Education delivered through the Internet known as E-learning is growing tremendously and attracts researchers’ attention in terms of its pedagogical merits. It is in that context of investigating the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for efficient learning that the current research was carried out. This study consists of a critical assessment at a Local Level of UNISA’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE1) in terms of Diana Laurillard’s Pedagogical Conversational Framework. It focuses on assessing how the E-learning platform (called SAKAI) used by UNISA supports the learning process of online students staying in Rwanda. A qualitative approach was followed and documentary analysis along with a questionnaire was used to collect useful data. Research findings are presented and discussed under two themes: the requirements for effective online learning and the use of the local UNISA’s VLE to support effective online learning of students based in Rwanda. It is revealed that effective online learning is a function of different aspects that can be grouped under three critical factors: Pedagogical, Technological and Managerial. Although, I have argued that the Pedagogical factor should be considered as the most important and guide all E-learning projects, the three factors mentioned are interrelated and interdependent. Findings about the use of the local UNISA VLE to support the learning process show that it provides sufficient tools to support all activities necessary for learning activities, as summarized in the Conversational Framework. However, the tools provided by the E-learning platform are underused by participants. Some necessary learning activities are not carried out, even though the E-learning platform used provides tools which could support those activities. The under usage of available tools is caused by two factors: inadequate consideration given to some necessary learning activities and the lack of skills on both usage of and information on the capability of UNISA’s VLE. These handicap the effective online learning. The gaps found in VLE used by UNISA are also mentioned. The research report ends with recommendations for more effective E-learning in local UNISA VLE. Further studies in related areas are suggested. 1

This quantitative study investigates the adequacy and quality of middle school facilities in Humble ISD middle schools as reported by the primary users of these facilities, the teachers and administrators. These middle school educators also provide an assessment of the impact that these facilities have on the learning environment. This study also assesses the quality and adequacy of these middle school facilities through a purely quantitative evaluation conducted by an unbiased assessment team. Humble ISD is undergoing unprecedented growth at all levels and has addressed the burgeoning elementary and high school aged growth occurring in the district by constructing and renovating these facilities. At the middle level, however, new facility construction is occurring at a slower pace. The purpose of this research is to ascertain which factors in each of these six facilities have the greatest quality and adequacy and the impact that they have on the learning environment. Furthermore, it is the purpose of this research to provide valuable and practical data, to which Humble ISD and others can refer in developing future building plans, renovating existing facilities, allocating funds, and creating student centered learning environments. This study also investigates the relationship between what educators perceive as adequate and quality facility factors and their perception of the impact that these factors have on the learning environment. Finally, this study reviews any congruency or agreement between educator’s perception of adequacy and quality and architect assessment of adequacy and quality. Middle level students are the most influential group of adolescents and it is important that we provide facilities that meet their very specific needs. This research will ultimately and positively impact the learning environment for these children.

A 2003 review of the literature shows a lack of formal institutional research focusing on the development of critical thinking as a situated experience--occurring in a specific context with a complex set of dynamics. Rather, much of the emphasis has been on learning outcomes as measured by various psychometric-approaches or an instructor's assignment, exam, or course grade. The problem with sole reliance on numerical data is that in it sheds little light on why or how a student performed the way her or she did in class, on an exam, or a standardized test in the first place. The purpose of this case study is to explore the experiences of students as they are situated in a first-year seminar that focuses on the development of their ability to think critically. Thus the author constructed a study that attended to both the content (critical thinking) and the context (the learning environment) in a way that presents students subjective experiences, and for the most part, articulated in their own words. The students were participants in a college success program, which requires that they take a first-year seminar in critical thinking. Constructed as a two-phase, sequential mixed methods design, statistical results from the College Classroom Environment Scales (CCES) are primarily used for descriptive purposes. Administered at the end of the semester, the CCES includes the following six constructs: cathectic learning climate, professorial concern, inimical ambiance, academic rigor, affiliation, and structure. The content and structure of the questions, however, were primarily used to guide the second phase of the research. During this qualitative phase, the researcher conducted personal interviews to probe deeper into students' experiences. After reconstructing the three classroom environments, the researcher focuses on students' preferences for and challenges in learning to think critically through discussion and the instructor's role in mediating safe, comfortable discursive environments conducive to risk-taking through public reasoning. Data interpretation is guided by work in discourse analysis as well as theoretical work in rhetoric and philosophy. Framed within a social, political, and ethics approach, the dissertation is largely influenced by American philosopher and education theorist John Dewey. Detailed recommendations for instruction and future research close the dissertation. / text

This project aims to create a different context for learning.  A space that is designed to create balance using green spaces in urban environments as an educational tool. This can help children growing up in urban environments to develop on a personal and interpersonal level, remove indifference or fear of nature and contribute to a healthy emotional, cognitive and motor development within each child.

