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The complexity of the reproductive system necessitates instructional media to facilitate comprehension, as its processes unfold internally and are not readily observable. This study aims to assess the viability of booklet sub-materials on fertilization, gestation, and childbirth, derived from the inventory findings of medicinal plants for postpartum care, as educational resources. The research and development used the Borg & Gall model which included identifying potential problems, data collection, product design, design validation, and product revision. The booklet media underwent validation by five validators using validation sheets, while the evaluation criteria encompassed format, content, and language proficiency. The validation data were analyzed using CVR (Content Validity Ratio) and CVI (Content Validity Index). The results of the booklet media validation obtained a CVR value on each criterion of 1.00 with a valid category and a CVI value of 1.00 with a valid category. The booklet on the subject of gestational fertilization and childbirth from the results of the inventory of medicinal plants for postpartum is suitable for use as a learning media.

Following efforts to promote internationalization at academic institutions, the use of multiple languages on educational slides (e.g., PowerPoint) has gradually increased. Multilingualism in learning has its advantages, but having multiple languages on educational slides can lead to crowding and cognitive overload. To investigate how students perceive multilingual slides, evaluations were gathered from Japanese (N = 20) and Indonesian students (N = 20) during an eye-tracking experiment in which their visual attention distribution on the slides was assessed. The slides contained text in three languages (English, Japanese, and Bahasa Indonesia) and were varied according to their layout. One group watched slides with text separated in blocks, with one text block for each language, while the other group watched slides consisting of a single, mixed block with each sentence describing the same information in a different language. The students' evaluations showed that slides with a mixed layout were judged as more crowded and required more processing effort than slides with a separated-block layout. Furthermore, while the students dwelled their gaze significantly longer on text in their native language (either Bahasa Indonesia or Japanese) on separated-block slides, for slides with a mixed layout, the gaze patterns did not significantly differ between languages. The results of a comprehension quiz taken after the slide presentation, however, showed that students performed better after having watched the slides with the mixed layout. Thus, although judged as more crowded and requiring a wider attention distribution, slides with a mixed layout may be preferable in multilingual education.

During a classroom-based study that featured wordless and almost wordless picturebooks, instruction and adult mediation communicated to Kindergarten children that elements of visual art, design, and layout are fundamental to meaning-making when transacting with this format of literature. The illustration techniques described by Ray (2010) were used as an analytical lens to analyze the transcripts from the small group interactive sessions of an almost wordless picturebook featured during the research. The descriptive analyses of the transcripts reveal the rich viewing and talking opportunities that can be afforded during children's transactions with almost wordless picturebooks when these selections of literature are situated as aesthetic objects, and when children and adult mediators understand and appreciate how meaning is individually and synergistically represented by elements of visual art, design and layout. The findings are discussed in relation to the literature reviewed, and the theoretical frameworks of social semiotics and sociocultural theory.

The impact of text length on the estimation of lexical diversity has captured the attention of the scientific community for more than a century. Numerous indices have been proposed, and many studies have been conducted to evaluate them, but the problem remains. This methodological review provides a critical analysis not only of the most commonly used indices in language learning studies, but also of the length problem itself, as well as of the methodology for evaluating the proposed solutions. Analysis of three data sets of texts produced by English language learners revealed that indices that reduce all texts to the same length using a probabilistic or an algorithmic approach solve the length-dependency problem; however, all these indices failed to address the second problem, which is their sensitivity to the parameter that determines the length to which the texts are reduced. The paper concludes with recommendations for optimizing lexical diversity analysis.

The split-attention effect posits that learning outcomes are negatively impacted when interrelated text and graphics are spatially segregated rather than cohesively integrated. This study explored how the instructional material's presentation size influences the manifestation of the split-attention effect. Based on cognitive load theory and perceptual load theory, we hypothesized that elevated information density in a compact presentation format would attenuate the advantage of integrated text and graphics, thereby diminishing the salience of the split-attention effect relative to a more expansive presentation size. University students (n = 146) studied a split-attention format or integrated format in either large or small presentation size. Results on retention and comprehension tests and extraneous cognitive load ratings revealed no effects of instructional format, presentation size or their interaction. The present results call for a more nuanced understanding of the split-attention effect and suggest additional research to explore its cognitive foundations.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of 360-degree panorama-based Virtual Reality (360VR) as a tool to simulate real-world site visit experiences in interior design education. In the first stage of evaluation, the online survey was implemented to ask students about their learning experience of using 360VR. The second stage of 360 VR effectiveness evaluation focused on the objective comparison of students learning outcomes between the 360VR method and the traditional approach. The students' experience survey results indicated that 360VR and virtual walkthrough experiences benefited students' understanding of the site during the design process. Students reflected positive 360 VR experiences on their engagement in learning, special layout, visualization, and educational effectiveness. The result of the student learning outcome evaluation showed no significant difference between 360 VR compared to no site visit. However, there was a significant improvement in students' spatial planning, finish selection, and total scores when using the 360 VR method compared to an on-site visit.

