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In this paper, the authors show that augmented reality technology has a positive impact on learning-related outcomes of middle-school Mexican students. However, the impact varies depending on whether students were enrolled in public or private schools. The authors designed an augmented reality application for students to practice the basic principles of geometry, and a similar application which encompasses identical learning objectives and content deployed in a Web-based learning environment. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was employed with 93 participants to investigate the effect of type of technology (web, augmented reality), type of school (private, public), and time of assessment (pre, post) on motivation, and declarative learning. The results show that: (1) there is an interactive effect of type of technology, type of school, and time of assessment when students' achievement scores are measured; (2) students using the augmented reality-based learning environments scored higher in post-test than those using the web-based application; (3) the augmented reality learning environment was more learning effective compared with the web-based learning environment in public schools, but not in private schools; (4) there is not an interactive effect of type of technology, type of school and time of assessment when students' motivation is measured; (5) students from private schools reported higher levels of motivation compared with those from public schools when using the augmented reality learning environment. The research findings imply that in Mexico, augmented reality technology can be exploited as an effective learning environment for helping middle-school students from public and private schools to practice the basic principles of Geometry. The work described in this paper is fully supported by a scholarship from CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología) in México and a grant from PRODEP. This work was supported in part by the Spanish project EEE CICYT (TIN2011-28308-C03-01), RESET-UC3M: Reformulando Ecosistemas Escalables Educativos under grant no. CICYT (TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R), by the Madrid Regional Government (eMadrid-CM Project under grant no. P2018/TCS-4307) funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness (Smartlet project, grant number TIN2017-85179-C3-1-R) funded by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER).

This paper utilizes OECD's original PISA 2012 dataset to investigate the impact of access to ICT, student background and school/home environment on academic performance of students. Using cross-section data from 4848 15-year-old students in Turkey, ordered logit models are developed and analyzed. The results indicate that (i) availability of internet connection at home or school and student's possession of his/her own room at home have positive impacts on academic success, (ii) internet connection at schools may not be used for school-related activities and therefore distracts student's attention from schoolwork, (iii) as student-per-teacher ratio or school size increases, the academic success of students declines, (iv) pre-primary education and education in student's native language contribute to academic achievement, (v) there is a positive relationship between education level of parents and student's performance at school. Using additional data from 22,273 students, the paper also presents an international analysis that compares the results from Turkey with those from Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Finally, the urgent need for collection of micro level (at student, school or parent level) data on Turkish education system is underlined. Availability of internet connection has a positive impact on academic success.Internet connection at schools in Turkey may not be used for school-related activities.As school size increases, the academic success of students declines.Education in student's native language contributes to academic achievement.Education level of parents and student's performance are positively correlated.

The main objective of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of computer-assisted formative assessment in a large, first-year undergraduate geography course. In particular, the paper evaluates the impact of computer-assisted multiple-choice practice tests on student performance in the course as well as student opinions of this type of formative assessment in two academic years (2008 and 2009). The multiple-choice questions included in the formative assessment vary in their level of difficulty and range from those that focus on knowledge and comprehension to those that focus on application and analysis. While the use of the computer-assisted practice tests is completely voluntary over 50 percent of students used them. Feedback questionnaires from both academic years reveals that students are overwhelmingly positive with over 95 percent indicating that the computer-assisted practice tests assist them in identifying their strengths and weaknesses and help them prepare for in-class midterms and final exams. Statistical analysis of in-class performance on midterms shows that students who use the computer-assisted practice quizzes earn significantly higher grades (i.e., equivalent to three letter grades) than those students who do not. The results of the research demonstrate that computer-assisted formative assessment (in this case practice tests) has a positive impact on student performance.

