E-portfolios supporting primary students' writing performance and peer feedback

E-portfolios show great promise for supporting students' writing performance and facilitating peer feedback, but empirical research of their use in primary education is limited. To address this gap, a yearlong study was conducted in a 4th grade primary class in Cyprus implementing e-portfolios (n = 20) to help students document their progress and send feedback to peers. A generic, open source weblog tool localized into Greek was used as an e-portfolio tool. Data sources included 176 student-essays, 1306 instances of peer feedback, students pre- and post-tests on writing performance, nine videotaped student interviews and one teacher interview. A paired samples t-test analysis showed that there was a statistically significant difference between students' pre-test (M = 62.6, SD = 9.82, n = 20) and post-test (M = 76.5, SD = 12.6, n = 20) on writing performance (t (19) = −8.03, p < .01). A repeated measures analysis of variance on e-portfolio artifacts showed that there were learning gains with respect to students' writing performance over time [F(4.01, 76.25) = 31.59, p < .01, η² = 0.89]. A qualitative analysis of students' comments showed that students provided more thorough peer feedback over time and became gradually more capable of providing corrective feedback. The qualitative analysis of student interviews provided evidence that students valued peer feedback in their portfolios. The analysis of the teacher interview showed that average and high-ability students benefited the most from peer feedback. This study provided evidence that e-portfolios can support the development of students' writing performance and peer feedback skills in the context of primary school essay writing. Instructional implications for portfolio implementation are offered.     

Effects of high level prompts and peer assessment on online learners’ reflection levels

Reflection plays a very important role in learning processes and is very helpful for promoting learning performance. Many higher education institutions today are actively promoting learners’ reflection ability in order to help them cope with the fast changing world they will be entering when they graduate. Online learning provides potential for applying new teaching and learning strategies. However, it has not yet been systematically studied how to concretely apply reflection strategies in an online learning environment. The aim of this study is to explore how high level prompts and peer assessment can affect a learner’s reflection levels in an online learning context. The participants were 157 university students and each individual was randomly assigned to one of the fourteen learning conditions. We found that the main factor affecting reflection levels is high level prompts followed by high quality observation that has a moderating effect on learners’ reflection levels. However, peer feedback has no significant influence on reflection levels.     

Group awareness of social and cognitive performance in a CSCL environment: Effects of a peer feedback and reflection tool

A peer feedback tool (Radar) and a reflection tool (Reflector) were used to enhance group performance in a computer-supported collaborative learning environment. Radar allows group members to assess themselves and their fellow group members on six traits related to social and cognitive behavior. Reflector stimulates group members to reflect on their past, present and future group functioning, stimulating them to set goals and formulate plans to improve their social and cognitive performance. The underlying assumption was that group performance would be positively influenced by making group members aware of how they, their peers and the whole group perceive their social and cognitive behavior in the group. Participants were 108 fourth-year high school students working in dyads, triads and groups of four on a collaborative writing task, with or without the tools. Results demonstrate that awareness stimulated by the peer feedback and reflection tools enhances group-process satisfaction and social performance of CSCL-groups.     

Awareness of group performance in a CSCL-environment: Effects of peer feedback and reflection

This study investigated the effects of a peer feedback tool and a reflection tool on social and cognitive performance during computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL). A CSCL-environment was augmented with a peer feedback tool (Radar) and a reflection tool (Reflector) in order to make group members aware of both their individual and their group behavior. Radar visualizes how group members perceive their own social and cognitive performance and that of their peers during collaboration along five dimensions. Reflector stimulates group members to reflect upon their own performance and the performance of the group. A 2 × 2 factorial between-subjects design was used to examine whether Radar and Reflector would lead to better team development, more group satisfaction, lower levels of group conflict, more positive attitudes toward problem-based collaboration, and a better group product. Results show that groups with Radar perceived their team as being better developed, experienced lower conflict levels, and had a more positive attitude towards collaborative problem solving than groups without Radar. The quality of group products, however, did not differ. The results demonstrate that peer feedback on the social performance of individual group members can enhance the performance and attitudes of a CSCL-group.     

Learning to write in an online writing center: The effect of learning styles on the writing process

One of the main advantages of online learning materials is that they can be adapted for students with different learning styles. This article presents a study and a methodology to investigate whether students with different learning styles make use of the potential flexibility of online learning materials, i.c. in the context of an online writing center. The study aims to investigate the effect of learning styles on (a) the students' approach to the writing task (process), and (b) on the letters they write (product). Twenty students each completed a module on writing ‘bad news’ letters designed for Business Communication courses. Their reading and writing processes were recorded. The letters were also graded to determine their quality. An effect of learning style was found: Active and Reflective writers approached the task differently, but only in the beginning of the process. In this early stage Reflective learners were more likely to focus on the theory section than Active learners. This suggests that writers with different learning styles tackle the learning materials in different ways, often in line with the preferences that characterize their learning styles. However, no effect of learning style on text quality was found.     

