Quality Learning Materials Research Articles

Students' Perceptions of the E-Module in Mathematics and Physics Based on Gender Differences

The lack of quality learning materials will automatically affect the effectiveness and success of learning. This study analyses the differences in students' perceptions of the e-module product Mathematics I vector material based on gender differences. This type of research is quantitative research with descriptive statistical analysis techniques and inferential analysis. The research sample amounted to 90 students using simple random. Data analysis was descriptively carried out using normality, homogeneity, and ANOVA tests where the significance was more than or equal to 0.05. The results of the ANOVA test showed that there were differences in perception. Based on gender with a significance value of 0.037 in women and 0.022 in men. Furthermore, in the post hoc test or further test Gabriel showed that in class A and B with a significance of 0.047 for the female gender. Meanwhile, the male gender in class A and class C had a significant difference with a significance value of 0.033. Compared to the male gender, women have more dominant differences caused by biological factors where women use their emotions more than men, whose more realistic thinking is better. The use of the Mathematics e-module will significantly assist students in the teaching and learning process to make it easier to understand and seem interesting. Knowing how the differences and diversity of perceptions of the developed e-modules will certainly help educators make teaching materials that are appropriate and able to attract students' interest.

Defining and measuring completion and assessment biases with respect to English language and development status: not all MOOCs are equal

The emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) broadened the educational landscape by providing free access to quality learning materials for anyone with a device connected to the Internet. However, open access does not guarantee equals opportunities to learn, and research has repetitively reported that learners from affluent countries benefit the most from MOOCs. In this work, we delve into this gap by defining and measuring completion and assessment biases with respect to learners’ language and development status. We do so by performing a large-scale analysis across 158 MITx MOOC runs from 120 different courses offered on edX between 2013 and 2018, with 2.8 million enrollments. We see that learners from developing countries are less likely to complete MOOCs successfully, but we do not find evidence regarding a negative effect of not being English-native. Our findings point out that not only the specific population of learners is responsible for this bias, but also that the course itself has a similar impact. Independent of and less frequent than completion bias, we found assessment bias, that is when the mean ability gained by learners from developing countries is lower than that of learners from developed countries. The ability is inferred from the responses of the learners to the course-assessment using item response theory (IRT). Finally, we applied differential item functioning (DIF) methods with the objective of detecting items that might be causing the assessment bias, obtaining weak, yet positive results with respect to the magnitude of the bias reduction. Our results provide statistical evidence on the role that course design might have on these biases, with a call for action so that the future generation of MOOCs focus on strengthening their inclusive design approaches.

Typical OER (Open Educational Resources) Development Model for Prospective Vocational High School Teachers in Indonesia

ABSTRACT: Access to a quality learning materials in the era of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) is increasingly massive, so it can solve problems such as imbalances in the quality of educational materials and access to the intended materials. Every country in the world strives to provide wide-open access through the use of web-based applications to facilitate and provide support to the population on the needs of teaching materials according to their needs. Distance learning can be one of the alternative solutions done easily by utilizing ICT infrastructure. In Indonesia, research on OER ( O pen E ducational R esources ) in the field of vocational education has not been widely carried out, more research has been conducted only on aspects of the application of OER in higher education in general. The purpose of this research is how to develop a typical OER development model for prospective vocational high school teachers in LPTK ( Lembaga Pendidikan Tenaga Kependidikan or Education Institute for Education Personnel )’s University based in an effort to improve their quality and competence. This research method uses DBR ( Design-Based Research ). Through a series of tests, it can be seen that the model developed has been able to improve student competence in achieving learning outcomes, through the implementation of pre-test and post-test at each practice session carried out. The results show that the average of the consensus from the experts for all aspects of the model that has been developed is 88.8%. This shows that the typical OER development model in this study is very feasible to be implemented widely. KEY WORDS: Information Technology; Educational Technology; Open Educational Resources; Design-Based Research. About the Authors: Saripudin, M.T. is a Student at the Technological and Vocational Education Study Program of SPs UPI (School of Postgraduate, Indonesia University of Education), Jalan Dr. Setiabudhi No.229 Bandung 40154, West Java, Indonesia. Pof. Dr. As'ari Djohar and Dr. Dedi Rohendi are the Lecturers at the Technological and Vocational Education Study Program of SPs UPI in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. For academic interests, the Authors are able to be contacted via e-mail address at: saripudin@upi.edu , asaridjohar@upi.edu , and dedir@upi.edu Suggested Citation: Saripudin, As'ari Djohar & Dedi Rohendi. (2021). “Typical OER (Open Educational Resources) Development Model for Prospective Vocational High School Teachers in Indonesia” in EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies , Volume 13(2), February, pp.131-152. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press owned by ASPENSI with ISSN 1979-7877 (print) and ISSN 2621-587X (online). Article Timeline: Accepted (December 14, 2020); Revised (January 15, 2021); and Published (February 28, 2021).

