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This study aims to see the effect of student perceptions on web-based character assessment on the results of student character assessment. The population in this study was a junior high school in Batanghari Regency with a sample of 322 students using the purposive sampling technique. Quantitative methods are used in this study with descriptive and inferential analysis methods to obtain assumption tests (normality, homogeneity, and linearity) and hypothesis testing (ANOVA and Linear Regression). The results of this study indicate that the perception of male and female students on web-based character assessment affects the results of character assessment. A linear regression test results show a significance value of 0.001 for both sexes. This is a supporting indicator in implementing web-based assessments apart from the real-time benefits and swift feedback. Therefore, web-based character assessment is suitable for use in learning, as indicated by good student perceptions of the application of the web-based character assessment.

The last two decades have seen the growing adoption of mobile devices to enhance the quality of teachers' continuous professional development (TCPD) in low-income countries. Using mobile devices, typically not designed for educational use, presents new usability challenges, preventing teachers from effectively accessing learning materials in learning management systems (LMS). Therefore, it is important to test usability to improve the delivery of TCPD via mobile devices. This study evaluated the usability of TCPD-focused mobile-based LMS accessed via a mobile web browser and mobile app. The evaluation used a hybrid think-aloud method involving 63 teachers from 12 schools in Tanzania. Half of the schools were evaluated using a concurrent think-aloud method, and the other half using a retrospective think-aloud method. The study found that teachers encountered many usability problems in using the mobile app compared to those who accessed the LMS via mobile web browsers. The study also found usability flaws in the registration and login process, poor language translation, technical errors, and issues with quiz questions. These findings show the importance of user testing, even for well-developed LMS, such as Moodle. Additionally, this work provides useful guidance for those who want to implement mobile learning via an LMS in low-income countries.

Background: The medical information about anemia prevention produced by health-care professionals is difficult to understand because of its complicated terminology. Purpose: To evaluate quantitatively for the first time the clarity of existing online information about anemia prevention in Japanese. Methods: On January 20, 2023, we used the keyword "anemia" to evaluate 200 websites, followed by use of the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Printable Materials (PEMAT-P) and the Clear Communication Index (CCI) to evaluate understandability and actionability. The PEMAT-P and CCI were both evaluated as excellent in terms of understandability and actionability, with cutoff values of 70% or higher and 90% or higher, respectively. We also evaluated readability using jReadability and quality using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Benchmark Criteria and The Global Quality Scale (GQS). Results: The PEMAT-P scores for understandability and actionability exceeded the cutoff value in 59 (29.5%) and 36 cases (18.0%), respectively, while the CCI exceeded the cutoff value in two cases (1.0%). With respect to web pages, nine (4.5%) were considered "readable" and 96 (48.0%) "neutral." Discussion: These findings suggest that websites on anemia in Japanese have poor "understandability," "actionability," and "readability," and are therefore inaccessible to the general public. Translation to Health Education Practice: Improving existing anemia websites using indicators such as the PEMAT-P could improve behaviors related to anemia prevention.

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as a pandemic on 11 March 2020, and educational institutions have had to modify most of their activities (face-to-face activities were suspended). This situation forced academic institutions to modify the evaluation format of students. The use of proctoring systems quickly became widespread, although some controversies arose. The two main discussions regarding these systems are the integrity of the assessment and the capacity of the students to adapt to this new assessment method, without changes in theirs scores. To elucidate two controversies, we have analyzed the preferences and the scores obtained from a trial of 660 scores from 332 students of the third grade of Veterinary Medicine. The experiment involved three modalities of exam: an online format from home using the Respondus Lockdown Browser system (Modality 1), online in person using the Respondus Lockdown Browser system with the supervision of a teacher (Modality 2), or paper format in person with the supervision of a teacher (Modality 3). The results obtained showed that the students preferred Modality 1 (online at home with Respondus Lockdown Browser system). No statistical differences between the scores obtained by students were found between the three modalities analyzed. The proctoring system is a good method to adjudicate exams in higher education institutions, and the scores of students are similar to those obtained through traditional evaluation and control systems.

This paper serves two purposes. First, it offers an overview of the role of the Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) in representing mathematical notation on the Web, and its significance for accessibility. To orient the discussion, hypotheses are advanced regarding users' needs in connection with the accessibility of mathematical notation. Second, current developments in the evolution of MathML are reviewed, noting their consequences for accessibility, and commenting on prospects for future improvement in the concrete experiences of users of assistive technologies. Recommendations are advanced for further research and development activities, emphasizing the cognitive aspects of user interface design.

