scholarly journals Realignment Course in Mathematics: design of an online valuable experience for students

Author(s):  
Alice Barana ◽  
Alessandro Bogino ◽  
Michele Fioravera ◽  
Francesco Floris ◽  
Marina Marchisio

Supporting students in the transition from secondary school to university is an important action to be taken in order to increase the number of people with tertiary education degrees; it has positive consequences on the citizens’ working perspective and on the national economic growth. To this purpose, in the academic year 2014/2015 the University of Turin started the Project Orient@mente, a platform of self-paced open online courses aimed to guide students in the choice of a scientific university program.  This paper focuses on the design of the Realignment Course in Mathematics, provided by the platform and aimed at the self-paced review and integration of knowledge that students are required to acquire during secondary school. Materials are created and structured according to the User Experience Design for Learning, with the aim of providing a valuable learning experience to students. Contents are delivered through an accessible learning management system integrated with an advanced computing environment and an automatic assessment system. Data from the usage of the activities and from the results of the online tests are analyzed in order to validate the design choices and the coherent structure of the course.

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sônia Palha

Interactive Virtual Math (IVM) is a visualization tool to support secondary school students’ learning of graphs by dynamic events. In the prototype version students construct a graph and try to improve it themselves and with the feedback of the tool. In a small-scale experiment, which involved four classes at secondary and tertiary education and their mathematics teachers we investigated how the students used the tool in the classroom. In this study we focus on the students learning experience and the results are expected to provide knowledge and directions for further development of the tool. The corpus data consists of self-reported questionnaires and lessons observations. One main finding is that students, at different school levels, find the tool useful to construct or improve graphical representations and it can help to get a better understanding of the subject. The tool features that helped students most were the self-construction of the graphs and to get feedback about their own graph at the end. Other findings are that the students can work independently with the tool and we know more about the tool features that are attractive or need to be improved.


Author(s):  
Yi Lin Wong ◽  
Kin Wai Michael Siu

Design education is interdisciplinary by nature and provides a platform for students to learn different knowledge and skills and then apply them to solve design problems. It is inspirational and innovative at many different educational levels. However, the curricula of design education may not be aligned at different levels. To investigate this issue, Hong Kong is chosen to be the case because of its uniqueness in the development of its design education. This chapter discusses this issue by reviewing the design curricula in secondary school education and tertiary education. This review provides an overview of how students learn design thinking and problem solving in design education. The problems of the transition from one curriculum to another are highlighted. It is suggested that better communication between the curriculum developers is needed to cultivate a smooth transition so that the students of design can enjoy a better learning experience.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariha Azalea

This article exposes how STEM-based learning is applied in science class to give students meaningful learning experience in the topic of Pascal Law. This study is motivated by the demand of 21st century skill which expect people to have 4C skills; critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. In this study, STEM-based learning is conducted at a private secondary school located in Bandung with 28 students of grade 8 as the subjects. Students are provided a problem related to the application of Pascal Law namely hydraulic bridge. They are challenged to design their own hydraulic bridge which can be lifted with maximum angle but in minimum time. A descriptive study is taken where all the data is obtained through direct observation and students’ interview. Based on cognitive test, there is difference on pre-test and post-test score that resulting in the number of gain. Based on direct observation, none of students just sitting on their seat without activities and all are on collaboration to reach their goal. Students’ interview indicates they enjoy learning process as it is their first experience accomplishing a project and it makes them more understand the concept through the real application. Overall of the study, STEM-based learning through hydraulic bridge project stimulates students to be able to think critically, to be creative, to collaborate, and to communicate.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nourhan F. Wasfy ◽  
Enjy Abouzeid ◽  
Asmaa Abdel Nasser ◽  
Samar A. Ahmed ◽  
Ilham Youssry ◽  
...  

