Exploring problem solving patterns and their impact on learning achievement in a blended learning environment

Blended learning, thoughtfully combining the best elements of online and face-to-face education, is likely to emerge as the predominant teaching model of the future. In this paper, we present a blended learning environment combining mobile learning, web-based learning, and classroom teaching to provide realistic, practical opportunities for learners and teachers to engage in problem solving activities. The purpose of this study was to explore problem solving patterns and their impact on learning achievement in a blended learning environment. Through quasi-experimental instruction, we collected all of the data of the learning processes from 34 students in a blended learning environment using classroom instruction, mobile and web scenarios. By combining cluster analysis and content analysis, we were able to identify three groups with distinct characteristics: the hybrid-oriented group, the technology-oriented group, and the efficiency-oriented group. Learners in the hybrid-oriented group used the classroom, mobile and web scenario almost equally. They displayed a regular manner in following the instructor’s teaching procedure, and tended to passively accept whatever the teacher said. Students in the technology-oriented group spent most of their time using mobile and web technologies but they revealed superficial problem solving abilities such as a lack of understanding and planning. The efficiency-oriented group was characterized by the efficient monitoring of learning processes. It was more task-oriented and performed better than the other two groups.     

Characterising effective eLearning resources

The widespread availability of digital learning resources in a variety of media formats offers the possibility to make a profound difference in education. This potential has not been fully realised for range of interrelated reasons. In this paper we study the key characteristics of learning resources that have proved effective in changing learning and teaching, and relate them to existing frameworks for understanding resources. We outline the relationships between resources, their users, and the way they are used, and explore issues that influence practitioners in choosing a particular resource. Our study is based on a review of resources for e-learning and chemistry in post-compulsory education, undertaken for the UK Joint Information Systems Committees (JISC), as part of a wider study examining ‘The Effectiveness of Resources, Tools and Support Services used by Tutors in Designing and Delivering E-Learning Activities’.     

An auto-scoring mechanism for evaluating problem-solving ability in a web-based learning environment

The rapid development of computer and network technologies has attracted researchers to investigate strategies for and the effects of applying information technologies in learning activities; simultaneously, learning environments have been developed to record the learning portfolios of students seeking web information for problem-solving. Although previous research has demonstrated the benefits of applying information technologies to learning activities, the difficulties in doing so have also been revealed. One of the major difficulties is the lack of a mechanism to assist teachers in evaluating the problem-solving ability of the students, such that constructive suggestions can be given to the students, and tutoring strategies can be improved accordingly.     

Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts

The authors use physical concepts to investigate cognitive elaboration using a commercial game-based review teaching method versus a lecture-based method. Experiments involved two popular casual games: Cut the Rope (pendulum concept) and Angry Bird Space (circular motion), with concept maps and multiple-choice tests used as assessment tools. Our goal was to analyze concept reinforcement and reorganization via commercial games for a group of junior high school students. A total of 83 students (15–16 years old), were randomly assigned to an experimental group (review using commercial casual games) or a control group (lecture-based review). Our results suggest that (a) the games supported the elaboration potential of learned physical concepts as measured by concept maps, and (b) concept maps are more suitable than multiple-choice tests for estimating the effects of commercial games on cognitive elaboration. Three key design features of commercial games that can support cognitive elaboration of physical concepts are discussed.     

Incorporating podcasting and blogging into a core task for ESOL teacher candidates

Due to innovation and globalization in education, educators of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) are encouraged to use such instructional technologies as podcasting and blogging, but studies on integrating these technologies into assignments are rare. This project revealed how ESOL teacher candidates implement instructional technology skills to help English learners and the teacher candidates’ attitudes and processes toward implementing podcasting and blogging as a core assignment. Using qualitative research, five themes emerged: (a) ESOL teacher candidates’ attitudes and self-assessments, (b) their implementation of podcasting and blogging, (c) their challenges and rewards, (d) the impact on their professional development, and (e) their own impact on new generations of students, particularly English learners. This discussion highlights ESOL teacher candidates’ experiences while learning podcasting and blogging. ESOL teacher candidates, recognizing their future students as a new generation, are highly proactive learners and want very much to be competent and confident in their own teaching.     