A browser-based system to facilitate practice in asking and answering simple questions in English was developed. The user may ask or answer by speaking or typing, and the computer's output is in the form of speech and/or text. The types of questions handled and the permitted vocabulary are limited, though the vocabulary items may be edited freely. The system was well received in a small pilot study among Japanese students. It is freely-available for download, and requires no technical expertise to deploy, just the facilities and ability to edit text files and upload to the internet.

To be literate in a society where the information shared online is often exploited, learners should be exposed to multiple aspects of contemporary predictive modeling. This article explores an activity in which grade 10 students learned how a famous AI algorithm (the Apriori algorithm) uses conditional probability to automate the process of recommending content. Then, in the conclusion, the author offers ways to extend that knowledge by teaching students that when they use social media to sign up to various websites (e.g., using Facebook to sign up for Amazon), they often give both platforms permission to exchange their personal information (e.g., shopping patterns and browser histories). Therefore, social media sites such as Facebook can exploit the information from other sites to perform tailored ad campaigns. This lesson is not designed to introduce the concept of conditional probability; rather, these activities offer students opportunities to apply their skills to real-life situations. Students should have a working knowledge of probability before attempting these activities.

Understanding simple electric DC circuits often represents a great challenge to many students in lower secondary schools. As a result, students' knowledge of this subject is often dominated by alternative conceptions, even after instruction. One of the reasons for these learning difficulties is the intangibility of key physical quantities and concepts of electric circuits such as the electric potential or the electric current. A potentially effective way of making circuits more accessible to students in introductory electricity lessons represents the use of analogies or models. However, as a brief review shows, there is no single analogy or model that is ideally suited to foster an understanding of all key aspects of simple DC circuits. In order to address this issue and help learners develop a mental model of circuits, a new analogical simulation of simple electric circuits was developed. The simulation is suited for use in combination with the bike chain and the air pressure analogy and aims to support students' development of a qualitative understanding of potential difference and current in circuits as well as a treatment of circuits as a connected system. Teachers and students can access the 3D simulation free of charge using a modern browser via www.marblemodel.com.

This study focuses on prospective instructional designers' perception toward creating online courses including which elements are essential for developing such platforms. The study is significant for revealing what the prospective instructional designers focus on while they design certain learning opportunities. The participants of the study were the "Computer Education and Instructional Technology (CEIT)" students from a university in Turkey (n = 133) ranging from freshman to senior grades. Since the study aimed to obtain data to determine specific characteristics of a group, a non-experimental survey research design was employed. The participants were asked to assess the importance of fifteen online course elements (such as texts and videos). Afterwards, the participants were provided with seventeen sentences to reveal their thorough perceptions toward designing online courses. The study identified that the participants value feedback mechanism (M = 4.69) at the most. The participants believed that the type of web browsers (M = 4.50), the course login system (M = 4.48), emailing tools (M = 4.42), texts (M = 4.32) and pictures (M = 4.22) are fundamental elements of any online course. The study revealed that prospective instructional designers for online platforms were furnished themselves with the essence of offering online instructional activities. In this study as an example of gender related study, the significant differences on study items were found between males and females participants in terms of their perceptions on online courses. The results showed that voice mechanism was more important for female participants than male and female participants were logically-oriented and visual learners' during the entire online session.

Children conducting searches using the interfaces of library websites often encounter obstacles due to typographical errors, digital divides, or a failure to grasp keywords. Satisfaction with a given interface may also vary according to the gender of the user, making it a variable in information seeking behavior. Children benefit more from graphical information than text-based information with regard to learning. This study analyzed existing websites of public libraries to identify the issues facing children while using the interfaces. Based on these findings, we developed a graphical interface that children would find friendlier. In an evaluation of the proposed interface, girls presented a significantly higher success rate, compared to that of boys. We can therefore conclude that gender differences exist in the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed interface. Qualitative observations also revealed gender differences in information seeking behavior, some principles of which are outlined in this study. Based on these findings, we present the following suggestions for libraries and future researchers: 1. Public libraries should establish websites with interfaces specifically designed for children; 2. Future researchers should take into account the gender differences associated with the operation of interfaces and information seeking behavior in the development of auxiliary information technologies; 3. Public libraries should consider creating interfaces specific for different age groups and genders.

