Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Living and Learning With New Media: Summary of Findings From the Digital Youth Project

Summarizes findings from a three-year study of how new media have been integrated into youth behaviors and have changed the dynamics of media literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge. Outlines implications for educators, parents, and policy makers

Conceptualizing learning from the everyday activities of digital kids

This paper illustrates the intensified engagement that youth are having with digital technologies and introduces a framework for examining digital fluency – the competencies, new representational practices, design sensibilities, ownership, and strategic expertise that a learner gains or demonstrates by using digital tools to gather, design, evaluate, critique, synthesize, and develop digital media artifacts, communication messages, or other electronic expressions. A primary goal of this paper is to identify promising perspectives through which learning is conceptualized, and to share the methodological challenges in investigating digital fluency in both individual and collaborative learning activities that take place in complex naturalistic settings and socially-constructed online worlds. A review is provided of the current and prospective research methods that researchers use to capture, document and study the compelling ways in which children and young people are using digital technologies such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), social networking software, video games, multimedia authoring tools, and mobile phones in everyday life to learn and play. The paper argues for a need to study the authentic, inventive, and emergent uses of digital technologies and interactive learning environments among youth to contribute to advancement of theories of everyday learning and to build a deeper understanding of how learning occurs in out-of-school settings from a practise-oriented perspective rather than a knowledge-centred one. Implications for instructional practise are also discussed in addition to ethical and pragmatic issues that will need to be addressed in the study of digital kids

Towards the Situated Engagement Evaluation Model (SEEM) : making the invisible visible

This thesis explores the multifaceted concept of engagement within online learning environments. Key research aims are to suggest approaches and an extendable model for evaluating, monitoring and developing understanding of online learner engagement. The overall intention is to offer educators insight, practical guidance and tools for supporting timely intervention in fostering learner engagement. This thesis reviews the major theoretical perspectives on learning and highlights the role of student engagement in relation to the research literature. It discusses the limitations of the methods applied in current research and attempts to address this problem by crossing the disciplinary boundaries to draw together a range of perspectives and methodologies. A review of the literature provides a foundation for a learner engagement evaluation model that employs a variety of evaluation methods and accommodates the possible diversity of learning experiences. The proposed ‘Situated Engagement Evaluation Model’ (SEEM) is positioned to reflect the wide theoretical perspective of social learning. It constitutes a comprehensive system of intertwined components (Learning Content; Pedagogical Design Elements; Learning Profiles; and Dialogue and Communication) that learners may interact with, and integrates dynamically changing preferences and predispositions (e.g. cultural, emotional, cognitive) potentially informative in engagement studies. Prior to (and independently of) the development of SEEM, four empirical studies were conducted and reported here. These explored patterns of online engagement with respect to learning content, learning profiles, patterns of communication and elements of pedagogical design. Studies were then revisited to evaluate the usefulness of SEEM for monitoring and evaluating student engagement, and to discuss its potential for guiding intervention to improve learning experiences. The practical relevance for integrated and automated implementation of SEEM in online learning is considered further

Retrieval-, Distributed-, and Interleaved Practice in the Classroom:A Systematic Review

Three of the most effective learning strategies identified are retrieval practice, distributed practice, and interleaved practice, also referred to as desirable difficulties. However, it is yet unknown to what extent these three practices foster learning in primary and secondary education classrooms (as opposed to the laboratory and/or tertiary education classrooms, where most research is conducted) and whether these strategies affect different students differently. To address these gaps, we conducted a systematic review. Initial and detailed screening of 869 documents found in a threefold search resulted in a pool of 29 journal articles published from 2006 through June 2020. Seventy-five effect sizes nested in 47 experiments nested in 29 documents were included in the review. Retrieval- and interleaved practice appeared to benefit students’ learning outcomes quite consistently; distributed practice less so. Furthermore, only cognitive Student*Task characteristics (i.e., features of the student’s cognition regarding the task, such as initial success) appeared to be significant moderators. We conclude that future research further conceptualising and operationalising initial effort is required, as is a differentiated approach to implementing desirable difficulties

