Implementing Blended Learning for 1000 Mechanical Engineering Students
The module Techniques of Programming of the RWTH Aachen University is one of five case studies within the EU funded project Blend-XL – Finding a Balance in Blended Learning with eXtra Large Students Groups. During the project the module changed from a face-to-face module into a blended learning one. Therefore a blended learning concept has been developed which includes a special virtual learning environment. With the help of the blended learning concept the main problem areas of this module, th
Important Ornaments: The Impact of Graphics and Rule Systems on Academic Wiki Use
Collaborative websites, or wikis, are being used in the classroom to recruit user attention and to disseminate information [1). These wikis place a heavy emphasis on text, while generally neglecting graphics. Little to no research has examined the impact of this textual approach. This paper examines the use of graphics and rule systems as motivating tools in academic wikis. It reports the results of a 6 month long experiment involving 21 10th and 11th grade users to determine the impact of diffe
Changing the Education Culture through Technology
Technology has a potentially rich, but largely unrealised, role in teaching and learning. This role is defined variously by what the teacher has available, has had time to learn, or can find an appropriate use for, and by what students have access to, are familiar with, and are willing to use. In all of these ways, technology usually plays an adjunct role to others, more traditional modalities for teaching and learning, including lecture, laboratory, library, textbook, tutorial, and practicum.
Conceptions de protocoles expérimentaux pour comprendre l'actualité sur le SIDA
The « sidaction » organised in march, show AIDS is always an actual subject. Students’conceptions on this subject are not often scientific and stop them to decode media’s informations. During a labwork, experimented in classes of « terminale scientifique », students will show that the antibodies’ combination with antigens is due to two molecules’ spatial complementarity.
Constructive and Collaborative Learning Environments - What Functions are Left for User Modelling an
With constructive and collaborative learning environments being current trends in tutoring systems, the function of user modelling and intelligent support is not as well-defined as in traditional intelligent tutoring systems. For practical solutions, there tend to remain only some niches for the application of intelligent components. To investigate the practicability of intelligent functions, we have build a framework architecture that allows for the implementation of self-contained constructive
Analysis and Intelligent Support of Learning Communities in Semi-structured Discussion Environments
Conventional discussion environments provide the technical platform for distributed discussion and collaboration, but apart from some statistical data collected, rarely provide information about the collaborative interactions taking place within the environement or even support the discussion by stimulating the learning setting according to the current situation. In this article we present our approach for intelligent support of groups of learners in distributed web-based discussion environments
CSCL Scripts: Modelling Features and Potential Use
The design of collaboration scripts is a new focus of research within the CSCL community. In order to support the design, communication, analysis, simulation and even execution of collaboration scripts, a general specification language to describe collaboration scripts is needed. In this paper, we analyse the suitability and limitations of IMS LD for modelling collaborative learning processes. Based on the analysis, we propose a CSCL scripting language. This paper presents the conceptual framewo
Facilitating collaborative knowledge construction in computer-mediated learning with structuring too
Collaborative knowledge construction in computer-mediated learning environments puts forward difficulties regarding what tasks learners work on and how learners interact with each other. For instance, learners who collaboratively construct knowledge in computer-mediated learning environments sometimes do not participate actively or engage in off-task talk. Computer-mediated learning environments can be endorsed with sociocognitive structuring tools that structure the contents to be learned and s
Cooperation scripts for learning via web-based discussion boards and videoconferencing
Computer-supported collaborative learning often means that locally distant learners discuss a task via text-based discussion boards or videoconferencing. Collaborative learning, however, is often suboptimal with respect to how learners work on the concepts that are supposed to be learned and how learners interact with each other. Collaborative learning environments may be improved by scripts that structure epistemic activities and social interactions of learners. Two studies are being reported t
Using the Internet to Improve University Education: Problem-oriented Web-based Learning with MUNICS
A principled approach to the design of problem-oriented, web-based learning at the university level is presented. The principles include providing authentic contexts with multimedia, supporting collaborative knowledge construction, making thinking visible with dynamic visualisation, quick access to content resources via ICT, and flexible support by tele-tutoring. These principles are used in the MUNICS learning environment, which is designed to help students of computer science to apply their co
Using Interaction Analysis to reveal Self-Regulated
Learning in Virtual Communities
Aim of this paper is to analyse whether Interaction Analysis can help
investigate the practice and development of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) in Virtual Learning Communities (VLC). Interaction analysis is increasingly used to study learning dynamics within online activities. It proceeds by searching expressions that reveal the aspects under study in the written messages exchanged by the learners. To this end, we devised and classified a number of indicators suggesting the existence of self-re
Computer literacy and inquiry learning: when geeks learn less
A low level of computer literacy has often been hypothesized as constituting a disadvantage in knowledge acquisition. However, within the field of computer-supported inquiry learning systematic investigations of these purported relations have not been conducted. This classroom study investigates the role of computer literacy (procedural computer-related knowledge, self-confidence in using the computer, and familiarity with computers) as a learning prerequisite for knowledge acquisition, and anal
Quelles machines pour enseigner la langue ?
