The effectiveness of using virtual labs to train students in computer networking skills, when real equipment is limited or unavailable, is uncertain. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of using virtual labs to train students in the acquisition of computer network configuration and troubleshooting skills. The study was conducted in the developing country of Zambia, where there is an acute shortage of network lab equipment. Effectiveness was determined by the transfer of skills learned in a virtual lab to a real lab. A two stage true experimental design, that compared the proficiency of randomly assigned experimental (virtual-lab) and control (no-virtual-lab) groups, was used to determine effectiveness (N = 56). In the first stage, the virtual-lab group practiced in a virtual lab while the no-virtual-lab group did not. Both groups were subjected to a lab test where the speed and accuracy of network configuration and troubleshooting of real equipment was measured, prior and after treatment. In the second stage, both groups practiced using real equipment and the speed and accuracy was again measured. An independent t-test was used to determine if there was a significant difference in the final performance between the two groups. It was found that there were significant differences between the groups in the configuration time (p = 0.011) and troubleshooting time (p = 0.03), favoring the virtual-lab group. On the other hand, there were no significant difference in configuration accuracy (p = 0.06) and troubleshooting accuracy (p = 0.440) between the two groups. In addition, there was positive transfer of training from the virtual lab to the real lab for configuration accuracy, configuration speed, troubleshooting accuracy and troubleshooting speed. There was also evidence that students showed performance gains both in using virtual and real labs by comparing their pre-test and post-test results. From the results, there is evidence that the use of virtual labs contributes positively to the transfer of practical computer networking skills from the virtual to the real lab environment. Hence, virtual labs were found to be effective in the teaching of computer networking skills relating to configuration and troubleshooting. / Ph. D.

This mixed methods study investigated the effects of a pilot peer-tutoring program for high school students between L1 Spanish-speaking tutors and Spanish second language (L2) tutees during Fall Semester 2018 (16 weeks). The purpose of this research was to explore the impact the peer-tutoring program had on the language acquisition, motivation to learn, intercultural sensitivity, and number of Spanish-speaking friendships of the L2 Spanish learners. The study consisted of a matched-group comparison and a qualitative exploration of reflective surveys completed by the participants in the pilot program. The experimental group (n=32) received a treatment of 20 minutes of peer tutoring each class period and the control group (n=41) received no treatment. Results of language acquisition data suggested that, though not statistically significant (p=0.119), the experimental group showed language acquisition gains that are noteworthy. The experimental group showed a 60% greater increase in the oral proficiency score over the control group in a pre-test/post-test analysis of an identical oral proficiency test. Results from the motivation data showed a marked decrease in motivation of the experimental group as compared to the control group. Results from the intercultural sensitivity assessment showed a statistically significantly higher end score on the behavioral scale and a higher end score on the attitude scale of the experimental group vs. the control group. Results from the quantitative data indicating pre and post number of Spanish-speaking friends showed no increase in number of Spanish speaking friends for the experimental group vs. the control group. However, qualitative data showed that 25% of the experimental group reported making a new Spanish-speaking friend after the treatment. Future research needs to consider how peer tutoring as compared to reciprocal peer tutoring among L2 learners with higher proficiency may impact these results.

Doctor Educationis / The progressive development of scintillator detectors has made it possible to perform direct electronic lifetime determination up to a few hundred nanoseconds. The 2” by 2” LaBr3:Ce detectors provide a combination of excellent time resolution and good energy resolution. Recently a fast timing array has been commissioned at iThemba LABS, Cape Town consisting of eight 2” by 2” LaBr3:Ce detectors. Test measurements using radioactive sources produced at the laboratory were conducted. Six 2” by 2” LaBr3:Ce detectors were coupled to the AFRODITE array as their first in-beam experiment. AFRODITE consisted of eight HPGe clover detectors as well as two 3.5” x 8” LaBr3:Ce detectors. A particle telescope was used to select the desired reaction channels. The reactions of interest 45Sc(p,d)44Sc and 45Sc(p,α) 42Ca were carried out at a beam energy of 27 MeV. The current analysis also investigates the rare earth nucleus 150Gd which was populated through 150Sm(α,4n)150Gd at a beam energy of 48 MeV. Through these reactions, excited states that have lifetimes which are apt for the characterization of the 2” by 2” LaBr3:Ce detectors were populated. Various techniques such as the slope method and the centroid shift method have been employed to extract the lifetimes of excited states. Lifetimes that were previously measured for 44Sc and 42Ca were measured again in this work. New lifetimes were obtained 44Sc and 150Gd. Shell Model calculation were done to compare experimental and theoretical results. All these endeavours will seek to unveil the quadrupole moment of nuclei and their intrinsic behaviour.

