The problem addressed is the lack of empirical research describing the delivery of individualized learning material in a secure and mobile manner. The goal was to investigate the effectiveness of deploying training materials to National Football League (NFL) players during a recent NFL season. Over the past few seasons, NFL teams have started to deliver player training material to mobile devices. The training material is sensitive and includes planning documents for upcoming games. An effort was made to survey a representative at each of the 32 NFL teams in order to gain insight on effectiveness, security, and process. Nearly half of the league responded with 14 of the 32 franchises reporting back. The results demonstrate that mobile devices can be an effective means to distribute educational materials to individuals in secure manner. The iPad was identified as a suitable platform for delivery of instructional material. Security elements such as encryption and using mobile security products should be strongly considered. The results are discussed in detail. A set of standards and guidelines were created based on the responses provided by club employees.

Interruptions to juvenile detainees' education often delay their progress toward high school completion. Implementing an individualized learning plan (ILP) has been suggested as a solution to this problem. The purpose of this case study was to explore how ILPs facilitate attainment of graduation among incarcerated youth. The study was guided by the Washington State legislative framework for individualized learning plans and the efforts of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency to increase educational opportunities. Three research questions were formulated to explore perceptions of local juvenile detention center educators and administrators regarding their experiences in the development, implementation, and effectiveness of ILPs. Qualitative data were collected from interviews with 5 detention center educators, field observations, and document reviews. The examination of the data through the coding process using a matrix enabled descriptions and themes to emerge. Results indicated that ILPs are collaboratively developed and implemented in the detention center, there is a need for professional development related to ILPs, and ILPs have impacted students' education completion. Results from this study may influence social change by supporting development of ILPs which can result in a higher graduation rate and a reduction in recidivism among the incarcerated youth population.

In the coming 21st century, the real winners are those who make the most of the resources in learning new skills or ideas. In addition to classroom, you can study anywhere and anyplace as long as you are willing to (broadcasting, TV, computer, internet, etc). In my study, I examine the study through the internet and its effectiveness in relation to characteristics, strategies, and attitude toward learning through computers. The initial sample included volunteers from different ranks of companies in Tainan and Kaoshoung areas which participated in Employment and Vocational Training Administration. The courses the participants took were entry-level management, intermediate management, advanced management, and decision management, Each subject was composed of the following contents. 1.main theme 2.case study 3.comment 4.analysis 5.theory 6.practice. At the end of each course was the evaluation. Participants were also welcomed to log on to discuss area their opinions, enhancing interaction among teachers and students. The research results are based on the questionnaire fill out by participants. The statistics methods applied are descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA. The results show that: (1)Participants¡¦ characteristics in relation to attitude toward computer and learning strategy; the research shows that the participants¡¦ seniority bears no consequences in attitude toward computer. However, the participants¡¦ education and position indicates variances in attitude toward computer. On the other hand, Participants¡¦ seniority, education and position show differences in learning strategy. (2)Participants¡¦ strategies in relation to effectiveness of the learning strategy; the research shows that the participants¡¦ strategies bear positive relation in both satisfaction of the learning and overcoming obstacles during the process. (3)Participants¡¦ attitude toward computer in relation to effectiveness in learning; the research shows that the participants¡¦ attitude toward computer bear positive relation in both satisfaction of the learning and overcoming obstacles during the process. The research also shows that: The reasons why the participants did not join the discussion are: 1.lack of time 2.typing too slow 3.no idea of how to discuss 4.afraid to discuss 5.afraid of being challenged. The reasons why the participants did not take the test are: 1.inconvenience in attending the class 2.afraid of failure 3.no request from the company they work for 4.mistake in operating the computer 5.no motivation. Failure to attend the test shows no relation in age, education, position and seniority. Finally, we provide advises to the corporations and other researchers who are interested in the subject.

abstract: Researchers have postulated that math academic achievement increases student success in college (Lee, 2012; Silverman & Seidman, 2011; Vigdor, 2013), yet 80% of universities and 98% of community colleges require many of their first-year students to be placed in remedial courses (Bettinger & Long, 2009). Many high school graduates are entering college ill prepared for the rigors of higher education, lacking understanding of basic and important principles (ACT, 2012). The desire to increase academic achievement is a wide held aspiration in education and the idea of adapting instruction to individuals is one approach to accomplish this goal (Lalley & Gentile, 2009a). Frequently, adaptive learning environments rely on a mastery learning approach, it is thought that when students are afforded the opportunity to master the material, deeper and more meaningful learning is likely to occur. Researchers generally agree that the learning environment, the teaching approach, and the students' attributes are all important to understanding the conditions that promote academic achievement (Bandura, 1977; Bloom, 1968; Guskey, 2010; Cassen, Feinstein & Graham, 2008; Changeiywo, Wambugu & Wachanga, 2011; Lee, 2012; Schunk, 1991; Van Dinther, Dochy & Segers, 2011). The present study investigated the role of college students' affective attributes and skills, such as academic competence and academic resilience, in an adaptive mastery-based learning environment on their academic performance, while enrolled in a remedial mathematics course. The results showed that the combined influence of students' affective attributes and academic resilience had a statistically significant effect on students' academic performance. Further, the mastery-based learning environment also had a significant effect on their academic competence and academic performance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Technology 2013

