Enhance Student Learning Research Articles

ASSESSMENT OF BLENDED LEARNING EDUCATION MODEL: UPTAKE AND REASONS FOR ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN CONSTRUCTION EDUCATION

The emergence and integration of information technology in modern age education training have changed the face of education across the globe. The need for the blend of information and communication technology tools in construction education training is of the high essence as it enhances students learning capacity through visuals and other means. Therefore, the study investigates the level of the blend of ICT with the traditional method of learning among lecturers within the built environment departments in Covenant University in Nigeria and reasons for its use were also examined. A survey method was adopted for the study; 125 structured questionnaires were administered to the randomly selected lecturers and 100 were retrieved. The data collected was analyzed with Mean item score, percentage, and Mann-Whitney U respectively. The result revealed that the adoption of the ICT tools, which include interactive whiteboards PowerPoint, a learning management system, and video clips among the lecturers is very high. The reasons attributed to its use is due to the visual platform it provides for the students while weblogs, web conferencing, and mobile phone were the lesser used tools. In conclusion, the study recommends that Covenant University management should increase the funding of ICT tools and also enhance the lecturers training in the use of blended learning style.

Study on Effectiveness of School Leaders in Primary Schools of Wolaita and Dawuro Zones in Southern Region of Ethiopia

Effective school leader is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, expression, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community. In light of this, this research was aimed at assessing the effectiveness of school leadership in primary schools of Wolaita and Dawuro Zones. To conduct the study a descriptive survey method was used. Samples of 7 woredas, 28 schools, 28 school leaders, 28 supervisors, 28 parent representatives, 140 teachers and 280 students were selected by simple random and purposive sampling techniques as data sources. To answer the basic questions, data were collected from groups of sample respondents through questionnaires, interview and document analysis. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques including means grand means and percentages. The results of the study revealed that the school leaders were effective in managing non instructional activities which were also reflected in teachers’ performance. Moreover, leaders’ effectiveness in enhancing students learning was found to be medium. Thus the organization of cluster training centers, in service training, experience sharing and focus on instructional tasks in planning documents are among recommendations. Key Terms: Effectiveness, Leadership, Educational leadership, Performance, Primary Schools

Crowd‐sourcing CRISPR: A Course‐Based Research Project to Investigate the Impact of Chromatin Environment on Double‐Strand Break Repair While Enhancing Student Learning

Chromatin structure is an active player in the cellular response to DNA double‐strand breaks (DSBs). The chromatin signals surrounding a DSB are thought to govern which repair pathway, homologous recombination or non‐homologous end joining, is engaged and if cell cycle arrest or cellular death is induced. However, the logic of how combinatorial chromatin signals are integrated to decide cellular repair outcome is unclear and is a major limitation in our understanding of regional predisposition to genomic change. To test the model that certain chromatin signatures (combinations of various histone post‐translational modifications) impact DSB susceptibility and repair, we have optimized a CRISPR‐Cas9 system for inducing DSBs, which we can monitor for DSB frequency and repair using quantitative PCR and plating assays using Saccharomyces cerevisiae.To curate a collection of genome‐wide DSB sites and to create custom guide RNAs (gRNAs), students in a spring semester 16‐week Molecular Genetics laboratory course select different putative DSB sites using publicly available genome‐wide chromatin modification maps and transcription data. Students then design and clone unique gRNA constructs for Cas9 targeting to their selected site. After sequence verification, students introduce the gRNA constructs into a yeast strain containing fluorescent DNA repair proteins. Students then examine break induction and repair pathway using qPCR across the break site, as well as using cell‐based assays. Follow up work to measure differences in repair pathway choice, checkpoint activation, and cell viability is completed by summer research students.The educational goals of the project are to increase students' content knowledge, communication skills and technical and analytical skills, and are assessed using backward‐designed course materials.This project provides the five defining characteristics of a successful course‐based undergraduate research experience (CURE), as defined by CUREnet: 1. Element of discovery and production of novel data; 2. Iteration built into the lab; 3. High levels of collaboration; 4. Students learn authentic scientific practices and 5. The work is broadly relevant/publishable (1). A pedagogical research question we wish to address is: what elements of a CURE lead to specific outcomes? We would like to assess the incorporation of these CURE design elements in the course using Laboratory Course Assessment Survey (2) and test the relationship between CURE elements and mid‐ and long‐term outcomes such as self‐efficacy and persistence. A recently published assessment tool, the Persistence in the Sciences survey, measures project ownership, self‐efficacy, science identity and community values (3) and will be deployed in parallel with LCAS.Incorporating this research into a CURE will not only leverage the power of parallel projects to collect data for greater scientific understanding, but it will bring this high‐impact practice to a larger diversity of our students, enhance student learning, and aims to inspire the next generation of scientists.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Enhancing Student Learning of Removable Prosthodontics Using the Latest Advancements in Virtual 3D Modeling

