Using Educational Data Mining Techniques to Analyze the Effect of Instructors’ LMS Tool Use Frequency on Student Learning and Achievement in Online Secondary Courses

The pedagogy of teaching and learning has been changing since computers were first integrated into the classroom. As technology evolves, the evaluation of the instructional tool’s effectiveness will continue to be an area of research need. The effectiveness of an instructional tool can be measured by student learning and achievement. Student learning and achievement was found to be most effective when the characteristics of active learning/engagement, frequent interaction, and feedback were present. The presence is provided by the instructor. Chickering and Gamson (1987) developed the Seven Principles for Good Practice (SPGP) in Undergraduate Education to improve teaching and learning. The population for this study will be students enrolled in asynchronous online secondary school courses. In an online environment, the classroom is provided through a Learning Management System (LMS). The instructor uses the tools provided in the LMS to interact with students. This study uses the SPGP that support the active learning/engagement, frequent interaction, and feedback characteristics for effective student learning. The LMS tools of updates, assignments, tests, and discussion boards support the SPGP principles 1, 2, 3, and 4. The student scores for pretest, posttest and semester final grade will be identified for each course. The pretest will be used as a control variable while posttest and semester final grade will be used as dependent variables in each hierarchical multiple regression. The independent variables for LMS tools will be determined by the instructors use frequency each semester. The courses are identified by curricular subject area and will be analyzed to determine if curricular subject area has any effect on the predictive power for both semester final grade and posttest scores. This study employed a data mining procedure to determine if LMS tools could predict semester final grades (achievement) and posttest scores (learning). The findings suggest that the LMS tools can predict posttest scores but not semester final grades. Additionally, the study determined whether curricular subject area had an effect on the predictive power of the LMS tools. The findings of this study suggest that curricular subject area can predict the variance in semester final grades and posttest scores. The findings also suggest that there was unequal variance across curricular subject areas for the dependent variables. By categorizing the courses by curricular subject area, the predictive power of the LMS tools was positively affected. The LMS tools had large effect sizes in science and social studies for posttest scores when categorized by curricular subject area. Additionally, the LMS tools updates, assignments, tests, and discussion boards varied in predictive strength and relationship to the dependent variables. The findings of this study indicated that the LMS assignment and discussion board tools were significant predictors with small positive effects for posttest scores. The findings also suggested that the LMS test tool was a significant predictor with a small negative relationship to posttest scores. The negative relationship found in this study contradicts the literature related to the frequency of tests in traditional classroom environments. The LMS test tool was primarily a learner-content interaction, whereas assignments primarily were a learner-instructor interaction and discussion boards were primarily a learner-learner interaction. The LMS update tool was a significant predictor for posttest scores but had a small positive relationship for semester-long courses and a negative relationship for year-long courses. The frequency of the LMS tools varied by curricular subject area. Specifically, the LMS assignment tool had the highest mean frequency across all subject areas. The LMS tools, when added to pretest scores, contribute an additional 3% (SY1516 YL), 4% (SY1415 SL), and 8% (SY1516 YL) prediction of the variance of posttest scores with a small effect. The LMS tools for SY1415 YL predicted 14% of the variance with a medium effect. Specifically, the findings supported the linear positive relationship between assignments and discussion boards for posttest scores. The findings did not support that the LMS tools were a significant predictor for semester final grades when categorized by school year. By categorizing the courses by curricular subject area, the LMS tools were significant predictors for semester final grades and posttest scores. The LMS tools categorized by curricular subject area had small effects for semester final grades. The largest overall effect of the LMS tools was on posttest scores categorized by curricular subject area. Career and technical education SL was a small effect with 6% variance prediction. For medium effects the variance prediction was 20% for English YL, 17% for fine arts YL, 15% for math SL, and 16% for world languages YL. Finally, for the large effects, LMS tools added 29% variance prediction for science YL and 39% variance prediction for social studies YL. Therefore, curricular subject area does have an effect on the predictive power of LMS tools. This study provides a further example of educational data mining and the results that can be achieved with a strong pedagogical framework

Virtual laboratories for education in science, technology, and engineering: A review