Interruptions to juvenile detainees' education often delay their progress toward high school completion. Implementing an individualized learning plan (ILP) has been suggested as a solution to this problem. The purpose of this case study was to explore how ILPs facilitate attainment of graduation among incarcerated youth. The study was guided by the Washington State legislative framework for individualized learning plans and the efforts of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency to increase educational opportunities. Three research questions were formulated to explore perceptions of local juvenile detention center educators and administrators regarding their experiences in the development, implementation, and effectiveness of ILPs. Qualitative data were collected from interviews with 5 detention center educators, field observations, and document reviews. The examination of the data through the coding process using a matrix enabled descriptions and themes to emerge. Results indicated that ILPs are collaboratively developed and implemented in the detention center, there is a need for professional development related to ILPs, and ILPs have impacted students' education completion. Results from this study may influence social change by supporting development of ILPs which can result in a higher graduation rate and a reduction in recidivism among the incarcerated youth population.

Les Environnements Informatiques pour l'Apprentissage Humain ont été utilisés pour améliorer l'apprentissage humain. Ils visent à accroître la performance des élèves en fournissant un enseignement individualisé. Il a été reconnu que l'apprentissage individualisé est plus efficace que l'apprentissage classique. L'utilisation de modèles d'étudiants pour capturer les connaissances des élèves sous-tend l'apprentissage individualisé. Différents modèles d'étudiants ont été proposés. Toutefois, une partie des informations de diagnostic issues du comportement des élèves est généralement ignorée par ces modèles. En outre, pour individualiser les parcours d'apprentissage des élèves, les modèles d'étudiants devraient capturer les structures préalables de compétences. Toutefois, l'acquisition de structures de compétences nécessite beaucoup d'efforts d'ingénierie de la connaissance. Nous améliorons les modèles d'étudiants pour l'apprentissage individualisé selon deux aspects. D'une part, afin d'améliorer la capacité de diagnostic d'un modèle de l'élève, nous introduisons les motifs d'erreur d'étudiants. Pour traiter le bruit dans les données de performance des élèves, nous étendons un modèle probabiliste en y intégrant les réponses erronées. Les résultats montrent que la fonction de diagnostic permet d'améliorer la précision de la prédiction des modèles d'étudiant. D'autre part, nous cherchons à découvrir des structures de compétences préalables à partir des données de performance de l'élève. C'est une tâche difficile, car les connaissances des élèves constituent une variable latente. Nous proposons une méthode en deux phases. Notre procédé est validé en l'appliquant à des données. / Computer-based educational environments, like Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs), have been used to enhance human learning. These environments aim at increasing student achievement by providing individualized instructions. It has been recognized that individualized learning is more effective than the conventional learning. Student models which are used to capture student knowledge underlie the individualized learning. In recent decades, various competing student models have been proposed. However, some diagnostic information in student behaviors is usually ignored by these models. Furthermore, to individualize learning paths, student models should capture prerequisite structures of fine-grained skills. However, acquiring skill structures requires much knowledge engineering effort. We improve student models for individualized learning with respect to the two aspects. On one hand, in order to improve the diagnostic ability of a student model, we introduce the diagnostic feature—student error patterns. To deal with the noise in student performance data, we extend a sound probabilistic model to incorporate erroneous responses. The results show that the diagnostic feature improves the prediction accuracy of student models. On the other hand, we target on discovering prerequisite structures of skills from student performance data. It is a challenging task, since student knowledge of a skill is a latent variable. We propose a two-phase method to discover skill structure from noisy observations. Our method is validated on simulated data and real data. In addition, we verify that prerequisite structures of skills can improve the accuracy of a student model.

