Digital Educational Materials Research Articles

Towards Advanced Digital Learning: The Effectiveness of Employing Digital Technology in Education in Jerusalem Schools

This qualitative descriptive research study aims to identify the effectiveness of digital learning technologies in Jerusalem schools, from the perspective of school principals and teachers. The study employs open interviews as its data collection method, and content analysis to analyze the responses of participants.The participants in the study comprise five school principals and ten teachers, all of whom have experience and knowledge in digital learning and seek to apply its concepts in their schools. They were selected based on their administrative efficiency, and their experience in applying e-learning with their students.The study's research questions focus on the most important digital learning technologies employed in Jerusalem schools, the effectiveness of these technologies, and the challenges associated with their implementation.The study findings reveal that Jerusalem schools use various digital learning technologies, including hardware, software, communication platforms, educational and interactive materials, gamification software, and technological projects. However, the availability and readiness of these technologies vary across schools, depending on the school supervisor's support and resources. The effectiveness of digital learning technologies in Jerusalem schools is reflected in the high academic achievement of students, the acquisition of educational values through digital learning techniques, and an increase in enthusiasm and motivation for learning, while taking into account individual differences.The study also highlights some challenges associated with the implementation of digital learning technologies in Jerusalem schools, including issues with student's parents, the readiness and capacity of educational staff, and the digital infrastructure of schools.The study concludes by offering recommendations for future research and practice, including strengthening training programs and workshops to develop students and teachers to meet their future needs, increasing awareness among parents, and continuous work to improve the digital infrastructure of schools affiliated with the Palestinian Ministry of Education, in order to keep pace with the accelerated and continuous technological digital acceleration.

MODERN APPROACHES TO PREDICTING STRATEGIES FOR THE FORMATION OF INFORMATION LITERACY OF STUDENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATION

The article discusses modern approaches to predicting strategies for the formation of information literacy of students. The phenomenon of information literacy, the genesis of this phenomenon, its criteria and elements are considered. The authors establish the correspondence of the levels of change in pedagogical practice in the context of digital transformation of education to the levels of interaction of students with digital educational materials.

The Digital Transformation of Instructional Materials. Views and Practices of Teachers, Families and Editors

The purpose of this article is to present the design and main findings of a three-year study analyzing the transition from printed to digital educational materials for primary education in Spain. Special attention has been given to the metamorphosis of didactic materials in the context of the digital society. The research focused on two issues: (a) the opinion of educational agents regarding digital educational material, and (b) the use made of digital educational materials in schools and classrooms. Two different but complementary studies were designed and carried out. The first explored the perspectives or subjectivities of educational agents—teachers, material creators and families. The second was a multi-case study involving several schools and analyzing the educational use of materials by teachers. Our findings indicate that the dissemination of digital educational materials is carried out through both paid commercial platforms and public access platforms promoted by educational administrations and that an expository teaching model underlies most online teaching materials. Educational agents have high expectations and a positive predisposition towards digital resources. Likewise, it has been found that teachers make functional and hybrid didactic adaptations of digital resources. Finally, it is suggested that the study’s approach and methodology have potential for extrapolation to other national contexts.

WordTrek: A Digital Educational Material that Contributes to Vocabulary Learning in Higher Education

WordTrek: a digital educational material that contributes to vocabulary learning in higher education is a study whose objective was to determine the contribution that the integration of this educational resource makes to the process of learning vocabulary in English. A qualitative study of the descriptive scope with a case study design was conducted. The results indicated that the material increases students' motivation and interest in learning vocabulary, helps the development of vocabulary learning strategies and promotes collaborative work and autonomy. It is concluded that vocabulary learning is a complex process affected by different factors and it requires the design of methodologies and materials that promote its constant practice.