This paper develops personalized models for different university degrees to obtain the risk of each student abandoning his degree and analyzes the profile for undergraduates that abandon the degree. In this study three faculties located in Granada, South of Spain, were involved. In Software Engineering three university degrees with 10,844 students, in humanities nineteen university degrees with 39,241 students and in Economic Sciences five university degrees with 25,745 students were considered. Data, corresponding to the period 1992 onwards, are used to obtain a model of logistic regression for each faculty which represents them satisfactorily. These models and the framework data show that certain variables appear repeatedly in the explanation of the drop out in all of the faculties. These variables are, among others, start age, the father's and mother's studies, academic performance, success, average mark in the degree and the access form and in some cases also, the number of rounds needed to pass. Students with weak educational strategies and without persistence to achieve their aims in life have low academic performance and low success rates and this implies a high risk of abandoning the degree. The results suggest that each university centre could consider similar models to elaborate a particular action plan to help lower the drop out rate reducing costs and efforts. As concluded in this paper, the profile of the students who tend to abandon their studies is dependent on the subject studied. For this reason, a general methodology based on a Data Warehouse architecture is proposed. This architecture does most of the work automatically and is general enough to be used at any university centre because it only takes into account the usual data the students provide when registered in a course and their grades throughout the years.

This paper describes an educational experiment that took place at the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh during the Autumn Term 1994. As part of the Mathwise Project, 40% of the mathematics assessment for the students' first year has been undertaken by a computer program. The computer set and marked a class of 82 students as they took part in their final assessment in Mathematics sitting at the computer keyboard. This paper explains the process adopted to ensure the smooth delivery of this novel technical event and highlights the educational issues raised by using the computer to help teachers with assessment. Aspects of security, human-computer interface and educational matters such as partial credit are all discussed. Some implications for the future complete this account.

The aim of this study was to reveal research trends over the last six years by content analysis and to examine bibliometric results of articles related to the use of augmented reality (AR) in science education. For bibliometric mapping analysis, a total of 147 articles were accessed and for content analysis, a total of 79 articles published between 2013 and 2018 years were included from the Web of Science. From this, a total of 62 articles were selected for analysis. Our results revealed that mobile learning, science education, science learning and e-learning were the most used keywords in articles, while the focus of more recent articles tended to be on mobile learning. The results showed that recent articles have mostly focused on mobile learning and e-learning environments. The most-used words in the abstracts were education, knowledge, science education, experiment and effectiveness. It is evident that recent articles have focused mostly on students' knowledge and achievement. Azuma, Dunleavy and Klopfer are the most cited authors in this field. This is not surprising as they are probably the leading authors on AR in the literature. The most cited journals are Computers & Education, Journal of Science Education & Technology, Educational Technology and Society, Computers in Human Behavior, and British Journal of Educational Technology. These are the most prominent journals on the use of technology in education. Content analysis results showed that “Learning/Academic Achievement”, “Motivation” and “Attitude” have been the most examined variables in the articles. Since academic achievement is highly influenced by motivation and attitude, it is understandable that these variables are considered together in reviewed studies. It was found that mobile applications and marker-based materials on paper have been the most-favored types of materials for AR because these types of materials are easy to use and they can be developed easily and practically. Quantitative studies were the most used research design type but there have been only a limited number of qualitative studies in the last six years. This may be due to the increased tendency to use quantitative and mixed studies in recent years.

