ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Online Training in Australia
Author: Kuzic, Joze
Date: 2013-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Online Courses,Corporations,Educational Benefits,Financial Support,Computer Software,Usability,Cost Effectiveness,Efficiency,Prevention,Knowledge Level,Corporate Education,Teamwork,Skilled Workers,Foreign Countries,Questionnaires,Likert Scales

On-line training is becoming an interesting phenomenon in Australia and has attracted a lot of interest across many industries and businesses (Chan and Ngai, 2007). The research reported here looks at the use of online training in corporations in Australia. It focuses on two aspects of online training, the factors that &quot;warrant&quot; its success as well as on benefits of being involved in online training. This exploratory study into the issues prevalent to organisations in Australia was accomplished through a survey of top 500 Australian companies. The findings from this research shows that a lot of success factors of online training identified in the literature have been identified in the Australian environment as well. These include: financial support, cross-functional team, alignment of the software and organisational standards (Driscoll, 1998); top management support, skilled work force (Talib et al, 2010); just in time training (Chan and Ngai, 2007); and usability and transferability (Wang et al, 2004). Additionally, the findings also confirm the findings from the literature about major benefits of online training. These include: cost effectiveness (Wang et al, 2004); efficiency, competitive advantage, receiving training any time, any place, ability to provide custom tailored solutions (Chan and Ngai, 2007), 24 hours accessibility, flexibility, relearning skills; and improving knowledge and practice of preventive oral health (Talib et al, 2010). [For Full Proceedings, see: ED562127.]
Peer Tutoring in the CIS Sandbox: Does It Work?
Author: Frydenberg, Mark
Date: 2013-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Peer Teaching,Tutoring,College Freshmen,Introductory Courses,Computer Science Education,Laboratories,Social Media,Internet,Cooperative Learning,Blended Learning,Interviews,Peer Relationship,Student Surveys,Scores,Tests,Instructional Effectiveness

This paper reports on a student-created and facilitated peer-tutoring activity to assist first-year students in preparing for their final exam in an introductory information technology course. Tutors at the CIS Sandbox, a collaborative learning lab at an American university, offered a series of &quot;Crunch Sessions&quot; to their peers. This paper examines how these sessions model characteristics of peer tutoring, and describes how social media and Internet-based collaboration tools support a blended learning environment where an in-person event is aligned with a web presence. Interviews with student tutors and participants suggest that the peer relationship between tutors and tutees was conducive to an open exchange of questions and answers among participants, and that the sessions contributed to student learning for those who attended. Implications for designing and researching online peer learning activities in higher education contexts are discussed. [For the full proceedings, see ED562127.]
Usability Assessment of E-Café Operational Management Simulation Game
Author: Chang, Chiung-sui
Date: 2013-07-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Usability,Computer Simulation,Computer Games,Heuristics,Educational Games,Computer Software Evaluation,Mixed Methods Research,College Students,Questionnaires,Interviews,Observation,Difficulty Level,Student Experience,Business Administration Education

To ensure the quality of digital simulation game, we utilized the usability evaluation heuristic in the design and development processes of e-café operational management game-based learning material for students. The application of usability evaluations during this study is described. Additionally, participant selection, data collection and analysis; and results relevant to usability portions of this study are presented. [For the full proceedings, see ED562127.]
Implementation and Impact of the Check &amp; Connect Mentoring Program
Author: Heppen, Jessica
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Mentors,Program Implementation,Program Effectiveness,High School Students,Individualized Programs,Urban Schools,Learner Engagement,Attendance,Potential Dropouts,At Risk Students,Graduation

High school graduation rates remain unacceptably low in the U.S., especially among disadvantaged youth (Chapman, Laird, Ifill, &amp; KelalRamani, 2011; Stillwell, 2010), with troubling implications for future earnings and employment status (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012). Check &amp; Connect (C&amp;C) is an individualized program that pairs students with a trained mentor who closely monitors their progress in school and matches them with targeted academic and social supports, with the goal of increasing student engagement and performance in school and improving on-time graduation rates. This study, funded by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, is testing the impact of C&amp;C on school engagement, attendance, and completion outcomes among general education students at high risk of dropping out. The authors used student risk indicators from Grade 8 and the first half of Grade 9 to select students at risk for dropping out of high school in the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), an urban district in Southern California. Students within the selected high-risk sample were then randomly assigned within schools to participate in C&amp;C or to a business-as-usual control group. The study was designed to generate rigorous evidence about the effects of C&amp;C on engagement, school completion, and academic outcomes of at-risk general education students, and to document implementation.
Incomplete Reporting: Addressing the Prevalence of Outcome-Reporting Bias in Educational Research
Author: Trainor, Brian
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Educational Research,Bias,Outcomes of Education,Correlation,Doctoral Dissertations,Elementary Secondary Education,Intervention