OPEN EDUCATION IN STUDYING SCIENCES – DEVELOPING OF A EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK

The article presents in detail the main outcomes of a recent action – research project PULCHRA – Science in the city (https://pulchra-schools.eu/), funded by Horizon 2020 EU program, promoted by the University of Athens and a consortium of ten academic and research European institutions, including the Education Research Unit from Romania. The project was inspired by the open education principles (Abrioux, 2009) and creates a complex learning by doing framework for secondary students of 14 to 17 years old. The perspective of City as ecosystem creates for the involved partner schools various opportunities for exploiting inquiry-based methods and addresses real life problems (Pedaste, et al., 2015). After three years of implementation, PULCHRA developed a specific methodology, by promoting real life experiments during science classes, in collaboration with community representatives and the support from partners, experts, and other stakeholders. By using a variety of resources, materials, and teaching approaches, specific science teams managed to research,develop, produce and promote solutions to several common issues/opportunities that European cities face due to increased urbanization. Out of the six environmental, social and economic thematic areas of the project, Romanian schools focused on regenerating urban space to connect people in a healthyenvironment. The article explores the outcomes at grass-root level, as documented by monitoring and evaluation activities conducted in six upper secondary schools from Romania. In particular, we highlight the contribution of the project in building students’ good scientific knowledge, in promoting expert and community participation and encouraging active engagement in shared living environments and futures. The contribution of the project on development of STEM competences, in relation with the national curriculum, is also explored. In the context of COVID pandemics, the article will highlight the importance of the City Challenges Platform, set up to facilitate the learning and collaboration of the members of the city science teams and wider network. The contributionto sharing digital educational material, design relevant experiments and develop distance-learning courses on cities as urban eco-systems will also be documented.

Participatory Development of an Integrated, eHealth-Supported, Educational Care Pathway (Diabetes Box) for People With Type 2 Diabetes: Development and Usability Study.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) tremendously affects patient health and health care globally. Changing lifestyle behaviors can help curb the burden of T2D. However, health behavior change is a complex interplay of medical, behavioral, and psychological factors. Personalized lifestyle advice and promotion of self-management can help patients change their health behavior and improve glucose regulation. Digital tools are effective in areas of self-management and have great potential to support patient self-management due to low costs, 24/7 availability, and the option of dynamic automated feedback. To develop successful eHealth solutions, it is important to include stakeholders throughout the development and use a structured approach to guide the development team in planning, coordinating, and executing the development process. The aim of this study is to develop an integrated, eHealth-supported, educational care pathway for patients with T2D. The educational care pathway was developed using the first 3 phases of the Center for eHealth and Wellbeing Research roadmap: the contextual inquiry, the value specification, and the design phase. Following this roadmap, we used a scoping review about diabetes self-management education and eHealth, past experiences of eHealth practices in our hospital, focus groups with health care professionals (HCPs), and a patient panel to develop a prototype of an educational care pathway. This care pathway is called the Diabetes Box (Leiden University Medical Center) and consists of personalized education, digital educational material, self-measurements of glucose, blood pressure, activity, and sleep, and a smartphone app to bring it all together. The scoping review highlights the importance of self-management education and the potential of telemonitoring and mobile apps for blood glucose regulation in patients with T2D. Focus groups with HCPs revealed the importance of including all relevant lifestyle factors, using a tailored approach, and using digital consultations. The contextual inquiry led to a set of values that stakeholders found important to include in the educational care pathway. All values were specified in biweekly meetings with key stakeholders, and a prototype was designed. This prototype was evaluated in a patient panel that revealed an overall positive impression of the care pathway but stressed that the number of apps should be restricted to one, that there should be no delay in glucose value visualization, and that insulin use should be incorporated into the app. Both patients and HCPs stressed the importance of direct automated feedback in the Diabetes Box. After developing the Diabetes Box prototype using the Center for eHealth and Wellbeing Research roadmap, all stakeholders believe that the concept of the Diabetes Box is useful and feasible and that direct automated feedback and education on stress and sleep are essential. A pilot study is planned to assess feasibility, acceptability, and usefulness in more detail.

