The aim of this study is to ascertain what misconceptions N2 students have about DC resistive circuits and how screencasts could effect on the rectification of these misconceptions. This study was conducted at the Kathu Campus of the Northern Cape Rural Further Education and Training College in the town Kathu in the arid Northern Cape. The empirical part of this study was conducted during the first six months of 2013. A design-based research (DBR) method consisting of four phases was used. DBR function is to design and develop interventions such as a procedure, new teachinglearning strategies, and in the case of this study a technology-enhanced learning (TEL) tool (screencast) with the purpose of solving a versatile didactic problem and to acquire information about the interventions of the TEL tool (screencast) on the learning of a student. In the first and second phase of DBR quantitative data for this research were gathered with the Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric circuits Concepts Test (DIRECT) in order to determine the four most common misconceptions. The DIRECT test was conducted in the first trimester to find the misconceptions; the test was conducted in the second trimester also to confirm the misconceptions. Further quantitative data were collected from a demographic questionnaire. The qualitative data were collected by individual interviews in the fourth phase of the research project. Phase three of this study was the development of screencasts in the four most prominent misconceptions in DC resistive circuits of the students. The respondents of this study were non-randomly chosen and comprised of two groups, one in the first trimester of the year and one in the second trimester of the year, which enrolled for the N2 Electrical or Millwright courses. The respondents were predominant male and representing the three main cultural groups in the Northern Cape namely: Black, Coloured and White. The four misconceptions on DC resistive circuits that were identified were: (i) understanding of concepts, (ii) understanding of short circuit, (iii) battery as a constant current source, and (iv) rule application error. Screencasts clarifying the four misconceptions were developed and distributed to the respondents. On the foundation of the results of this research, it can be concluded that the students have several misconceptions around direct current resistive direct current circuits and that the use of TEL like screencasts can be used to solve some of these misconceptions. Screencasts could supplement education when they were incorporated into the tutoring and learning for supporting student understanding. The results of this research could lead to the further development and refinement of screencasts on DC resistive circuits and also useable guidelines in creating innovative screencasts on DC resistive circuits. / MEd (Curriculum Development), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Information and Communication Sciences, Computing Department, 2008. / Bibliography: p. 503-514. / This study investigated learning design in a web-conferencing environment based on three semesters of lessons conducted as part of an introductory programming subject. As well as characterizing the nature of discourse and interaction, the study focused on how the design of the interface, activity and task type affected collaboration and learning. Engeström's (1987) Activity Theory based upon a socio-constructivist view of learning was used to frame the analysis. --Interface designs incorporated theory relating to graphical user interface design, multimedia learning, and findings from the cognitive sciences. Activity designs were differentiated based on the degree of student ownership, from teacher-centred (transmissive) approaches, to teacher-led (guided interaction) approaches, to student-centred (collaborative group-work) designs. Types of tasks were considered on the basis of their level of knowledge (declarative, procedural and conceptual), their character (authenticity, situatedness) and their domain specific nature (in the field of computer science education). The effects of the different interface, activity and task designs on collaboration and mental model formation were explored. --A mixed method approach to analysis was adopted, incorporating a design-based research study and a multimodal discourse analysis. The design-based research allowed a broader, more interpretivistic and process focused analysis to be conducted, based on the strategic redesigns that occurred between iterations of the subject. The multimodal discourse analysis enabled more detailed, objective and outcomes based measurements of the subject of discourse, the nature of interactions and the types of modalities used to mediate learning. Triangulating data from the design-based research study and the multimodal discourse analysis provided a more complete description of phenomena and promoted greater reliability. --Results include the way in which different modalities afforded different possibilities for representing, and how combinations of those modalities could be effectively integrated by applying multimedia learning principles. Student-centred learning designs increased student involvement, allowing them to take greater ownership over the content and to more fully share their mental models. Authentic, meaningful problem solving tasks promoted greater student engagement. The capacity to dynamically redesign the interface based on the collaborative and cognitive requirements of the learning episode supported more effective implementation of conversational (Laurillard, 2002) approaches to learning. --More effective interaction and collaboration resulted from prescribing patterns of engagement, managing activity and technology so that student discourse could focus on content, and providing guidance regarding semiotic representational forms so that students could concentrate on applying those representations rather than inventing them. Teacher and student virtual classroom competencies critically influenced collaboration and learning. --Based on the findings in this study, a framework of nine pedagogical patterns for teaching and learning in web-conferencing environments is proposed. The framework provides an integrated approach to learning design that relates the interface design with the activity design and the level of knowledge (task type). / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / vii, 514 p. ill. (some col.)

