree Inventory Website: A Case Study Of An Interactive Online Woody Plant Education Resource, Benjamin W. Harris

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The USU tree inventory website is an interactive, online tree education resource that I developed to allow students and community members to locate, identify and learn about trees on the USU campus. Students in two USU courses that teach woody plant material used the website during one semester and were surveyed about their experience. Less than half of the students accessed the website, but those that did found it useful as a supplement to traditional instruction. Most students were likely to recommend the website to another person and to use the website in the future.

Why Would They Try? Motivation And Motivating In Low-Stakes Information Skills Testing, Jeanne M. Brown, Carrie A. Gaxiola

Library Faculty Research

In 2008 the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) University Libraries piloted the Educational Testing Service’s standardised test of information, communication, and technology (ICT) skills (iSkills) in spring and autumn 2008. In the course of administering the test we explored motivational strategies, a critical component in low-stakes, low-personal-consequences testing. Motivational strategies included providing feedback on test performance, highlighting the value of the test for the individual student, and appealing to the student’s willingness to improve the overall performance of the institution. We addressed ways to motivate students in order to enhance their level of participation in and performance …

Web Page Design - Student-Community Collaborations, George Kontos

University College Business Division Faculty Publications

A collaborative project is described. Students in a web design class were asked to contact local businesses and help them create their web site (collection of related and interconnected web pages). Two phases of the project are described, planning and implementation. Planning defines the purpose and the target audience and also includes a sketch of the website's organization. The project is suitable for both traditional and online classes. Ideally, session participants should have some experience or interest in teaching web design but anyone who wants to know how to help students work collaboratively with the community is welcome to attend.

The Best Test Of Ph.D. Studentsuccess: Response, David F. Feldon, Briana Crotwell Timmerman, Michelle Maher

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Newquist suggests that students' publications are important predictors of post-degree research effectiveness, due in part to the importance of collaboration in innovative research. We agree that publication record is important and helpful, but the collaborative aspects of writing render publications a noisy metric by which to assess individual growth on specific skills (1). The variable time lags between the execution of an experiment, analysis of its data, and publication of findings [e.g., (2)] further limit the ability to identify direct relationships between experiences in a doctoral program and scholarly growth. Doctoral education's overarching goal is to develop competent researchers capable …

New Trends In Automatic Assessment: Ontology Matching, Maria Mitina, Patricia Magee, John Cardiff

Conference Papers

Instant individual feedback represents a result of assessment which allows for considerable improvements in both teaching and learning. In this paper we present the application of ontology matching techniques in automatic correction of students’ answers for SQL tests, which will provide teachers with instant feedback to facilitate manual correction and marking and which they can pass to the students. Students experience many problems learning SQL due to the necessity to memorise database schemas, unclear feedback from the database engine on the execution of the query, etc. The program environment utilising the described approach is designed to solve the abovementioned problems …

How Different Variants Of Orbit Diagrams Influence Students' Explanations Of The Seasons, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The cause of the seasons is often associated with a very particular alternative conception: that the Earth’s orbit around the sun is highly elongated and the differences in distance result in variations in temperature. It has been suggested that the standard diagrams used to depict the Earth’s orbit may be in some way responsible for the initial appearance and overall maintenance of this incorrect conceptualization; the elongated shape of the orbit is thought of as a conceptualization cue that invites a fairly predictable way of reasoning. To test if that is indeed the case, six variants of diagrams depicting differently …

Integrating Information Literacy Instruction In An Upper-Division Writing-Intensive Class, Ellen K. Wilson, Jeffrey M. Blankenship

The Southeastern Librarian

Writing-intensive courses are a required component of undergraduate education at the University of South Alabama, but often the courses are designed to test students’ writing skills, rather than to teach the research and writing process. In the fall of 2008, an instruction librarian and an assistant professor in political science collaborated to redesign one writing intensive course, Public Administration (PSC 401), in an attempt to address this dilemma. This project was born out of frustration – frustration on the part of the professor about the generally poor quality of writing and research skills by students in the course the previous …

The Use Of Audience Response Systems In Nursing Education: Best Practice Guidelines, Nicole Mareno, Marie Bremner, Christie Emerson

Faculty Articles

The use of Audience Response Systems (ARS) or 'clickers' as an active learning strategy in nursing education has been steadily on the rise. ARS technology allows the dynamic engagement of students in the classroom by providing immediate two-way communication between faculty and students. ARS can be used to explore knowledge and common misconceptions, act as a springboard for classroom discussions, and can be used for testing or evaluation. The aim of this paper is to present best practice guidelines for both novice and experienced ARS technology users. A summary of the state of the research in this area will be …

Faculty Success: Developing A Research And Publication Agenda, Kathleen P. King

Department of Leadership, Policy, and Lifelong Learning

Anyone associated with higher education will acknowledge that tenure track faculty have to perform a fantastic balancing act. Compared to an administrative or line role in an organization, higher education faculty have tremendous autonomy and freedom. However, they face competing demands of many different (and good) opportunities, and for them the stakes are always high. Help is here! This article introduces a powerful strategy for staying on track in the research strand of this competitive journey.