Outcome reporting bias refers to the practice of omitting from primary studies outcomes that were actually collected. When primary studies do not report on all the outcomes assessed, there is an incomplete understanding of a phenomenon that may be compounded when the study is included in a systematic review of research. Outcome reporting bias is well-documented in the medical literature (see, for example, Vedula et al., 2009; Chan et al., 2004) through the comparison of research protocols and unpublished reports of research with their published version. In many of these studies, statistical significance was related to the likelihood that an outcome was reported. In education, a recent paper by Pigott et al. (2013) demonstrates the presence of outcome reporting bias in educational research. Through a comparison of dissertations with their published versions, Pigott et al. found that outcomes failing to produce a statistically significant result in a dissertation were 30% more likely to be omitted from a published version of the dissertation when compared to those outcomes that were statistically significant. The purpose of the proposed paper is to extend the work done by Pigott et al. (2013) on outcome-reporting bias in educational research to examine other potential correlates for incomplete reporting. The data sources will include the 79 dissertation-published paper pairs collected by Pigott et al. (2013). These 79 pairs examine an educational intervention conducted with K-12 students using either an experimental or quasi-experimental design. A total of 9,530 dissertations were identified. Of these dissertations, 621 reported on an educational intervention for students in PreK-12. Within the 79 dissertations, 1,599 treatment outcomes were reported. For this update, the authors are expanding the coding of the dissertation-published paper pairs using these variables. They are also checking for published versions of the original 621 dissertations that may have appeared since the search ended in May 2011.
Psychosocial Interventions for School Refusal Behavior with Primary and Secondary School Students: A Campbell Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Author: Maynard, Brandy R.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Elementary School Students,Secondary School Students,Student Behavior,Behavior Problems,Intervention,Meta Analysis,Attendance,Anxiety,Program Effectiveness,Educational Research,Effect Size,Behavior Modification,Cognitive Restructuring,Literature Reviews

School refusal behavior, affecting between 1% and 5% of school-age children, is a psychosocial problem for students characterized by severe emotional distress and anxiety at the prospect of going to school, leading to difficulties in attending school and, in some cases, significant absences from school (Burke &amp; Silverman, 1987; Elliot, 1999; King, Ollendick, &amp; Tonge, 1995; King, Tonge, Heyne, Pritchard, Rollings, Young, et al., 1998; Heyne, King, Tonge, &amp; Cooper, 2001; Kahn, Nursten, &amp; Carroll, 1981). Children who present with school refusal may meet criteria for multiple internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, including anxiety, depression, phobia, separation anxiety, aggression, temper tantrums, and non-compliance (Egger, Costello, &amp; Angold, 2003; Heyne et al., 2001; Kearney, 2001). Children and parents experience significant adverse consequences from school refusal. A child may miss an excessive number of days of school, leading to poor academic performance and disruptions in social and extracurricular activities (King &amp; Bernstein, 2001). School refusal may also negatively affect family and peer relationships (Berg &amp; Nursten, 1996). Long-term problems in social adjustment may also occur, including psychiatric disturbance (Heyne et al., 2001). The purpose of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions designed to increase school attendance and decrease anxiety for students who exhibit school refusal behavior. The following research questions guided this study: (1) Do interventions targeting school refusal behavior improve attendance?; and (2) Do interventions targeting school refusal behavior decrease anxiety? The present review found relatively few rigorous studies of interventions for school refusal behavior. All studies that did meet inclusion criteria assessed effects of a variant of cognitive behavioral therapy, thus there appears to be a lack of rigorous evidence of other types of interventions for school refusal behavior. Tables and figures are appended.
Improving Procedural Knowledge and Transfer by Teaching a Shortcut Strategy First
Author: DeCaro, Marci S.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Teaching Methods,Transfer of Training,Mathematics Instruction,Problem Solving,Learning Strategies,Private Schools,Urban Schools,Elementary School Mathematics,Elementary School Students,Grade 2,Grade 3,Pretests Posttests,Arithmetic,Intervention

