AUPress: A Comparison of an Open Access University Press with Traditional Presses

This study is a comparison of AUPress with three other traditional (non-open access) Canadian university presses. The analysis is based on the rankings that are correlated with book sales on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. Statistical methods include the sampling of the sales ranking of randomly selected books from each press. The results of one-way ANOVA analyses show that there is no significant difference in the ranking of printed books sold by AUPress in comparison with traditional university presses. However, AUPress, can demonstrate a significantly larger readership for its books as evidenced by the number of downloads of the open electronic versions

An online synchronous test for professional interpreters

This article is based on an experiment designed to conduct an interpreting test for multiple candidates online, using web-based synchronous cyber classrooms. The test model was based on the accreditation test for Professional Interpreters produced by the National Accreditation Authority of Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) in Australia. Specifically, the test involved interpreting-specific components such as dialogue interpreting, sight translation, and consecutive interpreting, as well as non-interpreting-specific components such as questions on ethical issues. The test was conducted live synchronously and concurrently with multiple candidates – i.e., all candidates were tested in their own locations at the same time. The result of the experiment indicates the potential and feasibility of conducting interpreting tests online using the specific technology of synchronous cyber classrooms. However, there are also a number of constraints when compared to conventional face-to-face tests. There is a need for further studies on how to effectively apply this kind of technology to conduct interpreting tests for multiple candidates online in synchronous mode and without the constraints identified in this research

Human-centered artificial intelligence in education: Seeing the invisible through the visible

The inevitable rise and development of artificial intelligence (AI) was not a sudden occurrence. The greater the effect that AI has on humans, the more pressing the need is for us to understand it. This paper addresses research on the use of AI to evaluate new design methods and tools that can be leveraged to advance AI research, education, policy, and practice to improve the human condition. AI has the potential to educate, train, and improve the performance of humans, making them better at their tasks and activities. The use of AI can enhance human welfare in numerous respects, such as through improving the productivity of food, health, water, education, and energy services. However, the misuse of AI due to algorithm bias and a lack of governance could inhibit human rights and result in employment, gender, and racial inequality. We envision that AI can evolve into human-centered AI (HAI), which refers to approaching AI from a human perspective by considering human conditions and contexts. Most current discussions on AI technology focus on how AI can enable human performance. However, we explore AI can also inhibit the human condition and advocate for an in-depth dialog between technology- and humanity-based researchers to improve understanding of HAI from various perspectives

The Roles of Electronic Books in the Transformation of Learning and Instruction

In order to better meet the needs of classes with Ebooks being involved in, Ebooks must be designed with a lot of special functions, which is called eTextbooks by the authors. The functions of eTextbooks, the class preparations and responsive teaching by incorporating formative assessment would help to transforming learning and instruction. Note-taking, bookmarking, annotating, and highlighting, working on assignments are the key functions of eTextbooks to follow students' study habits and to meet the requirement of instruction. The relevant management is the key issues to keep eTextbook running smoothly in class. Such as assignment distribution, note management, assignment management, searching, dictionary, synchronizing functions, copy contents or notes, print contents or notes, Internet connection, communicating with parents via Internet, eTextbook control by teachers, and contents transmission between teachers and students. If the teachers had more experiences with instructional design, they would be able to conduct better class preparation. Through integrating materials, devices and software compositely, learning outcomes would optimally meet the instructional objectives. Responsive teaching through Ebooks/eTextbooks, which meet the individual needs and strengths of diverse learners, takes the stance that curriculum developers in general and Ebook designers in particular must play a larger role in rendering the burden of customization manageable for teachers

Mining E-Learning Domain Concept Map from Academic Articles

Abstract Recent researches have demonstrated the importance of concept map and its versatile applications especially in e-Learning. For example, while designing adaptive learning materials, designers need to refer to the concept map of a subject domain. Moreover, concept maps can show the whole picture and core knowledge about a subject domain. Research from literature also suggests that graphical representation of domain knowledge can reduce the problems of information overload and learning disorientation for learners. However, construction of concept maps typically relied upon domain experts in the past; it is a time consuming and high cost task. Concept maps creation for emerging new domains such as e-Learning is even more challenging due to its ongoing development nature. The aim of this paper is to construct e-Learning domain concept maps from academic articles. We adopt some relevant journal articles and conference papers in e-Learning domain as data sources, and apply text-mining techniques to automatically construct concept maps for e-Learning domain. The constructed concept maps can provide a useful reference for researchers, who are new to the e-Leaning field, to study related issues, for teachers to design adaptive learning materials, and for learners to understand the whole picture of e-Learning domain knowledge