Laboratory work and student motivation are two lead roles in physics education. Laboratory work provides a strategy to help students conceptualise about physical phenomena while student motivation is a more general but no less crucial part of all education and education research. Cognitive processes alone can not entirely explain how students understand things. Due to both these parts' importance in physics education it is important to not only examine them separately but to examine the relationship between the two, which prompts the purpose of this project. This project aims to examine the effect of laboratory work on student motivation. 15 university students' perspectives on this were qualitatively explored through semi-structured interviews. The participants were restricted to students at Uppsala University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology who had chosen a bachelor's, teacher's, or master's programme in physics or engineering. The interviews were transcribed, translated, and analysed. The theoretical framework for this project was attribution theory and the methodological framework was phenomenography. Through the analysis six categories of how laboratory work affects motivation emerged; inquiry, lab partner, teacher, use of time, structure, level of difficulty, and interest. From this, ten major conclusions were drawn; verifying the theory can be motivating, a higher level of inquiry is more motivating, external causes perceived as controllable decreases motivation, lab assistants may increase motivation, the time pressure may be unmotivating, attributing success to structure is motivating, the low level of difficulty is unmotivating, individual interest in physics is motivating, and a high level of inquiry could stimulate situational interest which in time may increase motivation. This provides an overview of how laboratory work affects motivation, partially explaining the relationship between these two lead roles. / Laborativt arbete och studiemotivation är två huvudroller inom fysikutbildning. Laborativt arbete utgör en strategi för att hjälpa elever konceptualisera kring fysikaliska fenomen medan studiemotivation är en mer generell men inte mindre viktig del av all utbildning och utbildningsforskning. Kognitiva processer kan inte i sig självt fullkomligt förklara hur elever förstår saker. På grund av båda dessa delars betydelse i fysikutbildning så är det viktigt att inte bara undersöka dem separat utan att också undersöka sambandet mellan dem, vilket uppmanar till syftet med det här projektet. Det här projektet syftar till att undersöka effekten laborativt arbete har på studiemotivationen. 15 universitetsstudenters perspektiv på detta utforskades kvalitativt genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Deltagarna begränsades till studenter vid Uppsala universitet och Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan som har valt ett kandidat-, lärar-, eller masterprogram inom fysik eller ingenjörsteknik. Intervjuerna transkriberades, översattes, och analyserades. Det teoretiska ramverket för det här projektet var attributionsteori och det metodologiska ramverket var fenomenografi. Genom analysen kunde sex kategorier av hur laborativt arbete påverkar motivation klargöras; inquiry, laborationspartner, lärare, tidsfördelning, struktur, svårighetsgrad, och intresse. Utifrån dessa så kunde tio huvudsakliga slutsatser dras; det kan vara motiverande att verifiera teorin, det är mer motiverande med en högre grad av inquiry, yttre faktorer som uppfattas kontrollerbara minskar motivationen, labbassistenter kan vara motiverande, tidspressen kan vara omotiverande, att tillskriva lyckade utfall till stuktur är motiverande, en låg svårighetsgrad är omotiverande, individuellt intresse för fysik är motiverande, och att en högre nivå av inquiry kan stimulera ett situationellt intresse vilken kan öka motivationen över tid. Det här ger en överblick över hur laborativt arbete påverkar motivation, vilket delvis förklarar sambandet mellan dessa två huvudroller.

Urban Living Labs emerged in the past decade as spatially embedded multi-stakeholder integrating forms of urban experimentation. They pose as key-nodes for transforming urban governance and generating new, innovative responses to pressing wicked planning and sustainability issues for cities in transition. In Sweden various such projects have been initiated in various locales as parts of European projects that connect different locales. The present Degree Project seeks to examine mechanisms through which Urban Living Labs seek the transformation of established structures towards a more sustainable future in the Swedish context. It does so by analyzing five such projects that have been established in different urban areas in Sweden. In this process it also examines the roles of main actors who play a prominent role in the framework of this form of urban experimentation. This is succeeded through employing a mixed-method approach as a response to the above questions. The main findings point towards the need for extensive networking and exchange of practices between different locales within Sweden and highlight the potentials of urban experimentation for the transformation of the role of main actors. The present Degree Project concludes by reflecting on the future of Urban Living Labs and urban experimentation.

