Lecture Hall Research Articles

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT SUPPORT OF COMMUNICATION FOR DEAF STUDENTS

This study employed a case study design to explore classroom environment support for communication for deaf students at the University of Education, Winneba. The study sampled 20 participants which comprised ten deaf students, five interpreters, and five lecturers. A one-on-one semi-structured interview was used to collect data from participants. Data was analyzed using themes. Findings from the study revealed that classroom environment support for communication for deaf students involves, the relationship among deaf students, interpreters, and lectures about communication at the lecture hall; the student's participation at the lecture hall. Based on the results from the study, it was recommended that the management of the University of Education, Winneba, and the Department of Special Education should collaborate to ensure a supportive environment for effective classroom communication for deaf students. The Department of Special Education should facilitate continuous professional development seminars and in-service training for lecturers and interpreters on the education of deaf students to enable them to come up with more innovative ways of communicating with deaf students.

Next-generation attendance tracking: Automated face detection for lecture attendance

Face detection technology has garnered much interest due to its potential uses in industries like face identification and video surveillance systems. In addition to being a component of the automatic face recognition framework, real-time face detection is now becoming its study area. There are numerous methods to handle the problem of face detection. Traditional methods of manual attendance tracking in lecture halls are time-consuming, prone to errors, and lack efficiency. Next-generation attendance tracking systems are incorporating automated face detection technology to address these challenges. This paper explores the implementation of automated face detection for lecture attendance, leveraging computer vision and facial recognition algorithms. Initially, students’ data were gathered and preprocessed using a Median filter (MF). Then the preprocessed data features were extracted using a histogram of gradients (HOG). And finally, extracted features were classified using a Backpropagation Bayesian neural network (BBNN). To prove the efficiency of the suggested method, that is compared and contrasted with specific conventional methods. Experimental outcomes show that the recommended method performs superior when contrasted to traditional methods.

Reducing disruptive noise in lecture halls by connecting with our students

This author argues that, when lecturers establish a safe environment that supports students’ sense of belonging and fosters empathy, disruptive noise in lectures is likely to be reduced. Such a connection may be achieved by considering students’ needs and by embedding socio-emotional learning (SEL) into lecture delivery.

Different Sandboxes: Past Emerging Leader Winners Talk Networking, Stress, and Work-Life Balance

For this special issue of LCGC, we caught up with five prior winners of our annual Emerging Leader Award to get their perspectives on how they first found success in the separation science field, how they have maintained and grown their reputations in the industry in the age of social media, and what they do to take their minds out of the laboratory or lecture hall.

Investigating the Impact of Visual Input on Voice Production in Virtual Reality

This study explored the independent effects of visual input on voice production using virtual reality. Specifically, its effects on acoustic voice parameters and vocal status ratings, with the hypothesis that larger (a virtual lecture hall and theater compared to an office) and more full virtual rooms (75% of the capacity compared to 45%) would result in changes to the voice parameters and vocal status ratings. Voice production from 30 vocally healthy participants was recorded in six virtual reality conditions. After each condition, the participants provided vocal status ratings. The voice recordings were processed to calculate mean and standard deviation of sound pressure level and fundamental frequency, mean pitch strength, time dose, and cepstral peak prominence smoothed. The effects of the virtual reality conditions on these voice acoustic parameters and the vocal status ratings were analyzed. The full virtual reality rooms resulted in significantly higher vocal fatigue and vocal discomfort ratings. The larger virtual reality rooms were significantly related to increases in mean and the standard deviation of sound pressure level, mean pitch strength, and cepstral peak prominence smoothed. This study demonstrated that visual size and visual fullness input during speech tasks have distinct effects on voice production and self-reported vocal status. Visual size is related to voice acoustic outcomes, while visual fullness is related to self-reported outcomes.

Pathogen Spread Prediction in a Large Lecture Hall Using Cfd Modeling

Air flow inside a large lecture hall is simulated using CFD. The predicted flow field is used to estimate the residence time for any pathogen released from specific locations inside the domain. The approach developed herein is generic, and can be used for the assessment of any large confined spaces like lecture halls, theatres, cinema halls etc.for the spread of air-borne diseases.