Video education about side effects of chemotherapy and immunotherapy and its impact on the anxiety, depression, and distress level of cancer patients

BackgroundPatients diagnosed with cancer are at higher risk of anxiety, depression, and overall distress. These mood disturbances are risk factors for non-adherence to cancer treatment, increased length of stay during hospital admissions, increased number of visits to the emergency department, and also impact survival. Although paper handouts about the potential side effects are widely used in the oncology practice studies have shown that digital educational material is known to work better when compared to traditional methods. However, the impact of video education on anxiety, depression, and distress have not been previously evaluated. Our study aimed to assess whether video education about potential chemotherapy and immunotherapy can reduce anxiety, depression, and distress levels.MethodsAfter IRB approval, we enrolled patients who were fluent in English, younger than 80 years of age, and who were able to provide informed consent. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Distress Thermometer were used to assess distress, as well as depression and anxiety before and after watching video educational material. Paired t-test was used to compare the differences between the scores before and after watching educational videos. The statistical software GraphPad Prism 9, San Diego, California, was used to perform the statistical analysis.ResultsWe enrolled 29 patients, of whom 20 completed the study, six withdrew, two were lost to follow-up, and one did not complete the initial questionnaire. Of all patients that completed the study 85% of the patient found videos helpful, and they were 7/10 likely to recommend them to other patients who may experience symptoms. The mean depression score changed from 4.75 before to 4.9 after watching the videos (p 0.77), distress score from 2.3 to 2.65 (p 0.52), and anxiety scores changed from 4.85 to 6.15 (p 0.03). The feedback provided by the patients indicated that they were more willing to watch the videos related to the side effects they experienced at their free time and convenience.ConclusionsOur study suggests that patients were open to video education and found it helpful and worth watching. However, the exposure of the patients to the videos about potential side effects of cancer treatment, including those patients do not experience, may lead to increased anxiety.

Особенности узнавания и описания школьниками с особыми образовательными потребностями учебных объектов на 3D-рисунках и других цифровых учебных материалах

The aim of the study is to determine the features of recognition and description of educational objects on digital educational materials by students of 1 complementary - 5 classes with mental retardation and identify the originality of perception and the potential use of 3D models in teaching this group of students with special educational needs. The article describes the features and indicates age differences in the recognition and naming of objects presented on various digital educational materials; reveals the originality of the perception of 3D models of educational objects; formulates a number of recommendations on the use of digital visual aids, including 3D models, in the process of teaching students with mental retardation. The scientific novelty of the study lies in a comprehensive analysis of the features of recognition and description of various visualizations, presented in the form of digital educational materials, by students. As a result, the obtained data expand the understanding of the possibilities of using electronic visualization in teaching children with mental retardation and allow for a more complete design of work on the formation of media competence of modern speech pathologists and students planning professional activity in the field of teaching children with mental retardation.

BILINGUAL CURRICULUM MATERIALS SUPPORTING SIGNED LANGUAGE AS A FIRST LANGUAGE FOR DEAF STUDENTS

Considering Deaf children and adults as bilingual - their first language is a Signed Language (SL) and the second language is learned via print - provides professionals with a paradigm to be used for creating better learning opportunities. In this paper, Greek Sign Language ((G)SL)) [1] as a first language (L1) is the base language we use to present certain bilingual methodological teaching and learning considerations. This work is the result of a long journey from the initial thinking of the American Sign Language Curriculum and its influence on the development of the (G)SL curriculum in Greece. The paper offers discussion of innovative educational multimedia material that are easily accessed via online web portals, developed for teaching (G)SL as an L1 to pre-school and primary school Deaf children. In this work, SL as L1 is a resource that fully enables Deaf children to learn an L2 via print, supporting their bilingual acquisition capabilities. In developing curricula and supporting materials, we consider two important foundational components: Deaf native signers and near native signers as language role models for Deaf children, parents and teachers; and the development and interaction with digital educational materials. Thus, collaboration between educational and technology professionals and members of the Deaf community is critical. This bilingual model can be incorporated into any SL. (G)SL) is used as a model to display innovative practices merging SL (L1), print (L2), technology and creative instructional and assessment materials, maximized by understanding the visual nature of SL and its advantages for school learning. The penultimate goal is Deaf students to become successful bilingual learners to fully function in the world today and tomorrow.
 