This study reports on a survey of students in information sciences designed to test differences related to e-book formats and other factors. The results from 161 respondents suggest that strategic decision-making shapes use of different e-book and print format options for users who already have significant exposure to e-books. These format options include use in a browser, a downloaded pdf, an e-pub, or a printout. While distance student status related to reported use of library e-books, disciplinary background did not. On the other hand, experience in various fields of scholarship correlated to specific tasks pursued when using e-books, but distance status largely did not. These results suggest ways to tailor local and cooperative e-book collection strategies and related services for academic users.

Student teachers' instructional planning requires them to regulate certain aspects of their own learning while designing lessons. The aim of this study is to support student teachers' self-regulated learning through the convergence effect, where network-based tutors are designed to optimize system recommendations of online resources based on information-seeking behaviours. A total of 68 student teachers were randomly assigned to either a dynamic or static version of nBrowser, which converged a network or not towards an optimal configuration. The structural equation model suggests that student teachers spent less time during the learning session using the dynamic version of nBrowser. Although student teachers were found to be more efficient in seeking and acquiring information and reported knowledge gains, they failed to perform better than those assigned to the static condition on the lesson plan design task. We discuss the implications for the convergence effect in the context of network-based tutors.

The study investigated the Web-browsing competencies of pre-service adult facilitators in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Survey design was adopted for the study. The population consists of all pre-service adult facilitators in all the federal universities in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Accidental sampling technique was used in selecting 234 pre-service adult facilitators. The instrument for data collection was a four-point scale questionnaire titled "WEBCQ" (Web-browsing Competencies Questionnaire). WEBCQ consists of 43 Web-browsing competencies. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was established by using Crombach Alpha which came up to 0.78. Two research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test statistics was used to analyze the null hypothesis. The findings of the study showed that the pre-service adult facilitators have Web-browsing competencies to an average level and that male adult facilitators have significantly higher competencies than their female counterparts. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made which include that the country just like most developed nations should embrace the innovative distance learning in the form of online learning, e-learning, virtual classroom, and online counseling knowing that most of the current pre-service facilitators have average Web-browsing competence. (Contains 3 tables.)

The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web where information is represented in a machine processable way. It is not separate from the current Web and one of the confusions that novice users might have is where the Semantic Web is. In fact, users can easily encounter RDF documents that are components of the Semantic Web while they navigate among Web pages. In addition, the number of RDF documents on the Web is ever-increasing and a lot of educational materials in RDF format become available on the Web. In this paper, we propose a simple Semantic Web browser by which non-expert users such as secondary school students who do not know technical details about the Semantic Web can browse through HTML documents and RDF documents.

This paper presents a tool for drawing dynamic geometric figures by understanding the texts of geometry problems. With the tool, teachers and students can construct dynamic geometric figures on a web page by inputting a geometry problem in natural language. First we need to build the knowledge base for understanding geometry problems. With the help of the knowledge base engine InfoMap, geometric concepts are extracted from an input text. The concepts are then used to output a multistep JavaSketchpad script, which constructs the dynamic geometry figure on a web page. Finally, the system outputs the script as an HTML document that can be visualized and read with an internet browser. Furthermore, a preliminary evaluation of the tool showed that it produced correct dynamic geometric figures for over 90% of problems from textbooks. With such high accuracy, the system produced by this study can support distance learning for geometry students as well as distance learning in producing geometry content for instructors. (Contains 4 tables and 13 figures.)

Web sites are emerging as a key component of an organization's survival in our ever globalizing competitive world. Usability of a web site has assumed a great deal of importance in terms of satisfying web site users' needs and expectations. The aim of the study is to evaluate and to explore the usability level of Namik Kemal University (NKU) website and provide guidance to develop better and more usable web sites. The research hypotheses have posed six different theoretical factors to be positively associated with website usability. The results have revealed that five of the six factors can positively and significantly affect the web site usability perceptions of NKU members. Results also revealed that some of the demographic factors tested, such as gender and web experience, have significant impacts on usability perceptions of individual users. Furthermore, the study also discusses the potential benefits of improved website usability on governance and proposes ways to improve the usability of websites. (Contains 3 tables.)

