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This article explores the formal localization of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Ghana, focusing on the remixing of human rights courses for youth and young adults. While working with an NGO that focuses on providing educational resources to low bandwidth areas, partner teachers in Ghana remixed openly-licensed human rights content provided by the Geneva Office for Human Rights Education (GO-HRE) for local delivery. Localization is crucial to ensure relevance and accessibility of educational materials to diverse learners. By adapting materials through localization, educators can address cultural and contextual mismatches, thereby enhancing comprehension and learning outcomes for a wider range of students. This process acknowledges and respects the diversity of learners and promotes inclusivity in education. This study examines the challenges faced by teachers in formal localization and identifies principles that guide effective localization practices. The research methodology involved qualitative interviews with facilitators who taught a human rights course using OER. The results revealed two main challenges of formal localization: conceptual newness and burdensome effort. Participants lacked awareness of the concept of remixing and open licensing, and they faced challenges related to the demanding nature of the localization process. However, two key principles for effective formal localization emerged: focusing on method and leveraging teacher knowledge. Teachers sought to localize the delivery and method of instruction rather than the subject matter, and they leveraged their own knowledge of students and pedagogical practice to adapt the content. Results highlight the assumptions, implications, and recommendations for OER designers and researchers. Designers should consider the cultural and contextual differences between global and local contexts and collaborate with local teachers to facilitate effective formal localization. Informal localization, driven by social relationships and practical choices, is also recognized as a significant aspect of OER adaptation.

This paper reports on how the concept and technologies of GIS are included in the telecommunications engineering curriculum at the undergraduate level. The course of Fundamentals of GIS is described in detail. The usage of GIS software is necessary part of GIS technology education. In order to evaluate available GIS software, several criteria are defined. For this purpose, the authors used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology according to the goal to find the most appropriate GIS software in education of telecommunications engineers. The following software tools are considered: GRASS, uDig, SAGA, Prune and OpenJUMP. Each proposed criterion was given relative importance through pair-wise comparison. Taking into account proposed criteria, uDig software tools showed the most promising results to be used for education of future telecommunications engineers.

In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence has enabled the launch of many new screening tools. This review aims to facilitate screening tool selection through a systematic narrative review and feature analysis. The current adoption rate of transparent tool reporting is low: by screening 191 studies published in the "Review of Educational Research" since 2015, we found that only eight studies reported screening tools. More research is needed to understand the reasons behind this phenomenon. After consulting various sources, 26 available screening tools in the market were found. Among them, we identified and evaluated 12 screening tools for educational reviewers and ranked them in descending order of feature score: Covidence (1), DistillerSR (2, tied), EPPI-Reviewer (2, tied), CADIMA (4), Swift-Active (5), Rayyan (6, tied), SysRev (6, tied), Abstrackr (8, tied), ReLiS (8, tied), RevMan (8, tied), ASReview (11), and Excel (12). In the discussion, we provide insights into the promise and bias in tools' machine learning algorithms. Our results encourage researchers to report their tool usage in publications and select tools based on suitability instead of convenience.

Software is usually considered enabler for innovation in education. Thus, it is necessary to investigate: What leads to innovation in education and which, therefore, should be considered in the development of educational software? How to support decision-making for choosing software to be used in teaching and learning? How to evaluate software that enables, transforms, or supports innovation in education? In order to answer these questions, a research work was conducted that resulted in an approach called DEISE, which is concerned with drivers that lead to innovation in education and indicators that measure the fostering of software to skills need to students for 21st century learning. Through a web system developed for technological support to the DEISE approach, a set of educational software was evaluated by educators and the results show the index of innovation in education for each evaluated software and a comparison between educational software of similar purpose.

Background: Those supporting children and young people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) contribute to ongoing complex decision-making about communication aid selection and support. Little is known about how these decisions are made in practice and how attributes of the communication aid are described or considered. Aims: To understand how communication aid attributes were described by those involved in AAC recommendations and support for children and young people, and how these attributes were described as impacting on AAC use. Methods & Procedures: A secondary qualitative analysis was completed of interview and focus group data from 91 participants involved in the support of 22 children and young people. Attributes of communication aids described by participants were extracted as themes and this paper reports a descriptive summary of the identified software (non-hardware) attributes. Main Contribution: Decisions were described in terms of comparisons between commercially available pre-existing vocabulary packages. Attributes related to vocabulary, graphic representation, consistency and intuitiveness of design, and ease of editing were identified. Developmental staging of vocabularies, core and fringe vocabulary, and vocabulary personalization were attributes that were described as being explicitly considered in decisions. The potential impact of graphic symbol choice did not seem to be considered strongly. The physical and social environment was described as the predominant factor driving the choice of a number of attributes. Conclusions & Implications: Specific attributes that appear to be established in decision-making in these data have limited empirical research literature. Terms used in the literature to describe communication aid attributes were not observed in these data. Practice-based evidence does not appear to be supported by the available research literature and these findings highlight several areas where empirical research is needed in order to provide a robust basis for practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which was effective all over the world in early 2020, has deeply affected educational institutions. As a result, universities in Turkey quickly began their emergency distance education applications. Faculty members are the most important executors of this process. In this respect, the purpose of this study was to examine the views of faculty members about emergency distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this qualitatively designed study, the views of 18 lecturers from a state university were determined. As the data collection tool, an online questionnaire form made up of open-ended questions was used. The data were analyzed using the content analysis method, and the themes were formed. According to the results, the academicians generally expressed their high level of dissatisfaction with the distance education policies of their university and with the distance education system used in the 2019-2020 Spring Term. In the 2020-2021 Fall semester, the university took these criticisms into account, changed their distance education policy, and succeeded in gaining the satisfaction of the academicians again by choosing Microsoft Teams, a more integrated system. Although the academicians were generally satisfied with the features of Microsoft Teams, they also reported some criticisms regarding the software such as the deficiency in its exam feature, connection problems, design deficiencies and difficulties in following the students. To conclude, all the academicians participating in the study stated that they wanted to continue to use distance education tools in an integrated manner in their lessons after the pandemic. [Note: The issue number (1) shown on the first page of the PDF is incorrect. The correct issue number is 2.]

Distance Education has become an important educational model with the development of information and communication technologies in the world. It has also become increasingly used model in Turkey. In our country, the number of universities and educational organizations offering distance education programs increase day by day. Distance education is performed by some special software called Learning Management System (LMS). There are both commercial LMSs and several open-source LMSs that have cost advantages. It is difficult to select an appropriate LMS for many institutions to meet their standards. The decision making and selection process is crucial, because LMS functions are different from each other, and they all have various features. Because of this, in this study, it is targeted to help and facilitate the decision-making process of LMS for institutions. In this study, Fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), Fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and an integrated method were used for evaluating criteria and deciding alternatives. To help accomplish this aim, questionnaire forms was designed and used for data collection. These methods were compared with each other. Results were evaluated. According to results among different criteria, the most important criteria for selecting LMS alternatives was found Content Management and Development (96.3%) and between the alternatives Moodle was found the best alternative with the degree of 36.3%.

Existing scholarship suggests that schools do the work of social stratification by functioning as "sorting machines," or institutions that determine which populations of students are provided educational resources needed to help them get ahead. We build on this theory of social reproduction by extending it to better understand how digital technology use is implicated in this process of unequal resource allocation in schools. We contend that educational resources, like digital technologies, are "also" sorted by schools. Drawing on scholarship from both education research and science and technology studies, we show how educational institutions have long played a role in constructing the value of technologies to different ends, by constructing hierarchies of technological activity, like "vocational" and "academic" computer use, even when strikingly similar. We then apply this lens to three areas of inquiry in education research: the use of digital technologies for instruction, school use of student data, and college admissions. Each illustrates how education scholars can view technologies as part of school sorting processes and with implications for inequality within and beyond the classroom.

With the vast number of apps and the complexity of their features, it is becoming challenging for teachers to select a suitable learning app for their courses. Several evaluation frameworks have been proposed in the literature to assist teachers with this selection. The iPAC framework is a well-established mobile learning framework highlighting the learners' experience of personalization, authenticity, and collaboration (iPAC). In this article, we introduce an approach to automate the identification and comparison of iPAC relevant apps. We experiment with natural language processing and machine learning techniques, using data from the app description and app reviews publicly available in app stores. We further empirically validate the keyword base of the iPAC framework based on the app users' language in app reviews. Our approach automatically identifies iPAC relevant apps with promising results ("F"1 score ~72%) and evaluates them similarly as domain experts (Spearman's rank correlation 0.54). We discuss how our findings can be useful for teachers, students, and app vendors.

The article suggests that the non-destructive editing features of the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) can be useful for communication centers and for the support of multimodal assignments because they can promote greater attention to sound. The turn to the DAW is situated in a tradition of embracing sonic technologies for pedagogical purposes through analysis of the history of discussions of microphonic and recording technology in the "Quarterly Journal of Speech." The author surveys available DAW software and cites experience using it at one center.

The focus of the Technology Solutions for Adult Basic Skills Challenges column begins with common challenges facing adult basic skills practitioners, expressed, for example, in the LINCS Integrating Technology group for which I am the moderator, in other LINCS groups, in my national and state conference or webinar presentations, or privately in face-to-face discussions or by phone or email. Solutions to these problems, at least in part through the use of technology, include: hardware such as desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, electronic tablets, VR Goggles, and electronic whiteboards; and digital software applications such as websites, course management systems, learning management systems, databases, and apps for mobile devices. Each article begins with a challenge and examines one or more possible technology solutions.

Research students in social science disciplines frequently struggle to master statistical analysis. A contributing factor may be the statistical software that is used, as the design of such software may not address the needs of non-statisticians or non-computer programming students. Hence, decisions about which statistical software tools are most suitable for such end-users need to be made at the introductory level. This paper first identifies key human-computer interaction (HCI) factors that may directly influence students' statistical analysis performance. Factors include technical properties such as user interface design, statistical features available, visualization, data handling, preparation, and manipulation, and usage properties such as speed/number of steps, ease of command/use, and efficiency. Four popular software systems (ie, SPSS, R within RStudio Desktop, R Commander & jamovi) were evaluated. Findings suggest that HCI usage factors from an interaction perspective are likely to be especially important for students gaining an introductory knowledge of statistics.

E-learning is one of the fastest growing areas of the high technology development, especially in the academic environments. However, the instructor is a very important factor in the learning process, but the advantages of e-learning change the role which the instructor plays in this process. E-learning gives an opportunity to anyone to learn in a rapid and customised way. Nowadays, many learning management systems (LMSs) available in the marketplace offer electronic teaching and learning tools. Choosing the most appropriate LMS that fits the needs and requirements of instructor and the learner is one of the most confusing and difficult decisions to any educational institution. Accordingly, the need to a computer-based tool for getting help in taking such a decision is rising on. This paper offers a solution to this problem. It provides a description about a web-based decision support system named Easy Way to Evaluate LMS (EW-LMS). It has been developed by adopting multi-attribute decision-making algorithm in order to select the best LMS depending on the user needs.

We are in the age of information and communication technology (ICT), where the learning communities (i.e., learners, teachers, scholars, etc.), mainly in higher education domains, are more technology dependent. The stakeholders always handle advanced research, study and technologies, and therefore they need some authentic and updated information to satisfy their daily needs. They simply need some updating as well as real-time interactive digital learning platforms that can provide fast, authentic and updated information to satisfy their academic needs. This learning platform completely depends on the judicious designing methodologies, and this designing methodology totally depends on the reliable and effective digital learning tools or learning management system (LMS). The present study is an attempt to design the standard process towards selecting an authentic, reliable and effective open source learning management software/system (OSLMS) for the higher education platform. In this regard, the study has been designed in three layers for the selection of the popular and most downloaded OSLMS in the world. Later in the third layer, a comparative study of the final six OSLMSs has been conducted based on the features under various criteria and parameters to select the right one. Lastly, it is found that the Moodle fulfilled most of the criteria and is selected as the most authentic, interactive and trustworthy OSLMS for the higher education system.

