Background: Computer-assisted tools are rarely adopted for dental education in China. In China, 3D digital technology, such as Virtual Reality Systems, are often rejected in the dental field due to prohibitive pricing. There is also a reluctance to move away from traditional patterns of dental education. Objective: The current study is one of a…

Mathematical software packages such as Polymath, MATLAB, and Mathcad are currently widely used for engineering problem solving. Applications of several of these packages to typical chemical engineering problems have been demonstrated by Cutlip, et al. The main characteristic of these packages is that they provide a "problem-solving environment…

The technology is simple: Mobile technologies such as handheld computers and global positioning systems work in sync to create an alternate, hybrid world that mixes virtual characters with the actual physical environment. The result is a digital simulation that offers powerful game-playing opportunities and allows students to become more engaged…

Background: Numerous surveys, articles, ephemera and online information sources indicate that "Second Life" has been the predominant virtual world, for educational purposes, in UK universities for the latter half of the 2000s. However, the infrastructure required to operate "Second Life" presents a number of technical concerns…

The following article discusses an educational simulation created within Second Life (SL) in order to assist pre-service teachers (PSTs) in gaining more experience managing student behavior. The article discusses the development, implementation, and assessment of the simulation as well as student data on the feasibility of the approach in…

Embedded systems are increasingly pervasive, and the creation of reliable controlling software offers unique challenges. Embedded software must interact directly with hardware, it must respond to events in a time-critical fashion, and it typically employs concurrency to meet response time requirements. This paper describes an innovative course…

The analysis of interaction among latent variables has received much attention. This article introduces a Bayesian approach to analyze a general structural equation model that accommodates the general nonlinear terms of latent variables and covariates. This approach produces a Bayesian estimate that has the same statistical optimal properties as a…

This study compared the effectiveness of self-, other-, and subjective-video models on teaching daily living skills to three individuals with developmental disabilities. Results indicated that all conditions were effective in promoting independent correct responding in both instructional and generalization settings and that the effects maintained…

Educational software tools are considered to enrich teaching strategies, providing a more compelling means of exploration and feedback than traditional blackboard methods. Moreover, software simulators provide a more motivating link between theory and practice than pencil-paper methods, encouraging active and discovery learning in the students.…

Conflicts occur when learners interact with pedagogical agents and virtual characters. Such conflicts--arising from technological limitations, psychosocial perceptions, and pedagogical inadequacies--hinder communication and interaction between virtual characters and learners, and impede successful engagement with learning tasks and experiences. To…

StarLogo The Next Generation (TNG) enables secondary school students and teachers to model decentralized systems through agent-based programming. TNG's inclusion of a three-dimensional graphical environment provides the capacity to create games and simulation models with a first-person perspective. The authors theorize that student learning of…

Understanding the concept of the sampling distribution of a statistic is essential for the understanding of inferential procedures. Unfortunately, this topic proves to be a stumbling block for students in introductory statistics classes. In efforts to aid students in their understanding of this concept, alternatives to a lecture-based mode of…

This paper reports the findings of a study exploring the use of a software package to help pupils understand particulate explanations for melting and evaporation below boiling point. Two matched classes in a primary school in Greece (ages 11-12, n = 16 and 19) were involved in a short intervention of six one hour lessons. Covering the same…

When the errors in an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model are heteroscedastic, hypothesis tests involving the regression coefficients can have Type I error rates that are far from the nominal significance level. Asymptotically, this problem can be rectified with the use of a heteroscedasticity-consistent covariance matrix (HCCM)…

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving presents a challenge to teachers in many U.S. schools. Some students are absent because they are traveling to be with their extended families for the holiday. Other students, assuming that nothing important will happen at school when so many of their peers are absent, may also be absent. One school's solution to…