Examining Occupational Therapy Students’ Responses to Integrative Seminars

The integrative seminar is an innovative teaching-learning approach that focuses on active learning and peer collaboration, characteristics that align with millennial learners’ preferences. The use of integrative seminars has been reported by various health professions with positive outcomes. Course feedback survey data from the first cohort of occupational therapy students who participated in a new four-course integrative seminar series were analyzed. Findings suggest that the format of the courses was engaging for the learners. The students particularly valued the small class; the opportunities for peer collaboration; and the variety of active learning opportunities, including simulations. The students also indicated that the seminars helped them to integrate and apply their learning across the curriculum. In another survey completed near the end of their Level II fieldwork rotations, the students indicated that the seminars contributed to their readiness for fieldwork as well as to the development of their critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and professional identity. The findings from this analysis support the potential value of integrative seminars in occupational therapy education

Enabling peer-to-peer collaboration within online learning environments and virtual laboratories.

This literature review will provide a foundation for future research into the emerging cloud campus within The University of Glasgow. I have previously described the cloud campus concept as a working definition, used to describe the node between located (face-to-face) learning and virtual learning through the use of digital technologies (Dunn, 2016:29). There have been similar constructs established by other academics in the past (Knowles, 1984; Kopp and Hill, 2008; Urban-Woldron, 2013). These constructs tend to be based on recognised theories of learning; for example, connectivism (Siemens, 2005) and the time-tested epistemological frameworks described by Piaget (1963) and Vygotsky (1978) through cognitivism and constructivism (including social- constructivism). This review will provide a synthesis of key papers and it will argue the case for peer-to-peer collaboration within virtual spaces. Specifically, it will argue for the use of technology to support such collaboration within online virtual learning environments and within physical learning spaces as newly defined ‘virtual laboratories’. The paper will present the arguments by illustrating the opportunities and challenges within teacher agency and in physical space design

Student ownership of projects in an upper-division optics laboratory course: A multiple case study of successful experiences

We investigate students' sense of ownership of multiweek final projects in an upper-division optics lab course. Using a multiple case study approach, we describe three student projects in detail. Within-case analyses focused on identifying key issues in each project, and constructing chronological descriptions of those events. Cross-case analysis focused on identifying emergent themes with respect to five dimensions of project ownership: student agency, instructor mentorship, peer collaboration, interest and value, and affective responses. Our within- and cross-case analyses yielded three major findings. First, coupling division of labor with collective brainstorming can help balance student agency, instructor mentorship, and peer collaboration. Second, students' interest in the project and perceptions of its value can increase over time; initial student interest in the project topic is not a necessary condition for student ownership of the project. Third, student ownership is characterized by a wide range of emotions that fluctuate as students alternate between extended periods of struggle and moments of success while working on their projects. These findings not only extend the literature on student ownership into a new educational domain---namely, upper-division physics labs---they also have concrete implications for the design of experimental physics projects in courses for which student ownership is a desired learning outcome. We describe the course and projects in sufficient detail that others can adapt our results to their particular contexts.Comment: 22 pages, 3 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. PE

Peer-to-peer collaboration in content delivery networks

A low-cost collaboration architecture for web content distribution, that aims to improve all stakeholder's interests, is presented. A peer-to-peer (P2P) contribution among the end users layer is suggested, in order to increase download rates and reduce server traffic and resource usage. In addition, the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) concerns are also considered, with an ISP-aware connection strategy in the P2P protocol. Collaboration among publisher's web server resources is also proposed, in order to improve the CDN architecture performance. All the elements of this architecture have been developed and have been successfully tested in 5 different scenarios, within the PlanetLab large-scale overlay network testbed. Results show that download speed increases after implementing P2P collaboration on a content delivery scenario, with a strong reduction of data transferred via HTTP servers. The ISP-aware approach reduces inter-ISP traffic, with an increase of download speeds. This implementation is fairer as the content popularity grows because end-users extreme download rates tend to approach to the average.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

PushPin: Towards Production-Quality Peer-to-Peer Collaboration

Fully peer-to-peer application software promises many benefits over cloud software, in particular, being able to function indefinitely without requiring servers. Research on distributed consistency mechanisms such as CRDTs has laid the foundation for P2P data synchronisation and collaboration. In this paper we report on our experience in taking these technologies beyond research prototypes, and working towards commercial-grade P2P collaboration software. We identify approaches that work well in our experience, such as the functional reactive programming paradigm, and highlight areas in need of further research, such as the reliability of NAT traversal and usability challenges.Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship Isaac Newton Trus

The Effect of Student Perceptions of Teacher-Student Relationships and Classroom Emotional Climate on STEM Education

This two-stage mixed-methods study carried out in a private primary school in Perth, Western Australia investigated children’s perceptions of their Classroom Emotional Climate and their interactions with their teacher. Key findings indicated that Student Freedom, Peer Collaboration, Problem Solving, Communication and Time all impact students’ perceptions of their attitude towards STEM education. Additionally, the respondents outlined their perceived preferred perceptions of Hands-On Learning, Physical Environments, Choice, Technology and Peer Collaboration within their STEM Learning Environments

Talk it Out: Peer Collaboration in the Writing Process

This self-study explored how students working with a partner during writing activities not only affected their writing, but confidence in themselves as well. Often times, students struggle to find a topic to write about and do not have the opportunity to talk out their thoughts and ideas with a partner. Peer collaboration gives students an opportunity to do just that as well as build relationships with their peers within the classroom. During my student teaching placement, I conducted a writing unit in a third-grade classroom where students worked with a partner to discuss ideas, edit, and revise their personal narratives. In an effort to examine this topic, I reflected upon my own practice by collecting and analyzing student reflections, field notes, anecdotal records, and lesson plans. Findings found that students appreciated having a peer to support them while gaining confidence during the writing process. Allowing peer collaboration in the classroom provides students with an opportunity to practice their skills and build social relations as developing writers

Processes and consequences of peer collaboration: A Vygotskian analysis

A sample of 162 children aged from 5 to 9 was pretested to discover each child's "rule" for predicting the movement of a mathematical balance beam. Children then worked alone, with a partner who used the same rule, with a partner who was more competent, or with a partner who was less competent. If partners' predictions differed, the dyad members were asked to discuss and reach agreement, but were not given feedback. All children were subsequently given 2 individual posttests. The results revealed that regression in thinking was as likely a consequence as improvement, both proving stable. Benefits accrued primarily to those whose partner was more competent, but understanding of the outcomes of collaboration required attending both to the nature of the rules (whether they allowed consistent or inconsistent prediction) and the shared understanding attained during the paired session

Research Design for the use of Manipulatives and Peer Collaboration

Research design activities on the usage of manipulatives and peer collaboration with 3D designed round stackable pegs and craft sticks

The Effects Of Collaboration In The Constructivist Web-Based Learning Environment Of An Undergraduate Physics Course.

The effects of the student-facilitator and student-peer collaboration in the constructivist Web-based learning environment of an undergraduate Physics course are reported