With varying classroom contexts, the need to cater the demands of evolving education landscape have put teachers in challenged positions, even with existing support systems specifically for creating context-specific learning designs. Building on the previous work that identified a lack of easily usable frameworks for teachers, this paper introduces the ChatCLD framework designed to evaluate and support the creation of learning designs in alignment with classroom context and technology availability. We present details of training sessions for teachers to utilize this framework along with the use of ChatGPT. The research investigates how the ChatCLD framework contributes to the contextualization of learning design and provides insights into the learning design process of school teachers. Through a study analyzing teachers' pre- and post-learning designs and their perceptions, our findings indicate that the framework serves as a practical and user-friendly tool, effectively addressing teachers' goals of creating learning designs tailored to their technology availability and classroom context.

The PTSOT instrument measures the spatial perspective-taking (SPT) ability by recording the angular errors as one calculates the distance between an object’s actual and expected spatial position. We use an Augmented Reality Enhanced Learning Environment (ARELE), GeoSolvAR, which has been shown to improve middle grader’s SPT ability. Here, we report the problem-solving process of students who had worked with both the inquiry and AR components of GeoSolvAR (experimental group, n=25) and showed significant improvement in their SPT, and students who worked only with the AR component of the ARELE (control group) and did not show improvement in their SPT (n=22). We conduct an item-wise analysis of students’ performance with the PTSOT instrument in both these groups. We find a slight negative, insignificant correlation between the reduction in average angular errors and the angular distance of target objects for the control group r (10) = -.36, p =.254, but a significant positive correlation between the reduction of angular errors and the angular distance for the experimental group, r (10) =.67, p =.017, suggesting that GeoSolvAR is effective for complex SPT questions based on larger angular-distances.

In the educational technology (EdTech) ecosystem, stakeholders such as government decision-makers, entrepreneurs, parents and teachers face challenges in making informed decisions about the quality of EdTech products that meet their varied needs. While numerous frameworks exist that address diverse stakeholders, there is a lack of customizable frameworks that cater to each of the stakeholders' requirements, especially in lower-middle-income countries. This paper presents the EdTech Tulna initiative, a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) aimed at building a shared understanding of what constitutes 'good' quality EdTech. This partnership between the research group, non-profit organization and diverse stakeholders presents a unique solution for varied needs and purposes. An analysis of the EdTech Tulna initiative's key offering is provided, which is the robust Tulna framework that supports stakeholders in making informed decisions about the quality of EdTech. The paper examines the design of the Tulna framework and presents case studies on how the framework has been customized to support diverse stakeholders' EdTech quality decision-making. This paper contributes to understanding an RPP's dynamics. It also promotes the discourse on the usefulness of research-based frameworks to drive EdTech Quality decision-making for diverse stakeholders' needs.

This paper provides an experience report of middle school science teachers' pedagogy for activity-based learning in Indian classrooms. For the study, four science teachers were interviewed having varied teaching experience in CBSE board schools. The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using Thematic Analysis method, and the resulting themes were used to answer the research questions. Novel challenges related to culture and diversity were found, along with the findings reported in literature.

Understanding complex systems is crucial, making it vital to strengthen high school students' grasp of complex biological processes. This study explores the design, development, and implementation of BioAnalogica, a Technology Enhanced Learning Environment comprising animated stories based on the Structure-Behaviour-Function (SBF) framework that use real-life analogies, like roof repair, to illustrate the human immune system's wound healing process. BioAnalogica was implemented with high school students as participants. Their understanding of wound healing was assessed through pre- and post-tests, interviews, and surveys. Findings show that students made improvements in understanding the mechanisms of wound healing, though their grasp of structures and functions did not change significantly. They responded positively to BioAnalogica, praising its clarity, connection to concepts, and engaging approach.

Habits are formed when people perform repeated actions in a certain context while pursuing a goal. In the context of a semester-long Instructional System Design course, we show how the goal of designing a real-life website for the sensitization of teachers and peers toward disabled students led to the construction of certain desirable learning habits. The participants in the course were the default IS designers and the Persons with Disability (PwD) cell of the institute was the client. Anchored in the Interest-driven creator (IDC) theory, this study provides evidence for the three conceptual components of the habit loop- cuing environment, routine, and harmony. We argue that the real-life goal provided a fertile ground for routinizing the behavioral and conceptual activities of the participants. We use a combination of deductive and inductive coding to analyze the data sources of interviews, class interaction observations, shared documents for class reflection, and class interaction records in a virtual space. Our findings suggest that the physical and virtual spaces for regular class interaction, learners' routine interaction with the group members, and the constant sharing-cum-discussion of ideas scaffolded desirable learning habits as they pursued the common goal of website design. This study has implications for fostering desirable learning habits in regular classroom interactions.

