Using enriched skeleton concept mapping to support meaningful learning

Abstract. There has been significant interest among researchers in the instructional use of concept maps and collaboration scripts. Some studies focus on students' collaboration on concept mapping tasks; others focus on scripts to structure learning tasks and guide interactions. Little is known about scripted collaborative concept mapping. This article reports a study in which we examine the effects on meaningful learning of scripting students' argumentative interactions during collaborative "enriched skeleton concept mapping". Each concept in the enriched skeleton concept map (ESCoM) contains "annotated factual multimedia information" and an embedded micro collaboration script. The study was performed in a Biomolecules course of the Bachelor of Applied Science program. First-year students were randomly assigned to an experimental group of 44 students and a control group of 49 students. In the experimental group, students worked together in pairs on an ESCoM guided by embedded collaboration scripts. The control group received the regular course. The results show that students were able to handle and appreciate the enriched skeleton concept mapping products and processes. Moreover, concept maps appeared to be scored reliable and validly. Finally, the regular course exam showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group. Enriched skeleton concept mapping resulted in a better understanding of the conceptual structure of the domain, the concepts and their relations

LOFAR 144-MHz follow-up observations of GW170817

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 494, Issue 4, June 2020, Pages 5110–5117, ©: 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.We present low-radio-frequency follow-up observations of AT 2017gfo, the electromagnetic counterpart of GW170817, which was the first binary neutron star merger to be detected by Advanced LIGO-Virgo. These data, with a central frequency of 144 MHz, were obtained with LOFAR, the Low-Frequency Array. The maximum elevation of the target is just 13.7 degrees when observed with LOFAR, making our observations particularly challenging to calibrate and significantly limiting the achievable sensitivity. On time-scales of 130-138 and 371-374 days after the merger event, we obtain 3$\sigma$ upper limits for the afterglow component of 6.6 and 19.5 mJy beam$^{-1}$, respectively. Using our best upper limit and previously published, contemporaneous higher-frequency radio data, we place a limit on any potential steepening of the radio spectrum between 610 and 144 MHz: the two-point spectral index $\alpha^{610}_{144} \gtrsim -2.5$. We also show that LOFAR can detect the afterglows of future binary neutron star merger events occurring at more favourable elevations.Peer reviewe

Promoting regulation processes in ill-structured problem solving

- The purpose of this research is to support students collaboratively solving ill-structured problems and to promote regulation skills- 55 students solved a design task where half received prompts to elicit regulation in ill-structured problems<br/

Comparing student and expert-based tagging of recorded lexctures

In this paper we analyse the way students tag recorded lectures. We compare their tagging strategy and the tags that they create with tagging done by an expert. We look at the quality of the tags students add, and we introduce a method of measuring how similar the tags are, using vector space modelling and cosine similarity. We show that the quality of tagging by students is high enough to be useful. We also show that there is no generic vocabulary gap between the expert and the students. Our study shows no statistically significant correlation between the tag similarity and the indicated interest in the course, the perceived importance of the course, the number of lectures attended, the indicated difficulty of the course, the number of recorded lectures viewed, the indicated ease of finding the needed parts of a recorded lecture, or the number of tags used by the student