The literature review shows that gender inequality in computer use exists today. The inequality begins at birth with society giving boys and girl's roles that they have to play. One possible solution to gender inequality in computer use is to put a gender equity program in place at public schools. Such a program would have to be woven into teaching practices and school activities to strengthen girls' confidence and their ability to achieve in computers.

Under the George W. Bush U.S. presidential administration, the federal government pushed for greater accountability among institutions of higher education for educational outcomes. Graduation rate is a key performance indicator of institutional accountability. Previous researchers of student attrition focused primarily on the effects of student level factors on student persistence/withdrawal behavior. Recently, researchers put more focus on the effects of institutional characteristics on graduation rates, but most of these studies were exploratory and based on multiple regression models. No institutional model has existed to synthesize their results within a theoretical framework. Such an institutional model is needed to explain the process of student persistence at the institutional level. The purpose of this study was to develop a model of institutional performance in graduation rate for four-year, public and private not-for-profit, Title IV institutions in the United States. This study validated the institutional model based on the IPEDS dataset using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Further group comparison analyses are conducted by fitting the same SEM model to several subgroup datasets based on grouping variables such as control, geographical region and state. Benchmarking analyses were conducted to demonstrate how administrators and policy-makers can use the institutional model to compare the performance of an institution with its peers and what policy changes can they pursue to improve graduation rates.

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This dissertation includes three essays that examine the economics of internationalstudents from three different perspectives in various contexts. The first essay examined the economic (monetary) return of international students who pursue prestigious graduate degrees in the United States. I studied the impact of attending graduate programs at prestigious U.S. institutions on graduates’ earnings for international students in the U.S. labor market. Using a combination of identification strategies including the propensity score matching (PSM) strategy as well as Oster’s (2017) selection on an unobservable approach, I found that international students who have attended graduate programs at more prestigious institutions in the United States have an earning premium of between 19% and 27%, compared with those who attended non-Tier 1 institutions in the United States. In the second essay, co-authors with X. Y. Ye and S. H. Yang, I investigated the graduateschool choice of a specific group of international students coming from one of the largest international student-sending countries, China (my home country). I provided new evidence on the factors influencing Chinese students’ graduate school choices internationally. I also constructed counterfactual policy simulations by examining what would have happened under different potential scenarios in both China and destination countries. The simulation results showed that the changes in Chinese college quality and family income are likely to affect the number of Chinese students studying abroad but not their distribution patterns among destination countries. In the meanwhile, factors including scholarship opportunities, work visa policies, and recruitment efforts in the destination countries would substantially shift Chinese students’ choice of destination country and, therefore, the specific graduate school location. The third essay examined whether the enrollment of international students at the graduatelevel impacts the domestic graduate student enrollment in the United States. Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from 1998 to 2017 and fixed effects modelling to account for time and institutional trends, I found the enrollment of foreign graduate students crowds in domestic graduate student enrollment rather than displaces it. On average, for every 10% increase of international graduate students, the number of domestic graduate students increases from 1% at non-research universities to approximately 2% at research universities domestic graduate students. The magnitude of impact at research universities reduces as additional state-year and institutional type-year controls are added. Taken together, the dissertation contributes to the nuanced understanding of the return to studying abroad in the United States for international students, the behind-the-scenes factors that motivate and drive up such behaviors, and finally the impact that international students bring to the U.S. community when it comes to learning opportunities. The implications and ongoing discussions about international students will help further the collaboration agenda between the United States and the rest of the world in higher education.

Purpose of the project is to determine whether Merit Software program, "Write it right" could be effective in a whole class setting (using one computer) rather than in a computer lab. The further purpose was to identify if this strategy was more effective than the use of the traditional textbook method of grammar study in the ninth grade. Lesson plans and a software description are included.

