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Association questions (AQs) are a novel form of multiple-choice questions (MCQs). To answer an AQ, learners must recall the concepts denoted by the given terms, affirm their connections, and then select the term with a denotation that is "less connected" with other concepts. This research hypothesizes that the use of AQ tests for reviewing course contents can significantly help learners to assimilate and/or accommodate what was covered in class and to store the resulting cognitive structures in long-term memory (LTM). To test this hypothesis, an educational experiment was conducted. The results showed that the use of optional online AQ tests for reviewing course contents helped with knowledge retention and was especially suitable for learners with medium levels of initial knowledge. AQs are easy to answer and grade. Therefore, it should be worthwhile to use AQ tests for formative assessment whenever AQs can be designed to help learners better understand course contents.

Suppose learners use their free time to go online to review course materials, and they do so by taking optional tests that consist of multiple-choice questions (MCQs). What will happen if, for every practice question, there is always a choice (out of four possible choices) that is marked as "the (current) hot choice?" Will this make any difference in learning effects? To answer this question, an educational experiment was conducted. It was found that "hot designations" helped the experimental group perform significantly better in both the immediate post-test exam and a delayed post-test exam and that learners with higher levels of initial knowledge benefited more from this review strategy. From the results of a follow-up questionnaire and one-on-one interviews, it was found that the proposed review strategy promoted a more thorough thinking style in subjects of the experimental group.

In this paper, we present a decision support system which is based on the transferable belief model (TBM), a model to represent someone's degree of belief based on belief functions. The system performs reasoning and decision making by integrating a system for belief propagation and a system for Bayesian decision analysis. The two subsystems are developed within the framework of the valuation-based systems. They are connected through the pignistic transformation as described in the context of the TBM. The system takes as inputs the user's beliefs and utilities, and suggests either the optimal decision or the optimal sequence of decisions. An example concerning a nuclear waste disposal problem will be given to demonstrate the applicability of the system in a real-world domain.

Suppose learners use their free time to go online to review course materials, and they do so by taking optional tests that consist of multiple‐choice questions (MCQs). What will happen if, for every practice question, there is always a choice (out of four possible choices) that is marked as "the (current) hot choice?" Will this make any difference in learning effects? To answer this question, an educational experiment was conducted. It was found that "hot designations" helped the experimental group perform significantly better in both the immediate post‐test exam and a delayed post‐test exam and that learners with higher levels of initial knowledge benefited more from this review strategy. From the results of a follow‐up questionnaire and one‐on‐one interviews, it was found that the proposed review strategy promoted a more thorough thinking style in subjects of the experimental group. Lay Description: What is already known about the subject matter: There are good reasons why multiple‐choice questions (MCQs) are a popular choice for tests.E‐learning such as game‐based/mobile learning often uses MCQs for formative assessment.The main "problem" with MCQs is that MCQ tests tend to encourage rote learning.It is desirable to use MCQ tests to promote meaningful learning.What this paper adds to the subject matter: An HMCQ is an MCQ with one of its four choices being marked as "the (current) hot choice."The proposed review strategy requires learners to use their free time to do online tests.Learners taking HMCQ tests better retained knowledge than learners taking MCQ tests.Learners with higher levels of initial knowledge benefited most from the HMCQ review strategy.Implications of study findings for practitioners: It should be worthwhile to use HMCQ tests to help learners review course materials.The effect of "hot" designations (in MCQs) on learning still needs to be clearly delineated.Are there other approaches that also go well with "hot" designations (in MCQs)? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major goals of learning is to obtain knowledge and skills. It is therefore of importance to study the following issues: how the online performances of learners may be extracted from their learning portfolios, how their learning motivations can be improved, and whether their learning achievements can be improved as a result. This study extracts online performances from portfolios and shows that there is a positive correlation between online performance and learning achievement. Subjects of the experimental group were teamed by complementation of knowledge, whereas subjects of the control group were teamed by random. Final ANOVA tests showed that there was a significant difference in both online performances and learning achievements. Subjects of the experimental group were better motivated due to complementation of knowledge; this in turn resulted in better online performances and learning achievements for these subjects.Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 22:541-550, 2014; View this article online at ; DOI [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many researchers have studied the use of game-based learning. Game-based learning takes many forms, including virtual reality, role playing, and performing tasks. For students to learn specific course content, it is important that the selected game be suited to the course. Thus far, no studies have investigated the use of game-based cooperative learning in an operating systems course. For this study, an online game was developed to enable students to learn cooperatively. The findings indicate that students' desire to win the game motivates them to learn from online course materials before they play, which in turn can enable them to achieve better learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]