Formative Research on an Instructional Design Theory for Fostering Self-Efficacy Through Gamification

The merits of gamification as a learner-centered pedagogy that positively influences learner engagement and motivation are widely established in the literature; yet, few studies have ventured beyond motivation to consider the impact gamification has on self-efficacy. Moreover, guidance for the effective design and development of gamified instruction is lacking. This study describes formative research conducted on the Gamification for Enhancing Learner Self-Efficacy (GELSE) instructional design theory, which was developed to guide the design of gamification aimed at fostering self-efficacy. The goal of formative research is to identify improvements for an instructional design theory based on a designed instance of the theory. The GELSE theory was applied to an undergraduate community health nursing course in a fully online, accelerated degree program. The theory was evaluated by answering the following questions: 1) What methods of the GELSE instructional design theory were perceived to be more effective?, 2) What methods of the GELSE instructional design theory were perceived to be less effective?, and 3) What improvements can be made to the GELSE instructional design theory?. Data was collected in this qualitative study through open-ended questionnaires, focus group interviews, semi-structured one-on-one interviews, and observations of online learner activities and social interactions. The results show that the GELSE instructional design theory is effectual for guiding the design of gamified instruction intended to foster learner self-efficacy. Additionally, the findings from the research yielded a number of recommendations for improving the GELSE theory

Predicting Creativity in the Wild: Experience Sampling Method and Sociometric Modeling of Movement and Face-To-Face Interactions in Teams

abstract: With the rapid growth of mobile computing and sensor technology, it is now possible to access data from a variety of sources. A big challenge lies in linking sensor based data with social and cognitive variables in humans in real world context. This dissertation explores the relationship between creativity in teamwork, and team members' movement and face-to-face interaction strength in the wild. Using sociometric badges (wearable sensors), electronic Experience Sampling Methods (ESM), the KEYS team creativity assessment instrument, and qualitative methods, three research studies were conducted in academic and industry R&D; labs. Sociometric badges captured movement of team members and face-to-face interaction between team members. KEYS scale was implemented using ESM for self-rated creativity and expert-coded creativity assessment. Activities (movement and face-to-face interaction) and creativity of one five member and two seven member teams were tracked for twenty five days, eleven days, and fifteen days respectively. Day wise values of movement and face-to-face interaction for participants were mean split categorized as creative and non-creative using self- rated creativity measure and expert-coded creativity measure. Paired-samples t-tests [t(36) = 3.132, p < 0.005; t(23) = 6.49 , p < 0.001] confirmed that average daily movement energy during creative days (M = 1.31, SD = 0.04; M = 1.37, SD = 0.07) was significantly greater than the average daily movement of non-creative days (M = 1.29, SD = 0.03; M = 1.24, SD = 0.09). The eta squared statistic (0.21; 0.36) indicated a large effect size. A paired-samples t-test also confirmed that face-to-face interaction tie strength of team members during creative days (M = 2.69, SD = 4.01) is significantly greater [t(41) = 2.36, p < 0.01] than the average face-to-face interaction tie strength of team members for non-creative days (M = 0.9, SD = 2.1). The eta squared statistic (0.11) indicated a large effect size. The combined approach of principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) conducted on movement and face-to-face interaction data predicted creativity with 87.5% and 91% accuracy respectively. This work advances creativity research and provides a foundation for sensor based real-time creativity support tools for teams.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Computer Science 201

The Survey, Taxonomy, and Future Directions of Trustworthy AI: A Meta Decision of Strategic Decisions

When making strategic decisions, we are often confronted with overwhelming information to process. The situation can be further complicated when some pieces of evidence are contradicted each other or paradoxical. The challenge then becomes how to determine which information is useful and which ones should be eliminated. This process is known as meta-decision. Likewise, when it comes to using Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for strategic decision-making, placing trust in the AI itself becomes a meta-decision, given that many AI systems are viewed as opaque "black boxes" that process large amounts of data. Trusting an opaque system involves deciding on the level of Trustworthy AI (TAI). We propose a new approach to address this issue by introducing a novel taxonomy or framework of TAI, which encompasses three crucial domains: articulate, authentic, and basic for different levels of trust. To underpin these domains, we create ten dimensions to measure trust: explainability/transparency, fairness/diversity, generalizability, privacy, data governance, safety/robustness, accountability, reproducibility, reliability, and sustainability. We aim to use this taxonomy to conduct a comprehensive survey and explore different TAI approaches from a strategic decision-making perspective

