Search results for "computing"
showing 10 items of 25279 documents
Estimating Programming Exercise Difficulty using Performance Factors Analysis
2020
This Work in Progress Paper studies student and exercise modelling based on pass/fail log data gathered from an introductory programming course. Contemporary education capitalizes on the communications technology and remote study. This can create distance between the teacher and students and the resulting lack of awareness of the difficulties students encounter can lead to low student satisfaction, dropout and poor grades. In many cases, various technological solutions are used to collect individual exercise submissions, but there are little resources for indexing or modelling the exercises in depth. Exercise specific feedback from students may not be easily obtainable either. In the presen…
Zero-Achievers Non-Progressing Studies in Finnish Open University : Three Preventive Factors
2021
Current education policy responds to changes and needs in working life by guiding individuals at different stages of working careers to develop their skills in the spirit of lifelong learning. More and more are applying with hope and enthusiasm to the Open University to strengthen their competence but are unable to get their studies completed. The article explores factors related to the non-progression of studies by students at the Open University in Finland. We call non-progressing students zero-achievers who enroll in studies but do not complete a single credit during the period of course. This research is a descriptive mixed methods study. The research data was collected by an online sur…
Fostering the relationship between home and school : a case study of a senior secondary school in the Gambia
2011
The study examines the extent to which the relationship between home and school affects students’ academic achievements. A senior secondary school in The Gambia was chosen for this study. The focus of the research was to identify and describe intentionally designed programs and practices that foster the involvement of home in school activities and its important outcomes for the stakeholders (home and school). A qualitative method using semi-structured interviews was used to collect the data from the school principal, four English language teachers and ten parents in order to explore the nature and the degree of support they provide for students. The data was analyzed by the researcher using…
Course Satisfaction in Engineering Education Through the Lens of Student Agency Analytics
2020
This Research Full Paper presents an examination of the relationships between course satisfaction and student agency resources in engineering education. Satisfaction experienced in learning is known to benefit the students in many ways. However, the varying significance of the different factors of course satisfaction is not entirely clear. We used a validated questionnaire instrument, exploratory statistics, and supervised machine learning to examine how the different factors of student agency affect course satisfaction among engineering students (N = 293). Teacher’s support and trust for the teacher were identified as both important and critical factors concerning experienced course satisf…
Approaches to Learning, Wellbeing, Study Success and Employment Expectations in a Finnish Business School
2018
In business school contexts, the relationships between the learning approach, wellbeing, study success, and employment expectations have not been widely studied. In this paper, we analyze learning approaches and student wellbeing in a Finnish business school. We found a significant relation between them and success in business school studies and employment expectations. Major-subject related differences in approaches to learning were observed. For example, social relations were particularly emphasized by students of marketing. More specifically, we found seven learning approaches: 1) Independent learners, 2) Teacher-centered learners, 3) Social learners, 4) Fumbling learners, 5) Theoretical…
Student engagement in Finnish higher education : Conflicting realities?
2019
This chapter focuses on how students are engaged in Finnish higher education by describing issues related to student engagement from macro, meso and micro perspectives and highlights the fact that student engagement is more than representativeness in decision-making bodies. It presents a concrete example for each perspective. Student engagement at the macro level refers to the socio-cultural climate on student experience, which typically is created at the national level. In Finnish higher education, student engagement seems to have two layers or realities. First, at the level of representativeness, students are well engaged and students have strong voices in decision-making bodies and strat…
Visual Literacy From the Perspective of the VTS Method
2017
The purpose of this article is to investigate visual literacy from the perspective of the VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) method. The authors examine the viewpoints of seven American elementary school teachers on visual literacy and its meanings in the context of the VTS method. Data collection was done using a semi-structured questionnaire, which was followed by theory-driven content analysis. The authors emphasize that when supporting holistic development in a teaching context, it is the interconnected nature of aesthetics, growth and the learner’s learning which is more important than developing special skills, like visual literacy. In the teaching context visual literacy and language d…
"The English Class of My Dreams!" : Envisioning Teaching a Foreign Language
2018
The psychology of the second (or foreign) language learner has been extensively researched since the mid-1950s. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the psychology of the teacher. Of the psychological make-up of the learner, motivation has been found to be one of the key issues affecting not only the outcome but also the process of learning second (or foreign) languages. Much less is known of the motivation of the teachers involved in these efforts. The teaching of English as a foreign language is faced with new challenges because of the rapid spread of the language in different parts of the world, including Finland. Here, this has meant reconsidering the status of the language, with c…
Student agency analytics: learning analytics as a tool for analysing student agency in higher education
2020
This paper presents a novel approach and a method of learning analytics to study student agency in higher education. Agency is a concept that holistically depicts important constituents of intentional, purposeful, and meaningful learning. Within workplace learning research, agency is seen at the core of expertise. However, in the higher education field, agency is an empirically less studied phenomenon with also lacking coherent conceptual base. Furthermore, tools for students and teachers need to be developed to support learners in their agency construction. We study student agency as a multidimensional phenomenon centring on student-experienced resources of their agency. We call the analyt…
Eye-Movement Study of Mechanics Problem Solving Using Multimodal Options
2020
We used an eye-tracking method to investigate students’ approaches to solving a physics task using various representations. Eight upper-secondary school students from Finland took part in the study. We found that students who preferred either the text or graph representations watched the options differently, but they used both representations to be sure of their solution. Transitions between text and graph alternatives were different for students preferring either text or graph representations. Interviews revealed typical misconceptions about the concept of force. Implications for physics instruction are presented. peerReviewed