Computers are excellent tools and assistants in foundation-phase classrooms. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) influences the way teachers teach, as well as the way learners learn with regard to the curriculum. The responsibility for providing foundation phase-learners with educationally appropriate computer experiences in literacy, numeracy and life skills rests with the educators because the learners' progress in learning depends on the skills, attitudes and ingenuity of the educators, and the software they select for the learners. Educators should have the vision, the knowledge and the experience to introduce and apply CAI to benefit every learner in the didactic situation. Educators' general lack of knowledge and skills in this area has necessitated the compilation of didactic guidelines. The guidelines emerged from the literature that was consulted for this study. These guidelines should assist educators in providing successful CAI for learners. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Information is a necessary resource, produced by information systems and is a key building block to the management and decision-making in any organisation. The National Department of Education’s guidelines to establish Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) in provincial departments is a recognition that proper management, planning and evaluation are contingent on quality data, data that is complete, relevant, accurate, timely and accessible. The lack of quality data and the lack of integration with other information systems hamstring the effective use of EMIS. This study addresses these limitations in three basic objectives: a) developing an information systems development model, b) applying the model in a real-life context of the development of the Western Cape EMIS, and c) applying quantitative methods on integrated data sets derived from the EMIS in the Western Cape and other information systems. The study culminates in the development of a four-phase process model for developing and using EMIS in an integrative manner that would provide a more comprehensive picture for policy and decision-making. It outlines the establishment of an information systems development (ISD) model that integrates innovative emerging trends, such as improvisation, bricolage and sensemaking, in designing and implementing information systems. These approaches postulate that beyond the numbers and quantifiable world there is a complex reality that traditional approaches do not always capture. These include, amongst other things, the atmosphere, culture and structure of an organization, together with the behaviour, emotions, knowledge and experiences of all the people who in one way or another interact with the information system. The research presents an empirical application of this developed ISD model in education management information system (EMIS) and underscores the role of information systems in everyday practice. This work practice (Practice-in-Action) approach is used to describe how the day-to-day actions and practical experiences of role players contribute to the design, development, implementation, testing, maintenance and improvement of the EMIS and is used as a lens for understanding ISD. The study further uses quantitative methods, namely education production function and learner flow-through models, to illustrate how the process of knowledge discovery in large data sets in EMIS could be facilitated. The education production function aims to identify those variables that could have a significant influence on the achievement of students in the matriculation examination. The learner flow-through models attempt to measure the effect of learner dropout and repetition on internal efficiency of the education system. Data analysis was facilitated through integration of data sets from various sources, and in turn illustrates the important role of bricolage in ISD. Through this analysis, the role of information systems of this nature to make sense of reality was highlighted. Policy making then can build on the findings from such data analyses to investigate in greater depth any trends or emerging problems, going beyond only the quantitative and macro level analysis by studies at the qualitative and micro levels.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Computers are excellent tools and assistants in foundation-phase classrooms. Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) influences the way teachers teach, as well as the way learners learn with regard to the curriculum. The responsibility for providing foundation phase-learners with educationally appropriate computer experiences in literacy, numeracy and life skills rests with the educators because the learners' progress in learning depends on the skills, attitudes and ingenuity of the educators, and the software they select for the learners. Educators should have the vision, the knowledge and the experience to introduce and apply CAI to benefit every learner in the didactic situation. Educators' general lack of knowledge and skills in this area has necessitated the compilation of didactic guidelines. The guidelines emerged from the literature that was consulted for this study. These guidelines should assist educators in providing successful CAI for learners. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-05-02T13:28:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DANILO ABREU SANTOS - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2015..pdf: 2955839 bytes, checksum: 45290d85cdffbae0320f29fc5e633cb6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-02T13:28:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DANILO ABREU SANTOS - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2015..pdf: 2955839 bytes, checksum: 45290d85cdffbae0320f29fc5e633cb6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-24 / A modalidade de educação online tem crescido significativamente nas últimas décadas em todo o mundo, transformando-se em uma opção viável tanto àqueles que não dispõem de tempo para trabalhar a sua formação acadêmica na forma presencial quanto àqueles que desejam complementá-la. Há também os que buscam ingressar no ensino superior por meio do Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM) e utilizam esta modalidade de ensino para complementar os estudos, objetivando sanar lacunas deixadas pela formação escolar. O ENEM é composto por questões objetivas (subdivididas em 4 grandes áreas: Linguagens e Códigos; Matemática; Ciências Humanas; e Ciências Naturais) e a questão subjetiva (redação). Segundo dados do Ministério da Educação (MEC), mais de 50% dos candidatos que fizeram a prova do ENEM em 2014 obtiveram desempenho abaixo de 500 pontos na redação. Esta pesquisa utilizará recomendações pedagógicas baseadas no gênero textual utilizado pelo ENEM, visando prover uma melhoria na escrita da redação dissertativa. Para tanto, foi utilizado, como ferramenta experimental, o ambiente online de aprendizagem MeuTutor. O ambiente possui um módulo de escrita de redação, no qual é utilizada para correção dos textos elaborados pelos alunos, a metodologia de avaliação por pares, cujo pesquisas mostram que os resultados avaliativos são significativos e bastante similares aos obtidos por professores especialistas. Entretanto, apenas apresentar a pontuação da redação por si só, não garante a melhora da produção textual do aluno avaliado. Desta forma, visando um ganho em performance na produção da redação, foi adicionado ao MeuTutor um módulo de recomendação pedagógica baseado em 19 perfis resultados do uso de algoritmos de mineração de dados (DBScan e Kmeans) nos microdados do ENEM 2012 disponibilizado pelo MEC. Estes perfis foram agrupados em 6 blocos que possuíam um conjunto de tarefas nas áreas de escrita, gramática e coerências e concordância textual. A validação destas recomendações foi feita em um experimento de 3 ciclos, onde em cada ciclo o aluno: escreve a redação; avalia os seus pares; realiza a recomendação pedagógica que foi recebida. A partir da análise estatística destes dados, foi possível constatar que o modelo estratégico de recomendação utilizado nesta pesquisa, possibilitou um ganho mensurável na qualidade da produção textual. / Online education has grown significantly in recent years throughout the world, becoming a viable option for those who don’t have the time to pursuit traditional technical training or academic degree. In Brazil, people seek to enter higher education through the National Secondary Education Examination (ENEM) and use online education to complement their studies, aiming to remedy gaps in their school formation. The ENEM consists of objective questions (divided into 4 main areas: languages and codes; Mathematics; Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences), and the subjective questions (the essay). According to the Brazilian Department of Education (MEC), more than 50% of the candidates who took the test (ENEM) in 2014, obtained performance below 500 points (out of a 1000 maximum points) for their essays. This research uses educational recommendations based on the five official correction criteria for the ENEM essays, to improve writing. Thus, this research used an experimental tool in an online learning environment called MeuTutor. The mentioned learning environment has an essay writing/correction module. The correction module uses peer evaluation techniques, for which researches show that the results are, significantly, similar to those obtained by specialists’ correction. However, to simply display the scores for the criteria does not guarantee an improvement in students’ writing. Thus, to promote that, an educational recommendation module was added to MeuTutor. It is based on 19 profiles obtained mining data from the 2012 ENEM. It uses the algorithms DBSCAN and K-Means, and grouped the profiles into six blocks, to which a set of tasks were associated to the areas of writing, grammar and coherence, and textual agreement. The validation of these recommendations was made in an experiment with three cycles, where students should: (1) write the essay; (2) evaluate their peers; (3) perform the pedagogical recommendations received. From the analysis of these data, it was found that the strategic model of recommendation used in this study, enabled a measurable gain in quality of textual production.