There were three main goals of this study. First, utilize technology in a non-conventional way to enhance student's study process. Second, gauge if the students access such a tool when it is available to them. Third, assess the student's learning based on the study tools available. This project also examined if there was a difference in comprehension of post-World War II era information between students who use the online test preparation program and those that received only traditional instruction.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

This study describes two efforts: (1) the development of a learning environment that includes a hypermedia data base about Mesoamerica, and (2) an observational study of middle school students using the system within a framework of problem-based learning for mastering content and thinking skills. The goal was to create a learning environment influenced by metacognitive strategies, hypermedia interface design, and problem-solving scenarios preceded by discrepant events. Participants consisted of 25 seventh-grade social studies students. They were divided into four groups, each having access to a microcomputer with the hypermedia data base. They also had additional resources such as books and magazines dealing with Mesoamerican civilizations. Data collection included direct observations from four facilitator/evaluators, audiotape, videotape, student products, software routines, and questionnaires. Findings suggest: · the hypermedia data base navigation was usable and easy to learn for these students · a discrepant event inquiry model was among the factors contributing to sustained student activity · embedded problem-solving strategies facilitated higher-order thinking only when coupled with teacher support. The key in the environment appeared to be teacher-student interactions which allowed the teacher to dynamically assess students' abilities, then provide necessary support for independent action. The computer's role was that of a tool which mediated between the teacher and students. / Ph. D.

Ph.D. / Until recently the majority of computer aided instruction (CAl) programs available for the teaching of history, only provided elementary facilities such as drill-and-practice exercises. Some of the more advanced systems use simulation techniques to create fictitious historical situations. These simulation systems take the form of computer games where the participants have to make decisions on historical situations with which they are confronted. The initial aim of this study was to develop a CAl-system for the teaching of history in which historical field battles could be simulated, or more correctly, in which a particular field battle situation could be reconstructed. By using the system, a student could get a better understanding of the different factors which played a role during a specific battle. It soon became clear though, that the original aims were too broad and too general. The decision was therefore made to undertake a study of the dynamic interrelationships of time and space with reference to field battles. A model was developed which provides a framework for the transformation of often unstructured and diffuse time and space relationships into more specific, structured values which can be loaded into the database of a computer. Historical field battles are used as a vehicle to outline the functioning of the model. After a history teacher or historian has analysed and restructured a specific field battle into relations that can be computerized, a history student can interactively formulate his questions on the time-space relationships of the battle under study. In the field battle model, the concept of an "event" plays an important role. An event defines an action or activity which took place during a field battle. Two of the major constituents of an event are the time when the event took place, and the geographical position where it occurred. Therefore much of the work reported in this thesis covers the development of algorithms for the representation of time and space relations. Algoritmhs were developed for the interactive drawing of geographical maps of the area where the battle took place. The main building blocks of a geographical map are points, icons, lines and areas. Special attention was given to the representation of these entities. Due to the limited viewing area available on the screen of a micro computer, an area clipping algorithm was developed for the display of selected parts of the map. Time which is observed under operational conditions during a field battle is referred to as "perceived time". Perceived time is often vague and even unreliable. An algorithm was developed through which these vague time references are transformed to more specific "clock time" values. The algorithm constructs a time network, using the vague known time of occurrence of events, to sequence the events relative to each other. By solving this network, the time of occurrence of the events forming part of the network, are determined to a fair degree of accuracy. These time values and other relevant information are entered into the database of a micro computer system, to be used for instructional purposes.

Multimedia learning -- Collaborative authoring of Hypercard stacks -- Student construction of meaning.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Science, Dept. of Computing, 2009. / Bibliography: p. [265]-280. / Introduction -- Literature review -- Method -- Experiments -- Conclusion. / Video games are becoming increasingly popular and their level of sophistication comes close to that of professional movie productions. Educational institutions and corporations are beginning to use video games for teaching purposes, however, not much is known about the use and effectiveness of video games for such purposes. One even less explored factor in video games is the music that is played throughout the course of the games. Little is known about the role that this music plays in cognitive processes and what effect background music has on players' memory. It is this question that the present thesis explores by asking which effect background music has on participants' memory for facts that are learned from a virtual environment. -- To answer the research question, a computer-animated history lesson, called VirSchool, was created which used the history of the Macquarie Lighthouse in Sydney as a basis for two experiments. Different musical stimuli accompanied the audio-visual presentation of the history topic. These stimuli were tested for their effectiveness to support participants' memory. The VirSchool history lesson was first presented in a Reality Center (a highly immersive, semi-cylindrical 3 projector display system) and one soundtrack was identified which showed a statistically significant improvement in the number of facts that participants remembered correctly from the VirSchool history lesson. Furthermore, Experiment 1 investigated how variations of tempo and pitch of the musical stimuli affected memory performance. It was found that slow tempo and low pitch were beneficial for remembrance of facts from the VirSchool history lesson. -- The beneficial soundtrack that was identified in Experiment 1 was reduced in tempo and lowered in pitch and was subsequently used as the sole musical stimulus in Experiment 2. Furthermore, because of equipment failure, Experiment 2 offered the opportunity to compare memory performance of participants in the Reality Center and a 3-monitor display system, which was used as a replacement for the defect Reality Center. Results showed that, against expectation, the memory for facts from the VirSchool history lesson was significantly better in the less immersive 3-monitor display system. Moreover, manipulated background music played in the second five and a half minutes of the VirSchool history lesson in the Reality Center resulted in a statistically significant improvement of participants' remembrance of facts from the second five and a half minutes of the VirSchool history lesson. The opposite effect was observed in the 3-monitor display system where participants remembered less information from the second five and a half minutes of the VirSchool history lesson if music was played in the second five and a half minutes of the VirSchool history lesson. -- The results from the present study reveal that in some circumstances music has a significant influence on memory in a virtual environment and in others it does not. These findings contribute towards and encourage further investigation of our understanding of the role that music plays in virtual learning environments so that they may be utilised to advance learning of future generations of students. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 280 p. ill. (some col.)