A drawing and multi-representational computer environment for beginners’ learning of programming using C: Design and pilot formative evaluation

This paper presents both the design and the pilot formative evaluation study of a computer-based problem-solving environment (named LECGO: Learning Environment for programming using C using Geometrical Objects) for the learning of computer programming using C by beginners. In its design, constructivist and social learning theories were taken into account. The general design has taken into consideration models of the learning process and subject matter as well as potential learner behaviour in dealing with fundamental tasks. The main emphasis has been placed on the role of: (a) multiple external representations in student learning, (b) motivation, through performing problem-solving activities taken from the familiar and meaningful context of drawing, using simple geometrical objects, (c) the active participation of students in their own learning by using hands-on experience, (d) appropriate feedback on the actions taken by students, to aid their self-correction, and (e) holistic, activity-based, multi-media, multi-representational and multi-layered content for the learning of basic concepts of programming using C. LECGO was pilot evaluated in the field through a qualitative and comparative study where nine 12th grade (18-year-old) students participated. In fact, students faced three similar yet not identical sets of four tasks across three learning environments, namely; paper and pencil (p–p), Turbo C and LECGO. The data emerging from this field evaluation study indicates that students gain better results within LECGO than in both the p–p environment and the typical programming environment of Turbo C, while performing similar activities.     

EcoMOBILE: Integrating augmented reality and probeware with environmental education field trips

Positioned in the context of situated learning theory, the EcoMOBILE project combines an augmented reality (AR) experience with use of environmental probeware during a field trip to a local pond environment. Activities combining these two technologies were designed to address ecosystem science learning goals for middle school students, and aid in their understanding and interpretation of water quality measurements. The intervention was conducted with five classes of sixth graders from a northeastern school district as a pilot study for the larger EcoMOBILE project, and included pre-field trip training, a field trip to a local pond environment, and post-field trip discussions in the classroom.During the field experience, students used mobile wireless devices with FreshAiR™, an augmented reality application, to navigate the pond environment and to observe virtual media and information overlaid on the physical pond. This AR experience was combined with probeware, in that students collected water quality measurements at designated AR hotspots during the experience. We studied the characteristics of learning and instruction using measures of student attitudes, content learning gains, and opinions teachers provided via written and verbal feedback. We observed gains in student affective measures and content understanding following the intervention. Teachers reported that the combined technologies promoted student interaction with the pond and with classmates in a format that was student-centered rather than teacher-directed. Teachers also reported that students demonstrated deeper understanding of the principles of water quality measurement than was typical on prior field trips without these technologies and that students had expanded opportunities to engage in activities that resemble scientific practice. Overall, results of the students' surveys and teacher feedback suggest that there are multiple benefits to using this suite of technologies for teaching and for learning.     

The Design and Assessment of a Proposed Library Training Unit for Education Graduate Students

This article presents the design and assessment of a proposed library training unit for education graduate students. A literature review of graduate students’ information-seeking behavior and training initiatives supports the selection of the course content as well as the assessment of student learning. In addition, research on behaviorist and constructivist learning theories and related instructional design strategies directed the development of the learning environment. The proposal represents a collaborative effort between an institution's librarian and a department faculty member in a required Ethics and Laws in Education class for beginning students. The objectives for the pilot project were to teach students how to use scholarly resources, to mirror the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Information Literacy Competencies, and to include hands-on database demonstrations as well as inquiry-based learning exercises. The learning environment supports students’ diverse learning styles and offers opportunities to utilize technology, underscoring its importance to information use and especially to libraries in the digital era.     

My‐Mini‐Pet: a handheld pet‐nurturing game to engage students in arithmetic practices

In the last decade, more and more games have been developed for handheld devices. Furthermore, the popularity of handheld devices and increase of wireless computing can be taken advantage of to provide students with more learning opportunities. Games also could bring promising benefits – specifically, motivating students to learn/play, sustaining their interest, reflecting their learning/playing status, and facilitating the learning/playing progress. However, most of these have been designed for entertainment rather than education. Hence, in this study we incorporate game elements into a learning environment. The My‐Mini‐Pet system is a handheld pet‐nurturing game environment, in which students learn with an animal learning companion, their My‐Mini‐Pet. Three design strategies are adopted. First, the pet‐nurturing strategy, which simulates the relationship between the pet and its owner, the My‐Mini‐Pet becomes a motivator/sustainer of learning. Second, the pet appearance‐changing strategy, which externalizes the learning status of the student. In other words, the My‐Mini‐Pet plays the role of a reflector. Third, the pet feedback strategy, which links the behaviours of the student and his/her pet, the My‐Mini‐Pet acts as a facilitator of learning. A pilot study was also conducted to preliminarily investigate the effectiveness and experiences of the strategies on allowing the student to understand arithmetic practices. The results showed that the strategy was effective, encouraging the students to engage in learning activities. Furthermore, the game attracted the students’ attention and stimulated discussion between peers. Some implications about the further developments are also discussed.     