 
 [1] In this paper, we will use (G)SL to indicate that we are discussing Greek Signed Language but content and technology can be used for any SL.

Greek teachers’ difficulties & opportunities in emergency distance teaching

During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, most schools worldwide were closed and online teaching replaced face-to-face teaching. This study reports the results of a survey among 845 teachers of primary and secondary education in Greece who taught their students fully remotely during the pandemic lockdown. These Greek teachers expressed the difficulties that they faced as well as the opportunities that they gained during this emergency distance teaching (EDT). Through qualitative content analysis this study found that everyone (students, teachers, and state) involved in EDT faced various difficulties due to digital infrastructure’s inadequacy, limited support by the state, limited digital educational material, as well as low digital literacy of students, parents, and even some teachers. On the other hand, there were many opportunities for teachers to experiment and apply their prior training knowledge on distance education to EDT. More concretely, teachers managed not only to improve their teaching and digital skills, to enrich and organise their educational material with more interesting online educational resources, but also to collaborate with colleagues, and to maintain effective communication with students. Similarly, students had opportunities to improve their digital and soft skills and receive personalized teaching. However, some teachers believed that their workload and their available free time increased while other teachers believed the opposite. Also, some teachers believed that students’ participation and engagement increased while other teachers believed the opposite. Finally, the study suggests actions to be taken to support the teachers in EDT such as improvements in digital infrastructure, digital educational material, teachers’ training, as well as support and clear guidelines by the educational authorities.

Research on Mental Health Education Based on Obstetrics and Gynecology Nursing

To assess and holistically manage mental health sequelae and potential psychiatric comorbidities associated with obstetric and gynecological disorders, optimizing patient care, ensuring efficient use of limited resources, and improving health economic models are critical. Untreated mental health disorders are associated with severe obstetric and psychiatric sequelae and have long-term effects on neonatal and child outcomes. The purpose of this review is to describe the urgent need for mental health education among obstetricians and to present our vision for a set of concise, evidence-based, accessible digital educational materials designed to convey the core concepts of mental health in obstetric care.

Toward Accessible Online Learning for Visually Impaired and Blind Students

The widespread adoption of blended and hybrid learning models, and the increased use of learning technologies, especially in recent years, have caused several challenges for students with disabilities as they are facing more complex barriers accessing and using digital educational tools and materials. Although such concerns are relatively not new in online education, their impacts on equity, inclusion, and access for people with disabilities have been deepened considerably during the covid-19 pandemic. This paper discusses challenges in online learning for blind and visually impaired students and highlights innovative inclusive technologies to empower them accessing online education.

MULTIMEDIA AS AN INCENTIVE FOR INTERNAL MOTIVATION AND USE OF COMPUTERS IN SPORTS

The purpose of this study was to present the appropriateness of digital educational material and to explore multimedia usability and the importance of using them in developing the motivation of participants in learning sports skills. The participants were 63 beginner female volleyball athletes, aged 10-12 years (MO = 10,94, TA = 1.1 and 1-2 years of practice experience (MO = 1,44, TA = 1,4). The intervention program had 10 weeks duration, with 3 practices per week. For the needs of this study, an internet site (www.minivolley.gr) was used which had been created for this purpose. The athletes entered the positioning in their free time. The location contained sketches, 3D animations, videos with practice exercises, and presentations for the teaching and learning of the three basic Volleyball skills and their regulations. At the tip of the intervention, the comfort of attending the electronic courses was evaluated. The appropriateness of digital educational material according to the perceived view of the learners was evaluated using a part of the questionnaire of (Sun et al., 2008) while the intrinsic motivation of athletes was used the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Mc Auely et al., 1989). The results showed a statistically significant improvement in all of the variables of both questionnaires.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0954/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Tecnologias Educacionais Digitais para abordagem da Sifilis e instrumentalização de profissionais de saúde

