Learning curve models and applications: Literature review and research directions

Learning curves (LCs) are deemed effective tools for monitoring the performance of workers exposed to a new task. LCs provide a mathematical representation of the learning process that takes place as task repetition occurs. These curves were originally proposed by Wright in 1936 upon observing cost reduction due to repetitive procedures in production plants. Since then, LCs have been used to estimate the time required to complete production runs and the reduction in production costs as learning takes place, as well as to assign workers to tasks based on their performance profile. Further, effects of task interruption on workers’ performance have also being modeled by modifications on the LCs. This wide variety of applications justifies the relevance of LCs in industrial applications. This paper presents the state of the art in the literature on learning and forgetting curves, describing the existing models, their limitations, and reported applications. Directions for future research on the subject are eventually proposed.

Relevance to industry

The Learning Curve (LC) models described here can be used in a wide variety of industrial applications where workers endeavor new tasks. LC modeling enables better assignment of tasks to workers and more efficient production planning, and reduces production costs.     

AWESOME: A general multiagent learning algorithm that converges in self-play and learns a best response against stationary opponents

Two minimal requirements for a satisfactory multiagent learning algorithm are that it 1. learns to play optimally against stationary opponents and 2. converges to a Nash equilibrium in self-play. The previous algorithm that has come closest, WoLF-IGA, has been proven to have these two properties in 2-player 2-action (repeated) games—assuming that the opponent’s mixed strategy is observable. Another algorithm, ReDVaLeR (which was introduced after the algorithm described in this paper), achieves the two properties in games with arbitrary numbers of actions and players, but still requires that the opponents' mixed strategies are observable. In this paper we present AWESOME, the first algorithm that is guaranteed to have the two properties in games with arbitrary numbers of actions and players. It is still the only algorithm that does so while only relying on observing the other players' actual actions (not their mixed strategies). It also learns to play optimally against opponents that eventually become stationary. The basic idea behind AWESOME (Adapt When Everybody is Stationary, Otherwise Move to Equilibrium) is to try to adapt to the others' strategies when they appear stationary, but otherwise to retreat to a precomputed equilibrium strategy. We provide experimental results that suggest that AWESOME converges fast in practice. The techniques used to prove the properties of AWESOME are fundamentally different from those used for previous algorithms, and may help in analyzing future multiagent learning algorithms as well. Editors: Amy Greenwald and Michael Littman     

Superiority of collaborative learning with complex tasks: A research note on an alternative affective explanation

Kirschner, Paas, and Kirschner (2009c) used the theoretical framework of cognitive load to explain why the learning of a group of collaborating individuals was more efficient than that of individuals learning alone with high-complexity tasks but not with low-complexity tasks. The authors argued that collaboration circumvented the limitations of an individual’s working memory by creating an expanded cognitive capacity and by allowing for the distribution of cognitive load among group members. Inspired by research on efficacy, this study explored an alternative affective explanation of the results. By measuring the amount of mental effort learners expected to invest in working on a learning task before actually carrying out the task, this study showed that learners who had to collaboratively solve a high-complexity problem expected to invest less mental effort than learners who had to solve the problem alone. When confronted with low-complexity tasks, the expected amount of mental effort did not differ.     

A dialogic understanding of the relationship between CSCL and teaching thinking skills

How to teach flexible thinking and learning skills, particularly creativity and the skill of “learning to learn,” is a key concern for CSCL in the context of the emerging Networked Society. The currently dominant paradigms for supporting pedagogical design within CSCL, including socio-cultural theory, are limited in the support that they can offer to the project of teaching general thinking skills. This paper uses critical literature review, conceptual analysis, and evidence from case studies to argue for the value of a dialogic interpretative framework that links the goal of teaching thinking with the method of CSCL. The evidence reviewed suggests that dialogue is itself the primary thinking skill from which all others are derived. It is argued from this that dialogic theory offers a possible solution to the problem of how to conceptualize general thinking skills for CSCL: this is that teaching dialogue as an end in itself promotes the learning of general thinking skills. Implications of the proposed framework for pedagogical design are brought out through case studies illustrating the use of CSCL to broaden and deepen dialogic spaces of reflection.     

Interactive Videoconferencing for collaborative learning at a distance in the school of 21st century: A case study in elementary schools in Greece

The aim of this paper is to present the design, implementation and evaluation of the methodology which focuses on the pedagogical utilization of Interactive Videoconferencing (IVC) in the contemporary elementary school.     

