Investigation of the use of navigation tools in web-based learning: A data mining approach

Web-based learning is widespread in educational settings. The popularity of Web-based learning is in great measure because of its flexibility. Multiple navigation tools provided some of this flexibility. Different navigation tools offer different functions. Therefore, it is important to understand how the navigation tools are used by learners with different backgrounds, knowledge, and skills. This article presents two empirical studies in which data-mining approaches were used to analyze learners' navigation behavior. The results indicate that prior knowledge and subject content are two potential factors influencing the use of navigation tools. In addition, the lack of appropriate use of navigation tools may adversely influence learning performance. The results have been integrated into a model that can help designers develop Web-based learning programs and other Web-based applications that can be tailored to learners' needs

Hypermedia learning and prior knowledge: Domain expertise vs. system expertise

Prior knowledge is often argued to be an important determinant in hypermedia learning, and may be thought of as including two important elements: domain expertise and system expertise. However, there has been a lack of research considering these issues together. In an attempt to address this shortcoming, this paper presents a study that examines how domain expertise and system expertise influence students’ learning performance in, and perceptions of, a hypermedia system. The results indicate that participants with lower domain knowledge show a greater improvement in their learning performance than those with higher domain knowledge. Furthermore, those who enjoy using the Web more are likely to have positive perceptions of non-linear interaction. Discussions on how to accommodate the different needs of students with varying levels of prior knowledge are provided based on the results

Using social learning environments to leverage traditional supervision of research students: a community of practice perspective

Includes bibliographical references.South African higher education is plagued by student articulation gap, which is often attributed to insufficient knowledge production processes and surface approaches to learning. Unfortunately, supervisor-student model of supervision, one of the direct, personal interventions to address this challenge, is plagued by multiple flaws. The traditional supervisor-student model of knowledge generation may not be adequate in externalizing research processes to students. Yet, a social learning model potentially extends the traditional model by providing a social environment where students collectively generate knowledge through peer-based interactions. Mindful of supervision dilemmas namely, this study explores technology-enhanced social learning environments as complements to traditional supervision models

Learning by volunteer computing, thinking and gaming: What and how are volunteers learning by participating in Virtual Citizen Science?

Citizen Science (CS) refers to a form of research collaboration that engages volunteers without formal scientific training in contributing to empirical scientific projects. Virtual Citizen Science (VCS) projects engage participants in online tasks. VCS has demonstrated its usefulness for research, however little is known about its learning potential for volunteers. This paper reports on research exploring the learning outcomes and processes in VCS. In order to identify different kinds of learning, 32 exploratory interviews of volunteers were conducted in three different VCS projects. We found six main learning outcomes related to different participants' activities in the project. Volunteers learn on four dimensions that are directly related to the scope of the VCS project: they learn at the task/game level, acquire pattern recognition skills, on-topic content knowledge, and improve their scientific literacy. Thanks to indirect opportunities of VCS projects, volunteers learn on two additional dimensions: off topic knowledge and skills, and personal development. Activities through which volunteers learn can be categorized in two levels: at a micro (task/game) level that is direct participation to the task, and at a macro level, i.e. use of project documentation, personal research on the Internet, and practicing specific roles in project communities. Both types are influenced by interactions with others in chat or forums. Most learning happens to be informal, unstructured and social. Volunteers do not only learn from others by interacting with scientists and their peers, but also by working for others: they gain knowledge, new status and skills by acting as active participants, moderators, editors, translators, community managers, etc. in a project community. This research highlights these informal and social aspects in adult learning and science education and also stresses the importance for learning through the indirect opportunities provided by the project: the main one being the opportunity to participate and progress in a project community, according to one's tastes and skills

