This article reports on a case study, using a think-aloud approach (Boren & Ramey, 2000; Jaspers, Steen, van den Bos & Geenen, 2004; Kilsdonk et al., 2016), to investigate how different types of audiences interpret ePortfolios. During recorded viewing, students, instructors, and business professionals narrated their experience of reading…

This paper focuses on the outcomes of a project funded by the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Office at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). Students were recruited to design a new navigational architecture for the Moodle pages of the Language Centre. They received some training on the key principles of distributive learning and…

Barber, Donnelly & Rizvi (2013): "An avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead" addresses some significant issues in higher education and poses some challenging questions to open and distance learning (ODL) administrators, policy makers, and of course to ODL faculty in general. Barber et al.'s paper does not…

The occurrence of spontaneous recovery in human spatial memory was assessed using a virtual environment. In Experiment 1, spatial memory was established by training participants to locate a hidden platform in a virtual water maze using a set of four distal landmarks. In Experiment 2, after learning about the location of a hidden platform, the…

The ability to navigate new environments has a significant impact on the daily life and independence of people with learning difficulties. The aims of this study were to investigate the development of route learning in Down syndrome (N = 50), Williams syndrome (N = 19), and typically developing children between 5 and 11 years old (N = 108); to…

In this paper, we propose a visual saliency algorithm for automatically finding the topic transition points in an educational video. First, we propose a method for assigning a saliency score to each word extracted from an educational video. We design several mid-level features that are indicative of visual saliency. The optimal feature combination…

IT's tough being a digital sign these days. Everyone wants a piece of action. From announcements to advertisements, menus to broadcasts, digital signs provide dynamic messaging tailored to locations and circumstances. With the advent of wayfinding technology, today's digital signs can serve up customized directions around campuses and all of…

The current study examined phonetic convergence when talkers alternated roles during conversational interaction. The talkers completed a map navigation task in which they alternated instruction Giver and Receiver roles across multiple map pairs. Previous studies found robust effects of the role of a talker on phonetic convergence, and it was…

Because many different sensory modalities contribute to spatial learning in rodents, it has been difficult to determine whether spatial navigation can be guided solely by visual cues. Rodents moving within physical environments with visual cues engage a variety of nonvisual sensory systems that cannot be easily inhibited without lesioning brain…

Despite the increasing importance of robotics, there is a significant challenge involved in teaching this to undergraduate students in biomedical engineering (BME) and other related disciplines in which robotics techniques could be readily applied. This paper addresses this challenge through the development and pilot testing of a bio-microrobotics…

Introduction: In contemporary information societies, reading digital text has become pervasive. One of the most distinctive features of digital texts is their internal connections via hyperlinks, resulting in non-linear hypertexts. Hypertext structure and previous knowledge affect navigation and comprehension of digital expository texts. From the…

In the current educational climate, where clearly articulated learning objectives are required, it is clear that the spontaneous teachable moment still has its place. Authors Ann Williams and Thomas Davinroy think that instructors from almost any discipline can employ Google Earth as a tool to take advantage of teachable moments through the…

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), such as autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome, have more opportunities to go to college than ever before (Hart, Grigal, & Weir, 2010). Over the last decade, the issue of increasing access to college for students with IDD has gained much national attention, in part due to…

Produced by cartographers of many nations over the course of six centuries, maps detailing Florida and the North American continent tell tales of exploration, conflict, and change. Before 1492, Europeans were unaware of what existed on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. That reality is illustrated quite well on two maps that show the…

An Ambient Intelligence Environment is meant to sense and respond to the presence of people, using its embedded technology. In order to effectively sense the activities and intentions of its inhabitants, such an environment needs to utilize information captured from multiple sensors and modalities. By doing so, the interaction becomes more natural…