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Purpose This study aims to compare similarities and differences in library and information science (LIS) and non-LIS undergraduates’ conceptions and perceptions of smart libraries via drawing analysis. Design/methodology/approach In this study, a total of 156 undergraduate students described their perceptions of smart libraries as drawings and textual descriptions. A modified coding scheme with 8 categories and 51 subcategories was used to analyse the undergraduate students’ drawings. Findings Most of the undergraduate students’ conceptions of smart libraries still involve self-checkout and learning/reading, focusing on information appliances, technical services, activities and objects. The differences are that the LIS undergraduates’ drawings showed smart libraries with robots, interactive book borrowing with technology tools, intelligent services, location-aware services or mobile applications, whereas non-LIS undergraduates presented smart libraries as readers (learners), other activities and no smart technology services. LIS undergraduates focused on providing patron services with technologies. Non-LIS undergraduates were more likely to draw a complex space with immediate access to books or digital resources, quiet reading and the freedom to engage in library activities. Originality/value The results provide a baseline for future research on the topic and provide preliminary evidence of using the methods to discern LIS and non-LIS undergraduates’ conceptions of smart libraries.

Due to the rapid changes in global economic environments, enterprises have to continually enhance their business competitiveness. To improve business, planning educational training has been regarded as a channel to educate outstanding employees. Recently, most of the companies in the securities industry in Taiwan have adopted web-based educational training as a form of employee training. However, low e-learning acceptance on the part of employees is the essential obstacle when enterprises attempt to promote web-based continuing learning. Previous studies have shown that hardiness and Internet self-efficacy may be important factors that influence whether an individual will continue with web-based learning when facing pressure. Securities practitioners are required to deal with high pressure and persist in enhancing their professional knowledge in their working environment; therefore, continuing learning is crucial to maintaining the quality of professional service. The present study recruited securities practitioners as the research participants, and examined the effects of hardiness and Internet self-efficacy on their attitudes towards web-based learning when they were participating in web-based learning. The findings revealed that securities practitioners’ hardiness and Internet self-efficacy both had direct positive effects on their attitudes towards web-based continuing learning. Meanwhile, their Internet self-efficacy had a mediating effect on the relationships between hardiness and attitudes towards web-based continuing learning.

Researchers have pointed out the important role of self-regulation in learning. The self-regulated learning (SRL) process consists of three stages (i.e. forethought, performance, and self-reflectio...

Purpose This study aims to investigate the influences of task-technology fit on university students’ attitudes towards ubiquitous library-supported learning when they use a mobile library app, Line@Library. Design/methodology/approach In this study, structural equation modelling to examine 158 valid questionnaires are used. The study aims to examine the effects of task-technology fit (TTF) on university students’ attitudes towards mobile learning (AML) when using Line@Library. Findings The results show that task-technology fit is an important role that influences the students’ attitudes towards mobile learning. The factor “technology characteristics” is considered when the students attempted to use the mobile app to solve problems or complete tasks. This study also found that the students responded with positive perceptions of the task-technology fit and had positive perceptions of its ease of use. Furthermore, usefulness, ease of use and affection of AML were found to be the most influential predictors of mobile library adoption intention. Originality/value From the perspective of learners, this study investigates the relationships of the combination of social media and a mobile library between TTF and AML. This study further found that not only ease of use, usefulness and affection but also task-technology fit can be a predictor that influences students’ attitudes towards mobile learning.

The aim of this study was to develop a badminton teaching system using the wearable technology for improving badminton teaching and learning. This system can provide the similarity scores automatically by comparing a student’s movement and strength while playing badminton with a well-trained expert model. A quasi-experiment was conducted for eight weeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed system. A paired-sample t-test was analyzed to evaluate whether there is a significant difference between the pretest and posttest for the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG) respectively. Also, an independent sample t test was utilized to compare the posttests between EG and CG. The results show that the badminton teaching system developed in this study could enhance the learning effectiveness of novice badminton learners. The results not only show that applying wearable technology, the Myo armband, can benefit learners’ badminton training, but also can demonstrate the importance of providing instant and adaptive feedback in motor skill learning.

