Effects of an integrated concept mapping and web-based problem-solving approach on students' learning achievements,perceptions and cognitive loads

Although students could effectively search for web data with proper keywords and select web pages related to the studied core issue, however summarizing or organizing the retrieved information remains a difficult task for them. Concept mapping is known to be an effective knowledge construction tool for helping learners organize important concepts related to a core issue. To address the problem, an integrated concept mapping and web-based problem-solving environment, CM-Quest, has been developed; moreover, an experiment has been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach on students' learning performance, learning satisfaction and cognitive load in an elementary school social studies course. The results show that the concept map-integrated approach can significantly enhance the students' web-based problem-solving performance, although the students showed lower degrees of technology acceptance and learning satisfaction in comparison with the conventional web-based problem-solving approach. Moreover, it is found that the students in the concept mapping group revealed higher cognitive loads than those in the control group, which could be the factor contributing to the lower technology acceptance degree and learning satisfaction. As a consequence, it is concluded that the integrated concept mapping and web-based problem-solving approach is helpful to students in guiding them to learn in a more effective way. On the other hand, it remains an open issue to find a suitable way of integrating concept maps into the learning process without introducing too much extra cognitive load so as to promote students' acceptance degree of using technology for better learning.     

Students’ performance and satisfaction with Web vs. paper-based practice quizzes and lecture notes

The use of computers to deliver course-related materials is rapidly expanding in most universities. Yet the effects of computer vs. printed delivery modes on students’ performance and motivation are not yet fully known. We compared the impacts of Web vs. paper to deliver practice quizzes that require information search in lecture notes. Hundred and twenty two undergraduate students used either a web site or printed documents to answer 18 mathematics questions during a tutored session. A revised Web site was designed based on ergonomic criteria, to test the hypothesis that improved usability would decrease time spent on the task, the number of pages consulted, and students’ perceived cognitive load. The group working with printed documents had the highest performance. Furthermore, students perceived the paper materials as less effortful to read, and expressed preference for printing lecture notes and questions. However, students appreciated having a Web site available. No differences were found between the two sites. We conclude that Web delivery imposed higher perceived cognitive load due to the need to read lengthy documents. We suggest possible ways to improve Web-based practice materials, such as simultaneous display of questions and lecture notes.     

A concept map-embedded educational computer game for improving students' learning performance in natural science courses

Many recent studies have reported the benefits of educational computer games in promoting students' learning motivations. On the other hand, however, the effect of digital game-based learning in improving students' learning performance has been questioned. Several previous studies have reported that without properly integrating learning strategies into gaming scenarios, the effectiveness of educational computer games could be limited, or may be even worse than that of the conventional technology-enhanced learning approach. In this study, a concept map-embedded gaming approach is proposed for developing educational computer games by integrating concept mapping as part of the gaming scenarios to help students organize what they have learned during the game-based learning process. Moreover, a role-playing game has been developed for an elementary school natural science course based on the proposed approach. From the experimental results, it is found that the concept map-embedded gaming approach can significantly improve the students' learning achievement and decrease their cognitive load. Moreover, the students who learned with the proposed approach revealed a significantly higher degree of perceived usefulness than those who learned with the conventional game-based learning approach.     

Exploring regulatory processes during a computer-supported collaborative learning task using process mining

The purpose of this study was to explore sequences of social regulatory processes during a computer-supported collaborative learning task and their relationship to group performance. Analogous to self-regulation during individual learning, we conceptualized social regulation both as individual and as collaborative activities of analyzing, planning, monitoring and evaluating cognitive and motivational aspects during collaborative learning. We analyzed the data of 42 participants working together in dyads. They had 90 min to develop a common handout on a statistical topic while communicating only via chat and common editor. The log files of chat and editor were coded regarding activities of social regulation. Results show that participants in dyads with higher group performance (N = 20) did not differ from participants with lower group performance (N = 22) in the frequencies of regulatory activities. In an exploratory way, we used process mining to identify process patterns for high versus low group performance dyads. The resulting models show clear parallels between high and low achieving dyads in a double loop of working on the task, monitoring, and coordinating. Moreover, there are no major differences in the process of high versus low achieving dyads. Both results are discussed with regard to theoretical and empirical issues. Furthermore, the method of process mining is discussed.     