Teaching web development in Computer Science undergraduate courses is a difficult task. Often, there is a gap between the students' experiences and the reality in the industry. As a consequence, the students are not always well-prepared once they get the degree. This gap is due to several reasons, such as the complexity of the assignments, the working environment, the frameworks used and the time-frame constraints. In this paper, we report on a case study on how we taught web application development using extreme tutoring and in an apprenticeship manner. The assumption was to take two real web applications as basis for practical teaching. We present the different issues that we faced: the setup of the development framework, the heterogeneity of human resources and the volatility of the environment.We describe how the process evolved positively. The students became independent, and implemented two applications. We conclude with the lessons learned.

The Math Forum is an online resource center for pre-algebra, algebra, geometry and pre-calculus. Its Virtual Math Teams (VMT) service provides an integrated web-based environment for small teams of people to discuss math and to work collaboratively on math problems or explore interesting mathematical micro-worlds together. The VMT Project studies the online math discourse that takes place during sessions of virtual math teams working on open-ended problem-solving tasks. In particular, it investigates methods of group cognition that are employed by teams in this setting. The VMT environment currently integrates social networking, synchronous text chat, a shared whiteboard for drawing, web browsers and an asynchronous wiki for exchanging findings within the larger community. A simple version of MathML is supported in the whiteboard, chat and wiki for displaying mathematical expressions. The VMT Project is currently integrating the dynamic mathematics application, GeoGebra, into its collaboration environment. This will create a multi-user version of GeoGebra, which can be used in concert with the chat, web browsers, curricular topics and wiki repository.

East Tennessee State University developed a workflow to add journal publications to their institutional repository and faculty profiles using three tools: Zotero for entering metadata, SHERPA/RoMEO for checking copyright permissions, and Unpaywall for locating full-text documents. This study evaluates the availability and accuracy of the information and documents provided by Zotero, SHERPA/RoMEO, and Unpaywall for journal publications in four disciplines. The tools were less successful with works authored by arts and humanities and education faculty in comparison to works authored by medicine and health sciences and social and behavioral sciences faculty. The findings suggest that publisher practices contributed to the disciplinary differences.

Rapid eLearning is an ongoing trend which enables flexible and cost-effective creation of learning materials. Especially, lecture recording has turned out to be a lightweight method particularly suited for existing lectures and blended learning strategies. In order to not only sequentially play back but offer full fledged navigation, search and inspection of the recorded lecture, chapter marks and search indices have to be embedded. To solve this, two basic approaches for lecture recording tools can be identified--both of them having certain advantages and drawbacks. On the one hand there are systems based on symbolic representation of common slideshow formats like MS PowerPoint. Therefore, they preserve structure and symbol information contained therein, but are lacking flexibility of supported dynamic and interactive formats. On the other hand there are systems based on pixel representation and screen grabbing technologies. While supporting any presentation content, structural and symbolic information cannot be extracted directly and thus has to be post-processed from the recorded video. This paper discusses a perspective of combining these approaches by widening the slide-metaphor to a more flexible scene-based presentation, preserving both the structural and symbolic information. One possible attempt for this is identified by introducing a browser-based scene concept. Symbolic information can be directly extracted from the XHTML source code and structural information derives from switching through scenes. The browser itself is capable of presenting a wide range of dynamic and interactive formats, thus offering more flexible presentations. For approving the proposed concepts, a prototype called "Virtual Overhead" was developed and evaluated.

Introduction: This paper extends a series on summaries of Web objects, in this case, the alt attribute of image files. Method: Data were logged from 1894 pages from Yahoo!'s random page service and 4703 pages from the Google directory; an img tag was extracted randomly from each where present; its alt attribute, if any, was recorded; and the header for the corresponding image file was retrieved if possible. Analysis: Associations were measured between image type and use of null alt values, image type and image file size, image file size and alt text length, and alt text length and number of images on the page. Results: 16.6% and 17.3% of pages respectively showed no img elements. Of 1579 and 3888 img tags randomly selected from the remainder, 47.7% and 49.4% had alt texts, of which 26.3% and 27.5% were null. Of the 1316 and 3384 images for which headers could be retrieved, 71.2% and 74.2% were GIF, 28.1% and 20.5%, JPEG; and 0.8% and 0.8% PNG. GIF images were more commonly assigned null alt texts than JPEG images, and GIF files tended to be shorter than JPEG files. Weak positive correlations were observed between image file size and alt text length, except for JPEG files in the Yahoo! set. Alt texts for images from pages containing more images tended to be slightly shorter. Conclusion: Possible explanations for the results include GIF files' being more suited to decorative images and the likelihood that many images on image-rich pages are content-poor.