The Effectiveness of Testing as a Method of Pedagogical Control of Future Specialists With Higher Education

The article deals with the effectiveness of testing as a method of pedagogical control of the professional knowledge of future specialists with higher education. The purpose of the article is to describe the advantages and disadvantages of mass control technologies, the reasons of weak development of pedagogical testing in domestic practice, to give recommendations for a partial solving the problems with the introduction of pedagogical testing. Methods. The authors implement the purpose with the help of such methods as analysis, comparison, generalization, systematization, testing. The results. The authors state that with the paradigm shift in education the main role in controlling the student’s knowledge was shifted to testing, which gave us the possibility to reduce a teacher’s workload and reduce the time for the process of knowledge control itself, as well as to activate the process of self-control among students. The authors emphasize that due to the modern requirements for professional knowledge of future specialists with higher education, they must have an advanced level of information culture and skills to work with printed and electronic source of information, systematize and interpret the professional information which they have obtained during the reading task. There is a description of two insights as for the advantages and disadvantages of mass control technologies in the article. The reasons of weak development of pedagogical testing in domestic practice have been also described. The recommendations for a partial solving the problems with the introduction of pedagogical testing have been given. Conclusions. The article deals with a method of problem solving of education management efficiency. It’s considered as a minimization of time to achieve the advanced level of success in a particular topic. In addition, the mathematical description of the success function and the function of time-consuming have been given in the article. Due to these, a method of minimizing training time for proving the required level of success has been obtained. The article suggests also a description of the applying of a given model for the education structure adaptive management, which saves the substantial time and teacher’s workload without losing the quality of learning material. The authors make an attempt to define the reasons for the absence of testing at the Ukrainian educational services market.

Prospects and pitfalls associated with implementing blended learning in rural-based higher education institutions in Southern Africa

While blended learning is well entrenched in many developed countries as a solution towards enabling access to educational resources and managing student diversity, this may not be the same for rural based universities in developing countries. Yet, blended learning is ideal for the current terrain of the COVID-19 pandemic which requires learning modalities that promote social distancing to reduce the spread of the disease while ensuring that students have access to quality teaching and learning materials and to frequently stay engaged. For many rural based universities, successful blended learning implementation implies an exploration of possible ways to strengthen existing practices. This paper, using the document analysis method, sought to explore the prospects and pitfalls of implementing blended learning in rural- based universities in Southern Africa. The blended learning implementation framework by Graham, Woodfield and Harrison (2013) served as a guiding framework as it was specifically designed to determine success in blended learning adoption and implementation in education. This framework utilises the constructs of strategy, structure and support to differentiate the stages of adopting blended learning. These three stages are in a continuum and comprise awareness and exploration as stage 1, adoption or early implementation as stage 2 and mature implementation and growth as stage 3, with stages differing depending on the extent of formalisation of the institutional strategy, structure and support. Findings indicated prospects of blended learning entail providing opportunities for flexible learning, enabling access to a wide range of educational resources and limiting alienation associated with purely online education delivery. For many institutions, however, implementation of blended learning is still a mirage with the majority still at the first stage of Graham et al.’s (2013) blended learning adoption and implementation framework owing to technical resource constraints related to unstable or non-existent network coverage characteristic in rural locations, curricular deficit stemming from the blended learning model not aligning to context, thus lowering morale for wider implementation. This is exacerbated by weak goodwill and limited policy guidelines on a specific blended learning model. The study concludes that creating conducive conditions for blended learning in rural based universities necessitates a context friendly implementation model where institutional evaluation data inform strategies, support and pedagogical approaches and related resources that can be used locally. The study recommends governmental support for resourcing rural universities to acquire affordable and usable resources to offset challenges hindering blended learning. Rural institutions should also strive to strengthen support to students and staff to build confidence in the potential of blended learning.