When educating dental students or prosthodontic residents, a picture can be worth a thousand words. If that is so, then what could enhanced 3D modeling be worth relative to enhancing student learning? The answer is undoubtedly more than what a picture can provide. That is why the use of 3D models has become increasingly common with respect to patient care. The 3D modeling allows the patient to visualize more clearly the proposed treatments and outcomes; however, while 3D modeling has started to make an appearance in dental education, many of the current 3D modeling techniques do not offer the flexibility needed for dental education and enhanced student learning. At the University of Iowa, the use of 3D modeling software has enabled the creation of 3D models that can be altered or customized to be used in a more flexible way to teach students in the arts and complexities of removable partial denture (RPD) design and associated components. This educational technique article will: (1) demonstrate how these 3D models can be used to enhance student perception and learning regarding RPDs; and (2) will demonstrate using videos and web-based portals to show how the 3D RPD models were created and then used for educational purposes.

Strengthen Your Teaching Skills to Enhance Student Learning

Strengthen Your Teaching Skills to Enhance Student Learning

Enhancing Student Learning in Sport Education Through the Manipulation of Need-Supportive Instruction

Though motivationally nurturing instruction has been linked to numerous desirable outcomes, its presence and impact on student learning, particularly in models-based practice, is largely absent in the literature. Grounded in self-determination theory, this study examined the efficacy of an intervention aimed at increasing the provision of psychological need-supportive instruction and the associated impact on learning within Sport Education. This study included one preservice teacher, Jason, and the 58 students in his fifth-grade class. Jason first taught one season of floor hockey. During this season, Jason’s need-supportive behaviors were coded and his students were tested in the cognitive (pre, post, retention) and psychomotor (pre and post) domains. Following a workshop seeking to increase his provision of need support, Jason then taught a season of pickleball to the same class, and identical data collection procedures were used. Relative to the preintervention season, Jason exhibited significantly more need-supportive behaviors in the form of autonomy support ( p = .006), structure ( p < .001), and relatedness support ( p = .004) in the postintervention season. Analysis of variance tests revealed significant improvements in cognitive scores during both seasons from pre- to posttest; however, only during the postintervention season were scores significantly higher from posttest to retention, t (53) = 2.20, p = .033, d = .22. Though significant improvement in students’ contextual skill performance was observed in both seasons, t -test results using change scores indicated significantly more progress was made during the postintervention season. Significant improvement in decontextualized skill performance was comparable across seasons. Collectively, these results suggest not only that preservice teachers’ motivating styles are malleable, but also that increased provision of need support in physical education may facilitate improvements in student learning. Subscribe to TPE

Review of Three Educational Models that Enhance Student Learning: Alternatives to Lecturing

Review of Three Educational Models that Enhance Student Learning: Alternatives to Lecturing

Integrating Writing into Undergraduate Soil Management Course Enhances Student Learning

Writing could enhance student learning of topics such as soil management while contributing to students’ critical thinking and communication skills, but this has been little studied in high-enrollment and diverse major undergraduate courses in agriculture. We assessed whether writing contributes to student learning and explored challenges and opportunities associated with writing for 2 years in a high-enrollment (75–80 students) undergraduate soil management course. Students wrote a term paper in small groups on a self-selected soil management topic and received feedback from classmates and instructors about 2 weeks before submission. After submission, students answered 10 survey questions ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Across both years, >65% of students reported they learned practical knowledge by writing, whereas 60% recognized they learned more on their topics of interest, which suggests that writing projects can enhance student learning of soil management. About 55% of students indicated they learned more by writing than from readings and lectures (rating >3.3). They also found peer review by classmates (>3.5) and instructor feedback (>4) helpful. Responses among majors did not generally differ. A potential challenge was that students did not always use all available resources. Overall, writing projects can enhance student learning of soil management and exploration of topics of interest.

