9,868 research outputs found

    Effects of Engagements and Presentation Order in Informal Science Presentations

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    Science museums conduct presentations for their audiences to attract and educate visitors, yet research on presentations has primarily concentrated on whether individual presentations were effective. This mixed-methods, quasi-experimental study looks at how the presenter’s mental and physical engagements within a presentation affects audience members by altering sociocultural context of the presentation. Physical engagements involve asking audience members to physically participate, while mental engagements involved asking audience members to make predictions prior to observing a demonstration. Audiences were given presentations containing: 1) Both mental and physical engagements, 2) Physical engagements only, 3) Mental engagements only or 4) No engagements (control). This study utilizes Falk and colleagues’ (Falk & Dierking, 2000, 2016; Falk & Storksdieck, 2005) contextual model or learning framework to explore how changes in engagement effect the sociocultural context of the presentation. Shifts in sociocultural context potentially change the resulting interpretations and understanding of the presentation by shifting the roles of audience members from those of observers to participants. Audience members were interviewed and given pre/posttests that measured science interest, content retention and interpretation. Evidence suggests that audience members were more likely to view presentations without engagements as entertaining shows, and those with engagements as science activities. These results suggest that engaging the audience physically and mentally may help audiences identify with doing science, as opposed to simply observing science. xi Science interest and content learning were similar for all presentations.; however, audience members attending multiple shows exhibited chains of causal reasoning when explaining what interviewed. This suggests that a carefully planned series of shows, or collaboration with local school systems could serve to increase the depth of understanding. The order of demonstrations was a found to be a factor that could cause misconceptions. When presentations were ordered from simpler to more complex demonstrations, audience members developed a misconception. Presentations starting with a complex demonstration, that then used simpler demonstrations to explore potential misconceptions no longer generated misconceptions at a significant level. The results suggest that misconception generating demonstrations should occur at the beginning of the presentation, followed by demonstrations exploring potential misconceptions

    Using a Summarized Lecture Material Recommendation System to Enhance Students’ Preclass Preparation in a Flipped Classroom

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    Research has revealed the positive effects of flipped classroom approaches on students’ learning engagement and performance compared with conventional lecture-based classrooms. However, because of a lack of out-of-class learning support, many students fail to comprehensively prepare the provided lecture materials before class. One promising solution to this problem is recommendation systems in the educational area, which have been instrumental in helping learners identify useful and relevant lecture materials that satisfy their learning needs. Thus, in this study, we propose a summarized lecture material recommendation system, which is integrated into an e-book reading system as an enhancement of the flipped classroom approach. This system helps students identify pages that contain essential knowledge that must be thoroughly studied before class. The proposed system was constructed on the basis of our previous work. In this study, a quasi-experiment was conducted in a graduate course that implemented the flipped classroom model: experimental group students learned with the proposed system, whereas the control group students had no access to the additional features. The findings of this study suggest that students who learn with the proposed recommendation system significantly outperform those who learn without the system in a flipped classroom in terms of their learning outcomes and engagement in preclass preparation

    Academic Resilience Among Deaf Learners During E-Learning in the COVID-19 Era

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    This study aimed to assess the contributory roles of parental involvement (PI), parental acceptance/rejection (PAR), academic self-efficacy (ASE), computer user self-efficacy (CUSE) vis-Ă -vis gender and the onset of deafness on the academic resilience (AR) of deaf learners who participated in e-learning during the pandemic. The Bioecological Systems Theory provided a framework for the study. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire from 292 (Male: n = 164; Female: n = 128; Mage = 16.5) deaf learners from 3 provinces in South Africa. Data generated was analysed with IBM SPSS 22 and IBM AMOS 26.0 packages. All the fit measures of the SEM fell within the acceptable range (χ2 = 69.15, df = 28, χ2/df = 2.46, IFI = 0.91, CFI = 0.94, GFI = 0.93, NFI = 0.96, and RMSEA = 0.062). According to the findings, PAR, ASE and CUSE had a directly significant relationship on the AR of deaf learners who participated in e-learning during the lockdowns. An indirect significant relationship was observed between the latent variables and academic resilience when observed through the onset of deafness. Based on the findings, appropriate recommendations were made

    Productivity of Learning Management System in Organizational Development by Utilizing Smart Education