The requirements of a contemporary workplace include the ability to think critically and creatively in order to solve problems and respond to changes in economic and social conditions. Unfortunately, vocational education often fails to prepare graduates for this environment due to limited resources, low student motivation, or the reliance upon outdated instructional strategies. The use of digital game-based learning (DGBL) for vocational education has been proposed, but has yet to be effectively implemented, particularly in terms of the promotion of higher order thinking skills (HOTS). Data from 68 eleventh grade vocational high school students were evaluated after a quasi-experimental, 27 week intervention. Pretest and posttest results were evaluated by MANCOVA and demonstrated that the experimental group (blended DGBL incorporating integrative HOTS activities) outperformed the comparison group (technology enhanced learning) in terms of creative thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, and academic achievement, with significant improvements on all four measures. While technology-enhanced learning was effective in promoting academic achievement and creative thinking, the DGBL condition was deemed most effective in providing an authentic context for developing employment-related skills and knowledge. Based on these results, a blended approach for DGBL, which incorporates instructor orchestration and scaffolding, provision of learning aids, and the use of collaborative learning, is recommended, particularly for vocational learners. This paper provides examples of a concrete model of DGBL instruction that was verified empirically as successful in significantly improving all three higher order thinking skills, including creative thinking, critical thinking, and problem solving. A blended approach to simulation games improved higher order thinking and learning.Creativity, critical thinking, problem solving all significantly improved.Teacher scaffolding, learning aids, and collaboration are key design elements.Digital games offer advantages over standard technology-enhanced learning.Vocational learners develop job-related knowledge and skills through simulations.

While social networking has already demonstrated its efficiency in e-learning, gamification, which is the use of game-thinking and playful design in non-game contexts, has only shown its potential as a motivational tool. This paper presents the results of testing both social networking and gamification in an undergraduate course, comparing them in terms their effect on students' academic achievement, participation and attitude. The effects of a gamification plugin deployed in a learning management system were compared to those of a social networking site in the same educational setting. We found that both approaches presented better performance than a traditional e-learning approach in terms of academic achievement for practical assignments, but that, when it came to assessing knowledge, the traditional e-learning approach was better. Also challenging current assumptions, participation rates and scores remained low with the new tools, although students' attitudes were positive.

Over the last decades, the issue of digital divide has received particular attention from international bodies and researchers in Western countries. One of the main reasons for this growing interest is related to the implications that digital inequalities have for social development and particularly for education. Despite the relevance of the issue, there are still few studies on the digital divide in China and even less on Chinese K-12 schools' students. This paper aims at exploring the digital divide issues among Chinese children from an educational and social perspective. Four schools were selected, involving 658 students aged 10-14. Nine hypotheses on Internet inequality indicators (DiMaggio & Hargittai, 2001) and their possible outcomes were tested. The study found that: (1) students' Internet access at home is better than that at school; (2) compared with parents, teachers have more positive influence on students' Internet behaviour; (3) students from rural or migrant schools score lower on all the Internet inequality indicators (digital access, autonomy of use, social support, Internet use and self-efficacy) and are therefore more disadvantaged in Internet usage status than their urban peers; (4) there are no significant gender differences; (5) the more education parents have received, the better the conditions of their children according to the listed Internet inequality indicators; (6) the dimensions of the Internet inequality indicators (technical apparatus, autonomy of use, availability of social support, variation of use) are significantly correlated to students' Internet self-efficacy; (7) there is high correlation between students' Internet self-efficacy and their exploring behaviours of Internet use and their academic performance. Overall, these results are consistent with data from OECD countries and confirm that the digital divide represents a big social challenge, revealing that schools still have to develop effective strategies to balance social and learning opportunities among students.

Experts agree that computers and computing play an important role in education. Since the 1980s there has been a debate about gender as it relates to computers and education. However, results regarding gender differences concerning computer use in education are not consistent. In particular there is little work done in China on this issue. Therefore, the overall goal of this paper is to demonstrate whether girls and boys can gain equally from computer-based education in China's elementary schools. To do so we analyze results from three randomized field experiments of a Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) program and One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. The field experiments are carried out in three kinds of schools: Shannxi rural public schools; Qinghai minority public schools; and Beijing migrant schools. Although CAL and OLPC have been considered cost effective means to improve learning outcomes, it is not known whether the programs impact girls differently than boys. Our analysis shows that, in fact, there were no differences between female and male students in either the improvement in standardized math test scores or Chinese test scores with either the CAL or OLPC programs. Our study suggests that among disadvantaged students in China's rural areas and migrant communities, there is reason to believe that computer based learning can benefit both girls and boys equally. This finding has possible implications for China's ongoing efforts to integrate computers and computing technologies into the nation's underserved schools.

