Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) that employ a model-tracing methodology have consistently shown their effectiveness. However, what evidently makes these tutors effective, the cognitive model embedded within them, has traditionally been difficult to create, requiring great expertise and time, both of which come at a cost. Furthermore, an…

This article reports the results of a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the suitability of 13 commercially available, authorized software programs for teaching reading and writing in the primary grades. These programs were assessed on interface design, content, instructional design, whether manufacturers' educational claims were supported…

A qualitative study of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library's Web site identified the ways in which students and faculty of the University of Montana used the site for research purposes. This study employed open-ended interview questions and observations to spontaneously capture a user's experience in researching topics in which they…

Competency in the new literacies of the Internet is essential for participating in contemporary society. Researchers studying these new literacies are recognizing the limitations of traditional methodological tools and adapting new technologies and new media for use in research. This paper reports our exploration of usability testing software to…

Helping students develop criteria for judgment and apply examination skills is essential for promoting scientific literacy. With the increasing availability of the Internet, it is even more essential that students learn how to evaluate the science they gather from online resources. This is particularly true because publishing information on the…

Since 2002 the "Zurich E-Learning Certificate" offers lecturers and academic staff from the three main universities in Zurich the possibility to take part in a professional development program which supports the acquirement of eCompetence. The program is the result of a cooperation between the University of Zurich (UZH), the Swiss…

This article presents the features, design and architecture of the Myst pervasive game platform that has been applied in creating pervasive mobile learning games in various contexts such as science festivals and museums in Finland. Based on our experiences with the development, we draw a set of design principles for creating successfully a…

Many published studies examine the effectiveness of Google Scholar (Scholar) as an index for scholarly articles. This paper analyzes the value of Scholar in finding and labeling online full text of articles using titles from the citations of engineering faculty publications. For the fields of engineering and the engineering colleges in the study,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure the performance of commercial virtual learning environment (VLE) systems, which helps the decision makers to select the appropriate system for their institutions. Design/methodology/approach: This paper develops an integrated multiple criteria decision making approach, which combines the analytic…

Program animation systems have not been as widely adopted by computer science educators as we might expect from the firm belief that they can help in enhancing computer science education. One of the most notable obstacles to their adoption is the considerable effort that the production of program animations represents for the instructor. We…

While discussion of the criteria needed to assess learning objects has been extensive, a formal, systematic model for evaluation has yet to be thoroughly tested. The purpose of the following study was to develop and assess a multi-component model for evaluating learning objects. The Learning Object Evaluation Metric (LOEM) was developed from a…

New social-sharing applications are transforming the Internet from a "read-only" (Web 1.0) environment to a "read-write" ecology that many are calling Web 2.0. These tools (e.g., weblogs and wikis) enable Internet users to publish information online almost as easily as they can read online, and they have tremendous potential for learning. This…

The aim of the present study was to develop an on-line assessment system with constructed response items in the context of elementary mathematics curriculum. The system recorded the problem solving process of constructed response items and transfered the process to response codes for further analyses. An inference mechanism based on artificial…

This research applies Socio-Cultural theory and Distributed Cognition/Activity theory to conceptualize the design of collaborative learning activities in large shared digital spaces. The paper begins by providing a summary of previous work in the creation of a technology platform for large shared digital spaces. It then details how Socio-Cultural…

This article describes the benefits and drawbacks of using Wolfram|Alpha as the platform for teaching calculus concepts in the lab setting. It is a result of our experiences designing and creating an entirely new set of labs using Wolfram|Alpha. We present the reasoning behind our transition from using a standard computer algebra system (CAS) to…