Syphilis is a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) with great repercussions in public health, constantly requiring the development of strategies to contribute to the minimization of this problem. Thus, the objective was to develop digital educational materials on syphilis for the didactic instrumentalization of professionals in a basic health unit, investigating their perception of the proposed educational technologies and the possibility of using them in primary health care. This article is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach carried out from September 2020 to August 2021, involving the participation of 15 professionals from a basic health unit. A booklet, three videos and a game were developed and evaluated. According to the participating professionals, the digital educational materials proved to be adequate and necessary for use in health education activities. Therefore, the evaluation resulted in positive reports and suggestions for promising improvements to improve the material. The possibility of using educational materials and ways of using them to reach the population was highlighted. Finally, it is noteworthy that after analysis, the professionals considered the digital educational materials for syphilis prevention and their use in health interventions to be valid.

СОЗДАНИЕ ЦИФРОВОГО ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОГО РЕСУРСА ДЛЯ ОБУЧЕНИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ СТУДЕНТОВ, ПОЛУЧАЮЩИХ ВЫСШЕЕ ОБРАЗОВАНИЕ ДИСТАНЦИОННО

The article gives the background for active use of digital technologies in the frames of the modern educational paradigm and considers the requirements for digital educational materials to meet. Then the history of creation of the basic content for the described electronic educational resource – mobile application “World on your palm” supposed to be used by USPTU students to study English remotely as well as its’ methodical and technological upgrade are presented. The reasons for the necessity of transforming the existing electronic educational resource into the form of a mobile application are given in the article. The experience and the results of the research of Russian and foreign specialists in the spheres of pedagogical sciences and educational technologies were considered when creating the methodological concept of the given mobile application. The research done by the authors of the application has led them to the hypothesis about its’ possible popularity among users. The results of the poll held among the focus-group which tested the given application are presented in the article. They have proven the hypothesis put forward previously. The given mobile application is the first absolutely mobile electronic educational resource created in a university. Its’ content and the educational strategy used in it can make it interesting not only for oil and gas specialists learning English remotely, but for all users who want to improve their English.

Coupling of Serendipity, Affordance and Taxonomy in Digital Competence: HCI for Illiterates

This research work is the result of multidisciplinary research for the design of a digital learning tool from the basic level. Computer science guarantees the technical concepts of the development of the tool. At the same time, Information and Communication Science discipline describes the concepts of cognitive psychology with digital competence in computerization. The overall goal of this work is to provide an HCI component for basic level learning or HCI for the illiterate. It is about transforming a communication tool from a cognitive system to a digital learning tool adapted to the learner’s level of digital competence. The author relies on the UML class diagram to identify the affordance and serendipity of HCI property entities. The mathematical study of the similarity between these two properties allows us to update the learner’s profile. Stephanie’s approach was used when managing the learner’s profile and the digital competency taxonomy to classify the learner’s level of digital use. The principle of an expert system was taken up in this work to make the decision on the level of digital competence of the learner and to guide the solution so that the learning continues without interruption. This expert system integrates the data science of digital educational materials, defining its specificity. The algorithm of the realization summarizes the implementation of the whole approach. αβGasy@mobile is an application on Android for Malagasy language literacy. To learn the letter “l” with this application, the initially low-level learner had an intermediate assessment score after 2 hours of continuous learning. Self-constructivism has been developed and strengthened by the HCI illiterate component. We have hundreds of learners for the case study and used ten smartphones to 5 inches. On the selected samples, the results of the experiment are close to our objective. More precisely, the inactive time is almost non-existent, the learning time predefined in the system is close to reality, and the speed of return on the interaction is fluid while the evaluation is notified.

Learning Through Technology: Development of a Sexual Health Education Application for Adolescents and Youth in Benin

In Benin, to support the promotion of sexual health education, the government has made the improvement of sexual and gender health conditions in schools one of its priorities. The introduction of technological tools, Internet access (ADSL/Wifi) and the growing importance of the use of digital social networks by many school children in Benin constitute a challenge for the entire educational community. In order to respond to the lack of digital educational materials to improve knowledge and change attitudes towards sexual health among adolescents and young people, we designed a digital tool, in the form of a sexual health education application, and then used it as educational materials in several high schools and colleges in Benin. After the experimental use of the application in the chosen school environment, a survey was conducted to study the attitudes of adolescent students towards this mode of learning. The results obtained show a general increase in learners’ interest in sexual health education through the device. Learning seems to have a more playful aspect that keeps learners engaged and maximizes accessibility to key concepts in sexual health education. However, further data collection from learners is needed before appropriate ways to integrate sex education can be deduced. The long-term impact of the application needs to be studied further in order to reach more formal and decisive conclusions.