The Academic Library’S Role In Fostering Digital Citizenship, Brad Matthies

Presentations

This presentation discusses Butler University Library’s efforts to introduce various campus constituents to Digital Citizenship. The primary platform featured in this presentation is the Butler University Library Digital Commons, a product by Berkeley Electronic Press. Discussed is how the presenter used this product to get digital immigrants excited about a Web 2.0 technology. Also discussed is marketing strategies for promoting similar Web 2.0 technologies to digital immigrants in higher education, and how such endeavors can also serve to transform the academic librarian’s role in the 21st Century.

Note: This presentation contains accompanying video interviews.

Why Magic Bullets Don't Work, David F. Feldon

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

We always tell our students that there are no shortcuts, that important ideas are nuanced, and that recognizing subtle distinctions is an essential critical-thinking skill. Mastery of a discipline, we know, requires careful study and necessarily slow, evolutionary changes in perspective. Then we look around for the latest promising trend in teaching and jump in with both feet, expecting it to transform our students, our courses, and our outcomes. Alternatively, we sniff disdainfully at the current educational fad and proudly stand by the instructional traditions of our disciplines or institutions, secure in our knowledge that the “tried and true” has …

Web 2.0 Instructional Technology In The Classroom, Darren Hayes

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

No abstract provided.

Technology In The Classroom An Educator’S Guide To Technology & Learning, Joseph Lawrence Bishop

All Graduate Projects

The need for an educational technology manual was researched. Based on research a resource handbook for understanding and using technology in the classroom was in demand. In order to meet the demand for a technology training guide for teachers, a detailed handbook was created. The handbook includes information on the following aspects of educational technology; desktop computers, laptop computers, miniature computing, visual technologies, educational software, accessibility software, the Internet, video technology, and WebQuests. The handbook is intended to be used as a technology resource for teachers K-12 in any State/Country.

Thinkfinity Grant Mid- Project Status Report: Differentiations, Roberta Wiener

Cornerstone 1 Reports : Expansion and Enhancements of the Thinkfinity Platform

No abstract provided.

Media Production For The Classroom, Maria T. Luskay

Cornerstone 3 Reports : Interdisciplinary Informatics

The course utilizes various forms of technology as applied to the creation of digital media. Our goal for the students is to provide them with the enhanced technological skills that will enable them to perform at higher levels of creativity and ingenuity,; make use of on-line and digital materials to perform their work; and gain a deeper understanding of how technology can be applied to create innovative teaching environments for their students.

Peer Production Of Online Learning Resources: A Social Network Analysis, Beijie Xu, Mimi Recker

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This work describes methods for collecting user activity data in a peer production educational system, the Instructional Architect (IA), and then takes a social network perspective in analyzing these data. In particular, rather than focusing on content produced, it focuses on the relationship between users (teachers), and how they can be analyzed to identify important users and like-minded user groups. Our analyses and results provide an example for how to select the most important factors in analyzing the dynamics of an online peer production community using social network analysis metrics, such as in-degree, out-degree, betweenness, clique, and community.

A Predictive Study Of Wiki Interaction: Can Attitude Toward Wiki Predict Wiki Interaction In High-Context Cultures Groups?, Hung-Ling Twu

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Wiki technology is more than a technical mechanism to support language learning. It should be seen as an attitude toward social learning technology with consideration for social and cultural factors of the learners. It is not appropriate to assume all students would perceive the social functions of Wikis in the same way and be equally eager to engage in the technology. Learners from different cultural groups may perceive and interact differently in Wiki-based learning environments because the influence of their cultural perceptions regulates their interaction. This study purposes to examine the predictive relationship between attitude toward Wiki and Wiki interaction …

Social Media Tools As A Learning Resource, Youmei Liu

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Social media tools have become ubiquitous. You can see our students use them all the time. Among them most popular tools are Facebook, Wiki, YouTube, bulletin board, LinkedIn, blogging, and twittering. The advancement of modern technologies tries its best to accommodate the needs from people, especially the younger generation. As educators, how can we take advantage of this momentum? This paper will share a research study that was conducted in fall of 2009 at the central campus of the University of Houston. The study investigated student’s use of different social media tools, their perceptions and attitudes towards these tools, and …

Collaborative Learning Problems And Identity Salience: A Mixed Methods Study, Feihong Wang, John K. Burton

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Peer collaborative learning that emphasizes collaboration among peers has attracted a great deal of interest since the last two decades of the 20^th century (Dornyei, 1997; Martin, 2007). Other than proved academic advantages, many collaborative groups were ineffective and failed to generate any collaborative actions (Hardy, Lawrence, & Grant, 2005; Johnson & Johnson, 1996). Identities are motivators of human actions (Stryker, 1968), which impact students’ behavior tendencies to be contributing or preventing to the occurrence of the collaborative learning problems. The purpose of this study was to explore students’ behavioral tendencies in dealing with collaborative learning problems in relation …

