A tale of one city: intra-institutional variations in migrating VLE platform

City University London committed in 2009 to make Moodle the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at the core of a new Strategic Learning Environment (SLE) comprised of VLE, externally facing website and related systems such as video streaming and virtual classrooms. Previously, the WebCT VLE had been separate from most of the other systems at the institution with very limited connections to other tools. Each of the schools within the institution was able to pursue their own strategy and timeframe for the migration and embedding of Moodle within their subject areas, within an absolute limit of 2 years. This paper outlines the approaches taken by the various schools, highlighting similarities and differences, and draws out common aspects from the project to make recommendations for institutions seeking to undertake similar migrations

CLIL training guide: creating a CLIL learning community in higher education

The ReCLes.pt CLIL Training Guide presents the theoretical and practical basis for the creation of a CLIL Learning Community of foreign language teachers and subject teachers with the topics organized across four chapters. In Chapter 1, the objectives and structuring of the ten hours of sessions and the learning outcomes are presented with an introduction to CLIL design in higher education (HE), forms of interdisciplinary cooperation/collaboration, and a number of models for classroom management. Chapter 2 provides enriching material to help teachers bett er understand the principles of a CLIL Learning Community and CLIL itself, including interactive and student-centered methodologies, a focus on oral interaction and critical dialogue, suggested activities, and the key points for organizing a successful CLIL module. In Chapter 3, on CLIL materials and resources, sections cover the defi nition and examples of scaff olding and activating prior knowledge as well as the selection and adaptation of scaff olding materials, including the use of electronic media and a terminology-based approach. The proposed terminology-based approach focuses on the collection, description, processing, and systematic representation of concepts and their designations. As such, the use of terminology can become a key construct in CLIL teaching, involving the search, production, use, and dissemination of information. International organizations, networks, and multinational professional communities are involved in these steps within the global communication process, providing real motivation for students participating in the CLIL learning process. The final chapter …Livro Financiado por FCT no âmbito do programa ‘Partilha e Divulgação de Experiências em Inovação Didática no Ensino Superior Português’info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design guidelines for self-assessment support for adult academic distance learning

Menendez Blanco, M., Van der Veer, G., Benvenuti, L., & Kirschner, P. A. (2011). Design guidelines for self-assessment support for adult academic distance learning. In H-J Shalin (Ed.), Constructing self-discovery learning spaces online: scaffolding and decision making technologies (pp. 169-198). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.This contribution focuses on adult distance learning. Based on experiences at the Open University of the Netherlands we investigate specific problems that our students have with self-assessment and metacognition while studying. Starting from a literature review and complementing this with available student data from our teaching research center, we developed a conceptual framework that was iteratively adjusted and assessed by a questionnaire study and interviews. This allowed us to develop design guidelines for self-assessment support in distance learning environments. These guidelines were reviewed by experts. The input from the experts was used to modify the guidelines and iterate until they were considered complete. Tangible designs (i.e., mock-ups) for each of the self-assessment methods were proposed. These tangible designs were prototyped for later evaluation. Finally, we provide our conclusions and propose recommendations for actual application and systematic design

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Artificial Intelligence And Big Data Technologies To Close The Achievement Gap.

We observe achievement gaps even in rich western countries, such as the UK, which in principle have the resources as well as the social and technical infrastructure to provide a better deal for all learners. The reasons for such gaps are complex and include the social and material poverty of some learners with their resulting other deficits, as well as failure by government to allocate sufficient resources to remedy the situation. On the supply side of the equation, a single teacher or university lecturer, even helped by a classroom assistant or tutorial assistant, cannot give each learner the kind of one-to-one attention that would really help to boost both their motivation and their attainment in ways that might mitigate the achievement gap. In this chapter Benedict du Boulay, Alexandra Poulovassilis, Wayne Holmes, and Manolis Mavrikis argue that we now have the technologies to assist both educators and learners, most commonly in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects (STEM), at least some of the time. We present case studies from the fields of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) and Big Data. We look at how they can be used to provide personalised support for students and demonstrate that they are not designed to replace the teacher. In addition, we also describe tools for teachers to increase their awareness and, ultimately, free up time for them to provide nuanced, individualised support even in large cohorts

COMMUNICATING THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS TO NON-BUSINESS LEARNERS

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, School of Education, 2020This study is situated in a course taught by the author who takes the position that non-business majors approach their learning differently from business majors. Many non-business majors carry concerns regarding not having prior accounting coursework, negative experiences or lack confidence in the domain of mathematics. Through personal reflection, student feedback, reading current literature and empirical findings, I have made additional adjustments to the course design, instructional strategies employed and/or weighting and type of assessments to achieve the stated outcomes of the course. The main research question for this study is as follows: How does using surface and deep instructional strategies relate to student scores when examined by a prior knowledge group (business vs. non-business)? This study utilizes the mixed methods approach with data gathered from the statement of student goals from the first week of the course, student assessment scores, a linear regression model in STATA and the course/instructor’s evaluations at the conclusion of the course. Analysis of the responses in my course indicate that students’ goals were primarily cognition (understanding). The results also indicate that business majors continue to perform better in a statistically significant way on polling response accuracy. Although not statistically significant, non-business majors had higher average mean scores for in-class activities. As was found in prior studies, the grade point average (GPA) had a significant effect on student performance in the course overall. As a result of this study, changes to lecture delivery and student reminders of activities have been incorporated into the course