7,094 research outputs found

    Dynamic group formation in mobile computer supported collaborative learning environment

    Get PDF
    Forming suitable learning groups is one of the factors that determine the efficiency of collaborative learning activities. However, only a few studies were carried out to address this problem in the mobile learning environments. In this paper, we propose a new approach for an automatic, customized, and dynamic group formation in Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (MCSCL) contexts. The proposed solution is based on the combination of three types of grouping criteria: learner’s personal characteristics, learner’s behaviours, and context information. The instructors can freely select the type, the number, and the weight of grouping criteria, together with other settings such as the number, the size, and the type of learning groups (homogeneous or heterogeneous). Apart from a grouping mechanism, the proposed approach represents a flexible tool to control each learner, and to manage the learning processes from the beginning to the end of collaborative learning activities. In order to evaluate the quality of the implemented group formation algorithm, we compare its Average Intra-cluster Distance (AID) with the one of a random group formation method. The results show a higher effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in forming homogenous and heterogeneous groups compared to the random method.(undefined

    The Relationship Between Game Art Students’ Achievement and Their Perceived Quality of Assessment

    Get PDF
    The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, predictive correlational study is to analyze the relationship between Game Art students’ perceptions of quality of assessment practices in higher education and their achievement of learning. Assessment in higher education has become increasingly significant due to accreditation and regulatory requirements around accountability of student outcomes. Institutions must commit a high level of resources toward appropriate assessment practices in order to answer tough questions about the value of higher education. This work has been met with adversity by students and educators, often resulting in overextended departments and poor-quality assessment practices. Questions pertaining to the benefits of assessment are normal on college campuses. Of particular concern is the influence of assessment on students, particularly game art students whose work is more complex to assess. This study included a convenience sample of 70 undergraduate game art students from a small art college in Southern California. Perception of assessment was measured via the Students’ Perceptions of Assessment Quality Questionnaire survey and achievement of learning was measured via the results of advancement portfolio reviews completed by faculty. Multiple regression analysis results concluded the overall model was significant, therefore the null hypothesis was rejected at the 95% confidence level. Two predictors (effectiveness of assessment and conditions of assessment) were significant, two (fairness of assessment and authenticity of assessment) were trending toward significance, and two (interpretation of assessment and credibility of assessment) were not significant. This study supports that there is a predictive relationship between Game Art students’ perceptions of quality of assessment practices in higher education and their achievement of learning, building a foundation for further research. Findings imply that if assessment practices are designed to elicit more positive student perceptions, achievement of learning outcomes will improve

    Effects of writing to learn in pre-calculus mathematics on achievement and affective outcomes for students in a community college setting: a mixed methods approach

    Get PDF
    2011 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.The intent of this study was to explore an intervention, Writing to Learn, within a college level mathematics course and examine how Writing to Learn Mathematics as an assessment tool in Trigonometry relates to overall achievement and self-reflection with respect to learning mathematics. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence and determine the effect such an intervention had on undergraduate students' academic achievement as well as their mathematic conceptual growth and metacognitive growth. This study employed a mixed method approach using a qualitative study design element with emphasis on template analysis and was supported with inferential statistics from a cross-over study design implemented in a concurrent and parallel format. The quantitative portion of the study examined differences in students' exam scores for the portion of the course where students experienced Writing to Learn Mathematics versus the portion of the course where students did not experienced Writing to Learn Mathematics to determine if writing had an effect on students' performance on exams. While the results from the quantitative portion of the study were not statistically significant, effect sizes indicated a small effect. Paralleling the quantitative phase, the qualitative portion of the study utilized an approach referred to as Template Analysis to reveal the nature of students' individual metacognitive functioning and changes that occurred during the course of this study as students utilized various writing activities which engaged students in individual reflective writing as part of the course. The initial, a priori, codes were modify, expanded, and revised to reveal three themes focused on metacognitive transformations: changes as a learner, reflections and writing, and value of writing. While there were inconsistencies between results due to different methodological approaches in data collection, information that may otherwise have been overlooked was available. The integration of results revealed many students made significant changes in approaches to learning and also made deep and meaningful conceptual connections as a result of Writing to Learn Mathematics. It also was apparent writing in mathematics and about mathematics encouraged students to reflect on what they were learning and facilitated meaningful connections about content and themselves as learners