Introduction: The strategies that people use to browse Websites are difficult to analyse and understand: quantitative data can lack information about what a user actually intends to do, while qualitative data tends to be localised and is impractical to gather for large samples. Method: This paper describes a novel approach that combines data from direct observation, user surveys and server logs to analyse users' browsing behaviour. It is based on a longitudinal study of university students' use of a Website related to one of their courses. Analysis: The data were analysed by using Footstep graphs to categorise browsing behaviour into pre-defined strategies and comparing these with data from questionnaires and direct observation of the students' actual use of the site. Results: Initial results indicated that in certain cases the patterns from server logs matched the observed browsing strategies as described in the literature. In addition, by cross-referencing the quantitative and qualitative data, a number of insights were gained into potential problems. Conclusion: This study shows how combining quantitative and qualitative approaches can provide an insight into changes in user browsing behaviour over time. It also identifies some potential methodological problems in studies of browsing behaviour and indicates some directions for future research.

For electronic resources and reference librarians, fielding eresource access problems is often a daily task. A library user clicks on a link to an electronic journal article, book, or primary source and is unable to access the full text. Sometimes this problem occurs due to a lapsed subscription, a broken link, or a proxy configuration error. The result is the same: no access and a need for library staff to replicate and troubleshoot the problem. A significant portion of access problems result from off-campus or off-site "remote" user access, frequently because of problems involving OCLC's EZproxy user authentication and authorization solution, which is used by thousands of libraries worldwide. This article examines the full spectrum of troubleshooting tools: smartphones, hotspots, virtual private networks, remote desktop solutions, virtual machines, and EZproxy directives. By closing this gap in the literature, we want to guide librarians toward tools and techniques that efficiently meet their needs for troubleshooting remote access, specifically access via EZproxy, though librarians using Shibboleth or Open Athens may also find this article useful.

This study explores how virtual desktops hosted within a cloud computing environment can be used as a data capture tool to undertake research exploring web-browsing and web-searching behaviour. It details the protocol used to observe the task-orientated web interactions of 105 university and school aged participants within the confines of a research experiment and considers the comparability between data collected remotely via virtual desktops and data collected in a controlled environment. Data collected remotely via virtual desktops is found to be comparable to data collected in the field across a number of key statistics, with remote data collection making recruitment and participation more convenient, whilst potentially reducing response bias. The protocol detailed has broad potential for adaption where there is a need to remotely capture participants' web-use in a cost-effective and non-technical manner. Limitations with the protocol are identified and possibilities for future adaptations are discussed.

This paper presents an ongoing study of the development of a customizable web browser information organization and management system, which the author has named Lexicon Sextant (LS). LS is a user friendly, graphical web based add-on to the latest generation of web browsers, such as Google Chrome, making it easier and more intuitive to store and retrieve favorites (bookmarks) since it only uses two levels (six main headings & 12 sub-headings). A total of 98 participants completed the task of categorizing 18 thumbnails from specific websites, together with 18 thumbnails from random websites, under six main LS headings, i.e. Work, Lifestyle, Travel, Health, Education, and Money. This was followed by a recall exercise of 12 randomly generated websites. The results showed that the participants had a better correction rate in Money and Lifestyle, but a worse correction rate in Work and Education among the overall correction rate, appointed correction rate, and self-chosen correction rate, in terms of each category task performance.

This paper reports a computer model simulation created using Easy Java Simulation (EJS) for learners to visualize how the steady-state amplitude of a driven oscillating system varies with the frequency of the periodic driving force. The simulation shows (N = 100) identical spring-mass systems being subjected to (1) a periodic driving force of equal amplitude but different driving frequencies, and (2) different amounts of damping. The simulation aims to create a visually intuitive way of understanding how the series of amplitude versus driving frequency graphs are obtained by showing how the displacement of the system changes over time as it transits from the transient to the steady state. A suggested "how to use" the model is added to help educators and students in their teaching and learning, where we explain the theoretical steady-state equation time conditions when the model begins to allow data recording of maximum amplitudes to closely match the theoretical equation, and the steps to collect different runs of the degree of damping. We also discuss two of the design features in our computer model: displaying the instantaneous oscillation together with the achieved steady-state amplitudes, and the explicit world view overlay with scientific representation with different degrees of damping runs. Three advantages of using EJS include: (1) open source codes and creative commons attribution licenses for scaling up of interactively engaging educational practices; (2) the models made can run on almost any device, including Android and iOS; and (3) it allows the redefinition of physics educational practices through computer modeling.

