Effects of E‐textbook Instructor Annotations on Learner Performance

With additional features and increasing cost advantages, e-textbooks are becoming a viable alternative to paper textbooks. One important feature offered by enhanced e-textbooks (e-textbooks with interactive functionality) is the ability for instructors to annotate passages with additional insights. This paper describes a pilot study that examines the effects of instructor e-textbook annotations on student learning as measured by multiple-choice and open-ended test items. Fifty-two college students in a business course were randomly assigned either a paper or an electronic version of a textbook chapter. Results show that the e-textbook group outperformed the paper textbook group on the open-ended test item, while both groups performed equally on the multiple-choice subject test. These results suggest that the instructional affordances that an interactive e-textbook provides may lead to higher-level learning

Effects of images on the incidental acquisition of abstract words

Recently, research has investigated whether glossing individual vocabulary words in a reading text with multimedia annotations-either with text, video, or still images- helps students learn the individual items, and therefore improve comprehension (Chun, Plass, 1996; Al-Seghayer, 2001). The studies, which are built around the assumption that students can learn better and more efficiently when information is presented in more than one mode, revealed a positive correlation between imagery and vocabulary acquisition. However, most studies focusing on teaching vocabulary incidentally with multimedia annotations annotated only the more concrete words which can easily be portrayed using still images or video. Research attempting to investigate whether or not still images can adequately represent unknown, abstract vocabulary words, and whether or not they can help the student make meaning of the word, is still identified as a particular need (Kost, Foss and Lenzini, 1999). This study investigates whether still images can adequately represent an abstract word from a language learners\u27 perspective, if still images can help create meaning of unfamiliar, abstract words for ESL learners, and whether imaging abstract words become less meaningful to students the lesser the word\u27s imageability and concreteness ratings (Paivio, Yuille, and Madigan ,1968)

Intentional Technology For Teaching Practice

In today’s era, where educational technology is in a near-constant state of evolution, the imperative is not just to adopt technology, but to do so with a defined purpose and strategy. As educators within military education there is a growing need to discern which technological tools and practices align best with our mission and the goals we set for our students. Teaching is more than just transferring knowledge—it’s about fostering environments conducive to growth, critical thinking, and lifelong learning. This e-book contains collective insights, experiences, and reflections from faculty participating in a Faculty Learning Community (FLC) a yearlong, structured, community of practice, engaged in the thoughtful exploration of educational technology topics during the academic year of 2022-2023 at the Air Force Institute of Technology. Whether by leveraging social annotation tools to engage students in reading, formulating effective methods to produce and utilize educational content, innovating with game-based learning, or seamlessly integrating multiple applications for meaningful classroom experiences, our aim is to provide you with insights and actionable guidance for use within your own classrooms

Transactional Distances In An Online Histology Laboratory Course

This dissertation examined the transactional distances that exist in an online histology laboratory course assessed through student interactions with the course content, instructors and fellow students. The interactions in the online course were compared to those in a face to face (F2F) course covering the same content. The student-content interactions were assessed through student course outcomes and lecture attendance. Results showed there were no differences in student performance on assessments between the course formats; however, overall student attendance levels were significantly greater in the online course. These results suggest that online students spent more time interacting with course content. It was also shown that there was a direct relationship between lecture attendance and course performance for both online and F2F students. With higher overall attendance rates and a correlation between lecture attendance and course performance, it would be expected that online students would have higher course outcomes compared to the F2F students. The fact that there were no differences in student outcomes suggests that some transactional distance still exists between online students and course content. Student-instructor interactions were examined through an assessment of student questions during the laboratory sessions. Results indicated that the transactional distance between the online students and instructor was lower than that with the F2F students with online students asking questions at higher rates. However, while technology allowed students to communicate synchronously with the instructor, online attendance patterns showed that students preferred to view archive recordings of the lectures, thus maintaining some transactional distance in the online course. The incorporation of synchronous peer teaching to the laboratories was an attempt to increase student-student interactions. Improved laboratory outcomes for both online and F2F students were shown; however, the impact was greater with the online students possibly due to the fact that F2F students were already engaging in informal peer teaching. Due to low survey response rates, it was not possible to show differences in the student’s perceived impact of peer teaching on group dynamics. While technology has improved the transactional distances in online courses, some transactional distances are maintained, often by student choice which is also enabled through technology

Print versus digital texts: understanding the experimental research and challenging the dichotomies