基于WEB的知识分布式合作学习系统的设计与实现

基于WEB的教学系统正在流行,但多数局限于学生孤独地浏览网上教材,缺乏依靠网络而形成的同学之间相互讨论和经验分享,因而无法吸引学生上网学习,使用效果并不理想。文章提出了基于WEB平台的“知识分布式合作学习”的概念,它通过网络建立合作工作环境（CSCW）,形成虚拟的合作学习群体,促使教师与学生、学生与学生经验共享、信息交、讨论问题。文章介绍了该系统的设计与实现。     

《手机游戏开发》课程学习质量多元化过程评价的研究

本文以《手机游戏开发》课程为基础,为了全面提高游戏软件专业职业教育的教学质量和学生综合素质,就学生学习质量评价体系的建立提出了评价原则、设计了考核形式和相应操作方案,并在此基础上构建一套完整的测评软件系统,旨在通过网络在线的软件评测系统对学生学习质量进行全方位、多元化的评价,全面提高游戏软件专业职业教育的教学质量和学生综合素质,使本课程的学生学习质量评价体系能更全面、更科学和更合理。     

Comparing the effects of representational tools in collaborative and individual inquiry learning

Constructing a representation in which students express their domain understanding can help them improve their knowledge. Many different representational formats can be used to express one’s domain understanding (e.g., concept maps, textual summaries, mathematical equations). The format can direct students’ attention to specific aspects of the subject matter. For example, creating a concept map can emphasize domain concepts and forming equations can stress arithmetical aspects. The focus of the current study was to examine the role of tools for constructing domain representations in collaborative inquiry learning. The study was driven by three questions. First, what are the effects of collaborative inquiry learning with representational tools on learning outcomes? Second, does format have differential effects on domain understanding? And third, does format have differential effects on students’ inclination to construct a representation? A pre-test post-test design was applied with 61 dyads in a (face-to-face) collaborative learning setting and 95 students in an individual setting. The participants worked on a learning task in a simulation-based learning environment equipped with a representational tool. The format of the tool was either conceptual or arithmetical or textual. Our results show that collaborative learners outperform individuals, in particular with regard to intuitive knowledge and situational knowledge. In the case of individuals a positive relation was observed between constructing a representation and learning outcomes, in particular situational knowledge. In general, the effects of format could not be linked directly to learning outcomes, but marked differences were found regarding students’ inclination to use or not use specific formats.     

Productive use of learning resources in an online problem-based learning environment

This study examined students’ use of learning resources in a technologically-mediated online learning environment. Undergraduate student groups were engaged in an online problem-based learning (PBL) environment, rich with pre-selected video and knowledge resources. Quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that students accessed resources fairly frequently and benefited from them. Resources helped students construct a rich understanding of the problem and provided ideas for problem solutions. Detailed analyses of resource exploration along with contrasting case analyses between high-achieving and low-achieving student groups suggested that for learning to be effective in resource-rich environments, students first need to develop an understanding of the resources and learn how to access them efficiently. Second, students need to learn to process the contents of resources in meaningful ways so that they can integrate diverse resources to form a coherent understanding and apply them to solve problems. Finally, students need to develop knowledge and skills to use resources collaboratively, such as sharing and relating to each other’s resources. The results indicated that students, especially low-achieving students, need guidance to use resources effectively in resource-rich learning environments.     

基于工作过程系统化的动态网页设计课程重构

基于工作过程系统化的动态网页设计课程重构从学生就业岗位出发,将典型工作任务分析,转换成系列项目课程,通过学习情境的设置使学生掌握设计方法。课程模糊了理论教学与实践教学的界限,除对学生进行专业知识与技能的培训外,更加注重学生组织、合作、自主学习等关键能力的培养,本文对基于工作过程的课程重构进行了初步的探索。     

Facilitating application of language skills in authentic environments with a mobile learning system