Relationships between Achievement Emotions and Academic Performance in Nursing Students: A Non-Experimental Predictive Correlation Analysis

The purpose of this non-experimental predictive correlation study was to investigate the relationships between achievement learning emotions and academic performance in 155 nursing students from one faith-based academic institution in the mid-Atlantic of the U.S.A. The theory guiding this study was the Control-Value Theory of Achievement Emotions. The study was designed to answer two study research questions: (a) “What are the relationships between the outcome variable (academic performance) and predictor variables (achievement emotions during learning) in Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students?” and (b) “How accurately can the outcome variable (academic performance) be predicted from a linear combination of predictive variables (achievement emotions during learning) in BSN nursing students?” Predictor variables were measured using the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) for positive emotions (enjoyment, hope, pride) and negative emotions (anger, anxiety, shame, boredom, hopelessness). Outcome variable was measured using the standardized Assessment Technologies Institutes course mastery exam. The results found no statistically significant relationships between achievement emotions and ATI scores was found. Emotions were ranked from highest to lowest as enjoyment, anxiety, shame, boredom, pride, hopelessness, hope, and anger supporting the positive relationship between student and faculty as well as feelings of shame of their performance and being overwhelmed by the material. The AEQ subscales had reliability (Cronbach alpha), discrete validity, and corrected item-total correlations (rit) congruent with the original AEQ Manual. Further research is needed using the AEQ tool and qualitative inquiry in designing emotion-sensitive learning environments

Experimental Studies in Learning Technology and Child–Computer Interaction

This book is about the ways in which experiments can be employed in the context of research on learning technologies and child–computer interaction (CCI). It is directed at researchers, supporting them to employ experimental studies while increasing their quality and rigor. The book provides a complete and comprehensive description on how to design, implement, and report experiments, with a focus on and examples from CCI and learning technology research. The topics covered include an introduction to CCI and learning technologies as interdisciplinary fields of research, how to design educational interfaces and visualizations that support experimental studies, the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of experiments, methodological decisions in designing and conducting experiments (e.g. devising hypotheses and selecting measures), and the reporting of results. As well, a brief introduction on how contemporary advances in data science, artificial intelligence, and sensor data have impacted learning technology and CCI research is presented. The book details three important issues that a learning technology and CCI researcher needs to be aware of: the importance of the context, ethical considerations, and working with children. The motivation behind and emphasis of this book is helping prospective CCI and learning technology researchers (a) to evaluate the circumstances that favor (or do not favor) the use of experiments, (b) to make the necessary methodological decisions about the type and features of the experiment, (c) to design the necessary “artifacts” (e.g., prototype systems, interfaces, materials, and procedures), (d) to operationalize and conduct experimental procedures to minimize potential bias, and (e) to report the results of their studies for successful dissemination in top-tier venues (such as journals and conferences). This book is an open access publication

Finding Light in the Caves: Achieving Professional and Personal Bliss on a Journey in Cheeseworld

