This study extended the assessment of a special messaging technology with two additional post-coma adults who had emerged from a minimally conscious state, but showed multiple disabilities including profound motor and communication impairments. For each participant, the study involved an ABAB design, in which the A represented baseline phases and…

Our study integrates automated natural language-oriented assessment and analysis methodologies into feasible reading comprehension tasks. With the newly developed T-MITOCAR toolset, prose text can be automatically converted into an association net which has similarities to a concept map. The "text to graph" feature of the software is based on…

The field of extrasolar planets is still, in comparison with other astrophysical topics, in its infancy. There have been about 300 or so extrasolar planets detected and their detection has been accomplished by various different techniques. Here we present a simple laboratory experiment to show how planets are detected using the transit technique.…

The convergence of 3D simulation and social networking into current multi-user virtual environments has opened the door to new forms of interaction for learning in order to complement the face-to-face and Web 2.0-based systems. Yet, despite a growing user community, design knowledge for virtual worlds remains patchy, particularly when it comes to…

Even though Material Bookings modules have existed in some form for over 20 years, studies remain curiously absent from the literature. In an effort to begin this dialogue, a case study of implementing Innovative's Material Bookings module at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Criss Library is presented. A survey assessing user satisfaction and…

This study evaluated whether two people with multiple disabilities would be able to improve their pointing performance through an Automatic Target Acquisition Program (ATAP) and a newly developed mouse driver (i.e. a new mouse driver replaces standard mouse driver, and is able to monitor mouse movement and intercept click action). Initially, both…

The term "video podcasting" can be both intimidating and exciting. It might sound like something only the technologically savvy know how to do, and it is evident that "digital native" students love it. This "how to" article bridges the gap between intimidating and exciting in order to bring video podcasting into the realm of possibility for those…

The importance of distillation in the separation field prompts the inclusion of distillation experiments in the chemical engineering curricula. This work describes the performance of an Oldershaw column in the rectification of a cyclohexane/n-heptane mixture. Total reflux distillation, continuous rectification under partial reflux, and batch…

While the study of geometry in some shape or form has existed for many millennia, it is within the past twenty years that a shift has occurred in how geometry may be learned through computer-based interactive geometric software. Software programs like The Geometer's Sketchpad[TM], Cabri[TM], and GeoGebra[TM] allow users to construct interactive…

As an observer of the gaming situation, the author watched intently to understand how two boys' actions helped them succeed at "Band Hero," and she realized that their movements were both ways of being and ways of learning. These eighth-grade boys went beyond the scope and requirements of standard game play and appeared to employ specific…

It's a perfect storm out there, with powerful forces remaking the IT landscape in higher education. On one side, devastating budget cuts are pushing IT departments to identify ever-greater cost savings. On the other, the explosion in mobile devices is pressuring IT to provide anytime, anywhere computing with no downtime. And finally there's…

In two studies, students at California State University, Northridge wrote papers that were checked for plagiarism using plagiarism-detection software. In the first study, half of the students in two classes were randomly selected and told by the professor that their term papers would be scanned for plagiarism using the software. Students in the…

This paper describes a collaborative educational data mining tool based on association rule mining for the ongoing improvement of e-learning courses and allowing teachers with similar course profiles to share and score the discovered information. The mining tool is oriented to be used by non-expert instructors in data mining so its internal…

Problem Statement: With the increasing importance of information and research, the importance of education and training has also increased. Especially in higher education institutions, educators have started to instruct students in accordance with the requirements of the modern era, and universities have influenced the international and national…

Electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) have a positive impact on the learning process in a broad range of educational sectors and on learners of all ages. Yet because most e-portfolio-related studies are about their implementation in higher education, this type of research is less usual in the early childhood context, and there is no available…