Highly cited articles have been revealed as being informative for research fields, topics, and trends. Through reading highly cited articles, researchers can gain fruitful results from previous stu...

Previous studies have shown the effectiveness of students’ Internet self-efficacy, and identified its relationship with their academic learning performance. In addition, researchers have indicated the importance of investigating students’ cognitive and metacognitive performance in their online learning, especially in their online information searching experience and information judgements. In this study, the exploration of students’ online information searching experience and information judgements was conducted. Two instruments were adopted; one is related to online information searching experience, and the other is about online information judgements. The survey was responded to by 583 volunteer university students. There were five factors included in the online information searching experience survey, that is, information searching, source organization, online communication, metacognition, and academic self-efficacy; six factors including multiple sources, authority, content, interactive interface, elaboration, and matching were classified in the information judgements survey. The structural equation model results showed that students would take into account both sophisticated (e.g., multiple source and content) and simple information evaluation standards (e.g., authority and interactive interface) when searching for information on the Internet. On the other hand, the students’ source organizing experience and content evaluation standard are positively correlated to their searching strategy: elaboration. However, the result also found some less sophisticated behaviors, that is, a positive correlation between online communication and the searching strategy, matching. The findings of this study provide a good reference for university teachers who intend to conduct information searching activities in their courses.

Owing to physical or mental disabilities, disabled students often come across more difficulties in learning. In an effort to improve their learning, researchers have adopted technology-supported tools to enhance disabled students’ adaptability to the learning environment and their learning achievement. The application of technology-supported special education has gradually increased in recent years. However, there is still a lack of investigation and analysis of the application and development trends of integrating technologies into special education. The aim of the present study was therefore to review technology-supported special education research articles by taking multiple dimensions into account, such as learning devices, learning strategies, learning domains and research issues, research subjects, types and level of disabilities, and learning environments. Based on the results, the number of studies has increased year by year, and the choice of learning devices and applications has become increasingly diverse; yet, the learning strategies still tend to be conservative since the majority of studies adopted the guided learning strategy. In addition, the application of technology has expanded to every learning domain, but is mainly focused on elementary school students and resource classrooms. Most importantly, the implementation of technology-supported special education tends not to result in teaching difficulties due to disabled students having different types and levels of disabilities. Further discussion and suggestions based on the findings can serve as a reference for teachers and researchers in special education.

Highly cited papers can be representative of the latest changes in specific research issues, as they reflect the important issues or research trends that researchers have paid attention to recently. Through reading highly cited papers, researchers can identify some important issues for consideration in their own research, which can then catch other researchers? eyes easily and efficiently. In order to explore the feature of the latest changes in mobile learning, in this study, a review of the top 100 highly cited mobile learning papers was conducted. According to the review, four advantages were identified from the highly cited mobile learning studies: proposing new learning strategies, applying mobile learning to seldom-considered subjects, applying mobile learning to seldom-investigated domains and investigating seldom-discussed issues. It was found that the studies focused more on comparing different mobile learning modes for finding more effective mobile learning approaches rather than comparing the impacts of mobile learning with traditional instruction. Moreover, the studies focused more on learners? higher order thinking performance and learning behaviors. Some suggestions, differing from those presented by previous mobile learning reviews, are provided as reference for researchers to conduct related research. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic Mobile learning has been regarded as a tool for improving learners? learning and bridging students? learning in class and in the field. Research trends can be highlighted and provide a more accurate view of the publication patterns. Highly cited papers can be used to identify the advance of the research foci. What this paper adds Most highly cited studies mainly focused on comparing the different mobile learning modes to find more effective approaches for conducting mobile learning activities. The mobile learning places have changed from classrooms to real-world contexts; in addition, the number of across-context studies is increasing. The highly cited papers started to focus more on learners? higher-order thinking performance and learning behaviors. Implications for practice and/or policy Researchers can consider proposing new learning strategies, applying mobile learning to seldom-considered subjects, applying mobile learning to seldom-investigated domains, and investigating seldom-discussed issues. Adopting mixed methods is becoming the mainstream of mobile learning studies. Several seldom-discussed issues, such as higher order thinking, collaboration/communication skills, and learning behaviors are potential mobile learning research topics.