Integrating multiple individual differences in web-based instruction

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.There has been an increasing focus on web-based instruction (WBI) systems which accommodate individual differences in educational environments. Many of those studies have focused on the investigation of learners’ behaviour to understand their preferences, performance and perception using hypermedia systems. In this thesis, existing studies focus extensively on performance measurement attributes such as time spent using the system by a user, gained score and number of pages visited in the system. However, there is a dearth of studies which explore the relationship between such attributes in measuring performance level. Statistical analysis and data mining techniques were used in this study. We built a WBI program based on existing designs which accommodated learner’s preferences. We evaluated the proposed system by comparing its results with related studies. Then, we investigated the impact of related individual differences on learners’ preferences, performance and perception after interacting with our WBI program. We found that some individual differences and their combination had an impact on learners' preferences when choosing navigation tools. Consequently, it was clear that the related individual differences altered a learner’s preferences. Thus, we did further investigation to understand how multiple individual differences (Multi-ID) could affect learners’ preferences, performance and perception. We found that the Multi-ID clearly altered the learner’s preferences and performance. Thus, designers of WBI applications need to consider the combination of individual differences rather than these differences individually. Our findings also showed that attributes relationships had an impact on measuring learners’ performance level on learners with Multi-ID. The key contribution of this study lies in the following three aspects: firstly, investigating the impact of our proposed system, using three system features in the design, on a learner’s behavior, secondly, exploring the influence of Multi-ID on a learner’s preferences, performance and perception, thirdly, combining the three measurement attributes to understand the performance level using these measuring attributes

The Critical Friend: Development of a Peer Supervision Training for a Student-run Occupational Therapy Clinic

An occupational therapy program at a research institution in the Midwest offers a student-run outpatient stroke clinic to prepare learners for the student-to-clinician transition. Notably, the students practice peer supervision in which participants with roughly the same level of training monitor, evaluate, and support one another. This project details the development of The Critical Friend, an evidence-based peer supervision training program implemented in a student-run occupational therapy clinic. The ADDIE Model of Instructional Design, which classifies five phases of instruction implementation (analyze, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) was utilized to translate research knowledge into a learning deliverable. This paper focuses on the design, development, and implementation phases of The Critical Friend. In the design phase, data from a scoping review on peer supervision and a focus group with key stakeholders informed learning objectives and instructional strategies. In the development phase the Webinar Integration Tool was used to select a learning management system. In the implementation phase, The Critical Friend was embedded in the existent coursework associated with the student-run clinic in the form of three e-learning modules. The e-modules focused on feedback, guided discovery, and professionalism. Each provided a series of actionable steps for both supervisors and supervisees to effectively navigate a peer supervision relationship

Getting by with a little help from my friends : the contribution of mentorship practices to the social learning of the novice lecturer in the capacity of being an academic

Abstract: The challenges novice lecturers experience when integrating into the South African Higher Education (HE) landscape are well documented. This article reports on the novice lecturers’ experiences of mentorship practices in their first year of teaching at a Higher Education (HE) institution in Johannesburg, South Africa. An Interpretivist paradigm was used to gain insight into their experiences of assimilating into academic life. The theories, which offered good purchase on the social learning of novice lecturers and therefore underpin this article, are social constructivism as a scaffold to mentoring theory and communities of practice. Data was generated through discursive oriented interviews and analysed using using Thematic analysis in conjunction with Discourse Analysis. Using a purposeful sampling strategy, the participants in the study were ten novice lecturers, who were drawn from various disciplines. The study found that although novice lecturers’ passage into academia was initially problematic in the sense of being alienating and lonely, they created invisible networks of resourceful relationships which served as ways to survive and ultimately manage their new roles and responsibilities

The Evolving Identity and Competence of New Nursing Graduates in Practice: A Community of Practice Perspective

Novices’ transition is identified as a period of time at the beginning of their professional career, when they go through role changes from students to independent practitioners. The transitional literature indicates novices’ incompetence and difficulties in transition in nursing and other professions. I argue that these findings were based on a fixed model of competent identity, while novices’ transitional mechanism is not well understood. Aiming to examine how transition happens, a focused ethnographic study underpinned by Wenger’s Community of Practice theory was conducted to explore novice nurses’ practice in a tertiary hospital in Singapore. Data was collected using observation over four months and focus group discussions. I identified sociocultural elements indicating the local rules the nurses make reference to in their participation. These elements include the need to assess the situation, to recognise the different characteristics of people and to be able to work with them, to identify and prioritise tasks, and to express and understand one another’s participation. The novices were found to be negotiating meaning and relational positions with different nurses in different situations at different levels, indicating the effect of sociocultural elements on their practice and the formation of community membership identities. The study findings reveal how complex the novices’ workplace and work really are and help us to better understand how competence and membership identity are negotiated among members. I argue that novices’ transitional mechanism is their evolving learning of the workplace and work, and negotiation of membership identity, a necessary part of their professional development. This study extends nursing and wider interdisciplinary literature on novices’ transition to a broader notion of meaning making and identity negotiation among members in practice. The new concepts developed add clarity to Community of Practice theory in understanding members’ negotiation of participation and membership. Implications for policy, education, practice and future research studies are discussed