Creating Equal Opportunities: Evaluating Physical Facilities for Undergraduate Students with Special Needs

Every individual in the world desires to carry out their daily tasks with ease. The surrounding environment plays a crucial role in facilitating this. While able-bodied individuals seamlessly navigate their surroundings, people with special needs often face significant challenges in meeting their requirements. Therefore, it is essential for them to have a moral understanding of the support they receive from their environment. The main objective of this research is to investigate the available physical facilities that were provided to the visually impaired and physically disabled undergraduates by their universities. The purposive sample contained 100 differently abled undergraduates from five universities namely; Sri Jayewardenepura, Colombo, Kelaniya, Jaffna, and Eastern university. A structured interview schedule was used for data collection. According to the results, students had a certain level of awareness regarding library facilities (46%), elevator facilities (53%), cafeteria facilities (75%) and sanitary facilities (67%). They have a moderate level of satisfaction on access to the library (30%), lecture halls (22%), gymnasium (41%) and hostels (29%) at their respective universities. Results revealed that there are some issues that visually impaired students face during their education that need to be addressed. Implementing equal opportunities is essential to create a user- friendly environment at universities and hostels to provide the students a satisfactory experience during their university education in spite of the disability.

An innovative smart glass for blind people using artificial intelligence

<p>The "Smart Glasses" are made to make it easier for blind persons to read and decipher written English-language content. A blind people find it exceedingly challenging to travel alone, and they run the danger of getting lost and regular sticks won't allow the person to go around independently in public without things growing worse. The objective of our work is to help blind people communicate more easily by developing a smart assistive glasses using artificial intelligence. The function of the glasses is to read out any text picture as audio text, which can then be heard through a headset attached to the spectacles. OpenCV, optical character recognition and efficient and accurate scene text (EAST) detector were used to identify the text in the image; ultrasonic sensor in the glasses is used to calculate the distance to snap a clear picture. The motion sensor directs the blind to the lecture halls, classrooms, and laboratory locations using an radio frequency identification reader. The results shows that combination of optical character recognizer and EAST detector produced a fairly accurate result, demonstrating the potential of the glasses to recognize the text. Currently, the language supported by the glasses is English, and the distance covered is 40 to 150 cm.</p>

Digital Natives in the Non-Digital University: A Case Study of Polish Higher Educational Institutions from an Educational and Historical Perspective

According to the theory of technological determinism, the development and popularisation of communication techniques has led to the emergence of two groups of participants in internet discourse: (1) those who have been ‘immersed’ in the Internet since childhood – digital natives – and (2) those who remember functioning in the offline world – digital immigrants. The main goal of this article is to present the interpenetration of the needs and demands of digital education and the implementation of these demands in the academic environment. The first part of the article presents the main theories related to the topic and attempts to periodise the phenomenon of education at universities undergoing virtualisation. The second part presents research conducted with the use of the CATI method on a sample of 433 students and 133 university teachers concerning the IT revolution at universities related to the SARS-COV2 pandemic and the need to move classes from lecture halls to virtual spaces. The last part of the article answers the hypotheses posed: (1) the initial dysfunctions of the education process in universities were due to the institutions’ unpreparedness for the remote environment and (2) in the opinion of the respondents, the remote education process is not as effective as education in a lecture hall. The conclusions of the study indicate that it is necessary to systematically fund research on remote teaching methodology and tools for effective distance learning. In addition to research, it is also advisable to conduct training and continuously implement new practical solutions in the workplace so that the new media serve teachers and students. In order for distance education to be effective, it is necessary to redefine the use of new media, move away from control towards collaboration and allow students to take ownership of the learning process.

The legacy of the dinosaurs

«Children find them exciting» is an unoriginal comment that those involved in dinosaur research have often heard. Popular appreciation of these animals dates almost as far back as their scientific discovery in the mid-19th century, and for much of the time since then, dinosaurs have been popularly regarded as entertainment. In recent decades, however, society has become more aware of the geological and biological aspects, rather than the recreational ones. Why are there so many sites in certain regions and none in other nearby areas? Which were the largest, and why did they reach such gigantic proportions? How do we know what colour they were? We hear these questions every day in lecture halls full of people eager to learn more about the mysteries of palaeontology.