Teacher preparation and training appear limited in the area of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) as well as more general instruction and management for students with disabilities including those with attention problems. Research suggests that CAI is a promising intervention for young inattentive students, with several inherent advantages; however, there are a number of implementation challenges that may interfere with more extensive and effective use in the classroom. Lessons learned from a recent randomized controlled trial of a CAI intervention highlight some of these challenges and suggest strategies for addressing them. Implications for instruction are discussed with regard to selection of appropriate CAI programs, integration into the classroom, and strengthening teachers' more general management skills for inattentive students. Recommendations for pre-service training and professional development in CAI are provided.

Citation management programs are tools used to organize references and to create citations and bibliographies. Libraries are often the central point for providing training and support in using these tools. To determine how we could improve our support and training services, we surveyed users to determine what software in being used, why they chose that particular program, what features are important, and how they use citation management programs to collaborate. Results indicate that users chose a particular program because it was freely available or recommended to them by others and that they thought that importing references and creating citations were important features. We also found a majority of respondents used citation management programs to collaborate and turned to the library for training and support.

The purpose of this study was to identify salient features for a critical thinking app and create an instrument to facilitate the app evaluation and selection process. Two questions guided the study: (1) What distinguishes critical thinking instructional apps from others? and (2) What design principles are essential to develop a critical thinking instructional app? The study was conducted in two phases, including a synthesis of existing research in Phase I and development of an evaluation instrument in Phase II. Three lines of research (on critical thinking, educational apps design principles, and tools for the evaluation of educational apps) informed the development of the instrument, which included three evaluation categories (content, pedagogy, and design). A synthesis of research used to create the instrument is included herein along with the instrument design process, rationale for this design, recommendations for usage, its limitations, and implications for future practice and research. Findings will enable app users to more wisely select critical thinking apps specific to their needs and assist app developers with distinguishing the salient qualities required to design apps for critical thinking. The study accordingly contributes to both software evaluation and its development with findings beneficial to both app users and developers.

Developments in computer and information technologies continue to give opportunities for designing advanced E-learning systems while entailing objective and technical evaluation methodologies. Design and development of E-learning systems require time-consuming and labor-intensive processes; therefore any decision about these systems and their analysis needs systematic and structured guidance to lead to better decisions. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques are applicable in instructional technology-related research areas as well as in other academic disciplines. In this study, a conceptual domain model and a decision activity framework is proposed for E-learning systems. Instructional, technological, and administrative decision domains are included in this model. Finally, an illustrative example is given to show that AHP is an effective MCDA method for E-learning-related decisions. (Contains 4 figures and 9 tables.)

In this article, the authors describe some of the top websites recommended by colleagues for the Association of California School Administrators. The Top 12 for 2012 are: (1) Facebook (facebook.com); (2) Twitter (twitter.com); (3) Tungle (tungle.me); (4) FCMAT (fcmat.org); (5) YouSendIt (yousendit.com); (6) Slideshare (slideshare.net); (7) QR Readers; (8) LiveBinders (livebinders.com); (9) TripIt (tripit.com); (10) Dropbox (dropbox.com); (11) Evernote (evernote.com); and (12) Really Simple Syndication (RSS).

There are many different approaches to teaching Information Systems courses. Studies have shown that if the student is interested in the topic, they just may have a more productive classroom experience. This paper documents the practice of structuring assignments around topics that are of interest to each individual student. This method has been successful in courses from the freshman level up to the doctoral level. For each of the classes described in this paper, the students are given a framework to follow for the assignments, and then asked to individualize the assignment relevant to their interests. Student attitudes toward the courses are discussed, along with recommendations for course structure and content.

According to the Internet World Stats (2010), the growth rate of internet usage in the world is 444.8 % from 2000 to 2010. Since the number of internet users is rapidly increasing with each passed year, e-learning is often identified with web-based learning. The institutions, which deliver e-learning service via the use of computer and internet, are responsible to choose the most suitable e-learning service provider for effective distance education. The purpose of this research is to identify the e-learning design requirements and to select the most suitable e-learning service provider. In this research, fuzzy logic-based Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was employed. A questionnaire was conducted in order to collect the data from a group of experts who were selected on the basis of their knowledge and expertise in related industry. By using the Converting Fuzzy data into Crisp Scores (CFCS) technique, the collected data was defuzzified. Then, the critical success factors of e-learning service providers were identified. As a result, fuzzy logic-based QFD was utilized for the selection of the e-learning service providers. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

Wikis offer many benefits, such as two-way flows of information, early and consistent feedback, and greater student group collaboration, in an educational setting. Some researchers have already reported on the use of Wikis in their classes. However, instructors must choose an appropriate Wiki platform in order to receive all of the benefits of their use. Failure to do so can lead to significant frustration on the part of both students and the instructor. Using a framework put forth by Schwartz et. al. (2004), this paper reports on the use of various Wiki platforms in an introductory information systems class. Lessons learned from this experience are discussed.