Abstract Background With the strike of Covid-19, an unprecedented rapid shift to remote learning happened worldwide with a paradigm shift to online learning from an institutional adjuvant luxury package and learner choice into a forced solo choice. This raises the question of quality assurance. While some groups have already established standards for online courses, teaching and programs yet very little information is included on methodology of their development and very little emphasis is placed on the online learning experience. Nevertheless, no work has been done specifically for medical education institutions. Aim To develop a set of descriptors for best practice in online learning in medical education utilizing existing expertise and needs. Methods This work utilizes a qualitative multistage approach to identify the descriptors of best practice in online learning starting with a question guided focus group, thematic analysis, Delphi technique and an expert consensus session done simultaneously for triangulation. This was done involving 32 institution in 19 countries. Results This materialized into the development of a set of standards, indicators, and development of a checklist for each standard area. The standard areas identified were organizational capacity, educational effectiveness, and human resources each of which listed a number of standards. Expert consensus sessions identified the need for qualification of data and thus the development of indicators for best practice. Conclusion Standards are needed for online learning experience and their development and redesign is situational and needs to be enhanced methodologically in axes that are pertaining to the needs of the education community. Taking such axes into consideration by educators and institutions will lead to planning and implementing successful online learning activities, while taking them into consideration by the evaluators will help them conduct comprehensive audits and provide stakeholders with highly informative evaluation reports.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Venugopal Prabhakar Gantasala ◽  
Swapna Bhargavi Gantasala ◽  
Tareq Na'el Al Tawil ◽  
Prerana Prasad

PurposeThe intention for this study was to explore any relationship that might exist between quality of learning experience (QLE), the second construct student satisfaction (SS) and the third construct perceived overall experience (POE) among undergraduate students within the higher education context. This study also attempts to explain the path direction between QLE, SS and POE.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers utilized structural equation modeling to analyze the variables considered for this study – QLE, SS and POE and for hypotheses testing. Respondents for this study were medical students' coordinators of the undergraduate level of medical colleges in the 28 states of India. Data collected for the study were possible by utilizing a questionnaire that was emailed to these student coordinators. The emailing effort returned 198 (n) filled questionnaires (complete) representing 198 institutions offering undergraduate-level medical programs out of a total of 542 institutions that offer undergraduate medical programs.FindingsFindings from this study confirm the relationship between QLE with SS, and PLE. Interestingly, the findings established a significant relationship between SS and POE.Practical implicationsDecision-makers and administrators of higher education institutions (HEIs) can utilize the findings from this study to focus on strengthening important elements of QLE in ways that positively impact SS and POE of students taking online courses and program offerings. The study reiterates the importance of course content, course structure, lecture-delivery quality, instructor mentoring and student-instructor interactions on SS and POE. The role of SS in reinforcing confirmation, perceived usefulness, perceived openness of the online courses and the perceived reputation was established. This relationship is key to administrators while they focus on improving SS and building on the institutions' reputation in addition to their efforts to support marketing and enrollments during the pandemic.Originality/valueResearchers in the past have examined the relationships between QLE and another construct of this study – SS. Past research has also examined the relationship between QLE and POE. However, there is not enough research exploring the relationship between SS and POE. This study establishes the relationship between SS and POE that benefits decision-makers in higher education.


F1000Research ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 898
Author(s):  
Roslyn Gleadow ◽  
Barbara Macfarlan

Making material available through learning management systems is standard practice in most universities, but this is generally seen as an adjunct to the ‘real’ teaching, that takes place in face-to-face classes. Lecture attendance is poor, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to engage students, both in the material being taught and campus life. This paper describes the redevelopment of a large course in scientific practice and communication that is compulsory for all science students studying at our Melbourne and Malaysian campuses, or by distance education. Working with an educational designer, a blended learning methodology was developed, converting the environment provided by the learning management system into a teaching space, rather than a filing system. To ensure focus, topics are clustered into themes with a ‘question of the week’, a pre-class stimulus and follow up activities. The content of the course did not change, but by restructuring the delivery using educationally relevant design techniques, the content was contextualised resulting in an integrated learning experience. Students are more engaged intellectually, and lecture attendance has improved. The approach we describe here is a simple and effective approach to bringing this university’s teaching and learning into the 21st century.


Author(s):  
D. Thammi Raju ◽  
G. R. K. Murthy ◽  
S. B. Khade ◽  
B. Padmaja ◽  
B. S. Yashavanth ◽  
...  

Building an effective online course requires an understanding of learning analytics. The study assumes significance in the COVID 19 pandemic situation as there is a sudden surge in online courses. Analysis of the online course using the data generated from the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS), Google Forms and Google Analytics was carried out to understand the tenants of an effective online course. About 515 learners participated in the initial pre-training needs & expectations’ survey and 472 learners gave feedback at the end, apart from the real-time data generated from LMS and Google Analytics during the course period. This case study analysed online learning behaviour and the supporting learning environment and suggest critical factors to be at the centre stage in the design and development of online courses; leads to the improved online learning experience and thus the quality of education. User needs, quality of resources and effectiveness of online courses are equally important in taking further online courses.


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