This study reviewed the published papers on the flipped classroom in nursing education from 2010 to 2017, and tabulated the collected data from various aspects: “before-class stage/ in-class stage/ after-class stage learning strategies,” “application domains,” “research issues,” “participants,” “research methods,” and “nationalities” based on a theoretical framework. It was found that basic level of flipped classroom mode was frequently used in nurse education; that is, guiding students to watch instructional videos before class, and conducted discussion or practicing in the class. On the other hand, several effective strategies, such as Mindtools and game-based learning, were seldom adopted; in addition, several important educational issues, such as learning behavior, were not investigated in flipped nursing education research. It was also found that most of the studies did not design after-class activities to engage students in organizing and applying what they had learned from multiple units in...

In this study, we systematically reviewed the experimental mobile learning studies published in 2010–2016. Moreover, the activity theory framework was adopted to investigate the insights and trends of mobile learning. That is, the dimensions of context, tools, control, communication, subjects and objectives were employed to analyze the studies. It was found that most experimental mobile learning studies engaged students in real-world contexts, and the activities were conducted based on the existing school curriculums. This means that researchers and school teachers noted the value of situating students in meaningful learning by helping them link what they had learned from the textbooks to real-world scenarios or daily life environments. In the meantime, the studies frequently involved the students in actively using mobile systems with communication facilities to acquire knowledge via interacting with peers, events, and specified real-world learning targets in the environment. On one hand, many researchers proposed to raise students' motivation; on the other hand, they expected to observe more of what the learners, particularly novices and low-achievement students, had done when observing their past interactions. Even so, it was found that mobile devices were considered a main way of allowing students to acquire self-learning materials rather than only mediation learning across contexts. As the current studies can be considered to contain blended rather than purely self-paced learning, there is still a large space for mobile learning progress and development.

In this study, a review of technology-enhanced chemistry experiment learning was conducted. The selected studies were published in SSCI journals from 1993 to 2018, and a coding scheme was employed that included types of technology, roles of technology, learning domains, learning places and participants. From the review results, it was found that researchers frequently employed personal computers in their studies and applied technology to deliver learning knowledge to students. On the other hand, studies were frequently conducted in Inorganic Chemistry courses in the classroom. In addition, the participants in the studies were generally senior high school and higher education students. According to the review, it was found that most of the studies employed technologies for lower level implementation that is, providing supplementary materials for students. They rarely discussed the effects of technology on providing students with learning guidance or helping students solving complex problems. Accordingly, the research trends and potential research issues of technology-enhanced chemistry experiment learning are proposed as a reference for researchers, instructors and policy makers.

Educators have indicated that a good flipped learning design has the potential to enable teachers to use the class time effectively for conducting higher-order thinking activities and enhancing the...

In the past decades, the issues related to mobile learning have been widely discussed around the globe; however, the development and trends of applying mobile technologies in nursing education still lack systematic analysis. In this study, a meta review of the studies published in academic journals from 1971 to 2016 was conducted to analyze the application domains, subjects, adopted learning strategies, investigated research issues and findings of mobile technology-supported nursing education. From the review results, it was found that the use of mobile technologies in nursing education and training have made great progress in the past decades. In addition to the changes in mobile technologies and the increasing number of mobile learning studies in nursing education, the subjects and research issues have also become more diverse in recent years. It was also found that mobile learning has mainly been applied to the training of basic nursing concepts and skills as well as to long-term care and obstetrics and gynecology, while few or even no studies are related to other nursing education domains. In addition, several widely adopted mobile learning strategies, such as inquiry-based learning, contextual mobile learning, snychronous sharing, Mindtools, project-based learning and peer assessment, have seldom been adopted in mobile nursing education. This also reflects the fact that most of these studies focused on skills training and basic knowledge comprehension, while few were conducted in the domains aimed at fostering learners' higher order thinking competences, such as problem solving or critical thinking. On the other hand, it was found that the number of studies using an experimental design has increased in recent years; moreover, most studies reported the learners’ cognitive performance and perceptions, while their learning behaviors were seldom analyzed. Accordingly, the research trends and potential research issues of mobile nursing education are proposed as a reference for researchers, instructors and policy makers.