Under the societal and cultural structure where education systems are heavily driven by examinations (especially in Asia) and the pursuit of excellence reigns supreme, competing for limited educational, environmental/natural, and capital resources is prevalent and appears unavoidable. Although great socioeconomic development and scientific advances have been achieved, it inevitably comes with adverse consequences (e.g., alarmingly increasing rates of anxiety and depression, diminishing learning interest and confidence, social inequity, conflicts, divisiveness, and lack of inclusiveness). The focus of this panel is if and how 'Global Harwell' (a term combining 'harmony' and 'wellbeing') can direct all stakeholders involved in education to a universally shared educational goal. This panel invites a group of international scholars to share their practices and research findings on how the values, principles, concepts, and elements of 'Global Harwell' (e.g., positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning, accomplishment, compassion, gratitude, empathy) can be or are being actualized in educational systems, with technologies playing a supporting or an essential role at the global, societal, family, and/or individual levels, for ultimate student wellbeing and a harmonious world.

Clinical diagnosis of genetic disorders requires sensemaking to connect patients' symptoms at the macroscopic level with the abnormalities at the microscopic level. This involves making relevant observations regarding the patients and their symptoms, analyzing different data sources to find connections across the data points, and, representing the information in a meaningful and coherent manner to justify the rationale behind the diagnostic decisions. Undergraduate students lack these skills pertaining to sensemaking due to fewer practice opportunities, no exposure to authentic real-life problems, and more focus on grade-oriented rote learning. Students, when encountered with such complex tasks, try to gain the competence required to accomplish the task, which leads to an increase in their self-efficacy. Karyotype, a technology-enhanced learning environment designed for sensemaking poses the complex task of clinical diagnosis of genetic disorders caused due to chromosomal abnormalities. We conducted an exploratory study with 67 bioscience majors students. We analyzed students' perceived self-efficacy through a questionnaire administered pre and post their interaction with Karyotype. The results suggest that working on Karyotype learning activities enhances students' self-efficacy related to sensemaking tasks.

In semester-long courses, the trajectory of students' interest hits multiple highs and lows as the course progresses. In general, sustaining students' interest is a challenge, which becomes even more important when there is a real-world project with an expected deliverable. This study emphasizes investigating how instructors’ strategies help in sustaining students’ interest in instructional system design (ISD) course. The course participants developed a real-world project involving training resources for sensitization about the needs and challenges of persons with disabilities (PwD) in an educational institute. We have analyzed interview data of fifteen students and one instructor, survey data of the same students, and In-class observations by researchers. We have identified instructors’ strategies which were implemented thoughtfully and supported by interest-driven creator (IDC) theory. We have mapped indicators from student responses to the components of the interest cycle i.e. triggering, immersing, and extending. The findings of the study show that course strategies supported by IDC theory played an important role in sustaining the students’ interest throughout the ISD course while ensuring both conceptual learning and project execution.

There has been a surge in the development and use of education technology (edtech) learning solutions in the past decade. Amidst the pandemic, teachers were compelled to incorporate edtech into their instructional approaches. While there are several frameworks, standards, or guidelines available for implementing these edtech solutions, few address the problem of selecting good quality edtech solutions. The ones that address the problem of quality edtech solutions fail to cover all criteria that are needed for effective edtech solutions. In addition, they are not easily usable by the teachers for the selection of an edtech solution. For an edtech solution to be effective it is crucial that it aligns with the context of the learner such as their grade range, their subject of interest, language comprehensibility, etc. Also we found that there are no standards that are available specifically for science teachers in the Indian context. In this paper, we present a validated, reliable, and research-based, Edtech Tulna Index designed to support science teachers in India to select quality edtech learning solutions for their classrooms. We conducted a study to understand the challenges that teachers face and to test the usability of the tulna index and its usefulness to mitigate teachers’ challenges pertaining to the selection of edtech. We found that teachers found the tulna index easy to use. This paper contributes to the research of evaluation of edtech solutions by listing the criteria required for science teachers to select the edtech product, while it also provides the practice community with a usable tool that can be used to select effective learning solutions and potentially enhance their teaching- learning.

Biological education grapples with the challenge of teaching intricate systems, particularly the complex human immune system. Existing teaching methods often fall short of conveying these complexities effectively. Analogies and metaphors have proven successful in teaching complex biological systems across educational levels. We developed video scenarios connecting a wound-healing phenomenon with a real-life analogy, incorporating reflection spot activities for students to map elements based on structure, function, and behavior. Our study with high school students revealed significant improvements in their understanding of the wound-healing phenomenon through analogy mapping and reasoning. The study's contribution lies in an effective pedagogical and technological design for complex biological phenomena using analogies to enhance students' understanding of complex biological systems.