Students often memorize and apply procedures to solve mathematics problems without understanding why these procedures work. In turn, students demonstrate limited ability to transfer strategies to new problem types. Math curriculum reform standards underscore the importance of procedural flexibility and transfer, emphasizing that students need to understand and flexibly adapt strategies when encountering various problem situations. Drawing on research in both education and cognitive psychology, this study tests the theory that initially instructing students on complex algorithms leads them to rigidly apply these procedures, overlooking more efficient shortcut strategies even when they are later introduced. The study was conducted in two private schools in a large urban area. Participants were 54 second- and third-grade children who scored below 50% on a pretest measuring knowledge of math equivalence (age M = 8.05 years, SD = 0.51; 74% female, 15% ethnic minorities). A pretest--intervention--immediate posttest--delayed retention test design was used. Students were randomly assigned to one of two between-subjects conditions. Although students in both conditions completed the exact same learning activities, providing instruction on shortcut strategies first improved students' ability to solve math equivalence problems and transfer concepts and procedures to solve novel, difficult problems. Students also demonstrated greater procedural flexibility, when measured as greater use of multiple, correct strategies. However, differences between conditions were not found on a separate procedural flexibility subscale, or on a measure of conceptual knowledge. Taken together, these findings provide strong initial support for the proposed theory and use of a shortcut-first intervention, and stand in stark contrast to the traditional method of instructing students on complex strategies first. Future research is needed to determine if the benefits of this method of supporting procedural knowledge, flexibility, and transfer in early algebra learning extends to more complex algebra learning in later school years. Tables and figures are appended.
The Impact of Reading Recovery on the Reading Achievement of First Grade Students
Author: Case, Marguerite
Date: 2015-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Reading Programs,Program Effectiveness,Outcomes of Education,Reading Achievement,Elementary School Students,Grade 1,Early Intervention,Pretests Posttests,Achievement Gains,Hypothesis Testing,Achievement Tests,Computer Assisted Testing,Comparative Analysis,At Risk Students,Scores,Data Analysis,Statistical Analysis

There are so many different intervention programs for educators to use to increase the reading achievement of below grade level students, that it can often be difficult to choose the appropriate one for the students. Most programs are scripted and are used with small groups of students. Reading Recovery is not a scripted program and is taught in a one-on-one setting. It is often criticized for its effectiveness due to the smaller number of students that are able to receive services. It becomes a matter of quantity of students over the quality of the instruction. The casual-comparative design was used with a quantitative research method to determine the effects of the Reading Recovery program on first grade students. The MAP test for the 2014-2015 academic year was the measuring tool used by the researcher for this study. The MAP test was given in the fall, winter and spring. The gains from the fall to spring of Reading Recovery students and students who received services through another program were compared. The results of the research showed that students who received Reading Recovery as their intervention program made higher gains in reading than students who were taught using another program.
Interaction Problems Accessing E-Learning Environments in Multi-Touch Mobile Devices: A Case Study in TelEduc
Author: da Silva, André Constantino
Date: 2013-07-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Electronic Learning,Educational Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Telecommunications,Handheld Devices,Barriers,Interaction,Computer Interfaces,Questionnaires,Undergraduate Students

e-Learning environments offer content, such text, audio, video, animations, using the Web infrastructure and they are designed to users interacting with keyboard, mouse and a medium-sized screen. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, have enough computation power to render Web pages, allowing browsing the Internet and access e-Learning environments. But, their main interaction style is touching, bringing some problems, cosmetics or severe ones. To identify these problems and correct them to allow mobile users access the TelEduc, an e-Learning environment, we planned a user test case with four volunteers using smartphones for access it. The collected data was analyzed and some problems were identified, giving some insights about the problems and barriers multi-touch mobile users dealt and can be easily corrected to give them a better interaction experience. To have an e-Learning environment with good usability in mobile devices is a first step to have a virtual learning environment for sharing data between desktop and mobile devices and understand the behavior of mobile users in this context. [For the full proceedings, see ED562127.]
Integrating a Learning Management System with a Student Assignments Digital Repository. A Case Study
Author: Díaz, Javier
Date: 2013-07-00
Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Subjects: Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Integrated Learning Systems,Assignments,Electronic Learning,Resource Units,Social Media,Metadata,Foreign Countries,Higher Education,Case Studies