    Using students’ learning style to create effective learning groups in MCSCL environments

    Get PDF
    Students have different ways for learning and processing information. Some students prefer learning through seeing while others prefer learning through listening; some students prefer doing activities while other prefer reflecting.Some students reason logically, while others reason intuitively, etc. Identifying the learning style of each student, and providing learning content based on these styles represents a good method to enhance the learning quality. However, there are no efforts onhow to detect the students’ learning styles in mobile computer supported collaborative learning (MCSCL) environments. We present in this paper new ways for automatically detecting the learning styles of students in MCSCL environments based on the learning style model of Felder-Silverman. The identified learning styles of students could be then stored and used at anytime toassign each one of them to his/her appropriate learning group

    Preparing ESL students for university level writing : the influence of using an electronic portfolio as a learning tool on ESL students' writing motivation and perforrmance

    Get PDF
    Thousands of English as a Second Language students in Western universities strive to meet the daily challenge of preparing written assignments. These texts need to comply with the demands and preferences of their university lecturers with regard to clarity of meaning, the logical flow of ideas and the use of an academic vocabulary. However, a characteristic of ESL students’ written work is a weakness of content and a lack of logical organisation of their ideas (Roberts and Cimasko 2008). In many intensive English language programmes, students are taught to use the process-writing approach, the success of which is related to how it is perceived and introduced to the students (Lefkowitz 2009). Atkinson (2003) emphasised that the process-writing approach perceives writing to be a cognitive process that is highly private or individualistic, where writers use specific cognitive phases, such as pre-writing, drafting, and revising, to generate their text. However, writing has been increasingly recognized as a socially and culturally situated activity connecting people with each other in ways that carry particular social meanings (Hyland 2003). Despite this view of writing as a social act, Lefkowitz (2009) claimed that many English Language Programme Centres (ELPCs) superficially implement process-writing in class by aiding students in revising their essays to achieve grammatical accuracy; however the generation, formation and revision of ideas are considered to be of less importance. This study investigates the use of an electronic portfolio (TaskStream e-portfolio) in an ESL writing course as a tool to support students as they work through the key phases of the writing process. The aim was to help them adopt a consistent approach to their writing practice (self-consistency), to encourage a positive view of the value and importance of writing (self-belief), to foster a realistic appraisal of their strengths and weaknesses as writers (self-judgement), and to examine the relationship between these characteristics and the students’ overall writing performance. To that end, the study addressed four main questions: • Does utilising a web-based learning platform encourage a change in ESL learners’ writing self-belief? • Does utilising a web-based learning platform encourage a change in ESL students’ writing self-efficacy? • Does utilising a web-based learning platform encourage ESL students to consistently apply a process approach to writing? • Does utilizing a web-based learning platform lead to a change in ESL students’ overall writing performance? Using a non-equivalent pre-/post-test quasi-experimental research design, 46 ESL students from the same English Language Centre were recruited. The students were divided into a control group and an experimental group and the study ran during the spring and summer terms of 2010. A mixed methodology was used, consisting of an online questionnaire, writing sampling, online tracking and interviews in order to collect relevant data. The findings from the pre-test showed no significant differences between the participants in the two groups. The post-intervention results indicated no significant improvement among the control group’s motivational constructs and performance in writing, whereas significant differences were found in the experimental group’s writing performance and in the students’ perceived value with regard to writing, writing self-concept, writing self-efficacy and writing process approach self-consistency, following the implementation of the web-based course. However, no significant differences in ESL students’ anxiety about writing were observed. These findings suggested that e-portfolio software has the potential to promote change in ESL students’ writing self-belief and performance. Limitations of the study are discussed, implications of the findings explored, and recommendations for further research in this field are suggested.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

    Building a Positive Teacher and Student Identity in the Chinese DLI Context

    Get PDF
    This portfolio contains a selection of the author’s research interests and learning achievements while in the Master Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It represents the author’s investigation, observation, and reflection as an MSLT student and as a Chinese teacher and coordinator for the Chinese Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program in Utah. The first section of the portfolio contains the author’s teaching perspectives including professional environment, teaching philosophy statement, and professional development through teaching observations. These perspectives represent her professional growth over the years in the field of Chinese teaching in the DLI setting. The second section consists of two research perspectives. They demonstrate the author’s research interests that aligned with her teaching perspectives as a Chinese DLI practitioner. Lastly, an annotated bibliography is included with further discussion of pedagogical implications for the Chinese DLI classroom

