Evaluating Java Applets for Teaching on the Internet

The Web Interface for Statistics Education (http://wise.cgu.edu) is a website built around interactive tutorials designed to teach introductory and advanced statistical concepts. The tutorials use Java applets that dynamically illustrate the statistical concepts being taught. By using Java applets, we teach statistics in a manner not possible in a traditional classroom environment. In this paper, we provide examples of the applets, illustrate how students use them, and we report the outcome of a study that examined tutorial effectiveness as a learning tool

An eMath Teacher TOOL for ACTIVE LEARNING FLEURY'S ALGORITHM

An eMathTeacher [Sánchez-Torrubia 2007a] is an eLearning on line self assessment tool that help students to active learning math algorithms by themselves, correcting their mistakes and providing them with clues to find the right solution. The tool presented in this paper is an example of this new concept on Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) resources and has been implemented as a Java applet and designed as an auxiliary instrument for both classroom teaching and individual practicing of Fleury’s algorithm. This tool, included within a set of eMathTeacher tools, has been designed as educational complement of Graph Algorithm active learning for first course students. Its characteristics of visualization, simplicity and interactivity, make this tutorial a great value pedagogical instrument

Mamadani's Fuzzy Inference eMathTeacher: a Tutorial for Active Learning

An eMathTeacher is an eLearning on–line self–assessment tool that helps users to active learning math concepts and algorithms by themselves, correcting their mistakes and providing them with clues to find the right solution. This paper introduces an example of a new concept on Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) resources, i.e. a tutorial designed under eMathTeacher philosophy for active eLearning Mamdani’s Direct Method, and presents a brief survey on available CAI resources discussing what their influence over students’ behaviour is. It also describes the minimum and complementary requirements an eLearning tool must fulfil to be considered an eMathTeacher as well as the main contributions of this kind of tutorials to the learning processes. Needless to say that, such features as interactivity, visualization and simplicity turn these tools into great value pedagogical instruments

Physics teaching with simulations in HTML5

One of the functions of the Center of Distance Education of the School of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires is the design of educational materials using various technologies, so as to facilitate the teaching and learning of science. In this context, a proposal of basic physics simulations design is presented. Previously, simulations were developed in other languages such as Java and Flash. The objective of the initial search was oriented to find open source simulations that can be easily customized or authoring tools such as GeoGebra or EJS. It is intended to avoid implementations from scratch since it is time consuming and difficult to implement in the short term. In particular, a process of development of simulations with HTML5 was started. The reason leading the change was the need to have educational materials that could be used from any terminal, particularly from mobile terminals so that students can make use of the simulator anytime and anywhere. An example of a simulation of a pendulum is provided which main objective is that the student could manipulate variables, observe the behavior of the pendulum and make inferences that help them understand and apply the physical model under study.Facultad de Informátic

Advanced Technology for Engineering Education

This document contains the proceedings of the Workshop on Advanced Technology for Engineering Education, held at the Peninsula Graduate Engineering Center, Hampton, Virginia, February 24-25, 1998. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Computational Technology and NASA. Workshop attendees came from NASA, other government agencies, industry and universities. The objectives of the workshop were to assess the status of advanced technologies for engineering education and to explore the possibility of forming a consortium of interested individuals/universities for curriculum reform and development using advanced technologies. The presentations covered novel delivery systems and several implementations of new technologies for engineering education. Certain materials and products are identified in this publication in order to specify adequately the materials and products that were investigated in the research effort. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement of products by NASA, nor does it imply that the materials and products are the only ones or the best ones available for this purpose. In many cases equivalent materials and products are available and would probably produce equivalent results

Physics teaching with simulations in HTML5

One of the functions of the Center of Distance Education of the School of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires is the design of educational materials using various technologies, so as to facilitate the teaching and learning of science. In this context, a proposal of basic physics simulations design is presented. Previously, simulations were developed in other languages such as Java and Flash. The objective of the initial search was oriented to find open source simulations that can be easily customized or authoring tools such as GeoGebra or EJS. It is intended to avoid implementations from scratch since it is time consuming and difficult to implement in the short term. In particular, a process of development of simulations with HTML5 was started. The reason leading the change was the need to have educational materials that could be used from any terminal, particularly from mobile terminals so that students can make use of the simulator anytime and anywhere. An example of a simulation of a pendulum is provided which main objective is that the student could manipulate variables, observe the behavior of the pendulum and make inferences that help them understand and apply the physical model under study.Facultad de Informátic

Awareness support for learning designers in collaborative authoring for adaptive learning