In recent years, software operating skills, the ability in computer literacy to solve problems using specific software, has become much more important. A great deal of research has also proven that students' software operating skills can be efficiently improved by practicing customized virtual and simulated examinations. However, constructing these simulation-based examinations is cost intensive and time-consuming. Thus, a reconfigurable simulation-based test system designed on a proposed Software Operation-Finite State Machine has been developed. Using this system, teachers can use a graphic authoring tool to construct and reconfigure simulation-based tests for designated software operation tasks. For the students, these simulation-based tests can be performed via the Web browser without any extra computer environment setting costs. After students finish the test, the proposed system can automatically assess their online operating paths to generate the assessment report for self-reflection. Moreover, in order to share and reuse the designed simulation-based tests, this paper suggests some extensions of IMS Question & Test Interoperability to support the proposed simulation-based operation test format. Finally, an experiment was conducted to evaluate 38 sixth grade elementary school students. The experimental results show that this system can meet both teachers' and students' educational requirements while significantly improving students' learning performance of the software operating skills.

With today's rapid developments in digital technologies, technical obsolescence can occur much faster than in the past. Who would have predicted five years ago that Adobe's Flash would have seen the rapid decline it has experienced as a development environment? Using open, internationally accepted standards for materials development is no absolute guarantee of longevity, but it does increase the likelihood that content will continue to be usable and that, if needed, conversion tools will be available. In this column I will be discussing approaches to the development of electronically delivered language learning materials that I believe are the least likely to face short-term obsolescence. I will be arguing in favor of multilaterally developed, open standards, supported by major industry players and educational standards bodies. Specifically, I will be looking at approaches for delivering learning materials through Web browsers or e-book readers (e-readers), so that created content works seamlessly across devices and platforms

Didactical advantages of audience response systems (ARS) have been discussed extensively ever since they have been used in classes. However, conventional ARS bear some drawbacks, such as requiring specific hardware, generating costs (text messaging based and web service fees) and creating a dependency on external hosts. In this paper we present a browser-based ARS, which provides a platform-independent channel for the interaction between students and teachers. The authors provide a solution of an ARS for potentially large and spatially distributed classes, where the audience can provide feedback via PCs and mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. The proposed system has been integrated into the e-learning system of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), one of the largest business universities worldwide. The server side implementation of an ARS brings some challenges, such as the integration into an e-learning environment, the technical feasibility due to a broad variety of possible end user devices, and user acceptance issues. This paper documents the experiences and findings of the stepwise development and deployment in large classrooms. This resulted in an enhancement of the information policy with students and an optimization of the WLAN network settings. Finally, a new, unanticipated usage scenario emerged for mobile, browser-based response systems.

Simulations and games are not new artifacts to the study of science in secondary school settings (Hug, Kriajcik and Marx 2005), however teachers remain skeptical as to their value, use and appropriateness (Rice 2006). The difficulty is not only the design and development of effective play environments that produce measurable changes in knowledge and/or understanding, but also in their on-the-ground use (Jaipal and Figg 2010). This paper reports on the use of a science-focused video game in five very different secondary school settings in Ontario, Canada. A mixed-methods approach was used in the study, and included data gathered on general gameplay habits and technology use, as well as informal interviews with teachers and students who played the game. In total, 161 participants played a series of games focused on the "life of a plant", and were given both a pre and post quiz to determine if the game helped them retain and/or change what they knew about scientific processes like plant cell anatomy and photosynthesis. Participants showed statistically significant improvement on quizzes that were taken after playing the game for approximately one-hour sessions, despite difficulties in some cases both accessing and playing the game for the full hour. Our findings also reveal the ongoing challenges in making use of technology in a variety of school sessions, even when using a browser-based game, that demanded very little other than a reliable internet connection.

The fact that people now live in a world of abundant portable electronic devices is important to any organization that maintains a web presence, including libraries. No longer tied to a desktop, the patrons' netbooks, tablets, ebook readers, and, of course, cellphones all become potential tools for remote access to library content. About a year ago, while working on a major revision to a library's electronic resource web portal, the author began a small skunkworks project to see what it would take to make this application mobile-friendly. The process of designing and coding a mobile site as it was implemented at the James A. Zimble Learning Resource Center, at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) is presented from the author's perspective as a librarian and a software developer. This article describes how the author re-engineered the library's web portal for mobile access.

