scholarly journals Design, Development and Evaluation of Haptic and Olfactory based Application for Visually Impaired Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. pp614-628
Author(s):  
Chit Su Mon ◽  
Kian Meng Yap ◽  
Azlina Ahmad

Educational entertainment or edutainment is a popular approach to allow learners experience a fun learning environment while acquiring knowledge. Currently, this approach is widely used and has promising benefits, whereby not only it provides a fun learning environment but also cause learners to hardly notice the learning process. However, as there are a minimum of 2.2 billion people worldwide with vision impairment or blindness, this approach can be a challenging experience for them. It is thus important to provide equal opportunities for these members of the community in the teaching and learning environment. Owing to the limited applications available for the visually impaired in virtual edutainment tailored for them, this research aims to design and develop an edutainment application for visually impaired users using a user-centered design. The application allows users to touch 3D objects using Touch by 3DSystems. In addition, sounds and smells will be released from the speaker and olfactory devices, respectively. The usability and satisfaction of users toward this application was tested on the visually impaired as well as blindfolded users using a 7-point Likert scale questionnaire. This questionnaire was constructed in accordance with USE (Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of use) by Lund. A total of 10 participants – including visually impaired teachers and blindfolded students – participated in this study.  Participants in this study agreed that the proposed application is useful, easy to use, easy to learn, and were satisfied with the application. The average rating of the results out of 7 was 5.92 for usefulness, 5.6 for ease of use, 6.22 for ease of learning, and 6.25 for satisfaction.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Craig Watterson

<p>The extensive literature relating to student barriers within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and, in particular, engineering education illustrates that STEM education has a widespread problem in retaining students. A plethora of studies have concentrated on placing the student at the centre of the problem – for example by focusing on student academic ability, work habits and social background. By analysing staff interviews, and investigating pertinent factors from the surrounding institutional, cultural and social environment, I shift the focus away from the phenomenological experience of individuals to examine the way power relations affect the teaching and learning environment. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) offers a theoretical and methodological basis for critically exploring networks of power, through the investigation of discourse and can provide insights into the complex situation in the School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS).  I use FDA to ask: how is power experienced and manifested by lecturers in the Bachelor of Engineering with Honours (BE) first-year teaching and learning environment at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW), New Zealand. I do this by analysing transcripts of interviews with teaching staff, as well as ECS, University, and Government documentation. By adopting an FDA approach to lecturers’ experiences of power, situated in the New Zealand neoliberal educational context, I aim to identify issues that impact the teaching and learning environment. These include academic practices relating to Government and University pressure to increase engineering student recruitment and retention numbers, an academically diverse incoming student cohort, course design, teaching and research. From a Foucauldian perspective, the New Zealand Government, the University, its lecturers, and students are all part of an educational setting comprising a complex network of power relationships active in the operation of the teaching and learning environment.  By placing lecturers at the epicentre of the situation and by understanding how lecturers both experience and exercise power in the teaching-learning environment, the issue of student retention may be re-framed. This study offers a unique perspective from which we can assess these problematic experiences at the source, whether that be at government, institution, department, teacher or learner level. As such, by exploring the operation of power, this thesis explores an important aspect of the retention problem which has never been fully investigated in NZ engineering education.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Zulfiqar Shah Abdul Hadi ◽  
Mohd Abdul Nasir Abd Latif ◽  
Muhammad Hasbi Abdul Rahman

 The development of computerized technology has transformed teaching and learning scenarios in the classroom. It has become essential learning tool to improve and enhance the quality of teaching and learning process. Thus, the quality of teaching and learning for religious classes Fardhu Ain (KAFA) should be upgraded too through computerised information visualization technology. This research aims to design a computerized information visualization for KAFA class especially for UPKK exams. Then, this courseware will be assessed through perceptions of students and teachers based on four aspects namely the design, ease of use, compatibility of information and satisfaction. This study was combines three methodologies, qualitative, quantitative and product development designs.While the study product development will use ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Development, Implement, Evaluation) approach which is for instructional technology in the production of educational products. The results indicated that students and teachers accept this courseware in the form of its design, ease of use, compatibility of information and satisfaction of use. Hence, advanced studies in context of the development of teaching and learning in KAFA class can still be explored in the future to ensure a better quality of KAFA education.


Author(s):  
Victor X. Wang

Teachers in today’s information society are required to rethink their teaching approaches to accommodate the learning needs of children and adults, either in the traditional classroom settings or the virtual environment. Logically speaking, children require instructors to teach them by using the pedagogical methods. Likewise, adults require teachers to help them learn by using andragogical approaches such as facilitation methods. When it comes to teaching children or helping adults learn in the online teaching and learning environment, it is the epistemological positions of the teachers that predetermine their instructional methods. In this chapter, the author compared and contrasted those pedagogical teaching methods with those andragogical approaches.


Author(s):  
James E. Witte ◽  
Iris M. Saltiel ◽  
Maria Martinez Witte

This chapter examines the use of cohort programming within the Career Technical Education field. Cohorts are ideal formats for CTE curricula since students participate in the majority of coursework together. They provide mutual academic and intellectual encouragement and reinforce the transfer of skills to the workplace. Developing cohorts within an online electronic teaching and learning environment is addressed at formal and informal levels. Instructing and facilitating in an e-learning environment requires the effective use of technological tools, which are overviewed in this chapter. Also addressed are instructor challenges and methods that will continually evolve as technological advances occur. Cohort programming is an innovative and practical way of enhancing student economic opportunities and creating lifelong learners.


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