    Olivet Nazarene University Annual Catalog 2010-2011

    Get PDF
    https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/acaff_catalog/1083/thumbnail.jp

    Olivet Nazarene University Annual Catalog 2010-2011

    Get PDF
    https://digitalcommons.olivet.edu/acaff_catalog/1083/thumbnail.jp

    Essays on economic forecasting using machine learning

    Get PDF
    This thesis studies the additional value introduced by different machine learning methods to economic forecasting. Flexible machine learning methods can discover various complex relationships in data and are well-suited for analysing so called big data and potential problems therein. Several new extensions to existing machine learning methods are proposed from the viewpoint of economic forecasting. In Chapter 2, the main objective is to predict U.S. economic recession periods with a high-dimensional dataset. A cost-sensitive extension to the gradient boosting machine learning algorithm is proposed, which takes into account the scarcity of recession periods. The results show how the cost-sensitive extension outperforms the traditional gradient boosting model and leads to more accurate recession forecasts. Chapter 3 considers a variety of different machine learning methods when predicting daily returns of the S&P 500 stock market index. A new multinomial approach is suggested, which allows us to focus on predicting the large absolute returns instead of the noisy variation around zero return. In terms of both the statistical and economic evaluation criteria gradient boosting turns out to be the best-performing machine learning method. In Chapter 4, the asset allocation decisions between risky and risk-free assets are determined using a flexible utility maximization based approach. Instead of the merely considered two-step approach where portfolio weights are based on the excess return predictions obtained with statistical predictive regressions, here the optimal weights are found directly by incorporating a custom objective function to the gradient boosting algorithm. The empirical results using monthly U.S. market returns show that the utility-based approach leads to substantial and quantitatively meaningful economic value over the past approaches.Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan millaista lisäarvoa koneoppimismenetelmät voivat tuoda taloudellisiin ennustesovelluksiin. Joustavat koneoppimismenetelmät kykenevät mallintamaan monimutkaisia funktiomuotoja ja soveltuvat hyvin big datan eli suurten aineistojen analysointiin. Väitöskirjassa laajennetaan koneoppimismenetelmiä erityisesti taloudellisten ennustesovellusten lähtökohdista katsoen. Luvussa 2 ennustetaan Yhdysvaltojen talouden taantumajaksoja käyttäen hyvin suurta selittäjäjoukkoa. Gradient boosting -koneoppimismenetelmää laajennetaan huomioimaan aineiston merkittävä tunnuspiirre eli se, että taantumajaksoja esiintyy melko harvoin talouden ollessa suurimman osan ajasta noususuhdanteessa. Tulokset osoittavat, että laajennettu gradient boosting -menetelmä kykenee ennustamaan tulevia taantumakuukausia huomattavasti perinteisiä menetelmiä tarkemmin. Luvussa 3 hyödynnetään useampaa erilaista koneoppimismenetelmää S&P 500 -osakemarkkinaindeksin päivätuottojen ennustamisessa. Aiemmista lähestymistavoista poiketen tässä tutkimuksessa kategorisoidaan tuotot kolmeen eri luokkaan pyrkimyksenä keskittyä informatiivisempien suurten positiivisten ja negatiivisten tuottojen ennustamiseen. Tulosten perusteella gradient boosting osoittautuu parhaaksi menetelmäksi niin tilastollisten kuin taloudellistenkin ennustekriteerien mukaan. Luvussa 4 tarkastellaan, kuinka perinteisen tuottoennusteisiin nojautuvan kaksivaiheisen lähestymistavan sijaan allokaatiopäätös riskisen ja riskittömän sijoituskohteen välillä voidaan muodostaa suoraan sijoittajan kokeman hyödyn pohjalta. Hyödyn maksimoinnissa käytetään gradient boosting -menetelmää ja sen mahdollistamaa itsemäärättyä tavoitefunktiota. Yhdysvaltojen aineistoon perustuvat empiiriset tulokset osoittavat kuinka sijoittajan hyötyyn pohjautuva salkkuallokaatio johtaa perinteistä kaksivaiheista lähestymistapaa tuottavampiin allokaatiopäätöksiin
    • …
    corecore