Denna intervjustudie syftar till att undersöka gymnasielärares uppfattningar av samarbeten med specialpedagogiska resurser när det kommer till individanpassad undervisning där individplacerade elever med hörselnedsättning ingår. Ramfaktorteorin används som teoretisk utgångspunkt i analys av data. I resultaten framgår att lärares uppfattning gällande samarbeten varierar kraftigt, samt att det existerar brister i stöd för lärarna från både skolledning och specialpedagogiska resurser gällande arbetet med individanpassad undervisning. Få lärare samarbetar med stödjande funktioner utanför skolan och brister gällande tillgången till teknisk utrustning framkommer beträffande arbetet med elever med hörselnedsättning. I slutsatsen framkommer behov av ökade samarbeten mellan lärare och specialpedagogiska resurser för att i ökad omfattning kunna skapa individanpassad undervisning som kan förbättra utbildningens tillgänglighet och kvalitet för elever. / This interview study aims to explore upper secondary school teachers' perceptions of collaborations with special educational resources when it comes to individualized learning, where individually placed students with hearing loss are included. The framing theory is used as a theoretical framework and to interpret analysis of data. The results show that teachers' perceptions of collaboration vary greatly, and that there are deficiencies in support for teachers from both school management and special educational resources regarding work with individualized learning and few teachers cooperate with supporting functions outside the school and deficiencies regarding access to technical equipment are apparent regarding the work with students with hearing loss. In conclusion, there is a need for increased collaboration between teachers and special educational resources in order to be able to create individualized learning to an increased extent that can improve the accessibility and quality of the education for students.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine what possibilities and obstacles teachers may experience when working with the ASL-method from a perspective that concerns students’ literacy development. The reason why we have chosen to study the ASL-method is that this method has spread like wildfire in Swedish schools to streamline literacy development among students. We have gathered our empirical data through semi-structured interviews with five teachers who actively work with the ASL-method. The results show that the method contributes to individualized and enjoyable learning since students can work from their own knowledge and language levels. This study also shows that the ASL-method contributes to more opportunities than obstacles, but there are some factors to consider when implementing this method in the classroom such as the teachers competence, personal qualifications and what demands it may put on teachers and students. Altogether, this study gives a balanced presentation of the ASL-method to teachers who are considering implementing this method in their teaching.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:05:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2816.pdf: 3634540 bytes, checksum: 6fe824000d56b37505cefb028fae6be1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-27 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Difficulties in learning how to read and write might bring serious jeopardy to students progression in school. Researches focusing teaching methods for individualized application, based on the paradigm of stimulus equivalence, show that it is possible to significantly improve learning of reading and other skills Although they present good results, these methods have limited range, because the presence of a tutor is not always possible or economically viable. Besides, authoring and management of learning programs based on these methods are complex and demand training of tutors and specialists. Some results have already been reached concerning to informatization, though the solutions presented offer little flexibility, since they focus on teaching topics that are either too specific or too broad, which requires complementary effort for its effective usage. This dissertation explores and evaluates software engineering and distributed computing techniques in an attempt to find a solution that might diminish costs involved in the creation, application and management of individualized programs, besides allowing large scale diffusion of teaching through these methods. A software infrastructure that allows these objectives is proposed, composed by an architecture, modules to perform specific tasks, and recommendations on some patterns of architecture, project and interface in order to help the development or adaptation of new modules. In order to maximize the installed base of the developed modules and also to benefit a larger number of students, the solution promotes interoperability of Web applications, mobile devices and interactive digital television. Aiming the validation of the proposed infrastructure and also to offer an operational codification to the problem of computerized individualized learning, a modular system named GEIC was developed and deployed, being used by researchers of several universities. Despite the initial motivation of this work to offer an infrastructure for the creation of systems specific for teaching reading and writing, the solution proposed here is very broad in scope and supports other domains and learning paradigms. / No processo educacional dificuldades com a alfabetização podem acarretar sérios prejuízos à evolução acadêmica do aluno. Pesquisas com métodos de ensino para aplicação individualizada, baseados no paradigma de equivalência de estímulos, mostram que é possível melhorar significativamente a aprendizagem de leitura com compreensão (e de outras habilidades). Embora apresentem bons resultados, esses métodos têm sua abrangência limitada, pois a participação presencial de um tutor nem sempre é possível ou economicamente viável. Além disso, a autoria e gerenciamento de programas de ensino baseados nesses métodos são complexos e exigem o treinamento de tutores e especialistas de domínio. Alguns resultados já foram alcançados no sentido de informatizar esse processo, porém as soluções apresentadas oferecem pouca flexibilidade, pois são voltadas para o ensino de um assunto específico ou são muito genéricas, exigindo esforço complementar para sua efetiva utilização. Nesta dissertação são exploradas e avaliadas técnicas de engenharia de software e computação distribuída na busca de uma solução que possa proporcionar a redução dos custos envolvidos na criação, aplicação e gerenciamento de programas de ensino individualizados, além de permitir a difusão em larga escala do ensino através desses métodos. É proposta uma infra-estrutura de software que viabiliza a realização desses objetivos, composto de uma arquitetura, módulos para realização de tarefas específicas, e recomendações de padrões de arquitetura, projeto e interface para auxiliar no desenvolvimento ou adaptação de novos módulos. Com o objetivo de maximizar a base instalada dos módulos desenvolvidos e também de permitir que um maior número de alunos seja beneficiado, a solução promove a interoperabilidade de aplicações de ambiente Web, dispositivos móveis e de TV Digital Interativa. A fim de validar a infra-estrutura proposta e também de oferecer uma codificação operacional ao problema do ensino individualizado por computador, foi desenvolvido um sistema modular chamado GEIC, já implantado e em uso por pesquisadores de várias universidades. Apesar da motivação inicial deste trabalho ter sido oferecer uma infra-estrutura para a criação de sistemas para o ensino de escrita e leitura, a solução proposta é bastante abrangente e suporta outros domínios e paradigmas de ensino.

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