The most common approach to educating the populace places learners in contrived, curriculum-centered learning environments that are characterized by uniformity, standardization, and incessant high-stakes testing. The primacy of efficiency, an externally imposed and shifting set of non-negotiables, and top-down management dominate schooling. This set of circumstances tends to marginalize learners whose particular attributes, needs, wants and goals locate them far from what can be considered representative of the average student. In other words, efficiency trumps difference and leaves many learners in need of alternative paths to happiness and fulfillment (Callahan, 1962). This system works for some, but for many it simply does not. Traditional schooling prepares students for a generic future of career choices for which all are somewhat prepared and few or none are truly equipped. There are many good reasons for such a system, but many more reasons for the availability of supplementary and complementary models that recognize difference and diversity as strength rather than deficit, providing opportunities for those among us for whom traditional schooling is not adequate. The research documented here explores a single person’s efforts to pursue life as a cheese professional – cheesemaker, affineur, cheesemonger, chef and cheese consumer. Her professional education program has been and continues to be firmly rooted in the places where cheese is made, sold and consumed. This is an ad hoc, on-the-job, enterprise where resources (including people, facilities, organizations and events) arise and are appropriated when and as needed. It is not preplanned, but it is responsive to a fluid set of goals that comprise a more broadly encompassing aspiration of central participation in a collection of interweaving and overlapping communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), all in the world of cheese. There is a place for the classroom in her education, but only as one among many and varied avenues into and throughout Cheeseworld. This phenomenological, hermeneutic investigation of the self-structured professional education program of a cheese professional employs a bricolage of methods that are employed and deployed when and as needed in an emergent and contingent process of decision-making that is acutely responsive to the knowledge generated during the research itself. The entire enterprise is authentic inquiry, and includes an embracing of polysemy, polyphony and multilogicality (Alexakos, 2015). Many aspects of cheesemaking – from farm, to creamery, to the caves where affinage is practiced, to shipping and storage facilities, homes, kitchens and dinner plates – are mediated by natural phenomena that often are assigned to the domain of “science.” Beyond this, as cheese making, processing and consumption involve craft, skill and expertise, they are subject to the hegemonic positivism that Western science practices exert over engagement in knowledge production – even knowledge production outside of what we consider its purview (Kincheloe & Tobin, 2009). Our efforts in the current work seek to instigate a broadening of the epistemological frame to embrace the interconnectedness and inseparability of the human, social and natural characters of our universe and to make this visible in the totality of human activity. Ultimately, the current research serves as an example of a unique journey into a professional career that, we hope, at times, resonates with and, at times, challenges the experience of each reader. Although unique and singular, we place this story – both the narrative and the interpretation – in the public space to enlighten and inform all interested parties – learners, educators, policy makers and professionals of all stripes – as they make the important decisions about their own learning and the educating of others

Liberating Self: An Autoethnographic Inquiry Into Black Male Mental Health

This autoethnography offers a first-person perspective on Black male mental health experiences. It incorporates personal narratives and academic research to explore the intersectionality of race, gender, and mental health, as well as the impact of historical and contemporary systemic racism and discrimination on Black males\u27 psychological and emotional well-being. The Black Liberation Psychology theoretical framework and Africana Studies Conceptual framework examined how cultural norms, hip-hop culture, stigma, and societal factors, including racism, discrimination, and stereotypes about Black masculinity, shape Black male mental health experiences. The study also highlights Black males\u27 development of coping mechanisms and resilience strategies to navigate these challenges. The researcher employs their clinical skills as a licensed clinical social worker to critically analyze firsthand experiences navigating the mental health system, illuminating Black males\u27 unique challenges and barriers throughout their lives. The findings suggest that Black male mental health is a complex issue, significantly impacted by white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism. Therefore, African-centered interventions are identified as the only remediation to counteract Eurocentrism\u27s harmful effects on Black males. The study calls for Black social work leadership professionals to create mental health programs that center on Black male experiences. Social work education should also educate prospective and current social work professionals on Black male experiences from a non-deficit perspective, promoting anti-racist practices through autoethnography and recognizing systemic racism and oppression

Needs-Supportive Teaching and Its Impact on Standardized Test Scores in Southwest Missouri Schools

Despite the theoretical proposition that needs-supportive teaching practices, guided by self-determination theory (SDT), can positively influence student academic outcomes, research examining the relationship between teachers\u27 self-reported needs-supportive behaviors and objective measures of student performance, such as standardized test scores, is scarce. This study investigated the correlation between teachers\u27 needs-supportive practices, as assessed by the Teacher as Social Context Questionnaire (TASCQ), and their students\u27 academic achievement based on standardized test results. The sample consisted of 31 K-12 teachers from various grade levels in public schools located in Southwest Missouri. Participants completed the TASCQ, which measures needs-supportive teaching in terms of autonomy support, competence support, and relatedness support. The primary outcome measure was the percentage of students in each teacher\u27s classroom who achieved proficiency or higher on standardized tests. Contrary to expectations, the study found no significant correlation between teachers\u27 self-reported needs-supportive teaching practices and the percentage of their students achieving proficiency or higher on standardized tests. Furthermore, the study observed no significant correlations between the individual dimensions of autonomy, competence, and relatedness support and students\u27 test performance. This research contributes to the field of educational psychology by highlighting the complexity of the relationship between teaching practices and student achievement, suggesting that sole reliance on standardized test scores may not fully capture the influence of needs-supportive teaching on student growth and development. Future research should explore alternative indicators of student success and investigate the potential long-term effects of needs-supportive teaching on student motivation, engagement, and well-being