In this study, a one-year program was conducted to investigate the relationships between students’ perceptions of mobile learning and their tendencies of peer interaction and higher-order thinking in issue-based mobile learning activities. To achieve the research objective, a survey consisting of eight scales, namely, usability, continuity, adaptive content, collaboration, communication, problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity, was developed. A total of 658 students from 38 high schools in Taiwan filled in the questionnaire after experiencing issue-based mobile learning activities. From the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, it was found that the questionnaire had high reliability and validity. The structural equation model further revealed that the provision of adaptive content in the mobile learning had positive impacts on the students’ tendency to interact with peers (i.e., collaboration and communication), which further affected their tendency to engage in higher-order thinking (i.e., problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity). The findings of this study provide a good reference for researchers and school teachers who intend to promote mobile learning in school settings.

Scholars have indicated the importance of considering anxiety in language learning. They have also pointed out the potential of integrating learning content into gaming contexts. However, few have explored in-depth the learning processes in game-based learning environments while also taking students' learning anxiety into account. To address this issue, a problem-based English listening game was developed, and 77 ninth graders took part in the study by playing the game. A quasi-experiment was conducted to evaluate students' learning achievement, learning motivation and English anxiety. In addition, progressive sequential analysis was employed to explore the learning behavioral patterns of students with different levels of English anxiety. According to the three learning phases, it was found that the gaming approach benefited the students' learning achievement and motivation. Moreover, the students with higher levels of English anxiety progressively performed more complex learning and gaming behaviors in the gaming context, and had better learning achievement than those with lower levels of anxiety.

Most university degrees often require students to demonstrate proficiency in mathematics, which is the basic requirement in many fields, such as science, engineering, or technology. Mathematical knowledge is so common as to be essential in higher education. Although mathematical skills are crucial to the success of study in many domains, a large number of students are not willing to study related courses. Anxiety and pressure triggered by previous failures in mathematic learning are considered as the reason. The online learning environment provides students with opportunities to exchange opinions with others and facilitate their self-regulated learning. Scholars believe that the learning performances of students can be enhanced if they make reference to other students' learning strategies during the study process. The practice of making references to other students' learning strategies and mutually monitoring each other during the study process is called social regulation. The study efficiency of social regulation in learning mathematics will need to be verified. This study has adopted a social regulation-based online learning approach for assisting students in achieving learning goals with peers' power. At the same time, this study conducted an experiment with an experimental group and a control group. The social regulation-based online learning approach was used by the experimental group while the conventional self-regulated learning approach was used by the control group. According to the results, the social regulation-based online learning approach enhances students' learning achievements and learning motivations in mathematics. Based on the results of the sequential pattern analysis for investigating the online learning behaviors of the two groups of students, students who use the social regulation-based online learning approach have more positive online learning behaviors, such as reading the supplementary materials regarding the wrongly answered questions and revising the notes. On the contrary, students who use the conventional self-regulated learning approach only pay attention to the results of tests and feedback provided by their teacher. They seldom have behaviors of looking at the supplementary materials, adding or deleting notes. With the above verification, the developed system of this study not only enhances students’ learning performances, but also guides them to have more meaningful learning behaviors in mathematics.

