Existing Learning Strategies Research Articles

Exploring generative AI in higher education: a RAG system to enhance student engagement with scientific literature.

This study explores the implementation and evaluation of OwlMentor, an AI-powered learning environment designed to assist university students in comprehending scientific texts. OwlMentor was developed participatorily and then integrated into a course, with development and evaluation taking place over two semesters. It offers features like document-based chats, automatic question generation, and quiz creation. We used the Technology Acceptance Model to assess system acceptance, examined learning outcomes, and explored the influence of general self-efficacy on system acceptance and OwlMentor use. The results indicated complex relationships between perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and actual use, suggesting the need for more dynamic models of system acceptance. Although no direct correlation between OwlMentor use and learning gains was found, descriptive results indicated higher gains among users compared to non-users. Additionally, general self-efficacy was strongly related to perceived usefulness, intention to use, and actual use of the system. These findings highlight the importance of aligning AI tools with students' needs and existing learning strategies to maximize their educational benefits.

My hands are running away – learning a complex nursing skill via virtual reality simulation: a randomised mixed methods study

BackgroundClinical skills training is an essential component of nursing education. However, sometimes education does not sufficiently prepare nurses for the real world. Virtual reality (VR) is an innovative method to complement existing learning strategies, yet few studies investigate its effectiveness. This study compared educational outcomes achieved by three groups learning with either of two different VR simulation variants, with varying technological features, or a video training on the endotracheal suctioning skill.MethodsThe investigated outcomes were knowledge and skill acquisition, learner satisfaction, and technology acceptance. 131 undergraduate nursing students were randomised into three groups, based on the interventions they received. Knowledge was assessed through a pre-post-test design, skill through a post-intervention objective structured clinical examination on a manikin, learning satisfaction and technology acceptance through standardised questionnaires, and qualitative feedback through focus groups.ResultsAll interventions led to a significant knowledge acquisition, with no significant difference between the groups. The video intervention group performed significantly better than the VR groups in skill demonstration. One of the two VR intervention groups had a significantly higher learner satisfaction than the video group. Technology acceptance was high for both VR groups, with the simpler VR simulation resulting in higher technology acceptance than the one with more experimental features. Students described the VR experience as realistic, interactive, and immersive, and saw the opportunity to practise skills in a safe environment, learn from mistakes, and increase knowledge and confidence.ConclusionsFor the development of VR trainings, we recommend keeping them simple and targeting a specific educational outcome since trying to optimise for multiple outcomes is resource intensive and hard to achieve. Psychomotor skills were easier for participants to learn by watching a video on the procedure rather than practically learning it with the VR hardware, which is a more abstract representation of reality. We therefore recommend using VR as a complementing resource to skills labs, rather than replacing existing learning strategies. Perhaps VR is not ideal for practising practical psychomotor skills at the moment, but it can increase knowledge, satisfaction, motivation, confidence and prepare for further practical training.Trial registrationNot applicable.

Fully Immersive Virtual Reality in Logistics Modelling and Simulation Education

With the increasing development and popularisation of information and communication technology, new challenges are posed to higher education in the modernisation of teaching in order to make education and training of students as effective as possible. It is therefore very important to develop and experiment with appropriate development tools, explore their benefits and effectiveness, and integrate them into existing learning strategies. The emergence of a computer-generated digital environment that can be directly experienced, actions that can determine what is happening in it, growth of technological characteristics, and decline in prices of virtual reality hardware leads to a situation that cannot be ignored. This paper investigated users' perceptions on the potential use of fully immersive virtual reality head-mounted displays in a discrete-event simulation of logistics processes. The dynamic nature of virtual environments requires active participation which causes greater engagement, motivation, and interest aided by interaction and challenges.

A multi-constraint failure-pursuing sampling method for reliability-based design optimization using adaptive Kriging

Using surrogate models to substitute the computationally expensive limit state functions is a promising way to decrease the cost of implementing reliability-based design optimization (RBDO). To train the models efficiently, the active learning strategies have been intensively studied. However, the existing learning strategies either do not individually build the models according to importance measurement or do not completely relate to the reliability analysis results. Consequently, some points that are useless to refine the limit state functions or far away from the RBDO solutions are generated. This paper proposes a multi-constraint failure-pursuing sampling method to maximize the reward of adding new training points. A simultaneous learning strategy is employed to sequentially update the Kriging models with the points selected in the current approximate safe region. Moreover, the sensitive Kriging model as well as the sensitive sample point are identified based on the failure-pursuing scheme. A new point that is highly potential to improve the accuracy of reliability analysis and optimization can then be generated near the sensitive sample point and used to update the sensitive model. Besides, numerical examples and engineering application are used to validate the performance of the proposed method.

