<p> The purpose of this study was to determine if students learn clinical judgment as effectively using computer-based simulations as when using high-fidelity mannequin simulations. There was a single research questions for this study: What is the difference in clinical judgment between participants completing high-fidelity human simulator mannequin simulation or computer-based simulation? A convenience sample of 50 associate degree nursing students in the last medical-surgical nursing course of their program were invited to participate in this study. Analysis of the demographic data confirmed the similarity of the two groups in terms of the potentially important confounding variables such as age, sex, education and prior healthcare experience. The score for each participant from the computer-based simulation (Simulation 2) and the percent of interventions completed in the high-fidelity human simulator simulation (Simulation 3) by each participant was added together to obtain an aggregate clinical judgment score for participants in Group C and Group M. Two-tailed <i> t</i> test for independent means was used to determine if a significant difference existed between the aggregate clinical judgment score for Group C and the aggregate clinical judgment score for Group M. Results from the test indicated that there was no difference between groups at the 95% confidence interval. The similarity of the clinical judgment scores of the computer-based simulation group to the scores of the high-fidelity mannequin simulation group indicates similar utility of the two instructional methods. The use of carefully planned and well-designed computer-based simulations can allow students to practice skills and develop confidence, self-efficacy and clinical judgment independently, freeing faculty for other instructional tasks.</p>

<p> This study utilized a multi-case, bounded case, single-site case study research design to examine how well instructional designers perceive themselves able to practice ID in health care industries. Questions central to this study focused on how instructional designers perceive their preparation to practice, usefulness of professional development organizations or affiliations in which they participated while practicing ID, both academic and non-academic curricula, and utilization of ID practices when designing and developing ID projects in health care environments. </p><p> The site selected for this study was a teaching hospital in Southeast Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan. Sampling size was limited to five instructional designers who had been working in the health care environment. Using a case study approach, convenient sampling was utilized to obtain detailed information about the experiences of instructional designers in the health care sector. Upon completion of interviews, participants had the opportunity to show completed work projects and were provided an opportunity to reflect on ID practice via journal entries over a two week time period. The constant comparative method was utilized for data analysis whereby a within-case analysis was conducted followed by a cross case analysis. Findings of this research showed that participants felt well prepared to practice ID in their respective health care environment and offered a variety of ways in which an instructional designer can explore the field of health care, how academic program administrators can collaborate with health care organizations to provide ID opportunities for students, and ways in which health care administrators can explore additional learning opportunities for their ID employees.</p>

<p>The adoption of information technology as an aid to organisational efficiency and effectiveness has a long history in business and public administration, but its application to the processes of teaching and learning in education has been relatively limited. At the dawn of the new millennium this began to change, as educational institutions around the world began to experiment with new ideas for the use of information technology. This happened at the same time that commercial organisations began to realise that they themselves could &ndash / because of the availability of IT based systems &ndash / invest in educational services focused on their own needs. It was against this background that this research project set out to study how South African higher education has incorporated new learning technologies in the delivery of programmes. The study began by exploring the emerging patterns of the use of e-learning in South African higher education. This was to establish a broad understanding of how e-learning was incorporated into the core business of universities. As the study progressed interviews with both teaching and support staff provided course descriptions which were used to expose the kind of considerations that were made in designing, developing and delivering those courses. The main purpose of the study was to answer the question: what pedagogical considerations are necessary for successful course design when using e-learning? By placing the course descriptions on a continuum developed as a part of the conceptual framework in the study it was possible to analyse the course design features that emerged. The framework and its differentiated learning designs (LD1/2/3) can be used for both design and evaluation of courses and can facilitate the use of technology in enhancing teaching and learning.</p>

Given the proliferation of information and the lifelong importance of information literacy skills, there is a need to determine how to best design information literacy instruction in order to help students locate, evaluate, and use information more effectively. This experimental study examined whether information literacy skills instruction designed using the I-LEARN model increased student understanding and application of information literacy concepts as compared to how librarians currently provide information literacy skills instruction. The experimental group received an instruction session and an online library research guide designed using the I-LEARN model, and the control group received an instruction session and an online library guide designed using a systems model. The analysis of the results of pre- and post-test scores and scores on a citation analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups.