The flipped classroom is a well-recognized learning mode that enables effective practice and interactions among teachers and students in the class by switching the in-class instructional time and out-of-class practicing time. However, owing to their lack of self-regulated competence, most students might fail to browse and comprehend the instructional materials out of class by themselves. In this paper, a self-regulated flipped classroom approach is proposed to help students schedule their out-of-class time to effectively read and comprehend the learning content before class, such that they are capable of interacting with their peers and teachers in class for in-depth discussions. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experimental design was employed in an elementary school Mathematics course. The experimental group students learned with the self-regulated flipped classroom approach, while the control group students learned with the conventional flipped classroom approach. The study was conducted using a quantitative approach. The instruments used were a performance test, and questionnaires of self-efficacy and self-regulation. The experimental results indicated that the post-test score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. It was also found that the higher self-regulation students showed significantly different learning achievements when learning with different approaches, while there was no significant difference between lower self-regulation students with the different learning approaches. Moreover, the experimental group showed significantly higher self-efficacy than the control group. In addition, the learning log analysis results further showed that, conforming to the objective of the self-regulated strategy, the students would determine the goals for the next learning phase based on their current performance. To sum up, the findings of this study indicate that integrating the self-regulated strategy into flipped learning can improve students' self-efficacy as well as their strategies of planning and using study time, and hence they can learn effectively and have better learning achievements. A self-regulated flipped classroom approach was proposed.The approach helped students effectively schedule their out-of-class time.An experiment was conducted in an elementary school math course.The approach improved the students' learning achievement, self-efficacy and self-regulation.The approach helped the students determine learning goals and performance.

Mobile technology has been increasingly applied to educational settings in the past decade. Although researchers have attempted to investigate both students’ and teachers’ preferences regarding mobile learning, few studies have investigated the differences between the two, an understanding of which is important for developing effective mobile learning environments. To address this issue, a mobile learning environmental preference survey (MLEPS) consisting of eight factors, “ease of use,” “continuity,” “relevance,” “adaptive content,” “multiple sources,” “timely guidance,” “student negotiation” and “inquiry learning,” was developed in this study. A total of 1239 students (609 males and 630 females) and 429 teachers (208 males and 221 females) who employed mobile technology to learn and teach in schools completed the questionnaire. From the structural equation models, it was found that the major difference between the preferences of teachers and students in learning with mobile technologies was that the teachers tended to focus more on the technical issues, while the students cared more about the richness and usefulness of the learning content. In addition, both the students and teachers considered that the “anytime” and “anywhere” support provided via the mobile technology played an important role during the learning activities, engaging them in searching for information, collecting data, interpreting data and summarizing findings. It is therefore suggested that learning environments which conform to both students’ and teachers’ preferences be developed in the future.

Peer assessment has been regarded as an effective strategy that encourages students to compare and make reflections by reviewing peers' work. Many studies have indicated that students' learning performance improved as a result of integrating the peer assessment mode. Some researchers have been interested in what students do and what they say during peer assessment, and others have also been concerned about the correlation between the qualitative content and students' learning performance. The aim of this study was to investigate students' peer assessment behaviors, and the relationship between their behaviors and their learning performance. Therefore, an online peer assessment learning platform was developed and integrated into a musical theater course in a university in Taiwan. There were three peer assessment modes, namely peer scoring, peer commenting, and peer scoring and commenting. Three classes of students each used one of the three different peer assessment modes. The experimental results showed that the students who learned with the peer scoring and commenting mode improved their musical theater performance; in addition, they provided more critical feedback and performed more behaviors of reading the rubrics, watching example videos, watching peers' work, and reading peers' feedback. Students who learned with the peer scoring mode performed more repeated behaviors of evaluating peers' works, but few behaviors related to viewing others' comments or reading the rubrics were found. Lastly, the students who learned with the peer commenting mode did not perform better compared with those who learned with the other two modes. However, their learning motivation was the highest, and they performed more behaviors of viewing peers' feedback and peers' works. This indicates that the students who learned with the peer commenting mode focused more on the feedback provided by their peers. To sum up, the integrated peer assessment mode that guided students to score and provide comments was an effective learning approach that improved their musical theater skills and led them to perform more complex behaviors than the other two peer assessment modes (i.e., peer scoring or peer commenting). The major contribution of the present study is to perceive peer assessment from the perspectives of both performance and behaviors. Moreover, the findings can be generalized to other courses that engage students in similar forms of assessment where they are viewing videos of each other's practical performance.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) has been recognised by educators as an important educational objective in the 21st century. It provides a new vision of education by encouraging school teachers to engage students in problem-solving, critical-thinking and creative-thinking tasks using the knowledge and skills learned from multiple disciplines. While the effectiveness of STEM has been recognised by educators, the challenges of applying it to school settings have also been indicated, such as the difficulties in designing cross-disciplinary tasks and measuring students' learning performances. Mobile and ubiquitous technologies have been regarded as a potential facilitator which enables learners to learn across contexts with access to learning resources in anywhere and at any time. The use of these new technologies could provide new perspectives and opportunities for developing STEM activities and studies. This paper highlights the challenges as well as the strategies for implementing STEM activities in school settings and designing STEM research. It proposes several models for guiding researchers and schoolteachers to develop STEM learning design are proposed. In addition, it provides several strategies and measuring tools for developing in-depth experimental STEM studies.