Enhancing Student Learning in Cybersecurity Education using an Out-of-class Learning Approach

Aim/Purpose: In this study, the researchers investigated whether the out-of-class learning approach could help the students to attain any valuable learning outcomes for cybersecurity learning and could enhance the perceived value of cybersecurity education among the students. Background: Cybersecurity learning poses challenges for its students to learn a complicated subject matter and the students may be intimidated by the challenging courses in cybersecurity programs. Therefore, it is essential for the faculty members to devise some mechanisms to promote cybersecurity learning to increase its student retention. The mechanism suggested by this study was the out-of-class learning approach. Methodology: The researchers in this study employed a content analysis and adopted a semiotic method to analyze qualitative data. The researchers also conducted crosstabulation analyses using chi-square tests to detect the significant differences in the emerging learning outcomes from the two different out-of-class learning activities investigated in this study. Contribution: This study addressed the difficulty of cybersecurity education and proposed a viable mechanism to promote the student learning in such a complicated subject matter. Findings: For cybersecurity education, the out-of-class learning approach is a viable pedagogical mechanism that could lead the students to several learning outcomes, including connecting them to the real-life scenarios related to the cybersecurity profession, guiding them to their career choices and development, stimulating their intellectual growth, creating their justification of learning, and raising their cybersecurity awareness. Recommendations for Practitioners: The instructors of any cybersecurity programs should incorporate some out-of-class learning activities into the courses in their programs, especially the introductory-level courses. Additionally, it is important to coordinate the out-of-class learning activities with the in-class lessons to enable the students to justify what they have learned in their classrooms and motivate them to learn more. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers could look beyond in-class learning and laboratory learning to investigate the impacts of out-of-class learning activities on cybersecurity education to help the students to attain better learning outcomes. Impact on Society: By promoting cybersecurity education, universities and colleges could attain a higher retention rate of the students in their cybersecurity programs. The higher retention rate of the students in cybersecurity programs would help to ease the critical shortage of cybersecurity talent. Future Research: Future research could explore the impacts of other out-of-class learning activities on cybersecurity learning; for example: job shadowing, attending cybersecurity conferences, internship, developing cybersecurity systems or tools for actual customers, working on cybersecurity research with faculty members. Additionally, future studies could investigate the effects of the out-of-class learning approach on promoting other academic programs that are characterized by intensely complex and technical nature, similar to cybersecurity programs.

Role of various small group teaching methods in enhancing learning among medical undergraduate students - A comparative study

Background: Small group teaching (SGT) has grown in popularity in medical education as it offers a dynamic setting for learning and it is also learner centered. Aim and Objectives: The aim of the study was (1) to compare the effectiveness of various SGT methods in enhancing students learning and (2) to assess the students perception on different small group learning methods. Materials and Methods: Sixty second year MBBS students who gave informed consent were divided randomly into five small groups of 12 each namely buzz groups, fishbowl structure, crossover group, circular group, and horseshoe group. The individual facilitator was priorly trained and assigned to each group to discuss the given clinical scenario and motivate them. Pre- and post-assessments were done based on multiple-choice questions. Students perception on different small group learning methods was evaluated based on five-point Likert scale. Data analyzed in SPSS software version 23 using paired t-test and ANOVA with Scheffe (post hoc). Results: There was a significant difference in pretest and post-test mean scores in each group (P < 0.01) and also in the mean gain between the groups (P < 0.01). Gain in performance in post-test was high in circular group (4.08) followed by fishbowl (3.50) and crossover (3.50). Small group tutorial teaching was agreed on by students and the faculties as more effective. About 88% in horseshoe, 85% in fishbowl reported that their technique improved their confidence level. About 93% of buzz group and 82% of horseshoe group students were able to identify their competency gaps. Conclusion: Case scenarios should be included in all teaching-learning sessions to help to generate interest. Future avenues for research analysis of different SGTs and student-teacher perceptions across the educational continuum including undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing professional education can be initiated.

Non-accounting Based Business Simulations: Enhanced Student Learning of Accounting Concepts

Non-accounting Based Business Simulations: Enhanced Student Learning of Accounting Concepts

Multimodal Learning in Health Sciences and Medicine: Merging Technologies to Enhance Student Learning and Communication.