The integration of different platforms and information Systems in the academic environment is highly important and quite a challenge within the field of Information Technology. This integration allows for higher resource availability and improved interaction among intervening actors. In the field of e-Learning, where Learning Management Systems are used to develop the courses, their integration with other platforms and applications is more than interesting, in particular with Digital Repositories. This article describes the integration of the Moodle LMS, used by the School for the last seven years, with the DSpace repository, currently widely spread as well. The integration process consists of two stages, in order to establish full communication to and from the repository. For communication from Moodle to the repository, with the goal of consulting and transferring elements from DSpace, modules already implemented for both platforms were used. The current stage is implementing a specific module in order to establish communication in the other direction and allow transferring resources and learning objects from the LMS to the repository. This module is very useful for educational material that can be made publicly available through a repository and thus transcending the borders of an educational environment. The initial implementation is oriented towards the publication of work done by the students and presented for evaluation through the Moodle platform. The incorporation of metadata to the published resource is automatic, taking context information from the platform, and at a later stage, with the intervention of librarians, who contribute their knowledge in the classification. [For the full proceedings, see ED562127.]
Methodological Foundations for the Empirical Evaluation of Non-Experimental Methods in Field Settings
Author: Wong, Vivian C.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Research Methodology,Research Design,Comparative Analysis,Replication (Evaluation),Randomized Controlled Trials,Statistical Analysis,Feasibility Studies,Educational Research

Across the disciplines of economics, political science, public policy, and now, education, the randomized controlled trial (RCT) is the preferred methodology for establishing causal inference about program impacts. But randomized experiments are not always feasible because of ethical, political, and/or practical considerations, so non-experimental methods are also needed for identifying &quot;what works.&quot; Given the widespread use of non-experimental approaches for assessing program, policy, and intervention impacts, there is a strong need to know whether non-experimental approaches are likely to yield unbiased treatment effects, and the contexts and conditions under which non-experimental methods perform well. Over the last three decades, a research design has emerged to evaluate the performance of non-experimental designs in field settings. It is called the within-study comparison (WSC) design, or design replication study. In the traditional WSC design, treatment effects from an RCT are compared to those produced by a non-experimental (NE) approach that shares the same target population. The non-experiment may be a quasi-experimental (QE) design, such as a regression-discontinuity (RD) or an interrupted time series (ITS) design, or an observational study (OS) approach that includes matching methods, standard regression adjustments, and difference-in-differences methods. The goals of the WSC are to determine (1) whether the non-experiment can replicate results from a randomized experiment (which provides the causal benchmark estimate), and (2) the contexts and conditions under which these methods work in practice. Because applications of the WSC design are published throughout the social and health sciences, important WSC methodological innovations and findings are unknown and underutilized by evaluators and researchers. This paper will address this issue by &quot;developing methodological foundations for within-study comparison designs that evaluate non-experimental methods.&quot; It will present a coherent framework that addresses design and analysis issues of WSCs for evaluating non-experimental methods. One figure is appended.
Identifying the Average Causal Mediation Effects with Multiple Mediators in the Presence of Treatment Non-Compliance
Author: Park, Soojin
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Influences,Compliance (Psychology),Statistical Analysis,Case Studies,Outcomes of Treatment

Identifying the causal mechanisms is becoming more essential in social and medical sciences. In the presence of treatment non-compliance, the Intent-To-Treated effect (hereafter, ITT effect) is identified as long as the treatment is randomized (Angrist et al., 1996). However, the mediated portion of effect is not identified without additional unverifiable assumptions (Yamamoto, 2013; Robins, 2003). The inability to identify the mediated portion of ITT effect presents a serious problem in conducting causal mediation analysis in the presence of treatment non-compliance, and a researcher often uses the naïve approach for estimating the mediated ITT effect where 1) the treatment assigned is used as if it was the treatment received and 2) a standard causal mediation analysis is conducted. Yamamoto (2013) proposed an alternative approach to identifying the mediated portion of the ITT effect using the instrumental variable approach, and compares his proposed approach to the naïve approach when a single mediator exists. Considering the complexity of the causal mechanisms in reality, it may be natural to assume multiple variables that mediate through the causal path. Thus, this paper extends Yamamoto (2013)'s approach to the multiple-mediators case where mediators do not or do influence one another. One table is appended.