Objective: Because the number of long-term survivors of colorectal cancer has increased, second primary cancer has become an important issue. However, previous studies were heterogeneous in design, and few data for Asia-Pacific area were available. Methods: This was a retrospective population-based study conducted using the national database of the Taiwan Cancer Registry. Patients who have histology-proven primary colon cancer and rectal cancer from 1995 to 2005 were enrolled in this study. All second primary cancer events had to be histology proven. The standardized incidence ratio of second primary cancer was used as an indicator. Standardized incidence ratio was counted as the number of observed second primary cancer divided by the expected number of cancer cases in the general population. Results: A total of 65 648 eligible index patients were enrolled, and 3810 second primary cancer events were identified. The standardized incidence ratio for all of the patients was 1.03 (95% confidence interval: 0.99–1.06), which implied that the risk of second primary cancer was not significantly elevated in the index patients compared with that of the general population. The standardized incidence ratio for the patients aged 70 years was 2.52 (95% confidence interval: 2.28– 2.78), 1.18 (95% confidence interval: 1.12–1.23) and 0.80 (95% confidence interval: 0.76–0.84), respectively. In young patients (aged

The flipped classroom has been recognized by educators as an innovative and effective instructional approach. It totally overthrows traditional instruction by switching in-class instruction time with at-home practicing time. While the effectiveness of the flipped room has been identified, the challenges of applying it to school settings have also been pointed out, such as the need for effective in-class learning designs and the necessity of helping students learn across at-home and in-school contexts. In this paper, the challenges as well as the definition, characteristics, and educational objectives of flipped learning are introduced; moreover, the seamless flipped learning model is proposed by integrating the features of mobile and wireless communication technologies into the flipped classroom model to provide a guide for researchers and educators to develop effective flipped learning activities and plans for helping students learn seamlessly across contexts.

Background. Many studies have shown that type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) increases the risk for several types of cancer but not cervical cancer (CC). Although DM and insulin-like growth factor 1 have preclinical and clinical implications for CC, less is known about the prognostic impact of DM on patients with early stage CC. Patients and Methods. We used the nationwide Taiwan Cancer Registry database to collect the characteristics of stage I–IIA cervical cancer patients diagnosed between 2004 and 2008. DM and other comorbidities were retrieved from the National Health Insurance database. Cervical cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) times of patients according to DM status were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. We used a Cox proportional hazards model to calculate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for the effects of DM and other risk factors on mortality. Results. A total of 2,946 patients had primary stage I–IIA CC and received curative treatments, and 284 (9.6%) had DM. The 5-year CSS and OS rates for patients with DM were significantly lower than those without DM (CSS: 85.4% vs. 91.5%; OS: 73.9% vs. 87.9%). After adjusting for clinicopathologic variables and comorbidities, DM remained an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for CSS (adjusted HR: 1.46) and OS (adjusted HR: 1.55). Conclusion. In Asian patients with early cervical cancer, DM is an independent unfavorable prognostic factor influencing both OS and CSS, even after curative treatments. Implications for Practice: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) increases the incidence of several types of cancer but not cervical cancer (CC); however, less is known about the impact of DM on patients who already have CC. This study suggests that DM may increase the risk of cancer recurrence and death for early stage CC patients, even after curative treatments. Incorporating DM control should be considered part of the continuum of care for early stage CC patients, and close surveillance during routine follow-up in this population is recommended.