Advances in consumer-level educational technologies show great promise for enhancing the learning experiences of students in health and medicine. There are particular benefits tousing a combination of various devices and technologies when teaching challenging concepts. These include augmented reality-enabled devices enriched with accompanying 3D printed models, or virtual reality sessions coupled with online quizzes or revision activities. Tablet applications can also be integrated while students engageconcurrently in desktop-based online learning. This mixing and merging of different technologies can allow educators to focus on the strengths of each device, while mitigating limitations arising from a single mode's stand-alone use. This chapter describes a series of options to integrate multiple digital modes when educating healthscience and medical students using technology. It also presents the opportunity for healthprofessional program graduates to be trained in teaching using technology, as their future careers can be enhanced by an ability to educate effectively,or from the skillsdevelopedwhen incorporating innovations such as serious games into a health curriculum. With the dynamic and ever-changing nature of health and medical education, educators can find great benefits when introducing multimodal digital learning into their respective courses.

Seeing Is Believing: Using Virtual and Augmented Reality to Enhance Student Learning

Virtual and augmented reality apps enable gifted students to explore content in new and exciting ways. Students can use the technology to create interesting and interactive products that not only demonstrate their understanding, but also advance their learning.

Teaching Undergraduate Soil Management to Diverse Majors: Linking Lectures with Field Practicals

Core Ideas Undergraduate students favored field activities related to soil management to enhance their learning. Most students indicated that field tests connected lecture with reality. Field activities can improve learning of soil management, particularly for non‐soils major students. Pairing lectures with field activities can be an effective strategy to teach large (&gt;75) undergraduate soil courses with a wide variety of majors. Enhancing student learning of soil management demands effective teaching strategies. Devoting some lecture periods to field activities could provide a hands‐on learning experience, but studies on this approach—particularly in lecture‐only, diverse‐major, and large undergraduate courses—are not available. We assessed this approach for 3 years in a soil management course for a total of 211 undergraduate students with diverse but related majors. About 23 to 37% of the students were non‐soils or non‐agronomy majors each year. We included two field sessions in fall semester of each year to illustrate how management affects soil processes and properties. Student surveys (21 questions), using ratings on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), showed that students favored field practicals (&gt;4). Students perceived that the written report regarding the field activities further aided their learning (mean of 3.25 across 3 years). Field tests connected lectures with real‐world application, especially for non‐soils/agronomy majors. Some challenges with lecture–field activity teaching approach for large classes (&gt;75 students) include providing opportunities for each student to conduct field measurements, limited time during field tests, and compromising lecture material coverage with in‐depth learning material, among others. Overall, connecting lectures with field activities can improve student perception of increased learning of soil management, particularly for non‐soils major students.

Enhancing student learning by combining Problem Based Learning and Human Patient Simulation

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Problem-based learning (PBL) and Human Patient Simulation (HPS) are two teaching modalities that actively involve and engage students in their learning. PBL and HPS are utilised in Undergraduate Medical Education in the UK, to assist in the development and training of medical students, yet they are frequently used as separate entities in the learning process. Learning is enhanced when students are provided with the opportunity to apply their theoretical learning into a real life context. HPS provides the opportunity for the practical application of theoretical knowledge. By merging the two teaching modalities together, it reinforces existing knowledge gained from PBL. A small-scale, mix-methods, research study was conducted to assess undergraduate students’ learning experience from combined PBL and HPS.

A review of interprofessional training wards: Enhancing student learning and patient outcomes

Background: In an interprofessional training ward (ITW), students from different health professions collaboratively perform patient care with the goal of improving patient care. In the past two decades, ITWs have been established world-wide and studies have investigated their benefits. We aimed to compare ITWs with respect to their logistics, interprofessional learning outcomes and patient outcomes.Methods: We explored PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science and EMBASE (1990–June 2017) and included articles focusing on interprofessional, in-patient training wards with student teams of medical and other health professions students. Two independent reviewers screened studies for eligibility and extracted data.Results: Thirty-seven articles from twelve different institutions with ITWs were included. ITWs world-wide are organized similarly with groups of 2–12 students (i.e. medical, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and pharmacy) being involved in patient care, usually for a period of two weeks. However, the type of clinical ward and the way supervisors are trained differ.Conclusions: ITWs show promising results in short-term student learning outcomes and patient satisfaction rates. Future ITW studies should measure students’ long-term interprofessional competencies using standardized tools. Furthermore, a research focus on the impact of ITWs on patient satisfaction and relevant patient care outcomes is important.

