abstract: Clickers are a common part of many classrooms across universities. Despite the widespread use, education researchers disagree about how to best use these tools and about how they impact students. Prior work has shown possible differential impacts of clickers based on demographic indicators, such as age, gender, and ethnicity. To explore these topics a two-part project was designed. First, a literature review was completed focusing on past and current clicker practices and the research surrounding them. Second, original data, stratified by demographic characteristics, was collected on student perceptions of clickers. The literature review revealed that not all uses of clickers are created equal. Instructors in higher education first introduced clickers to enhance traditional pedagogies by simplifying common classroom tasks (e.g. grading, attendance, feedback collection). More recently, instructors pair clickers and novel pedagogies. A review of the identified benefits and drawbacks for students and instructors is provided for both approaches. Instructors can use different combinations of technological competency and pedagogical content knowledge that lead to four main outcomes. When instructors have both technological competency and pedagogical content knowledge, all the involved parties, students and instructors, benefit. When instructors have technological competency but lack pedagogical content knowledge, instructors are the main benefactors. When instructors have pedagogical content knowledge alone, students can benefit, but usefulness to the instructor decreases. When instructors have neither technological competency nor pedagogical content knowledge, no party benefits. Beyond these findings, recommendations are provided for future clicker research. Second, the review highlighted that clickers may have a differential impact on students of different demographic groups. To explore this dynamic, an original study on student views of clickers, which included demographic data, was conducted. The original study does not find significantly different enthusiasm for clickers by demographic group, unlike prior studies that explored some of these relationships. However, white students and male students are overrepresented in the group that does not enjoy clickers. This conclusion is supported by visual observations from the means of the demographic groups. Overall, based on the review of the literature and original research, if instructors pair clickers with validated pedagogies, and if researchers continue to study clicker classrooms, including which students like and benefit from clickers, clickers may continue to be a valuable educational technology. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biology 2020

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / This is an exploratory study that aims to find out how computer-based tutorials can be conducted effectively for large first year Statistics classes. The study focuses on the student's perceptions, advantages of being able to access tutorials anywhere, anytime and lastly the challenges of implementing the system. More specifically for the University of the Western Cape (UWC) environment, without sufficient staff, the effectiveness of learning in this initial stage is focused on the experience whereby students can do extensive problem-solving anytime and anywhere. Data were collected at UWC using first-year introductory Statistics students, during the first and the second semester. Structured questionnaires (self-completed) were used to measure student's perceptions and learning experiences. The results pointed to a positive overall perception towards computers and feelings about computers amongst all groups of first year students. The major advantage with these randomly generated computer-based tutorials is the fact that one could access the questions anytime, anywhere. The challenge now remains with educators to provide an environment where new methods of learning and delivering information can be accessed effectively.

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Digital services are increasingly offered across multiple devices for a single user. A challenge for users is that multi-device services are more complex to use. While instructions are supposed to facilitate ease of use of the services, poorly designed instructions become obstacles themselves. This project explores considerations for designing digital instructions of setting up multi-device services. This is done through a user-centred approach by (1) understanding the user expectations and pain points when setting up a multi-device service, (2) designing solutions that align with user expectations and aid in overcoming pain points, and (3) a reflection of the design process and the resulting design solution. To conclude, a set of design recommendations are contributed for designers to arrive at intuitive instructions that facilitate users with setting up multi-device services. / Digitala tjänster erbjuds allt oftare på flera olika enheter för en och samma användare. En utmaning för användare är att det är mer komplicerat att använda tjänster på flera enheter. Även om instruktionerna är avsedda för att underlätta användningen av tjänsterna blir dåligt utformade instruktioner själva ett hinder. I detta projekt undersöks överväganden för utformning av digitala instruktioner för installation av tjänster på flera enheter. Detta görs genom ett användarcentrerat tillvägagångssätt genom 1) att förstå användarnas förväntningar och utmaningar när de installerar en tjänst på flera enheter, 2) att utforma lösningar som möter användarnas förväntningar samtidigt som de hjälper användarna att bemästra utmaningar, och 3) en reflektion av designprocessen och resultatet av designlösning. Avslutningsvis ges en rad rekommendationer för hur designer kan ta fram intuitiva instruktioner som underlättar för användarna att installerar tjänster på flera enheter.