While technology integration has influenced and changed the preparation of teacher candidates at all levels for a long time, utilization of mobile devices such as tablets, is still relatively new to teacher training institutions. Research indicates that the issue of technology integration in early childhood should move beyond the discussion of whether technology use is appropriate, and rather focus on how to integrate this medium in Early Childhood Education (ECE) in a developmentally appropriate manner. This study provides significant and valuable insights for the early childhood teacher education community by identifying a process to train early childhood pre-service teachers to evaluate and select iPad applications that are developmentally appropriate, and exploring emerging patterns of ways in which early childhood preservice teachers integrate and implement tablet technology and related apps within prekindergarten children's education.

This study compared five common multilevel software packages via Monte Carlo simulation: HLM 7, M"plus" 7.4, R (lme4 V1.1-12), Stata 14.1, and SAS 9.4 to determine how the programs differ in estimation accuracy and speed, as well as convergence, when modeling multiple randomly varying slopes of different magnitudes. Simulated data included population variance estimates, which were zero or near zero for two of the five random slopes. Generally, when yielding admissible solutions, all five software packages produced comparable and reasonably unbiased parameter estimates. However, noticeable differences among the five packages arose in terms of speed, convergence rates, and the production of standard errors for random effects, especially when the variances of these effects were zero in the population. The results of this study suggest that applied researchers should carefully consider which random effects they wish to include in their models. In addition, nonconvergence rates vary across packages, and models that fail to converge in one package may converge in another.

Institutions of higher education are embracing the role of the Internet as a medium to promote on-demand communication between faculty and students. As such, online course management systems have become an efficient and effective means of facilitating learning outside the classroom. To ensure that a course management system meets the needs and goals of an institution, it is vital that the selection and migration of content to an online courseware platform is done systematically. This article highlights key stages in the selection and migration process. In addition, practical recommendations are provided focusing on sensitivity to an institution's culture, resources, political climate, and goals for quality and growth.

Many popular terms such as software description, software review, software evaluation and lastly software usability used by design, development and evaluation experts in the field. However, such terms used interchangeably by researchers and developers are syntactically and semantically different due to their conceptual backgrounds and the technical procedures taken in the development or evaluation process. A simple search of the basic terms, software selection, software description, software review, software evaluation, software usability and software assessment in this day and age of electronic databases would yield a large number of "hits" or articles. There are different definitions for such terms. The definitions are used loosely and interchangeably in activities by the researchers and web page developers. The term "software assessment" is used to encompass the set of terms described in this paper. This allows for evaluating the contributions of specific characteristics to the effectiveness of instructional software anatomy.

A product evaluation was conducted of "Desire2Learn", an online learning management system gaining popularity in educational institutions. Since an online trial version of the software was not available for evaluation, an inspection meeting with the vendor was arranged. This provided the evaluation team with an opportunity to examine the precautions necessary for ensuring the objectivity of a product evaluation based on vendor-supplied information. The report outlines the team's use of evaluator-driven enquiry and a triangulated approach to information checking. The "Desire2Learn" product is assessed as a flexible and useful addition to the range of learning management system options.

This report discusses the educational uses of the "wiki," an increasingly popular approach to online community development. Wikis are defined and compared with "blogging" methods; characteristics of major wiki engines are described; and wiki features and selection criteria are examined.

Four integrated learning management packages were reviewed: "CentraOne", "IntraLearn", "Lyceum", and "Silicon Chalk". These products provide different combinations of synchronous and asynchronous tools. The current report examines the products in relation to their specific value for distance educators and students.