Globally, as distance education has become firmly embedded as a part of the higher education landscape, governments and institutions are calling for meaningful research on distance education. This study involved designing, developing and validating a learning environment survey instrument for use in distance education-delivered courses in post-secondary education. Specifically it involved merging two distinctive areas of study: psychosocial learning environments research and distance education research. The unique social structure of asynchronous distance education learning environments requires a unique and economical instrument for measuring the perceptions of distance education course participants. The research followed a three-stage instrument-development process of identifying salient scales, developing survey items, and field testing and analysing data using item analysis and validation procedures. This was followed by an investigation into the associations between the psychosocial learning environment and students enjoyment of distance education. The results yielded a new six-scale, 34-item Web-based learning environment instrument suitable for use in a number of asynchronous post-secondary distance education environments. The new instrument, the Distance Education Learning Environment Survey (DELES) assesses Instructor Support, Student Interaction and Collaboration, Personal Relevance, Authentic Learning, Active Learning, and Student Autonomy. Analyses of data obtained from 680 subjects supported the factorial validity and internal consistency reliability. The results also indicated statistically significant associations between the distance education learning environment and student enjoyment of distance education.

<p>This project is associated with the field of Information Systems and more specifically with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). These environments are becoming very popular the last years, especially in higher education. However we decided to focus in lower level education since there is lack of these learning platforms and their spreading is limited.</p><p>More specifically our project will focus on the description of a Virtual Learning Environment for preliminary schools. The target age will be 5-8 years old. The design of our system is based on the guidelines of a preliminary schoolteacher in Spain, who is actually our stakeholder. Designing a system for so young students means that various aspects have to be taken into consideration such as their level of computer knowledge, their maturity, their not still developed studying abilities and the fact that it is their first approach to school as a learning environment. However we believe that if they can be integrated in the information society in such an early age, it will be beneficial for their future and the future of information technologies as well. We hope that through this project we will be able to contribute to computer based education and equip the young students with new ways and potentials of learning.</p><p>On a theoretical basis, we could say that our project contains two different parts: a theoretical part and a more practical one. In the theoretical part, all the related work of similar VLEs is presented in an effort to see what products already exist in the market and try to create a new, innovative system taking into consideration various educational aspects. In addition, a review of our literature research concerning computer based education and VLEs is included in order to provide the necessary theoretical background before starting to design our system. Finally, a summary of our research made including questionnaires and interviews as well as the analysis and the conclusions of this research are presented since before designing our system we tried to include the opinion of the different people involved in this system like the students and their parents, the teachers and the pedagogues. On the other hand, the second more practical part focuses on the description of the learning platform. The architecture of the system as well as the use cases is included here. A prototype of the system is also provided but we were not able to complete the whole implementation due to time limitations.</p>

Master's thesis “Possibilities of formation of learning environment in primary school" analyses the theoretical basis of formation of learning environment and reveals the possibilities of its formation. According to the works of many scholars, such as L. Jovaisa, B. Bitinas, A. Zulumskyte, etc. the conception of learning environment was formulated and its structure analyzed. A profound analysis of documents and governmental decisions regulating primary education and significant to the formation of learning environment was carried out. Assumptions of formation of auspicious learning environment are revealed: • through psychological recognition of primary student, by emphasizing that it was not enough for the teacher “to know the change of child's mind and understand child's development following <...> the psychology of age only" (Butkiene and Kepalaite, 1996, p. 104), but the learner has to be recognized directly as "children develop differently and individual development may not have some typical features" (Ruzgiene and Petruziene, 2005, p. 96); • through analysis of ergonomical analysis of learning environment, as according to V. Kucinskas (1997) and A. Zulumskyte (2006), the space impacts emotions and spiritual state of students of various age and therefore, comfortable environment stimulates activity and mobilizes nervous and mental functions; • through revealing educator's role in the process of formation of learning environment as his competence has much... [to full text]