Guess for Success? Application of a Mixture Model to Test-Wiseness on Multiple-Choice Exams

The use of large lecture halls in business and economic education often dictates the use of multiple-choice exams to measure student learning. This study asserts that student performance on these types of exams can be viewed as the result of the process of elimination of incorrect answers, rather than the selection of the correct answer. More specifically, how students respond on a multiple-choice test can be broken down into the fractions of questions where no wrong answers can be eliminated (i.e., random guessing), one wrong answer can be eliminated, two wrong answers can be eliminated, and all wrong answers can be eliminated. The results from an empirical model, representing a mixture of binomials in which the probability of a correct choice depends on the number of incorrect choices eliminated, we find, using student performance data from a final exam in principles of microeconomics consisting of 100 multiple choice questions, that the responses to all of the questions on the exam can be characterized by some form of guessing, with more than 26 percent of questions being completed using purely random guessing.

Noise Pollution a Menace to Learning in Typical Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

Knowingly and unknowingly, noise pollution hurts the quality of our everyday life. The lecture hall is an auditory-verbal environment that requires pleasant acoustics; however, the main problem of it is noise pollution. Thus, this study aims at assessing students’ perceptions of the effect of noise pollution in lecture halls in a typical Nigeria institution, taking the lectures halls in the School of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology (SAAT), School of Environmental Sciences (SOES), the School of Health Teaching (SOHT) all in the Federal University of Technology Owerri FUTO. The study was pursued using a Quantitative and Qualitative approach that entailed the use of structured Questionnaires and observation. A total number of 150 questionnaires were distributed to the students because they are the major users of lecture halls, and a total of 134 questionnaires were filled and returned giving a percentage response of 89.3%. Data collected were analyzed using computer-based software statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) version 19.0 and descriptive tools such as frequencies, percentage values and Relative Important Index (RII). The result of the analysis revealed among others that the major causes of noise in lecture halls are generators, automobiles, and Echo of noise from adjacent buildings. Similarly, the study also revealed that noise exposure affects listening ability, concentration of students, and reading ability and its peak period is usually in the afternoon hours (1.00-3.00 pm). Also, one of the effects of noise is that it makes students lose concentration when receiving lectures since the bridge between students and lecturers is limited as a result of interference in communication between students and lecturers. Consequently, It is recommended that noise detectors should be located in lecture halls and school environments to know the noise level in lecture halls and perhaps, operate on the noise level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Also, the use of noise-insulating materials during construction and maintenance, and the planting of natural shield trees within the study area to prevent noise from intruding into the lecture halls should be adopted. Educating students on the effect of noise pollution the and location of the generator set sets in lecture halls far away from the road will reduce noise pollution.

Split-Site Course Design: A Pilot Study on Integrating Traditional and Active Learning Classrooms

Recent years have witnessed the spread of purpose-built active learning classrooms throughout the higher education sector. While these innovative learning spaces are well-suited for a variety of active learning strategies, their lack of a single focal point means they are inconvenient spaces for lecturing. While educational developers often encourage instructors to implement active learning strategies in these classrooms, lectures persist. This article reports the results of a pilot study where course meetings were split between two sites each week: some of the course time took place in a lecture hall and some of the course time took place in an active learning classroom. We suggest that this split-site design offers at least two promising indicators, from the perspectives of both students and instructors: 1) an easier transition compared to a full-active learning classroom course; and 2) availability of active learning classroom time to a larger number of courses. Responding to existing literature on the relationship between lecturing and active learning (classrooms), this article presents the results of student surveys and instructor interviews, and outlines future directions for research in split-site course design.

American Romanticism and the Popularization of Literary Education

American Romanticism and the Popularization of Literary Education

The use of measurement frameworks to explore the qualities of test items

<span lang="EN-US">Psychometricians and researchers have grown increasingly concern about students’ performance. It is noteworthy from observation in the selected university of education in Nigeria that many of these students do not attend lectures for general courses particularly EDU 222 (tests and measurement) due to overcrowded lecture halls, the classroom climate factor, and other latent factors, such as exam conditions, test anxiety among others. Consequently therefore, students’ performance in EDU 222 does not significantly correlate with these challenges. The characteristics of the item parameter of the Tests and Measurement achievement test at the selected University of Education in Ogun State, Nigeria, were therefore examined in this study using measurement theories. The study employed an ex-post facto research of non-experimental design. Purposive sampling was used to select 6,203 second-year undergraduates offering EDU 222 for the 2018/2019 academic year. To analysis students’ responses to 30 multiple-choice questions on tests and measurement, factor analysis, item calibration, an independent sample t-test with a significance threshold of 0.05 were utilized with empirical reliability of 0.64. The results showed the test items satisfied the three-parameter logistics model and uni-dimensionality assumption. The findings also showed that the item response theory (IRT) eliminated 7 items due to guessing, while the classical test theory (CTT) eliminated 13 items. The test is prone to guessing, thus, helps pupils do better on the exam. To establish parameter estimates during test development, higher education institutions (HEIs) should employ the use of IRT.</span>

