Improving Hybrid Brainstorming Outcomes with Scripting and Group Awareness Support

Previous research has shown that hybrid brainstorming, which combines individual and group methods, generates more ideas than either approach alone. However, the quality of these ideas remains similar across different methods. This study, guided by the dual-pathway to creativity model, tested two computer-supported scaffolds – scripting and group awareness support – for enhancing idea quality in hybrid brainstorming. 94 higher education students,grouped into triads, were tasked with generating ideas in three conditions. The Control condition used standard hybrid brainstorming without extra support. In the Experimental 1 condition, students received scripting support during individual brainstorming, and students in the Experimental 2 condition were provided with group awareness support during the group phase in addition. While the quantity of ideas was similar across all conditions, the Experimental 2 condition produced ideas of higher quality, and the Experimental 1 condition also showed improved idea quality in the individual phase compared to the Control condition

Admission Policy Review: Strengthening Indigenous In-Community Training Programs

Canada’s colonial past significantly impacts prospective Indigenous student postsecondary enrollment. For the past fifty years, postsecondary institutions have focused on assimilation and cultural renewal. One assumption is Indigenous learners share similar educational experiences including ease and access to westernized high school programs with a credit or term system and ease and access to transcripts and criminal records checks often required for postsecondary admission. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the Problem of Practice (PoP) in admission procedures that do not consider Indigenous knowledges, experiences, and criteria for entry into postsecondary programming in SMH Department at LAC College. As an academic manager in SMH Department and facilitator of college career programs in Indigenous communities in central Canada, I explore the organizational context at LAC College and propose a solution to the PoP. This OIP includes a review of LAC College’s admission policy and implementation of an Indigenized admission process. Adaptive and distributed leadership perspectives are the approaches utilized in this OIP. The Critical Paradigm is the underlining perspective, and the voices of Indigenous colleagues and educational partners inform my perspectives in this OIP. I will conclude by discussing the Hiatt 2013 ADKAR change theory and evaluation plan utilized in this OIP. Keywords: Utilization Focused Evaluation, Critical Paradigm, Distributed Leadership, Ethical Leadership, Truth and Reconciliation, Indigenous admission criteria, In-Community Training

Quality Assurance in Competency Training of Pre-anesthesia Consultation Skills

The absence of quality assurance in training clinicians to perform pre-anesthesia consultations at a Canadian university is the Problem of Practice addressed in this Organizational Improvement Plan. This competency requires learners to apply their anesthesia knowledge to take medical histories; perform physical examinations; diagnose anesthetic risks; and generate anesthesia plans. Random chart audits of many learners identify deficiencies and suggest inconsistent training of this competency. This Organizational Improvement Plan analyzes the anesthesia program’s organizational context to be a complex adaptive system; organizational structure to be a hierarchy; and organizational state to be static. Through the paradigms of complexity theory, interpretivism, critical theory, and pragmatism, this proposal describes how adaptive, enabling, and administrative leadership strategies will (1) improve competency training of pre-anesthesia consultations; (2) build capacity of the anesthesia program’s stakeholders; and (3) foster a collaborative culture. An Integrated Framework of the Change Path Model and the Modified Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle will serve to implement change in this organization. The research and recommendations offered in this work can be adapted for use in other clinical programs aiming to improve competency training

Language Proficiency: Perceptions and Mediated Actions of a Kentucky World Language Educator

Since the inception of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act in 1990, Kentucky has undergone numerous educational changes. Regarding world languages, recent changes include a new state World Language Standard, a K-12 world language program review, and university language proficiency entrance requirements. These changes create an interesting context in which world language educators negotiate their perceptions and pedagogical choices. This study explored the perceptions, influences, and pedagogical choices of one Kentucky world language educator regarding language proficiency and cultural tools of context, standards and assessments. A constructivist framework guided the case study design. Data collection included interviews, observations, and artifact collection and data analyses followed the comparative analysis process (Yin, 1994; Merriam, 1998). Findings suggest that the participant\u27s perceptions of language proficiency reflect characteristics of the communicative competence language proficiency model of Uso-Juan and Martinez-Flor (2008). In addition, the participant\u27s pedagogical choices regarding context, standards and assessments reflect organizational, policy, and personal influences (Grant, 2003) and characteristics of mediated action (Wertsch, 1998). This study highlights the importance of understanding world language educators\u27 perceptions during a time of contextual change and the need for professional development supporting educators’ pedagogical choices