Plausible Justification Trees: A Framework for Deep and Dynamic Integration of Learning Strategies

This article describes a framework for the deep and dynamic integration of learning strategies. The framework is based on the idea that each single-strategy learning method is ultimately the result of certain elementary inferences (like deduction, analogy, abduction, generalization, specialization, abstraction, concretion, etc.). Consequently, instead of integrating learning strategies at a macro level, we propose to integrate the different inference types that generate individual learning strategies. The article presents a concept-learning and theory-revision method that was developed in this framework. It allows the system to learn from one or from several (positive and/or negative) examples, and to both generalize and specialize its knowledge base. The method integrates deeply and dynamically different learning strategies, depending on the relationship between the input information and the knowledge base. It also behaves as a single-strategy learning method whenever the applicability conditions of such a method are satisfied.     

Saving time or innovating practice: Investigating perceptions and uses of Learning Management Systems

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are web-based systems that allow instructors and/or students to share materials, submit and return assignments, and communicate online. In this study, we explored the uses and perceived benefits of using a LMS to support traditional classroom teaching as reported by instructors and students at a large American Midwestern university. We examined two years of survey data focusing on specific uses of the LMS that emphasized either efficient communication or interactive teaching and learning practices. We matched aggregate user log data with corresponding survey items to see if system use was consistent with patterns seen in the survey results. Findings suggest that instructors and students value tools and activities for efficient communication more than interactive tools for innovating existing practices. However, survey item analysis reveals that instructors and students also highly value the teaching and learning tools within the LMS.     

《网页设计与制作》专题学习网站的设计

信息技术的发展促进了教育信息化,而网络环境下教育资源的建设是教育信息化的重要内容,专题学习网站则是教育资源建设的重要表现方式。该文以茂名学院高州师范分院《网页设计与制作》学科专题为例,介绍专题学习网站的设计,主要阐述了专题学习网站的需求分析、系统设计和功能设计三大方面。     

Learning to trust in the competence and commitment of agents

For agents to collaborate in open multi-agent systems, each agent must trust in the other agents’ ability to complete tasks and willingness to cooperate. Agents need to decide between cooperative and opportunistic behavior based on their assessment of another agents’ trustworthiness. In particular, an agent can have two beliefs about a potential partner that tend to indicate trustworthiness: that the partner is competent and that the partner expects to engage in future interactions. This paper explores an approach that models competence as an agent’s probability of successfully performing an action, and models belief in future interactions as a discount factor. We evaluate the underlying decision framework’s performance given accurate knowledge of the model’s parameters in an evolutionary game setting. We then introduce a game-theoretic framework in which an agent can learn a model of another agent online, using the Harsanyi transformation. The learning agents evaluate a set of competing hypotheses about another agent during the simulated play of an indefinitely repeated game. The Harsanyi strategy is shown to demonstrate robust and successful online play against a variety of static, classic, and learning strategies in a variable-payoff Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma setting.     

Designing with scenarios: A critical review of current research and practice

There is a great deal of requirements engineering specifically, and information systems development research in general, in the area of scenarios as the ‘vocabulary’ for discussing and characterising designs for new artefacts. This is partly due to opening up the design process to a variety of participants in a project, and making explicit their ways of working, thinking and interactions with the design products. Scenarios, being concrete, and easy to understand and use, provide the means to describe the design vocabulary. They are used to focus on episodic cases, exchange ideas and thoughts about them effectively, and generally describe requirements and designs for a new artefact from the user’s perspective. In this paper, we review the effectiveness of the current state-of-practice in scenario-based approaches. The objective of this evaluation exercise is to define the requirements for improved ‘by scenario’ approaches to cope with requirements and designs for developing new artefacts.     

Exploring the potential of computer and video games for health and physical education: A literature review

This study aims at critically reviewing recently published scientific literature on the use of computer and video games in Health Education (HE) and Physical Education (PE) with a view: (a) to identifying the potential contribution of the incorporation of electronic games as educational tools into HE and PE programs, (b) to present a synthesis of the available empirical evidence on the educational effectiveness of electronic games in HE and PE, and (c) to define future research perspectives concerning the educational use of electronic games in HE and PE. After systematically searching online bibliographic databases, 34 relevant articles were located and included in the study. Following the categorization scheme proposed by [Dempsey, J., Rasmussen, K., & Lucassen, B. (1996). The instructional gaming literature: Implications and 99 sources. University of South Alabama, College of Education, Technical Report No. 96-1], those articles were grouped into the following four categories: (a) research, (b) development, (c) discussion and (d) theory. The overviewed articles suggest that electronic games present many potential benefits as educational tools for HE and PE, and that those games may improve young people’s knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours in relation to health and physical exercise. Furthermore, the newly emerged physically interactive electronic games can potentially enhance young people’s physical fitness, motor skills and motivation for physical exercise. The empirical evidence to support the educational effectiveness of electronic games in HE and PE is still rather limited, but the findings present a positive picture overall. The outcomes of the literature review are discussed in terms of their implications for future research, and can provide useful guidance to educators, practitioners and researchers in the areas of HE and PE, and to electronic game designers.     