This study investigated the current state of college students' perceptions toward mobile learning in higher education. Mobile learning is a new form of learning utilizing the unique capabilities of mobile devices. Although mobile devices are ubiquitous on college campuses, student readiness for mobile learning has yet to be fully explored in the United States. The paper describes a conceptual model, based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), which explains how college students' beliefs influence their intention to adopt mobile devices in their coursework. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze self-report data from 177 college students. The findings showed that the TPB explained college students' acceptance of m-learning reasonably well. More specifically, attitude, subjective norm, and behavioral control positively influenced their intention to adopt mobile learning. The results provide valuable implications for ways to increase college students' acceptance of mobile learning.

Though cooperative learning has been a topic of considerable interest in educational research, there has been little study specific to learning in the mathematics content area of geometry. This paper seeks to address that gap through a design experiment featuring a novel small-group computing environment for supporting student learning about quadrilaterals. In this design, each student controls a unique point in a shared geometric space, and those points are linked such that a group of four students collectively forms a quadrilateral. We first present results from pre- and post-measures to show how the students learned from the activities and developed in terms of geometric reasoning. We then present three episodes, elaborated with the notion of appropriation, to explain how students took up ways of using the technological tools and of talking about geometric concepts from one another in the interactive environment. Our study found that students achieved learning gains in this novel environment, that the environment provided rich opportunities for peer interaction around geometric objects, and that student learning opportunities and interactions were characterized by processes of appropriating ways of talking about and using software features.

This paper reports on the findings of the evaluation of Learning Units (LU), a special type of Learning Object designed to help overcome the difficulties associated with learning Calculus concepts at undergraduate level. An Interactive Platform for Learning Calculus (PIAC) that serves as a container for the LU was created following a specific instructional design, namely, the Teaching Unit Model (TUM), which in turn, rules the platform's design, development and implementation. A general perspective on the development of the platform and its LU is presented, including the results of usability and functionality evaluations, which indicate that the platform and the LU comply with different functionality and usability criteria which are fundamental for their introduction into formal university courses. The platform was utilized in a higher education Calculus course, and its effects on different aspects of the learning process were studied. Two experimental groups and two control groups for a total of 102 students taking the Calculus course participated in the study. Results indicated an overall acceptance of using PIAC in class. Important evidence was obtained on the positive effects of using PIAC, not only influencing academic performance of students, but also in motivational aspects of the learning process. The grades obtained in all of academic activities by the groups using PIAC, compared with the control groups, provide solid evidence to the positive influence of the intervention of the technology under the TUM.

With podcasting gaining more mainstream adoption in higher education, it's critical to examine its effectiveness in improving the student learning experience. To this end, this paper examines the effectiveness of podcasts integrated into the curriculum (PIC) versus podcasts as supplemental material (PSM). Considering recent empirical work on the effectiveness of podcasting, this study collected data from students enrolled in lower level and upper level language courses. Results revealed an inconclusive relationship among PIC students' learning outcomes (as measured by their final grades). In contrast, however, our findings indicate a strong relationship between the use of PSM and students' final grades, particularly in upper level courses.

Effective use of computers in education for children requires consideration of individual and developmental characteristics of users. There is limited empirical evidence, however, to guide educational programming when it comes to children and their acquisition of computing skills. This paper reports on the influence of previous experience and visual-motor coordination ability on computer mouse speed, accuracy and fluency of 221 five to ten year old children controlling for age and gender. Findings suggest that while speed and accuracy of mouse performance improves, as expected, with age and visual-motor proficiency, fluency appears to be influenced by task conditions and engagement. Findings are interpreted in the context of motor learning to assist in understanding the developmental pre-requisites of skilled mouse use and subsequent implications for educational programming.