Effectiveness of a Mobile Plant Learning System in a science curriculum in Taiwanese elementary education

This study developed a Mobile Plant Learning System (MPLS) that provides instructors with the ways and means to facilitate student learning in an elementary-school-level botany course. The MPLS represented in this study was implemented to address problems that arise with the use of a didactic approach to teaching and learning botany, as is typically used in elementary schools in Taiwan. To extend opportunities for learning beyond the classroom, this study used personal digital assistants (PDAs) equipped with the MPLS, which provided both teachers and students access to plant information while in the field. A quasi-experimental research design was used to investigate the effectiveness of using the MPLS to support student learning. The responses to questionnaires and interviews indicate that students valued the outdoor learning activities made possible by use of the PDA and its functions. Pre- and post-test results demonstrated that students also benefitted academically from the use of the MPLS and the PDA.     

Trainee teachers’ mental effort in learning spreadsheet through self-instructional module based on Cognitive Load Theory

A printed module should consist of media elements, namely text and pictures, which are self-instructional and could cater to the needs of the user. However, the typical platform of such visualization frequently overloads the limited working memory causing split attention and redundancy effects. The purpose of this study is to design and develop a printed self-instructional module based on Cognitive Load Theory in learning. Media elements are presented with minimal cognitive demands with an action- and task-oriented approach. Utilizing a modified Solomon Group design on 113 trainee teachers selected using purposive sampling, the effectiveness of the developed module was compared to the conventional module. Independent sample t-tests conducted to compare the time of completion in performance between the Control Group working on the conventional module and Group 2 working on the developed module show significant statistical differences in pre- and post-activities. Group 2 reported lower cognitive load scores on the rating scale and graphical plots using computational approach showed higher instructional efficiency. Thus, results show that trainees working on the developed printed module were able to perform faster and better with lower mental effort and had higher performance.     

Knowledge management in blended learning: Effects on professional development in creativity instruction

The purposes of this study were (1) to develop a teacher training program that integrates knowledge management (KM) and blended learning and examine its effects on pre-service teachers’ professional development in creativity instruction; and (2) to explore the mechanisms underlying the success of such KM-based training. The employed KM model was the SECI, which consists of four modes of knowledge conversion: socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. Forty-four pre-service teachers participated in this 17-week experimental instructional program. Repeated Measure Analysis of Variance and content analysis revealed that the training program designed in this study effectively improved pre-service teachers’ professional knowledge and personal teaching efficacy in their teaching of creativity. Moreover, this study showed that blended learning, guided practice, observational learning, group discussion, peer evaluation, and feedback are important mechanisms underlying this success.     

Effects of a vocabulary acquisition and assessment system on students’ performance in a blended learning class for English subject

Vocabulary acquisition and assessment are regarded as the key basis for the instruction of English as a second language. However, it is time-consuming, fallible and repetitive for the school teachers and parents to assess the proficiency of the students’ vocabulary acquisition. We customized the open source course management system Moodle to build the individualized vocabulary review and assessment functions for English instruction. This web-based system was integrated into the regular English instruction of an experiment class of Grade three in a junior middle school, i.e. it was used in one school hour almost every week for an entire school term. Within this blended learning environment, the students’ performance of the experiment class in the ordinary and especially vocabulary examinations throughout the school term was improved gradually and was better than that of the control class, so that it achieved number one among sixteen classes in the same grade at the final term examination, compared with number eight before this experiment. The survey and interview with the students also demonstrated the system’s valuable functions for vocabulary acquisition and listening comprehension, and showed the students’ favor to such a kind of syllabus design with the intelligent course management system. The implication of this research is that the blended learning of English class with the individualized vocabulary acquisition and assessment system can improve the students’ performance in vocabulary acquisition and in ordinary test. This system can also be applied in other English classes.     

Virtual games in social science education

The new technologies make the appearance of highly motivating and dynamic games with different levels of interaction possible, in which large amounts of data, information, procedures and values are included which are intimately bound with the social sciences.     

