scholarly journals The effects of using a wiki on student engagement and learning of report writing skills in a university statistics course

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Neumann ◽  
Michelle Hood
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Research Report ◽  
First Year ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Report Writing ◽  
Qualitative Feedback ◽  
Statistics Course ◽  
The Individual ◽  
First Year University

<span>A wiki was used as part of a blended learning approach to promote collaborative learning among students in a first year university statistics class. One group of students analysed a data set and communicated the results by jointly writing a practice report using a wiki. A second group analysed the same data but communicated the results in a practice report that they wrote individually. Both groups were taught the same material. The report was used for practice as a way to support student learning and was not submitted for assessment. Both approaches improved report writing knowledge and did not differ in the mark obtained on an individually written research report subsequently submitted for assessment. The wiki approach produced higher engagement with other students, cognitive engagement, and class attendance than the individual approach. Qualitative feedback suggested some drawbacks to using a wiki. Overall participation was also low with only 2 of the 22 wiki subgroups completing all components of the practice report. The present findings suggest that student engagement, but not performance on assessment, may be enhanced when a wiki is used to support learning in higher education.</span>

scholarly journals Thai Undergraduate Student Awareness of Regular and Irregular Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondence

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
David D. Perrodin
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Private University ◽  
First Year ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Data Set ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Frequency Occurrence ◽  
First Year University ◽  
Letter Sound

<p>Recent events in Thailand in reference to the teaching of phonics for better comprehension of English vocabulary have highlighted the overuse of identifying letter-sound relationships in English by utilizing the familiar Thai orthography to assist developing Thai EFL learners. This paper investigated the long-term effects of using such pedagogy on recognizing regular and irregular Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPC) in English by Thai undergraduate students. To address this matter, the study used a convenience sampling of 373 first-year university students from 11 general education English classes at a mid-sized private university near Bangkok, Thailand. The familiar English poem <em>I Take It You Already Know</em> was employed for data collection, for it consists of a practical ratio of frequent and infrequent English grapheme-phoneme correspondences. Extensive lists of recognized grapheme-phoneme correspondences were used to identify the frequent or regular, and the infrequent or irregular main phoneme present in each of the 60 most frequently queried content words of the poem. Point-Biserial Correlation was employed to measure the strength of association between the frequency occurrence of the most queried content words from the data set, and the examined weighted word frequency data. The findings suggest that, in general, the Thai undergraduate students demonstrated an overall lack of recognition of regular and irregular Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences of English. </p>

scholarly journals Evaluation of First-Year University Students’ Engagement to enhance Student Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Hooi Sin Soo ◽  
Yenwan Chong
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
University Students ◽  
Student Development ◽  
Academic Engagement ◽  
University Education ◽  
First Year ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Online Engagement ◽  
New Students ◽  
First Year University

Abstract: The COVID-19 crisis has dramatically impacted university education as well as created new challenges for tertiary learning institutions. The pandemic has exacerbated graduate unemployment and increased student dropout rates. In response to these unprecedented challenges, universities are formulating more student development initiatives to support new students to transition into university and produce holistic graduates with essential soft skills. Student engagement evaluation can help inform and enhance the implementation of student development programs. In this study, seven domains of first year university students’ engagement were evaluated namely Academic Engagement (AE), Beyond-class Engagement (BE), Intellectual Engagement (IE), Online Engagement (OE), Peer Engagement (PE), Student-staff Engagement (SE) and Transition Engagement (TE). This study found that university freshmen’s Online Engagement (OE) was the strongest while their Academic Engagement (AE) was the weakest. This study also discovered that first year university students’ engagement were weakest with regard to reading of textbooks before attending class, asking questions in class and borrowing books from the university library. Future student development programs targeted at first year university students could be enhanced by increasing the use of ICT in teaching and learning as well as increasing efforts in assisting new students to transition from school to university learning environments by inculcating good reading habits and encouraging active class participation. Keywords: Academic engagement, First year undergraduates, Student development, Student engagement, Transition to university

scholarly journals Elements of Engagement for Successful Learning

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Schweinle ◽  
Marcy Reisetter ◽  
Valerie Stokes
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Life Goals ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
University Environment ◽  
Midwestern University ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Positive Engagement

In this research we sought to understand student practices, beliefs, and behaviors that led to positive engagement on campus. More specifically, we studied student engagement as a function of the individual within the contexts of classroom and university environment using a basic interpretive approach. First year students from a medium-sized, public, Midwestern university participated in interviews on engagement, the classroom, university, and community contexts. Results suggest that both personality and a sense of self influence students' levels of engagement. Students who had identified life goals and who sought related activities and relationships made greater use of university resources and felt more engaged. We propose ways in which instructors and universities can make simple changes that may help enhance the experience of all students.

Research Report Writing

2021 ◽  
pp. 225-255
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Research Report ◽  
Unethical Conduct ◽  
Report Writing ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Critical Aspects

This chapter discusses the critical aspects necessary to produce a research report from a study undertaken. Since research is based on a systematic endeavour which seeks to establish valid findings, the chapter addresses notions of criticality that ought to be espoused by the inquirer and the need to present findings being mindful of the demands related to academic writing. Furthermore, the chapter outlines the structures and steps that are necessary to produce a good enough proposal, ethical issues, gaining consent and ultimately how to produce a dissertation report at the end of all research activities and data analysis. It is noted in this chapter that a good proposal is most likely to end as a plausible research output. An informative study need not be diminished by a lack of academic writing skills, poor organisation, and unethical conduct.

scholarly journals Animated Case Study Videos: A Creative Approach for Exploring Health in the High School to College Transition