There is growing evidence that knowledge co-creation and interactivity during learning interventions aid knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer. However, learners have mostly been passive consumers and not co-creators of the knowledge visualisation aids created by teachers and instructional designers. As such, knowledge visualisation has been underutilised for allowing learners to construct, demonstrate and share what they have learned. The dearth of appropriate guidelines for the use of knowledge visualisation for teaching and learning is an obstacle to using knowledge visualisation in teaching and learning. This provides a rationale for this study, which aims to investigate usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines for teaching and learning. The application context is that of Science teaching for high school learners in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Following a design-based research methodology, an artefact of usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines was created. The artefact was evaluated by testing learners’ conformity to the visualisation guidelines. Qualitative and quantitative data was captured using questionnaires, interviews and observations. The findings indicate that the guidelines considered in this study had various degrees of impact on the visualisations produced by learners. While some made noticeable impact, for others it could be considered negligible. Within the context of high school learning, these results justify the prioritisation of usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines. Integrating Human Computer Interaction usability principles and knowledge visualisation guidelines to create usability-based knowledge visualisation guidelines provide a novel theoretical contribution upon which scientific knowledge visualisation can be expanded. / School of Computing / M. Sc. (Computing)

The research presented in this thesis investigates the design challenges associated with the development and use of mobile applications and tools for supporting collaboration in educational activities. These technologies provide new opportunities to promote and enhance collaboration by engaging learners in a variety of activities across different places and contexts. A basic challenge is to identify how to design and deploy mobile tools and services that could be used to support collaboration in different kinds of settings. There is a need to investigate how to design collaborative learning processes and to support flexible educational activities that take advantage of mobility. The main research question that I focus on is the identification of factors that influence the design of mobile collaborative learning. The theoretical foundations that guide my work rely on the concepts behind computer supported collaborative learning and design-based research. These ideas are presented at the beginning of this thesis and provide the basis for developing an initial framework for understanding mobile collaboration. The empirical results from three different projects conducted as part of my efforts at the Center for Learning and Knowledge Technologies at Växjö University are presented and analyzed. These results are based on a collection of papers that have been published in two refereed international conference proceedings, a journal paper, and a book chapter. The educational activities and technological support have been developed in accordance with a grounded theoretical framework. The thesis ends by discussing those factors, which have been identified as having a significant influence when it comes to the design and support of mobile collaborative learning. The findings presented in this thesis indicate that mobility changes the contexts of learning and modes of collaboration, requiring different design approaches than those used in traditional system development to support teaching and learning. The major conclusion of these efforts is that the learners’ creations, actions, sharing of experiences and reflections are key factors to consider when designing mobile collaborative activities in learning. The results additionally point to the benefit of directly involving the learners in the design process by connecting them to the iterative cycles of interaction design and research.