서원과 문화콘텐츠 접합의 방향성 검토

Seowon, the lecture hall, is one of the Korean traditional heritages globally recognized. To date, lots of efforts were made to align Seowon with people’s lives, for example, foundations of related organizations or institutions, preparation of legal groundwork, continuous developments of programs, and academic researches. As a next step, it is time for Seowon to seek the ways to be with citizens’ daily lives. To do so, first, it is necessary to review the directions from cases that Seowon and cultural contents met. Hence, the cases using Seowon and connection with contents were reviewed and the directions were offered how they were connected in this article.
 Among related regulations, ‘the Cultural Heritage Protection Act’ and ‘the Special Act on Conservation, Management and Utilization of World Heritage’ focused on conservation and management while they stipulated somewhat comprehensively and ambiguously on their utilization. On the other hand, utilization of Seowon culture and items of program development were offered in ‘the general guideline on the conservation and management of Seowon’ which is an order of the Cultural Heritage Administration, implicating the guideline to develop the programs on Seowon as well as potential limitations.
 The programs using Seowon mainly focused on the education whose ratio was increasing continuously. Whereas, rituals or traditional events were significantly decreased remaining few now. This might be the outcome to apply the education actively since the share of education was significant among the demands of people who visited Seowon.
 Unlike this direction, connections between Seowon and cultural contents focus on interests or attractions rather than education. Productions of web-dramas contributed to raise the awareness of Seowon by high number of hits, with VR productions. The contents in YouTube channel uploaded by general video producers rather than public institutions prepared the momentum to develop viewers’ friendliness on Seowon.
 Considering the direction to connect between Seowon and cultural contents, it is recommended not to focus on education and rituals too much which were its original roles. Comparing the researches between with participants of existing programs on Seowon and with general citizens, the former showed the preference to education and learning while the latter showed the preference to the programs to be able to approach without any burden like exploration. The difference can be explained that the former results showed the biased perceptions and intentions from general citizens since the research subjects were the active participants. Hence, it is recommended to review whether the existing programs on Seowon focusing on education have any certain biases and to consider the directions to expand the population to enjoy Seowon in the trials to connect Seowon with the contents.
 In this study, the existing programs and contents on Seowon were reviewed by the cases. However, it has the limitation only to review without offering objective alternatives. Therefore, further studies are required to review Seowon programs and contents more diversely, which will offer more systemic alternatives.

Disable access compliance to university infrastructure: built environment students’ perceptions

PurposeHigher education institutions are the citadel of knowledge and are heavily involved in formulating building regulations and building infrastructure designs that must conform to the building regulations. The study aims to identify university infrastructures compliant with disabled access from the perspective of the built environment students in Ghanaian universities.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaire surveys were administered to 500 built environment students across ten technical universities in Ghana with a total population of 3066; 341 were expected based on the formula used. However, upon several reminders, 176 responded. Data collected were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.FindingsThe findings show that all university facilities are not fully compliant with disabled access. Structures found to be least compliant are the laboratories, canteens, hall of residence, toilet facilities, football fields, places of worship and transport stations. The facilities with high compliance are the administration block, library, hospital building, lecture halls, department offices and ATM areas. The leading causes for this non-compliant are lack of enforcement of the building regulations, low level of disabled students’ enrolment, age of the building, lack of knowledge and poor building designs.Practical implicationsCompliance with disabled access makes universities world class and creates safe learning spaces for individuals with disabilities, enforcing the right to education for all individuals, particularly those with disabilities. Lack of compliance with disabled access will hamper the full utilisation of these facilities, thereby affecting quality education delivery to people with disabilities.Originality/valueThe findings are essential to the Ghanaian built environment, the lives of disabled individuals and universities. The results provide knowledge on areas of improvement for complete access to structures and facilities by disabled individuals.