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Elizabeth G. Traxler ◽  
Amy L. Morgan ◽  
Jessica E. Kiss ◽  
Mary-Jon Ludy
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Peer Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
State University ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Qualitative Feedback ◽  
High School To College ◽  
Interactive Classroom ◽  
First Year University

While the college years present an ideal time for chronic disease prevention, students often do not seek services or perceive themselves to be at health risk. Researchers at Bowling Green State University have been exploring the health patterns of first-year university students for several years, initially as a health-based research study (August 2012 to May 2016) and currently through a first-year seminar course for students transitioning from high school to college (August 2016 to present). This article describes the evolution of data sharing techniques from passively presented paper feedback sheets (focusing on individual health assessments) to highly interactive classroom discussions stemming from viewings of animated case study videos (designed based on whole group themes). Qualitative feedback from students and faculty has been positive, suggesting that animated case study videos are an effective strategy for engaging students in critical thinking about physical and mental health concerns affecting their peer group. Practical recommendations for using animated case studies in diverse educational settings are provided.

scholarly journals EXPLORING THE BEST WAYS TO SUPPORT FIRST YEAR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS

2014 ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Rossana Perez del Aguila
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year University

<p>Este artículo presenta los resultados de un proyecto de investigación - acción realizado en 2012 con estudiantes del primer año en la carrera de ‘Estudios de la Educación’ en una Universidad de Inglaterra. La finalidad del proyecto fue explorar las mejores formas de apoyar las habilidades de redacción académica de los estudiantes. La revisión de la literatura identifica los desafíos que los estudiantes enfrentan al tratar de aprender el discurso de la disciplina; y a la luz de este análisis una reflexión de las fortalezas y debilidades de mi propia práctica provee el contexto para llevar a cabo una proyecto de investigación - acción. Los métodos de recolección de datos que se usaron para evaluar la intervención de enseñanza fueron: cuestionarios, entrevista semiestructurada con estudiantes, análisis de contenido (retroalimentación) de los trabajos finales de los estudiantes. Los resultados de la investigación demuestran que las dificultades de redacción de los estudiantes están relacionadas con su esfuerzo por entender los conceptos especializados, teorías y métodos de la disciplina.</p>

scholarly journals Stereotaxic Magnetic Resonance Imaging Brain Atlases for Infants from 3 to 12 Months

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 515-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. Fillmore ◽  
John E. Richards ◽  
Michelle C. Phillips-Meek ◽  
Alison Cryer ◽  
Michael Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Atlas ◽  
First Year ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Manual Delineation ◽  
Age Appropriate ◽  
The Individual

Background: Accurate labeling of brain structures within an individual or group is a key issue in neuroimaging. Methods for labeling infant brains have depended on the labels done on adult brains or average magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) templates based on adult brains. However, the features of adult brains differ in several ways from infant brains, so the creation of a labeled stereotaxic atlas based on infants would be helpful. The current work builds on the recent creation of age-appropriate average MRI templates during the first year (3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9, and 12 months) by creating anatomical label sets for each template. Methods: We created stereotaxic atlases for the age-specific average MRI templates. Manual delineation of cortical and subcortical areas was done on the average templates based on infants during the first year. We also applied a procedure for automatic computation of macroanatomical atlases for individual infant participants using two manually segmented adult atlases (Hammers, LONI Probabilistic Brain Atlas-LPBA40). To evaluate our methods, we did manual delineation of several cortical areas on selected individuals from each age. Linear and nonlinear registration of the individual and average template was used to transform the average atlas into the individual participant's space, and the average-transformed atlas was compared to the individual manually delineated brain areas. We also applied these methods to an external data set - not used in the atlas creation - to test generalizability of the atlases. Results: Age-appropriate manual atlases were the best fit to the individual manually delineated regions, with more error seen at greater age discrepancy. There was a close fit between the manually delineated and the automatically labeled regions for individual participants and for the age-appropriate template-based atlas transformed into participant space. There was close correspondence between automatic labeling of individual brain regions and those from the age-appropriate template. These relationships held even when tested on an external set of images. Conclusion: We have created age-appropriate labeled templates for use in the study of infant development at 6 ages (3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9, and 12 months). Comparison with manual methods was quite good. We developed three stereotaxic atlases (one manual, two automatic) for each infant age, which should allow more fine-grained analysis of brain structure for these populations than was previously possible with existing tools. The template-based atlases constructed in the current study are available online (http://jerlab.psych.sc.edu/NeurodevelopmentalMRIDatabase).

Moderating Effects of Campus Recreation Participation in the Relationship between Grade Point Average and First-Year Student Engagement: An Exploratory Study

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Fallon Mayers ◽  
Austin W. Wilson ◽  
Luke R. Potwarka
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
University Students ◽  
Grade Point Average ◽  
First Year ◽  
Campus Recreation ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Transition From High School ◽  
Recreation Participation ◽  
First Year University ◽  
The Relationship

Health and student success outcomes are often thought to be associated with campus recreation participation. Thus, decision makers at the university level are interested in the relationship between campus recreation participation, grade point average (GPA), and student engagement. Previous research has called for a clearer understanding of how campus recreation is meaningful for first-year university students and its potential influences on GPA. This study explored the influence of first-year students' campus recreation participation, GPA, and facets of student engagement. First-year university students ( N = 171) were surveyed. Demographic characteristics, GPA, and level of engagement on five scales were assessed. Results showed that GPA positively influenced those who participated in campus recreation on four facets of engagement. Results may help academic administrators to target efforts toward making the transition from high school to university easier. Promoting campus recreation participation may be effective for strengthening students' level of engagement and result in positive success outcomes.

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