We uncovered two critical issues in earlier studies: (a) some studies have shown that mobile learning technology is not beneficial for all students due to complexity of learning environments and student prior knowledge, skills, and experience and (b) familiarity of students with the authentic environments in which they learn using mobile technology did not receive much attention in earlier studies. To address these issues, we designed three learning tasks for a class of 26 junior high school students. The students applied language skills by completing the tasks in authentic environments individually in a first task, loosely collaborating with peers in a second task, and tightly collaborating with peers in a third task. A mobile learning system was also designed in this study to support students to accomplish the tasks. The aim of this study was to explore students' learning experiences using the learning system, their perceptions towards the system, and to assess how differently the students perform on the three tasks. According to our design, in the first task, the students took pictures of objects and described them orally or in writing using the mobile learning system. In the second task, after the students completed assignments, each student received comments from a partner through the system. In comments, the partner indicated flaws in student assignments and suggested how to fix them. In the third task, the students completed assignments, shared them using the system, and then exchanged comments with their partners face to face regarding issues related to their completed assignments and suggested how to improve them. Such learning behaviours in the three tasks enabled the students to practise writing and speaking skills. Our results demonstrate that most of the students highly valued our learning system and intend to use it in the future. Furthermore, the results show that the students performed best when they collaborated; namely, student performance was enhanced the most after the third task that required tight collaboration. Based on our results, we learned that students' familiarity with authentic environments is very important and beneficial for their learning. In addition, we learned that even in complex environment, less skilled and experienced students with low prior knowledge can perform well when they tightly collaborate with more skilled and experienced students with high prior knowledge, and our learning system can facilitate such collaboration.     

设计环境中共享学习机制的研究

设计是一个复杂的问题求解和逐步求精的过程。在计算机辅助设计系统中,从设计范例中学习设计知识可以有效地改善设计系统。文中分析了设计与学习活动之间的关系,提出了一种设计的学习模型及具有归纳学习机制的设计Agent的结构框架,介绍了知识表示和学习算法,及一个支持设计环境中共享学习的多Agnet系统。     

A learning environment for the conservation of area and its measurement: a computer microworld

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a microworld as a possible learning environment for the concept of conservation of area and its measurement. This microworld is the result of the synthesis of three models. The first is the model of the subject matter. The second is a model of children's sensory-motor actions while they face specific measurement tasks. The third is a model of learning viewed as an active, subjective and constructive process. All these models are enriched by the features of the electronic media which have an impact on the children's cognitive development. The modelling is the result of the study of past research in the above areas but also reflects the designers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics, its teaching and learning, and about the ways that computers can be used in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The requirements for the design of the software emerged from the educational requirements defined as a result of the modelling. The aim of this microworld is to provide the students with a set of tools to create their own objects (shapes) and transform or compare them using measurement or conservation concepts. The rationale of the design of this computer environment and an analysis of its main features are presented. Finally, the design of the pilot study of evaluation of the microworld is presented and the results of this study are discussed.     

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.     

A cloud-based learning environment for developing student reflection abilities

Students learn new knowledge effectively through relevant reflection. Reflection affects how students interact with learning materials. Studies have found that good reflection abilities allow students to attain better learning motivation, comprehension, and performance. Thus, it is important to help students develop and strengthen their reflection abilities as this can enable them to engage learning materials in a meaningful manner. Face-to-face dialectical conversations are often used by instructors to facilitate student reflection. However, such conventional reflection methods are usually only usable in classroom environments, and could not be adopted for distance learning or after class. Cloud computing could be used to solve this issue. Instructor guidance and prompting for initiating reflection could be seamlessly delivered to the students’ digital devices via cloud services. Thus, instructors would be able to facilitate student reflective activities even when outside the classroom. To achieve this objective, this study proposed a cloud-based reflective learning environment to assist instructors and students in developing and strengthening reflection ability during and after actual class sessions. An additional experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in an industrial course. Results show that the learning environment developed by this study is able to effectively facilitate student reflection abilities and enhance their learning motivation.     

Design of adaptive hypermedia learning systems: A cognitive style approach

In the past decade, a number of adaptive hypermedia learning systems have been developed. However, most of these systems tailor presentation content and navigational support solely according to students’ prior knowledge. On the other hand, previous research suggested that cognitive styles significantly affect student learning because they refer to how learners process and organize information. To this end, the study presented in this paper developed an adaptive hypermedia learning system tailored to students’ cognitive styles, with an emphasis on Pask’s Holist–Serialist dimension. How students react to this adaptive hypermedia learning system, including both learning performance and perceptions, was examined in this study. Forty-four undergraduate and postgraduate students participated in the study. The findings indicated that, in general, adapting to cognitive styles improves student learning. The results also showed that the adaptive hypermedia learning system have more effects on students’ perceptions than performance. The implications of these results for the design of adaptive hypermedia learning systems are discussed.     