Students' preconceptions significantly influence learning as they bring prior experiences and ideas alongside formal knowledge. Considering only explicit or conscious conceptual models can misinform teachers' efforts. Framing the problem using both conscious (verbal-symbolic knowledge, conscious models) and unconscious (implicit models, core-intuitions) conceptual resources offer a powerful framework. This study interprets the ideas of heat transfer of two grade 11 students in depth (from a total N=9), through this framework. We look at how Nash and Payal use different conceptual resources to build an explanatory model of heat transfer in a cup through the model revision activities. We found different ideas of heat (heat as a substance, steam as unique property of heat) to be unconsciously influencing how students understand the concept. Harnessing core-intuitions into conscious models enabled Nash to build better explanatory models, whereas Payal extensively relied on her verbal-symbolic knowledge. In the macroscopic activities, both students tended to use their judgments from their sensory perceptions, going against their verbal-symbolic knowledge. Using the metacognitive prompts on Knowledge Forum also supported student’s critical analysis about their ideas before uploading them on the forum.

Practical labs in science are expected to foster disciplinary practices of “doing science” in learners. Simulation-based labs which provide the convenience of conducting practical lab experiments online however, come with their own set of challenges such as steep learning curves, learner working in isolation, lack of personalization which may adversely affect learner engagement and motivation. OLabs is a set of simulation-based labs for schools widely used in India. The main goal of this work is to redesign simulation-based labs like OLabs to engage learners in science practices and to motivate learners to engage in science practices. Meaningful gamification is one of approaches that focuses on intrinsically motivating learners to find meaning in the given learning context. GaMINLab, which is this proposed redesign of simulation-based labs like OLabs, was informed by literature recommendations for fostering disciplinary practices, addressing challenges in simulation-based labs, and meaningful gamification. We discuss the design features of GaMINLab.

The integration of ubiquitous technologies with classroom interactions has the potential to foster positive learning habits in students. The instructors at Educational Technology Program in IIT Bombay tackled the challenge of remote learning during the COVID-19 lockdown by conceptualizing the use of the Slack platform to promote learning habits among their graduate students. Grounded in the IDC theory specifically developed for the Asian population, the design of this pedagogical intervention aimed to promote students’ habit of conveying complex ideas in an accessible manner through two learning activities aligned with their interests. Conversation analysis was used to examine instructors' actions to develop learning habits in students, and member check interviews were conducted with instructors to verify the pedagogical approach and findings. The study demonstrated how the instructors' pedagogical intervention on the Slack platform supported the development of learning habits among graduate students. The results exhibited the mapping of individual components of the habit loop, i.e., cuing, routine and harmony with the design and outcome of the approach. Students’ satisfaction with routine activities and impatience for creations from the learning activities indicated harmony which eventually leads to habit formation. The continual pursuit of learning activities without instructor involvement also suggested habit activation. The present study contributes to the current understanding of effective pedagogical practices to foster good learning habits by leveraging ubiquitous learning tools.

When learners collaborate on complex problems and open-ended tasks, the mechanism of negotiation plays a crucial role in establishing a common understanding and achieving a shared goal among them. Research has shown that negotiation improves problem-solving processes, making it an essential skill to be developed among learners. In this study, we propose a method for automating the identification of negotiation in learners' discourse during collaboration. We leverage language models like BERT, RoBERTa, and GPT2 along with traditional machine learning models like logistic regression to detect utterances of negotiation in learners' discourse while they collaboratively solve engineering estimation problem in an Open-Ended Learning Environment (OELE) called Modeling Based Estimation Learning Environment (MEttLE). Our findings suggest that our approach can accurately identify negotiation utterances with a high accuracy of 0.924 and 0.781 kappa value with a relatively smaller training set. Our method is the first step in real-time detection of negotiation, thereby enabling educators to design scaffolds and environments to help learners engage in effective negotiations.

Geography education requires the use of spatial thinking and reasoning to understand and interpret maps. Effective usage of geographical maps is a crucial skill to be developed for students. However, it has been found that students' ability to use maps to describe and analyze natural phenomena to find solutions to geographical problems is inadequate. One reason for this shortcoming is difficulty in comprehension of maps given in textbooks or reference books, which is preliminarily due to inherent limitations with paper-based maps. Sophisticated technology-based map applications are available like interactive maps, Augmented reality-based maps, 3D view maps, etc. But there are few learning activities around these, leaving the students confused as to how these can be used in different contexts to solve problems. GeoMaps is an interactive application to improve map comprehension skills of students, which includes ability to identify, correlate and synthesize information from multiple perspectives in a map. The activities in GeoMaps are based on authentic geography problems. To solve these problems, students can overlay multiple maps to correlate various features, and choose corresponding filters to focus on particular information. The preliminary feedback from potential users is promising, encouraging us to explore this idea at a broader context.

