84,350 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
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
ALOJA: A framework for benchmarking and predictive analytics in Hadoop deployments
This article presents the ALOJA project and its analytics tools, which leverages machine learning to interpret Big Data benchmark performance data and tuning. ALOJA is part of a long-term collaboration between BSC and Microsoft to automate the characterization of cost-effectiveness on Big Data deployments, currently focusing on Hadoop. Hadoop presents a complex run-time environment, where costs and performance depend on a large number of configuration choices. The ALOJA project has created an open, vendor-neutral repository, featuring over 40,000 Hadoop job executions and their performance details. The repository is accompanied by a test-bed and tools to deploy and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of different hardware configurations, parameters and Cloud services. Despite early success within ALOJA, a comprehensive study requires automation of modeling procedures to allow an analysis of large and resource-constrained search spaces. The predictive analytics extension, ALOJA-ML, provides an automated system allowing knowledge discovery by modeling environments from observed executions. The resulting models can forecast execution behaviors, predicting execution times for new configurations and hardware choices. That also enables model-based anomaly detection or efficient benchmark guidance by prioritizing executions. In addition, the community can benefit from ALOJA data-sets and framework to improve the design and deployment of Big Data applications.This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement
No 639595). This work is partially supported by the Ministry of Economy of Spain under contracts TIN2012-34557 and 2014SGR1051.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Refined Characterization of Student Perspectives on Quantum Physics
The perspectives of introductory classical physics students can often
negatively influence how those students later interpret quantum phenomena when
taking an introductory course in modern physics. A detailed exploration of
student perspectives on the interpretation of quantum physics is needed, both
to characterize student understanding of physics concepts, and to inform how we
might teach traditional content. Our previous investigations of student
perspectives on quantum physics have indicated they can be highly nuanced, and
may vary both within and across contexts. In order to better understand the
contextual and often seemingly contradictory stances of students on matters of
interpretation, we interviewed 19 students from four introductory modern
physics courses taught at the University of Colorado. We find that students
have attitudes and opinions that often parallel the stances of expert
physicists when arguing for their favored interpretations of quantum mechanics,
allowing for more nuanced characterizations of student perspectives in terms of
three key interpretive themes. We present a framework for characterizing
student perspectives on quantum mechanics, and demonstrate its utility in
interpreting the sometimes-contradictory nature of student responses to
previous surveys. We further find that students most often vacillate in their
responses when what makes intuitive sense to them is not in agreement with what
they consider to be a correct response, underscoring the need to distinguish
between the personal and the public perspectives of introductory modern physics
students.Comment: 24 pages, 31 references, 1 Appendix (5 pages
Instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school
This article offers an examination of instructional strategies and tactics for the design of introductory computer programming courses in high school. We distinguish the Expert, Spiral and Reading approach as groups of instructional strategies that mainly differ in their general design plan to control students' processing load. In order, they emphasize topdown program design, incremental learning, and program modification and amplification. In contrast, tactics are specific design plans that prescribe methods to reach desired learning outcomes under given circumstances. Based on ACT* (Anderson, 1983) and relevant research, we distinguish between declarative and procedural instruction and present six tactics which can be used both to design courses and to evaluate strategies. Three tactics for declarative instruction involve concrete computer models, programming plans and design diagrams; three tactics for procedural instruction involve worked-out examples, practice of basic cognitive skills and task variation. In our evaluation of groups of instructional strategies, the Reading approach has been found to be superior to the Expert and Spiral approaches
- …