Asynchronous Online Discussion (AOD) is useful for learning at university, but it loses effectiveness as student participation decreases. This study provides a method based on Social Network Analysis ...(SNA) that addresses this issue, by identifying students with a high potential for peer-to-peer inclusion during asynchronous debates. To test this method, we created discussion forums in Moodle and examined the interactions of 93 undergraduate students in the field of Educational Sciences. We analysed the social networks that emerged from the discussions, including 1818 connections. The results showed that some students had more closeness centrality and were more accessible than the others. Once this group was identified, the teacher was then able to encourage those students to include others with less active participation in the discussions. Peer-to-peer inclusion made sense when there were participants who engaged in the debate but did not easily get a response from their classmates. This study leads the way for more research on the effectiveness of teaching strategies based on SNA, specifically on removing barriers to learning and participation in AOD with university students.
This study aimed at verifying the association of message length and delay in university online discussions with academic achievement and students’ influence on their classmates. Forums in Moodle were ...designed, and asynchronous online discussions with first-year undergraduate students of Educational Sciences were conducted. We gained word count from the learning management system, the weekly delay in posting a message to the forum was regarded, and we assumed the students’ grades to know their academic success. To obtain an indicator of influence, we conducted a social network analysis from the interactions that emerged from the online discussions. Then, we calculated the eigenvector centrality of each student once the debate had been completed. Results showed a low monotonic association between grades and the message words or the delay in posting. There was a slight trend to achieve more eigenvector centrality since students took more time to send a message and when messages were more synthetic. However, we did not obtain values in the coefficients that would allow us to infer a relevant association. The level of correlation detected for the grades was significant and, above all, regarding eigenvector centrality. We discussed the limitations of this study, the need for more research, and the implications for educational practice.
Asynchronous Online Discussion (AOD) is useful for learning at university, but it loses effectiveness as student participation decreases. This study provides a method based on Social Network Analysis ...(SNA) that addresses this issue, by identifying students with a high potential for peer-to-peer inclusion during asynchronous debates. To test this method, we created discussion forums in Moodle and examined the interactions of 93 undergraduate students in the field of Educational Sciences. We analysed the social networks that emerged from the discussions, including 1818 connections. The results showed that some students had more closeness centrality and were more accessible than the others. Once this group was identified, the teacher was then able to encourage those students to include others with less active participation in the discussions. Peer-to-peer inclusion made sense when there were participants who engaged in the debate but did not easily get a response from their classmates. This study leads the way for more research on the effectiveness of teaching strategies based on SNA, specifically on removing barriers to learning and participation in AOD with university students.
En la actualidad, existe un interés pedagógico por transformar las tecnologías de la información y comunicación en tecnologías para el aprendizaje y el conocimiento. En este trabajo se presentan una ...serie de contribuciones didácticas asociadas al uso de blogs en la Educación Superior a partir de una experiencia de innovación educativa por proyectos llevada a cabo por un grupo de profesores universitarios entre los años 2009 y 2013. Tanto el profesorado como el alumnado participante en las asignaturas donde se ha puesto en práctica el edublog, lo verifican como un recurso útil para conformar entornos virtuales de enseñanza y aprendizaje gracias a las múltiples potencialidades que ofrece. Entre ellas se destacan: facilitar el acceso al conocimiento, promover una participación más activa y reflexiva en la construcción de los aprendizajes, amplificar la experiencia social del aprendizaje, proporcionar evidencias sobre el progreso de los estudiantes que ayuden a reorientar el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje y estimular el juicio crítico. No obstante, también se identifican problemas relacionados con la participación de los estudiantes y con la gestión de los edublogs por parte del profesorado.
This paper offers the results of a study on two English-taught first-year modules at a Spanish Faculty of Economics. Analysing 2010-2015 results allows measuring the impact of the methodological ...interventions performed on student grades, thus allowing comparisons between their effectiveness. Findings reveal the influence on grades of studentcentred, hands-on methodologies and language remedial interventions, which suggests studying Content-and-Language Integrated Learning and English-as-a-Medium-of-Instruction in terms of their pedagogical practice and not as separate approaches. Ultimately, the study stresses the need to promote language adaptation, student-centredness and independent-learning within bilingual contexts.