Urban Living Labs (ULL) have become a common way to address wicked design challenges within the future mobility, and smart city context. The move toward ULL is part of a paradigm shift away from focusing purely on the IT-artifact, innovation, and user-centeredness toward focusing on the urban context and the construction of a place as a social context rather than implementation of a product or service in isolation. This shift requires diverse sets of stakeholders with different backgrounds to come together to address wicked design challenges collaboratively tied to specific urban contexts. However, the change toward ULLs also brings unique qualities to collaborations. For example, it is often hard to generalize or transfer findings from one ULL to another. In addition, it requires new modes of thinking and acting concerning the value of bottomup approaches anchored in context. Therefore, a core challenge for impactful work in an ULL, is to find ways to retain stakeholders’ local engagements and ways of doing collaborative design beyond the ULL project to create ripple effects. This thesis tweaks this challenge into a question that aims at investigating what a locally contextualized ULL set-up means for the involved stakeholders from a participatory perspective by asking: How can we understand engagement in ULL co-design, and how can this engagement be retained beyond the Living Lab? The question was explored through a design ethnographic approach in a ULL, where citizens, city representatives, car manufacturers, and representatives from public transport worked together to explore future mobility services. The research question is addressed through a description of how stakeholder engagement played out in the ULL along with an analysis of the dynamics of co-design as a co-appropriation process within the ULL, which enabled stakeholders to engage in a social context across sectors and disciplines to co-learn ways of appropriating findings from the ULL as an explorative way of working. Co-appropriation is described as a process moving from acclimatization towards cogitation in co-design, with patching as an activity that supports the process. The thesis also elaborates on how findings from a ULL can be retained and scaled beyond the Living Lab through transformation games, as an example of a patching activity.

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This study examined the effects of computational labs in Business Calculus classes used at a single, private institution on student outcomes of conceptual understanding of calculus and attitudes towards mathematics. The first manuscript addresses the changes in conceptual understanding through multiple-method research design, a quantitative survey given pre and post study and qualitative student comments, found no significant gains in conceptual knowledge as measured by a concept inventory, however, student comments revealed valuable knowledge demonstrated through reflection on and articulation of how specific calculus concepts could be used in real world applications. The second manuscript presents results to the effects on attitudes toward mathematics, studied through multiple-method research design, using a quantitative survey given at two intervals, pre and post, and analysis of student comments, which showed that students that participated in the labs had a smaller decline in attitude, although not statistically significant, than students that did not complete the labs and the labs were most impactful on students that had previously taken calculus; student comments overwhelmingly demonstrate that students felt and appreciated that the labs allowed them to see how calculus could be applied outside the classroom. Overall students felt the labs were beneficial in the development of advantageous habits, taught some a skill they hope to further develop and study, and provided several recommendations for improvement in future implementation. Collectively, this research serves as a foundation for the effectiveness of computational tools employed in general education mathematics courses, which is not currently a widespread practice. / Doctor of Philosophy / Students from a variety of majors often leave their introductory calculus courses without seeing the connections and utility it may have to their discipline and may find it uninspiring and boring. To address these issues, there is a need for educators to continue to develop and research potentially positive approaches to impacting students' experience with calculus. This study discusses a method of doing so, by studying students' understanding of and attitude toward calculus in a one-semester Business Calculus course using computational labs to introduce students to calculus concepts often in context of a business scenario. No significant gains in conceptual knowledge were found as measured by a concept inventory; however, student comments revealed valuable knowledge demonstrated through articulation of how specific calculus concepts could be used in real world applications. Students that participated in the labs also had a smaller decline in attitude than students that did not complete the labs. Student comments overwhelmingly demonstrate that students felt and appreciated that the labs allowed them to see how calculus could be applied outside the classroom. The labs were most impactful on students that had previously taken calculus. Overall students felt the labs were beneficial in the development of advantageous habits such as persistence, utilizing resources, and precision, introduced them to coding, a skill they hope to further develop and study, and students provided several recommendations for improvement in future implementation. This research provides a foundation for the effectiveness of computational tools used in general education mathematics courses.