Social work education is increasingly changing, and instructors are experimenting with new methods to deliver social work curricula to reach a larger population of social work students. Students previously excluded from university education based on their geographic location, financial limitations, family or work demands now have an opportunity to access social work programs in Canada using distance education, and distance education has become an emerging field of research. The current study identified instructor and student characteristics and university supports that were assessed as critical in creating an effective learning environment for delivering an entire undergraduate program of social work via distance education. The exploratory-descriptive study utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the perceptions of social work distance educators from four universities that offer a complete BSW degree accredited by the Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE-ACFTS) through distance education: the University of Calgary, the University of Manitoba, the University of Victoria and Dalhousie University. Thirty-four social work distance educators completed a survey questionnaire, and 24 of these participated in qualitative interviews to identify the critical characteristics and university supports. Study findings suggest that effective performance of five distinct roles by both instructors and students are essential to creating an effective learning environment in social work distance education. The required university supports to maintain those roles are also identified. Based on these results a conceptual model for achieving effectiveness in social work distance education is identified. The study suggests what is needed to establish an effective learning environment in social work distance education and confirms the benefits of distance education in social work undergraduate programs. Suggestions for future research are included along with recommendations for building an effective distance learning environment in social work education. / May 2016

This study focuses on the computer laboratory class as a learning environment in university courses. It involved the development and validation of two instruments, the Computer Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI) and the Attitude towards Computing and Computing Courses Questionnaire (ACCC). The CLEI has five scales for measuring students' perceptions of aspects of their laboratory environment. These are Student Cohesiveness, Open-Endedness, Integration, Technology Adequacy and Laboratory Availability. The ACCC has four scales, Anxiety, Enjoyment, Usefulness of Computers and Usefulness of the Course. The instruments were administered at three universities, one in Australia, one in England and one in the United States. The classes surveyed included those in which the development of software was the focus of study, such as Information Systems and Computer Science, and others in which the computer was used as a tool. With the exception of Laboratory Availability, all the environment variables were found to correlate significantly with all attitudinal variables. The only environment variable with significant association with achievement was Student Cohesiveness. However, the results showed that there were significant associations between the attitudinal variables, Anxiety, Enjoyment and Usefulness of the Course and achievement. Regression analysis supported the findings that the environment variables made a significant contribution to the attitudinal variables, and these in turn made a significant contribution to achievement. Further analysis using structural equation modelling suggests that computer laboratory environment affects achievement indirectly by directly affecting students' attitudes towards computers but even more so their attitude towards the course.The significance of this study is, that it is one of the first that has investigated the effectiveness of ++ / computer laboratory classes in a university setting in which the computer is central to the discipline being studied. The results demonstrate the importance of the laboratory environment in those courses in which the computer plays a major role. The CLEI will prove useful in the design and implementation of the laboratory component of a course and in the formative evaluation of such a course.

There are convincing arguments for the integration of computer applications into school programmes to support the learning of students. After more than 30 years of increasing investment in educational computing researchers are concerned that there has been very little impact on the experiences of students in schools. In the 1990s, a significant development in computer technology has been the emergence of low-cost, high-powered portable computers which some schools have introduced into classrooms. It is not clear what the impact of this development might be.This study addressed issues concerning the impact of student-owned, portable computers on students, teachers, the curriculum, and the classroom learning environment. It considered the classroom learning environment as the complex set of relationships between students, teachers, the curriculum, and the technology (principally computer hardware and software) within the physical confines of a classroom.The three year study was carried out at one girls' school, which progressively introduced portable computers into its secondary education program-me. The study used an interpretive methodology involving the collection of a range of qualitative and quantitative data. In each year of the study, data were collected about students, teachers and a selection of classrooms using observations of lessons, interviews, questionnaires, and a range of data obtained from the school's administration. As the study progressed, it focussed on those features of the psycho-social environment of the school which emerged as important from interpretation of data collected earlier.The study found that, apart from isolated teacher-class combinations, there was very little change at the classroom level which could be attributed to the presence of the computers. Very few teachers implemented substantial computer use and many of those who did, ++ / supported only a very limited role for the computers. While most students expressed a range of concerns, only a perceived lack of use of the computers appeared to have a consistent negative influence on their attitudes and behaviours.It is argued that the lack of use of the computers is largely related to teachers' preferred pedagogy, their lack of experience and knowledge in using computers in the classroom, and a lack of time to experiment with computer applications. Increasingly, the teachers who chose to facilitate the use of the computers did so to support predominantly student-centred learning environments. The study proposed a model to describe and explain teachers' responses to the portable computer program in terms of their facilitation of computer use by considering sets of forces and obstacles experienced by them.The findings of this study have important implications for educational policy makers, administrators and teachers, and enable a clearer understanding of the factors which determine the successful implementation of computers into school programmes to support student learning.NOTE: Referencing style used throughout this thesis report comes from the American Psychological Association's manual, fourth edition (1994).