Investigation of Contacts for Latent Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infection: Application Software Development

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a pathology that continues to be worthy of special attention from health professionals and society due to its high prevalence, proving to be a crucial public health problem. Objectives: To describe the development of an application for family health strategy professionals’ investigation of tuberculosis contacts for Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection. Methods: This study is applied research on an application software developed according to three of the five phases described by Falkembach for developing digital educational materials, which include analysis and planning, modeling, and implementation. Results: The application is dynamic; that is, it guides health professionals through sequenced screens according to professionals’ self-informed answers. This functionality helps them deciding whether to proceed to the treatment of the patient with Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection or returning to the initial stage of a tuberculosis contact. The screens of the application follow the flowchart presented in the Ministry of Health’s Manual of recommendations for tuberculosis control in Brazil of 2018. Conclusion: The application developed to guide Family Health Strategy professionals regarding Latent Infection by Mycobacterium Tuberculosis can prevent human errors and increase the care quality when assessing tuberculosis contacts.

Digitalised exercise material in forensic odontology

IntroductionThis paper presents digital educational material in forensic odontology, including dental identification after multiple fatalities and dental age estimation from different age groups.Material and methodElectronic patient records consisting of intraoral scans of the dentition, digital radiographs, photographs and written dental records were collected. Exercises in age estimations contained digital radiographs and photographs of ground tooth sections, with digital measuring tools and tables according to age groups. The teaching material was organised as a module in an electronic Learning Management System with external links to all relevant teaching material.ResultsFor the identification exercises, intraoral scans and the latest digital radiographs simulated the postmortem examination of the deceased. For comparison, all other radiographs, photographs and dental records were available as antemortem material. The exercise was to match postmortem findings with the antemortem records using the Interpol standard and reconciliation. Age assessment of children used designated tables to grade tooth development on digital radiographs. For adults, non-destructive methods, digital radiographs, photographs and measuring tools were used.DiscussionThe teaching concept was hybrid, but it can easily be adapted as a fully digital exercise. The instructions and written material can be translated into different languages. The level of difficulty in the exercises can be adjusted according to the participant’s level of knowledge.ConclusionThe educational material embraces the new possibilities for digitalisation and intraoral scanning. This might be a valuable tool for motivating and engaging the students in their participation and understanding of the subject.

Scientific and methodological foundations of hygienic assessment and examination of digital educational content

Introduction. In a modern school, digital educational materials are widely used, implemented through electronic teaching aids. However, teachers in the learning process are not guided by the appropriate recommendations of hygienists. The purpose of the study is to substantiate hygienically significant parameters of digital educational content presented on devices equipped with a screen. Materials and methods. Hygienic observational, expert-analytical and physiological-hygienic studies were carried out to assess 460 electronic educational materials. Results. A number of indicators have been established that characterize the readability of educational materials of a digital school, four of which are regulated by the current sanitary legislation, and the rest are of a recommendatory nature. The assessment of the textual material made it possible to establish that the educational materials did not comply with the regulated and recommended hygienic requirements in all respects. The expert assessment showed that the hygienically not rationally designed educational material presented on the screens causes discomfort of the visual analyzer after working with it. Working with such material contributes to visual fatigue, at the same time, the use of hygienically rationally designed materials is characterized by positive trends in the state of the visual analyzer. Conclusion. A hygienically not rationally designed educational material presented on screens causes discomfort in the visual analyzer and promotes visual fatigue. Hygienic assessment and examination of used and developed digital educational content should be carried out in terms of text, color, illustrative design and design of electronic educational material.