Blended Collaborative Learning Through a Wiki-Based Project

Author(s):  
Dimitrios Roussinos ◽  
Athanassios Jimoyiannis

Wikis are currently gaining in popularity in schools and higher education institutions and they are widely promoted as collaborative tools supporting students’ active learning. This paper reports on the investigation of university students’ beliefs and perceptions of a wiki authoring activity, designed to support blended and collaborative learning. The study was administered in the context of an authentic coursework project activity in a first semester university course on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), attended by 47 first year students. Research findings indicated that the students in the sample were generally positive about the collaborative experience offered through the wiki and the consequent learning outcomes. Students’ perceptions of the functionality and usability of the wiki environment were also positive. They considered the wiki as an effective and easy to use technology. In overall, they evaluated positively the wiki assignment, as well as the technical and learning support they received on-line, through the wiki pages, and by their instructors during the class sessions.

Author(s):  
Dimitrios Roussinos ◽  
Athanassios Jimoyiannis

Wikis are currently gaining in popularity in schools and higher education institutions and they are widely promoted as collaborative tools supporting students’ active learning. This paper reports on the investigation of university students’ beliefs and perceptions of a wiki authoring activity, designed to support blended and collaborative learning. The study was administered in the context of an authentic coursework project activity in a first semester university course on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), attended by 47 first year students. Research findings indicated that the students in the sample were generally positive about the collaborative experience offered through the wiki and the consequent learning outcomes. Students’ perceptions of the functionality and usability of the wiki environment were also positive. They considered the wiki as an effective and easy to use technology. In overall, they evaluated positively the wiki assignment, as well as the technical and learning support they received on-line, through the wiki pages, and by their instructors during the class sessions.


Author(s):  
Samuel Olmos Peña ◽  
Magally Martinez-Reyes ◽  
Anabelem Soberanes-Martín

Traditional teaching has been changing with the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Blended learning is a new approach that enriches the education of students in order to improve their performance in their different subjects. Mathematics learning is a subject matter that is particularly difficult for students. The present chapter targets the application of a cybernetic model for blended learning in the teaching of mathematics, that is, the elements of communication and control are incorporated into this learning paradigm. It applies to first-year students of mathematics at the university level in the area of engineering. The results show an improvement in tests applied to students before and after the inclusion of activities with technological applications.


Author(s):  
Sasilak Rodphotong

The attempts of the present study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of collaborative learning to enhance English communicative competence and evaluating students’ satisfaction towards the instruction. The participants in this study were 1,471 the first-year students enrolled in the first semester, 2017 academic year. The students’ English proficiency according to the CEFR was A1. The instruments used were lesson plans, pre-test and post-test and satisfaction questionnaire. The lessons were comprised of various collaborative learning activities emphasizing at the following topics: self-introduction, school schedule, telling time, asking and giving information, food, leisure, describing people, describing things and giving direction. The period of experiment was 20 hours. The independent sample t-test was calculated to find the differences. The findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences at the level of .01 after teaching with collaborative learning. This indicated that the students’ communicative competence significantly improved. Besides, the satisfaction questionnaire was distributed at the end of the instruction and the results indicated that the students had a positive satisfaction towards the instruction.


Author(s):  
Joseph Jack Horgan

The introduction of modern information and communication technologies (ICT) into the classroom has led to a number of challenges and opportunities for instructors across the field of education. Wikipedia, a collaborative encyclopedia, has proven to be one of the most controversial online platforms throughout academia, with many higher education instructors banning its use outright. Despite the prevailing negative attitude, there has been a recent shift in thought among some in the field regarding its utilization as a teaching tool in a number of applications. One popular use is as the centre of a writing project, most commonly the creation of a new article or the improvement of a pre-existing one.This paper outlines a case study conducted at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies in the autumn semester of 2019, in which first year international veterinarian medicine students wrote Wikipedia articles as part of a semester-long project in an English for academic purposes course in order to improve academic writing skills such as researching, analysing, summarizing, and editing. Analysis of two questionnaires and the students’ work suggest that despite some challenges, a Wikipedia article writing project can serve as an engaging, rewarding, and effective method to teach academic writing skills. 