The Effectiveness of Multimedia Courseware in Learning Data Modelling Concepts

Data modelling is a tough topic for students to learn in database courses or database related courses. The use of multimedia courseware with student-centred learning capability can help to enhance students learning and improve achievement on the subject matter. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of using multimedia courseware as a supplemental tool to enhance students learning in data modelling concepts among Bachelor of Information Technology students at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch. To achieve this objective, multimedia courseware was developed with three main sections: pre-test, tutorial and post-test. The courseware then tested on 20 students that have previously learned about data modelling. From the findings, it is discovered that the students’ post-test marks increased after learning using the tutorial courseware when compared with their pre-test marks. The finding results also showed a significant statistical difference between pre-test and post-test marks after using the tutorial. These findings indicate that the students have made significant improvement after learning with the multimedia courseware. As a conclusion, the multimedia courseware indeed can be effective to be used as a supplemental learning tool to enhance students learning and achievement in data modelling concepts thus, overcome the limitations of teacher- centred learning in a classroom environment.

The Development of Interactive Media Based Wirdah Learning Model

This study aimed to find out the feasibility of interactive media-based learning model and the effectiveness of interactive media-based learning model in m Enhancing student learning outcomes. This learning product development model was a model structured in a programmed and systematic sequence and fulfilled the characteristics of students in learning. The results showed (1) test of Civics subject matter experts were at very good qualifications of 96.1%, (2) test of design experts with excellent qualifications of 97.27%, (3) test of software experts at very good qualifications 96 , 1%, (4) individual trials were in excellent qualifications of 92.3%, (5) small group trials were in very good qualifications of 93.9%, (6) field trials were in very good qualifications of 97, 61%. The results of testing the hypothesis proof that there were significant differences between student learning outcomes in the control class and the experimental class. This was indicated by the results of data processing tobserved = 1.97 , at the significance level α = 0.05 ttable = 1.69. It was concluded that interactive media-based learning models that were developed were feasible and effective to improve Civics learning outcomes.

Development of the Social-Media-based Blended Learning Course to Enhance Student Learning: A Case Study on a Social Science Course

The purposes of this research were: 1) to develop a social-media-based blended learning course 2) to study the overall effectiveness of the developed learning course and 3) to examine student learning toward the developed learning course. Purposive sampling was used to select a research sample of 16 students who were enrolled in the selected social science course under the Business and Computer Education Program at Kasetsart University. Data analysis was presented using the mean, standard deviation, t-test and content analysis. The findings indicated that the developed social-media-based blended learning course consisted of five key elements, namely, live events, online content, collaboration, assessments and reference material. It was verified by experts as being of very high quality in its content, learning and application. The overall effectiveness covered flexibility, interaction, learning process, learning climate and engagement. The effectiveness had an overall mean at a high level ( = 4.40, SD = 0.42). The results from open ended questions revealed that students considered that the developed course was an effective learning tool because it was interesting, easy to understand and convenient to study anytime and anywhere. In addition, they thought that blending a course with the most-used technology supported their learning as it helped them review content knowledge, promoted discussion in-class and online and developed good academic skills in terms of being responsible for their own learning and exchanging of ideas. However, some students with time constraints and busy schedules suggested a reduction in online learning activities. As a result, most students liked the developed social-media-based blended learning course used in their learning process while the results of student learning showed that there was significant improvement after using the developed blended learning course. The difference proved that its use contributed to student learning. It can be concluded that a well-blended learning course that is implemented with the fundamentals, key elements and key factors influencing blended learning can be integrated with widely and extensively used technology as part of the teaching and learning process to positively improve student learning.

Experimental design laboratories in introductory physics courses: enhancing cognitive tasks and deep conceptual learning

Being able to contextualise and solve complex problems is a highly valued skill in STEM graduates—a skill which we strive to nurture in our students. Since its introduction into undergraduate teaching, laboratory teaching has been used to consolidate students conceptual understanding, develop their practical skills and inculcate an evidence based problem solving approach. Much work has been done to achieve these goals with varying degrees of success. Here we present an alternative to the regular introductory level physics laboratory experiments which enhances students learning by focusing on problem solving rather than simply following detailed instructions. Working in small groups, students were able to achieve the aims of the experiment through self and peer-instruction. Similar experiments can be easily and cost effectively implemented in any standard secondary school and undergraduate teaching laboratory. These can be adjusted to target the development of a wide range of specific skill sets as well as deepen students understanding of different physics principles and concepts. Our approach will enable the teaching laboratory to truly fulfil the function with which it was originally conceived.