The virtual learning environment (VLE) is of great importance in Higher Education as a repository for course content, communication and student support. Students' satisfaction with the VLE may impact greatly on their engagement with the VLE itself, and, consequently, module content and learning more widely. In moving to a new VLE we wished to optimise its design for our students' needs by determining features that impact students' usage. As such, in this study we tested the satisfaction of psychology students with the layout used in our current VLE, Blackboard Learn (BbL). Using an online survey, students rated their satisfaction for each element of the BbL template on a 7-point Likert-type scale, from 1 ("extremely dissatisfied") to 7 ("extremely satisfied"). Eighty-seven students enrolled in the BSc Psychology (N = 68) and BSc Psychology (Sport, Health and Exercise) (N = 19) programmes completed the survey. Results showed that, overall, students were very satisfied with their BbL structure. Open-text comments indicated students appreciated the clear, organised structure, making it very easy to navigate. However, students suggested clearer labelling and greater consistency across modules would improve their learning. These findings will be used to inform the template of our new VLE.

Reports on a panel discussion held at LILAC 2022 on student academic reading during the COVID-19 pandemic. Draws on data from two surveys, but also discusses the implications of this research for teachers and information literacy (IL) practitioners. In summary, students carried out almost all their academic reading in electronic format, due to the restrictions in place. However, in common with research conducted prior to the pandemic, their preferences for reading in print format remained. Students also report doing less of their assigned readings, feeling more tired as well as reporting other negative health benefits from excess use of screens and devices. The study has implications for librarians, learning developers and for academic staff assigning course readings to students. Ongoing research in this area is recommended.

The design of textbooks used in teaching and learning processes is of great importance to each level of education from pre-primary through to higher education. Textbooks, especially at primary level, include lots of visual images. It is, therefore, of crucial importance to resort to effective and proper ways of using visual design elements in textbooks. This study was to examine Grade Three Primary Mathematics and Turkish Textbooks published by Republic of Türkiye Ministry of National Education Publishing in 2018-2019 Academic Year in Türkiye in terms of visual-text design and typography. The data draws on the evaluation of content design of textbooks respecting typographic style, visual design principles and suitability of visual images. This study, based on qualitative research model, is a multi-case study for which the data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Following the evaluation of the field experts, there was a total of 18 open-ended questions. We recruited eleven field experts to collect qualitative data through semistructured interviews. During the interviews, the participants provided data on typographic style, visual design principles and suitability of visual images. Based on the content analysis results, we found that there are some typographic errors in the content design of textbooks. Further, no original visual images seemed to be included in the textbooks examined. We can conclude that the related textbooks do not comply with the Gestalt Principle of Continuity. Other visual design elements such as the use of visual hierarchy, two-pages spread design, and the emphasis effect and alike are not satisfied since there is no consistency in the drawings of the content design of textbooks. We argue that it is of vital importance to recruit professional textbook designers in the design process of textbooks and to pay more attention to the visual evaluation criteria prepared by the relevant Board of Education.

Children's literature scholars, specifically picturebook theorist and researchers, need to better understand the complicated nature of the separation and coming together of textual matter (words) and visual matter (images) and the range of relations between these entities. Various scholars have conceptualized the relations between word and image in vastly different ways, advocated for a range of analytical frameworks to understand these relations, and subsequently have provided a theoretical foundation for exploring the roles and functions of words and images in narrative picturebooks. More attention focusing on how picturebooks are instantiated as meaningful multimodal ensembles across technological, sensory, material, semiotic, modal, mediational, as well as ideological dimensions is necessary if we are to fully understand the ways words and image work in picturebooks and the educational potential of available and future multimodal ensembles.

People regularly read multi-line texts in different formats and publishers, internationally, must decide how to present text to make reading most effective and efficient. Relatively few studies have examined multi-line reading, and fewer still Chinese multi-line reading. Here, we examined whether texts presented in single or double columns, and either left-justified or fully-justified affect Chinese reading. Text format had minimal influence on overall reading time; however, it significantly impacted return-sweeps (large saccades moving the eyes from the end of one line of text to the beginning of the next). Return-sweeps were launched and landed further away from margins and involved more corrective saccades in single- than double-column format. For left- compared to fully-justified format, return-sweeps were launched and landed closer to margins. More corrective saccades also occurred. Our results showed more efficient return-sweep behavior for fully- than left-justified text. Moreover, there were clear trade-off effects such that formats requiring increased numbers of shorter return-sweeps produced more accurate targeting and reduced numbers of corrective fixations, whereas formats requiring reduced numbers of longer return-sweeps caused less accurate targeting and an increased rate of corrective fixations. Overall, our results demonstrate that text formats substantially affect return-sweep eye movement behavior during Chinese reading without affecting efficiency and effectiveness, that is, the overall time it takes to read and understand the text.