The new shape of the student

This chapter critically examines student characteristics in light of the popular dis-course which describes students as part of a net generation of digital native young people. Digital and networked technologies have clearly changed the possibilities for students to learn and the ways in which teaching and learning can be conducted. It is also claimed that new technologies change what students are able to learn. However the claim that there is a new generation of learners characterized by a new mentality has to be careful assessed in the light of recent empirical evidence. The idea of a generation gap between digitally native students and their digitally immigrant teachers is challenged, as are claims that pressure from this new generation forces radical institutional change on educational institutions. The chapter argues against the generational nature of the argument and separates the technological changes that are taking place from the determinist rhetoric they have been couched in. This rhetoric suggests that changes amongst students are already well understood and that their educational implications are already known and lead to generally applicable if not universal consequences. The chapter concludes by arguing that there is no one shape for students and that digital technologies open up a range of opportunities and choices at all levels of education

Web-Mediated Education and Training Environments: A Review of Personalised Interactive Learning.

This chapter reviews the concept of personalised eLearning resources in relation to integrating interactivity into asynchronous learning. Personalised eLearning resources are learning resources which are selected to suit a specific student or trainee’s individual learning requirements. The affordance of personalised eLearning would provide educators with the opportunity to shift away from eLearning content that is retrieved and move towards the provision of personalised interactive content to provide a form of asynchronous learning to suit students at different degree levels. A basic introduction to the concept of ePedagogy in online learning environments is explored and the impacts these systems have on students learning experiences are considered. Issues, controversies, and problems associated with the creation of personalised interactive eLearning resources are examined, and suggested solutions and recommendations to the identified issues, controversies, and problems are reviewed. Personalised interactive asynchronous learning resources could potentially improve students’ learning experiences but more research on the human computer interface of these authoring tools is required before personalised eLearning resources are available for use by non-technical authors