Framework for the evolution of acquiring knowledge modules to integrate the acquisition of high-level cognitive skills and professional competencies: Principles and case studies

The changing profile of students, the expectations of business and the capabilities offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) makes it necessary to change teaching practices, particularly in higher education. This paper proposes a methodological framework destined to force disciplinary course modules to evolve in order to integrate high-level cognitive skills and professional competencies. In this paper, we examine this framework in terms of the primary currents in educational psychology: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism and social constructivism. We present and analyze three case studies showing the evolution of three disciplinary course modules. We show that the lessons taught in these three modules are more motivating and more efficient, producing results that are closer to what employers are asking of their employees.     

Cyberbullying on social networking sites: A literature review and future research directions

Cyberbullying on social networking sites is an emerging societal issue that has drawn significant scholarly attention. The purpose of this study is to consolidate the existing knowledge through a literature review and analysis. We first discuss the nature, research patterns, and theoretical foundations. We then develop an integrative framework based on social cognitive theory to synthesize what is known and identify what remains to be learned, with a focus on the triadic reciprocal relationships between perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. We discuss the key findings and highlight opportunities for future research. We conclude this paper by noting research contributions and limitations.     

Frontier-based performance analysis models for supply chain management: State of the art and research directions

Effective supply chain management relies on information integration and implementation of best practice techniques across the chain. Supply chains are examples of complex multi-stage systems with temporal and causal interrelations, operating multi-input and multi-output production and services under utilization of fixed and variable resources. Acknowledging the lack of system’s view, the need to identify system-wide and individual effects as well as incorporating a coherent set of performance metrics, the recent literature reports on an increasing, but yet limited, number of applications of frontier analysis models (e.g. DEA) for the performance assessment of supply chains or networks. The relevant models in this respect are multi-stage models with various assumptions on the intermediate outputs and inputs, enabling the derivation of metrics for technical and cost efficiencies for the system as well as the autonomous links. This paper reviews the state of the art in network DEA modeling, in particular two-stage models, along with a critical review of the advanced applications that are reported in terms of the consistency of the underlying assumptions and the results derived. Consolidating current work in this range using the unified notations and comparison of the properties of the presented models, the paper is closed with recommendations for future research in terms of both theory and application.     

The role of feedback and self-efficacy on web-based learning: The social cognitive perspective

The social cognitive perspective of self-regulated learning suggests that effective learning is determined by the interactions among personal, behavioral, and environmental influences; particularly, high self-regulated learners hold higher motivation (personal), apply better learning strategies (behavioral) and respond to environmental demand more appropriately (environmental). The study thus uses the social cognitive perspective to explore the role of self-efficacy (personal), student feedback behavior, use of learning strategies (behavioral), performance and receiving feedback (environmental) in Web-based learning. There were 76 university students participated in this study. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied for data analysis. The results supported that self-efficacy predicted student use of learning strategies and related to elaborated feedback behavior (personal → behavioral). High self-efficacy students applied more high-level learning strategies, such as elaborative strategy and critical thinking. Students who provided elaborated feedback also had higher self-efficacy than those who did not. Moreover, receiving elaborative feedback significantly promoted student self-efficacy (environmental → personal), while receiving knowledge of correct response improved student performance. However, the results indicated that feedback behaviors did not predict academic performance, which may be interfered by modeling effects.     

Packaging models for the storage and distribution of complex digital objectsin archival information systems: a review of MPEG-21 DID principles

In recent years, the number of organizations making digital information available has increased dramatically. This evolution has encouraged the development of various approaches to represent complex digital objects. Approaches that are of specific relevance to the digital library and archiving community include the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), the Content Packaging XML Binding of the Instructional Management System (IMS) project, and the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). The MPEG-21 Digital Item Declaration MPEG-21 DID) is yet another packaging approach that, so far, has received little attention in the digital library community. The primary goal of this article is to offer a method to compare these packaging approaches in the context of the needs of the digital library community and the rising digital preservation programs. The contribution of this paper is the definition of an integrated reference framework, based on both the ISO OAIS Reference Model and a set of additional significant properties that affect the quality, usability, encoding, and behavior of complex digital objects. This article also gives a brief insight into MPEG-21 DID and examines its potential relevance by showing the results obtained from applying the proposed reference framework. Published online: 8 April 2005