85,825 research outputs found

    Desktop multimedia environments to support collaborative distance learning

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    Desktop multimedia conferencing, when two or more persons can communicate among themselves via personal computers with the opportunity to see and hear one another as well as communicate via text messages while working with commonly available stored resources, appears to have important applications to the support of collaborative learning. In this paper we explore this potential in three ways: (a) through an analysis of particular learner needs when learning and working collaboratively with others outside of face-to-face situations; (b) through an analysis of different forms of conferencing environments, including desktop multimedia environments, relative to their effectiveness in terms of meeting learner needs for distributed collaboration; and (c) through reporting the results of a formative evaluation of a prototype desktop multimedia conferencing system developed especially for the support of collaborative learning. Via these analyses, suggestions are offered relating to the functionalities of desktop multimedia conferencing systems for the support of collaborative learning, reflecting new developments in both the technologies available for such systems and in our awareness of learner needs when working collaboratively with one other outside of face-to-face situations

    Web Environments for Group-Based Project Work in Higher Education

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    We discuss problems confronting the use of group-based project work as an instructional strategy in higher education and describe two courses in which course-specific World Wide Web (Web) environments have evolved over a series of course sequences and are used both as tool environments for group-process support and as the product environment of the project work itself. In particular we describe the use of specific Web-embedded shared workspace, communication-management and evaluation tools and their contribution to the management and educational value of group-based project work. The integration of instructional principles and strategies with the Web-based tools is also of particular importance. The 1996-97 versions of the courses analysed in this article can be found at http://www.to.utwente.nl/ism/ism1-96/home.htm for the first-year course in educational media design, and at www.edu.cs.utwente.nl/~aitnlpbg/, for the first-year course in applications of information technology. Both courses, at the University of Twente, use group-based project work as a major organizational form, but integrate all aspects of the courses within cohesive Web environments

    Collaborative Authoring of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia by Enriching a Semantic Wiki’s Output

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    This research is concerned with harnessing collaborative approaches for the authoring of Adaptive Educational Hypermedia (AEH) systems. It involves the enhancement of Semantic Wikis with pedagogy aware features to this end. There are many challenges in understanding how communities of interest can efficiently collaborate for learning content authoring, in introducing pedagogy to the developed knowledge models and in specifying user models for efficient delivery of AEH systems. The contribution of this work will be the development of a model of collaborative authoring which includes domain specification, content elicitation, and definition of pedagogic approach. The proposed model will be implemented in a prototype AEH authoring system that will be tested and evaluated in a formal education context

    Promising State Policies for Personalized Learning

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    This report is a valuable resource for state policymakers—whether they are seeking to create conditions in state policy to support personalized learning, moving forward with initiatives to develop personalized learning pilot programs, hosting task forces to explore policy issues and needs, or taking a comprehensive policy approach for supporting advanced personalized learning models.Personalized learning is where instruction is tailored to each student's strengths, needs, and interests—including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when, and where they learn—to provide flexibility and supports to ensure mastery of the highest standards possible

    What works? A review of actions addressing the social and economic determinants of Indigenous health

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    Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to review evidence relating to ‘what works’ to influence the social and economic determinants of Indigenous health, in order to reduce health inequities, and ultimately contribute to closing the life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We outline a conceptual framework for understanding how social and economic determinants influence health and wellbeing, and identify a number of key determinants of health. We review evidence relating to how each determinant is associated with Indigenous health and wellbeing, and then consider specific actions designed to improve Indigenous outcomes in each of these areas in order to determine the characteristics of successful initiatives. Based on our conceptual framework, we link successful actions which result in positive outcomes for Indigenous Australians in each of the key determinants to ultimately improving health and wellbeing and contributing towards ‘closing the gap’ in health and wellbeing. We note that many actions we consider only aim to improve the situation for Indigenous Australians in regard to that specific area (for example, education, housing) and were not devised to take direct action to improve health, even though the evidence indicates that those actions may be likely to contribute to improved health over the longer term

