Journal of Educational Technology Systems

This study sought academic staff and students’ views of electronic exams (e-exams) system and the benefits and challenges of e-exams in general. The respondents provided useful feedback for future adoption of e-exams at an Australian university and elsewhere too. The key findings show that students and academic staff are optimistic about the future adoption of e-exams if the e-exams system is sufficiently improved. They are fully aware of the benefits the technology could offer in supporting learning and education in general and see e-exams as an innovation for learning and teaching in higher education.

This article outlines the effect of the collaborative educational tool ViLLE when learning business mathematics in higher education. ViLLE validates students’ answers during the assessment process and provides immediate feedback, enabling students to receive feedback and guidance about the correctness of their answers. The learning results in the business mathematics course in Turku University of Applied Sciences are used for the study. The effect of the ViLLE tool is researched by quasi-experimental study using the 2013 course as the control group and 2014 course as the treatment group. This research confirmed that the usage of the ViLLE tool improved the students’ learning of business mathematics.

This article presents a study aimed at examining the novice student answers in an introductory programming final e-exam to identify misconceptions and types of errors. Our study used the Delphi concept inventory to identify student misconceptions and skill, rule, and knowledge-based errors approach to identify the types of errors made by novices in Python programming. The students' responses to each question were scrutinized by using the Delphi concept inventory, heuristic-analytic theory, and neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive development for qualitative data analysis. Moreover, the motivation for this exploratory study was to also address the misconceptions that students held in programming and help educators to redefine the teaching methods to correct those alternative conceptions. Student misconceptions were spotted in list referencing and inbuilt functions in Python. In a further quantitative analysis, the study found that students who had misconceptions made knowledge errors and failed to complete the coding tasks. Surprisingly, and coincidentally, it was identified that only a few students were able to write code related to mathematical problems.

While K-12 online learning in the United States has increased exponentially, the ability of teacher education programs to adequately prepare teachers to design, deliver, and support has been deficient. A small number of universities have begun to address this deficit through the introduction of graduate certificates in online teaching. This article examines curricular changes focused on introducing in-service teachers to K-12 online learning. This design-based research study examined changes in teacher perceptions after having completed a systematic curriculum focused on K-12 online learning, as well as track revisions to that curriculum based on the data collected. The results indicate that even in a jurisdiction where online learning has become a graduation requirement, teachers often have many misconceptions about K-12 online learning. Further, planned exposure to K-12 online learning content can have significant impact on student understanding of and interest in the design, delivery, and support of K-12 online learning.

Recently, there is an explosive growth of smartphone availability. In this work, we studied how mobile and Internet-based Student Response System improves the learning process. We used a free software application (Socrative©) to create a set of questions that can be deployed during the class. It was used in four different courses in three different academic colleges. The students were asked to evaluate the contribution of this tool to their own learning process. Participation was usually very high and introducing this tool encouraged continuous learning. It also enabled a better feedback to the teacher about the class level.

A high-impact practice is to incorporate experiential learning projects when teaching difficulty subject matters so as to enhance students’ understanding and interest in the course content. But, there is limited research on how to design and execute such projects. Therefore, we propose a framework based on the processes described by the Project Management Body of Knowledge and the instructional characteristics known to influence the quality of student learning experiences. Its effectiveness is evaluated by analyzing a case study of mapping a municipal storm drain system using global positioning system equipment. The results of the evaluation revealed that the project facilitated the students’ understanding of the pertinent technical concepts, helped them realize the importance of teamwork, and provided them with an opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way to enhance a community’s ability to cope with major rainfall events. We develop a process chart based on the framework and expect its use in designing and implementing real-world experiential learning projects in courses will provide a win–win situation for the community, students, and faculty members.

Computer applications related to reading instruction have become commonplace in schools and link with established components of the reading process, emergent skills, decoding, comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency. This article focuses on computer technology in conjunction with durable methods for building oral reading fluency when readers struggle. The article offers guidelines to enhance the likelihood that for the selection of technology will be congruent with effective practice. Finally, we suggest a model for usability for parents, teachers, and designers to create better and more functional instructionally oriented applications.

This study suggests a classification model and an e-learning system based on this model for all instructional theories, approaches, models, strategies, methods, and technics being used in the process of instructional design that constitutes a direct or indirect resource for educational technology based on the theory of intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFS). IFS is a set theory through expanding the membership systems of the classic theory of fuzzy sets in such a way to also involve the indeterminacies. As the model is grounded on a mathematical base, it also presents a convenient platform to define various metrics.