Developing Communicative Competence of ESL Learners through Learning Strategies

Learning strategies are special behaviors and actions which are employed to develop communicative competence of learners (Oxford, 1990). Second language learners can communicate their ideas, feelings, and emotions through learning strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, memory, social, affective etc. as well as communicative strategies in the process of developing communicative competence. Learning strategies and communicative strategies work as a panacea to develop communicative competence. The researcher conducted an exploratory research through survey to collect data using questionnaire, semi-structured interview and classroom observation to find out the existing learning strategies in developing speaking skills and to discover the attitude of secondary level teachers towards learning strategies and communicative strategies in developing communicative competence of learners. He selected 30 secondary level teachers as sample population of the study. The findings of the study were: a) the teachers did not use collaborative learning and scaffolding techniques to help the learners develop speaking skills, b) they were unable to employ collaborative learning, group discussion, and peer talking owing to overcrowded classes and time-constraint; most of the teachers taught speaking skill without using language functions, c) there is positive attitude of secondary level teachers towards learning strategies and communicative strategies to develop communicative competence of learners. Journal of NELTA, Vol 20 No. 1-2, December 2015 , Page:51-62

URGENSI METAKOGNISI DALAM PENCAPAIAN HASIL BELAJAR KIMIA DI SMA

The instructional strategy applied in learning and appropriate subject matter of Chemistry taught will be able to provide convenience for students in understanding the subject matter of Chemistry, so that learning experience will be more meaningful for students. One of the existing learning strategies is metacognition which is the students' knowledge related to their weaknesses and strengths in learning and self-regulation during learning activities such as planning, process arrangement, evaluation, commitment, minimization, procedure and conditioning. Students who have various dimensions of high metacognition will try to learn various ways to make it easy for them that learning activities are easy and fun to achieve high learning results. Thus, there is a correlation between the metacognition of students in learning with efforts to improve student learning outcomes in Chemistry subjects. The increasing of appliying various dimensions of students metacognition in learning will have an impact on improving student learning outcomes in Chemistry subjects. In the fact, the student who use / apply their metacogical dimensions in learning Chemistry subjects, students will be happy, eager and easy in learning Chemistry subjects, able to assess and predict their ability in learning Chemistry subjects process that ultimately students can achieve high learning outcomes in Chemistry subjects.

Medical students' perception of the educational environment in a tertiary care teaching hospital in India.

The educational environment perceived by students has an impact on satisfaction with the course of study and academic achievement. We aimed to analyse the perceptions of medical students about their learning environment and to provide feedback to stakeholders involved in curriculum planning and execution. We did a cross-sectional descriptive study at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire. The DREEM inventory was administered to the undergraduate students of all semesters (n = 452). Students' perceptions of learning, perception about teachers, academic self-perceptions, perceptions of atmosphere and their social self-perceptions were measured. The scores obtained were expressed as mean (standard deviation) and analysed using t-test and 1-way ANOVA (with post-hoc comparison using Tukey test). The difference between semesters and gender was also analysed. The mean (SD) global score was 122.06 (22.27), out of a maximum possible score of 200. Our students opined that teachers were knowledgeable, with this component scoring the maximum of 3.32 and, at the same time, they felt that teaching overemphasizes factual learning (1.41). Only 6 items scored <2. 'Students' perception of atmosphere' scored high among other domains (30 of 48, 62.5%). The mean global score of preclinical students (125.35 [20.43]) was better than clinical students (119.13 [23.44]; p = 0.003). Although the global score is more positive, we identified a few areas of concern such as overemphasis on factual learning, authoritarian teachers, the not-so-helpful existing learning strategies, vast curriculum (inability to memorize all), lack of supporting system for stressed out students and the boredom they felt in the course. These vital areas should be addressed by the stakeholders for the betterment of learning in the institute.

Can integrated skills tasks change students’ learning strategies and materials?

The use of integrated skills tasks in language tests has been debated for many years and international English test developers such as Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Pearson Tests of English (PTE) already use such tests to assess English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ language proficiency. Empirical research has rarely investigated the influence of the integrated skills task on test takers’ preparation strategies. The study presented here set out to investigate the extent to which the introduction of integrated skills tasks may change students’ test preparation strategies and the resources that they choose to use. The research focused on two integrated test types developed by PTE Academic: ‘repeat-sentence’ and ‘re-tell lecture’, which assess both speaking and listening skills concurrently. Data on test-takers’ strategies and resources were collected by using Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The findings indicated that the integrated skills test influenced participants in relation to both their choice of preparation strategies and the resources chosen. These choices seemed to vary in line with participants’ awareness of different aspects of the new test. Thus, there appeared to be an association between participants’ choices of learning strategies and resources and their awareness of which skills were being assessed and the nature of the audio input in the new formats. Finally, despite evidence that the new integrated skills test had some impact on participants’ approaches to their language learning, this did not necessarily mean that the participants completely abandoned existing learning strategies and resources, in particular those appropriate to the previous test formats.