    Independent Evaluation of the Jim Joseph Foundation's Education Initiative Final Report

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    The Jim Joseph Foundation created the Education Initiative to increase the number of educators and educational leaders who are prepared to design and implement high-quality Jewish education programs. The Jim Joseph Foundation granted 45milliontothreepremierJewishhighereducationinstitutions(eachinstitutionreceived45 million to three premier Jewish higher education institutions (each institution received 15 million) and challenged them to plan and implement programs that used new content and teaching approaches to increase the number of highly qualified Jewish educators serving the field. The three grantees were Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU). The grant covered program operation costs as well as other costs associated with institutional capacity building. The majority of the funds (75 percent) targeted program planning and operation. The grantees designed and piloted six new master's degree and doctoral degree programs or concentrations;1 eight new certificate, leadership, and professional development programs;2 two new induction programs;3 and four new seminars within the degree programs. 4 The Education Initiative also supported financial assistance for students in eight other advanced degree programs. 5 The grantees piloted innovative teaching models and expanded their use of educational technology in the degree and professional development programs. According to the theory of change that drives the Jim Joseph Foundation's Education Initiative, five types of activities must take place if higher education institutions are to successfully enhance the Jewish education workforce. These activities include (1) improved marketing and recruitment of talented individuals into ongoing education programs, (2) a richer menu of programs requiring different commitments of time to complete and offering varying content, (3) induction programs to support program participants' transition to new employment settings, (4) well-planned and comprehensive strategies for financial sustainability, and (5) interinstitutional collaboration. As shown in Exhibit 1, the five types of activities are divided into two primary categories. The first category (boxes outlined in green) addresses the delivery of programs that provide educators and educational leaders with research-based and theory-based knowledge and vetted instructional tools. The second category (boxes outlined in orange) is not programmatic; rather, it involves sharing knowledge, building staff capabilities, enhancing management structures, and providing technological and financial support to enable the development of quality programming that is sustainable after the grant ends

    A case study of campus‐based flexible learning using the World Wide Web and computer conferencing

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    This paper explores the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) integrated with computer conferencing as a teaching and learning tool. The aim of the study described was to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of online materials designed in a flexible learning format and integrated with a computer conference. It was hoped that this would create additional opportunity for group discourse between campus‐based students. The paper is divided in the following way: a discussion of the context to new developments in teaching and learning is followed by an introduction to the case study. Finally the findings of the case study are discussed with reference to research from the field of collaborative systems (Orlikowski, 1992; Grudin, 1994) as a framework for reflection. Some tentative conclusions are made for future work

    Personalised trails and learner profiling within e-learning environments

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    This deliverable focuses on personalisation and personalised trails. We begin by introducing and defining the concepts of personalisation and personalised trails. Personalisation requires that a user profile be stored, and so we assess currently available standard profile schemas and discuss the requirements for a profile to support personalised learning. We then review techniques for providing personalisation and some systems that implement these techniques, and discuss some of the issues around evaluating personalisation systems. We look especially at the use of learning and cognitive styles to support personalised learning, and also consider personalisation in the field of mobile learning, which has a slightly different take on the subject, and in commercially available systems, where personalisation support is found to currently be only at quite a low level. We conclude with a summary of the lessons to be learned from our review of personalisation and personalised trails

    Mixed mode education: implications for library user services

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    The Faculty of Information Technology at QUT does not formally carry out distance education for any of its courses. However, it has pursued a number of initiatives that have made it possible for students to carry out an increasing proportion of their coursework off-site. These initiatives include computer-managed learning, World Wide Web and CDROM delivery of administrative and educational materials, and most recently the development of an integrated learning environment (ILE) for electronic delivery. These developments have been complemented and supported by the QUT Library by means of different avenues of access to CDROMs, a regional electronic document delivery service (REDD), and an electronic reserve (E-Reserve) service. Issues associated with the operation and evaluation of such facilities are described, and future library role in educational delivery are discussed
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