Higher education blended learning: a network study of student learning paths

For the aim of this research, a model of students' learning pathways as a network that records time and sequence of learning events is introduced. These learning pathways networks also establish the online learning rate. Results demonstrate that pupils who passed learned more online than those who failed. The findings of the person-centered study demonstrate that only test anxiety affects the number of nodes and arcs of the individual learning pathway network, which was represented as an individual network. Also, the qualities of social networks are influenced by how active or inactive users are. There is evidence to back up the theory that pupils who are driven to learn do not necessarily study more information. As a result of exam anxiety, engagement, and disengagement, the learning pathways of individuals are shaped and reshaped throughout time.

Innovative Teaching and Learning Pathways for Responsible Use of Resources Focusing on the ESEE Region

In a world depicted by rapid growth and consumerism, where pressing societal issues such as, the critical climate crises, resources exploitation in developing countries and much more, it is essential to educate all citizens about raw materials, their uses and about responsible production and consumption. Developing life-long learning wider society programmes is an essential tool to educate the population starting with the youngest members of society (pre-school) to adulthood (life-long learning) with a special focus on the life-world orientation from a learners’ perspective. The wider society learning flagship project, ‘Raw Matters Ambassadors at Schools’ (RM@Schools), is an innovative programme funded by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) which promotes science education and careers in the raw materials sector. Since the project’s commencement in 2016, it has gained stronger European representation with a current total of 32 partners from 18 countries. This includes the consortium members from a parallel funded programme, RM@SchoolsESEE. This project aims at extending best practices and diversifying the current portfolio to East and Southeast European countries. What makes this project so innovative is in the programme and individual learning pathways. Considering a multidisciplinary and cultural perspective, a framework was developed to assist in forming raw materials ambassadors through engaging programmes for school pupils from aged 10 up to 19 years old and through the development of educational hands-on toolkits that range from experiments to game-based tools and much more. In particular, and as a way to increase impact, the project aims to mentor teenagers from all educational disciplines between the ages of 14–19 years old to become ‘Young RM Ambassadors’. This approach utilises state-of-the-art teaching and learning methods resulting in peer-to-peer knowledge exchange and dissemination. Built into the programme is a continuous feedback loop that involves stakeholders from all sides of the knowledge triangle: educators, pupils, professionals and researchers.

A Cognitive Diagnosis Method in Adaptive Learning System Based on Preconceptions

One advantage of an adaptive learning system is the ability to personalize learning to the needs of individual users. Realizing this personalization requires first a precise diagnosis of individual users’ relevant attributes and characteristics and the provision of adaptability-enabling resources and pathways for feedback. In this paper, a preconcept system is constructed to diagnose users' cognitive status of specific learning content, including learning progress, specific preconcept viewpoint, preconcept source, and learning disability. The “Force and Movement” topic from junior high school physics is used as a case study to describe the method for constructing a preconception system. Based on the preconception system, a method and application process for diagnosing user cognition is introduced. This diagnosis method is used in three ways: firstly, as a diagnostic dimension for an adaptive learning system, improving the ability of highly-adaptive learning systems to support learning activities, such as through visualization of the cognition states of students; secondly, for an attribution analysis of preconceptions to provide a basis for adaptive learning organizations; and finally, for predicting the obstacles users may face in the learning process, in order to provide a basis for adaptive learning pathways.

Capturing Student Achievement and Learning Pathways at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County

In 2015, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) recognized the need to capture knowledge, skills, and abilities acquired by students in both co-curricular and curricular endeavors not being captured in any identifiable way. The Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer desired to document competencies gained by students in the variety of contexts on campus and to track student, faculty, and staff achievements in a way that would both benefit each individual while also supporting the mission of the institution. This vision led to the adoption of a digital badging initiative resulting in a scalable process for implementing new badges throughout the university community. UMBC's digital badging program became the springboard for the institution's entrance into the Comprehensive Learner Record (CLR) realm whose objective is to capture all credentials earned by students, whether they be awarded before, during, or following their tenure at the institution.

The Critical Importance of Enhancing Social Entrepreneurship Learning Pathways to Recover From the COVID-19 Economic Crisis

Social enterprises (SE) have long been recognised as a significant part of society and as a yardstick for the wider concern of community stakeholders to the general wellbeing and quality of life of the population. Furthermore, in countries that have embraced the free market with limited government, particularly in post-financial-crisis enforced austerity fiscal budgets, the role of the SE is extremely important in contributing to community wellbeing. Now the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has dealt a crushing blow to many economic, social, and entrepreneurial activities with its associated lockdowns and government mandated restrictions on economic activities. It is imperative given the devastating economic impact of the epidemic and subsequent lockdowns that efforts to encourage SE and social entrepreneurship be redoubled and receive government assisted training for these efforts. Creating robust and effective learning pathways informed by the need to support a building back better ethos is key to the future of social innovation and social enterprise-based economic activities.

