Impact of 3D Printing on Occupational Therapy Student Technology Efficacy

This study examines a mixed methods experiment, evaluating the impact of 3D printing on Occupational Therapy student’s self-reported technology efficacy levels, before and after an educational module focused on 3D printing technology. Utilizing free and online software and university owned 3D printers, students were challenged to create client centered assistive devices. Software included free computer aided drafting software, slicing software, and an online design repository. Copyright and attribution licensing concepts were also addressed for design modification considerations and use in clinical settings. Participants explored adaptations of 3D designs to meet individualized client needs and integration of rehabilitative theories. Project-based implementation of 3D printing with ‘real world’ clients created increased student ‘buy-in’ and engagement. Participants were recruited from private, rural, higher education, occupational therapy students in pre-clinical lab courses. Comparisons between student groups exposed to 3D printing and a control group without exposure are assessed using quantitative and qualitative data. The control group expressed interest in further technology education in their field. Students show significant increases in technology focused self-efficacy between participant groups.

An Action Research Study on the Development of Object-Oriented Programming Course

Computer games are effective instructional tools used in programming courses to increase students' motivation and engagement. This participatory action research aims to redesign the Object-Oriented Programming course in which the first author is both the instructor and researcher to make it more effective and efficient. In the first step of the action research, data were collected for the definition and solution of the problem through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. After this step, an action plan was created, and the Object-Oriented Programming course was redesigned as part of the action plan. In line with the objectives of the action plan, The Karting Microgame Template, a game prototype prepared by Unity 3D, was integrated into the course, and students were expected to add various game components (bonus collection system, a scoring system, collision mechanisms, etc.) to this game prototype using C # programming language. After the action plan creation phase, an action plan was implemented. The implementation phase was conducted in the 2019-2020 spring semester with 29 post-secondary students enrolling in Computer Technology Department at a vocational college in Turkey. After the implementation phase, data were collected through the Object-Oriented Programming achievement test, student and researcher diaries, and focus group interviews on measuring this implementation's effectiveness. This paper describes the difficulties encountered during the study, the students' views on this implementation, and the researchers' experiences in this process.

Determinants of Online Assessment Adoption in a Technical College

Higher education institutions have switched from the traditional paper-based assessment to online assessment in the last decade, and it is worthwhile to examine how the users have perceived such a change. While many technology acceptance studies focused on students as participants, this study examines the lecturers' perception of online assessment. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology model (UTAUT) has been widely adapted for technology acceptance studies, and it is suitable for the study on online assessment systems. Unlike the findings from the original UTAUT model, performance expectancy did not have a significant effect on behavioral intention. A new relationship was found between Social Influence and Use Behavior. The UTAUT was extended with Usability, Learnability and Attitude as additional constructs. An essential aspect of this study ascertained that attitude, a construct that was absent in the original model, has a significant effect on behavioral intention.

The Relationship between Technology Literacies and Proactive Personalities of Secondary School Mathematics Teachers

The aim of this study is to determine the level of technology literacy and proactive personality of secondary school mathematics teachers, the relationship between technology literacy and proactive personalities, and how much of the proactive personality is explained by the technology literacy, according to the perceptions of secondary school mathematics teachers. The study was designed around a relational survey model, which is a quantitative research technique. The population of the study consisted of mathematics teachers working in secondary schools in Turkey and the sample was 380 secondary school mathematics teachers selected by simple random sampling method. Technology Literacy Scale and Proactive Personality Scale were used as data collection instruments. Descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses were used to analyse the data. The secondary school mathematics teachers' perceptions about technology literacy and proactive personality were found to be high. In addition, there was a moderate level positive and significant correlation between technology literacy and proactive personality of the secondary school mathematics teachers. Finally, the proactive personality of secondary school mathematics teachers explained their technology literacy at 30.7% level.

Analysis of Students’ e-Learning Styles and their Attitudes and Self-Efficacy Perceptions towards Distance Education

In this study, the effects of different variables such as age, gender, department and learning style on students’ e-learning styles, their attitudes towards e-learning and e-learning self-efficacy were investigated. In addition, the relationship between students’ e-learning styles, their attitudes towards e-learning and self-efficacy has been examined. In this context, the data were collected from 104 both distance education and formal education students. Results show that e-learning styles vary according to gender, age, type of education and department. The e-learning self-efficacy differs in department, age and type of education, but not in gender. The results also show that students’ attitudes towards e-learning differ in the way of learning, but not in age, gender and department. The results revealed that there was a positive relationship between students’ e-learning styles and self-efficacy while there was no relationship between e-learning and attitudes. Additionally, a strong relationship was found between students’ e-learning self-efficacy and their attitudes towards e-learning.

