Mobile microlearning design and effects on learning efficacy and learner experience

Numerous behavioral studies have shown that visual function can improve with training, although perceptual refinements generally require weeks to months of training to attain. This, along with questions about long-term retention of learning, limits practical and clinical applications of many such paradigms. Here, we show for the first time that just 10 days of visual training coupled with transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) over visual areas causes dramatic improvements in visual motion perception. Relative to control conditions and anodal stimulation, tRNS-enhanced learning was at least twice as fast, and, crucially, it persisted for 6 months after the end of training and stimulation. Notably, tRNS also boosted learning in patients with chronic cortical blindness, leading to recovery of motion processing in the blind field after just 10 days of training, a period too short to elicit enhancements with training alone. In sum, our results reveal a remarkable enhancement of the capacity for long-lasting plastic and restorative changes when a neuromodulatory intervention is coupled with visual training.

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Re-Tooling School

Pacific Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning ◽

10.24135/pjtel.v2i1.70 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 53

Author(s):

Russell Burt

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

The Internet ◽

Delivery Modes ◽

Equity And Access ◽

Learner Agency ◽

Developed World ◽

Learner Experience ◽

International Citizenship

How do we ReTool school to make it engaging, empowering and success making for all? At the same time how do we guarantee equity and access so that what our government calls “priority learners”, have the same opportunities for 3rd millennium citizenship as everybody else? When vast tracts of what is now the Developed World, were opened up by the provision of roads, bridges and railroads, people moved from subsistence and achieved effective citizenship, locally, nationally and globally. The infrastructure that enables access to the new platform for citizenship, the internet, is analogous to the roads, bridges and railroads of yesteryear. The business of retooling requires this infrastructure as a baseline, but real efficacy and agency will only be achieved when environments are enriched by innovation on top of the essential infrastructure. Retooling School requires a Change Pedagogy Imperative: When essential aspects of learning are amalgamated and new media are used for the reception and delivery modes, the learner experience is completely different. It is more than possible to develop new learner agency, efficacy and leadership in learning. This journey to genuine citizenship will have three major hallmarks: ubiquity anywhere, anytime, any pace, any people learning agency the power to act -informed/empowered/enabled learners connectedness edgeless education, connected minds We need to: Provide the essential infrastructure and enrich the environment for: local, national and international citizenship of all learners.

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Grit in Online Education

Journal of Education Society and Behavioural Science ◽

10.9734/jesbs/2019/v30i430132 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Nicole Buzzetto-Hollywood ◽

Kathy Quinn ◽

Wendy Wang ◽

Austin Hill

Keyword(s):

Student Achievement ◽

Online Education ◽

Student Success ◽

Student Performance ◽

Online Courses ◽

Self Regulation ◽

P Value ◽

Learning Success ◽

Promising Area ◽

Learning Efficacy

Aim: This study sought to explore the role of the elusive non-cognitive skill set known as grit, or the resolve and determination to achieve goals regardless of impediments, on student success in online education. It represents an area of exploration where there is a dearth in the available literature and reports the results of a study conducted at a Mid-Atlantic minority-serving university that examined the relationship between grit and student performance in fully online courses. Methodology: Students were administered the standard 12-Question Grit Scale with the addition of a series of validated questions that sought to measure perceived self-learning efficacy. Additionally, student performances in online courses were recorded and correlations conducted. Basic statistical analyses such as mean, mode, standard deviation, variance, and confidence interval were calculated. Two hypotheses were introduced as part of this study and tested with Anovas and crosstabulations. Results: This study found that higher grit scores correlated progressively to both self-discipline and self-efficacy but that a positive relationship to student achievement in fully online courses as measured with a p value of greater than .05 could not be confirmed. Conclusion: As online education continues to grow, providing opportunities to foster and strengthen student success in online courses and programs is increasingly important. E-learning success requires that students exhibit strong self-regulation, self-discipline, resilience, dutifulness, conscientiousness, and low impulsivity all of which are attributes of grit. As such, grit is presented as a promising area of exploration for increasing student achievement in online education.

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