This article presents the results of a systematic critical review of interdisciplinary literature concerned with digital text (or e-text) uses in education and proposes recommendations for how e-texts can be implemented for impactful learning. A variety of e-texts can be found in the repertoire of educational resources accessible to students, and in the constantly changing terrain of educational technologies, they are rapidly evolving, presenting new opportunities and affordances for student learning. We highlight some of the ways in which academic studies have examined e-texts as part of teaching and learning practices, placing a particular emphasis on aspects of learning such as recall, comprehension, retention of information and feedback. We also review diverse practices associated with uses of e-text tools such as note-taking, annotation, bookmarking, hypertexts and highlighting. We argue that evidence-based studies into e-texts are overwhelmingly structured around reinforcing the existing dichotomy pitting print-based (‘traditional’) texts against e-texts. In this article, we query this approach and instead propose to focus on factors such as students’ level of awareness of their options in accessing learning materials and whether they are instructed and trained in how to take full advantage of the capabilities of e-texts, both of which have been found to affect learning performance

A reflective e-learning approach for reading, thinking, and behavioral engagement

One of the main goals of the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course is to facilitate the development of learners’ reading comprehension and reflective skills in English, which can be developed with appropriate instruction. However, in EFL courses, many students are inactive in reflecting on their reading and are disengaged from learning. To fill this gap, a reflective reading-based e-learning approach was proposed to explore the impact of the suggested approach on reading comprehension, reflective thinking, and behavioral engagement. The study aimed to improve the comprehension of the student’s reading using the proposed reflective e-learning approach. The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which the experimental group used reflective reading-based e-learning (n = 51) and the control group used conventional e-learning (n = 50) for a total of 13 weeks of participation. The experiment was designed to examine reading comprehension, reflective thinking, and behavioral engagement (e.g., reading time, Marker list, Quiz score, Memo list). The results revealed that the reflective reading-based e-learning approach could improve the comprehension and reflective thinking of the learners and promote behavioral engagement. These findings can be valuable for educators designing strategies to improve students’ reading comprehension skills and stimulate behavioral engagement in e-learning systems

Educational use cases from a shared exploration of e-books and iPads

E-books and e-book readers are becoming increasingly widely available, particularly for the general reader, and there have been many studies on their adoption. However, less is known about their use for educational and academic purposes. We report here on work carried out on e-books and e-book applications using iPads by academic and teaching staff. After considering pedagogical issues and reporting survey results, we identify a spiral of six key use case areas for e-books. This spiral of use cases moves from basic e-book use, through situational reading, e-books and learning, using multiple learning resources, collaborative/group learning, to e-book production. We discuss each of these use case areas and provide guidelines that will be of interest to practitioners and researchers alike

Is explicit vocabulary focus the reading teacher’s job?

This paper reports findings from a case study of the amount of explicit vocabulary focus (EVF) that occurred in a week of classes for one group of upper intermediate students in an intensive English program (IEP). To assess EVF, instruction from a total of 25 hours of classes was analyzed to see if the number of EVF events was more connected with the course (i.e., grammar, reading, composition, communication skills, or TOEFL), the instructor, or both. Data reveal that the reading course, long assumed to be the source of most vocabulary focus, may or may not be the main source in an IEP curriculum. Data from this study demonstrate that a better predictor of EVF in any given class or course may be the instructor, and that the number of EVFs in a week of intensive instruction is surprisingly low

The impact of an iPad-supported annotation and sharing technology on university students' learning

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd iPads, or more generally tablet computers, have received rapid and widespread uptake across higher education. Despite this, there is limited evidence of how their use affects student learning within this context. This study focuses on the use of a tablet by the instructor to support the annotation and in-class sharing of students' work to create a collaborative learning environment within a first year undergraduate subject. This paper reports the results of an empirical study looking at the effect this tablet technology has on student performance using a sample of 741 first-year accounting students. The study uses data from enrolment and attendance records, end of semester examination results and student perceptions from a survey. Results indicate that class sharing of the instructor's and students' annotation of homework through the use of a tablet is associated with an improvement in student performance on procedural or equation-based questions as well as increased student engagement. However, contrary to expectations, the introduction of in class annotations was associated with a decline in student performance on theoretical, extended response questions. The authors argue that affordances of the tablet, when used in a student-centred way, can introduce a bias towards some kinds of interactions over others. This large-scale study of in-class tablet use suggests that though the tablets may be positively associated with student engagement and satisfaction, caution must be exercised in how the use by the instructor affects the classroom environment and what students learn. These findings have particular relevance to university learning contexts with equation-centric subjects such as those in Business and STEM