Explanation of natural phenomena at one level of biological organisation almost always involves causes that are found at other levels. Although scientists thinking across levels find it easy to explain physiological phenomena, students often perceive this as a challenge. We developed a new graphic organiser called Zoom Map, which is a mode for…

Many of the challenges currently facing lectures are symptoms of problems with learning content creation, development and presentation. Learning Factory solves these problems by integrating critical innovations that have been proven over the last ten to twenty years in different industrial areas, but have not yet been brought or ported together in…

The conveyance of knowledge of the life cycles performed by fungi and plants with spores is a challenge for teaching in university education. The life cycles of fungi, in particular, can be very complex and difficult to understand. This paper presents the development and implementation of a German and English educational software program,…

CATO is a new user interface, developed by the author as a response to the significant difficulties faced by scientists, engineers, and students in their usage of computer algebra (CA) systems. Their tendency to use CA systems only occasionally means that they are unfamiliar with requisite grammar and syntax these systems require. The author…

According to a recent research carried out by Aruba Networks (2014) in the US, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and UAE, 86% of all respondents have two or more devices that can connect to the internet, and nearly two thirds (64%) already own three or more mobile devices with this feature; another 39% own four or…

What comes next in the field of academic e-learning? Which e-learning trends will dominate the discourse at universities? Answering such questions is the basis for the adaptation of service strategies and IT-infrastructures within institutions of Higher Education. The present paper therefore introduces methodology and findings of a trend study in…

This paper presents some of the overall frameworks and models for language learning that were used under Avalon (Access to Virtual and Action Learning live ONline), an EU co-funded project aimed at developing language-learning scenarios in virtual worlds. The introduction and background summarize some of the theories that constitute the starting…

In this article, we set out to assess QuADEM (Quality Assessment of Digital Educational Material), one of the latest methods for evaluating online language learning courseware. What is special about QuADEM is that the evaluation is based on observing the actual usage of the online courseware and that, from a checklist of 12 different components,…

These proceedings contain the papers of the International Conference e-Learning 2016, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society, 1-3 July, 2016. This conference is part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems 2016, 1-4 July. The e-Learning (EL) 2016 conference aims…

The use of microworlds (MWs), or complex dynamic systems, in educational testing and personnel selection is hampered by systematic measurement errors because these new and innovative item formats are not adequately controlled for their difficulty. This empirical study introduces a way to operationalize an MW's difficulty and demonstrates the…

Explains the Networked Interactive Media in Schools (NIMIS) project based in Germany, England, and Portugal that is supported by the EU (European Union), and describes software that was designed to encourage literacy and creative writing using cartoon-style stories with pictures, sound, and text with the help of an agent. (Author/LRW)

This paper presents the use of an XML grammar for two complementary projects--CHAMELEON (Cooperative Hypermedia Adaptive MultimEdia Learning Objects) and EIT (Enabling Informal Teamwork). Areas of applications are modular courseware documents and the collaborative authoring process of didactical units. A number of requirements for a suitable…

This paper discusses the use of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) techniques for computer-aided learning (CAL); the work was started in the context of project Nestor, a joint effort of German universities about cooperative multimedia authoring/learning environments. There are four major categories of cooperation for CAL: author/author,…

Despite the fact that e-Learning exists for a relatively long time, it is still in its infancy. Current e-Learning systems on the market are limited to technical gadgets and organizational aspects of teaching, instead of supporting the learning. As a result the learner has become deindividualized and demoted to a noncritical homogenous user. One…

Based on a technical infrastructure that supports face-to-face university teaching, an environment that enables small groups of lecturers to develop and maintain lecture material cooperatively was developed. In order to allow for a flexible use, only a few formal workshops are imposed on the users while cooperation is supported by easy-to-use…