Mathematics is a challenging subject for middle school students due to the introduction of concepts that are abstract and unrelatable in a real-world context. Emerging Augmented Reality (AR) technologies afford to visualize those abstract concepts integrated with the physical environment. Hence, we developed an AR app, MathReality, to teach the mathematics concept of exponents in more concrete ways and help them move from concrete to more abstract understanding of the concept. Preliminary results suggest the app was useful to the users and helped them learn the concept easily. The paper concludes with the next steps for the project, in terms of its design, implementation, and evaluation.

Solving problems in science domains requires learners to integrate concepts across topics, along with problem-solving and inquiry process skills. The complexity of these concepts and skills becomes manifold at the tertiary undergraduate level, and are known to be challenging for learners. To support learners in this process, we have designed and developed Geneticus Investigatio (GI), a technology-enhanced learning environment for semi-structured problems in the context of Mendelian genetics. GI facilitates the integration of concepts and problem-solving process skills, through inquiry-based learning activities interspersed with evaluative question prompts and reflective activities. GI is developed using Google site s and H5P as a web-based learning environment to provide easy access to learners and to enable teachers to adapt the learning activities to different topics. In this paper, we present the theoretical basis and design of GI. We report a quasi-experimental classroom study (N=63) in which we investigated learning of problem-solving skills and perceptions of usability and usefulness of GI. The results indicate higher learning gains of problem-solving process skills with GI, and learner perceptions that certain activities in GI are helpful for learning concepts and process skills.

In design, fixation is a recurring problem with novices where they choose the first solution that they think of for a given problem rather than explore a range of possible solutions. Fixation can result in barriers in design process, restricted search and premature commitment to solutions that may be sub-optimal. Among undergraduate engineering students, design fixation is due to limited prior conceptual knowledge, insufficient knowledge of design heuristics, and disconnected and evolving knowledge base, skills and strategies. One mechanism to overcome design fixation is expansion of problem and solution space where learners explore a variety of aspects related to the design problem such as constraints, assumptions, concepts and principles, before deciding on the solution to be followed. To be able to expand problem and solution space, novice designers require support. We have devised a pedagogical strategy flare-fork which scaffolds students’ problem space and solution space expansion in the flare phase and generation of multiple constraint optimized designs in the fork phase. Flare-fork is a systematic process that supports students to build on their opportunistic ideas to expand design boundaries and subsequently identify trade-offs to generate a variety of solutions tailored to fulfill a combination of constraints and assumptions. The pedagogy brings together design strategies, tools and practices such as rapid ideation, shared visual representation, categorization and techniques to restructure thinking patterns in a collaborative environment. In this paper, we first describe the conceptual design of our proposed pedagogy. We then describe a study to examine how the intervention operationalizing the flare phase of the pedagogy supports students in expanding their problem and solution space.

As MOOCs are expanding in popularity and scope, problems such as lack of learner engagement and low participation in discussion forums have been reported. Challenges in MOOCs not only include large numbers of learners but great diversity in learners' background, ages, experiences, and motivation for participating. While issues such as certification, equitable access, and sustainability are being discussed, without advances in the pedagogical format, MOOCs may end up being an online version of a traditional lecture format. Instructors, especially those who are new to the online learning format need support in designing MOOCs to promote learner engagement, address learner diversity and cultivate peer learning. The Learner-centric MOOC (LCM) model guides instructors in maintaining a learner-centric pedagogical approach while planning, designing and orchestrating a MOOC. The model provides a set of guidelines, activity formats and actions that instructors can apply during various stages of the MOOC instructional design process. In this tutorial, we describe the structural and dynamic aspects of the LCM model, demonstrate the application of the model in various MOOCs and illustrate research results from MOOCs based on the LCM model. We will share activity constructors and templates that have been developed to scaffold instructors in applying the LCM model to design their MOOC.

Visualization is an important skill required to understand 3-Dimensional (3D) geometry concepts involving solids. However, 3D visualization is fairly difficult as it involves complex tasks like mental rotation and spatial transformations. Traditional methods of teaching 3D solids concepts such as static 2D images and physical models are not adequate to build these abilities in students. Also, existing geometry software packages restricts the user to interact and manipulate objects on the computer screens and not in real 3D space. In this paper, we have designed and developed an Augmented Reality (AR) based application-GeoSolvAR, that targets middle school students for improving their visualization skills. Learning activities in GeoSolvAR build on theoretical foundations of Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) strategy to teach the concepts of 3D views like the top, the side and the front view. This paper also reports results and observations obtained from a qualitative pilot study conducted on four 7th grade students. Purpose of the study was to know students' perception of GeoSolvAR's role in helping them visualize 3D solids and to encounter challenges faced by them while interacting with GeoSolvAR.