This study examined how the personal characteristics of instructional designers influenced their current instructional-design practice (ID). I first looked at the instructional designers’ perceptions of the relationship between their personal characteristics and their ID practice. I then looked at how these variables were used by the designers to influence their ID practice. The study was guided by the following questions: What specific personal characteristics instructional designers perceive as being an important influence on their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to influence their ID practice? How do instructional designers use specific personal characteristics to diversify their ID practice? Specific personal characteristics included personal attributes such as age, and experiences, including prior work experiences. Personal characteristics were informed by the literature, the pilot study, and personal experiences. This qualitative research study used interviews as the primary source for data collection. The theoretical framework was symbolic interactionism. A pilot study was used to test and fine-tune the research data-collection methods and analysis. A snowball sampling technique yielded 15 instructional designers working in a higher education setting in the United States. I included instructional designers who did not receive formal training in ID but who obtained the necessary skills to perform the job through experience. The data analysis followed the guidelines proposed by Miles and Huberman, Kvale and Brinkmann, Roulston, and Rubin and Rubin. Findings showed that instructional designers perceived that specific personal characteristics such as (a) gender, (b) age, (c) key people, (d) spirituality, (e) philosophy, (f) formative years, and experiences such as (a) education—student experiences in the classroom, and program preparation, and (b) work experiences—prior work experiences, and ID professional work experiences influenced their ID practice. These personal characteristics influenced the designers ID practice by adding a secondary perspective through their cultural and biological influences, and by directly informing their approach to process through educational and work experiences. Study results showed that specific personal characteristics and experience allow instructional designers to alter their current ID practice, thereby transforming a once-homogeneous process to a heterogeneous one.

<p> Thoughts drift in everyday life and in the classroom. The goal of this study was to investigate how often students reported off-task thinking while watching online lectures. These findings were related to working memory capacity, topic interest, and achievement goal orientations. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate how all of these factors were related and predicted performance in the course. </p><p> In the presented findings, 126 participants completed three complex span tasks, answered a 2x2 goal orientation questionnaire, responded to eight mind-wandering probes while watching two online lectures, and rated interest in the lecture topics. </p><p> In the reported models, higher levels of mind wandering predicted lower levels of academic performance. Lower levels of working memory capacity predicted higher levels of mind wandering and lower levels of academic performance. Higher levels of topic interest predicted lower levels of mind wandering. Higher levels of mastery approach orientations (those who learn to master content) predicted higher levels of task-related interference. A novel mind wandering probe, <i>thinking about or using another technology, </i> accounted for 29% of off-task thinking. Implications of these findings and considerations for future research are discussed.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative experimental study was to test the impact of three learning interventions on student learning and satisfaction when the interventions were embedded in the instructional design of case-based, Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) modules for learning liver pathology in an in-class, self-study, laboratory exercise during a Year-2 medical school Pathology course. The hypothesis was that inclusion of the learning interventions would enhance student satisfaction in using the CAI and improve subsequent CAI-directed exam performance. Three learning interventions were studied, including the use of microscopic virtual slides instead of only static images, the use of interactive image annotations instead of only still annotations, and the use of guiding questions before presenting new information. Students were randomly assigned to with one of eight CAI learning modules configured to control for each of the three learning interventions. Effectiveness of the CAI for student learning was assessed by student performance on questions included in subsequent CAI-directed exams in a pretest and on posttests immediately after the lab exercise, at two weeks and two months. Student satisfaction and perceived learning was assessed by a student survey. </p><p> Results showed that the learning interventions did not improve subsequent student exam performance, although satisfaction and perceived learning with use of the CAI learning modules was enhanced. Student class rank was evaluated to determine if the learning interventions might have a differential effect based on class rank, but there were no significant differences. Class rank at the time of the lab exercise was itself the strongest predictor of exam performance. </p><p> The findings suggest that the addition of virtual slides, interactive annotations and guiding questions as learning interventions in self-study, case-based CAI for learning liver pathology in a medical class room setting are not likely to increase performance on subsequent MCQ-based exams, but student satisfaction with use of the CAI can be enhanced, which could provide to be an incentive for students to use similar CAI learning modules for future self-directed learning.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 19, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4643. Adviser: David J. Flinders.

