Technology-enhanced learning: evidence-based improvement

The design of learning materials and researching their efficacy involves the application of both theoretical learning principles and ways of working or practices to move towards evidence based improvement. This paper abstracts 4 categories from our on-going work of educational technology research which we have found to be important in considering what constitutes a successful Technology-Enhanced Learning implementation. These considerations influence the likelihood or feasibility of the wider adoption a particular Technology-Enhanced Learning implementation in the longer term. We also discuss how these considerations relate to the scalability of the development

Designing citizen science tools for learning: lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire

This paper reports on a 4-year research and development case study about the design of citizen science tools for inquiry learning. It details the process of iterative pedagogy-led design and evaluation of the nQuire toolkit, a set of web-based and mobile tools scaffolding the creation of online citizen science investigations. The design involved an expert review of inquiry learning and citizen science, combined with user experience studies involving more than 200 users. These have informed a concept that we have termed ‘citizen inquiry’, which engages members of the public alongside scientists in setting up, running, managing or contributing to citizen science projects with a main aim of learning about the scientific method through doing science by interaction with others. A design-based research (DBR) methodology was adopted for the iterative design and evaluation of citizen science tools. DBR was focused on the refinement of a central concept, ‘citizen inquiry’, by exploring how it can be instantiated in educational technologies and interventions. The empirical evaluation and iteration of technologies involved three design experiments with end users, user interviews, and insights from pedagogy and user experience experts. Evidence from the iterative development of nQuire led to the production of a set of interaction design principles that aim to guide the development of online, learning-centred, citizen science projects. Eight design guidelines are proposed: users as producers of knowledge, topics before tools, mobile affordances, scaffolds to the process of scientific inquiry, learning by doing as key message, being part of a community as key message, every visit brings a reward, and value users and their time

SNPpy - Database Management for SNP Data from Genome Wide Association Studies

Background: We describe SNPpy, a hybrid script database system using the Python SQLAlchemy library coupled with the PostgreSQL database to manage genotype data from Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). This system makes it possible to merge study data with HapMap data and merge across studies for meta-analyses, including data filtering based on the values of phenotype and Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) data. SNPpy and its dependencies are open source software. Results: The current version of SNPpy offers utility functions to import genotype and annotation data from two commercial platforms. We use these to import data from two GWAS studies and the HapMap Project. We then export these individual datasets to standard data format files that can be imported into statistical software for downstream analyses. Conclusions: By leveraging the power of relational databases, SNPpy offers integrated management and manipulation of genotype and phenotype data from GWAS studies. The analysis of these studies requires merging across GWAS datasets as well as patient and marker selection. To this end, SNPpy enables the user to filter the data and output the results as standardized GWAS file formats. It does low level and flexible data validation, including validation of patient data. SNPpy is

The postdigital university: do we still need just a little of that human touch?

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Springer in Postdigital Science and Education on 21/12/2020. The published version can be accessed on the publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00204-6 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.An increasing body of literature considers the role of belonging and social connectivity in undergraduate student success. The core tenet of this research is that relationships are crucial to the development of a sense of belonging. However, within the Higher Education (HE) sector, our processes, and therefore how we interact with students, are becoming more and more automated. None more so than during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ‘new normal’ in HE. This paper considers how we, as a profession, might support each student’s developing sense of belonging within a sector that is shifting towards increased digitalisation. This is achieved through considering the political agenda that drives the creation of digital education and some of the assumptions that underpin the movement towards it. As a result, a theoretical platform is created to consider the areas where digitisation impacts on teaching staff, and on students, and how this relates to each student’s sense of belonging within HE. The inclusion of two case studies has provided the opportunity to answer two key questions: 1) What is important to students developing a personal sense of belonging in HE during their first few weeks in a University? 2) How can the differentiated human touch be provided by ‘third space’ professionals both in person and virtually

Dispelling the myth of the socio-emotionally dissatisfied gamer

The relationship between digital gaming and gamers’ psychological well-being has been an issue of concern in public and academic communities. Theorists advocate for the compensation hypothesis, arguing that real-life dissatisfaction such as social disintegration, reinforces motivation for gaming. Hence, the profile of the typical gamer has been one of emotionally and socially dissatisfied young individual. Considering for the fact that gaming is an increasingly social activity practised along with other individuals, this paper aims to evaluate the validity of these concerns by examining the Basic Psychological Needs (BPNs; Deci & Ryan, 1985) of 1298 World of Warcraft (WoW) gamers, viz gamers of a popular, massively multiplayer online game. Data collected from a large-scale online survey, revealed significant but weak associations between BPNs and gaming suggesting that gaming is less likely to be associated with gamers’ real-life socio-emotional status. The analysis of BPNs mean scores reinforced further this finding; the relatively high BPNs mean scores demonstrated that gamers’ Basic Psychological Needs are reasonably satisfied. Yet, in an attempt to identify the factors explaining game involvement, participants’ self-reported reasons for gaming were thematically analyzed. It was revealed that gamers are avidly social individuals. Their gaming practices are primarily reinforced by social interaction in the form of either competition or collaboration

Learning Analytics in Open and Distance Higher Education: The Case of the Open University UK

This chapter reflects on two major learning analytics initiatives which took place at the Open University (OU) in recent years and which facilitated the adoption of analytics across the university. Analytics for Action (A4A) focused on the use of learning analytics to inform the learning design of online courses and Early Alert Indicators (EAI) examined the use of predictive learning analytics in online teaching and their potential to identify students at risk and inform teachers who can proactively intervene. The authors showcase how each initiative raised differing and shared challenges and highlight lessons learnt from their implementation. The OU has achieved significant progress in testing, implementing and widely adopting an evidence-based approach to learning analytics that help to inform practices in other open and distance higher education institutions. Yet, a number of challenges remain such as the scalability in the implementation of approaches, such as predictive learning analytics, especially when there are limited resources to employ teachers to communicate with students and moderate timely interventions. This chapter concludes by noting the importance of human interaction to facilitate and achieve learning outcomes. Learning analytics is not the panacea, rather how it is adopted and used determines the outcome

An Iterative, Multidisciplinary Approach to Studying Digital Play Motivation: The Model of Game Motivation

The aim of this article is to present the methodological approach adopted for the development and iteration of the Model of Game Motivation (MGM), a conceptual model explaining digital play motivation. A multidisciplinary, mixed-methods research design was deployed for the empirical iteration of the model. This choice was reinforced by the critical review of related literature, which revealed that a combination of evidence from multiple disciplines (psychology, sociology, and technology) could contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of play motivation. An iterative, hypothesis-testing research design was the strategy used to conduct multidisciplinary, mixed-methods research. The initial, theoretical version of the MGM was iterated twice, resulting in a thoroughly developed, empirically grounded version that requires future validation. The value of this approach lies in the fact that it provides to game design stakeholders a methodological tool for understanding play motivation as a multifaceted activity, which could inform their practices