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    This study aims to describe the productivity of the learning management system in the context of organizational development by utilizing intelligent education that applies the latest technological innovations. The researcher uses a qualitative method with a descriptive approach, which will be the focus of the research, followed by interviews and observations, and qualitative data analysis such as manipulation and interpretation techniques that are related to a wider range. There are four research results, including (a) Learning management system as a lecture material platform; (b) Learning management system as assignment submission platform; (c) Learning management system as a discussion forum platform; and (d) Learning management system as a college exam platform. Keywords: learning management system, organizational development, smart education, educational managemen

    Impact of health-related Twitter messages on rates of diabetes screening in the Saudi Arabian population

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    Problem Domain: Type II diabetes (T2D) is a severe chronic metabolic disorder. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) currently suffers from high rates of undiagnosed T2D. In response, the KSA Ministry of Health (MoH) implemented the National Diabetes Prevention and Control Program (NDPCP) as a way to promote the diagnosis and early intervention for T2D. This project aimed to assess the feasibility of using Twitter, a highly-used social media platform in KSA, to promote diabetic screening among persons at risk of developing T2D in KSA. The objectives of this research were to: 1) develop a targeted social media model for the “Do not Wait for Diabetes” (DNWD) Campaign using Twitter, 2) compare the screening frequencies for T2D before and after the implementation of the DNWD Twitter Campaign, 3) measure users’ engagement and satisfaction with the DNWD Twitter Campaign, and 4) explore stakeholders’ views on the DNWD Twitter Campaign and its wider implementation and sustainability. Methodology: To achieve the objectives, a Twitter social media campaign was implemented using the MoH NDPCP Twitter account, and three substudies performed. Frequencies of T2D referrals at two MoH clinical locations, results from a Twitter user survey, and qualitative data from interviewing clinical and governmental stakeholders were analyzed to provide insight on the impact of the Twitter social media campaign. Results: The social media campaign was implemented from November 2017 through July 2018. Referral data were not helpful in providing insight on campaign impact, but survey data were. Of the approximately 800 Twitter users surveyed who were following the NDPCP Twitter account, 95% of respondents reported getting screened for T2D over the period of the campaign, and of those, 87% said they were Page 7 motivated by the tweets from the campaign. Over 90% of respondents reported satisfaction with various dimensions of the tweets. Interview results revealed that stakeholders felt that the campaign was realistic and sustainable if budgeted as a component of the overall public health campaign organized by the MoH. Conclusion: This project demonstrated that social media can be used to enhance the reach of an existing government-sponsored T2D awareness public health campaign. Future social media health education awareness projects can use this example as a prototype for applying social media to public health campaigns aimed at other clinical areas and populations.Open Acces

    Practices and technological change: The unintended consequences of low energy dwelling design

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    There is an urgent need to reduce domestic energy consumption, particularly due to climate change. Domestic energy policies and research have been dominated by the assumption that technological provision will linearly save energy. Conventional attempts to move away from this approach have not gone far enough, tending to still assume that technological usage is a linear outcome of an individual’s rational decision-making. This thesis takes a significantly different approach by drawing on social practice theory and focusing on how everyday life is performed. Specifically, a Passivhaus housing development is adopted as a case study in investigating the everyday consequences of advancing dwelling design. Passivhaus is a German energy efficiency building standard, employing very different technologies relative to conventional UK housing. Specific attention is given to how unfamiliar technologies influence domestic practices more generally, as well as appliance-using practices and designing and constructing practices more specifically. This thesis has significant empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions. Empirically, everyday examples illustrate the unintended consequences of new technologies, providing insight on how such technologies could change practices in the future. Methodologically, by treating quantitative consumption-related data (e.g. building monitoring, appliance ownership, construction data) as by-products of performing practices, an innovative mixed methods approach provides unique insights on everyday practices. Theoretically, the potential usefulness of a practices approach is emphasised; in particular, in developing a detailed and contextual understanding of how everyday life is constructed and how it is open to change (often in unexpected ways). This thesis reiterates that research and policy should focus on practices, rather than technological performance or what individuals think about technologies. It concludes by: discussing a re-framing of policy expectations; outlining how energy saving interventions could target domestic practices and its influencing elements; and providing a series of new research ideas that have been generated by this thesis