Web-based Personalised System of Instruction: An effective approach for diverse cohorts with virtual learning environments?

The Personalised System of Instruction is a form of mastery learning which, though it has been proven to be educationally effective, has never seriously challenged the dominant lecture-tutorial teaching method in higher education and has largely fallen into disuse. An information and communications technology assisted version of the Personalised System of Instruction using a virtual learning environment is promoted here based on the authors’ longitudinal design research into this pedagogy. The particular elements of the virtual learning environment which are promoted are short video clips, online formative tests and an assessment management system. The authors present their experiences of developing and deploying this pedagogy for the teaching of introductory discrete mathematics to large classes of Computer Science students at two UK higher education institutions both with whole cohorts and ‘at risk’ groups of students. In particular, this method is promoted as particularly helpful to students who do not adopt a deep approach to learning as many students fail to do. Moreover ‘at risk’ students using this method (n = 71) demonstrated an average Glass effect size of 0.83 compared with other ‘at risk’ students who did not (n = 35). Based on these experiences, this pedagogy is promoted as an effective approach to teaching in higher education, especially the teaching of cognitive skills to diverse cohorts of students on foundation level modules.     

Individual and group-based learning from complex cognitive tasks: Effects on retention and transfer efficiency

The effects of individual versus group learning (in triads) on efficiency of retention and transfer test performance in the domain of biology (heredity) among 70 high-school students were investigated. Applying cognitive load theory, the limitations of the working memory capacity at the individual level were considered an important reason to assign complex learning tasks to groups rather than to individuals. It was hypothesized that groups will have more processing capacity available for relating the information elements to each other and by doing so for constructing higher quality cognitive schemata than individuals if the high cognitive load imposed by complex learning tasks could be shared among group members. In contrast, it was expected that individuals who learn from carrying out the same complex tasks would need all available processing capacity for remembering the interrelated information elements, and, consequently, would not be able to allocate resources to working with them. This interaction hypothesis was confirmed by the data on efficiency of retention and transfer test performance; there was a favorable relationship between mental effort and retention test performance for the individual learners as opposed to a favorable relationship between transfer test performance and mental effort for the students who learned in groups.     

Automatic performance evaluation of printed Chinese character recognition systems

Performance evaluation is crucial for improving the performance of OCR systems. However, this is trivial and sophisticated work to do by hand. Therefore, we have developed an automatic performance evaluation system for a printed Chinese character recognition (PCCR) system. Our system is characterized by using real-world data as test data and automatically obtaining the performance of the PCCR system by comparing the correct text and the recognition result of the document image. In addition, our performance evaluation system also provides some evaluation of performance for the segmentation module, the classification module, and the post-processing module of the PCCR system. For this purpose, a segmentation error-tolerant character-string matching algorithm is proposed to obtain the correspondence between the correct text and the recognition result. The experiments show that our performance evaluation system is an accurate and powerful tool for studying deficiencies in the PCCR system. Although our approach is aimed at the PCCR system, the idea also can be applied to other OCR systems.     

A hybrid approach to promoting students’ web-based problem-solving competence and learning attitude

Fostering problem-solving abilities has long been recognized as an important issue in education; however, past studies have shown that it is difficult and challenging to find effective learning strategies or tools for improving students’ problem-solving abilities. To cope with this problem, in this study, a hybrid approach that integrates the cognitive apprenticeship model with the collaborative learning strategy is proposed for conducting web-based problem-solving activities. Students’ problem-solving performance is examined in such a hybrid learning context. Furthermore, past studies indicate that cognitive load could affect learners’ performance; thus, the influence of cognitive load on students’ problem-solving effectiveness with this new approach is investigated in depth. The experimental results show that middle- and low-achievement students in the experimental group gained significant benefits from the hybrid approach in comparison with those who learned with the traditional approach. Accordingly, a discussion of how to accommodate the needs of different learning ability groups is provided.     