Adaptive learning systems offer students a range of appropriate learning options based on the learners’ characteristics. It is, therefore, necessary for such systems to maintain a hyperspace and knowledge space that consists of a large volume of domain and pedagogical knowledge, learner information, and adaptation rules. As a consequence, for a solitary teacher, developing learning resources would be time consuming and requires the teacher to be an expert of many topics. In this research, the problems of authoring adaptive learning resources are classified into issues concerning interoperability, efficiency, and collaboration.This research particularly addresses the question of how teachers can collaborate in authoring adaptive learning resources and be aware of what has happened in the authoring process. In order to experiment with collaboration, it was necessary to design a collaborative authoring environment for adaptive learning. This was achieved by extending an open sourced authoring tool of IMS Learning Design (IMS LD), ReCourse, to be a prototype of Collaborative ReCourse that includes the workspace awareness information features: Notes and History. It is designed as a tool for asynchronous collaboration for small groups of learning designers. IMS LD supports interoperability and adaptation. Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment was a workspace awareness study in which participants took part in an artificial collaborative scenario. They were divided into 2 groups; one group worked with ReCourse, the other with Collaborative ReCourse. The results provide evidence regarding the advantages of Notes and History for enhancing workspace awareness in collaborative authoring of learning designs.The second study tested the system more thoroughly as the participants had to work toward real goals over a much longer time frame. They were divided into four groups; two groups worked with ReCourse, while the others worked with Collaborative ReCourse. The experiment result showed that authoring of learning designs can be approached with a Process Structure method with implicit coordination and without role assignment. It also provides evidence that collaboration is possible for authoring IMS LD Level A for non-adapting and Level B for adapting materials. Notes and History assist in producing good quality output.This research has several contributions. From the literature study, it presents a comparison analysis of existing authoring tools, as well as learning standards. Furthermore, it presents a collaborative authoring approach for creating learning designs and describes the granularity level on which collaborative authoring for learning designs can be carried out. Finally, experiments using this approach show the advantages of having Notes and History for enhancing workspace awareness that and how they benefit the quality of learning designs

Building capacity in climate change policy analysis and negotiation: methods and technologies

Capacity building is often cited as the reason “we cannot just pour money into developing countries” and why so many development projects fail because their design does not address local conditions. It is therefore a key technical and political concept in international development. Some of the poorest countries in the world are also some of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Their vulnerability is in part due to a lack of capacity to plan and anticipate the effects of climate change on crops, water resources, urban electricity demand etc. What capacities do these countries lack to deal with climate change? How will they cope? What steps can they take to reduce their vulnerability? This innovative and high-profile research project was part of a larger project (called C3D) and conducted with non-governmental organisations in Senegal, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The research involved several participatory workshops and a questionnaire to all three research centres

The design, implementation and evaluation of a web-based learning environment for distance education

In this study, the need was emphasised to investigate the effects of using the Web in teaching students at a distance using a multi-level evaluation framework. A Web-based learning environment was designed, developed, implemented and evaluated for this purpose. Constructivist epistemology provided the basis for developing various components and developing problem-centred and interactive activities. Management, tutorial, interaction and support components were designed to work with each other to construct the learning environment, deliver course content, facilitate interaction and monitor student progress.A methodology was designed to describe and assess the learning environment in terms of access (standardisation, speed, resources, the tutor and peers), costs (types, structure, factors influencing, etc.), teaching and learning functions (quality of course objectives, materials and resources, learning approach and student achievement), interactivity (quantity and quality of student-tutor and student-peer interaction), user-friendliness (user-interface design, ease of use and navigation design) and organisational issues. The learners were Egyptian first-grade secondary school students (32), assigned randomly, and the topic selected for the course being developed was mathematics. Feedback was obtained from both learners and experts in distance education and on-line learning during the developmental and field-testing of the learning environment. Quantitative and qualitative methods (on-line student and expert questionnaires, students' logs, performance in formative evaluation, content analysis of peer discussions, achievement test and cost-analysis) were combined to gain insights into students' satisfaction with the different instructional and technical features and capabilities of the learning environment, achievement of course objectives in comparison with conventional classroom students, factors influencing their learning and perceptions and the unit cost per student study hour.The results indicated that although the learning environment and course materials were accessible, interactive, well-structured, user-friendly and achievement was successful for the on-line group, no significant differences were identified between the on-line students and traditional classroom students in overall achievement or achievement of low-order and high-order learning objectives. In addition, it is unlikely any cost saving would be made from shifting to the Internet to deliver instruction and many major factors were found to influence the development and support costs of on-line learning