Terracotta: A tool for conducting experimental research on student learning.

For researchers seeking to improve education, a common goal is to identify teaching practices that have causal benefits in classroom settings. To test whether an instructional practice exerts a causal influence on an outcome measure, the most straightforward and compelling method is to conduct an experiment. While experimentation is common in laboratory studies of learning, experimentation is increasingly rare in classroom settings, and to date, researchers have argued it is prohibitively expensive and difficult to conduct experiments on education in situ. To address this challenge, we present Terracotta (Tool for Education Research with RAndomized COnTrolled TriAls), an open-source web application that integrates with a learning management system to provide a comprehensive experimental research platform within an online class site. Terracotta automates randomization, informed consent, experimental manipulation of different versions of learning activities, and export of de-identified research data. Here we describe these features, and the results of a live classroom demonstration study using Terracotta, a preregistered replication of McDaniel et al. (Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1(1), 18-26, 2012). Using Terracotta, we experimentally manipulated online review assignments so that consenting students alternated, on a weekly basis, between taking multiple-choice quizzes (retrieval practice) and reading answers to these quizzes (restudy). Students' performance on subsequent exams was significantly improved for items that had been in retrieval practice review assignments. This successful replication demonstrates that Terracotta can be used to experimentally manipulate consequential aspects of students' experiences in education settings.

Learning with mobile devices - insights from a university setting in Ghana.

Mobile learning is the newest and emerging technology embraced by universities and this seems to be fast establishing itself as the preferred mode of learning in many countries. However, ways in which mobile devices are used to meet learning goals seem under-researched and may require more effort from researchers, especially in the context of Africa. This empirical study sought to investigate the state of mobile usage among higher education students, their experiences, and available facilitating conditions that influence mobile learning in a Ghanaian university setting. A total of 222 students (distance and vacation students) were engaged to respond to the questionnaires employed for the study. Findings revealed that mobile learning exists in a somewhat structured form as the environment showed most of the salient characteristics of mobile learning but largely remained unharnessed. To a large extent, facilitating conditions for mobile learning were available; students showed positive experiences with their mobile devices and their use in accessing learning, but largely such learning did not occur via the deployed learner management system of the institution. Implications for policy formulation for the Institution and other similar ones that are striving to incorporate mobile technology to increase access and improve the quality of instruction delivery are discussed.

The spacing effect stands up to big data.

Many studies have shown that repetition of study material with temporal gaps between the repetitions (i.e., spaced in time) is more effective for long-term retention than are repetitions in immediate succession (i.e., massed; Greene, 1989). Although this spacing effect has proven to be robust in the laboratory (Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted, & Rohrer, 2006), its status in the real world is relatively understudied. Other research has demonstrated the benefit of memory retrieval on subsequent retrieval of the same information (Bjork, 1975, 1988; Roediger & Karpicke, 2006), referred to as the testing effect. However, it is not clear how spacing and retrieval can be optimally combined in order to enhance knowledge retention in a real-world setting. To investigate this question, we analyzed longitudinal data from 10,514 individuals, collected in the context of naturally occurring workplace training. To determine the impact of spaced retrieval on knowledge retention, these data were analyzed using a generalized linear mixed model with the following fixed factors: (1) spacing interval between repetitions of content training (retrieval practice), (2) retention interval, and (3) question format. Random factors included the specific content on which employees were trained, which was clustered by employee and, in turn, by company, resulting in a three-level hierarchy. The results showed a significant interaction between spacing interval and retention interval: the optimal amount of spacing between repeated retrieval events increased as the retention interval increased. These findings are in line with the results of laboratory studies, demonstrating the relevance and transferability of laboratory-based research to real-world contexts.

Pedagogical Applications, Prospects, and Challenges of Blended Learning in Chinese Higher Education: A Systematic Review.