This paper first presents a history of Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL), setting its origins in the 1920s with the invention of mechanical learning machines. The use of the computer then allowed the development of different types of language learning activities: comprehension tasks, simulations, etc. However, without the contribution of natural language processing (NLP), these activities are of limited use. We address the problem of the integration of NLP in CALL systems while summing up the cha
Innovative pedagogical and psychological perspectives of podcasts
Podcasting, being a new form of audio distribution offering the possibility to be loaded on personal mobile devices from teachersÂ’, studentÂ’, universityÂ’s websites and blogs, is discussed as an activity with potential in learning and teaching. The existing and potential varieties of podcasts represent sources for learning, converging, socializing. In this paper, podcasting is supported as an innovative approach to stimulate university studentsÂ’ reflection, specifically on epistemic quest
Reducing cognitive load and fostering cognitive skill acquisition: Benefits of category-avoiding exa
In this paper, we provide evidence against the common idea that worked examples should be designed to convey problem categories and category-specific solution procedures. Instead we propose that instructional examples should be designed in a way that supports the understanding of relations between structural problem features and individual solution steps, i.e. relations that hold below the category level. We illustrate in the domain of probability word problems how category-avoiding instructiona
Computer Software Support for Collaborative Learning
In this chapter, we discuss two approaches to supporting collaborative learning activities in higher education through technological means: structuring and regulating collaboration. Structuring approaches aim to create favorable conditions for learning by designing and scripting the situation before the interaction begins. They attempt to define the structure of the learning experience by varying the characteristics of the participants (e.g. the size and composition of the group, or definition a
Training strategies and knowledge acquisition: Using the same reflective tools for different purpose
The Emma educational system embodies a Knowledge Based System (KBS) that models a problem-solving method defined at an abstract level. In order to allow different explicit problem-solvings, the KBS is based on a Task-Method modelisation. The objectives of this paper are (1) to explain how we take advantage of the flexibility provided by the modelisation by using analysis-modules that can study what the influence of the student's propositions on the rest of the solving is; (2) to highlight that e
Structural Awareness for Collaborative Learning Environments
In this paper we propose a peer-to-peer support approach that we call structural awareness support. The structural awareness aims to support the communication that takes place in virtual learning communities. Its emphasis is on revealing the group structure to its participants in order to promote collaborative interactions. This support has been implemented on a forum type tool called Mailgroup. It has been tested twice in different contexts, obtaining initial feedback of its pertinence accordin
ΜελÎτη των μεταγνωσιακών και συνεÏγατικών χαÏακτηÏισÏ
A learning environment for the Teaching of the Natural Sciences in the 6th grade of Primary school will be presented. The learning environment combines the use of new technologies with collaborative learning. It has been based on general learning principles derived from research on the fields of Psychology and Physics Education. The effects of the learning environment on the studentsÂ’ cognitive, metacognitive and cooperative performance have been thoroughly studied through the use of various me
Using visualizations to teach problem-solving skills in mathematics: Which kind of visualization wor
In the experiment described in this paper we investigated the effects of different kinds of computer-based visualizations on the acquisition of problem-solving skills in the domain of probability theory. Learners received either purely text-based worked examples, text plus an instruction to mentally imagine the examplesÂ’ contents, or they could retrieve either static pictures or concrete animations that depicted the problem statement and the problem states achieved by applying a specific solut