This study examines international and intercultural issues in the English for Palestine textbook series, specifically evaluating intercultural comparisons, mutual representations, and relations in terms of their effectiveness in enhancing students' cross-cultural communication skills. The examination of the textbooks employed a qualitative methodology, enriched by the inclusion of quantitative components. The findings show that the textbooks under investigation comprise an insufficient and inadequate amount of international and intercultural issues, consisting of celebratory topics of surface culture with very little attention paid to conflictive aspects of deep culture. This study is a reminder of the importance of appropriate intercultural components in developing students' critical thinking skills and minimizing intercultural misunderstandings. Hence, it aims to sensitize stakeholders and teachers to the potential losses associated with poor representations of international and intercultural issues in English teaching textbooks. Consequently, it urges them to take action by either amending the textbooks or using supplementary material to compensate for the identified lapses.

Metamemory judgments, defined as predictions of memory performance, are often influenced by misleading cues, such as fluency. However, how fluency cues compete to influence retrospective metamemory judgments is still unclear. The present study investigated how multiple fluency cues concurrently influence immediate feeling of knowing (FOK) judgments with two fluency manipulations--font size (large vs. small font size) as a perceptual cue and level of processing (deep vs. shallow processing) as a conceptual cue. In Experiment 1, participants studied large or small unrelated word pairs and were either directed to process the conceptual aspects of each word pair (deep) or to focus on the perceptual aspects of the word pairs (shallow). Then participants were presented with a cued recall test and asked to make an FOK judgment. Lastly, participants received a five alternative- forced-choice recognition test. Experiment 2 was similar except the deep condition was replaced with a no-processing (no instruction) condition. Results revealed that perceptual fluency (large font size) influenced FOK judgments only when word pairs were processed in the shallow condition in both experiments compared to no-processing condition. This interaction of multiple cues suggests that, participants rely on information which is easily accessible to them (perceptual fluency) for FOK judgements in presence of certain secondary cues despite those cues being less diagnostic of future memory performance. These new insights inform how people integrate different sources of information in metamemory decisions and have broad implications for settings including academic learning and everyday decision making.

We develop the notions of "resistance" and "points of entry" in the context of alternative written textual formats used in physics teacher education. Studies point out that textbooks have played an important role in undergraduate physics courses, which can be part of the initial training of physics teachers. On the foundation of theories in the philosophy of science, it is possible to verify that there are philosophical reasons for the privileged use of this textual format in physics undergraduate courses. However, alongside the transformation of the educational field in terms of its theoretical-methodological approaches, there is a growing body of research and educational practices that highlights the importance and possibilities of incorporating others written textual formats in all levels of physics education. The notions of "resistance" and "points of entry" can enhance the awareness of these dynamics of physics education. To produce such an understanding, we put the philosophy of science in dialogue with the philosophy of action, which provides an overview of the interactions of life, including physics pedagogy - in which actions promote transformations.

Textbooks have always played an important role in mathematics education. Textbook tasks are widely used by students, so it is important to examine their requirements in order to identify the opportunities students have to learn mathematics. Publishers now produce both printed and digital versions of textbooks. While the requirements of the tasks in printed textbooks have been well examined all over the world, the tasks in digital textbooks are yet to be analysed and systematically developed. The research presented in this paper encompasses the analysis and comparison of the tasks in the printed and digital versions of the same mathematics textbook set. The examined set covers Grades 1 to 4 of primary education in Croatia. The aim was to find what task requirements are predominant in the printed and the digital textbooks, and to determine whether these textbook versions provide a wide variety of task features. In addition, the features and capacities typical of digital tasks, such as interactivity and dynamics, are examined. These task features are particularly important in geometry education for comprehending visual and dynamic geometrical objects and relations. The results show that both the printed and the digital textbook tasks have traditional requirements, with an emphasis on closed answer forms. Moreover, the new opportunities afforded by digital tasks are not realised. These findings reveal the potential of digital tasks as a new area to be explored and developed.

Purpose of the study: to find out: 1) basic literacy skills (ability to read, write and count) elementary school early grades students; (2) quality of textbooks in aspects of content, presentation, language, and graphic design; and (3) The significance of the relationship between the quality of textbooks and students' basic literacy skills. Methodology: This research uses a quantitative approach with a survey method. It was conducted in eight provinces in Indonesia. The sampling technique used stratified random sampling, 805 teachers. Data collection used a questionnaire for elementary school teachers who teach in low grades. The data analysis used descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Main Findings: It was found that there are still relatively many early grades elementary school students who are not fluent in reading, writing, and arithmetic. These students' basic literacy skills have a significant and positive relationship with the quality of textbooks in the aspects of substance, presentation, language, and graphic design. Applications of this study: To improve basic literacy skills (reading, writing, and arithmetic) in early grades elementary school students, it is also necessary to improve the quality of textbooks in the aspects of substance/Content, presentation, language, and graphic design. Novelty/Originality of this study: It was found that there is a significant and positive relationship between basic literacy skills (reading, writing, and arithmetic) of early grades elementary school students and the quality of the textbooks they used both in terms of substance/Content, presentation, language, and graphic design.

