Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a study into how a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world (Second Life) can facilitate socialisation and team working among students working on a team project at a distance. This models the situation in many commercial sectors where work is increasingly being conducted across time zones and between…

The increasing complexity of human body models enabled by advances in diagnostic imaging, computing, and growing knowledge calls for the development of a new generation of systems for intelligent exploration of these models. Here, we introduce a novel paradigm for the exploration of digital body models illustrating cerebral vasculature. It enables…

Learning embryology remains difficult, since it requires understanding of many complex phenomena. The temporal evolution of developmental events has classically been illustrated using cartoons, which create difficulty in linking spatial and temporal aspects, such correlation being the keystone of descriptive embryology. We synthesized the…

In this paper we report on the sustained research and development work at the AMSTEL Institute of the University of Amsterdam to improve mathematics and science education at primary and secondary school level, which has lead amongst other things to the development of the integrated computer working environment Coach 6. This environment consists of…

Pre-laboratory activities have been known to improve students' preparation before their practical work as they assist students to make available more working memory capacity for actual learning during the laboratory. The aim of this investigation was to compare two different teaching approaches which supported a pre-laboratory session by using the…

In this article, 41 models of covariation detection from 2 x 2 contingency tables were evaluated against past data in the literature and against data from new experiments. A new model was also included based on a limiting case of the normative phi-coefficient under an extreme rarity assumption, which has been shown to be an important factor in…

To improve the quality in teaching and learning, opportunities need to be provided where practitioners and researchers meet and share visions, disseminate findings, co-construct ideas, and set research agendas together. Visiting a conference is one well-known and established way to do this. But are they effective? A survey was conducted among the…

This book, written by authors representing 12 countries and five continents, is a collection of international perspectives on distance learning and distance learning implementations in higher education. The perspectives are presented in the form of practical case studies of distance learning implementations, research studies on teaching and…

The 10th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2017) is held under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society at the Optics Velley Kingdom Plaza Hotel, Wuhan, Hubei Province, in China. This years conference features two invited talks by: Dr. Jie Tang, Associate Professor with the Department of Computer…

The influence of sample size (N) and model parsimony on a set of 22 goodness of fit indices was investigated, including those typically used in confirmatory factor analysis and some recently developed indices. For sample data simulated from 2 known population data structures, values for 6 of 22 fit indices were reasonably independent of N and were…

The assessment of dimensionality of data is important to item response theory (IRT) modelling and other multidimensional data analysis techniques. The fact that the parameters from the factor analysis formulation for dichotomous data can be expressed in terms of the parameters in the multidimensional IRT model suggests that the assessment of the…

This paper describes a rationale for the construction and use of a simple consistency model of the Zimbabwean economy that incorporates an input-output matrix. The model is designed to investigate alternative industrial strategies and their consequences for the balance of payments, consumption, and overall gross domestic product growth for a…

As museums and educators struggle with the challenges of presenting their material in a digital format, many overlook the application that has spearheaded the development of virtual reality for the average consumer: 3D realtime game engines. These 3D game engines offer greater versatility, usability, maturity, simulation, and codebase than most…

Describes a study conducted in Israel that investigated whether the caregiver's awareness to the emotional experiences that toddlers undergo in the first days in kindergarten improves through a virtual reality simulation of a toddler's world. Explains the use of virtual reality technology to simulate a toddler's first few days' experiences in a…

Discusses computer assisted learning and simulation modeling from a United Kingdom perspective. Highlights include modeling with the DMS (Dynamic Modelling System); modeling with STELLA; learning and teaching simulation modeling; educational development roles for learning technologists; and a list of relevant Web sites. (Contains 52 references.)…