Within education, concepts such as distance learning, and open universities, are now becoming more widely used for teaching and learning. However, due to the nature of the subject domain, the teaching of Science, Technology, and Engineering are still relatively behind when using new technological approaches (particularly for online distance learning). The reason for this discrepancy lies in the fact that these fields often require laboratory exercises to provide effective skill acquisition and hands-on experience. Often it is difficult to make these laboratories accessible for online access. Either the real lab needs to be enabled for remote access or it needs to be replicated as a fully software-based virtual lab. We argue for the latter concept since it offers some advantages over remotely controlled real labs, which will be elaborated further in this paper. We are now seeing new emerging technologies that can overcome some of the potential difficulties in this area. These include: computer graphics, augmented reality, computational dynamics, and virtual worlds. This paper summarizes the state of the art in virtual laboratories and virtual worlds in the fields of science, technology, and engineering. The main research activity in these fields is discussed but special emphasis is put on the field of robotics due to the maturity of this area within the virtual-education community. This is not a coincidence; starting from its widely multidisciplinary character, robotics is a perfect example where all the other fields of engineering and physics can contribute. Thus, the use of virtual labs for other scientific and non-robotic engineering uses can be seen to share many of the same learning processes. This can include supporting the introduction of new concepts as part of learning about science and technology, and introducing more general engineering knowledge, through to supporting more constructive (and collaborative) education and training activities in a more complex engineering topic such as robotics. The objective of this paper is to outline this problem space in more detail and to create a valuable source of information that can help to define the starting position for future research

A study of asylum seekers in Finland : The effect of parents’ trauma on their children

Refugee parents think difficult immigration condition traumatized their children Nursing student Shabnam Barkand at JAMK University of Applied Science investigated in her thesis how the immigrants in an asylum seeker center in Finland perceive the effect of traumatic incidents happening during immigration on their children. According to this thesis, the immigrants believe that their children show different symptoms of traumatic behaviors, and the parent such behaviors are related to the incidents happened during their immigration from their original countries to Finland. The study showed that these immigrants had a difficult trip to Finland. For example, they had to walk for long hours, stay out in nature, and cross the sea using dangerous boats. In addition, they have to deal with the smugglers and the problems such as losing their luggage, giving birth to children and being arrested by the border patrols. Life for these immigrants has not been much easier after arriving in Finland. They have to live in asylum seeker center along with many other families from different countries. In these refugee centers, they do not have much privacy. Furthermore, they are constantly worried about the result of their asylum applications. If their applications are rejected, they have to go back to their original countries. The immigrants believe their trip incidents and living in stressful refugee centers have had negative effects on their children. Some of the effects they described could be symptoms of traumatization. For example, the parents reported that their children suffer from constant nightmares, loss of appetite and extreme fear. They also mentioned that their children have become more aggressive after immigration. The parent believe both trip incidents and living in the refugee center are related to such problems. One parents for example said her child has nightmares about the sea and boats, while another one reported fear and anxiety after they receive a letter from post, because he think it is possibly their letter of rejection. The information about this research was collected through interviewing three Afghan women in a refugee center in Finland. Along with the women, refugee men were also invited to the interview but they refused to participate. The interviews took place in private rooms, and in Farsi, the refugee’s mother tongue. These three mother signed a consent form before the interview. Then, the interview transcribed in Farsi and translated to English. Another Farsi native speaker double checked the texts to make sure about the reliability. Then, the major themes of the study were coded, based on the ideas the participants share together. The two major themes emerged in the study were the problems of the parents, and the traumatized children. The interviewees were three Afghan women whom were called Ameneh, Leila and Afsaneh to hide their real identities. They had a difficult trip through Iran, Turkey to Greece by boat. The boat trip seems to be the worst part of their immigration and caused a lot of psychological problems for the families. They are currently living a refugee center in Finland and waiting for the result of their asylum application. The study concludes that it is necessary to educate the parents how to cope with the traumatic behaviors of their children, and to make a difference between traumatic behaviors and normal disorders. The study also put emphasis on the role of psychological assistance for the refugees and their families at the refugee centers. Also it indicated the importance of further research on children trauma

Advances in the assessment of cognitive skills using computer-based measurement

The impact of technology in the field of intellectual assessment has, for the most part, been limited to computerized administration and scoring. Anderson's (2001) theory of intelligence suggests that performance on traditional IQ measures is acquired via two main routes, thinking and dedicated processing systems known as modules. Empirical data used to support this relationship between the speed of basic processing and intellectual functioning have been evidenced primarily by correlations between measures of general intelligence and measures of inspection time (IT). These IT measures allow individuals to make a forced choice discrimination task without a motor component. Because only the time used to cognitively solve the problem is recorded, these responses typically occur in milliseconds. Many theorists (e. g., Burns & Nettelbeck, 2002; Deary, 2000; Jensen, 2006) consider IT to be a more "pure" measure of intelligence, because the influences of verbal skills, memory, and socialization are minimized and results are therefore considered to be more culture-fair. Until relatively recently, IT measurement was restricted to complex and expensive specialized laboratory equipment. This article describes the theoretical background and developmental process of a computer-based IT measure that is easily adaptable to accommodate the needs of the researcher. © 2011 Psychonomic Society, Inc