Background: The judicious use of worksheets ought to contribute to the establishment of literacy, with a special significance for multilingual classrooms where neither teachers nor learners are mother tongue speakers of the instructional language. Disparity between the pedagogical intention of the worksheet and learners' interpretation of the message often creates instructional dissonance. Aim and setting: The aim of this nested study was to establish the quality, and (mis)use of worksheets as implemented by student teachers during their work-integrated learning stint in selected urban South African primary schools. Design and methodology: Using a self-designed grid, a qualitative document analysis underpinned by visual ethnography was conducted on 45 worksheets. These texts were prepared by the student teachers for literacy, numeracy and life skills lessons offered to 6- to 9-year-olds. Criteria used for the simple analysis included appropriateness for the age group, visual complexity, accuracy of language use, cultural compatibility, layout, clarity of instructions and alignment with expected learning outcomes. Findings: Findings suggested the hasty conceptualisation and creation, or inappropriate choice of worksheets used as learning support material. Apart from linguistic barriers because of poorly formulated tasks, the worksheets were generally culturally insensitive, and contained grammatical inaccuracies compounded by technical and design shortcomings. These lacunae defeated the pedagogical purpose of most worksheets and generated instructional dissonance. Conclusion and implications for teacher education: The careful crafting and implementation of worksheets coupled with sound content knowledge of language and literacy principles would alleviate learner bafflement and enhance the learning opportunity. We take the position that well-designed worksheets should serve a focused purpose and link directly to literacy and learning of the instructional language.

Education in Malaysia is transforming to increase students' ability and meet the needs of the industry. In Design and Technology subject, students apply the technology to develop a product capable of solving problems through a project-based learning approach. Therefore, this study aims to (a) identify problems in the implementation of design project and (b) identify the needs for module development. An online survey was conducted on 140 Design and Technology subject teachers in Batu Pahat district, Johor. Findings showed that the overall level of problem in the implementation of project-based learning was high and there was no significant difference in perception of problems in implementing project-based learning by gender, but a significant difference of perception by teaching experience. In terms of module content, the overall findings showed that the content requirement in the module was high. Gender and teaching experience showed no significant difference in perception of module content requirement. Finally, the findings showed that the suggested module design features are using Arial font and multi-colour, content in point form, A4 size, and contain graphical content. Therefore, it is proposed that this module should be developed due to its high requirements and should meet the needs of users, so that the goals of project implementation can be achieved.

The objectives of this study are to investigate verbal and visual semiotic resources employed as well as the cultural aspects embedded in the online soft drink advertisements. The data of this study was selected from the U.S. official soft drink brand Coca-Cola Instagram account (@cocacola), and a total of 58 advertisements were analyzed. Three analytical frameworks were employed to analyze the data. First, Nilsen (1979)'s phonetic devices framework was used for verbal resources analysis. Second, Kress & van Leeuwen (2006)'s and Harrison (2008)'s social semiotics frameworks were adapted for analyzing visual resources. Third, Hofstede et al. (2010)'s cultural dimensional model was employed to discuss the cultural aspects in the advertisements. The analysis of the verbal resources in the advertisements reveal two types of phonetic devices: alliteration and assonance. For the visual analysis, the advertisements tend to use the brand's color, red, instead of a logo to make the brand memorable. The representative participants (RP)' positions and gazes also give the sense of equality between the viewers and the brand. Most of the advertisements use visual resources that complement the verbal resources in order for the advertisements to be coherent as well as being able to convey the embedded cultural aspects. Two cultural aspects out of six were found: masculinity and indulgence. In addition, the study also found religious aspects embedded in the data.

Background: Enhanced uptake of systematic reviews that use qualitative comparative analyses (QCA) requires knowing how end-users interpret such findings. The study purpose was to identify effective approaches to communicating results from a QCA within a systematic review. Methods: Sequential exploratory mixed methods design; thematic analysis of interviews with 11 end-users followed by a randomized experiment with 254 participants that provided QCA results for a hypothetical review presented through three formats (text, table, and figure). A survey administered after the experiment assessed subjective and objective comprehension of QCA results. Results: Interview themes included use of jargon; appropriate use of appendices, tables, figures; and integration of QCA results within the systematic review. In the experiment, we observed a significant difference (p = 0.035) in subjective comprehension across the three presentation formats. Participants randomized to the figure and text formats scored higher compared to the table. No significant differences were observed for objective comprehension overall (p = 0.11). However, for parameter interpretation (a unique component of QCA results), scores among participants that received the figure format were significantly higher than scores for participants who received the text (p = 0.001) or table (p = 0.004). No significant differences (p = 0.09) were observed in objective comprehension for configuration interpretation. Conclusions: End-users of systematic reviews saw value in the use of QCA, but unfamiliar methods and terminology were barriers to full understanding of the findings. When presenting results, a figure format appears to be superior to text or table formats based on measures of subjective comprehension and some measures of objective comprehension.