基于MVC模式的在线投稿与审稿系统的设计

计算机网络技术在期刊管理和编辑出版流程中的应用日益广泛,通过网络投稿与审稿已成为期刊管理的主要趋势和重要途径.通过分析科技期刊投稿与审稿的工作流程,基于J2EE平台,采用MVC模式Struts框架结构,分析并设计了在线投稿与审稿系统,实现了稿件作者在线投稿、期刊编辑在线审稿、在线退修等功能.该设计具有较强的适用性与可推广性,是Struts架构在稿件管理业务中的一个探索与尝试.     

A study on the use of computerized concept mapping to assist ESL learners’ writing

This study aims to examine the effect of using computerized concept maps during the pre-writing phase on learners’ writing performance. The research questions were: (1) What are the impacts of different computerized concept mapping treatments (no-mapping, individual-mapping, and cooperative-mapping) on writing performance for learners of different writing proficiencies (high-level, middle-level, and low-level)? (2) Does the quality of the concept maps constructed cooperatively exceed the quality of the concept maps constructed individually? (3) Does the map quality correlate to the learner’s writing performance?     

Students’ views on technology and writing: The power of personal history

As scholars, writers, and teachers, I believe that we should try harder to understand students’ perspectives on the use of computers in their academic work. This article begins to provide a sense of students’ perspectives on questions of technology, thus presenting a fuller picture of the context within which we teach. Drawing on a variety of methods, including a survey and the writings of a small group of students enrolled in a Writing and Technology course, this article expresses some of these stories generally hidden from an instructor's perspective and reveals that, despite what the media might tell us, students are not as prepared to utilize technology as we might assume. Furthermore, the student narratives suggest that English departments and writing programs can play an important role in assisting students who are unfamiliar with computer technologies, helping them to gain the computer literacy they need to succeed at the university.     

An Empirical Analysis of Using Text-to-Speech Software to Revise First-Year College Students’ Essays

Traditionally, composition experts have suggested reading drafts aloud as a means of revising essays; however, the method of reading drafts aloud is severely limited by a single factor: student writers do not always read what is on the page (Hartwell, 1985). Text-to-speech (TTS) software allows students to have their essays read to them so that the limiting factor of reading their own drafts aloud becomes minimized. TTS programs read what is written on the computer screen, and the result is that the students can “hear” the problems of their essays as opposed to simply “seeing” them. Nevertheless, composition researchers have not conducted any empirical studies to determine whether or not TTS is beneficial for “local” and “global” revision, nor have any studies been conducted to determine if TTS is beneficial for students above the fifth grade. This article documents an experimental study conducted at a southwestern university in the United States with fifty-one students to determine whether or not TTS software is useful in the revision process. The results show that users of TTS were as likely as users in the control group to make proofreading changes but less inclined to make local or global changes in the revision process, indicating that TTS possibly works well for proofreading but not necessarily as well for higher-order revision. Further research is recommended to determine TTS's effectiveness during a longitudinal study as well as for auditory learners and ESL students.     

The effect of content depth and deviation on online review helpfulness: Evidence from double-hurdle model

How does the content of a product review shape its perceived value? We propose two information theory-based constructs derived from probabilistic topic models and show their relationship with review helpfulness. The first construct, content depth, quantifies the breadth-depth tradeoff of a review and has an informational influence on readers’ voting behavior. The second construct, content deviation, indicates the deviance of the review content in comparison with others and exerts a normative influence on readers’ voting behavior. Noting the possibility that a review can get voted but has zero helpfulness score, we use a double-hurdle model to simultaneously estimate the probability of a review being voted and its helpfulness. The analyses on three product categories show that reviews with more depth and less content deviation are rated more helpful. Further, the relationships are moderated by a number of factors, including the deviation of numerical rating, recency of the review, and the reputation of the reviewer. The research contributes to the literature by showing how the content of a review and the interaction of content and numerical ratings jointly create value for consumers.     