Understanding stereochemistry is of critical importance for students aiming to be future chemists, molecular biologists, pharmacists, pharmacologists or physicians. Stereochemistry focuses on the study of the stereoisomers which have the same molecular formula but differ only in the spatial orientation of their atoms resulting in different physical, chemical or biological properties. Hence spatial thinking skill is essential for students to interpret stereoisomers. Augmented reality helps enhance the spatial perception of 3D molecules. StereoChem, our mobile app for visualizing augmented 3D molecular models harnesses this advantage of augmented reality to aid teaching and learning of stereochemistry. This paper gives a brief introduction to the significance and challenges of learning stereochemistry. It describes the design inputs that were considered for encouraging the ubiquitous use of our app by chemistry teachers and students, then discusses the development of the StereoChem app and the teaching-learning contexts in which it can be used. Finally, it gives an account of the user experience study done with 50 chemistry teachers.

Solving engineering design problems requires the students to explore and understand the solution space to think creatively. Most of the current teaching practices of problem-solving in the context of engineering design are very structured not allowing much room for exploration. "Making" is the act of building or adaptation of objects to understand the functions of our environment. It involves opportunities to order the immediate environment around oneself which can serve as a cognitive function to provide insight into multiple solution strategies. In this doctoral research, we propose to build a learning environment (LE) to support the learners in learning the key skills and processes essential for making. With the help of some maker-studies, we will try to identify the key skills and strategies that they apply while making. In studies with novice makers, we will try to determine the challenges faced in learning and application of such skills. The findings from these studies will guide the design of our LE to support the learning of making.

Micro-Macro thinking is students' ability to understand concepts and models at the microscopic (typically unseen) level, and link them to their corresponding manipulable variables at the 'macroscopic' (mostly tangible and measurable) level. For example, in the domain of basic analog electronics, learners are expected to relate the microscopic structure of atoms and scientific models of electron motion to describe and predict the outcomes of current and voltage in a macroscopic circuit in the lab. Development of this skill is crucial as it helps students apply their theoretical knowledge to solve real world problems as well as do design and troubleshooting. Existing solutions have attempted developing micro-macro thinking skill in the context of inquiry learning and system thinking, however, these have primarily addressed school level topics and have been implemented in the presence of a facilitator and other elements such as peer learning and doubt-solving sessions. We have designed, developed and evaluated MIC-O-MAP (MICroscopic Observations MAcroscopic Predictions), a TEL environment to develop students' micro-macro thinking in the domain of basic analog electronics at the undergraduate level, in the context of self-regulated learning. Key features of MIC-O-MAP include dynamically linked multiple representations, conceptual scaffolding questions and customized feedback by a pedagogical agent, which help establish the micro-macro link. In this paper, we describe the development of MIC-O-MAP, the design of learning modules for various topics in basic analog electronics, and present the findings from studies to evaluate student learning of micro-macro thinking in the chosen topics.

Mastery of a shot technique is one of the important skills to be developed by novice badminton players. A shot technique includes the application of effort and swing of the arm. It is desirable for a novice badminton trainee to visualize the above parameters immediately after playing a shot. There has been an inadequate utilization of wearable technology for visualizing of these aspects. Myo armband, a wireless wearable device has the ability to sense the physical characteristics of effort and swing. CoMBaT, our Myo band based training system processes, and plots the sensor data patterns of a badminton shot for reviewing the effort and swing. Additionally, in our system, we have used the Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm to compare the trainee data with a reference data to provide corrective real-time visual and haptic feedback. This paper describes the design and development of CoMBaT along with a study plan to evaluate its usability and effectiveness.

In this paper we describe the architecture of virtual clot (vCLOT), a virtual world system designed to teach procedural knowledge of blood clotting process, in a game based learning environment. vCLOT utilizes virtual world to give learners an immersive learning experience while actively participating in tasks that require them to apply the procedural knowledge they have learned. Design of vCLOT combines the immersivity of virtual worlds with the power of knowledge structures. Immersivity provides learners with the opportunity to make decisions at every level of the game. This transfers control of interaction to the learner, enabling the learner to be actively engaged in knowledge construction process. Knowledge structures are a neat way to represent domain and learner data. The user interface of vCLOT is designed and implemented with Open Wonderland which is an open-source 3D toolkit. The learning goal which is to learn about blood clotting process, is aligned with the game goal, which is application of blood clot process steps to heal an injury. The game goal is presented as a quest in which the learner interacts with concepts by either dragging them or synthesizing them from other concepts. Learners complete the quest on successful formation of blood clot which in turn implies that they have learnt the blood clot process. We plan to do a usability study to improve the system before starting actual intervention.