An adaptive Metalearner-based flow: a tool for reducing anxiety and increasing self-regulation

Anxiety and self-regulation are the most common problems among the college student population. There are few attempts found in the literature to promote the development of students’ cognitive and metacognitive abilities in online learning environments. In addition, mechanisms for overcoming or reducing individuals’ anxiety in a computer-mediated environment is yet to be fully characterized. This study was conducted to investigate the potential of integrating the concept of flow into the design of a Metalearner (MTL) to help reduce anxiety and increase self-regulation among students. The design of MTL was based on the development of adaptive strategies to balance between the challenge of the task and user skills. A total of 260 participants were asked to use the system and respond to an online questionnaire that asked about flow antecedents, experience, and consequences. The structural model results showed that incorporating flow into the design of MTL can help reduce anxiety and improve self-regulation among students. Our findings can be used to enrich students’ online learning experience and inform designers and developers of learning systems about the importance of regulating task complexity according to the challenge/skills balance. This would help learners to process the presented information meaningfully and to make the inferences necessary for understanding the learning content

Eye on Collaborative Creativity : Insights From Multiple-Person Mobile Gaze Tracking in the Context of Collaborative Design

Early Career WorkshopNon peer reviewe

Cross-Cultural Leadership: Best Practices In Multinational Graduate Education

The international security environment depends in part on professional military leaders with the knowledge, skills and attributes to execute a broad range of leadership communication, collaboration and negotiations with counterparts in complex international and intercultural settings. If higher education is the path to cognition, metacognition, motivation and behavior, then it may be an effective instrument for developing leadership readiness for a range of international/inter-cultural tasks. This study explores US military leaders’ perceptions about graduate-level, senior professional military education alongside foreign military officers at the U.S. Army War College as an influence on readiness for decision-making, cultural adaptation, and task performance in a cross-cultural leadership context. Five findings suggest the influence of a collaborative multinational graduate education setting on US leaders’ cross-cultural competence. Best practices based on theory-based analysis of graduate interviews include institutional guidance linking cultural agility and professional purpose; direct and meaningful engagements; skillful faculty facilitation; cultural immersion-like effects through multiple cross-cultural experiences; and experiential learning that challenges and reframes mental models

Explicit Feedback Within Game-based Training: Examining The Influence Of Source Modality Effects On Interaction

This research aims to enhance Simulation-Based Training (SBT) applications to support training events in the absence of live instruction. The overarching purpose is to explore available tools for integrating intelligent tutoring communications in game-based learning platforms and to examine theory-based techniques for delivering explicit feedback in such environments. The primary tool influencing the design of this research was the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT), a modular domain-independent architecture that provides the tools and methods to author, deliver, and evaluate intelligent tutoring technologies within any training platform. Influenced by research surrounding Social Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, the resulting experiment tested varying approaches for utilizing an Embodied Pedagogical Agent (EPA) to function as a tutor during interaction in a game-based environment. Conditions were authored to assess the tradeoffs between embedding an EPA directly in a game, embedding an EPA in GIFT’s browser-based Tutor-User Interface (TUI), or using audio prompts alone with no social grounding. The resulting data supports the application of using an EPA embedded in GIFT’s TUI to provide explicit feedback during a game-based learning event. Analyses revealed conditions with an EPA situated in the TUI to be as effective as embedding the agent directly in the game environment. This inference is based on evidence showing reliable differences across conditions on the metrics of performance and self-reported mental demand and feedback usefulness items. This research provides source modality tradeoffs linked to tactics for relaying training relevant explicit information to a user based on real-time performance in a game