The Impact of STEM-based laboratory activities on pre-service science teachers’ competence perceptions in 21st-Century Skills and STEM Awareness

This study aims to investigate the impact of laboratory activities prepared based on STEM-based learning on the competence perceptions in 21st-century skills (learning and innovation skills, life and career, information, media, and technology skills) and STEM awareness. The sample group consisted of 53 pre-service science teachers studying in year 2 of a public university. A quasi-experimental design formed the basis of this experimental study conducted as a quantitative research model. Pre-service teachers were randomly assigned, one to the experimental group (n=28) and the other to the control group (n=25). The experimental group was presented with laboratory activities based on STEM-based learning. In contrast, the control group had only laboratory activities (i.e., a group of students who did not conduct STEM-based laboratory activities). The measurement tools were the 21st Century Skills Competence Perception Scale (21st Century SCS) and the STEM Awareness Scale (SAS). All participants in the study expressed their agreement generally on the level of “I agree” for all three dimensions of the 21st Century SCS regarding STEM. As a result of the implementation, the SCS sub-dimension of “information, media and technology skills” and SAS skills of the experimental group students were higher than those of the students in the control group. It was found that the experimental group used the media and technology effectively and to use technology to access, analyze and share information. It was also thought that the individuals' problem-solving, critical, and high-level thinking skills developed more than the control group, thanks to the higher STEM awareness in the experimental group. Finally, some implications were proposed based on the research results from the STEM-based learning laboratory activities

The Impact of Computer Augmented Online Learning and Assessment

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of an experimental online learning tool on student performance. By applying cognitive load theory to online learning, the experimental tool used was designed to minimize cognitive load during the instructional and learning process. This tool enabled students to work with programming code that was supplemented with instructor descriptions and feedback, embedded directly within the code while maintaining the original integrity of the coding environment. A sample of 24 online graduate students at a southeastern university were randomly assigned to four groups: Group 1 (Control group), Group 2 (Assessment group: the tool was used to provide feedback on student work), Group 3 (Lecture group: the tool was used to describe examples of code provided in lectures), and Group 4 (Total tool group: the tool was used to provide feedback on student work as well as describe examples of code in lectures). Student learning was measured via analysis of six online quizzes. While provision of tool-facilitated feedback alone did not appear to enhance student learning, the results indicate that students performed best when they had the opportunity to view examples of code facilitated by the tool during the learning process of new material. This implies a carefully designed online learning environment, especially while controlling for and minimizing cognitive load when presenting new information, can enhance that student learning

IDENTIFYING AND OVERCOMING SOME FATIGUE-CAUSING FACTORS EXISTING IN ONLINE READING CLASS OF AMIKOM PURWOKERTO PSDKU YOGYAKARTA DURING COVID-19 QUARANTINE

Abstract   COVID-19 forced AMIKOM Purwokerto to convert its traditional classes to online learning. During this online learning, problems have started to unravel, and one of them is fatigue, which was confirmatively experienced by 55% students of Reading IV. This study, utilizing a quantitative research method, intended to find the causes of the fatigue and design practicable solutions. Through observations, group interview, and literature reviews, some main factors that caused fatigue were revealed: Zoom fatigue; tasks which were too difficult and numerous; presentation of materials which did not properly comply with the students’ online conditions and unfamiliarity to Google Classroom; eye fatigue (digital eye strain), bad postures during learning, lockdown fatigue, and frustration over signal and internet problems. To overcome the fatigue, the researchers reduced the time for video conferences and created asynchronous short videos for learning, selectively adjusted tasks in terms of number and difficulty, simplified presentations of materials and helped the students to become more familiar with Google Classroom, and addressed the problems from eye strain, bad postures, and lockdown fatigue in the reading materials so the students could solve those problems based on the texts given or find a more viable solution. Those solutions reduced the number of drained students to only 25% and in addition 60% students claimed that the modifications brought a positive impact on their learning. Keywords: fatigue, distance learning, COVID-19, Zoom fatigu

A Study on Students’ Disruptive Behaviors in English Online Classroom and Its Solution by the Lecturers