Mobile learning is considered an evolution of e-learning that embraces the ubiquitous nature of current computational systems in order to improve teaching and learning. Within this context it is possible to develop mobile applications oriented to learning, but it is also important to assess to what extent such applications actually work. In this paper we present a new tool designed to reinforce students' knowledge by means of self-assessment. Improvement in student achievement was evaluated and an attitudinal survey was also carried out to measure student attitudes towards this new tool. Three different experimental groups were selected for this research, with students aged from 14 to 21 years old, including high-school and university students. Results show that this kind of tool improves student achievement, especially amongst younger learners, with a relatively low impact on current teaching activities and methodology.

Computer programming skills constitute one of the core competencies that graduates from many disciplines, such as engineering and computer science, are expected to possess. Developing good programming skills typically requires students to do a lot of practice, which cannot sustain unless they are adequately motivated. This paper reports a preliminary study that investigates the key motivating factors affecting learning among university undergraduate students taking computer programming courses. These courses are supported by an e-learning system - Programming Assignment aSsessment System (PASS), which aims at providing an infrastructure and facilitation to students learning computer programming. A research model is adopted linking various motivating factors, self-efficacy, as well as the effect due to the e-learning system. Some factors are found to be notably more motivating, namely, 'individual attitude and expectation', 'clear direction', and 'reward and recognition'. The results also suggest that a well facilitated e-learning setting can enhance learning motivation and self-efficacy.

In order to evaluate student learning achievement, several aspects should be considered, such as exercises, examinations, and observations. Traditionally, such an evaluation calculates a final score using a weighted average method after awarding numerical scores, and then determines a grade according to a set of established crisp criteria. However, this approach lacks the potential to reflect the individual characteristics of a class compared to others. Several researches have used fuzzy techniques to devise practical methods for evaluating student learning achievement to ascertain linguistic terms that are usually used by teachers to assess student learning achievement. However, these approaches are largely based on expert opinions and require complicated computational processes. In this paper, we present a new method for evaluating student learning achievement using an adaptive ordered weighted averaging operator and K-nearest-neighbor classification method. The proposed method simulates the evaluation behavior of teachers when performing a student achievement evaluation based on a norm-referenced evaluation by identifying situations involving the application of intelligence and provides a useful means to award a reasonable grade to students. Furthermore, the proposed method provides a feedback mechanism to update the norm dataset. Therefore, the repetitious use of the feedback mechanism will gradually strengthen the representativeness of the norm dataset.

Earlier studies have suggested that higher education institutions could harness the predictive power of Learning Management System (LMS) data to develop reporting tools that identify at-risk students and allow for more timely pedagogical interventions. This paper confirms and extends this proposition by providing data from an international research project investigating which student online activities accurately predict academic achievement. Analysis of LMS tracking data from a Blackboard Vista-supported course identified 15 variables demonstrating a significant simple correlation with student final grade. Regression modelling generated a best-fit predictive model for this course which incorporates key variables such as total number of discussion messages posted, total number of mail messages sent, and total number of assessments completed and which explains more than 30% of the variation in student final grade. Logistic modelling demonstrated the predictive power of this model, which correctly identified 81% of students who achieved a failing grade. Moreover, network analysis of course discussion forums afforded insight into the development of the student learning community by identifying disconnected students, patterns of student-to-student communication, and instructor positioning within the network. This study affirms that pedagogically meaningful information can be extracted from LMS-generated student tracking data, and discusses how these findings are informing the development of a customizable dashboard-like reporting tool for educators that will extract and visualize real-time data on student engagement and likelihood of success.

This paper describes the findings of an exploratory cycle of a design-based research project and examines the learning effectiveness of collaborative activities that are supported by the GroupScribbles (GS) software technology in two Singapore primary science classrooms. The students had ten weeks of GS-based lessons in science, which were co-designed by teachers and researchers to teach the curriculum by tapping on collaborative work in small groups as well as in the whole class. The results show that the GS classes performed better than non-GS classes as measured by traditional assessments. With GS, students were found to have more opportunities to participate in class discussions, and were exposed to diversified ideas. Analysis of data collected in the classroom as well as data on students' attitudes and perceptions indicate that GS facilitated students' collaborative learning, and improved students' epistemology and attitudes toward science learning.