Chinese students’ adjustment to the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

The research project upon which this article is based aimed to give a voice to the experiences of unaccompanied Chinese mainland students undertaking the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in an Australian high school. Eleven students aged 18—20 participated. All students completed a written questionnaire (in either English or Mandarin), and six participated in individual interviews. All students described initial difficulty and dissonance in coming to terms with the demands and expectations of the IBDP. Successful students overcame these difficulties by developing new strategies to make sense of the new learning environment, adapting existing learning strategies and maintaining a positive attitude.

Government Policies and Sources of Latecomer Firms' Capability Building: A Learning Story from Brazil

Although much has been written about the implications of the structural reforms of the 1990s for industrial progress in developing countries, especially in Latin America, less attention has been given to the role of meso and micro factors in sector and firm-level technological capability building. Most existing studies are based on aggregate analyses that argue either for or against such reforms. Seeking to offer an alternative perspective on this debate, this paper examines sources of firms' technological capability accumulation in the light of changes in government policies. It draws on first-hand empirical evidence from 75 organizations in Northern Brazil. The evidence suggests that policies and factors at the meso and micro level do matter in understanding the learning strategies underlying firms' capability-building processes. The latter do not take place in a vacuum or just on the back of sound, market-oriented macroeconomic policies. A combination of different kinds of government policies, foreign competition and firm-level learning efforts has been proving essential for firms to develop innovative capability. However, the move into more advanced capability levels in the sampled firms will not just involve a “discontinuity” in their existing learning strategies; it will also entail a redesign of the related government policies.

Embedding sample points uncertainty measures in learning algorithms

Learning algorithms consider a sample consisting of pairs (pattern, label) and output a decision rule, possibly: (i) associating each pattern with the corresponding label, and (ii) generalizing to new patterns drawn from the same distribution of the original sample. This work proposes a set of methodologies to be applied to existing learning strategies in order to deal with more complex kinds of data sets, carrying also a quantitative measure on the quality of each label.

Learning tool or potplant stand? Students' opinions of learning from a CAL program in a distance education context

&lt;span&gt;Although teaching institutions are continually moving towards electronic forms of delivering learning material, a study of first year adult distance chemistry students found that they had developed a successful learning profile based on their present printed learning material and were reluctant to consider the use of alternative methods of delivery. The reasons for this reluctance were explored by developing a Computer Aided Learning program, based on the students existing learning strategies, and offering it as an alternative to printed material. Although many volunteered to use the program only a third of these persevered with its use. Reasons for abandoning the program were generally associated with a fear that they may be wasting their time in having to learn a new method of study. However those that did use the computer program considered it to be a more efficient way of learning than from printed material.&lt;/span&gt;

Siblings as Mediators of Literacy in Linguistic Minority Communities

This paper argues for the need to move beyond the paradigm of parental involvement in reading which presently informs home/school reading programmes for linguistic minority children in the UK. The first part of the paper examines the literature informing the current model showing the marked absence of studies on the role played by siblings as mediators of literacy in a new linguistic and cultural environment. The second part of the paper presents an analysis of reading sessions taking place in a group of Bangladeshi origin families living in London and shows ways in which older siblings provide finely-tuned 'scaffolding' closely adjusted to the reading ability of the individual child. Through a combination of ethnographic and ethnomethodological approaches, a complex syncretism of Qur'anic and school literacy practices is revealed in the interaction between child and older sibling. Finally, a comparison between home and school reading sessions shows how a more detailed knowledge by the teacher of her linguistic minority children's home reading patterns may enable her to build more successfully upon their existing learning strategies.

Object-lessons from self-explanatory objects

Self-explanatory objects (SEOs) are based on objects found in object-oriented programs and object-oriented interfaces. In some object-oriented interfaces the functionality of the objects depicted can be discovered by exploration and experiment. However, users may not be able to identify an object's name, alternative views or representations of the object, its relations to other objects, its full functionality and/or the ways in which it was designed to be used. When a system has been programmed in an object-oriented style its coded objects may correspond with aspects of users' conceptions of the system and/or domain. Thus the form and operation of a program's code can represent a source of information which may be meaningful to users and which can be accessed and presented as explanations by a help system. This has been demonstrated by a proof of concept prototype and also by a second system, called Partickles. Some of the SEOs in Partickles offer explanations of their specific prospective functionality—indicating what they “would do” if activated in the current context. Partickles has been used to investigate when and how information from self-explanatory objects and other forms of help is used. The paper outlines the aims and context of the SEO project, describes the two systems and presents some of the results of the empirical studies conducted with Partickles. The studies showed that the Partickles SEO help facilities were used, though the usage often consisted of phases of contiguous help accesses which occurred while subjects were learning to use the system. The studies also revealed some factors, related to presentation and object-based help, that strongly influenced user behaviour. It appears that extra information from self-explanatory objects can assist users to understand and learn about systems and domains, but it may also accustom users to expect to be able to obtain extra information and challenge their existing learning strategies.