Artificial intelligence techniques for supporting face-to-face and online collaborative learning

Collaborative learning provides opportunities for data-intensive, educational innovation because learners need to externalize some of their mental processes in the form of dialogue, drawings, and other representations. Digital traces of these externalizations can be captured and analyzed using various Artificial Intelligence and analytic techniques. This can further accelerate researchers’ analysis cycles and help in the development of more effective tools that support collaboration and learning. This chapter describes techniques currently available for supporting face-to-face and online collaborative learning situations. We particularly focus on techniques that provide intelligent support to: (i) form effective groups, (ii) provide direct feedback to students, (iii) collaborate on scripts, (iv) enhance group and teacher awareness, and (v) perform summative assessments in the pre-active, inter-active and post-active phases of collaborative learning. We discuss potential future trends for research and development in this area, emphasizing the need for evaluating the validity, utility and interpretability of emerging techniques for modelling and assessing meaningful aspects of collaborative learning

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Summer Research Fellowship Project Descriptions 2018

A summary of research done by Smith College’s 2018 Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) Program participants. Ever since its 1967 start, SURF has been a cornerstone of Smith’s science education. Supervised by faculty mentor-advisors drawn from the Clark Science Center and connected to its eighteen science, mathematics, and engineering departments and programs and associated centers and units. At summer’s end, SURF participants were asked to summarize their research experiences for this publication.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/clark_womeninscience/1007/thumbnail.jp

Promoting Andean children's learning of science through cultural and digital tools

Conference Theme: To see the world and a grain of sand: Learning across levels of space, time, and scaleIn Peru, there is a large achievement gap in rural schools. In order to overcome this problem, the study aims to design environments that enhance science learning through the integration of ICT with cultural artifacts, respecting the Andean culture and empower rural children to pursue lifelong learning. This investigation employs the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework, and the Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology using an iterative process of design, implementation and evaluation of the innovative practice.published_or_final_versio

Investigating How Students Communicate Tree-Thinking

Learning is often an active endeavor that requires students work at building conceptual understandings of complex topics. Personal experiences, ideas, and communication all play large roles in developing knowledge of and understanding complex topics. Sometimes these experiences can promote formation of scientifically inaccurate or incomplete ideas. Representations are tools used to help individuals understand complex topics. In biology, one way that educators help people understand evolutionary histories of organisms is by using representations called phylogenetic trees. In order to understand phylogenetics trees, individuals need to understand the conventions associated with phylogenies. My dissertation, supported by the Tree-Thinking Representational Competence and Word Association frameworks, is a mixed-methods study investigating the changes in students’ tree-reading, representational competence and mental association of phylogenetic terminology after participation in varied instruction. Participants included 128 introductory biology majors from a mid-sized southern research university. Participants were enrolled in either Introductory Biology I, where they were not taught phylogenetics, or Introductory Biology II, where they were explicitly taught phylogenetics. I collected data using a pre- and post-assessment consisting of a word association task and tree-thinking diagnostic (n=128). Additionally, I recruited a subset of students from both courses (n=37) to complete a computer simulation designed to teach students about phylogenetic trees. I then conducted semi-structured interviews consisting of a word association exercise with card sort task, a retrospective pre-assessment discussion, a post-assessment discussion, and interview questions. I found that students who received explicit lecture instruction had a significantly higher increase in scores on a tree-thinking diagnostic than students who did not receive lecture instruction. Students who received both explicit lecture instruction and the computer simulation had a higher level of representational competence and were better able to understand abstract-style phylogenetic trees than students who only completed the simulation. Students who received explicit lecture instruction had a slightly more scientific association of phylogenetic terms than students who received did not receive lecture instruction. My findings suggest that technological instruction alone is not as beneficial as lecture instruction

Women in Science 2012

The summer of 2012 saw the number of students seeking summer research experiences with a faculty mentor reaching record levels. In total, 179 students participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program, involving 59 faculty mentor-advisors, representing all of the Clark Science Center’s fourteen departments and programs.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/clark_womeninscience/1011/thumbnail.jp

Parading through a Circular Area Development with Arts and Sciences

In recent years, there has been increased attention toward art-science collaborations. Such collaborations encompass a broad spectrum of activities, ranging from artistic projects informed by technology and scientific research and vice versa, to novel forms of inquiry and communication at the intersection of the arts and sciences, combining diverse forms of knowledge and imagination. While such collaborations are not necessarily new, their recent manifestations allow us to gain insights into how complex societal challenges might be approached through multi-actor and disciplinary partnershi

Parading through a Circular Area Development with Arts and Sciences

In recent years, there has been increased attention toward art-science collaborations. Such collaborations encompass a broad spectrum of activities, ranging from artistic projects informed by technology and scientific research and vice versa, to novel forms of inquiry and communication at the intersection of the arts and sciences, combining diverse forms of knowledge and imagination. While such collaborations are not necessarily new, their recent manifestations allow us to gain insights into how complex societal challenges might be approached through multi-actor and disciplinary partnershi