Developing of electronic learning materials based on Simalungun potency of agriculture for improving student scientific literacy competencies in environmental context and awareness

Creating learning materials based on student local potencies are helping student to master their lesson and give a meaningful learning. This research aimed to produce learning materials based on Simalungun potencies on agriculture and measure the effectiveness of these learning materials, especially on Coffee. The type of this research was ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) while for implementation of learning materials used quasi-experiment which consists of control and experimental group with pretest-posttest design. Samples of this study were Senior High School Students grade X consisted of 22 students for each group. Both group were used learning materials based on Simalungun potencies on agriculture and for experimental group was taught by reminding the step of scientific literacy competencies and environmental awareness during the learning process. Quality of learning materials was measured by expert judgment and experienced teacher. Data collection technique was conducted by using pretest and posttest. Normalized gain value of scientific literacy competencies for control and experimental group were medium. Result for environmental awareness for control group was favorable attitude and experimental group was more favorable attitude. Learning materials based on potency of local agriculture in Simalungun can be used as supplementary of teaching materials in learning process.

DESIGN AND MULTIMEDIA LEARNING PRINCIPLES ON MOOC INDONESIAX

The “Kampus Merdeka” or “Freedom Campus” policy from the Indonesian Ministry of Education gives students the freedom to participate in learning activities outside their study program. Learning resources can be obtained from online-based learning. One online learning resource is MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), which has gained massive participation. Good quality learning materials can help students construct their knowledge. Indonesian MOOC providers have developed their learning materials, but they are still not optimal in quality. This study aims to analyze the implementation of design and multimedia principles on Indonesian MOOC’s learning materials. The research used a quantitative strategy with the data collection method of visual observation of the IndonesiaX materials compared to those of edX, Udemy, and Coursera materials. Data analysis was based on the visual analysis of 9 design principles and 12 multimedia learning principles. In this research, the findings reveal that the design consistency and icon representation principles are yet to have an optimal grade. The same conditions are also found in implementing the multimedia principles of coherence, redundancy, and modality. The findings in this study are expected to be a consideration for MOOC providers in designing better online learning materials.

APPLICATION OF TESTING TECHNOLOGY IN PROGRAM TRAINING

The purpose of the paper is to improve the methods of using test technologies in the educational process and to develop an optimal schedule for conducting tests in higher education when teaching programming languages. The article considers the advantages and disadvantages of test technologies. The author investigates the effectiveness of one-time and step-by-step testing and studies the role of testing at different stages of the educational process. In the course of the study, the author used written and computer forms of testing. The paper shows that step-by-step testing is more effective than one-time testing. The article identifies the expediency of testing that precedes the implementation of practical work. The results of the study allow us to develop an optimal schedule for conducting tests, which contributes to improving the quality of learning material and increasing students’ motivation.

Jupyter Notebooks in Undergraduate Mobile Robotics Courses: Educational Tool and Case Study

Jupyter notebooks are recently emerging as a valuable pedagogical resource in academy, being adopted in educational institutions worldwide. This is mainly due to their ability to combine the expressiveness of traditional explanations from textbooks, with the interaction capabilities of software applications, which provides numerous benefits for both students and lecturers of different fields. One of the areas that could benefit from their adoption is such of mobile robotics, whose recent popularity has resulted in an increasing demand of trained practitioners with a solid theoretical and practical background. Therefore, there is a need of high quality learning materials adapted to modern tools and methodologies. With that in mind, this work explores how the introduction of Jupyter notebooks in undergraduate mobile robotic courses contributes to improve both teaching and learning experiences. For that, we first present a series of (publicly available) educational notebooks encompassing a variety of topics relevant for robotics, with a particular emphasis in the study of mobile robots and commonly used sensors. Those documents have been built from the ground up to take advantage of the Jupyter Notebook framework, bridging the typical gap between theoretical frame and interactive code. We also present a case study describing the notebooks usage in undergraduate courses at University of Málaga, including a discussion on the promising results and findings obtained.

Business Simulators in the Educational Process: Comparative Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Use

There is considerable mobility in the educational services market: stakeholders’ requirements, the forms of organizing the educational process, and the training tools used are changing. Testing of changes requires monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of improvements and the impact on changes in content parameters, the quality of learning materials and the demand for formed managerial competencies. There is a surge in researchers ‘interest in developing methods for evaluating and justifying the increase in improvements from introducing changes to the educational process. This work reflects the results of an experiment conducted by a research group to expand the tools for teaching students of management training programs. The hypothesis is put about a higher rate of information assimilation and the formation of managerial competencies in groups of students in which classes are organized using business simulators, in contrast to those groups of students who master the course using traditional means - problem solving and case presentation. The authors believe that simulators based on the principles of gamification, to a greater extent satisfy the Generation Z students’ needs for mobility, rapid feedback, change of impressions and locations. The proof of the hypothesis is based on the differentiation of the student group into two subgroups, with a preliminary assessment of students ‘ academic performance in economic and management disciplines and input testing of knowledge in Unit Economics.

Efforts to Increase Mathematical Logical Intelligence Through Development of Student Worksheets Based on Problem Based Learning

Chemistry is a subject that is closely related to learning that requires students to be active in problem solving. Because of this, a worksheet development is needed to support chemistry learning activities. This study aims to develop a Student Based Worksheet (LKPD) based on Problem Based Learning (PBL) hydrolysis material to improve mathematical logical intelligence. The quality of LKPD is measured by the criteria of validity, effectiveness, and practicality in the learning process. The development model used in this study is a 3D model (define, design and develop). Data analysis techniques using qualitative and quantitative tests. The product development validation was carried out by the validator of media experts and material experts, while the trial was conducted by 36 students of class XI IPA 5. The results of the validator analysis stated that the quality of learning material was included in the excellent category with a percentage of 93.77% of the material experts and 94.46% of media experts. The effectiveness of LKPD indicated an increase in mathematical logical intelligence of students with the achievement of N-gain of 0.56 in the medium category and classical completeness of 86.11%. Student responses to the practicality of using LKPD showed results of 77.78% which included in the very good category and 22.22% included in the good category. Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that LKPD fulfills valid, effective, practical criteria, and can improve mathematical logical intelligence.

Awareness and Usage of MOOCs: The Underrepresented Experience

MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses) allow individuals to expand educational boundaries. The proliferation of MOOCs holds the potential to enhance access to quality learning materials for those who lack these resources, such as young adults in low-income communities; African Americans are overrepresented in these communities. There has been little attention to investigating how African Americans in higher education use MOOCs for personal and career development, and even less attention to how these young adults become aware of MOOCs. This empirical study identifies how African Americans from underserved communities in New Jersey became aware of MOOCs and their uses of it.

Need For Learning Materials at Early Grades as Per Nai Talim in J&K – An Empirical Study

Learning materials undoubtedly enrich teaching in every stage or grade of learning. Such materials keep children engaged in the multi-faceted learning, thereby helping to build their abilities for the application of knowledge. Teaching and learning materials have proven to be strong forces to support learning of children. Quality learning materials are developed in accordance to different curricular frameworks that connect various disciplines of teaching and learning with big ideas, themes, and concepts. As such they are the result of the field testing and refinement carried out carefully. Various curriculum frameworks and policies have given due consideration to the supportive materials vis-à-vis learning outcomes, selection, content, area, grade/ level appropriateness, age appropriateness, access and storage etc within constrained environments. Keeping the importance of Learning materials in view the study on the topic was carried out in District Ganderbal of J&K with a sample size of 30 teachers working in KG sections.

ALS Curriculum Implementation for Juvenile Delinquents in Urban and Rural Areas in the Philippines: A Comparative Analysis

Purpose: The aim of this research study is to evaluate the implementation of Alternative Learning System (ALS) curriculum offered to juvenile delinquents in urban and rural areas in the Philippines. The study also aims to determine whether the current education programs meet the needs of the juvenile delinquents with reference to Juvenile delinquency acts. The study is an attempt to highlight the aspects of Alternative Learning System (ALS) that should be developed. Approach/Methodology/Design: The study is qualitative and conducted in Marikina City and Rizal province, the Philippines. This study used exploratory study analysis. The respondents are the Alternative Learning System (ALS) teachers. For data collection, three semi-structured interviews were employed and the respondents’ answers were categorized using analytical coding to compare and analyze the implementation of the ALS curriculum for juvenile delinquents. Findings: The interpretation and analysis of the data collected shows that the ALS teachers from both the rural and urban areas have the same experiences on the implementation of the ALS program for juvenile delinquents in terms of curriculum, instruction and assessment. Furthermore, the teachers gave an emphasis that once the juvenile delinquents undergo the program, they are given a new hope and new direction in life to pursue their dreams. Lastly, the teachers from both areas have the same suggestions for the improvement of the implementation of the program, such as additional funds for the development of quality learning materials, increasing the number of learning centers, and designing various forms of assessment. Practical Implications: The study will contribute positively to the understanding of Alternative learning System. The significance of this study lies in the comparison of the alternative learning system curriculum and how it is implemented to the juvenile delinquents in urban and in rural areas. Originality/value: This study engages ALS teachers in assessing the ALS curriculum, reflecting actual experiences to meet the expectations and needs of the juvenile delinquents.

Contribution of Library Professionals and Libraries in Open Educational Resources in Indian Scenario

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning content that live in public domain and are free to use or reuse. The present study examines the contribution of Library Professionals and Libraries in dealing with OERs in India. A self-designed structured questionnaire was circulated online through blogs, discussion forums, social media groups and personal e-mails among library professionals, faculty and students for random data collection. The findings of the present study reveal that though majority (93 %) of library professionals are aware of the concept of OER but they are unable to guide the OER movement because their parent institution (70 %) have no policy guidelines on design and development of OERs. Library professionals play multiple tasks in dealing with OERs, most prominent being promotion (15.63 %) and Identification (14.02 %) of OERs. The study further reveals that 25.48 per cent library professionals believe that through use of OERs the patrons get benefit of gaining access to high quality learning material. While 21.3 per cent library professionals feels that lack of awareness on the existence of OERs because of rapid technological advancement is the major challenge faced by them. The study recommends that there is an urgent need to sensitise institutions about the benefits of OER.

PENGEMBANGAN PERANGKAT PEMBELAJARAN UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN BERPIKIR KREATIF DALAM UPAYA MENUJU ERA INDUSTRI 4.0

Tujuan penelitian ini adalah mengembangkan perangkat pembelajaran (RPS dan RPP) yang berkualitas dari aspek kevalidan, kepraktisan, dan efektif untuk meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kreatif sebagai upaya menuju era industry 4.0. Penelitian ini termasuk dalam penelitian pengembangan. Rancangan penelitian ini terdiri dari 10 langkah, yaitu: (1) penelitian terhadap produk penelitian yang sudah ada, (2) studi literature, (3) perancangan dan pembuatan instrumen penelitian, (4) perancangan pengembangan produk, (5) pengujian internal desain, (6) revisi desain, (7) pembuatan produk penelitian, (8) uji coba terbatas, (9) revisi produk, dan (10) uji coba lapangan umum. Penelitian ini dilakukan di STMIK AKAKOM Yogyakarta. Produk hasil pengembangan dikatakan berkualitas jika memenuhi kriteria valid, praktis, dan efektif. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan angket (data kevalidan dan kepraktisan) dan tes (data kefektifan). Kesimpulan penelitian ini menyebutkan bahwa sebagai upaya menuju revolusi industry 4.0, perangkat pembelajaran yang terdiri dari RPS dan RPP dinyatakan berkualitas sesuai dengan aspek valid, praktis dan efektif untuk meningkatkan 31,7% kemampuan berpikir kreatif.

Development and implementation of extracurricilar environmental event for secondary school students

The results of the phased development and implementation of the educational environmental event "Elk Island - Clean Forest" are given as part of the environmental education of middle school students in garbage collection within the boundaries of a specially protected natural area, including legal, methodological and organizational stages, the implementation of which allowed for an extracurricular environmental event, identify problems of a methodological and organizational nature that require more detailed study, identify the effectiveness of individual components, and formulate some recommendations for similar events. The methodology of the ecological campaign "Clean Games", adapted for participants of secondary school age (12-16 years), as well as the development and results of an extracurricular environmental event "Elk Island - Clean Forest" are presented. The results obtained make it possible to assess the possibility of using the existing methodology and the need for its adjustment, taking into account the age characteristics of students, as well as the quality of learning material and the presence of increased interest of students in this problem.

Higher education services market: new trends in sustainable development

The transfer of higher education to a distance format as a new trend has increased the relevance of research on the problems of assessing the quality of higher education services and its sustainable development in the post-pandemic period. The article proposes a methodological approach that includes the authors’ modified Higher Education PERFormance (HEdPERF) model and importance–performance analysis. Testing of the methodology for the Russian university showed its advantages that is a comprehensive assessment of the higher education service quality. The transition to a mixed model of higher education caused the need to improve the methodology. The authors proposed to include in the questionnaire the characteristics of the quality of distance learning: correspondence of goals and content of online technology, the level of online interaction of students, conformity assessment procedures and the stated competence, clarity of assessment criteria students the opportunity to track the progress in the development of the online course, quality learning materials, quality of technical support the online technology, ease of use etc.

Development of Learning Material Based on Problem Based Learning to Increase Mathematical Connection Ability and Self-Esteem Students of SMP Negeri 1 Panai Tengah

This research aim to analysis: (1) the increasing of students’ mathematical connection ability by using learning material based on problem based learning that has been developed, (2) the increasing of students’ self-esteem by using learning material based on problem based learning that has been developed, (3) the quality of learning material developed based on problem based learning and (4) the students’ mistake in completing the mathematical connection ability test on the comparison material. The development of learning based on problem based learning by using the 4-D development model. The stage of this research includes define, design, develop, and disseminate. The subjects of this research were students of class VII -1 and VII -2 SMP Negeri 1 Panai Tengah. From the results of trial I and trial II were obtained: (1) there was an increase in students’ mathematical connection ability on posttest trials I and trials II of 5 point, (2) there was an increase in students’ self esteem on posttest trials I and trials II of 0,10 point, (3) according to the expert, the validity of learning material is valid, the practicality of the learning material has fulfilled the practical criteria that have reviewed from: a) the validator stated the learning materials can be used with a little revisions; b) the result of observation of learning material has been done as said good, and the effectiveness of learning material has fulfilled the effective criteria in terms of: a) the mastery of students learning in classical; b) limits of tolerance that have been established on students’ active activity; c) students’ responses is positive to the components of learning materials and learning activities, and (4) the type of error that is often done by students in completing a mathematical connection ability test were mathematical error aspects of the transformation of 33,33%. Keywords : Learning Materials, 4-D Development Model, Problem Based Learning, Mathematical Connection Abilities, and Self-Esteem DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-36-07 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

OER Mainstreaming in Cameroon: Perceptions and Barriers

The government of Cameroon has been increasingly pre-occupied with the quality of learning outcomes and the lack of learning resources at all levels of the education system. Research on similar educational systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond indicate that Ministries of Education are exploring the potential of open educational resources (OER) to cut down the high cost of textbooks and enhance the availability of quality learning materials in classrooms. To explore possibilities of mainstreaming OER under the Ministries of Basic and Secondary Education in Cameroon, a quantitative research design approach was used to survey n=393 Regional Pedagogic Supervisors from the 10 Regions of the country. The outcome of this study presents the factors shaping the perspectives of Regional Pedagogic Supervisors in terms of perceptions and barriers to using OER. The novelty of this approach is the application of a proven model for technology acceptance testing in the context of OER. Based on the findings, three major recommendations for mainstreaming OER in Cameroon with potential impact on lowering textbook costs and increasing learning outcomes were formulated.