Engaging students in higher order thinking such as evaluation and analysis has been recognized as being an important strategy for helping them develop knowledge and skills, in particular, in creativeness-oriented learning activities such as artwork design. In this paper, an interactive peer-assessment criteria development approach is proposed to help students develop assessment criteria, learn from viewing peers' work, and make reflections in artwork design activities using mobile devices. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted in an elementary school art course. A total of 103 students participating in the experiment were assigned to an experimental group and a control group. The students in the experimental group learned with the proposed approach, while those in the control group learned with the conventional peer assessment approach. From the experimental results, it was found that the proposed approach significantly improved the students' learning achievement, learning motivation and meta-cognitive awareness, suggesting the effectiveness of engaging students in assessment criteria development in an interactive manner. An interactive peer-assessment criteria development approach is proposed.An experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of the new approach.The approach has been applied to an elementary school art course.The approach improved the students' learning achievement and leaning motivation.The approach also improved the students' and critical thinking performance.

In this study, a spreadsheet-based visualized Mindtool was developed for improving students’ learning performance when finding relationships between numerical variables by engaging them in reasoning and decision-making activities. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted on the “phenomena of climate on earth” unit of an elementary school geography course. The experimental results showed that the spreadsheet-based visualized Mindtool significantly benefited the students in terms of improving their learning achievement and promoting their learning attitudes and satisfaction. Moreover, the cognitive load of the students was significantly decreased, indicating the effectiveness of this approach in helping students comprehend, learn content and organize their knowledge. To further investigate the learning behaviors of high-achievement and low-achievement students in using the spreadsheet-based Mindtool, a learning pattern analysis was conducted by coding the students’...

In this study, mobile learning preferences of high school teachers who teach language and science courses are compared by employing a survey consisting of the "ease of use," "continuity," "relevance," "adaptive content," "multiple sources," "timely guidance," "student negotiation" and "inquiry learning" dimensions. A total of 42 language teachers (e.g. Chinese, English, and Japanese) and 41 science teachers (e.g. Physic, chemistry, biology, and earth science) who had participated a survey. According to the independent t-test result, it was found that the preference of "adaptive content" of the language teachers was significantly higher than the science teachers. On the other hand, the preference of "student negotiation" and "inquiry learning" of the science teachers were significant higher than the language teachers. That is, the language teachers showed more need for adaptive content during their teaching, while the science teachers paid more attention to student interactions and inquiry learning. This suggests that, for different courses and the teachers with different backgrounds, the focuses of developing mobile learning environments need to be adapted.

During the process of promoting mobile learning on a large scale, despite cultivating teachers' ability to design mobile learning activities, many details in their practices will affect the promotion results of mobile learning. In Taiwan, teachers usually need to spend much time on managing and maintaining the mobile devices purchased by the schools, which could significantly decrease their willingness to participate in mobile learning programs. To cope with these problems, the Prepare Your Own devices and Determination (PYOD) is proposed and implemented in the Taiwan mobile learning promotion program for high schools. In this paper, the implementation levels of mobile learning in the selected high schools are analysed and reported. It is found that PYOD has been well accepted and implemented by most schools; moreover, following the proposed mobile learning model and strategies, many schools have reached the implementation level that engages students in higher order thinking.

In this study, a long term mobile learning program was conducted and a survey was developed to explore the effects of mobile learning on five 21st century core competences, that is, collaboration, communication, complex problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity, using a sample of 606 high school students from 10 high schools in Taiwan. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to show that the survey had high reliability and validity. The independent-sample t-test results further showed that the students who spent a longer time on mobile learning activities revealed significantly better communication, complex problem-solving and creativity competences. That is, engaging more in mobile learning activities could benefit the students more in terms of their communication, complex problem-solving and creativity.