I en nära samverkan med yrkesverksamma svensklärare utreder och prövar föreliggande studie hur undervisningen i litteraturhistoria kan utvecklas i praktiken. Med utgångspunkt i elevers och svensklärares uttryckta erfarenheter av arbete med litteraturhistoriska texter konstrueras en didaktisk design. Den didaktiska designen omsätter tidigare forskning rörande förkroppsligat lärande i en lektionsserie på sex lektioner där fokus ligger på bearbetning av en litteraturhistorisk text med hjälp av fyra fysiska komponenter: gester, röstläge-intonation, en visuell komponent samt en auditiv komponent. Iscensättningen av den didaktiska designen studeras med en triangulering som består av observationer, fokusgruppsamtal med elever och lärarintervjuer samt skriftliga exit tickets. Genom en tematisk analys visar resultatet att eleverna trots ett utmanande språk erövrar den litteraturhistoriska texten, engagerar sig i olika erbjudna livsvärldar, minns textinnehåll och inkarnerar nyvunnen kunskap med hjälp av kroppsliga representationer. Förklaringen spåras till kroppen och sinnets enhet samt det meningsskapande multimodala perspektivet, där föreliggande studie också visar den sociokulturella kontextens betydelse. Litteraturdidaktiska ställningstaganden diskuteras vidare och konstaterar att fysiska komponenter kan användas för att gynna en omfattande läsupplevelse, där både kropp och sinne förses med den litteraturhistoriska textens narrativ på olika sätt. Slutligen föreslås fysiska komponenter som en väg in i texten, vilket i sin tur potentiellt kan leda till ökad måluppfyllelse. / In collaboration with professional teachers who teach the Swedish language, this study explores how to develop teaching in history of literature within the field of design-based research. A didactic design is created and tried in an authentic learning situation. This didactic design refers to earlier studies of embodied learning. In a series of six lessons which focus on working with texts from the Enlightenment, four physical components are incorporated in the design: gestures, voices, a visual component and an auditive component. The staging of the didactic design is investigated through a triangulation consisting of observations, group conversations with pupils, interviews with the teacher and written exit- tickets by pupils. Through a thematic analysis the result shows that students, despite the challenging language, conquer the texts from the Enlightenment, engages themselves in different presented lifeworlds, remember contents and incorporates newfound knowledge while using bodily representations. The explanation is traced to the unity of body and mind and to the multimodal perspective that creates meaning. The presented study also shows the meaning of a sociocultural context while working with literature. Didactic literature positions are discussed further and state that physical components can be used as an entrance into texts from different time periods. All thanks to extensive reading experience, where body and mind are provided with narrative through multiply senses. The discussion continues and suggests that due to the fact that pupils are experiencing the narrative in the texts, they are able to perform more extensive analysis which is the focus of the curriculum.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if a proposed technology-mediated intervention is a viable alternative to traditional study abroad for those who are unable to travel. While technology cannot reproduce the same experience of traveling abroad, the primary objective of this study was to determine if there is value in using Web conferencing technology to provide students with access to the same opportunity to interact with international experts in the field as their counterparts who were able to travel. This formative evaluation is the first in a series of iterative studies aimed at developing a viable, sustainable, technology-based solution through design-based research (Reeves, 2006). Methodology/Design: Two guiding questions drove the focus of this formative evaluation: Did the program accomplish what was intended and was it implemented effectively? These generated a set of evaluation questions using the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) Quality Framework, which were used to evaluate the quality of a joint study abroad program in Brazil with students and instructors from the University of Central Florida and the University of Scranton. While studying global health management in Brazil, the group in the field broadcasted their site visits live to online participants back in the United States. Web conferencing tools allowed the online attendees to see and hear the group in Brazil and interact in real time through the audio or text chat. Evaluation data was compiled from multiple sources including an anonymous student survey, instructor interviews, session recordings, financial budgets, and online facilitator observations in order to triangulate and evaluate the effectiveness of this Web-based intervention. Findings: Web conferencing technology appears to be a viable alternative that is not necessarily as immersive as traveling abroad, but it does provide its own set of benefits to higher education students. This formative evaluation revealed clear areas for improvement, including technical and procedural elements, but instructors and online participants did find value in the experience. Was it perfect? No. Was it successful? Yes. Was it encouraging? Definitely. Exploration of the evaluation questions under each of the five pillars of the OLC Quality Framework revealed both success factors and areas for improvement in each of the following categories: learning effectiveness, scale (commitment & cost), access, faculty satisfaction, and student satisfaction. Implications: Overall, this was a successful proof of concept that justifies future improvements and subsequent further evaluation in an iterative design-based research program. In addition to repeating this study with the joint global health management course in Brazil, this intervention could also be implemented and evaluated in other contexts, disciplines, and countries around the world. This formative evaluation produced a set of recommendations for the next study based on the success factors as well as the areas for improvement identified in this initial implementation in addition to a list of suggestions for future research.