A creative thinking approach to enhancing the web-based problem solving performance of university students

Along with the advancement of information and communication technology, researchers have pointed out the necessity and challenges of developing effective instructional strategies to enhance students' web-based problem-solving performance, which refers to the ability of investigating a series of related problems via searching for, abstracting and summarizing information on the web. In this study, a creative thinking strategy is proposed to cope with this problem. Moreover, an experiment was conducted on 80 freshmen from two classes of a university to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The experimental results show that the proposed approach improved the students' web-based problem solving performance in comparison with the conventional approach in terms of “problem finding” and “idea finding.” Moreover, it was found that the proposed approach could improve the “fact finding” performance of the students with intuitive-type cognitive style. Accordingly, some implications and suggestions are given for educators who attempt to conduct web-based problem-solving activity.     

Robust digital control approach for high performance tunneling current measurement system

This paper is devoted to the digital control system design for high performance measurement of tunneling current. A common approach for such applications is to use a conventional Proportional Integral (PI) control. In this paper, a robust digital design method is instead considered, based on combined pole placement with sensitivity function shaping, and allowing for better performance tuning in terms of precision, robustness and disturbance rejection. The resulting control scheme looks like some enhanced PID controller, and is validated over an experimental setup, developed in GIPSA-lab (Grenoble Image Parole Signal Automatique) research center. The corresponding simulation and experimental results show improved performances with respect to those obtained with the more conventional PI control technique.     

Learning physics with a computer algebra system

Abstract   To become proficient problem-solvers, physics students need to form a coherent and flexible understanding of problem situations with which they are confronted. Still, many students have only a limited representation of the problems on which they are working. Therefore, an instructional approach was devised to promote students' understanding of these problems and to support them in forming associations between problem features and solution methods. The approach was based on using the computer algebra software Mathematica as a tool for problem solving and visualisation. An electrostatics course module was implemented based on this instructional approach, and this module was compared with a usual paper-and-pencil based one. Learning outcomes for both courses were not significantly different. The experimental course was found to impose a high cognitive load on the students. Based on the outcomes, proposals are made for ways in which the course could be improved.     

A prompt-based annotation approach to conducting mobile learning activities for architecture design courses

In this study, a prompt-based annotation approach is proposed for developing mobile learning systems for architecture design courses. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted by assigning 56 freshmen randomly to an experimental group and a control group. The students in the experimental group adopted the mobile learning approach with a prompt-based annotation strategy, while those in the control group learned with the conventional in-field instruction and annotations. From the experimental results, it was found that the proposed prompt-based annotation strategy not only promoted the students' self-efficacy, but also improved their learning achievements. In the meantime, it is interesting to find that the experimental group students had medium cognitive load during the field trip, while the control group had rather low cognitive load. This implies that the prompt-based annotation approach engaged the students in mobile learning tasks with reasonable challenges and efforts.     

Development of an adaptive learning system with two sources of personalization information

Previous research of adaptive learning mainly focused on improving student learning achievements based only on single-source of personalization information, such as learning style, cognitive style or learning achievement. In this paper, an innovative adaptive learning approach is proposed by basing upon two main sources of personalization information, that is, learning behavior and personal learning style. To determine the initial learning styles of the students, the [Keefe, J. W. (1987). Learning Styles: Theory and Practice. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.] questionnaire is employed in our approach. To more precisely reflect the learning behaviors of each student, the interactions and learning results of each student are analyzed when adjusting the subject materials. Based on the innovative approach, an adaptive learning system has been developed; moreover, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of our approach. By analyzing the results from three groups of students using different adaptive learning approaches, it can be found that the innovative approach is helpful in improving both the learning achievement and learning efficiency of individual students.     