Inuit youth and environmental research: exploring engagement barriers, strategies, and impacts

Community leadership in Arctic environmental research is increasingly recognized as one of many pathways to Indigenous self-determination in Nunavut, Canada. While experienced Inuit hunters, trappers, and other recognized environmental knowledge experts are commonly included in research, similar opportunities for Inuit youth to meaningfully engage in environmental research remain limited. Finding ways to increase scientific literacy, particularly among Inuit youth, has been identified as an important step in the continuation of high-quality Arctic environmental research. This paper examines community perspectives on the roles and contributions of Inuit youth in environmental research in Nunavut, barriers that Inuit youth face in becoming meaningfully engaged in field-based environmental research, and strategies for enhancing Inuit youth engagement. Our study was conducted in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, and used interviews, workshops, and observation to gather stories and knowledge from community members about field- and land-based experiential learning pathways. This study found that a complex set of barriers, including a lack of credentials and support systems, among others, may inhibit meaningful Inuit youth engagement in environmental research. Key findings from the study support the view that collaborative land-based research activities can be an effective and meaningful method of enhancing scientific literacy among Inuit youth.

Automatic Title Generation for Learning Resources and Pathways with Pre-trained Transformer Models

To create curiosity and interest for a topic in online learning is a challenging task. A good preview that outlines the contents of a learning pathway could help learners know the topic and get interested in it. Towards this end, we propose a hierarchical title generation approach to generate semantically relevant titles for the learning resources in a learning pathway and a title for the pathway itself. Our approach to Automatic Title Generation for a given text is based on pre-trained Transformer Language Model GPT-2. A pool of candidate titles are generated and an appropriate title is selected among them which is then refined or de-noised to get the final title. The model is trained on research paper abstracts from arXiv and evaluated on three different test sets. We show that it generates semantically and syntactically relevant titles as reflected in ROUGE, BLEU scores and human evaluations. We propose an optional abstractive Summarizer module based on pre-trained Transformer model T5 to shorten medium length documents. This module is also trained and evaluated on research papers from arXiv dataset. Finally, we show that the proposed model of hierarchical title generation for learning pathways has promising results.

Understanding “process vs product” in the shelter and settlements sector: a reflection

Purpose“Process” vs “product”: this concept was originally introduced by Ian Davis in 1978 in Shelter After Disaster. However, 40 years later, in the halls of universities, it would appear a long way from having settled in the minds of upcoming engineers and architects looking to contribute to the field of disaster management. This key understanding is a major steppingstone to those pursuing careers in the shelter and settlements sector. However, the clarity of the argument and its importance still fails to reach some humanitarians in the early stages of their career. This perspective reflects on the key arguments for and against process over product and reflects on the reasons for the lack of recognition of this concept in early stage academics in the shelter and settlements sector. It also discusses the academic practitioner divide and pathways for learning within the sector.Design/methodology/approachThis perspective reflects on discussions over four years of a progression into the humanitarian shelter and settlements sector from a construction and engineering background. It discusses the author’s personal progression in understanding process over product and observations of other early stage researchers taking similar pathways. It also examines literature in the sector and the key texts which affect this progression. Furthermore, this perspective provides comments from experts in the shelter and settlements sector through a small series of informal interviews. This provides insight into their experience with upcoming architects and engineers, and key messages for early stage researchers.FindingsThis reflection found that upcoming architects and engineering students still undergo a journey of understanding over “process vs product” despite changes in the industry. These students can benefit from the understanding of shelter as a process.Originality/valueThe concept of process vs product is not a new one. It is arguably one of the most central arguments to the shelter and settlements sector. However, there is very little written on the learning of this concept or the effects it has on understanding the broader aspects of the sector. This reflection can provide significant value to early stage researchers who have yet to engage with this concept, and further highlight its importance of learning pathways to the sector.

Instructional Policy From Pre-K to Third Grade: The Challenges of Fostering Alignment and Continuity in Two School Districts

In an effort to improve learning for young children and respond to preschool fade out, some districts are working on “PreK-3” initiatives to create better connected learning pathways for children. In these pathways, primary grades continue to build on what children learn in preschool; they also present potential implementation challenges that are not accounted for in the literature. Using conceptual tools from institutional theory and empirical evidence from a study of two school districts, we show how challenges arise as districts try to bridge the divergent and entrenched institutional systems of preschool and elementary. Our findings suggest that these systems are each held in place by their own set of regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive mechanisms that reinforce one another thereby providing an explanation for why beliefs and practices are so resistant to change. This analysis also points to practical implications that may lead to better connections and learning experiences for young children.