MIC-O-MAP is a technology enhanced learning environment designed for developing micro-macro thinking skills in science and engineering topics at the tertiary level. Micro-macro thinking involves the analysis of dynamic microscopic and establishing corelations to the outcomes that are measurable in the real or macroscopic world. Different students undertake multiple paths while interacting with MIC-O-MAP learning environment in an attempt to undertake the tasks of making predictions in the macro world, justifying them by establishing a micro to macro link. The focus of this study is to investigate how different students’ interactions in MIC-O-MAP leads to productive actions, i.e actions that are effective in their learning of micro-macro thinking. A grounded theory approach has been adopted for analyzing the screen capture recordings of students as they explore MIC-O-MAP, along with semi structured interviews in order to infer these actions.

Most major Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) providers are focusing on design of xMOOCs. In these courses, a central course design team develops necessary learning content (in form of videos and/or documents), automated assessments and manages discussion forums to engage the participants in a structured manner. However the xMOOCs have been criticized for their cognitive-behaviourist pedagogic design, lower student engagement with discussion forums and lower completion rates that make it unsuitable for direct use in Teacher Professional Development (TPD). In this paper we introduce the idea of ‘Learner Perseverance’ that can be used as a better design goal for an xMOOC developed for TPD. The design principles of Immersivity and Pertinency were utilized in adapting the xMOOC components of videos, auto-graded assessment problems and discussion forums for a TPD MOOC (ET601Tx) to achieve learner perseverance. It was seen that there were 3447 active participants (67.5% of enrolled) in the course, i.e. people who have accessed courseware at least once. The data from the course logs show that 1201 (47.1%) active learners had participated in the discussion forum generating 5023 discussion threads generating 9861 comments (i.e. 4 threads and 8 comments per active learner who participated in the discussion forum). It was also seen that there is a completion rate of 36.58% (1261 learners) for ET601Tx, which is quite high compared to the average completion rates reported in xMOOCs (6-7%). The course completion survey indicated that these pedagogical designs were useful and relevant for the teachers in their own practice. Based on these findings we recommend use of a ‘Learner Perseverance’ based design for improving learner participation in xMOOCs that are used for TPD.

In this paper we investigate if a technology enhanced learning environment for engineering design competencies can promote transfer of these competencies. We developed TELE-EDesC, a self-learning technology enhanced learning environment to teach Structure Open Problem competency, one of the first competencies used in the engineering design thinking process. TELE-EDesC contains learning activities and instructional scaffolds that have been known to promote transfer. In this study, students worked with TELE-EDesC learning activities in the topic of analog electronics. The two-part study investigated if: i) students can acquire Structure Open Problem competencies by learning with TELE-EDesC, and ii) the TELE-EDesC (experimental group) students can transfer these competencies by structuring a new open design problem in a new topic in analog electronics. Analysis of students' solutions demonstrated that students who learnt with TELE-EDesC scored higher on a posttest that measured Structure Open Problem competencies than students in a control group. Further, TELE-EDesC helped students transfer some competencies to the new topic, but they struggled to transfer competencies involving higher order cognitive skills.

Instructors are not using well-designed computer-based visualization as widely as expected. Even among instructors using visualizations in teaching, their integration strategy is not aligned to their objectives with the visualization to bring about effective learning. As a result, the higher level learning outcomes possible with visualizations is often missed. In such context, we present a web-based tool, Customized Visualization Selection and Integration (CVIS) tool that selects visualizations customized to the specified instructional setting. It also guides instructors to implement the appropriate instructional strategy with visualization that is aligned to their instructional objective. The tool has been pilot tested for usefulness and effectiveness with engineering instructors with instructors accepting it as a practical solution towards effective teaching with visualizations.

Prior research on integrating computer-based visualization tool in teaching has shown that the use of constructivist strategies has led to positive learning outcome. Yet multiple surveys report that instructors face difficulty in integrating visualizations in their teaching. A probable cause is that instructors, on their own, are unable to achieve effective alignment between the instructional strategy used with visualization and their instructional objective. Currently no guidelines exist for instructors for attaining such alignment while teaching with technological tools like visualizations. To address this problem, we propose the Customized Visualization Integration (CVI) framework based on outcomes-based teaching approach that targets „constructive strategic alignment‟ i.e. alignment between student-centered instructional strategies and instructional objectives with the visualization. CVI provides instructors with „easy-to-use‟ guidelines that can be combined to create learning designs (LDs) customized to their set of instructional objectives with visualization. Furthermore, it provides LDs customized to individual objectives based on these guidelines. In current paper, we also present empirical validation for a subset of the proposed guidelines through a field experiment with 144 engineering under-graduates.