O Ensino à distância (EaD) procura utilizar propostas pedagógicas para desenvolver sistemas inclusivos de ensino e aprendizagem. Estas propostas tem colaborado no sucesso que a EaD tem alcançado no meio empresarial corporativo. Neste meio, a demanda por cursos de formação técnica tem sido tão alta, que as empresas envolvidas no design instrucional de EaD criaram a noção de cursos à distância expressos, ou seja, cursos cuja a concepção e elaboração devem atender as tradicionais necessidades de rapidez do mercado de trabalho. Esta dissertação procura soluções para um tipo de ensino à distância ainda pouco explorado. O cenário que procuramos equacionar é o do ensino de ferramentas (softwares) para desenho vetorial, onde a metodologia de ensino é parte do processo de ensino corporativo. No processo atual de ensino de ferramentas de computação gráfica, o aluno submete ao professor, normalmente pela internet, o seu trabalho para que uma avaliação seja feita. Nesta dissertação sugerimos que este processo seja modificado de duas formas. Primeiro, no design instrucional para esta situação, trabalhamos constantemente a questão de avaliação não só na sua forma tradicional (atribuição de graus e valores) mas também como aperfeiçoamento do processo de ensino. A hipermídia adaptativa entra nesta proposta como facilitador da relação alunoprofessor-conhecimento, permitindo individualização de um ensino voltado para as massas. Em segundo lugar, propomos que a avaliação das tarefas sejam automatizada. O aluno oferece as partes (objetos) da solução que são avaliadas individualmente através de algoritmos computacionais. Isto permite uma menor participação do professor, o que é compatível com a proposta de cursos expressos. Para que isto seja possível a tarefa proposta pelo professor é dividida em objetos componentes, sendo o aluno estimulado a criar cada objeto segundo o modelo padrão oferecido. A comparaçào de cada objeto criado pelo aluno com o padrão a ser alcançado pode ser feita por diversos algoritmos computacionais existentes ou criados especificamente pelo autor do curso. Neste trabalho apresentamos exemplos desta abordagem e um protótipo que demonstra a viabilidade da proposta. / Distance learning aims to use eduacational approaches in order to develop comprehensive courses. These approaches are some of the reasons distance learning has been widely accepted by large corporations. The nowadays matket has a steady and constant demand for technical courses and skilled employees. This demand has been so high among corporations that they have coined the term Distance Learning Express Couses for courses developed in very short time, for short term necessities. This dissertation aims to offer possibilities for a less employed type of distance learning couse. The situation we intend to deal is the teaching of graphics computing tools. In the current status of such type of distance learning course, the student submits, normally by Internet, his or her pieces of work so an evaluation of his or her performance may be made. In this dissertation we propose to change this process in two ways. First we intend to use evaluation as a pivotal part of the educational process. Evaluation is no longer used only at the end of the tasks but during the teaching procedure as student feedback. Thats the reason we also employ Adaptive Hypermedia. It makes possible a more personalized teaching and student oriented guidance. Secondly, we also suggest that tasks evaluation may become automatic. The student offers the parts (objects) of the overall solution and these parts are evaluated individually by computing algorithms. This allows less teacher participation and less type spend on evaluation. In order to do so, the teacher has to divide the task in small components (objects) and to ask the student to deal with these components as models to be achieved. The comparison of the object created by the student with the model object maybe performed by several available computing algorithms or specifically designed algorithms by the author of the course. In this work we introduce an example of this approch and a prototype which shows the feasability of our proposition.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a curriculum design-based (CDB) professional development model on K–12 teachers’ capacity to integrate engineering education in the classroom. This teacher professional development approach differs from other training programs where teachers learn how to use a standard curriculum and adopt it in their classrooms. In a CDB professional development model teachers actively design lessons, student resources, and assessments for their classroom instruction. In other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, CDB professional development has been reported to (a) position teachers as architects of change, (b) provide a professional learning vehicle for educators to reflect on instructional practices and develop content knowledge, (c) inspire a sense of ownership in curriculum decision-making among teachers, and (d) use an instructional approach that is coherent with teachers’ interests and professional goals. The CDB professional development program in this study used the Explore-Create-Share (ECS) framework as an instructional model to support teacher-led curriculum design and implementation. To evaluate the impact of the CDB professional development and associated ECS instructional model, three research studies were conducted. In each study, the participants completed a six-month CDB professional development program, the PTC STEM Certificate Program, that included sixty-two instructional contact hours. Participants learned about industry and education engineering concepts, tested engineering curricula, collaborated with K–12 educators and industry professionals, and developed project-based engineering curricula using the ECS framework. The first study evaluated the impact of the CDB professional development program on teachers’ engineering knowledge, self-efficacy in designing engineering curriculum, and instructional practice in developing project-based engineering units. The study included twenty-six teachers and data was collected pre-, mid-, and post-program using teacher surveys and a curriculum analysis instrument. The second study evaluated teachers’ perceptions of the ECS model as a curriculum authoring tool and the quality of the curriculum units they developed. The study included sixty-two participants and data was collected post-program using teacher surveys and a curriculum analysis instrument. The third study evaluated teachers’ experiences implementing ECS units in the classroom with a focus on identifying the benefits, challenges and solutions associated with project-based engineering in the classroom. The study included thirty-one participants and data was collected using an open-ended survey instrument after teachers completed implementation of the ECS curriculum unit. Results of these three studies indicate that teachers can be prepared to integrate engineering in the classroom using a CDB professional development model. Teachers reported an increase in engineering content knowledge, improved their self-efficacy in curriculum planning, and developed high quality instructional units that were aligned to engineering design practices and STEM educational standards. The ECS instructional model was acknowledged as a valuable tool for developing and implementing engineering education in the classroom. Teachers reported that ECS curriculum design aligned with their teaching goals, provided a framework to integrate engineering with other subject-area concepts, and incorporated innovative teaching strategies. After implementing ECS units in the classroom, teachers reported that the ECS model engaged students in engineering design challenges that were situated in a real world context and required the application of interdisciplinary content knowledge and skills. Teachers also reported a number of challenges related to scheduling, content alignment, and access to resources. In the face of these obstacles, teachers presented a number of solutions that included optimization of one’s teaching practice, being resource savvy, and adopting a growth mindset.