We established a population-based cohort of patients who received curative surgery for stage I, II, or III colorectal cancer. Among 17,115 patients included in this study, we found that statin use was an independent predictor for longer cancer-specific survival and overall survival in multivariate analysis after adjusting for other potential prognostic factors. These associations were consistent across subgroups. Background: Statins are widely used for hyperlipidemia control and might also exhibit anticancer properties. This study explored whether statin use is associated with the prognosis of curatively resected colorectal cancer (CRC). Materials and Methods: Using data from the Taiwan Cancer Registry, we established a population-based cohort of patients who received curative surgery for stage I, II, or III CRC. Data related to prescription medications and comorbidities were retrieved from the database of the National Health Insurance program of Taiwan. Statin users were defined as patients who had used statins within 1 year before their cancer diagnosis. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) between statin users and patients who had never used statins (never users). In the multivariate analysis, we used propensity scores to adjust for age, sex, diagnosis year, physician visits, hospitalization, conjunctive medications, and comorbidities. Results: A total of 17,115 patients were enrolled; 2145 (13%) of these patients were statin users, and 14,970 (87%) were never users. After adjusting for other potential prognostic factors, statin use was an independent predictor for longer CSS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.68-0.88; P < .001) and OS (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.74-0.92; P < .001). These associations were consistent across subgroups, including sexes, tumor stages, and age cohorts, and in CRC patients who suffered from diabetes and hypertension. Conclusion: Statin use is associated with an improved prognosis of curatively resected CRC.

1076 Background: Adding bevacizumab (Bev) to chemotherapy (CT) improved the objective response rate and progression free survival (PFS) in many randomized controlled trials (RCTs), but the magnitud...

3554 Background: Statins are frequently used for the control of hyperlipidemia. Statins have multiple anti-cancer properties and may be associated with lower CRC risks among their users. This study tries to go a step further and explores whether statin use affects the prognosis of curatively resected CRC. Methods: We established a population cohort with patients (age ≥ 40 y) who were diagnosed as having stage I or II CRC from 2004 to 2008 and received curative surgery from the database of Taiwan Cancer Registry. Data of medication prescription and co-morbidities were retrieved from the database of National Health Insurance, Taiwan. Regular statin use was defined as taking statins for > 180 days within the observation period from one year before the cancer diagnosis to one year afterward. The database of National Death Registry was used for survival outcomes. Another similar cohort consisting of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was used for comparison. Results: In total, 10762 patients with CRC were enrolled; 891 (8%) patients were regular stain users, 812 (8%) patients took statins but were not regular users, and 9059 (84%) patients never used statins. Regular statin users, compared to never users, were more likely to be female (p < 0.001), older (p < 0.001), have stage I disease (p < 0.001) and co-morbidities such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, and renal disease. Adjuvant therapy was less frequently administered in regular statin users. In univariate analysis, cancer-specific survival (CSS) of regular stating users was significantly longer than that of never users (5-y CSS, 87% vs. 84%, p = 0.022), but overall survival (OS) was not significantly different (5-y OS, 80% vs. 77%, p = 0.156). In multivariate analysis adjusting for age, gender, stage, adjuvant therapy, co-morbidities, and the use of aspirin, regular stating use was an independent predictor both for better CSS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.72, p < 0.001) and for better OS (HR 0.71, p< 0.001). In contrast, no associations were found between statin use and CSS or OS in the HCC comparison cohort. Conclusions: Regular statin use was associated with better prognosis in CRC patients who received curative therapy. (This study was supported by grants DOH-101-TD-B-111-001 and DOH-102-TD-B-111-001).

e14533 Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers. Because of the increase in long survivors of CRC, second primary cancer (SPC) became a major issue. Methods: We searched the database of Taiwan Cancer Registry for patients who have histology-proven primary colon cancer or rectal cancer from 1995 to 2005. We observed SPC events which had to be histology-proven except for liver cancers until 2009. We calculated the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs), which were the numbers of observed SPC events divided by the expected numbers of cancers occurrences in general population. Results: A total of 65,648 patients were enrolled. With median follow-up of 4.4 years, 3,810 SPC events were identified. In the entire cohort, the SIR was 1.03 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.99-1.06). Patients who aged < 50 and 50-69 years had significantly increased SIRs of 2.52 (95% CI: 2.28-2.78) and 1.18 (95% CI: 1.12-1.23), respectively. For young patients who aged < 50 years, the significantly increase...

e16501 Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) has been associated with increased incidence and poor prognosis of several cancers such as colon, liver, and breast cancer. However, the impact of DM on su...