In addition to developing students’ content knowledge, an important goal of science instruction is to improve students’ ability of modeling, such as, the ability to create and use simplified representations to describe and explain phenomena, and predict outcomes of new phenomena. It has been shown that students face difficulty in developing these abilities unless they are explicitly addressed in the curriculum. ICT-based solutions to this problem have been developed, such as the WISE and MARS, have mostly been implemented at the middle and high school levels and the teacher facilitates the process. In this paper we describe the design of LEMA, which addresses modeling abilities in college level science topics. LEMA is a self-regulated learning environment in which students are given various activities and customized formative assessment to achieve the above goals. We tested the effectiveness of LEMA through a two-group post-test controlled experiment. Students who learnt with LEMA performed significantly better on abilities of prediction, testing and revision of models. We also identified student perceptions of which features of LEMA helped them develop these abilities.

The outcome-based approach of education requires engineering faculty to be able to align the student learning objectives with their instructional and assessment strategies. With the increasing use of educational technology, faculty technology integration also becomes an essential part of this alignment. Though there exists instances of training programmes that help faculty to achieve this alignment and integration, there are no validated frameworks or models that will enable teacher educators to prepare good instructional development programmes for the faculty. Attain-Align-Integrate (A2I) is a model for teacher educators to create short-term training programmes (STTP) to achieve constructive alignment in use of Information and Communication Technology. In this paper we describe the model, its key features, then the instantiation of the model as a STTP. Following this, the evaluation of the STTP is described to explain the utility of the model for attaining faculty professional development goals. The results of STTP indicate that participants have shifted from a teachercentric instructional strategy to a student-centered one, however they require more practice in the alignment to integrate it completely within their teaching learning environment.

Think-pair-share (TPS) is a classroom active learning strategy in which students work on activities, first individually, then in pairs and finally as the whole class. TPS allows students to express their reasoning, reflect on their understanding and obtain prompt feedback on their learning. While TPS is recommended to foster classroom engagement and learning, there is a lack of research based evidence in computer science education on the benefits of TPS for learning. In this study, we investigate the learning effectiveness of TPS in a CS1 course. We performed a quasi-experimental study and found that students who learned via TPS performed significantly better on a post-test than students who learned the same concept via lecture. We also conducted a survey and focus group interviews to understand student perceptions of learning with TPS. The majority of students agreed that TPS activities helped improve their conceptual understanding. From an instructor's point of view, TPS was useful to address the challenges of a large class, such as students tuning out or getting distracted and was easy to implement even in a large class.

A large CS1 class often needs to provide scaffolding for novices while keeping advanced learners engaged. Scratch has been shown to be suitable to address a diverse set of requirements. In this study, we determine whether a 2-week Scratch intervention in a CS1 course is useful from two perspectives: i) as a scaffold for novices to learn basic programming concepts and transition to C++, and ii) as a tool for advanced learners to remain engaged and do challenging work. We conducted a field study of 332 first-year undergraduate engineering students, two-thirds of whom were novices. We analyzed student performance on exams and Scratch projects. We administered a survey to determine student perceptions on the usefulness of Scratch. Some key findings of our study are: (i) Novices were able to catch-up to advanced learners in Scratch questions of the type 'Predict the output' and 'Debug the program', (ii) Projects by advanced learners reached 80% of the complexity of 'most loved projects' on the Scratch website, and (iii) 69% of students perceived Scratch to be useful for learning programming concepts and transitioning to C++.

Visualizations in computer science topics are known to have several benefits such as promoting conceptual and procedural understanding, improving prediction and reasoning abilities and helping learners construct mental models. This learning effectiveness has been found to be a function of students’ engagement level with visualization. In the current study, we did a controlled field experiment to determine the effect of two different instructional strategies with visualization on procedural understanding of the topic of pointers in a 1st year programming classroom. These instructional strategies, operationalizing different engagement levels, were: prediction activity interleaved with instructor feedback using visualization (experimental), and simply viewing the visualization with parallel instructor commentary (control). We found significant difference in the relative rate of correct solution of the procedural questions on the post-test. However, there was no significant difference on the post-test scores. We also found a significant difference in classroom behavioral engagement between the two groups. We propose that there may be conditions, other than engagement level with visualization, such as learner characteristics or challenge level of assessment questions that may play a role in the determining learning effectiveness of visualizations.