Detta examensarbete genomfördes i samarbete med K-ULF. De teoretiska ramverk som detta examensarbete vilar på är designbaserad forskning, framplockningsstrategin och aktivitetsbaserad inlärning. Det ena syftet i examensarbetet var att utforma flashcards inom matematikområdet procent. Detta för att undersöka hur matematiklärare i årskurs 9 använder dem i undervisningen för att stärka elevers begreppsförståelse och förmåga att lösa textuppgifter. Det andra syftet i detta examensarbete är att undersöka effekten av att använda flashcards på elevernas lärande. Målet med examensarbetet är att utforma en lärarhandledning utifrån lärarnas lärande av att tillämpa aktiviteterna i matematikundervisningen. Flashcards har utformats utifrån två matematiklärares behov och gäller endast inom matematikområdet procent. Utformningen av flashcards genomfördes genom en förstudie och matematiklärarna utvecklade aktiviteter med flashcards under en workshop. Effekten av att använda flashcards på elevernas lärande mättes genom att studiegruppen, som bestod av fyra klasser, delades in i två grupper. Två klasser användes som en experimentgrupp och de resterande två klasserna blev kontrollgruppen. Innan interventionen skrev både experimentgruppen och kontrollgruppen ett pre-test. Därefter genomfördes interventionen i experimentgruppen. Efter cirka 4 veckor av att använda flashcards i undervisningen skrev både experimentgruppen och kontrollgruppen ett post-test. Resultatet från pre-test och post-test sammanställdes manuellt i ett Exceldokument som senare analyserades med SPSS. I detta examensarbete genomfördes ett independent sample t-test. Eftersom p-värdet i studien var större än 0.05 så visade resultatet att det inte finns en statistisk signifikant skillnad mellan experimentgruppens och kontrollgruppens prestationer i pre-testet och post-testet. Resultatet visade även att det inte finns en signifikant skillnad mellan flickors och pojkars prestationer inom experimentgruppen i pre-testet och post-testet. Vidare visar resultatet att flashcards bör utformas sådant att sidan där begreppet är skriven bör skiljas från sidan där definitionen är skriven för att göra korten tydligare för eleverna. Båda matematiklärarna tror även på att det skulle vara mer gynnsamt för eleverna att själva skriva definitionerna än att få korten klara. Utifrån lärarnas lärande av att implementera flashcardaktiviteter så visar resultatet att antalet begrepp som eleverna arbetar med under aktiviteterna bör begränsas. Det är även viktigt att förklaringarna på korten är elevnära. / This thesis was conducted in collaboration with K-ULF. The theoretical frameworks that underpin this thesis are the design-based research, retrieval practice strategy and activity-based learning. One aim of this thesis was to design flashcards within the mathematics domain of percentages. The purpose was to investigate how mathematics teachers in grade 9 use them in their teaching to enhance students' conceptual understanding and ability to solve text problems. The second aim of this thesis is to examine the effect of using flashcards on students' learning. The objective of the thesis is to create a teacher's guide based on the teachers' learning from implementing the activities in mathematics instruction. The flashcards have been designed based on the needs of two mathematics teachers and are only valid in the area of mathematics percentages. The design of flashcards was carried out through a pre-study and the mathematics teachers developed activities with flashcards during a workshop. The effect of using flashcards on student learning was measured by dividing the study group, which consisted of four classes, into two groups. Two classes were used as an experimental group and the remaining two classes became the control group. Before the intervention, both the experimental group and the control group wrote a pre-test. The intervention was then carried out in the experimental group. After approximately 4 weeks of using flashcards in teaching, both the experimental group and the control group wrote a post-test. The results from the pre-test and post-test were compiled manually in an Excel document which was later analyzed with SPSS. In this thesis, an independent sample t-test was carried out. Since the p-value in the study was greater than 0.05, the result showed that there is no statistically significant difference between the experimental group and the control group's performance in the pre-test and post-test. The result also showed that there is no statistically significant difference between the performance of girls and boys within the experimental group in the pre-test and post-test. Furthermore, the result shows that flashcards should be designed in such a way that the side where the concept is written should be different from the side where the definition is written to make the cards clearer for the students. Both mathematics teachers also believe that it would be more beneficial for the students to write the definitions themselves than to provide ready-made cards. Based on the teachers' learning from implementing flashcard activities, the result shows that the number of concepts that the students work with during the activities should be limited. It is also important that the explanations on the cards are student-friendly.