    The Use of Prototypes to Engage Stakeholders in Low- and Middle-Income Countries During the Early Phases of Design

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    Human-centered design processes have been leveraged to help advance solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Early and frequent engagement with stakeholders is a key activity of early-stage human-centered design processes that leads to better alignment of product requirements with the needs of stakeholders and the context of the artifact. There are many tools to support early stakeholder engagement. A subset of methods includes the use of prototypes – tangible manifestations of design ideas. However, prototypes are underutilized in early design activities to engage stakeholders, notably during cross-cultural design in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). In such contexts, prototypes have the potential to bridge contextual and cultural differences, which is especially critical when designing for LMICs where many proposed solutions have failed to meet people’s needs. To investigate the roles of prototypes to engage stakeholders in LMICs, I used both qualitative and quantitative research methods emphasizing both engineering design and economics theory and methods. Specifically, I conducted an interview-based study with industry practitioners and investigated two prototype-based stakeholder engagement methods in practice in LMICs. I conducted semi-structured interviews focused on the use of prototypes to engage stakeholders in early design stages with 24 medical device design practitioners from multinational and global health companies. Practitioners described the types of stakeholders, prototypes, and settings leveraged during front-end design and the associations of engagement strategies, stakeholders, prototypes, and/or settings. I further studied the practices of global health design practitioners working on medical devices for use in LMICs and described their approaches to tackle stakeholder remoteness, explore the environment of use, bridge cultural gaps, adjust the engagement activities to stakeholders, and work with limited resources. My analysis of requirements elicitation interviews with 36 healthcare practitioners from two hospitals in Ghana revealed participant preferences when viewing three, one, or no prototypes. The findings indicate that stakeholders preferred interviews with prototypes and in the absence of a prototype, stakeholders referenced existing or imaginative devices as a frame of reference. I investigated the preferences for, willingness to pay for, and usage of a novel tool for electronic-waste recycling with 105 workers in North-Eastern Thailand. Workers were assigned to one of two conjoint experiments that leveraged different prototype forms. Workers further completed baseline and endline surveys and participated in a Becker-Degroot-Marschak auction experiment. The results showed that the prototype form used in the conjoint experiment affected the valuation of product features. One-month evaluation of usage revealed that participants who received the new tool decreased their injury rates and increased productivity. This research provides new insights into the practices and teachings of prototype usage for stakeholder engagement during early design stages, contributes to the developing body of literature that recognizes the unique design constraints associated with designing for LMICs, and advances approaches for promoting more inclusive design practices. The description of the types of stakeholders, prototypes, settings, and strategies leveraged by industry practitioners when engaging stakeholders in LMICs are potentially transferable to, and can have a broader impact on, other contexts in which prototypes are used to engage stakeholders. Furthermore, both applied studies illustrate the effect of using different numbers of prototypes and different prototype forms on the outcomes of the two commonly used stakeholder engagement methods – interviewing and conjoint analysis. The applied studies provide examples of stakeholder engagement methods with prototypes in LMIC settings in practice.PHDDesign ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162996/1/mjcoul_1.pd

    Technology Adoption of Computer-Aided Instruction in Healthcare: A Structured Review

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    Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI) is one of the interactive teaching methods that electronically presents instructional resources and enhances learner performance. In health settings, using CAI is one of the important ways to improve learners\u27 knowledge and usefulness in their healthcare specialization yet there is still a lack of research that offers a comprehensive synthesis of investigating into the adoption of CAI in healthcare. This research aims to provide a comprehensive review of related literatures on the enablers and barriers for technology adoption of CAI in healthcare. 31 journals were analyzed and revealed that several studies were utilizing the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The researchers then conducted qualitative coding for thematic analysis and categorized the qualitative data to find themes and patterns. Enablers as well as barriers to CAI adoption in healthcare were then discussed along with the common conclusions, limitations and recommendations for future studies. Results shows that key enablers were perceived ease of use, ease of usefulness, performance expectancy, social influence, user experience, and effort expectancy while identified key barriers were government support, funding constraints, and interactivity. The majority of the research articles highlighted the benefits of CAI in healthcare education as an innovative method for boosting the effectiveness of both teaching and learning
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