This study aims to explain the views of lecturers and students of STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau on disruptive behavior in online English learning during the Covid 19 pandemic and describe the level of seriousness in providing the best solution to these problems. The research method used is descriptive qualitative research using grounded theory with an inductive approach. Data was collected through interviews as primary data, observation and document analysis. The subjects of this study were seven lecturers and 14 students (disruptive behavior) English Education STKIP-PGRI Lubuklinggau. The results showed seven general categories of disruptive behavior: breaking time, dishonesty, disrespect, lack of concentration, skipping lessons and assignments, doing things privately, and giving slow responses. The lecturers offered several solutions for these problems by considering the level of seriousness, such as applying positive discipline, formulating and designing rules strategies and teaching media, giving punishment and expecting to end online learning. In conclusion, by knowing students' disruptive behavior, lecturers and other parties will be more concerned about taking some appropriate actions to minimize and avoid some behaviors in improving online English learning. Keywords: Disruptive Behavior, Discipline Problems, Online Learning, Teaching in a Pandemic Perio

Modeling the Dynamics of Online Learning Activity

People are increasingly relying on the Web and social media to find solutions to their problems in a wide range of domains. In this online setting, closely related problems often lead to the same characteristic learning pattern, in which people sharing these problems visit related pieces of information, perform almost identical queries or, more generally, take a series of similar actions. In this paper, we introduce a novel modeling framework for clustering continuous-time grouped streaming data, the hierarchical Dirichlet Hawkes process (HDHP), which allows us to automatically uncover a wide variety of learning patterns from detailed traces of learning activity. Our model allows for efficient inference, scaling to millions of actions taken by thousands of users. Experiments on real data gathered from Stack Overflow reveal that our framework can recover meaningful learning patterns in terms of both content and temporal dynamics, as well as accurately track users' interests and goals over time

Modeling the Dynamics of Online Learning Activity

People are increasingly relying on the Web and social media to find solutions to their problems in a wide range of domains. In this online setting, closely related problems often lead to the same characteristic learning pattern, in which people sharing these problems visit related pieces of information, perform almost identical queries or, more generally, take a series of similar actions. In this paper, we introduce a novel modeling framework for clustering continuous-time grouped streaming data, the hierarchical Dirichlet Hawkes process (HDHP), which allows us to automatically uncover a wide variety of learning patterns from detailed traces of learning activity. Our model allows for efficient inference, scaling to millions of actions taken by thousands of users. Experiments on real data gathered from Stack Overflow reveal that our framework can recover meaningful learning patterns in terms of both content and temporal dynamics, as well as accurately track users' interests and goals over time

Summer of Code: Assisting Distance-Learning Students with Open-Ended Programming Tasks

A significant difficulty in teaching programming lies in the transition from novice to intermediate programmer, characterised by the assimilation and use of schemas of standard programming approaches. A significant factor assisting this transition is practice with tasks which develop this schema use. We describe the Summer of Code, a two-week activity for part-time, distance-learning students which gave them some additional programming practice. We analysed their submissions, forum postings, and results of a terminal survey. We found learners were keen to share and discuss their solutions and persevered with individual problems and the challenge overall. 93% respondents rated the activity 3 or better on a 5-point Likert scale (n=58). However, a quarter of participants, mainly those who described themselves as average or poor programmers, felt less confident in their abilities after the activity, though half of these students liked the activity overall. 54% of all participants said the greatest challenge was developing a general approach to the problems, such as selecting appropriate data structures. This is corroborated by forum comments, where students greatly appreciated “think aloud” presentations by faculty tackling the problems. These results strongly suggest that students would benefit from more open-ended practice, where they have to select and design their own solutions to a range of problems

Chapter 1 : Learning Online

The OTiS (Online Teaching in Scotland) programme, run by the now defunct Scotcit programme, ran an International e-Workshop on Developing Online Tutoring Skills which was held between 8–12 May 2000. It was organised by Heriot–Watt University, Edinburgh and The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK. Out of this workshop came the seminal Online Tutoring E-Book, a generic primer on e-learning pedagogy and methodology, full of practical implementation guidelines. Although the Scotcit programme ended some years ago, the E-Book has been copied to the SONET site as a series of PDF files, which are now available via the ALT Open Access Repository. The editor, Carol Higgison, is currently working in e-learning at the University of Bradford (see her staff profile) and is the Chair of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT)