Personal learning environments (PLEs) aim at putting the learner central stage and comprise a technological approach towards learning tools, services, and artifacts gathered from various usage contexts and to be used by learners. Due to the varying technical skills and competences of PLE users, recommendations appear to be useful for empowering learners to set up their environments so that they can connect to learner networks and collaborate on shared artifacts by using the tools available. In this paper we examine different recommender strategies on their applicability in PLE settings. After reviewing different techniques given by literature and experimenting with our prototypic PLE solution we come to the conclusion to start with an item-based strategy and extend it with model-based and iterative techniques for generating recommendations for PLEs. (author's abstract)

The use of technology-supported teaching and learning in higher education has moved from a position of peripheral interest a few years ago to become a fundamental ingredient in the experience of many if not most students today. A major part of that change has been wrought by the widespread introduction and use of ‘virtual learning environments’ (VLEs). A defining characteristic of VLEs is that they combine a variety of tools and resources into a single integrated system. To use a VLE is not just to employ a single intervention but to change the very fabric of the students’ experience of study and the university. Despite this, much of the literature on VLEs has concentrated on producing typologies by listing and comparing system functions, describing small scale and short duration applications or providing speculative theories and predictions. Little attention has so far been paid to analysing what effects a VLE’s use has on the participants and the context of use, particularly across a large group of users and over a substantial period of time. This work presents the evaluation of a VLE developed and used to support undergraduate medical education at the University of Edinburgh since 1999. This system is called ‘EEMeC’ and was developed specifically within and in support of its context of use. EEMeC provides a large number of features and functions to many different kinds of user, it has evolved continuously since it was introduced and it has had a significant impact on teaching and learning in the undergraduate medical degree programme (MBChB). In such circumstances evaluation methodologies that depend on controls and single variables are nether applicable or practical. In order to approach the task of evaluating such a complex entity a multi-modal evaluation framework has been developed based on taking a series of metaphor-informed perspectives derived from the organisational theories of Gareth Morgan(Morgan 1997). The framework takes seven approaches to evaluation of EEMeC covering a range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. These are combined in a dialectical analysis of EEMeC from these different evaluation perspectives. This work provides a detailed and multi-faceted account of a VLE-in-use and the ways in which it interacts with its user community in its context of use. Furthermore, the method of taking different metaphor-based evaluation perspectives of a complex problem space is presented as a viable approach for studying and evaluating similar learning support systems. The evaluation framework that has been developed would be particularly useful to those practitioners who have a pressing and practical need for meaningful evaluation techniques to inform and shape how complex systems such as VLEs are deployed and used. As such, this work can provide insights not just into EEMeC, but into the way VLEs are changing the environments and contexts in which they are used across the tertiary sector as a whole.

This research was a triangulated study of student attitudes towards instructors' rapport-building traits and their preferences amongst instructors' rapport-building practices in online learning environments. Participants were undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in courses within an educational technology program at a central Texas university. The study employed a mixed-methods approach involving the Likert-item assessment of learners' attitudes, the identification and prioritization of learner preferences through pairwise comparisons, and semi-structured interviews that provided richer, more detailed information. Findings indicated a strong preference for instructor-based traits and practices over pedagogically-based ones. These traits and practices loaded into the components of social presence, enjoyable interaction, and personal connection.

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / The objective of the research is to understand the learning affordances offered at Insure Company, a large financial sector institution in South Africa and to explore how employees exercise their agency in responding to these opportunities for learning. The study draws on the concept of co-participation (Billett, 2004: 03) to explore how learning at work is shaped through learning affordances in the workplace on the one hand and engagement with these learning affordances on the other. Drawing on data gathered through interviews and analysis of company policies, this case study discusses how employees learn to perform their roles competently, how they access guidance and support from peers and more experienced colleagues and how they respond to these opportunities for learning. It also discusses the factors which enable or constrain their learning and agency. The research confirms that negative perceptions of workplace learning - as informal, unplanned, unstructured, limited to particular contexts and not transferable - are inaccurate. It supports the argument that there should be a clear understanding about how learning proceeds in workplaces and how best that learning should be organised. It is hoped that this case study makes a useful contribution towards developing such an understanding.

Book Summary: Gode læringsmiljøer for børn giver ideer til, hvordan man kan skabe gode udviklings- og læringsmiljøer i daginstitution og skole, så børn på samme tid kan have gode børneliv og lære noget i inspirerende og spændende omgivelser.

A United States organization, called the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), was initiated to strengthen the pedagogy of teaching and, subsequently, improve student achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the NBPTS in terms of whether National Board Certified (NBC) teachers are effective in promoting positive classroom environments and student attitudes and in enhancing student achievement. The sample consisted of 927 Grade 8 and 10 science students from 12 secondary schools. Altogether, 443 students in 21 classes comprised the NBC teacher group and 484 students in 17 classes comprised the non-NBC teacher group. Students completed a learning environment questionnaire, the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC), and an attitude scale based on the Test Of Science-Related Attitude (TOSRA). Scores from the science portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test FCAT, a state-mandated examination, were collected to measure achievement. This research is unique in that it is the first time that a learning environments study has included a sample of National Board Certified (NBC) and non-NBC teachers in order to compare their effectiveness in terms of secondary students' perceptions of their science learning environment, attitudes toward science, and science achievement. The study revealed that the revised version of the WIHIC and the modified attitude scale are valid and reliable instruments for assessing perceptions of the classroom environment and attitudes toward science among secondary science students in Miami-Dade County, Florida. / In addition, a much stronger association with learning environment was found for students' attitude than for students' achievement. The contributions and significance of this study are not only that it adds to the area of research that pertains to the efficacy of NBC teachers, but it also adds to the field of learning environments research. This study is useful because it could be replicated to provide additional empirical evidence about the effect National Board teachers have on students in the classroom and add to the growth of educational data on the impact of National Teacher Certification and classroom learning environments research.

This study explored the classroom learning environment in science among kindergarten students. In particular, I investigated both students' and their parents' perceptions of both preferred and actual learning environments. Additionally, I explored associations between student outcomes (achievement and attitudes toward science) and the nature of the classroom learning environment (as perceived by students and by their parents). The study involved the construction and validation of a learning environment questionnaire that was used by both parents and kindergarten students. Although the questionnaire was validated for use with five- and six-year-old kindergarten students, the same format was used for both parents and students. Prior learning environment studies (Fraser, 1998a) typically have involved the use of questionnaires neither by parents (with a notable exception being the recent study by Allen and Fraser, 2002) or by such young students. There is little doubt that, in just two decades, the field of classroom learning environment has progressed enormously (Fraser, 1998a) and that research involving qualitative methods and research involving quantitative methods each have made outstanding contributions to this overall progress (Tobin & Fraser, 1998). A historical look at the field of learning environments over the past few decades shows that a striking feature is the availability of a variety of economical, valid and widely applicable questionnaires for assessing student perceptions of classroom environments (Fraser, 1998b). This learning environment study is significant not only because it involves very young students (kindergarten) and their parents, but also a classroom learning environment questionnaire was developed and validated in Spanish, for both students and parents. / The design of the study involved a sample of 172 kindergarteners from six classes and 78 parents of the same students from the same six classes. The ethnic make-up for this group of 172 students was 11.8% White, 49% Black, 33.6% Hispanic, and 5.6% of other nationalities. The gender breakdown was 40.4% boys and 59.6% girls. Approximately 45% of the kindergarten student population was made up of English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students. The instruments used included modified versions in English and Spanish of the What Is Happening In This Class (WIHIC)? questionnaire and of the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA). A major finding of the study was that the modified version of the What Is Happening In This Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire in the English and Spanish languages displayed satisfactory factorial validity and internal consistency reliability when used with kindergarten students and their parents. Secondly, parents perceived a more favorable actual classroom environment than did kindergarten students, but students preferred a much more favorable classroom environment than did their parents. The magnitudes of differences between students and parents are greater for the preferred form than the actual form. Finally, statistically significant associations were found between kindergarten students' perceptions of the. classroom environment and the outcomes of achievement and attitudes to science.

What constitutes a quality solution to an authentic task from industry? This study seeks to address this question through the examination of two expert solutions to an authentic engineering task used in the Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering curriculum at Oregon State University. The two solutions were generated by two teams of expert engineers with varying backgrounds. The experts solved a process development problem situated in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Transcripts of audio recordings, design notebooks, and other work products were analyzed to identify common features in the two expert solutions. The study found that both experts placed a large focus on information gathering, modeling before experimentation, and fine tuning of the process. These solution features define a core set of expert competencies and facilitate understanding of high quality solution traits. An additional goal of the study was to identify competencies unique to each expert solution. It was observed that the expert teams used different proportions of first principles modeling and statistical experimental design to solve the problem. This proportion was dependent on the problem solver’s background and therefore should be expected to vary among student solutions. Implications of the work regarding instruction and assessment in engineering education are discussed. / Graduation date: 2012

The demands upon the social care workforce in the UK are only likely to increase over the next decades. The social care sector is heavily reliant on NVQs and this is regulated through the Care Standards Act (2000). It is thus important that these qualifications appropriately support staff development. The purpose of the research was to explore this in one social care organisation (Homecare) through researching staff perspectives on factors that inhibited or supported learning through NVQs and to examine the Homecare/Centre delivery of NVQs and workplace learning with this in mind. The research is broadly qualitative in design and draws on the principles of narrative research combined with analysis focused on key themes (interpersonal, personal and organisational factors). The research found that an understanding of the key concepts of workplace learning is relevant to the delivery of NVQs and can help these qualifications be implemented successfully as a part of a more holistic approach to teaching, learning and the assessment of competence in the workplace. The research identified that the organisation had a particular approach that strategically integrated assessment both at organisational and practice level. Additionally the research identified areas within the NVQ process, where integrated assessment proved of benefit to practice through professional level development of skills and knowledge, values and reflective learning and confidence. From this eight key elements of an enhanced model of NVQ delivery were identified that constitute the contribution to practice. The contribution to theory lies in linking the literatures of NVQs, competence and workplace learning and the suggestion that previous understanding of NVQs as behaviourist and atomistic is not as important as the approach to assessment adopted by organisations. The research has relevance to any social care organisation but also to wider audiences where NVQs are used as it adds to understanding of workplace learning through a depth of practitioner-researcher understanding of specific qualifications in a specific context.

Breakout session from the Living the Future 8 Conference, April 23-24, 2012, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ.