ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Improving Academic Writing in Nursing Education
Author: Mattsson, Janet
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Nursing Education,Academic Discourse,Writing Improvement,Content Area Writing,Specialists,Educational Quality,Student Satisfaction,Masters Theses,Self Directed Groups,Student Surveys,Student Attitudes,Curriculum Enrichment,Foreign Countries,College Students,College Faculty

Background: At a specialist nursing education in intensive care, located at a University college in Sweden, there was a desire among the faculty to develop their ability to support specialist nursing students in their academic development, as well as in their academic writing, to improve the overall quality of the master theses. A quality improvement design, the Plan, DO, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle was applied. Two graduating classes of specialist nursing students and two faculty members were involved in the quality improvement of academic writing. The result of the study showed improved academic writing and improved student satisfaction in the master thesis writing process.
Using Institutional Resources and Agency to Support Graduate Students' Success at a Hispanic Serving Institution
Author: Tran, Natalie A.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Graduate Students,Hispanic American Students,Social Capital,Disproportionate Representation,Case Studies,Mentors,Institutional Characteristics,Role,Educational Resources,Graduation,College Faculty,Teacher Student Relationship,Barriers,Educational Experience,Whites,Minority Group Students,Online Surveys,Student Attitudes,Statistical Analysis

There is a growing body of evidence that links increased social capital to minority student success in college. This paper seeks to expand specifically on the graduate experience of underrepresented minorities (URM) at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) using the social capital framework. In a cross-sectional survey, 198 graduate students retrospectively considered the role of institutional resources and agents in their success towards graduation. Data revealed that motivational factors such as a sense of personal achievement, family support, peer support, career promotion, supportive faculty, program satisfaction, and faculty mentor played critical roles in the success of graduate students at HSI. Specifically, Latino students are more likely to report that faculty mentors played a significant role in their success compared to their non-Latino peers ?[superscript 2](1, N = 195) = 5.33, p = 0.02. Latinos/as were also more likely to use writing support services than their non-Latino/a peers ?[superscript 2](2, N = 190) = 7.59, p = 0.02. By identifying and increasing access to institutional resources and agents, underrepresented minorities in post-baccalaureate programs may encounter less barriers to graduate degree success.
Hypertext or Textbook: Effects on Motivation and Gain in Knowledge
Author: Conradty, Cathérine
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Hypermedia,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Student Motivation,Gender Differences,Self Efficacy,Quasiexperimental Design,Textbooks,Grade 8,Teaching Methods,Computer Assisted Instruction,Computer Assisted Testing,Recall (Psychology),Correlation,Foreign Countries,Science Instruction,Cooperative Learning,Science Tests,Statistical Analysis,Nonparametric Statistics

Computers are considered innovative in classrooms, raising expectations of increased cognitive learning outcomes or motivation with effects on Deeper Learning (DL). The &quot;new medium&quot;, however, may cause cognitive overloads. Combined with gender-related variations in ability, self-efficacy or self-confidence, computers may even diminish learning effects. Our empirical study used a quasi-experimental design and the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) to monitor efficacy in knowledge gain and motivation when using computer-aided versus textbook-based educational units. Our sample consisted of 393 eighth graders. One objective focused on gender effects associated with autonomous teacher-assisted learning via interactive software or an appropriate textbook. Both groups finished with a recapitulation with the teacher. A third group concluded a computer-aided lesson with a computer quiz. To provide evidence for DL we tested long-term memory after six weeks and examined its correlation with intrinsic motivation factors. In general, our intervention affected the girls' but not the boys' intrinsic motivation. We recorded significantly higher post-test scores in the textbook-based lesson, but the differences vanished in the retention test. The teacher-assisted consolidation phase increased long-term knowledge and positively intervened with the students' interest. Thus, we found evidence for DL.
Reflective Practice in Healthcare Education: An Umbrella Review
Author: Fragkos, Konstantinos C.
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Definitions,Reflection,Correlation,Validity,Reliability,Medicine,Epistemology,Health Services,Databases,Search Strategies,Allied Health Occupations Education,Medical Education,Health Occupations,Educational Research,Research Reports,Scores,Evaluation Methods,Literature Reviews

Reflection in healthcare education is an emerging topic with many recently published studies and reviews. This current systematic review of reviews (umbrella review) of this field explores the following aspects: which definitions and models are currently in use; how reflection impacts design, evaluation, and assessment; and what future challenges must be addressed. Nineteen reviews satisfying the inclusion criteria were identified. Emerging themes include the following: reflection is currently regarded as self-reflection and critical reflection, and the epistemology-of-practice notion is less in tandem with the evidence-based medicine paradigm of modern science than expected. Reflective techniques that are recognised in multiple settings (e.g., summative, formative, group vs. individual) have been associated with learning, but assessment as a research topic, is associated with issues of validity, reliability, and reproducibility. Future challenges include the epistemology of reflection in healthcare education and the development of approaches for practising and assessing reflection without loss of theoretical background.
Community Tracking in a cMOOC and Nomadic Learner Behavior Identification on a Connectivist Rhizomatic Learning Network
Author: Bozkurt, Aras
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Online Courses,Interaction,Group Dynamics,Sense of Community,Computer Mediated Communication,Electronic Mail,Social Networks,Network Analysis,Content Analysis,Communities of Practice,Learning Theories,Mixed Methods Research,Social Psychology,Teaching Methods

This article contributes to the literature on connectivism, connectivist MOOCs (cMOOCs) and rhizomatic learning by examining participant interactions, community formation and nomadic learner behavior in a particular cMOOC, #rhizo15, facilitated for 6 weeks by Dave Cormier. It further focuses on what we can learn by observing Twitter interactions particularly. As an explanatory mixed research design, Social Network Analysis and content analysis were employed for the purposes of the research. SNA is used at the macro, meso and micro levels, and content analysis of one week of the MOOC was conducted using the Community of Inquiry framework. The macro level analysis demonstrates that communities in a rhizomatic connectivist networks have chaotic relationships with other communities in different dimensions (clarified by use of hashtags of concurrent, past and future events). A key finding at the meso level was that as #rhizo15 progressed and number of active participants decreased, interaction increased in overall network. The micro level analysis further reveals that, though completely online, the nature of open online ecosystems are very convenient to facilitate the formation of community. The content analysis of week 3 tweets demonstrated that cognitive presence was the most frequently observed, while teaching presence (teaching behaviors of both facilitator and participants) was the lowest. This research recognizes the limitations of looking only at Twitter when #rhizo15 conversations occurred over multiple platforms frequented by overlapping but not identical groups of people. However, it provides a valuable partial perspective at the macro meso and micro levels that contribute to our understanding of community-building in cMOOCs.
Pedagogical Intercultural Practice of Teachers in Virtual Environments
Author: Barreto, Carmen Ricardo
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Virtual Classrooms,Distance Education,College Faculty,Cultural Pluralism,Cultural Awareness,Teacher Education,Qualitative Research,Educational Practices,Multicultural Education

This study presents some of the results of the project &quot;Training and Development of Intercultural Competency of Teachers in Virtual Environments&quot;, carried out in ten Colombian Caribbean higher education institutions (HEI) offering virtual programs. It was performed in three steps: 1-diagnosis, 2-training, and 3-analysis of the pedagogical practice. The article shows third-stage results of six cases corresponding to teachers who had participated in the two previous stages selected. The study used a qualitative approach based on a cooperative action research design. The stage here reported aimed at analyzing and assessing virtual teachers' practice in virtual learning environments. Data were collected from each case's Virtual Learning Environment, and they were analyzed by using documentary analysis of the teacher's pedagogical practice. This analysis was performed by the participant teachers, the researcher, and an external expert. Results show a changing process of intercultural conception both in the design and in the implementation and evaluation. In order to overcome some weaknesses observed, it is necessary to train the teachers not only in the intercultural education but also in topics such as curricular design and educational technology.
Web Interface Design Principles for Adults' Self-Directed Learning
Author: Firat, Mehmet
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Computer Interfaces,Internet,Independent Study,Adult Students,Design,Electronic Learning,Expertise,Adult Education,Surveys,Opinions,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis

One of the most important features which e-learning tools and environments must possess within the scope of lifelong learning is self-directed learning, which can be considered as a form of self-learning. The aim of this study was to determine, based on the views and recommendations of experts, interface design principles for the development of educational web interfaces that will support the self-directed learning of adults. This descriptive study was conducted with the contribution of 12 academicians specializing in interface design and self-directed learning. Within the scope of the study, new interfaces features were identified based on an evaluation of the literature on interface designs for self-directed learning, and the views of subject experts. Based on the study results, it was determined that interface designs supporting self-directed learning must possess five basic features, which include being user-directed, ensuring variety, being supported by learning analytics, being motivational, and being sharing-oriented.
Annotation-Based Learner's Personality Modeling in Distance Learning Context
Author: Omheni, Nizar
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Distance Education,Personality,Student Characteristics,Documentation,Profiles,Reading,Personality Measures,Personality Traits,Electronic Learning,Correlation,Statistical Analysis,Accuracy,Program Effectiveness,Scores

Researchers in distance education are interested in observing and modeling learners' personality profiles, and adapting their learning experiences accordingly. When learners read and interact with their reading materials, they do unselfconscious activities like annotation which may be key feature of their personalities. Annotation activity requires the reader to be active, to think critically, to analyze what has been written, and to make specific annotations in the margins of the text. These traces are reflected through underlining, highlighting, scribbling comments, summarizing, asking questions, expressing confusion or ambiguity, and evaluating the content of reading. In this study, we present a new approach to build learners' personality profiles based on their annotation traces yielded during active reading sessions. To validate our approach, we invited 100 volunteers ranging in age from 22 to 50 years old. The participators were instructed to utilize our system to achieve their reading and annotation activities. We apply the paired t-test to evaluate the system's efficiency to measure user's human traits versus the scores of his personality traits measured using the NEO-IPIP inventory. The experimental results show the system performance to measure, with reasonable accuracy, the scores of learner's personality traits.
The &quot;Lifeblood&quot; of Science and Its Politics: Interrogating Epistemic Curiosity as an Educational Aim
Author: Papastephanou, Marianna
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Epistemology,Educational Objectives,Personality Traits,Politics of Education

Social- and virtue-epistemologies connect intellectual and moral concerns in ways significant for education and its theory. For most educationists, epistemic and ethical virtues are no longer dissociated. However, many political framings or operations of epistemic virtues and vices remain neglected in educational discourses. This article illustrates why a politicization of epistemic issues is relevant to education through reference to political performances of a curiosity typically considered educationally valuable. Curiosity bore political connotations from antiquity to late modernity whose exploration may add critical nuance to educational-philosophical conceptions of epistemic desire. This leads us to the main argument of the article, which is that such politicization helps us interrogate unqualified, uniform, and glorifying treatments of curiosity as an educational aim.
Trends in Studies on Virtual Learning Environments in Turkey between 1996-2014 Years: A Content Analysis
Author: Demirer, Veysel
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Virtual Classrooms,Electronic Learning,Educational Trends,Content Analysis,Computer Simulation,Research Methodology,Preferences,Data Collection,Sampling,Sample Size,Data Analysis,Predictor Variables,Outcomes of Treatment,Research Tools,Research Reports,Literature Reviews,Meta Analysis,Higher Education

This study aims to review studies on virtual learning environments in Turkey through the content analysis method. 63 studies consisting of thesis, articles and proceedings published in Turkish and English between 1996-2014 years were analyzed. It was observed that &quot;Second Life&quot; was mostly preferred as the virtual learning environment. Literature review and quantitative research methods were mostly preferred in the studies respectively. Most of these studies used surveys to collect the data and sample size in most studies was between 31-100 participants. Mostly, participants were undergraduate students, and purposive and convenience sampling method were preferred in the studies. The data was mostly analyzed using quantitative descriptive analysis method. The most studied variable was academic achievement and the least one was the cognitive load. The studies yielded varying results owning to their study purposes and showed that virtual learning environments fostered student academic success, diminished the cognitive load by concretizing the concepts and ensured social and collaborative learning. The findings of this study might guide researchers aiming to employ virtual learning environments in their educational studies.
Using Blogging Software to Provide Additional Writing Instruction
Author: Carver, Lin B.
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Writing Instruction,Electronic Publishing,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Writing Processes,Barriers,Teacher Surveys,Journal Writing,Reflection,Teacher Attitudes,Learner Engagement,Teacher Student Relationship,Computer Mediated Communication,Keyboarding (Data Entry),Skill Development,Computer Software,Mixed Methods Research,Graduate Study,Essays,Likert Scales,Statistical Analysis

Classroom teachers sometimes struggle trying to find time during the typical school day to provide the writing instruction students need to be successful. This study examined 29 fifth through twelfth grade classroom teachers' survey responses about their perception of the effectiveness of using an online blogging tool, Kidblog, to plan and provide writing instruction for a struggling writer through survey responses and reflective journal entries. In addition, qualitative data from 16 of the 29 teachers were collected through their journals. After eight weeks of using the blogging tool, teachers perceived the tool to be more effective than they had originally thought it would be. The teachers reported that they were able to evaluate their individual student's writing progress to determine next steps in writing instruction. They perceived that student engagement with the writing process increased during the study. Additionally, using an online format encouraged teachers to incorporate other online tools into their instruction. However, barriers to using the blogging tool were also identified. Teachers reported that they would have liked the opportunity for more face-to-face interaction with their students and they also indicated that students may need strong keyboarding skills to effectively use the Kidblog tool. Additionally, prior to implementing the tool, teachers identified practice should have been provided for the teachers, as some found the blogging software difficult to use.
Online Metacognitive Tasks for EFL Distance Learners
Author: Garcia-Sanchez, Soraya
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Distance Education,Metacognition,Online Courses,Task Analysis,Communication Skills,Learning Strategies,Foreign Countries,Social Work,Independent Study,Computer Mediated Communication,Case Studies,Course Descriptions,Qualitative Research,Formative Evaluation,Summative Evaluation,College Students

Online courses have benefited from the adequate use of digital resources that allow learners to be the center of their own learning process. More often online instructors not only aim at what students have to individually do but learners are also engaged in interacting with the educational community by means of a variety of metacognitive activities, which can be planned, thought and accomplished anywhere and at any time (ubiquitous learning). This article proposes a debate on the awareness of strategic knowledge acquisition to particular situations providing interactive scenarios among students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in online courses. Without communicative activities, the successful production of any foreign language is not complete since knowledge building and the understanding of the foreign language, either in written or spoken form, are the key points of an adequate performance of communication. The findings of this study will provide information about useful online tasks for the adequate performance of communicative metacognitive skills required in an EFL language distance course. Finally, some future research paths inclined to improve EFL distance learners from a metacognitive and ICT-based collaborative perspective are also suggested.
Digital Game-Based Language Learning in Foreign Language Teacher Education
Author: Alyaz, Yunus
Date: 2016-10-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Second Language Instruction,Educational Games,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Pretests Posttests,Language Skills,Preservice Teachers,Diaries,Semi Structured Interviews,Program Effectiveness,Student Attitudes,German,Foreign Countries,Mixed Methods Research,Nonparametric Statistics

New technologies including digital game-based language learning have increasingly received attention. However, their implementation is far from expected and desired levels due to technical, instructional, financial and sociological barriers. Previous studies suggest that there is a strong need to establish courses in order to support adaptation of game-based learning pedagogy through helping teachers experience digital games themselves before they are expected to use them in teaching. This study was conducted to investigate educational digital games in foreign language teaching, to identify the determining reasons behind the pitfalls in applications and to explore the contribution of a serious game to the development of professional language skills of pre-service teachers. Pre- and post-tests were applied to measure the contribution of the game to the development of their language skills. In addition, a game diary and semi-structured interviews were used to elicit information about the problems pre-service teachers had and their perceptions on the whole process. The analysis of the data illustrated that there was great improvement in pre-service teachers' professional language skills and attitudes towards using these games while teaching in the future. This is important in foreign language teacher education in terms of enhancing digital game-based language learning pedagogy for teachers.
Creating a Community Rather than a Course--Possibilities and Dilemmas in a MOOC
Author: Karlsson, Niklas
Date: 2016-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Online Courses,Professional Development,Foreign Countries,Data Collection,Surveys,Interviews,Electronic Publishing,Web Sites,Social Media,Internet,Networks,Educational Technology,Large Group Instruction

In this article, a massive open online course (MOOC) made by and for Swedish teachers will be presented and discussed in order to determine what possibilities and dilemmas are involved when creating and participating in a MOOC that is meant to be a community rather than a course. By analysing interviews of the organisers as well as blog posts and surveys answered by participants, the conclusions that can be drawn point to the ambiguity of the boundary created between participating in a community and in a course. The way one is expected to participate in the MOOC differs from how one is usually expected to participate in professional development courses. The social aspects of a community become the focus for the participants in the MOOC rather than the content that it is addressing. The skeletal structure of the MOOC inhibits the participation of those who are unaccustomed to the digital environment where it takes place. Furthermore, the division of labour between participants and organisers is affected by the notion of course and therefore becomes ambiguous and creates tensions for both organisers and participants.