Digital skills of teachers and learners

Teachers are responsible for teaching digital skills to learners by integrating them into the curriculum, prompting researchers to call for a close examination of the impact of teachers' digital skills on learners' digital skills (Lachner et al. 2019; Lorenz et al., 2019; Lucas et al., 2021; Schmid et al., 2021). However, in order to examine this relationship in more detail, this dissertation would first need to examine in depth the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on learners' digital media use as well as the valid measurement of teachers' digital skills, as this has not yet been sufficiently implemented in empirical educational research. Research regarding digital skills of teachers and learners has become increasingly important, especially in light of the COVID–19 pandemic and the accompanying global school closures. Nevertheless, there are some areas of teachers' and learners' digital skills that demand clarification. Accordingly, few researchers have addressed the problems particularly in the areas of 1) the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on learners' digital media use, as school closures made the use of digital media in home and school daily life inevitable, 2) the measurement of teachers' digital skills to gain knowledge in educational science and to develop targeted interventions to promote teachers' digital skills, and 3) the impact of teachers' digital skills on learners' digital skills. Accordingly, as outlined in this dissertation, three studies were conducted to gain insights into the highlighted research areas. In the first study in this dissertation, we examined how learners used digital media before and during the COVID–19 pandemic. International mean comparisons suggest that learners rarely used digital media in school for school-related purposes (Schaumburg et al., 2019), suggesting that the digital media use is not yet central to everyday school life. However, given the global school closures due to COVID–19 pandemic in the spring/summer of 2020 and the accompanying imperative for learners and teachers to use digital media for school-related purposes, it is reasonable to assume that the COVID–19 pandemic has influenced learners' digital media use. The assumption of the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on learners' digital media use is particularly interesting, as previous research has shown that purposeful digital media use can have a positive impact on learners' digital skills (Senkbeil, 2017), which is also an indispensable premise for successful participation in later professional life (Fraillon et al., 2020). While learners reported using digital media heterogeneously in relation to school and private contexts before the COVID–19 pandemic in 2019(N = 643), we asked learners in secondary schools in Bavaria before and during the COVID–19 pandemic (N = 644) and the accompanying school closure in spring 2020 via a representative telephone survey to what extent they use digital media for both social and school purposes. Learners were classified into different profiles based on their digital media use responses using Latent Profile Analysis. Our results show that learners' digital media use became more homogeneous in terms of school-related purposes during the COVID–19 pandemic in 2020. Specifically, learners increasingly reported using digital media for school-related purposes, such as researching on the Internet or learning. This may suggest that learners' digital skills may also have developed positively during the COVID–19 pandemic. However, our results also show that learners from low-education families (B = 0.79, p <.05) are particularly at risk of being left behind by the even faster pace of digitization, as learners from low-education families were particularly likely to be represented in profiles that reported using digital media for social rather than school activities, which may have a negative impact on learners' digital skills (Senkbeil, 2017). Research on teachers' digital skills has also gained much momentum, especially since the onset of the COVID–19 pandemic. However, a closer look at research on teachers' digital skills reveals that research often examines teachers' self-efficacy in technological knowledge, i.e., knowledge and skills with and about using digital media (Lachner et al., 2019). The establishment of self-assessment instruments is widely recognized in educational science, based on the assumption that inferences can be made from teachers' self-efficacy with regard to their actual technological knowledge (Hatlevik & Hatlevik, 2018). Nevertheless, recent studies show that the results between self-assessments and objective assessment measures of teachers' technological knowledge are weakly to poorly correlated, suggesting a systematic bias in self-assessments (Parry et al., 2021; Baier & Kunter, 2020; Drummond & Sweeny, 2017). At the same time, knowledge of teachers' actual, objectively measured digital skills professional knowledge is essential, especially in light of the COVID -19 pandemic and related distance learning, to determine appropriate interventions to target teachers´ digital skills. However, for a variety of reasons, such as the scope of the test and the acceptability of test takers, using objective assessment measures may not be sufficiently feasible in practice in every case. Accordingly, the first study in this dissertation addresses the question of the extent to which self-assessment instruments can be designed to minimize the extent of possible bias. Meta-analytic findings have already shown that self-assessment results correlate more strongly with objective measures of assessment when self-assessment instruments include concrete context-specific information (Talsma et al., 2018). By providing context-specific information, such as concrete scenarios in self-assessment instruments, subjects are provided with a concrete context, potentially avoiding systematic bias in self-assessments due to the absence of contextual information. The results show that the scenario-based self-assessment regarding the subcomponent, operating and using digital media (β = 0.25, SE = 0.13, p =.05) significantly predicts the objective assessment of technological knowledge (R2 =0.23) of N = 75 (prospective) teachers. In summary, scenario-based self-assessment may be an appropriate tool for getting closer to the results of the objective assessment measures. Overall, the results suggest that, especially for technical operational skills, the contextual information helped subjects to assess their own skills more accurately, so that over- or underestimation of subjects' skills or knowledge can be prevented by the scenario-based self-assessment (Sailer et al., 2021a). While research is needed on measuring teachers' digital skills and the impact of the COVID–19 pandemic on learners' digital media use, scholars also call for investigating the "connection" between teachers' digital skills and learners' digital skills (e.g., Guggemos & Seufert, 2021). With the integration of digital skills into curricula (e.g., Siddiq et al., 2016), teachers have the responsibility to foster learners´ digital skills. The third study in this dissertation examines the extent to which teachers' digital skills (n = 220), mediated by their professional knowledge regarding the high-quality use of digital media in instruction, affects students' digital skills(n = 1620). The results of multilevel analysis show that neither teachers' digital skills (b = -.08, t(692) = 1.66 .01, p >.05) nor teachers' professional knowledge regarding the high-quality use of digital media in instruction (b = -0.05, t(690) = -1.83 p >.05) have a significant impact on students' digital skills. Overall, the results of this dissertation suggest a lasting impact of the COVID -19 pandemic on learners' use of digital media, which should be considered in further research in the future. Furthermore, the use of digital media in the classroom is an important determinant of the advancement of learners' digital skills. Although no significant effect of teachers' professional knowledge of digital skills on learners' digital skills was found, the results of the three studies in this dissertation nevertheless indicate that the use of digital media in the classroom should be promoted so that teachers in the future establish student-centered use of digital media in the classroom to meet the requirements of curricula that demand that learners and teachers be prepared for teaching and learning in the digital society