Through human over-exploitation of nature, more and more ocean species approach ecological tipping points. On the other hand, more and more people suffer from climate anxiety. This thesis study explored an alternative relationship between humans and marine seaweed species through design research. Situated in posthumanist design, affirmative ethics, and kinship relations, the study experimented with non-exploitative human-seaweed encounters to stimulate reflection on the predominant perception of ocean species as resources for human use. By drifting through five design experiments, the study first investigated the current human- seaweed relationship at Ribersborg beach in Malmö and then invited participants to encounter seaweed from different perspectives in several interactive workshops. As the research study swayed through several threads of theory and practice, it found a prevalent distant stance towards seaweed. While participants who engaged in attentive interaction with seaweed showed an increased curiosity for the often- overlooked species group, the study found that an interdependency between humans and seaweed was either not perceived or negatively associated. Designerly speculation led to a performance of kinship rituals to encounter this vulnerability, which allowed room for reflection on current and future ways of being with seaweed in non-exploitative ways. The trialed practices of affirmative ethics involved human participants in coming up with these practices, which is of meaning in the further search for restoring the human relationship to nature through design.

The Digital Doorway (DD) project provides computing infrastructure in impoverished communities in South Africa. DD terminals offer opportunities for unassisted- and peerassisted learning of basic computer skills, and varying computing activities ranging from entertainment, to independent research. This study addresses software application usage, and how it relates to user demographics (age and gender) and location, in order to better understand both the user base, and the nature and extent of DD interactions. A mixed-methods approach is employed, involving log-files, interviews, questionnaires, and naturalistic observation; to build up a holistic picture of application usage and user behaviour at selected sites. Important issues with respect to ICT for Education and Development in the DD context, are addressed. Analysis of the data indicates notable trends, and relationships between age, gender, location, and application usage. User behaviour and environmental effects on usage are discussed, and recommendations provided for future DDs and similar initiatives. / Computing / M. Tech. (Information Technology)

Undergraduate software engineering learners demonstrate a lack of motivation with face-to-face classroom education. Limited access to the Internet via PCs and laptops, hinders effective communication and collaboration. However, the majority of learners enrolled for studies in tertiary education, have cellphones and are proficient in the use of digital technology. A technology-enhanced m-learning solution is indicated. This research project evaluates the usability and user experience of an m-learning environment, custom-designed for a tertiary educational context and delivered by mobile handheld devices, features a synthesized framework of categories and criteria, and determines the nature and scope of an emergent digital divide. A design-based research model suited to the context of the study is implemented, gathering quantitative and qualitative data from experts and learners by survey questionnaires. Analysis of data highlights usability and UX problems, provides insight into an emergent digital divide and suggests guidelines specific to the design of m-learning implementations. / Educational Studies / M. Sc. (Information Systems)