This article highlights the interpictorality in two YA books by the Swedish writer and illustrator Anna Höglund, "Om detta talar man endast med kaniner" [This Is Something You Only Talk About with Rabbits] (2013) and "Att vara jag" [To Be Me] (2015). The analysis of the visual intertextuality between pieces of artwork by Peter Tillberg, Frida Kahlo, Lena Cronqvist, Richard Bergh and René Magritte and five pictures from Höglund's books thematises school, body and identity. The discursive positioning in the artworks and in Höglund's pictures directs the readers in their decoding of Höglund's text, offers possibilities in their interpretations and challenges the adolescent readers to make connections across different formats, such as text and image, and between different images.

Children's nonfiction once had a reputation as a lackluster genre. However, the nonfiction books published today are noteworthy for their appeal and quality. This study's purpose was to examine contemporary teachers' perceptions of recent children's nonfiction. Fourteen elementary teachers shared their opinions of contemporary nonfiction for children in written reflections, which were inductively analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The teachers addressed the following themes in their reflections: (1) presentation of the books, (2) the potential of books to support elementary readers, and (3) ways books could support learning opportunities. The findings indicate these teachers had a positive response to contemporary nonfiction, but they suggest there is still work to be done to ensure elementary students? access to a diverse array of nonfiction books.

With the advent of new English textbooks, course book evaluation has become an indispensable ingredient in all English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts. Thus, the present study aimed to contribute to this area in the Iranian context by evaluating newly published junior high school (13 to 15 years old) course books (the Prospect series) and examining their weaknesses and strengths from students' points of view. In so doing, this study employed Litz's (2005) questionnaire to examine 417 junior high school students' perspectives. Also, nine students took part in follow-up interviews to elaborate their perspectives about the strengths and weaknesses of the textbooks. The results of the questionnaire showed that students believed that this series requires some modifications regarding the design and layout, authenticity in activities, diversity of registers and accents, variety of subjects and content, and cultural presentation. In addition, the students asserted in the interviews that there are some other problems with the textbooks in terms of the selected topics, accessibility and quality of the multimedia materials, organization of the content, and the learning goals that are set. Iranian EFL instruction relies on the Prospect series, and all Iranian junior high school students are taught using these books. The improvements suggested by the students in this study can facilitate development of English course books to better support learners' goals in the future.

Social networks are dynamic, accessible virtual planes of communication, through which users carry out the cross-border and transient exchange of information and emotions, meeting their communication needs. The article outlines the main aspects of written communication, its communicative needs, and the ambiguity of interpretations. The constant growth of the popularity of social networks with the simultaneous displacement of the importance of live, direct communication forces scientists in various fields, including the theory of communication, communicative linguistics, to rethink the phenomenon of "communication". It is about creating a special discourse, which is caused by the specifics of the communication channel/code between communicators and the virtual chronotype. Attention has been drawn to written communication on social networks in terms of speakers' intentions, the interpretation of explicit and implicit information, its impact on the participants of communication, the formation of the special culture of communication (non-library), etc. Specificity in the written form of communication in the social media has been caused by many factors: the readiness or unreadiness of the virtual interlocutor to interact; dominance of visual perception, hence, special attention of recipients to the layout, structuring of the text, volume, photo accompaniment, etc.; knowledge of the latest trends in online communication (fashion clichés, abbreviations, slang, memes); replacement or substitution of non-verbal means by various means of paragraphemics, for example, smilies, stickers, pictures, animation, etc.; developing of a specific network chronotype, in which there are no time limits and which is constantly expanding in volume due to the multiplicity of accounts, texts, chats, groups. Not everyone who communicates on social media knows the intentions of other people. On the one hand, such communication generates the selectivity or concealment of true meanings in the author's texts and on the other hand, additional meanings are taken on during the recipients' interpretation.