Designing Online Collaborative Location-Aware Platform For History Learning, Xiaojun Chen, Jea H. Choi

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

The emergence of geographic visualization and location aware technologies provides educators and teachers with an opportunity to design more effective instructional materials. Visible Past is an innovative learning and discovery project that integrates mapping services with a content management system and 3D virtual reality capabilities. In addition, the system allows for the connection of physical locations or objects such as books and digital artifacts and documents through 2D codes. Similar to barcodes, they can be read by any camera enabled cell phone triggering information retrieval from the web. This adds an element of portability and of meshing up print based …

Technology Integration In Secondary Physical Education: Teachers’ Attitudes And Practice, Anne Gibbone, Paul Rukavina, Stephen Silverman

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Technology has influenced teaching, yet we know little about physical educators’ predispositions and use. This study investigated secondary physical education teachers’ attitudes and practices regarding technology integration and relationships between attitude and practice. The data collection instrument measured teachers’ attitudes and technology use. Results suggest that teachers had positive attitudes, yet a limited use of technology. Teachers reported a number of barriers influencing technology use including budget, class size, and training. All attitude factors correlated with technology use. Physical educators may be willing to apply technology for teaching if given opportunities to prepare, practice and utilize appropriate resources.

Asynchronous Network Discussions As Organizational Scaffold Learning: Threaded Vs. Flat-Structured Discussion Boards, Chih-Hsiung Tu, Michael Blocher, Lawrence Gallagher

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

Threaded and flat-structured discussions to support online learning present online educators with new and challenging dilemmas. Both formats apply different interfaces, structures and require different organization techniques for presenting postings which may affect the ways students participate. Both formats may impact online learning differently in terms of the organizational scaffold of learning. The purpose of this study was to examine experiences of online students and compare the impact that threaded and flat-structure discussion boards exerted on learning. This study concluded that both formats critically enhanced and inhibited students’ online discussions. Both formats may empower discussion participants differently and with strategic …

P2p: Assessing A Peer Evaluation Strategy, Ching-Wen Chang, Cathy J. Pearman, Nicholas W. Farha

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of peer evaluation in a performance-based, Web-enhanced undergraduate instructional technology course. The results of a survey administered at the end of three semesters indicated that learners believe the peer evaluation process helped them improve the quality of their own work, both as a result of being a peer evaluator themselves and from the quality of the feedback received from their classmate-evaluators. Higher quality final projects with fewer mistakes corroborated the students’ assessment. These findings provide valuable information for instructors who are currently utilizing or considering the implementation of a peer …

Qr Codes In Education, Ching-Yin Law, Simon So

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

QR codes, developed by a Japanese company, have been around for over fifteen years. With the advent of smart and Web capable mobile devices, we witness a steady growth of interesting commercial applications using QR codes. As the movement of using QR codes in education is still in its infancy, this paper serves to be one of the first comprehensive papers in journal publication to fully delineate (a) the user characteristics of QR codes, (b) the processes of making and reading QR codes, (c) the survey of commercial applications using QR codes, (d) the literature review of educational applications using …

Extending Community: Stories, Culture & Technology In The Classroom, Ginna Allison

Sandanona

How can cultural experience help to develop language skills? How can we reach beyond the classroom to create a sense of community? This session explores the spheres of personal narrative and technology and how they intersect with ESL to open rich opportunities for teaching and learning.

Interaction, Internet Self-Efficacy, And Self-Regulated Learning As Predictors Of Student Satisfaction In Distance Education Courses, Yu-Chun Kuo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Online learning research is largely devoted to comparisons of the learning gains between face-to-face and distance students. While student learning is important, comparatively little is known about student satisfaction when engaged in online learning and what contributes to or promotes student satisfaction. Emerging research suggests there are a few strong predictors of student satisfaction, and other predictors that may or may not predict student satisfaction. None of the existing research examines predictors together, or statistically controls for course differences. This study examines the influence of various factors on student satisfaction including three types of interaction, Internet self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning. …

Connection, Technology, Positionality: An Inside Look At Women Faculty's Positionality Toward "Connection" And "Technology", Wei Zhai

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Women faculty members have been reported rating their level of knowledge and experience in using technologies lower than male faculty members. A closer examination revealed that women faculty members were likely to use technologies that fit into their pedagogy, met students' learning styles and needs, and facilitated their interactions with colleagues and students. So women faculty's choices of particular technologies can be assumed to reflect their particular instructional beliefs and perspectives, represented as a connected approach to learning and teaching. Gender alone is inadequate to explain women faculty's use of technology.

The purpose of this study was to explore women …