Investigating the Effects of Tablet-Based Math Interventions: A Meta-Analysis

There is debate over the effectiveness of using touch-screen tablet technology on overall student learning gains. This article provides a meta-analysis of studies that used tablets for the delivery of math interventions, programs, or apps to increase student math achievement. A total of 20 group design studies with 2,805 participants were included in the meta-analysis. Overall, tablet-based math interventions provided moderate positive effects for student math gains. Significant moderator variables included participant ethnicity, and socio-economic status, selecting a specific app for use, minutes in intervention, dependent variable, and type of control group. Discussion focuses on the need for more rigorous methodology and reporting of participant and design variables in future studies and the implications for researchers and practitioners when using tablets as a delivery method for math interventions.

Teacher Professional Development: Mobile and Limited Technology-enhanced Pedagogy

This qualitative case study seeks to document and understand the influence of technology integrated/supported professional development (PD) on preK-12 grade teachers in Nepal. The study focuses on the value of collaborative, university-school relationships to foster buy-in among teachers to integrate technology for increased student learning. We used the TPACK framework and sociocultural theory of learning to understand how and why technology integration at a rural school in a poor country would support more engaged pedagogy for learning. The PDs were co-designed by the researchers with teachers’ input, and further supported in its implementation when teachers tried out the new strategies in their classrooms. Data was collected utilizing methods of observations, self-reflective fieldnotes, informal interviews, and artifacts. Data analysis indicated that effective and locally suitable technology integration relies on building relationships with the teachers and school community; technology integration needs to be focused on the local needs of students and teachers based on their resources and curricular demands; and while limited (mobile) technology integration can support better learning, student-centered inquiry-based pedagogy needs to guide technology use in class. Furthermore, the study argues that recognizing and valuing local cultural and school contexts are central to successful PD in technology integration.

The Effect of Educational Robotic Applications on Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis Study

In this study, it was aimed to investigate the experimental studies regarding the effect of educational robotic applications on academic achievement by the meta-analysis method. Within the scope of the research, the studies carried out on educational robotic applications were scanned from national and international databases and selected according to inclusion criteria. The sample of the study consisted of 2606 participants with 1300 in the experimental group and 1306 in the control group. In the study, the effect size values and combined effect size of each study included in the meta-analysis were calculated by using CMA. As a result of the study, it has been found that educational robotic applications have a positive and low level effect on academic achievement according to the random effects model. As a result of the analyzes conducted to reveal the publication bias status of the study, it has been found that there is no publication bias in the meta-analysis study. In addition, it has been found that the effect size of educational robotic applications on academic achievement does not change depending on the subject area and duration of application but changes depending on the sample size. In the other studies to be conducted, the effectiveness of the students in different variables such as computational thinking skills, problem solving skills, attitude, motivation, and anxiety levels can be examined in addition to the variables studied.

STEM Literacy of Students in Vocational Education

Knowledge of all disciplines is more or less equally important and crucial but, in education management, it is important to integrate disciplines so that the knowledge is useful and can be applied to create new things, solve problems and prevent future threats. STEM education for vocational student is not only a trend in education, but also an instructional approach that focuses on students and will lead to sustainable knowledge and learning. This research studied documents that explored the importance of STEM literacy for vocational school students in Thailand. Vocational education must be aligned with Thailand 4.0 and Industrial 4.0 models, and thus vocational schools must adjust their learning approach to be aligned with the Education 4.0 model. As vocational school students will be valuable to the development of the country, STEM literacy must be integrated into a project-based learning model which is a teaching approach for creating invention and innovation. The result of the study shows that STEM literacy for Thai vocational education consists of six components: identifying a STEM problem, exploring and acquiring new knowledge, applying STEM concepts, solving the STEM problem, communicating STEM information and making a STEM decision. The aforementioned components can be used to create a STEM literacy evaluation form for vocational school students.

An Investigation of Pre-service Music Teachers’ Attitudes towards Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of this research is to determine the pre-service music teachers’ attitudes towards online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study investigated the attitudes of music teacher candidates toward online learning and if they differed by the variables of gender, year of study and academic achievement. The “Online Learning Attitude Scale” was used to collect data for the study. The study was conducted with 164 pre-service music teachers studying at the education faculties of Aksaray University, Çanakkale 18 Mart University, and Necmettin Erbakan University in the 2020-2021 academic year. The independent groups t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used in the data analysis. Results from the study suggested that pre-service music teachers’ attitudes regarding online learning in the COVID-19 pandemic were negative to moderate. In addition, the study indicated that the attitudes of music teacher candidates towards online learning differed by gender, year of study, and academic achievement variables during the COVID-19 pandemic.