Aims: Since many Saudi ESL students studying abroad have limited vocabulary and grammar knowledge and poor reading comprehension skills, this article proposes the integration of linguistic landscapes (LLs) in teaching English to Saudi students studying abroad to supplement the English language courses and textbooks they study. Definition of LLs: LLs refer to the use of language in the environment, i.e., the words and images displayed in public spaces such as streets, airports, schools, government buildings, shopping centers, tourist attractions, and others. They contain announcements, directions, warnings, services, and commercial ads. They are characterized by brevity, use of authentic language, and specific structures such as commands and ellipted phrases. Materials, Tasks and Teaching Strategy: Since LLs differ in length and difficulty level, the English LLs selected for instruction should match the students' proficiency level. Instruction with LLs begins with selecting a Facebook page for posting LLs and discussions about them. The instructor introduces the LLs, gives pre-questions, and sets goals for working on them. The students practice LL text analysis. They predict the topic, pay attention to specific vocabulary and grammatical structures, and use contextual clues and their background knowledge to infer the overall meaning of an LL and the meanings of difficult words. At an advanced stage, students may identify the pragmatic, stylistic and sociocultural features of LLs. The students discuss their answers with the instructor, summarize, retell, or paraphrase an LL, discuss difficulties in vocabulary and grammatical structures. They can identify the number of directions given in a single sign, infer the intention and purpose of the sign, give the pragmatic reasons for the way the sign is worded and connect them with its design, pictures, colors and fonts used. Reflections and Recommendation: LL pedagogy was beneficial and fun. Use of a Facebook LL repository with explanations is recommended.

Despite its importance in the classroom, there has been limited research into the functional design of the syllabus as a means to motivate students to read and use it. This mixed methods study investigates student impressions of a 4-page full-length infographic-style visual syllabus. Identically formatted infographic syllabi were used in three courses with different student populations--a freshman seminar, a 300-level elective liberal arts course, and a 400-level minor elective course. Students completed a short questionnaire to capture their immediate reactions to the syllabus, followed by a longer questionnaire at the end of the semester. Across class standing, students strongly preferred an infographic syllabus and described it as easy to use, memorable, organized, and engaging. Students reported reading the infographic syllabus more completely, feeling less anxious about the course and more comfortable with its requirements due to the syllabus style. Recommendations for creating an engaging infographic-style visual syllabus are shared.

Textbooks are one of the primary sources for students to obtain knowledge, so they should present accurate knowledge through textual and visual representations. The goal of the current study is to examine the representations in middle school science textbooks based on the diagram coding scheme to find out a general picture of how representations used in the science textbooks over the fifteen years. The sample consists of 6247 representations from twelve middle school science textbooks (four each of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades) from 2002 to 2017. Content analysis was used to analyze the representations in textbooks, which were gathered by document analysis. The representations were evaluated concerning the combination of two main diagram coding schemes. Findings showed that iconic representations are prevalent in middle school science textbooks. There are limited charts, graphs and augmented reality representations in the science textbooks. Furthermore, there are more male representations than female ones, representations are mostly indexed in the main texts, and captions are mainly problematic in middle school science textbooks. The findings based on the two diagrams coding scheme are mainly coherent with each other. Science textbooks should encourage students to interpret and translate between different representations to enable them accurate knowledge.

When learning from texts, it is not only important that learners remember and comprehend the content, but also that they monitor and accurately judge their memory and comprehension so as to efficiently regulate their learning. In the present experiment with 51 university students, we investigated to what extent headings within texts promote these processes. The results revealed that headings supported learners in comprehending the texts as well as in accurately judging their comprehension. The effects of headings on memory and judgment accuracy concerning memory were not significant. Moreover, headings affected learners' cognitive load. This study indicates the usefulness of including headings in texts to support learners' self-regulated learning from texts.

Positive experience can increase the likelihood of revisiting Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) site. Our interest focuses on effects of presentation formats on learner's experience in MOOC. In two empirical studies, participants viewed online course webpages that either contained an image of the instructor or not. We examined effects of presentation format adding social cues on learner's attention, emotion and learning outcome using questionnaire and the physical evidence provided by an eye tracker. The results obtained allow us to conclude that the instructor's image positively affects visual attention and learner's emotion, especially perceived usefulness from emotion factor, and has changed learner's browsing behaviour. Moreover, the results reveal learner's cognition mechanism in MOOC learning. The results significantly contribute to efforts to design of MOOC webpages and also provide a valuable reference when selecting presentation format for online learning.

Presentation of text in picturebooks is an under-investigated field that requires consideration in order to support readers and those selecting books for readers. A unique form of picturebook is the bilingual picturebook which presents a story in two languages. The complexities of language readability and legibility are increased in these books, with implications for reader perception of the typographic design. In this paper we outline considerations for the design and presentation of two languages in bilingual picturebooks. We provide a discussion and analysis of text layout in Maori-English bilingual picturebooks and present guidelines for authors, designers, and publishers as well providing recommendations for the required further investigation into typographic layout for bilingual picturebooks.

Lectures containing information presented in verbal and visual form are widely used in educational settings. To date, little is known about how the visual display in a video lecture influences immediate and delayed recall. In two experiments, participants listened to a pre-recorded lecture while viewing an animated concept map, sequential listing of bulleted text, or there was no visual display. Results indicated that the concept map lecture enhanced immediate recall accuracy; however, the type of ideas recalled is also important to consider. Compared to the listen-only lecture, the concept map and bulleted text lectures promoted more recall of main ideas rather than details. Finally, the concept map lecture mainly benefitted those with high prior science achievement. These findings suggest that the visual display in a video lecture may affect the type of ideas remembered, and prior knowledge should be considered when choosing how to present information in a video lecture.