This paper describes an academic experience of podcasting, which involved a group of students of a course on multimedia communication and human-computer interaction. These students acted both as users of the university's podcasting service, and as creators of podcasted lessons. A comprehensive analysis based on the evaluation of the effects on student performance, on data from student satisfaction surveys, from interviews and from instructors' observations provided encouraging results: Full-time students co-involved in lessons' podcasting outperformed colleagues of the previous years and achieved higher levels of what we define as competitive agency, that led them to better understand the theoretical issues of the course and to more effective practical skills.

Technology-enhanced learning environments (TELEs) deliver instructional content and provide an array of scaffolding features designed to support independent student learning. TELEs also support teacher efforts to guide student inquiry within these sometimes complex environments. Self-efficacy, defined by Bandura [Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (Vol. 4, pp. 71-81). New York: Academic Press] as a person's beliefs about his capabilities is also known to influence student academic performance in a learning environment. This paper discusses the potential importance of designing scaffolds in TELEs that intentionally promote academic self-efficacy. We advocate for designing asynchronous Audio/Visual tools into TELEs to promote student self-efficacy and ultimately performance.

This paper describes the results and implications of a study into the effectiveness of a blended e-learning cooperative approach (BeLCA) on Pre-Service Teacher's (PST) achievement, attitudes towards e-learning and cooperativeness. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used with participants of the study. Twenty-six science PSTs, enrolled in an Egyptian university, represented the study's experiential and control groups. Pre and post-tools were administered to participants in the two groups in a quasiexperimental design. Instruments to measure dependent variables of the study were developed by the authors in light of relevant previous studies. The findings suggest that PSTs in the experimental group have higher achievement levels in their post-overall-course-test, 'comprehensive-score', and attitudes towards e-learning environments compared to those of the control group. The specific design of the course may be responsible for these changes. Future implications and suggestions for teacher educational programmes are presented.

There has been extensive investment by governments and individual schools in interactive whiteboard technology in developed countries premised on the assumption that their use in education will impact positively on learners' achievements. Developing countries, such as South Africa, keen to raise attainment among their learners are following suit. While at least one of the nine provinces in South Africa had undertaken pilot roll-outs of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in schools, the Eastern Cape Department of Education commissioned a feasibility study to determine teachers and learners perceptions of the potential benefits and drawbacks of using interactive pen technology, specifically the eBeam, in their teaching and learning environments, before embarking upon a large scale roll-out. This paper reports on a case study of three government schools and highlights the learners and teachers' enthusiasm about the ''big screen'' and the multimedia options, but also raises concerns about the lack of ICT literacy displayed by teachers and learners and the cost of technology. As most of the benefits mentioned by the teachers and learners seemed to accrue to the use of the laptop and data projector combination and most of the drawbacks emanated from the use of the interactive pen technology itself, we suggest that it may not be expeditious to attempt to ''leap-frog'' the use of interactive technologies. Instead we suggest that an evolution of ICT related pedagogy is necessary to make optimal use of interactive pen technologies such as the eBeam and that teachers should be offered technologies, not have them imposed upon them.

Based on data collected from a middle school, this study investigates how the quantity and quality of technology use affect student learning outcomes. Specifically, this study examines how technologies are used by students, what technology uses are popular among students, and what technology uses are effective for increasing student academic achievement. Results suggest that the quantity of technology use alone is not critical to student learning. ''How much'' matters when ''how'' is identified. Moreover, when the quality of technology use is not ensured, more time on computers may cause more harm than benefit. With students' change in GPA as an indicator, technology uses that had positive impact on students were those related to specific subject areas and focused on student construction. In addition, analysis of the frequency of technology uses found that, in general, technology uses that had positive impact were not popular; on the contrary, some of these technology uses were the least frequently used. Implications for practice and future research are discussed in this paper.

