The Effectiveness of Aural Instructions with Visualisations in E-Learning Environments

Based on Mayer’s (2001) model for more effective learning by exploiting the brain’s dual sensory channels for information processing, this research investigates the effectiveness of using aural instructions together with visualisation in teaching the difficult concepts of data structures to novice computer science students. A small number of previous studies have examined the use of audio and visualisation in teaching and learning environments but none has explored the integration of both technologies in teaching data structures programming to reduce the cognitive load on learners’ working memory. A prototype learning tool, known as the Data Structure Learning (DSL) tool, was developed and used first in a short mini study that showed that, used together with visualisations of algorithms, aural instructions produced faster student response times than did textual instructions. This result suggested that the additional use of the auditory sensory channel did indeed reduce the cognitive load. The tool was then used in a second, longitudinal, study over two academic terms in which students studying the Data Structures module were offered the opportunity to use the DSL approach with either aural or textual instructions. Their use of the approach was recorded by the DSL system and feedback was invited at the end of every visualisation task. The collected data showed that the tool was used extensively by the students. A comparison of the students’ DSL use with their end-of-year assessment marks revealed that academically weaker students had tended to use the tool most. This suggests that less able students are keen to use any useful and available instrument to aid their understanding, especially of difficult concepts. Both the quantitative data provided by the automatic recording of DSL use and an end-of-study questionnaire showed appreciation by students of the help the tool had provided and enthusiasm for its future use and development. These findings were supported by qualitative data provided by student written feedback at the end of each task, by interviews at the end of the experiment and by interest from the lecturer in integrating use of the tool with the teaching of the module. A variety of suggestions are made for further work and development of the DSL tool. Further research using a control group and/or pre and post tests would be particularly useful

Perceived Promoters of and Barriers to Use of a Learning Management System in an Undergraduate Nursing Program

Effective presentation of information is essential in teaching and learning. We assessed the promoters of and barriers to utilization of a learning man-agement system, namely Blackboard (Blackboard Inc., Washington DC, USA), by undergraduate nursing students. We investigated their utilization of Blackboardand provided recommendations to improve their teaching and learning. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 304 women in their second to fourth years of study using a validated questionnaire that evalu-ated their perceptions of Blackboard utilization. Data were collected be-tween January and February 2017 and analyzed using descriptive and com-parative statistics. The response rate was 67.5%. The most frequently report-ed promoters of Blackboard utilization were factors related to obtaining course specifications, materials, and grades (means: 3.54 1.18, 3.54 1.25, and 3.55 1.34, respectively). The most commonly mentioned barriers to Blackboard utilization were factors related to loss of communication and feedback from educators (mean: 4.21 1.05). Our results revealed that students experiences of using such systems are often negative, especially in terms of communication, interaction, and feedback. Investment in staff training and creation of new roles to monitor, maintain, and audit the quali-ty of such systems are recommended

Make learning fun to increase nursing students’ success: Formative feedback in communication learning

BackgroundCommunication skills are taught in most Bachelor of Nursing programs; however, student performance is often not monitored or tested until the final exam. Audience Response System (ARS) technology enables the collection of feedback from students during lectures to improve their quality of learning.AimsWe assessed the efficacy of ARS technology in promoting the understanding of communication skills among nursing students.Methods Questions were integrated into 14 lectures using the ARS platform Learning Catalytics (LC; Pearson UK, London, UK). Students answered the questions using their own web-enabled mobile devices. One hundred and twenty second-year nursing students participated in this study. Their answers were pooled and prompt formative feedback was provided in the classroom. A questionnaire was distributed to evaluate their perceptions of ARS use.Results All students reported that they enjoyed ARS use: 92 per cent stated that it helped to identify their learning needs and 87 per cent agreed that it promoted the integration of key concepts. The most common theme within the feedback was that of identifying their own learning needs. Repeated questioning produced a significant increase (p < 0.05) in students’ knowledge of specific concepts.ConclusionThe use of ARS technology to provide prompt feedback promoted teaching and learning among undergraduate nursing students. ARS use enabled the identification of individual learning needs and aided revision before summative exams. It also improved students’ confidence and understanding of key concepts. Moreover, students of different educational levels and learning styles were identified, tracked and given support through the use of ARS technology

Using Mobile Technologies for Enhancing Student Academic Experience: University of Jordan Case Study

This paper presents an approach to enhance students’ engagement with their university, as well as assisting them in understanding their current academic state by using mobile technologies. This approach simplifies the presentation, awareness of university rules and regulation in regards to graduation requirements, in credit hour system, through the development of a friendly mobile environment called UniApp. A test case is presented of an interactive mobile learning (m-learning) environment in higher education institutions that adhere to university rules and regulations. Normally, students login frequently to their university account in order to use some of the provided facilities, such as marks and registered modules. However, students need to be aware of what they are studying and what learning outcome they need to achieve. They also need to be aware of how this can benefit them in completing their major, as well as having an enjoyable learning experienc

Digital image watermarking using discrete cosine transformation based linear modulation

Abstract The proportion of multimedia traffic in data networks has grown substantially as a result of advancements in IT. As a result, it's become necessary to address the following challenges in protecting multimedia data: prevention of unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data, in addition to tracking down the leak's origin, making sure no alterations may be made without permission, and safeguarding intellectual property for digital assets. watermarking is a technique developed to combat this issue, which transfer secure data over the network. The main goal of invisible watermarking is a hidden exchange of data and a message from being discovered by a third party. The objective of this work is to develop a digital image watermarking using discrete cosine transformation based linear modulation. This paper proposed an invisible watermarking method for embedding information into the transformation domain for the grey scale images. This method used the embedding of a stego-text into the least significant bit (LSB) of the Discrete Cosine Transformation (DCT) coefficient by using a linear modulation algorithm. Also, a stego-text is embedded with different sizes ten times within images after embedding the stego-image immune to different kinds of attack, such as salt and pepper, rotation, cropping, and JPEG compression with different criteria. The proposed method is tested using four benchmark images. Also, to evaluate the embedding effect, PSNR, NC and BER are calculated. The outcomes show that the proposed approach is practical and robust, where the obtained results are promising and do not raise any suspicion. In addition, it has a large capacity, and its results are imperceptible, especially when 1bit/block is embedded

Fuzzy Clustering Algorithm Based on Improved Global Best-Guided Artificial Bee Colony with New Search Probability Model for Image Segmentation

Clustering using fuzzy C-means (FCM) is a soft segmentation method that has been extensively investigated and successfully implemented in image segmentation. FCM is useful in various aspects, such as the segmentation of grayscale images. However, FCM has some limitations in terms of its selection of the initial cluster center. It can be easily trapped into local optima and is sensitive to noise, which is considered the most challenging issue in the FCM clustering algorithm. This paper proposes an approach to solve FCM problems in two phases. Firstly, to improve the balance between the exploration and exploitation of improved global best-guided artificial bee colony algorithm (IABC). This is achieved using a new search probability model called PIABC that improves the exploration process by choosing the best source of food which directly affects the exploitation process in IABC. Secondly, the fuzzy clustering algorithm based on PIABC, abbreviated as PIABC-FCM, uses the balancing of PIABC to avoid getting stuck into local optima while searching for the best solution having a set of cluster center locations of FCM. The proposed method was evaluated using grayscale images. The performance of the proposed approach shows promising outcomes when compared with other related works