Purpose: This study aims to examine the use of data visualization as a tool to support practitioner-led organizational learning within the emergency services. The authors investigate how data visualization can support visual communication and the analysis of emergency response data to promote system improvement. Design/methodology/approach: The authors investigate if communication data, presented as node-link diagrams, can be understood and evaluated by firefighters. Objective understanding of the communication network is measured quantitatively, while subject judgement of the emergency response system is measured qualitatively and compared to prior system evaluation outcomes. The authors compare different data visualization layouts and assess their value in supporting practitioner evaluation of emergency response systems. Findings: The authors find that while firefighters are largely unfamiliar with their use, data visualizations function as a tool for visual communication and analysis. The authors identify the importance of visualization design and the difficulty in representing characteristics of a dynamic network within static diagrams. The authors also find some correlation between layout design and how respondents interpret visual data. Originality/value: Results demonstrate the value of data visualization to support practitioner-led organizational learning and suggest future work to support the development of emergency response management.

Students desire free textbooks that incorporate multimedia and interactive experiences. Although there is an increased production of e-textbooks, these resources tend to replicate hard copy books and do not take advantage of the functions that technology offers. There is also a shift to creating e-textbooks that are considered open educational resources. A team of nursing educators and a nursing student created an interactive open educational resource e-textbook in vital sign measurement that was implemented within the curriculum of post-secondary health-related programmes. The goal of this paper is to report the study findings which sought to explore healthcare students' experiences of using this open educational resource. Three discipline-specific focus groups were conducted with a convenience sample of 29 students. Using a qualitative thematic analysis, six interconnected themes describing students' use of this resource were identified: (a) This Generation's Learner, (b) Vital Signs Open Educational Resource influence, (c) Accessibility, (d) Convenience, (e) Design, and (f) Visual and Other Types of Learning Styles. Participants were positive about using the open educational resource to learn vital sign skills. Our study findings provide a foundation for e-textbook design standards that support student learning.

In multimedia stimuli (e.g., comics), the reader must follow a narrative in which text and image both contribute information, and artists may use more irregular layouts which must still be followed correctly. While previous work has found that the external structure (outlines) of panels is a major contributor to navigation decisions in comics, other studies have shown that panel content can affect reading order. The present studies use eye-tracking to investigate these contributions further. In Experiment 1, the reading behaviors on six layout variations were compared. The influence of the external structure was replicated, but an effect of text location was also found for one layout type. Experiment 2 focused on variations of this particular layout, manipulating the location of text within critical panels. Panel content was a consistent effect for all variations. While most navigation decisions are made using the external structure, content becomes key when resolving ambiguous layouts.

In the digital age, children's and adolescents' willingness to engage in absorbed reading for pleasure is on the decline. Digital narratives with a linear storyline enriched with hyperlinks to supporting media materials, could potentially facilitate narrative absorption even better than print, thus stimulating fictional reading among adolescents. This paper examines hyperlink placement desirability in five full-length novels, and investigates the link with narrative absorption. It was found that, independently of genre, the desired hyperlinks were most concentrated in the first quartile of the story, and gradually diminished towards quartile four. Furthermore, closer scrutiny of one case study showed that as reported narrative absorption levels increased, hyperlink desirability decreased. The results suggest that hyperlinks to different types of supporting media materials could be particularly useful to assist reading if situated in the first quartile of digital narrative. As the story plot reaches its climax, hyperlinks may become less required for experienced readers, whereas lower ability readers might still benefit from their support to sustain the reading experience.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce a conceptual framework as a six-stage guided implementation for educators to embed Canva (an online design tool) into their marketing subjects to encourage super-skills of the 21st century including stronger collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication which in turn increases a student's work readiness. Design/methodology/approach: The framework is designed from sociocultural and experiential approaches of learning and teaching. It is based on dialogic and social learning theories and guided by the 21st century skills, experience, student interactions and reflections. Findings: Based on the initial staff and student reflections and the author's extensive teaching experience, the implementation of Canva into marketing subjects suggests students are increasing their creativity, design, collaborative and critical thinking skills due to the unique features of the tool. This is suggestive that the implementation process developed through the conceptual framework of embedding Canva supported not only the students' learning experience but allowed for a more immersive experience for teaching staff as well. Originality/value: This paper provides a pedagogical and theoretically supported rationalisation for a staged approach to embed Canva into a classroom to assist educators in fostering students' critical thinking skills, communication, collaboration whilst encouraging higher quality and creativity of assessments. This paper may have a continued flow on effect to student's work readiness by equipping them with a needed marketing tool in their career pursuits.