航空发动机试验舱应力分析和强度设计

针对航空发动机试验舱结构和载荷复杂、常规计算很难做到精确的强度设计和进行疲劳分析的问题,对某航空发动机大型试验舱进行有限元数值模拟,分析不同工况下的应力大小和分布,并依据压力容器设计标准进行强度评定。为保证试验舱的密封性和结构完整性,研究试验舱变形和外压失稳,并对结构薄弱位置进行改造。结果表明,在不同工况下,改造后航空发动机试验舱的强度、变形和稳定性均满足要求。     

A cognitive component analysis approach for developing game-based spatial learning tools

Spatial ability has been recognized as one of the most important factors affecting the mathematical performance of students. Previous studies on spatial learning have mainly focused on developing strategies to shorten the problem-solving time of learners for very specific learning tasks. Such an approach usually has limited effects on improving the mathematical performance of students. In this study, a cognitive analysis approach is proposed for developing spatial learning tools by taking game characteristics into consideration. Moreover, the validation of the cognitive components of the spatial sense test for constructing two different kinds of intervention is verified, and the effects of the interventions are compared. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted on the mathematics course of an elementary school. The experimental results show that the spatial learning tool promotes not only the learning achievement, but also the spatial sense of the students.     

AMOLED displays with transfer‐printed integrated circuits

Abstract— Small integrated circuits of crystalline silicon (chiplets) transfer‐printed onto a flat‐panel‐display substrate provide greatly improved electrical performance and uniformity in active‐matrix organic light‐emitting‐diode (OLED) displays. The integrated circuits are formed in high‐performance crystalline silicon using conventional photolithographic processes and then transfer‐printed onto a substrate using a stamp that transfers hundreds or thousands of chiplets at once. The chiplets are connected to an external controller and to pixel elements using conventional photolithographic substrate processing methods. Active‐matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays using transfer‐printed chiplets have good yields, excellent uniformity, and electrical performance and are thermally robust.     

A QFD-enabled product conceptualisation approach via design knowledge hierarchy and RCE neural network

In this paper, an approach that attempts to improve conventional quality function deployment (QFD) technique in terms of effective design knowledge handling in product concept development is proposed and described. For this purpose, a QFD-enabled product conceptualisation system was established. It consists of three cohesively interacting modules, namely, design knowledge elicitation module using laddering technique, design knowledge representation module using design knowledge hierarchy (DKH), and design knowledge organisation module using restricted Coulomb energy (RCE) neural network. A case study on wood golf club design was used to illustrate the performance of the proposed approach. From the case study, the prototype QFD-enabled product conceptualisation system has demonstrated its effectiveness in design knowledge acquisition, representation and organisation at an early stage of NPD. The details of the validation are discussed.     

Differential impact of unguided versus guided use of a multimedia introduction to equine obstetrics in veterinary education

In view of supporting the study of the complex domain of equine obstetrics, a FoalinMare multimedia package with 3D designs has been developed. The present study centers on questions as to the most optimal implementation of the multimedia package in veterinary education. In a pretest-posttest cross-over design, students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Experimental conditions varied - next to a traditional lecture based introduction to equine obstetrics - from independent exploration of the FoalinMare DVD, to independent guided DVD usage, to guided classroom usage of the DVD. As dependent measures, student mastery of knowledge and skills, cognitive load and self-efficacy were measured. Results point at the significant superior impact of studying with the FoalinMare DVD on skills acquisition and higher levels of self-efficacy. In addition, experimental conditions that build on guided usage of the multimedia application, result in superior performance. Building on the cross-over design, the guided classroom usage boosts in a significant way the knowledge acquisition in the subsequent learning phase in the control condition. Building on these results, implications and directions for future research are presented.     

Advancing young adolescents’ hypothesis-development performance in a computer-supported and problem-based learning environment

Hypothesis development is a complex cognitive activity, but one that is critical as a means of reducing uncertainty during ill-structured problem solving. In this study, we examined the effect of metacognitive scaffolds in strengthening hypothesis development. We also examined the influence of hypothesis development on young adolescents’ problem-solving performance. Data was collected from sixth-grade students (N = 172) using a computer-supported problem-based learning environment, Animal Investigator. The findings of the study indicated that participants using metacognitive scaffolds developed significantly better hypotheses and that hypothesis-development performance was predictive of solution-development performance. This article discusses further educational implications of the findings and future research.