Two investigations were conducted in this study. In the first experiment, the effects of two types of interactivity with a computer simulation were compared: experimentation versus observation interactivity. Experimentation interactivity allows students to use simulations to conduct virtual experiments, whereas observation interactivity allows…

Language education has a rich history of research and scholarship focusing on the effectiveness of learning activities and the impact these have on student behaviour and outcomes. One of the basic assumptions in foreign language pedagogy and CALL in particular is that learners want to be able to communicate effectively with native speakers of…

The study explored instructional benefits of a storyline gaming characteristic (GC) on learning effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement with the use of an online instructional simulation for graduate students in an introductory statistics course. A storyline is a game-design element that connects scenes with the educational content. In order to…

Type I error rates in multiple regression, and hence the chance for false positive research findings, can be drastically inflated when multiple regression models are used to analyze data that contain random measurement error. This article shows the potential for inflated Type I error rates in commonly encountered scenarios and provides new…

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the effect of the affordances of a virtual learning environment and a personal learning environment (PLE) in the configuration of the students' personal networks in a higher education context. The results are discussed in light of the adaptation of the students to the learning network made up by two…

This article relates a project in which a curriculum module was developed to help graduate students more effectively manage behaviors of adults in facilitation sessions. The module was piloted in the project and later included in a graduate level course in the Creative Studies Department of SUNY Buffalo State. The curriculum identified…

Interactive learning environments can provide learners with opportunities to explore rich, real-world problem spaces, but the nature of these problem spaces can make assessing learner progress difficult. Such assessment can be useful for providing formative and summative feedback to the learners, to educators, and to the designers of the…

This experimental research study scrutinized the effectiveness of using augmented reality (AR) applications (apps) as a teaching and learning tool when instructing kindergarten children in the English alphabet in the State of Kuwait. The study compared two groups: (a) experimental, taught using AR apps, and (b) control, taught using traditional…

Though calibration of an achievement test within psychological and educational context is very often carried out by the Rasch model, data sampling is hardly designed according to statistical foundations. However, Kubinger, Rasch, and Yanagida (2009) recently suggested an approach for the determination of sample size according to a given Type I and…

This study examined the impact of computer simulation and supported science learning on a teacher's understanding and conceptual knowledge of current electricity. Pre/Post tests were used to measure the teachers' concept attainment. Overall, there was a significant and large knowledge difference effect from Pre to Post test. Two interesting…

Literacy remains an area of concern in early secondary education in Scotland (ages 12-14), with recent research suggesting a continued decline in attainment levels. As literacy underpins learning, interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to teaching literacy are now being emphasized through the new Curriculum for Excellence that aims to…

New capabilities in "TinkerPlots 2.0" supported the conceptual development of fifth- and sixth-grade students as they pursued several weeks of instruction that emphasized data modeling. The instruction highlighted links between data analysis, chance, and modeling in the context of describing and explaining the distributions of measures that result…

A Monte Carlo simulation was used to compare the Mahalanobis "D" Squared and the Comrey "Dk" methods of detecting outliers in data sets. Under the conditions investigated, the "D" Squared technique was preferable as an outlier removal statistic. (SLD)

Describes an experiment from a physical chemistry course that consists of a computer simulation of throwing dice and the statistics involved. The experiment is designed to improve students' understanding of statistical evaluation of experimental data and to introduce programming techniques. (DDR)

Discusses several ways in which computers are being used in sociology and how they continue to change this discipline. Areas considered include data collection, data analysis, simulations of social processes based on mathematical models, and problem areas (including standardization concerns, training, and the financing of computing facilities).…