We present an interactive tool for browsing course requisites as a case study of dependency visualization. This tool uses multiple interactive visualizations to allow the user to explore the dependencies between courses. A usability study revealed that the proposed browser provides significant advantages over traditional methods, in terms of learnability, efficiency and user confidence. The results are discussed within a general framework for interactive visualization of dependencies. (Contains 1 table and 9 figures.)

The Internet is an effective learning tool for gifted children because it allows them to independently select the areas in which they have talent. The Internet also enables children to discover and maximize their potential. However, younger children might not have a large enough vocabulary to surf the Internet, even if they are gifted. For example, children who are creatively gifted might not have exceptional reading ability. To solve this problem, a special web browser was used to generate human speech according to the words that appeared on the web pages displayed. Experiments involving about 100 kindergarteners were conducted to assess the effectiveness of our approach. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of this web browser in enabling kindergarten children aged 3-6 years old to surf the Internet. (Contains 3 figures.)

Increasing numbers of college students own cell phones, and many of these phones are smartphones, which include features such as still and video cameras, global positioning systems, Internet access, and computers as powerful as the desktop models of only a few years ago. A number of chemical educators are already using these devices for education. By the time they reach college, many students have created video content and shared it on Web sites, such as YouTube. It has become easy to create two-dimensional barcodes that include a universal resource locator Web address that can connect the Web browser on a smartphone to a Web site. This article discusses how these new capabilities can be used to teach chemistry. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

HTML 5 is the most significant update of HTML in the last 10 years since XHTML was introduced. It promises a vastly improved user experience, increased browser features, cross compatibility and the ability to provide semantic content. In this paper we discuss the near future position for Higher Education in terms of technological transform, the proposed capabilities of HTML 5, and how they may change and how virtual learning environments are implemented in the future. We offer a set of education-based scenarios and how the emerging standard could benefit them. Finally we conclude with possible implementation timescales. (Contains 1 figure.) [This paper was published in the ALT-C 2012 Conference Proceedings.]

Multimedia educational resources play an important role in education, particularly for distance learning environments. With the rapid growth of the multimedia web, large numbers of educational video resources are increasingly being created by several different organizations. It is crucial to explore, share, reuse, and link these educational resources for better e-learning experiences. Most of the video resources are currently annotated in an isolated way, which means that they lack semantic connections. Thus, providing the facilities for annotating these video resources is highly demanded. These facilities create the semantic connections among video resources and allow their metadata to be understood globally. Adopting Linked Data technology, this paper introduces a video annotation and browser platform with two online tools: Annomation and SugarTube. Annomation enables users to semantically annotate video resources using vocabularies defined in the Linked Data cloud. SugarTube allows users to browse semantically linked educational video resources with enhanced web information from different online resources. In the prototype development, the platform uses existing video resources for the history courses from the Open University (United Kingdom). The result of the initial development demonstrates the benefits of applying Linked Data technology in the aspects of reusability, scalability, and extensibility. (Contains 12 figures and 17 footnotes.)

The authors present a learning platform based on a computer game. Learning games combine two industries: education and entertainment, which is often called "Edutainment." The game is realized as a strategic game (similar to Risk[TM]), implemented as a module for Moodle CMS, utilizing Java Applet technology. Moodle is an open-source course management system (CMS), which is widely used among universities as an eLearning platform. Java Applet enables development of rich-client applications which are executed in web browser environment. During the game, players receive questions from specified Moodle quiz, and all answers are stored back into Moodle system. Students can later verify their score and answers, and examine the test that they actually worked on during the game. This system supports synchronous as well as asynchronous interaction between players. (Contains 7 figures.)

The increasing demand for Software Engineering professionals, particularly Project Managers, and popularization of the Web as a catalyst of human relations have made this platform interesting for training this type of professional. The authors have observed the widespread use of games as an attractive instrument in the process of teaching and learning. However, the project of a web-based instructional game that fulfills all pedagogical and technical requirements for training a project manager is not a trivial task. A gap exists between the theoretical concepts that are normally learned in traditional courses and practical aspects required by the real tasks. As such, this paper proposes the use of a persistent browser-based game intended for Risk Management as a component support in the qualifying process of new professionals of Project Management. The game provides to the player some experience in a real context of Project Management, in which new challenges are frequently posed to the enterprises. (Contains 3 tables and 7 figures.)