Using a mixed method approach of questionnaires, observations and field notes, the authors have studied a number of settings during the past two years which have focussed on the development of ICT capability through play. Some of these have involved children identified as disaffected or disadvantaged, whilst others have involved initial teacher education students. In this paper, we consider some of the results obtained from the most recent of these settings, relate these to those obtained from the other settings, and explore further a number of inter-related issues which have arisen from the analysis. We particularly focus on the effect of learners' self-esteem and self-efficacy; the influence of gender-related characteristics; the role of interaction between learners during activity; and the value of reflection. Our research found a consistently positive relationship between learners' self-belief with ICT and subsequent attainment through play activity, whereas their access to technology at home seems to have little effect on their subsequent learning. Furthermore, it was a specific ICT self-efficacy, rather than a more general self-esteem, which appeared to influence the development of ICT capability. The average attainment of boys and girls was very similar, but there were significant differences in the distributions in that the majority of the very high and very low achievers in terms of competences achieved were boys. Male student teachers attained significantly higher competence levels even after taking account of higher initial skill levels. The degree of interaction between learners varied between groups, and although this was not measured directly, there was some evidence of greater attainment by those who shared ideas together. Our results suggest that play activity can be very successful in developing aspects of ICT capability, and that play may be valuable as a mode of learning with adults and older children as well as the young children with which it is usually associated. However, there are important factors to be considered in order to provide the conditions needed for success, and it will be important that we do not disadvantage further those who are least confident with technology and the already disaffected males.

This paper investigates how students’ attitude and performance are affected by using an asynchronous learning network (ALN) to augment exams in a traditional lecture/lab course. Students used the ExamNet ALN to create, critique, and revise a database of questions that subsequently was drawn upon for course exams. Overall, students considered ExamNet to be useful and important in understanding course material, reviewing for exams, and succeeding in the course. Most found the process of developing exam questions to be intrinsically motivating and an interesting part of the course.

An account is given of a three-year study of the use of email for teaching purposes within two courses forming part of a psychology degree, in order to compare course delivery via email with delivery via ‘traditional’ lectures. The courses were a first year ‘Psychology and IT’ course, which was taught entirely via email and a second year ‘Cognitive Psychology’ course, parts of which were taught by email and part by lectures, some of which were supported by emailed summaries. Although there were drawbacks to the use of email for teaching, the email method was felt to have been successful, as was confirmed by generally positive student feedback. The examination performance of two successive student cohorts on an multiple-choice question (MCQ) paper was studied. In one cohort the poorest part-time students performed better on material taught by email than by lectures, while in the other cohort there was some evidence for lectures supported by emailed 1000-word summaries producing better performance. However, in this second cohort MCQ performance deriving from emailed lectures was worse than that deriving from other delivery formats.

This paper estimates the effect of using Learning Expedition, an integrated learning system based upon computer assisted learning, on the performance of pupils in mathematics at ages 11 to 13. The study is based upon experience in one school during the first year of its introduction into the school curriculum. Multiple regression methods were employed to estimate the statistical relationship between the examination scores achieved by pupils at the end of the school year and the time spent using Learning Expedition, taking into account the influence of the initial level of attainment of each pupil as indicated by their NFER scores. Although initial level of achievement is the predominant explanatory variable of level achieved in the end-of-year mathematics examinations, time spent using the Learning Expedition computer programme was also found to improve performance significantly. The main conclusion is that ILS can lead to favourable outcomes through maximising the availability of this resource during the school day.