Computer based interactive visualizations have been shown to be effective learning resources in science and engineering for improved conceptual understanding, reasoning and prediction abilities, and experimentation skills. In a prior study, we reported the development of Engineering Design Interactive Visualizations (EDIV), and showed their effectiveness as self-study material in improving students’ engineer ing design competencies. Here, we investigate students’ interaction with the EDIVs in order to gain insight into what makes the EDIVs effective. We conducted a qualitative study using screen capture logs to identify behavioural differences between high and low scoring learners as they interact with the EDIV. We found that the high scoring group spent more learning time on interactive activities such as variable manipulation and decision making tasks, while the low scoring group spent more time on reading and concept clarification tasks.

Teach 10000 Teachers is a project supported by the Government of India for training large numbers college instructors through distance education. The mode used is Synchronous Remote Classrooms (SRC), in which lectures are transmitted from a single location and participants attend them synchronously in their respective classrooms. In this paper we present a model for adapting well-known active learning (AL) strategies from face-to-face classrooms to the SRC mode, so as to enable effective learning. Our model identifies three levels of interactions – student-content, student-student and student-instructor – and then adapts these interactions to the SRC mode, using the affordances of the technology. We implemented this model with five AL strategies, in a 1-week workshop. We validated the model by examining participants' perception of the effectiveness of the AL strategies for their learning and engagement. We found that 86% of 1287 participants found our adapted AL strategies to be useful in learning. We also found that there is a high correlation (γ=0.75 ) between the perceptions of overall satisfaction and usefulness of AL strategies.

Think-Pair-Share (TPS) is a classroom-based active learning strategy, in which students work on a problem posed by the instructor, first individually, then in pairs, and finally as a class-wide discussion. TPS has been recommended for its benefits of allowing students to express their reasoning, reflect on their thinking, and obtain immediate feedback on their understanding. While TPS is intended to promote student engagement, there is a need for research based evidence on the nature of this engagement. In this study, we investigate the quantity and quality of student engagement in a large CS1 class during the implementation of TPS activities. We did classroom observations of students over a period of ten weeks and thirteen TPS activities. We determined patterns of student engagement in the three phases using a real-time classroom observation protocol that we developed and validated. We found that 83% of students on average were fully or mostly engaged. Predominant behaviors displayed were writing the solution to the problem (Think), discussing with neighbor or writing (Pair), and following class discussion (Share). We triangulated results with survey data of student perceptions. We find that students report being highly engaged for 62% during Think phase and 70% during Pair phase.

The goals of a typical Networking course for Computer Science majors include getting students to learn the relevant concepts, delving into details of various protocols, and using Networking utilities. Such focus on low-level details is unlikely to be interesting to non-majors. Also, there is a larger danger of students not understanding the basic concepts due to the perceived complexity in the details and technical jargon. We address both these issues by teaching Networking concepts through solving problems in analogical real-life scenarios. The main idea of our approach is: The instructor poses an analogy problem, students work in groups to devise solutions, followed by a class discussion to map the analogy problem as well as its solution to their corresponding technical details in Networking domain. Thus we emphasize the core concepts of Networking and demystify the specialized technical details. Across three offerings of this course, we have found that: (i) our students' performance on typical Networking questions is comparable or higher than traditionally taught students, (ii) students can solve unseen technical problems, (iii) students' confidence in tackling technical questions is high.

In Intelligent Tutoring Systems, affect-based computing is an important research area. Common approaches to deal with the affective state identification are based on input data from external sensors such as eye-tracker and EEG, as well as methods based on mining of ITS log data. Sensor based methods are viable in laboratory settings but they are tough to implement in real-world scenario which might cater to a large number of students. In our research, we create a mathematical model of frustration based on its theoretical definition. We identify the variables in the model by applying the theoretical definition of frustration to the ITS log data. This approach is different from existing data mining techniques, which use correlation analysis with labeled data. We apply our model to Mindspark, a commercial maths Intelligent Tutoring System, used by several thousand students. We validate our model with human observations of frustration.

Significant investments are being made into distance education programs around the world. Yet there is no clear understanding of the effectiveness of such programs, or what makes a distance education program successful. This is in part because the analysis of a distance education program involves studying the behaviour of a complex interactive system. It is therefore worthwhile identifying a suitable tool for a theoretical study of such systems. One such tool is system dynamics modeling, a powerful approach to understand the behaviour of a complex system over time. In this paper, we present a system dynamics simulation model of a distance education program at a leading engineering institute in India. We describe how the model is constructed from the individual components of the program and how a system dynamics approach is used to analyze the program. The results of the simulations helped us plan future investments of the distance education program.