200,212 research outputs found
Cognitive style and computerâassisted learning: Problems and a possible solution1
Although the notion of cognitive style has been around for some time, only in relatively recent times has there been a research interest in examining its effect on the performance of ComputerâAssisted Learning (CAL) users. There are a number of practical difficulties associated with catering for different cognitive styles of CAL users. This paper identifies not only a style which influences CALâuser performance and overcomes many of the difficulties, but also a possible suitable measure of that style. Data on the reliability of this measure is reported, along with preliminary work on its use to cater for CAL users with different cognitive styles. Future work will focus on the development of the package and the predictive validity of the style measure
Comparison of the costâeffectiveness of a computerâassisted learning program with a tutored demonstration to teach intestinal motility to medical students
Computerâbased simulations of undergraduate experiments in pharmacology and physiology may offer a costâeffective alternative to the traditional live laboratory for some students, for whom laboratory skills are less important. Here we describe a study which compares two approaches to teaching preclinical medical students the pharmacology of colonic motility. Half of one cohort received a tutored live demonstration of an isolated tissue laboratory, while the other half used a computer simulation program covering the same subject. The study demonstrated that student learning was comparable for both groups, that many students found the computer simulation an acceptable alternative and that the latter required significantly less resource
Robot Autonomy for Surgery
Autonomous surgery involves having surgical tasks performed by a robot
operating under its own will, with partial or no human involvement. There are
several important advantages of automation in surgery, which include increasing
precision of care due to sub-millimeter robot control, real-time utilization of
biosignals for interventional care, improvements to surgical efficiency and
execution, and computer-aided guidance under various medical imaging and
sensing modalities. While these methods may displace some tasks of surgical
teams and individual surgeons, they also present new capabilities in
interventions that are too difficult or go beyond the skills of a human. In
this chapter, we provide an overview of robot autonomy in commercial use and in
research, and present some of the challenges faced in developing autonomous
surgical robots
The Effect of Varied Gender Groupings on Argumentation Skills among Middle School Students in Different Cultures
The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore the effect of varied gender groupings on argumentation skills among middle school students in Taiwan and the United States in a project-based learning environment that incorporated a graph-oriented computer-assisted application (GOCAA). A total of 43 students comprised the treatment condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in same-gender groupings. Of these 43 students, 20 were located in the U.S. and 23 were located in Taiwan. A total of 40 students comprised the control condition and were engaged in the collaborative argumentation process in mixed-gender groupings. Of these 40 students, 19 were in the U.S. and 21 were in Taiwan. In each country, verbal collaborative argumentation was recorded and the studentsâ post essays were collected. Among females in Taiwan, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that statistically a significant gender-grouping effect was evident on the total argumentation skills outcome, while MANOVA indicated no significant gender-grouping effect on the combined set of skill outcomes. Among females in the U.S., MANOVA indicated statistically significant gender-grouping effect on the combined set of argumentation skills outcomes Specifically, U.S. female students in mixed-gender groupings (the control condition) significantly outperformed female students in single-gender groupings (the treatment condition) in the counterargument and rebuttal skills. No significant group differences were observed among males. A qualitative analysis was conducted to examine how the graph-oriented computer-assisted application supported studentsâ development of argumentation skills in different gender groupings in both countries. In each country, all teams in both conditions demonstrated a similar pattern of collaborative argumentation with the exception of three female teams in the U.S. Female teams, male teams, (the treatment condition) and mixed-gender teams (the control condition) demonstrated metacognition regulation skills in different degrees and with different scaffolding
Computer-based materials: a study of learner autonomy and strategies
This paper reports on a study which examines the extent to which specified cognitive, social, and
metacognitive strategies, are used by language students when working with computer-based materials
(CBMs), in self-study contexts outside of the language classroom; particularly in a self-access centre
(SAC). Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and snap-shot observations from
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students enrolled on a summer course at a British Higher Education
Institution (HEI). The data identify the frequency with which students use a SAC and the
value they attach to computers for language learning. The data then examine the types of strategies
students use and the extent to which learner autonomy is being fostered. The vast majority of participants
were found to have positive attitudes towards computer-based material (CBMs) and language
learning despite frequent use of L1, furthermore they were found to use cognitive strategies
and to apply metacognitive awareness in their use of such CBMs. Students believed CBMs assisted
with learning and demonstrated conscious applications of a range of strategies while learning in an
electronic environment. However, the study also found that less than half the students used social
strategies in the target language and this raises a number of issues
Pre and Post-hoc Diagnosis and Interpretation of Malignancy from Breast DCE-MRI
We propose a new method for breast cancer screening from DCE-MRI based on a
post-hoc approach that is trained using weakly annotated data (i.e., labels are
available only at the image level without any lesion delineation). Our proposed
post-hoc method automatically diagnosis the whole volume and, for positive
cases, it localizes the malignant lesions that led to such diagnosis.
Conversely, traditional approaches follow a pre-hoc approach that initially
localises suspicious areas that are subsequently classified to establish the
breast malignancy -- this approach is trained using strongly annotated data
(i.e., it needs a delineation and classification of all lesions in an image).
Another goal of this paper is to establish the advantages and disadvantages of
both approaches when applied to breast screening from DCE-MRI. Relying on
experiments on a breast DCE-MRI dataset that contains scans of 117 patients,
our results show that the post-hoc method is more accurate for diagnosing the
whole volume per patient, achieving an AUC of 0.91, while the pre-hoc method
achieves an AUC of 0.81. However, the performance for localising the malignant
lesions remains challenging for the post-hoc method due to the weakly labelled
dataset employed during training.Comment: Submitted to Medical Image Analysi
Costâeffectiveness analysis of computerâbased assessment
The need for more costâeffective and pedagogically acceptable combinations of teaching and learning methods to sustain increasing student numbers means that the use of innovative methods, using technology, is accelerating. There is an expectation that economies of scale might provide greater costâeffectiveness whilst also enhancing student learning. The difficulties and complexities of these expectations are considered in this paper, which explores the challenges faced by those wishing to evaluate the costâeffectiveness of computerâbased assessment (CBA). The paper outlines the outcomes of a survey which attempted to gather information about the costs and benefits of CBA
Courseware in academic library user education: A literature review from the GAELS Joint Electronic Library Project
The use of courseware for information skills teaching in academic libraries has been growing for a number of years. In order to create effective courseware packages to support joint electronic library activity at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, the GAELS project conducted a literature review of the subject. This review discovered a range of factors common to successful library courseware implementations, such as the need for practitioners to feel a sense of ownership of the medium, a need for courseware customization to local information environments, and an emphasis on training packages for large bodies of undergraduates. However, we also noted underdeveloped aspects worthy of further attention, such as treatment of pedagogic issues in library computerâaided learning (CAL) implementations and use of hypertextual learning materials for more advanced information skills training. We describe how these findings shaped the packages produced by the project and suggest ways forward for similar types of implementation
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