Pattern of reflection in learning Authoring System through blogging

This research study aims to identify student's perceptions regarding the use of blogging, the pattern of reflection involved in learning Authoring System through blogging and student's performance in tests based on the reflection's pattern. Sixteen students who registered for the Authoring System subject participated in this study. It was conducted using quantitative approaches, through survey and pre-experimental design of one group post-test type. The instruments used were questionnaire, performance test and blog contents, where tutors and students posted messages and comments on the blog during the course. The results showed that the students' overall perception regarding the educational benefits of writing a blog and reading other students' blogs and comments was positive. Students also moderately agreed that they had difficulties in engaging in the reflection through blogging. It was also found that blogging indirectly improved the students' performance in the test. Through blog content analysis, the dominant type of reflection was monologue. However, the results from the data mining analysis showed that the students used reflective conversation and monologue type of reflection to achieve Grade A in learning Authoring System. It shows that students require deep and critical reflection to perform better in the subject.     

An experience of teaching for learning by observation: Remote-controlled experiments on electrical circuits

In order to facilitate senior primary school students in Hong Kong to engage in learning by observation of the phenomena related to electrical circuits, a design of a specific courseware system, of which the interactive human–machine interface was created with the use of an open-source software called the LabVNC, for conducting online remote-controlled experiments was developed in this study. The statistically significant results of a pre-test–post-test evaluation study showed that the LabVNC-based system has potential to promote students to learn the target topic under the approach of learning by observation. The assertion of the teacher on the pedagogical value of the remote-controlled experimentation and the enthusiasm of students in using the LabVNC-based system reveal the potential to integrate the use of the LabVNC-based system with the practice of scientific experiments. Based on the feedback from the teacher and students, the existing LabVNC-based system will be refined under the design-based research approach.     

Design and evaluation of a microprocessor course combining three cooperative methods: SDLA,PjBL and CnBL

This paper reports on the design, implementation and assessment of a new approach course structure based on the combination of three cooperative methodologies. The main goal is to reduce the percentage of non-passed students focusing the learning process on students by offering different alternatives and motivational activities based on working in small groups on a robotic project and changing the course assessment. The microprocessor course is a subject in the undergraduate program of telecommunication engineering at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) in Spain. Its traditional teaching methodology was based on Lecture sessions, Problem sessions and Practical activities in the lab (L/P/P). This methodology was changed to comply with the Bologna requirements, where new skills must be addressed and learned during the educational process. Self-Directed Learning activities (SDLA) for lecture sessions and Project based learning (PjBL) for Laboratory sessions were implemented in combination with a final competition activity between groups (CnBL). This paper describes the design, implementation and results; showing the benefits of these new teaching methods, improving student’s motivation including a robotic buggy project and allowing new learning strategies based on a practical point of view and adaptability to students’ previous skills.     

A reactive blended learning proposal for an introductory control engineering course

As it happens in other fields of engineering, blended learning is widely used to teach process control topics. In this paper, the inclusion of a reactive element – a Fuzzy Logic based controller – is proposed for a blended learning approach in an introductory control engineering course. This controller has been designed in order to regulate the workload for each student, according to his activity and performance. The proposed course is based on a web tool called ControlWeb, which includes a complete vision of control topics and is used intensively along the course. The results of the evaluation of the methodology attest its efficiency in terms of learning degree and performance of the students.     

Empowering students through digital game authorship: Enhancing concentration,critical thinking,and academic achievement