A Systematic Literature Review of Empirical Studies on Learning Analytics in Educational Games

Learning analytics (LA) in educational games is considered an emerging practice due to its potential of enhancing the learning process. Growing research on formative assessment has shed light on the ways in which students' meaningful and in-situ learning experiences can be supported through educational games. To understand learners' playful experiences during gameplay, researchers have applied LA, which focuses on understanding students' in-game behaviour trajectories and personal learning needs during play. However, there is a lack of studies exploring how further research on LA in educational games can be conducted. Only a few analyses have discussed how LA has been designed, integrated, and implemented in educational games. Accordingly, this systematic literature review examined how LA in educational games has evolved. The study findings suggest that: (1) there is an increasing need to consider factors such as student modelling, iterative game design and personalisation when designing and implementing LA through educational games; and (2) the use of LA creates several challenges from technical, data management and ethical perspectives. In addition to outlining these findings, this article offers important notes for practitioners, and discusses the implications of the study’s results

A Smart Collaborative Educational Game with Learning Analytics to Support English Vocabulary Teaching

Learning Analytics (LA) approaches have proved to be able to enhance learning process and learning performance. However, little is known about applying these approaches for second language acquisition using educational games. Therefore, this study applied LA approaches to design a smart collaborative educational game, to enhance primary school children learning English vocabularies. Specifically, the game provided dashboards to the teachers about their students in a real-time manner. A pilot experiment was conducted in a public primary school where the students’ data from experimental and control groups, namely learning and motivation test scores, interview and observation, were collected and analyzed. The obtained results showed that the experimental group (who used the smart game with LA) had significantly higher motivation and performance for learning English vocabularies than the control group (who used the smart game without LA). The findings of this study can help researchers and practitioners incorporate LA in their educational games to help students enhance language acquisition

Yörünge Fiziği Öğrenimini Uygulamalı bir Kinect Oyunu ile Geliştirme

Practicing is very important in the process of learning physics. Experiencing physics laws and observing the phenomenon in the experiments and labs help students learn. However, some contexts like the law of orbits in physics cannot be practiced directly and students can only learn it from animation or drawings. We have designed a Kinect game for students to experience orbital physics and conducted a pilot in a summer camp of Athabasca University's science outreach program to verify the hypotheses include whether the students' attitudes toward computer/video games will affect their perceptions toward the developed Kinect game or not, and whether their performance in the game will be influenced by the lack of prior knowledge of the law of orbits or not. The quantitative analysis results showed that there was a positive correlation between students' gaming performances and what they knew about the relevant physics knowledge. Also, it shows that the students' attitudes toward computer/video games do not affect their perceptions toward the developed Kinect game in terms of its usability.Fizik öğreniminde pratik yapmanın yeri büyüktür. Fizik kanunlarını deneyimlemek ve deneylerle ve laboratuvar ortamında gözlemlemek öğrenmeyi kolaylaştırır. Fakat yörünge kanunu gibi bazı konuların pratik uygulamaları yoktur ve öğrenciler bu konuyu sadece animasyonlar veya çizimler yoluyla öğrenebilirler. Öğrencilerin yörünge fiziğini deneyimleyebilmeleri için bir Kinect oyunu geliştirdik ve Athabasca Üniversitesi’nin yaz kampındaki bilim destek programı çerçevesinde bir pilot çalışma yürüttük. Bu çalışma ile öğrencilerin bilgisayar/video oyunlarına karşı tutumlarının Kinect oyunuyla ilgili algılarını etkileyip etkilemeyeceği ve yörünge kanunuyla ilgili bilgilerinin olmayışının oyun performanslarına etki edip etmeyeceği gibi bazı hipotezleri doğrulamak istedik. Nicel analiz sonuçları öğrencilerin oyun performansı ile konu hakkındaki bilgileri arasında pozitif bir korelasyon olduğunu; ayrıca, öğrencilerin bilgisayar/video oyunlarına karşı tutumlarının Kinect oyununun kullanılabilirliğine ilişkin görüşleri açısından bir etki yaratmadığını göstermiştir