This article presents KnowledgePuzzle, a browsing tool for knowledge construction from the web. It aims to adapt the structure of web content to the learner's information needs regardless of how the web content is originally delivered. Learners are provided with a meta-cognitive space (e.g., a concept mapping tool) that enables them to plan navigation paths and visualize the semantic processing of knowledge in their minds. Once the learner's viewpoint becomes visually represented, it will be transformed to a layer of informative hyperlinks and annotations over previously visited pages. The attached layer causes the web content to be explicitly structured to accommodate the learner's interests by interlinking and annotating chunks of information that make up the learner's knowledge. Finally, a hypertext version of the whole knowledge is generated to enable fast and easy reviewing. A discussion about the affordances of the tool and how it can be used to achieve a scaffolded approach for learning is presented. The evaluation of the tool in a real educational setting revealed its support for navigation planning and knowledge recall as compared to classical navigation techniques. (Contains 4 tables and 7 figures.)

It's been well documented in a number of articles regarding the contemporary library patron that with the rise in mobile computing and smart phone technology, patrons are looking for fast and easy service from whichever technological avenue they are using to access library services. Libraries are responding with increasing numbers of online resources and online means of assistance. One means of communication that is seeing more widespread use in libraries is the use of instant messaging. Many reference desks, and more and more circulation desks, are using instant messaging as a means of communication regarding a number of different library services. In this article, the author describes the steps in setting up instant messaging and SMS (text) communications for the circulation desk. (Contains 19 figures.)

This article presents reports from the 2011 Missouri Library Association Annual Conference held on October 5-7, 2011. The first report, entitled "Online Information Literacy Instruction: Challenges and Strategies," was presented by Kristine Stewart and Kyle Denlinger, University of Missouri-Columbia. Stewart and Denlinger talk about their experiences in converting a face-to-face information literacy course into a purely online course and sections that blend online materials with weekly face-to-face classes. They discussed the creation process and techniques that have been useful to them. The second report, entitled "Behind the Cloud: Networking Basics for Librarians," was presented by Robert Hallis, University of Central Missouri. Hallis introduced concepts associated with moving to "the cloud." He covered vocabulary, networking equipment, and diagnostics. The third report, entitled "The World of Book Blogs," was presented by Joy Weese Moll. Moll shared information about book blogs as a rich source of book reviews and their associated jargon and also recommended many websites related to the book blogging world. The fourth report, entitled "Firefox as a Research Tool," was presented by Brad Meyerhoff, MOREnet. The fifth report, entitled The ABCs of XYZs: Reaching Out to 20/30-Somethings," was reported by Rebecca Clarke and Heather Cottle-Dillon of the Springfield-Greene County Library and Sharla Lair, Missouri State Library. Next is the report entitled "Promoting Ebooks to Reluctant Users: Reasons for User Dissatisfaction and Challenges of Overcoming Technology Resistance" by Andrew J. M. Smith and Sheila O'Hare, Emporia State University. The seventh report, entitled "Catch Them while You Can! Embedding Librarians and Resources to Enhance Patron Services," by Cynthia Dudenhoffer and Carrie Flaspohler, Central Methodist University. Next is the report titled "Web 2.x Tools to Make You Look Cool 3: Tools for Tomorrow" by Cynthia Dudenhoffer, Central Methodist University. Lastly, the report titled "Strengthening Your Digital Library Branch" by Brandy Sanchez, Lauren Williams, and Kirk Henley, Daniel Boone Regional Library, shared tools and techniques they use to shape their library's website into a successful digital branch library of its own. (Contains 25 notes.)

For many IT shops, the cloud offers an opportunity not only to improve operations but also to align themselves more closely with their schools' strategic goals. The cloud is not a plug-and-play proposition, however--it is a complex, evolving landscape that demands one's full attention. Security, privacy, contracts, and contingency planning are all issues that must be addressed. In the second of a two-part series, "Campus Technology" looks at how IT professionals can make the business case for cloud computing while addressing ongoing concerns about taking their institutions into the cloud. It analyzes the financial aspects of a move to the cloud, as well as potential stumbling blocks. [For Part 1, "Diving into the Cloud," see EJ946293.]