The relationship of (perceived) epistemic cognition to interaction with resources on the internet

Information seeking and processing are key literacy practices. However, they are activities that students, across a range of ages, struggle with. These information seeking processes can be viewed through the lens of epistemic cognition: beliefs regarding the source, justification, complexity, and certainty of knowledge. In the research reported in this article we build on established research in this area, which has typically used self-report psychometric and behavior data, and information seeking tasks involving closed-document sets. We take a novel approach in applying established self-report measures to a large-scale, naturalistic, study environment, pointing to the potential of analysis of dialogue, web-navigation – including sites visited – and other trace data, to support more traditional self-report mechanisms. Our analysis suggests that prior work demonstrating relationships between self-report indicators is not paralleled in investigation of the hypothesized relationships between self-report and trace-indicators. However, there are clear epistemic features of this trace data. The article thus demonstrates the potential of behavioral learning analytic data in understanding how epistemic cognition is brought to bear in rich information seeking and processing tasks

Transforming pre-service teacher curriculum: observation through a TPACK lens

This paper will discuss an international online collaborative learning experience through the lens of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. The teacher knowledge required to effectively provide transformative learning experiences for 21st century learners in a digital world is complex, situated and changing. The discussion looks beyond the opportunity for knowledge development of content, pedagogy and technology as components of TPACK towards the interaction between those three components. Implications for practice are also discussed. In today’s technology infused classrooms it is within the realms of teacher educators, practising teaching and pre-service teachers explore and address effective practices using technology to enhance learning

Teaching and learning in virtual worlds: is it worth the effort?

Educators have been quick to spot the enormous potential afforded by virtual worlds for situated and authentic learning, practising tasks with potentially serious consequences in the real world and for bringing geographically dispersed faculty and students together in the same space (Gee, 2007; Johnson and Levine, 2008). Though this potential has largely been realised, it generally isn’t without cost in terms of lack of institutional buy-in, steep learning curves for all participants, and lack of a sound theoretical framework to support learning activities (Campbell, 2009; Cheal, 2007; Kluge & Riley, 2008). This symposium will explore the affordances and issues associated with teaching and learning in virtual worlds, all the time considering the question: is it worth the effort

Inside Success: Strategies of 25 Effective Small High Schools in NYC

For decades, New York City's high school graduation rates hovered at or below 50 percent. In attempt to turn around these disappointing results, the NYC Department of Education enacted a series of large-scale reforms, including opening hundreds of new "small schools of choice" (SSCs). Recent research by MDRC has shown that these schools have had large and sustained positive effects on students' graduation rates and other outcomes. How have they done it? What decisions -- made by the educators who created, supported, and operated these schools -- have been critical to their success? What challenges do these schools face as they try to maintain that success over time? The Research Alliance set out to answer these questions, conducting in-depth interviews with teachers and principals in 25 of the most highly effective SSCs. Educators reported three features as essential to their success:Personalization, which was widely seen as the most important success factor. This includes structures that foster strong relationships with students and their families, systems for monitoring student progress -- beyond just grades and test scores, and working to address students' social and emotional needs, as well as academic ones.High expectations -- for students and for educators -- and instructional programs that are aligned with these ambitious goals.Dedicated and flexible teachers, who were willing to take on multiple roles, sometimes outside their areas of expertise.The findings, presented in this report, paint a picture of how these features were developed in practice. The report also describes challenges these schools face and outlines lessons for other schools and districts that can be drawn from the SSCs' experience. These include the need to avoid teacher burnout, improving the fit between schools and external partners, and expanding current notions of accountability

Toward a Theory of Learner-Centered Training Design: An Integrative Framework of Active Learning

[Excerpt] The goal of this chapter, therefore, is to develop an integrative conceptual framework of active learning, and we do this by focusing on three primary issues. First, we define the active learning approach and contrast it to more traditional, passive instructional approaches. We argue that the active learning approach can be distinguished from not only more passive approaches to instruction but also other forms of experiential learning based on its use of formal training components to systematically influence trainees\u27 cognitive, motivational, and emotion self-regulatory processes. Second, we examine how specific training components can be used to influence each of these process domains. Through a review of prior research, we extract core training components that cut across different active learning interventions, map these components onto specific process domains, and consider the role of individual differences in shaping the effects of these components (aptitude-treatment interactions [ATIs]). A final issue examined in this chapter concerns the outcomes associated with the active learning approach. Despite its considerable versatility, the active learning approach is not the most efficient or effective means of responding to all training needs. Thus, we discuss the impact of the active learning approach on different types of learning outcomes in order to identify the situations under which it is likely to demonstrate the greatest utility. We conclude the chapter by highlighting research and practical implications of our integrated framework, and we outline an agenda for future research on active learning

Contextual Sensitivity in Grounded Theory: The Role of Pilot Studies

Grounded Theory is an established methodological approach for context specific inductive theory building. The grounded nature of the methodology refers to these specific contexts from which emergent propositions are drawn. Thus, any grounded theory study requires not only theoretical sensitivity, but also a good insight on how to design the research in the human activity systems to be studied. The lack of this insight may result in inefficient theoretical sampling or even erroneous purposeful sampling. These problems would not necessarily be critical, as it could be argued that through the elliptical process that characterizes grounded theory, remedial loops would always bring the researcher to the core of the theory. However, these elliptical remedial processes can take very long periods of time and result in catastrophic delays in research projects. As a strategy, this paper discusses, contrasts and compares the use of pilot studies in four different grounded theory projects. Each pilot brought different insights about the context, resulting in changes of focus, guidance to improve data collection instruments and informing theoretical sampling. Additionally, as all four projects were undertaken by researchers with little experience of inductive approaches in general and grounded theory in particular, the pilot studies also served the purpose of training in interviewing, relating to interviewees, memoing, constant comparison and coding. This last outcome of the pilot study was actually not planned initially, but revealed itself to be a crucial success factor in the running of the projects. The paper concludes with a theoretical proposition for the concept of contextual sensitivity and for the inclusion of the pilot study in grounded theory research designs

Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (CI4CC): Building a Community Focused on Sharing Ideas and Best Practices to Improve Cancer Care and Patient Outcomes.

Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (CI4CC) is a grassroots, nonprofit 501c3 organization intended to provide a focused national forum for engagement of senior cancer informatics leaders, primarily aimed at academic cancer centers anywhere in the world but with a special emphasis on the 70 National Cancer Institute-funded cancer centers. Although each of the participating cancer centers is structured differently, and leaders' titles vary, we know firsthand there are similarities in both the issues we face and the solutions we achieve. As a consortium, we have initiated a dedicated listserv, an open-initiatives program, and targeted biannual face-to-face meetings. These meetings are a place to review our priorities and initiatives, providing a forum for discussion of the strategic and pragmatic issues we, as informatics leaders, individually face at our respective institutions and cancer centers. Here we provide a brief history of the CI4CC organization and meeting highlights from the latest CI4CC meeting that took place in Napa, California from October 14-16, 2019. The focus of this meeting was "intersections between informatics, data science, and population science." We conclude with a discussion on "hot topics" on the horizon for cancer informatics

Exploratory Analysis in Learning Analytics

This article summarizes the methods, observations, challenges and implications for exploratory analysis drawn from two learning analytics research projects. The cases include an analysis of a games-based virtual performance assessment and an analysis of data from 52,000 students over a 5-year period at a large Australian university. The complex datasets were analyzed and iteratively modeled with a variety of computationally intensive methods to provide the most effective outcomes for learning assessment, performance management and learner tracking. The article presents the research contexts, the tools and methods used in the exploratory phases of analysis, the major findings and the implications for learning analytics research methods

A sequential exploratory design for the e-learning maturity model in Middle Eastern countries

E-learning involves the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). It is transforming universities and has undergone immense change. Therefore, it has become the main tool for improving educational and training activities. Many universities are combining e-learning components with their conventional instruction in order to enhance the delivery of traditional courses. However, many models of e-learning initiatives fail to achieve desired learning and teaching outcomes, because of the selection of inappropriate technology, instructor characteristics, or failure to provide sufficient attention and support from the organization (Engelbrecht 2005; Selim 2007). Despite the potential models of e-learning as tools to enhance education and training, their values will not be realized if instructors, learners, and organizations do not accept them as efficient and effective learning tools. Yet, it seems that universities in the Middle East are still at a fundamental stage of adopting and implementing e-learning despite the plentiful factors that suggest e-learning as a support tool capable of enhancing the process of learning. The reason behind selecting Middle Eastern universities is that in Arab countries mostly focuses on the insertion of new technological features without taking into account psychopedagogical concerns that are likely to improve a student's cognitive process in this new educational category. Also, fragile strategies for e-learning have existed in most of the Middle Eastern universities. Consequently, describing strategy is serious to the successful deployment of e-learning initiatives in Middle East and Arab countries. The aim of this thesis is to explore the criteria affecting the introduction of a maturity model in the deployment of e-learning in Middle Eastern countries. Building on the extant literature review concerning the identification of critical success factors (CSFs) of e-learning, many factors (instructor characteristics, information technology infrastructure, and organizational and technical support) were examined and it was found that there is no complete model for e-learning. Also, this review concluded that the factors developed need modification to account for Middle Eastern status. These modifications resulted in the development of an e-learning maturity model affecting e-learning development in the Middle East. The thesis was mainly a sequential exploratory study that employed in-depth interviews, supplemented by questionnaires. Qualitative data was collected from interviews and analyzed using Grounded Theory. The results of the qualitative analysis were followed up by collecting quantitative data using online questionnaires. The quantitative data was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. A total of 600 responses were used in the quantitative analysis, while a total of 150 interviews responses were used in the qualitative analysis. The results of this study provide an insight into six important dimensions. First, the results describe how learners’ perceive e-learning models in higher education institutions and sheds some light on learner attributes that may be prerequisites for benefiting from and accepting e-learning models. Second, they address the issue of higher education institutions’ strategies for e-learning initiatives. Third, the results describe how learners’ perceive e-learning features in higher education institutions. Fourth and fifth, they explain the criticality and importance of the instructor, and student attitudes towards e-learning environments. Sixth, they assess the effect of e-learning on students

A Bibliometric Study on Learning Analytics

Learning analytics tools and techniques are continually developed and published in scholarly discourse. This study aims at examining the intellectual structure of the Learning Analytics domain by collecting and analyzing empirical articles on Learning Analytics for the period of 2004-2018. First, bibliometric analysis and citation analyses of 2730 documents from Scopus identified the top authors, key research affiliations, leading publication sources (journals and conferences), and research themes of the learning analytics domain. Second, Domain Analysis (DA) techniques were used to investigate the intellectual structures of learning analytics research, publication, organization, and communication (Hjørland & Bourdieu 2014). The software of VOSviewer is used to analyze the relationship by publication: historical and institutional; author and institutional relationships and the dissemination of Learning Analytics knowledge. The results of this study showed that Learning Analytics had captured the attention of the global community. The United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom are among the leading countries contributing to the dissemination of learning analytics knowledge. The leading publication sources are ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, and Lecture Notes in Computer Science. The intellectual structures of the learning analytics domain are presented in this study the LA research taxonomy can be re-used by teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders to support the teaching and learning environments in a higher education institution