Displaying the teacher’s slideshow on students’ devices prevents multitasking and promotes engagement during lectures

Multitasking activities among students using various technological devices is common during lectures, and many studies have demonstrated their deleterious effects on various learning outcomes. In contrast, fewer studies have examined ways to reduce multitasking and stimulate engagement in learning. The present study provides an educational strategy to reduce student multitasking during lectures by displaying the teacher’s slideshow on the students’ devices. In the control condition, students visualized the teacher’s slideshow only on the lecture hall screen by means of a video projector. In the experimental condition they also had the possibility to visualize the teacher’s slideshow on their own device in real time. Independently of the students’ level of knowledge and their location in the lecture hall, results revealed that fewer multitasking activities were performed and affective engagement was higher in the experimental than in the control condition. Furthermore, the relationship between slideshow display and affective engagement was mediated by the number of multitasking activities. These findings demonstrate a useful strategy to prevent multitasking during lectures and to promote engagement in learning among students using a digital environment in which the teacher’s slideshow is synchronized on the students’ devices.

IMPACT OF DIGITAL TOOLS IN LANGUAGE LECTURING: EXPOUNDING THE VIEWS OF UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS

Technology has virtually occupied human activities in such a way that many have relied on it in providing solutions to many problems. Language pedagogy is one of the areas where technological-aided or digital tools have continued to prevail, though making language lecturing and learning more interesting. The use of digital tools has proven to enhance language lecturing, and several attempts have been made by scholars to ascertain the perception of lecturers towards the use of technological-aided tools in language lecturing. Many studies have given account on the university lecturers’ perspective on the bases of the advantages and the disadvantages of the use of these technological-aided tools in language. However, this study represents an effort to unveil the university administrators’ view on the use of digital tools, particularly, its impacts on language lecturers who use these tools to teach and also the language students who learn with these tools; and how it improves their language skills. In this scientific study, two hundred university administrators drawn from different universities were randomly selected. Among the two hundred university administrators, one hundred were male and one hundred females. Also, there was no target on a particular language, and the university administrators participated through responding to questionnaire inputs. The 200 university administrators that are polled for the study presented their diverse views; which are purely categorized into what this study described as the impact on lecturers and the impact on the learners. The research findings suggest that digital resources aid language lecturers and learners, the adequate application of these tools is highly dependent on the perspectives of the university administrators towards these tools. The study further indicates that university administrators are extensively embracing digital tools in language lecture halls, and aiming to replace traditional tools with digital tools.

ADVANCING FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING WITH AI-ASSISTED MODELS; INSIGHTS FROM LECTURERS AND UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS

Artificial intelligence has provided universities with arrays of tools to advance the teaching of foreign languages and improve the performance of their students. Attempts have been made to expounds on the benefits of integration of artificial intelligence tools in 21st century foreign language classrooms, at university levels; however, it is crucial to gain insights from university administrators and lecturers on the nature of their current curriculum, the factors impeding integration of AI models in their foreign language lecture halls, and perception of the varying significance of AI in improving students’ performance and teachers’ efficiency. This paper pursues an analysis of the challenges and prospects of full integration of artificial intelligence at the university levels, in teaching foreign languages. The study community includes 180 university administrators at various administrative positions, and 120 university lecturers from Jordanian and Saudi institutions. The respondents were selected randomly, and data was collected through administration of digitally designed questionnaires. Data was analysed using relevant statistical measuring tools, which are contained in different descriptive statistical tables. Findings indicate that over 80% of the sample accepted that AI models are not fully integrated or not integrated at all in their respective universities/ Over 38% of the participants rejected the claim that full integration of AI models in foreign language education may distract students. Whereas majority rejected this claim, the acceptance of the claim by over 20% is indicative of the apprehension of the system. Again, 32% of the surveyed population acknowledged the insufficiency of proficiently trained personnel within the university system to effectively incorporate artificial intelligence into the pedagogy of foreign languages. It is therefore imperative for universities to include the knowledge of AI models in their recruitment criteria and to fully embrace the use of AI patterns in foreign language teaching, considering the huge impacts on students’ performance.