A Self-Regulated Learning Approach to Educational Recommender Design

Recommender systems, or recommenders, are information filtering systems prevalent today in many fields. One type of recommender found in the field of education, the educational recommender, is a key component of adaptive learning solutions as these systems avoid “one-size-fits-all” approaches by tailoring the learning process to the needs of individual learners. To function, these systems utilize learning analytics in a student-facing manner. While existing research has shown promise and explores a variety of types of educational recommenders, there is currently a lack of research that ties educational theory to the design and implementation of these systems. The theory considered here, self-regulated learning, is underexplored in educational recommender research. Self-regulated learning advocates a cyclical feedback loop that focuses on putting students in control of their learning with consideration for activities such as goal setting, selection of learning strategies, and monitoring of one’s performance. The goal of this research is to explore how best to build a self-regulated learning guided educational recommender and discover its influence on academic success. This research applies a design science methodology in the creation of a novel educational recommender framework with a theoretical base in self-regulated learning. Guided by existing research, it advocates for a hybrid recommender approach consisting of knowledge-based and collaborative filtering, made possible by supporting ontologies that represent the learner, learning objects, and learner actions. This research also incorporates existing Information Systems (IS) theory in the evaluation, drawing further connections between these systems and the field of IS. The self-regulated learning-based recommender framework is evaluated in a higher education environment via a web-based demonstration in several case study instances using mixed-method analysis to determine this approach’s fit and perceived impact on academic success. Results indicate that the self-regulated learning-based approach demonstrated a technology fit that was positively related to student academic performance while student comments illuminated many advantages to this approach, such as its ability to focus and support various studying efforts. In addition to contributing to the field of IS research by delivering an innovative framework and demonstration, this research also results in self-regulated learning-based educational recommender design principles that serve to guide both future researchers and practitioners in IS and education

Quiche lessons

Short story.Winner of the 2008 Missouri Review Peden Prize.On October 20th, 2008, the Missouri Review presented our annual Peden Prize to Molly McNett, whose story '"Quiche lessons' appeared in our summer 2007 issue. As part of the evening, Molly read an abridged version of her story. We're happy to present on this podcast our recording of that reading, introduced by Associate Editor Evelyn Somers. This recording was produced by Caitlin Garing--Publisher's Web site

"Name one genius that ain't crazy" : misconceptions of musicians and mental health in the online stories of Pitchfork magazine

The idea of the musician in a pop-culture driven society is a powerful one. Their function is far from a utilitarian one for it spirals out into numerous directions: Truth-teller, critic, pacifier, culture shifter. Because of this wide range, it is perhaps no surprise that there can be an equally wide range for how musicians are covered in the press. This study focuses on Pitchfork, often pegged as the Internet's predominant "curator of cool," and analyzes how mental health issues are treated in reviews, news and stories about ten musicians, eight male and two female. The text and headlines of 264 online articles, which focused on these 10 artists and two broader topics of depression and references to suicide, were analyzed over a three month period and 171 of them contained no specific references to mental health, mental illness or mental health issues. Of the remaining articles grouped in artist coverage or depression discussion, there were 148 references to mental health, mental illness or mental health issues. One particular finding from these references is that Pitchfork can do better when it comes to discussing issues of suicide and agency of one's mental health issues. Several key questions guide such analysis (Gillis, 2011). What does Pitchfork owe to musicians with mental health issues and how can the publication better serve the musicians and those who consume stories about them? Through textual analysis this project looked for instances where Pitchfork may have played into the mythologization of troubled musicians and cases where the publication followed recommendations given by mental health reporting guides