Search product and experience product online reviews: An eye-tracking study on consumers' review search behavior

This study uses eye-tracking method to investigate consumers' online review search behavior by suggesting that it needs to consider the type of product reviewed. A review-product congruity proposition was testified through a self-report survey and an eye-tracking experiment. The proposition states that consumers of search products expect to seek attribute based reviews, while consumers shopping for experience products tend to seek experience based reviews. Two experiments were conducted in the human factors & ergonomics laboratory of Beihang University, China and all subjects are college students. The results of our first empirical experiment support our hypotheses by showing consumers' more active and positive responses to attribute based reviews when shopping for search products and to experience based reviews when purchasing experience products. The second experiment was conducted with eye tracking method to gain further insights. We found that consumers of search products are attracted and engaged more deeply by attribute based reviews. However, when they browse experience products, the difference of their fixations on experience based reviews and attribute based reviews is not significant, and thus the proposition is partially supported. This study extends our current understanding of consumers' online review search behavior by subsuming product type, which is necessary and helpful, and provides references on the classification and presentation of reviews to facilitate consumers' product judgement and decision making. Moreover, comparison of traditional empirical method and eye-tracking method can help deepen our understanding of complex consumer online shopping behavior.     

Effects of matching teaching strategy to thinking style on learner’s quality of reflection in an online learning environment

Reflection plays an important role in improving learning performance. This study, therefore, attempted to explore whether learners’ reflection levels can be improved if teaching strategies are adapted to fit with learners’ thinking styles in an online learning environment. Three teaching strategies, namely constructive, guiding, and inductive, were designed to match with three thinking styles, namely legislative, executive, and judicial respectively. An online reflection learning system was subsequently developed to reflect this scenario. An experiment was then conducted where the learners were classified into fit or non-fit group in order to analyze whether there was a good fit between the teaching strategies designed by the teacher and the thinking styles of learners. A total of 223 graduate and undergraduate students participated in the experiment. The results revealed that the reflection levels of the fit group had outperformed the non-fit group.     

Guiding the use of collective feedback displayed on heatmaps to reduce group conformity and improve learning in Peer Instruction

Peer Instruction is an active learning method widely used in higher education, whereby students answer a series of questions twice, once before and once after peer discussion. There is an ongoing debate as to whether a collective feedback should be given after the students' initial answer, and if so, how the frequently observed group conformity can be avoided. This study examined whether guiding on the use of this feedback can reduce group conformity and improve learning using an interactive learning environment to administer a new type of quiz using graphics, and delivering collective feedback to the whole class in a novel heatmap format. In the experimental group, the teacher told the students that the answer indicated by the heatmap was not necessarily the correct one; this information was not given to students in the control group. Results revealed that guided students were less likely to adopt the (incorrect) majority answer than the non-guided students, and consequently, they were more likely to improve their learning by reaching an agreement about the correct answer through discussion with their peers. These findings suggest that guiding students in their use of collective feedback may have a crucial role in Peer Instruction.     

Factors associated with early adolescents’ anticipated emotional and behavioral responses to ambiguous teases on Facebook

A total of 69 sixth- through eighth-grade students rated their experiences with antisocial and prosocial teases as well as their general attitudes toward teases. Subsequently, the participants read hard copies of four ambiguous teases, one at a time, posted on a simulation of “their” Facebook wall by four different, hypothetical acquaintances. After reading each tease, the participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that assessed their emotional and behavioral response to the tease. Consistent with  and  cognitive (attribution)–emotion–action model of motivated behavior, path analyses revealed that the participants’ negative experiences with teases and negative attitudes toward teases were predictive of a negative emotional response to the ambiguous teases on Facebook which, in turn, was predictive of various negative behavioral responses to the ambiguous teasers. Therefore, consistent with the prior finding of a hostile attribution bias in some children’s reactions to ambiguous face-to-face teases (Barnett, Barlett, Livengood, Murphy, & Brewton, 2010), the early adolescents in the present study with relatively negative experiences with and attitudes toward teases appear to display a hostile attribution bias whereby teases on Facebook with an uncertain intent are viewed as if they were meant to be antagonistic and antisocial.     

Definitions and approaches to model quality in model-based software development – A review of literature

More attention is paid to the quality of models along with the growing importance of modelling in software development. We performed a systematic review of studies discussing model quality published since 2000 to identify what model quality means and how it can be improved. From forty studies covered in the review, six model quality goals were identified; i.e., correctness, completeness, consistency, comprehensibility, confinement and changeability. We further present six practices proposed for developing high-quality models together with examples of empirical evidence. The contributions of the article are identifying and classifying definitions of model quality and identifying gaps for future research.     

