<p dir="ltr"><b>Abstract</b></p><p dir="ltr"><b>Background</b> Previous research has indicated that it is difficult to maintain student motivation in gateway courses when students from multiple majors are taking the same course. Providing students with a choice in assignment is important because it creates a feeling that the students are in charge of their education, that they can tailor their education to their own needs, and it can improve their motivation in a course along with their satisfaction and overall learning. This study looks at the impact of giving students enrolled in an introductory microcontroller gateway course a choice in which assignments they complete in the laboratory portion of the course. The course is comprised of students from various majors such as electrical engineering technology, computer engineering technology, mechanical engineering technology, mechatronics, and robotics to mention a few. Allowing the students to pick their laboratory activities allows the students to take control of their educational experience and make it personal to them.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Purpose</b> This study examines the impact of providing students with a choice in assignments based on the self-determination framework to determine how choice effects the students’ interest/enjoyment in their education, their perceived value/usefulness of the educational experience, their perceived competence, and their perceived level of effort/importance.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Design/Methods</b> Students enrolled in an introductory microcontroller gateway course were given a choice of laboratory assignments that they complete during the last third of the semester. Survey data was collected using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) before and after the students were given a choice based on a single case pretest/posttest experimental design. A comparative study was then performed to determine the impact of giving the students a choice on the key traits of this study (perceived value/usefulness of the educational experience, perceived competence, and perceived level of effort/importance).</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Results</b> The results of the analysis indicated that there was not a significant change in the key values of interest in education, value of the education, and perceived effort between the pretest and posttest values when the class was analyzed as a whole. However, when the students were analyzed based on their perception of choice: a high level of perceived choice, a neutral level of perceived choice, and a low level of perceived choice, significant changes were detected. The results of this analysis indicated that students with a higher level of perceived choice reported significantly higher levels of interest, value, effort, and perceived competence when compared to students that reported a lower level of perceived choice.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Conclusions</b> Simply providing or giving students a choice is not enough to change the students’ overall interest/enjoyment in the education, their perception of the value/usefulness of the education, and the importance/effort level the students place on the educational experience. The way the students perceive the option of having a choice has a direct impact on these traits. Generally speaking, students with higher perceptions of choice reported: higher levels of interest in the education, higher value of the educational experience, placed more importance and effort into the educational experience, and showed higher levels of perceived competence when compared to students with lower levels of perception. The results also indicate that students with higher perceptions of choice select activities that they view as interesting and/or fun to do, while students with low perceptions of choice seem to select activities that they perceive to be easier to complete. The results of this research inquiry are important for informing future research and shaping instructional design in the microcontroller space.</p>

Bei verkehrspolitischen und infrastrukturellen Massnahmen folgen als wesentliche Nachfrageveränderungen vor allem Routen- und Verkehrsmittelwahleffekte. Mit der Anwendung der sequentiellen Routen- und Verkehrsmittelwahlmodelle, ist bei solchen Massnahmen aus verschiedenen Gründen eine konsistente und gesamthafte Gleichgewichtslösung nicht möglich. Das Ziel dieser Untersuchung war, ein konsistentes und verfeinertes Verfahren zu entwickeln, mit dem die Routen- und Verkehrsmittelwahl simultan bzw. in einem Schritt als eine Entscheidung berechnet werden kann. Neben dem Gleichgewicht bei der Verteilung der Verkehrsnachfrage auf die Alternativen, war die konsistente Schätzung der Modellparameter für die Bewertung von Einflussfaktoren bei den Entscheidungen hier eine weitere wichtige Anforderung. Das Modell ist in der Lage, ein realitätsentsprechendes Verhalten der Verkehrsteilnehmer, sowohl bei schwach, als auch bei stark belasteten Strassennetzen, zu beschreiben. Die unterschiedliche Wahrnehmung der Reisekosten der Verkehrsteilnehmer und die Netzüberbelastungen werden durch ein stochastisches Nutzergleichgewicht abgebildet. Das entwickelte Verfahren ermöglicht es: - die Nachfrageaufteilung mit einem konsistenten Gleichgewicht zwischen Verkehrsangebot und Verkehrsnachfrage zu berechnen. Dabei wird ein Gleichgewicht nicht nur innerhalb des Strassen- oder Schienennetzes, sondern zwischen allen verfügbaren Alternativen (unabhängig vom Verkehrsmittel) gesucht. - durch die iterative Kalibration der Modellparameter und die Nachfrageaufteilung ein konsistentes Gleichgewicht zwischen den geschätzten Modellparametern für die Nutzenfunktion und der Nachfrageaufteilung auf die vorhandenen Alternativen (Routen) zu berechnen. - mit einem stochastischen Nutzergleichgwicht die unterschiedliche Wahrnehmung der Nutzen bzw. der generalisierten Kosten der Verkehrsteilnehmer bei der Nachfrageaufteilung zu berücksichtigen. - die Auswirkungen von Angebotsveränderungen auf die Verkehrsmittelwahl und Routenwahl durch simultane Modellierung der Entscheidungen konsistent und ohne Rückkoppelungschritte zu berechnen.

The dissertation deals with the topic of how the school management of Czech primary schools assign teachers to classrooms. The aim of the thesis was to define the system of assigning teachers to classrooms at schools applying pupils' differentiation and to clarify which criteria the school management follows in the assignment of teachers to the classrooms. The theoretical part was based on both domestic and foreign sources dealing with the concept of differentiation of pupils in primary education and with the choice of assignment of teachers to classrooms. Differentiation of pupils was presented in terms of the positive effects of effective education of similarly competent pupils and in terms of the view that differentiation supports the unequal distribution of pupils in classes and the subsequent recruitment of teachers applying different demands and curriculum. In addition, a model of pupils' differentiation and models of assignment of teachers to classrooms were presented, and also the theoretical model of teacher's knowledge was introduced, which was further used in the empirical part for the determination of the criteria for assigning teachers to classrooms. The aim of the empirical part was to describe the real way of assigning teachers to classrooms by the school management in five...