In recent years, blended learning (BL) has grown to occupy an important space in Chinese educational practice. Policymakers have developed many application strategies and platforms and are continuing to develop BL for future use. In order to apply BL in practice, key stakeholders have been using different learning management systems (LMSs), digital platforms, games, hybrid courses, and various forms of social media to create a framework for BL. This study asserts that many visible opportunities have emerged in Chinese higher education through the applications of BL. The advantages of BL are that it fosters stronger academic achievement, student engagement, and cognitive engagement and understanding as well as flexible and quick communication skills, faster interaction skills, technical skills, and adaptability to ever-changing educational practices. On the other hand, BL has brought about some pedagogical and technical difficulties for both learners and practitioners. This study found that most BL courses are not as effective as they could be because they do not have a strong pedagogical framework. Moreover, BL suffers from the technical incompetence of teachers and students, the inefficiency of LMSs, and the unavailability of required resources, such as certain devices and the Internet. Some higher education institutions have become pioneers in Chinese educational practice and been able to successfully adopt BL frameworks and integrate Moodle as well as other platforms and techniques. However, many other institutions' attempts to adopt BL approaches have not been as effective. In order to better understand how and in what ways BL is being integrated into the educational system, this study overviews the current situation and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of BL in Chinese higher education.

OntoSIDES: Ontology-based student progress monitoring on the national evaluation system of French Medical Schools.

We introduce OntoSIDES, the core of an ontology-based learning management system in Medicine, in which the educational content, the traces of students' activities and the correction of exams are linked and related to items of an official reference program in a unified RDF data model. OntoSIDES is an RDF knowledge base comprised of a lightweight domain ontology that serves as a pivot high-level vocabulary of the query interface with users, and of a dataset made of factual statements relating individual entities to classes and properties of the ontology. Thanks to an automatic mapping-based data materialization and rule-based data saturation, OntoSIDES contains around 8 millions triples to date, and provides an integrated access to useful information for student progress monitoring, using a powerful query language (namely SPARQL) allowing users to express their specific needs of data exploration and analysis. Since we do not expect end-users to master the raw syntax of SPARQL and to express directly complex queries in SPARQL, we have designed a set of parametrized queries that users can instantiate through a user-friendly interface.

Experiences with establishing and implementing learning management system and computer-based test system in medical college.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to establish an e-learning system to support learning in medical education and identify solutions for improving the system. METHODS: A learning management system (LMS) and computer-based test (CBT) system were established to support e-learning for medical students. A survey of 219 first- and second-grade medical students was administered. The questionnaire included 9 forced choice questions about the usability of system and 2 open-ended questions about necessary improvements to the system. RESULTS: The LMS consisted of a class management, class evaluation, and class attendance system. CBT consisted of a test management, item bank, and authoring tool system. The results of the survey showed a high level of satisfaction in all system usability items except for stability. Further, the advantages of the e-learning system were ensuring information accessibility, providing constant feedback, and designing an intuitive interface. Necessary improvements to the system were stability, user control, readability, and diverse device usage. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings, suggestions for developing an e-learning system to improve usability by medical students and support learning effectively are recommended.

A Blended Learning Course Design in Clinical Pharmacology for Post-graduate Dental Students.

Postgraduate courses in clinical pharmacology are important for dentists to be updated on drug therapy and information related to their clinical practice, as well as knowledge of relevant adverse effects and interactions. A traditional approach with classroom delivery as the only method to teaching and learning has shortcomings regarding flexibility, individual learning preferences, and problem based learning (PBL) activities compared to online environments. This study examines a five week postgraduate course in clinical pharmacology with 15 hours of lectures and online learning activities, i.e. blended course design. Six postgraduate dental students participated and at the end of the course they were interviewed. Our findings emphasize that a blended learning course design can be successfully used in postgraduate dental education. Key matters for discussion were time flexibility and location convenience, change in teacher's role, rein-forced learning strategies towards professional needs, scarcity in online communication, and proposed future utilization of e-learning components.