Library Web sites must compete against easy-to-use sites, such as Google Scholar, Google Books, and Wikipedia, for students' time and attention. Library Web sites must therefore be designed with aesthetics and user perceptions at the forefront. The Music and Performing Arts Library at Urbana-Champaign's Web site was overcrowded and in much need of…

Active engagement is critical to promote learning for students with autism. Although evidence-based strategies exist for promoting engagement for individual students with autism, there are few strategies designed for use with small groups. This study used an ABCAC design to assess the effects of a low-technology use strategy, namely interactive…

"School for Surgeons" is a web-based distance learning program which provides online clinical-based tutorials to surgical trainees. Our aim was to determine surrogates of active participation and to assess the efficacy of methods to improve usage. Server logs of the 82 participants in the "School for Surgeons" were assessed for…

This paper describes some outcomes of a nine-month design-based research study into the professional development of 24 numeracy teachers with post-16 learners. The teachers were encouraged to integrate eight research-based teaching principles into their classroom practices as they implemented a set of discussion-based mathematics learning…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of three different interface types on Web-based instruction: a text-based interface, a graphical interface and a metaphorical interface. In order to determine differences among three interface groups, we compared learning performance, cognitive load, usability, and appeal with various data…

Since 2006, blogging has dropped among teens and young adults while simultaneously rising among older adults. As the tools and technology embedded in social networking sites change, and use of the sites continues to grow, youth may be exchanging "macro blogging" for microblogging with status updates. Blogging has declined in popularity among both…

One of the main goals of Environmental Education (EE) is to develop people's environmental stewardship, which includes people's capacity to take environmental action--their action competence (AC). The purposes of my study were to characterize the interactions found in an EE curriculum, science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), and…

Until recently, few K-12 teachers outside of social studies have integrated primary sources in classroom instruction. Integrating primary sources in educational practice does require an uncommon pedagogical understanding. Addressing this K-12 educator need is the Library of Congress. Recently, the Library implemented a national educator…

Little is known about how Deaf people perceive, access, and utilize interpersonal and media sources for health information. In light of the scarcity of research on health information management among this group, a two-phase study was conducted that included eight focus groups (N=39) and survey data (N=366) with Deaf participants to determine the…

Contractor performance evaluation enables agents to make informed purchasing decisions, provide feedback to contractors/vendors, and help improve service quality and customer satisfaction. However, both public and private organizations sometimes fail to do so, as is the case at a division of a government organization located in a northeastern U.S.…

This paper presents both the design and the pilot formative evaluation study of a computer-based problem-solving environment (named LECGO: Learning Environment for programming using C using Geometrical Objects) for the learning of computer programming using C by beginners. In its design, constructivist and social learning theories were taken into…

Podcasting is used commonly recreationally and is now increasingly used in education. The technology for podcasting is readily available, easy to use and inexpensive, making it an attractive option for providing additional flexible learning resources for students. However, little is known about how podcasts are used by students and the…

We report the results of a diary study to determine whether a diary approach could be used as a successful way of retrieving a) the user's learning contexts, b) which learning contexts are significant for consideration within an m-learning application, and c) which learning materials are appropriate for which learning situation. Analyses of data…

Web site usage statistics are a widely used tool for Web site development, but libraries are still learning how to use them successfully. This case study summarizes how Morris Library at Southern Illinois University Carbondale implemented Google Analytics on its Web site and used the reports to inform a site redesign. As the main campus library at…

Developers of museum service systems want to know what users think about their systems and they often design questionnaires to capture users' opinions. However, there are usually serious gaps between what developers want to know and what the users really think about the system. The present research aims to develop a questionnaire that takes into…