Este artículo ofrece los resultados de un estudio llevado a cabo en dos asignaturas bilingües de primer año en una Facultad de Economía española. Un análisis del rendimiento académico 2010-2015 permite medir el impacto de las intervenciones metodológicas
efectuadas y comparar su efectividad. Los resultados revelan la influencia en las notas de los
diseños prácticos y centrados en el alumno, y la resolución de problemas de lengua, que sugiere estudiar el Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lenguas Extranjeras e Inglés como Medio de Instrucción según sus prácticas pedagógicas y no como dos enfoques separados. Finalmente, el estudio subraya la necesidad de promover la adaptación lingüística, la centralidad del estudiante y el estudio independiente en entornos bilingües.
New technologies are called upon to play an important role as beneficial tools for meaningful learning in the classroom. In particular, smartphones can be regarded as pocket computers that, in ...addition to a remarkable memory and computing capacity, incorporate sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, light sensors, etc., which turn them into easily available measurement instruments for practical classes in an educational environment. In this study, the suitability of these devices for demonstrating Classical Mechanics, minimizing the use of resources and class time, has been assessed in two real classrooms (with 16 to 19 year-old students) by conducting experiments related to projectile motion (vertical free fall and parabolic motion). A simple methodology that only involves a mobile phone, a free burst camera application and open-source tools (GIMP and OpenOffice Calc) for data processing is presented. The results obtained in non-perfected conditions led to an estimate of the acceleration of gravity with an error lower than 2%. Further analyses and alternative procedures are also suggested in the discussion section. No major difficulties were encountered with the high school students or with the first year university ones, and a high degree of satisfaction was found. --- Las nuevas tecnologías están llamadas a jugar un papel importante como herramientas beneficiosas para el aprendizaje significativo en el aula. En particular, los teléfonos inteligentes son verdaderos ordenadores de bolsillo que, además de una notable capacidad de memoria y de cómputo, incorporan sensores como acelerómetros, giroscopios, magnetómetros, sensores de luz, etc. que los convierten en instrumentos de medida fácilmente disponibles para prácticas en un entorno educativo. En el presente estudio, la idoneidad de estos dispositivos para explicar conceptos de Mecánica Clásica, minimizando el uso de recursos y tiempo de clase, ha sido evaluada en dos clases reales (con estudiantes de edades comprendidas entre los 16 y los 19 años) mediante la ejecución de experimentos relacionados con el movimiento de proyectiles (caída libre y trayectoria parabólica). Se presenta una metodología sencilla, que únicamente hace uso de un teléfono móvil, una aplicación fotográfica gratuita para captura de imágenes en ráfaga y herramientas de código abierto (GIMP y OpenOffice Calc) para el procesado de los datos. Los resultados obtenidos en condiciones no optimizadas han conducido a una estimación de la aceleración de la gravedad con un error inferior al 2%. En la discusión de resultados se sugieren análisis más avanzados y otros procedimientos alternativos. No se encontraron problemas significativos en la ejecución de los experimentos ni con los alumnos de enseñanza secundaria ni con los de primer año de carrera, y el grado de satisfacción entre el alumnado fue alto.
Se presenta en este artículo una investigación subvencionada por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España (AP2007–00294), y realizada con 59 docentes de los colegios públicos rurales de la ...provincia de Granada, en donde se analiza, mediante el empleo del método de encuesta estandarizada, y desde la perspectiva principal de la formación docente, el tipo de uso que hacen de las TIC los profesores de este entorno, tanto dentro como fuera del aula de clase, comprobando que, en conclusión, estas tecnologías han desbancado a la radio y a la televisión como principal recurso didáctico en estos centros educativos en particular, si bien, su principal utilización se restringe todavía a la elaboración de apuntes, materiales de clase, presentaciones visuales de PowerPoint, etc.
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