Web-based museum trails on PDAs for university-level design students: Design and evaluation

This paper describes the development and evaluation of web-based museum trails for university-level design students to access on handheld devices in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. The trails offered students a range of ways of exploring the museum environment and collections, some encouraging students to interpret objects and museum spaces in lateral and imaginative ways, others more straightforwardly providing context and extra information. In a three-stage qualitative evaluation programme, student feedback showed that overall the trails enhanced students’ knowledge of, interest in, and closeness to the objects. However, the trails were only partially successful from a technological standpoint due to device and network problems. Broader findings suggest that technology has a key role to play in helping to maintain the museum as a learning space which complements that of universities as well as schools.     

Effects of an ontology display with history representation on organizational memory information systems

Ontologies, as a possible element of organizational memory information systems, appear to support organizational learning. Ontology tools can be used to share knowledge among the members of an organization. However, current ontology-viewing user interfaces of ontology tools do not fully support organizational learning, because most of them lack proper history representation in their display. In this study, a conceptual model was developed that emphasized the role of ontology in the organizational learning cycle and explored the integration of history representation in the ontology display. Based on the experimental results from a split-plot design with 30 participants, two conclusions were derived: first, appropriately selected history representations in the ontology display help users to identify changes in the ontologies; and second, compatibility between types of ontology display and history representation is more important than ontology display and history representation in themselves.     

Mathematical model and simulated annealing algorithm for Chinese high school timetabling problems under the new curriculum innovation

As the first attempt,this paper proposes a model for the Chinese high school timetabling problems(CHSTPs)under the new curriculum innovation which was launched in 2011 by the Chine6e government.Aooording 10 the new our riculum innovation,students in high school can choose subjects that they are interested in instead of being forced to select one of the two study directions,namely,Science and Liberal Arts.Meanwhile,they also need to attend compulsory subjects as traditions.CHSTPs are student-oriented and involve more student constraints that make them more complex than the typi-cal"Class-Teacher model",in which the element"Teacher"is the primary constraint.In this paper,we first describe in detail the mathematical model of CHSTPs and then design a new two-part representation for the candidate solution.Based on the new representation,we adopt a two-phase simulated annealing(SA)algorithm to solve CHSTPs.A total number of 45 synthetic instances with different amounts of classes,teachers,and levels of student constraints are generated and used to ilustrate the characteristics of the CHSTP model and the effectiveness of the designed representation and algorithm.Finally,we apply the proposed model,the designed two-part representation and the two-phase SA on10 real high schools.     

网络环境下大学生的自主学习模式探究

计算机网络的蓬勃发展为学生的自主学习提供了前所未有的技术支持,该文论述了网络环境下学生自主学习的内涵、理论依据及传统的教学模式存在许多弊端。随着数字化校园建设的飞速发展,网上自主学习就成了解决这些弊端的最有效的方法。并对网络环境下学生自主学习模式进行了初步的探讨。因为它有利于学生开展自主学习、合作学习和研究性学习,能实现教学评价的实时化,直接影响学生的全面发展。     

Mobile learning technology based on iOS devices to support students with special education needs

Students with special education have difficulties to develop cognitive abilities and acquire new knowledge. They could also need to improve their behavior, communication and relationships with their environment. The development of customizable and adaptable applications tailored to them provides many benefits as it helps mold the learning process to different cognitive, sensorial or mobility impairments. We have devised a mobile platform (based on iPad and iPod touch devices), called Picaa and designed to cover the main phases of the learning process: preparation, use and evaluation. It includes four kinds of educational activities (Exploration, Association, Puzzle and Sorting), which can be personalized by educators at content and user interface levels through a design mainly centered on student requirements, whose user profiles can also be adapted. We have performed a pre-experimental study about the use of Picaa by 39 students with special education needs from Spain, including an evaluation based on pre/post testing. The use of the learning platform Picaa is associated with positive effects in the development of learning skills for children who have special educational needs, observing that the basic skills (language, math, environmental awareness, autonomy and social) have been improved. Besides, in many cases they have the opportunity to perform activities that previously were not accessible to them, because of the interface and contents of the activities have been adapted specifically to them. The study also suggests that the repertoire of types of activities provided is suitable for learning purposes with students with impairments. Finally, the use of electronic devices and multimedia contents increases their interest in learning and attention.