Author(s):  
I.V GORDEEVA ◽  

In the context of digitalization of all spheres of everyday, industrial and public life, higher and secondary vocational education have the opportunity to move to a new level using modern information and communication technologies and involve the largest possible student audience into the learning process. Experience in the field of distance learning over the past decades shows that this form of educational process organization has a number of advantages over traditional forms of training. Among these advantages are democracy, lower cost of training, the opportunity to participate in the educational process in conditions of territorial separation, combining training with other types of activities, etc. At the same time, in the process of distance learning, the teacher and students also face a number of problems associated with the lack of the possibility of personal and emotional non-verbal contacts, when communication "person-person" is replaced by communication "person-computer". In the context of the forced transition of all higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation to distance learning due to a difficult epidemic situation, it became possible to assess the advantages and disadvantages of this form of training from the point of view of full-time students who had no previous experience of on-line education. A comparative analysis of the opinions of first-year students of the Ural State University of Economics and the college of this university shows that the respondents named the main advantages of distance learning a greater freedom in conducting classes in the absence of constant control and the possibility of combining education with other activities. The main disadvantages are the lack of feedback from the teacher due to distancing, as well as technical problems. The lack of emotional contact with educators was found to be a more serious problem for college students than for university students. It can be concluded that distance learning is more in line with the needs and capabilities of adult learners, and specific forms of organizing classes need to be adapted to the conditions of a specific audience.


NASPA Journal ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Beil ◽  
Carol A. Reisen ◽  
Maria Cecilia Zea ◽  
Robert C. Caplan

This longitudinal study predicted retention from academic integration, social integration, and commitment to remain in college in a sample of first-year students at a residential, private research university. When assessed separately, first-semester reports of commitment mediated the effects of both academic and social integration on retention six semesters later.


2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-128
Author(s):  
Francesca Sgobbi

The availability of proper human capital represents a key-factor in order to support the current fast pace of diffusion of Internet-based applications. The careful assessment of the skills and competencies required to manage and develop Internet technologies in different application domains represents a necessary step to solve the emerging skill shortage and skill gap problems. While most existing analyses of skill needs in information and communication technologies deal with broad professional categories, the paper focuses the attention on a specific professional figure, the Web designer. By resorting to an on-line questionnaire administered to a sample of Italian Web designers, the paper shows that jobholders recognise greater usefulness to organisational rather than technical knowledge domains. However, perceived skill gaps are larger in the case of technical skills and competencies. Moreover, specialisation paths are emerging.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Daker ◽  
Sylvia U. Gattas ◽  
H. Moriah Sokolowski ◽  
Adam E. Green ◽  
Ian M. Lyons

AbstractMath anxiety is widely considered a potential barrier to success in STEM. Current thinking holds that math anxiety is directly linked to avoidance of and underperformance in STEM domains. However, past evidence supporting these claims is limited in important ways. Perhaps most crucially, it is possible that math anxiety predicts STEM outcomes merely as a proxy for poor math skills. Here, we tested the link between math anxiety and subsequent STEM outcomes by measuring math anxiety, math ability, and several covariates in 183 first-semester university students. We then tracked students’ STEM avoidance and achievement through four years at university via official academic transcripts. Results showed that math anxiety predicted both a reduction in how many STEM courses students took and, separately (i.e., controlling for one another), lower STEM grades. Crucially, these associations held after controlling for math ability (and other covariates). That math anxiety predicts math-related academic achievement independently of Math Ability suggests that, contrary to current thinking, math anxiety’s effects on academic performance likely operate via mechanisms other than negatively affecting math ability. Beyond this, we show evidence that math anxiety can account for associations between math ability and STEM outcomes, suggesting that past links between math ability and real-world outcomes may, in fact, be at least partially explainable by attitudes toward math. These findings provide clear impetus for developing and testing interventions that target math anxiety specifically and suggest that focusing on math ability without additional attention to math anxiety may fail to optimally boost STEM outcomes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Алексей Александрович Зорькин

