Search results for "Course"

A new approach for estimating a nonlinear growth component in multilevel modeling

2011

This study presents a new approach to estimation of a nonlinear growth curve component with fixed and random effects in multilevel modeling. This approach can be used to estimate change in longitudinal data, such as day-of-the-week fluctuation. The motivation of the new approach is to avoid spurious estimates in a random coefficient regression model due to the synchronized periodical effect (e.g., day-of-the-week fluctuation) appearing both in independent and dependent variables. First, the new approach is introduced. Second, a Monte Carlo simulation study is carried out to examine the functioning of the proposed new approach in the case of small sample sizes. Third, the use of the approac…

Depressive symptoms during adolescence: Do learning difficulties matter?

2011

To examine whether learning difficulties play a role in depressive symptoms, 658 Finnish adolescents were asked to complete scales for depression three times during the transition to post-comprehensive education. They also reported on their learning difficulties and feelings of inadequacy as a student. The results showed that learning difficulties prospectively predicted depressive symptoms. Moreover, the impact of learning difficulties was mediated via inadequacy as a student: learning difficulties predicted feelings of inadequacy as a student which, in turn, contributed to greater increases in depressive symptoms. Finally, gender moderated the association between learning difficulties an…

Open Resources as the Educational Basis for a Bachelor-level Project-Based Course

2015

This article presents an innovation-based course concept for project-based learning. In this course, student groups are asked to ideate and implement a software product based on Open Data and Open API releases. By emphasizing students’ own product ideation, the course requires and enhances self-directed learning skills and prompts the students to see the unlimited possibilities in becoming and being a practitioner of the computing discipline. Relatedly, the course provides a tool to improve student self-efficacy, as the students, coached through challenges, come to know that they are able to produce software using various open interfaces.

Issues with a course that emphasizes self-direction

2013

In this paper, we examine a master's level course that emphasizes self-direction on the part of students. The course is run by weekly group assignments and requires independent work such that only one mandatory classroom session is arranged each week. Our specific research interests are how students responded to the setting of this kind and whether they demonstrated self-direction during the course. We surveyed the students' view of the course, their group work experience, and their study habits, and analyzed the resultant survey data for themes. The results suggest that while the pass rate was considerably high and the course was regarded as well-organized by the students, there were sever…

Do videowikis on the web support better (constructivist) learning in the basics of information systems science?

2012

This paper describes the combination of a wiki and screen capture videos as a complementary addition to conventional lectures in an information management and information systems development course. Our basis was collaborative problem-based learning with the problems defined by students. The idea was that students were expected to find concepts or issues from four lecture themes which are not well-defined or clarified for them. The students worked in small groups of two or three students or they completed the coursework individually. First, the students selected the theme which was most unclear for them. Second, the students selected the problematic things from this area and created the pre…

University Autonomy, Agenda Setting and the Construction of Agency : the case of the European University Association in the European Higher Education…

2014

This article analyses the ways in which a policy actor constructs its agency through the production of knowledge. Taking the example of the concept of ‘autonomy’ as constructed in the discourse of the European University Association (EUA), the article draws on the theory of discursive framing and agenda setting, as well as on Meyer and Jepperson's heuristic of agentic actors, to show how the practice of knowledge production can shape the European higher education policy. The article offers a contribution to the debate aiming to develop a more critical perspective on the development of the European Higher Education Area, which sees the process as constituted through the activities of, and t…

Examining Bridge Employment From a Self-employment Perspective : Evidence From the Health and Retirement Study

2017

Reconsidering passivity and activity in children’s digital play

2016

The discussion around children’s digital game culture has resulted in two contradictory images of children: the passive, antisocial children uncritically and mechanically consuming digital game content and the active, social children creatively using and interacting with digital game content. Our aim is to examine how these seemingly contradictory ideas of “active” and “passive” children could be considered. By means of empirical examples of children playing digital dress-up and makeover games, we will point out that for the successful use of these concepts, they need to be thoroughly contextualized. By discussing the context and referent of activity and passivity, it is possible to overcom…

Making the case for policy : persuasiveness in higher education, science and technology policy discourse

2015

Policy texts present problems, propose solutions to those problems and persuade multiple audiences of the legitimacy of the proposed problems and solutions. The rhetorical analysis of two decades of higher education and science and technology discourse in Finland, Germany, UK, Portugal and USA highlights the discursive elements that contribute to persuasiveness of policy, construe it as rational and logical, and create a sense of urgency in bringing it about. I argue that the analytical and hortatory registers of policy discourse foreground competitive and hierarchical relations of countries and their higher education systems. By construing certain state of affairs and courses of action as …

Negotiating female judoka identities in Greece : A Foucauldian discourse analysis

2015

Abstract Objectives The objectives of this paper are to trace the discourses through which female Greek judokas articulate their sporting experiences and to explore how they construct their identities through the negotiation of sociocultural beliefs and gender stereotypes. Design This article is based on interview data from a larger ethnographic research with women judo athletes, grounded in a cultural praxis framework. Method Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted during fieldwork in Greece. Interview data were analyzed drawing on a Foucauldian approach to discourse analysis. Results We identified four concepts—biology, gender, femininity, and judo/sport—that were central to unearth…