This descriptive study aims to investigate the instructional effectiveness of Open Educational Resources (OER). It was conducted with 1196 university students who were enrolled in a general chemistry course with an experimental laboratory section. These students voluntarily used OER for their lab activities. Data were collected via a printed,…

Our case study is a response to the need for research and reporting on specific strategies employed by software designers to produce effective multimedia instructional solutions. A systemic approach for identifying appropriate software features and conducting a formative evaluation that evaluates both the overall effectiveness of the multimedia…

Instructors continually search for innovative approaches to interact with and engage students in the classroom. The tablet offers a potential innovation for this purpose. Tablet devices from Apple, Microsoft, and other hardware vendors have overcome many of the challenges of the past (e.g. cost and limited applications) to become useful tools for…

This paper presents the results of an ongoing study which has been carried out with a group of German Foreign Language students at the University of Cadiz since 2012. The purpose of the study was to analyze the impact of videogame-like applications on foreign language learning and their motivational potential to increase learning beyond the…

Educational materials of embedded systems are currently used in many educational institutions. However, they have difficulties in arousing the interest of students. One of the reasons is that a poor CPU (central processing unit), which has been loaded in the current materials, cannot execute the multimedia processing. In order to make the…

Course Management Systems (CMSs) in higher education have emerged as one of the most widely adopted e-learning platforms. This study examines the success of e-learning CMSs based on user satisfaction and benefits. Using DeLone and McLean's information system success model as a theoretical framework, we analyze the success of e-learning CMSs in…

Students in all areas of computing require knowledge of the computing device including software implementation at the machine level. Several courses in computer science curricula address these low-level details such as computer architecture and assembly languages. For such courses, there are advantages to studying real architectures instead of…

This study at a large midwestern university evaluated the use of a web-based simulated classroom, simSchool, with pre-service and in-service special education students, to determine if use of the simulated classroom influences students' perceptions of inclusion and teacher preparation. The project used a nonequivalent comparison group,…

An important trend in the development of Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) has been that providing the student with a more personalized and friendly environment for learning. Many researchers now feel strongly that the ITSs would significantly improve performance if they could adapt to the affective state of the learner. This idea has spawned…

Symbolic circuit analysis is a cornerstone of electrical engineering education. Solving a suitable set of selected problems is essential to developing professional skills in the field. A new method is presented for automatic validation of circuit equations representing a student's intermediate steps in the solving process. Providing this immediate…

This study provides information on ways to enhance learning for students using online educational programs. Technologies that foster and engage students in the learning process are necessary in the online learning environment. Wiki is an online teaching strategy used to promote student interaction. A Wiki was introduced into three sections of a…

This study explores the interactivity of course-management systems (CMSs). First, this study reviews the concepts of interactivity, interactivity dimension, and interaction type on the basis of related theories and studies. Second, this study analyzes the interactive functions attributable to the six major CMSs in Taiwan colleges and universities,…

The aim of this study was to apply Speech-to-Text Recognition (STR) in an effort to improve learning performance in an online synchronous cyber classroom environment. Students' perceptions and their behavioral intentions toward using STR and the effectiveness of applying STR in synchronous cyber classrooms were also investigated. After the…

Substantial evidence now supports pedagogical applications of virtual worlds; however, most research supporting virtual worlds for education has been conducted using researcher-developed Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVE). Second Life (SL) is a MUVE that has been adopted by a large number of academic institutions; however, little research has…

This report describes reflections from two cycles of developmental research that involved creating and refining a series of computer-based applets for reasoning about the relative magnitude of fractional quantities. The applet sequence stemmed from a cognitively demanding task used in face-to-face teacher education settings that involved placing…