Актуальность исследования заключается в анализе роли интерактивных методов, а именно, дистанционного обучения в преподавании хирургических дисциплин в медицинском вузе в условиях пандемии коронавирус. Изучили применение технологий дистанционного обучения при преподавании хирургических дисциплин в условиях пандемии коронавируса. Цель исследования: анализ применения технологий дистанционного обучения при преподавании хирургических дисциплин в условиях пандемии коронавируса. Материалом исследования явились информационные платформы LMS Moodle, Google Meet, модифицированные к on-line обучению рабочая программа дисциплины, учебно методические рекомендации кафедры при изучении хирургических дисциплин on-line, данные опроса студентов относительно восприятия новых методов обучения и их эффективности. Методами исследования были вебинары, видеоконференции, чат, форумы и прочее. Карантинные мероприятия в связи с пандемией COVID-19 заставили образовательные учреждения перейти на дистанционное обучение и стали настоящим вызовом для всего российского образования по его организации. Образовательными ресурсами дистанционного обучения стали дистанционные курсы, виртуальные лабораторные работы, тестовые задания, учебные и методические материалы, веб-ресурсы, терминологические словари. Дистанционное обучение имеет свои преимущества и свои специфические изъяны. Необходимость сохранения непрерывности обучения, обеспечение эффективности усвоения учебной программы обусловило необходимость скорой перестройки методики преподавания, внедрения современных инновационных информационно-коммуникационных технологий. The relevance of the study lies in the analysis of the role of interactive methods, namely, distance learning in teaching surgical disciplines at a medical university in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. We studied the use of distance learning technologies in teaching surgical disciplines in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The research material was the information platforms Zoom and Microsoft Teams, the work program of the discipline modified for on-line training, educational and methodological recommendations of the department in the study of surgical disciplines on-line, data from a survey of students regarding the perception of new teaching methods and their effectiveness. The research methods were webinars, video conferences, chat and ICQ, forums, etc. Quarantine measures in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic forced educational institutions to switch to distance learning and became a real challenge for the entire Russian education in its organization. Distance learning educational resources have become distance courses, virtual laboratory work, test tasks, educational and methodological materials, web resources, terminological dictionaries. Distance learning has its advantages and its specific flaws. The need to preserve the continuity of learning, ensuring the effectiveness of the assimilation of the curriculum necessitated the rapid restructuring of teaching methods, the introduction of modern innovative information and communication technologies. The purpose of the study: to analyze the use of distance learning technologies in teaching surgical disciplines in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.


Author(s):  
June Countryman ◽  
Andrew Zinck

Concerned about the success rate of new students in our program we designed and implemented a compulsory set of experiences which aim to support students in their transition from high school to university by 1) developing their sense of belonging to a community of learners and by 2) articulating with them the interrelationships among their first year core courses. We initiated various strategies which we have refined in response to student feedback over the past three years. In this paper we describe the pedagogical moves that constitute our initiative and the lessons we learned. We explore essential academic and personal issues that first-year students in all programs face. We share our research findings and address the big ideas that could be applied to any discipline or multi-disciplinary program. Préoccupés par les taux de rétention des étudiants de première année, les auteurs ont conçu et mis en oeuvre un ensemble d’expériences obligatoires dont le but est d’aider les étudiants à effectuer la transition entre l’école secondaire et l’université. Ils ont établi deux objectifs : (a) développer chez les étudiants le sens d’appartenance à une communauté d’apprenants et (b) démontrer les corrélations qui existent entre les cours de base de première année que les étudiants suivent. Diverses stratégies ont été entreprises et plus tard améliorées, à partir des rétroactions fournies par les étudiants au cours de l’étude de deux ans. Cet article présente une explication des actions pédagogiques de cette initiative et explore les questions essentielles académiques et personnelles auxquelles sont confrontés les étudiants de première année dans tous les programmes. Les résultats de cette étude sont résumés et les idées générales qui peuvent s’appliquer à n’importe quelle discipline ou à des programmes multidisciplinaires sont présentées en détail.


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