Captioning of recorded videos is beneficial to many and a matter of compliance with accessibility regulations and guidelines. Like recorded captions, real-time captions can also be means to implement the Universal Design for Learning checkpoint to offer text-based alternatives to auditory information. A cost-effective solution to implement the checkpoint for live online presentations is to use speech recognition technologies to generate automated captions. In particular, "Microsoft PowerPoint Present Live" (MSPL) is an application that can be used to present with real-time automated captions and subtitles in multiple languages, allowing individuals to follow the presentation in their preferred language. The purpose of this study was to identify challenges that participants could encounter when using the MSPL feature of real-time automated captions/subtitles, and to determine what they describe as potential uses, challenges, and benefits of the feature. Participants were full-time faculty and administrators with a faculty appointment in a higher education institution. Data from five native English speakers and five native Spanish speakers were analyzed. Activities of remote usability testing and interviews were conducted to collect data. Overall, participants did not encounter challenges that they could not overcome and described MSPL as an easy-to-use and useful tool to present with captions/subtitles for teaching or training and to reach English and Spanish-speaking audiences. The themes that emerged as potential challenges were training, distraction, and technology. Findings are discussed and further research is recommended.

The introduction, methods, results, and discussion (IMRaD structure) is a structure used by many journals and publishers in its publications since the early twentieth century. This research aims to survey and analyze some prestigious Open Access journals in the field of educational science in the world and in Vietnam on the use of IMRaD structure in presenting research results. We selected 05 open journals with the highest IF in the 2018 Scopus list and 05 prestigious journals in this field in Vietnam to conduct analysis of the articles in the latest 03 issues of these journals. The results of the survey of manuscript draft requirements and the frequency of articles written according to the IMRaD structure of the above journals show that: the IMRaD structure is commonly used in the articles in the field of Educational science in the world. However, in Vietnam, there is no journal that fully meets the contents compared to the basic IMRaD structure. The analysis of the content of articles published in journals in Vietnam shows that the weakest point of the researches is that the research methodology section is almost absent. Finally, we propose some solutions to improve scientific editing in Educational science journals in Vietnam to meet international publishing standards.

This study was qualitative content analysis that evaluated the quality of English for University Teaching (EUT), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) textbooks through impressionistic and in-depth analysis. The participants were 9 EAP teachers and 15 EAP students from three universities in Surakarta, Indonesia. Instruments to collect data were checklist and interview guide. The checklist consisted of impressionistic analysis to see (1) cover, (2) content scope, (3) learning activities, (4) book organization, and (5) layout; and the indepth analysis, namely (1) aim and approach, (2) organization design, language and content, (3) language skills, and (4) practical consideration. Data were collected using checklist and Focus Group Discussion. Data were analyzed through summative content analysis with seven stages: transforming data into narrative text, determining unit of analysis, developing categories, coding, coding the entire text, checking consistency of coding, and drawing conclusion. Results show EUT and ESP have low quality based on the impressionistic evaluation, and fair quality of their in-depth evaluation. Both books are register and grammar oriented. EAP textbook is good in general, and very good in depth. EAP presents its contents in terms of genre reading, academic speaking, academic reading, academic writing and grammar.

There is a need to provide 21st century learning through mathematics textbooks. To give valuable input to such an effort, students' perspective needs to be considered since the students are the ones that get impacted from the effort. Therefore, the present study aims to describe students' perspective regarding the effort in integrating 21st century learning and mathematics textbook. The study employed mixed methods with a survey approach to investigate the students' perspective. The findings of this study uncover critical components that should be considered in designing a mathematics textbook for supporting 21st century learning. Based on the findings, a set of recommendations is proposed for a textbook designer. [Paper presented at ISAMME (2nd, 2020).]

Images, such as photographs and diagrams, play an important role in the teaching and learning of science. To optimize student learning, educational science images should be designed to facilitate the cognitive processes relevant to comprehension. One such process is comparison, which involves aligning multiple representations on the basis of their common relational structure. This structural alignment process can be facilitated by cognitive supports that are inherent to an image, including its spatial layout. Yet, little is known about the extent to which students must engage in comparison to learn from science images, and whether widely-used educational materials are conducive to structural alignment. To address these issues, we sampled multiple chapters from each of three popular U.S. middle school life science textbooks. We coded each image for the presence of prompts for comparison using cues within the images and surrounding text. For each image that prompted comparison, we coded whether its layout facilitated relevant structural alignment ("direct" placement of matched pairs) or obscured alignment ("impeded" placement). Overall, we found that comparisons were prompted for more than a third of the images. However, fewer than half of the images that required comparison had a spatial layout that provided strong support for comparison--that is, direct placement of matched objects/parts. We propose that, in concert with other cognitive supports for learning from multiple representations, spatial supports for comparison could be applied broadly to increase the effectiveness of educational science images. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED622772.]