The ability to effectively manage learning design projects, consult with stakeholders (such as sponsors, subject matter experts, and learners), and direct projects to completion is a vital part of an instructional designer’s role. Although the need for project management education and experience is reiterated in the literature and in cross-industry instructional designer (ID) job postings, it was unclear how these professionals acquired and used project management skills and tools in their profession because project management is not a focus in many higher education programs intended to prepare instructional designers. The goal of this phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of practicing instructional designers as project managers. Results describe how instructional designers practice project management and the best practices, models, methods, tools, and technologies that they use to acquire and apply project management knowledge and skills in their learning design projects. Five themes emerged from the analysis: ID/Project Management (PM) Background, PM Role Characteristics, PM Challenges, PM Insights, and PM Recommendations. During the analysis process, 14 codes (each corresponding to a theme) were exposed. The ID/PM Background theme consisted of ID/PM-related Experience, PM Preparation, and PM Competencies. PM Role Characteristics included Primary Responsibilities, Models Used, and Tools Used. PM Challenges encompassed the PM Challenges and Avoid/Overcome PM Challenges codes. PM Insights comprised PM Preparation Feelings, PM Experience Feelings, and PM Models/Tools Feelings. The theme, PM Recommendations, included codes for PM Preparation Recommendations, PM Model/Tool Recommendations, and PM Recommendations. An examination of themes that emerged from the instructional designers’ stories, along with an exploration of the research questions yielded important findings. The study offers recommendations for academia and industry for preparing instructional designers to manage their projects in professional practice.

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As technology continues to advance, many instructors are incorporating online activities into their courses. While online learning has several benefits, there is still debate on how instructors can best develop and utilize these resources in their classroom. This study is split into two smaller projects that both aim to provide further insights on how to develop online activities that target undergraduate biology students. The first project revealed that elaborative feedback in a phylogenetic activity was more useful for students who had some exposure to phylogenetics prior to completing the activity. The results of the second project revealed that the appearance of two simulations’ user interfaces does not have a significant effect on learning outcomes. However, many students responded that these simulations did increase their understanding of the concepts, indicating simulations can play an important role in the biology classroom.

In an earlier era of instructional technology, researchers proposed a set of criteria to help practitioners understand what assumptions about their work could help them develop well-designed instruction, as well as what assumptions could lead them to develop rigid instruction that did not characterize the goals they had for their practice. They named these criteria Technology I, II, and III. Technology I presupposed that using physical hardware improved instruction. Technology II presupposed that using formulas or strategies improved instruction. Technology III was the belief that good instruction could consist of many different product or process technologies, but that technology use alone did not define good instruction. Rather, good instruction was the realization of improved systems in which learning could take place. I used a historical case study method to analyze the major themes of Technology I, II, and III, as well as reasons why some practitioners might limit themselves to only Technology I or II. My purpose was to discover how to help instructional technologists better accomplish more of the goals they want to achieve. I compared the original goals of two instructional technologies (programmed instruction and problem-based learning), along with twelve case study reports of actual practice of these technologies, against the criteria for Technology I, II, and III. I found that Technology I, II, and III can describe the goals and practices of instructional technologists. Additionally, I discovered four reasons why instructional technologists may limit themselves to Technology I or II, and therefore might not achieve all the important goals for their practice: (a) distracted focus (or compromised integrity); (b) status quo adherence; (c) solidification; and (d) deliberately chosen Technology I or II. I also discovered three methods to help instructional technologists to avoid limiting themselves and more consistently practice Technology III: (a) legitimate evaluation; (b) adopting guiding principles for practice; and (c) using opinion leaders to disseminate the value of Technology III. This study also provides recommendations to help instructional technologists use Technology III to help them better develop flexible instructional technology that better characterizes their goals for their practice.

With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology at BYU has been furthering their research on Global Virtual Teams. After Cultural Competence lessons were implemented into the classroom setting in 2010, it was decided that teaching the lessons online asynchronously could have advantages in decreasing the time professors needed to cover the content in class. In 2011, Jennifer Alexander teamed with faculty involved with the NSF grant to design and develop online Cultural Competence lessons. Beginning in August 2011 students at BYU and other cooperating campuses participated in the online Cultural Competence lessons. The online lessons were complete and ready for implementation on time; changes were made after implementation based on feedback given in student interviews; and the lessons are now ready for further development and implementation. The lessons will be shared openly with a global audience through Global Hub beginning in summer 2012.