Assessment is one of the most important tasks in the whole teaching and learning process. It has major impacts on students' learning approaches and learning outcomes. This paper reports the use of an Internet-based Group Support System (GSS) for the collaborative assessment of student projects. An empirical study was conducted on a 2nd year undergraduate course of Distributed Information Systems. In the experiment, the students were randomly assigned to two groups: an experimental group (with GSS support) and a control group (face-to-face). The results of the empirical study indicate that students participated in the GSS-supported collaborative assessment have a significantly higher level of “deep approach” strategies to learning and better project grades than those in the face-to-face collaborative assessment group.

Educators and technologists have been wrestling with the most appropriate way in which to use information technology in teaching and in learning, for some years. We have seen online course notes, both linear, hypertext and hypermedia format, lecturer/student communication via electronic bulletin boards or via e-mail, multimedia courseware with student-directed learning and many others. All of these approaches have had limited impact on mainstream teaching in our universities and colleges and we believe one of the reasons for this is that these attempts all represent a significant shift in the normal student–lecturer relationship and an enormous amount of effort on the part of the lecturer. In our work we have addressed this by using technology to replicate the traditional mode of delivery of lectures to a class. The presentation of lecture material was digitally recorded, both audio and synchronised visuals, and made available for students to take in their own time. In addition we provided 3 orthogonal means to access this material. The present paper describes our analysis of the use of these `virtual lectures' by a class of over 100 students. Our analysis includes log files of all accesses to the online material, pre-course and post-course questionnaires and anonymous questionnaire feedback, some of this is compared to exam performance. Results indicate that mode of delivery, student usage and a student's technical bias have no impact on overall exam performance.

This paper describes a project that uses computer-supported peer review to develop higher-level learning skills. The subjects of the study were part-time students from a MSc course in Computer Studies designed for non-computing graduates. The degree disciplines of the subjects ranged from humanities to engineering. An evaluation of the effectiveness of the use of computer technology in providing a framework for mutual help was conducted, in particular in relation to the development of higher-level skills. The evaluation was based on final module grades, qualitative interviews and the application of measures of academic locus of control, anticipatory anxiety and person–environment fit.

This paper describes a study on gender, computers and other major school subjects. The sample consisted of 773 ninth-grade school students both from the municipality of Tokyo, Japan (204 girls and 266 boys) and from Stockholm, Sweden (144 girls and 159 boys). The measurement of gender-typing of computers and other major school subjects has been done on the basis of three dimensions: usefulness, aptitude and liking. The analysis focused upon the calculation of descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance. In general, regardless of the country, males reported higher scores of usefulness, aptitude and liking to computers and more positive attitudes toward mathematics, and sciences than girls did. Girls consistently reported that computers, mathematics and sciences were the subjects which were less liked and languages the most liked. The persistence of gender differences in computers, despite a general rise in computer awareness, indicates a failure in the way gender issues are addressed and tackled in schools.

This paper reports a study involving 65 children (31 boys and 34 girls) aged between 10 and 11, which further examined the effect of software type by comparing children's performance on a male stereotyped version of the software with their performance on a structurally identical, but female stereotyped version of the software. We found that girls performed worse than boys on both versions of the software and this effect persisted even when the effect of computer experience was removed. There was also a gender difference in the children's preference. Girls preferred the female version more than the boys and there was also a significant relationship between the girls' preferences and their performance. There was no relationship between the boys' preferences and their performance. The implications and explanations for these findings will be discussed.

This paper discusses the various issues and factors involved in planning and implementing an introductory computer science course in an Indian secondary school. The implementation scheme, acquisition, selection and funding for computer resources, location and access to the computer facilities were analysed. The training programme, teaching style and classroom management processes were also evaluated. Criteria for selection of students and students' academic performance in computer science were compared with those of science and commerce subjects. The study also highlighted the school management and students' viewpoints on the introduction of this new course. The study showed that the Indian school has successfully integrated the introductory computer science course into the school curriculum. It followed a similar pattern to that of British secondary schools by introducing computer studies at this level. Based upon this study, a five-stage model could be prepared as a guideline for the gradual introduction of computer literacy and studies programmes into the secondary school curriculum of developing countries.