“3D 机械制图”教学中提高学生读图能力的实践与思考

随着以三维实体结构的表达方式为主干,三维设计表达方法和二维工程图 表达方法并重的知识结构体系的教学改革的不断深入,越来越多的人开始了解它,相关文献 也逐渐增多。因为随着计算机科学技术的发展,计算机技术已逐渐渗透到其他科学当中,同 时使得社会的产业结构也在悄悄的发生着变化,工程制图作为一门古老的学科也迎接着新科 技时代到来所带来的变革。因此,为了顺应时代的发展,图学教育完成由二维投影表达三维 立体过渡到直接三维设计将是历史发展的必然趋势。 论文结合十多年来讲授“3D 机械制图”的实践,总结多年的教改实际,针对如何改善 学生空间想象能力,更好地完成三维到二维的过度这一问题,介绍了作者近年来的教学实践 与思考。     

Opinion mining based on fuzzy domain ontology and Support Vector Machine: A proposal to automate online review classification

With the explosion of Social media, Opinion mining has been used rapidly in recent years. However, a few studies focused on the precision rate of feature review’s and opinion word’s extraction. These studies do not come with any optimum mechanism of supplying required precision rate for effective opinion mining. Most of these studies are based on Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and classical ontology. These systems are still imperfect for classifying the feature reviews into more degrees of polarity terms (strong negative, negative, neutral, positive and strong positive). Further, the existing classical ontology-based systems cannot extract blurred information from reviews; thus, it provides poor results. In this regard, this paper proposes a robust classification technique for feature review’s identification and semantic knowledge for opinion mining based on SVM and Fuzzy Domain Ontology (FDO). The proposed system retrieves a collection of reviews about hotel and hotel features. The SVM identifies hotel feature reviews and filter out irrelevant reviews (noises) and the FDO is then used to compute the polarity term of each feature. The amalgamation of FDO and SVM significantly increases the precision rate of review’s and opinion word’s extraction and accuracy of opinion mining. The FDO and intelligent prototype are developed using Protégé OWL-2 (Ontology Web Language) tool and JAVA, respectively. The experimental result shows considerable performance improvement in feature review’s classification and opinion mining.     

A systematic literature review on web service clustering approaches to enhance service discovery,selection and recommendation

With the advancement of web 2.0 and the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), all tasks can be handled with the help of handheld devices. Web APIs or web services are providing immense power to IoT and are working as a backbone in the successful journey of IoT. Web services can perform any task on a single click event, and these are available over the internet in terms of quantity, quality, and variety. It leads to the requirement of service management in the service repository. The well-managed and structured service repository is still challenging as services are dynamic, and documentation is limited. It is also not a piece of cake to discover, select and recommend services easily from a pool of services. Web service clustering (WSC) plays a vital role in enhancing the service discovery, selection, and recommendation process by analyzing the similarity among services. In this paper, with a systematic process total of 84 research papers are selected, and different state-of-the-art techniques based on web service clustering are investigated and analyzed. Furthermore, this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) also presents the various mandatory and optional steps of WSC, evaluation measures, and datasets. Research challenges and future directions are also identified, which will help the researchers to provide innovative solutions in this area.     

The impact of trust,guanxi orientation and face on the intention of Chinese employees and managers to engage in peer‐to‐peer tacit and explicit knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing is recognised as one of the most critical components of knowledge management. Successful and efficient knowledge sharing could directly facilitate knowledge creation and so help a firm to maintain its competitive advantage. Consequently, identifying which factors could encourage or inhibit people to share knowledge is potentially of great value. In this study, we explore the impact of selected socio‐cultural factors, viz. trust, guanxi orientation and face, on the intention to share explicit and tacit knowledge in Chinese firms. Two hundred and four employees from Chinese organisations were surveyed on their knowledge‐sharing practices. Our findings indicate that while cognition‐based trust has no significant effect on the intention to share either tacit or explicit knowledge, affect‐based trust has a significant effect on both. Meanwhile, face‐gaining behaviours have a positive effect, while face‐saving behaviours have a negative effect on the intention to share knowledge. Finally, guanxi orientation also has a strong impact on knowledge sharing. The implications of these findings for organisations and their knowledge management initiatives are discussed.     

Applying the Practical Inquiry Model to investigate the quality of students’ online discourse in an information ethics course based on Bloom’s teaching goal and Bird’s 3C model

The goal of this study is to better understand how the study participants’ cognitive discourse is displayed in their learning transaction in an asynchronous, text-based conferencing environment based on Garrison’s Practical Inquiry Model (2001). The authors designed an online information ethics course based on Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives and Bird’s 3C model (Content–Construction–Consolidation). The content analyzed included the participants’ message posts, the quality of the dialogue and the scaffolding strategies for mentoring used by group leaders and teachers.