Digital game-based learning is a popular strategy for engaging students by making learning fun. Actively involving students as designers and producers of digital games may have even greater potential for student empowerment through enhancing concentration and engagement, fostering higher order thinking, and improving learning outcomes. Thus, this study empirically investigated the impact of digital game authoring on students' concentration, critical thinking skills, and academic achievement. A total of 67 students in two seventh-grade classes participated in this 19-week-long experiment, and were divided into an experimental group (32 students designing digital games) and a comparison group (35 students designing Flash animations). The interdisciplinary approach involved integrating biology and computer programming classes. Students in the experimental group designed digital games based upon biology course content, while the comparison group collaboratively produced Flash animations based upon the same course content. The experimental results, using MANCOVA for pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest scores, demonstrate significant improvements in critical thinking skills, and academic achievement, with increased retention of both course content and critical thinking skills observed for the delayed posttest. For concentration, a relative advantage for the experimental group as compared with the comparison group was noted, but did not reach statistical significance. Based on the results of this study, implications for practitioners and researchers are provided, including the integration of programming or computer science with other courses for digital game authoring and the evaluation of other learning outcomes such as creative thinking, problem-solving, and flow.     

Case-based teaching using the Laboratory Animal System for learning C/C++ programming

Teachers and students often consider learning programming a difficult pursuit. Face-to-face learning alone cannot provide effective teaching or efficient solutions for learning. A case teaching model can make students active in programming courses, even as it relies on solid learning theory and pedagogical strategies. This paper reports a study based on a case teaching model in C/C++ programming. The Laboratory Animal System (LAS) is a standalone case for management of laboratory animals. This paper includes an overview of LAS architectural design and user interface by C/C++ and presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of the model, as well as its implications for learning computer programming. The case method provides an interactive learning environment for students. Based on a survey of student feedback, students can learn C/C++ programming and gain knowledge more quickly and effectively using the case teaching model than through some traditional methods of teaching.     

Promoting reading comprehension with the use of technology

The research presented here explores the impact of two web-based applications (an interactive, multimedia literacy software and a digital process portfolio) on early elementary students' reading comprehension. Two studies were conducted during the 2010–2011 and the 2011–2012 school years, targeting 26 teachers from elementary schools (grades 1–2), and their students (N = 517) from six English school boards in Quebec, Canada. Analyses of covariance showed that students using both tools performed significantly better (p < .001) compared to controls in reading and written expression as measured by standardized tests.     

Scaffolding student-generated questions: Design and development of a customizable online learning system

Despite the fact that the benefits of student question generation are well documented, most students do not take part in question generation exercises during their formal schooling and are not accustomed to authoring questions. Under the premise that student question generation activities should be better supported in a timely, flexible and logistically feasible fashion, a customizable online learning environment that accentuates various scaffolding techniques has been designed and developed. The framework guiding the development of the system, and its associated designs, are described. To assess the various built-in scaffolds used to support students’ learning activities by means of question generation, a study was undertaken to that measured students’ perceived usefulness of each mechanism, as well as the effects of the perceived usefulness of the scaffolds on students’ attitudes toward question generation learning activities in general. The data collected indicated that, by utilizing computers and network technologies, the developed system provided a supportive learning environment for student’s question generation learning activities. Support features not yet included in other similar systems (including access to generic question stems with sample questions, access to model questions, two-way cyclic communication between authors of question and assessors, and the ability to conceal one’s real identity by anonymity or nickname, etc.), were confirmed to provide a high level of support. Recommendations for classroom implementations and future studies are offered.     

An evaluation study of the use of a cognitive tool in a one-to-one classroom for promoting classroom-based dialogic interaction

An evaluation study was conducted to investigate the effect of the use of a computer-supported cognitive tool (CT) in the one-to-one classroom setting on student engagement, attainment and perceptions in learning common fractions. Two Primary 4 classes with 68 students participated in this study based on 11 teaching sessions lasting 455 min in total. The students in the experimental group learned the target topic with the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom, while the students in the control group learned the target topic under the traditional teaching approach. The results of a time allocation analysis showed that the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom enhanced student engagement in terms of time-on-task for learning exploration during class time. The results of the post-attainment test indicated that students in the experimental group performed better than those in the control group. Moreover, the questionnaire survey results indicated that students liked to learn the target topic with the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom. This study reveals the potential of the use of CT in a one-to-one classroom to promote classroom-based dialogic interaction in mathematics lessons. It also implies a need for a longitudinal study to investigate suitable pedagogical designs for the use of CT for promoting knowledge transfer in learning challenging mathematics topics.